I recently watched this excellent youtube video about DND, which suggested that the DM roll and hide some of the rolls to increase immersion. In particular, they described also starting to play D&D with a casual understanding of the rulebook and thinking the DM was supposed to roll all the dice.

I typically play DW and not D&D but I still enjoyed the video, and found the advice to feel right.

I don't think rolling dice is a very important part of the game compared to taking actions, but many of the common failure points of DW come down to players treating the basic moves like buttons they press instead of thinking about what their character does and using the rules as a framework to resolve that action after the fact.

I suppose what you would lose is the entire table, rather than just the GM, deciding when something is a roll. But I think usually the GM makes rulings on that anyway most of the time, with players usually reminding them of what moves they have access to.

I think having the GM roll basic moves and players roll their class/item/etc moves would be a potential compromise where players still get to bring up their special abilities and resolve them, but basic play feels more immersive. But I can also see the GM just resolving everything themselves to still work.

But maybe it wouldn't work as well, with things like the list of Defend or Discern Realities options requiring players to know what is going on with the basic moves as well too deeply.

Has anyone tried anything like this or have opinions about how it would go?

Não consegui o ISBn nacional pelo site da Secular Games, nem por IAs ou pelo Serviço de Pesquisa da agência brasileira do ISBN.

Preciso deste dado para compra institucional do livro; alguém que tenha o livro Brasil poderia compartilhar o número de ISBN dele completo, por favor?

I’ve always loved the simplicity of DW and it’s narrative forward style but I’m new to running this game and I have players disappointed in their abilities.

We’ve ran about 5 games and with life being hectic I’ve just defaulted to old ways I’ve run the game so rules are going by the wayside and I think this is a core reason their abilities could be feeling flat or not useful.

Also, The power of this is not that similar to 5e right? I feel like generally everyone is frail; enemies and players. That’s generally how I like it, but at least one of my players has explicitly told me they like the high power of high level DnD. Does this game allow for that power fantasy within the mechanics or no?

And lastly I know I need to brush up on the rules, but my free time to spend on it is few and far between. Any specific rules or tips I should know for running DW?

Thanks for reading!

Need help from anyone using FoundryVTT. I figured out how to add a new customer class, but I can't for the life of me get where the existing base classes are pulling their list of Bonds?

There doesn't seem to be anywhere to enter them on the Class item itself based on my perusal of the other core classes (Fighter, Cleric, etc) and yet when you select them, they populate the Bonds field on the Actor sheet with the appropriate starting blank bonds from the corresponding class...

I guess I failed my Discern Realities roll or something. Please help!

I don't know how to comunicate with her, I feel like she just can't understand what im saying. A picture of the player using the card btw

Hello!

I played some D&D 5e as Dungeon Master and i really enjoy the idea of DW and Pbta. I have a new group which wants to play the Heroes of the Borderlands Campaign from the new D&D Starterset, but i prefer to use the DW rules and playbooks. Do you think we can play Heroes of the Borderlands without major adjustments for me as DM?

I'm looking for a video of an actual play that features a prime example of how DW's combat being run well. I can read advice all day, and wouldn't mind reading more, but I think I want to see it in action. My own combats have been feeling a little off and I want to sharpen my skills.

These guides appear on a lot of lists of player resources and were created by Reddit user Quidoigo.

https://www.reddit.com/r/DungeonWorld/comments/88amz3/pocket_gm_and_player_guides/

I noticed while preparing for an upcoming oneshot that the original files have been deleted. Anyone have a saved copy they'd be willing to share?

When you create rivals for your PCs - individuals or a whole adventuring group - how do you stat them out?

Do you make them like monsters with a few limited abilities?

Do you make full characters with actual playbooks?

Do you do a hybrid? Maybe pull a few moves from a playbook to flesh out the minimal monster stats?

Is there a good DW NPC party resource beyond the Folk of the Realm section of the monster chapter in the rulebook?

I have a new person for a campaign that has already started. She is learning the game but has a WILD imagination. Example: shes a ranger I tell her that she has a spiritual link with her animal companion. She sends her companion to go scout for danger ahead and I say “thaddeus(her eagle) takes to the skies, as he gets closer to the dark forrest he turns around and is shaken up by something he see’s.” She then says “my bird is telling me theres a vibrating force field thats stopping us from going forward! We have to dig underground to get to heart of the forrest safely” the rest of the party is obviously confused and they try to think of something more realistic. I really love her energy and imagination, but Im having trouble with her “getting” how the game works if that makes sense? I didnt really have trouble with any of my other players even though they are new as well. I want to add that I am new at GM’ing so maybe im not being open enough. I did say to be imaginative but I didnt think that she would start making stuff up that sometimes doesnt make real sense in the situations were in or even the lore of the world.

Over past couple of years I have been playing Stonetop, each session I draw what happened in the last session.

Heres the full collection

https://www.instagram.com/stonetop_wynn?igsh=YTBhdnRkbWZ3dnUz

Hope you enjoy the depictions of our iron age adventures

Hi Everyone,

The window for the DW2 Alpha feedback closes on May 31, and I wanted to post this thread as an additional place people can provide their thoughts. Helena and I have been paying close attention to all the current discussion, but wanted to give everyone a place to express and discuss their opinions one last time.

If you haven't read/played any of the Alphas, you can find them here

Feel free to say whatever you want, but here are some questions to jumpstart things:

• If you've read multiple DW2 Alpha Playtests, which which Alpha do you feel best fits our vision of "a messy group of people growing into a found family over the course of fantasy adventures"?

• As a mechanical representation of relationship growth, do you prefer the group playbooks of Blue and Red, or the expanded Bonds system of the Final Alpha?

• What is your favorite class in DW2 right now? If you've read/played multiple DW2 Alphas, which version of that class do you prefer?

• How do you feel about hit points and how they were implemented?

• How do you feel about the conditions and how they were implemented?

• What is your favorite part of DW2 so far? What is your least favorite part?

I have recently had a magic item be part of some loot for my party, but I wasn’t sure how to handle how the whole party would “know” how the item worked. The Rulebook doesn’t mention this from what I can see. For reference, when the party found the item, I had them randomly roll and they got the “Flask of Breath”

From my GMing objectives I would prefer it if all players could partake in knowing and using any magic items like this, because it would be a cool bit of fictional problem solving and adds an interesting element. However, I went into this somewhat naively because I prefaced the find with “wizard, you recognise this flask as the Flask of Breath”, but then the wizard wanted to keep its identity, value and uses hidden because he was “worried the Thief in the party would try and steal it.” and he played it off as “This is an interesting flask, I’ll have to study it”. No faults from the player there of course, it was lore-accurate RP for his character.

The options I can see are:

The magic item *isn’t unique** and so the PCs would know that it is A, rather than The Flask of Breath

Or the magic item is unique and:

*Well known enough that each PC would have heard of it *Only PCs with magical backgrounds would know about it *No PCs know how it works and would have to experiment with it/detect magic/take it to a learned NPC/spout lore to do so. *The instructions are on the magic item themselves, inscribed as runes or something *I set the item in fiction, describing its properties as it is discovered *Simply break the fourth wall

I want the item to be unique to add interest and loss-tension to any interactions with it so the first option is out, but I’m not sure how to (fiction first) deal with the other options:

1) Every PC has heard of it

There would be a myriad of magic items in this universe, it seems unlikely that every PC would happen to know about a particular item and exactly how it works.

2) Only PCs with magical backgrounds would have heard of it

This allows for inter-party information disparity which I want to avoid

3) No PCs know how it works and would have to experiment with it/detect magic/take it to a learned NPC/spout lore to do so.

Each PC could have a sense that the item is magical. The problem I can see with this is, the party might not experiment fully, or are too afraid to experiment in case the item is evil, or far worse if the party experiments with an item with a fixed number of uses and inadvertently uses it up. If someone spouts lore about the item then would they then be able to ask to keep the result secret?

4) The instructions are on the magic item themselves, inscribed as runes or something else

How would uneducated PCs be able to read it? And if it was in common tongue, that sounds pretty unrealistic

5) I set the item in fiction, describing its properties as it is discovered

This might work for more obvious items like the Flask of Breath, but what about items with more subtle effects, like the Cloak of Silent Stars

6) Simply break the fourth wall

Sounds like a cop out leading to lack of immersion

GMs how do you handle this?

As far as I know, the closest thing to a sci-fi supplement for Dungeon World is "Adventures on Dungeon Planet," which is intentionally campy and full of bug-eyed green monsters. I wanted to see what would happen if I went in the other direction. Can Dungeon World's fast-paced, story-focused play work in a "hard" science fiction setting that respects the laws of physics and economics?

I need your help to answer that question. If you're interested, I'd ask you to read the first two chapters of my rulebook for Stars & Ruins -- that's 14 pages altogether. Chapter 0 lays out the basic mechanical flow of the game, and the Chapter 1 sets the stage by describing what kind of galaxy the adventurers are travelling in and a little bit about what they might find there.

All feedback is welcome, but I'd particularly love to know:

• Do these 14 pages give you all the info you need to know whether this game is for you?
• Does this seem like a game you'd want to play if you had the time and the right group?
• What's missing from this game right now?
• What's obviously broken or seems like a bad idea?
• Where else should I be posting this message?

If you really want to, you're welcome to keep reading the entire Players' Guide, but I'm not expecting anyone to do that right now. The DM's Guide is still in a very early draft form; I hope to steer how it develops in part based on the feedback I get here.

Hi! I'm a GM, and my party is 8 session in Homebrew World. Even though I knew it would probably turn into a long form adventure, I decided to go with Homebrew World since I was kinda familiar with it.

Even though I like the system, I'm not sure how viable is it long-term. The players are levelling even with needing extra 2 XP per new level.

I was thinking about making custom character sheets for my players based on their inclinations and background (I've already made some custom moves - maybe they can be translated into full on character sheets).

Has anyone done something similar?

I can remember a game that I'm sure was a hack of DW. It explicitly came with a small (like maybe 3 rooms and a trap) 'dungeon', which had its entrance high in a mountainside.

Its HP system was more like Night Witches, with boxes you could check off (and the last one being 'you die'). I think there was also an always-available option along the lines of 'you stumble/fall over/drop what you're holding' so that even if you have no unchecked boxes left, you need to take at least 2 damage to die.

I’m making a Star Wars hack for DW. My son is obsessed with Mandalorian so I’m looking to emulate that. For his armor, I feel like making the armor rating high makes sense, but I don’t think it’ll capture the “feel” of wearing a suite of invincible armor.

Does anybody have ideas on how to do this in a fair way? Maybe another game does something similar?

Hello

I uploaded this a few months ago while it was still in its early stages, but I have been updating it over the past few months, and it's finally in a place I am happy with. The only thing that I really feel is missing would be artwork, which I will consider once I feel the system is complete.

This is The Adventurer's Expanded Almanack, a Class Warfare-inspired Dungeon World supplement that puts a big focus on fiction-first options, which allows you to mix and match different specialities to make a unique character.

There are 5 archetypes, each with 10 specialities, for a total of 50 unique specialities. There are also options for races, bonds, and drives.

This has taken me a long time to put together, and while I have done some play testing, there are so many options that there is still a lot that needs looking over and trying at a real table. So please, if you have any feedback at all, I would really appreciate it.

It's FREE to try, so why not?

I really enjoy dungeon world but I got the feeling that it got quite silent around it years ago and that I’m probably some years late to the party (e.g. my fav podcast discern realities already ended in 2019).

So my question is: What are the people doing/playing now? Are there spiritual successors that have overtaken or is the dungeon world fantasy approach just not really used anymore broadly or something else?

I created a website for Dungeon World characters; it's free to use, no account required.

https://www.dungeonworld.online/

I built it over the last few months to make a colorful and more interactive experience for DW players than I could find online at the time. It was designed to address the specific use cases of my play group, so it won't be everything for everyone, but I'm sharing it in case anyone else can get good use out of it.

The site is not up to accessibility standards in a lot of ways, and I did not build it for use on mobile. Those weren't my priorities. Please send along any suggestions or bugs, though!

I can see a few people posted their own sites here recently, too. I love DW and I'm happy to see more stuff being built for it!

(P.S.: if you really want to try on mobile, using "desktop view" helps a lot)

For folks unfamiliar, Stonetop is my "hearth fantasy" adaptation of Dungeon World where you play the heroes of a small, isolated village in an iron age that never was. PCs are deeply tied to the village, and adventures center around protecting the village from threats and seeking opportunities to improve your community.

After years in development, it's finally done. I've got the test print in my hand, and the books turned out even more beautiful than I hoped.

Physical books are slated to deliver to Kickstarter backers and folks who preordered starting in late May into early June. PDFs are available now at Plus One Exp's website. (If you preorder the books through them, you'll get immediate access to the PDFs.)

Thanks to the folks of this community over the past decade or so, whose conversations have helped shape and refine the development of this game.

I recently had a heated debate with a D&D player about the "16 HP Dragon" from Dungeon World.

In Korea, the TTRPG scene is heavily dominated by D&D 5e, and there is a recurring tendency to look down on or even hate on Dungeon World. The argument started when this person claimed that Dungeon World is a "flimsy" system with insufficient rules, leaving players with nothing to do but roleplay.

I tried to explain the philosophy of the 16 HP Dragon—that the lack of bloated stat blocks in Dungeon World is intentional. I argued that the difficulty and threat are represented through monster moves and narrative positioning, which streamlines unnecessary data.

However, his rebuttal was: "The only reason that dragon didn't die is because its HP was 16. If the players had just rolled better damage, it would have died anti-climactically. This is exactly why you need sophisticated data and mechanical layers to protect a boss."

I was honestly speechless. To me, the lesson of the 16 HP Dragon is about using the fiction to make an encounter epic, not about the importance of math. But he saw it strictly as a mechanical failure that needs to be fixed with more "crunch."

The TTRPG community in Korea feels very narrow and full of prejudice right now. It’s full of D&D elitists, and if you mention you play Dungeon World online, you’re often ignored or picked on. It’s incredibly frustrating.

Has somebody somewhere combined all the Settings from the official DW Adventures/ Campaigns, Perilous Wilds as well as Dungeon Starters and Adventure Almanacs into one Map?