448 – Laying down the law

As promised, I am now presenting my mini-review of the Dungeon World game. I remember when I was a kid, I found that the rulebook to Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (yes I’m that old) was great reading but the sheer density of the text in that book made trying to completely understand the entire game intimidating. Dungeon World doesn’t have that. This is not to say that is not complex; it can be complex, just as complex as you want to make it. I am simply saying that, after a five-minute introduction to the basic rules of the game, we were off and playing and at no time did I feel as though I were grasping to understand the rules, as often happened/happens in other RPGs (GURPS and Palladium, I’m looking at you).  I must confess to having been a little trepidatious about trying DW, but it turned out to be easy to learn and play. In the game are several of the standard D&D classes, like Paladin, Ranger, Wizard, Thief, etc., but the nice thing about this is that there are numerous “hacks” to the DW system, making any number of classes and races possible. For example, I am running a Human Psion (yes, I’m one of those DMs/players that LIKES psionics), which is a class NOT provided for in the rulebook, but was created by someone else to fit into DW.

Short answer: I liked it. Go check it out. Also, here’s a link to a number of Dungeon World Hacks and Tips that I found interesting.

See you all next week!

~Rob