Author: Mike Harvey

I have a question about the Druid’s Shapeshifter move. What do the “animal moves” look like? I had a player insisting that since she already had all the animal’s innate abilities, the moves must be something special or supernatural (like magic) that wasn’t included as part of the basic animal.

The sidebar on p.107 suggests that these were intended to just be natural instinct moves. But why would these be necessary? If I can think up such moves on the fly, why do I need to define them? They are simply part of the fiction everyone understands about this animal. And if I fail to define a move, then you can’t do it? The example of “trample” is just a reskinned hack and slash. “Escape to the air” is simply using your ability to fly. Call the pack seems like a legitimate move that is different.

The player in question (last night) transformed into a giant wolf, and wanted to know what her special abilities were. I ruled it was a natural ability but couldn’t think of anything interesting. A wolf is pretty basic. I offered “go for the throat” and “hamstring,” which really are just hack n slash.  But she said those are already implied by innate abilities… it’s just being a wolf and already implied by the fiction. So she was unhappy and felt nerfed.

How do you interpret this? Any examples? I think a lot in terms of monsters, but not animals, and most animals are pretty tame and not very interesting compared to sorcery and unnatural monsters. So I’m wondering if maybe this should be a magical ability of some sort. Maybe you can transform into an ice wolf, or a shadow wolf, or such such.

I had an idea for level 10+. A player was complaining about how characters start out weak and then become too powerful in most games, and said he’d prefer to just get rid of levels altogether. I said that character change is nice to have, but it could be lateral change instead of increasing in power. And that got me to thinking…

At level 10+ you can continue to Level Up. Each level after 10th requires a flat 17 XP to advance, and level is always reckoned as “10” for purposes of moves and spells. Advancement becomes lateral rather than upward. When

you level up you can:

– Tweak a Stat

– Replace a Move

– Gain a Spell

– Change Career

Tweak a Stat: At level 10+ your stats no longer increase; instead you may move a point from one stat to another. You cannot lower any stat below 3 or increase it above 18. For example you can lower Dex from 14 to 13 in order to increase Con from 9 to 10.

Replace a Move: At level 10+ you no longer add new moves, instead you replace an old moves with a new move. This applies to both regular class moves and Compendium Class moves.

Gain a Spell: Wizards can add a spell to their spellbook. (Wizards are already limited to 11 prepared spells, so I don’t see added variety as a significant powerup)

Change Career: At level 10+ you can add a second base class, if your race and alignment are compatible and you have opportunity to learn. Your HP and Damage are the higher of the two classes. Your stats do not change, but you may Tweak a Stat. Your moves remain the same, but you may Replace a Move, and may choose from either of your classes (or from a compendium class).

You can make multiple Career Changes, but can never have more than two careers at once. When you take a third class, you must drop an existing class; your HP and Damage dice are determine by your two new classes; you can choose moves from among the new classes. You must also complete at least 5 levels in a class before you can switch to a new class.

The ideas here are that:

– XP to advance becomes flat (so its still within reach)

– stats stop increasing, but can still change

– moves stop accumulating, but can still change

– class change is incremental rather than abrupt

– class change does not involve “reset”

This leveling off only occurs at level 11+, so play at levels 1-10 is unchanged.

I would like to hear what you think. Do you see problems with it? Ideas for a better way to do it? In the original discussion the player advocated just starting everyone at level 10 and never advancing. Personally I think it’s good to have change and something to work toward, but I’m okay with flat power level.

I love Dungeon World’s improvisational nature, but my teenage son is not so thrilled with it. He wants to interact with a world that has it’s own reality and is not made up on the fly. (Nevermind that it’s still made up. I think it’s the illusion he is missing.)

Has anyone used Dungeon World in the manner of a traditional RPG, that is with premade world/adventures, GM is “god” and makes everything up, and there is no player input? My initial thought is it would be better to just break out B/X and use that… except that I LOVE the pacing in Dungeon World, plus the action feels so much more immersive due to to the preeminence of the fiction. (My son loves these aspects too.)

So I’m wondering how to take the move structure of DW and marry them to a traditional approach to play. At first I sat down and tried to find a way to shoehorn moves into something like B/X, but I’m stumped. Any attempt at fusion ends up evolving into straight up DW. My next thought was to just play DW as written, but the GM does all the improv and presents the players with an immersive experience. The sheer load of creativity need to do that much improvisation is staggering though. I could just run premade adventures but I can’t see how the dynamics would work — a lot of moves call for something new or unexpected, which is at odds with any sort of prepared material.

Any thoughts?