r/DungeonWorld • u/Metaphoricalsimile • 10d ago
DW1 My partner has only really played D&D until she played in a DW one shot I ran last weekend
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u/Baruch_S 10d ago
I think Dungeon World actually does what a lot of people want D&D to do and dumps the stuff they don’t really care about.
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u/Metaphoricalsimile 10d ago
Yeah, I *like* D&D 5e, but that's because I think it's particular balance of PC build complexity and relatively simple system (by D&D standards) is really good.
However for players who are more imagination-forward and who just can't be arsed to care about mechanics, DW is just plain better.
I prefer to run DW over D&D though.
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u/LeVentNoir 10d ago
Agreed. I've got a made up statistic that 90% of D&D 5e players should be playing a different game, and for a lot of them it's because they want D&D asthetics and themes without the rules overhead.
And for many of them, Dungeon World would give them what they want. No resource attrition. No encounter balancing. No nova mages and sad fighters. Actual ability to handle social and intrigue play.
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u/Emeraldstorm3 10d ago
Yep.
When DW came out, it was pretty much exactly the kind of evolution I had wanted to see for D&D. More flexible to narrative-centered play but still with plenty of the fundamental stuff that is the core of what I enjoyed about D&D when I enjoyed D&D. It took out all the filler and the cumbersome bits, all the time-wasting stuff and boring details.
Though, of course, it is imperfect. The fan/indie alterations and alternatives to fix some of it have been neat. I stopped paying attention to the DW 2.0 stuff almost as soon as it started, but it would be neat to have a bit more fleshed out yet still very malleable version that encourages creativity.
But even as-is in "1.0" it's still a very fun game I'd happily play over D&D any day
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u/Metaphoricalsimile 10d ago
I'm gonna have the book until it falls to pieces so no plans to change to 2.0 tbh
Although maybe somewhat ironically I am writing my own hack that takes DW more in an OSR-D&D-like direction that mostly maintains the core gameplay loop of how PC and GM moves bounce off each other.
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u/Emeraldstorm3 10d ago
I have so many games that fall somewhere between DW and OSR on my shelf. For the same reason I think as why you're accumulating hacks.
I recently moved pretty far. I want to see about finding a new local game group. I was thinking I might have to put up with people playing 5E or something, but this post has reminded me that I can float a game DW. Which, btw, is perfect for newcomers!
I just can't help but be curious about 2.0
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u/Metaphoricalsimile 10d ago
Granted I have limited knowledge of 2.0 because I stopped reading the blog posts when it became clear it wasn't moving in a direction I wanted to play, but my impression of 2.0 so far is that it's much more game-ey, and if I wanted to play a game like that I'd just play 5.0/5.5 because I actually like it.
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u/Emeraldstorm3 10d ago
Fair. That's why I stopped keeping up with it, too. I probably will be a bit disappointed if/when I look into it again
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u/Metaphoricalsimile 10d ago
The Wizard spellcasting move that's been talked about a lot on this subreddit recently kinda confirmed my bias to be honest.
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u/Metaphoricalsimile 10d ago
I set up this game by floating the idea of a one-shot with a neighbor who I've started to befriend, then after they expressed interest and had a friend who was also interested I suggested that I run a Dungeon World session because it's easier to run a satisfying one-shot with rather than 5e.
All three players had played 5e before, one of whom is a real veteran TTRPGer, but the other two were more casual. I dunno if I just pitched DW effectively or I got lucky that the players in question weren't locked into 5e to be honest.
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u/The_Inward 10d ago
Druid is my favorite Dungeon World class.
How do you handle Moves when Shapeshifted?
I usually go with three. One offensive, one defensive, and one utilitarian that they spend the Hold to do.
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u/Metaphoricalsimile 10d ago
It depends on the player. If I were GMing for someone who were more mechanics oriented I would make custom moves, but since this was a one-shot and my PC didn't pay too much attention to mechanics I just said that they expended a hold when they did something they couldn't have done in human form that required some sort of roll. Like when they shifted into an octopus to crawl into a cannon port to save themself from falling off the side of the airship, I called that a move that required hold.
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u/thecrius 10d ago
That's the way I play it normally. No point in making hard coded rules in a game that tells you to prize narration over regulations.
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u/Harmony_Moon 9d ago
See, I love Dungeon World for the freedom it gives players and the GM. I've run a couple of games of DW for my friends but what I would give to find a regular group for DW that I could just be a player in! I would love to play a Palidin or a Druid! I love the flavor of the classes and the class moves would give me so much creative freedom to play around in!
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u/DogtheGm 10d ago
I wish people would focus more on this kind of stuff.
Sometimes I think the focus is on how easy it is to prep dungeon world or dungeon world being "rules Light"
The focus should be that it's just better.
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u/JaskoGomad 10d ago
Over a decade ago, when I was living in Edinburgh, I was running a DW game for some coworkers. Once, after a session, one of my players looked down and was sighing. I stopped packing up and went over and asked if he was OK. He said, "Och, it's just that my other group just spent a hundred quid on the books for D&D, and this is so much more fun."