Jeremy Strandberg – Page 5 – Dungeon World Tavern G+ Archives

I’ve written a lot about this move over the years.

I’ve written a lot about this move over the years. I’m going to try to start collecting these on the blog so that they’re easier to find and reference.

In Defense of Discern Realities

I posted this essay on G+ back in 2016. At the time, there was a lot of talk and swirl on the Dungeon World Tavern about whether Discern Realities was a good move, and when it triggered, and how to use it. This was my response.

So let’s imagine a different sort of Hack & Slash, shall we?

HACK & SLASH

When you fight in melee, make clear your intent and roll +STR. On a 10+, your maneuver works as well as can be expected, deal your damage if appropriate. On a 7-9, your maneuver works but there’s a catch:

• You’re exposed to the enemy’s attack

• It costs you something (your weapon, your footing, you position, etc.)

• It’s less effective than you planned (if dealing damage, you have disadvantage)

• You cause unwanted harm, peril, or collateral damage

If you fight from a position of relative strength or safety, you chose. Otherwise, the GM chooses.

We gain a move more grounded in the fiction, both in its inputs and outputs. We get a move that can be about fighting for position at least as much as doing damage, which can make disappointing damage rolls less disappointing. We also get a fun little incentive to improve your tactical position when fighting, because of the control it gives you on a 7-9.

We lose the fun choice on the 10+, where the player has to decide if that extra d6 damage is worth the damage/harm, or if if it’s character. We also lose some of the move’s simplicity.

We also potentially lose moves that interact with Hack and Slash as written. Like, how would Smash or Superior Warrior interact with these? Or various magical items?

What do you think?

Homebrew World is my poorly named version of DW optimized for one-shots and short-run plays.

Homebrew World is my poorly named version of DW optimized for one-shots and short-run plays. One of the biggest changes is the Gear and Supplies; it’s even more consolidated than “adventuring gear” and “ammo” and whatnot.

Here’s the deets (and some examples) if you’re interested.

Questions and feedback appreciated!

Gear Slots and Supplies in Homebrew World

Each class playbook gets 9 “slots” for gear, plus a box for small items. It looks like this: Most items take up a slot, but: Small items can go in your Small Items section (and you can carry as many as you can write in there).

“there are more general agendas and principles that you hopefully follow whenever you get together with other people…

“there are more general agendas and principles that you hopefully follow whenever you get together with other people to play a game.”

The Agenda Behind the Agenda

Games that identify themselves as Powered by the Apocalypse (PbtA) pretty much always have a list of agenda items and principles for the GM.

Here’s a first pass at compiling the trove of example GM moves y’all suggested in my prior post.

I’ve done very limited editing and tried to attribute moves to their sources. Comments/suggestions are enabled, so if you want to change something you wrote or have a suggestion, feel free to add them there (or here, either’s cool).

Also: Please keep suggestions coming. Plenty of GM moves in that doc have only 2 examples, and we could really use some more straightforward cases. Also, a variety of situation types (exploration, combat, interaction; being sneaky; getting sneaked on; dealing with traps and weird magic; etc.)

I haven’t done any real curating yet, nor have incorporated examples from any extant sources (the DW Guide, Suddenly Ogres, etc.), but I plan to do that eventually.

I’ll likely end up with two documents:

1) This one, which is basically a grab bag of examples provided by/found in the community

2) A “curated” one, that tries to really demonstrate some “classic” examples of each move, the range of soft/hard on each, and different situations.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Ge5MHNajq2IbJLW5ptOl-Una0GPPi5VGbI_ZgemH6Us/edit?usp=sharing

If you’re familiar with both Dungeon World and Apocalypse World, you might have noticed a difference in their…

If you’re familiar with both Dungeon World and Apocalypse World, you might have noticed a difference in their “GM/MC” chapters: in Dungeon World, the GM moves are described but given no examples. In Apocalypse World, the GM moves are named, not really described, but instead they are demonstrated almost entirely with examples.

I think newer DW GMs sometimes struggle with visualizing how those GM moves might manifest at the table. So let’s collaborate on a list of 2-4 examples for each basic and dungeon GM move.

As a reminder, here are the GM’s moves in DW:

“*BASIC*” GM MOVES

● Use a monster, danger, or location move

● Reveal an unwelcome truth

● Show signs of an approaching threat

● ~~Deal damage~~ Hurt them (https://goo.gl/PS7wVN)

● Use up their resources

● Turn their move back on them

● Separate them

● Give an opportunity that fits a class’ abilities

● Show a downside to their class, race, or equipment

● Offer an opportunity, with or without cost

● Put someone in a spot

● Tell them the requirements or consequences and ask

DUNGEON MOVES

● Change the environment

● Point to a looming threat

● Introduce a new faction or type of creature

● Use a threat from an existing faction or type of creature

● Make them backtrack

● Present riches at a price

● Present a challenge to one of the characters

Put your examples in the comments, with both the name of the GM move and the example. Make the examples short and sweet, ideally 50 words or less, definitely no more than 100.

Let’s try to get a range of soft, medium, and hard moves for each. If we can get enough good ones, I’ll curate this into a nice formal doc.

Another old/ongoing project of mine.

(Image by R Shel Kahn.)

Drowning & Falling

“Drowning & Falling” is my collection of custom moves for Dungeon World, covering situations that absolutely don’t need custom moves, but that come enough that you might want them. I’ve tried to include design notes, relevant examples of GM moves, and variations as much as possible.

Continuing to post links to existing projects.

Homebrew World

Homebrew World is the working title for my mini-hack of Dungeon World, optimized for one-shots and short-term campaigns. You can find the most current version right here: So what’s different? Most +1/-1 modifiers are replaced with advantage/disadvantage (roll an extra die, discard the lowest/highest).

I believe the Monster Creation Cheat Sheet was the first thing I ever posted to the Tavern.

I just updated it. Enjoy!

(And let me know if you have questions or spot typos or whatever.)

Monster Creation Cheatsheet

This right here is maybe the single most useful thing I’ve made for Dungeon World: The monster creation questionnaire presented in Dungeon World isn’t difficult or very complicated, but it does suffer from usability issues.

Hello, I have a blog now.

Current stage is to post links & descriptions of all my creations & projects, with Stonetop being the biggest of them all.

If you’ve been following Stonetop for a while, probably not much new there. Though there are a few links to the most current versions of a few key documents.

Stonetop

Stonetop is my “hearth fantasy” hack of Dungeon World, and my biggest ongoing project. From the introduction chapter: You are one of these, who call Stonetop home. One of a handful of notable figures who stand out-admired, respected (maybe even reviled) for one reason or another.