RPGaDAY2015: Perfect Game For You

After playing Dungeon World for years I've come to identify a number of flaws. Some, like everything about the undertake a perilous journey move, are comparatively simple to fix. Others, like miss results not always making sense/taking a while to come up with, not so much.

I decided a long time ago that, rather than keep playing and fixing someone else's games, I'll just make my own that do everything I want, the way I want it (of course they're not done yet, and until then I'll just have to make do with the games we got).

One of them is Dungeons & Delvers, which is something I'd originally started working on so that my daughter could play a simple dungeon crawler.

I'm pretty proud of it, not just because it's something I designed in the course of a few nights, but because even after numerous playtesting sessions it's holding up really well: I've only had to change the name of one of the stats, increase Wounds by 1, and need to tweak some of the talents. Minor stuff.

While I enjoy it, I don't think it's going to be the "perfect" game for me. I've been chomping at the bit to get back to something d20 proper; after several years, I haven't seen any benefit to playing a "story game" over a...whatever Dungeons & Dragons is classified as, but I don't like any of the official editions or clones as they are. 4th Edition was the edition that I enjoy the most as-is, which is why I'm hoping that a hack based on it will do the trick.

The idea is to take 4th Edition and, among other things, strip out much of the complexity (both from powers and feats), remove the pointless universal level-based bonus (seriously, what's the point), change pseudo-Vancian spellcasting to something that actually makes sense, do a kind of hit point split to better (yet still simply and somewhat abstractly) represent meat- and non-meat-points, and reduce monster hit points to speed up combat.

There are other changes and additions I want to make, but I'll talk about those once I get that project off the ground. I dunno if this will be the perfect game for me, but it's the game I want to play the most right now, so we'll have to see.

Announcements

The Druid has been released into the wild! It's an alternative to the "official" druid class. I've been told that it feels more flexible and playable than the one in the book, but you can see the entire core class, and about five of the advanced moves, so why not check it out?

Lichfield is available for public consumption. If you want a concise adventure with a Silent Hill feel, be sure to check it out! Primordial Machine is also out, so if you want to catch a glimpse of A Sundered World, now's your chance! Finally, we've updated If These Stones Could Scream.

The Dungeon World GM Screen is currently available in pdf and landscape insert formats. No matter which you choose, you get eight sets of pdfs that let you have access to the screen in both landscape and portrait orientation, in color or black and white, and with or without art.

We're waiting on the portrait inserts. Assuming they look good, they'll be available soon. They're now available.

Next up, mini screen!