For those wanting a little more in-depth look at the changes in v0.2, here are some of the big ones.
Bonds have been reworked. They now have two marks; at one mark they don’t count towards your total (but can still be salvaged with the Forge a Bond or Mending Bonds moves), and at two marks they are erased from the playbook. This makes them a bit more robust, and better gels with the “Bonds As Resource” approach of Worlds of Adventure.
Similarly, Break Their Bonds has been replaced by Test Their Bonds, with the focus shifted from erasing their Bonds (now a function of Use Up Their Resources) to introducing circumstances where Bonds can be tested.
Finally, instead of getting experience for making new Bonds, you just get experience for expressing a bond (any Bond) during play, similar to how one might resolve a Bond in traditional Dungeon World. References to players expending Bonds have been cut due to functionality reasons; we couldn’t integrate them deep enough into the mechanics to really make that approach work.
The new Grevious Wounds move should aid GMs (and players) to better tie their dwindling HP into the game’s fiction. Likewise, the new Adventure Moves (drawn from and inspired by Jason Lutes’ fantastic second edition playtest of Freebooters on the Frontier) should engender a better travel experience for all.
Some playbooks have had moves altered, removed, added, or replaced; the changes are too many to count. The Cleric has received the biggest rework, and they should now be a little more unique and distinct from the Wizard. Making a deity is now its own insert, too!
Spellcasting has also been reworked; its costs were too significant to be realistic in play, and so now they use a more standard “10+ Yes; 7-9 Yes, but; 6- No” approach. There are also a few extra premade spells for the Wizard and invocations for the Cleric for you to work with, for a total of 12 each.
GM-Side, the Treasure table has been updated and made a little bit clearer. You’ll also find a new Appendix, Records, for GMs who would rather keep their campaign notes, Fronts, and Monsters in a larger format.
There is only a brief note on how to “test Bonds” in the play materials. Are there any good examples of discussion of how this works – or how it works best – out there? Thanks!