I’ve been playing Dungeon World for a while with various groups and it really is a whole lot of fun, both as a player and a GM! But even so, there’s some disagreements between my parties as to how to interpret the HP and Load of the characters. Both groups take the HP as being the baseline plus the constitution stat, which makes sense as 6+CON (5 to 9) is an awful amount of health to have and the sheet writes it as +CONSTITUTION. But while one group thinks the Load should be with the strength stat, the other thinks it’s with the strength modifier, as it’s written Load+STR (same way as the game usually writes when talking about adding modifiers).
So how was it really intended to work? Would it be Load+16 or Load+2?
Load is calculated with your modifier, not stat. If it just says +STR, that’s the modifier. If it were plus the stat, it’d be +STRENGTH.
From memory…
+STR (or Str) means +modifier.
+Strength means +attribute.
Thus, HP is the high number, and load is the low one.
Yup, +3 characters is the mod, +whole stat name is the whole stat.
When it is three characters long, the max it can modify is three! 😛
Thats how I remember it, anyway.
That said, I always make load +strength, because I like giving my players things, and you’ll have even more variation between folks.
Technically speaking Baseline HP + CON (and not Constitution) was always something I tinkered with playing in DW. This is the world of the 16hp dragon, let’s not forget.
+CON would make combat much more lethal. Maybe if you wanted DW Hardcore mode?
If it’s helpful, check the “Ability Scores and Modifiers” section at the bottom of page 15. It pretty clears says that “STR” means the Strength modifier, not the full strength. My reading is that “Strength” means the full score, but I’ll yield that it’s less clear.
As others have said, the rules are consistent: +fullword = the score; +ABBREV = the bonus
It is reflected on the character sheet, where the word is spelled out by the score, and abbreviated by the bonus.