Censer Stake and Claw (Dungeon World Edition)

Our own special blend of swords and sorcery, Lovecraft, and Terry Pratchett.

Themes

Heroes are needed:

1. The innocents of the world are trapped between several dangerous societies.
2. So are the PCs, but they are the ones who take action and will be heroes of legend if they survive.
3. You are the last hope: there is no one who's going to bail you or the townsfolk out.
4. (Hint: You're the protagonists of a novel, not the villains.)
5. Soft niche protection: Anyone can excel at thiefy/fighty/wizardly things, but you are going to be the best [insert your speciality here] in the campaign.
   1. Your area of mastery is not technically your class; we customize each character.
   2. There's probably one person who is better than you -- your nemesis.

Magic is never routine:

1. It's dangerous, fickle, and inherently antagonistic to having universal principles.
   1. Every spell has a chance for going horribly wrong. Every spell works differently for each practitioner. Everything has a cost.
   2. There is no generic and perfect detect magic or identify spells, but they aren't needed anyway.
   3. Each spell or item has its own subtle giveaway, marking it as not normal. (A shadow sword might cause torchlight to hesitate to play across its blade.)
   4. Identification ranges from casual experimentation to years-long treks to the place an artifact was forged.
2. Magic is, at least, democratic: anyone can play with fire.
   1. Bloodlines and unfair astrological influences can give someone a huge leg up, but anyone who finds an eldritch tome can try to recreate the ritual.
3. No boring items allowed!
   1. There are no magic shops or +1 swords. Magic is performed in secrecy, and permanently magic items have histories and flaws.
   2. One-use charms and knicknacks with expendable charges are comparatively quite common, because we're not going for a low-magic setting, and these give players interesting choices to make.
4. Clerical powers are entirely different: much safer to cast, but comes with baggage.
   1. There are entities that grant clerical powers, and these entities see wizards as mavericks causing damage to the fabric of reality.
   2. Other than that, they agree on nothing, feud over everything, and are more likely to turn out to be a squamous lovecraftian thing than an amorous greek.
   3. Their agenda doesn't line up with yours. Be prepared to manage upwards.
   4. Clerical power is just as often an unasked-for complication in life as it is the result of decades of service and appeasement. Your definition of fair is likely something they're unfamiliar (or unconcerned) with.

Big Threat Factions

1. Everybody gets to pick a faction that's hunting their PC. (This PC background detail can be fleshed out later; for now we're just establishing a tone of "everyone's screwed by default")
2. The Prismatic Inquisition of the Holy Flame, self proclaimed protectors of civilization and every soul within.
3. Queen Mab, fickle tyrant, her fey court's tapestry of illusions holds dominion over all of the wilds.
4. The Confraternal Siblinghood for the Betterment of Mankind _{(through world domination)}, the superficially cooperative alliance for all witches and warlocks with flexible ethics.

House Rules for Dungeon World

Fixing "Detect Magic"

1. Magic is not standardized enough for one spell to casually triage everything. There are specific detection spells out there, like "detect pseudolatin-based magic" or "ask the crow god if this is one of his feathers."
2. But PCs actually have good access to this information: spending enough time to use the Discern Realities move and spending your questions on sifting the magical from the non- will always work, because magic always has a "tell."
3. The elf-wizard race move makes any "Detect __ Magic" a cantrip, and also lowers the bar on the "enough time" requirement above.

There is no Identify Spell

1. Dungeon World doesn't have one, because we can use other moves like Ritual.
2. The "magical effect" in this case is that the caster gets "N" yes/no answers to questions they pose about the spell's target.
   1. (You don't have to ask them all at once.)
   2. N is typically 2d6.
   3. If the attempt includes the casting of an appropriate spell, "N" will be increased by "Caster Level" plus "Effective Spell Level."

After one or more answers, Spout Lore and Discern Realities are often good follow-up moves.

Bonds are not rolled in the place of stats

The one thing I've never liked is how Aid/Interfere uses your Bonds as a stat.

We're going to use stats like strength/dex/etc by default, and only resort to roll+Bonds when the action is based on inter-character understanding or commitments.

Magical Alignment is Subjective

1. Divine spells that detect alignment always answer based on the opinions of the power that granted the spell, for example:
   1. The druids of yggdrasil detect lumberjacks as purest evil.
   2. When cast by a priest of the god of lies, the spell would have labeled anyone who strongly believed in honesty as evil, but such a spell doesn't make a habit of giving accurate answers.