Dungeon World Fronts

Introduction
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 (who knows when inspiration will strike?) but
the meat of them comes from preparation between sessions.

Fronts are designed to help you organize your thoughts on what opposes
the players. They’re here to contain your notes, ideas, and plans for these
opposing forces. When you’re in a bind your fronts are where you’re going
to turn and say, “Oh, so that’s what I should do.” Consider them an
organizational tool, as inspiration for present and future mayhem.

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 you’re done writing a few fronts you’ll be equipped with
all the tools you’ll need to challenge your players and ready to run
Dungeon World.
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. If you find yourself with more adventure fronts
consider leaving some possible fronts as just notes for now.

Campaign and Adventure Fronts

At their core, all fronts contain the same components. They sort and
gather your dangers into easy-to-use clusters. There are, however, two
different kinds of fronts available to you. On the session-to-session level
there are your adventure fronts. These fronts will see use for a few
sessions each. They’re tied to one problem and will be dealt with or cast
aside as the characters wander the dungeon or uncover the plot at hand.
Think of them as episodic content: “Today, on Dungeon World…”

Tying your adventure fronts together is your campaign front. While the
adventure fronts will contain immediate dangers—the orcs in Hargrosh
Pass, say—the campaign front contains the Dark God Grishkar who
drives the orcs to their pillaging. The campaign front is the unifying
element that spans all the sessions of your Dungeon World game. It will
have slower-burning portents but they’ll be bigger in scope and have a
deeper impact on the world. Most importantly they’ll be scarier if they’re
allowed to resolve.

When a danger from an adventure front goes without resolution you’ll

have to make a decision. If the danger is something you like and feel has
a place in the larger world of your game don’t hesitate to move it to the
campaign front. You’re able to make smaller dangers that went
unresolved into bigger dangers some day later on. You can move dangers
from the campaign fronts to an adventure front if they’ve come to bear,
too.

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, some
roving monsters, and other bits of ephemera may just be there to add
context but aren’t important enough to warrant inclusion. That’s okay.
Fronts are here to keep you apprised of the bigger picture. Dangers are
divided into a handful of categories, each with its own name and impulse.

Every danger has a crucial motivation that drives it called its impulse. The
impulse exists to help you understand that danger. What pushes it to fulfill
its impending doom? Impulses can help you translate the danger into
action.

When creating dangers for your front, think about how each one interacts
as a facet of the front as a whole. Keep in mind the people, places, and
things that might be a part of the threat to the world that the front
represents. How does each danger contribute to the front?

Let’s say we have an idea for a front—an ancient portal has been
discovered in the icy north. We’ll call our front “The Opening of the White
Gate.”
The easiest place to start is with people and monsters. Cultists, ogre
chieftains, demonic overlords, and the like are all excellent dangers.
These are the creatures that have risen above mere monster status to
become serious threats on their own. Groups of monsters can be dangers
too—goblin tribes or a rampaging centaur khanate, for example.

For the front we’re creating, we can pick a few different groups or people
who might be interested in the gate. The College of Arcanists, perhaps.
There’s a golem, too, we’ve decided, that protects the forgotten portal.
The golem is just an obstacle, so we won’t make him a danger.

Thinking more broadly, less obvious elements of the world can be

dangers. Blasted landscapes, intelligent magical items, ancient spells
woven into the fabric of time. These things fulfill the same purposes as a
mad necromancer—they’re part of the front, a danger to the world.

For our front, we’ll add the gate itself as a danger.

Lastly, if we think ahead, we can include some overarching dangers. The

sorts of things that are in play outside the realm of the obvious—godly
patrons, hidden conspiracies and cursed prophecies waiting to be fulfilled.

Perhaps the White Gate was carved in the ancient past, hidden by a race
of angels until the Day of Judgment. We’ll add the Argent Seraphim to our
front as a new danger.

There’s always more dangers you could add to a front, but limit yourself to
3 at most and leave room for discovery. Like a map, blank spaces can
always be filled in later. Leaving room for player contribution and future
inspiration means you’ll have freedom to alter the front and make it fit the
game. Not every bad thing that could happen deserves to be made into a
danger. If you’re uncertain, think about it this way: dangers can always get
worse.

A barbarian tribe near the gate, the frozen tundra itself, a band of rival
adventurers; all these things could be dangerous elements of the game
but they’re not important enough just yet to deserve to be dangers.
Creating dangers is a way to slice up your overall front concept into
smaller, easier to manage pieces. Dangers are tools for adding detail to
the right parts of the front and for making the front easier to manage in the
long run.

Once you’ve named and added a danger to the front you need to choose
a type for that danger from the list below. Alternately, you can use the list
of types to inspire dangers: with your front in mind, peruse the list and pick
one or two that fit.

For our three dangers (The College of Arcanists, The White Gate and the
Argent Seraphim) we’ve selected Cabal, Dark Portal and Choir of Angels,
respectively.

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 (impulse: to take by subterfuge)
Cult (impulse: to infest from within)
Religious Organization (impulse: to establish and follow doctrine)
Corrupt Government (impulse: to maintain the status quo)
Cabal (impulse: to absorb those in power, to grow)

GM Moves for Ambitious Organizations

Attack someone by stealthy means (kidnapping, etc.)

Attack someone directly (with a gang or single assailant)
 Absorb or buy out someone important (an ally, perhaps)
Influence a powerful institution (change a law, manipulate doctrine)
Establish a new rule (within the organization)
Claim territory or resources
Negotiate a deal
Observe a potential foe in great detail

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

GM Moves for Planar Forces

Turn an organization (corrupt or infiltrate with influence)

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 (impulse: to seek magical power)
Sentient Artifact (impulse: to find a worthy wielder)
Ancient Curse (impulse: to ensnare)
 Chosen One (impulse: to fulfill or resent their destiny)
Dragon (impulse: to hoard gold and jewels, to protect the clutch)

GM Moves for Arcane Enemies

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 (impulse: to breed, to multiply and consume)
Underground Dwellers (impulse: to defend the complex from
outsiders)
Plague of the Undead (impulse: to spread)

GM Moves for Hordes

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 that declaration without hesitation or
deliberation
Cursed Places
Abandoned Tower (impulse: to draw in the weak-willed)
Unholy Ground (impulse: to spawn evil)
Elemental Vortex (impulse: to grow, to tear apart reality)
Dark Portal (impulse: to disgorge demons)
Shadowland (impulse: to corrupt or consume the living)
Place of Power (impulse: to be controlled or tamed)

GM Moves for Cursed Places

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,
something to describe it in a nutshell. Don’t worry about where it’s going
or what could happen—grim portents and the impending doom will handle
that for you; you’ll get to those in a bit. If there are multiple people
involved in the danger (an orc warlord and his clansmen, a hateful god
and his servants) go ahead and give them names and a detail or two now.
Leave yourself some space as you’ll be adding to this section as you play.

Custom Moves
Sometimes a danger will suggest a move that isn’t covered by any
existing ones. You can write custom moves to fill the gaps or to add the
right effects for the danger. They can be player moves or GM moves, as
you see fit. Of course, if you’re writing a player move, keep your hands off
the dice and mind the basic structure of a move. A 10+ is a complete
success, while a 7–9 is a partial success. On a miss, maybe the custom
move does something specific, or maybe not—maybe you just get to
make a move or work towards fulfilling a grim portent. The formatting of
these moves varies from move to move.

For the Opening of the White Gate, I just know some fool PC is going to
end up in the light that spills from the gate, so I’m writing a move to show
what might occur. 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.

Grim Portents
Grim portents are dark designs for what could happen if a danger goes
unchecked. Think about what would happen if the danger existed in the
world but the PCs didn’t—if all these awful things you’ve conjured up had
their run of the world. Scary, huh? The grim portents are your way to
codify the plans and machinations of your dangers. A grim portent can be
a single interesting event or a chain of steps. When you’re not sure what
to do next, push your danger towards resolving a grim portent.

More often than not grim portents have a logical order. The orcs tear down
the city only after the peace talks fail, for example. A simple front will
progress from bad to worse to much worse in a clear path forward.
Sometimes, grim portents are unconnected pathways to the impending
doom. The early manifestations of danger might not all be related. It’s up
to you to decide how complex your front will be. Whenever a danger
comes to pass, check the other dangers in the front. In a complex front,
you may need to cross off or alter the grim portents. That’s fine, you’re
allowed. Keep scale in mind, too. Grim portents don’t all have to be world-
shaking. They can simply represent a change in direction for a danger.
Some new way for it to cause trouble in the world.

Think of your grim portents as possible moves waiting in the wings. When
the time is right, unleash them on the world.

I’ve chosen a few grim portents for my new front.

The College sends an expedition to the Gate

The Key is discovered
The First Trumpet sounds
A Champion is chosen
The Second Trumpet sounds
The Herald appears
The Gate is Opened

When a grim portent comes to pass, check it off—the prophecy has come
true! A grim portent that has come to pass might have ramifications for
your other fronts, too. Have a quick look when your players aren’t
demanding your attention and feel free to make changes. One small grim
portent may resound across the whole campaign in subtle ways.

You can advance a grim portent descriptively or prescriptively.

Descriptively means that you’ve seen the change happen during play, so
you mark it off. Maybe the players sided with the goblin tribes against their
lizardman enemies—now the goblins control the tunnels. Lo and behold,
this was the next step in a grim portent. Prescriptive is when, due to a
failed player move or a golden opportunity, you advance the grim portent
as your hard move. That step comes to pass, show its effects and keep
on asking, “What do you do, now?”

Impending Doom
At the end of every danger’s path is an impending doom. This is 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, more
apparent and present in the world. These are the very bad things that
every danger, in some way, seeks to bring into effect. Choose one of the
types of impending dooms and give it a concrete form in your front. These
often change in play, as the characters meddle in the affairs of the world.
Don’t fret, you can change them later.

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 the grim portents of a danger come to pass, the impending
doom sets in. The danger is then resolved but the setting has changed in
some meaningful way. This will almost certainly change the front at large
as well. Making sure that these effects reverberate throughout the world is
a big part of making them feel real.

Stakes
Your stakes questions are 1-3 questions about people, places, or groups
that you’re interested in. People include PCs and NPCs, your choice.
Remember that your agenda includes “Play to find out what happens?”
Stakes are a way of reminding yourself what you want to find out.

Stakes are concrete and clear. Don’t write stakes about vague feelings or
incremental changes. Stakes are about important changes that affect the
PCs and the world. A good stakes question is one that, when it’s resolved,
means that things will never be the same again.
The most important thing about stakes is that you find them interesting.
Your stakes should be things that you genuinely want to know, but that
you’re also willing to leave to be resolved through play. Once you’ve
written it as a stake, it’s out of your hands, you don’t get to just make it up
anymore. Now you have to play to find out.

Playing to find out is one of the biggest rewards of playing Dungeon

World. You’ve written down something tied to events happening in the
world that you want to find out about—now you get to do just that.

Once you have your stakes your front is ready to play.

My stakes questions include, as tailored to my group:

Who will be the champion?

How will Lux respond to the Light From Beyond?
Will the College be able to recruit Avon?

Resolving a Front
Often a front will be resolved in a simple and straightforward manner. A
front representing a single dungeon may have its dangers killed, turned to
good, or overcome by some act of heroism. In this case the front is
dissolved and set aside. Maybe there are elements of the front—dangers
that go unresolved or leftover members of a danger that’s been cleared—
that live on. Maybe they move to the campaign front as brand new
dangers?

The campaign front will need a bit more effort to resolve. It’ll be working
slowly and subtly as the course of the campaign rolls along. You won’t
introduce or resolve it all at once, but in pieces. The characters work
towards defeating the various minions of the big bad that lives in your
campaign front. In the end, though, you’ll know that the campaign front is
resolved when the Dark God is confronted or the undead plague claims
the world and the heroes emerge bloodied but victorious or defeated and
despairing. Campaign fronts take longer to deal with but in the end they’re
the most satisfying to resolve.

When a front is resolved take some extra time to sit down and look at the
aftermath. Did any grim portents come to pass? Even if a danger is
stopped, if any grim portents are fulfilled, the world is changed, if only in
subtle ways. Keep this in mind when you write your future fronts. Is there
anyone who could be moved from the now-defeated front to somewhere
else? Anyone get promoted or reduced in stature? The resolution of a
front is an important event!

When you resolve an adventure front usually that means the adventure
itself has been resolved. This is a great time to take a break and look at
your campaign front. Let it inspire your next adventure front. Write up a
new adventure front or polish off one you’ve been working on, draw a few
maps to go with it and get ready for the next big thing.

Multiple Adventure Fronts

As you start your campaign you’re likely to have a lightly detailed
campaign front and one or two detailed adventure fronts. Characters may
choose, part-way through an adventure, to pursue some other course.
You might end up with a handful of partly-resolved adventure fronts. Not
only is this okay, it’s a great way to explore a world that feels alive and
organic. Always remember, fronts continue along apace no matter
whether the characters are there to see them or not. Think offscreen,
especially where fronts are concerned.

When running two adventure fronts at the same time they can be
intertwined or independent. The anarchists corrupting the city from the
inside are a different front from the orcs massing outside the walls, but
they’d both be in play at once. On the other hand one dungeon could
have multiple fronts at play within its walls: the powers and effects of the
cursed place itself and the warring humanoid tribes that inhabit it.
A situation warrants multiple adventure fronts when there are multiple
impending dooms, all equally potent but not necessarily related. The
impending doom of the anarchists is chaos in the city, the impending
doom of the orcs is its utter ruination. They are two separate fronts with
their own dangers. They’ll deal with each other, as well, so there’s some
room for the players choosing sides or attempting to turn the dangers of
one front against the other.

When dealing with multiple adventure fronts the players are likely to
prioritize. The cult needs attention now, the orcs can wait, or vice versa.
These decisions lead to the slow advancement of the neglected front,
eventually causing more problems for the characters and leading to new
adventures. This can get complex once you’ve got three or four fronts in
play. Take care not to get overwhelmed.

An Example Front: The Opening of the

White Gate
Dangers
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 judgment

Grim Portents

A Champion is chosen
An organization of power is formed or co-opted
The Herald appears
Judgment 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 Judgment 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.

Oren Balserus, Arcanist Supreme

Hali’el, voice of the Seraphim
Drudge, a manservant

Custom Moves
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?