DungeonWorld Hack:

DungeonWorld Hack:

DungeonWorld Hack:

Hey guys, here are all of the PDFs of my Dungeon World Hacks and custom classes. You can also see the modified basic move sheet. Feedback and thoughts are appreciated. 

Edit: I don’t plan on ever charging money to access anything I make, but I do plan on constantly iterating and releasing improvements as they get made. 

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/vdpv5x83v87lsza/AAA9EUnIU51g_jRzwJw9ec0oa?dl=0

40 thoughts on “DungeonWorld Hack:”

  1. Your spellcasting classes do something I was just thinking about recently trying to use in a playbook so I think I will be consulting your hacks for some ideas.

    I’m intrigued by some of the other changes, like the trick shot ranger instead of animal companion version. The changes to the druid seem more subtle as I was having to look more closely to see what you did differently and I’m still not entirely sure, except for maybe shifting some things around.

    I think you have some ideas here worth exploring. I also noticed you use ability mods instead of scores. Have you had any problems with that or have these been played yet to try changes like that out?

  2. Yeah, not every class has huge changes if I did not find them necessary. 

    I have been using the mods instead of scores for a long time now and they are a huge upgrade in every conceivable way. That change alone makes teaching the game quicker and more intuitive as well. 

  12. Intriguing…

    At a glance: the Cleric and Wizard keep to the spirit of Jacob Randolph’s Mage and Priest revisions while streamlining them a touch. I’ve played with both and would definitely try these.

    The Fighter revision is definitely a standout; I particularly like how you gave more of a fictional weight or heft to the advanced moves.

    The Ranger’s “Anything You Can Do”, however, feels out of line with Dungeon World’s sense of uniqueness. While the move doesn’t let the character mimic other moves outright, it does ensure, within the narrative, that the Ranger character is decidedly better (or at least equal) without the commensurate risk that such an ego trip should entail.

    In short: while the idea of Thoreau’s self-made man fits with the class, I don’t think “Anything I Can Do” serves either the player or party well, in practice.

    Still, a fair improvement over the originals and a great effort all-around. I’d be interested in hearing your thoughts on the community-generated classes.

  17. A couple more thoughts on the Wizard (mostly flavor things I miss from the Mage revision):

    • A background that lets you Parley with magic as leverage (I had a great deal of fun with this as a diviner, astrologist, and winter mage inclined to revealing grim portents and terrifying where he could)

    • Looks that are tied to the kind of magic you wield (the diviner above was usually recognized by his missing shadow, star-like freckles, and the pervasive aura of cold surrounding him)

    • A single, indestructible arcane treasure that retains, enables or symbolizes your power (in his case, a weatherproof and fur-trimmed long coat that always contained an apple)

    A few features like these would help distinguish each Wizard in a unique and fictionally meaningful way.

  18. I like these ideas Jarod, thanks for the input! Might try to incorporate some of that this week. 

    Edit: It looks like the first of your replies got eaten by a spam filter or something. I restored it. 

    You bring up a compelling point about “Anything You Can Do”. I will put it on the chopping block.

    Did you have any specific community-generated classes in mind? 

  19. Anthony Giovannetti Glad to help. Credit goes to the designer of the Mage and the folks who helped him shape the class. 🙂

    My GM and I both find narrative hooks helpful when trying to define what open-ended moves like Alter Reality and Weave Dark Magic can and should do within the game.

    Edit: Ah, was wondering where that comment had wandered off to; thanks for fishing it out from the dark recesses of the net.

    As for community-generated classes to examine, my players are using Stonetop’s Would-Be-Hero and Inverse World’s Collector primarily, though their classmates will draw heavily from both settings and the Follower Rules that Jeremy Strandberg presented initially (I think) and Jason Lutes enhanced in his Perilous Journeys splat book.

    When I have a chance, I’ll put up a post about the setting and what I’ve contemplated as game specific hacks.

  23. Tim Franzke Good question. As is, it’s entirely GM-dependent (at least from my experiences so far).

    Pulling from the Mage’s class sheet:

    Human: When you Parley, you can always offer to cast a spell as Leverage.

    Whether we’d want both Alter Reality and Weave Dark Magic to apply in a similar Background move for the Wizard is certainly up for debate. I could also see appending the Show Off move with something similar in function.

    That aside, having the concept explicitly stated right on the character sheet might help both players and GMs consider the possibility that some wizards, at least, should be able to Parley with their mighty and terrifying magics (assuming they don’t roll terribly and turn themselves into tonight’s dinner).

  24. I can see that but that is like saying “Hey Fighter, you can use beating people up as leverage”. 

    That should be clear. 

    That racial move is rediciously weak because EVERY spellcaster can do that.

    Saying “you can always use magic as leverage” also doesn’t work well because there are moments where that would make no sense to be true but suddenly it is. 

    Also leverage most of the time is really easy to get by, and should be easily available because otherwise you are severely hurting a Basic move. 

  25. it should be clear, yes. And for most of us, who’ve played a fair amount of Dungeon World plus other games, it’s probably self-evident.

    The difference, as you’ve pointed out, is that without the move, the GM can always say: “I don’t think that will work here.” It’s definitely more of an issue with restricted spell lists.

    In a game like Dungeon World, words like always and never hold a great deal of power. What counts as Leverage, however, is ill-defined; it would be helpful to newer players and GMs, I think, to have some indication of what their class can wager, threaten, or offer that others can’t (perhaps at the Basic Move itself).

    I guess the fundamental question is how well, and through what means, can a player define what an NPC wants?

  26. Tim Franzke wrote: Saying “you can always use magic as leverage” also doesn’t work well because there are moments where that would make no sense to be true but suddenly it is.

    However, I saw this kind of move before, in other playbooks. Like “When you Parley, you can always use prophecies of impending doom, real or imagined, as leverage.”

    “When you Parley, you can always offer to cast a spell as Leverage.” 

    Even one with “Physical Menace is always a leverage”, I think.

  28. Two questions about the Wizard.  What does Ritual do that Alter Reality can’t do?  Does weave Dark Magic automatically just deal the Wizard’s (1d4) damage unless the strong tag is chosen?

  29. Joe Doane IV Think of rituals as the larger more complex things that you cannot quickly do in combat. Alter Reality can be done on the fly, but is more restricted in what can be done.

    Since Weave Dark Magic is causing harm to the enemy, it does automatically do the 1d4 class damage, yes (enhanced by choosing strong). 

  30. Granted, maybe ritual is not different enough and should be eliminated (due to similarities to Alter Reality)? If so it would open up some more space to add things like focus and looks that  Jarod Cerf liked. Thoughts? 

  31. Ideally, Ritual should encompass a grander scale of events that can serve as hooks for adventures, fronts, and grim portents.

    While you could make it a Basic Move, I feel that’s too setting-specific.

    As for space on the Wizard sheet, you could place the Focus and attendant Look before Bonds, the indestructible arcane treasure by equipment, and alter the Parley move (per Tim Franzke and Jeremy Strandberg’s suggestions to something along the lines of:

    Arcane Lore or (Some Other Name): Insert flavor text. When you Discern Realities or Spout Lore about the magical and mysterious, add +1 to the roll/you can roll +INT instead of +WIS. On a 10+, tell the GM one thing you know is true/know with certainty.

    You can also Parley with INT when you offer your magical services to an interested party.

    Note that some of this could be moved to where Quick Study and Showoff are currently, as the former lacks potency without a definitive spell list and the latter is a selection-based move in a class already laden with them.

  32. Anthony Giovannetti – would you be opposed to my using part of your alt-ranger in Plundergrounds, crediting you of course, with some tweaks of my own?

  35. Anthony Giovannetti Hi! know this post is a million years old, but in case you see this… I love these hacks and am going to be using them for a new campaign I’m starting tomorrow. Re the Wizard — know this was mentioned above, but wanted to follow up…

    I understand that the Ritual move is more elaborate to perform and can do bigger, cooler stuff than Alter Reality. But I’m not clear on WHAT stuff — namely, what can Ritual do that Alter Reality can’t?

    I know you were talking about rewriting the move a few years ago — in the meantime, any suggestions for how to best adjudicate that on the fly? I’d love to give my players boundaries rather than having to make gametime gut calls.

    Thanks again for creating these — I love them!

  36. Writer of prose Hey thanks! Glad to see someone who is still interested. =) I haven’t thought about this in a while now since I started working on a digital game called “Slay the Spire” that eats up all my time and just recently released.

    I believe my original thinking was that Ritual was a good space for more slow showy and “epic” magic. For example, if you want to summon some powerful

    greater demon of some kind, you have a strict set of requirements and use ritual. If you want to raise Atlantis from the depths of the ocean, or shatter a mountain. That kind of stuff is more ritual level. Alter Reality is more “battlefield” scale as opposed to grand magic that can change the face of the campaign.

    Hopefully that makes sense!

  38. I really like the way you’ve modified these playbooks! Would you happen to still have the template for them? I’m working on a playbook myself, and was looking to do a similar Name/Race/Look column split.

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