So, I’ve been working on a heroic fantasy hack of the *W engine for a while now, and because a week of my free time…

So, I’ve been working on a heroic fantasy hack of the *W engine for a while now, and because a week of my free time was conveniently lining up with me having a playable draft of the game ready to present, I asked my good friend Grady Wright to wrangle together some people together to run a playtest. He decided to one-up me on that, and gave me six straight days of playtesting, for which I am eternally grateful. A public “beta” release should be coming sometime soon (all the GM documents are entirely in my head, as I was prioritizing getting the players able to play), but in the meantime I thought I’d give a short introduction of the system, and share some of the highlights from this past week.

Adventure World is a game about stories. You know the ones. There are good guys, and bad guys, epic action sequences, situational comedy, and a band of disparate heroes who must learn put aside their differences to achieve their dreams. The currently-existing Archetypes are as follows (3 more are planned, but not nailed-down in concept yet):

The Hero, with a powerful artifact of the player’s description and a tendency to get thrown into dramatic plots. The Hero is the only playbook to start with a +3 to the MOXY stat, which allows them to leap into incredible danger and come out with nary a scratch, assuming the dice cooperate.

The Sage, who has a terrible Grim Portent (of the player’s design!) that will usually become the centerpiece of the plot. The Sage’s role is to guide others into doing what they need, while occasionally resorting to a variety of very powerful — but very dangerous — magics.

The Scoundrel, who has a nasty reputation and a pocketful of dirty tricks ranging from lockpicks to hidden weapons to second identities.

The Slayer, who likes to stick sharp things into other things. The Slayer is the ultimate killer who carries (count ’em) one massive oversized weapon, two practical hand weapons, two strange-yet-useful specialized weapons, and one emergency backup weapon.

The Vassal, who has made a bargain with a being of great power, be it benevolent diety or terrible demon. Unlike the other magic-users, the Vassal must first ask for their power, and the price they pay may end up exceeding any potential reward.

The Veteran, who is too old for this shit. Carrying a symbol of what they have lost, be it a missing eye or a broken heart, the Veteran frequently gets dragged into the antics of their less experienced allies.

The Witch, who dabbles in dark and dangerous magic. The Witch has a classic spell list, but the play gets to write the entire list from scratch, with the Research a Spell move creating a wide variety of strange, wondrous, and delightfully complication-causing magical powers. Just make sure to keep an eye on the Witch, because if they dig too deep, they just may be swallowed by the darkness.

Some interesting new mechanical ideas include Threads, written-down personal goals that serve as a way for the players to create their own Fronts which the GM then challenges, and Trust, which is mechanically identical to Hx, except the systems that interact with it create a mechanical emphasis on heroes slowly learning to come to terms with their differences as they all have their “Big Damn Heroes” moments saving each others’ skins. Another interesting experiment is the Fatigue/Exhaustion mechanic, in which heroes are slowly worn down by all the action and excitement, and the Wounds/Conditions system that ties into this by causing a wounded character to wear themselves out faster by pushing themselves too hard.

Since this is already a pretty long post, I’ll take a break and come back with highlights reel in a separate post.