The Perilous Wilds
Summary
The Perilous Wilds is a supplement for Dungeon World that provides expanded rules for wilderness exploration and animal companions. The supplement treats animal companions as a special type of NPC called a "follower" rather than using the traditional ranger's animal companion mechanics. In Session 4, Shawn introduces these rules as the system being used to configure Monster, Brad's cat, as a follower character.
The supplement addresses a common problem in play where familiars and animal companions are easily forgotten or underutilized. By providing specific moves for commanding followers and tracking their capabilities through concrete stats, The Perilous Wilds makes these companions more mechanically relevant and harder to overlook during sessions.
Details
Follower System
The Perilous Wilds replaces traditional animal companion mechanics with a follower system. Followers have specific stats that define their capabilities:
- Loyalty — willingness to listen to commands
- Quality — how good the follower is at their role
- Damage — combat effectiveness
- Hit Points — durability
- Armor — damage mitigation
- Tags — descriptive traits that define capabilities (such as cunning, stealthy, or vicious)
- Moves — specific abilities the follower can perform
- Cost — a downside or requirement the follower brings
- Instinct — behavioral tendency that drives the follower's actions
In Session 4, Monster is configured with these stats: D4+1 damage, 3 HP, loyalty 3, quality 2, zero armor, with tags of cunning, stealthy, and vicious. Monster's cost is "freedom" (tends to wander), and the instinct is "gets distracted."
Command Moves
The supplement introduces specific moves for getting followers to perform actions, different from standard Ranger class moves. Brad notes that "there are different. A couple new moves for getting followers to do stuff." These moves govern how players direct their followers and determine outcomes based on the followers' loyalty and quality ratings.
The Do Their Thing move, which allows followers to act according to their nature and capabilities, is introduced as part of the follower command system from the supplement. The core follower move is called "do their thing," which allows a player to direct their follower to perform actions the follower is competent at. The mechanic involves rolling 2D6 plus the follower's quality rating, with quality determined by factors such as the follower's size. A result of 12 means the follower performs the task "as well as can be expected."
Advanced Moves
The Perilous Wilds provides different advanced moves for rangers than those found in the standard Dungeon World ranger playbook. Among these specialized options is Improved Companion, which allows rangers to enhance their animal companion's capabilities within the framework of the supplement's follower mechanics.
Wilderness Travel
The Perilous Wilds provides structured mechanics for wilderness journeys, which Shawn explicitly uses instead of core Dungeon World rules. The supplement includes perilous journey mechanics with structured rolls for scouting, navigation, and provisions management during wilderness travel.
Design Changes
The supplement removes some of the magical or cleric-like options from the traditional Ranger class, focusing the class more purely on wilderness survival and animal companionship. This streamlines the class identity and makes followers the central mechanical feature of ranger characters.
History
Session 4
In Session 4, Shawn implements The Perilous Wilds rules for Monster, Brad's cat. Brad works through creating Monster's character sheet using the follower system, selecting tags and stats appropriate for a cunning, stealthy feline companion. Shawn explains the reasoning behind using the supplement: "It's just more improved rules for the animal companion to make them a little, like, more useful. A little less hard to. Less easy to forget. As a lot of the classic thing is that familiars and animal companions are often the thing like, oh, shit. Right? You have a fucking talking snake."
Shawn also confirms using the supplement's wilderness travel mechanics: "I'm going to use the perilous journey ones or the perilous wilds." These mechanics are introduced as moves from the supplement, with Shawn noting: "These are moves from a supplement called the Perilous Wild, which I'll. I'll include for next time, but I'm just gonna read them off for now."
Session 5
During Session 5, Brad advances Monster and selects advancement options specific to the Perilous Wilds ranger rules. Shawn confirms which variant is in use, asking: "Because you're using the Perilous Wilds Ranger now, right?" Brad confirms with "Yeah," establishing that the advancement options available are specific to this supplement rather than the core rulebook. Brad selects the Improved Companion move as part of this advancement.
Session 10
The follower mechanics from The Perilous Wilds become directly relevant when Brad attempts to have Monster create a distraction. Shawn identifies the appropriate rule, stating "I figured it out by the way. It's the follower rules in the perilous wilds." He clarifies that the specific move is called "do their thing," and offers to send Brad a screen capture of the relevant page for reference.
Shawn determines that Monster's quality rating is +2 based on the size parameter in the follower rules. When Brad rolls for Monster's distraction attempt, the result is 12—the best possible outcome on 2D6. Shawn interprets this to mean that Monster performs the distraction as well as can be expected, demonstrating how the supplement's structured follower mechanics resolve commanded actions in play.