Let’s say your hardcore Pathfinder players finally decided to try Dungeon World and you have a single game session to make them decide between Dungeon World and Pathfinder..what would you put emphasis on during the first session?
Let’s say your hardcore Pathfinder players finally decided to try Dungeon World and you have a single game session…
Let’s say your hardcore Pathfinder players finally decided to try Dungeon World and you have a single game session…
Ask questions, build on the answers.
Show them how it’s different. Go right the heck off the rails, and do things that Pathfinder doesn’t do well.
What they said. Hitting Dungeon World hard on everything that makes it what it is will separate the lions from the sheep: If what they really like is Pathfinder, trying to make DW more like Pathfinder will be painful for everybody, and especially you if you love what makes DW unique. If they like DW, cranking it up to eleven won’t scare them one whit.
What the above said. HOWEVER, play a scenario the players will be familiar with. Not comfortable, familiar. I took my 3.5 buddy’s and threw them into Dungeon World by taking them into a dungeon delve i had done before. They had fun and I killed the cleric, but now we are playing a regular game of DW and everyone is enjoying the differences of the systems.
Show them that they can defeat the big bad by being clever rather than by rolling well.
This is going to sound like a non-answer, but I don’t think you should have your players choose between DW and Pathfinder. As John Allder Stephens said, if your players like Pathfinder because of what Pathfinder is, trying to make DW like Pathfinder is going to leave everyone disappointed.
I would, as other people have said, simply play DW and showcase what it does. Show them how it’s different.
If you’re comfortable with no prep scenarios, do one, and ask them “so what kind of world do you want to play in today?” Ask them questions when they say something interesting, use bonds or other clues to find out what they’re doing right now when the game starts.
Start off in an action scene somewhere dangerous and unstable so you can really let the dog off the chain and go nuts. Show how fast, fluid, and dangerous the game is. Don’t pick up a dice, get up, keep the basic move and your GM move sheet sheet in your hands, and move around the table, be animated. GMing dungeon world is one part referee to 12 parts performance art.
I run DW for my group whenever I can, but pathfinder still has its place since it does different things. We’ve been playing more DW lately though because we are all grown ups with lives that can get in the way, so a looser game that has a more “right now? Let’s do it” feel fits our schedules better than pathfinder campaigns. Dungeon world is perfect for one-shots.
Christopher Stone-Bush I wanted to run a game of fantasy RPG but I really don’t like Pathfinder but they do. So what I did was to convince them to try Dungeon World and if they don’t like it we can go back to Pathfinder even if I don’t like it. I want to seduce them by showing the best aspects of DW
I think that’s a potentially tough sell. I am the exact reverse of your situation; I love DW and Apocalypse World-based RPGs, but my group wanted to finally try Pathfinder. I enjoy my group as we’re all friends, and I’ll play almost anything with them.
But Pathfinder is simply not my kind of game. I’m totally aware that I’m just kind of phoning it in some times. I’m not judging Pathfinder on it’s own merits. I am constantly comparing the two games, and as I love DW, I am not giving Pathfinder a fair shake. I realize this.
So all I’m saying is, if your players are hardcore Pathfinder fans, don’t expect them to change their minds. You may have set yourself up for a loss by asking them to choose one over the other.
We have one of the friends who was willing to try DW and has been asking us about it for a while, but we managed to convince our closed-minded friend.
I’m not saying they won’t want to switch. Anything is possible. 🙂 What I’m saying is don’t make it a contest with a winner and loser.
Patrick Joannisse if you are no longer having fun running Pathfinder, then by all means tell your group that. As the GM you’re a player too, and you deserve to have just as much fun as the other players. Just be straight up and tell the other players that you’re burnt out and need a break, if that’s the case. Or tell them you don’t really want to run Pathfinder as you don’t really care for it any more.
I think by “betting” your players you’ll get them to like DW in a single session, you’re setting yourself up for failure. Again, I sound pessimistic, but Dungeon World is a different game than Pathfinder. The reasons you and Iike it may be the exact same reasons someone else doesn’t like it.
Exactly what Christopher Stone-Bush said! GM’s are players too!
Be honest with your group, say GMing pathfinder requires a lot of work and it’s burning you out, but you’d be happy to give DW a go. Then let your enthusiasm for the game pitch it.
One thing that I find that experienced RPG players are really surprised by is the absence of rolls for defenseless/unsuspecting characters. In most other systems, the game assumes that you will mess up even the simplest of tasks from time to time. You may perfectly prepare your shot, and stack the odds in your favor, and then you roll a 1, and now you’ve just wasted all the time you spent preparing.
In Dungeon World, you are a Hero, so if you want to stab someone in the back or ambush an enemy, the only limitations are in the fiction.
The first time it happens at the table everyone looks around like wait, we can do that? Tactical positioning takes out the need for rolling?
Dave Tarr Yes I had a scene with my noob players where the thief was just waiting for a guard to walk in and he cut his throat without rolling anything and he felt so cool and powerful.
So update: They are hooked! At least one of them. The other choked and couldn’t make it. The best comments I had were the flow of combat and how managing separated players is easy. I had no prep or questions, he just came out with an idea from the racial feature for the Thief class and asked if he could be in charge of a inn (a front for a small thief group). I said yes and everything flowed from there.
Awesome, great to hear!