It seems obvious to me, but I’d rather be sure: Compendium Classes are basically a collection of nuanced Advanced…

16 thoughts on “It seems obvious to me, but I’d rather be sure: Compendium Classes are basically a collection of nuanced Advanced…”

1. That is 100% correct. 

   For me it is also about allowing you to play concepts not covered by a class and specific enough to be not a complete class in itself or not doable as a base class. 

2. One might say, then, that ‘hacks’ of various other RPGs – presumably with their own fiction – is merely mass generation of Compendium Classes. Or is that taking it too far?

3. Maybe. It’s definetly a way to do a hack. Start with the base classes but allow easy access to compendium classes to get you closer to the wanted fiction and activities. However this then only starts at level 2…

4. That’s more or less what I had in mind. The base classes are so, well, basic, that they typically are easy to port from one fiction to the next. Specifically what I have in mind is a Warhammer 40k port. This makes porting the Base Classes a little less straightforward, I think.

5. i think for this you need way more. New basic moves, principles, hard moves etc. 

   Not even speaking about classes here…

6. I’m not so sure about that. Granted, I’m quite green in the realm of DW, but I feel that the Basic/Hard moves and Principals are generic enough to just require flavoring them appropriately. The real hangup for me thus far is parsing all the various flavors of Space Marines into the appropriate Base class. Maybe I’m starting in at a ‘too fine’ detail level. Bigger picture first?

7. 40K has a specific feel that is different from DW.  For that, I would make a full hack.  For example, your army/race is the more important archetype whereas in DW your class is the more important archetype.  Where compendium classes would be useful in a 40K hack would be, for example, having a Space Marine playbook and then a compendium class for artificer, apothecary, assault, psycher, and heavy.  You know, Space Marines are all more alike than different.

8. For example

   Reveal Herresy

   would be a needed hard move in 40kWorld.  

9. don’t quote me on this but a good order to do things in for a World Hack

   Agenda

   Principles

   Basic Moves+GM Moves

   then the rest. 

10. http://mightyatom.blogspot.com/2013/01/the-regiment-colonial-marines.html

    http://mightyatom.blogspot.com/2012/11/the-regiment-alpha-21-playtest-kit.html

    These are where you should be looking.

11. Thanks guys for the direction. I gotta say, this Community is top notch!

12. Now, back to the original question posted, are there any ‘Rule(s) of Thumb(s)’ I ought to keep in mind for Compendium Classes?

13. There are some useful advice in the DW Guide.

    I’d say that in general a CC should be playable with just taking the intro move. Later advances can allow you to improve the move or do new and cool stuff but the basic move should be strong enough on its own and create new opportunities in the game.

14. Something to consider is when the first move kicks in.  Commonly, the trigger is something like: “When you do X, you may take the following move when you next level up.”  However, it could just as easily be: “When you do X, take this move immediately” or “When you do X and receive a field promotion.”  The former might be good for implanted tech, for example if you become a dreadnought then you immediately have moves that replace some of your basic moves. 

15. Marshall Miller, good points. The Warhammer 40k fiction is so immense and rich, it practically screams for the cinematic flow of DW.

16. I used CCs mainly to match whatever significant change the character went through. Like a character became ethereal because of a series of failed spell casting rolls, and that opened up a shadowy cc for him (he was a thief aiming to be a sort of inquisitor). Another character lost a hand in combat but became the captain of a pirate planeship, and that called for a hooked hand pirate captain cc.

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