Category Archives: RPGs

The Line separates what the GM narrates vs. what the player narrates. In D&D, the player narrates their backstory and their current activity; the DM narrates everything else. Of course, even some DMs in 5e shift the Line a little – “You killed it! Describe your final blow and its death throes!” On the other extreme, take One Shot World by Yochai Gal. The players and GMs collaboratively develop the world. “Set out a blank sheet of paper and ask the player who is the most well-traveled to draw a […]

Dungeon World helped popularize Powered by the Apocalypse games, by capitalizing on players’ familiarity with Dungeons & Dragons. Enough so that it is sometimes used as a reference point by gamers who ask, “Can you recommend a game like Dungeon World but…?” Here are some common answers. Next-Generation Fantasy PbtA If you’d like to play a take on “Dungeon World 2.0”, try Homebrew World.* If you’d like to play a more PbtA Dungeon World game, try Unlimited Dungeons* (supplement) or Chasing Adventure.* If you’d like to play an even more […]

PbtA games (Powered by the Apocalypse) are sometimes summarized as 2d6 games, due to the 2d6+stat dice mechanic popularized by Apocalypse World: a 10+ is an unmitigated success, a 7-9 is a mixed success, and a 6- (6 or less) is a failure. But some PbtA games use other dice mechanics.* I was particularly fascinated by the action rolls of Blades in the Dark, which use dice pools where only the highest die is considered: “They might succeed at their action without any consequences (on a 6), or they might succeed […]

As a conlanger, I’ve been curious about the phonotactics of fantasy names for the player characters in D&D 5e. My assumption is that these names are designed to be vanilla, easy-to-pronounce names, while conveying a bit about character and setting. As someone who overengineers names, I wanted to assess the names I generate against the mainstream standard. The Sample The Player’s Handbook (PHB, shown above) has lists of suggested names for dwarves, elves, halfings, humans, dragonborn, gnomes, half-orcs, and tieflings. For humans, there are lists of names by eight of […]

One of the many things I love about Homebrew World and similar fantasy PbtA games (Powered by the Apocalypse inspired) is their druid’s ability to spend time studying a creature and then subsequently becoming able to shapeshift into the form of that creature. My player who was a druid would go out of her way during adventures to master new animal forms that she would be able to turn into. For instance, one evening in a swamp, while the wizard was studying his spellbook, the druid spent time in quiet […]

If you are interested in designing a Powered by the Apocalypse (PbtA) tabletop roleplaying game: First, buy a copy of Apocalypse World. After all, that’s where this all started. Second, buy and read a few systems from different branches of the PbtA family tree, to get a glimpse of the range of possibilities. Sam Sorensen has a great taxonomy of PbtA games (shown above). Third, download @lackingceremony‘s Simple World. As she wrote, “I created Simple World in order to showcase that an Apocalypse World hack didn’t need to be a […]

I’m thinking again about armor hacks for RPG rules. Fantasy TTRPGs over-obsess about armor, to my mind. Thinking about all the swords & sorcery and fantasy that I read, the only narratively interesting scenes about armor that spring to mind come from The Lord of the Rings: Frodo’s mithril coat saving him from a spear thrust in Moria, to the subsequent surprise and delight of his companions. (In the book, he’s attacked by an orc-chieftain; in the movie, by a cave-troll.) Pippin getting armor at Minas Tirith and the resulting […]

In trying to research improvements to Dungeon World’s Volley move, I came across a 2014 post from Rob Donoghue, one of the inventors of Fate and a co-founder of Evil Hat. This led me into his blog posts of his initial plays of Dungeon World. Here’s the first two: D20 and the D&D Off Ramp D&D Off Ramp – Why These Three? Here are his DW-centric posts, when he started tagging them DW. They are a bit of a pain to read chronologically (involves scrolling back up). I really like […]

A popular feature of hacks of Dungeon World is replacing alignment (Lawful, Good, Neutral, Evil, Chaotic) with drives. Worlds of Adventure, Unlimited Dungeons, and Homebrew World all use drives. Some examples: Above the Law (for Paladins in Worlds of Adventure, by Cameron Burns) – “Punish unbelievers for your own gain or to further your goals.” Accord (for Elves in Unlimited Dungeons, by Peter Johansen) – “Find virtue in others not of your own kind.” Ambition (for Clerics in Homebrew World, by Jeremy Strandberg) – “Gain recognition from or hold leverage […]

I’ve created a Dungeon World Patch Kit. Each Basic and Special Move starts with its Dungeon World wording first, then shows the wording from popular hacks. Select the wording that works best for your table! Why did I make this? I just finished my first Dungeon World campaign last week, played Rules as Written except for tweaking the End of Session move as we went along. We’re about to start a new campaign this weekend. We want to continue to play Dungeon World, but recognize that the language of some […]