Dungeon World

Summary

Dungeon World is the tabletop role-playing game system used for this actual play podcast, where a group of friends play through adventures in a fantasy setting. As a Powered by the Apocalypse game, it uses 2d6 plus ability modifiers for moves, with results of 10+ being full successes, 7-9 being partial successes with complications, and 6- being failures with consequences. The system emphasizes narrative fiction-first gameplay where players describe what their characters do and the GM calls for appropriate moves, with structured mechanical rewards tied to role-playing and reflection.

The show blends extensive casual conversation and out-of-character banter with collaborative storytelling, featuring heavy emphasis on character-driven narrative, economic negotiations, and the consequences of player choices in a morally gray setting. The campaign follows a party of adventurers navigating a harsh world filled with dangerous creatures, shady deals, and frontier settlements.

Core to the game are its end-of-session mechanics, which allocate experience points based on alignment fulfillment, bond resolution, and collective achievements. Characters track relationships through bonds, pursue specific alignment goals, and earn experience points that contribute toward leveling up and gaining new moves. Players need eight experience points to reach their first level-up, after which the requirement increases to seven plus their current level.

This campaign modifies standard Dungeon World rules through The Perilous Wilds supplement, particularly affecting how animal companions and Followers function. The modified Ranger class has had certain magical abilities removed while retaining core moves like wild empathy.

Cast

• Shawn — Game Master
• Abdul — plays Sucks
• Brad — plays Vasso (fighter)
• Dayna — plays Cat (ranger)
• Erin — plays Safia (paladin)

Setting

The campaign takes place in a harsh fantasy world where adventurers navigate dangerous territories, frontier settlements, and mysterious underground locations. The world features strange creatures like The Sniff Lord, described in Session 4 as "a mighty and feared minor God of a shitty tunnel under the ground," and mysterious elements such as purple goo and access key cards that suggest a blend of traditional fantasy with unusual technological or magical elements.

The party's current narrative arc involves a job for Louise Guzman, who hired them to recover a stolen book. This quest has led them through encounters with various creatures and discoveries in underground passages, establishing a setting where economic transactions and morally ambiguous choices shape the story as much as combat and exploration.

Details

Experience and Leveling

Dungeon World awards experience points through multiple channels. As Shawn explained in Session 3, "once you get seven plus your current level. So once you guys get eight experience, that means that you can spend all of those points to level up and get a new move." The experience system encourages specific play patterns: Shawn noted that alignment provides "a way to play your character. If you want experience is to consider ways that you might play into your alignment."

Alignment System

Each character has an alignment that defines conditions for earning experience. The alignments demonstrated in Session 3 include good, chaotic, and neutral. Characters earn experience when they fulfill their alignment-specific conditions during play. Vasso's chaotic alignment required breaking an unjust law to benefit another, Safia's good alignment involved endangering herself to heal another, and Sucks's neutral alignment focused on bringing someone to justice.

Bond Mechanics

Bonds track relationships between characters and provide another source of experience. At the end of each session, players evaluate whether their bonds have been resolved or changed significantly. As Shawn explained, bond resolution "requires both players to agree that the relationship has changed." In Session 3, Sucks and Safia resolved a bond when their relationship shifted from Safia being "smarter than Sucks and [he] has much to learn from [her]" to a new dynamic after Safia consumed the parasite voluntarily.

Collective Experience

The system awards experience to the entire party for shared accomplishments. Shawn posed three End of Session Questions in Session 3:

• "Did we learn something new and interesting about the world?"
• "Did we overcome a notable monster enemy?"
• "Did we loot a memorable treasure?"

Each affirmative answer grants one experience point to every character, encouraging collaborative play and shared narrative focus.

Equipment and Shopping

Shawn links players to the SRD equipment pages as the canonical source for shopping in the campaign. During Session 4, Shawn noted that "there is some kind of basic stuff if you want" and specifically recommended the dungeon gear section as "a good place to look for things that might be useful." The equipment lists include standard dungeon gear and extend to unusual offerings such as castles and various services. By directing players to these official lists, Shawn ensures consistency in item availability and pricing.

History

Session 3

The end-of-session mechanics were thoroughly explained and executed during this session. Shawn introduced the procedure: "End of session questions are something that you do at the end of a session to kind of go over what happened. And allocate experience for achieving a number of things."

The group worked through each character's alignment conditions. Katniss (Dayna) fulfilled a chaotic alignment condition, Vasso (Brad) achieved a chaotic condition by breaking into the temple, Safia (Erin) met a good alignment requirement by healing Sucks, and Sucks did not fulfill his neutral alignment condition as he had not yet brought anyone to justice.

Bond resolution occurred between Sucks and Safia, with both Abdul and Erin agreeing that their characters' relationship had changed after Safia voluntarily consumed the parasite. This resolution earned both characters one experience point.

For the collective questions, the party determined they had learned something new about the world (the parasite and its origin), had not overcome a notable monster or enemy, and had not looted memorable treasure. This resulted in one collective experience point for all characters, bringing the session's total experience awards to between two and three points per character depending on individual alignment fulfillment.

Session 4

The mechanical framework of Dungeon World facilitated the party's creative problem-solving throughout this session. The system's 2d6 resolution appeared repeatedly in play when Shawn called for rolls using different ability scores. During social encounters, Shawn requested "a defy danger charisma" check, demonstrating how the system's basic moves apply across different fictional situations through the fiction-first approach where players describe actions before mechanics are invoked.

The modified Ranger rules from The Perilous Wilds came into focus as Brad discussed how animal companions work in this version of the game. According to Brad, "with the perilous wild rules, instead of just being like the ranger's animal companion, like, monster is actually a Special kind of NPC called a Follower that you get access to." The conversation confirmed that wild empathy remains available as a ranger move option—Brad noting "Wild Empathy is still a choice in this"—while the campaign has removed some options from the ranger, specifically "the magicy stuff."

Wisdom-based moves appeared when Shawn called for "2d6 wisdom" rolls, showing how different character abilities key off different stats in the core resolution system. Abdul, Erin, and Dayna's characters all engaged with various Dungeon World mechanics throughout the session, with the narrative-first approach allowing players to describe their intentions and actions organically before moves were triggered.

During the party's downtime in Rex Tree, Shawn linked the equipment page to the players, establishing it as the shopping reference for the session. The players—Abdul, Brad, Erin, and Dayna—were directed to consult these lists for any purchases they wished to make while the party prepared for their next venture.

Episode: "Session 6"

Session 6 opens with extensive inventory management and economic planning, as the party discusses purchasing supplies and equipment. The session demonstrates the group's typical balance of practical logistics and character roleplay, with players tracking their limited coin and debating the merits of various purchases. Abdul considers buying a shield, while Vasso contemplates armor upgrades, highlighting the campaign's focus on resource management in a harsh world where every copper piece matters.

The party engages in market transactions and social encounters, with Safia participating in negotiations and character interactions. The session includes the group's characteristic blend of in-character dramatic moments and extensive out-of-character discussion, as players work through mechanical questions about equipment, movement, and character abilities. The conversation frequently shifts between game rules clarification and narrative scenes, maintaining the show's established pattern of collaborative problem-solving at the table.

Throughout the episode, the party continues dealing with the consequences of their previous decisions while planning their next moves. The session reinforces the campaign's emphasis on player agency and choice, as the group weighs different courses of action and their potential outcomes. The mechanical focus on inventory and equipment serves the broader narrative of adventurers struggling to survive and advance in a dangerous world where preparation and resources can mean the difference between success and failure.

Episode: "Session 7"

Session 7 demonstrated the full range of Dungeon World's move-based resolution system through a violent confrontation in the marketplace. The encounter showcased multiple core mechanics in rapid succession, from investigation moves to combat to social intervention attempts.

Brad used Trap Expert to survey the dangerous market situation, with the move requiring a roll "plus decks" (Dexterity). Dayna triggered Hack and Slash when Safia attacked the Pine Cone Man, demonstrating the damage exchange mechanic where a 7-9 result meant dealing damage while also taking damage in return. Erin invoked I Am the Law, attempting to stop the fighting through divine authority. The 7-9 result gave the Pine Cone Man three options: "do what you say, back away cautiously, then flee. Attack you," showcasing how the system creates meaningful choices even on partial successes.

The episode also highlighted Cast a Spell mechanics, with explicit discussion of how rotes function and the consequences of failed casting: "Your casting distances you from your deity. Take minus one ongoing to cast a spell until you commune." Shapeshifting mechanics came into play for Safia, particularly the risk of transformation breaking under damage: "You'd have to take two damage because monster goes absolutely feral." The session reinforced the system's integration of narrative consequences with mechanical outcomes, showing how fictional positioning triggers moves and how partial successes create complications that drive the story forward.

Episode: "Session 9"

Session 9 demonstrated Dungeon World's narrative-first design philosophy, with the system operating invisibly in the background as framework rather than focal point. No explicit move calls, dice rolls, or mechanical resolutions were discussed during the episode, allowing the fiction to flow uninterrupted through character conversations and decision-making moments.

The session's focus on social interactions, information gathering, and strategic planning showcased how Dungeon World supports extended roleplay sequences without requiring constant mechanical intervention. The system's conversation-based structure enabled the party to navigate complex negotiations around Vasso's fate, explore Safia's medical knowledge, and process the political implications of recent events without breaking immersion for rules discussions.

Episode: "Session 10"

Session 10 features extensive meta-discussion about Dungeon World's accessibility and suitability for different play contexts. The group explores how the system's streamlined mechanics make it ideal for one-shots and corporate team-building events, with Shawn explaining that "a fight can literally be one roll if you want it to be," contrasting this with more tactical systems where combat "can take a long time with like four players." Abdul positions it as "a good starting point, I think, for a lot of people," while Dayna emphasizes its low barrier to entry, noting players "don't have to have a million pieces of dice" and don't have to "do math all the time."

The session also establishes specific magical constraints within the campaign setting. The group confirms only two wizards exist in the entire world, and that Vasso and Shy are "the only shapeshifters that we've encountered," though the campaign is "starting to interact with people who are fucking with spirit stuff, but not full shapeshifters." This deliberately low-magic approach defines the boundaries of supernatural abilities available in their world.

The conversation addresses how controversy surrounding co-creator Adam Koebel has affected community perception of the system. Shawn describes "the kind of miasma that surrounds Dungeon World now because of Adam Coble" and notes hesitance about starting new Dungeon World projects. However, the group affirms their commitment to continuing the campaign, with Shawn emphasizing that "it's not his system anymore. It's like the communities basically" since "it was the product of a lot of different people's work." When players previously messaged asking if the group planned to "switching systems" after the controversy, they said no, affirming the system's community ownership.

Episode: "Session 11"

Character advancement mechanics take center stage in Session 11 as multiple players level up their characters. The session provides detailed exploration of how Dungeon World's advancement system works in practice, particularly the process of selecting class moves and spells.

Brad, Erin, Dayna, and Abdul all engage with the leveling mechanics, with Shawn guiding them through their options. The discussion reveals the structure of the wizard spell system, where spells are organized by level and wizards gain access to increasingly powerful options as they advance. Players examine first-level spell options including utility choices like Unseen Servant, which can carry three load worth of items, alongside combat-oriented spells like Charm Person and Invisibility.

The ranger class receives attention through the Viper Strike move, which allows striking "an enemy with two weapons at once, add an extra 1d4 damage." This demonstrates the system's approach to tactical options with defined mechanical benefits that scale appropriately with character advancement.

Seasons

Information about specific seasons and their structure will be updated as the campaign progresses.