Author: Stefan Bernhard

Discuss: Do you show monster stats to players?

Context:

Talking about the full ‘monster box’ as found in the Rules/Codex here.

Assuming players might have read the rules anyway, it would only be consistent to show them a new monster you wrote yourself, wouldn’t it?

Or do you prefer players not to know what a particular enemy is capable of so not to bias the actions player have their PCs make?

Have you tried both ways and want to share your experiences? Personally I have only ever kept the monster details to myself but next session I will try how showing the monster details to the players feels or if it even makes any difference.

(Question does not apply to when you want them to find out what they are truly fighting by themselves, of course.)

Johnstone Metzger , what is the idealistic tag of the Captain’s crew? I find no reference in CW or DW.

I suppose it means that they should behave lawful, possibly lawful good. Essentially a bunch of Paladin-esque figures.

Meaning the Captain tells us what they fight for and what their beliefs are, and they probably won’t act against those if they are not forced or see no other way.

Flexible Morals from the Thief. When someone tries to detect your alignment you can tell them any alignment you like.

When/How do you use that move. I’ve never thought of having an NPC walk up to a PC and ask: are you good or evil? Not that the answer would matter anyway (like, say, a guard asked you if you were a respectable person for they cannot let in persons with ill intent)?

Today during End of Session, the thief used the move on me, the GM, to tell me that he was Chaotic, so he would get alignment XP, which he wouldn’t have with his true neutral alignment. Is that an intended use of the move?

How deadly is your Dungeon World?

Do your PCs usually survive to level 10?

Are they regularly injured and battle scarred? Is loss of limb a common condition?

In summary, I would like to gather some info on how dangerous your DW game is to the PCs and opinions on how deadly it should be.

I’ll start (I am GM): the PCs in my group are now approaching the higher levels of 6+, without ever being in real danger (read: high risk of dying) for the most part. The Barbarian once took his Last Breath, but that was mostly accidental by charging into a pack of spiders without trying to defy the danger.

I feel like DW is supposed to feel and be far more deadly than I currently portray it. Players should be afraid of missing a roll and not heading into battle straight on and rolling recklessly without fear.

Quick mechanics question: when you Defend, can you spend your 3 hold all at once on the same option? I.e. deal damage equal to your level 3 times?

Quick question: Your load is 9+STR.

Is it like HP 9+12=21 or is it using the modifier 9+0=9.

Makes a huge difference and we calculated it like HP in our first session and I feel like load plays no role at all.