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Dungeon World
Combining high-action dungeon crawling with cutting-edge rules, Dungeon World is a roleplaying game of fantasy adventure. You and your friends will explore a land of magic and danger in the roles of adventurers searching for fame, gold, and glory.
Dungeon World rules are easy to learn and always drive the story forward in unexpected ways. A missed roll is never a dead end--failure introduces new complexities and complications. Life as an adventurer is hard and dangerous but its never boring!
Designed to be ready for you to hack, remix, and build new content, Dungeon World includes systems for changing everything to suit your group including creating new races, classes, and monsters.
To play, you'll need this rulebook, 3-5 players, some polyhedral dice, and 1-4 hours.
Explore fantasy adventure roleplaying in a whole new way with Dungeon World!
Dungeon World rules are easy to learn and always drive the story forward in unexpected ways. A missed roll is never a dead end--failure introduces new complexities and complications. Life as an adventurer is hard and dangerous but its never boring!
Designed to be ready for you to hack, remix, and build new content, Dungeon World includes systems for changing everything to suit your group including creating new races, classes, and monsters.
To play, you'll need this rulebook, 3-5 players, some polyhedral dice, and 1-4 hours.
Explore fantasy adventure roleplaying in a whole new way with Dungeon World!
404 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 2012
48 people are currently reading
448 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 91 reviews
March 11, 2014
Reading this book is like listening to The Velvet Underground or The Jesus & Mary Chain. It takes a classic format that you think has been done to death, lovingly strips it right down to its naked essential soul, and then recreates it as something so transcendently brilliant that it takes your breath away.
It's got everything you expect in a classic old-school fantasy RPG: races like elves and dwarves, classes like Rangers and Wizards, and monsters and dungeons (obviously). But it strips the rules down to a absolute minimum and turns them around completely to encourage easy and fluid role-playing. It keeps the basic D&D style of Attributes but throws out everything else: no skills, no saving throws, no Armor Class. Pretty much everything is a straight "roll two six-sided dice and add your attribute bonus". From that simple starting point they build a superstructure of remarkable elegance.
To take an example: making a character in a traditional RPG like D&D, Pathfinder, BRP, etc. can take about an hour - even if you have a computer program to help. And that's assuming you either know the rules beforehand or have someone to help you. The same procedure would take about 5 minutes, tops, in Dungeon World, even if you don't know the rules at all; and you'll arguably have a even more rounded and playable character.
This book made me want to jump up immediately and start running a game. Like, without any other preparation AT ALL. I could see myself running a game right off the bat, the fluidity of the system means I could DM a game of this on the fly and it would still be cool. Similarly, adapting a previously published D&D or Pathfinder adventure (of which there are thousands) looks like it would be trivial considering how flexible this system is - and the suggestions the authors give for how to do this are great.
An astounding and revolutionary achivement in game design. I can't recommend this highly enough. It's the first book I've read that's made me consider giving up Savage Worlds, my current go-to ruleset, and that's really saying something. Everyone seriously interested in RPGs needs to read this.
It's got everything you expect in a classic old-school fantasy RPG: races like elves and dwarves, classes like Rangers and Wizards, and monsters and dungeons (obviously). But it strips the rules down to a absolute minimum and turns them around completely to encourage easy and fluid role-playing. It keeps the basic D&D style of Attributes but throws out everything else: no skills, no saving throws, no Armor Class. Pretty much everything is a straight "roll two six-sided dice and add your attribute bonus". From that simple starting point they build a superstructure of remarkable elegance.
To take an example: making a character in a traditional RPG like D&D, Pathfinder, BRP, etc. can take about an hour - even if you have a computer program to help. And that's assuming you either know the rules beforehand or have someone to help you. The same procedure would take about 5 minutes, tops, in Dungeon World, even if you don't know the rules at all; and you'll arguably have a even more rounded and playable character.
This book made me want to jump up immediately and start running a game. Like, without any other preparation AT ALL. I could see myself running a game right off the bat, the fluidity of the system means I could DM a game of this on the fly and it would still be cool. Similarly, adapting a previously published D&D or Pathfinder adventure (of which there are thousands) looks like it would be trivial considering how flexible this system is - and the suggestions the authors give for how to do this are great.
An astounding and revolutionary achivement in game design. I can't recommend this highly enough. It's the first book I've read that's made me consider giving up Savage Worlds, my current go-to ruleset, and that's really saying something. Everyone seriously interested in RPGs needs to read this.
November 27, 2018
Dungeon World is an old school type game with modern innovations. It is both light and meaty enough that people new to RPGs and seasoned veterans will both have fun with this. Also, if you are familiar with D&D then you will feel at home here. It's a lot lighter than D&D, but there are enough innovations and bells & whistles that you won't feel like you are really missing anything or trading down.
The only reason that I'm taking a star off is because of some of the terminology used in the book. Some terms and how they work aren't explained fully enough for my tastes (like holds, for example) while other terms are just unwieldy and would have been better named something else for clarity and to make them easier to remember what they are (like impulses and fronts).
The only reason that I'm taking a star off is because of some of the terminology used in the book. Some terms and how they work aren't explained fully enough for my tastes (like holds, for example) while other terms are just unwieldy and would have been better named something else for clarity and to make them easier to remember what they are (like impulses and fronts).
November 27, 2014
Dungeon World is a fantasy heartbreaker powered by the Apocalypse World rules. While it has a few clever ideas, its nowhere near as smart and dangerous as the earlier game, and as with most fantasy heartbreakers, the ultimate question is always "Why this as opposed to D&D?"
((Note: this is a reading review, not a playtest review)).
The basics of Dungeon World are about exactly what you'd expect. Classes, the standard six core stats, a list of moves like "Hack & Slash" and "Defy Danger" and a brutally simple system of roll 2d6+stat (between -3 and +3), over 10 is a success, 7-9 is success with complication, 6 is fail and mark XP.
The system has some truly elegant bits. The Spout Lore and Discern Realities moves are the best general Knowledge and Perception systems I've seen in any fantasy RPG, and worth stealing. Each character class has a list of Bonds-statements that tie one character to another (my favorite is the Wizard bond: "[x] is important to events to come. I have foreseen it!") The GMing advice, on playing to the fiction, mostly empty maps, and using Fronts and Portents to advance the plot and provide enemies, is all top notch and valuable to newbies and experts alike. And finally, I really like the general presentation, the artwork, and the quotes from fiction in the margins.
What I do not like is the system, which is very chancy and doesn't give a lot of room for modifiers-most characters will start with +2 in their best stat, so a +1 bonus is a 50% improvement in character power. The classes are oddly restrictive--no elven clerics, halflings are fighters or thieves, mostly to emulate Old School style, which is a weird choice for a game based off of the relentlessly modern Apocalypse World. Bonds are neat, but I worry that they might pull the group in contradictory directions, or be too densely webbed as written. The system for developing towns and villages is really strong, but misplaced in a game that's about adventure and danger.
Ease of GMing is a very important part of any fantasy game, and this is where Dungeon World and I part ways. D&D4e hits it almost directly square on the head-I can trust that most monsters will run properly out of the box. D&D3.x does it poorly, but at least provides some guidance in the form of Challenge Ratings. Dungeon World leaves it up to you, with an exhaustive bestiary, but no guidance on how tough monsters are. Sure the 20 hp d10 damage behemoth is more dangerous than a 6 hp d6 damage giant rat, but how much more dangerous? Encounter design is really really soft. The exploration rules are similarly abstract. Characters have encumbrance and limited rations which get used up in the delve, but there's nothing about starving to death in the dark, or even why you'd want money beyond a few hundred coin to upgrade your starting weapons. Characters get more options, but they don't get stronger or hit harder, so you can't rely on the loot-level treadmill to drive the action if the plot falters. The style of the game might be really good for one-shots, or death heavy old school dungeon crawls, but then the GMing advice should be aimed at "4 hours of subterranean terror" instead of longer campaigns.
As I said, there are bits and pieces that are really clever and that I can see using in any fRPG campaign going forward, but I just can't see myself running this game over D&D4e, 13th Age, or even D&D5e or 3.x. That's why these things are called fantasy heartbreakers; someone pours their life and soul into them, and then everybody just plays D&D again.
((Note: this is a reading review, not a playtest review)).
The basics of Dungeon World are about exactly what you'd expect. Classes, the standard six core stats, a list of moves like "Hack & Slash" and "Defy Danger" and a brutally simple system of roll 2d6+stat (between -3 and +3), over 10 is a success, 7-9 is success with complication, 6 is fail and mark XP.
The system has some truly elegant bits. The Spout Lore and Discern Realities moves are the best general Knowledge and Perception systems I've seen in any fantasy RPG, and worth stealing. Each character class has a list of Bonds-statements that tie one character to another (my favorite is the Wizard bond: "[x] is important to events to come. I have foreseen it!") The GMing advice, on playing to the fiction, mostly empty maps, and using Fronts and Portents to advance the plot and provide enemies, is all top notch and valuable to newbies and experts alike. And finally, I really like the general presentation, the artwork, and the quotes from fiction in the margins.
What I do not like is the system, which is very chancy and doesn't give a lot of room for modifiers-most characters will start with +2 in their best stat, so a +1 bonus is a 50% improvement in character power. The classes are oddly restrictive--no elven clerics, halflings are fighters or thieves, mostly to emulate Old School style, which is a weird choice for a game based off of the relentlessly modern Apocalypse World. Bonds are neat, but I worry that they might pull the group in contradictory directions, or be too densely webbed as written. The system for developing towns and villages is really strong, but misplaced in a game that's about adventure and danger.
Ease of GMing is a very important part of any fantasy game, and this is where Dungeon World and I part ways. D&D4e hits it almost directly square on the head-I can trust that most monsters will run properly out of the box. D&D3.x does it poorly, but at least provides some guidance in the form of Challenge Ratings. Dungeon World leaves it up to you, with an exhaustive bestiary, but no guidance on how tough monsters are. Sure the 20 hp d10 damage behemoth is more dangerous than a 6 hp d6 damage giant rat, but how much more dangerous? Encounter design is really really soft. The exploration rules are similarly abstract. Characters have encumbrance and limited rations which get used up in the delve, but there's nothing about starving to death in the dark, or even why you'd want money beyond a few hundred coin to upgrade your starting weapons. Characters get more options, but they don't get stronger or hit harder, so you can't rely on the loot-level treadmill to drive the action if the plot falters. The style of the game might be really good for one-shots, or death heavy old school dungeon crawls, but then the GMing advice should be aimed at "4 hours of subterranean terror" instead of longer campaigns.
As I said, there are bits and pieces that are really clever and that I can see using in any fRPG campaign going forward, but I just can't see myself running this game over D&D4e, 13th Age, or even D&D5e or 3.x. That's why these things are called fantasy heartbreakers; someone pours their life and soul into them, and then everybody just plays D&D again.
December 28, 2018
Since there are plenty of RPG-oriented sites dedicated to reviewing RPGs, I'm going to take the approach of reviewing this like a book rather than critiquing the system per se. RPG reviewers will usually get into the crunchy details of game mechanics and setting. I'm going to describe this for a hypothetical audience of primarily book readers who may not be into RPGs at all.
First of all, Dungeon World is a modern RPG that is descendant of the venerable Dungeons & Dragons that all the nerds played back in the 70s. But when AD&D 5th edition came out a few years ago, it ushered in a revival of interest in a genre that not long ago seemed to be dying out. At the same time, there has been what's called an "Old School Renaissance" of games that harken back to the original Dungeons & Dragons.
Dungeon World is based on another game called Apocalypse World. This system, called "Powered-by-the-Apocalypse," has been used in many other games and genres. The idea in PtbA games is that everything the players or GMs do is called a "move," which is "triggered" by something a character did. These "moves" further the "fiction," which is the story the characters are in. The GM is neither an adversary nor strictly a storyteller - PtBA discourages the GM from creating a "plot" that the characters are supposed to follow, and instead advocates building an interesting world with plenty of blank spaces on the map that the players and GM will discover together.
This sort of narrative gaming has been around for a while, and there are people who love and hate it. But Dungeon World is interesting because it blends the Old School aesthetic of "You are a doughty band ofmurder hobosadventurers plowing through a dungeon to kill things and loot their bodies" and blends it with PtbA narrative storytelling. Just like D&D, it's not necessary or expected that every adventure will actually be a dungeon crawl. You might be trying to stop a war, or save a princess, or assassinate a king. But you'll be one of those familiar archetypes, a Fighter, a Wizard, a Cleric, a Thief, a Bard, etc. And most of the game is written to support trekking around in dangerous places, killing things, and gathering treasure.
The writing is generally pretty good and makes even the old stand-by characters sound interesting enough to play. In places, directions for play are a bit vague. The advantage this game might have over traditional AD&D is that it's much less intimidating for new players (or GMs), and if you are good at "winging it" you can be up and running pretty quickly. 1st level characters are meant to be vulnerable but not too fragile - getting kacked in your first fight is certainly a possibility, but if you play smart you should be able to survive the adventure, unlike some of the other OSR games where rolling up a new character is an expected part of game night. At higher levels, characters do not accumulate massive piles of Hit Points like in AD&D, so they're still vulnerable enough to be killed if they go wading into every fight, but they do start to acquire some pretty impressive, even epic, abilities. And the rules make an effort towards making your characters unique - you are a wizard, but you are not a generic 1st Level Wizard like every other 1st Level Wizard out there. If you want to feel like your band of adventurers is special - maybe not the most powerful people in the world, but not just another faceless band of murder-hobos like every other troupe in the land - it seems like DW can enable that style of play.
It can also enable the murder hobo style of play, but it's very much not a "tactical" game; in classic old school games, the other constant of game night was a grid (or maybe hex) map on which you would move your miniatures and calculate ranges for missile weapons, fireball blast radius, etc. In Dungeon World, there isn't even a need for a map as long as the GM is descriptive enough about how close everything is. You're either close enough to hit something, or you're not.
I haven't played yet, but I do like the rules set and it makes me feel like running a game, unlike 5th Edition AD&D, which is as beautiful and professional a package as you'd expect for the biggest, most popular RPG in the world, yet left me feeling like you're just tromping around in corporatized Official Advanced Dungeons & Dragons World (tm).
This does look like a possible alternative to pick up if you want to dip your toe in the waters but not start buying a cartload of hardcover D&D books.
First of all, Dungeon World is a modern RPG that is descendant of the venerable Dungeons & Dragons that all the nerds played back in the 70s. But when AD&D 5th edition came out a few years ago, it ushered in a revival of interest in a genre that not long ago seemed to be dying out. At the same time, there has been what's called an "Old School Renaissance" of games that harken back to the original Dungeons & Dragons.
Dungeon World is based on another game called Apocalypse World. This system, called "Powered-by-the-Apocalypse," has been used in many other games and genres. The idea in PtbA games is that everything the players or GMs do is called a "move," which is "triggered" by something a character did. These "moves" further the "fiction," which is the story the characters are in. The GM is neither an adversary nor strictly a storyteller - PtBA discourages the GM from creating a "plot" that the characters are supposed to follow, and instead advocates building an interesting world with plenty of blank spaces on the map that the players and GM will discover together.
This sort of narrative gaming has been around for a while, and there are people who love and hate it. But Dungeon World is interesting because it blends the Old School aesthetic of "You are a doughty band of
The writing is generally pretty good and makes even the old stand-by characters sound interesting enough to play. In places, directions for play are a bit vague. The advantage this game might have over traditional AD&D is that it's much less intimidating for new players (or GMs), and if you are good at "winging it" you can be up and running pretty quickly. 1st level characters are meant to be vulnerable but not too fragile - getting kacked in your first fight is certainly a possibility, but if you play smart you should be able to survive the adventure, unlike some of the other OSR games where rolling up a new character is an expected part of game night. At higher levels, characters do not accumulate massive piles of Hit Points like in AD&D, so they're still vulnerable enough to be killed if they go wading into every fight, but they do start to acquire some pretty impressive, even epic, abilities. And the rules make an effort towards making your characters unique - you are a wizard, but you are not a generic 1st Level Wizard like every other 1st Level Wizard out there. If you want to feel like your band of adventurers is special - maybe not the most powerful people in the world, but not just another faceless band of murder-hobos like every other troupe in the land - it seems like DW can enable that style of play.
It can also enable the murder hobo style of play, but it's very much not a "tactical" game; in classic old school games, the other constant of game night was a grid (or maybe hex) map on which you would move your miniatures and calculate ranges for missile weapons, fireball blast radius, etc. In Dungeon World, there isn't even a need for a map as long as the GM is descriptive enough about how close everything is. You're either close enough to hit something, or you're not.
I haven't played yet, but I do like the rules set and it makes me feel like running a game, unlike 5th Edition AD&D, which is as beautiful and professional a package as you'd expect for the biggest, most popular RPG in the world, yet left me feeling like you're just tromping around in corporatized Official Advanced Dungeons & Dragons World (tm).
This does look like a possible alternative to pick up if you want to dip your toe in the waters but not start buying a cartload of hardcover D&D books.
March 1, 2023
I have run Dungeon World games on-and-off for many years and am a big fan of the system. It's a bit dated in some ways, but it by-and-large still makes for a great experience.
Until now, however, I only ran the game based off of the free printable playbook PDF available online. I'm not even sure I was aware that there was a 400 page rulebook. I think it's a real testament to the core of this game that players have all the rules and character sheet on 4 pages, and GMs only have 1 extra page on top of that.
All of that being said, my rating is for the rulebook itself, which didn't add much more for me than what I got out of the playbooks. To be fair, I have since then run other Powered by the Apocalypse games and seen additional development in RPG play styles, which likely have been inspired by Dungeon World.
I think this book could be a great starting point for some GMs, but I think the free playbook is plenty.
Until now, however, I only ran the game based off of the free printable playbook PDF available online. I'm not even sure I was aware that there was a 400 page rulebook. I think it's a real testament to the core of this game that players have all the rules and character sheet on 4 pages, and GMs only have 1 extra page on top of that.
All of that being said, my rating is for the rulebook itself, which didn't add much more for me than what I got out of the playbooks. To be fair, I have since then run other Powered by the Apocalypse games and seen additional development in RPG play styles, which likely have been inspired by Dungeon World.
I think this book could be a great starting point for some GMs, but I think the free playbook is plenty.
July 18, 2017
At some point, I'm going to have to play or run this. It seems that someone sat back and said what I've often said in conversation with fellow gamers. "Dungeons & Dragons simply isn't fun to play." The authors have taken the essential 60s & 70s Fantasy vibe of D&D, and they've tried to make a game that is fun, that removes a lot of the annoying number crunching and charts, and gets down to the brass tacks of telling exciting stories. Fantasy isn't my genre, and Tolkien-esque/D&D Fantasy even less so. Yet, I too get the nostalgic longing for a party of adventurers delving into a cave to fight goblins. I too want to find a magic sword and slay a dragon. It's not my usual type of roleplaying game, and not what I'd want to do all the time, but it's fun. And this game seems to try very hard to make a game that looks like D&D on the surface, but is fun to play. (For folks who have fun playing D&D in any of its additions, my hat's off to you and I'm happy for you. I simply can't join your ranks. Believe me, I've tried.)
August 2, 2015
A rather impressive combination of indie mechanics and old-school ideas. The strong heart of this game is really the classes and their moves. They're perhaps a bit more combat-oriented than I'd like, but they're wonderfully evocative, really embodying the core of these classic old-school classes in a small number of simple actions.
I was also really impressed by the GM sections of this book. The general ideals are interesting (and may or may not be to your liking), but other ideas, such as fronts, are terrific. They're real-world ways of organizing and advancing information that could be useful in any game.
I'm not sure this game is for me, because it's so focused on exploration and combat, rather than narrative, but it's nonetheless a superior game full of superior ideas.
I was also really impressed by the GM sections of this book. The general ideals are interesting (and may or may not be to your liking), but other ideas, such as fronts, are terrific. They're real-world ways of organizing and advancing information that could be useful in any game.
I'm not sure this game is for me, because it's so focused on exploration and combat, rather than narrative, but it's nonetheless a superior game full of superior ideas.
August 18, 2013
My favorite game so far based on the Apocalypse World engine. I've used it to run several sessions and had a blast doing it.
The system of Dangers and Fronts really helped me organize some concepts about GMing in a way that the Threats and Fronts of the original game didn't. Maybe because I'm more familiar with the tropes in this game, or maybe just because I've played it more often. In either case, I've since used those concepts to help me better prep for sessions in other games as well.
I recommend this book to anyone who likes to run RPGs. Read the book, and run a session or two. I think most people will come away a better GM as a result, whatever game they decide to run after.
The system of Dangers and Fronts really helped me organize some concepts about GMing in a way that the Threats and Fronts of the original game didn't. Maybe because I'm more familiar with the tropes in this game, or maybe just because I've played it more often. In either case, I've since used those concepts to help me better prep for sessions in other games as well.
I recommend this book to anyone who likes to run RPGs. Read the book, and run a session or two. I think most people will come away a better GM as a result, whatever game they decide to run after.
March 16, 2014
Dungeon World is utterly fantastic. Character and story driven, this table-top RPG system allows for many settings, many types of characters, and myriad plots and monsters. The GM and the players share creative control over the story and it changes and evolves naturally and organically, unrestricted by numbers and stats. This is the perfect system for someone wanting to tell or play a story that has opportunities for some great character development, hilarious moments, and near-cinematic action. If you're a GM that wants something narrative-based for your campaign, you can't go wrong with Dungeon World.
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March 11, 2015This might do nicely for any prospective Craft Sequence RPG. The Moves mechanic seems to easily support characters who can do Mechanically Different Things. I'd need to monkey around a bit to represent soulstuff, but the seeds are there.
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July 30, 2018Un juego cien por cien honesto y enfocado a una manera de jugar muy especÃfica. Para alguien como yo, que no tiene al género «dungeonero» entre sus preferencias, supone un soplo de aire fresco y una oportunidad de que la ficción y las mecánicas mantengan una relación muy dinámica. Aquà las tiradas de dado son rápidas y siempre desembocan en consecuencias directas para la historia (en los juegos de rol siempre es asÃ, pero Dungeon World está diseñado para que una tirada realmente inspire sucesos emocionantes), a modo de péndulo o bola de nieve que mantiene la narración siempre bien tonificada. Un juego para disfrutar a lo grande diciendo «sà y además». No tiene todos los elementos que esperarán todos los amantes del género, pero sà todos los que promete, y a un nivel extraordinario.
July 26, 2019
Fiz recentemente uma releitura do Dungeon World, um jogo fantástico e essencial para quem curte RPG. Recomendo para quem queira aprofundar mais na parte de improvisação, o livro tem dicas importantes para todos os tipos de RPG, principalmente na improvisação do mestre do jogo e de como conduzir a "conversa" entre mestres e jogadores, para que a história coletiva seja criada organicamente.
É também um jogo muito divertido, que recomendo a todos!
É também um jogo muito divertido, que recomendo a todos!
April 18, 2023
I've been a fan of this game for years and have run it many times. But I don't think I've ever read it word for word in one continuous reading before.
The writing in this book can be mystifying and it can be brilliant. It's probably more often the latter. My favorite bits are the monster descriptions, which are often like mini pieces of fiction, the GM advice, the class descriptions, and most "moves."
Dungeon World is a role-playing game in which you and your friends work together to fantasy create characters and stories. Game play is organized around moves. In a nutshell, when you try to do something challenging and/or risky you roll two six-sided dice and add them together. (We call that rolling 2d6 in the biz! You usually also add some kind of bonus on your character sheet, but don't worry about that now.)
On a 10 or more you succeed. You do what you tried to do, sometimes with some flair.
On a 7-9 you still succeed, but at a cost. Your success is fleeting, or you open yourself up to danger, or you look foolish, or take damage, or...
On a 6 or less, the GM makes your characters lives harder! Bad stuff happens.
There's LOTS more to the game obviously, but you could kind of play a light version of it at your tabletop with just that.
I should really give this a better review, but I am lazy. If you have questions, please ask them!!
The writing in this book can be mystifying and it can be brilliant. It's probably more often the latter. My favorite bits are the monster descriptions, which are often like mini pieces of fiction, the GM advice, the class descriptions, and most "moves."
Dungeon World is a role-playing game in which you and your friends work together to fantasy create characters and stories. Game play is organized around moves. In a nutshell, when you try to do something challenging and/or risky you roll two six-sided dice and add them together. (We call that rolling 2d6 in the biz! You usually also add some kind of bonus on your character sheet, but don't worry about that now.)
On a 10 or more you succeed. You do what you tried to do, sometimes with some flair.
On a 7-9 you still succeed, but at a cost. Your success is fleeting, or you open yourself up to danger, or you look foolish, or take damage, or...
On a 6 or less, the GM makes your characters lives harder! Bad stuff happens.
There's LOTS more to the game obviously, but you could kind of play a light version of it at your tabletop with just that.
I should really give this a better review, but I am lazy. If you have questions, please ask them!!
February 8, 2013
Cool new RPGing system from people in Vancouver (you might know Adam Koebel?). The new system seems to be trying to recreate 1st or 2nd edition D&D, but with much easier rules to follow, and an emphasis on just doing the cool stuff, not worrying about bullshit like THAC0, or doing lots of arithmetic to keep track of XP. Haven't played it yet, but looking forward to it.
It's well laid out, easy to find most things, you can get it as a PDF, and there's lots of fun flavour quotes sprinkled throughout the book, from an eccentric list of sources (30 Rock, Evil Dead, Wolves in the Throne Room, RoboCop).
It's not something that you should read if you are not planning on using it to play games. A smart and self aware rulebook that possibly fits your roleplaying needs... if you have them. If you don't why did you read this far?
It's well laid out, easy to find most things, you can get it as a PDF, and there's lots of fun flavour quotes sprinkled throughout the book, from an eccentric list of sources (30 Rock, Evil Dead, Wolves in the Throne Room, RoboCop).
It's not something that you should read if you are not planning on using it to play games. A smart and self aware rulebook that possibly fits your roleplaying needs... if you have them. If you don't why did you read this far?
December 28, 2018
I applaud new approaches to RPGs, especially which focus more on storytelling, but I'm of the camp that the rules should resolve conflict, and the players should guide the story. This is more a system like Fiasco, which guides your choices rather than the outcomes of your choices, and while I'd play it occasionally as a free-form improv exercise to sharpen my GM and writing/acting skills, this is definitely not my home plate for ongoing RPG campaigns.
June 9, 2015
Dungeon World is not D&D. It's a D&D emulator. What it does is abstract a lot of what D&D did to very simple rolls. Smoke and mirrors and a whole lot of 'this is what it does' hand wavery is why it works.
And that's fine! It does exactly what it was designed to do. Emulate D&D style play with twice the speed and half the prep work.
And that's fine! It does exactly what it was designed to do. Emulate D&D style play with twice the speed and half the prep work.
Read
December 8, 2015Some friends were just talking about this game so I popped it off my shelf & re-read it. There's a lot of really great ideas here, a lot of them conceptual; my buddy was saying how their adventure building tips really clicked for him. Me, I like the "unspoken worldbuilding" & flavour in the monsters & magic items the best. --MK
January 28, 2018
One line review: I only read about half of this book. Unlike other narrative-heavy RPGs like 13th Age or Numenera, found the writing to be poorly organized, the descriptions bland and the system a little clunky. I have heard great things about this and want to play it as a player and not GM, but the game seems “meh� to me.
August 2, 2020
Great RPG book with Excellent Dming Advice
June 10, 2021
This book is a self-contained set of rules for a fantasy role-playing game similar to Dungeons and Dragons. Rather than providing hundreds of pages of baroque rules and descriptions of the workings of things, it offers a rules-light, fun-heavy approach that is just what the gaming world needs. Here's why:
* All those baroque descriptions tend to kill game-play, confuse newcomers, and set up conflicts that have to be unwound.
* By focusing on structure instead of story, you get into rules-lawyering, meta-gaming, boring debates, and so on.
* Creating anything, especially satisfying adventure stories, becomes harder than it needs to be.
Here are some amazing examples. The monster known as the Xorn has existed in D&D for decades, but it never really fit into any of the game's many conceptual classes of monsters (e.g. was it an earth elemental or an organic monster, and what did that mean for the many ornately-crafted types of weapon and magic meant to deal with such things). The Dungeon World version is entirely playable and interesting and becomes downright vital. Here's the entire, brilliant description of the monster from Dungeon World:
Dwarf-made elemental garbage muncher. Shaped like a trash bin with a radius of arms to feed excess rock and stone into its gaping maw. They eat stone and excrete light and heat. Perfect for operating a mine or digging out a quarry. Once one gets lots in the sewers below a city, though, or in the foundation of a castle? You're in deep trouble. They'll eat and eat until you've got nothing left but to collapse the place down on it and move somewhere else. Instinct: To eat.
This description tells you everything you need to know, and suggests myriad ways of inserting the monster in a meaningful (and therefore memorable) way. The whole book is set up this way.
Here's another example, on dealing with character death that highlights one of the craziest examples of how Advanced Dungeons and Dragons inserted a needless stochastic variable into many places that it didn't need it and kept it out of places where it belonged, such as what happens when you die.
When you’re dying you catch a glimpse of what lies beyond the Black Gates of Death’s Kingdom (the GM will describe it). Then roll (just roll, +nothing—yeah, Death doesn’t care how tough or cool you are). On a 10+ you’ve cheated death—you’re in a bad spot but you’re still alive. On a 7�9 Death will offer you a bargain. Take it and stabilize or refuse and pass beyond the Black Gates into whatever fate awaits you. On a miss, your fate is sealed. You’re marked as Death’s own and you’ll cross the threshold soon. The GM will tell you when.
And finally, here's how to figure out what treasure a given monster had.
Monsters, much like adventurers, collect shiny useful things. When the players search the belongings of a monster (be they on their person or tucked away somewhere) describe them honestly.
If the monster has accumulated some wealth you can roll that randomly. Start with the monster’s damage die, modified if the monster is:
1. Hoarder: roll damage die twice, take higher result
2. Far from home: add at least one ration (usable by anyone with similar taste)
3. Magical: some strange item, possibly magical
4. Divine: a sign of a deity (or deities)
5. Planar: something not of this earth
6. Lord over others: +1d4 to the roll
7. Ancient and noteworthy: +1d4 to the roll
Roll the monster’s damage die plus any added dice to find the monster’s treasure:
1: A few coins, 2d8 or so
2: An item useful to the current situation
3: Several coins, about 4d10
4: A small item (gem, art) of considerable value, worth as much as 2d10×10 coins, 0 weight
5: Some minor magical trinket
6: Useful information (in the form of clues, notes, etc.)
7: A bag of coins, 1d4×100 or thereabouts. 1 weight per 100.
8: A very valuable small item (gem, art) worth 2d6×100, 0 weight
9: A chest of coins and other small valuables. 1 weight but worth 3d6×100 coins.
10: A magical item or magical effect
11: Many bags of coins for a total of 2d4×100 or so
12: A sign of office (crown, banner) worth at least 3d4×100 coins
13: A large art item worth 4d4×100 coins, 1 weight
14: A unique item worth at least 5d4×100 coins
15: All the information needed to learn a new spell and roll again
16: A portal or secret path (or directions to one) and roll again
17: Something relating to one of the characters and roll again
18: A hoard: 1d10×1000 coins and 1d10×10 gems worth 2d6×100 each
This again focuses on the story and removes the deadly-dull process of figuring out a monster's treasure from the process. In traditional D&D (especially AD&D) this was a killer; the party's fresh from a fight and now this?
I liked this book so much I retrofit a lot of these ideas into my own edit of the game.
* All those baroque descriptions tend to kill game-play, confuse newcomers, and set up conflicts that have to be unwound.
* By focusing on structure instead of story, you get into rules-lawyering, meta-gaming, boring debates, and so on.
* Creating anything, especially satisfying adventure stories, becomes harder than it needs to be.
Here are some amazing examples. The monster known as the Xorn has existed in D&D for decades, but it never really fit into any of the game's many conceptual classes of monsters (e.g. was it an earth elemental or an organic monster, and what did that mean for the many ornately-crafted types of weapon and magic meant to deal with such things). The Dungeon World version is entirely playable and interesting and becomes downright vital. Here's the entire, brilliant description of the monster from Dungeon World:
Dwarf-made elemental garbage muncher. Shaped like a trash bin with a radius of arms to feed excess rock and stone into its gaping maw. They eat stone and excrete light and heat. Perfect for operating a mine or digging out a quarry. Once one gets lots in the sewers below a city, though, or in the foundation of a castle? You're in deep trouble. They'll eat and eat until you've got nothing left but to collapse the place down on it and move somewhere else. Instinct: To eat.
This description tells you everything you need to know, and suggests myriad ways of inserting the monster in a meaningful (and therefore memorable) way. The whole book is set up this way.
Here's another example, on dealing with character death that highlights one of the craziest examples of how Advanced Dungeons and Dragons inserted a needless stochastic variable into many places that it didn't need it and kept it out of places where it belonged, such as what happens when you die.
When you’re dying you catch a glimpse of what lies beyond the Black Gates of Death’s Kingdom (the GM will describe it). Then roll (just roll, +nothing—yeah, Death doesn’t care how tough or cool you are). On a 10+ you’ve cheated death—you’re in a bad spot but you’re still alive. On a 7�9 Death will offer you a bargain. Take it and stabilize or refuse and pass beyond the Black Gates into whatever fate awaits you. On a miss, your fate is sealed. You’re marked as Death’s own and you’ll cross the threshold soon. The GM will tell you when.
And finally, here's how to figure out what treasure a given monster had.
Monsters, much like adventurers, collect shiny useful things. When the players search the belongings of a monster (be they on their person or tucked away somewhere) describe them honestly.
If the monster has accumulated some wealth you can roll that randomly. Start with the monster’s damage die, modified if the monster is:
1. Hoarder: roll damage die twice, take higher result
2. Far from home: add at least one ration (usable by anyone with similar taste)
3. Magical: some strange item, possibly magical
4. Divine: a sign of a deity (or deities)
5. Planar: something not of this earth
6. Lord over others: +1d4 to the roll
7. Ancient and noteworthy: +1d4 to the roll
Roll the monster’s damage die plus any added dice to find the monster’s treasure:
1: A few coins, 2d8 or so
2: An item useful to the current situation
3: Several coins, about 4d10
4: A small item (gem, art) of considerable value, worth as much as 2d10×10 coins, 0 weight
5: Some minor magical trinket
6: Useful information (in the form of clues, notes, etc.)
7: A bag of coins, 1d4×100 or thereabouts. 1 weight per 100.
8: A very valuable small item (gem, art) worth 2d6×100, 0 weight
9: A chest of coins and other small valuables. 1 weight but worth 3d6×100 coins.
10: A magical item or magical effect
11: Many bags of coins for a total of 2d4×100 or so
12: A sign of office (crown, banner) worth at least 3d4×100 coins
13: A large art item worth 4d4×100 coins, 1 weight
14: A unique item worth at least 5d4×100 coins
15: All the information needed to learn a new spell and roll again
16: A portal or secret path (or directions to one) and roll again
17: Something relating to one of the characters and roll again
18: A hoard: 1d10×1000 coins and 1d10×10 gems worth 2d6×100 each
This again focuses on the story and removes the deadly-dull process of figuring out a monster's treasure from the process. In traditional D&D (especially AD&D) this was a killer; the party's fresh from a fight and now this?
I liked this book so much I retrofit a lot of these ideas into my own edit of the game.
Read
September 10, 2021A Bundle of Holding and an example of what I might try to avoid in the future (but probably won't).
This collects Dungeon World, the Powered by the Apocalypse D&D clone/replacement, and a bunch of adventures or settings for it. Dungeon World has some interesting ideas (I'm particularly interested in the notion of organizing adventures/campaigns as a series of "fronts", which is a bit of annoying terminology, but the core of which I take to be "pay attention to what the villains are trying to do"). But overall, is this going to replace D&D?
As for the adventures and supplements, eh, like most rpg books, they seem to originate as someone's home game, and they always seem to me to be a little unfocused. That's probably on purpose: though the authors liked fighting against a cult, their game also mentioned mechanical wonders that the PCs never got around to, but which the GM statted up, so here they are anyway, waste not, want not.
Which isn't to say that I don't like some elements of these: flying ships are great, frogmen descendants of an interplanar empire are fun, and Vikings riding around in mecha made of giant bones -- well, that one seems a bit much to me, but I see what they're going for.
But overall... the things that I remember most about when I actually played RPGs wasn't the soaring cathedrals of a fallen empire or a world of floating islands, but how they made me feel or what they made me think, and if all they make me think is "oh, that's cool," well, there's a million other cool things out there. You know the much-quoted Vonnegut line about how you have to be kind -- I keep wanting to say to these writers, "Damn it babies, you've got to be thematically consistent."
(Also curious, for a bundle on Dungeon World, several of these books are dual-statted for DW and Fate. Also, though I'm pretty negative on this bundle, I am stealing a few layout ideas for adventures from one, so again, the lesson here may be: there's always something good.)
This collects Dungeon World, the Powered by the Apocalypse D&D clone/replacement, and a bunch of adventures or settings for it. Dungeon World has some interesting ideas (I'm particularly interested in the notion of organizing adventures/campaigns as a series of "fronts", which is a bit of annoying terminology, but the core of which I take to be "pay attention to what the villains are trying to do"). But overall, is this going to replace D&D?
As for the adventures and supplements, eh, like most rpg books, they seem to originate as someone's home game, and they always seem to me to be a little unfocused. That's probably on purpose: though the authors liked fighting against a cult, their game also mentioned mechanical wonders that the PCs never got around to, but which the GM statted up, so here they are anyway, waste not, want not.
Which isn't to say that I don't like some elements of these: flying ships are great, frogmen descendants of an interplanar empire are fun, and Vikings riding around in mecha made of giant bones -- well, that one seems a bit much to me, but I see what they're going for.
But overall... the things that I remember most about when I actually played RPGs wasn't the soaring cathedrals of a fallen empire or a world of floating islands, but how they made me feel or what they made me think, and if all they make me think is "oh, that's cool," well, there's a million other cool things out there. You know the much-quoted Vonnegut line about how you have to be kind -- I keep wanting to say to these writers, "Damn it babies, you've got to be thematically consistent."
(Also curious, for a bundle on Dungeon World, several of these books are dual-statted for DW and Fate. Also, though I'm pretty negative on this bundle, I am stealing a few layout ideas for adventures from one, so again, the lesson here may be: there's always something good.)
September 6, 2019
The book that finally broke D&D for me, introduced me to narrative gaming, and gave me an easy fallback game if I ever need to start up a game session with 5 minutes advance notice.
Main features:
♦Enough similarities to D&D to be easily picked up by D&D players, enough differences to be fresh
♦A quick baseline for monsters (which I later simplified even further in play) allowing you to run fights without ever needing to look at the book.
♦Character's creatable, playable, and advanceable purely by ticking off options on the character sheet.
♦A success/success with cost/failure+XP dice mechanic that makes each roll interesting.
♦An assumed Tabula Rasa campaign setting made up in play by asking the characters questions and filling in the blanks.
♦Fronts: what happens if the characters do nothing?
♦All actions are moves, a set of universal actions and class-specific options
The first few campaigns were awesome, but a few nagging issues slowly began to turn me off:
♦It's still a level-based game
♦Campaigns max out around a dozen sessions, putting a pretty hard cap on the depth and breadth of the story
♦After you've played most of the characters and know what's on their sheets, the game begins to lose its sparkle (true of pretty much every game to be fair)
♦Requires a competent highly improvisational GM to be workable and even then some moves can push creative limits (Discern Realities, I'm looking at you).
♦The tendency for events to "snowball" with chains of 7-9 results can cause even simple actions to suddenly become unwantedly comedic or even farcical, especially if the GM runs out of interesting moves to make.
Though I don't rush to run it like I used to, it still is a brilliant bit of RPG design that changed my view of roleplaying forever.
Main features:
♦Enough similarities to D&D to be easily picked up by D&D players, enough differences to be fresh
♦A quick baseline for monsters (which I later simplified even further in play) allowing you to run fights without ever needing to look at the book.
♦Character's creatable, playable, and advanceable purely by ticking off options on the character sheet.
♦A success/success with cost/failure+XP dice mechanic that makes each roll interesting.
♦An assumed Tabula Rasa campaign setting made up in play by asking the characters questions and filling in the blanks.
♦Fronts: what happens if the characters do nothing?
♦All actions are moves, a set of universal actions and class-specific options
The first few campaigns were awesome, but a few nagging issues slowly began to turn me off:
♦It's still a level-based game
♦Campaigns max out around a dozen sessions, putting a pretty hard cap on the depth and breadth of the story
♦After you've played most of the characters and know what's on their sheets, the game begins to lose its sparkle (true of pretty much every game to be fair)
♦Requires a competent highly improvisational GM to be workable and even then some moves can push creative limits (Discern Realities, I'm looking at you).
♦The tendency for events to "snowball" with chains of 7-9 results can cause even simple actions to suddenly become unwantedly comedic or even farcical, especially if the GM runs out of interesting moves to make.
Though I don't rush to run it like I used to, it still is a brilliant bit of RPG design that changed my view of roleplaying forever.
October 13, 2021
Caveat: I haven't gotten too many plays under my belt yet. That said, Dungeon World seems like a solid D&D replacement. I'm a longtime fan of Apocalypse World, so the system is an easy fit for me. I found it offering interesting choices and grabby character development. As a setting and plot structure, I'm still more of a post-apocalyptic fan than a dungeon crawler, but that's my personal taste. Still, I put my D&D books into the garage and kept this on the shelf.
My kids are just getting old enough to do some structured roleplaying, and Dungeon World is where I decided to start them off. They really liked character creation and their love of Dragon Prince (on Netflix) set them up to have solid expectations for an adventure yarn. The whole call to action thing worked for them, and they didn't find the rules or options too overwhelming.
I did run into two problems. 1) The book is not written for kids. Your parenting may be different from mine, but consider this a parental guidance warning. I don't let them read the main text, but they don't need to. 2) The book doesn't give great guidance on designing appropriately challenging encounters. I didn't know how many enemies were good for the situation and I ended up swamping my players. We turned it around in the story by making it a spirited escape (with the treasure) from overwhelming odds, but it would have been nice to know that in advance.
So not without rough spots, but definitely a game I see playing again. I recommend it.
My kids are just getting old enough to do some structured roleplaying, and Dungeon World is where I decided to start them off. They really liked character creation and their love of Dragon Prince (on Netflix) set them up to have solid expectations for an adventure yarn. The whole call to action thing worked for them, and they didn't find the rules or options too overwhelming.
I did run into two problems. 1) The book is not written for kids. Your parenting may be different from mine, but consider this a parental guidance warning. I don't let them read the main text, but they don't need to. 2) The book doesn't give great guidance on designing appropriately challenging encounters. I didn't know how many enemies were good for the situation and I ended up swamping my players. We turned it around in the story by making it a spirited escape (with the treasure) from overwhelming odds, but it would have been nice to know that in advance.
So not without rough spots, but definitely a game I see playing again. I recommend it.
May 1, 2019
Dungeon World is a Powered by the Apocalypse dungeon-delving game that would probably have been better off being powered by something else. There's a lot of good things in this book, but PbtA games just do not resonate with me, and so there was also a lot I just didn't care for. The good stuff was towards the back after you read through all of the classes, moves, and spells. Monster descriptions were just fantastic to read as were magic items. They really added a lot of great setting flavor. Also, the pages on town generation are really useful and fun to incorporate. Plus, the Bonds and Fronts mechanics do a great job of keeping GM prep-time to a minimum.
My problems with the game are difficult to extrapolate on. Not only do I find all PbtA games unnecessarily wordy but I also find the system feels like it's deconstructing the narrative while simultaneously trying to create it. It doesn't really bring anything new to the table it just kind of tricks people into thinking it does. For me to expand on this would be rather unpopular so I'll digress, but it's why I only gave the book three stars out of five.
Overall, though, I don't mind having Dungeon World on my bookshelf. It's not a bad resource and it's very well made and written. Sage LaTorra and Adam Koebel are great people (as far as I can tell) and a good part of the gaming community. I'd like to see them try their hand at another game someday, just with a different system.
My problems with the game are difficult to extrapolate on. Not only do I find all PbtA games unnecessarily wordy but I also find the system feels like it's deconstructing the narrative while simultaneously trying to create it. It doesn't really bring anything new to the table it just kind of tricks people into thinking it does. For me to expand on this would be rather unpopular so I'll digress, but it's why I only gave the book three stars out of five.
Overall, though, I don't mind having Dungeon World on my bookshelf. It's not a bad resource and it's very well made and written. Sage LaTorra and Adam Koebel are great people (as far as I can tell) and a good part of the gaming community. I'd like to see them try their hand at another game someday, just with a different system.
October 13, 2017
This book is a must read for every RPG enthusiast out there. It's full of ideas on how to create your own campaign, how to DM, how to role play. What to do in certain situations, when there is an awkward silence at the table, what to do with players who are new to RPG's. How to improvise, how to change things on the fly. It's a great book.
The system itself is a very light, but very good system. There is only 1 roll: 'the move' then you add your ability modifier or class modifier. That's it. Oh, there's also the damage roll, but sometimes its just static damage. You roll 2d6, if it's a 10+ you do your action very successfully, if it's a 7-9 you do it successfully but with a consequence, on a 6- you fail but you get +1 XP.
Every class has special class specific moves. A barbarian has a special attack and does extra damage, a wizard can cast spells, a druid can shapeshift,...
Watch this video-review on youtube about this game. It's a good review and got me excited to buy this book.
It's very difficult to get in Europe at a decent price (30-70 euro), but in the US it's only 19 dollar. It's not released in Europe officially...
The system itself is a very light, but very good system. There is only 1 roll: 'the move' then you add your ability modifier or class modifier. That's it. Oh, there's also the damage roll, but sometimes its just static damage. You roll 2d6, if it's a 10+ you do your action very successfully, if it's a 7-9 you do it successfully but with a consequence, on a 6- you fail but you get +1 XP.
Every class has special class specific moves. A barbarian has a special attack and does extra damage, a wizard can cast spells, a druid can shapeshift,...
Watch this video-review on youtube about this game. It's a good review and got me excited to buy this book.
It's very difficult to get in Europe at a decent price (30-70 euro), but in the US it's only 19 dollar. It's not released in Europe officially...
May 12, 2021
Je n'ai pas lu de bouquin de jeu de rôle depuis des années, mais j'y retrouve toujours cette espèce de folie du world-building où les auteurs créent des règles permettant le jeu abstrait.
Et je trouve la proposition de Dungeon World, et du système Apocalypse, assez séduisante, puisque les actions y sont assez vagues pour éviter les phases de combat complexes des jeux de rôles du siècle dernier.
Par ailleurs, le lien entre les joueurs et le monde est spécialement bien travaillé, avec un maître de jeu qui perd sa liberté démiurgique au profit d'actions qui le laissent à peu près aussi libre, mais qui ont l'avantage de donner une taxonomie à ce que peut faire le maître.
Enfin, le fait que les scénarios soient co-construits à travers les fronts est vraiment très intéressante. Et typiquement, le scénario livré avec le jeu est extrêmement léger.
Mais surtout, j'ai lu ce livre pour pouvoir utiliser tous les hacks Apocalypse World qui pullulent littéralement sur le web.
C'est néanmoins une lecture à réserver aux amateurs de jeu de rôle (évidement). Mais dans ce cadre, une bonne lecture.
Et je trouve la proposition de Dungeon World, et du système Apocalypse, assez séduisante, puisque les actions y sont assez vagues pour éviter les phases de combat complexes des jeux de rôles du siècle dernier.
Par ailleurs, le lien entre les joueurs et le monde est spécialement bien travaillé, avec un maître de jeu qui perd sa liberté démiurgique au profit d'actions qui le laissent à peu près aussi libre, mais qui ont l'avantage de donner une taxonomie à ce que peut faire le maître.
Enfin, le fait que les scénarios soient co-construits à travers les fronts est vraiment très intéressante. Et typiquement, le scénario livré avec le jeu est extrêmement léger.
Mais surtout, j'ai lu ce livre pour pouvoir utiliser tous les hacks Apocalypse World qui pullulent littéralement sur le web.
C'est néanmoins une lecture à réserver aux amateurs de jeu de rôle (évidement). Mais dans ce cadre, une bonne lecture.
April 27, 2018
I'm kind of tempted to hold off on rating this until I've played or ran it, but I guess that's not really necessary to talk about the book. The book is well written and organized, and the main philosophy behind Dungeon World runs through everything in here. DW offers a slightly different perspective to tabletop roleplaying, one focused above all else having a "conversation" between the DM and players. DW is meant to be a collaborative storytelling experience first and foremost, from character creation to combat and everything on between. It's also able to be run with very minimal prep, something which should cause many DMs to sigh in relief. The flip side of that is that it is pretty improv heavy, which a lot of DMs may not be comfortable with. The game's philosophy can also present some other challenges to those used to more crunch-heavy systems such as D&D, particularly when it comes to combat which is more free flowing and not turn-based. Personally, I'm both excited and terrified to try it out.
February 21, 2019
Me encantó el libro. Es un soplo de aire fresco para el mazmorreo gracias al sistema PBTA que utiliza, el cual se aleja del sistema d20 clásico. Como manual tiene un montón de información útil, incluyendo un bestiario completÃsimo y consejos de dirección muy útiles. Se hace muy ameno de leer, hablándote en todo momento con un lenguaje muy cercano que te permite disfrutar de la lectura sin agobiarte con muchas cuestiones técnicas. Destaco el anexo guÃa de dungeon world que agregaron en la edición en español editada por nosolorol, ayuda a entender bien algunos conceptos para el que tiene una mirada muy cuadriculada sobre los JDR y da un montón de ejemplos de situaciones que se pueden dar en cualquier partida y cómo manejarlas.
July 7, 2024
Excellent book, excellent game! More narratively and cinematically focused tabletop roleplaying game. As many have said, this is the game most people expect Dungeons & Dragons to be before the play it. One of the more well-known and well-received games using the Powered by the Apocalypse (PbtA) system, with many hacks, supporting supplements, and derivations.
This book, along with the supplements "Perilous Wilds", "Class Warfare", and "Grim World" will give you a very complete fantasy RPG experience. You'll also have the toolkit needed to take published materials from other fantasy roleplaying games, but play them PbtA style.
This book, along with the supplements "Perilous Wilds", "Class Warfare", and "Grim World" will give you a very complete fantasy RPG experience. You'll also have the toolkit needed to take published materials from other fantasy roleplaying games, but play them PbtA style.
January 15, 2018
This game really demonstrates the flexibility of the Apocalypse World engine, but also retains some bothersome D&D-isms (HP, random damage, ability scores, etc.) and misses out on some of the system's best aspects (the PC-NPC-PC triangles, for instance). Nevertheless it's a much-improved version of rollicking action-adventure time with your friends that you try to get from D&D.
I would suggest looking up the fan-made World of Adventure game, which builds upon Dungeon World and uses some of the latest tech to make the genre really sing.
I would suggest looking up the fan-made World of Adventure game, which builds upon Dungeon World and uses some of the latest tech to make the genre really sing.
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