AW2 style threat map as a hex map in DW
So the threat map in AW2 is quite cool and I thought about how you can use it in Dungeon World. Making it an actual hex map would be very in flavor for DW, right?
So what do you do? You put down every point of interest the characters mention on the map, especially their safe havens, bases of operations, homelands etc. You also put every threat that get’s mentioned as it’s own hex.
Every threat get’s an arrow of progress. That is where their interest, their destruction, their corruption or influence will spread.
So with this map you see every threat and where it will go if unchecked. Depending on how close they are to “safe spots” the more threatening they become. You can also make progress lines indicating growth in power or goals. (when the Wizard’s college reaches this hex, they will summon the angelic heretic)
This will create threats that actually act on the world and will change it in a very obvious and lasting way. It also creates natural countdowns without you having to write them down specifically. You can make different arrows depending on how fast the threat can advance. When the characters act in a hex that is “affected” by a threat it could push them out or slow their advancement (depending on the fiction) but failure could enhance their position and advance their progress faster then expected.
The funny thing is that this might also work in a dungeon. In that the map is not so much a map of the dungeon but more abstract but putting each monster faction on the map and pointing their arrows at each other and advancing them quickly might create a quite living and dynamic dungeon environment.
Any thoughts on this? It’s a very loose concept in my head right now but I am very interested in trying this out.
(posting here, instead of the DW Tavern, first because most people here know the AW2 material I think)
oh, this was inspired by something Alberto Muti said when Vincent Baker posted the threat map rules for the first time.
Sounds kind of like a node-based dungeon: http://www.kjd-imc.org/blog/node-based-megadungeon-design/
Would work well for the Dungeon map, yes.
I like it.
One minor point: It might get annoying to have to erase the arrowhead to advance the timeline – perhaps just a line or bar instead? That doesn’t indicate direction as easily but it would be quicker to update during play…
Some way to indicate direction as is useful to you.
Awesome, Tim Franzke – lots of overlap with what I’m currently doing. My motivating goal was wanting players to be planning their own quests with as much information as possible – or, when there’s not enough information, planning explicit recon missions to suss out threats.
.ing for later.
I want to cross that node-based dungeon stuff with the high-level maps created in a How To Host A Dungeon session.
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What about using hexagonal index cards, so you can expand the map during play, increasing or decreasing the distance between threats and targets? The spaces between are the ‘blanks’.
My idea was (and Michael Prescott was talking about something similar I think) to have the map more for the GM. Having a ton of index cards seems unwieldy at the table for me.
However, the map the players have would be updated when they get new info about what is going on. Either by hearing about it or doing recon. That way the players have a direct way to see what threats are up to in an abstract way but they have to work for that info. It’s not all public information, which I think having a ton of index cards at the table would create.
Yeah, I like it. I understand this as an abstract map for the GM rather than a literal one for the players.
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I’m a big fan of the idea of abstract dungeons as relationship maps between factions and locations. They really help you treat the dungeon like a group moving parts that interact in interesting ways, and the dungeon becomes a series of scenes instead of a homogenous mass of rooms and corridors.
Raul Fontoura
I like the idea, but I’m fuzzy on the arrows thing. Are these new threat rules publicly accessible (or to AW2 backers, which I am), or do you need to be one of Vincent’s patrons (which I’m not)?
That said, I support any visual way for a GM to keep track of their sandbox. I’ve experimented with die drop tables that encourage you to write down stuff on the GM map. (And now I have an idea for another. Damn you, Franzke.)
If you do something for DW, I’ll be interested in giving it a go.
From the kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/226674021/apocalypse-world-2nd-edition/posts/1501198
Cheers, Tim Franzke – I’d missed the update somehow.
The arrows are really there for GM guidance. They are not from AW but I think they would be helpful.
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