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The Wizard Who Met His Own Ghost

Posted in Games, Dungeon World

Adam Blinkinsop shared some actual play from a recent Dungeon World session in his Pacific Northwest Marches game:

Ok, scene: characters are underground, in the tomb / prison of a chaos lord, guarded by a cabal of halfling wizards. The wizards were playing cards when the characters arrived, around a table with some coin and some interesting herbs. There’s a tense moment that’s mostly defused, when a big shudder sends rocks falling all around the room.

While most of them attempt to defend the wizards, one player decides now’s the time to grab some coin. They get smacked down by the wizard in charge, and take damage — exactly enough to bring them to zero.

They roll Last Breath, and fail. There’s a beat, and the wizard asks if he can cast one last spell: contact spirits. I ask who he wants to contact, and he says: surprise me. I think it was Sverre who suggested he could contact himself? Anyway, he makes the roll and contacts his own spirit as it leaves his body. Ghost wizard.

No good thing can last, though, and my curious players have to ask: “wait, so I’m basically immortal now?” And I tell him to defy danger (int). See, contact spirits says that the spirit is bound to answer any one question from the wizard. I figure, sure, the wizard can stay in ghost form until he asks himself a question. He fails defy danger though, hard. And everyone at the table rolls to help, and they all fail. So, our ghost wizard asks his question, out loud, and then immediately winks out of existence.

Sage LaTorra is a game designer and engineering manager at Google. You may know him from Dungeon World.

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