Dungeon World

I like how simple the rules are in Dungeon World. D&D aims to have shallow waters which then drop you into the freezing depths of 100ft or more after a few paces. It's a solid aim for a system that wants to be played and scrutinised for a very long time. But it's also an arduous journey if you want to DM it without reaching for the books. It actively fights you trying to master it. Sage Advice is proof enough that whilst D&D 5th Edition has a solid foundation, most people have little idea of what they're standing on.

Dungeon World on the other hand is hilariously simple. It still has a little bit of fiddliness by keeping 1-18 stats for Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Etc. Something familiar for D&D players like me. And then the rest is mostly feats your character can do. In Dungeon World they're called Moves. A Move is the basic currency of action you can do. Like combat, searching, casting spells and chatting up the NPCs. With the downloadable character sheets and a basic grasp of the rules you can experience making a character for a table top roleplaying game in literally five minutes. This is as glorious as it sounds.

I was skeptical about the collaborative storytelling element in DW, I thought it would just devolve into silliness. It turns out I was right to doubt it but for the wrong reasons. Dungeon World lets the players prep for the DM - they can be asked questions about their world and can create a backdrop and links between their characters. It's a change from most roleplaying games as there's a bond with everyone at the table (there's even a Bonds mechanic in the game - just in case the point hasn't driven home yet). It's also incredibly slow, it sets a precedent for discussing the Why over the What for the conversations that follow. Introspection and action are not great bedfellows. But it does create investment, so whilst I'm not a fan of the pace of it I think it's a positive thing to have in a game.

What I wasn't expecting to bounce off was the Apocalypse World System. It puts the onus on the players dice to resolve both sides of a conflict. You make a move: Roll 2D6, add your meagre modifiers and consider the results below.

• 1-6 You fail. In combat the enemy has struck you, and in other endeavours something else goes wrong.
• 7-9 Partial success. You hit, but you get hit back. Each move has its penalties for failure and so you accrue one of those as well as performing the task.
• 10+ Success. Everything is good and well in the world. In combat you can ask for extra damage as well in trade for getting hit back.

All the dice are in the player's hands. It keeps the DM free to simply bind it all together - and why not? They're usually doing the most work.

It wasn't until I'd burnt through all of my spells (opting to forget them till I could pray again for my partial successes) that I realised I was scared of making a Move. Dungeon World has a cute system of awarding you an experience point when you roll 1-6. It's supposed to soften the blow, but what it actually does it make the blow hit harder. If you fail a roll in D&D, sometimes it's bad, sometimes nothing happens. But in DW, bothering to act can be more trouble than it's worth. I'm reminded of the angry father in David O'Reilly's External World, resorting to escalating means of punishment when his son screws up playing the piano.

I explained this Action Paralysis to a colleague who DMs Dungeon World and he suggested our DM was treating it like Call of the Cthulhu, that the manual recommends the DM be a fan of the players and want them to prosper. But I don't see this reflected in the mechanics. What we have is this marvellously simple system that unfortunately operates like a minefield.

I don't think Dungeon World is bad, I think it's pretty good all in all. I simply don't think it's Great. Which is what I was hoping for. A simple alternative to D&D that wouldn't require so much work to run. Instead, it's got this Hard Mode built into its fabric that requires people bring something to the table. The DM has to prod people to make sure they move (there is no initiative order so you can effectively hide from consequences by being quiet). And players have to have balls of steel to engage. You need neither of those in D&D - the mechanics of it nudge people into having turns and let you evade a lot of unnecessary danger.

It's a good game, but good in a Super Hexagon kind of way (disclaimer: I don't actually like playing Super Hexagon, but I get that lots of people like it because it's hard, analogies eh? I liked VVVVVV, but it's less of a common currency title).

I look forward to playing Dungeon World again. Next time with the mindset that I'm entering a tough as nails indie game as opposed to a AAA monster that leaves no player or DM behind.

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Um. My second game didn't go particularly well. I haven't spoken to people from that group since...

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However, half a year later I learned what was really going on with the Powered by the Apocalypse "drama engine" and how it could make my life a lot easier. Take my hand.