Dungeon World SRD Table of Contents Undertake a Perilous Journey...... 19 Level Up...... 20 Introduction...... 4 End of Session...... 20 The Bard...... 5 Carouse...... 20 The Cleric...... 5 Supply...... 20 The Fighter...... 5 Recover...... 20 The Paladin...... 5 Recruit...... 21 The Ranger...... 6 Outstanding Warrants...... 21 The Thief...... 6 Bolster...... 21 The Wizard...... 6 The Bard...... 21 Setting Up...... 7 Names...... 22 Using Dice...... 7 Look...... 22 The Flow of Play...... 7 Stats...... 22 Moves...... 8 Starting Moves...... 22 Rolls and Results...... 9 Alignment...... 23 Terminology...... 9 Gear...... 23 Stats...... 10 Bonds...... 23 Equipment...... 11 Advanced Moves...... 24 Damage and HP...... 11 The Cleric...... 25 Advancement...... 12 Names...... 26 Sessions...... 13 Look...... 26 Why?...... 13 Stats...... 26 Character Creation...... 13 Starting Moves...... 26 1. Choose a Class...... 14 Alignment...... 27 2. Choose a Race...... 14 Gear...... 27 3. Choose a Name...... 14 Bonds...... 28 4. Choose Look...... 15 Advanced Moves...... 28 5. Choose Stats...... 15 Cleric Spells...... 30 6. Figure Out Modifiers...... 15 Rotes...... 30 7. Set Starting HP...... 15 1st Level Spells...... 30 8. Choose Starting Moves...... 15 3rd Level Spells...... 31 9. Choose Alignment...... 16 5th Level Spells...... 31 10. Choose Gear...... 16 7th Level Spells...... 32 11. Introduce Your Character...... 16 9th Level Spells...... 32 12. Choose Bonds...... 17 Fighter...... 33 Basic Moves...... 17 Names...... 33 Hack and Slash...... 17 Look...... 33 Volley...... 17 Stats...... 34 Defy Danger...... 17 Starting Moves...... 34 Defend...... 18 Alignment...... 35 Spout Lore...... 18 Gear...... 35 Discern Realities...... 18 Bonds...... 35 Parley...... 18 Advanced Moves...... 35 Aid or Interfere...... 18 Paladin...... 37 Special Moves...... 19 Names...... 37 Last Breath...... 19 Look...... 37 Encumbrance...... 19 Stats...... 38 Make Camp...... 19 Starting Moves...... 38 Take Watch...... 19 Alignment...... 39 Gear...... 39 Hoards...... 62 Bonds...... 39 Magic Items...... 62 Advanced Moves...... 39 The GM...... 65 Ranger...... 41 Always Say...... 65 Names...... 41 Agenda...... 66 Look...... 41 Principles...... 67 Stats...... 41 Moves...... 69 Starting Moves...... 41 Dungeon Moves...... 72 Alignment...... 43 First Session...... 75 Gear...... 43 Prep...... 75 Bonds...... 43 Fronts...... 78 Advanced Moves...... 43 Creating Fronts...... 80 Thief...... 45 Creating Dangers...... 80 Names...... 45 Types of Dangers...... 81 Look...... 45 Resolving a Front...... 86 Stats...... 45 Multiple Adventure Fronts...... 87 Starting Moves...... 46 An Example Front: The Opening of the White Alignment...... 47 Gate...... 87 Gear...... 47 Dangers...... 87 Bonds...... 47 Description and Cast...... 88 Advanced Moves...... 47 Custom Moves...... 88 Wizard...... 49 Stakes...... 88 Names...... 49 Blood and Guts...... 88 Look...... 50 HP...... 88 Stats...... 50 Debilities...... 92 Starting Moves...... 50 Advancement...... 93 Alignment...... 51 Bonds...... 93 Gear...... 51 Alignment...... 94 Bonds...... 51 The world...... 96 Advanced Moves...... 51 Creating the world...... 97 Wizard Spells...... 53 Steading Moves...... 97 Cantrips...... 53 Carouse...... 98 1st Level Spells...... 54 Supply...... 98 3rd Level Spells...... 54 Recover...... 98 5th Level Spells...... 55 Recruit...... 98 7th Level Spells...... 56 Outstanding Warrants...... 98 9th Level Spells...... 56 Bolster...... 99 Equipment...... 57 Elements of a Steading...... 99 Tag Glossary...... 57 Making a Village...... 103 Weapons...... 59 Making a Town...... 103 Armor...... 59 Making a Keep...... 104 Dungeon Gear...... 59 Making a City...... 104 Poisons...... 60 Fronts on the Campaign Map...... 105 Services...... 61 Updating the Campaign Map...... 105 Meals...... 61 Hirelings...... 107 Transport...... 61 Making a Hireling...... 108 Land and Buildings...... 61 Monsters...... 110 Bribes...... 61 Using Monsters...... 110 Gifts and Finery...... 62 Elements of a Monster...... 111 Monster Tags...... 112 Command...... 177 Making Monsters...... 113 Thief Moves...... 177 Treasure...... 115 Poisoner...... 177 Monster Settings...... 116 Wealth and Taste...... 177 Cavern Dwellers...... 119 Disguise...... 177 Swamp Denizens...... 123 Wizard Moves...... 177 Undead Legions...... 130 Empowered Magic...... 177 Gnarled Woods...... 136 Wizard Spells...... 178 Ravenous Hordes...... 141 Dispel Magic...... 178 Twisted Experiments...... 148 Fireball...... 178 Lower Depths...... 152 Polymorph...... 178 Planar Powers...... 156 Summon Monster...... 178 Folk of the Realm...... 161 Making Moves...... 178 Moves in Detail...... 165 Starting Points...... 178 Volley...... 166 Types of Moves...... 179 Defy Danger...... 167 World Moves...... 180 Defend...... 168 Class Moves...... 180 Spout Lore...... 170 New Classes...... 181 Discern Realities...... 170 Adventure Moves...... 183 Parley...... 171 Move Structure...... 184 Aid or Interfere...... 173 Changing the Basics...... 185 Special Moves...... 173 Development of a Move...... 186 Last Breath...... 173 Agenda, Principles, and GM Moves...... 187 Encumbrance...... 174 Monsters...... 189 Carouse...... 174 Special Thanks...... 189 Undertake a Perilous Journey...... 174 Contributors...... 189 Make Camp...... 174 License...... 190 Outstanding Warrants...... 175 Moves in Detail...... 175 Multiclass Moves...... 175 Multiclass Dabbler...... 175 Multiclass Initiate...... 175 Multiclass Master...... 175 Bard Moves...... 175 Bardic Lore...... 175 Charming and Open...... 176 It Goes To Eleven...... 176 An Ear for Magic...... 176 Cleric Spells...... 176 Guidance...... 176 Magic Weapon...... 176 Animate Dead...... 176 Fighter Moves...... 176 Signature Weapon...... 176 Heirloom...... 177 Armor Mastery...... 177 Paladin Moves...... 177 Evidence of Faith...... 177 Ranger Moves...... 177 Introduction The Cleric The lands of Dungeon World are a gods- Dungeon World is a world of fantastic forsaken mess. They're lousy with the adventure. A world of magic, gods, demons, walking dead, beasts of all sorts, and the Good and Evil. Brave heroes venture into vast unnatural spaces between safe and the most dangerous corners of the land in temple-blessed civilizations. It is a godless search of gold and glory. world out there. That's why it needs you. You are those heroes. You go where others Bringing the glory of your god to the can't or won't. You conquer the unbeatable heathens isn't just in your nature—it's your and laugh in the face of Death. There are calling. It falls to you to proselytize with monstrous things lurking in the world. Are sword and mace and spell. To cleave deep you ready to face them? into the witless heart of the wilds and plant the seed of divinity there. Some say that it The Bard is best to keep god close to your heart. You Sure, an adventurer's life is all open roads know that's rubbish. God lives at the edge and the glory of coin and combat. Those of a blade. Show the world who is lord. tales that are told in every farmhand-filled inn have to have some ring of truth to The Fighter them, don't they? The songs to inspire It's a thankless job—living day to day by peasantry and royals alike – to sooth the your armor and the skill of your arm. To savage beast or drive men to a frenzy have dive heedlessly into danger. They won't be to come from somewhere. playing golden horns for the time you took Enter the Bard. You, with your smooth that knife to the ribs for them in the bar in tongue and quick wit. You teller-of-tales Bucksberg. No flock of angels to sing of the and singer-of-songs. It takes a mere time you dragged them, still screaming, minstrel to retell a thing but a true Bard to from the edge of the Pits of Madness, no. live it. Strap on your boots, noble orator. Forget them. Sharpen that hidden dagger and take up the call. Someone's got to be there, fighting You do this for the guts and the glory. The shoulder-to-shoulder with the goons and scream of battle and the hot hot blood of the thugs and the soon-to-be-heroes. Who it. You are a beast of iron. Your friends may better than you to write the tale of your carry blades of forged steel but, Fighter, own heroism? you are steel. While your traveling companions might moan about their Nobody. Get going. wounds over a campfire in the wilderness, you bear your scars with pride. You are the wall—let every danger smash fate if you like, has cast your lot with these itself to nothing on you. In the end, you'll folk. Brave, they may be. Powerful and be the last one standing. strong, too. You know the secrets of the spaces-between, though.

The Paladin Without you, they'd be lost. Blaze a trail Hell awaits. An eternity of torment in fire through the blood and dark, strider. or ice or whatever best suits the sins of the damned throngs of Dungeon World. All The Thief that stands between the pits of that grim You've heard them, sitting around the torture and salvation is you. Holy man, campfire. Bragging about this battle or that. armored war machine, templar of the Good About how their gods are smiling on your and the Light, right? The Cleric may say his merry band. You count your coins and prayers at night to the Gods, dwelling in smile to yourself—this is the thrill above their heavens. The Fighter may wield his all. You alone know the secret of Dungeon sharp sword in the name of “good” but you World: filthy filthy lucre. know. Only you. Sure, they give you lip for all the times Eyes, hands and sweet killing blow of the you've snuck off alone but without you, gods, you are. Yours is the gift of who among them wouldn't have been righteousness and virtue. Of justice. Vision, dissected by a flying guillotine or poisoned too. A purity of intent that your straight to death by some ancient needle- companions do not have. So guide these trap? So let them complain. When you're fools, Paladin. Take up your holy cause and done with all this delving you'll toast their bring salvation to the wastrel world. heroes' graves. Vae victis, right? From your castle. Full of gold. You rogue.

The Ranger The Wizard These city-born folk you travel with. Have Dungeon World has rules. Not the laws of they heard the call of the wolf? Felt the men or the rule of some petty tyrant. winds howl in the bleak deserts of the Bigger, better rules. You drop something— East? Have they hunted their prey with the it falls. You can't make something out of bow and the knife like you? Hell no. That's nothing. The dead stay dead, right? why they need you. Oh, the things we tell ourselves to feel Guide. Hunter. Creature of the wilds. You better about the long, dark nights. are these things and more. Your time in the wilderness may have been solitary until You've spent so very long poring over those now, the call of some greater thing – call it tomes of yours. The experiments that nearly drove you mad and all the botched • One copy each of the cleric and summonings that endangered your very wizard spell sheets soul. For what? For power. What else is • One copy of the adventure sheet and there? Not just the power of King or GM moves Country but the power to boil a man's Everyone at the table will need something blood in his veins. To call on the thunder of to write with and some six-sided dice. Two the sky and the churn of the roiling earth. dice is the minimum but two dice per To shrug off the rules the world holds so player is a good idea. dear. You'll also need some specialized dice: Let them cast their sidelong glances. Let four-sided, eight-sided, and ten-sided. One them call you “warlock” or “diabolist.” Who of each is enough but more is better; you among them can hurl fireballs from their won't have to pass them around so much. eyes? Yeah. We didn't think so. Using Dice When talking about dice, dX means a dice Setting Up with X sides (d4, d6, d8, etc.). A number before the dice size means "roll this many To play Dungeon World, you'll need to and add them together," so 2d6 means "roll gather yourself and 2–5 friends. A group of two six-sided dice and add them together." 4 to 5, including you, is best. Choose one Sometimes you'll add something to the roll, person to be the GameMaster (hereafter: maybe a static number or the result of GM). Everyone else will be players, taking another roll, add that to the total. If there's the role of the characters in the game. The a "·b" at the end instead of adding them players get to say what their characters say, together you take the best one ('b' for think, and do. The GM describes 'best'), so 2d6·b+1 means "roll two six-sided everything else in the world. dice and take the best one and add one to You can play a single session or string it." A "·w" at the end means you take the together multiple sessions into a campaign. worst result, so 2d6·w means "roll two six- Plan accordingly. Each session will usually sided dice and take the worst one." be a few hours and you'll be able to start playing right away within the first session.

You'll need to print some materials. Before The Flow of Play you start a new game, print off at least: Playing Dungeon World is a conversation of sorts; I say something, then you reply, • A few copies of the basic and special maybe someone else chimes in. We talk moves about the fiction, what's happening to the • One copy of each class sheet characters we imagine and the world around them. We also talk about the rules, fictional effects based on the outcome of how they come from and lead back to the the roll. Most moves rely on one of a fiction. There are no turns or rounds in character's stats which represent the Dungeon World, no forced order of when character's innate abilities. people talk, but a conversation means When a player says their character does taking turns. Dungeon World is never a something that triggers a move that move monologue, always a conversation. happens and its rules apply. Moves and The rules shape the conversation. While dealing damage are the only times dice are the GM and the players are having a rolled. The move will tell you what dice to conversation the rules and the fiction are roll. having a conversation too. The rules affect The basic rule of moves is: take the the game when the fiction triggers them action to gain the effect. To make the and a rule will always tell you when it's mechanical aspect of a move happen the meant to trigger. character has to do something that triggers that move. Likewise, if the character does Moves something that triggers a move the The basic unit of rules in Dungeon World mechanical portion happens. is the Move. A move looks like this: Moves Are Indivisible When you attack an enemy in melee, A character can't take the fictional action roll+Str. On a 10+ you deal your damage to that triggers a move without that move the enemy and avoid their attack. At your occurring. For example, if Isaac tells the option, you may choose to do +1d6 damage GM that his character dashes past a crazed, but expose yourself to the enemy's attack. axe-wielding orc to the open door he On a 7–9, you deal your damage to the makes the Defy Danger move because its enemy and the enemy makes an attack trigger is "when you act despite an against you. imminent threat". Isaac can't just have his Moves are rules that describe when they character run past the orc without making trigger and what effect they have. A move the Defy Danger move and he can't make always depends on a fictional action and the Defy Danger move without acting always has some fictional effect. "Fictional" despite an imminent threat. The moves means that the action and effect come and the fiction go hand-in-hand to make from the shared imaginative space we're up the game. When a move is made it falls describing, not from us directly. In the to the GM and players to make sure that move above, the trigger is "when you attack both of these things (fiction and rules) an enemy in melee." The effect is what happen. follows: a roll to be made and differing Taking a fictional action that should trigger example, the Thief move Cautious gives a a move and not applying it looks like this: constant bonus. That's still a move, it's just Ben says "I run past the orc to the door," one that's always happening; the Thief is but doesn't make the Defy Danger move. In particularly careful when looking for signs this case, the GM should suggest that the of traps. Maybe they've learned their move applies: "So you're Defying the lesson from being caught in a trap before. Danger of the crazed orc as he swings at you?" Ben then has to be a real adventurer Rolls and Results and Defy Danger or back off and do Once a move applies, it's time to look at something else; he can't take action that the effects. Most moves tell you to triggers the move without making the roll+something. The roll part means to move. He can't "just" run past the orc take two d6s, roll them, and add them without making the move that applies. together. The +something part means to Trying to apply a move without taking the add the modifier associated with that stat. action that makes the move occur happens So, a character with Dex modifier of +2 when a player jumps straight to the effects who launches a Volley rolls two d6s, adds of the move. The Hack and Slash move has them together, and adds two. Easy. damage as one of its effects. Dan can't just The result of the roll falls into three say "I'm Hacking and Slashing! I rolled +Str categories: a 10+ is a strong hit. A 7–9 is a and got a 10, I do 1d8 damage." That doesn't weak hit. A 6- is a miss. work because his character hasn't taken any fictional action. "Hack and Slash" isn't Strong hits and weak hits are both hits. A something a character does—it's a rule that hit means the character does what they set happens when the character fulfills its out to, more or less. A strong hit means trigger. The GM's response should be they do it without much trouble or "okay, how do you do that?" or "what does complications. A weak hit means that look like?" complications and unpleasantries. Sometimes, a weak hit will mean you need The GM's questions are there to refine the to make a hard decision about what to do action, not to deny it. It's still a next. The move will always say what to do conversation. The GM asks to make sure for a strong and weak hit. the everyone understands what's happening and the moves involved. A miss means that the character's action is unsuccessful or carries major Some moves work a little differently—they consequences. Unless the move tells you just provide a bonus all the time. These what to do, all moves work the same on a moves are still saying something fictionally miss—the GM takes action, doing and mechanically. They're saying something dangerous to the characters. something the character is or has. For Terminology lot. Special moves are moves that come up less frequently, but everyone has access to Some moves use the phrase "deal them. damage." Dealing damage means you roll the damage dice for your class and modify Each class also has some of its own moves. it based on the weapon you were using for Some of these moves are starting moves that move. You have to be wielding a that the class starts with. Others are weapon to use your class's damage dice. advanced moves that the player may Default damage without a weapon is 1. choose as their character grows.

Some moves say "take +1 forward." That means to take +1 to your next move roll Stats (not damage). The bonus can be greater The basic stats are: than +1, or even a penalty, like -1. There Strength (Str). The character's physical also might be a condition, such as "take +1 force and muscle. Used for moves in melee forward to Hack and Slash," in which case combat and breaking things. the bonus applies only to the next time you roll Hack and Slash, not any other move. Dexterity (Dex). The character's precision and aim. Used for moves in ranged combat Some moves say "take +1 ongoing." That and avoiding things. means to take +1 to all move rolls (not damage). The bonus can be larger than +1, Constitution (Con). The character's health or it can be a penalty, like -1. There also and ability to take a beating. Used for might be a condition, such as "take +1 moves that endure things and surviving ongoing to Volley." An ongoing bonus also dangers. says what causes it to end, like "until you Intelligence (Int). The character's dismiss the spell" or "until you atone to accumulated knowledge and logical your deity." thinking. Used for moves that rely of Some moves give you hold. Hold is remembered facts and casting some kinds currency that allows you to make some of spells. choices later on by spending the hold as Wisdom (Wis). The character's keen the move describes. Hold is always saved senses and mental defenses. Used for up for the move that generated it; you can't moves that rely on noticing things and spend your hold from Defend on Trap casting some kinds of spells. Sense or vice versa. Charisma (Cha). The character's force of There are some moves that all the players personality and charm. Used for social have access to. These are the Basic and moves. Special moves. Basic moves are the things that happen often—players will roll these a Each basic stat has a score from 3 to 18 level tracks how far you've grown. As you and a modifier from -3 to +3. When a stat advance in level you gain new moves. is spelled out (like "Strength") that refers to the score, when the three letter Equipment abbreviation (like "Str") is used it refers to Every adventurer needs stuff: weapons, the modifier. The stat's modifier depends spellbooks, armor, holy symbols, and the on the stat's score: like. Each item says what it does. In Scor Modifie general, weapons define the way a e r character deals damage with it and at what 1–3 -3 range they can do that damage. Armor and 4–5 -2 shields reduce damage taken. Other items 6–8 -1 have various effects. 9–11 0 12– Items say what they do through their tags. +1 15 A tag is a word or phrase that indicates 16-17 +2 some common ability the item possess. 18 +3 The Messy tag, for example, means the There are also a few special stats: weapon does damage in a particularly devastating way. Bond is how well your character knows another character. You use Bond to aid All items, unless otherwise noted, are another character or interfere with their mundane. They're not magical in any way. actions. Bond is about knowledge and not Some items are enchanted—they work about how well you get along or how through arcane or divine tricks. These similar you are. Bond may also be magic items are tougher to get, tougher to asymmetrical: the Fighter might know the destroy, and more powerful to use. Wizard very well, but the Wizard doesn't Characters are limited in how much they pay much attention to the Fighter. Your can carry by their Load. Load is Bond with someone starts based on your determined by class. Carrying items whose history with them. Each class has starting total weight is more than your load causes bonds with blanks to fill in names. When problems. you roll+Bond, count the number of Bonds you have with that person and add that to Some classes have other specific tools at the roll. their disposal like custom gear or ties to powerful entities or organizations. The Level reflects how your character has rules for these are detailed with each class. grown. Your character starts at level 1, and may advance all the way to level 10. Your Damage and HP and other crude medicines, plus the odd healing potion. Dungeon World is a dangerous place in many ways, not least of which are the HP tracks the assorted bruises and cuts physical perils that await in the forgotten that accumulate but some wounds go halls where adventurers explore. Each deeper. These are debilities. Debilities character has HP. HP is short for hit give you a -1 to your modifier for one stat. points; it's a number which reflects a They don't effect the base score (so being character's condition. The character's HP Weak won't effect your Load, just your Str value is determined by their class and modifier). They're tougher to heal than HP, Constitution score. Your HP doesn't your best bet is to get somewhere safe and automatically go up as you level, but if your spend a few days resting to get rid of them. Constitution score changes you update your HP as well. Advancement When a character takes damage they Adventurers in Dungeon World grow and reduce their current HP by that amount. If learn from their experiences. Eventually, their current HP falls to zero it means with time and luck, they survive to level they're dying and must immediately make up. the Last Breath move. HP never goes Experience is tracked via XP. Players mark negative; if damage would take a XP by keeping a tally on their character character's HP below zero set it to zero sheet. When they have XP marks equal to instead. their current level + 7 they are ready to Depending on the outcome of the Last level up, but they do not actually level up Breath move a character may be stable at until they have some downtime (usually in 0 HP. Stable means the character won't get camp or in a nearby village). Gaining a new worse on their own but they won't get level means choosing a new move from better without care or time. If a stable your class. If your new level is 3rd, 6th, or character takes damage they stay at 0 HP 9th you also get to increase one stat by 2, but must make the Last Breath move again adjusting the modifier to reflect the new immediately. score.

Armor prevents damage. When you take There are two times when you mark XP: damage you subtract your armor from the when you roll a miss (6-) and when you damage dealt. make the End of Session move.

The Cleric is all about healing HP. Without Whenever you roll a miss (a 6 or lower) the Cleric's healing magics, adventurers are when making a move you mark XP. These left at the mercies of bandages, poultices, are the tough lessons of the adventuring life. At the end of each session one of your moves have been made, you'll find it easy Bonds may resolve. When a Bond is no to keep going. The moves will keep giving longer applicable it can be resolved if the you ideas and prompts for further action person you share that Bond with agrees. which leads to more moves. When a Bond is resolved you mark XP and write a new bond. Why? You also look back at your alignment over Why play Dungeon World? the session you just concluded. If you First, to see the characters do amazing fulfilled your alignment at least once in the things. To see them explore the session you'll get XP. unexplored, slay the undying, and go from The End of Session move also has three the deepest bowels of the world to the questions that all the players answer as a highest peaks of the heavens. To see them group. For each "yes" answer everyone caught up in momentous events and grand gains XP. tragedies.

Second, to see them play off each other: Sessions to stand together as a united front against A session of Dungeon World is one time their foes or to bicker and argue over you sit down to play. A session usually runs treasure. To unite and fall apart and reunite a few hours and may be a single adventure again. or part of a larger campaign. Third, because the world still has so The first session of a game starts of a little many places to explore. There are different. First you'll need to choose a GM. unlooted tombs and dragon hordes dotting Once the GM is settled, everyone else will the countryside just waiting for quick- need to make characters. See the character fingered and strong-armed adventurers to creation chapter for more on that. discover them. That unexplored world has plans of its own. We play to see what they During character creation, the GM will be are and how they'll change the lives of our asking questions and making plans for how characters. to start the game. A game of Dungeon World always starts with action, either action already underway or impending. Such a situation will lead to the characters Character Creation making moves, which will cause further moves. Moves lead to more moves. This Making Dungeon World characters is quick snowballing action from move to move is and easy. You should all create your first what builds an exciting game. Once a few characters together at the beginning of your first session. Character creation is, just like play, a kind of conversation— What's coin? Coin's the currency of the everyone should be there for it. It's realm. It's good pretty much everywhere. somewhat likely your character may die It'll buy you mundane stuff, like steel along the way. if they do, no worries, the swords and wooden staves, but the special character creation process helps you make stuff, like magic weapons, isn't for sale. a new character that fits into the group in Is the GM trying to kill us? Nope. The GM just a few minutes. represents the world. It's a dangerous If you're the GM, your role during place, and yeah, you might die. But she's character creation is to help everyone, ask not trying to kill you. questions, and take notes. When a player Most everything you need to create a makes a choice—particularly for their character you'll find on the character Bonds—ask them about it. Get more detail. sheets. These steps will walk you through Think about what these details mean. filling out a character sheet. The GM should also set expectations: the players are to play their characters as 1. Choose a Class people. Skilled adventurers delving into Look over the character classes and dangerous places, but real people. The choose one that interests you. Everyone GM's role is to play the rest of the world as chooses a different class; there aren't two a dynamic, changing place. Wizards. If two people want the same Some questions commonly come up during class, talk it over like adults and character creation: compromise.

Are the characters friends? No, not I sit down with Paul and Shannon to play a necessarily, but they do work together as a game run by John. I've got some cool ideas team for common goals. Their reasons for for a Wizard, so I mention that would be pursuing those goals may be different, but my first choice. No one else was thinking they generally manage to work together. of playing one, so I take the playbook. Are there other Wizards? Not really. There are other workers of arcane magic, and the 2. Choose a Race common folk may call them wizards, but Every class has a few race options. Choose they're not like you. They don't have the one. Your race gives you a special move. same abilities, though they may be similar. Same goes for any class: there's only one I like the idea of summoning up Things Cleric, though there are many with similar From Beyond, so I choose Human, since powers of divine servitude. There's only that gives me a bonus to Summoning spells. one Thief, but there are others that fight I thought about being an Elf, but Shannon's from the shadows and steal things. playing the Cleric so I don't think we'll Roll 3d6 and assign the total to a stat— need more Cleric spells. repeat this until you have all your stats.

If you want something really random you 3. Choose a Name can roll for stats in order (Str, Dex, Con, Choose your character's name from the Int, Wis, Cha). If you choose this method list. you get to roll before you choose your class. Avon sounds good. It looks like I need Intelligence to cast 4. Choose Look spells, which are my thing, so my 17 goes there. The Defy Danger option for Your look is your physical appearance. Dexterity looks like something I might be Choose one item from each list. doing to dive out of the way of a spell, so Haunted eyes sound good, since I've seen that gets my 15. A 13 Wisdom will help me Things From Beyond. No good Wizard has notice important details (and maybe keep time for hair styling, wild hair it is. My my sanity, based on the Defy Danger robes are strange, and I mention to move). Charisma might be useful is dealing everyone that I think maybe they came with summoned creatures so I'll put my 11 from Beyond as part of one of my there. Living is always nice, so I put my 9 in summonings. No time to eat with all that Constitution for some extra HP. Strength magic: thin body. gets the 8.

5. Choose Stats 6. Figure Out Modifiers Look over the basic moves and the starting Next you need to figure out the modifiers moves for your class. Pick out the move for your stats. The modifiers are what you that interests you the most: something use when a move says +Dex or +Cha. You you'll be doing a lot, or something that you won't actually use the raw scores much. excel at. Put your 17 in the stat for that Score Modifier move. Look over the list again and pick out 1-3 -3 the next most important move to your 4-5 -2 character, maybe something that supports 6-8 -1 your first choice. Put your 15 in the stat for 9-11 +0 that move. Repeat this process for your 12-15 +1 remaining scores: 13, 11, 9, 8. 16-17 +2 Alternatively, if everyone wants a little 18 +3 more randomness then you can roll stats. 7. Set Starting HP Avon is all about the magical mysteries, which makes the Neutral alignment stand Your starting HP is equal to your class's out. I'll go with that one. base HP+Constitution score. Base 4 plus 9 con gives me a whopping 13 10. Choose Gear HP. I guess Summoning takes a toll on the Each class has choices to make for starting body. gear. Keep your Load in mind—it limits how much you can easily carry. Make sure 8. Choose Starting Moves to total up your armor and note it on your Some classes, like the Fighter, have character sheet. choices to make as part of one of their I'm worried about my HP, so I take armor moves. Make these choices now. The over books. A dagger sounds about right for Wizard will need to choose spells for their rituals, I choose that over a staff. It's a toss spellbook. Both the Cleric and the Wizard up between the healing potion and the will need to choose which spells they have antitoxin, but healing wins out. I also end prepared to start with. up with some rations. A Summoning spell is an easy choice, so I take Contact Spirits. Magic Missile will 11. Introduce Your allow me to deal more damage than my Character pitiful d4 damage dice, so that's in too. I choose Alarm for my last spell, since I can Now that you know who your character is, think of some interesting uses for it. it's time to introduce them to everyone else. Wait until everyone's finished 9. Choose Alignment choosing their name. Then go around the table; each player gets to share their look, Your alignment is a few words that describe class and anything else about their your character's moral outlook. These are character. You can share your alignment general and tend to guide your character's now or keep it a secret if you prefer. outlook rather than dictate their actions. Usually alignment is a single term declaring This is also the time for the GM to ask the character's allegiance to the forces of questions. The GM's questions should help good, the hordes of evil, or the path of establish the relationships between neutrality between. The alignments are characters ("What do you think about Good, Evil, and Neutral. Some classes may that?") and draw the group into the only be certain alignments. Choose your adventure ("Does that mean you've met alignment—it gives you more ways to earn Grundloch before?"). The GM should listen XP. to everything in the description and ask about anything that stands out. Establish where they're from, who they are, how will teach them all that I can." I leave my they came together, or anything else that last Bond blank, I'll deal with it later. Once seems relevant or interesting. everyone is done I read my Bonds aloud and we all discuss what this means about "This is Avon, summoner of Things From why we're together and where we're going. Beyond! He's a human wizard with haunted eyes, wild hair, strange robes, and a thin body. Like I mentioned before his robes are strange because they're literally not of this world: they came through as part of a Basic Moves summoning ritual." Hack and Slash 12. Choose Bonds When you attack an enemy in melee, Once everyone has described their roll+Str. On a 10+ you deal your damage to characters you can choose your Bonds. You the enemy and avoid their attack. At your must fill in one bond but it's in your best option, you may choose to do +1d6 damage interest to fill in more. For each blank fill in but expose yourself to the enemy's attack. the name of one character. You can use the On a 7–9, you deal your damage to the same character for more than one enemy and the enemy makes an attack statement. against you.

Once everyone's filled in their bonds read them out to the group. When a move has Volley you roll+bonds you'll count the number of When you take aim and shoot at an Bonds you have with the character in enemy at range, roll+Dex. On a 10+ you question and add that to the roll. have a clear shot—deal your damage. On a 7–9, choose one (whichever you choose With everyone introduced I choose which you deal your damage): character to list in each Bond, I have Paul's Fighter Gregor and Shannon's Cleric • You have to move to get the shot Brinton to choose from. The Bond about placing you in danger of the GM's prophecy sounds fun, so I choose Gregor choice for it and end up with "Gregor will play an • You have to take what you can get: important role in the events to come. I -1d6 damage have foreseen it!" It seems like The Wizard • You have to take several shots, who contacts Things From Beyond and the reducing your ammo by one. Cleric might not see eye to eye, so I add Shannon's character and get "Brinton is woefully misinformed about the world; I Defy Danger Spout Lore When you act despite an imminent When you consult your accumulated threat or suffer a calamity, say how you knowledge about something, roll+Int. deal with it and roll. If you do it… On a 10+ the GM will tell you something interesting and useful about the subject • …by powering through, +Str relevant to your situation. On a 7–9 the • …by getting out of the way or acting GM will only tell you something interesting fast, +Dex —it's on you to make it useful. The GM • …by enduring, +Con might ask you "How do you know this?" • …with quick thinking, +Int Tell them the truth, now. • …through mental fortitude, +Wis • …using charm and social grace, +Cha Discern Realities On a 10+, you do what you set out to, the When you closely study a situation or threat doesn't come to bare. On a 7–9, you person, roll+Wis. On a 10+ ask the GM 3 stumble, hesitate, or flinch: the GM will questions from the list below. On a 7–9 ask offer you a worse outcome, hard bargain, 1. Take +1 forward when acting on the or ugly choice. answers. Defend • What happened here recently? • What is about to happen? When you stand in defense of a person, • What should I be on the lookout for? item, or location under attack, roll+Con. • What here is useful or valuable to On a 10+, hold 3. On a 7–9, hold 1. So long me? as you stand in defense, when you or the • Who's really in control here? thing you defend is attacked you may • What here is not what it appears to spend hold, 1 for 1, to choose an option: be? • Redirect an attack from the thing you defend to yourself Parley • Halve the attack's effect or damage When you you have leverage on a GM • Open up the attacker to an ally character and manipulate them, giving that ally +1 forward against the roll+Cha. Leverage is something they need attacker or want. On a hit they ask you for • Deal damage to the attacker equal to something and do it if you make them a your level promise first. On a 7–9, they need some concrete assurance of your promise, right now. Aid or Interfere enough XP you may Level Up. When you wake from at least a few uninterrupted When you help or hinder someone you hours of sleep heal damage equal to half have a Bond with, roll+Bond with them. your max HP. On a 10+ they take +1 or -2, your choice. On a 7–9 you also expose yourself to danger, retribution, or cost. Take Watch When you you're on watch and something approaches the camp Special Moves roll+Wis. On a 10+ you're able to wake the camp and prepare a response, the camp Last Breath takes +1 forward. On a 7–9 you react just a When you're dying you catch a glimpse of moment too late; the camp is awake but what lies beyond the Black Gates of hasn't had time to prepare. You have Death's Kingdom (the GM will describe it), weapons and armor but little else. On a then roll (just roll, +nothing—yeah, Death miss whatever lurks outside the campfire's doesn't care how tough or cool you are). light has the drop on you. On a 10+ you're stable. On a 7–9 Death will offer you a bargain—take it and stabilize or Undertake a Perilous refuse and pass beyond the Black Gates Journey into whatever fate awaits you. On a miss, When you travel through hostile territory, you are dead. choose one member of the party to act as trailblazer, one to scout ahead, and one to Encumbrance be quartermaster (the same character When you make a move while carrying cannot have two jobs). If you don't have weight up to or equal to Load, you're fine. enough party members or choose not to When you make a move while carrying assign a job, treat that job as if it had rolled weight equal to load+1 or load+2, you take a 6. Each character with a job to do -1. When you make a move while carrying rolls+Wis. On a 10+ the quartermaster weight greater than load+2, you have a reduces the number of rations required by choice: drop at least 1 weight and roll at -1, one. On a 10+ the trailblazer reduces the or automatically fail. amount of time it takes to reach your destination (the GM will say by how much). Make Camp On a 10+ the scout will spot any trouble quick enough to let you get the drop on it. When you settle in to rest consume a On a 7–9 each roles performs their job as ration. If you're somewhere dangerous expected: the normal number of rations decide the watch order as well. If you have are consumed, the journey takes about as long as expected, no one gets the drop on • Did we overcome a notable monster you but you don't get the drop on them or enemy? either. • Did we loot a memorable treasure?

For each "yes" answer everyone marks XP. Level Up When you have downtime (hours or Carouse days) and XP equal to (or greater than) When you return triumphant and throw your current level + 7, subtract your a big party, spend 100 coin and roll + extra current level +7 from your XP, increase 100s of coin spent. On a 10+ choose 3. On a your level by 1, and choose a new advanced 7–9 choose 1. On a miss, you still choose move from your class. If you are the one, but things get really out of hand. Wizard, you also get to add a new spell to your spellbook. • You befriend a useful NPC • You hear rumors of an opportunity If your new level is 3, 6, or 9, you also get • You gain useful information to increase a stat by 2. Increase the base • You are not entangled, ensorcelled, score of the stat of your choice by 2, adjust or tricked the modifier to reflect the new score. Changing your Constitution increases your maximum and current HP. Ability scores Supply can't go higher than 18. When you go to buy something with gold on hand, if it's something readily End of Session available in the settlement you're in, you can buy it at market price. If it's something When you reach the end of a session, special, beyond what's usually available choose one your bonds that you feel is here, or non-mundane, roll+Cha. On a 10+ resolved (completely explored, no longer you find what you're looking for at a fair relevant, or otherwise). Ask the player of price. On a 7–9 you'll have to pay more or the character you have the bond with if settle for something similar. they agree. If they do, mark XP and write a new bond with whomever you wish. Recover Once bonds have been updated look at your alignment. If you fulfilled that When you do nothing but rest in alignment at least once this session, mark comfort and safety after a day of rest you XP. Then answer these three questions as a recover all your HP. After three days of rest group: you remove one debility of your choice. If you're under the care of a healer (magical • Did we learn something new and important about the world? or otherwise) you heal a debility for every • Someone has put a price on your two days of rest instead. head • Someone important to you has been Recruit put in a bad spot as a result of your actions When you put out word that you're looking to hire help, roll. If you make it known…

• …that your pay is generous, take +1 • …what you're setting out to do, take +1 • …that they'll get a share of whatever you find, take +1

If you have a useful reputation around these parts take an additional +1. On a 10+ you've got your pick of a number of skilled applicants, your choice who you hire, no penalty for not taking them along. On a 7– 9 you'll have to settle for someone close or turn them away. On a miss someone influential and ill-suited declares they'd like to come along (a foolhardy youth, a loose-cannon, or a veiled enemy, for example), bring them and take the consequences or turn them away. If you turn away applicants you take -1 forward to Recruit.

Outstanding Warrants When you return to a civilized place in which you've caused trouble before, roll+Cha. On a hit, word has spread of your deeds and everyone recognizes you. On a 7–9, that, and, the GM chooses a complication:

• The local constabulary has a warrant out for your arrest Bolster Elf: Astrafel, Daelwyn, Feliana, Damarra, Sistranalle, Pendrell, Melliandre, Dagoliir When you spend your leisure time in study, meditation, or hard practice, you Human: Baldric, Leena, Dunwick, Willem, gain preparation. If you prepare for a week Edwyn, Florian, Seraphine, Quorra, or two, 1 preparation. If you prepare for a Charlotte, Lily, Ramonde, Cassandra month or longer, 3 preparation. When your preparation pays off spend 1 preparation Look for +1 to any roll. You can only spend one Choose one for each: preparation per roll. Knowing Eyes, Fiery Eyes, Joyous Eyes

Fancy Hair, Wild Hair, Stylish Cap The Bard Finery, Traveling Clothes, Poor Clothes Fit Body, Well-fed Body, Thin Body Sure, an adventurer's life is all open roads and the glory of coin and combat. Those tales that are told in every farmhand-filled Stats inn have to have some ring of truth to Assign these scores to your stats: them, don't they? The songs to inspire 17 (+2), 15 (+1), 13 (+1), 11 (+0), 9 (+0), 8 (-1) peasantry and royals alike—to sooth the savage beast or drive men to a frenzy have You start with 6+Constitution HP. to come from somewhere. Your base damage is d6. Enter the Bard. You, with your smooth tongue and quick wit. You teller-of-tales Starting Moves and singer-of-songs. It takes a mere Choose a racial move: minstrel to retell a thing but a true Bard to live it. Strap on your boots, noble orator. Elf Sharpen that hidden dagger and take up When you enter an important location the call. Someone's got to be there, fighting (your call) you can ask the GM for one fact shoulder-to-shoulder with the goons and from the history of that location. the thugs and the soon-to-be-heroes. Who better than you to write the tale of your Human own heroism? When you first enter a civilized settlement Nobody. Get going. someone who respects the custom of hospitality to minstrels will take you in as Names their guest. You start with these moves: Arcane Art (Cha) the list below. If they answer it truthfully When you weave a performance into a they then get to ask you a question from basic spell, choose an ally and an effect: the list below. Whom do you serve? • Heal 1d8 damage • What do you wish I would do? • +1d4 forward to damage • How can I get you to ______? • Their mind is shaken clear of one • enchantment • What are you really feeling right • The next time the target is Aided, on now? a hit they get +2 instead of +1 • What do you most desire?

Then roll+Cha. On a hit, the ally gets the A Port in the Storm selected effect. On a 7-9, you also draw When you return to a civilized settlement unwanted attention or your magic you've visited before, tell the GM when reverberates to other targets affecting them you were last here. They'll tell you how its as well, GM's choice. changed since then. Bardic Lore Choose an area of expertise: Alignment Choose an alignment: • On Spells and Magicks • The Dead and Undead Good • Grand Histories of the Known World Perform your art to aid someone else • A Bestiary of Creatures Unusual • The Planar Spheres Neutral • Legends of Heroes Past Avoid a conflict or diffuse a tense situation • Gods and Their Servants

When you first encounter an important Chaotic creature, location, or item (your call) Spur others to significant and unplanned covered by your Bardic Lore you can ask decisive action the GM any one question about it, the GM will answer truthfully. The GM may then Gear ask you what tale, song, or legend you heard that information in. Your Load is 5+Str. You have dungeon rations (5 uses, 1 weight). Choose one Charming and Open instrument: When you speak frankly with someone, • Your father's mandolin, repaired you can ask their player a question from • A fine lute, a gift from a noble • The pipes with which you courted ______does not trust me, your first love and for good reason. • A stolen horn • A fiddle, never before played Advanced Moves • A songbook in a forgotten tongue When you gain a level from 2-5, choose Choose your clothing: from these moves.

• Leather armor (1 armor, 1 weight) Healing Song • Ostentatious clothes When you heal with Arcane Art, you heal Choose your armament: +1d8 damage. • Dueling rapier (Close, Precise, 2 weight) Vicious Cacophony • Worn bow (Near, 2 weight), bundle When you grant bonus damage with of arrows (3 ammo, 1 weight), and Arcane Art, you grant an extra +1d4 short sword (Close, 1 weight) damage.

Choose one: It Goes To Eleven • Adventuring Gear (1 weight) When you unleash a crazed performance (a • Bandages (0 weight) righteous lute solo, might brass blast, • Halfling pipeleaf (1 weight) confusing interpretive dance) choose a • 3 coin target who can hear you and roll+Cha. On a 10+ the target flails in confusion dealing its Bonds damage to a creature of your choosing. On a 7–9 it deals its damage, but then takes Fill in the name of one of your companions +1d4 damage ongoing as the music in at least one: invigorates it. This is not my first adventure with ______. Metal Hurlant

I sang stories of ______long When you shout with great force or play a before I ever met them in person. shattering note choose a target and roll+Con. On a hit the target takes 2d6 ______is often the butt of damage and is deafened for a few minutes. my jokes. On a 7–9 it's out of control: the GM will I am writing a ballad about the adventures choose an additional target nearby. of ______.

______trusted me with a secret. A Little Help From My Friends When you grant bonus damage with When you successfully Aid someone you Arcane Art, you grant an extra +1d4 take +1 forward as well. damage.

Eldritch Tones Unforgettable Face When you use Arcane Art, you choose two When you meet someone you've met effects instead of one. before (your call) after some time apart you take +1 forward against them. Duelist's Parry Reputation (Cha) When you Hack and Slash, you take +1 armor forward. When you first meet someone who's heard songs about you, roll+Cha. On a 10+, tell Bamboozle the GM two things they've heard about you. On a 7-9, tell the GM one thing When you Parley with someone, on a hit they've heard, and the GM tells you one you also take +1 forward with them. thing. Multiclass Dabbler Eldritch Chord Get one move from another class. Treat Replaces: Eldritch Tones your level as one lower for choosing the move. When you use Arcane Art, you choose two effects. You also get to choose one of those Multiclass Initiate effects to double. Get one move from another class. Treat your level as one lower for choosing the An Ear For Magic move. When you hear an enemy cast a spell the GM will tell you the name of the spell and When you gain a level from 6-10, choose its effects. Take +1 forward when acting on from these moves or the level 2-5 moves. the answers. Healing Chorus Devious Replaces: Healing Song When you use Charming and Open you When you heal with Arcane Art, you heal may also ask "How are you vulnerable to +2d8 damage. me?" Your subject may not ask this question of you. Vicious Blast Replaces: Vicious Cacophony Duelist's Block Replaces: Duelist's Parry When you Hack and Slash, you take +2 Dwarf: Durga, Aelfar, Gerda, Rurgosh, armor forward. Bjorn, Drummond, Helga, Siggrun, Freya

Human: Wesley, Brinton, Jon, Sara, Con Hawthorn, Elise, Clarke, Lenore, Piotr, Replaces: Bamboozle Dahlia, Carmine When you Parley with someone, on a hit you also take +1 forward with them and get Look to ask their player one question which they Choose one for each: must answer truthfully. Kind, Sharp, or Sad Eyes

Multiclass Master Tonsure, Strange Hair, or Bald Get one move from another class. Treat Flowing Robes, Habit, or Common Garb your level as one lower for choosing the move. Thin, Knobby, or Flabby Body

Stats The Cleric Assign these scores to your stats: 17 (+2), 15 (+1), 13 (+1), 11 (+0), 9 (+0), 8 (-1) The lands of Dungeon World are a gods- forsaken mess. They're lousy with the You start with 8+Constitution HP. walking dead, beasts of all sorts, and the Your base damage is d6. vast unnatural spaces between safe and temple-blessed civilizations. It is a godless Starting Moves world out there. That's why it needs you. Choose a racial move: Bringing the glory of your god to the heathens isn't just in your nature—it's your Dwarf calling. It falls to you to proselytize with You are one with stone. When you sword and mace and spell. To cleave deep Commune you are also granted a special into the witless heart of the wilds and plant version of Words of the Unspeaking which the seed of divinity there. Some say that it only works on stone as a Rote. is best to keep god close to your heart. You know that's rubbish. God lives at the edge Human of a blade. Show the world who is lord. Your faith is diverse. Choose one Wizard spell. You can cast and be granted that spell Names as if it was a Cleric spell.

You start with these moves: Deity by the radiance of your god and mindless You serve and worship some deity or undead flee. If you move aggressively power which grants you spells. Give your towards an undead creature while Turning god a name (maybe Helferth, Sucellus, or them it break the effects and they are able Zorica) and choose your deity's domain: to act as normal. Intelligent undead, vampires and so on, may still find ways to • Healing and Restoration harry you from afar. They're clever like • Bloody Conquest that. • Civilization • Knowledge and Hidden Things Commune • The Downtrodden and Forgotten When you spend uninterrupted time (an • What Lies Beneath hour or so) in quiet communion with your Choose one precept of your religion: deity, you lose any spells already granted to you and are granted new spells of your Your religion preaches the sanctity • choice whose total levels don't exceed your of suffering, add Petition: Suffering own+1. You also prepare your rotes; they • Your religion is cultish and insular, don't count against your limit. You cannot add Petition: Gaining Secrets be granted spells with tags such as Death or • Your religion has important Damaging unless you have a move which sacrificial rights, add Petition: allows it. You can't prepare spells that are Offering higher level than you. • Your religion believes in trial by combat, add Petition: Personal Cast A Spell Victory When you unleash a spell granted to you by your deity, roll+Wis. On a 10+, the spell Divine Guidance is successfully cast and your deity does not When you fulfill your religion's petition revoke the spell, so you may cast it again. your deity grants you some useful On a 7-9, the spell is cast, but choose one: knowledge or boon related to their • You draw unwelcome attention or domain. The GM will tell you what. put yourself in a spot (the GM will Turn Undead describe it). • Your casting distances you from your When you hold your holy symbol aloft and deity—take -1 ongoing to Cast a pray aloud for protection, roll+Wis. On a Spell until you Commune. hit so long as you continue to pray and • After you cast it, the spell is revoked brandish your holy symbol no undead may by your deity. You cannot cast the come within reach of you. On a 10+ intelligent undead are momentarily dazed spell again until you Commune and Bonds have it granted to you. Fill in the name of one of your companions in at least one: Alignment ______has insulted my Choose an alignment: deity; I do not trust them. Good ______is a good and Endanger yourself to heal another faithful person; I trust them implicitly. ______is in constant Lawful danger, I will keep them safe. Endanger yourself following the precepts I am working on converting of your church or god ______to my faith. Evil Harm another to prove the superiority of Advanced Moves your church or god When you gain a level from 2-5, choose from these moves. Gear Chosen One Your Load is 7+Str. You carry dungeon Choose one spell. You are granted that rations (1 weight, 5 uses) and some symbol spell as if it was one level lower. of the divine, describe it (weight 0). Choose your defenses: Inquisitor • Chainmail (1 armor, 1 weight) Your deity gives you domain over pain and • Shield (+1 armor, 2 weight) suffering. You can cast spells with the Damaging tag. Choose your armament: • Warhammer (Close, 1 weight) The Scales of Life and Death • Mace (Close, 1 weight) Your deity gives you domain over the dead • Staff (Close, Two-handed, 1 weight) and undead. You can cast spells with the and bandages Death tag. Choose one: Serenity • Adventuring gear (1 weight) and You are able to divide your power dungeon rations (1 weight) effectively. When you cast a spell you • Healing potion (1 weight) ignore the first -1 penalty from ongoing spells. First Aid Devoted Healer Cure Light Wounds does not count against When you heal someone else of damage, your limit of granted spells. heal +your level damage.

When you gain a level from 6-10, choose Divine Intervention from these moves or the level 2-5 moves. When you Commune you get 1 hold and lose any hold you already had. Spend that Anointed hold when you or an ally takes damage to Requires: Chosen One call on your deity, they intervene in an appropriate idiom (a sudden gust of wind, a Choose one spell. You are granted that lucky slip, a burst of light) and negate the spell as if it was one level lower. damage. Vicious Penitent Requires: Inquisitor

When you take damage and embrace the When you do damage with a spell, you deal pain, you may take +1d4 damage (ignoring +1d4 damage. armor). If you do, take +1 forward to Cast a Spell. Reaper Requires: The Scales of Life and Death Empower When you take time after a conflict to When you Cast a Spell, on a 10+ you have dedicate your victory to your deity and the option of choosing from the 7-9 list. If deal with the dead, take +1 forward. you do, you may choose one of these effects as well: Providence • The spell's effects are doubled Replaces: Serenity • The spell's targets are doubled You ignore the -1 penalty from two spells Orison for Guidance you maintain.

When you sacrifice something of value to Greater First Aid your deity and pray for guidance your deity Requires: First Aid tells you what it would have you do. If you do it, mark experience. Cure Moderate Wounds does not count against your limit of granted spells. Divine Protection When you wear no armor or shield you get Divine Invincibility 2 armor. Replaces: Divine Intervention When you Commune you get 2 hold and Multiclass Dabbler lose any hold you already had. Spend that Get one move from another class. Treat hold when you or an ally takes damage to your level as one lower for choosing the call on your deity, they intervene in an move. appropriate idiom (a sudden gust of wind, a lucky slip, a burst of light) and negate the damage.

Martyr Cleric Spells Replaces: Penitent Rotes When you take damage and embrace the Light Rote pain, you may take +1d4 damage (ignoring armor). If you do, take +1 forward to Cast a An item you touch glows with divine light, Spell and add your level to any damage about as bright as a torch. It gives off no done or healed by the spell. heat or sound and requires no fuel but is otherwise like a mundane torch. You have Divine Armor complete control of the color of the flame. Replaces: Divine Protection The spell lasts as long as it is in your presence. When you wear no armor or shield you get 3 armor. Sanctify Rote Food or water you hold in your hands Greater Empower while you cast this spell is consecrated by Replaces: Empower your deity. In addition to now being holy or unholy the affected substance is purified of When you Cast a Spell, on a 10-11 you have any mundane spoilage. the option of choosing from the 7-9 list. If you do, you may choose one of these Guidance Rote effects as well. On a 12+ you get to choose The symbol of your deity appears before one of these effects for free. you and gestures towards the direction or • The spell's effects are doubled course of action your deity would have you • The spell's targets are doubled take then disappears. The message is through gesture only; your communication through this spell is severely limited.

1st Level Spells Bless Level 1 You deity smiles on the target in combat. to the best of the knowledge it had in life They take +1 ongoing so long as battle and the knowledge it gained in death. continues and they stand and fight.

Cure Light Wounds Level 1 3rd Level Spells

At your touch wounds scab and bones Animate Dead Level 3 Death cease to ache. Heal an ally of 1d8 damage. You invoke a hungry spirit to possess a Detect Alignment Level 1 recently-dead body and act for you. This forms a zombie that follows your orders to When you cast this spell choose an the best of its limited abilities. Treat the alignment: Good, Evil, or Neutral. One of zombie as your character, but with access your senses is briefly able to detect that to only the basic moves. It has a +1 modifier alignment. The GM will tell you what here for all stats and 1 HP. You can only have is of that alignment. one zombie at a time. You get 1d4 of these Inflict Light Wounds Level 1 Damaging effects:

You open wounds, channeling the wrath of • The zombie is talented. Give one your god. Deal 1d8 damage to the target stat a +2 modifier. ignoring armor. • The zombie is durable. It has +2 HP for each level you have. Magic Weapon Level 1 Ongoing • The zombie has a functioning brain The weapon you hold while casting does and can complete complex tasks. +1d4 damage until you dismiss this spell. • The zombie is restored by magic—it Until you dismiss this spell you take -1 to does not appear obviously dead, at Cast a Spell. least for a day or two.

Sanctuary Level 1 Cure Moderate Wounds Level 3

You make an area holy to your deity. Walk You staunch bleeding and set bones the perimeter of the area. So long as you through magic. Heal an ally of 2d8 damage. stay within that area you are alerted whenever someone acts with malice within Inflict Moderate Wounds Level 3 the sanctuary (including entering with Damaging harmful intent). Anyone who receives You break bones and leave gushing healing within a Sanctuary heals +1d4 HP. wounds. Deal 1d10 damage ignoring armor.

Speak With Dead Level 1 Death Resurrection Level 3

A corpse converses with you briefly. It will Tell the GM you would like to resurrect a answer any three questions you pose to it corpse whose soul has not yet fully departed this world. The GM will tell you "yes, you can resurrect them, but first…" or With a touch you speak to the spirits "yes, you can resurrect them now, but it within things. The non-living object you won't be permanent until…" and then one touch responds to three questions you to all of the things from this list: pose, answering them as best it can.

• It's going to take days/weeks/months True Seeing Level 5 You must ____ • For a brief moment your vision is opened • You must get help from ____ to the true nature of everything you lay • It will require a lot of money your eyes on. You pierce illusions and see • You must sacrifice ____ to do it things that have been hidden. The GM will Hold Person Level 3 describe the area before you ignoring any illusions and falsehoods, magical or Choose a creature you can see. Until you otherwise. Cast a Spell or leave their presence they cannot act except to speak. If they're Trap Soul Level 5 Death harmed this effect ends. When cast in the presence of a ghost or recently dead body this spell traps the soul 5th Level Spells in a gem you provide. While trapped the soul answers every question posed to it Revelation Level 5 and can not resist your requests. Once Your deity answers your prayers with a released the soul is likely to hold a grudge moment of perfect understanding. The GM against its captor. will explain the root cause of the current situation. When acting on the information, 7th Level Spells you take +1 Forward. Word of Recall Level 7 Cure Critical Wounds Level 5 Choose a word. The first time after casting Heal an ally of 3d8 damage. this spell that you speak the chosen word, Divination Level 5 you and any allies touching you when you cast the spell are immediately returned to Name a person, place, or thing you want to the exact spot you cast the spell at. Casting learn about. Your deity grants you visions Word of Recall again before speaking the of the target, as clear as if you were there. word replaces the earlier recall. Inflict Critical Wounds Level 5 Damaging Heal Level 7 You cause horrific harm. Deal 1d8+1d4 Touch an ally and you may restore up to damage ignoring armor. your maximum HP to them. Words of the Unspeaking Level 5 Harm Level 7 Touch an enemy and strike them with Repair Level 9 divine wrath—deal 2d8 damage to them Choose one event in the target's past. All and 1d6 damage to yourself (ignores effects of that event, including damage, armor). poison, disease, and magical effects, are Sever Level 7 Damaging ended and repaired. HP and diseases are healed, poisons are neutralized, magical Choose an appendage on the target such as effects are ended. an arm, tentacle, or wing. The appendage is magically severed from their body, causing Divine Presence Level 9 Damaging no damage but considerable pain. Missing Every creature must ask your leave to enter an appendage may, for example, keep a your presence, and you must speak winged creature from flying, or a bull from permission for them to enter. Any creature goring you on its horns. While you that you deny permission takes an extra maintain the spell you take -1 to Cast a 1d10 damage whenever they take damage Spell. in your presence. Mark of Death Level 7 Death Consume Unlife Level 9 Death Choose a type of creature. You inscribe The mindless undead creature you touch is runes matching that type of creature. The destroyed and you steal its death energy to next mortal creature of that type to look on heal yourself or the next ally you touch of the runes is immediately slain. damage equal to its current HP. Control Weather Level 7 Peace Level 9 Pray for rain—or sun, wind or snow. Within Choose one traumatic memory in the a day or so, your god will answer. The target's past. The target's memory of that weather will change according to your will event is calmly erased. If the target is a PC, and last a handful of days. they must be willing. 9th Level Spells Dictum Level 9

All non-Lawful creatures that can hear you Fighter stand paralyzed so long as you continue It's a thankless job—living day to day by speaking. your armor and the skill of your arm. To dive heedlessly into danger. They won't be Gibber Level 9 playing golden horns for the time you took All non-Chaotic creatures that can hear that knife to the ribs for them in the bar in you stand paralyzed so long as you Bucksberg. No flock of angels to sing of the continue speaking. time you dragged them, still screaming, Assign these scores to your stats: from the edge of the Pits of Madness, no. 17 (+2), 15 (+1), 13 (+1), 11 (+0), 9 (+0), 8 (-1) Forget them. You start with 10+Constitution HP. You do this for the guts and the glory. The Your base damage is d10. scream of battle and the hot hot blood of it. You are a beast of iron. Your friends may carry blades of forged steel but, Fighter, Starting Moves you are steel. While your traveling Choose a racial move: companions might moan about their wounds over a campfire in the wilderness, Dwarf you bear your scars with pride. When you share a drink with someone, you may Parley with them with Con instead of You are the wall—let every danger smash Cha. itself to nothing on you. In the end, you'll be the last one standing. Elf Names Choose one weapon—you can always treat weapons of that type as if they had the Dwarf: Ozruk, Surtur, Brunhilda, Annika, Precise tag. Janos, Greta, Dim, Rundrig, Jarl, Xotoq

Elf: Elohiir, Sharaseth, Hasrith, Shevaral, Halfling Cadeus, Eldar, Kithracet, Thelian When you Defy Danger from someone larger than you, take +1. Halfling: Finnegan, Olive, Randolph, Bartleby, Aubrey, Baldwin, Becca Human Human: Hawke, Rudiger, Gregor, Brianne, When using a Close range weapon you are Walton, Castor, Shanna, Ajax, Hob also able to attack at Hand range.

You start with these moves: Look Choose one for each: Bend Bars, Lift Gates (Str)

Hard, Dead, or Eager Eyes When you use pure strength to destroy an inanimate obstacle, roll+Str. On a 10+ Wild, Shorn, or Battered Helm choose 3. On a 7-9 choose 2. Calloused, Tanned, or Scarred Skin • It doesn't take a very long time Built, Body, or Ravaged Body • Nothing of value is damaged • It doesn't make an inordinate Stats amount of noise • You can fix the thing again without a • Huge. +messy, +forceful. lot of effort • Versatile. Choose another range. • Well crafted. -1 weight. Armored Choose a look: You ignore the Clumsy tag on armor you wear. • Ancient • Unblemished Signature Weapon • Ornate This is your weapon. There are many like • Blood-stained it, but this one is yours. Your weapon is • Sinister your best friend. It is your life. You master it as you master your life. Your weapon, Alignment without you, is useless. Without your Choose an alignment: weapon, you are useless. You must wield your weapon true. Good Choose a base description, all are 2 weight: Defend those weaker than you • Sword Neutral • Axe • Hammer Evil • Spear • Flail Kill a defenseless or surrendered enemy • Fists

Choose the range that best fits your Gear weapon: Your Load is 9+Str. You carry your signature weapon and dungeon rations (1 • Hand weight, 5 uses). Choose your defenses: • Close • Reach • Chainmail (1 armor, 1 weight) and Adventuring gear (1 weight) Choose two enhancements: • Scale armor (2 armor, 3 weight) • Hooks and spikes. +1 damage, but +1 Choose two: weight. • Sharp. +2 piercing. • 2 Healing potions (2 weight) • Perfectly weighted. +precise. • shield (+1 armor, 2 weight) • Serrated edges. +1 damage. • Antitoxin, dungeon rations (1 • Glows in the presence of one type of weight), and poultices and herbs (1 creature, your choice. weight) • 22 Gold (your choice) is -1 armor until you get it repaired at a smithy or workshop. Bonds Improved Weapon Fill in the name of one of your companions Choose one extra enhancement for your in at least one: signature weapon. ______owes me their life, whether they admit it or not. Seeing Red I have sworn to protect When you Discern Realities during ______. combat, you take +1.

I worry about the ability of Interrogator ______to survive in the When you Parley using threats of dungeon. impending violence as leverage you may ______is soft, but I will use Str instead of Cha. make them hard like me. Scent of Blood Advanced Moves When you Hack and Slash an enemy, you When you gain a level from 2-5, choose take +1d4 damage forward against that from these moves. enemy.

Merciless Multiclass Dabbler When you deal damage, deal +1d4 damage. Get one move from another class. For the purposes of Multiclass Dabbler the Heirloom Wizard's Spellbook, Prepare Spells, and Cast A Spell moves count as one move. When you consult the spirits of that reside The Cleric's Commune and Cast a Spell within your signature weapon, roll+Cha. moves also count as one move. If you gain The spirits will give you an insight relating the ability to cast spells you cast them as if to the current situation, and might ask you you were one level lower. some questions in return. On a 10+, the GM will give you good detail. On a 7-9, the GM Iron Hide will give you an impression. You gain +1 armor. Armor Mastery Blacksmith When you take damage you can choose to let your armor take the brunt of it. The When you have access to a forge you can damage is negated but your armor or shield graft the magical powers of a weapon onto your signature weapon. This process Multiclass Initiate destroys the magical weapon. Your Required: Multiclass Dabbler signature weapon gains the magical powers of the destroyed weapon. Get one move from another class. Treat your level as one lower for choosing the When you gain a level from 6-10, choose move. from these moves or the level 2-5 moves. Steel Hide Bloodthirsty Replaces: Iron Hide Replaces: Merciless You gain +2 armor. When you deal damage, deal +1d8 damage. Through Death's Eyes Armored Perfection When you go into battle, roll+Wis. On a Replaces: Armor Mastery 10+, name someone who will live and When you take damage you can choose to someone who will die. On a 7-9, name let your armor take the brunt of it. The someone who will live or someone who damage is negated and you take +1 forward will die. Name NPCs, not player against the attacker but your armor or characters. The GM will make your vision shield (your choice) is -1 armor until you come true, if it's even remotely possible. get it repaired at a smithy or workshop. On a 6- you see your own death and consequently take a -1 throughout the Evil Eye battle. Requires: Seeing Red Eye for Weaponry When you go into a dangerous situation, When you look over an enemy's weaponry, roll+Cha. On a 10+, hold 2. On a 7-9, hold 1. ask the GM how much damage they do. Spend your hold to make eye contact with an NPC present, who freezes or flinches Superior Warrior and can't act until you break it off. On a When you Hack and Slash on a 12+ you miss, your enemies immediately identify deal your damage, avoid their attack, and you as their biggest threat. impress, dismay, or frighten your enemy. Taste of Blood Replaces: Scent of Blood When you Hack and Slash an enemy, you Paladin take +1d8 damage forward against that Hell awaits. An eternity of torment in fire enemy. or ice or whatever best suits the sins of the damned throngs of Dungeon World. All You start with 10+Constitution HP. that stands between the pits of that grim Your base damage is d10. torture and salvation is you. Holy man, armored war machine, templar of the Good and the Light, right? The Cleric may say his Starting Moves prayers at night to the Gods, dwelling in their heavens. The Fighter may wield his You are human, so you get this move. sharp sword in the name of “good” but you know. Only you. Human Eyes, hands and sweet killing blow of the When you Spout Lore you may also ask “Is gods, you are. Yours is the gift of it evil?” When you Discern Realities you righteousness and virtue. Of justice. Vision, may also ask “What here is evil?” too. A purity of intent that your You start with these moves: companions do not have. So guide these fools, Paladin. Take up your holy cause and Lay on Hands (Cha) bring salvation to the wastrel world. When you touch someone, skin to skin, Vae victis, right? and pray for your deity to cure them, roll+Cha. On a 10+ you heal 1d8 damage or Names remove one disease. On a 7-9, they are healed, but the damage or disease is Thaddeus, Augustine, Lux, Cassius, transferred to you. Hadrian, Lucia, Octavia, Regulus, Valeria, Sanguinus, Titanius Armored You ignore the Clumsy tag on armor you Look wear. Choose one for each:

Kind Eyes, Fiery Eyes, Glowing Eyes I Am the Law When you give an NPC an order based on Helmet, Styled Hair, Bald your divine authority, roll+Cha. On a hit, Worn Holy Symbol, Fancy Holy Symbol they choose one:

Fit Body, Bulky Body, Thin Body • They do it • They back away cautiously, then flee Stats • They attack you Assign these scores to your stats: On a 10+, you also take +1 forward against them. On a miss, they do as they please and 17 (+2), 15 (+1), 13 (+1), 11 (+0), 9 (+0), 8 (-1) you take -1 Forward against them. Quest • Hospitality (required: comfort to When you dedicate yourself to a mission those in need, no matter who they through prayer and ritual cleansing state are) what you set out to do:

• Slay ______, a great blight on the Alignment land Choose an alignment: • Defend ______from the inequities that beset them Lawful • Discover the truth of ______Deny mercy to a criminal or unbeliever

Then choose up to two boons: Good • An unwavering sense of direction to Endanger yourself to protect someone ______. weaker than you • Invulnerability to ______(ex: edged weapons, fire, enchantment, Gear etc.) Your Load is 8+Str. You start with dungeon • A mark of divine authority rations (1 weight, 5 uses), scale armor (2 • Senses that pierce lies armor, 3 weight), and some mark of faith, • A voice that transcends language describe it (0 Weight). Choose your • A freedom from hunger, thirst, and weapon: sleep • Halberd (Reach, +1 damage, two- The GM will then tell you what vow or handed, 2 weight) vows is required of you to maintain your • Long sword (Close, +1 damage, 1 blessing: weight) and shield (+1 armor, 2 • Honor (forbidden: cowardly tactics weight) and tricks) Choose one: • Temperance (forbidden: gluttony in food, drink, and pleasure of the • Adventuring gear (1 weight) flesh) • dungeon rations (1 weight) and • Piety (required: observance of daily healing potion holy services) • Valor (forbidden: suffering an evil Bonds creature to live) Fill in the name of one of your companions • Truth (forbidden: lies) in at least one: ______'s misguided enemy is defeated or you admit your failure behavior endangers their very soul! and prove your worth.

______has stood by me in Charge! battle and can be trusted completely. When you lead the charge into combat, I respect the beliefs of those you lead take +1 forward. ______but hope they will someday see the true way. Staunch Defender ______is a brave soul, I When you Defend you always get +1 hold. have much to learn from them. Even on a failure you get 1 hold.

Advanced Moves Setup Strike When you Hack and Slash, choose an ally. When you gain a level from 2-5, choose Their next attack against your target does from these moves. +1d4 damage. Divine Favor Holy Protection You gain the Commune and Cast a Spell You get +1 armor while on a Quest. Cleric move. Your level for the purposes of that move is 1 + the levels you've gained Voice of Authority since you took Divine Favor. Take +1 to Order Hirelings. Bloody Aegis Hospitaller When you take damage you can use your body to deflect the blow. If you do you take When you heal an ally, you heal +1d8 no damage but instead suffer a debility of damage. your choice. If you already have all six When you gain a level from 6-10, choose debilities you can't use this move. from these moves or the level 2-5 moves.

Smite Evidence of Faith While on a Quest you deal +1d4 damage. Requires: Divine Favor

When you see divine magic as it happens, Exterminatus you can ask the GM which deity granted When you speak aloud your promise to the spell and its effects. Take +1 when defeat an enemy, you deal +2d4 damage acting on the answers. against that enemy and -4 damage against anyone else. This effect lasts until the Holy Smite transcends their moment of fear and doubt Replaces: Smite to perform at the peak of potential.

While on a Quest you deal +1d8 damage. Perfect Hospitaller Replaces: Hospitaller Ever Onward Replaces: Charge! When you heal an ally, you heal +2d8 damage. When you lead the charge into combat, those you lead take +1 forward and +2 Indomitable armor forward. When you suffer a debility (even through Bloody Aegis) take +1 forward against Impervious Defender whatever caused it. Replaces: Staunch Defender

When you Defend you always get +1 hold. Perfect Knight Even on a failure you get 1 hold. When you When you Quest you choose three boons get a 12+ to Defend instead of getting hold instead of two. the nearest attacking creature is stymied giving you a clear advantage, the GM will describe it. Ranger Tandem Strike These city-born folk you travel with. Have Replaces: Setup Strike they heard the call of the wolf? Felt the When you Hack and Slash, choose an ally. winds howl in the bleak deserts of the Their next attack against your target does East? Have they hunted their prey with the +1d4 damage and they take +1 forward bow and the knife like you? Hell no. That's against them. why they need you.

Guide. Hunter. Creature of the wilds. You Divine Protection are these things and more. Your time in the Replaces: Holy Protection wilderness may have been solitary until You get +2 armor while on a Quest. now, the call of some greater thing – call it fate if you like, has cast your lot with these Divine Authority folk. Brave, they may be. Powerful and Replaces: Voice of Authority strong, too. You know the secrets of the spaces-between, though. Take +1 to Order Hirelings. When you roll a 12+ to Order Hirelings the hireling Without you, they'd be lost. Blaze a trail through the blood and dark, strider. Names Hunt and Track (Wis) Elf: Throndir, Elrosine, Aranwe, Celion, When you follow a trail of clues left behind Dambrath, Lanethe by passing creatures, roll+Wis. On a hit, you follow the creature's trail until there's a Human: Jonah, Halek, Brandon, Emory, significant change in its direction or mode Shrike, Nora, Diana of travel. On a 10+, you also choose 1:

Look • Gain a useful bit of information about your quarry, the GM will tell Choose one for each: you what Wild Eyes, Sharp Eyes, Animal Eyes • Determine what caused the trail to end Hooded Head, Wild Hair, Bald

Cape, Camouflage, Traveling Clothes Called Shot

Lithe Body, Wild Body, Sharp Body When you attack a defenseless or surprised enemy at range, you can choose to deal Stats your damage or name your target and roll+Dex. Assign these scores to your stats: • Head – 10+: As 7–9, plus your 17 (+2), 15 (+1), 13 (+1), 11 (+0), 9 (+0), 8 (-1) damage; 7-9: They do nothing but You start with 8+Constitution HP. stand and drool for a few moments. • Arms – 10+: As 7-9, plus your Your base damage is d8. damage; 7-9: They drop anything they're holding. Starting Moves • Legs – 10+: As 7-9, plus your damage; Choose a racial move: 7-9: They're hobbled and slow moving. Elf When you undertake a Perilous Journey Animal Companion through wilderness whatever role you take You have a supernatural connection with a you succeed as if you rolled a 10+. loyal animal. You can't talk to it per se but it always acts as you wish it to. Name your Human animal companion and choose a species:

When you Make Camp in a dungeon or Wolf, cougar, bear, eagle, dog, hawk, cat, city, you don't need to consume a ration. owl, pigeon, rat, mule

You start with these moves: Choose a base: • Ferocity 2d4, Cunning +1, 1 Armor, • …and someone interferes with you, Instinct +1 add its instinct to your roll • Ferocity 2d4, Cunning +2, 0 Armor, Instinct +1 Alignment • Ferocity 1d4, Cunning +2, 1 Armor, Choose an alignment: Instinct +1 • Ferocity 2d4, Cunning +1, 2 Armor, Chaotic Instinct +2 Free someone from literal or figurative Choose as many strengths as its ferocity: bonds Fast, burly, huge, calm, adaptable, quick reflexes, tireless, camouflage, ferocious, Good intimidating, keen senses, stealthy Endanger yourself to combat an unnatural threat Your animal companion is trained to fight humanoids. Choose as many additional Neutral trainings as its cunning: Help an animal or spirit of the wild Hunt, search, scout, guard, fight monsters, perform, labor, travel Gear Choose as many weaknesses as its instinct: Your Load is 6+Str. You start with dungeon Flighty, savage, slow, broken, frightening, rations (1 weight, 5 uses), leather armor (1 forgetful, stubborn, lame armor, 1 weight), and a bundle or arrows (3 ammo, 2 weight). Choose your armament: Command • Hunter's bow (Near, Far, 1 weight) When you work with your animal and short sword (Close, 1 weight) companion on something it's trained in… • Hunter's bow (Near, Far, 1 weight) • …and you attack the same target, add and spear (Reach, 1 weight) its ferocity to your damage Choose one: • …and you track, add its cunning to • Adventuring gear (1 weight) and your roll dungeon rations (1 weight) • …and you take damage, add its armor • adventuring gear (1 weight) and to your armor bundle of arrows (3 ammo, 2 weight) • …and you discern realities, add its cunning to your roll • …and you parley, add its cunning to Bonds your roll Fill in the name of one of your companions in at least one: I have guided ______before Camouflage and they owe me for it. When you're still in natural surroundings, ______is a friend of nature, enemies never spot you until you make a so I will be their friend as well. movement.

______has no respect for Man's Best Friend' nature, so I have no respect for them. When you take damage and you allow your ______does not understand animal companion to take the blow the life in the wild, so I will teach them. damage is negated and your animal companion's Ferocity becomes 0. If its Advanced Moves Ferocity was already 0 you can't use this Take this move only if it is your first ability. When you have a few hours of rest advancement with your animal companion its Ferocity returns to normal. Half-Elven Quarry Somewhere in your lineage lies mixed blood and it begins to show its presence. You take +1 forward against someone You gain the Elf starting move if you took whose trail you follow. the Human one at character creation or Well Trained vice versa. Choose another training for your animal When you gain a level from 2-5, choose companion. from these moves. God Amidst the Wastes Wild Empathy You gain the Commune and Cast a Spell You can speak with and understand Cleric move. Your level for the purposes of animals. that move is 1 + the levels you've gained since you took God Amidst the Wastes. Familiar Prey When you Spout Lore about a monster you Follow Me use Wis instead of Int. When you Undertake a Perilous journey you can take two roles. You make a roll for Dual Wield each. When strike an enemy with two weapons at once, add an extra 1d4 damage for your A Safe Place off-hand strike. When you set the watch for the night everyone takes +1 to Take Watch. When you gain a level from 6-10, choose A Safer Place from these moves or the level 2-5 moves. Replaces: A Safe Place

Wild Speech When you set the watch for the night everyone takes +1 to Take Watch. After a Replaces: Wild Empathy night in camp when you set the watch You can speak with and understand any everyone takes +1 forward. non-magical non-planar creature. Observant Hunter's Prey When you Hunt and Track, on a hit you Replaces: Familiar Prey may also ask one question about the When you Spout Lore about a monster you creature you are tracking from the Discern use Wis instead of Int. On a 12+ you get to Realities list for free. ask the GM any one question about the subject. Special Trick Choose a move from another class. So long Dual Wield as you are working with your animal Replaces: Dual Strike companion you have access to that move.

When strike an enemy with two weapons Unnatural Ally at once, add an extra 1d8 damage for your Your animal companion is a monster, not off-hand strike. an animal. Describe it. Give it +1d4 Ferocity Unescapable Quarry and +1 Instinct, plus a new training. Replaces: Quarry

You take +1 forward against someone whose trail you follow. You cannot be Thief surprised, ambushed, or otherwise at a You've heard them, sitting around the disadvantage against someone whose trail campfire. Bragging about this battle or that. you follow. About how their Gods are smiling on your Strider merry band. You count your coins and smile to yourself—this is the thrill above Replaces: Follow Me all. You alone know the secret of Dungeon When you Undertake a Perilous journey World—filthy filthy lucre. you can take two roles. Roll twice and use Sure, they give you shit for all the times the better result for both roles. you've snuck off alone but without you, who among them wouldn't have been dissected by a flying guillotine or poisoned Human straight to death by some ancient needle- You are a professional. When you Spout trap? So, let them complain. When you're Lore or Discern Realities about criminal done all this delving you'll toast their hero's activities, take +1. graves. You start with these moves: From your castle. Full of gold. You rogue. Trap Expert Names When spend a moment to survey a Halfling: Felix, Rook, Mouse, Sketch, dangerous area, roll+Dex. On a 10+, hold 3. Trixie, Robin, Omar, Brynn, Bug On a 7-9, hold 1. Spend your hold as you walk through the area to ask these Human: Sparrow, Shank, Jack, Marlow, questions: Dodge, Rat, Pox, Humble, Farley • Is there a trap here and if so, what Look activates it? • What does the trap do when Choose one for each: activated? Shifty Eyes or Criminal Eyes • What else is hidden here?

Hooded Head, Messy, or Cropped Hair Tricks of the Trade Dark, Fancy, or Common Clothes When you pick locks or pockets or disable Lithe Body, Knobby Body, Flabby Body traps, roll+Dex. On a 10+, you do it, no problem. On a 7-9, the GM will offer you Stats two options between suspicion, danger, or cost. Assign these scores to your stats:

17 (+2), 15 (+1), 13 (+1), 11 (+0), 9 (+0), 8 (-1) Backstab

You start with 6+Constitution HP. When you attack a surprised or defenseless enemy with a melee weapon, you can Your base damage is d8. choose to deal your damage or roll+Dex. If you roll, on a 10+ choose two, on a 7-9 Starting Moves choose one.

Choose a racial move: • You don't get into melee with them • You deal your damage+1d6 Halfling • You create an advantage, +1 forward When you attack with a ranged weapon, to you or an ally acting on it deal +1 damage. • Reduce their armor by 1 until they Chaotic repair it Leap into danger without a plan

Flexible Morals Neutral When someone tries to detect your Avoid detection or infiltrate a location alignment you can tell them any alignment you like. Evil Shift danger or blame from yourself to Poisoner someone else You've mastered the care and use of a poison. Choose a poison from the list Gear below; that poison is no longer Dangerous for you to use. You also start with three Your Load is 5+Str. You start with one uses of the poison you choose. Whenever dungeon rations (1 weight, 5 uses), leather you have time to gather materials and a armor (1 armor, 1 weight), 3 uses of your safe place to brew you can make three uses chosen poison, and 10 coin. Chose your of the poison you choose for free. Note arms: that some poisons are Applied, meaning • Dagger (Hand, 1 weight) and short you have to carefully apply it to the target sword (Close, 1 weight) or something they eat or drink. Touch • Rapier (close, precise, 1 weight) poisons just need to touch the target, they can even be used on the blade of a Choose a ranged weapon: weapon. • 3 throwing daggers (Thrown, Near, 0 • Oil of Tagit (Applied): The target falls weight) into a light sleep • Ragged Bow (Near, 2 weight) and • Bloodweed (Touch): The target deals bundle of arrows (5 ammo, 1 weight) -1d4 damage ongoing until cured Choose one: • Goldenroot (Applied): The target • Adventuring gear (1 weight) treats the next creature they see as a • Healing potion trusted ally, until proved otherwise • Serpent's Tears (Touch): Anyone dealing damage against the target Bonds rolls twice and takes the better Fill in the name of one of your companions result. in at least one:

I stole something from Alignment ______. Choose an alignment: ______has my back when Envenom things go wrong. You can apply even complex poisons with a ______knows incriminating pinprick. When you apply a poison that's details about me. not Dangerous for you to use to your weapon it's Touch instead of Applied. ______and I have a con running. Brewer When you have you have time to gather Advanced Moves materials and a safe place to brew you can When you gain a level from 2-5, choose create three doses of any one poison from these moves. you've used before.

Cheap Shot Underdog When using a Precise or Hand weapon, When you're outnumbered, you have +1 your Backstab deals an extra +1d6 damage. armor.

Cautious Connections When you use Trap Expert you always get When you put out word to the criminal +1 hold (even on a failure you get 1 hold). underbelly about something you want or need, roll+Cha. On a 10+ someone has it, Wealth and Taste just for you. On a 7–9 you'll have to settle When you make a show of flashing around for something close or it comes with strings your most valuable possession, choose attached, your call. someone present. They will do anything When you gain a level from 6-10, choose they can to obtain your item or one like it. from these moves or the level 2-5 moves.

Shoot First Dirty Fighter You're never caught by surprise. When an Replaces: Cheap Shot enemy would get the drop on you, you get to act first instead. When using a Precise weapon, your Backstab deals an extra +1d10 damage and Poison Master all other attacks deal +1d6 damage. After you've used a poison once it's no Extremely Cautious longer Dangerous for you to use. Replaces: Cautious

When you use Trap Expert you always get +1 hold (even on a failure you get 1 hold). On a 12+ you get 3 hold and the next time Strong Arm, True Aim you discover a trap the GM will You can throw any melee weapon, using it immediately tell you what it does, what to Volley. A thrown melee weapon is gone, triggers it, who set it, and how you can use you can never choose to reduce ammo on it to your advantage. a 7-9.

Alchemist Escape Route Replaces: Brewer When you're in too deep and need a way When you have you have time to gather out, name your escape route and roll+Dex. materials and a safe place to brew you can On a 10+ you're gone. On a 7-9 you can stay create three doses of any poison you've or go, but if you go it costs you: leave used before. Alternately you can describe something behind or take something with the effects of a poison you'd like to create. you, the GM will tell you what. The GM will tell you can create it, but with one or more caveats: Disguise When you have time and materials you can • It will only work under specific create a disguise that will fool anyone into circumstances thinking you're another creature of about • The best you can manage is a weaker the same size and shape. Your actions can version give you away but your appearance won't. • It'll take a while to take effect • It'll have obvious side effects Heist Serious Underdog When you take time to make a plan to steal something, name the thing you want to Replaces: Underdog steal and ask the GM these questions. You have +1 armor. When you're When acting on the answers you and your outnumbered, you have +2 armor instead. allies take +1 forward.

Who will notice it's missing? Evasion • • What's its most powerful defense? When you Defy Danger on a 12+ you • Who will come after it? transcend the danger. You not only do what • Who else wants it? you set out to but you the GM will offer you a better outcome, true beauty, or a moment of grace. Wizard Styled Hair, Wild Hair, or Pointed Hat Worn, Stylish, or Strange Robes Dungeon World has rules. Not the laws of men or the rule of some petty tyrant. Pudgy, Creepy, or Thin Body Bigger, better rules. You drop something— it falls. You can't make something out of Stats nothing. The dead stay dead, right? Assign these scores to your stats:

Oh, the things we tell ourselves to feel 17 (+2), 15 (+1), 13 (+1), 11 (+0), 9 (+0), 8 (-1) better about the long, dark nights. You start with 4+Constitution HP. You've spent so very long poring over those tomes of yours. The experiments that Your base damage is d4. nearly drove you mad and all the botched summonings that endangered your very Starting Moves soul. For what? For power. What else is Choose a racial move: there? Not just the power of King or Country but the power to boil a man's Elf blood in his veins. To call on the thunder of Choose one cleric spell, you can cast it as if the sky and the churn of the roiling earth. it was a wizard spell. To shrug off the rules the world holds so dear. Human Let them cast their sidelong glances. Let When you cast a Summoning spell take +1. them call you “warlock” or “diabolist.” Who You start with these moves: among them can hurl fireballs from their eyes? Spellbook Yeah. We didn't think so. You have mastered several spells and inscribed them in your spellbook. You start Names out with three first level spells in your spellbook as well as the cantrips. Elf: Galadiir, Fenfaril, Lilliastre, Phirosalle, Whenever you gain a level, you add a new Enkirash, Halwyr spell of your level or lower to your Human: Avon, Morgan, Rath, Ysolde, Ovid, spellbook. You spellbook is 1 weight. Vitus, Aldara, Xeno, Uri Prepare Spells Look When you spend uninterrupted time (an Choose one for each: hour or so) in quiet contemplation of your spellbook, you lose any spells you already Haunted, Sharp, or Crazy Eyes have prepared and prepare new spells of • First you must ____ your choice from your spellbook whose • You'll need help from ____ total levels don't exceed your own+1. You • It will require a lot of money also prepare your cantrips; they don't • The best you can do is a lesser count against your limit. version, unreliable and limited • You and your allies will risk danger Cast A Spell (Int) from ____ When you release a spell you've prepared, • You'll have to disenchant ____ to roll+Int. On a 10+, the spell is successfully do it cast and you do not forget the spell—you may cast it again later. On a 7-9, the spell is Alignment cast, but choose one: Choose an alignment: • You draw unwelcome attention or put yourself in a spot (the GM will Good describe it) Use magic to directly aid another • The spell disturbs the fabric of reality as it is cast—take -1 ongoing Neutral to Cast a Spell until you Prepare Discover something about a magical Spells again. mystery • After it is cast, the spell is forgotten. You cannot cast the spell again until Evil you Prepare Spells. Use magic to cause terror and fear Spell Defense When you craft an ongoing spell into a Gear makeshift shield of arcane energy to Your Load is 5+Str. You start with your deflect an attack, the spell is ended and spellbook (1 weight) and dungeon rations (1 you subtract the spell's level from the weight, 5 uses). Choose your defenses: damage done to you. • Leather armor (1 armor, 1 weight) • Bag of books (5 uses, 2 weight) and 3 Ritual healing potions When you draw on a place of power to create a magical effect, tell the GM what Choose your weapon: you're trying to achieve. The GM will tell • Dagger (Hand, 1 weight) you "yes, you can do that, but..." and then 1 • staff (Close, two-handed, 1 weight) to 4 of the following: Choose one: • It's going to take days/weeks/months • healing potion Know-It-All • three antitoxin When another player's character comes to you for advice and you tell them what you Bonds think is best, they get +1 forward when Fill in the name of one of your companions following your advice and you mark in at least one: experience if they do.

______will play an Expanded Spellbook important role in the events to come. I Add a new spell from any class to your have foreseen it! spellbook. ______is keeping an important secret from me. Eldritch Touch

______is woefully When you touch a living creature, skin to misinformed about the world; I will teach skin, you can ask the GM what the last them all that I can. spell to affect that creature was.

Logical Advanced Moves When you use strict deduction to analyze When you gain a level from 2-5, choose your surroundings, you can Discern from these moves. You also add a new spell Realities with Int instead of Wis. to your spellbook at each level. Arcane Ward Prodigy As long as you have at least one prepared Choose a spell. You prepare that spell as if spell, you have +2 armor. it were one level lower. Counterspell Empowered Magic When you are affected by arcane magic When you Cast a Spell, on a 10+ you have you may attempt to counter the spell. Stake the option of choosing from the 7-9 list. If one of your prepared spells of equal or you do, you may choose one of these as higher level on the defense and roll+Int. On well: a 10+, the spell is countered and has no • The spell's effects are maximized effect on you. On a 7-9, the spell is • The spell's targets are doubled countered and you forget the spell you staked. If the spell has other targets they Fount of Knowledge are effected as usual. When you Spout Lore about something no one else has any clue about, take +1. Quick Study Realities with Int instead of Wis. On a 12+ When you see the effects of an arcane you get to ask the GM any three questions, spell, ask the GM the name of the spell and not limited by the list. its effects. You take +1 when acting on the Arcane Armor answers. Replaces: Arcane Ward When you gain a level from 6-10, choose from these moves or the level 2-5 moves. As long as you have at least one prepared spell, you have +4 armor. Master Protective Counter Requires: Prodigy Requires: Counterspell Choose a spell. You prepare that spell as if it were one level lower. When an ally within sight of you is affected by an arcane spell, you can counter it as if Greater Empowered Magic it effected you. If the spell affects multiple Replaces: Empowered Magic allies you must counter for each ally separately. When you Cast a Spell, on a 10-11 you have the option of choosing from the 7-9 list. If Ethereal Tether you do, you may choose one of these When you have time with a willing or effects as well. On a 12+ you get to choose helpless subject you can craft an ethereal one of these effects for free. tether with them. You perceive what they • The spell's effects are doubled perceive and can Discern Realities about • The spell's targets are doubled someone tethered to you or their surroundings no matter the distance. Eldritch Connection Someone willingly tethered to you can Replaces: Eldritch Touch communicate with you over the tether as if you were in the room with them. When you touch a living creature, skin to skin, you can ask the GM what the last Mystical Puppet Strings spell to affect that creature was and one When you use magic to control a person's other question about their past of your actions they have no memory of what you choice. had them do and bear you no ill will. Highly Logical Spell Augmentation Replaces: Logical When you deal damage to a creature you When you use strict deduction to analyze can shunt a spell's energy into them—end your surroundings, you can Discern one of your ongoing spells and add the You perform minor tricks of true magic. If spell's level to the damage dealt. you touch an item as part of the casting you can make cosmetic changes to it: clean Self-Powered it, soil it, cool it, warm it, flavor it, or When you have time, arcane materials, and change its color. If you cast the spell a safe space, you can create your own without touching an item you can instead place of power. Describe to the GM what create minor illusions no bigger than kind of power it is and how you're binding yourself. Prestidigitation illusions are crude it to this place, the GM will tell you one and clearly illusions; they won't fool kind of creature that will have an interest anyone, but they might entertain them. in your workings. 1st Level Spells Contact Spirits Level 1 Summoning Wizard Spells Name the spirit you wish to contact (or leave it to the GM). You pull that creature Cantrips through the planes, just close enough to speak to you. It is bound to answer any one Light Cantrip question you ask to the best of its ability.

An item you touch glows with arcane light, Detect Magic Level 1 Divination about as bright as a torch. It gives off no One of your senses is briefly attuned to heat or sound and requires no fuel, but it is magic. The GM will tell you what here is otherwise like a mundane torch. You have magical. complete control of the color of the flame. The spell lasts as long as it is in your Telepathy Level 1 Divination presence. You form a telepathic bond, allowing you Unseen Servant Cantrip to speak to the person you touch with this spell through your thoughts. You can only You conjure a simple invisible construct have one telepathic bond at a time. that can do nothing but carry items. It has Load 2 and carries anything you hand to it. Identify Level 1 Divination It cannot pick up items on its own and can The history of the item you hold while only carry those you give to it. Items casting this spell is made clear to you. The carried by an unseen servant appear to GM will tell you what it does, where it float in the air a few paces behind you. An came from, and how it got here. unseen servant that takes damage or leaves your presence is immediately dispelled. Invisibility Level 1 Illusion

Prestidigitation Cantrip Touch an ally: nobody can see them. You evoke a mighty ball of flame that They're invisible! The spell persists until envelops your target and everyone nearby, the target attacks or you dismiss the effect. inflicting 2d6 damage which ignores armor. While the spell is ongoing, you can't cast Mimic Level 3 another spell. You take the form of someone you touch Magic Missile Level 1 Evocation while casting this spell. Your physical Projectiles of pure magic spring from your characteristics match theirs exactly but fingers. Deal 2d4 damage to one target. your behavior may not. This change persists until you take damage or choose to Alarm Level 1 return to your own form. While this spell is Walk a wide circle. Until you prepare spells ongoing, you lose access to all your wizard again your magic will alert you if a creature moves. crosses that circle. Even if you are asleep, Mirror Image Level 3 Illusion the spell will shake you from your slumber. You create an illusory image of yourself. 3rd Level Spells The next attack against you effects the illusory image, not you. The image then Dispel Magic Level 3 dissipates. Choose a spell or magic effect in your Sleep Level 3 Enchantment presence: this spell rips it apart. Lesser spells are ended, powerful magic is just 1d4 enemies you can see of the GM's reduced or dampened so long as you are choice fall asleep. Only creatures capable nearby. of sleeping are effected. They awake as normal: loud noises, jolts, pain. Visions Through Time Level 3 Divination Cast this spell and gaze into a reflective 5th Level Spells surface to see into the depths of time. The Cage Level 5 Evocation GM will reveal the details of a Grim Portent to you—a bleak event that will The target is held in a cage of magical come to pass if not directly stopped. force. Nothing can get in or out of the cage. They'll tell you something useful about The cage remains until you cast another how you can interfere with the Grim spell or dismiss it. While the spell is Portent's dark outcomes. Rare is the ongoing, the caged creature can hear your Portent that claims "You'll live happily ever thoughts and you cannot leave sight of the after." Sorry. cage.

Fireball Level 3 Evocation Contact Other Plane Level 5 Divination You send a request to another plane. • The monster's bond to your plane is Specify what you'd like to contact by strong, +3 HP for each level you have location, type of creature, name, or title. • The monster has some useful You open a two-way communication with adaptation that creature. Your communication can be The creature remains on this plane until it cut off at any time by you or the creature dies or you dismiss it. While the spell is you contacted. ongoing, you take -1 to Cast a Spell. Polymorph Level 5 Enchantment Your touch reshapes a creature entirely, 7th Level Spells they stay in the form you craft until you Dominate Level 7 Enchantment Cast a Spell. Describe to the GM the new Your touch pushes your mind into shape you craft, including any stat changes, someone else's. You gain 1d4 hold. Spend significant adaptations, or major one hold to make the target take one of weaknesses. The GM will then tell you one these actions: or more of these: • Speak a few words of your choice • The form will be unstable and Give you something they hold temporary • Make a concerted attack on a target • The creature's mind will be altered • as well of your choice Truthfully answer one question • The form has an unintended benefit • or weakness If you run out of hold the spell ends. If the Summon Monster Level 5 Summoning target takes damage you lose 1 hold. While the spell is ongoing you cannot Cast a A monster appears and aids you as best it Spell. can. Treat it as your character, but with access to only the basic moves. It has +1 True Seeing Level 7 Divination modifier for all stats and 1 HP. Choose the You see all things as they truly are. This type of monster by choosing 1d6 effect persists until you tell a lie or dismiss statements from the list below. The GM the spell. While this spell is ongoing, you will tell you the type of monster you get take -1 to Cast a Spell. based on your choices: Shadow Walk Level 7 Illusion • The monster has +2 instead of +1 to The shadows you target with this spell one stat become a portal for you and your allies. • The monster is not reckless Name a location, describing it with a • The monster does 1d8 damage number of words up to your level. Stepping through the portal deposits you and any allies present when you cast the spell at the Describe an event. The GM will tell you location you described. The portal may when that event occurs, no matter where only be used once by each ally. you are or how far away the event is. If you choose, you can view the location of the Contingency Level 7 Evocation event as though you were there in person. Choose a 5th level or lower spell you know. You can only have one Alert active at a Describe a trigger condition using a time. number of words equal to your level. The Soul Gem Level 9 chosen spell is held until you choose to unleash it or the trigger condition is met, You trap the soul of a dying creature within whichever happens first. You don't have to a gem. The trapped creature is aware of its roll for the held spell, it just takes effect. imprisonment but can still be manipulated While you have a contingent spell, you through spells, Parley, and other effects. All can't gain another one. moves against the trapped creature are at +1. You can free the soul at any time but it Cloudkill Level 7 Summoning can never be recaptured once freed. A cloud of fog drifts into this realm from Shelter Level 9 Evocation beyond the Black Gates of Death, filling the immediate area. Whenever a creature You create a structure out of pure magical in the area takes damage it takes an extra power. It can be as large as a castle or as 1d6 damage which ignores armor. This small as a hut, but is impervious to all non- spell persists so long as you can see the magical damage. The structure endures affected area, or until you dismiss it. until you leave it or you end the spell.

Perfect Summons Level 9 Summoning 9th Level Spells You teleport a creature to your presence. Antipathy Level 9 Enchantment Name a creature or give a short description Choose a target and describe a type of of a type of creature. If you named a creature or an alignment. Creatures of the creature, that creature appears before you. specified type or alignment cannot come If you described a type of creature, a within sight of the target. If a creature of creature of that type appears before you. the specified type does find itself within site of the target, it immediately flees. This effect continues until you leave the target's presence or you dismiss the spell. While Equipment the spell is ongoing, you take -1 to Cast a The musty tombs and forgotten treasure Spell. troves of the world are filled with useful Alert Level 9 Divination items. The Fighters can find a sharp new sword or the Thief might stumble across a have more than one item with n-armor, deadly poison. Most items are mundane; only the highest value counts. not magical or intrinsically unique in any +n Armor: It protects you and stacks with way. Any item that is magical or one-of-a- other armor. Add its value to your total kind is not mundane for the purposes of armor. moves. The Fighter's signature weapon is never mundane. Awkward: It's unwieldy and tough to use.

Weapons don't kill monsters, people do. +Bonus: It modifies your effectiveness in That's why weapons don't have damage some particular situation. It might be "+1 listed. A weapon is useful primarily for its forward to Spout Lore" or "-1 ongoing to tags which describe what the weapon is Hack and Slash." useful for. A dagger is not useful because it Clumsy: It's tough to move around with. -1 does more or less damage than some other ongoing while using it. blade. It's useful because its small and easy n coins: How much it costs to buy, to strike with at close distance. A dagger in normally. If the cost includes "-Charisma" a the hands of a Wizard is not nearly so little negotiation subtracts the haggler's dangerous as one in the hands of a skilled Charisma score (not modifier) from the Fighter. price. The stats below are for typical items. +n Damage: It is particularly harmful to There are, of course, variations. A dull long your enemies. When you deal damage, you sword might be -1 damage instead while a add n to it. masterwork dagger could be +1 damage. Consider the following to be stats for a Dangerous: It's easy to get in trouble with typical weapon of that type—a specific it. If you interact with it without proper weapon could have different tags to precautions the GM may freely invoke the represent its features. consequences of your foolish actions.

Forceful: It can knock someone back a Tag Glossary pace, maybe even off their feet. n Ammo: It counts as n ammo for Ignores Armor: Don't subtract armor from appropriate ranged weapons. the damage taken.

Applied: It's only useful when carefully Messy: It does damage in a particularly applied to a person or something they eat destructive way, ripping people and things or drink. apart. n Armor: It protects you from harm and n Piercing: It goes right through armor. absorbs damage. When you take damage, When you deal damage with n piercing, subtract your armor from the total. If you you subtract n from the enemy's armor for Range Tags (From Closest to that attack. Furthest) Precise: It rewards careful strikes. You use Hand: It's useful for attacking something Dex to Hack and Slash with this weapon, within your reach, no further. not Str. Close: It's useful for attacking something at Ration: It's edible, more or less. arm's reach plus a foot or two.

Reload: After you attack with it, it takes Reach: It's useful for attacking something more than a moment to reset for another that's several feet away—maybe as far as attack. ten.

Requires: It's only useful to certain people. Near: It's useful for attacking if you can see If you don't meet the requirements it works the whites of their eyes. weakly, if at all. Far: It's useful for attacking something in Slow: It takes minutes or more to use. shouting distance.

Thrown: Throw it at someone to hurt them. If you Volley with this weapon, you Weapons can't choose to mark off ammo on a 7–9. Ragged Bow Near, 15 coins, 2 Weight Once you throw it, it's lost until you can Fine Bow Near, Far, 60 coins, 2 Weight recover it. Hunter's Bow Near, Far, 100 coins, 1 Touch: It's used by touching it to the Weight target's skin. Crossbow Near, +1 damage, Reload, 35 Two-handed: It takes two hands to use it coins, 3 Weight effectively. Bundle of Arrows 3 Ammo, 1 coin, 1 Weight Stun: When you attack with it, it does stun damage instead of normal damage. Elven Arrows 4 Ammo, 20 coins, 1 Weight n Uses: It can only be used n times. Club, Shillelagh Close, 1 coins, 2 Weight n Weight: Count the listed amount against Staff Close, Two-handed, 1 coins, 1 Weight your Load. Something with no listed Dagger, Shiv, Knife Hand, 2 coins, 1 Weight weight isn't designed to be carried. 100 Throwing Dagger Thrown, Near, 1 coin, 0 coins in standard denominations is 1 Weight weight. The same value in gems or fine art may be lighter or heavier. Short Sword, Axe, Warhammer, Mace Close, 8 coins, 1 Weight Worn: To use it, you have to be wearing it. Spear Reach, Thrown, Near, 5 coins, 1 Poultices and Herbs 2 Uses, Slow, 10 coins, Weight 1 Weight

Long Sword, Battle Axe, Flail Close, +1 When you carefully treat someone's damage, 15 coins, 2 Weight wounds with poultices and herbs, heal them of 7 damage and expend a use. Halberd Reach, +1 damage, Two-handed, 9 coins, 2 Weight Healing Potion 50 coins

Rapier Close, Precise, 25 coins, 1 Weight When you drink an entire healing potion, heal yourself of 10 damage or remove one Dueling Rapier Close, 1 piercing, Precise, debility, your choice. 50 coins, 2 Weight Keg of Dwarven Stout 10 coins, 4 Weight

Armor When you open a keg of dwarven stout and Leather, Chainmail 1 Armor, Worn, 10 let everyone drink freely, take +1 to your coins, 1 Weight Carouse roll. If you drink a whole keg yourself, you are very very drunk. Scale Mail 2 Armor, Worn, Clumsy, 50 coins, 3 Weight Bag of Books 5 Uses, 10 coins, 2 Weight

Plate 3 Armor, Worn, Clumsy, 350 coins, 4 When your bag of books contains just the Weight right book for the subject you're Spouting Lore on, consult the book, mark off a use, Shield +1 Armor, 15 coins, 2 Weight and take +1 to your roll. Dungeon Gear Antitoxin 10 coins Adventuring Gear 5 Uses, 20 coins, 1 When you drink antitoxin, you're cured of Weight one poison affecting you.

Adventuring gear is a collection of useful Dungeon Rations Ration, 5 Uses, 3 coins, 1 mundane items such as chalk, poles, Weight spikes, ropes, etc. When you rummage Not tasty, but not bad either. through your adventuring gear for some Personal Feast Ration, 1 Use, 10 coins, 1 useful mundane item, you find what you Weight need and mark off a Use. Ostentatious to say the least. Bandages 3 Uses, Slow, 5 coins, 0 Weight Dwarven Hardtack Requires Dwarf, When you have a few minutes to bandage Ration, 7 Uses, 3 coins, 1 Weight someone else's wounds, heal them of 4 damage and expend a use. Dwarves say it tastes like home. Everyone A week's stay at a civilized inn 30- else says it tastes like home, on fire, in a Charisma coins hog farm. A week's stay at the fanciest inn in town Elven Bread Ration, 7 Uses, 10 coins, 1 43-Charisma coins Weight A week's unskilled mundane labor 10 coins Only the greatest of elf-friends are treated A month's pay for enlistment in an army 30 to this rare delicacy. coins Halfling Pipeleaf 5 Uses, 5 coins, 1 Weight A custom item from a blacksmith Base When you share halfling pipeleaf with Item + 50 coins someone, expend two uses and take +1 A night's "companionship" 20-Charisma forward to Parley with them. coins Poisons An evening of song and dance 18-Charisma coins Oil of Tagit Dangerous, Applied, 15 coins, 0 Escort for a day along a bandit-infested Weight road 20 coins The target falls into a light sleep Escort for a day along a monster-infested Bloodweed Dangerous, Touch, 12 coins, 0 road 54 coins Weight A run-of-the-mill killing 5 coins The target deals -1d4 damage ongoing until An assassination 120 coins cured Healing from a Churgeon 5 coins Goldenroot Dangerous, Applied, 20 coins, 0 Weight A month's prayers for the departed 1 coins

The target treats the next creature they see Repairs to a mundane item 25% of the as a trusted ally, until proved otherwise item's cost

Serpent's Tears Dangerous, Touch, 10 coins, 0 Weight Meals

Anyone dealing damage against the target A hearty meal for one 1 coins rolls twice and takes the better result. A poor meal for a family 1 coins

A feast 15 coins per person Services A week's stay at a peasant inn 14-Charisma Transport coins Cart and Donkey 50 coins, Load 20 This donkey is sworn to carry your An offer you can't refuse 500-Charisma burdens. coins

Horse 75 coins, Load 10 Gifts and Finery Warhorse 400 coins, Load 12 A peasant gift 1 coins Wagon 150 coins, Load 40 A fine gift 55 coins Barge 50 coins, Load 15 A noble gift 200 coins River boat 150 coins, Load 20 A ring or cameo 75 coins Merchant Ship 5,000 coins, Load 200 Finery 105 coins War Ship 20,000 coins, Load 100 A fine tapestry 350+ coins Passage on a safe route 1 coins A crown fit for a king 5,000 coins Passage on a tough route 10 coins Passage on a dangerous route 100 coins Hoards A goblin's stash 2 coins Land and Buildings A lizardman's trinkets 5 coins A hovel 20 coins A priceless sword 80 coins A cottage 500 coins An orc warchief's tribute 250 coins A house 2,500 coins A dragon's mound of coins and gems A mansion 50,000 coins 130,000 coins A keep 75,000 coins A castle 250,000 coins Magic Items A grand castle 1,000,000 coins There are stranger things in the world than A month's upkeep 1% of the cost swords and leather. Magic items are the non-mundane, items that have intrinsic Bribes power. A peasant dowery 20-Charisma coins Magic items are for you to make for your game. Players can make magic items "Protection" for a small business 100- through the Wizard's ritual and similar Charisma coins moves. The GM can introduce magic items A government bribe 50-Charisma coins in the spoils of battle or the bounty of reward. This list provides some ideas, but A compelling bribe 80-Charisma coins magic items are ultimately for you to Candle of Truth 0 Weight decide. So long as this candle burns, no one can When making your own magic items keep willingly lie within its light. in mind that magic items are magical. +1 Common Scroll 1 Use, 0 Weight damage is the realm of the mundane, magic items should provide more interesting A common scroll has a spell inscribed on it. bonuses. The spell must be castable by you or on your class's spell list for you to be able to Bag of Holding 0 Weight cast it. When you cast a spell from a scroll, A bag of holding is larger on the inside than the spell has effect, simple as that. the outside, it can contain an infinite Cornucopia 1 Weight number of items, and its weight never increases. When you try to retrieve an item This horn of plenty converts magic into from a bag of holding, roll+Wis. On a 10+, sustenance. When you cast a spell into a it's right there. On a 7-9, choose one: cornucopia, it produces food enough for a number of people equal to the spell's level. • You get the exact item, but it takes a while Crystal Ball 1 Weight • You get a similar item of the GM's When you look into a crystal ball, name a choice, but it only takes a moment location and roll+Wis. On a hit, you get a No matter how many items it contains, a clear vision of the location so long as you bag of holding is always 0 weight. stare into the crystal ball. On a 7-9, someone or something else also observes The Burning Wheel 2 Weight you through the crystal ball.

This wagon wheel with several shattered Demonsbane 1 Use, 0 Weight spokes is constantly wreathed in flames. A gift from the gods, it takes a strong soul to A weapon bathed in Demonsbane causes carry the wheel. It does not provide any great pain to demons. It's touch will drive bonus to swimming. them back.

When you pick up The Burning Wheel and Flask of Breath 0 Weight speak a god's name, roll+Con. On a 7+, the This flask contains an everlasting supply of god you name takes notice and grants you air. It is useful for breathing underwater or an audience. An audience with a god is not on the far planes. without a price: on a 10+, you choose one Holy Avenger Close, 2 Weight of your stats and reduce it to the next lowest modifier (for example, a 14 is +1, so This sword is revered among paladins. It is it would be reduced to 11, a +0). On a 7-9, considered a sign of divine favor to wield the GM chooses which stat to reduce. one. When wielded by a paladin, the paladin is granted a mark of divinity and to deplete your smart arrow ammo to the eyes of the gods are always on them automatically succeed before you roll. (for good or ill). For anyone else, it's just a Lodestone Shield 1 Weight sword. Emblazoned with a roaring lion, this shield Immovable Rod 0 Weight has the power to attract blades and arrows When you press the small button on the to it. When you Defend with a Lodestone end of the immovable rod, it freezes in Shield, when you spend hold against an place and cannot be moved. When you enemy wielding a metallic weapon you may press the button again, it becomes movable spend one more hold to also disarm them. again. Mental Wax 1 Use, 0 Weight Infinite Book 1 Weight When you drip mental wax into someone's This book contains an infinite number of ear, you get 3 Hold. You may spend hold to pages in a finite space. With no limit to the ask the player of the target one question pages, everything that ever was, is, or will which they must answer truthfully. be is contained somewhere in the book. Rope of Tricks 1 Weight Luckily the index is great. This rope responds to its wielder's every When you Spout Lore while consulting the wish, tying itself into knots, grabbing on to book you gain an extra clause. On a 12+ the items (or enemies), coiling tightly. It acts as GM will give a solution to a problem or if it was an intelligent creature, like a smart situation you're in. snake of rope. Every rogue wants one. Inspectacles 0 Weight Teleportation Room Slow A pair of rough-hewn glass lenses in It requires an entire stone room to contain shabby frames, they somehow allow the these powerful teleportation magics. When wearer to see much more than is actually you enter the teleportation room and name present. When you Discern Realities while a location, roll. On a 10+, you arrive exactly wearing the glasses, you have an extra where you intended. On a 7-9, the GM clause. On a roll of 12+ you may ask any chooses a safe location nearby. On a 6-, three questions about the person, situation you end up someplace nearby, but it surely or area you are observing, not just those on isn't safe. the list. Timunn's Armor Armor 2, 1 Weight Living Arrows 1 Ammo, 1 Weight This suit of armor appears as many things These arrows know how to find their to many people. Its wearer always looks target. When you Volley, you may choose impeccably dressed to everyone who sees them. The aura of the armor makes everyone more likely to see it the wearer's way. The GM This section is about the art and rules of When you Parley with someone they see being the Game Master or GM. There are you as who they want you to be, you have a many styles of GMing epic fantasy games new clause for this move. On a roll of 12+ with things like dragons and dungeons and the target becomes hopelessly devoted to brave adventurers but Dungeon World is you. Tell the GM to stop making moves designed for one of those styles in with this character, from now on they will particular. These rules will help you run a only act in your best interest. (GM, don't game in that style. mess with this. Really, best interests.) Just because the rules are mechanical Vellius's Gauntlets 1 Weight doesn't mean they're removed from the Bearing the insignia of Saint Vellius, these fiction of what's actually happening in the gloves shine with the power of their game or that you're playing to win. You'll wearer. When you hold something with the be refereeing, adjudicating and narrating gloves, you cannot be forced to drop what your part the game much like you would you hold through force. any other game. You'll just have a Vorpal Sword 3 Piercing, 2 Weight framework that helps you determine what to say, at what time. When you deal damage with the Vorpal Sword, your enemy must choose The GM's rules are rules, just like the rules something (an item, an advantage, a limb) for moves and character creation and all and lose it, permanently. the rest. Just like every other rule in the game, they are designed to help you play a Wax Wings 1 Weight game of exploration and epic fantasy. You Crafted to resemble great eagle wings, this will of course be making your own rules, in contraption is worn via a complex harness. the form of custom moves, but the GM's When you take to the air with wax wings, rules are as important to playing Dungeon roll+Dex. On a 10+ your flight is controlled World as the rules for rolling dice. Play and you may stay aloft as long as you like. with the rules as written before making any On a 7-9, you make it aloft but your flight is changes, and think carefully about any short or erratic and unpredictable, your changes you do make. choice. On a 6- you make it aloft, but the rest is up to the GM. The Basics Dungeon World is built on a framework: the GM's agenda, principles, and moves. The GM's agenda is what they set out to do when they sit down at the table. The principles are the guides that keep the GM Say what the adventure demands. You'll focused on their agenda. The GM's moves know some things before you sit down at are the concrete, moment-to-moment the table. You might know where the things the GM does to drive the game goblins are hiding or when the forward. The GM's moves aren't like player reinforcements are going to arrive. If the moves, they aren't triggered by the fiction. players haven't done anything to change Instead they are actions that drive the those things, stick with them. game onward. Always be honest. If the rules tell you to The GM's agenda, principles, and moves give out information, like the Spout Lore are rules just like damage or stats or HP. and Discern Realities moves, do it. Don't You should take the same care in altering lie or give half truths; be open and honest them or ignoring them that you would with —generous, even. The player characters any other rule. Changing a principle may have risked something to get that have just as much of an effect on your information just by rolling so make it worth game as changing the Fighter's damage their while. If you don't know the answer dice or giving the Cleric access to Wizard make one up or turn the question back to spells. the players. Once you tell the players it's set in stone, no going back on it.

Always Say This applies in general to the players' When running Dungeon World as the GM actions, too. If they have worked to you say these things: achieve something, you should give it to them fully. You're not here to fight back • What the rules demand against the players; you're not opposed to • What the adventure demands them at all. You are playing the game with What honesty demands • them. • What the principles demand At all times, use your principles and The players have it easy—they just say agenda as a filter or inspiration. If what their characters say, think and do. something falls flat it's usually because you You have it a bit harder. You have to say ignored one of your principles or acted on everything else. So what do you say? Say a different agenda. If you're unsure of what what the rules tell you to. If a move has you're about to say just take a moment and triggered, yours or the players', then say look at your agenda and principles to make what the rules tell you to say. Embellish sure you're abiding by them. and expand but use the rules to give you a start. The rules will always give you material to work with. Agenda characters and the world around them. You're not a frustrated novelist trying to The GM's agenda is what they sit down at organize your unruly characters. You're a the table to do: participant in a great story that's unfolding. • Make the world fantastic So really—don't plan the story. The rules • Fill the characters' lives with of the game will fight you. adventure Fill the character's life with adventure • Play to find out what happens means helping the players create a world Everything you say, create and do at the that's exciting and full of epic foes to battle, table and away from the table is to strange places to explore, and glorious accomplish these three goals and no treasure to discover. Adventurers are others. Things that aren't on this list aren't always caught up in some plot or world- your goals. You're not trying to beat the threatening danger or another—encourage players or test their ability to solve and foster that kind of action in the game. complex traps. You're not here to give the The players have an agenda too, but it's players a chance to explore your finely probably something they'll do by default: crafted setting. You're most certainly not portray their characters. here to tell everyone a planned story. That one deserves repeating: you are not Principles here to tell everyone a planned story. • Draw maps, leave blanks Don't ever plan a storyline. You do not • Address the characters, not the know what will happen to the players' players characters any more than they do. Your job • Embrace the fantastic is to portray a fantastic world, not provide • Make a move that follows a canned plot. • Never speak the name of your move To that end, Dungeon World adventures • Give every monster life never presume player actions. A Dungeon • Name every person World adventure describes a location in • Ask questions and use the answers motion, someplace important with • Be a fan of the characters creatures pursuing their own goals. As the • Think Dangerous players come into conflict with that • Begin and end with the fiction location, it will snowball into action. You'll • Think offscreen, too honestly portray the repercussions of their actions. Your principles are your guides. Often, when it's time to make a move, you'll When you play this way you get to share in already have an idea. Quickly run it past the fun of finding out what happens to the your principles and make sure it fits, then already have these kind of abilities, so you go with it. should reflect them in the world.

Draw maps, leave blanks Make a move that follows Dungeon World is mostly in our When you make a move what you're imaginations, but we can actually see it actually doing is taking some element of when we draw a map. So, make use of the fiction and bringing it to bear against maps. You won't always be drawing them the characters. Your move should always yourself, but any time there's a new follow from the fiction, and you never location draw it on a map (or make a new speak its name. Instead describe the map for it). fictional actions that take place which follow from the situation established. When you draw a map, it doesn't have to be complete. Leave blanks, places that are Never speak the name of your move unknown to you. As you play you'll get There is no quicker way to ruin the more ideas or the players will give you consistency of Dungeon World than to tell inspiration to work with. the players what move you're making. Your Address the characters, not the players moves are prompts to you, not things you say directly. Addressing the characters, not the players, means that you don't say "Whit, is Dunwick You never show the players that you're doing something about that wight?" Instead picking a move from a list. You know the you say "Dunwick, what are you doing reason the slavers dragged off Omar was about the wight?" Talking this way keeps because you made the "Put someone in a the game rooted in the fiction and not at spot" move, but you show it to the players the table. It's important to the flow of the as a straightforward outcome of their game, too. If you talk to the players you actions. may leave out details that are important to what moves the characters make. Since Give every monster life moves are always based on the actions of Monsters are nameless hordes of creatures the character you need to think about that stand between the players and what what's happening in terms of characters— they want. Give each monster details that not players. bring it to life: smells, sights, sounds. Your monsters are arrows, fired en masse at the Embrace the fantastic players. Give each enough detail to make it The fantastic is the core of fantasy: magic, real, but don't cry when it gets slain by strange vistas, gods, demons, and intrepid adventurers. abominations. The player characters Name every person interacting with that world changes Every person gets a name. You'll have a everything. name list to work from on your adventure Think Dangerous sheet, so don't worry too much about it. Anyone that the players interact with has a Thinking Dangerous means that everything name. They probably have a personality in the world is a target. You're thinking like and some goals or opinions too, but you an evil overlord: no single life is worth can figure that out as you go. Start with a anything, there is nothing sacrosanct. name. The rest can flow from there. Everything can be put in danger, everything can be destroyed. Nothing you How do you know if someone gets a name? create is ever protected. Whenever your If you start dealing with them as an eye falls on something you've created, individual (not just "a member of the Knob think dangerous. Think how it can be put Street gang" or "a goblin ambusher") it's in danger, fall apart, crumble. time for a name. Begin and end with the fiction Ask questions and use the answers Everything you and the players do in You don't have to know everything. If you Dungeon World comes from and leads to don't know, or you don't have an idea, just fictional events. When the players make a ask the players and use what they say. move, they always take a fictional action to The easiest question to use is "What do trigger it, apply the rules, and get a fictional you do?" Whenever you make a move, end effect. When you make a move it always with "What do you do?" You don't even comes from the fiction. have to ask the person you made the move You can apply this to everything you say. against. Take that chance to shift the focus Start with the fiction ("The ogre's axe elsewhere: "Rath's spell is torn apart with a comes sailing down into your shoulder…"), flick of the mage's wand. Finnegan, that apply the rules ("…you take 12 damage…"), spell was aiding you. What are you doing go back to the fiction ("…as your collar now that it's gone?" bone cracks beneath your armor. What do you do?"). Be a fan of the characters Treat the players' characters like Think offscreen too characters you watch on TV. You want to Just because you're a fan of the characters see how things turn out for them. You're doesn't mean everything happens right in not here to make them lose, or to make front of them. Sometimes your best move them win, and definitely not to guide them is in the next room, or another part of the to your story. You're here to portray the dungeon, or even back in town. Make your interesting world around them and see how move elsewhere and show the effects later. Moves move is a way of fulfilling your agenda— part of which is to fill the character's lives • Use a monster, danger, or location with adventure. When a spell goes wild or move the floor drops out from under them Reveal an unwelcome truth • adventurers react. • Show signs of doom • Deal damage When to Make a Move Use up their resources • You make a move when everyone looks to • Turn their move back on them you to find out what happens. When it's • Separate them your turn to say something in the • Give an opportunity that fits a class' conversation you make a move. In abilities particular, you make a soft move: a move • Show a downside to their class, race, that sets up a future move. or equipment Making a soft move just means that you put • Offer an opportunity, with or events in motion, then let the players react. without cost If they don't do anything about it you • Put someone in a spot follow through with the full consequences, • Tell them the requirements or making another (harder) move. Showing consequences and ask signs of doom is your most versatile soft Whenever everyone looks to you to see move since the doom you portend is a what happens choose one of these. Each move waiting to happen. move is something that occurs in the Of course your moves apply when the fiction of the game—they aren't code players undertake something that's not a words or special terms. "Use up their player move. In that case the players will resources" literally means to expend the say something, like "I lay my case before resources of the characters. the king, pleading for aid," and look to you Of course you don't say that to the players. to find out what happens. Since they You never speak the name of your move haven't made a move (there's no leverage (it's one of your principles). You make it a to make a Parley) you just respond with a real thing that happens to them: "As you soft move of your own as setup by the dodge the hulking ogre's club, you slip and fiction. land hard. Your sword goes sliding away You also make a move when the players into the darkness. You think you saw where give you a golden opportunity. A golden it went but the ogre is lumbering your way. opportunity is any time they ignore a threat What do you do?" or when they fail a roll (6-). No matter what move you make always follow up with "What do you do?" Your When they give you a golden opportunity, them off. Their actions will instead come you can make your move just as hard as back to bite them later. Be careful with it. you like. A hard move is one that is irrevocable and immediate. The players Making your Move immediately feel the consequences of the When making a move, keep your principles move and have to deal with them. Dealing in mind. In particular, "never speak the damage is a hard move, since the damage is name of your move" and "address the immediately applied. characters, not the players." Your moves are Soft moves are useful to setup future not mechanical actions happening around harder moves. When the doom you show the table. They are concrete events signs of is an onslaught of goblin arrows, if happening to the characters in the fictional the players don't so something to get out of world you are describing. the way, you can follow through with Note that "Deal damage" is a move, but damage as a hard move. Ignoring the other moves may include damage as well. oncoming arrows is a golden opportunity. When an ogre flings you against a wall you take damage as surely as if he had smashed Choosing a Move you with his fists. If a monster deals To choose a move, start by looking at the damage incidentally as part of another obvious consequences of the action that move, like charging past Titanius slamming triggered it. If you already have an idea, her to the ground, the damage dealt is think on it for a second to make sure it fits equal to half the monster's normal damage. your agenda and principles and then do it. If a move causes damage not related to a Let your moves snowball. Build on the monster, like a collapsing tunnel or fall into success or failure of the characters moves a pit, use the damage rules on page X and on your own previous moves. (Blood and Guts chapter). You can choose to save up your moves After every move you make, always ask instead. Use this option sparingly, only "what do you do?" The players' characters when you're sure the consequences of are the stars, remember. their action occurred off screen and that you'll be able to come up with those Use a monster, danger, or location consequences later. The saved move move should always be used in the same physical Each monster in an adventure has moves area, such as a dungeon complex or associated with it, as do many locations. A sprawling swamp. Your players will come monster or location move is just a to expect you to make hard moves on the description of what that location or tail of their failed rolls—this will throw monster does, maybe "hurl someone away" or "bridge the planes." If a move (like Hack and Slash) says that a monster gets to make roll, you never need to touch the dice. If an attack, make a move with that monster. the player is too cowardly to find out their own fate, they can ask another player to The overarching dangers of the adventure roll for them. also have moves associated with them. Use these moves to bring that danger into play, Dealing damage is a hard move. Use it which may mean more monsters. carefully.

Reveal an unwelcome truth Use up their resources An unwelcome truth is a fact the players Surviving in a dungeon, or anywhere wish wasn't true: that the room's been dangerous, often comes down to supplies. trapped, maybe, or that the helpful goblin With this move, something happens to use is actually a spy. You never make up an up some resource: weapons, armor, unwelcome truth when making this move healing, ongoing spells. You don't always —you just bring one to light. Reveal to the have to use it up permanently. A sword players just how much trouble they're in. might just be flung to the other side of the room, not shattered. Show signs of doom This is one of your most versatile moves. Offer an opportunity, with or without 'Doom' is anything bad that's coming. With cost this move, you just show them that Show them something they want: riches, something's going to happen unless they do power, glory. If you want, you can associate something about it. Remember to ask some cost with it too, of course. "What do you do?" Remember to lead with the fiction. You don't say "This area isn't dangerous so you Deal damage can make camp here, if you're willing to When you deal damage you choose one take the time." You make it a solid fictional source of damage that's fictionally thing and say "Helferth's blessings still hang threatening a character and apply it. In around the shattered alter. It's clearly been combat with a lizard man? It stabs you. untouched, the goblins don't come here. Running from a collapsing tunnel? Some It's a nice safe spot, but the chanting from rocks catch your ankle. the ritual chamber is getting louder. What The amount of damage is decided by the do you do?" source. In some cases, this move might involve trading damage both ways, with the Put someone in a spot player character also dealing damage. A spot is someplace where they have to make tough, ugly choices. Put them in the Most damage is based on a dice roll. When path of destruction. Put someone or a player takes damage, tell them what to something they care about in a dangerous situation. Whatever you do, just make sure • Use a threat from an existing faction they're someplace where they have to take or type of creature action and then ask "What do you do?" • Make them backtrack • Present riches at a price Tell them the requirements or • Present a challenge to one of the consequences and ask characters This move is particularly good when they've done something that's not a move, You can make these moves whenever or failed a move. They can do it, sure, but everyone looks to you to say something, they'll have to meet the requirements. Or, when the players present you an they can do it, but there will be opportunity or when the players miss on a consequences. Maybe they can swing roll. They're particularly well-suited for across the chasm, fully armored, and leap when the players look at you to find out into battle, but the rope will be stressed what a new room or area is like. beyond usefulness afterwards. Maybe they Change the environment can swim through the crocodilian-infested moat before being devoured, but they'll The environment is the general feel of the need a distraction. Of course this is made area the players are in: carved tunnels, clear to the characters, not just the players: warped trees, safe trails or whatever else. the crocodilians are slavering hungry and This is your opportunity to introduce them starved, or the rope already has dangerous to a new environment: the tunnels give. gradually become naturally carved, the trees are dead or the trails are lost and the Dungeon Moves wilderness takes over. Use this move to vary the types of areas and creatures the Dungeon Moves are a special subset that players will face. you are used to make or alter a dungeon on It's an opportunity for you to interject with the fly. Use these if your players are a change in scenery and play up the themes exploring a hostile area that you don't and dangers that are to come. Snowball already have planned all the way through. this move with itself over time to gradually Map out the area being explored as you shift the dungeon to something new and make these moves. Most of them will exciting by using one or two elements at a require you to add a new room or element time. First the scent of brimstone fills the to your map. tunnels, then hellish sigils mar the walls, • Change the environment then the moans of the damned and before • Point to a looming threat the players know it, they're not in a cavern at all—they're in the pit of a demon lord! • Introduce a new faction or type of creature Point to a looming threat will snowball directly into a combat scene If you know that something lurking and or ambush. waiting for the players to stumble upon it, Use a threat from an existing faction or this move shows them the signs and clues. type of creature This move is the dragon's footprints in the Once the characters have some been mud or the slimy trail of the gelatinous introduced to the presence a faction or cube. type of creature you can use monsters of This move means that when the players that type. finally come face-to-face with the threat, Use the factions and types broadly. Orcs they'll have some ideas and fear about are accompanied with their hunting worgs. what awaits them. Use it to build tension A mad cult probably has some undead or, in some cases, provide hints that prove servants or maybe a few beasts summoned to be a surprise. It's not a wicked red from the deepest pits. This is a move that, dragon like the players expected, it's a often, you'll be making subconsciously—it's wounded silver drake who needs their just implementing the tools you've set out help. for yourself in a clear and effective manner. Introduce a new faction or type of creature Make them backtrack A type of creatures is a broad grouping: Look back at the spaces you've added to orcs, goblins, lizardmen, golems, etc. the map. Is there anything useful there as yet undiscovered? Can you add a new A faction is a group of creatures united by a obstacle that can only be overcome by similar goal. Once you introduce them you going back there? Is there a locked door can begin to make moves and cause here and now whose key lies in an earlier trouble for the players with those creatures room? or NPCs. When backtracking, take the opportunity Introducing means giving some clear to show the effect the players have had on sensory evidence or substantiated the areas they've left behind. What new information. Don't be coy, the players threats have sprung up in their wake? What should have some idea what you're didn't they take care of that's waiting for showing the presence of. You can, their return? however, be subtle in your approach. No need to have the cultist overlord waving a Use this move the make the dungeon a placard and screaming in the infernal living, breathing place. There is no statis in tongue every single time. the wake of the characters' passing. Add reinforcements, cave in walls, cause chaos. You don't have to warn the players about this move. A hard application of this move Make the dungeon evolve in the wake of play using this move from session to the characters' actions. session.

Present riches at a price What do the players want? What might they give something up for? First Session Put some desirable item just out of reach. The first session of a game of Dungeon Find something they're short on: time, HP, World begins with character creation. gear, whatever. Find a way to make what Character creation is also world creation, they want available if they give up what the details on the character sheets and the they have. questions the GM asks establish what The simplest way to use this move is the Dungeon World is like—who lives in it and promise of gold out of the way of the main what's going on. objective. Will they stop to pry the ruby This section is for the GM so it's addressed eyes from the idol when they know that to you—the GM. For the players, the first the virgin sacrifice looms closer and closer? session is just like every other. They just Use this move and you can find out. have to play their characters like real people and explore Dungeon World. The Present a challenge to one of the GM has to do a little more in the first characters session. They establish the world and the Challenge a character by looking at what threats the players will face. Don't worry, they're good at. Give the Thief a lock to it's fun. pick, show the Cleric evil gods to battle against. Give the Wizard magical mysteries to investigate. Show the Fighter some Prep skulls he can crack. Give someone a Before the first session, you'll need to print chance to shine. some stuff. Print off:

As an alternative, challenge a character by • A few copies of the basic moves and looking at what they're bad at or what special moves (double sided, basic they've left unresolved. If the Bard has a on one side and special on the long con running what steps will he take to other). You'll want about one per cover it up when someone figures him out? player. If the Wizard has been summoning demons • One copy of each class sheet, double then what happens when word gets out? sided. This move can give a character the • One copy each of the cleric and spotlight—even if just for a moment. Try to wizard spell sheets, double sided. give everyone a chance to be the focus of • A few copies of the equipment sheet. • The GM moves. don't know the heroes or the world before • The GM worksheets. you sit down to play so planning anything concrete is just going to frustrate you. It You'll also need to read this whole book, also conflicts with your Agenda: play to especially the sections on GMing (GM find out what happens. moves) and the basic moves. It's a good idea to be acquainted with the class moves Don't use the Fronts rules (in the next too, so you can be prepared for them. Be chapter) for the first session either. Those especially sure to read the rules for Fronts, will come with time but in the first session but don't create any yet. you need to be able to focus more on getting the game rolling. The big picture Think about fantastic worlds, strange doesn't matter so much, yet. Instead focus magic, and foul beasts. If you've played on getting the players into action, other fantasy games like Dungeons and interacting with each other, and using the Dragons think back to what made your old rules. games so much fun. Remember the games you played and the stories you told. They Getting Started can all provide inspiration for your When everyone shows up for the first Dungeon World game. Watch some movies, session briefly introduce anyone who read some comics; get heroic fantasy into hasn't played before to Dungeon World. your brain. Cover the mechanical basis of moves. What you bring to the first session, ideas- Introduce the character classes, help wise, is up to you. At the very least bring players pick their classes, and walk them your head full of ideas. That's the bare through character creation. minimum. During this entire process, especially If you like you can plan a little more. character creation, ask questions. Look for Maybe think of an evil plot, or who's interesting facts established by the behind it, or some monsters you'd like to characters' Bonds, moves, classes, and use. descriptions and ask about those things. Be If you've got some spare time on your curious! When someone mentions the hands you can even draw some maps (but demons that slaughtered their village find remember, from your Principles: leave out more about them. After all, you don't blanks) and imagine specific locations. have anything (except maybe a dungeon) Flexibility is key when planning: what and everything they give you is fuel for happens during character creation trumps future adventures. anything you wrote ahead of time. Also pay attention to the players' questions. The one thing you absolutely can't bring to When mechanical questions come up the table is a planned storyline or plot. You answer them. When questions of setting or fiction come up your best bet is to turn Start the session with a group of player those questions around. When a player characters (maybe all of them) in a tense says "Who is the King of Torsea" say "I situation. Use anything that demands don't know. Who is it? What is he like?" action: outside the entrance to a dungeon, Collaborate with your players. Asking a ambushed in a fetid swamp, peeking question means it's something that through the crack in a door at the orc interests them so work with them to make guards, or being sentenced before the King. the answers interesting. Don't be afraid to If the situation stems directly from the say "I don't know" and ask them the same characters and your questions, all the questions; work together to find a fantastic better. and interesting answer. Here's where the game starts. The players Share the ideas you've brought to the table will start saying and doing things, which (either general ones or even a specific means they'll start making moves. For the dungeon). If you're interested in starting first session you should watch especially with the players hunting for a lost wizard, carefully for when moves apply, until the tell them that. Until the players agree, it's players get the hang of it. Often, in the just your idea. Once they nod their heads, early sessions, the players will be most it's part of the game. comfortable just narrating their actions— this is fine. When a move triggers let them Once everyone has their characters know. Say "It sounds like you're trying to…" created you can take a deep breath. Look and then walk them through the move. back over the questions you've asked and Players looking for direction will look to answered so far. You should have some their character sheet. Be quick to ask "so notes that will point you towards what the what are you actually doing?" when a game might look like. Look at what the player just says "I Hack and Slash him." Ask, players have brought to the table. Look at too, "how?" or "with what?". the ideas that've been stewing away in your head. It's time for the adventure to begin! For the first session, you have a few specific goals: The First Adventure • Establish details, describe The first adventure is really about finding • Use what they give you out what future sessions will deal with. • Ask questions Throughout the first adventure keep your • Leave blanks eye out for unresolved threats; note • Look for interesting facts dangerous things that are mentioned but • Help the players understand the not dealt with. These will be fuel for future moves sessions. • Give each character a chance to shine • Introduce NPCs character a question about another. When a character does something, ask how a Establish details, describe different character feels or reacts. All the ideas and visions in your head don't Questions will power your game and make really exist in the fiction of the game until it feel real and exciting. Use the answers you share them, describe them and detail you find to fill in what might happen next. them. The first session is the time to establish the basics of what things look Leave blanks like, who's in charge, what they wear, what This is one of your Principles, but it's the world is like, what the immediate especially true during the first session. location is like. Describe everything but Every blank is another cool thing waiting to keep it brief enough to expand on later. happen, leave yourself a stock of them. Use a detail or two to make a description really stand out as real. Look for interesting facts There are some ideas that, when you hear Use what they give you them, just jump out at you. When you hear The best part of the first session is you one of those ideas, just write it down. don't have to come with anything concrete. When a player mentions the Duke of You might have a dungeon sketched out Sorrows being the demon he bargained but the players provide the real meat—use with, note it. That little fact is the seed for it. They'll emerge from the darkness of that a whole world. first dungeon and when they do and their eyes adjust to the light, you'll have built up Help the players understand the moves an exciting world to explore with their You've already read the game, the players help. Look at their Bonds, their moves, may not have, so it's up to you to help them how they answer your questions and use if they need it. The fact is, they likely won't those to fill in the world around the need it much. All they have to do is characters. describe what their character does, the rules take care of the rest. Ask questions The one place they may need some help is You're using what they give you, right? remembering the triggers for the moves. What if you need more? That's when you Keep an ear out for actions that trigger draw it out by asking questions. Poke and moves, like attacking in melee or prod about specific things. Ask for consulting their knowledge. After a few reactions "what does Lux think about that?" moves the players will likely remember "is Avon doing something about it?" them on their own. If you ever find yourself at a loss, pause for a second and ask a question. Ask one Give each character a chance to shine intervention. “Fronts” comes, of course, As a fan of the heroes (remember your from “fighting on two fronts” which is just Agenda?) you want to see them do what where you want the characters to be— they do best. Give them a chance at this, surrounded by threats, danger and not by tailoring every room to their skills, adventure. but by portraying a fantastic world (Agenda Fronts are built outside of active play. again) where there isn't one solution to They're the solo fun that you get to have everything. between games—rubbing your hands and cackling evilly to yourself as you craft the Introduce NPCs foes with which to challenge your PCs. You NPCs bring the world to life. If every may tweak or adjust the Fronts during play monster does nothing more than attack (who knows when inspiration will strike?) and every blacksmith sets out their wares but the meat of them comes from for simple payment the world is dead. preparation between sessions. Instead give your characters, especially those that the players show an interest in, Fronts are designed to help you organize life (Principles, remember?). Introduce your thoughts on PC opposition. They're NPCs but don't protect them. The here to contain your notes, ideas, and plans recently-deceased Goblin King is just as for these opposing forces. When you're in a useful for future adventures as the one bind your Fronts are where you're going to who's still alive. turn and say “oh, so that's what I should do”. Consider them an organizational tool, as inspiration for present and future mayhem. Fronts When you're building Fronts, think about all the creepy dungeon denizens, the Fronts are secret tomes of GM knowledge. rampaging hordes and ancient cults that With the exception of a few sneaky PC you'd like to see in your game. Think in tricks Fronts are your purview and are a broad strokes at first and then, as you build place where you'll build the adversaries, Dangers into your Fronts, you'll be able to organizations, and other misfortune that narrow those ideas down. When you write the characters will come in conflict with. A your Campaign Front, think about session Front is a collection of linked Dangers— —to—session trends. When you write your threats to the characters specifically and to Adventure Fronts, think about what's the people, places and things the important right here and right now. When characters care about. It also includes one you're done writing a few Fronts you'll be or more Impending Dooms, the horrible equipped with all the tools you'll need to things that will happen without the players' challenge your players and ready to run bigger Dangers some day later on. You can Dungeon World. move Dangers from the Campaign Fronts to the an Adventure Front if you're ready Campaign and Adventure Fronts for the big showdown, too. At their core, all Fronts contain the same components. They sort and gather your Creating Fronts Dangers into easy—to—use clusters. There Here's how a Front comes together: are, however, two different kinds of Fronts available to you. On the session—to— • Choose Campaign Front or session level there's your Adventure Fronts. Adventure Front These Fronts will see use for 3 or 4 • Create 2–3 Dangers sessions each. They're tied to one problem • Choose their Impending Doom and will be dealt with or cast aside as the • (For an Adventure Front, 1–3 Grim characters wander the dungeon or uncover Portents) the plot at hand. Think of them as episodic • (For the Campaign Front, 3–5 Grim content: “Today, on Dungeon World…” Portents) Write 1–3 stakes questions Tying your Adventure Fronts together is • your Campaign Front. While the Adventure • List the general cast of the Front Fronts will contain immediate Dangers— the Orcs in Hargrosh Pass, say—the Creating Dangers Campaign Front contains the Dark God Not every single element of your game will Grishkar who drives the Orcs to their warrant a Danger—traps, some roving pillaging. The Campaign Front is the monsters and other bits of ephemera may unifying element that spans your all the just be there to add flavour but aren't sessions of your Dungeon World game. It important enough to warrant inclusion. will have slower—burning Portents but That's okay. Fronts are here to keep you they'll be bigger in scope and have a appraised of the bigger picture. Dangers deeper impact on the world. Most are divided into a handful of categories, importantly they'll be scarier if they're each with its own name and impulse. allowed to resolve. Every Danger has a crucial motivation that When a Danger from an Adventure Front drives it called its "impulse." The impulse goes without resolution you'll have to make exists to help you understand that Danger. a decision. If the Danger is something you What pushes it to fulfill its Impending like and feel has a place in the larger story Doom? Impulse can help you translation of your game don't hesitate to move it to the Danger into action. the Campaign Front. You're able to make smaller Dangers that went unresolved into When creating Dangers for your Front, Lastly, if we think ahead, we can include think about how each one interacts as a some overarching Dangers. The sorts of facet of the Front as a whole. Keep in mind things that are in play outside the realm of the people, places and things that might be the obvious—godly patrons, hidden a part of the threat to the world that the conspiracies and cursed prophecies Front represents. How does each Danger waiting to be fulfilled. contribute to the Front? Perhaps the White Gate was carved in the Let's say we have an idea for a Front—an ancient past, hidden by a race of Angels ancient portal has been discovered in the until the Day of Judgement. We'll add the icy north. We'll call our Front "The "Argent Seraphim" to our Front. Opening of the White Gate". Of course, there's so much more I could The easiest place to start is with people add to my Front, but there's two reasons and monsters. Cultists, ogre chieftains, not to go overboard: firstly, I want to leave demonic overlords and the like are all room for discovery. Like a map, blank excellent Dangers. These are the creatures spaces can always be filled in later. Leaving that have risen above mere monster status room for player contribution and future to become serious threats on their own. inspiration means I'll have freedom to alter Groups of monsters, too, can be Dangers— the Front and make it fit the game as the goblin tribes or a rampaging centaur story emerges. Secondly, not every bad khanate, for example. thing that could happen deserves Danger— hood. If you're uncertain, think about it For the Front we're creating, we can pick a this way: Dangers can always get worse. few different groups or people who might be interested in the gate. The College of A barbarian tribe near the Gate, the frozen Arcanists, perhaps. There's a golem, too, tundra itself, a band of rival adventurers; all we've decided, that protects the forgotten these things could be dangerous elements portal. The golem is just an obstacle, so we of the game but they're not important won't make him a Danger. enough just yet to deserve to be Dangers.

Thinking more broadly, less obvious Creating Dangers is a way to slice up your elements of the world can be Dangers. overall Front concept into smaller, easier Blasted landscapes, intelligent magical to manage pieces. Dangers are a tool for items, ancient spells woven into the fabric adding detail to the right parts of the Front of time. These things fulfill the same and for making the Front easier to manage purposes as a mad necromancer—they're in the long run. part of the Front, a Danger to the world. Once you've named and added a Danger to For our Front, we'll add the Gate itself. the Front you need to choose a type for that Danger from the list below. Alternately you can use the list of types to inspire • Influence a body of control (change a Dangers: with your Front in mind, peruse law, manipulate doctrine) the list and pick one or two that fit. • Establish a new rule (within the For our three Dangers (The College of organization) Arcanists, The White Gate and the Argent • Claim territory or resources Seraphim) we've selected Cabal, Dark • Negotiate a deal Portal and Choir of Angels, respectively. • Observe a potential foe in great detail

Types of Dangers Planar Forces • Ambitious Organizations • God (impulse: to gather worshippers) • Planar Forces • Demon Prince (impulse: to open the Arcane Enemies • gates of Hell) Hordes • • Elemental Lord (impulse: to tear • Cursed Places down creation to its component parts) Ambitious Organizations • Force of Chaos (impulse: to destroy • Misguided Good (impulse: to do all semblance of order) “what is right” no matter the cost) • Choir of Angels (impulse: to pass • Thieves Guild (impulse: to take by judgement) subterfuge) • Construct of Law (impulse: to • Cult (impulse: to infest from within) eliminate perceived disorder) • Religious Organization (impulse: to establish and follow doctrine) GM Moves for Planar Forces • Corrupt Government (impulse: to • Turn an organization (corrupt or maintain the status quo) infiltrate with influence) • Cabal (impulse: to absorb those in • Give dreams of prophecy power, to grow) • Lay a Curse on a foe • Extract a promise in exchange for a GM Moves for Ambitious Organizations boon • Attack someone by stealthy means • Attack indirectly, through (kidnapping, etc) intermediaries • Attack someone directly (with a gang • Rarely, when the stars are right, or single assailant) attack directly • Absorb or buy out an someone • Foster rivalries with other, similar important (an ally, perhaps) powers • Expose someone to a Truth, wanted GM Moves for Hordes or otherwise • Assault a bastion of civilization • Embrace internal chaos Arcane Enemies • Change direction suddenly • Lord of the Undead (impulse: to seek • Overwhelm a weaker force true immortality) • Display a show of dominance • Power-mad Wizard (impulse: to seek • Abandon an old home, find a new magical power) one • Sentient Artifact (impulse: to find a • Grow in size by breeding or worthy wielder) conquest • Ancient Curse (impulse: to ensnare) • Appoint a champion • Chosen One (impulse: to fulfill or • Declare war and act upon that resent their destiny) declaration without hesitation or • Dragon (impulse: to hoard gold and deliberation jewels, to protect the clutch) Cursed Places GM Moves for Arcane Enemies • Abandoned Tower (impulse: to draw • Learn forbidden knowledge in the weak willed) • Cast a spell over time and space • Unholy Ground (impulse: to spawn Attack a foe with magic, directly or • evil) otherwise • Elemental Vortex (impulse: to grow, Spy on someone with a scrying spell • to tear apart reality) Recruit a follower or toady • • Dark Portal (impulse: to disgorge • Tempt someone with promises demons) • Demand a sacrifice • Shadowland (impulse: to corrupt or consume the living) Hordes • Place of Power (impulse: to be • Wandering Barbarians (impulse: to controlled or tamed) grow strong, to drive their enemies before them) GM Moves for Cursed Places • Humanoid Vermin (impulse: to breed • Vomit forth a lesser monster – to multiply and consume) • Spread to an adjacent place • Underground Dwellers (impulse: to • Draw the attention of a curious party defend the complex from outsiders) • Grow in intensity or depth • Plague of the Undead (impulse: to • Leave a lingering effect on an spread) inhabitant or visitor • Hide something from sight • Offer power chapter for details on how to create your • Dampen magic or increase its effects own. • Confuse or obfuscate truth or For the Opening of the White Gate, I just direction know some fool PC is going to end up in • Corrupt a natural law the light that spills from the gate, so I'm writing a move to show what might occur. Description and Cast Write up something short to remind you Grim Portents just what this Danger is about; something Grim Portents are dark designs for what to describe it in a nutshell. Don't worry could happen if a Danger goes unchecked. about where it's going or what could Imagine yourself a kind of diviner working happen—Grim Portents and the some scrying spell into the future of your Impending Doom will handle that for you, campaign or the adventure that the you'll get to those in a bit. If there are characters are undertaking. Think about multiple people involved in the Danger (an what would happen if the Danger existed orc warlord and his clansmen, a hateful in the world but the PCs didn't. If all these God and his servants) go ahead and give awful things you've conjured up had their them a name and a detail or two now. run of the world. Scary, huh? The Grim Leave yourself some space as you'll be Portents are your way to codify the plans adding to this section as you play. and machinations of your Dangers. A Grim Portent can be a single interesting event or Custom Moves a chain of steps. When you're not sure Sometimes, a Danger will require some what to do next push your Danger towards particular move that might not exist yet. resolving a Grim Portent. Write one or two you think you might More often than not, each Portent relies on need, now. They may be player moves or its predecessors to resolve. The Orcs tear GM moves, as you see fit. Of course, if down the city only after the peace talks you're writing a player move, keep your fail, for example. A simple Front will (the GMs) hands off the dice and keep in progress from bad to worse to much worse mind the basic structure of a move. A 10+ is in a clear path forward. Sometimes, Grim a complete success; a 7–9 is a partial Portents are unconnected pathways to the success. On a miss, maybe the custom Impending Doom. The early move does something specific, or maybe manifestations of Danger might not all be not—maybe you just get to make a move or related. It's up to you how complex your work towards fulfilling a Grim Portent. The Front will be. Whenever a Danger comes formatting of these moves varies from to pass, check the other Dangers in the move to move. See the Advanced Delving Front. In a complex Front, you may need to cross off or alter the Grim Portents. That's demanding your attention and feel free to fine, you're allowed. make changes. One small Portent may resound across the whole Campaign in Think of your Grim Portents as possible subtle ways. moves waiting in the wings. When the time is right, unleash them on the world. You can advance a Grim Portent descriptively or prescriptively. I've chosen a few Grim Portents for my Descriptively means that, through play, new Front. you've seen the change happen, so you • The College sends an expedition to mark it off. Maybe the players sided with the Gate the goblin tribes against their lizardmen • The Key is discovered enemies—now the goblins control the • The First Trumpet sounds tunnels. Lo and behold, this was the next • A Champion is chosen step in a Grim Portent. Prescriptive is • The Second Trumpet sounds when, due to a failed player move or a • The Herald appears golden opportunity, you advance the Grim • The Gate is Opened Portent as your hard move. That step comes to pass, show its effects and keep on Grim Portents are the sword of inevitability asking "what do you do, now?" that hangs over the characters. The struggles that they fight every day on the Impending Doom field of battle, in the courts of society and At the end of every Danger's path is an in the deepest dungeons of the world. Impending Doom. This is the final toll of Think about how the Dangers contribute the bell that signals the Danger's to the Front you're creating, both triumphant resolution. When a Grim externally (the effect of the Danger on the Portent comes to pass the Impending world around it) and internally (the politics Doom grows stronger, more apparent and or struggles of its parts). Keep scale in present in the world. These are the Very mind, too. Grim Portents don't all have to Bad Things that every Danger, in some be world—shaking. They can simply way, seeks to bring into effect. Choose one represent a change in direction for a of the types of Impending Dooms and give Danger. Some new way for it to cause it a concrete vision in your Front. These trouble in the world. may change in play—often they will, as the When a Grim Portent comes to pass, check characters meddle in the affairs of the it off—the Portent is a part of the world, world. Don't fret, you can change them now. The prophecy has come true! A later. Portent that has come to pass might have Tyranny (of the strong over the weak ramifications for your other Fronts, too. • Have a quick look when your players aren't or the few over the many) • Pestilence (the spread of sickness The most important thing about stakes is and disease, the end of wellness) that you find them interesting. Your stakes • Destruction (apocalypse, ruin and should be things that you genuinely want to woe) know, but that you're also willing to not • Usurpation (the chain of order decide. Once you've written it as a stakes comes apart, someone rightful is its out of your hands, you don't get to just displaced) make it up anymore. Now you have to play • Impoverishment (enslavement, the to find out. abandonment of goodness and right) Playing to find out is one of the biggest • Rampant Chaos (laws of reality, of rewards of playing Dungeon World. You've society or any order is dissolved) written down something, tied to events When all of the Grim Portents of a danger happening in the world, that you want to come to pass, the Impending Doom sets in. find out about—now you get to do just that. The Danger is then resolved but the setting Once you have your stakes your front is has changed in some drastic way—even on ready to play. a small level. This will almost certainly My stakes questions include, as tailored to change the Front at large, as well. Making my group: sure that these effects are felt and significant to the NPCs, places and life of • Who will be the Champion? the campaign world is a big part of making • How will Lux respond to the Light them feel real. from Beyond? • Will the College be able to recruit Stakes Avon? Your stakes questions are 1–3 questions about people, places, or groups that you're Resolving a Front interested in. People include characters Often a Front will be resolved in a simple and NPCs, your choice. Remember that and straightforward manner. A Front your agenda includes "Play to find out what representing a single dungeon may have its happens?" Well this is a way of reminding Dangers killed, turned to good, or yourself what you want to find out. overcome by some act of heroism. In this Stakes are concrete and clear. Don't write case the Front is dissolved and set aside. stakes about vague feelings or incremental Maybe there are elements of the Front— changes. Stakes are about important Dangers that go unresolved or leftover changes that affect the PCs and the world. members of a Danger that's been cleared— A good stakes question is one that, when that lives on. Maybe they move to the it's resolved, means that things will never Campaign Front as brand new Dangers? be the same again. The Campaign Front will need a bit more Multiple Adventure effort to resolve. It'll be working slowly and subtly as the course of the Campaign rolls Fronts along. You won't introduce or resolve it all As you start your campaign you're likely to at once, but in pieces. The characters work have a lightly-detailed Campaign Front and towards defeating the various minions of a single, detailed Adventure Front. the Big Bad that lives in your Campaign Characters may choose, part-way through Front. In the end, though, you'll know that an Adventure, to pursue some other the Campaign Front is resolved when the course. You might end up with a handful of Dark God is confronted, the Undead partly-resolved Adventure Fronts. Not only Plague is wiped clear, and the heroes is this okay, it's a great way to explore a emerge bloodied but victorious. Campaign world that feels alive and organic. Always Fronts take longer to deal with, but in the remember, Fronts continue along apace no end they're the most satisfying to resolve. matter whether the characters are there to see it or not. Think offscreen, especially When a Front is resolved, take some extra where Fronts are concerned. time to sit down and look at the aftermath. Did any Grim Portents come to pass? Even When running two Adventure Fronts at the if a Danger is stopped, if one or two Grim same time they can be intertwined or Portents are fulfilled, the world is changed. independent. The Anarchists corrupting Keep this in mind when you write your the city from the inside are a different future Fronts. Is there anyone who could Front from the orcs massing outside the be moved from the now—defeated Front walls, but they'd both be in play at once. somewhere else? Anyone get promoted or On the other hand one dungeon could reduced in stature? The resolution of a have multiple Fronts at play within its Front is an important event! walls: the powers and effects of the cursed place itself and the warring humanoid When you resolve an Adventure Front, tribes that inhabit it. usually that means the adventure itself has been resolved. This is a great time to take a A situation warrants multiple Adventure break and look at The Campaign Front you Fronts when there are multiple Impending have. Let it inspire your next Adventure Dooms, all equally potent but not Front. Write up a new Adventure Front or necessarily related. The Impending Doom polish off one you've been working on, of the Anarchists is chaos in the city, the draw a few maps to go with it and get ready Impending Doom of the orcs is its utter for the next big thing. ruination. They are two separate Fronts with their own Dangers. They'll deal with each other, as well, so there's some room for the players choosing sides or attempting to turn the Dangers of one Grim Portents Front against the other. • The First Trumpet sounds When dealing with multiple Adventure • The Second Trumpet sounds Fronts the players are likely to prioritize. • The Gate is opened The cult needs attention now, the orcs can Impending Doom: Destruction wait, or vice versa. These decisions lead to the slow advancement of the neglected The Argent Seraphim (Choir of Front, eventually causing more problems Angels) for the players and leading to new Impulse: to pass judgement adventures. This can get complex once you've got three or four Fronts in play. Grim Portents Take care not to get overwhelmed. • A Champion is chosen • An organization of power is formed An Example Front: or co-opted • The Herald appears The Opening of the • Judgement is passed White Gate Impending Doom: Tyranny

Dangers Description and Cast An ancient gate, buried for aeons in the icy The College of Arcanists (Cabal) north. It opens into a realm of pure light, Impulse: to absorb those in power, to guarded by the Argent Seraphim. It was grow crafted only to be opened at Judgement Day, so that the Seraphim could come Grim Portents forth and purge the realm of men. Recently • The College sends an expedition to uncovered by the College of Arcanists, who the Gate do not yet understand its terrible power. • The Key is discovered • Oren Balserus, Arcanist Supreme • The Gate's Power is harnessed • Hali'el, voice of the Seraphim • The College seizes control • Drudge, a manservant Impending Doom: Usurpation

The White Gate (Dark Portal) Custom Moves When you stand in the presence of the Impulse: to disgorge demons Light From Beyond, roll+Wis. On a 10+ you are judged worthy, the Argent Seraphim will grant you a vision or boon. On a 7-9 —they just have greater stores of energy to you are under suspicion and see a vision of expend before it comes to blows-to-the- what dark fate might befall you if you do head. not correct your ways.1On a miss, thou art Your class tells you how many HP you get. weighed in the balance and art found Your Constitution (the score, not the wanting. modifier) always comes into play as well so more Constitution means more HP. If your Stakes Constitution permanently changes during • Who will be the Champion? play you adjust your HP to reflect your new • How will Lux respond to the holy Constitution score. Unless your light? Constitution changes your maximum HP • Will the College be able to recruit stays the same. Avon? Damage When a character takes damage they subtract the damage dealt from their Blood and Guts current HP. Armor mitigates damage; if a character has armor they subtract their Death and dismemberment are common armor's value from the damage dealt. dangers for adventurers to face in Dungeon Damage can never take a character below World. In the course of play, characters 0 HP. will take damage, heal, and maybe even die. A character's health is measure by their Damage is decided by the attacker. Each HP (HP being short for hit points). Damage class has a base damage die, which may be subtracts from HP, which may lead to modified by the weapon used. No matter death. In the right conditions, or with the implement, the Fighter will always deal medical or magical help, damage is healed more damage than a Wizard—it's about and HP is restored. training and skill. Monsters and other non- player characters have a static damage HP instead of a dice to roll. Player characters deal damage according to A character's HP is a measure of their their class, the weapon used and the move stamina, endurance, and health. More HP they've made. When a character is armed, means the character can fight longer and they deal their class's damage. If a endure more before facing Death's cold character is unarmed, they probably can't stare. Think of HP in the abstract—a deal damage, or they might do 1 stun character with high HP can't be hit in the damage. head any more times than one with low HP If a move just says "deal damage" the that you can deal damage without making a character rolls their class's damage dice move. Think of it like an implied move: if plus any bonuses or penalties from moves you hurt someone and no other move or weapons. If a move specifies an amount applies, you just deal your damage. of damage, use that in place of the class's Damage only applies when the injury is damage roll. general. Falling into a pit trap is general, it Monsters' damage is listed in their could cause any sort of injury, so it's description. Use this damage any time the represented by HP loss. When the harm is monster takes direct action to hurt specific, like an orc pulling your arm from someone, even if they use a method other its socket, HP should be part of the effect than their normal attack. but not the entirety of it. The bigger issue is dealing with the newly disjointed arm: Other sources of damage—like being how do you swing a sword or cast a spell? struck by a chunk of a collapsing tower, or Likewise having your head chopped off is falling into a pit—are left to the GM based not HP damage, it's just death. on these options:

• It threatens bruises and scrapes at Damage From Multiple Creatures worst: d4 damage It's a brave monster that goes into battle • It's likely to spill some blood, but alone. Most creatures fight with someone nothing horrendous: d6 damage at their side, and maybe another at their • It might break some bones: d8 back, and possibly an archer covering the damage rear, and so on. This can lead to multiple • It could kill a common person: d10 monsters dealing their damage at once. damage If multiple creatures attack at once roll the Add the Ignores Armor tag if the source of damage die for each of them and take the the damage is particularly large or if the highest result. If some of the creatures deal damage comes from magic or poison. a different amount of damage roll the damage with the highest potential for each Temporary or circumstantial armor works creature involved in the attack and take the the same way: 1 armor for partial cover, 2 highest result. armor for major cover. A goblin orkaster (d10+1 damage ignores Remember that damage is both armor) and three goblins (d6 damage) all prescriptive and descriptive: if a move says throw their respective weapons—a magical someone takes damage—they have been acid orb for the orkaster, spears for the rest struck by the weapon or ability causing the —at Lux as she assaults their barricade. I damage. If a character is struck by a roll the highest damage, d10+1 ignores weapon, they take damage. This means armor, four times: once for the orkaster, and once for each of the other goblins. I Death take the highest result, a roll of 8, and tell Death walks the edges of every battle. It Lux she takes 9 damage ignoring armor as waits silently to claim those that fall. A the acid leaks into the scratches left by the characters who is reduced to 0 HP spears. immediately takes his Last Breath. Death comes for commoner and king alike—no Stun Damage stat is added to the Last Breath roll. Stun damage is non-lethal damage. A PC What lies beyond the Black Gates of Death who takes stun damage is Defying Danger is unknown but it is said that many secrets to do anything at all, the danger being of the mortal plane are laid bare in what "you're stunned." A GM character that takes lies beyond. stun damage counts it against their HP as usual, but when they are out of HP they are Death's bargains range from the simple to knocked out, not at the GM's mercy. the costly. Death is capricious. One life may be traded for two more dead while for Healing another Death may demand eternal There are two sources of healing in servitude. Dungeon World: the passage of time and Depending on the outcome of the Last medical aid. Breath the character may become stable. A Whenever a character spends some time stable character stays at 0 HP but is alive resting without aggravating their wounds and unconscious. If they receive healing they heal. The amount of healing is they regain consciousness and may return described in the move (Make Camp for a to battle or seek safety. If a stable character night in a makeshift bed, Recover for says takes damage again they face Death and in civilization). draw their Last Breath once more.

Medical aid, both magical and mundane, After Death also provides healing. The amount of Being an adventurer isn't easy—it's cold damage healed is dependent on the move nights in the wild and sharp swords and or item used. Some moves may fully monsters. Sooner or later, you're going to replenish HP while others are just enough make that long walk to the Black Gates and to keep someone standing through a fight. give up the ghost. In Dungeon World, No matter the source of the healing a Death is always watching and waiting for an character's HP can never increase over adventurer to slip up and visit the other their maximum. side. That doesn't mean you have to give it the satisfaction of sticking around. Death, in its way, is just another challenge to conquer. Even dead adventurers can rise can't just appear out of nowhere without a again. good excuse.

If your character dies, you can ask the GM GM, when you tell the players what needs and the other players to try and resurrect to be done to bring their comrade back, you. The GM will tell them what it will cost don't feel like it has to derail the flow of to return your poor, dead character to life. the current game. Weave it in to your If you're all willing to pay that cost and fronts, steadings and prep. This is a great succeed at the goal set before you then opportunity to change focus or introduce your character can cross back over to the an element you've been waiting to show land of the living. The Resurrection spell is off. Don't feel, either, that it has to be some a special case of this: the magic of the spell great and epic quest. If the character died gives you an easier way to get a companion at the end of a goblin pike, maybe all it back, but the GM still has a say. takes is an awkward walk home and a few thousand gold pieces donated to a local While this quest is underway you can play temple. Think about the ramifications of a new character. Maybe a hireling becomes such a charitable act and how it might a full-fledged adventurer worthy of a whole affect the world, give the character back share and a part in the real action. Maybe his sweet, sweet life and remember; Death the characters in the party find a new never forgets a soul stolen from his realm. friend in a steading, willing to join them. Maybe your character had a vengeful family member who now seeks to take up Debilities their blades and spells to make right what Losing HP is a general thing, it's getting happened. In any case, make your new tired, bruised, cut, and so on. Some character as you normally would at level 1. wounds are deeper though. These are Add Bonds with the other player debilities. characters and join in the quest to • Weak (Str): You can't exert much resurrect the fallen. When the price has force. Maybe some important been paid and the quest is done, you can muscles were slashed, or maybe the choose which character to play. You can strength was pulled out of you by then retire your new character to safety or magic. simply have them vanish into the • Shaky (Dex): You're a little unsteady background. At the start of any given on your feet and you've got a shake session, choose which character you'll be in your hands. playing that time around and set the other • Sick (Con): Something just isn't right aside. Make sure this change makes sense in the story you've created—characters deep inside. It could be a disease or it might be an organ swollen to bursting. • Stunned (Int): You're having Advancement trouble… remembering? Is that how Dungeon World is ever-changing.The that sentence ends? characters change, too. As their adventures • Confused (Wis): Ears ringing. Vision progress, player characters gain experience blurred. You're more than a little out or XP, which lets them level up. This of it. prepares them for greater danger, bigger • Scarred (Cha): It may not be adventures and mightier deeds. permanent, but for now you don't look so good. Your voice is probably Advancement, like everything else in weak too. Dungeon World, is both prescriptive and descriptive. Prescriptive means that when a Debilities are inflicted by certain monsters. player changes their character sheet the Not every attack inflicts a debility—they're character changes. Descriptive means that most often associated with magic, poison, when the character changes the player or stranger things like a vampire sucking should change the character sheet to your blood. Each debility is tied to a stat reflect that. and gives you -1 to that stat's modifier. The stat's score is unaffected so you don't have This isn't a benefit or detriment to the to worry about changing your Load when players or the GM; it's not an excuse to you're Weak. gain more powers or take them away. It's just a reflection of life in Dungeon World. You can only have each debility once. If you're already Sick and something makes Gregor offers his signature weapon, an axe you Sick you just ignore it. permanently dyed green in orc blood, as a desperate bargain to save the King from Debilities are harder to heal than HP. Some eternal damnation. Without his axe he gets high level magic can do it, sure, but your none of the benefits of his signature best bet is getting somewhere safe and weapon. Should he recover it he'll have spending a few days in a soft warm bed. access to its benefits again. Debilities don't replace descriptions and Avon, despite being a Wizard, has risen to using the established fiction. When the notice of Lenoral, the deity of arcane someone loses an arm that isn't Weak, knowledge. After being blessed by an that's losing an arm. They can't hold a avatar of Lenoral, Avon is under the deity's shield, to begin with. Don't let debilities watch. He can fulfill Petitions and gain limit you. A specific disease can have boons like a Cleric. whatever effects you can dream up, Sick is just a convenient shorthand for some Descriptive changes only happen when the anonymous fever picked up from a filthy character has clearly gained access to an rat. ability. Befriending a stray dog does not have the same benefits as an animal Resolving Bonds companion. At the end of each session you may resolve one bond. Resolution of a bond depends Level Up on both you and the player of the character When you have a safe moment and XP you share the bond with: you suggest that equal to (or greater than) your current the bond has been resolved and, if they level + 7, reset your XP to 0 and choose a agree, it is. new advanced move from your class. If you A bond is resolved when it no longer are the Wizard, you also get to add a new describes how you relate to that person. spell to your spellbook. That may be because circumstances have New moves are chosen based on the changed—Thelian used to have your back character's new level. If a move requires but after he didn't rush to save you from 6th level, it's available as the character the ankheg you're not so sure. Or it could advances from 5th to 6th level. be because that's no longer a question— If your new level is 3, 6, or 9, you also get you guided Wesley before and he owed to increase a stat by 2. Increase the base you, but he paid that debt when he saved score of the stat of your choice by 2, adjust your life with a well-timed spell. Any time the modifier to reflect the new score. you look at a Bond and think "that's not a Changing your Constitution increases your big factor in how we relate anymore" the maximum and current HP. Ability scores bond is at a good place to resolve. can't go higher than 18. If a character has blank Bonds left over from character creation they can resolve Bonds that Bond without asking anyone and write a new one or they can add a character's Bonds are what make you a party of name to the Bond instead of writing a new adventurers, not just a random assortment Bond. Ignoring a Bond at character of people. Seeing your bonds evolve and creation does not reduce the total Bonds play off each other is one of the best parts available to the character. of the game.

That said, this isn't high drama. How you Writing New Bonds feel about Titanius doesn't matter so much You write a new bond whenever you when you're both fighting for life and limb resolve an old one. Your new bond may be against a horde of demons who would with the same character, but it doesn't happily end the world if they could. Bonds have to be. are the icing on the cake: they make your adventures (and your adventurers) more When you write a new bond first choose interesting. another character. Then pick something relevant to the last session you've just you when you're not sure what to do next. finished—maybe a place you traveled Some characters might proudly proclaim together or a treasure you discovered. their alignment while others might hide it Lastly, choose a thought or belief your away. A character might not say "I'm an evil character holds that ties the two together person" but may instead say "I put myself and an action, something you're going to first." That's all well and good for a do about it. You'll end up with something character, but the world knows otherwise. like this: Buried deep down inside is the ideal self a person wants to become—it is this mystic • Avon proved himself a coward in the core that certain spells and abilities tap dungeons of Xax'takar, he is a into when detecting someone's alignment. dangerous liability to the party and Every sentient creature in Dungeon World must be watched. bears an alignment, be she an elf, a human, • Mouse's quick thinking saved me or some other, stranger thing. from the white dragon we faced. I owe her a boon. The alignments are Good, Lawful, Neutral, • Xotoq won the Bone-and-Whispers Chaotic, and Evil. Each one shows an Axe through trickery! It will be mine, aspiration to be a different type of person. I swear it. Lawful creatures aspire to impose order on • Valeria's kindness to the Gnomes of the world, either for their own benefit or the Vale has swayed my heart. I will for that of others. Chaotic creatures find a way to prove to her my love. embrace change and idealize the messy These new bonds act just like the old ones. reality of the world, prizing freedom above They are still resolved and still grant XP all else. Good creatures seek to put others when resolved. before themselves. Evil creatures put themselves first at the expense of others. If you chose not to use a starting Bond you can replace it with a new Bond at the end A Neutral creature looks out for itself so of any session. This does not count as long as that doesn't hurt anyone else much. resolving a Bond, you don't get XP for it. Neutral characters are content to live their lives and pursue their own goals and let Alignment others do the same. Alignment is your characters' way of Most creatures are Neutral. They take no thinking and moral compass. For the particular pleasure in harming others, but character, this is reflected as an ethical will do it if it is justified by their situation. ideal, religious strictures, or maybe just a Those that put an ideal, be it Law, Chaos, gut instinct. It reflects the things your Good, or Evil, above themselves are rarer. character might aspire to be and can guide Even two creatures of the same alignment move for the same alignment from below can come into conflict. Aspiring to help and mention why their character now sees others does not grant infallibility, two this as important. Good creatures may fight and die over two GM characters can change alignment as different views of how to help others. A well, even if the players have already great king may wage war on a free city discerned the character's alignment. Since despite his good alignment since he sees NPCs do not earn XP the GM can change ( justly, perhaps) that the peoples of the the NPC's alignment any time it's free city will live a better life under his warranted. The GM is subject to the same enlightened rule. justification requirement: if an NPC with a known alignment is no longer that Changing Alignment alignment the players may ask the GM for a Alignment can, and will, change. Usually reason why. such a change comes about as a gradual slide to a decisive moment when the pain Lawful caused becomes too great or the benefit • Uphold the letter of the law over the too others too small. spirit Any time a player would earn XP from • Fulfill a promise of import their current alignment they can, instead of • Bring someone to justice taking the XP, change the alignment. The • Choose honor over personal gain player must have a reason for the change • Put power in its rightful hands which they can explain to the other • Return treasure to its rightful owner players. If they can't explain why their character has had a change of heart they Good can't change alignment. Don't abuse the • Ignore danger to aid another privilege. • Lead others into righteous battle Give up powers or riches for the The first time a player character changes • alignment it must be to another alignment greater good listed for their class, though they can • Reveal a dangerous lie choose any of the alignment moves below • Show mercy for a listed alignment. After that they can Neutral go to any alignment they like. Chaotic In some cases a player character may switch alignment moves while still keeping • Reveal corruption the same alignment. This reflects a smaller • Break an unjust law to benefit shift, one of priority instead of a wholesale another shift in thinking. They simply choose a new • Defeat a tyrant • Reveal hypocrisy Steadings We call all the assorted communities, Evil holds, and so on where there's a place to Take advantage of someone's trust • stay and some modicum of safety • Cause suffering for its own sake Steadings, as in "homestead." Steadings • Destroy something beautiful are places with at least a handful of • Upset the rightful order inhabitants, usually humans, and some • Harm an innocent stable structures. They can be as big as a capital city or as small as few ramshackle buildings.

The world Creating the world Much of the adventuring life is spent in Remember how you started the first dusty, forgotten tombs or in places of session? With action either underway or terror and life-threatening danger. It's impending? At some point the characters commonplace to awaken from a short and are going to need to retreat from that fitful rest, still deep in the belly of the action, either to heal their wounds or to world and surrounded by foes. When the celebrate and resupply. time comes to emerge from these kinds of When the players leave the site of their places—whether laden with the spoils of first adventure for the safety of civilization battle or beaten and bloody—an it's time to start drawing the Campaign adventurer seeks out safety and solace. Map. Take a large sheet of paper (plain These are the comforts of civilization; a white if you like or hex-gridded if you want warm bath, a meal of mead and bread, to get fancy), place it where everyone can company of fellow men and elves and see, and make a mark for the site of the dwarves. Often, thoughts of returning to adventure. Use pencil, this map will these places are all that keep an adventurer change. It can be figurative or literal from succumbing to madness in the depths. depending on your drawing skill, just make All fight for gold and glory but in their it obvious. Keep the marking small and hearts, everyone wants a place to call somewhere around the center of the paper "home". so you have space to grow.

This chapter covers the wider world. The Now add the nearest Steading, a place the grand and sweeping scope outside the characters can go to rest and gather dungeon. The always-marching movement supplies. Draw a mark for that place on the of the GMs Fronts will shape the world map and fill in the space between with and, in turn, the world reflects the actions some terrain features. Try to keep the it the players take to stop or redirect them. within a day or two of the site of their first dangerous place. If the players choose to adventure—a short trip through a rocky ignore that, make a hard move. Fill the pass or some heavy woods is suitable, or a characters' lives with adventure whether wider distance by road or across open they're out seeking it or not. These moves ground. exist to you can make a visit to town an interesting thing without spending a whole When you have time (after the first session session haggling over the cost of a new or during a snack break or the like) use the baldric. rules to create the first Steading. Consider adding marks for other places that have been mentioned so far, either details from Carouse character creation or the Steading rules When you return triumphant and throw themselves. a big party, spend 100 coin and roll + extra 100s of coin spent. On a 10+ choose 3. On a Steading Moves 7–9 choose 1. On a miss, you still choose one, but things get really out of hand. When the players visit a Steading there are some special moves they'll be able to • You befriend a useful NPC make. These still follow the fictional flow • You hear rumors of an opportunity of the game. When the players arrive, ask • You gain useful information them "What do you do?" The players' • You are not entangled, ensorcelled, actions will, more often than not, trigger a or tricked move from this list. They represent respite, reinvigoration and resupply; opportunities Supply for the players to gather their wits and spend their treasure. Remember that a When you go to buy something with Steading isn't a break from reality. You're coin on hand, if it's something readily still making hard moves when necessary available in the steading you're in, you can and thinking about how the players' action buy it at market price. If it's something (or inaction) leads to your Fronts special, beyond what's usually available advancing. The Impending Doom is always here, or non-mundane, roll+Cha. On a 10+ there, whether the players are combatting you find what you're looking for at a fair it in the dungeon or ignoring it while price. On a 7–9 you'll have to pay more or getting drunk in the local tavern. settle for something similar.

Let each player make one or two moves here, depending on how they answer your Recover "what do you do?" question. Don't let a visit When you do nothing but rest in to a Steading become a permanent respite. comfort and safety after a day of rest you Remember, Dungeon World is a scary, recover all your HP. After three days of rest you remove one debility of your choice. If • The local constabulary has a warrant you're under the care of a healer (magical out for your arrest or otherwise) you heal a debility for every • Someone who holds a grudge makes two days of rest instead. their move • Someone important to you has been Recruit put in a bad spot as a result of your actions When you put out word that you're looking to hire help, roll. If you make it known… Bolster

• …that your pay is generous, take +1 When you spend your leisure time in study, meditation, or hard practice, you • …what you're setting out to do, take gain preparation. If you prepare for a week +1 or two, 1 preparation. If you prepare for a • …that they'll get a share of whatever month or longer, 3 preparation. When your you find, take +1 preparation pays off spend 1 preparation If you have a useful reputation around for +1 to any roll. You can only spend one these parts take an additional +1. On a 10+ preparation per roll. you've got your pick of a number of skilled applicants, your choice who you hire and Elements of a Steading no penalty for not taking them along. On a 7–9 you'll have to settle for what you get or A Steading is any bit of civilization that turn applicants away. On a miss someone offers some amount of safety to its influential and ill-suited declares they'd inhabitants. Villages, towns, keeps, and like to come along (a foolhardy young cities are the most common Steadings. duke, a loose cannon mercenary, or a Steadings are differentiated based on size. hidden enemy, for example), bring them The size indicates roughly how many and damn the consequences or turn them people the Steading can support. The away and risk their ire. If you turn away population tag tells you if the current applicants you take -1 forward to Recruit. population is more then or less than this amount.

Outstanding Warrants Villages are the smallest Steadings. They're When you return to a Steading in which usually out of the way, off the main roads. you've caused trouble before, roll+Cha. If they're lucky they can muster some On a 10+, word has spread of your deeds defense but it's often just rabble with and everyone recognizes you. On a 7–9 pitchforks and torches. A village stands that, and GM chooses a complication: near some easily exploitable resource: rich soil, plentiful fish, an old forest, or a mine. There might be a store of some sort but materials for trade, relying on villages more likely it's just people trading to each nearby for food and raw material but will other. Coin is scarce. always have crafted goods and some stranger things for sale to those willing to Towns have a few thousand inhabitants. seek them. They're the kind of place that springs up around a mill, trading post, or inn and Steadings are created as needed. usually have fields, farms, and livestock of Discovered by players, added as part of the some kind. They might have a standing prep for a Front or spawned as the result of militia of farmers strong enough to wield a the GM asking questions of the players, blade or shoot a bow. Towns have the whatever the reason each Steading is basics for sale but certainly no special created using the rules below. goods. Usually they'll focus on a local Like weapons, Steadings are described by product or two and do some trade with their tags. All Steadings have tags indicating travelers. prosperity, population and defenses and A Keep is a Steading built specifically for many will have tags to illustrate their more defense—sometimes of a particularly unusual properties. important location like a river delta or a Prosperity indicates what kinds of items rich gold mine. Keeps are found at the are usually available. Population indicates frontier edges of civilization. Inhabitants the number of inhabitants relative to the are inured to the day-to-day dangers of the current size of the steading. Defenses road. They're tough folks that number indicate the general scope of arms the between a hundred and a thousand, steading has. Tags in these categories can depending on the size of the Keep and the be adjusted. -category means to change the place it defends. Keeps won't often have steading to the next lower tag for that much beyond their own supplies, traded to category (so Moderate would become Poor them from nearby villages, but will almost when tagged with -Prosperity). +category always have arms and armor and means to change the steading to the next sometimes a rare magical item found in the higher tag (so Shrinking becomes Steady local wilds. with +Population). Tags in those categories From bustling trade center to sprawling can also be compared like numbers. Treat metropolis the City represents the largest the lowest tag in that category as 1 and sort of Steading in Dungeon World. These each successive tag as the next number (so are places where folk of many races and Dirt is 1, Poor is 2, etc.). kinds can be found. They often exist at the Tags will change of the course of play. confluence of a handful of trade routes or Creating a Steading provides a snapshot of are built in a place of spiritual significance. what that place looks like right now. As the They don't often generate their own players spend time in it and your Fronts support of smaller steads. Dungeons can be progress the world will change and your found anywhere and in many forms. Steadings with it. Whenever you add a new Steading use the rules to decide its tags. Consider adding a Adding Steadings distinctive feature somewhere nearby. You add your first Steading when you Maybe a forest, some old standing stones, create the Campaign Map; it's the place the an abandoned castle, or whatever else players go to to rest and recover. When catches your fancy or makes sense. A map you first draw it on the map all you need is of only Steadings and ruins with nothing a name and a location. in-between is dull, don't neglect the other When you have the time you'll use the features of the world. rules below to create the Steading. The first Steading is usually a village, but you Steading Tags can use a town if the first adventure was Prosperity closely tied to humans (for example, if the Dirt: Nothing for sale, nobody has more players fought a human cult). Create it than they need (and they're lucky if they using the rules below. have that). Unskilled labor is cheap. Once you've created the first Steading you Poor: Only the bare necessities for sale. can add other places referenced in its tags Weapons are scarce unless the steading is (the Oath, Trade, and Enmity tags in heavily defended or militant. Unskilled particular) or anywhere else that's been labor is readily available. referred to in play. Don't add too much in the first session, leave blanks and places to Moderate: Most mundane items are explore. available. Some types of skilled laborers.

As play progresses the characters will Wealthy: Any mundane item can be found discover new locales and places of interest for sale. Most kinds of skilled laborers, too, either directly, by stumbling upon them in but demand is high for their time. the wild, or indirectly, by hearing about Rich: Mundane items and more, if you them in rumors or tales. Add new know where to find them. Specialist labor Steadings, dungeons, and other locations to available, but at high prices. the map as they're discovered or heard about. Villages are often near a useful Population resource. Towns are often found at the Exodus: The Steading has lost its point where several villages meet to population and is on the verge of collapse. trade.Keeps watch over important Shrinking: The population is less than it locations. Cities rely on the trade and once was. Buildings stand empty. Steady: The population is in line with the Other Tags current size of the steading. Some slow Safe: Outside trouble doesn't come here growth. unless the players bring it. Idyllic and often Growing: More people than there are hidden. If the Steading would lose or buildings. degrade another beneficial tag get rid of Safe instead. Booming: Resources are stretched thin trying to keep up with the number of Religion: The listed deity is revered here. people. Exotic: There are goods and services available here that aren't available Defenses anywhere else nearby. List them. None: Clubs, torches, farming tools. Resource: The steading has easy access to Militia: There are several dozen able- the listed resource (e.g. a spice, a type of bodied men and women with worn ore, fish, grapes). That resource is weapons ready to be called, but no significantly cheaper. standing force. Need: The Steading has an acute or Watch: There are a few watchers posted ongoing need for the listed resource. That who look out for trouble and settle small resource sells for considerably more. problems, but their main role is to summon Oath the militia. : The Steading has sworn oaths to the listed Steadings. These oaths are generally Guard: There are armed defenders at all of fealty or support, but may be more times with a total pool of less than 100 (or specific. equivalent). There is always at least one Trade armed patrol about the steading. : The Steading regularly trades with the listed Steadings. Garrison: There are armed defenders at all Market times with a total pool of 100–300 (or : Everyone comes here to trade. On equivalent). There are multiple armed any given day the available items may be patrols at all times. far beyond their prosperity. +1 to Supply. Enmity Battalion: As many as 1,000 armed : The steading holds a grudge defenders (or equivalent). The steading has against the listed steadings. manned maintained defenses as well. History: Something important once Legion: The Steading is defended by happened here, choose one and detail or thousands of armed defenders (or make up your own: Battle, Miracle, Myth, equivalent). The Steading's defenses are Romance, Tragedy. intimidating. Arcane: Someone in town can cast arcane spells for a price. This tends to draw more arcane casters, +1 to Recruit when you put Brindenburg, Shambles, Covaner, Enfield, out word you're looking for an adept. Crystal Falls, Castle Daunting, Nulty's Harbor, Castonshire, Cornwood, Irongate, Divine: There is a major religious Mayhill, Pigton, Crosses, Battlemoore, presence, maybe a cathedral or monastery. Torsea, Curland, Snowcalm, Seawall, They can heal and maybe even raise the Varlosh, Terminum, Avonia, Bucksburg, dead for a donation or resolution of a Settledown, Goblinjaw, Hammerford, Pit, quest. Take +1 to recruit priests here. The Grey Fast, Ennet Bend, Harrison's Guild: The listed type of guild has a major Hold, Fortress Andwynne, Blackstone presence (and usually a fair amount of influence). If the guild is closely associated Making a Village with a type of hireling, +1 to recruit that type of hireling. By default a village is Poor, Steady, Militia, Resource (your choice) and has an Oath to Personage: There's a notable person who another steading of your choice. If the makes their home here. Give them a name village is part of a kingdom or empire and a short note on why they're notable. choose one: Dwarven: The Steading is significantly or • The village is somewhere naturally entirely dwarves. Dwarven goods are lower defended: Safe, -Defenses price. • The village abundant resources that Elven: The Steading is significantly or sustain it: +Prosperity, Resource entirely elves. Elven goods are lower price. (your choice), Enmity (your choice) The village is under the protection of Craf: The Steading is known for • excellence in the listed craft. Items that are another steading: Oath (that a product of that craft are of lower price, steading), +Defenses higher quality, or both. • The village is on a major road: Trade (your choice), +Prosperity Lawless: Crime is rampant; authority is • The village is built around a wizard's weak. tower: Personage (the wizard), Blight Blight: The Steading has a recurring (arcane creatures) problem, usually a type of monster. • The village was built on the site of religious significance: Divine, Power: The Steading holds sway of some History (your choice) type. Typically Political, Divine, or Arcane. Choose one problem: Steading Names • The village is in arid or uncultivable Greybark, Nook's Crossing, Tanner's Ford, land: Need (Food) Goldenfield, Barrowbridge, Rum River, • The village is dedicated to a deity: • The town has grown too big for an Religious (that deity), Enmity (a important supply (like grain, wood, settlement of another deity) or stone): Need (that resource), • The village has recently fought a Trade (a village or town with that battle: -Population, -Prosperity if resource) they fought to the end, -Defenses if • The town offers defense to others: they lost. Oath (your choice), -Defenses • The village has a monster problem: • The town is notorious for an outlaw Blight (that monster), Need who is rumored to live there: (adventurers) Personage (the outlaw), Enmity • The village has absorbed another (where the crimes were committed) village: +Population, Lawless • The town has cornered the market • The village is remote or on a good or service: Exotic (that unwelcoming: -Prosperity, Dwarven good or service), Enmity (a or Elven settlement with ambition) • The town has a disease: -Population Making a Town • The town is a popular meeting place: +Population, Lawless By default a town is Moderate, Steady, Watch, and Trade (two of your choice). If the town is listed as Trade by another Making a Keep steading choose one: By default a keep is Poor, Shrinking, Guard, Need (Supplies), Trade (someplace • The town is booming: Booming, with supplies), Oath (your choice). If the Lawless keep is owed fealty by at least one • The town stands on a crossroads: settlement choose one: Market, +Prosperity • The town is defended by another • The keep belongs to a noble family: steading: Oath (that steading), +Prosperity, Power (Political) +Defenses • The keep is run by a skilled • The town is built around a church: commander: Personage (the Power (Divine) commander), +Defenses • The town is built around a craft: • The keep stands watch over a trade Craft (your choice), Resource road: +Prosperity, Guild (trade) (something required for that craft) • The keep is used to train special • The town is built around a military troops: Arcane, -Population post: +Defenses • The keep is surrounded by fertile land: remove Need (Supplies) Choose one problem: • The keep stands on a border: • The city is a trade hub: Trade (every +Defenses, Enmity (steading on the steading nearby), +Prosperity other side of the border) • The city is ancient, built on top of its own ruins: History (your choice), Choose one problem Divine • The keep is built on a naturally • The city is a center of learning: defensible position: Safe, Arcane, Craft (your choice), Power -Population (Arcane) • The keep was a conquest from Choose one problem: another power: Enmity (steadings of that power) • The city has outgrown its resources: • The keep is a safe haven for +Population, Need (food) brigands: Lawless • The city has designs on nearby • The keep was built to defend from a territory: Enmity (nearby steadings), specific threat: Blight (that threat) +Defenses • The keep has seen horrible bloody • The city is ruled by a theocracy: war: History (Battle), Blight (Restless -Defenses, Power (Divine) Spirits) • The city is ruled by the people: • The keep is given the worst of the -Defenses, +Population worst: Need (Skilled Recruits) • The city has supernatural defenses: +Defenses, Blight (related Making a City supernatural creatures) • The city lies on a place of power: By default a city is Moderate, Steady, Arcane, Personage (whoever watches Guard, Market, and Guild (one of your the place of power), Blight (arcane choice). It also has Oaths with at least two creatures) other steadings, usually a town and a keep. If the city has trade with at least one steading and fealty from at least one Fronts on the Campaign steading choose one: Map • The city has permanent defenses, Of course your steadings are not the only like walls: +Defenses, Oath (your thing on the campaign map. In addition to choice) steadings and the areas around them your • The city is ruled by a single fronts will appear on the map, albeit individual: Personage (the ruler), indirectly. Power (Political) Fronts are organizational tools, not • The city is diverse: Dwarven or something the characters think of, so don't Elven or both put them on the map directly. The orcs of Olg'gothal may be a front but don't just Growth draw them on the map. Instead for each When a village or town is Booming and front add some feature to the map that its Prosperity is above Moderate you indicates the front's presence. You can may reduce Prosperity and Defenses to label it if you like, but use the name that move to the next largest type. New towns the characters would use, not the name immediately gain Market and new cities you gave the front. immediately gain Guild (your choice). For example, the orcs of Olg'gothal could Collapse be marked on the map with a burning village they left behind, fires in the distance When a steading's Population is Exodus at night, or a stream of refugees. Lord and its Prosperity is Poor or less it Xothal, a lich, might be marked by the shrinks. A city becomes a town with a tower where dead plants take root and Steady Population and +Prosperity. A keep grow. becomes a town with +Defenses and a Steady population. A town becomes a As your fronts change, change the map. If village with Steady population and the players cleanse Xothal's tower redraw +Prosperity. A village becomes a ghost it. If the orcs are driven off, erase the town. crowds of refugees. Want Updating the Campaign When a steading has a Need that is not Map fulfilled (through trade, capture, or otherwise) that steading is in want. It gets The Campaign Map is updated between either -Prosperity, -Population, or loses a sessions or whenever the players spend tag based on that resource like Craft or significant downtime in a safe place. Trade, your choice. Updates are both prescriptive and descriptive: if an event transpires that, say, Trade gathers a larger fighting force to a village, When Trade is blocked because the update the tags to reflect that. Likewise if a source of that trade is gone, the route is change in tags mean that a village has a endangered, or political reasons, the bigger fighting force you'll likely see more steading has a choice: gain Need (a traded armored men in the street. good) or take -Prosperity. Between each session check each of the Capture conditions below. Go down the list and check each condition for all steadings When control of a resource changes before moving to the next. If a condition remove that resource from the tags of the applies, apply its effects. previous owner and add it to the tags of the new owner (if applicable). If the previous Front) the steading is no longer owner has a Craft or Trade based on that surrounded. resource they now have Need (that resource). If the new owner had a Need for Opportunity that resource, remove it. When a steading has Enmity against a weaker steading they may attack. Profit Subtract the distance (in rations) between When a steading has more Trade than the steadings from the steading with its current Prosperity it gets +Prosperity. Enmity's Defenses. If the result is greater than the other steading's Defenses Surplus +Defense for each step of size difference When a steading has a Resource that (village to town, town to keep, keep to city) another steading Needs unless Enmity or they definitely attack. Otherwise it's your other diplomatic reasons prevent it they set call: has anything happened recently to up Trade. The steading with the Resource stoke their anger? The forces of the gets +Prosperity and their choice of Oaths, attacker embattle the defender, while they +Population, or +Defenses; the steading maintain the attack they're -Defenses. with the Need erases that need and adds Trade. Clash When two steadings both attack each Aid other their forces meet somewhere When a steading has Oaths to a steading between them and fight. If they're evenly under attack that steading may take matched they both get -Defenses and their -Defenses to give the steading under attack troops return home. If one has the +Defenses. advantage they take -Defenses while the other takes -2 Defenses. Embattled When a steading is surrounded by Other Updates enemy forces it suffers loses. If it fights The conditions above detail the most basic back with force it gets -Defenses. If its new of interactions between steadings, of Defenses are Watch or less it also gets course the presence of your Fronts and the -Prosperity. If it instead tries to wait out players mean things can get far more the attack it gets -Population. If its new complex. Since tags are descriptive, add Population is Shrinking or less it loses a tag them as needed to reflect the players' of your choice. If the steading's Defenses actions and your fronts' effects on the outclass the attacker's (your call if it's not world. clear, or make it part of an Adventure the more trained the hireling. Generally Hirelings hirelings only work for adventurers of Hirelings are those sorry souls that—for equal or higher level than their highest money, glory, or stranger needs—venture skill. along with adventurers into the gloom and If a hireling becomes a character their skills danger. They are the foolhardy that seek to may suggest a given class, but there isn't a make their name on adventures. requirement. When the moment comes Hirelings serve a few purposes. To the and the spotlight is on them they may find characters, they're the help. They lend strength they didn't know they had. their strength to the player characters' Skills don't limit what a hireling can do, efforts in return for their pay. To the they just provide mechanics for a certain players, they're a resource. They buy the ability. A hireling with the protector skill characters some extra time against even can still carry your burdens or check for the most frightening of threats. They're traps, but the outcome isn't guaranteed by also replacement characters, waiting to a rule. It will fall entirely to the step up into the hero's role when a player circumstances and the GM. Sending a character falls. To the GM, they're a human hireling to do something that is clearly face for the characters to turn to, even in beyond their abilities is asking the GM for the depths of the earth of the far reaches trouble. of the planes. Of course no hireling works for free. The Hirelings are not heroes. A hireling may hireling's cost is what it takes to keep them become a hero, as a replacement with the player characters. If the hireling's character, but until that time they're just cost isn't paid regularly (usually once a another GM character, suffering the session) they're liable to quit or turn on dangers and perils of the world. As such their employers. their exact HP, armor, and damage isn't particularly important. A hireling is defined When hirelings are in play, the players may by their Skill (or Skills) a Cost and a have to make the Order Hirelings move. Loyalty score. The move uses the loyalty of the hireling that triggered the move: A hireling's skill is a special benefit they provide to the players. Most skills are Order Hirelings related to class abilities, allowing a hireling Hirelings do what you tell them to, so long to fill in for a certain class. If you don't as it isn't obviously dangerous, degrading, have a Ranger but you need to track the or stupid, and their cost is met. When a assassin's route out of Torsea anyway, you hireling find themselves in a dangerous, need a Tracker. Each skill has a rank, degrading, or just flat-out crazy situation usually from 1 to 10. The higher the rank due to your orders roll+loyalty. On a 10+ • Money they stand firm and carry out the order. On • Uncovered Knowledge a 7-9 they do it for now, but come back • Fame and Glory with serious demands later. Meet them or • Debauchery the hireling quits on the worst terms. • Good Accomplished

Making a Hireling Skills Hirelings are easy to make on the fly. Adept When someone enters the player's employ An adept has at least apprenticed to an note down their name and what cost arcane expert, but is not powerful in their they've agreed to as well as any skills they own right. They may have mastered a few may have. simple spells, but they don't have anything Start with a number based on where the like the wizard's spellbook hireling was found. Hirelings in villages Arcane Assistance—When an adept aids in start with 2–5. Town hirelings get 4–6. the casting of a spell of lower level than Keep hirelings are 5–8. City hirelings are their skill, the spell's effects have greater 6–10. Distribute the hireling's number range, duration, or potency. The exact between loyalty, a main skill, and zero or effects depend on the situation and the more secondary skills. Starting loyalty spell and are up to the GM. The GM will higher than 2 is unusual, as is starting describe what effects the assist will add loyalty below 0. Choose a cost for the before the spell is cast. The most important hireling and you're done. feature of casting with an adept is that any A hireling's stats, especially their loyalty, negative effects of the casting are focused may change during play as a reflection of on the adept first. events. A particular kindness or bonus from Expert the players is worth +1 loyalty forward. Disrespect is -1 loyalty forward. If it's been Experts are skilled in a variety of areas, a while since their cost was last paid they most of them illicit or dangerous. They are get -1 loyalty ongoing until their cost is good with devices and traps, but not too met. A hirelings loyalty may be helpful in the field of battle. permanently increased when they achieve Experimental Trap Disarming—When an some great deed with the players. A expert leads the way they can detect traps significant failure or beating may almost in time. If a trap would be sprung permanently lower the hireling's loyalty. while an expert is leading the way the expert suffers the full effects but the Costs players get +skill against the trap and add • The Thrill of Victory the expert's skill to their armor against the Sentry—When a protector stands between trap. Most traps leave an expert in need of you and an attack you increase your armor immediate healing. If the players Make against that attack by the defender's skill, Camp near the trap, the expert can disarm then reduce their skill by 1 until they it by the time camp is broken. receive healing or have time to mend.

Intervene Minstrel —When a protector helps you Defy Danger you may opt to take +1 from When a smiling face is needed to smooth their aid. If you do you cannot get a 10+ things over or negotiate a deal, a minstrel is result, a 10+ instead counts as a 7–9. always happy to lend their services for the proper price. Tracker A Hero's Welcome—When you enter a Trackers know the secrets of following a place of food, drink, or entertainment with trail, but they don't have the experience a minstrel you will be treated as a friend by with strange creatures and exotic locals everyone present (unless your actions that make for a great hunter. prove otherwise). You also subtract the Track—When a tracker is given time to minstrel's skill from all prices in town. study a trail while Making Camp, when Priest camp is broken they can follow the trail to the next major change in terrain, travel, or Priest are the lower ranking clergy of a weather. religion, performing minor offices and regular sacraments. While not granted Guide—When a tracker leads the way you spells themselves, they are able to call automatically succeed on any Perilous upon their deity for minor aid. Journey of a distance lower than the tracker's skill. Ministry—When you make camp with a priest if you would normally heal you heal Warrior to your maximum HP value. Warriors are not masters of combat, but First Aid—When you call on a priest for they are handy with a weapon. They won't healing, the priest rushes to your side and be leading anyone into battle anytime heals you of 2×skill HP. You take -1 forward soon, but their arm is good. as their healing is painful and distracting. Man-at-arms—When you deal damage Protector while a warrior aids you add their skill to the damage done. If your attack results in A protector stands between their employer consequences (like a counter attack) the and the blades, fangs, teeth, and spells that man-at-arms takes the brunt of it. would harm them. being beaten too quickly, don't worry. Let Monsters the players revel in their victory and Great heroes need horrendous antagonists. prepare a bigger, badder follow-up monster This section is about how to create and for next time. play as those antagonists—from the lowly The principle of "Think dangerous" sums goblin warrior to the hellish demon. up that philosophy—the world is just as dangerous for the monsters as for the Using Monsters characters. An evil overlord doesn't care A monster is any living (or undead) thing about his every golem, demon, and harpy. that stands in the players' way. Until proven otherwise, consider every monster an arrow fired at the characters. How you use these monsters follows The monsters are ammunition of the directly from your Agenda and Principles. Danger you're presenting. Some may be Stay true to your principles, use your smarter, faster, or more dangerous than moves and pursue your agenda—you can't others but until a monster warrants a name, go wrong. a personality, or some other special Your first agenda is to "Make the world consideration, it's an arrow. Take aim and fantastic". This shines through strongly shoot. Don't worry if you miss. based on how you think about monsters. A monster stops being an arrow when it is Everyone and everything who comes up given a chance to shine by the players' against the players is a monster but that actions. When the players are forced to run doesn't mean you have to write their stats away from something it gains weight. When out ahead of time. In a fantastic world, a monster somehow survives the players' every goblin might end up in a fight but you assault it becomes interesting to the don't have to know their HP before that players and to the world at large. The happens. A monster is so simple to make players are the heroes. Your monsters are you can jump right into the fiction, only important when they become describing whatever you want and back it important to the heroes and, thus, up with stats as you need them. Make the important to the world. world fantastic: describe your monsters first and worry about their stats later. One thing that your Agenda and Principles don't say anything about is setting up a fair The player characters are the heroes. You fight. Heroes are often out numbered or shouldn't be rooting for the monsters, per faced with ridiculous odds—sometimes se. Monsters exist to illustrate what a they have to retreat and make a new plan. dangerous awful place Dungeon World can Sometimes they suffer loss. When adding a be—how it will remain if the players don't monster to a front, placing them in a step in. If you feel like your monsters are dungeon or making them up on the fly your first responsibility is to the fiction (Make with some modifiers. A monster deals its the world fantastic) and to give the damage to another monster or a player characters a real threat (Make the when it uses its standard weapons and characters heroes), not to make a balanced tactics to hurt them, or when a move says fight. Dungeon World isn't about balancing so. encounter levels or counting experience Just like a weapon, monsters have tags that points; it's about telling stories about describe how it deals damage, including adventure and death-defying feats! what range(s) it can do damage at. When trying to attack something it out of it's Elements of a Monster range (to close or too far) the monster's out The most important part of a monster is of luck, no damage. Any tag that can go on what it does. These are it's moves. Just like a weapon (like Messy or Slow) can also go the normal GM moves, they're things that on a monster. you do when there's a lull in the action or There are also monster tags that apply only when the players give you a golden to monsters. These tags, listed below, opportunity. Just like the normal GM describe the monster's key attributes. moves they can be hard or soft depending Every monster has a tag for its scope: on the circumstances and the move: a where it falls in the bigger picture of move that's irreversible and immediate is Dungeon World. The scope tag lets the GM hard, a move that's impending or mitigable know how to portray the monster in a way is soft. that its stats back up, for example if an Each monster's raison d'être is summed up army of gnolls can take a defended village in its instinct. Much like Dangers, (hint: most likely). Some monsters also monsters have instincts that describe their have a size tag, which notes their physical goals at a high level. Some monsters live size. Monsters without a size tag are just for conquest, or treasure, or simply for about human size, give or take. blood. The monster's instinct is the guide A monster's HP is a measure of how much to how to use the monster damage it can take before it dies. Just like The monster's description is where all its players, when a monster takes damage it other features come from. The description subtracts that amount from it's HP. At 0 HP is how you know what the monster really it's dead, no Last Breath. is, the other elements just reflect the Some monsters are lucky enough to enjoy description. Armor. Just like player armor: when a Damage is a measure of how much pain monster with armor takes damage it the monster can inflict at once. Just like subtracts its armor from the damage done. player damage it's a dice to roll, maybe Special qualities describe innate aspects Gibbous: Its anatomy and organs are of the monster that are important to play. bizarre and unnatural. These are a guide to the fiction, and Organized: It has a group structure that therefore the moves. There is no master aids it in survival. Defeating one may cause list of special qualities, they're just plain- the wrath of others. One may sound an english descriptions of the qualities of a alarm. monster that aren't part of an attack. A quality like "Intangible" means just what it Intelligent: Its smart enough that some says: mundane stuff just passes through it. individuals pick up other skills. The GM That means swinging a mundane sword at can adapt the monster by adding tags to it isn't Hack and Slash, for a start. reflect specific training, like a mage or warrior.

Monsters Without Stats Hoarder: It almost certainly has treasure. Some creatures operate on a scale so far Stealthy: It can avoid detection and prefers beyond the mortal that concepts like HP, to attack with the element of surprise. Armor, and Damage just do not hold. These creatures may still cause problems Terrifying: Its presence and appearance for the players and may even be defeated evoke fear. with clever thinking and enough Cautious: It prizes survival over aggression. preparation, they just won't be trading blows. Construct: It was made, not born

If a creature is of such a scale far beyond Planar: Its from beyond this world the players, or if it simply doesn't live or Organization Tags die like a mortal creature, don't assign it HP, Damage, or Armor. You can still use Horde: Where there's one, theres more. A the monster creation rules to give it tags. lot more. The core of a stat-less monster is its Group: Usually seen in small numbers, 3–6 instinct and moves; the GM can still make or so. its moves and act according to its instinct. Solitary: It lives and fights alone.

Monster Tags Size Tags Magical: It is by nature magical through Tiny: It's much smaller than a halfling. and through. Small: It's about halfling size. Devious: Its main danger lies beyond the Big: It's much bigger than a human, about simple clash of battle. as big as a cart.

Huge: It's as big as a small house or larger. Making Monsters you plan on using the monster often, give it another 2–3 moves of your choice. These Monsters start with your description of moves often describe secondary modes of them. No matter if you're making the attack, other uses for a primary mode of monster before play or just as the players attack, or connections to a certain place in come face-to-face with it a monster starts the world. with a clear vision of what it is and what it does. What is it known to do? If you're making a monster between Write a monster move describing what it sessions start be imagining it. Imagine what does. it looks like, what it does, why it stands out. What does it want that causes Imagine the stories told about it and what problems for others? effects it has had on the world. This is its instinct. Write it as an intended If you're making a monster on the fly action. during a session start by describing it to the players. Your description starts before the How does it usually hunt or fight? characters even lay eyes on it: describe • In large disorganized groups: Horde, where it lives, what marks it has made on d6 damage, 3 HP the environment around it. Your • In small groups, about 2–5: Group, description is the key to the monster. d8 damage, 6 HP When you find you need stats for the • All by its lonesome: Solitary, d10 monster you use this series of questions to damage, 12 HP establish them. Answer every question How big is it? based on the facts established and imagined. Don't answer them aloud to • Smaller than a house cat: Tiny, anyone else, just note down the answers Hand, -2 damage and the stats listed with each answer. • Halfling-esque: Small, Close • About human size: Close If two questions would grant the same tag • As big as a cart: Large, Close, Reach, don't worry about it. If you like you can +4 HP, +1 damage adjust damage or HP by 2 to reflect the tag • Much larger than a cart: Huge, that would be repeated, but it's not Reach, +8 HP, +3 damage necessary. If a combination of answers would reduce HP or damage below 1 they What is its most important defense? stay at 1. • Cloth or flesh: 0 armor When you're finished your monster may • Leathers or think hide: 1 armor have only one move. If this is the case and • Mail or scales: 2 armor • Plate or bone: 3 armor • Armor doesn't help with the damage • Permanent magical protection: 4 it deals (due to magic, size, etc.): armor, Magical Ignores Armor • It usually attacks at range (with What is it known for? (Choose all that arrows, spells, or other projectiles): apply) Near or Far or both (your call) • Unrelenting strength: +2 damage, forceful Which of these describe it? (Choose all • Skill in offense: roll damage twice that apply) and take the best • It isn't dangerous because of the • Skill in defense: +1 armor wounds it inflicts, but for other • Deft strikes: +1 piercing reasons: Devious, -damage dice size, • Uncanny endurance: +4 HP write a move about why it's • Deceit and trickery: Stealthy, write a dangerous move about dirty tricks • It organizes into larger groups that it • A useful adaptation like being can call on for support: Organized, amphibious or having wings: Add a write a move about calling on others special quality for the adaptation for help • The favor of the gods: Divine, +2 • It's as smart as a human or damage or +2 HP or both (your call) thereabouts: Intelligent • Spells and magic: Magical, write a • It actively defends itself with a shield move about its spells or similar: Cautious, +1 Armor • It collects trinkets that humans What is its most common form of would consider valuable (gold, gems, attack? secrets): Hoarder Note it along with the creature's damage. • It uses magic: Magical, write a move Common answers include: a type of about its style of magic and the weapon, claws, a specific spell. Then effects it can invoke answer these questions about it. • It's from beyond this world: Planar, • Its armaments are vicious and write a move about using it's obvious: +2 damage otherworldly knowledge and power • It lets the monster keep others at • It's kept alive by something beyond bay: Reach simple biology: +4 HP • Its armaments are small and weak: • It was made by someone: Construct, -damage dice size give it a special quality or two about • Its armaments can slice or pierce its construction or purpose metal: Messy, +1 Piercing or +3 • Its appearance is disturbing, terrible, Piercing if it can just tear metal apart or horrible: Terrifying, write a special quality about why it's so 6. Useful information (in the form of horrendous clues, notes, etc.) • It doesn't have organs or discernible 7. A bag of coins, 1d4×100 or anatomy: Gibbous, +1 Armor, +3 HP thereabouts. 1 weight per 100. 8. A very valuable small item (gem, art) Treasure worth 2d6×100, 0 weight 9. A chest of coins and other small Monsters, much like adventurers, collect valuables. 1 weight but worth shiny useful things. When the players 3d6×100 coins search the belongings of a monster (be they 10.A magical item or magical effect on their person or tucked away 11.Many bags of coins for a total of somewhere) describe them honestly. 2d4×100 or so If the monster has accumulated some 12.A sign of office (crown, banner) wealth you can roll that randomly. Start worth at least 3d4×100 coins with the monster's damage die, modified if 13.A large art item worth 4d4×100 the monster is: coins, 1 weight 14.A unique item worth at least • Hoarder: roll damage die twice, take 5d4×100 coins higher result 15.All the information needed to learn a • Far from home: +at least one ration new spell and roll again (usable by anyone with similar taste) 16.A portal or secret path (or directions • Magical: some strange item, possibly to one) and roll again magical 17.Something relating to one of the • Divine: a sign of a deity (or deities) characters and roll again • Planar: something not of this earth 18.A hoard: 1d10×1000 coins and • Lord over others: +1d4 to the roll 1d10×10 gems worth 2d6×100 each • Ancient and noteworthy: +1d4 to the roll Monster Settings Roll the monster's damage die plus any The monsters in this book are presented in added dice to fine the monster's treasure: monster settings. A monster setting is a 1. A few coins, 2d8 or so location (or type of location) and the 2. An item useful to the current monsters that inhabit it. It's a way of situation grouping monsters by where they fit in the 3. Several coins, about 4d10 world. A monster setting tells you what 4. A small item (gem, art) of kind of monsters might inhabit an area considerable value, worth as much as while your Fronts tell you what monsters 2d10×10 coins, 0 weight are working together or have ongoing plots. 5. Some minor magical trinket When creating your own monster settings, also the reasons those stats were assigned. they can be more specific. You could create These monsters were created with the a monster setting for the Great Western same process listed above and the reasons Steppes or the Domains of the Horse for their stats are just as important as the Lords. stats themselves. Looking at the reasoning behind the stats will allow you to present Consult a monster setting to populate a the monsters honestly, answering Front or when you want a threat that is questions that arise in Dungeon World like only tangentially related to one of your "can a warband of gnolls sack an entire Fronts. For example, if the heroes are village?" battling against the Dungeon Front "The Cult of Khul-ka-ra" by exploring the Cavern Dwellers ancient ruins that the cult has made its home then you might use monsters from At the edges of civilization in the caves and the Legions of the Undead as a related tunnels below the old mountains of the threat—not truly part of the front but still a world dwell all sorts of scheming, block in the heroes' path. dangerous monsters. Some are wily and old, like the race of goblins scheming to Monsters within a given setting will tend to burn villages and make off with livestock. be about as powerful. This is a product of Others are strange aberrations of nature their ecology—they're in competition for like the stinking, trash-eating Otyugh. A space and resources, after all. Cavern word of caution, then, to those brave Dwellers or Denizens of the Murky Swamp adventurers whose first foray into danger are likely to be faced by fresh adventurers leads them into these dank and shadowy as they are the creatures who most often places; bad things live in the dark. Bad encroach on civilization. The Gnarled things with sharp teeth. Woods, Ravenous Hordes, and Twisted Experiments settings hold more powerful Denizens of the Swamp monsters, monsters that can threaten the All things give way to rot, in the end. Food safety of whole cities. Planar Powers and spoils on the table, men's minds go mad Creatures of the Lower Depths are the with age and disease. Even the world itself, most dangerous enemies the heroes can when left untended and uncared for, can face—often endangering entire kingdoms. turn to black muck and stinking air. Things The Legions of the Undead are dwell in these parts of Dungeon World. everywhere and can appear in just about Things gone just as a bad as the swirling any setting or situation. filth that fills the swamps. In these cesspit The monster stat blocks within these lowlands adventurers will find such settings describe not only, HP, damage, and creatures as the deadly-eyed basilisk or the all the other aspects of the monster, but famed, unkillable troll. You'll need more than a dry pair of boots to survive these flames offend the woods themselves. You putrid fens. A sword would be a good start. wouldn't want that, would you?

Legions of the Undead Ravenous Hordes The sermons of mannish and dwarven "I've bested an orc in single combat" they gods would tell you that Death is the end of crow. "I've fought a gnoll and lived to the all. They say that once the mortal coil is tell the tale." Which is no small feat and yet, unwound and a person takes their final you know the truth of these boasts. Like breath that all is warmth and song and the vermin, spotting but one of these creatures white wings of angels. Not so. Not for all. speaks to a greater doom on the horizon. For some, after life's embrace loses its No orc travels alone. No slavering gnoll strength a darker power can take hold. moves without his pack. You know that Black magic rips the dead from the ground soon, the wardrums will sound and the and gives them shambling unlife full of hate walls will be besieged by the full fury of the and hunger. Sorcery and witchcraft lend an warchief and his tusked berserkers. These ancient spell-smith the power to live are the monsters that will bring civilization, forever in the husk of a Lich. There are screaming and weeping, to its knees. bleak enchantments at play in shadowy Unless you can stop them. Best of luck. corners all throughout Dungeon World. These creatures are the spawn of that fell Twisted Experiments magic. For some who learn the arcane arts it's not merely enough to be able to live for a The Dark Woods thousand years or throw lightning bolts that It would not be a lie to say that there are can fry a man. Some aren't quite satisfied trees that stand in the deepest groves of with the power to speak to the dead or Dungeon World that have stood since draw the angels down from heaven. Hubris before man or elf walked amidst their calls on those cloaked-and-hooded roots. It would be true, too, to say that "scientists" to make a strange and unholy these ancient trees have long lost the green life of their own. No mortal children, these. leaves of spring. In the strands of the dark These are the wages of a mind gone foul woods one finds, if one looks in the right with strange magic. In this setting you will place, sylvan monsters of old and powerful find such nightmares as the chimera, nature. Here live the race of savage dripping poison. Here, too, are the Centaurs and the fey soul-stealing protector golems and mutant apes. All sorts creatures of olde. Under the shadow of the of bad ideas await you in the fallen towers ancient trees, wolf-men howl for blood. of the mad magicians of Dungeon World. Hurry along the old forest road and light no fire for food or warmth for it's said that The Lower Depths Ruins dot the countryside of Dungeon World. Old bastions of long-forgotten Cavern Dwellers civilization fallen to decay, to monsters or to the whim of a vengeful god. These ruins Ankheg Group, Large often cover a much more dangerous truth Bite (d8+1 damage) 10 HP 3 Armor – catacombs and underground complexes Close, Reach lousy with traps and monsters. Gold, too. Which is why you're here. Why you're Special Qualities: Burrowing locked in mortal combat with a tribe of A hide like plate armor and great crushing spiteful dark elves. Battling stone giants in mandibles are problematic. A stomach full caverns the size of whole countries. of acid that can burn a hole through a Maybe, though, you're the noble souls stone wall makes them all the worse. who've travelled to the world's heart to put They'd be bad enough if they were proper an end to the Apocalypse Dragon—the insect-sized but these things have the gall beast who, it is said, will one day swallow to be as long as any given horse. It's just not the sun and kill us all. We appreciate it, natural! Good thing they tend to stick to really. We'll all pray for you. one place? Easy for you to say—you don't have an Ankheg living under your corn Planar Powers field. Instinct: To undermine Sometimes, monsters do not come from Undermine the ground Dungeon World at all. Beyond the • mountains at the edge of the world or • Burst from the earth below the deepest seas the sages and wise • Spray forth acid, eating away at old priests say that there are gateways to metal and flesh the lands beyond. They speak of elysian Cave Rat Horde, Small fields; rivers of sweet wine and maidens Gnaw (d6 damage 1 piercing) 7 HP 1 Armor dancing in fields of gold. They tell tales of the paradise of heavens to be found past Close, Messy the Planar Door. Tales tell, too, of the Who hasn't seen a rat before? It's like that, Thousandfold Hell. Of the swirling but nasty and big and not afraid of you Elemental Vortex and the devils that wait anymore. Maybe this one was a cousin to for the stars to align so they can enter that one you caught in a trap or the one Dungeon World and wreak their bloody you killed with a knife in that filthy tavern havoc. You must be curious to know if in Darrow. Maybe he's looking for a little these tales are true? What will you see ratty revenge. Instinct: To devour when the passage to the beyond is opened? • Swarm • Rip apart something (or someone) Axe (d6 damage) 7 HP 2 Armor

Choker Solitary, Stealthy, Intelligent Close

Choke (d10 damage) 15 HP 2 Armor For ages, men believed all dwarves were men and all were of this ilk—stoic and Close, Reach proud warriors. Axe-wielding and plate- Special Qualities: Flexible wearing. Stout bearded battle-hungry men Some say these things descended from the who would push them, time and time family of a cruel wizard who forced them again, back up out of their mines and to live out their lives underground. Say his tunnels with ferocity. It just goes to show experiments led him to fear the sun and how little men know about the elder races. ages passed while he descended into These folk are merely a vanguard, and they unlife, dragging his folk along with him. bravely do their duty to protect the riches These things resemble men, in a way. of the Dwarven realm. Earn their trust and Head, four limbs and all that. Only their you've an ally for life. Earn their ire and skin is wet and rubbery and their arms long you're not like to regret it very long. and fingers grasping. They hate all life that Instinct: To defend bears the stink of the sun's touch, as one • Drive them back might expect. Jealousy, long instilled, is • Call up reinforcements hard to shake. Instinct: To deny light Earth Elemental Solitary, Huge • Hold someone, wringing the breath Smash (d10+5 damage) 27 HP 4 Armor from them • Fling a held creature Reach, Forceful

Cloaker Solitary, Stealthy Special Qualities: Made of stone

Constrict (d10 damage ignores armor) 12 Our shaman says that all the things of the HP 1 Armor world have a spirit. Stones, trees, a stream. Now that I've seen the earth roil under my Close feet and fists of stone beat my friends half Special Qualities: Looks like a cloak to death I'm like to believe that crazy old Don't put on that cloak, Gareth. Don't. You man. The one I saw was huge—big as a don't know where it's been. I tell you, it's house! It came boiling up from a rockslide no good. See! It moved! I'm not mad, out of nowhere and had a voice like an Gareth, it moved! Don't do it! No! avalanche. I pay my respects, now. Rightly GARETH! Instinct: To engulf so. Instinct: To show the strength of earth

• Engulf the unsuspecting • Turn the ground into a weapon • Meld into stone Dwarven Warrior Horde, Organized Goliath Group, Huge, Organized, • Undermine the ground Intelligent • Burst from the earth Mace (d8+7 damage) 14 HP 1 Armor • Spray forth acid, eating away at metal and flesh Reach, Forceful Gargoyle Horde, Stealthy, Hoarder They dwell beneath the earth because they do not belong above it any longer. An Claw (d6 damage) 3 HP 2 Armor undying race of mighty titans fled the Close plains and mountains in ages past—driven Special Qualities: Wings out by men and their heroes. Left to bide their time in the dark, hate and anger It's a sad thing, really. Guardians bred by warmed by the pools of lava deep below. Magi of the past with no more castles to It's said that an earthquake is a goliath's guard. Their ancestors' sacred task bred birthing cry. Some day they'll take back into their blood leads them to find a place what's theirs. Instinct: To retake —ruins, mostly but sometimes a cave or hill or mountain cliff—and guard it as • Shake the earth though their masters yet lived below. • Retreat, only to come back stronger They're notoriously good at finding Fire Beetle Horde, Small valuables buried below the earth, though. Find one of these winged reptiles and Flames (d6 damage ignores armor) 3 HP 3 you'll find yourself a treasure nearby. Just Armor be careful, they're hard to spot and tend to Near move in packs. Instinct: To guard

Special Qualities: Full of flames • Attack with the element of surprise Scarabaeus Pyractomena! What a • Take to the air delightful creature—see how its carapace • Blend into stonework glitters in the light of our torches? Not too Gelatinous Cube Solitary, Large, Stealthy, close now, they're temperamental, you see. Gibbous The fire in their belly isn't just metaphorical, no. Watch as I goad the Engulf (d10+1 damage ignores armor) 20 beast. Aha! A spout of flame! Unexpected, HP 1 Armor isn't it? One of these creatures alone, if it Hand comes up from below, can be a hellish Special Qualities: Transparent nuisance to a farmstead or village. A whole swarm? There's a reason they call it a How many adventurers' last thought was conflagration of fire beetles. I'll say that "strange, this tunnel seems cleaner than much. Instinct: To enflame most?" Too many and all because of this transparent menace. A great acidic blob • Unleash a poorly understood spell that expands to fill a small chamber or • Pour forth magical chaos corridor and then slides, ever so slowly • Use other goblins for shields along, eating everything in its path. It Otyugh Solitary, Large cannot eat stone or metal and will often have them floating in its jelly mass. Blech. Tentacles (d10+3 damage) 20 HP 1 Armor Instinct: To clean Close, Reach, Forceful

• Fill an apparently empty space Special Qualities: Filth Fever • Dissolve The mating call of the otyugh is a horrible, Goblin Horde, Small, Intelligent, Organized blaring cry that sounds like a cross Spear (d6 damage) 3 HP 1 Armor between an elephant dying and an over- eager vulture. The otyugh spends much of Close, Reach its time partly submerged in filthy water Nobody seems to know where these things and prefers eating garbage over any other came from. Elves say they're the Dwarves' food. As a result, it often grows fat and fault—dredged up from a hidden place strong on the offal of orcs, goblins and beneath the earth. Dwarves say they're bad other cave-dwelling sub-humans. Get too Elvish children, taken away at birth and close, however, and you'll have one of its raised in the dark. The truth of the matter barbed tentacles dragging you into that is that goblins have always been here and soggy, razor-toothed maw. If you get away they'll be here once all the civilized races with your life, best get to a doctor, or your have fallen and gone away. Goblins never victory may be short lived. Instinct: To foul die out. There's just too damn many of • Infect someone with filth fever them. Instinct: To multiply • Fling someone or something • Charge! Maggot-Squid Horde, Small • Call more goblins • Retreat and return with (many) more Chew (d6 damage) 3 HP 1 Armor

Goblin Orkaster Solitary, Small, Magical, Close Intelligent, Organized Special Qualities: Amphibious, Paralyzing Acid orb (d10+1 damage ignores armor) 12 Tentacles HP 0 Armor The gods that made this thing were playing Near, Far some sick joke on the civilized folk of the world. The maggot-squid wields a face full Oh lord, who taught them magic? Instinct: of horrible squirming tentacles that, if they To tap power beyond their stature touch you, feel like being struck by lightning. They'll paralyze you and chew being dragged into the roper's mouth. you up slowly while you're helpless. Best to Surprisingly effective for a thing that looks not let it get to that. Instinct: To eat like a rock. Instinct: To ambush

• Paralyze with a touch • Ensnare the unsuspecting • Burst from the earth Purple Worm Solitary, Huge • Spray forth acid, eating away at Bite (d10+5 damage) 20 HP 2 Armor metal and flesh

Reach, Forceful Rot Grub Horde, Tiny

Special Qualities: Burrowing Burrow (d6-2 damage) 3 HP 0 Armor

Iä! Iä! The Purple Worm! Blessed is its holy Hand slime! We walk, unworthy, in its miles of massive tunnels. We are but shadows under Special Qualities: Burrow into flesh its violet and all-consuming glory. Mere They live in your skin. Or your organ meat. acolytes, we who hope someday to return Or your eyeballs. They grow there and to the great embrace of its tooth-ringed then, in a bloody and horrific display, maw. Let it consume us! Let it eat our burrow their way out. Disgusting. Instinct: homes and villages so that we might be To infect taken! Iä! Iä! The Purple Worm! Instinct: • Burrow under flesh To consume • Lay eggs • Swallow whole • Burst forth from an infected creature • Tunnel through stone and earth Spiderlord Solitary, Large, Devious, Roper Solitary, Large, Stealthy, Intelligent Intelligent

Bite (d10+1 damage) 16 HP 1 Armor Mandibles (d8+4 damage) 16 HP 3 Armor

Close, Reach Close, Reach

Special Qualities: Rock-like Flesh Special Qualities: Burrowing

Evolutionary happenstance has created a Even spiders have their gods, whispered to clever underground predator. Disguised as in webs with little praying arms. Instinct: a rocky formation—most often a stalactite To weave webs (literal and metaphorical) or stalagmite—the roper waits for its prey • Enmesh in webbing to wander by. When it does, whether it's a • Put a plot into motion rat, a goblin or a foolhardy adventurer, a mass of thin, whipping tentacles erupts Troglodyte Group, Organized from the thing's hide. A hundred lashes in Club (d8 damage) 10 HP 1 Armor the blink of an eye and the stunned prey is Close option is available. When she does, though, her jaws are strong enough to crack the Long-forgotten, our last remaining hull of any swamp-boat and certainly ancestors dwell in caves in the wild parts of enough to slice through a steel breastplate the world. Driven away by our cities and or two. Give the greedy snake your villages, our iron swords and our fire, these treasures and she might just leave you ape-men eat their meat raw with sharp- alone. Instinct: To devour nailed hands and jagged teeth. They strike out at frontier villages wielding clubs and in • Lure prey with lies and illusions overwhelming numbers to seize cattle, • Lash out at light tools, and poor prisoners to drag into the • Devour hills. Known for their viciousness and their stink, they're an old and dying race we'd all Basilisk sooner forget existed. Instinct: To prey on Solitary, Hoarder civilization Bite (d10 damage); 12 HP; 2 Armor • Raid and retreat Close • Use scavenged weapons or magic “Few have seen a basilisk and lived to tell the tale. Get it? Seen a basilisk? Little bit of basilisk humor there. Sorry, I know you’re Swamp Denizens looking for something helpful, sirs. Serious stuff, I understand. The basilisk, even Bakunawa without its ability to turn your flesh to Solitary, Large, Intelligent, Messy, Forceful stone with a gaze, is a dangerous creature. A bit like a frog, bulbous eyes and six Bite (d10+3 damage, 1 piercing); 16 HP; 2 muscled legs built for leaping. A bit like an Armor alligator, with snapping jaws and sawing Close, Reach teeth. Covered in stony scales and very hard to kill. Best avoided, if possible.” Special Qualities: Amphibious Instinct: To create new statuary Dragon-Turtle’s sister is a mighty serpent • Turn flesh to stone with a gaze queen. Ten yards of scales and muscle, they • Retreat into a maze of stone say she wakes with a hunger when the sun disappears from the sky. She is attracted by Black Pudding bright light in the darkness and like any Solitary, Amorphous snake, the Bakunawa is sneaky. She will seek first to beguile and mislead and will Corrosive touch (d10 damage, ignores only strike out with violence when no other armor); 15 HP; 1 Armor Close • Offer information in exchange for service Special Qualities: Amorphous

How do you kill a pile of goo? A great, Crocodilian squishy pile of goo that also happens to Group, Large want to dissolve you and slurp you up? Bite (d8+3 damage); 10 HP; 2 Armor That is a good question to which I have no answer. Do let us know when you find out. Close, Reach Instinct: To dissolve Special Qualities: Amphibious, • Eat away metal, flesh, or wood Camouflage • Ooze into a troubling place: food, It’s a really, really big crocodile. Seriously. armor, stomach So big. Instinct: To eat

Coutal • Attack an unsuspecting victim Solitary, Intelligent Devious • Escape into the water • Hold something tight in its jaws Light ray (d8 damage, ignores armor); 12 HP; 2 Armor Doppelgänger Close Solitary, Devious, Intelligent

Special Qualities: Wings, Halo Dagger (d6 damage); 12 HP; 0 Armor

As if in direct defiance of the decay and Close filth of the world, the gods granted us the Special Qualities: Shapeshifting coutal. As if to say, “there is beauty, even in this grim place.” A serpent in flight on Their natural form, if you ever see it, is jeweled wings, these beautiful creatures hideous. Like a creature who stopped glow with a sof light, as the sun does growing part-way, before it decided it was through stained glass. Bright, wise, and elf or man or dwarf. Then again, maybe calm, a coutal ofen knows many things that’s how you get to be the way a and sees many more. You might be able to doppelgänger is—without form, without make a trade with it in exchange for some shape to call their own, maybe all they favor. They seek to cleanse and to purge really seek is a place to fit in. If you go out and to make of this dark world a better into the world, when you come back home, one. Shame we have so few. The gods are make sure your friends are who you think cruel. Instinct: To cleanse they are. They might, instead, be a doppelgänger and your friend might be • Pass judgment on a person or place dead at the bottom of a well somewhere. • Summon divine forces to cleanse Then again, depending on your friends, that might be an improvement. Instinct: To Close, Near infiltrate Special Qualities: Wings, Elemental • Assume the shape of a person whose Blood flesh it’s tasted What? Did you think they were all a mile Use another’s identity to advantage • long? Did you think they didn’t come • Leave someone’s reputation smaller than that? Sure, they may be no shattered bigger than a dog and no smarter than an ape, but a dragon whelp can still belch up Dragon Turtle a hellish ball of fire that’ll melt your armor Solitary, Huge, Cautious shut and drop you screaming into the mud. Bite (d10+3 damage); 20 HP; 4 Armor Their scales, too, are sofer than those of their bigger kin, but can still turn aside an Reach arrow or sword not perfectly aimed. Size is Special Qualities: Shell, Amphibious not the only measure of might. Instinct: To Bakunawa has a brother. Where she is grow in power quick to anger and hungry for gold, he is • Start a lair, form a base of power slow and sturdy. She is a knife and he is a • Call on family ties shield. A great turtle that lies in the muck • Demand oaths of servitude and mire for ages as they pass, mud piled upon his back—sometimes trees and Ekek shrubs. Sometimes a whole misguided clan Horde of goblins will build their huts and cook Talons (d6 damage); 3 HP; 1 Armor their ratty meals on the shell of the dragon turtle. His snapping jaws may be glacier- Close slow, but they can rend a castle wall. Special Qualities: Wing-arms Careful where you tread. Instinct: To resist change Ugly, wrinkled bird-folk, these. Once, maybe, in some ancient past, they were a • Move forward implacably race of angelic men from on high, but now Bring its full bulk to bear • they eat rats that they fish from the murk • Destroy structures and buildings with talon-feet and devour with needle- teeth. They understand the tongues of men Dragon Whelp and dwarves but speak in little more than Solitary, Small, Intelligent, Cautious, gibbering tongues, mimicking the words Hoarder they hear with mocking laughter. It’s a Elemental breath (d10+2 damage); 16 HP; 3 chilling thing to see a beast so close to man Armor or bird but not quite either one. Instinct: To Croak croak croak. Little warty lash out munchkins. Some wizard or godling’s idea of a bad joke, these creatures are. They • Attack from the air stand as men, dress in scavenged cloth and • Carry out the bidding of a more hold court in their froggy villages. They powerful creature speak a rumbling pidgin form of the tongue Fire Eels of man and are constantly at war with their neighbors. They’re greedy and stupid Horde, Tiny but clever enough when they need to Burning touch (d6-2 damage, ignores defend themselves. Some say, too, their armor); 3 HP; 0 Armor priests have a remarkable skill at healing. Hand Or maybe they’re just really, really hard to kill. Instinct: To wage war Special Qualities: Flammable oil, aquatic • Launch an amphibious assault These strange creatures are no bigger or • Heal at a prodigious rate smarter than their mundane kin. They have the same vicious nature. Over their Hydra relations they have one advantage—an Solitary, Large oily secretion that oozes from their skin. It makes them hard to catch. On top of that, Bite (d10+3 damage); 16 HP; 2 Armor with a twist of their body they can ignite Close, Reach the stuff, leaving pools of burning oil atop Special Qualities: Many heads, Only the surface of the water and roasting prey killed by a blow to the heart and predator alike. I hear the slimy things make good ingredients for fire-resistant A bit like a dragon, wingless though it may gear, but you have to get your hands on be. Heads, nine in number at birth, spring one, first. Instinct: To ignite from a muscled trunk and weave a sinuous pattern in the air. A hydra is to be feared— • Catch someone or something on fire a scaled terror of the marsh. The older (even underwater) ones, though, they have more heads, for • Consume burning prey every failed attempt to murder it just Frogman makes it stronger. Cut off a head and two more grow in its place. Only a strike, true Horde, Small, Intelligent and strong, to the heart can end a hydra’s Spear (d6 damage); 7 HP; 1 Armor life. Not time or tide or any other thing but Close this. Instinct: To grow

Special Qualities: Amphibious • Attack many enemies at once • Regenerate a body part (especially a elves and dwarves and men built even the head) first of their wattle huts, a race of proud lizard kings strode the land. That they Kobold lived in palaces of crystal and worshipped Horde, Small, Stealthy, Intelligent, their own scaly gods. Maybe that’s true Organized and maybe it ain’t—now they dwell in places men long forgot or abandoned, Spear (d6 damage); 3 HP; 1 Armor crafing tools from volcano-glass and Close, Reach lashing against the works of the civilized Special Qualities: Dragon connection world. Maybe they just want back what they lost. Instinct: To destroy civilization Some are wont to lump these little, rat-like dragon-men in with goblins and orcs, • Ambush the unsuspecting bugbears and hobgoblins. They are • Launch an amphibious assault smarter and wiser than their kin, however. Medusa The kobolds are beholden slaves to dragons and were, in ancient times, their Solitary, Devious, Intelligent, Hoarder lorekeepers and sorcerer-servants. Their Claws (d6 damage); 12 HP; 0 Armor clans, with names like Ironscale and Close Whitewing, form around a dragon master and live to serve and do its bidding. Special Qualities: Look turns you to Spotting a kobold means more are near— stone and if more are near then a mighty dragon The medusa are children of a serpent- cannot be far, either. Instinct: To serve haired mother, birthing them in ancient dragons times to bear her name across the ages. • Lay a trap They dwell near places of civilization— • Call on dragons or draconic allies luring folks to their caves with promises of • Retreat and regroup beauty or riches untold. Fine appreciators of art, the medusa curate strange Lizardman collections of their victims, terror or Group, Stealthy, Intelligent, Organized ecstasy frozen forever in stone. It satisfies their vanity to know they were the last Spear (d8 damage); 6 HP; 2 Armor thing seen in so many lives. Arrogant, Close, Reach proud, and spiteful, in their way, they seek Special Qualities: Amphibious what so many do—endless company. Instinct: To collect A traveling sorcerer once told me that lizardmen came before we did. That before • Turn a body part to stone with a look • Draw someone’s gaze If you see one, drif by and gaze in awe, • Show hidden terrible beauty but do not wake the giant. Instinct: To endure Sahuagin • Stampede Horde, Intelligent • Knock something down Endless teeth (d6+4 damage, 1 piercing); 3 • Unleash a deafening bellow HP; 2 Armor Swamp Shambler Close, Forceful, Messy Solitary, Large, Magical Special Qualities: Amphibious Lash (d10+1 damage); 23 HP; 1 Armor The shape and craf of men wedded to the Close, Reach, Forceful hunger and the endless teeth of a shark. Voracious and filled only with hate, these Special Qualities: Swamp form creatures will not stop until all life has Some elementals are conjured up in sacred been consumed. They cannot be reasoned circles etched in chalk. Most, in fact. with, they cannot be controlled or sated. There’s a sort of science to it. Others, They are hunger and bloodlust, driven up though, aren’t so orderly—they don’t fall from the depths of the sea to ravage coastal under the carefully controlled assignments towns and swallow island villages. of fire, air, water, or earth. Some are a Instinct: To spill blood natural confluence of vine and mire and • Bite off a limb fungus. They do not think the way a man • Hurl a poisoned spear might think. They cannot be understood as • Frenzy at the sight of blood one might understand an elf. They simply are. Spirits of the swamp. Shamblers in the Sauropod mud. Instinct: To preserve and create Group, Huge, Cautious swamps

Trample (d10+5 damage); 18 HP; 4 Armor • Call on the swamp itself for aid • Meld into the swamp Reach • Reassemble into a new form Special Qualities: Armor plated body Troll Great lumbering beasts, they live in places long since forgotten by the thinking races Solitary, Large of the world. Gentle if unprovoked, but Club (d10+3 damage); 20 HP; 1 Armor mighty if their ire is raised, they trample Close, Reach, Forceful smaller creatures with the care we might give to crushing an ant beneath our boots. Special Qualities: Regeneration Tall. Real tall. Eight or nine feet when • Clear a path to the worst place they’re young or weak. Covered all over in possible warty, tough skin, too. Big teeth, stringy hair like swamp moss and long, dirty nails. Some are green, some gray, some black. They’re clannish and hateful of each Undead Legions other, not to mention all the rest of us. Near impossible to kill, too, unless you’ve fire or Abomination acid to spare—cut a limb off and watch. In Solitary, Large, Construct, Terrifying a few days, you’ve got two trolls where you Slam (d10+3 damage); 20 HP; 1 Armor once had one. A real serious problem, as you can imagine. Instinct: To smash Close, Reach, Forceful

• Undo the effects of an attack (unless Special Qualities: Many limbs, heads, and caused by a weakness, your call) so on • Hurl something or someone Corpses sewn onto corpses make up the bulk of these shambling masses of dark Will-o-wisp magic. Most undead are crafed to be Solitary, Tiny, Magical controlled—made to serve some purpose Ray (w[2d8-2] damage); 12 HP; 0 Armor like building a tower or serving as guardians. Not so the abomination. The Near last aspect of the ritual used to grant fire to Special Qualities: Body of light their hellish limbs invokes a hatred so severe that the abomination knows but one Spot a lantern floating in the darkness, lost task: to tear and rend at the very thing it traveler in the swamp. Hope—a beacon of cannot have—life. Many students of the shimmering light. You call out to it, but black arts learn to their mortal dismay the there’s no answer. It begins to fade and so most important fact about these hulks; an you follow, sloshing through the muck, abomination knows no master. Instinct: To tiring at the chase, hoping you’re being led end life to safety. Such a sad tale that always ends in doom. These creatures are a mystery— • Tear flesh apart some say they’re ghosts, others beacons of • Spill forth putrid guts faerie light. Nobody knows the truth. They are cruel, however. All can agree on that. Banshee Instinct: To misguide Solitary, Magical, Intelligent

• Lead someone astray Scream (d10 damage); 16 HP; 0 Armor

Near Special Qualities: Insubstantial Dungeon World might bring them back to a kind of life. The devourer, however, does Come away from an encounter with one of not feed on the flesh of men or elves. The these vengeful spirits merely deaf and devourer eats souls. It kills with a pleasure count yourself lucky for the rest of your only the sentient can enjoy and in the peaceful, silent days. Ofen mistaken at moments of its victims’ expiry, draws first glance for a ghost or wandering spirit, breath like a drowning man and swallows the banshee reveals a far more deadly a soul. What does it mean to have your talent for sonic assault when angered. And soul eaten by such a creature? None dare her anger comes easy. A victim of betrayal ask for fear of finding out. Instinct: To feast (ofen by a loved one) the banshee makes on souls known her displeasure with a roar or scream that can putrefy flesh and rend the • Devour or trap dying soul senses. If you can help her get her • Bargain for a soul’s return vengeance, they say she might grant rewards. Whether the affection of a Dragonbone spurned spirit is a thing you’d want, well, Solitary, Huge that’s another question. Instinct: To get Bite (d10+3 damage, 3 piercing); 20 HP; 2 revenge Armor • Drown out all other sound with a Reach, Messy ceaseless scream • Unleash a skull-splitting noise Mystical sorcerers debate: is this creature • Disappear into the mists truly undead or is it a golem made of a particularly rare and blasphemous Devourer material? The bones, sinews and scales of Solitary, Large, Intelligent, Hoarder a dead dragon make up this bleak automaton. Winged but flightless, dragon- Smash (d10+3 damage); 16 HP; 1 Armor shaped but without the mighty fire of such Close, Reach, Forceful a noble thing, the dragonbone serves its master with a twisted devotion and is ofen Most folk know that the undead feed on set to assault the keeps and towers of rival flesh. The warmth, blood and living tissue necromancers. It would take a being of continue their unholy existence. This is some considerable evil to twist the remains true for most of the mindless dead, of a dragon thus. Instinct: To serve animated by black sorcery. Not so the devourer. When a particularly wicked • Attack unrelentingly person (ofen a manipulator of men, an apostate priest or the like) dies in a Draugr gruesome way, the dark powers of Horde, Organized Rusty sword (d6+1 damage); 7 HP; 2 Armor them pass to their rightful rest. You can find them, most times, down at the tavern Close, Reach drinking away the terrors they’ve seen or Special Qualities: Icy touch babbling to themselves in the madhouse. In the Nordemark, the men and women tell Death takes a toll on the living, no matter tales in their wooden halls of a place where how you come by it. Instinct: To haunt the noble dead go. A mead hall atop their • Reveal the terrifying nature of death heavenly mountain where men of valor go • Haunt a place of importance to await the final battle for the world. It is • Offer information from the other a goodly place. It is a place where one side, at a price hopes to go afer death. And the inglorious dead? Those who fall to poison or in an act Ghoul of cowardice, warriors though they may Group be? Well, those mead halls aren’t open to all and sundry. Some come back, frozen and Talons (d8 damage, 1 piercing); 10 HP; 1 twisted and empowered by jealous rage Armor and wage their eternal war not on the Close, Messy forces of giants or trolls but on the towns of Hunger. Hunger hunger hunger. Desperate the men they once knew. Instinct: To take clinging void-stomach-emptiness hunger. from the living Sharp talons to rend flesh and teeth to tear • Freeze flesh and crack bones and suck out the sof • Call on the unworthy dead marrow inside. Vomit up hate and screaming jealous anger and charge on Ghost twisted legs—scare the living flesh and Solitary, Devious, Terrifying sweeten it ever more with the stink of fear. Feast. Peasant or knight, wizard, sage, Phantom touch (d6 damage); 16 HP; 0 prince, or priest all make for such delicious Armor meat. Instinct: To eat Close, Reach • Gnaw off a body part Special Qualities: Insubstantial • Gain the memories of their meal Every culture tells the story the same way. You live, you love or you hate, you win or Lich you lose, you die somehow you’re not too Solitary, Magical, Intelligent, Cautious, fond of and here you are, ghostly and full of Hoarder, Construct disappointment and what have you. Some Magical Force (d10+3 damage, ignores people take it upon themselves, brave and armor); 16 HP; 5 Armor kindly folks, to seek out the dead and help Near, Far die, fat and happy in a mansion somewhere. When the gods themselves “At the end, they give you a scroll and a notice your misdeeds, though, that’s where jeweled medallion to commemorate your your luck runs out and a mohrg is born. achievements. Grand Master of The mohrg is a skeleton—flesh and skin Abjuration, I was called, then. Old man. and hair all rotted away. All but their guts Weak and wizened and just a bit too senile —their twisted, knotted guts still spill from for them—those jealous halfwits. Barely their bellies, magically preserved and ofen apprentices, and they called themselves wrapped, noose-like, about their necks. The New Council. It makes me sick, or They do not think, exactly, but they suffer. would, if I still could be. They told me it They kill and wreak havoc and their souls was an honor and I would be remembered do not rest. Such is the punishment, both on forever. It was like listening to my own them for the crime and on all mankind for eulogy. Fitting, in a way, don’t you think? daring to murder one another. The gods It took me another ten years to learn the are just and they are harsh. Instinct: To rituals and another four to collect the wreak havoc material and you see before you the fruits of my labor. I endure. I live. I will see the • Rage death of this age and the dawn of the next. • Add to their collection of guts It pains me to have to do this, but, you see, you cannot be permitted to endanger my Mummy research. When you meet Death, say hello Solitary, Divine, Hoarder for me, would you?” Instinct: To un-live Smash (d10+2 damage); 16 HP; 1 Armor • Cast a perfected spell of death or Close destruction • Set a ritual or great working into There are cultures who revere the dead. motion They do not bury them in the cold earth • Reveal a preparation or plan already and mourn their passing. These people completed spend weeks preparing the sacred corpse for its eternal rest. Temples, pyramids, and Mohrg great vaults of stone are built to house Group them and are populated with slaves, pets and gold. The better to live in luxury Bite (d8 damage); 10 HP; 0 Armor beyond the Black Gates, no? Do not be Close tempted by these vaults—oh, I know that greedy look! Heed my warnings or risk a You never get away with murder. Not terrible fate, for the honored dead do not really. You might evade the law, might wish to be disturbed. Thievery will only escape your own conscience in the end and raise their ire—don’t say I did not warn Shadow you! Instinct: To enjoy eternal rest Horde, Large, Magical, Construct

• Curse them Shadow touch (d6+1 damage); 11 HP; 4 • Wrap them up Armor • Rise again Close, Reach

Nightwing Special Qualities: Shadow Form

Horde, Stealthy We call to the elements. We call on fire, Rend (d6 damage); 7 HP; 1 Armor ever-burning. We summon water, life- giving. We beseech the earth, stable- Close standing. We cry to the air, forever- Special Qualities: Wings changing. These elements we recognize Scholars of the necromantic arts will tell and give our thanks but ask to pass. The you that the appellation “undead” applies elemental we call upon this night knows not only to those who have lived, died, and another name. We call upon the element of been returned to a sort of partway living Night. Shadow, we name you. Death’s state. It is the proper name of any creature messenger and black assassin, we claim for whose energy originates beyond the Black our own. Accept our sacrifice and do our Gates. The creature men call the nightwing bidding ’til the morning come. Instinct: To is one such—empowered by the negative darken light of Death’s domain. Taking the shape • Snuff out light of massive, shadowy, winged creatures • Spawn another shadow from the (some more bat-like, some like vultures, dead others like some ancient, leathery things) nightwings travel in predatory flocks, Sigben swooping down to strip the flesh from Horde, Large, Construct cattle, horses and unlucky peasants out Tail whip (d6+1 damage); 11 HP; 2 Armor past curfew. Watch the night sky for their red eyes. Listen for their screeching call. Close, Reach And hope to the gods you have something Special Qualities: Vampire spawn to hide under until they pass. Instinct: To hunt “Aswang-hound and hopping whip-tail! Sent by vampires on their two, twisted • Attack from the night sky legs, these ugly things look like the head of Fly away with prey • a rat or a crocodile, maybe, furry though and sharp of tooth. They have withered wings, but cannot use them and long, whipping tails, spurred with poison tips. hunger that drives the undead, but Stupid, vengeful and mischievous they jealousy. Jealousy that anyone else might cause all kinds of chaos when let out of the come to love their home as much as they do strange clay jars in which they’re born. and drive them out. These places belong to Only a vampire could love such a wretched them and these invisible spirits will kill thing.” Instinct: To disturb before they’ll let anyone send them to their rest. Instinct: To drive life from a place • Poison them • Do a vampire’s bidding • Turn their haunt against a creature • Bring the environment to life Skeleton Horde Vampire Group, Stealthy, Organized, Intelligent Slam (d6 damage); 7 HP; 1 Armor Supernatural force (d8+5 damage, 1 Close piercing); 10 HP; 2 Armor Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones. Close, Forceful Instinct: To take the semblance of life Special Qualities: Changing form, ancient • Act out what it did in life mind • Snuff out the warmth of life • Reconstruct from miscellaneous We fear them, because they call to us. So bones much like us, or how we hope to be: beautiful, passionate, and powerful. They Spectre are drawn to us for what they cannot be: Solitary, Hoarder warm, kind, and alive. These tormented souls can only hope, at most, to pass their Withering touch (d10 damage); 12 HP; 0 dreadful curse along. Every time they feed Armor they run the risk of passing along their Close torture to another and in each one lives the Special Qualities: Insubstantial twisted seed of its creator. Vampires beget vampires. Suffering begets suffering. Do For some folk, when they pass, Death not be drawn in by their seduction or you himself cannot release their grip on the may be given their gif—a crown of places they love most. A priest whose shadows and the chains of eternal undying devotion to the temple is greater than that grief. Instinct: To manipulate of his god. A banking guild official who cannot bear to part with his vault. A drunk • Charm someone and his favorite tavern. All make excellent • Feed on their blood spectres. They act not out of the usual • Retreat to plan again Wight-Wolf • Gain strength from the dead, spawn Horde, Organized, Intelligent more zombies

Pounce (d6+1 damage 1 piercing); 7 HP; 1 Armor Close Gnarled Woods Special Qualities: Shadow form Assassin Vine Solitary, Stealthy, Gibbous

Like the nightwing, the wight-wolf is a Thorns (d10 damage 1 piercing) 15 HP 1 creature not spawned in our world. Armor Somehow slipping the seals of the Black Close, Reach, Messy Gates of Death, these spirits take the shape of massive hounds or shadowy wolves and Special Qualities: Plant hunt the living for sport. They travel in Among the animals there exists a clear packs, led by a mighty alpha, but bear a division ‘tween hunter and hunted. All it kind of intelligence unknown to true takes is a glance to know—by fangs and canines. Their wild hunts draw the glowing eyes or claws or venomous sting— attention of intelligent undead—liches, which of the creature of this world are vampires and the like—who will meant to kill and which stand to be killed. sometimes make pacts with the alpha and Such a split, if you have the eyes to see it, serve a grim purpose together. Listen for cuts the world of leaves and flowers in the baying of the hounds of Death and pray twain, as well. Druids in their forest circles that they do not howl for you. Instinct: To know it. Rangers, too, might spot such a hunt plant before it's too late. Lay folk, though, • Encircle prey they wander where they oughtn't—paths • Summon the pack into the deep woods covered in creeping vines and with a snap, these hungry ropes Zombie snap tight, dragging their meaty prey into Horde the underbrush. Mind your feet, traveller. Instinct: To grow Bite (d6 damage); 11 HP; 1 Armor • Shoot forth new growth Close • Attack the unwary When there’s no more room in Hell Blink Dog Group, Small, Magical, Instinct: Braaaaaains Organized • Attack with overwhelming numbers Bite (d8 damage) 6 HP 4 Armor • Corner them Close Special Qualities: Illusion the men cut the ancient trees for their ships. The elves are weak and cowardly, Now you see it, now you don't. Hounds friend to these mannish slime. It will be a once owned by a sorcerer lord and imbued cleansing fire from the darkest woods. with a kind of illusory cloak, they escaped Raise the red banner of war! Today we into the woods around his lair and began to strike back against these apes and retake breed with wolves and wild dogs of the what is ours! Instinct: To rage forest. You can spot them, if you're lucky, by the glittering silver of their coats and • Overrun them their strange, ululating howls. They have a • Move with unrelenting speed remarkable talent for being not-quite Chaos Ooze Solitary, Planar, Terrifying, where they appear to be and use it to take Gibbous down prey much stronger than themselves. If you find yourself facing a pack of blink Warping touch (d10 damage ignores armor) dogs you might well close your eyes and 23 HP 1 Armor fight. You'll have an easier time when not Close betrayed by your natural sight. By such sorceries are the natural places of the Special Qualities: Ooze, Fragments of world polluted with unnatural things. other planes embedded in it Instinct: To hunt The barrier between Dungeon World and the Elemental Planes is not, as you might • Give the appearance of being hope, a wall of stone. It's much more somewhere they're not porous. Thin-like, with holes. Places where • Summon the pack the civil races do not often tread can • Move with amazing speed sometimes, how to put this, spring a leak. Centaur Horde, Large, Organized, Like a dam come just a little loose. Bits and Intelligent pieces of the chaos spill out. Sometimes, Bow (d6+2 damage 1 piercing) 11 HP 1 they'll congeal like an egg on a pan—that's Armor where we get the material for many of the Guild's magical trinkets. Useful, right? Close, Reach, Near Sometimes, though, it squirms and Special Qualities: Half-horse, Half-man squishes around a bit and stays that way, warping all it touches into some other, It will be a gathering of clans unseen in this strange form. Chaos begets chaos, and it age. Call Stormhoof and Brightspear. grows. Instinct: To change Summon Whitemane and Ironflanks. Sound the horn and we shall begin our • Cause a change in appearance or meeting—we shall speak the words and substance bind our people together. Too long have • Briefly bridge the planes Cockatrice Group, Small, Hoarder Not the fleshy folk who often find them, though. Their love is a primal thing, Peck (d8 damage) 6 HP 1 Armor married to the woods—to a great oak that Close serves as home and mother and sacred Special Qualities: Stone touch place to them. It's a curse to see one, too, they'll never love you back. No matter what I ain't ever seen such a thing, sir. Rodrick you do. No matter how you pledge yourself thought it a chicken, maybe. Poor Rodrick. to them, they'll always spurn you. If ever I figured it to be a lizard of a sort, though their oak comes to harm, you've not only he was right—it had a beak and grey the dryad's wrath to contend with, but in feathers like a chicken. Right, well, see, we every nearby village there's a score of men found it in the woods, in a nest at the foot with a secret longing in their heart, ready of a tree while we were out with the sow. to murder you where you sleep for just a Looking for mushrooms, sir. I told Rodrick smile from such a creature. Instinct: To we were—yes, sir, right sir, the bird—see, it love nature passionately was glaring at Rodrick and he tried to scare it off with a stick to steal the eggs but the • Entice a mortal thing pecked his hand. Quick it was, too. I • Merge into a tree tried to get him away but he just got slower • Turn nature against them and slower and…yes, as you see him now, Eagle Lord Group, Large, Organized, sir. All frozen up like when we left the dog Intelligent out overnight in winter two years back. Poor, stupid Rodrick. Weren't no bird nor Claw (2d8·b+1 damage 1 piercing) 10 HP 1 lizard, were it, sir? Instinct: To defend the Armor nest Close, Reach

• Start a slow transformation to stone Special Qualities: Mighty wings

Dryad Solitary, Magical, Intelligent, Some the size of horses. Bigger, even—the Devious, Gibbous Kings and Queens of the Eagles. Their cry Crushing vines (2d10·w damage) 23 HP 5 pierces the mountain sky and woe to those Armor who fall under the shadow of their mighty wings. The ancient wizards forged a pact Close with them in the primordial days. Men Special Qualities: Plant would take the plains and valleys and leave the mountaintops to the Eagle Lords. More beautiful by far than any man or These sacred pacts should be honored, lest woman born in the civil realms. To gaze they set their talons into you. Lucky are the upon one is to fall in love. Deep and elves, for the makers of their bonds yet live punishing, too. Thing is, they don't love. and when danger comes to Elvish lands, the Eagle Lords often serve as spies and Flame (d10 damage ignores armor) 12 HP 0 mounts for the elves. Long-lived and Armor proud, some might be willing to trade their Near, Far ancient secrets for the right price, too. Instinct: To rule the heights Special Qualities: Sharp senses

• Attack from the sky True elvish magic isn't like the spells of • Pull someone into the air men. Mannish wizardry is all rotes and • Call on ancient oaths formulas. They cheat to find the arcane secrets that resound all around them. They Elvish Warrior Horde, Intelligent, are deaf to the arcane symphony that sings Organized in the woods. Elvish magic is fine ear to Sword (2d6·b damage) 3 HP 2 Armor hear it and the voice with which to sing. To harmonize with what is already Close resounding. Men bind the forces of magic Special Qualities: Sharp sense to their will; Elves simply pluck the strings Like all the elves do, war is an art. I saw and hum along. The High Arcanists, in a them fight, once. The Battle of Astrid's Veil. way, have become more and less than any Yes, I am that old, boy, now hush. She was elf. The beat of their blood is the throbbing clad in plate that shone like the winter sky. of all magic in this world. Instinct: To White hair streaming and a pennant of unleash power ocean blue tied to her spear. She seemed • Work the magic that wants to be to glide across between the trees the way worked an angel might, striking out and bathing her • Cast forth the elements blade in blood that steamed in the cold air. Griffin Group, Large, Organized I never felt so small before. I trained with the master-at-arms of Battlemoore, you Claw (d8+3 damage) 10 HP 1 Armor know. I've held a sword longer than you've Close, Reach, Forceful been alive, boy, and in that one moment I knew that my skill meant nothing. Thank Special Qualities: Wings the gods the elves were with us then. A On first glance, one might mistake the more beautiful and terrible thing I have not Griffin for another magical mistake like the seen since. Instinct: To seek perfection Manticore or the Chimera. It looks the • Strike at a weak point part, doesn't it? These creatures have the • Set ancient plans in motion regal haughtiness of a lion and the arrogant bearing of a eagle but temper it with the • Use the woods to advantage unshakeable loyalty of both. To earn the Elvish High Arcanist Solitary, Magical, friendship of a Griffin is to have an ally all Intelligent, Organized your living days. Truly a gift, that. If you're Rock (d8+3 damage) 10 HP 1 Armor ever lucky enough to meet one be Reach, Near, Far, Forceful respectful and deferential above all else. It may not seem it but they can tell and Ever seen an ogre before? Bigger than that. answer perceived slights with a sharp beak Dumber and meaner, too. Hope you like and talons. Instinct: To serve allies having cows thrown at you. Instinct: To hurl • Carry an ally aloft • Strike from above • Throw something • Shake the earth Ogre Group, Large, Intelligent Razor Boar Solitary Club (d8+5 damage) 10 HP 1 Armor Bite (d10 damage 3 piercing) 16 HP 1 Armor Close, Reach, Forceful Close, Messy A tale, then. Somewhere in the not-so-long history of the Mannish race there was a The tusks of the razor boar shred metal divide. In days when men were merely plate like so much tissue. Voracious, savage dwellers-in-the-mud with no magic to call and unstoppable, they tower over their their own, they split in two: one camp left mundane kin. To kill one? A greater trophy their caves and the dark forests and built of bravery and skill is hard to name, though the First City to honor the gods. The I hear a razor boar killed the Drunkard others, a wild and savage lot, retreated into King in a single thrust. You think you're a darkness. They grew, there. In the deep better hunter than he? Instinct: To shred woods a grim loathing for their softer kin • Rip them apart gave them strength. They found dark gods • Rend armor and weapons of their own, there in the woods and hills. Ages passed and they bred tall and strong Sprite Horde, Tiny, Stealthy, Magical, and full of hate. We have forged steel and Devious, Intelligent they match it with their savagery. We may Dagger (2d4·w damage) 3 HP 0 Armor have forgotten our common roots, but Hand somewhere, deep down, the Ogres remember. Instinct: To return the world to Special Qualities: Wings, Fey Magic darker days I'd classify them elementals, except that • Destroy something “Being Annoying” isn't an element. Instinct: • Topple trees To play tricks • Bring down the roof • Play a trick to expose someone's true Hill Giant Group, Huge, Intelligent, nature Organized • Confuse their senses • Craft an illusion more of our kind. No, I could find no cure. Please, Don't be scared. You have the Treant Group, Huge, Intelligent, Gibbous arrows I gave you? Silver, yes. Ah, you Wallop (d8+5 damage) 21 HP 4 Armor begin to understand. Don't cry, sister. You Reach, Forceful must do this for me. I cannot bear more blood on my hands. You must end this. For Special Qualities: Wooden me. Instinct: To shed the appearance of Old and tall and thick of bark civilization walk amidst the tree-lined dark • Transform to pass unnoticed as beast or man Strong and slow and forest-born • Strike from within the treants anger quick, we warned • Hunt like man and beast

If to the woods with axe ye go Worg Horde, Organized know the treants be thy foe Bite (d6 damage) 3 HP 1 Armor

Instinct: To protect nature Close

• Move with implacable strength As horses are to the civil races, so go the • Set down roots worg to the goblins. Mounts, fierce in • Spread old magic battle, ridden by only the bravest and most Werewolf Solitary, Intelligent dangerous, are found and bred in the forest primeval to serve the goblins in their wars Bite (d10+2 damage 1 piercing) 12 HP 1 on men. The only safe worg is a pup, Armor separated from its mother. If you can find Close, Messy one of these, or make orphans of a litter with a sharp sword, you've got what could Special Qualities: Weak to silver become a loyal protector or hunting hound Beautiful, isn't it? The moon, I mean. She's in time. Train it well, mind you, for the watching us, you know? Her pretty silver worg are smart and never quite free of eyes watch us while we sleep. Mad, too— their primal urges. Instinct: To serve like all the most beautiful ones. If she were • Carry a rider into battle a woman, I'd bend my knee and make her Give its rider an advantage my wife on the spot. No, I didn't ask you • here to speak about her, though. The Satyr Group, Devious, Magical, Hoarder chains? For your safety, not mine. I'm Charge (2d8·w damage) 10 HP 1 Armor cursed, you see. You must have suspected. The sorcerer-kings called it “lycanthropy” Close in their day—passed on by a bite to make Special Qualities: Enchantment One of only a very few creatures to be tribes that look like ants out in the Western found in the old woods that don't right out Desert, I've heard. And some with great want to maim, kill, or eat us. They dwell in sawtooth arms like mantids in the forests glades pierced by the sun, and dance on of the east). Tall, with a hard shell and a their funny goat-legs to enchanting music harder mind, these particular Formians are played on pipes made of bone and silver. the bottom caste. They work the hills and They smile easily and, so long as you honeycombs with single-minded joy that please them with jokes and sport, will treat can be known only by such an alien mind. our kind with friendliness. They've a mean Instinct: To follow orders streak, though, so if you cross them, make • Raise the alarm haste elsewhere; very few things hold a • Create value for the hive grudge like the stubborn Satyr. Instinct: To • Assimilate enjoy Formian Taskmaster Group, Organized, • Pull others into revelry through Intelligent magic • Force gifts upon them Spiked whip (d8 damage) 6 HP 3 Armor • Play jokes with illusions and tricks Close, Reach

Special Qualities: Hive connection, Insectoid Ravenous Hordes It takes two hands to rule an empire: one to wield the scepter and one to crack the Formian Drone Horde, Organized, whip. These ant-folk are that whip. Lucky Cautious for them, with two extra arms, that's a lot Bite (d6 damage) 7 HP 4 Armor of whip to crack. They oversee the vast Close swarms of worker drones that set to build the mighty caverns and ziggurats that dot Special Qualities: Hive connection, the places that formians can be found. One Insectoid in a hundred, these brutes stand two or With good cause, they say that these three feet taller than their pale, near- creatures (like all insects, really) are mindless kin and have a sharper, crueler claimed by the powers of Law. They are wit to match. They'll often ignore the soft order made flesh—a perfectly stratified races (as we're known) if we don't interfere society in which every larva, hatchling and in a project, but get in the way of The adult knows their place in the great hive. Great Work and expect nothing less than The Formian is some strange intersection their full attention. You don't want their full of men and ants (though there are winged attention. Instinct: To command • Order drones into battle Formian Queen Solitary, Huge, Organized, • Set great numbers in motion Intelligent, Hoarder

Formian Centurion Horde, Intelligent, Smash (d10+5 damage) 24 HP 3 Armor Organized Reach, Forceful

Barbed spear (2d6·b+2 damage) 7 HP 3 Special Qualities: Hive connection, Armor Insectoid

Close, Reach At the heart of every hive, no matter its Special Qualities: Hive connection, size or kind, lives a queen. As large as any Insectoid, Wings giant, she sits protected by her guard, served by every drone and taskmaster with Whether in the form of a legionnaire, part her own, singular purpose: to spread her of the Formian standing army, or as a kind and grow the hive. To birth the eggs. praetorian guard to the queen, every To nurture. We do not understand the formian hive contain a great number of minds of these creatures but it is known these most dangerous insectoids. Darker in they can communicate with their children, carapace, often scarred with furrows and somehow, over vast distances and that they the ceremonial markings that set them begin to teach them the ways of earth and apart from their drones, the formian stone and war while still pale and wriggling centurions are their fighting force and larva, without a word. To kill one is to set rightly so. Born, bred and living only for chaos on the hive; without their queen, the the singular purpose to kill the enemies of rest turn on one another in a mad, blind their kind, they fight with one mind and a rage. Instinct: To spread formians hundred swords. Thus far, the powers of Law have seen fit to spare mankind a great • Call every formian it spawned war with these creatures, but we've seen • Release a half-formed larval them in skirmish—descending sometimes mutation on border towns with their wings flickering • Set designs on a formian goal in the heat or spilling up from a sandy Gnoll Tracker Group, Organized, mound to wipe clean a newly-dug mine. Intelligent Theirs is an orderly bloodshed, committed with no pleasure but the completion of a Bow (d8 damage) 6 HP 1 Armor goal. Instinct: To fight as ordered Near, Far

• Advance as one Special Qualities: Scent • Summon reinforcements Once they scent your blood, you can't • Give a life for the hive escape. Not without intervention from the gods, or the duke's rangers at least. The desert scrub is a dangerous place to go Gnoll Alpha Solitary, Intelligent, Organized exploring on your own and if you fall and Sword (d10·b damage 1 piercing) 12 HP 2 break your leg or eat the wrong cactus, Armor well, you'll be lucky if you die of thirst before the gnolls find you. They prefer Close their prey alive, see—cracking bones and Special Qualities: Scent the screams of the dying lend a sort of Every pack has its top dog. Bigger, maybe succulence to a meal. Sickening creatures, —that'd be the simplest way. Often, no? They'll hunt you, slow and steady, as though, with these lank and filthy mutts, it's you die. If you hear laughter in the desert not about size or sharp teeth but about wind, well, best pray Death comes to take cruelty. About a willingness to kill your you before they do. Instinct: To prey on brothers and eat them while the pack weakness watches. Willingness to desecrate the pack • Doggedly track prey in a way that cows them to you. If they're • Strike at a moment of weakness that awful to each other—to their living kin Gnoll Emissary Solitary, Divine, Intelligent, —think about how they must view us. It's Organized hard to be mere meat in a land of these kinds of predators. Instinct: To drive the Ceremonial dagger (d10+2 damage) 18 HP 1 pack Armor • Demand obedience Close, Reach • Send the pack to hunt Special Qualities: Scent Orc Bloodwarrior Horde, Intelligent, Oh, an emissary! How nice. I suspect you Organized didn't know the Gnolls had ambassadors, Jagged blade (d6+2 damage 1 piercing) 3 HP did you? Yes, even these mangy hyenas 0 Armor have to make nice sometimes. No, no, not with us. Nor the dwarves, neither. No, the Close, Messy Emissary is the one, among his packmates, The orcish horde is a savage, bloodthirsty, who trucks directly with their dripping and hateful collection of tribes. There are demon lord. Frightening? Too right. Every myths and stories that tell of the origin of hound has a master with his hand on the their rage—a demon curse, a homeland chain. This gnoll hears his master's voice. destroyed, elven magic gone wrong—but Hears it and obeys. Instinct: To share the truth has been lost to time. Every able divine insight orc, be it man or woman, child or elder, • Pass on demonic influence swears fealty to the warchief and their tribe • Drive the pack into a fervor and bears the jagged blade of a bloodwarrior. Men are trained to fight and Proud he was of it, too—Mirrorshield, he kill—orcs are born to it. Instinct: To fight called himself. Tale goes that he'd set his eyes on rescuing some lost priest, a kidnap • Fight with abandon from the abbey on the borders. Regnus • Revel in destruction came across some orcs in his travels, a Orc Berserker Solitary, Large, Divine, dozen or so, and thought, as one might, Intelligent, Organized that they'd be no match. Battle was joined Cleaver (d10+5 damage) 20 HP 0 Armor and all was well until one of them orcs emerged from the fray with a hammer Close, Reach bigger than any man ought to be able to Special Qualities: Mutations wield. Built more like an ogre or a troll, they say it was, and with a single swing, it Stained in the unholy ritual of Anointing By crushed Regnus to the ground, shield and The Night's Blood, some warriors of the all. It were no ordinary orc, they say. It horde rise to a kind of twisted knighthood. were a breaker. They can't make plate of They trade their sanity for this honor, their own, see, so maybe it's jealousy drives stepping halfway into a world of swirling these burly things to crush and shatter the madness. This makes Berserkers the way they do. Effective tactic, though. greatest of their tribe, though as time Careful out there. Instinct: To smash passes, the chaos spreads. The rare Berserker that lives more than a few years • Destroy armor or protection becomes horrible and twisted, growing • Lay low the mighty horns or an extra arm with which to grasp Orc One-Eye Group, Divine, Magical, the iron cleavers they favor in battle. Intelligent, Organized Instinct: To rage Inflict Wounds (d8+2 damage ignores • Fly into a frenzy armor) 6 HP 0 Armor • Unleash chaos Close, Reach, Near, Far Orc Breaker Solitary, Large Special Qualities: One eye Massive hammer (d10+3 damage ignores armor) 16 HP 0 Armor In the name of He Of Riven Sight and by the First Sacrifice of Elf-Flesh do we Close, Reach, Forceful invoke the Old Powers. By the Second Before you set out across the hordeland, Sacrifice, I make my claim to what is mine brave sir, hark a moment to the tale of Sir —the dark magic of Night. In His image, I Regnus. Regnus was like you, sir—a Paladin walk the path to Gor-sha-thak, the Iron of the Order, all a-shine in his armored Gallows! I call to the runes! I call to the plate and with a shield as tall as a man. clouded sky! Take this mortal organ, eat of the flesh of our enemy and give me what is warfleet of the horde. Orcs down that way mine! Instinct: To hate have taken to the sea, harassing island towns and stealing away with fishermen • Rend flesh with divine magic and their kin. It's said the custom is • Take an eye spreading north and the orcs learn the • Make a sacrifice value of free work. Taken to it like a sacred Orc Shaman Solitary, Intelligent, Organized task—especially if they can get their hands Flame (d10 damage ignores armor) 12 HP 0 on elves. Hard to think of a grimmer fate Armor than to live out your life under a lash in an orcish fist.Instinct : To take Close, Reach, Near, Far • Take a captive Special Qualities: Elemental power • Pin someone under a net The orcs are as old a race as any. They cast • Drug them bones in the dirt and called to the gods in Orc Shadowhunter Solitary, Stealthy, the trees and stone as the elves built their Magical, Intelligent first cities. They have waged wars, conquered kingdoms, and fallen into Poisoned dagger (d10 damage 1 piercing) 10 corruption in the aeons it took for men to HP 0 Armor crawl from their caves and dwarves to first Close, Reach see the light of the sun. Fitting, then, that Special Qualities: Shadow cloak the old ways still hold. They summon the powers of the world to work, to fight and Not every attack by orcs is torches and to protect their people, as they have since screaming and enslavement. Amongst the first nights. Instinct: To strengthen orc- those who follow He Of Riven Sight, kind poison and murder-in-the-dark are considered sacred arts. Enter the • Give protection of earth shadowhunter. Orcs cloaked in Night's • Give power of fire magic who slip into camps, towns and • Give swiftness of water temples and end the lives of those within. • Give clarity of air Do not be so distracted by the howling of Orc Slaver Horde, Stealthy, Intelligent, the berserkers that you do not notice the Organized knife at your back. Instinct: To kill in darkness Whip (d6 damage) 3 HP 0 Armor Poison them Close, Reach • • Melt into the shadows Red sails fly in the southern sea. Red sails • Cloak them in darkness and ships of bone, old wood and iron. The Orc Warchief Solitary, Intelligent, the fishermen of a coming tide, an Organized inescapable swell of the power of some deep-sea god and that the triton empire Iron Sword of Ages (2d10·b+2 damage) 16 would rise up and drag the land down into HP 0 Armor the ocean. The tale spread and now, when Close, Reach fishermen sail the choppy seas, they watch Special Qualities: One-Eye blessings, and worry that the dying triton's tales were Shaman blessings true. That there are powers deep below that watch and wait. They fear the tide is There are chiefs and there are leaders of coming in. Instinct: To spy on the surface the tribes among the orcs. There are those world who rise to seize power and fall under the machinations of their foes. There is but • Reveal their secrets one Warchief. One orc in all the horde who • Strike at weakness stands above the rest, bearing the blessings Triton Tidecaller Group, Divine, Magical, of the One-Eyes and the Shamans both. Intelligent Who walks with the elements under Night. Who bears the Iron Sword of Ages and Wave (d8+2 damage ignores armor) 6 HP 2 carries the ancient grudge against the civil Armor races on his shoulders. The warchief is to Near, Far be respected, to be obeyed and above all Special Qualities: Aquatic, Mutations else, to be feared. All glory to the Warchief. Instinct: To lead Part priest, part outcast among their kind, the tidecaller speaks with the voice of the • Start a war deeps. They can be known by their • Make a show of power mutations—transparent skin, perhaps, or • Enrage the tribes rows of teeth like a shark. Glowing eyes or Triton Spy Solitary, Stealthy, Intelligent, fingertips, angler-lights in the darkness of Organized their underwater kingdom. They speak in strange tongue that can call and command Trident (2d10·w damage) 12 HP 2 Armor creatures of the sea. They ride wild Close, Near hippocampi and cast strange spells that rot Special Qualities: Aquatic through the wooden decks of ships or encrust them with barnacles heavy enough A fishing village caught one in their net, to sink. It is the tidecallers who come, now, some time ago. Part a man and part some back to the cities of the Triton, bearing scaly sea creature, it spoke in a broken, word that the prophecy is coming to pass. spy-learned form of the common tongue The world of men will drown in icy brine. before it suffocated in the open air. It told The tidecallers speak and the Lords begin The Triton Ruling Houses were chosen, to listen. Instinct: To bring on The Flood they say, at the dawn of time. Granted lordship over all the races of the sea by • Cast a spell of water and destruction some now-forgotten god. These bloodlines • Command beasts of the sea continue, passing rulership from father to • Reveal divine commands daughter and mother to son through the Triton Sub-Mariner Group, Organized ages. Each is allowed to rule their city in Intelligent whatever way they choose—some alone or Harpoon (2d8·b damage) 6 HP 3 Armor with their spouses, others in council of brothers and sisters. In ages past, they were Close, Near, Far known for their sagacity and bloodlines of Special Qualities: Aquatic even-temper were respected above all else. The tidecallers prophecy is changing that: The Triton are not a militant race by Nobles are expected to be strong, not wise. nature. They shy away from battle except The Nobles have begun to respond, and it when the sahuagin attack, and only then is feared by some that the ancient blood is do they defend themselves and retreat into changing forever. It may be too late to turn the depths where their foes can't follow. back. Time and tide wait for none. Instinct: This trend begins to change. As the To lead tidecallers come to rally their people, some Triton men and women take up arms. They • Stir tritons to war call these generals “sub-mariners” and • Call reinforcements build for them armor of shells and hardened glass. They swim in formation, wielding pikes and harpoons and attack the crews of ships that wander too far from Twisted port. Watch for their pennants of kelp on the horizon and the conch-cry of a call to Experiments battle and keep, if you can, your boats near Bulette Solitary, Huge, Construct shore. Instinct: To wage war Bite (d10+5 damage 3 piercing) 20 HP 3 • Lead Tritons to battle Armor • Pull them beneath the waves Close, Forceful Triton Noble Group, Organized, Intelligent Special Qualities: Burrowing Trident (d8 damage) 6 HP 2 Armor A seasoned caravan guard learns to listen Close, Near, Far for the calls of a scout or sentry with a keen ear. A few extra seconds after the alarm is Special Qualities: Aquatic raised can mean life or death. Different cries mean different responses, too—a call Pickaxe (2d6·w damage) 3 HP 2 Armor of “orcs!” means draw your sword and Close steady for blood but a call of “bandits!” says you might be able to bargain. One alarm Special Qualities: Telepathy from the scouts that always, always means It's typical to think that all the malignant it's time to pack up, whip your horse and arcane monsters made in this world are run for the hills? “LAND SHARK!” Instinct: birthed by wizards, sorcerers, and their ilk. To devour That the colleges and towers of Dungeon • Drag prey into rough tunnels World are womb to every bleak • Burst from the earth experiment. There are mistakes made in • Swallow whole the depths of the earth, too. These ones, the Derro, are the mistakes of a long- Chimera Solitary, Large, Construct forgotten dwarven alchemist. The derro Bite (d10+1 damage) 16 HP 1 Armor don't forget, though. Twisted and hateful, the Derro can be spotted by their swollen Reach skulls, brain-matter grown too large. They Well known and categorized, the chimera do not speak except in thoughts to one is a perfected creature. From the codices another and plot in the silent dark to of the Mage's Guild to the famous pages of extract sweetest revenge—that of the Cullaina's Creature Compendium, there's created on the creator. Instinct: To replace no confusion about what Chimera means. dwarves Two parts lioness, one part serpent, head • Fill a mind with foreign thoughts of a she-goat, and all the vicious magic one • Take control of a beast's mind can muster. The actual ritual might vary, as might a detail or two—more creative Digester Solitary, Large, Construct sorcerers switch the flame breath for acid, Acid (d10+1 damage ignores armor) 16 HP 1 perhaps. Used as a guardian, an assassin or Armor merely an instrument of chaos unchained, it matters little. The chimera is the worst Close, Reach sort of abomination: an intentional affront Special Qualities: Digest acid secretion to all natural life. Instinct: To do as It's okay, magical experimentation is a commanded messy science. For every beautiful pegasus • Belch forth flame there's a half-done creature that wasn't • Run them over quite right. We understand. The goblin- • Poison them elephant you thought was such a great idea. The Gelatinous Drake. Just examples. No Derro Horde, Devious, Intelligent, judgement here. Anyway, we've got Organized something for that. We call it the Digester. Ettin Solitary, Large, Construct Yes, just like it sounds. Strange looking, I Club (d10+3 damage) 16 HP 1 Armor know, and the smell isn't the best, but this thing—it'll eat magic like Svenloff the Stout Close, Reach, Forceful drinks ale. Next time one of these Special Qualities: Two heads unfortunate accidents occurs, just point the What could possibly be better than an Digester at it and all your troubles drain idiotic angry hill giant? One with two away. Just keep an eye on it. Damn thing heads. Fantastic idea, really. Grade A stuff. ate my wand last week. Instinct: To digest Instinct: To smash • Eat away at something • Attack two enemies at once • Draw sustenance • Defend its creator Ethereal Filcher Solitary, Devious, Planar Girallon Solitary, Huge Stolen dagger (2d8·w damage) 12 HP 1 Rend (d10+5 damage) 20 HP 1 Armor Armor Reach, Forceful Close, Reach Special Qualities: Many arms Special Qualities: Burrowing The pounding of the jungle drums calls to Things go missing. A sock, a silver spoon, it. The slab of meat on the sacrificial stone your dead mother's bones. We blame the to lure in the Great Ape. Girallon, they call maid, or bad luck, or just a moment of it—a name from the long-forgotten tongue stupid forgetfulness and we move on. We of the kings who bred the beast. Taller than never get to see the real cause of these a building, some say. Cloaked in ivory fur problems. The spidery thing with human with tusks as long as scimitars. Four arms? hands and eyes as blue as the deep Six? The rumors are hard to verify. Every ethereal from whence the creature comes. year it is the same: some explorer visits the We never see the nest it makes of astral jungle villages seeking the Ape and return, silver webbing and stolen objects arranged never quite the same, never with a trophy. in some madness pattern. We never watch The pounding of the drums goes on. it assemble its collection of halfling finger- Instinct: To rule bones, stolen from the hands of the sleeping. We're lucky, that way. Instinct: To • Answer the call of sacrifice steal • Drive them from the jungle Throw someone • Take something important to it's • planar lair Iron Golem Group, Large, Contstruct • Retreat from the Ethereal plane Slam (d8+5 damage) 10 HP 3 Armor • Use an item from its lair Close, Reach, Forceful • Detach a body part

Special Qualities: Metal Kraken Solitary, Huge

A staple of the enchanters art. Every Slam (d10+5 damage) 20 HP 2 Armor golemist and mechano-thaumaturge in the Reach, Forceful Kingdoms knows this. Iron is a misnomer, though. These guardians are crafted of any Special Qualities: Aquatic metal, really. Steel, copper, or even gold, in A cephalo-what? No, boy. Not “a kraken” some small cases. As much an art as a but “the kraken”. I don't know what science, the crafting of a fine golem is as nonsense they taught you at that school respected in the Kingdoms as a bridge you say you're from, but here, we know to newly built or a castle erected in the respect the Hungerer. Right, that's what we mountains. Unceasing watchdogs, stalwart call it, The Hungerer in the Deep to be defenders, the iron golem lives to serve, more proper. Ain't no god, though we've following its orders eternally. Any got those, too. It's a squid! A mighty squid enchanter worth his salt can craft one, if he with tentacles thicker ‘round than a barrel can afford the materials. If not… Instinct: and eyes the size of the full moon. Smart, To serve too, the Hungerer. Knows just when to • Follow orders implacably strike—when you're all too drunk or too • Use a special tool or adaptation tired or run out of clean water, that's when built-in he gets you. No, I ain't ever seen him. I'm alive, aren't I? Instinct: To rule the ocean Flesh Golem Horde • Drag a person or ship to a watery Claw (d6+2 damage) 3 HP 0 Armor grave Close, Forceful • Wrap them in tentacles

Special Qualities: Many body parts Manticore Solitary, Large, Construct

Stolen bits and pieces in the night. Sting (d10+1 damage 1 piercing) 16 HP 3 Graveyards stealthily uprooted and maybe Armor tonight an arm. A leg. Another head (the Close, Reach, Messy last one came apart too soon). Even the humblest hedge-enchanter can make due Special Qualities: Wings with what he can and, with a little If the chimera is the first step down a dark creativity, well—it's not only the College path, the manticore is a door that can't be that can make life, hmm? We'll show them. closed once its been opened. A lion, a Instinct: To live scorpion, the wings of a drake. All difficult • Follow orders to obtain but not impossible and just animals, anyway. The last component, the hissing hateful face of the beast, is the eggs and bonded with their riders for life. ingredient that makes a manticore so cruel. There's still some beauty in the world, Young or old, man or woman, it matters not mark my words. Instinct: To carry aloft but that they are human, living and • Carry a rider into the air breathing, married to the creature with • Give their rider an advantage twisted magic. All sense of who they are is lost, and maybe that's a blessing, but the Rust Monster Group, Construct beast is born from human suffering. No Corrode (d8 damage ignores armor) 6 HP 3 wonder, then, that they're all so eager to Armor kill. Instinct: To kill Close • Poison them Special Qualities: Corrosive touch • Rip something apart A very distinctive-looking creature. Owlbear Solitary, Construct Something like a reddish cricket, I think. Claw (d10 damage) 12 HP 2 Armor Long crickety legs, anyhow. Blind, too, as I Close understand it—they feel their way around with those long moth-looking tendrils. Body of a bear. Feathers of an owl. Beak, Feed that way, too. Sift through piles of claws, and excellent night vision. What's metal for the choicest bits. That's what not to love? Instinct: To hunt they eat, don't matter the type, neither. • Strike from darkness Their merest touch turns it all to rusted flakes. Magic lasts longer but under the Pegasus Group, Construct scrutiny of a rust monster, it's a foregone Stomp (d8 damage) 10 HP 1 Armor conclusion. Only the gods know where Close they came from, but they're a curse if you value your belongings. Instinct: To decay Special Qualities: Wings • Turn metal to rust Don't go thinking that every creature not • Gain strength from consuming metal natural-born is a horrible abomination. Don't imagine for a second that they're all Xorn Solitary, Large, Construct tentacles and screaming and blood or Maw (d10 damage) 12 HP 2 Armor whatever. Take this noble beast, for Close, Reach example. Lovely thing, isn't it? A fine white horse with the wings of a swan. Don't look Special Qualities: Burrowing like it ought to be able to fly, but it does. Dwarf-made elemental garbage muncher. The elves work miracles, in their own way. Shaped like a trash bin with a radius of They breed true—that's the purity of elf- arms to feed excess rock and stone into its magic at work. Hatching from little crystal gaping maw. They eat stone and excrete dream and guide their pallid minions to do light and heat. Perfect for operating a mine their bidding. Instinct: To command or digging out a quarry. Once one gets lost • Invade a mind in the sewers below a city, though, or in the • Turn minions on them foundation of a castle? You're in deep • Put a plan in motion trouble. They'll eat and eat until you've got nothing left but to collapse the place down Apocalypse Dragon Solitary, Huge, on it and move somewhere else. Ask Magical, Divine Burrin, Son of Fjornnvald, exile from his Bite (2d10·b+9 damage 4 piercing) 26 HP 5 clan. I bet he could tell you a story about a Armor Xorn. Instinct: To eat Reach, Forceful, Messy • Consume stone Special Qualities: Inch-thick metal hide, • Give off a burst of light and heat Supernatural knowledge, Wings

The end of all things shall be a burning—of tree and earth and of the air itself. It shall Lower Depths come upon the plains and mountains not from beyond this world but from within it. Aboleth Group, Huge, Intelligent Birthed from the womb of deepest earth Tentacle (d8+3 damage) 18 HP 0 Armor shall come the Dragon that Will End the Reach World. In its passing all will become ash and bile and the earth a dying thing will Special Qualities: Telepathy drift through planar space devoid of life. Deep below the surface of the world, in They say to worship it is to invite madness. freshwater seas untouched by the sun They say to love it is to know oblivion. The dwell the aboleth. Fish the size of whales, awakening is coming. Instinct: To end the with strange growths of gelatinous feelers world used to probe the lightless shores. They're • Set a disaster in motion served by slaves; blind albino victims of • Breath forth the elements any race unfortunate enough to stumble on • Act with perfect knowledge them, drained of thought and life by the powers of the aboleth's alien mind. In the Chaos Spawn Solitary, Gibbous depths they bid and plot against each Chaotic touch (d10 damage) 19 HP 1 Armor other, fishy cultists building and digging upward towards the surface until someday, Close, Reach they'll breach it. For now, they sleep and Special Qualities: Chaos form Driven from the city, a cultist finds solace Poisoned blade (d8 damage 1 piercing) 6 in towns and villages. Discovered there, he HP 1 Armor flees to the hills and scratches his devotion Close on the cave walls. Found out, he is chased with knife and torch into the depths, It was not so simple a thing as a war over crawling deeper and deeper until, in the religion or territory. No disagreement of deepest places, he loses his way. First, he Queens led to the great sundering of the forgets his name. Then he forgets his elves. It was sadness. It was the very shape. His chaos gods, most beloved, bless diminishing of the world by the lesser races him with a new one. Instinct: To and the glory of all the elves had built was undermine cracking and turning to glass. Some, then, chose to separate themselves from the • Rewrite reality world; wracked with tears they turned their Unleash chaos from containment • backs on men and dwarves. Others, Chuul Group, Large, Cautious though, they were overcome with something new. A feeling no elf had felt Claws (d8+1 damage 3 piercing) 10 HP 4 before. Spite. Hatred filled these elves and Armor twisted them and they turned on their Close, Reach, Messy weaker cousins. Some still remain after the Special Qualities: Amphibious great exodus below. Some hide amongst us with spider-poisoned blades, meting out Let us, for a moment, consider the lobster. that strangest of punishments: elven This one is your worst seafood nightmare vengeance. Instinct: To spite come to life. A sort of vicious, half-man half-crawdad cursed with primal • Poison them intelligence and blessed with a pair of • Unleash an ancient spell razor-sharp claws. Strange things lurk in • Call reinforcements the stinking pools in caverns best forgotten Deep Elf Swordmaster Group, Intelligent, and the Chuul is one of them. If you spot Organized one, your best hope is a heavy mace to Barbed blade (2d8·b+2 damage 1 piercing) 6 crack its shell and maybe a little garlic HP 2 Armor butter. Mmmm. Instinct: To split Close • Split something in two with mighty claws The deep elves lost the sweetness and • Retreat into water gentle peace of their bright cousins ages ago but did not abandon grace. They move Deep Elf Assassin Group, Intelligent, with a swiftness and beauty that would Organized bring a tear to any warrior's eye. In the dark, they've practiced. A cruelty has Dragon Solitary, Huge, Terrifying, infested their swordsmanship—a Cautious, Hoarder wickedness comes to the fore. Barbed Bite (2d10·b+5 damage 4 piercing) 16 HP 5 blades and whips replace the shining Armor pennant-spears of surface elven battles. The swordmasters of the deep elf clans do Reach, Messy not merely seek to kill, but to punish with Special Qualities: Elemental blood, every stroke of their blades. Wickedness Wings and pain are their currency. Instinct: To They are the greatest and most terrible punish things this world will ever have to offer. • Inflict pain beyond measure Instinct: To rule • Use the dark to advantage • Bend an element to its will Deep Elf Priest Solitary, Divine, Intelligent, • Demand tribute Organized • Act with disdain

Smite (d10+2 damage) 14 HP 0 Armor Gray Render Solitary, Large

Close, Reach Rend (d10+3 damage) 16 HP 1 Armor

Special Qualities: Divine connection Close, Reach, Forceful

The spirits of the trees and the lady On its own, the render is a force of utter sunlight are far far from home in the destruction. Huge and leathery, with a maw depths where the deep elves dwell. New of unbreakable teeth and claws to match, gods were found, there, waiting for their the render seems to enjoy little more than children to come home. Gods of the tearing things apart. Stone, flesh, or steel, it spiders, the fungal forests, and things that matters little. However, the gray render is whisper in the forbidden caves. The deep so rarely found alone. They bond with elves, ever attuned to the world around other creatures. Some at birth, others as them, listened with hateful intent to their fully-grown creatures, and will follow their new gods and found a source of power yet bonded master wherever it goes, bringing unrealized. Hate calls to hate and grim them offerings of meat and protecting alliances were made. Even among these them while they sleep. Finding an un- spiteful ranks, piety finds a way to express bonded render means certain riches, if you itself. Instinct: To pass on divine vengeance survive to sell it. Instinct: To serve

• Weave spells of hatred and malice • Tear something apart • Rally the deep elves Magmin Horde, Intelligent, Organized, • Pass on divine knowledge Hoarder Flaming hammer (d6+2 damage) 7 HP 4 can't think under this kind of pressure. Armor What was that? Oh gods, I think it's coming… Instinct: To contain Close, Reach • Confuse them Special Qualities: Firey blood • Make them lost Dwarf-shaped and industrious, the magmin are among the deepest-dwellers of Naga Solitary, Intelligent, Organized, Dungeon World. Found in cities of brass Hoarder, Magical and obsidian built nearest the molten core Bite (d10 damage) 12 HP 2 Armor of the planet, the magmin live a life Close, Reach devoted to craft—especially that of fire and magical items related to it. Surly and Ambitious and territorial above nearly all strange, they do not often deign to speak to else, the naga are very rarely found without petitioners who appear at their gates, even a well-formed and insidious cult of those who have somehow found a way to followers. You'll see it in many mountain survive the hellish heat. Even so, they towns—a snake sigil scrawled on a tavern respect little more than a finely made item wall or a local church burned to the and to learn to forge from a magmin ground. People going missing into the craftsman means unlocking secrets mines. Men and women wearing the mark unknown to surface blacksmiths. Like so of the serpent. At the core of it all lies a much else, visiting the magmin is a game of naga; an old race now fallen into obscurity, risk and reward. Instinct: To craft still preening with the head of a man over its coiled, serpent body. Variations of these • Offer a trade or deal creatures exist depending on their • Strike with fire or magic bloodline and original purpose, but they • Provide just the right item, at a price are all master manipulators and magical Minotaur Solitary, Large forces to be reckoned with. Instinct: To lead Axe (d10+1 damage) 16 HP 1 Armor • Send a follower to their death Close, Reach • Use old magic Special Qualities: Unerring sense of • Offer a deal or bargain direction Salamander Horde, Large, Intelligent, Head of a man, body of a bull. No, wait, Organized, Planar I've got that backwards. It's the bull's head and the man's body. Hooves sometimes? Is Flaming spear (2d6·b+3 damage) 7 HP 3 that right? I remember the old King said Armor something about a maze? Blast! You know I Close, Reach, Near Special Qualities: Burrowing So was it written that the heavens opened up to Avra'hal and did an angel from the The excavation uncovered a basalt gate, clouds emerge to speak unto her and so the reports called it. Black stone carved did it appear to her as her firstborn with molten runes. When they dug it up, daughter—beautiful, of ebon skin and the magi declared it inert but further golden eyes—and did Avra'hal cry tears to evidence indicates that was an incorrect see it. “Be not afraid” it commanded her claim. The entire team went missing. When “go to the villages I have shown you in your we arrived, the gate was glowing. Its light dreams and unto them show the word I filled the whole cavern. We could see from have written on your soul.” Avra'hal wept the entrance that the area had become full and wept and did agree to do this and did of these creatures—like red and orange take up her sword and tome and did into skinned men, tall as an ogre but with a the villages go, a great thirst for blood on snakes tail where there legs ought to be. her lips for the word the angel wrote upon They were clothed, too —some had black the soul of Avra'hal was “kill”. Instinct: To glass armor. They spoke to each other in a share divine will tongue that sounded like grease in a fire. I wanted to leave but the Sergeant wouldn't • Deliver visions and prophecy listen. You've already read what happened • Stir mortals to action next, sir. I know I'm the only one that got • Expose sin and injustice back, but what I said is true. The gate is Barbed Devil Solitary, Large, Planar, open, now. This is just the beginning! Terrifying Instinct: To consume in flame Spine (d10+3 damage 3 piercing) 16 HP 3 • Summon elemental fire Armor • Melt away deception Close, Reach, Messy

Special Qualities: Spines

There are a thousand forms of devil, Planar Powers maybe more. Some common and some Angel Solitary, Terrifying, Divine, unique. Each time the Inquisitors discover Intelligent, Organized a new one they write it into the codex and Flame sword (2d10·b+4 damage ignores the knowledge is shared among the abbeys armor) 18 HP 4 Armor in the hope that the atrocities of that particular sort won't find their way into the Close, Forceful world again. The barbed devil has long Special Qualities: Wings been known to the brothers and sisters of the inquisition. A literal thing, it appears only at a site of great violence or when called by a wayward summoner. Covered of stranger stuff than air and water. Here, in sharp quills, this particular demon revels rivers of time crash upon shores of crystal in the spilling of blood, being specifically fear. Bleak storms of nightmare roil and fond of impaling victims piecemeal or in churn in a laughter-bright sky. Sometimes, whole upon its thorns and letting them die the spirits of these places can be lured into there. Cruel but not particularly effective our world, though they are infinitely more beyond slaughter. A low inquisitorial unpredictable and strange than mere fire or priority. Instinct: To bloody earth might be. Easier to make mistakes, too—one might try calling up a Wealth • Impale someone Elemental and be surprised to find a • Kill randomly Murder Elemental instead. Instinct: To Chain Devil Solitary, Planar perfect its concept

Crush (d10 damage ignores armor) 12 HP 3 • Show its concept in its purest form Armor Corrupter Solitary, Devious, Planar, Close, Reach Hoarder

Do you think the phrase “drag him to hell” Secret dagger (2d8·w damage) 12 HP 0 means nothing? It is unfortunately literal, in Armor the case of the chain devil. Appearing Close differently to each victim, this summoned creature has but a single purpose: to wrap Surely, my good man, you must know why I its victim up in binding coils and take it am here. Must know who I am. You said away to a place of torment. Sometimes it the words. You spilled the blood and will come as a man-shaped mass of rusting followed the instructions almost to the iron, hooks and coils of mismatched links. letter. Your pronunciation was a bit off but Other times, a roiling tangle of rope or kelp that's to be expected. I've come to give you or twisted bloody bedsheets. The results what you've always wanted, friend. Glory, are always the same. Instinct: To capture love, money? Paltry things when you've the vaults of hell to plumb. Don't look so • Take a captive shocked, you knew what this was. You have • Return to whence it came but one thing we desire. Promise it to us, • Torture with glee and the world shall be yours for the taking. Concept Elemental Solitary, Devious, Trust me. Instinct: To bargain Planar, Gibbous • Offer a deal with horrible Special Qualities: Ideal form consequences The planes are not as literal as our world. • Plumb the vaults of hell for a Clothed in the elemental chaos are places bargaining chip • Make a show of power When one reneges on a deal, does not the debtor come for payment? Does the owed Djinn Group, Large, Magical party not send someone to collect what is Flame (d8+1 damage ignores armor) 14 HP due? So too with the Powers Below. They 4 Armor only want what is theirs. A howling pack of Close, Reach shadows, flame and jagged bone, driven by the hunting horn. They will not cease, they Special Qualities: Made of flame cannot be evaded. Instinct: To pursue Stop rubbing that lamp, you idiot. I do not • Follow despite all obstacles care what you have read, it will not grant • Spew fire you wishes. I brought you here to show you • Summon the forces of hell on their something real, something true. See this target mural? It shows the ancient city. The true city that came before. They called it Majilis Imp Horde, Planar, Intelligent, Organized and it was made of brass by the spirits. Flame gout (d6 damage ignores armor) 7 They had golem servants and human lovers HP 1 Armor and, in that day, it was said you could trade them a year of your life for a favor. We are Close, Near, Far not here to gather treasure this night, fool, These tiny observer-demons often act as a we are here to learn. The djinn still first-time binding subject by neonate sometimes come to these places, and you warlocks. They can be found infesting must understand their history if you are to arcane cabals, drinking potions when no- know how to behave. They are powerful one watches, and chasing pets and servants and wicked and proud and you must know with tiny pitchforks. A caricature of true them if you hope to survive a summoning. demonhood, these little creatures are, Now, bring the lamp here and we will light thankfully, not too difficult to bind or it, it grows dark and these ruins are extinguish. Instinct: To harass dangerous at night. Instinct: To burn • Send information back to hell eternally • Cause mischief • Grant power for a price Inevitable Group, Large, Magical, Cautious, • Summon the forces of the City of Gibbous, Planar Brass Hammer (d8+1 damage) 21 HP 5 Armor Hell Hound Group, Planar, Organized Close, Reach Fiery Bite (d8 damage) 10 HP 1 Armor Special Qualities: Made of Order Close

Special Qualities: Hide of shadow All things come to an end. Entropy bleeds • Fill them with despair reality slowly out. At the edge of time itself • Beg for mercy stand the Inevitable. Massive, powerful and • Draw evil attention seemingly carved from star-stuff Nightmare Horde, Large, Magical, themselves, the Inevitable intervene only Terrifying, Planar where magic or calamity have undone the skein of fate. Where the arrogant and Trample (d6+1 damage) 7 HP 4 Armor powerful boil the substance of destiny Close, Reach away and seek to undermine the very laws of reality, the Inevitable arrive to guide Special Qualities: Flame and shadow things back to the proper order. The herd came from a pact made in the Unshakable, seemingly immune to mortal days when folk still inhabited the Blasted harm and utterly enigmatic, it is said that Steppes. Horselords, they were, who the Inevitable are all that will remain when travelled those lands. Born in the saddle, it time's long thread has run out. Instinct: To was said. One of theirs, in a bid to preserve order dominate his peers, made a black pact with • End a spell or effect some fell power and traded away his finest horses. He had some power, sure—but • Enforce a law of nature or man what's a thousand year dynasty when a life • Give a glimpse of destiny is so short? Now the fiends of the pit ride Larvae Horde, Devious, Planar, Intelligent on the finest horses ever seen. Coats of Slime (2d4·w damage) 10 HP 0 Armor shining oil and manes of tormented flame: these are steeds of hell's cavalry. Instinct: Close To ride rampant Those who have seen visions of the Planes • Sheath a rider in hellish flame Below, and survived with their sanity • Drive them away intact, speak of masses of these writhing wretches. Maggots with the face of men Quasit Horde, Planar and women, crying out for salvation in a Hellish weaponry (d6 damage) 7 HP 2 nest of flames. Sometimes, they can be Armor goaded out through a rip in the planar caul and emerge, wriggling and in torment, into Close our world. Once here, they spread misery Special Qualities: Adaptable form and sickness during their mayfly lives An imp with some ambition. A quasit is a before expiring into a slurry of gore. All in kind of foot soldier in the demon realm. A all, an inspiration towards good deeds in commoner, armed with fangs or claws or life. Instinct: To suffer wings or some other thing to give it just a little edge over its hellish peers. Commonly way of words we can make our fellows cry bound by warlocks to carry heavy loads or or exult, can paint pictures and whisper build bridges or guard their twisted towers, desire to the gods. No little wonder, then, a quasit can take many forms, none of that in all that power is intent. That every them pleasant. Instinct: To serve word we utter, if repeated and meaning or emotion given to it, can spark a kind of • Attack with abandon unintentional summoning. Word daemons • Inflict pain are called by accident, appear at random The Tarrasque Solitary, Huge, Planar and are often short-lived, but come to Special Qualities: Impervious attend a particular word. Capricious, unpredictable and dangerous, yes—but The Tarrasque. Legendary unstoppable possibly useful, depending on the word. juggernaut—eater of cities and swallower Instinct: To further their word of ships, horses, and knights. A creature unseen in an age but about whom all kinds • Cast a spell related to their word of stories are told. One thread of truth • bring their word into abundance weaves through these stories. It cannot be killed. No blade can pierce its stony shell nor spell penetrate the shield it somehow bears. Stories say, though, that the will of Folk of the Realm one pure soul can send it to slumber, Acolyte though what that means and, by the gods, where such a thing might be found, pray Can't all be the High Priest, they said. Can't we do not ever need to learn. It slumbers. all wield the White Spire, they said. Scrub Somewhere in the periphery of the planar the floor, they told me. The Cthonic edge, it sleeps for now. Instinct: To Overgod don't want a messy floor, do he? consume They said it'd be enlightenment and magic. Feh. It's bruised knees and dish-pan- • Swallow a person, group, or place hands. If only I'd been a cleric, instead. whole Instinct: To serve dutifully • Release a remnant of a long-eaten • Follow dogma place from its gullet • Offer eternal reward for mortal Word Daemon Solitary, Planar, Magical deeds

Adventurer Horde, Intelligent

Sword (d6 damage) 3 HP 1 Armor

Close

Special Qualities: Endless enthusiasm Scum of the earth, they are. A troupe of Trusty knife (2d10·b damage) 12 HP 1 armored men and women come sauntering Armor into town, brandishing what, for all intents Close and purposes, is enough magical and mundane power to level the whole place. Better to rule in hell than serve in heaven. Bringing with them bags and bags of loot, Instinct: To lead still dripping blood from whatever poor • Make a demand sod they had to kill to get it. An economical • Extort fiasco waiting to happen, if you ask me. • Topple power The whole system becomes completely uprooted. Dangerous, unpredictable Fool murder-hobos. Oh, wait, you're an There's not but one person in all the King's adventurer? I take it all back. Instinct: To court allowed to speak the truth. The real, adventure or die trying straight-and-honest truth about anything. • Go on a fool's errand The Fool couches it all in bells and prancing and chalky face-paint, but who • Act impulsively else gets to tell the King what's what? You • Share tales of past exploits can trust a Fool, they say, especially when Bandit Horde, Intelligent, Organized he's made you red-faced and you'd just as Dirk (d6 damage) 3 HP 1 Armor soon drown him in a cesspit. Instinct: To mock Close • Expose injustice Desperation is the watchword of banditry. • Play a trick When times are tough, what else is there to do but scavenge a weapon and take up with Guardsman Group, Intelligent, Organized a clan of nasty men and women? Highway Spear (d8 damage) 6 HP 1 Armor robbery, poaching, scams and cons and murder most foul but we've all got to eat so Close, Reach who can blame them? Then again, there's Noble protector or merely drunken lout, it evil in the hearts of some and who's to say often makes no difference to these sorts. that desperation isn't a want to sate one's Falling just shy of a noble Knight, the baser lusts? Anyway—it's this or starve, proud town guard is an ancient profession sometimes. Instinct: To rob none-the-less. These folks of the constabulary often dress in the colors of • Steal something their lord (when you can see it under the • Demand tribute mud) and, depending on the richness of Bandit King Solitary, Intelligent, Organized that lord, might even have a decent weapon and some armor that fits. Those are the lucky ones. Even so, someone has Not all those who wield the arcane arts are to be there keep an eye on the gate when adventuring Wizards. Nor necromancers in the Black Riders have been spotted in the mausoleums or sorcerers of ancient woods. Too many of us owe our lives to bloodline. Some are just old men and these souls—remember that the next time women, smart enough to have discovered a one is drunkenly insulting your mother, trick or two. It might make them a bit batty hmm? Instinct: To do as ordered to come by that knowledge, but if you've a curse to break or a love to prove, might be • Uphold the law at all costs that a hedge wizard will help you, if you • Make a profit can find his rotten hut in the swamp and Halfling Thief Solitary, Small, Intelligent, pay the price he asks. Instinct: To learn Stealthy, Devious • Cast almost the right spell (for a Dagger (2d8·w damage) 12 HP 1 Armor price) Close • Make deals beyond their ken

It would be foolish, now, to draw High Priest conclusions about folks just because they Respected by all who gaze upon them, the happen to be good at one thing or another. high priests and abbesses of Dungeon Then again, a spade's a spade, isn't it. Or World are treated with a sort of reverence. maybe just the goodly, soft-and-sweet type Whether they pay homage to Ur-thuu-hak, of Halfling have the mind to stay in their God of Swords, or whisper quiet prayers to grassy-hill homes and aren't the type you Namiah, precious daughter of peace, they find in the slums and taverns of the know a thing or two that you and I, we mannish world . Perhaps they're there to won't ever know. The gods speak to them cut your purse for calling them “halfing” in as a hawker-of-wares might speak to us in the first place. Not all take so kindly to the the marketplace. For this, for the bearing- title. Or they're playing a game, pretending of-secrets and the knowing-of-things, we to be a child in need of alms—and your give them a wide berth as they pass in their arrogant eyes can't even see the difference shining robes. Instinct: To lead until too late. Well, it matters little. They're • Set down divine law gone with your coin before you even Reveal divine secrets realize you deserved it. Instinct: To live a • life of stolen luxury • Commission divine undertakings

• Steal Hunter Group, Intelligent • Put on the appearance of friendship Ragged bow (d6 damage) 6 HP 1 Armor

Hedge Wizard Magical Near, Far The wilds are home to more than just Ten foot poles. Get your ten foot poles, beasts of horn and scale. There are men here. Torches, bright and hot. Mules, too - and women out there, too—those who stubborn but immaculately bred. Need a smell blood on the wind and stalk the linen sack, do you? Right over here! Come plains in the skins of their prey. Whether and get your ten foot poles! Instinct: To with a trusty longbow bought on a rare trip profit into the city or with a knife of bone and • Propose a business venture sinew-made, these folk have more in • Offer a 'deal' common with the things they track and make their meals than with their own kind. Noble Solemn, somber and quiet, they find a sort Are they granted their place by the gods, of peace in the wild. Instinct: To survive perhaps? Is that why they're able to pass • Bring back news from the wilds their riches and power down by birth? • Slay a beast Some trick or enchantment of the blood, maybe. The peasant bends his knee and Knight Solitary, Intelligent, Organized, scrapes and toils and the noble wears the Cautious finery of his place and, they say, we all have Sword (2d10·b damage) 12 HP 4 Armor our burdens to bear. Seems to me that some of us have burdens of stone and Close some carry their weight in gold. It's a tough What youngster doesn't cling to the rail at life. Instinct: To rule the mighty joust, blinded by the sun on • Issue an order their glittering armor, wishing they could Offer a reward be the one adorned in steel and riding to • please the King and Queen? What peasant Peasant youth with naught but a loaf of bread and a Covered in muck, downtrodden at the lame sow doesn't wish to trade it all in for bottom of the great chain of being, we all the lance and the bright pennant? A Knight stand on the backs of those that grow our is many things—a holy warrior, a sworn food on their farms. Some peasants do sword, a villain sometimes, too, but a better than others, but none will ever see a Knight cannot help but be a symbol to all coin of gold in their day. They'll dream at who see her. A Knight means something. night of how someday, somehow, they'll Instinct: To live by a code fight a dragon and save a princess. Don't • Make a moral stand act like you weren't one before you lost • Lead peasants into battle what little sense you had, adventurer. Instinct: To get by Merchant • Plead for help • Offer a simple reward and gratitude To bravely toss one's lot in with their fellows and hope to come out the other Rebel Horde, Intelligent, Organized side still in one piece. Besides, the nobles Axe (d6 damage) 3 HP 1 Armor need strong men and women. What is it Close they say? A handful of soldiers beats a mouthful of arguments. Instinct: To fight In the countryside they'd be called outlaw and driven off or killed. The city, though, is • March into battle full of places to hide. Damp basements to • Fight as one pore over maps and to plan and plot Spy against a corrupt system. Like rats, they Beloved of Kings but never truly trusted. gnaw away at order, either to supplant it Mysterious, secretive and alluring, the life anew or just erode the whole thing. The of a spy is, if you ask a commoner, full of line between change and chaos is a fine romance and intrigue. They're a knife in one—some rebels walk that thin line and the dark and a pair of watchful eyes. A spy others just want to see it all torched. can be your best friend, your lover or that Disguise, a knife in the dark or a thrown old man you see in the market every day. torch at the right moment are all tools of One never knows. Hells, maybe you're a the rebel. The burning brand of anarchy is spy—they say there's magic that can turn a common fear amongst the nobles of folks minds without them ever knowing it. Dungeon World. These men and women How can we trust you? Instinct: To are why. Instinct: To upset order infiltrate • Die for a cause • Report the truth • Inspire others • Double cross Soldier Horde, Intelligent, Organized Tinkerer Spear (d6 damage) 3 HP 1 Armor It's said that if you see a tinker on the road Close, Reach and you don't offer him a swig of ale or For a commoner with a strong arm, some of your food that he'll leave a curse sometimes it's this or be a bandit. It's wear of bad luck behind. A tinker is a funny the colors and don ill-fitting armor and thing. These strange folk often travel the march into the unknown with a thousand roads between towns with their oddment other scared men and women conscripted carts and favorite mules. With a ratty dog to fight the wars of our time. They could be and always a story to tell. Sometimes the hiding out in the woods instead, living off mail, too, if you're lucky and live in a place poached elk and dodging the king's guard. where Queen's Post won't go. If you're Better to risk ones life in service to a cause. kind, maybe they'll sell you a rose that never wilts or a clock that chimes with the underbelly (good luck with getting there) it sound of faerie laughter. Or maybe they're could hurt, so it's an attack. just antisocial peddlers. You never know, If the action that triggers the move could right? Instinct: To create reasonably hurt multiple targets roll once • Offer an oddity at a price and apply damage to each target (they each • Spin tales of great danger and reward get their armor). in far-off lands Jarl is up to his not-inconsiderable belly in slavering goblins. They have him surrounded, knives bared. "I've had enough of this!" he bellows "I wallop the closest Moves in Detail goblin with my hammer." We agree that this is a combat situation and Jarl rolls the dice Hack and Slash for Hack and Slash. He rolls an 11, so he Hack and Slash is for attacking a prepared has a choice. "Fear is for the weak! I deal enemy plain and simple. If the enemy isn't extra damage—let the goblins come." "The prepared for your attack—if they don't goblin you strike certainly doesn't like that know you're there or they're restrained and much" I say, "you smash your hammer into helpless—then that's not Hack and Slash. his shoulder and are rewarded with the You just deal your damage or murder them crunch of goblin bones—and a deep knife outright, depending on the situation. Nasty wound as the goblin counter-attacks. He stuff. deals 4 damage to you."

The enemy's counter-attack can be any Cadeus has the drop on two orc warriors— GM move made directly with that creature. he's lurking in the shadows as the orcs walk A goblin might just attack you back, or they past. "I leap out and bring my sword down might jam a poisoned needle into your in a sweeping arc, like this!" he says, veins. Life's tough, isn't it? miming the strike. The orc wasn't ready to Note that an "attack" is some action that a fight so I say "The orc is caught entirely player undertakes that has a chance of off-guard and doesn't even have a chance causing physical harm to someone else. to raise his patchwork shield. Deal your Attacking a dragon with inch-thick metal damage." Cadeus rolls his damage and it's scales full of magical energy with a typical enough to kill the orc. The other warrior is sword is like swinging a meat cleaver at a still standing, so I say "The other orc tank: it just isn't going to cause any harm, freezes in horror for a split second. Then so it's not an attack. Note that he's smiling at you with his horrible tusked circumstances can change that: if you're in mouth as he raises a signal horn from his a position to stab the dragon on it's soft belt. What do you do?" Bartelby has disarmed a duelist and has Aranwe is on the floor of the ritualarium as him at sword point. "I'm not giving this guy the orc eyegouger chants his ritual from another chance to attack! I run him atop the pedestal. "Since Thelian has the through." Without thinking about it other orcs busy, I take the opportunity to carefully I say "Oh, okay, sounds like Hack site down my bow and take a shot at the and Slash, roll+Str." Bartelby rolls and gets a orc running the ritual." "Sounds like volley 7. I try to make a move "You run him to me." She rolls an 8, plus her Dex makes through, he's not able to defend himself, 9. "Looks like you have a tough choice" I but, uh… Oh, wait, he's not really in melee say. "Well, I'm almost out of arrows, and we with you, is he? He's helpless. Forget Hack need to get rid of him before the ritual and Slash. You run him through and he finishes, so I'm going to take the danger." slumps to the ground coughing up blood." "Sure, that sounds good. Well, as the ritual progresses the flames around him have Volley gotten higher and you have to move around to take the shot. You hit him dead Volley covers the entire act of drawing, on, roll your damage, but you had to step aiming, and firing a ranged weapon or inside the ritual circle to do it. Everything throwing a thrown weapon. The advantage outside the circle looks cloudy and unreal, to using a ranged weapon over melee is all you can hear is the orc chanting. that the attacker is less likely to be attacked Thelian, you notice that Aranwe is inside back. Of course they do have to worry the circle. What do you do?" about ammunition and getting a clear shot though. Halek is firing on the advancing kobold mob. He rolls an 8 and decides to be put in On a 7-9, read "danger" broadly. It can be danger. I think for a moment and then say bad footing or ending in the path of a "You have to duck and dodge to get the sword or maybe just giving up your sweet shot but you finally let it go and nail the sniper nest to your enemies. Whatever it is lead kobold. You hear something behind it's impending and it's always something you and turn to see that you're right next to that causes the GM to say "What do you the ogre. He smashes you with his club and do?" Quite often, the danger will be deals you 12 damage." "All that? Just for something that will then require you to getting put in danger? That seems like a lot dedicate yourself to avoiding it or force more than danger." He's right, of course, so you to Defy Danger. I say "Oh, you're right—danger's something If you're throwing something that doesn't that's about to happen. How about, instead, have ammo (maybe you've got a move that you turn around after firing the shot and makes your shield throwable) you can't the ogre's right in your face! He's about to choose to mark off ammo. Choose from swing his club right down on you. What do the other two options instead. you do?" Defy Danger making a huge leap over the ice would be Str, placing your feet carefully would be You Defy Danger when you do something Dex, and so on. Make the move to get the in the face of impending peril. This may results. seem like a catch-all. It is! Defy Danger is for those times when it seems like you Emory is climbing a steep ravine. clearly should be rolling but no other move Unbeknownst to him, a cultist sorcerer applies. lurks nearby. The sorcerer casts a spell of frost on the cliffside, covering it with ice. Defy Danger also applies when you make "As you reach for the next handhold, a another move despite danger not covered terrible chill overcomes you. If you want to by that move. For example, Hack and Slash keep climbing, Defy Danger or risk assumes that's you're trading blows in slipping" I say, making sure to explain what battle—you don't need to Defy Danger the Danger is. "No way" Emory says, "I because of the monster you're fighting need to get the top of this ravine! I grit my unless there's some specific danger that teeth and hold tight even as my fingers go wouldn't be part of your normal attack. On numb." He rolls Defy Danger, getting an 8 the other hand, if you're trying to Hack and including his Con for enduring. Now it's Slash while spikes shoot from hidden traps time for a hard decision. "You make some in the walls, you're ignoring a clear and progress but as your hands go numb you present threat and need to Defy Danger. start slipping. The only way you can get any Danger, here, is anything that requires more traction is by jamming your dagger resilience, concentration, or poise. This into the ice to pull yourself up the last few move will usually be called for by the GM. feet. If you do that, though, the dagger is She'll tell you what the danger is as you going to be jammed in the face of the cliff make the move. Something like "You'll until you get a chance to stop and pry it have to Defy Danger, first. The danger is out." the steep and icy floor you're running "The athach's third arm is swinging down across. If you can keep your footing, you on you with its crude club, what are you can make it to the door before the doing Valeria?" I've just made a move to Necromancer's magic gets you." establish an impending threat: the athach's Which stat applies depends on what action strike. She says "I Hack and Slash it! I make you take and your action has to trigger the a wide swing sideways, right into its legs." move. That means you can't Defy the Sounds good to me, but she's not doing Danger of the steep and icy floor with a anything about the club coming at her. charming smile just so you can use Cha, "Okay, you can do that, but you take the since charmingly smiling at the ice floor athach's damage from the club coming does nothing to it. On the other hand, right down on your skull." "What? But trading blows is part of Hack and Slash, An attack is any action you can interfere right?" "It is, but before you make your with that has harmful effects. Swords and attack there's already a club coming at you, arrows are, of course, attacks but so are Hack and Slash doesn't cover that. Do you spells, grabs, and charges. still want to Hack and Slash, or are you If the attack doesn't deal damage then doing something about the club?" halving it means the attacker gets some of Octavia is locked in battle with an ogre. what they want but not all of it. It's up to She says "I drop my shield and take up my you and the GM to work out what that hammer in both hands. I swing it at the means depending on the circumstances. If ogre. That's Hack and Slash, right?" "Yeah, you're defending the Gem Eye of Oro-Uht it will be but first you've gotta Defy Danger. and an orc tries to grab it from its pedestal The danger is the ogre's massive club." then half effect might mean that the gem "Isn't that part of what Hack and Slash gets knocked to the floor but the orc already is? I mean if he couldn't be doesn't get his hands on it, yet. Or maybe smashing me with his club then I wouldn't the orc gets ahold of it but so do you—now be making the move at all because we you're both fighting over it, tooth and nail. wouldn't be in melee." "Oh yeah, you're If you and the GM can't agree on a halved totally right. Hack and Slash it is, make effect you can't choose that option. your roll!" Defending yourself is certainly an option. It amounts to giving up on making attacks Defend and just trying to keep yourself safe.

Defending something means standing Avon is weaving a powerful spell to send nearby and focusing on preventing attacks the source of the Necromancer's power on that thing or stopping anyone from back to the Plane of Death. The spell takes getting near it. When you're no longer time and concentration and there's nearby or you stop devoting your attention zombies massing on all sides! Lux says to incoming attacks then you lose any Hold "While Avon's casting his spell, it's my duty you might have had. to keep him alive. I stand between him and You can only spend Hold when someone the dead and slam my hammer against my makes an attack on you or the thing you're shield—'You want him, you go through me!' Defending. The choices you can make I'm Defending Avon." That sounds good to depend on the attacker and the type of me, so I say "roll+Con." She gets an 11 and attack. In particular, you can't deal damage Holds three. A few moments later Avon to an attacker who you can't reach with finishes his spell but, in rolling for it, has to your weapon. make a tough choice and puts himself in danger. I say "you unleash the magic of your spell, sure enough. The magical disturbance draws the attention of the Spout Lore zombie horde—they sense your power and You Spout Lore any time you want to it drives their hunger! With a sudden burst search your memory for knowledge or facts of speed, they're right on top of you. What about something. You take a moment to do you do?" Avon looks unsure for a ponder the things you know about the moment, but Lux says "Let them come. I've Orcish Tribes or the Tower of Ul'dammar got his back. I'm spending a point of hold and then reveal that knowledge. to direct that attack to me. I push Avon back and swing a wide arc with my shield. The knowledge you get is like consulting a I'll also spend a point of hold to halve the bestiary, travel guide, or library. You get damage. To be safe, I follow up with my facts about the subject matter. On a 10+ hammer and use one more hold to deal those facts the GM will show you how damage to the gang of zombies." "Wow, those facts can be immediately useful, on a okay. They get a few feeble claws past your 7–9 they're just facts. guard but you're mostly unscathed. That On a miss the GM's move will often have to does it for your hold. Are you still do with the time you take thinking. Maybe defending him or are you doing something you miss that goblin moving around behind else?" "I don't think he'll live long without you, or the trip wire across the hallway. It's me. I yell at him to run without taking my also a great chance to reveal an unwelcome eyes off the zombies, I'm not letting any of truth. them past me." "Sounds like you're Defending again, roll+Con." Just in case it isn't clear: the answers are always true, even if the GM had to make Hadrian has been Defending Durga while them up on the spot. Always say what she heals a badly wounded Willem. honesty demands. Willem's in fighting shape again so Durga has leaped forwards to drive back the Fenfaril has had the misfortune of troglodytes. Hadrian is still locked in battle dropping through an illusory floor and now with a deadly crocodilian. The troglodytes finds himself in a murky pit. A mottled, attack Durga and Hadrian reacts. "Wait! I eyeless creature shambles towards him, still have one hold to Defend Durga. I'm mumbling in a strange tongue. "I'm a little doing to redirect that attack to myself." freaked out—what is this thing? Is it going That doesn't sound quite right to me, to attack me? I probably read about these they're spread out, now. "How are you things in a bestiary back in school." "Great, doing that if she's over at the troglodyte that's Spout Lore." I say. Fenfaril rolls and camp and you're battling the crocodilian in gets an 8. "Well of course you read about the water?" "Oh yeah. I guess when I these. The name escapes you, but you started doing something other than clearly remember a drawing of a creature standing guard I lost that hold. Damn." like this standing in front of a doorway, like a guard, with someone kneeling before it." motions reveal that he's actually pulling On a strong hit I would have given some energy from the room behind him, he can't information on what makes the creature let come any close. people pass. Just like Spout Lore the answers you get Vitus has Spouted Lore on a gilded skull are always honest ones. Even if the GM has she found on a pedestal and gotten a 10. I to figure it out on the spot. Once they begin by saying, mysteriously, "You're answer, it's set in stone. You'll want to pretty sure you recognize the telltale signs Discern Realities to find the truth behind of metal forged in the City of Dis, the living illusions—magical or otherwise. planar city." I catch myself and remember Unless a move says otherwise players can to be generous with the truth and make it only ask questions from the list. If a player useful. I add "You recognize some of the asks a question not on the list the GM can glyphs from your spellbook, actually: tell them to try again or answer a question they're part of fire spells, but with other from the list that seems equivalent. magic symbols smaller inside them. Casting a non-fire spell into the skull turns it into Of course, some questions might have a fire magic, based on the glyphs." negative answer, that's fine. If there really, honestly is nothing useful or valuable here, Discern Realities the GM will answer that question with "Nothing, sorry." To Discern Realities you must closely Finding a strangely empty room guarded by observe your target. That usually means deadly traps, Omar says "I don't trust this interacting with it or watching someone shifty room. I'm going to poke around a else do the same. You can't just stick your little. I take out my tools and start messing head in the doorway and Discern Realities with stuff—pulling candlesticks, tapping about a room. You're not merely scanning the wall with my stone hammer. My usual for clues—you have to look under and tricks." I say to Omar, "Sounds like you're around things, tap the walls and check for Discerning Realities?" Omar answers in the weird dust patterns on the bookshelves. affirmative and makes his roll. He rolls a 12 That sort of thing. and gets to ask questions. "What here is not Discerning Realities isn't just about as it appears to be?" I think for a second, noticing a detail, it's about figuring out the look at my notes and tell him, "As you tap bigger picture. The GM always describes the walls you find that there's an odd, what the player characters experience hollow space on the north side. The stones honestly, so during a fight the GM will say look newer too, this was added recently. that the kobold mage stays at the other end It's actually a hidden room." of the hall. Discerning Realities could reveal the reason behind that: the kobold's Omar still has two more questions. His his with death and he might think he's better next one is "Who sealed the hidden room?" off in a fight. That's not a question from the list but it On a hit they ask you for something related sounds to me like he's really asking "what to whatever leverage you have. If your happened here recently". I answer that leverage is that you're standing before instead. "Looking at the stonework you them sharpening your knife and insinuating notice the wall bends out a little. The about how much you'd like to shank them work's definitely of goblin origin—shoddy with it they might ask you to let them go. If and quick. The only way it could get bent your leverage is your position in court out like that is if something pushed out on above them they might ask for a favor. the stones from within." "So some goblins blocked it from the other side?" Omar says. Whatever they ask for, on a 10+, you just "Yeah, exactly." have to promise it clearly and unambiguously. On a 7–9, that's not Parley enough: you also have to give them some assurance, right now, before they do what Parley covers a lot of ground including old you want. If you promise that you'll ensure standbys like intimidation and diplomacy. their safety from the wolves if they do what You know you're using Parley when you're you want and you roll a 7-9 they won't do trying to get someone to do something for their part until you bring a fresh wolf pelt, you by holding a promise or threat over for example. It's worth noting that on a 10+ them. Nice or not, the tone doesn't matter. you don't actually have to keep your Merely asking someone politely isn't promise. Whether you'll follow up or not, Parleying. That's just talking. You say "Can I well, that's up to you. Of course breaking have that magic sword?" and the King's promises leads to problems. People don't knight says "Hell no, this is my blade, my take kindly to oath-breakers and aren't father forged it and my mother enchanted likely to deal with them in the future. it" and that's that. To Parley, you have to In some cases when you state what you have leverage. Leverage is anything that want you may include a possible promise could lure the target of your Parley to do for the creature to make, as in "Flee and I'll something for you. Maybe it's something let you live." It's up to the target of the they want or something they don't want Parley if that's the promise they want or if you to do. Like a sack of gold. Or punching they have something else in mind. They them in the face. What counts as leverage can say "yes, let me live and I'll go" (with depends on the people involved and the assurances, if you rolled a 7–9) or "promise request being made. Threaten a long goblin me you won't follow me." with death and you have leverage. Threaten a goblin backed up by his gang Leena is trying to convince Lord Hywn to Parley him, you need some leverage. A vouch for her so that she is granted an bribe maybe?" audience with the Queen. She's laid out what she wants pretty well but I say "Lord Aid or Interfere Hywn obviously isn't convinced. Why Any time you feel like two players should should he help you?" She smirks a bit. "Oh. be rolling against each other, the defender That. While I'm talking to him, I should be Interfering with the attacker. absentmindedly start playing with the This doesn't always mean sabotaging them. signet ring from that assassin we killed. It can mean anything from arguing against The one he hired to off the prince. I make a Parley to just being a shifty person who's a big show of it just to make sure he sees hard to Discern. It's about getting in the who's ring it is." That's perfect; now I know way of another players' success. what to ask for. Leena's player hits her roll with an 8. "Once your little show sets in, Always ask the person aiding or interfering Hywn just looks at you coldly. After a how they are doing it. As long as they can moment he says 'Enough being coy. You answer that, they trigger the move. and I both know you murdered my hired Sometimes, as the GM, you'll have to ask if man. Give me that ring and swear you'll interference is happening. Your players speak no more about it, then I'll do as you might not always notice they're interfering ask." "Oh sure, I give it to him" she says "We with each other. can always dig up more dirt on this Aid is a little more obvious. If a player can scumbag later." explain how they're helping in a roll and it Pendrell's trying to get into the gambling makes sense, let them roll to aid. den where One-Eye usually plays. He No matter how many people aid or saunters up to the guards and says "Hey interfere with a given roll, the target only fellas, how's it going, care to open the door gets the +1 or -2 once. Even if a whole for me?" Pendrell's player says "I'm being all party of adventurers aid in attacking an suave as I do it to; really cool so these guys ogre, the one who makes the final attack will let me in. That's Parley! I roll+Cha." only gets +1. Something's not right here so I stop him "Wait a sec. All you've done is tell these Ozruk stands alone and bloodied before a guys what you want—you're just talking. pack of angry hellhounds. Behind him, the The big smelly one on the right of the door Prince of Lescia weeps in fear. Ozruk says steps in front of you, looks you in the eyes "I stand firm and lift my shield, despite and says 'Sorry, private venue' like he's certain doom. I'm defending the Prince." At bored with keeping people out and he'd the last moment, though (just as I'm about rather be inside himself. If you want to to have Ozruk roll Defend) Aronwe appears from the shadows, sword drawn. "Doom is not so certain, Dwarf" he says. double dealing has caught up with him." "I'm standing beside him, helping Ozruk Now for the bargain: "The shadowy form of Defend by covering his sword arm." Death itself steps between you and the Aronwe rolls+bonds and, if he succeeds, gates. 'Here so soon? I enjoy seeing the Ozruk will be able to add a +1 to his Defend souls you send me. I'll return you to the result. world so that you may serve me, but there is a cost: you will never be able to move under the sun again, or you will return to Special Moves my realm immediately." Special moves are moves that come up less often or in more specific situations. Encumbrance They're still the basis of what characters do A PC's Load stat is determined by their in Dungeon World—particularly what they class and Str. Being able to carry more is a do between dungeon crawls and high- clear benefit when trying to carry treasure flying adventures. out of a dungeon or just making sure you can bring along what you need. Last Breath This move only applies to things a person The Last Breath is the last moment that could walk around and still act with. stands between life and death. Time stands Carrying a boulder on your back is not still as Death comes to claim the living. encumbrance—you can't really act or move Even those who stay will catch a glimpse of much with it. It effects what moves you can the other side as they fight for their life. make appropriately in the fiction. Many are changed by this moment—even those who escape alive. Carouse The deal offered by death is decided by the Unless the PCs are particularly extravagant GM but it should always be a real choice or generous Carousing doesn't cost any with real consequences. If the GM offers gold. If the players are paying someone something completely painless, the move is else's tab or living the high life then it'll pointless. If the GM offers a ridiculous costs them appropriately. price, no one will take it. Think of ways that the character might be changed by the You can only carouse when you return event: a new goal in life, a debt that must triumphant. That's what draws the crowd be paid, an obligation. of revelers to surround adventurers as they celebrate their latest haul. If you don't Sparrow stands at Death's black gates. First claim your success or your failure is well the Gm describes what she sees beyond known then who would want to party with them: "In among the suffering souls you you anyway? clearly see Lord Hywn. It appears his Undertake a Perilous What counts as dangerous territory is up to the GM. She should call for the move. Journey When not Making Camp in dangerous Distances in Dungeon World are measured territory the camp is in all ways in rations. A ration is the amount of unexceptional with neither benefits or supplies used up in a day. Journeys take dangers. more rations when they are long or when Staying a night in an inn or house is travel is slow. Making Camp is a safe location. Regain A perilous journey is the whole way your hit points as usual, but only mark off a between two locations. You don't roll for ration if you're eating from the food you one day's journey and then make camp carry, not paying for a meal or receiving only to roll for the next day's journey, too. hospitality. Make one roll for the entire trip. This move only applies when you know Outstanding Warrants where you're going. Setting off to explore is This move is only for places where you've not a perilous journey. It's wandering caused trouble, not every piece of around looking for cool things to discover. civilization you enter. Being publicly Use up rations as you camp and the GM caught up in someone else's trouble still will give you details about the world as you triggers this move. discover them. Civilization generally means the villages, towns and cities of humans, elves, dwarves, Make Camp and halflings but it can also apply to any You usually Make Camp so that you can do relatively lawful establishment of other things, like Prepare Spells or Dutiful monstrous species, such as orcs or goblins. Prayer. Or, you know, sleep soundly at If the PCs have stayed there as part of the night. Whenever you stop to catch your community it's civilization. breath for more than an hour or so, you've probably Made Camp.

When camping in dangerous territory the selections made apply to the entire camp. Every PC camping out needs to roll. Camping with fewer than three characters, or without the Ranger, is dangerous—there will always be at least one option not selected. Spells and Magicks?" If so, your Bardic Moves in Detail Lore applies.

If you care enough to ask a question about Multiclass Moves it then it's probably important. Don't second guess yourself: if you care enough Multiclass Dabbler to want to know more about it then it has some importance. Multiclass Initiate Charming and Open Multiclass Master Speaking frankly means you really are For the purposes of these multiclass moves being open with them, not just giving the the Cleric's Commune and Cast a Spell appearance of openness. It's your true count as one move. Likewise for the sincerity that puts others at ease and lets Wizard's Spellbook, Prepare Spells, and you get information out of them; if you're Cast a Spell. trying to maintain a lie at the same time you won't get very far. If a multiclass move grants you the ability to cast spells you prepare and cast spells as if you had one level in the casting class. It Goes To Eleven Whenever you level up you increase the Of course the creature you effect must level you prepare and cast spells at too. have some way of harming your target of choice. Spurring a wolf into a frenzy to When Ajax gains 3rd level he takes attack the eagle lord circling above doesn't Multiclass Dabbler to get Commune and do any good, the wolf doesn't have a way to Cast a Spell from the Cleric class. He casts attack it. and prepares spells like a first level Cleric: first level spells and rotes only, a total of 2 levels of spells prepared. An Ear for Magic Acting on the answers can mean acting against them or taking advantage of them. Bard Moves Either way you take +1 forward. Bardic Lore Treat the areas of your lore like books. Is Cleric Spells the upwards-flowing waterfall you just came across something important that Guidance would be covered in a book called "On It's up the the creativity of your deity (and the GM) to communicate as much as possible through the motions and gestures choose a spear as the description, then of you deity's symbol. You don't get visions Hand as the range. Your spear is something or a voice from heaven, just some visual special, or your technique with it is cue of what your deity would have you do different, just describe why your weapon (even if it's not in your best interest). has the tags you've chosen.

Magic Weapon Heirloom Casting Magic Weapon on the same The exact nature of the spirits (and weapon again has no effect. No matter how therefore what knowledge they can offer to many times you cast it on the same weapon you) is up to you and the GM to decide. it's still just magic +1d4 damage. Maybe they're dead ancestors, or echoes of people you've slain, or a minor demon. Up Magic though is nothing to be scoffed at. to you. Having a magic weapon may give you an advantage against some of the stranger beasts of Dungeon World, ghosts and the Armor Mastery sort. The exact effects depend on the Armor and shields that are reduced to 0 monster and circumstances, so make the armor are effectively destroyed. You'll most of it. pretty much be paying for a new one anyway, so you might as well drop them Animate Dead and haul out some gold instead. Treating the zombie as your character means you make moves with it's ability Paladin Moves scores based on the fiction, just like always. Unless it's brain is functioning on its own the zombie can't do much besides follow Evidence of Faith the last order it was given, so you'd better Your +1 forward applies to anything you do stay close. Even if its brain works it's still based on your knowledge of the spell's bound to follow your orders. effects: defying it, defending against it, using it to your advantage, etc. Fighter Moves Ranger Moves Signature Weapon The base description you choose is just a Command description. Choosing a spear doesn't give Your bonuses only applies when your you Close range, for example. You could animal is doing something it's trained in. An animal not trained to attack monsters Magic Missile does 8 damage. In other won't be any help when you're attacking a cases it's down to the circumstances. A otyugh. maximized Identify might result in far more information than expected. If there's no clear way to maximize it you can't Thief Moves choose that option.

Likewise for doubling the targets. If the Poisoner spell doesn't have targets you can't choose In order to make more doses of your to double them. chosen poison you need to be reasonably able to gather the required materials. If you're locked up at the top of a tower Wizard Spells you're not going to be able to get the materials you need of course. Dispel Magic The exact effects depend on the Wealth and Taste circumstances. A goblin orkaster's spell In order to use this move it's really got to might just be ended; a deity's consecration be your most valuable possession. It's the is probably just dimmed. The GM will tell honest value you place on it that draws you the likely effects of Dispeling a given others, no lies. effect before you cast.

Disguise Fireball Your disguise covers your appearance and "Nearby" means a few paces at most, any basics like accents and limps. It doesn't depending on the circumstances. grant you any special knowledge of the target, so if someone asks you what your Polymorph favorite color is you'd better think fast. In some cases the GM may choose the last Defying Danger with Cha is a common part option more than once to list each of maintaining a Disguise. unexpected benefit or weakness.

Wizard Moves Summon Monster The exact type of monster you get is up to Empowered Magic the GM, based on your choices. If you want Maximizing the effects of a spell is simple a non-reckless swimming creature you for spells that involve a roll: a maximized might get a water elemental, a 1d8 damage +2 Str creature might be a barbed devil. Whatever the creature is you still get to You can start with the effect. This is play it. particularly useful for class moves. You know that casting a spell is something that the Wizard does, so what triggers that effect?

Making Moves Rarely, you can even start with the At some point you'll likely want to make mechanics. Sometimes you'll think of your own moves. You might want to create something cool, like a tamed demon who's moves to reflect some particular threat happiness is a constantly varying stat, and ("When you go alone into the Unhallowed go from there. Be wary of any idea that's Halls…"). You might create moves to cover entirely mechanical. Since moves always something that's particularly important to start and end with the fiction, a mechanical you setting ("When you swim in the dark idea is the least important bit of the move. waters…"). You might create moves to A final starting point is someone else's expand a class, or create your own class move. Between Apocalypse World, entirely. Dungeon World, Monsterhearts, and the This chapter covers how to create moves dozens of other games using moves there and more importantly why to create are many great ideas out there. If you plan moves. to use a borrowed move for anything beyond your personal gaming group, its a Moves are the simplest way to modify the good idea to ask the author first. They're game, but you can go beyond that. Maybe usually pretty cool about it. you have a cool idea for an entire class, or you want to change how monsters work, or even mess with the entire GMing structure. Types of Moves Well get to those topics too, but first: What role the move is fulfilling determines moves. what kind of move you're creating.

Moves for dealing with the environment or Starting Points special features you've added to Dungeon Where do moves come from? World are special moves. These moves are usually the GMs domain, a place to make You can start a move with the trigger. Some parts of the world stand out. Since moves actions will just feel like they should be a are always triggered by the players most move. This is the most common starting moves like this should be written or point for moves. You'll see some action printed somewhere everyone can look coming up and feel like it's different them over unless the move covers enough from existing moves that it needs its own rules. something that the player characters World Moves wouldn't have any idea about. Your Dungeon World is full of fantastic Moves that reflect some special things, right? You're likely to find that some competency or power, or something the of those fantastic things deserve or players do, are usually class moves. If the demand custom moves to reflect exactly move is clearly tied to a specific class, add what they do. Consider this one from Chris it to that class. If the move is tied to some Bennet: concept that multiple classes might have When you open a sewer hatch roll+Str. On access to, like a move only accessible to a 10+, choose 3. On a 7-9 choose 1. those that have seen beyond Death's Black Gates, you can create a Compendium Class • You avoid being covered in feces and for those moves. A Compendium Class is rotting animal entrails from the like a mini-class, it's a collection of moves sewers above. around a fictional theme. We'll deal with • You avoid having a gelatinous cube them in more detail later. land on you. If your move is something the players do • You find a secret back entrance to but isn't associated with any specific theme where the merchant's daughter is or class it's probably a basic of special being held. move. If it comes up all the time it's a basic This move is strong because it is tied move, if it comes up more rarely it's a strongly to a particular place at a particular special move. time. This move was written by request for Moves made by the players in response to Jason Morningstar's Dungeon World game monsters, such as the effects of a disease or as the players entered some particularly pressing on despite a focused blast of wind horrible sewers to find a powerful from an air elemental, are player moves merchant's daughter. Two of the options associated with that monster. Player moves here are very directly tied to that precise associated with a monster are fairly rare, situation. most of the ways a player will interact with Why would you write this move instead of a monster are covered by the basic and just using Defy Danger? You wouldn't, class moves. always. Opening a pressurized sewer hatch Moves made by monsters against the is certainly dangerous, you could use Defy players aren't player moves at all. They're Danger. This move does have the monster moves, simple statements of what advantage of setting up the choices ahead the monster does. Trying to make every of time. This is actually a very strong monster move into a player move will technique: if there's a particular situation seriously hamper your creativity. that is likely to cause Defy Danger, you can write a custom move that describes the tough choice to be made to save the GM is likely to feel marginalized. This is why some thinking in the moment. the multiclass moves act as one level lower, so that each class's niche is somewhat The other strength of moves like this is protected. they call out something as important. By making the trigger "when you open a sewer Be careful with any move that provides the hatch" instead of "when you act despite an same benefit as an existing move even if imminent threat" the move calls out that the trigger is different. +damage moves in these sewers are always dangerous. particular should be avoided for the most part unless carefully crafted with Class Moves interesting triggers. +armor too can be problematic if given too freely. The classes Each class has enough moves to take it at present have damage and armor through tenth level but that doesn't mean increases the reflect the overall danger of you can't add more. Adding moves to a Dungeon World, giving them more can class can demonstrate your idea of negate potential threats. Dungeon World. Take this one, for example: New Classes When you claim a room for you deity, Creating a new class is more than just mark every entrance and roll+Wis. On a writing some new moves. Your first 10+ the room is peacebonded: no one can consideration should be how the class take action to cause physical harm within relates to the existing classes. No character it. On a 7–9 the room is peacebonded, but exists in isolation, so you should think the show of divine power draws attention. carefully about why this class is different. You can dismiss the peacebond as you see fit. An excellent first step to creating a new class is to think about what fictional This move presents a slightly different side characters you'd like to task an inspiration. of Dungeon World, one that can demand Don't slavishly follow what that fictional peace (something that usually doesn't come character can do (after all, they weren't in easily to PCs). This may not be every Dungeon World) but use them as a guide Dungeon World game, but it's a great way for what's cool about being that person. to show how your Dungeon World looks reflected in the characters. The inspirations for the classes in this book are fairly clear, and made clearer by the When adding a move, look carefully at notes in the margins. Note that not every what class it belongs to. Avoid giving a class inspiration is taken entirely: the wizards of moves with infringe on another class's Discworld inspired slightly pompous style areas of expertise. If the Thief can cast of the Wizard, but the Wizard is far more spells just as well as the Wizard the Wizard competent and casts spells differently than class is particularly social or antisocial, the typical Discworld character. The write four bonds. If the class is very inspiration is one of style, not an attempt connected to others, add a Bond, if they're to recreate what a certain character could cloistered remove one. Avoid bonds that do in a certain book. dictate alignment but don't be afraid to say something about what the class is or does. With a clear idea in mind you have a few You can use the rules for writing new basic steps that aren't a concern when Bonds as a starting point, but avoid writing single moves: HP, Bonds, Look, including proper names in starting Bonds. equipment, alignment, races. Look is largely left to your imagination. A class's HP is usually some This is an excellent spot to think about base+Constitution. Base HP is almost your fictional inspiration: what did they always 4, 6, 8, or 10. Having more HP than look like? How could they look different? the Fighter and Paladin might make those Including at least one choice about clothes classes obsolete unless you're careful. helps establish style without making the Having less HP than the Wizard is probably player think about buying clothes. character suicide. 4 base HP makes for a class that is deliberately fragile, they'll need The equipment choices should always help from others when the swords come include at least one weapon option and out. 6 base HP is for classes that aren't one armor option unless the class is clearly ready to fight, but can at least take a hit. 8 non-martial and lacking in fighting skill. base HP is enough to take some hits and Dungeon Rations are also pretty much get into combat a little, while 10 base HP is required, a starting character without food for skilled warriors and those who have no going into a dangerous area borders on fear of battle. stupid.

Damage is chosen from the dice available: Alignments are your place to show the d4, d6, d8, d10. The classes presented here starting outlook of the class. Most classes all use a single die with no static bonus, but will have Neutral as an option, since only there's no reason not to experiment with the most dedicated classes are so tied up to other options: 2d4 or 1d6+2, for example. an ideal that the self can't come first. A High HP and damage tend to go together, good alignment move is something that as you usually need one to make the other happens with some regularity and requires worthwhile. the player to take action they might not otherwise take. An alignment that happens Bonds are where the class's outlook shines as part of the normal course of play, like through. It's the place where you, the "When you gain treasure…," doesn't really designer, will most clearly interact with the show the character's ideals. Adding some player at character creation. Unless the requirements, maybe "When you gain treasure through lies and deceit…," adds an Note that the move is only available after element of ideals. Now the alignment says the character has done a specific thing, and something about the character (they prize even then only at their next level. pulling a con on the unsuspecting) and Compendium Classes are best when they requires the player to think about how they rely on what the character has done, not play. stat prerequisites or anything that happens without the player's action. A Compendium Classes Compendium Class that is available to A Compendium Class is a class only anyone who just gained 5th level doesn't available to higher level characters who stand for much, one that only applies if meet specific requirements. They're called you've been to Death's Black Gates and Compendium Classes because they first lived to tell the tale is more interesting. appeared in the Compendiums for A Compendium Class also usually has 2–3 Dungeon World Basic. A Compendium moves that can be taken only if the starting Class is the way to go for a concept that move is taken. These are just like normal can be layered onto multiple other classes. class moves, just with the requirement that The basic structure of a Compendium you have to have already taken the starting Class is to have a starting move that is Compendium Class move. available only to characters who have had a Compendium Classes are ideal for certain experience, like this: concepts that don't quite inspire a full When you enter the bodily presence of a class. If you can't think of what the class god or their avatar the next time you gain a looks like or how much HP it has, or if the level you can choose this move instead of a class overlaps with existing classes, it's move from your class: probably better as a Compendium Class.

Divine Bond Adventure Moves When you write a new Bond instead of Adventure moves deal directly with the using the name of another character you adventure underway. They can move the can use the name of a deity you've had action along, change the rewards, or let you contact with. Anytime a Bond with a deity jump into a bigger adventure. applies to the current situation you can mark it off (as if it was resolved) to call on If you're running a short game, maybe at a the deity's favor in a clear and decisive way convention or game day, you may find that that the GM describes. At the end of the you want to front load the experience a session you then replace the marked off little more. Here's a move that covers "the Bond with a new one, with a deity or player adventure so far" so that you can get character. straight into a short game in media res. Stalwart Fighter: As if the bandits weren't You can also adapt the End of Session bad enough! As if all the sword wounds, move to reflect the adventure you're bruises and batterings at the hands of your running. When doing this it's key that you enemies were insufficient—now this. show the players the new End of Session Trapped underground with your move. The goal isn't to keep them in the adventuring companions when all you dark about what earns XP, but to make the wanted was to return to the town and XP awards tie directly to this adventure. spend your well-earned bounty. No such When you end the session, instead of using luck, warrior. Sharpen that sword! the normal end of session questions, use Certainly, the others will need your these: protecting before safety is found. Just like last time. Once more into the breach, right? • Did we learn something about the I swear, one of these fellow must owe you a Cult of the Scaled God? favor or two by now… • Did we rescue a captured villager or help defend the village of Secor? Have a look around and roll+Cha. On a 10+ • Did we defeat a major agent of the choose two party members, on a 7-9 just Cult of the Scaled God the one, on a miss you're surrounded by ingrates. At a moment of need, you can cash in an owed favor. A PC must change Move Structure their action to one of your choosing, once. Moves always follow a similar structure. As long as this action doesn't involve them The most basic parts of a move are the directly taking damage, giving up a magic trigger ("when…") and the effect ("then…"). item they already own or coming to Every move follows this basic format. immediate harm, it's fair game. Use it to make them agree with you, or give you that Triggers extra ration you want, or giving you their Triggers are always fictional actions slot in the loot lottery. Leverage is sweet. undertaken by the player characters. Note The most important part of this move is that a trigger never deals with precise units not the roll or the effect, but the of time. Don't write a move that begins information and tone. It sets the stage for a "When you start a round adjacent to a quick adventure and gives the player dragon." There's no rounds (and adjacent is reading it a starting point to work with. The maybe not the best phrasing, as it sound roll and result here are interesting, but removed from the fiction of standing next don't greatly change the flow of the game. to a damn fire-breathing dragon). Prepare Handing out a set of these, one to each Spells isn't "When you spend one hour player, along with a playbook, is a great studying your spellbook" for good reason. way to run a con game. Time in Dungeon World is a bit fluid, like in a movie where pacing depends on the • Roll. Examples: Defy Danger, Cast a circumstances. Don't rely on concrete units Spell [Wizard], Called Shot [Ranger]. either around the table (rounds) or in the • Substitute stats. Examples: Precise fiction (seconds, minutes, days). [weapon tag]. Here are some broad types of triggers: • Trigger another move. Examples: Charm Person [Wizard spell], • When a character takes action. Envenom [Thief]. Examples: Discern Realities, • Give a bonus or penalty, forward Fascinate [Bard], Command or ongoing. Examples: Quarry [Ranger]. [Ranger], Beacon of Good [Paladin]. When a character takes action • • Deal or heal damage. Examples: under specific circumstances. Volley, Backstab [Thief], Called Shot Examples: Hack and Slash, Gladiator [Ranger]. [Fighter], Backstab [Thief]. • Choose options. Examples: Spout When circumstances dictate, no • Lore, Discern Realities, Ritual character action. Examples: Order [Wizard]. Hirelings, End of Session, Saving • Hold & Spend. Examples: Throw. Dominate [Wizard spell], Trap Sense When a character uses a thing. • [Thief]. Examples: Magic items, Heirloom • Ask & Answer. Examples: [Fighter] Charming and Open [Bard], Spout From now on. Examples: Serenity • Lore. [Cleric], Poisoner [Thief] • Change circumstances. Examples: Ascetic Freedom [Cleric], Sins of the Effect Flesh [Paladin]. Moves effects can be anything you can • Mark experience. Examples: think of; they are as limitless as your ideas. Alignment moves. Don't feel constrained to making rolls, +1 • Call for more information. bonuses, and swapping stats. Since all Examples: Parley, Ritual [Wizard]. moves flow from the fiction, a fictional • Add options. Examples: Survivalist effect like "They treat you as a friend" is [Ranger], Eye of Riches [Thief]. just as powerful and useful as +1 forward, maybe more so. Changing the Basics Here are some broad types of effects, any Moves can also change the basic structure given move may use more than one of of the game. Consider this one, to avoid them: the use of damage dice: When you would deal damage, instead of takes -1 to the roll. When a player's rolling the dice, substitute each dice with character makes a move and the GM the listed number. d4 becomes 2, d6 judges it clearly beyond them, the player becomes 3, d8 becomes 4, d10 becomes 5, takes -2 to the roll. d12 becomes 6. The problem with this move is that the Moves like this change one of the basic move no longer reflects anything concrete. features of the game. Be very careful with Instead, the move is a prompt for the GM moves that muck with the fundamentals. to make judgement calls with no clear Any move that contradicts the GM's framework. If you find yourself writing this principles or agenda, or any move that custom move, consider what difficulty breaks the basic "take the action to gain the you're really trying to capture and make a effect" rule, should be seriously rethought. custom move for that instead. That said, this is a valid custom move, if you feel it's There are some parts of the game that are needed. exceptionally easy to change. The amount of XP to level reflects our view, but you can easily make leveling more or less rare. The Development of a Move way stats are assigned by the class is a way Let's look at how one move developed of making the game easier for new players over time. Hack and Slash was one of the and reflecting the concept of each class but earliest Dungeon World moves, originally there may be a place for a 17 Constitution written by Tony Dowler. The first version Wizard. If you've played enough to know looked like this (this version has been what you're doing with each stat feel free reformatted and edited for grammar only): to assign them however you like. When you wade into combat, attacking Another basic that's occasionally asked for your enemies, deal damage to the enemy is a way to make, say, fighting a dragon you're attacking, take that enemy's damage, harder. The best answer here is that and roll+Str. On a 10+, choose 2. On a 7-9 fighting a dragon is harder because the choose 1. dragon is fictionally stronger. Just stabbing • Prevent one ally from taking damage a dragon with a normal blade isn't Hack this round and Slash because a typical blade can't hurt • Kill one enemy of lower level than it. If, however, that isn't enough, consider you or deal max damage to this move from Vincent Baker, originally otherwise from Apocalypse World (reworded slightly • Put an enemy right where you want to match Dungeon World rules): them (drive them off, prevent them When a player makes a move and the GM from fleeing, etc) judges it especially difficult, the player • Divide your damage amongst any overhead chop." Then he rolls the move, number of targets you can reach with gets a 10, and makes his choices. Max your weapon damage is a clear choice and comes right from the fiction. The other options, The first problem with this move is that however, don't make much sense. If he one of the options, preventing damage, is chooses to divide his damage, how does far less useful than the others. Being able that flow from his one fictional attack? to outright kill an enemy is nearly always How did that one chop also hit the treant better than preventing that enemy from behind him? doing damage. The first major revision was to drop that option: Scoping down the fictional effect of the move lead to his version: When you wade into combat, attacking your enemies, deal damage to the enemy When you attack an enemy who can you're attacking, take that enemy's damage, defend themselves, roll+Str. On a 10+, you and roll+Str. On a 10+ choose 2. On a 7-9 deal your damage but your enemy does not choose 1. get to deal theirs to you. If you choose, you can take your enemy's damage and deal • Kill one enemy of lower level than double damage to the enemy. On a 7-9, you you or deal max damage to take the enemy's damage and deal your otherwise damage. • Put an enemy right where you want them (drive them off, prevent them Here the move now has only the effects from fleeing, etc) that could clearly follow from a single • Divide your damage amongst any attack. Any action that couldn't reasonably number of targets you can reach with lead to a counter-attack isn't Hack and your weapon Slash, so now the trigger matches the effects. Unfortunately double damage was a This left only three options which is a great bit much, so we changed it to this: number of options to have when a 10+ lets you pick two. The player making the move When you attack an enemy in melee, always had to not choose one option. All of roll+Str. On a 7-9, you deal your damage to the options are also clearly useful. But the enemy and take their damage. On a 10+ there's still an issue, easily the biggest issue you deal your damage to the enemy. You with this move: the fictional action doesn't can choose to also take the enemy's tightly relate to the outcome. damage to deal +2 damage.

Consider this situation: Gregor attacks an +2 damage is a clear advantage, but not a eagle lord with his mighty axe. He game-breaker. The only problem here is describes his fictional action: "I swing my that it reduced the effects of an attack to axe right down on his wing with a big taking damage. Monsters do so much more than just take away your HP; monsters hurl Changing the GM's agenda or principles is you about the room and destroy the one of the biggest changes you can make to ground you stand on, why can't they do the game. Changing these areas will likely that in response? require changes throughout the rest of the game, plus playtesting to nail it all down. When you attack an enemy in melee, roll+Str. On a 10+ you deal your damage to Play to find out what happens is the the enemy. You can choose to let the least changeable part of the GM's agenda. enemy make an attack to deal +2 damage. Other options, like "play towards your set On a 7-9, you deal your damage to the plot" or "play to challenge the players' enemy and the enemy makes an attack skills" will be resisted pretty strongly by the against you. other rules. The moves give the players abilities that can change the course of an This version (the final one) allows a planned adventure quite quickly; if you're monster to "attack" not just deal damage. not playing to find out what happens you'll That opens up a whole host of interesting have to resist the moves at every step or monster moves to be used. Now even the rewrite many of them. 7-9 result has choices to make and unpredictable outcomes. Fill the characters' lives with adventure could be rephrased, but it's hard to really Agenda, Principles, and change. "Fill the characters' lives with GM Moves intrigue" might work, but intrigue just seems like a type of adventure. Removing Changing the GM's side of the rules is an this agenda entirely will require major entirely different beast from writing reworking since the move structure is custom player moves. Writing GM moves is based on this. The effects of a miss and the the easy part. Since a GM move is just a GM's soft moves are all there to create a statement of something that fictionally life of adventure. happens, feel free to write new ones as you Make the world fantastic is maybe the please. Most of the time you'll find they're easiest to change, but it still requires just specific cases of one of the moves considerable rewriting of the class moves. already established, but occasionally you'll A historical world, a grim world, or a come across something new. Just keep in utopian world are all possible, but you'll mind the spectrum of hard to soft moves, need to carefully rethink many moves. A your principles, and your agenda and you'll historical world will require magic, be fine. Removing a GM move is also equipment, and several other sections to kosher, but you're probably better off be nearly entirely rewritten or removed. A keeping the move and just not using it. The grim world can only survive if the players' players won't know anyway. moves come with darker costs. A utopian world won't need many of the moves as An additional principle that some people written. Still, this is the easiest part of the prefer to add is Test their Bonds. This agenda to change, since it requires principle is entirely compatible with the changing the moves, not the basic others and with all the moves, but it structures of the game. changes the focus of the game somewhat. Fronts need to be rethought to work fully The GM's principles are more mutable with this, and you might need to add than the agenda but still can seriously moves that speak to it. change the game with only minor modifications. Address the characters, not the players; Make your move, but Monsters misdirect; Never speak the name of The easiest place to modify monsters is in your move; Begin and end with the the questions used to create them. The fiction; and Be a fan of the characters simplest changes have to do with adjusting are the most important principles. Without lethality or randomness to your liking. You these the conversation of play and the use could easily change just one question to of moves is likely to break down. add random damage to the game (if you Embrace the fantastic; Give every use random monster damage you might monster life; Name every person; consider having the players roll it so that Think Dangerous; and Give them you don't have to manage dice just for something to work towards are key to damage). the spirit of Dungeon World and fantasy How does it usually hunt or fight? exploration. These are changeable, but they amount to changing the setting of the • As part of large group, five or more: game. If you want to change any of these, 2d4 damage, 1 HP, Horde you may have to make changes to all of • As part of a small group, around 2–5: them. 2d6 damage, 8 HP • All by its lonesome: 2d10 damage, 30 Leave Blanks; Sometimes, let them HP, Unique decide; and Ask questions and use the answers are important to running Note that these changes also adjust Dungeon World well. They also apply to lethality slightly, you can play with the many other games in the same style. The numbers to make it more or less random as game will be diminished without them, but you please. the conversation of play will continue. These are also some of the most portable principles, applicable to many other games. They may even work in games with very different play styles. many alignments and won't always be opposed to the player characters. If you want to make Dungeon World more about indiscriminate killing of monsters that deserve it you might rewrite some of the questions, maybe adding this: License This work is licensed under the Creative The monster is Evil through and Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported through. Choose one to reflect why it's evil: License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0 • It's an intrusion of the Old Ones / or send a letter to Creative Commons, Beyond The Walls: Planar, +5 444 Castro Street, Suite 900, Mountain damage View, California, 94041, USA. • It's a product of the Old Wizards of the Red Tower: Construct, +5 HP • It's from The Time Before Man: Primordial, +5 damage, +5 HP

When creating new monster questions you can either reinterpret existing monsters by answering the questions for them again or only use the new questions for new monsters. If the new questions you add or change are key to your vision of Dungeon World its best to redo all the monsters you use, if the question only applies to a specific kind of monster anyway you can just use it for new monsters.

Special Thanks Contributors Jeremy Friesen