I have created a hack of Dungeon World, built specifically for One Shots and short campaigns.

I have created a hack of Dungeon World, built specifically for One Shots and short campaigns.

I have created a hack of Dungeon World, built specifically for One Shots and short campaigns.

Here it is, currently in Alpha:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Dzc_zjLdCCXfI3ylrIB3X4MFQToUBIle

The entire game is the One Shot World Core Rules, the Playbooks folder, and the Playkit. There are also two booklet files for printing purposes in the Extras folder.

I’d love feedback of any kind.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Dzc_zjLdCCXfI3ylrIB3X4MFQToUBIle

26 thoughts on “I have created a hack of Dungeon World, built specifically for One Shots and short campaigns.”

  1. I took a look: from the pitch I was expecting something a lot different, but it just seemed to be DW with most of the support removed and a lot fewer playbook choices.

    If you were pitching this to me for a One Shot, why would you say I should use this instead of using DW? What are it’s advantages or strengths in that field?

  2. James Mullen There is no reason to have 20 advanced moves for a game that will never use them. Nor is there a reason to have 3-18 ability scores for a game with no need for such granularity in its advances, especially when it causes such consernation to folks that are new to D&D style ability scores. And so on. This might not be useful for your playgroup or personal experience, but it should make the experience at my local Meetup group a bit smoother!

    I’ve run 100 or so one shots for DW, mostly with strangers. I took what I’d learned and made a version of it for myself, really – to better facilitate that process. The game itself is really just lots of advice from the DW core rules, with a few bits I liked emphasized. I also added a page for world generation, and some starters I’ve found useful. That’s about it. If I had to answer your second question, I’d say it is probably better for players who are not TTRPG players, and who have very little time (like many of my friends and people I meet at my Meetup).

    Again, I made this thing for myself. If others find it useful, great! It’s not like I’m charging for it or anything. Thank you for the comment!

  3. There’s an extra bullet at the end of Discern Realities move on the playkit.

    It looks very tightly written. I like the additional questions a lot. I’d be interested to hear how it playtests.

  4. It’s delightful what some whiteout and a highlighter can do. I like that you haven’t fundamentally changed anything – mostly just stripped out the “so it looks like D&D stuff.”

  6. Shawn McCarthy it is supposed to be just like regular Dungeon World (with the D&D trappings), but less difficult for newbies to learn, particularly for one shots.

    Just to be clear, my original intention was just “DW but with all the non-essential to one shots stuff removed”; as such it was called One Shot Dungeon World for 99% of the time I was working on it. However, the DW name is not free to use, so I gave it another name. I’m not trying to pass this off as anything but a useful cobbling together of better designers. I’m not trying to pass anything off as mine (see the attributions page).

  7. Thanks for this. Open table games are tricky and the formatted advice and lists should prove useful.

    The lists would work well as seeds for secret player specific rumors and motives also.

    Tokens/chips used as +1 forwards could be fun.

    What possibilities are there for repeat players and characters?

  9. Freddie Dickinson the advanced moves are unique enough to allow for a minor progression; that said if you want something longer just play standard DW!

  10. Thanks for this, this looks great! I think it will give players a better jumping off point with less confusion and unnecessary things to track. I also like that they start more like a level 2-3 instead of a level 1.

    2 questions:

    1. For the attribute rules, do you intend to give players the ability to start with +3 in a stat? That’s how it appears to me, just wanted to make sure I’m interpreting correctly.

    2. You include multiple adventure creation methods. I assume the suggestion is “pick one,” not to use some sort of hybrid, correct?

    I literally just printed the normal playbooks last night for a one shot I’m planning next month. I might use these instead.

  11. Matt Brown yes, that’s right.

    Do you think it’s overpowered?

    You can use any of the appendices at the end. Whatever helps your game! I suppose I should make that more clear.

    I just found a typo in the Thief playbook.

  12. Yochai Gal yup! Maybe cycle in the other advanced moves as occasional plot moves when people come up w narrative that would trigger the adv moves not listed.

    I’ve run several open table games that allowed for character progression. The series is of one-shots sounds fun too. With Meetup groups there is often a small group of familiar faces, so I would want to keep it mechanically fun for someone to play several weeks of one-shots. Thinking of it now, I’d just cycle playing all the class types 🙂

  13. Yochai Gal I don’t think it’s overpowered to allow the 3+, I think it fits well with starting characters at about level 3. Thanks for confirming.

    Really nice job on this, I’m extremely excited about this hack! I want to contribute to the final polish if possible.

    I’m a decent proofreader, so I’ve started going through all the materials. I’ve finished the playkit and the core rules, now I just need to go through the playbooks. Do you want me to post typos here or send you a message? I’m not familiar with Google+ at all but I assume that’s a thing I can do.

  14. Matt Brown thanks, I’d love some help.

    Send me your email and I can give you edit/comment perms to the google drawing pages where I made this!

  15. This is a cool distillation of the core rules combined with useful advice and concepts from other sources. Among other things, I really like the simplified playbooks and how you’ve made use of “backgrounds”.

    One tweak could be creating space on the character sheet for people to record any advances they take if they play longer than one session.

    Overall, I really like this. I’m itching to run a one-shot or short campaign with this. Great work.

  16. First off: love the concept. I really like the idea of scrapping bonds and ability scores and calculated HP and Load and (most of) the advanced moves for a one-shot.

    Also a fan of using backgrounds instead of racial moves. I do sorta wish that items like “elf” or “dwarf” or “orc” were including in the Look section. (i think that’s a really elegant bit y’all did in Worlds of Adventure, and feels like a shame to lose it here.)

    I definitely like the Q&A section instead bonds/alignment. I might change the bonds-questions to be outward facing, though. So like instead of “Who have you guided through the wilderness?” the ranger gets to ask the other players “Which one of you have I guided through the wilderness?” AW2e made that sort of change, and I think it’s brilliant.

    I also wonder if you could bake more process into the character sheet. For example, it seems like you’d want everyone to read over their moves and get a sense for what they can do (moving it to column 3) and then proceduralize the introductions bit. Like, actually tell them “Wait here for everyone else.” And then have a bit about answering the GM’s questions about where you are, and why you’re here, etc. Then, maybe they take turns asking/answering one of the questions from their lists? (I’ve taken to doing something similar in Stonetop, and I’m really happy with how it works out.)

    I also wonder if the GM should set the initial scene before some of these questions get answered. Like, i’m sort of imagining that you do one of the various Adventure Starters/Builders first and then do these questions, so as to make them more focused.

    ============

    Very broadly, I’d challenge you take the “it’s a one shot, do we really need __” approach even further in some places.

    For example: the Wizard’s Pact background: you start with 1d10 extra coin and your patron controls a place of power. The coin is basically window dressing in a one-shot, and the place of power may or may not be useful depending on whatever else you all decide, as a group, what the adventure is going to be about.

    How about, instead, you start with 1 token of your patron’s favor, which you can break at any time to summon your patron to you and demand a favor. It’ll tell you what it wants in return.

    That sort of thing gives the Pact Wizard a cool thing to whip out once during the session. You don’t need any rules to explain how the Wizard regains their patron’s favor, because that’s not in the scope of a one-shot.

    Similarly… maybe change the Ritual move so that a place of power is one of the possible requirements. Again, you don’t know whether the adventure locale/situation your group will devise is going to be conducive to a place of power, so making that requirement optional is a good way to keep the move relevant no matter what.

    =============

    Venture Out is another spot that seems like it could be optimized for One Shots. Like, how important is “the way back is safe and secure, at least for now” in a game that’s likely to end with a big climax and then maybe a handwaved trip home and some epilogues?

    Also, I’ve got generalized beef with moves that mix and match picking “good thing” options with “you don’t bad thing” options. Actually, I just don’t really like “you don’t bad thing” options at all. I’d rather have the move tell you what does happen.

    So, like, maybe instead of 10/7-9/miss >> pick 3/2/1, you do something like: 10+ you arrive just fine, describe the hardest/scariest/most memorable part of the journey. On a 7-9, you arrive but pick 1:

    * Someone or something has followed you to your destination, ask the GM what it is

    * Roll 1d4+1; the party as a whole must discard that many uses of equipment or pieces or gear. For each piece discarded, ask that player how it got lost or used up.

    * It’s been a slog. it took longer than you expected and you’re all minus 1 ongoing until you Settle In.

    On a miss, your trip is interrupted part way by a danger, crisis, or hazard. Ask the GM to tell you what it is.

    ================

    Some general formatting comments:

    * The playbooks feel very cramped. You’re going right up to the page edge all over the place. 1/4″ margins are about as close as you ever want to go unless you’ve got a Good Reason to otherwise. I’d rather have the fonts generally smaller and more white space.

    * Your bullet points are inconsistent. On the front page of each sheet, you’ve got square bullets that are out-dented (i.e. they are left of the general column border). Nudge them in so they are flush with the left column edge. On the back page, your bullets are round and indented like a full 1/4″. Again, I’d put them flush with the left column edge, and reduce the space between bullet & text.

    * The bubbles for Character Sketch and Treasure, Items, and Notes… the placement feels weird, mostly because the beveled edges are so beveled. You could either make them less rounded/more square (and move the text more to the left) or center the text in the bubbles.

    * I found the stat assignments hard to parse. It’s super easy to miss the bit right under Start Here that tells you how to do them. I’d move that to come right above the 6 stat blocks, with something like: “Two of these will be filled in based on your Background. For the others, put +1 in one, -1 in another, and +0 in the other two.”

    * Parley (on the back of the playsheets) is partially blocked by the skeleton icons.

    ======================

    I really like Core Rules document, though it maybe use some guidance on why you’d use the Adventure Starter vs. the Adventure Builder.

    Again, i really dig this idea and think this is a very solid toolkit. I’m mostly pushing you to take it further in terms in tightening things up for one-shots specifically and in terms of legibility/usability.

    Thanks for sharing!

  17. Jeremy Strandberg

    Thanks so much for the comment! As usual, this will take some time to digest. Offhand, my first reaction is that I totally agree about the cramped nature of the playbooks. I’m not a designer, and have really had a hard time making Google Drawing work with this. I’m aware I could learn other free/paid applications, but that just adds yet another thing I have to do!

    Still, I will take a crack at it, or enlist one of the talented folks I know in this community/Discord!

    I’ll send you a separate message on each of your comments. Thanks so much!

  22. Freddie Dickinson Yochai Gal

    I really like some of the changes you made. I think flipping the background and moves columns was a good call by Jeremy. I like that you made the bullets for Herculean Appetites into check boxes. I also like the way you worded Musclebound, and I really like the way you set off the mechanical advantages, the moves, and the RP/story text for backgrounds. They’re grouped very nicely. I think getting rid of the stock portion “The session will begin…” is a good call…but I really like the class description on the player sheet, as well as the advice on what moves players will use a lot. I think those are useful for new players in a one shot.

    If the description section is removed from the Playbook, I think the class descriptions from DW should be added to the core rules somewhere so new players can get a feel for the classes.

    Also, your Attribute instructions are different from the original (if I understood them correctly). Yours gives each character +2, +1, +1, 0, 0, -1, equal to the DW starting rules at level 1. Yochai Gal’s rules let the background stats be added to the stats already selected, as if they had leveled up, potentially letting someone start with +3 in an attribute, or two +2s. (looking at this again, if a player does put the +1 in the same attribute as the +2 from their background, they end up with a stat spread that is impossible given normal DW starting rules, as they have +3, +1, 0, 0, 0, -1. They should have a second +1 somewhere.) Does anyone think this is a big deal?

    A question regarding the Khan background (for Yochai Gal), I had assumed the shield was to grant a total of 2 armor, but Unencumbered Unharmed specifically excludes carrying a shield, so the shield doesn’t provide any mechanical bonus to the Barbarian RAW. Maybe include a line that the shield does stack with that background, or allow the Khan to take armor and Full Plate & Packing Steel? I’m not sure what the vision is for that background.

    Finally, I personally like the original font/appearance more than the modified version (solid lines for attribute boxes instead of jagged), but both are perfectly usable. The picture of the d10 in the damage box is cool though, and some players will really like the extra space given for the sketch.

  23. Definitely like where these are going!

    Just one quick comment re: the barbarian’s starting coin. It should absolutely be:

    You have but 1d10 coin left in your purse; how did you squander the rest?

  24. Thanks for the feedback.

    _Adding the class description and favored moves makes sense for this. I’ll add it back.

    _I may have read the Attributes rules too quickly, though the wording isn’t clear to me.

    quote: In addition (to the background stats), choose two other stats and give one +1 and the other negative 1. Set the rest to zero.

    I agree that the way I wrote it makes it match Level 1 RAW, and that a Level 2 or 3 PC was the stated intention. If we want more player choice we can simply allow (2) +1 advancements on top of what I have shown.-

    _I had the same question regarding the Khan’s shield…makes the Unencumbered move worthless. Either we trade the shield for another boon (a servant could be fun!) or trade the Unencumbered move for a different advanced move.

    _I wasn’t sure what the original font was so I made my own choices. If someone has a DW knock-off font to share I’ll use it.

    _the starting coin question is definitely a fun question that should get added. 🙂

  25. updated link to my Barbarian sheet above.

    Yochai Gal feel free to email/message me. I agree we made some similar changes. Some of the font/graphic differences may just be difference of style and/or tools, but I’m happy to share the versions that I make and make some edits. cheers!

  26. I updated One Shot World, incorporating most of the excellent feedback from this thread. Thanks so much, everyone!

    Changes:

    redesigned playbook (final version by Freddie Dickinson coming sometime in the future); I’ve added a section for race in the Look section, how to go about building a character is more obvious and clear, and I added an XP tracker

    Backgrounds now include drives

    Questions for players (a bonds replacement) are rewritten to be answered by all players (e.g. “Who here did I lead through the wilderness”)

    New rules for XP & Advancement : 5XP to advance, +1 to an ability score (maximum +3 – yes, +3) and one advanced move.

    XP is gained on a fail, by the Settle In move, and by fulfilling a drive

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