What do you have in your DW shelf (virtual or physical) that you consider something a newcomer to DW must read?

What do you have in your DW shelf (virtual or physical) that you consider something a newcomer to DW must read?

What do you have in your DW shelf (virtual or physical) that you consider something a newcomer to DW must read? Please include a one-liner telling why (link to the actual product is optional, but it would make my job easier).

As I’m about to make a few purchases, this will surely help me choose.

23 thoughts on “What do you have in your DW shelf (virtual or physical) that you consider something a newcomer to DW must read?”

  1. On the virtual shelf, there’s the old “16hp dragon” post to help understand how monsters and their stats work. (currently 404’d) (copy available at https://sagelt.github.io/2012/05/15/a-16-hp-dragon/ )

    The “Dragonslaying on a Timetable” guide to help with running a clean and easy game for new players. ( https://plus.google.com/113677679278469240206/posts/C57G9mh7s5s )

    Also 2nding The Perilous Wilds and it’s related products simply for the added mechanics, tables, and inspiration.

    Finally, any of the freely available Dungeon Starters to help with understanding GM prep and sources of inspiration.

  2. Any random name generator. I generate lists of names for people, places, and things before new games, and keep that list handy. Whenever i need a name, i either choose one or let the players.

    Time spent thinking up the “perfect” name kills momentum. A cheat sheet that lets you make those decisions quickly and move forward is a great help.

    I’ve occasionally found that a name may bring some connotation with it that spins the fiction a bit. A town arbitrarily name “Infantburrow Crossroads”? Clearly some ghoulish history there! A bar called the “Fool & Purse”? What an odd name.. how did that come about?

    Once you name a thing, it may just influence the story in interesting ways. But if it doesn’t, at least no momentum was lost.

  3. Grim World, for the playbooks and Death Moves.

    A Sundered World, for the Racial moves, and playbooks. (Actually pretty much all the Awful Good playbooks are good – Vancomancer is a personal favorite.)

    Class Warfare, not for the massive list of questionably balanced moves, but for the treatise on playbook building theory.

    Perilous Wilds, for procedurally generated explorations.

    World of Dungeons, for an even simpler (and I would argue, more elegant) way to dungeon crawl with PbtA mechanics.

    Sub heading under WoDu… Planarch Codex and the new WoDu Turbo are both delightfully gonzo and easy to play.

  4. Joe Banner’s adventure supplements. I think they’re extremely evocative, and really drive home how different DW is/can be than the old-fashioned “dungeon delve” that seems to emerge when folks just try to adapt old DnD modules.

  5. I know this is from ages ago, but thanks for the link to the Jason Cordova Death Frost Doom conversion. It’s exactly what I need for a 1-shot I’m running this weekend for some RPG neophytes.

  6. Stephen Karnes I did run it, although not for my main group as originally planned. Instead I did it a few months later as a one-shot for some other friends.

    Honestly, it felt like the most difficult of the (I think) 16 sessions of DW I’ve now run. I think it being an adaptation felt a bit constraining, especially because it’s so quirky and unusual (very little combat, weird puzzles to be solved to progress). But even just the fact that it’s a dungeon made it harder for me; turns out I’m really a wilderness adventure guy. I like the freedom that comes with a more open environment, particularly in a game as improvisational as DW.

  7. Saul Alexander I ended up running Kazarak by Ray Otus instead. I felt like DFD would have just been too long. I still wan to run it, but not as a 1-shot.

    Thanks for the detailed description of what didn’t work for you. That’ll give me something to look out for if I do end up running it. It’s interesting what you said about there being little combat as I find combat to be a really easy way to introduce new players to the game, so it sounds like this might more be a module for players with some experience with the system.

  8. I ran DFD for Dungeon World, converting it based on the “Adventure Conversion” chapter and nothing more. Not a one-shot—it was a campaign-defining catastrophe! 😉

    That group has been on hold for a while because I moved, but their last adventure was seeking out a necromancer who could give them a map to Death’s domain. And there, to destroy a relic they got from the catacombs of Death Mountain, which they hoped would end the curse.

    We had a LOT of fun with DFD, and I would run it again with another group in a heartbeat.

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