I am in a constant struggle which rpg I should play with my friends so I keep trying lots of systems out and also research in the net what ohter players think about particular systems.
Then I found this page and (this is why I’m posting this here) and I really disagree with that guy and I don’t know if I am allowed to post this here but that lad has a comment section at the end so…
Before I post the link that I have to say one thing on my own: Get a new Kickstarter and make Dungeon World more beginner friendly 🙂
OK, here’s the link and sort that guy out 🙂 (Sorry, poor choice of words, I don’t want to start a witch hunt, what I mean is maybe we could change his opinion 🙂
http://mythcreants.com/blog/dungeon-world-is-a-game-to-skip/
Hm, he says DW mechanics are overbearing and restrictive, then I see a related article about how great Mouse Guard is…
Actually, I think some of the criticisms in the article are valid, I just disagree with the conclusion. DW is a great time.
My psychic powers tell me that the author of that post has never actually played Dungeon World.
I agree alan, seem like the whole post is based on a read of the rulebook.
Seems to me that is a person who just doesn’t “get it”. Which is fine. Not everything is made for everyone. People like different things.
About DW being beginner friendly though, I have to disagree. DW is one of the most beginner friendly RPGs I’ve run across in a long time.
Agree with Christopher Stone-Bush and his VTES profile picture. DW is very beginner friendly. Choose some options on a character sheet, listen to the GM describe a situation, react to the question “What do you do?”. Not much more simpler than that.
(And I would suggest anyone starting with rank RPG novices, fill out the Attribute stats in advance on their behalf).
From a GM perspective, perhaps a bit more complex, yes. But not from the player side.
Christopher Stone-Bush Agreed. I played it at Rincon for the first time a few years back. No system exposure, just picked up the playbook and was in the game inside of ten minutes with minimal to no troubles. That said, that’s on the player end. The GM side is a lot harder to wrap your head around, and needs a bit of play to really grok, because you don’t have as many mechanical restrictions to remind you what is and isn’t okay like the players do.
Two quotations:
“There Are No Rules for Combat, but There Should Be”
“players often spend more time searching for the appropriate Move than they do describing how their character is acting”
Conclusion:
The author didn’t play DW.
Yeah. I was looking at how beginner friendly DW was from a player perspective. It is a steeper learning curve if you’re the GM.
I also agree that the writer did not actually play it. Most of his points make sense off the page, but in play it’s far more intuitive than he lets on. If I didn’t know better, I’d say this blogger decided not to give this game a chance long before he even finished reading the book, let alone before playing it.
To be fair, I think one is well within their rights to decide that they don’t care for a game without actually playing it. On the other hand, I think that you should play a session or two before presenting a professional review, and I agree that it doesn’t read like this reviewer actually did that. Which is roughly the equivalent of posting a video game review based on the user’s manual.
His problem is d20itis. I have seen it many times when great d20 GM’s read DW. They simply do not have categories to fit the DW rules into.
Theres no turn order, so DW sucks. The monster stat blocks are so uninformative, so DW sucks. Etc. Every rule in DW is subconsciously measured against a d20 category.
Having said that, his criticism points to some real defects of communication in the DW text.
I had to read the 3rd party DW guide before I understood moves. And it does take a while to get used to the new terms. (But I have to say, I found the AW text worse)
Alan De Smet
There is a culture in RPG blogging to review a game on a readthrough of the rules only. It is very unfortunate. In boardgames no one would ever say “OK I havent played it but here is a review!” Maybe it is because the only physical components of RPGs look like books, so people review them like they would books.
Wynand Louw It did take a bit to internalize, say, the difference between +1 Forward and +1 Ongoing. But really, every RPG has terms to learn; putting that forward as a negative is just silly.
Like seriously. For comparison, if you’re new to 3.5 you have to learn that XP (experience points) earns you levels in classes, which lets you buy ranks in skills, (which can either be class or cross-class), improve your saving throws (Will, Fortitude, and Reflex) and base attack bonus, roll your hit die to determine your new hit points, and possibly increase your caster level and/or learn a new feat, which you may or may not qualify for based on your various class features (if you’re not a Fighter, expect at least half a dozen other terms here). XP is earned through combat, where you generally make attack rolls against your opponent’s armor class, which is either a standard, full, or readied action, and may involve fighting defensively or making or provoking an attack of opportunity.
And you know what? That’s not a negative. Neither is having to learn what Moves are.
How are the handful if concepts in DW more esoteric than the bulk of D20 and earlier rules? A lot of the article was split between how it’s difficult for new players and I directly comparing it to D20. How coupe anyone think any version of D&D is easier to learn than an Apocalypse Engine game?
James Etheridge​ Brilliant!
But Mouse Guard IS great Alexander Davis!
This guy just values different things in RPGs. No reason to go after him with sticks.
Tim Franzke​ my issue is that a lot of the problems he cites are issues with all games, but he singles them out as if they’re unique to DW. It’s odd. Also, bit having a seperate rule set for a combat mini game doesn’t seem like a valid critique when his biggest point is essentially how inaccessable it is.
Tim Franzke, we will have to disagree here. I found MG incredibly restrictive and frustrating, mechanically speaking, though I know many enjoy it.
I wasn’t really trying to attack MG per se, but instead point out the irony that the problems they stated in DW exist (at least for me) much worse in MG.
Alexander Davis
That’s odd. Mouse Guard is WIDE OPEN in terms of mechanics. The only place I can see it being considered “restrictive” is with the turn structure, but that’s really something of a pacing mechanic that is there to basically dictate “Here’s how much time you guys have to pursue your own agendas before things start getting crazy again.”
It sounds as if you had a very odd GM for your game.
That said, I agree that author of the original article doesn’t seem to have grasped how DW actually works.
James Etheridge Of course you are right. How many meanings has the word “level” had in the history of DnD?
http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0012.html