Why Dungeon World? An introduction, of sorts

Introduction

Greetings. I'm having another go at blogging after a long time away from TTRPGs in general. I got my start in D&D 3.5, and in my time I've run Mutant Future, Mutants and Masterminds, Tekumel, Numenera, and most recently, Dungeon World.

What is Dungeon World?

In case you've found this blog by sheer accident and this is your first time hearing about it, Dungeon World is a fantasy TTRPG by Sage LaTorra and Adam Koebel, published in 2012. It has more or less all the familiar trappings of D&D and D&D-like games, with elves, wizards, fighters, the six attribute scores, etc. 

The difference is, Dungeon World is based off the "Powered by the Apocalypse" engine, originally from the game Apocalypse World.

In practical terms, that means Dungeon World does a few things differently.

• Instead of rolling d20 + modifiers to hit a certain DC, every action in Dungeon World is resolved by rolling 2d6 + modifiers. A -6 is a failure, a 7-9 is a partial success or a success with a complication, and a 10+ is a success.

• Basically every action you take in the game is covered by a distinct "move," which has its own rules and usually its own recommendations for what goes wrong on a -6 or a 7-9.

• The game is more narrative focus. Things happen because they make sense in context more often than because of sheer mechanics. There are a lot more rulings and a lot more abstraction.

Why Dungeon World?

As a fantasy TTRPG, Dungeon World sets out to accomplish much the same things as D&D. I got my start playing 3.5E, and I feel like Dungeon World offers novel solutions to many of the issues I have had with that game.

• Prep time is a breeze. Preparing adventures and encounters as a DM in D&D 3.5E was an agonizing slog. There's so many mechanics to keep track of: you have to make/compile complex stat blocks, calculate encounter difficulty, calculate XP, calculate level-appropriate treasure, etc. Prepping for D&D 3.5E felt like more work than doing my taxes. Prepping for Dungeon World is so much easier, it allows me to focus on the fun part: coming up with unique worlds and scenarios.

• Homebrewing is a breeze. As an extension of above, fewer rules, less emphasis on everything being "balanced," means making new monsters, classes, magic items, etc. is much easier.

• Combat is way faster. There's no initiative, for one thing. There isn't even rolling attack rolls for each individual monster, per se. When a character would take damage from more than one monster, you roll the dice for the highest damage-dealing monster and add +1 for every other monster aiding them. It's simple, it's deadly, and it's lightning fast.

• Degrees of success make every turn feel more meaningful. When I first started getting back into TTRPGs, I joined a local 5E game and rolled up a warlock. Combat usually boiled down to: cast eldritch blast, wait +30 minutes, cast eldritch blast again, etc. Combat is so slow you might only take two or three turns per hour. And when rolling d20 versus a fixed DC, it's hit or miss. Multiple turns can go by without you accomplishing or contributing anything. In Dungeon World, since you roll 2d6, one, it makes a nice bell-curve where you're less likely to just fail outright, and two, having three tiers of success means that a turn where you accomplish nothing is more rare.

• There's only one book. There are others, of course, but you only need one. For just $25, you get your character classes, core rules, GM advice, monsters, etc. all in one book. Whereas D&D typically requires you to buy 3. Getting into D&D might require an investment north of $90, not that I've checked the prices at Barnes & Noble, lately.

Conclusion

Dungeon World is great. I highly recommend it to any connoisseur of TTRPGs. And since it's so great, and TTRPGs are so great, I want to write about them in a somewhat public manner. And away we go.