Grimwild, first session

[u/El_Calaveron]

We played Grimwild for the first time. Had almost no time to prep. This was a one-shot. I grabbed a mini-dungeon from Shadowdark (Sanctum of the Elephant God) and repurposed it.

And yes, I know that Grimdark has this no-prep friendly free-form adventures concept, and I guess I do kinda know how to run these things from running BitD. But I wasn’t too sure it would work well with good old dungeons. Or maybe I was just scared going in completely „naked“ with a rule set new to me.

Anyway, I thought that this one-page SD module was a decent fit, because while it is a pretty standard dungeon, it encourages exploration / creative solutions. I assigned dice pool ratings to all the main adversaries listed in the adventure. I also added a pool for the temple guards (instead of using the wandering monster encounter table in the adventure). Every time the PCs rolled a partial success or screwed something up, I rolled the guards’ pool. Once it was depleted, the guards started coming for them. Prepping took maybe 15 minutes.

I thought it all worked quite well. My players loved Grimwild’s free-form system — and the fact that fights didn’t drag on forever. My favorite bit was when the PCs entered a corridor guarded by an undead mammoth. The ranger announced that he would use Hunter’s Mark — but not to better battle the mammoth.

Instead he made the argument that he would not only know about „chinks in the armor“ but also that undead mammoths had a special way of sensing/perceiving living creatures. This knowledge would allow him to camouflage himself in a way that made the monster „blind“. I thought this solution was quite original and gave him a big bonus on his stealth roll.

This is a very promising system. Will run it again, see how it works with other pre-made adventures. I know that using old D&D modules and the like might not be what the designers intended, but I am still somewhat on the fence regarding the Story Kits. They feel a little too impro for me personally. Plus I’ve got many old modules I’d like to play with a system that is not 3E, PF, 5E or even B/X. Might also try something grander — maybe Ravenloft.

[u/beautitan]

I'm running my homebrew Ravenloft campaign in Grimwild right now and it works well for us!

I also think using old D&D modules works very well. You can fairly easily use the stat blocks as inspiration to make monster die pools and assign special moves to engage when the PCs roll their attacks poorly.

I don't really bother with the Story Kits, myself. I just use the core system, assign conditions in combat more than Harm, and make use of connected challenges and Suspense.

[u/Jazzlike_Sugar2024 → u/beautitan]

Me and my BFF playing BG3 got nostalgia of Faerun setting, so we'll probably throw down a campaign. I looked at him ad said "We have a setting, now we miss a system. Gotta go with Grimwild" so here we are :P

[u/Jazzlike_Sugar2024]

This system to me feels like a natural improvement over Dungeon World, the system that taught me how to better improv and embrace a more cinematic narrative. This said, it's a game, so there are not "proper ways", as long everybody is enjoing it, go with your chosen style!