Author: Sidney Icarus

Had my first experience with Worlds of Adventure last night.

Had my first experience with Worlds of Adventure last night.

Had my first experience with Worlds of Adventure last night. Good basis of DW, for context. This is just my writeup from Kyle’s game that he’s recorded for you.

Bond economy feels like a good change to me. Incentivises deleting bonds to aid, and then building them up. This makes the bond loop shorter (ie in vanilla DW, it takes at least 3 sessions to resolve three bonds. In WoA, I can create and “use” 3 bonds in a single session). Bonds feel cleaner when they’re less grandiose if players are expected to “earn and burn” bonds in this way. I dig it, very Fate-point-y.

Addition of extra races in character creation was well received by all players.

Played a Ranger, I love the “Ranger as battlefield tactician” development. Sits with me a lot better than what we’ve seen from DnD. I expect a lot of resistance (because us nerds and our tradition, right?), but personally I loved it. Felt different enough to the fighter, felt like it filled a gap I haven’t seen in a long time. Moving animal companion to it’s own section was nice. It’s good to be an option, but I really didn’t wan to play “guy with a wolf”.

Always Prepared and Ruthless Slayer were enjoyable to interact with. Gives the Ranger a very mobile feel around the battlefield knowing you’ve got 3 defy dangers at 10+ up your sleeve. Really empowering to go wild in the fiction. We do need to talk about Ruthless Slayer and whether the list is permissive or not. “Take Something Important” is pretty wild for a move that doesn’t require a roll. “Their throat, their heart, their kingdom” I just get it, right? I can personally see what you’re going for, but it’d be nice if the rule had more clarity on what my limits are as a ranger. How do I not just kill everything by spending my readiness? Because surely “their life” is something important that I can take.

Tools of the Trade echos The Witcher in exactly the way I want it to. I’m glad this move exists and my greatest regret is that I didn’t get to use it in our playtest.

Grisly Trophy is a nice feel. I would like to see it extended to party-mates, personally. More party interaction from the ranger would feel good, and this is a good way to do it. Defy Danger still limits the power of it, so that doesn’t worry me too much. It’s just something I’d like to see, the ranger’s expertise being passed on to others.

Biggest problem we had was Bestiary Knowledge. It breaks flow a lot on its own. I love the question (says a lot about the ranger that the first thing they think when they see something is “how can I best kill this thing”). But yes, after the GM presents this wonderful description of a person or thing, to have the Ranger immediately ask “So how do I kill it?” is funny the first or second time, but really breaks the tone of the game. We played a couple of hours in a one-shot and I was sick of asking it, I couldn’t imagine how much I’d want to punch my ranger in the face during a campaign. But I love the question, and I don’t want to see it removed. I would prefer to see it merged with the Hunter background or something, maybe added to Discern Realities/Spout Lore. Just thinking out loud.

Regardless, I really enjoyed the ranger in a way I’ve never enjoyed a ranger before. I’m really excited to see this project go forward. I hope these notes and our playtest are of use to you.