Hey guys, I made three extra PDFs to elaborate on the core rules. Kind of like the Playbook Plus stuff.

Hey guys, I made three extra PDFs to elaborate on the core rules. Kind of like the Playbook Plus stuff.

Hey guys, I made three extra PDFs to elaborate on the core rules. Kind of like the Playbook Plus stuff.

– The Hireling

– Combat & Equipment

– The GM

All of them have been designed in the same format as the official playbooks, for flavor and consistency. I didn’t use the actual fonts though.

The Hireling is probably the most useful for everyone. I took Hireling rules in the book and reformatted it into a playbook form. I renamed “unassigned skill points” as Competence for flavor.

Combat & Equipment contain a lot of really important rules that should be part of the official play kit. Using the DW Guide, I fully elaborated Hack & Slash rules, with a focus on when or not a game fiction action should trigger the Hack & Slash move. Another important, often overlooked rule is that, on a 7-9, the enemy does NOT deal damage immediately. It makes an attack, which can either be a soft (chance to respond) or hard move (deal damage). There are also a lot of important references, such as tags, rules for multiple targets/attackers, ammo and cover. One of the first questions I had playing the game was how weapons & range affect combat, and one of my first mistakes was using Hack & Slash directly instead of describing the triggering action. Hopefully, this reference clarifies those points and makes battles more interesting.

The GM is where I took GM rules and reformat it into a playbook. The interesting thing about Dungeon World is that the GM is bound by the rules as much as the players are. Therefore, they can only make moves in response to triggers, as opposed to “at any time.” There are a number of triggers that allow the GM to make moves. In Appendix 2 of Dungeon World, there are also “starting GM moves” that a first-time DW GM should stick to during the first couple of sessions. It also has a section for Monster stats, with rules for tags & group attacks. And finally, I included the treasure generator from the book. This GM playbook is what I envision the official GM playbook should have been.

I hope they improve your Dungeon World experience. 🙂

The Hireling:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_JdH0Si6SYcdERnSVZqR0VEY0E

Combat & Equipment:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_JdH0Si6SYcUDdSeGMxNzQ5Q00

The GM:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_JdH0Si6SYcRnhiUk05SEhicE0

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_JdH0Si6SYcdERnSVZqR0VEY0E

19 thoughts on “Hey guys, I made three extra PDFs to elaborate on the core rules. Kind of like the Playbook Plus stuff.”

  1. Amazing-ling useful specially equipment section to me.

    Edit: After more review. specially all of it.

    Edit Two: I don’t know if you have custom playbooks out there or plan to make them, but with this fine tuning I’d love get my hands on them.

  8. Wow, that is totally awesome. My only critique is that I really like using art for my NPCs (sometimes my own art) and I wish there was a little rectangle for art. But getting all the hireling info in one place ON the sheet where the character lives is total awesome sauce!

  11. Two nitpicks:

    Your Hack & Slash 7-9 doesn’t cover the move as it’s written. The book says “The enemy’s counterattack can be any GM move made directly with that creature. A goblin might just attack you back, or they might jam a poisoned needle into your veins.” I’ve always taken that as meaning if the monster has a move that is an attack – that goblin’s “stab with a poisoned needle”, they can just do that, no chance to respond at all. That’s why Hack & Slash is particularly dangerous, as the 7-9 result can be a hard move (deal damage, monster move).

    And I don’t like your “Say Yes”. I don’t like you even saying “Say Yes”. I realise your text is really telling folks to use the game’s nearest equivalent, but too many people seem to think a fine principle from game is a fine principle in another, and that’s not the case.

  14. Wow! Thanks for the response guys! I initially made this just for my GM and group. Glad you guys like it. 🙂

    You might not agree with what I wrote for Hack & Slash on 7-9, but it’s based on an important, eye-opening point made in Dungeon World Guide that I want to highlight:

    Obviously, you get to deal damage when the player misses on a Hack & Slash. But that’s not all you get to do: the rules say “the monster makes an attack,” not “the monster deals damage.” Deal Damage is just one of many options, look at the GM Moves and pick one.

  15. Dawit, that’s exactly the same as the point that I’m trying to make.

    Your guide says “”the monster does not necessarily deal damage in retaliation”; fine.

    It then says “Instead, its attack can be an *imminent threat*. This give the character a chance to respond [etc]”. It is this latter part that misses what the rules and the guide are saying.

    On a 7-9, the GM can:

    Deal Damage

    Use a monster move that is an “attack”

    Use some other GM move that also counts as an attack by the monster.

    And these aren’t “Imminent Threats”. They are immediate hard moves. If you Hack and Slash a goblin that can “Stab with a poisoned needle”, the GM can have the goblin just do that, and you’re stabbed with that needle there and then as that goblin’s counter attack.

  16. Adrian, nowhere in the rules is it stated that you must perform the hard moves you listed. The GM has more choice over what happens, and that is absolutely within the rules.

    You can, of course, make an immediate hard move. Yes, but not necessarily.

    You can make an imminent soft move instead. You are not forced to do either or. It is up to the GM to decide.

    There is nothing stopping you from using Show Signs of an Approaching Threat or Put Someone in a Spot on a 7-9 for Hack and Slash, both of which are soft moves with no immediate impact. Again, nowhere in the rules is it stated that you must perform the hard moves you listed. In fact, it is encouraged otherwise by both the core book and the guide. You are missing the point.

    Even Use a Monster Move that is an attack is not necessarily a hard move like you claim. If the character has time to react, it is more likely to be a soft move.

    Dungeon World itself states that you can make a GM move that is as soft or as hard as you like, depending on the game fiction. Moreover, there is no reason why Use A Monster Move that is an attack cannot be a soft move that allows a player time to respond with Defy Danger or a counterattack. On the flipside, you can also make any GM move a hard move by adding flat damage to it (hence, immediate, lasting impact), should it make sense in the game fiction.

    In your own words, the GM can have the goblin stab the poison needle without a chance to respond. Must the GM do so? No.

    When a goblin lets loose a volley of arrows at a character, is that “making an attack?” I would say yes. Is that a soft move or a hard move? Dungeon World explicitly calls that attack Show Signs of an Approaching Threat with a chance for the characters to respond. Only after the characters fail to respond to the arrows are they turned into Deal Damage. That means an attack can be a soft move.

    There is no reason why the same cannot be applied to melee attacks, and the Dungeon World book itself treats many examples of melee attacks as soft moves that can be responded to. For example:

    GM: You’re right, that’s not just danger. Okay, so you’re not

    mush yet—the ogre is looming behind you and that club is flying down at your head! What do you do?

    Let’s go back to Hack and Slash:

    On a 7–9, you deal your damage to the enemy and the enemy makes an attack against you.

    Does the stated attack always have to be a hard move? No.

    Finally, here is the full text of Dungeon World Guide on this matter that includes a number of soft moves – moves that give a chance for the characters to respond instead of just taking damage:

    Obviously, you get to deal damage when the player misses on a Hack & Slash. But that’s not all you get to do: the rules say “the monster makes an attack,” not “the monster deals damage.” Deal Damage is just one of many options, look at the GM Moves and pick one. Knock them over, grab their weapon, threaten an ally, put them in a spot, damage their armor, grapple them, surround them. Dungeon World is awesome because cinematic fights thrive under these rules, so go crazy.

    Your restriction certainly makes Hack and Slash more dangerous, but it misses the point of Dungeon World – a narrative game that is driven by and evolves based on what happens in the fiction, not repetitive, rigid mechanics that never changes according to different circumstances.

  17. All you say is true. But:

    Your guide says a 7-9 Hack And Slash result is

    Deal Damage.

    An imminent threat.

    It doesn’t mention making “Monster Moves that are attacks”. That’s it. That’s my point.

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