Hi there! I’m new to Dungeon World, just got it today, and I noticed something a bit surprising. In the base classes, there doesn’t seem to be an option for Orc or Half-orc characters/race moves. I found that a bit surprising.
Is there a reason for this? Or alternatively, are there some custom Orc Race moves? I’m asking because I’m sure my players in my upcoming game who are old dnd pros might want the option.
You can write in the half-orc move on any class and you’re golden. There is space for that on the new sheets.
I’ve heard of a custom orc playbook (the term for a self-contained class description). How race is handled in DW is quite different from D&D, but you can always “rule 0” it, and if a character really wants to be a half-orc (I’d stay away from full orc, because then you get into “monsters as characters”.) I’ll come back to this when I can find a couple resources I was thinking about (I’ve had to prep orcs recently, as they’re an emerging front in my game). (quick update as the links weren’t hard to find at all) : a good write-up/post about DW orcs in general. http://lawfulindifferent.blogspot.com/2013/09/dungeon-world-orcs.html … and the aforementioned orc playbook ($2.49 on DTRPG) http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/146465/The-Orc–A-Dungeon-World-Playbook
Unless you like doing a lot of homebrew / ad-hoc stuff, you’ll find there’s a lot of self-published (usually on DTRPG) material for DW, usually very reasonably priced.
Hah, Charles Gatz you beat me to it.
One thing that is easy to forget when transitioning from D&D to DW is that the setting is built by the whole group in DW. So if you have a player that wants half-orcs to be a big issue and the table consents, then they are. Add them to any playbook that a Player wants and move forward with your more orcish setting.
Agree w/ Christoph Sapinsky — I would caution to keep the move interesting enough to feel special. Simple stat bonuses (e.g., plus to Strength) aren’t the DW way.
Yes, as Charles Gatz’s says, do not grant bonuses, make your race moves work like the others. Race moves tend to support the class in some way. The Bard race moves all involve civilised locations and social actions there. Use the other race moves as an example.
The Barbarian is a special case, as a Barbarian your race is “Outsider”. Outsiders are a race, but from somewhere else. Even for a first time DW player making a Barbarian half-orc is easy as an Outsider could be a half-orc.
I believe the Number Appearing source text has Move ideas for things such as Orcs, which might be easily salvaged as core playbook race moves.
I was just going to mention Number Appearing, which is available for free from the Dungeon World website:
dungeon-world.com – Downloads – Dungeon World
There is not a lot there about Orcs specifically, but it is a start.
Where can I find the new sheets?
I have not seen them yet?
The playkit available on the website includes all the newest stuff: dungeon-world.com – Downloads – Dungeon World
Ah, i overlooked it when i thought i had downloaded it already.
thank you Christoph Sapinsky
Christoph Sapinsky if that was the intention then races wouldn’t be restricted to certain classes
Victor Julio Hurtado there is no listed restriction, they just list races for the assumed setting.
The book talks about customising this sort of thing and the pdfs of the classes have blank spots to write in race and other options.
Tried to download Number Appearing and the Playkit, but the downloads aren’t working