Fronts

Fronts are secret tomes of GM knowledge. Each is a collection of linked dangers — threats to the characters specifically and to the people, places, and things the characters care about. It also includes one or more impending dooms, the horrible things that will happen without the characters’ intervention. “Fronts” comes, of course, from “fighting on two fronts” which is just where you want the characters to be — surrounded by threats, danger and adventure.

Fronts are built outside of active play. They’re the solo fun that you get to have between games — rubbing your hands and cackling evilly to yourself as you craft the foes with which to challenge your PCs. You may tweak or adjust your fronts during play, but the meat of them comes from preparation between sessions.

When you’re building fronts, think about all the creepy dungeon denizens, the rampaging hordes and ancient cults that you’d like to see in your game. Think in broad strokes at first and then, as you build dangers into your fronts, you’ll be able to narrow those ideas down. When you write your campaign front, think about session-to-session trends. When you write your adventure fronts, think about what’s important right here and right now.

When to Make Fronts

You’ll make your campaign front and first adventure fronts after your first session. Your campaign front may not be complete when you first make it — that’s great! Just like blanks on a map, unknown parts of your campaign front are opportunities for future creativity.

After that first session you’ll also make some adventure fronts. One or two is usually a good number.

Campaign and Adventure Fronts

At their core, all fronts contain the same components. There are, however, two different kinds of fronts available to you. On the session-to-session level there are your adventure fronts — tied to one problem, dealt with or cast aside over a few sessions. Think of them as episodic content: “Today, on Dungeon World…”

Tying your adventure fronts together is your campaign front. While the adventure fronts contain immediate dangers — the orcs in Hargrosh Pass, say — the campaign front contains the Dark God who drives the orcs to their pillaging. The campaign front is the unifying element that spans all the sessions of your game, with slower-burning portents that are bigger in scope.

When a danger from an adventure front goes without resolution, you can move it to the campaign front if it feels like it belongs in the larger world — and vice versa.

Creating Fronts

Here’s how a front comes together:

Choose campaign front or adventure front
Create 2-3 dangers
Choose an impending doom for each danger
Add grim portents (1-3 for an adventure front, 3-5 for the campaign front)
Write 1–3 stakes questions
List the general cast of the front

Creating Dangers

Not every element of your game will warrant a danger — traps, roving monsters, and other ephemera may just be there for context. Dangers are divided into a handful of categories, each with its own name and impulse — the crucial motivation that drives the danger toward fulfilling its impending doom.

The easiest place to start is with people and monsters: cultists, ogre chieftains, demonic overlords, or a whole tribe. Thinking more broadly, less obvious elements of the world can be dangers too — blasted landscapes, intelligent magical items, ancient spells woven into the fabric of time. Lastly, overarching dangers operating outside the obvious — godly patrons, hidden conspiracies, cursed prophecies.

Limit yourself to 3 dangers at most per front and leave room for discovery. Not every bad thing that could happen deserves to be made a danger — if you’re uncertain, remember: dangers can always get worse.

Types of Dangers

Ambitious Organizations
Planar Forces
Arcane Enemies
Hordes
Cursed Places

Ambitious Organizations: Misguided Good (impulse: to do what is “right” no matter the cost), Thieves Guild (to take by subterfuge), Cult (to infest from within), Religious Organization (to establish and follow doctrine), Corrupt Government (to maintain the status quo), Cabal (to absorb those in power, to grow).

GM Moves: Attack someone by stealthy means; attack someone directly; absorb or buy out someone important; influence a powerful institution; establish a new rule; claim territory or resources; negotiate a deal; observe a potential foe in great detail.

Planar Forces: God (impulse: to gather worshippers), Demon Prince (to open the gates of Hell), Elemental Lord (to tear down creation to its component parts), Force of Chaos (to destroy all semblance of order), Choir of Angels (to pass judgement), Construct of Law (to eliminate perceived disorder).

GM Moves: Turn an organization; give dreams of prophecy; lay a curse on a foe; extract a promise in exchange for a boon; attack indirectly, through intermediaries; rarely, when the stars are right, attack directly; foster rivalries with other, similar powers; expose someone to a truth, wanted or otherwise.

Arcane Enemies: Lord of the Undead (impulse: to seek true immortality), Power-mad Wizard (to seek magical power), Sentient Artifact (to find a worthy wielder), Ancient Curse (to ensnare), Chosen One (to fulfill or resent their destiny), Dragon (to hoard gold and jewels, to protect the clutch).

GM Moves: Learn forbidden knowledge; cast a spell over time and space; attack a foe with magic, directly or otherwise; spy on someone with a scrying spell; recruit a follower or toady; tempt someone with promises; demand a sacrifice.

Hordes: Wandering Barbarians (impulse: to grow strong, to drive their enemies before them), Humanoid Vermin (to breed, to multiply and consume), Underground Dwellers (to defend the complex from outsiders), Plague of the Undead (to spread).

GM Moves: Assault a bastion of civilization; embrace internal chaos; change direction suddenly; overwhelm a weaker force; perform a show of dominance; abandon an old home, find a new one; grow in size by breeding or conquest; appoint a champion; declare war and act upon it without hesitation.

Cursed Places: Abandoned Tower (impulse: to draw in the weak-willed), Unholy Ground (to spawn evil), Elemental Vortex (to grow, to tear apart reality), Dark Portal (to disgorge demons), Shadowland (to corrupt or consume the living), Place of Power (to be controlled or tamed).

GM Moves: Vomit forth a lesser monster; spread to an adjacent place; lure someone in; grow in intensity or depth; leave a lingering effect on an inhabitant or visitor; hide something from sight; offer power; dampen magic or increase its effects; confuse or obfuscate truth or direction; corrupt a natural law.

Description and Cast

Write up something short to remind you just what this danger is about. If there are multiple people involved (an orc warlord and his clansmen, a hateful god and his servants), give them names and a detail or two now, and leave space to add to this section as you play.

Custom Moves

Sometimes a danger will suggest a move that isn’t covered by any existing ones. Write custom moves to fill the gaps, as player or GM moves as you see fit. A 10+ is a complete success, a 7–9 a partial one; on a miss, the custom move may do something specific, or may simply advance a grim portent.

Grim Portents

Grim portents are dark designs for what could happen if a danger goes unchecked — what the danger would do if it existed in the world but the PCs didn’t. A grim portent can be a single interesting event or a chain of steps; when unsure what to do next, push a danger toward resolving one.

More often than not grim portents have a logical order, though sometimes they’re unconnected pathways to the impending doom. Whenever a danger comes to pass, check the other dangers in the front — you may need to cross off or alter portents elsewhere. Think of your grim portents as possible moves waiting in the wings; when the time is right, unleash them on the world.

When a grim portent comes to pass, check it off. You can advance a grim portent descriptively (you’ve seen the change happen in play, so you mark it off) or prescriptively (as a hard move, following a failed roll or golden opportunity).

Impending Doom

At the end of every danger’s path is an impending doom — the final toll of the bell that signals the danger’s triumphant resolution. When a grim portent comes to pass, the impending doom grows stronger and more present in the world. Choose one type and give it concrete form:

Tyranny (of the strong over the weak or the few over the many)
Pestilence (the spread of sickness and disease, the end of wellness)
Destruction (apocalypse, ruin and woe)
Usurpation (the chain of order comes apart, someone rightful is displaced)
Impoverishment (enslavement, the abandonment of goodness and right)
Rampant Chaos (laws of reality, of society, or any order is dissolved)

When all of a danger’s grim portents come to pass, the impending doom sets in. The danger is then resolved, but the setting has changed in some meaningful way that reverberates through the front at large.

Stakes

Stakes questions are 1–3 questions about people, places, or groups you’re interested in — a reminder of what “play to find out what happens” means for this front. Stakes are concrete and clear, about important changes that affect the PCs and the world, not vague feelings. Once written, a stake is out of your hands — you don’t get to just make it up anymore, you have to play to find out.

Resolving a Front

Often a front resolves simply: dangers killed, turned to good, or overcome by heroism, and the front is dissolved and set aside. Unresolved elements may move to the campaign front as new dangers. The campaign front takes longer, working slowly and subtly across the whole campaign, and resolves when the Dark God is confronted or the undead plague claims the world, one way or another.

When a front resolves, take time to look at the aftermath: did any grim portents come to pass? Even a stopped danger may leave the world changed if portents were fulfilled along the way.

Multiple Adventure Fronts

You’re likely to have a lightly detailed campaign front and one or two detailed adventure fronts running at once. Fronts continue along apace whether or not the characters are there to see them — think offscreen, especially where fronts are concerned. A situation warrants multiple adventure fronts when there are multiple impending dooms, all equally potent but not necessarily related; they may still interact, with players choosing sides or turning one front’s dangers against another’s.

An Example Front: The Opening of the White Gate

The College of Arcanists (Cabal). Impulse: to absorb those in power, to grow. Grim Portents: the College sends an expedition to the Gate; the Key is discovered; the Gate’s power is harnessed; the College seizes control. Impending Doom: Usurpation.

The White Gate (Dark Portal). Impulse: to disgorge demons. Grim Portents: the First Trumpet sounds; the Second Trumpet sounds; the Gate is opened. Impending Doom: Destruction.

The Argent Seraphim (Choir of Angels). Impulse: to pass judgement. Grim Portents: a Champion is chosen; an organization of power is formed or co-opted; the Herald appears; judgement is passed. Impending Doom: Tyranny.

Description and Cast: An ancient gate, buried for aeons in the icy north. It opens into a realm of pure light, guarded by the Argent Seraphim. It was crafted only to be opened at Judgement Day, so that the Seraphim could come forth and purge the realm of men. It was recently uncovered by the College of Arcanists, who do not yet understand its terrible power. Cast: Oren Balserus, Arcanist Supreme; Hali’el, voice of the Seraphim; Drudge, a manservant.

Custom Move: When you stand in the presence of the Light From Beyond, roll+WIS. ✴On a 10+ you are judged worthy, the Argent Seraphim will grant you a vision or boon. ✴On a 7-9 you are under suspicion and see a vision of what dark fate might befall you if you do not correct your ways. ✴On a miss, thou art weighed in the balance and art found wanting.

Stakes: Who will be the Champion? How will Lux respond to the holy light? Will the College be able to recruit Avon?