infinitemachine:Sure thing! I should mention first that the complete Dungeon World rules are availab

infinitemachine:Sure thing! I should mention first that the complete Dungeon World rules are available online for free, thanks to being published under a Creative Commons license. So if you still have questions after this post, you can go into further depth over there.Dungeon World is an attempt to provide the flavor of Dungeons and Dragons games, but with a modern game design structure (adapted from Vincent Baker’s Apocalypse World engine). The type of story you’ll tell is generally similar to the genre you’ll find in D&D games; and indeed for many people the differences in the way the rules are applied won’t be drastically unfamiliar — it’s a difference in clarity, presentation, and structure. As many have said before, a lot of the innovation of Dungeon World lies in codifying, making explicit, and explaining good practices that a lot of people have already been using since forever. It will be very new to some, and very old to others.In Dungeon World, the central mechanism revolves around bits of rules called Moves. Moves come into play in specific circumstances — for example, attacking a monster. When a move is triggered (usually by the action or decision of a Player Character), the move dictates what happens next. Often, this involves rolling the dice to determine the effect of the move.For example, here’s the Hack and Slash move, used when attacking an enemy in melee:When you attack an enemy in melee, roll+STR. On a 10+, you deal your damage to the enemy and avoid their attack. At your option, you may choose to do +1d6 damage but expose yourself to the enemy’s attack. On a 7-9, you deal your damage to the enemy and the enemy makes an attack against you.When you are called to “roll+(an attribute such as STR)”, it means you roll 2d6 and add the bonus for that particular attribute. Generally, getting a 10 or above on your roll means that you succeed very well. A 7-9 is a partial success, but with a complicating factor. A 6 or below means that the MC gets to decide what happens, and it will not be something favorable to your character. (Interestingly, it doesn’t *necessarily* mean failure — it could mean, for example, success at a cost that makes you wish you hadn’t succeeded.)Other moves don’t require a roll — perhaps they grant a bonus in a particular situation, or activate a particular effect given the right context.If this seems complicated, it’s really not: there is a list of Basic Moves that everyone gets, and then each class has a few that are particular to them. The Basic Moves are essentially just what you’d expect:Hack and Slash (attacking in melee)Volley (attacking at range)Defy Danger Defend (someone or something)Spout Lore (determine what you already know about something)Discern Realities (closely observe a person or situation)Parley (manipulate an NPC by using leverage)Aid or Interfere (help or hinder another PC)(There are also a few rarer shared moves, and the MC may have some custom moves specific to the campaign or adventure, but we won’t get into those now.)That’s pretty much the basic structure: like in D&D, the PCs have Hit Points, their weapons and items may give them bonuses, and there is a good possibility that they’ll end up on the sharp side of an Owlbear at some point. So what’s the big deal about all this?First, the moves make it explicit when you should roll the dice, and explicitly tie dice rolls to what is happening in the fiction. If your character doesn’t do something that triggers a move instructing you to roll dice, you don’t roll the dice. Second, the reverse: when the dice are rolled, the result will have an interesting effect on what happens in the fiction. Failures are not passive — they always further the fiction and make life more interesting and exciting for the PCs.(Neither of these are entirely new ideas! It’s just very nice to have them codified into the rules.)That’s, I think, a good overview of what DW is like on the players’ side. The MC’s rules also have some very interesting twists (for example, the MC’s moves don’t involve rolling dice*) but this should give you an idea of the sorts of things that make Dungeon World special.*With the possible exception of rolling for damage to the PCs; but I usually have the players roll for their own damage anyway. -- source link

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