Dungeon World is also based on the Apocalypse World rules, and on the dungeon-world.com page’s downloads there is a fan guide about the “philosophy” of running such a game, which depends on maintaining the back-and-forth flow that drives the game action (the GM introduces a situation or danger, the players get to respond to it with a Move, and the GM completes the situation as a result of player action.)
Maybe Sean can ask to borrow this essay and “sci-fi”-ize it?
Not to poo-poo this, but I feel like Uncharted Worlds already explains this much better, complete with diagrams. Twice, actually, if I remember the book correctly.
Well, good! I read UW thoroughly but any game can benefit from more commentary.
I hate to be negative, but somebody on DriveThruRPG made a negative review and made an abstruse point whose nature I couldn’t understand, but seemed to say some types of moves and risks were not paired up with experience-point rewards to go with them?
Regarding the post on DriveThru: While I don’t agree with them (obviously) they’re entirely entitled to their opinion. They were commenting about the removal of a system which they felt was necessary (GM Fronts from AW) and the implementation of Factions, Debt and Threats. The Fronts worked for them, and didn’t work for me, and since I didn’t include them, the reviewer is understandably upset.
Not quite sure what they meant by “player Moves don’t require rolls”, I admit.
As for “feeling and charm” comment, well, I can’t really speak to that. Different strokes.
It has little to do with XP.
Regarding XP: I didn’t tie experience gain to Move successes or failures at all. Rather, I tied experience gain to events and behaviors. Rather than being xp gained through mechanical interaction, the players can shape the tone of the story by dictating what kinds of events and behaviors grant xp.
For example, to translate Dungeon World xp to Uncharted Worlds: “A monster is defeated” is an xp trigger. This encourages players to behave in a certain way. “A mutually-beneficial pact is negotiated” is not an xp trigger. This also encourages players to behave in a certain way. UW just puts the choice of xp triggers into the players’ hands, trying it to their careers.