So, I’ve been modifying the loadout of Specialties from Class Warfare for my personal use. I’ve decided I’d like to make a character sheet to use with it, and I have a few options.
First, a little background on how I intend to use CW. I’m going to have it as an alternate character-building method in parallel with a more typical class loadout (the standard selection, – Cleric, Wizard, + Artificer, Mage, Priest from the Alternate Playbooks document). In addition to the specialties, I’m creating what I’m calling Racial Specialties. They operate like a normal Specialty, except:
– they count as being part of each archetype.
– any PC that is a member of that race can select moves from the specialty as if it were a Compendium Class
– any PC that is a member of that race can choose the racial move from that racial specialty in place of one offered by their class.
My first option, and the one that requires the least up-front work, is to create a blank general sheet, and to include spaces for page references.
The second option is a bit more involved. One of the big criticisms I’ve seen over Class Warfare is that it runs counter to the design aesthetic of Dungeon World. Classes in DW are built to be picked up and played, whereas building a character using Class Warfare involves a lot more work. Part of that is intentional – some people like to tinker – but I feel I could find a way to get all the benefits of CW with most of the benefits of the standard Playbook approach. In particular, I’m thinking of creating cards or sheets containing the specialties, complete with checkboxes like a standard playbook. Then, when a player would choose to make a character out of specialties, they’d just take the sheets matching those specialties and go. I already plan on doing something like this with Racial Specialties, such that they can be used easily with standard playbooks, but I’m wondering if going through the additional formatting work for the other specialties is worth the effort.
So; supposing you were going to play in a Dungeon World game that featured the option to build characters using Class Warfare, which would you prefer; the simpler but more reference-heavy General Sheet approach, or the more involved but faster Playbook approach?
I am all about the pick-up-and-go approach. Fast and simple for me.
Agree; I’d say the faster playbook approach. It’ll also keep from making a player feel they’re holding anyone else back at character creation by choosing that option.
The second, faster option.
There was a version of Uncharted Worlds that did the “partial template” option. I only tried it a couple of times, but found the process of finding moves over 2-3 half sheets of paper to be a big PITA. Just two cents.
I was going to make them 1/3 of a landscape paper each, with alignment, race, and starting moves on one side, advanced moves and equipment on the other. Still too much of a hassle, Brennan OBrien?
Will Thibault Will, I’d have to give it a try to see… My instinct is yes (cause’ now I got three strips of paper…). That said, it’s just a feeling without trying it out. But this just SCREAMS for an app to build the sheet on the fly for you. That could be a damn slick Ipad app.
I’ve been thinking on this, and I think I’ve thought of a better way to allow the character customization aspect that I like about CW without going whole-hog into it.
So, suppose you culled the specialties down until you had the most compelling ones. You could use this to emphasize a setting if you were using a particular one, or just have the ones you thought were the coolest. Then, print those on slips and treat them as Compendium Classes.
In order to get these in play right from the first session, you have a couple of options. The one I think I’d go with is give everyone a free advanced move, so they could start with a compendium class if they liked. You could also just give everyone a free level right off the bat.
Thoughts?