This is a project I’ve had in the back of my mind for a while now, though I think Yochai Gal beat me to it.

This is a project I’ve had in the back of my mind for a while now, though I think Yochai Gal beat me to it.

This is a project I’ve had in the back of my mind for a while now, though I think Yochai Gal beat me to it. He’s been a pleasure to work with, and I’m grateful to have him and his enthusiasm as part of the community here.

I wanted to try bringing DW back to some of its Apocalypse World roots. DW as written has a lot of baggage and legacy mechanics from D&D, and it adds unnecessary complications that just make things confusing. I also wanted to take the opportunity to add a few popular modifications from the community. The result is this first draft of what I call the “Unlimited Edition”. Please share and enjoy, it’s free and always will be.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1VCV7mILNcNVndk7nwLuVboLpTEP7W4yM

49 thoughts on “This is a project I’ve had in the back of my mind for a while now, though I think Yochai Gal beat me to it.”

  2. This is huge! I wouldn’t have said DW was broken, but it was falling behind as new AWE games continued to evolve, and this brings it up to date. I was actually considering to canceling my membership here today, but I suppose that won’t happen now. Amazing timing!

  4. It’s great to finally see this out and about! Your earlier drafts were looking pretty solid, but it’s nice to see it whole.

    That’s an interesting name you’ve gone with. Why Dungeon World Ultimate?

  5. Robert Rendell That’s a typo. Thanks for catching it.

    Cameron Burns No reason. Unlimited was just what came to mind.

    Eric Nieudan Richard Robertson Thanks! Please share and enjoy.

  14. Any idea about the statistical difference between +1 forward and advantage/disadvantage? I like that mechanic, but it definitely feels stronger than +1 forward.

  16. Daniel Powell Peter J They could add an animal companion to the Ranger quite easily, assuming Perilous Wilds-style Followers rules, by changing the text of the Wild Empathy advance move, saying that the Ranger “can closely study, Parley or Recruit animals like they were people. ” That way, animals become eligible as Followers…

  17. Oh, I like that. I’m currently still on the fence regarding Perilous Wilds’ follower moves, but I’ll have to take a closer look at them.

  18. Actually, you wouldn’t specifically need the Perilous Wilds rules (and I didn’t check, so I may have got the move name wrong). It would work if there was any way to recruit followers/hirelings… its just that the PW version seems better to me than the version in the Dungeon World book.

  22. Ivan MV IM Fell English Pro

    Tom Pleasant No to both. I’m just an enthusiastic amateur. I’m not interested in publication.

  23. Peter J I’d just started to translate your document into Spanish (I hope it doesn’t bother you); would you mind sending me a .doc or similar file? It would speed up the process.

  26. It’s awesome. It’s basically the way I play haha. Saves me ton of work to put it down on paper 😛

    BTW, is this in league with World of Adventure or it’s something independent?

  28. Peter J Great to see 🙂

    Your version of Undertake a Perilous Journey sort of runs on from the end of the “Changes made in this edition” section, but then all your new moves have headings of their own. It would make sense (to me at least) for Undertake a Perilous Journey to have its own heading as well, for quick reference reasons if nothing else.

  31. Peter J, I really enjoyed your unlimited edition, but there’s something that doesn’t fit for me. There’s no way to raise the HP? I mean, The Wizard has 12HP. By the original rules the PCs are tougher and the difference of HPs provided by classes aren’t so huge (a Barbarian has 24hp and Wizard only 12).

    On top of that, what happens when the Wizard get cummulative disadvantages due to ongoing spells?

  32. Alisson Vitório Thank you, I hope the translation works out well for you.

    In response to your questions: no, there’s no way to increase HP. I have a Legend CC in mind for characters beyond level 10, but that’s a ways off.

    Disadvantage is not cumulative, so if the Wizard has multiple spells ongoing, it would not provide any additional modifier beyond negating more advantage received somewhere else.

  33. This is great, almost the my house rules. What about replacing Bonds with flags? And using the attribute that’s relevant for aid/interfere?

  34. Seth Zeren I thought about it, but I’m still on the fence. Right now, I feel like Flags and Drives have a bit too much in common. If I were to implement Flags, I would want to have a good least of at least four for each playbook, along with some good examples of how the work in actual play to better grok them.

  37. Just wondering, for the people who liked this project and are following along: what do you think it needs, in terms of niches within the party that aren’t filled, or common specialties or tricks that you see often and aren’t met by the base classes?

  39. Peter J Yochai Gal So there is no spellbook or list of spells for the Wizard? Just schools of magic through which players can make up spells and alter them via Power Points?

    Has anyone found this to be broken or OP in their sessions?

  40. Peter J I’m absolutely in love with this! So many great changes. I’ll be trying it out on my next campaign. Just a heads up, though. The Bard advanced move “Legend Lore” still makes reference to the removed “Tavern Tales” move. Looking forward to trying this out!

  41. Peter J As someone who was unimpressed with how narrowly-focused Dungeon World is, I think this is a wonderful hack! I really like the freeform magic, as well as how the moves are more consolidated and not explicitly combat-focused.

    Are you planning on making more drafts? Right now I love it as it is, but it’d be nice to have a PDF more filled out with stuff unchanged from Dungeon World (like a full list of moves). It’d be nice to just give the PDF to my players, without having to cross-compile info from this and the main DW book.

  42. Thanks Matt. I’m still tinkering with it, with the help of others in the DW community. I’m not sure how much more I can contribute without getting uncomfortably close to making DW2.

  44. Peter J Good to hear! I for one wouldn’t mind you making DW2 as I’d much rather play this than DW. Have you thought of spinning it off into its own ‘official’ PbtA game?

  47. Peter J in my version of hacked DW (which I said earlier is pretty close to what you are doing with DWU), for damage I ended up using this :

    ■ If your damage die is d4, add nothing.

    ■ If your damage die is d6, add +1.

    ■ If your damage die is d8, add +2.

    ■ If your damage die is d10, add +3.

    At first I was using the same bonuses as you, but after a few games I figured that I wasn’t very true to one principle of DW : Characters are competent and awesome. Giving a negative wasn’t true to this.

    I also went away with rolling separately for damage and decided to use one of the two dice rolled for the move. Here’s the move :

    —

    DEAL DAMAGE

    When you make a move that tells you to deal damage, take the highest of the two dice rolled for that move and add your playbook damage bonus, as well as any other bonus (weapon, spell, etc):

    ■ If your damage die is d4, add nothing.

    ■ If your damage die is d6, add +1.

    ■ If your damage die is d8, add +2.

    ■ If your damage die is d10, add +3.

    In the rare instance that you deal damage without a roll, simply roll 1d6 and add your bonus.

    —

    Mathematically, using the lower dice was closer to the DW damage output but at the table it turned out not super fun as most of the time you are getting a 1 or a 2 (56% of your rolls). So using the highest felt better.

    Not saying you should change any of your rules or whatever, just wanted to give you perspective.

  48. Peter J Yup, I feel you, my own job keeps me busy. Are there other places we can follow you for any new versions, since apparently G+ is going away?

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