.02 Playing the Game

The Conversation

Play is a conversation about the fiction — no turns, no rounds, no rules for whose turn
it is to talk. GM says something, players respond; players ask or state, GM says what
happens next. The rules chime in too: every rule has an explicit fictional trigger that
says when it comes into play. Listening matters as much as talking — details others
establish can change your moves, set up opportunities, or create challenges. Build on
each other's contributions.

Ability Scores and Modifiers

• Six abilities: Strength, Constitution, Dexterity, Intelligence, Wisdom, Charisma.
• Scores range 3–18 (18 = peak of mortal ability).
• Each ability has a modifier (Str, Con, Dex, Int, Wis, Cha) ranging -3 to +3,
  always derived from the current score. Modifiers are used when rolling with that ability.

Making Moves

• The move is the most basic unit of rules. A move = a fictional trigger + an effect
  (a roll and differing fictional outcomes).
• When a player describes an action that triggers a move, the move happens — you can't
  take the triggering action without the move occurring, and vice versa. Moves and
  fiction go hand-in-hand.
• If it's unclear whether a move triggered, everyone works together to clarify the
  situation before rolling (or not).
• Monsters, NPCs, and beasties have moves too — they work differently (see Monsters chapter).

Moves and Dice

• "roll+x" means roll 2d6, add the modifier (or other value the move specifies).
• Basic outcomes:
  • 10+: You do it with little trouble.
  • 7–9: You do it, but with complications or trouble.
  • 6-: The GM says what happens — and you mark XP.
• Each move states what happens on 10+ and 7–9; most leave 6- to the GM (XP is always marked).
• Damage rolls use different dice depending on who/what deals the damage.
• The ✴ marks the beginning of an outcome ("On a 10+").

Moves and Equipment

• Equipment's most important role: helping describe moves. No weapon = no hack and
  slash on a dragon; good climbing gear may avoid triggering defy danger on an icy cliff.
• Weapons modify which moves you can trigger (dagger vs. halberd at close quarters).
• Items have tags — some with rules effects (armor, bonuses), some purely fictional
  (the close tag = weapon reach). Tags describe actions and tell the GM how items
  might cause complications on failure.

The Effects of Moves

• Move effects are always about the fiction — a 10+ on hack and slash means you actually
  hurt the enemy, not just numbers.
• Apply the effects to the fiction, then return to the conversation.

Some Moves…

• …"Deal damage": roll your class's damage dice; weapons add/subtract.
• …"+1 forward": +1 to your next move roll (not damage). Can be bigger or a penalty;
  may be conditional ("+1 forward to hack and slash").
• …"+1 ongoing": +1 to all move rolls (not damage). Can be bigger or a penalty; may
  be conditional. Always states what ends it ("until you dismiss the spell").
• …Give "hold": currency for making choices later, spent as the generating move
  describes. Hold is tied to the move that created it (defend hold ≠ trap expert hold).
• …Present a choice: choices dictate fiction, not just mechanics.
• …Let you say something about your character: e.g., spout lore may let you explain
  how you know something — contribute, but don't contradict established facts.
• …"Mark XP": add one to your XP total.

Harm and Healing

HP

• HP measures stamina, endurance, health. Class sets maximum HP; Constitution (the
  score, not modifier) modifies it. Permanent Con changes adjust max HP.

Damage

• Damage subtracts from current HP; armor subtracts from damage dealt (a blow reduced
  to nothing is fine). Damage never takes a character below 0 HP.
• PCs deal damage by class, weapon, and move. "Deal damage" = class damage dice + bonuses;
  a specified amount replaces the roll.
• Monsters deal damage as listed — for any direct harmful action, not just normal attacks.
• GM-set damage for other sources (collapsing tower, pit): d4 bruises / d6 spills blood /
  d8 breaks bones / d10 kills a commoner. Add ignores armor for huge, magical, or
  poisonous sources.
• Temporary/circumstantial armor: 1 armor partial cover, 2 armor major cover.
• Damage follows the fiction — it can be assigned even with no move, if the fiction demands.
• HP loss is often only part of the effect: specific harm (arm ripped from socket) brings
  fictional consequences beyond the numbers. Losing your head isn't HP damage — you're dead.

Damage From Multiple Creatures

• Multiple attackers at once: roll each creature's highest-potential damage die and take
  the highest single result.

Stun Damage

• Non-lethal. A stunned PC defies danger to do anything ("the danger is: you're stunned")
  until the fiction clears it. GM characters don't count it against HP but act stunned.

Adding and Subtracting Damage

• "+1d4 damage" = roll and add; "-1d6 damage" = roll and subtract. Damage never goes
  negative — 0 is the minimum.

Best and Worst

• b[2d6] = roll 2d6, take the best. w[3d10] = roll 3d10, take the worst.

Healing

• Two sources: medical aid (magical or mundane, per the move/item) and the passage
  of time (Make Camp for dangerous areas, Recover in civilization).
• HP can never exceed maximum.

Death

• At 0 HP the character takes their Last Breath immediately — no stat is added to
  the roll; Death comes for everyone.
• Death offers bargains — favors, tolls, sacrifices — and his whim cannot be predicted.
• A stable character stays at 0 HP, alive and unconscious; healing wakes them. If damaged
  again, they draw their Last Breath once more.

After Death

• You may ask the GM and party to attempt resurrection; the GM sets the cost. The
  Resurrection spell is an easier special case, but the GM still has a say.
• Regardless, make a new character at level 1 — a promoted hireling, a new ally, a
  vengeful relative, etc. If the original returns, play either character as the fiction allows.
• GM note: weave the resurrection cost into the game; it needn't be an epic quest — but
  Death never forgets a soul stolen from his realm.

Debilities

• Deeper wounds than HP loss. Six, each tied to an ability and giving -1 to that
  ability's modifier (score unaffected, so max HP is unchanged):
  • Weak (STR) — can't exert much force.
  • Shaky (DEX) — unsteady, shaking hands.
  • Sick (CON) — something's wrong inside; disease or wasting illness.
  • Stunned (INT) — knock to the head shook something loose.
  • Confused (WIS) — ringing ears, blurred vision, out of it.
  • Scarred (CHA) — you don't look so good.
• Most often from magic, poison, or stranger sources. You can only have each one once.
• Harder to heal than HP — high-level magic, or safety plus days in a warm bed. Also
  descriptive: if fiction removes it, it's gone.
• Debilities don't replace description — losing an arm isn't "Weak," it's having one less
  arm. A specific disease can have any effects you dream up; debilities are shorthand.

Magic

• Magic = abilities beyond the physically possible: elemental conjuring, divine blessings,
  shapeshifting, wizardry.

Spells

• Clerics and wizards access spells — each has a name, tags, level, and effect.
• The flow of magic: know → prepare → cast → forget.
• Known: cleric knows all cleric spells of their level or lower (incl. rotes); wizard
  starts with cantrips + three 1st-level spells, learns a new one each level, stores them
  in the spellbook.
• Prepared: even known spells must be prepared (via Commune/Prepare moves).
  Choose known spells whose total levels ≤ caster's level + 1. Wizard always prepares
  cantrips; cleric always prepares rotes.
• Cast: usually the cast a spell move. 10+ = spell takes effect. 7–9 = the caster
  is in trouble and must choose, but the spell is still cast. Some spells are ongoing.
• On a 7–9 a spell may be revoked or forgotten: still known, no longer prepared, not
  castable until next Prepare/Commune.

Character Change

• Characters gain XP and level up. Advancement is both prescriptive (sheet change
  → fiction change) and descriptive (fiction change → update the sheet). Not a benefit
  or detriment to anyone — just how Dungeon World works.
• Descriptive changes only when the character has clearly gained access — discuss as a
  group, no single player decides.

Level Up

• XP sources: exploring, fighting dangerous foes, gathering treasure (awarded at session
  end); acting per your alignment moves; resolving a bond and creating a new one;
  and immediately on any 6- roll. GMs may add or alter conditions (announced before play).
• With safety and a chance to rest, make the Level Up move.

Multiclass Moves

• Multiclass moves let you gain a move from another class, of your level or lower.
• Interdependent starting moves count as one (wizard's cast a spell + spellbook + prepare spells).
• If a borrowed move refers to your level, count levels only from when you first gained a
  move of that class.

Requires and Replaces

• Requires: you need the listed move first; you keep both.
• Replaces: you need the listed move first; you lose it and have only the new one
  (which usually includes the old one's benefits, improved).

Beyond 10th Level

• At 11th level, choose one: retire to safety (new character; establish your place in
  the world), take on an apprentice (play the apprentice alongside your character, who
  stops gaining XP), or change entirely to a new class (keep ability scores, Race, HP,
  and agreed core moves; lose all other class moves for the new class's starting moves).

Bonds

• Bonds make you a party, not a random assortment — feelings, thoughts, shared history.
  Always at least one; a simple statement relating you to another PC. Classes give starting
  bonds; play replaces and adds them.

Resolving Bonds

• At session end you may resolve one bond — suggest it, and if the other player agrees,
  it's resolved. Resolving marks XP.
• A bond is resolved when it no longer describes how you relate: circumstances changed, or
  the question it poses has been answered.
• Blank bonds can be filled or rewritten anytime (no XP, but more future resolution material).

Writing New Bonds

• Write a new bond whenever you resolve an old one — same character or not.
• Pick another character, something relevant to the last session, a belief tying you
  together, and an action you'll take about it.
• New bonds work exactly like old ones: use, resolve, replace.

Alignment

• Alignment is your character's moral compass and way of thinking — aspiration, strictures,
  or instinct. It guides you when unsure what to do. Detection spells tap the ideal self
  beneath. Every sentient creature has one.
• Alignments: Good, Lawful, Neutral, Chaotic, Evil.
  • Lawful — impose order on the world.
  • Chaotic — embrace change, prize freedom.
  • Good — put others before themselves.
  • Evil — put themselves first at others' expense.
  • Neutral — look out for yourself so long as others aren't jeopardized. Most
    creatures are Neutral.
• Same-alignment creatures can still conflict — two Good characters may fight over
  different views of right.

Changing Alignment

• Change comes gradually toward a decisive moment; when a character's worldview has
  fundamentally shifted, choose a new alignment — with a reason you can explain to the table.
• You may also switch alignment moves while keeping the same alignment — a shift of
  priority, not wholesale thinking.

Alignment Moves

• Lawful: Uphold the letter of the law over the spirit / Fulfill a promise of import /
  Bring someone to justice / Choose honor over personal gain / Return treasure to its
  rightful owner.
• Good: Ignore danger to aid another / Lead others into righteous battle / Give up
  powers or riches for the greater good / Reveal a dangerous lie / Show mercy.
• Neutral: Make an ally of someone powerful / Defeat a personally important foe /
  Learn a secret about an enemy / Uncover a hidden truth.
• Chaotic: Reveal corruption / Break an unjust law to benefit another / Defeat a
  tyrant / Reveal hypocrisy.
• Evil: Take advantage of someone's trust / Cause suffering for its own sake / Destroy
  something beautiful / Upset the rightful order / Harm an innocent.

Hirelings

• Hirelings venture along for money, glory, or stranger needs. To characters: help. To
  players: a resource and replacement characters waiting in the wings. To the GM: a
  human face anywhere in the world.
• Hirelings aren't heroes — until promoted, exact HP/armor/damage don't matter. They're
  defined by Skill(s), a Cost, and a Loyalty score.
• Skill: a special benefit, often class-adjacent (a Tracker fills in for a ranger).
  Ranked ~1–10; hirelings generally work for characters of equal or higher level than their
  highest skill. Skills don't limit what they can attempt — beyond-skill tasks just fall
  to the fiction and the GM.
• Cost: no hireling works for free. Unpaid cost (usually per session) → they quit or
  turn on you.
• Order Hirelings move: hirelings obey non-dangerous, non-degrading, non-stupid orders
  while paid. Ordered into danger/degradation/craziness: roll+loyalty. 10+ = they stand
  firm. 7–9 = they do it but return with serious demands — meet them or they quit on the
  worst terms.

Making a Hireling

• Note name, agreed cost, skills. Starting points by where found: village 2–5, town 4–6,
  keep 5–8, city 6–10. Distribute among loyalty, one main skill, zero+ secondary skills.
  Starting loyalty above 2 or below 0 is unusual. Pick a cost — done.
• Loyalty shifts with play: kindness/bonus = +1 forward; disrespect = -1 forward; unpaid
  cost = -1 ongoing until paid; great deeds raise it permanently; failures/beatings lower it.

Costs

• The Thrill of Victory / Money / Uncovered Knowledge / Fame and Glory / Debauchery /
  Good Accomplished.

Skills

• Adept — Arcane Assistance: aiding a spell below their skill level boosts range,
  duration, or potency (GM describes before casting); negative casting effects hit the
  adept first.
• Burglar — Experimental Trap Disarming: leading the way, they detect traps almost
  in time — they take the full trap, but the party gets +skill against it and adds skill
  to armor vs. it. Usually needs immediate healing; can disarm it by end of Make Camp.
• Minstrel — A Hero's Welcome: with a minstrel, you're treated as a friend in places
  of food, drink, or entertainment, and subtract their skill from all town prices.
• Priest — Ministry: Make Camp healing is +skill HP. First Aid: staunching wounds
  heals 2×skill HP, but you take -1 forward (painful and distracting).
• Protector — Sentry: standing between you and an attack adds their skill to your
  armor for it, then their skill drops by 1 until healed/mended. Intervene: helping you
  defy danger gives +1 — but a 10+ counts as a 7–9.
• Tracker — Track: studying a trail while Making Camp lets them follow it to the
  next major change in terrain, travel, or weather. Guide: leading the way, you
  automatically succeed on Perilous Journeys shorter (in rations) than their skill.
• Warrior — Man-at-arms: aiding your damage adds their skill to it; if the attack
  draws consequences, the man-at-arms takes the brunt.

The Adventurer's Life

Dungeons

• A dungeon is any place filled with danger and opportunity — dragon's cave, enemy
  camp, sewer, sky castle, the world's foundations.
• Dungeons are living places: cleared guards get replaced; everything you kill has
  friends somewhere. Don't count on anything.
• Prepare for the long haul — rations are your best friend; exits can be blocked, and
  lingering gives enemies time to rally and trap.
• Watch for traps; the thief is your best friend there. Discern realities works but is
  riskier than a skilled thief. Triggered traps may allow defying danger — good traps
  strike before you know they've sprung.

Monsters

• Monsters aren't all monstrous — a guy in armor who wants you dead counts, and so
  does the noble who stabs you with words.
• Fighting is an even bet: your life vs. theirs. Don't fight even — gain advantage first:
  find weaknesses, pad your advantages.
• Fights trigger hack and slash, defend, volley, defy danger, class moves. A defenseless
  enemy isn't in melee — hack and slash won't trigger; you just deal your damage.
• Types: humanoids, beasts, constructs, planar monsters, and the undead
  (the dead are damn hard to kill again).
• Survive with spout lore, discern realities, and knowing your class moves.

Wilderness

• The space between dungeons and civilization — and the line is thinner than you think.
• Road journeys are easy: consume rations, no moves. A perilous journey needs a
  trailblazer, a scout, and a quartermaster — with fewer than three people,
  something gets neglected, and that's an invitation for trouble.

Friends and Enemies

• Adventurers attract attention — not all positive, especially once laden with treasure.
• Lasting connection comes from doing right by people; coercion gets results but a bad
  reputation. Coercion isn't mind control — magic might be, at the cost of their free will.
• Track who has your back and who'd stab it — the GM is tracking too, and the worst enemy
  is the one you don't know.
• Know the settled world: the best blacksmith, the free inns. Station is power apart from
  might — killing King Arlon invites his kin, allies, and court.

The World

• The world moves without you: ignore the goblin infestation and someone else deals with
  it — or the goblins take the city.
• Your choices change the world; changing it requires acting on it — moves, treasure,
  exploration. Change feeds XP → levels → new abilities → back out to stir things up.
  A cycle of change and growth for both you and the world.