Have you ever wanted to make your character a bit more unique right from level 1? Have you wished your Ranger knew Two-Weapon Fighting, or your Fighter had Signature Armor rather than a weapon, or that your Wizard was a Specialist? Now you can! Presented in the linked file are 2 Alternate Ability options for each DW Playbook in the core rules. You can swap one ability for another, exchanging your Thief’s Poisoner ability for Shadowing, or allow your Bard to become the Life of the Party rather than find a Port in the Storm.
Check it out and let me know what you think. Some abilities may be revised or expanded upon due to feedback. Enjoy!
-Just had a skim. I’m digging the Anti-Paladin. Quite a bit.
-For the cleric’s Channel Aligned Energy move, I personally wouldn’t define the consequence of a failed roll and leave that to the GM. Personal pref, getting deserted by your god when you’re a cleric sucks.
-Sweet Elemental Druid idea. Makes me want to run Dark Sun with DW.
-The Fighter’s Signature Armour has an option to not be Clumsy. That seems like the weakest option for the character that ignores the Clumsy tag. I’m curious to the logic behind it.
-Overall, really cool.
Thanks for the feedback Matt! The other Fighter Alternate Ability replaces the “ignore Clumsy tag” power, so not all Fighters will be able to ignore it anymore. If they keep that power, though, I agree removing it from the armor isn’t a wise use of resources.
I like a lot of them, I like to pepper the world with chances for unique or alternate class moves. Like having to live with a certain tribe to get the skin-walker, things like that.
One thing is for the druid’s Elemental Form move it seems like all you are doing is giving up shape changing for something you would get by 6th level if you really wanted with the World Talker move, which allows elemental forms. Just seems like giving up a lot just to get something you could anyway if you waited.
For Elemental Form, it basically reverses the path, as the note at the end of it says. By taking Elemental Form at 1st level, World Talker is changed so that at 6th+ level you can take it to then change into animals if you want, so you don’t actually lose anything, it’s just “do you want to become animal shapes at 1st lvl and elementals at 6th, or vice versa?”
A shadowing move! I wrote one of those, too:
Following
When you follow or shadow someone, roll+DEX. •On a 10+, you find out exactly what they’re up to without arousing suspicion. •On a 7-9, it’s either an impression of their doings or you can reveal yourself to learn more.
Mine is not quite as Thief-oriented though (I cannot help but cater towards the private detectives of fiction).
Why would anyone want to replace ritual…?
I like lots of these, but I’m not so sure on the ranger’s two weapon fighting. You essentially get the option to deal guarenteed damage without any danger added in. At least with called shot it was when you catch an enemy by surprise (e.g. GM fiat if it applies). You can already just deal damage if you catch someone by surprise, but as a ranger you get the chance of trying to stun/cripple them as well.
There are several similar abilities in the game, such as Called Shot and the Thief’s Backstab. You give up the chance to automatically cause damage and take a risk at doing more, or doing other stuff. If your roll fails, you do no damage to the target.
Two-weapon Fighting is slightly different in that the circumstances are easier to accomplish, but the risk is still there. First you have to hit your target in Hack and Slash while using 2 weapons. Normally, hitting them would mean you now roll damage, but with this ability you can risk that and roll for better damage or a bonus going forward. If that roll fails (6-), you end up doing no damage, your weapons got tangled up or something.
Ah.. I get you now, so its an additional move to apply after succeeding at hack and slash (or not if appropriate?). I wonder if there’s a way or re-wording that to make it slightly clearer.
Tim Franzke Ritual may not fit your character concept, or maybe the game is a faster-moving hack and slash type of game with few opportunities to take days/weeks/months of time to cast a ritual, or go and consult __________, or disenchant items, etc. The Specialist Wizard option gives you +1 on all spellcasting rolls with 1 type of spell, which lets you become an Illusionist, an Enchantress, an Evoker, etc, which could be quite worthwhile to someone who plans to seldom use rituals…
When you want to run a fast paced game and you give the wizard “impossible” conditions, you are not a fan of the character!
Michael Walsh Yep, it’s an additional, optional risky move to take after you have already succeeded at Hack and Slash. I used the same wording as similar abilities, but I’ll see if I can make that clearer. Or maybe there is a better way to handle it? Rangers already get 2 advanced moves that give additional damage with Two-Weapon Fighting, so I wanted some base move for them to build on. I figured “best of 2 damage rolls” becomes better and better when you add additional dice to the damage roll, and the bonuses Forward were another option.
Tim Franzke Ritual can be a deus ex machina to do nearly anything, so it needs limits and conditions on it, especially if players want to do massive things with it. “Why enter the dungeon complex? I’ll just blow up the volcano and kill everyone inside!”
If a player wanted to do that, blow up a dungeon by creating volcano by use of ritual, i would say “cool”, as i am meant to be a fan of the characters, and it is a golden opportunity to play to see what happens. What would the effects of such a ritual have on the surrounding area? What have the players lost now that they have destroyed a dungeon that may have held some thing useful to them? How will other now react to them now that they have used such powers? That example seems to me to be the very essence of what DW is about.
I as a player would go “i want to create a vulcano ritual at the dungeon” BEFORE i go there. In this way you as the GM can give me 1-2 cool quests (get the heart of a magma elemental and the bottled will of a Magpin) and they replace the dungeon. The ritual would still take a day (but not a month without the components) and the other players would need to protect him etc. Just because they can make big cool things doesn’t mean it’s broken or won’t be fun.
Sencondly you don’t get to loot the cool stuff in the dungeon so there is that.
I can see your points, and believe me, ask anyone who has played with me, I’m a fan of crazy stunts and saying “Ok, yes, let’s go with it!” But I think “being a fan of the characters” includes all the characters, and something like that changes the game dynamic to “Vulcanis and his doting bodyguards” rather than a group full of equitable characters each with a chance in the spotlight, unless it is clearly a 1-time only stunt that only came together because of perfect conditions (the dungeon sat on a dormant volcano, you had this 1 of a kind item, you had to gain the help of the spirit in the volcano by giving them the item, etc, etc.)
Anyway, getting back to the OP, if people think Ritual is indispensable for a Wizard, perhaps I should have Specialist replace Spell Defense instead? Would that work better for folks?
I wrote an alternative to Ritual called Spell Research, hearkening back to the days of 2e AD&D. The Wizard can spend XP to create new spells.
Just stumbled across this, I’m planning on modifying your Teller of Tall Tales and Favored Terrain ideas for a Fallout reskin of Dungeon World. I’m not planning on any kind of monetization or anything (just a fan project), but I want to make sure I give you credit if you’re cool with me using them.