Dungeon World Gets New Owners, Second Edition Planned

Luke Crane has purchased Dungeon World from its original creators and has plans to make a new edition of the game. Earlier this month, Crane, who previously designed The Burning Wheel and Mouse Guard Roleplaying Games, announced on the Dungeon World+ discord that he had "bought the game from the original creators" (Adam Koebel and Sage LaTorra) with a business partner and was preparing to work on a new edition. Crane did not specify whether either Koebel or LaTorra would be involved in the new edition.

Dungeon World's first edition won several awards when released in 2012, including the 2012 Golden Geek RPG of the Year and the Ennie Awards for Best Rules Gold Winner in 2013. The game was a Powered by the Apocalypse system in which players gained experience points when rolling a 6 or below on a check (which resulted in "trouble" occurring on the check and the opportunity for the DM to make a DM move. The game's co-creator Adam Koebel was a prominent creator and early TTRPG personality until accusations emerged of poor behavior by former partners.

Crane was previously the head of community at Kickstarter and attempted to run a campaign for The Perfect RPG zine back in 2021. He cancelled the campaign after it emerged that Koebel was involved with the project and later resigned from his job as a result of the backlash.

 

[Greg K]

I am fine with getting rid of hit points and D&D stat names. At the same time, I am not, necessarily, sold on the new stat names either.

 

[SteveC]

I am fine with getting rid of hit points and D&D stat names. At the same time, I am not, necessarily, sold on the new stat names either.

Using the same Ability Scores and keeping hit points (although on a much compressed scale) was what made the game for me. There are a bunch of other fantasy PbtA games (and I own Chasing Adventure, so that's an example). This change takes Dungeon World from a game you can show to D&D players and have a different but familiar experience and replaces it with ... PbtA fantasy.

Now I'll look at the game, of course, since Dungeon World has a lot recommending it, but this kind of unsold me, unfortunately.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

Man, this really doesnt seem to hit the mark for what I want from a refreshed DW at all. Those stats are pretty uninspiring too. (which yes I know they've said this is a different game that just happens to use teh same name)

Maybe when he gets Stonetop finished (lol), Jeremy can finish fleshing out HBW into the "D&D fantasy novel narrative tropes" game that I really want to play. It's like 85% of the way there already.

Over on the Stonetop Discord Jeremy answered this question just yesterday, by basically saying he needs to finish Stonetop before any other project can take up his brain. (but also acknowledged that a conversation with the new publishers did happen)

 

[zakael19]

Over on the Stonetop Discord Jeremy answered this question just yesterday, by basically saying he needs to finish Stonetop before any other project can take up his brain. (but also acknowledged that a conversation with the new publishers did happen)

Yup, I saw a bunch of his feedback in the DW discord & over in Stonetop (the latter being my primary game rn and the most fulfilling experience I've had gaming).

 

[Aldarc]

To be honest, I'm not sure how I feel about some of these changes, and the new stat names kind of fall flat for me.

Pity. Dungeon World was the only PbtA game that really worked for me. So many good times, great memories. It thrived in its simplicity. Saddens me to see it go the same path as other PbtA games. But that seems to be what people want so… that’s that. Good for everyone involved I guess!

There are other PbtA games that use the DW framework: see Freebooters on the Frontier and Stonetop. I recommend both of them. Likewise, Homebrew World is a cleaned up version of Dungeon World meant for shorter games.

 

[schneeland]

More blog updates on the new direction of Dungeon World 2:

• The Problem with Hit Points
• Stats, Conditions, and Defying Danger in Dungeon World 2

Thanks for sharing! It turns out, this really will not be for me. But as you say, there's other games that might be a better fit.

 

[darkbard]

I'm reserving judgment until the game is finished, when we have an integrated whole and see how the final iterations of these design choices fit into that whole.

 

[Aldarc]

I'm reserving judgment until the game is finished, when we have an integrated whole and see how the final iterations of these design choices fit into that whole.

I think that's fair; however, I also think that some judgments should be made for a game that is in alpha+beta testing, especially if they raise any red flags.

 

[darkbard]

I think that's fair; however, I also think that some judgments should be made for a game that is in alpha+beta testing, especially if they raise any red flags.

Absolutely! And for this reason I encourage those who have an investment in a new iteration of the game to sign up and get involved through playtesting, feedback, and so on. Even just joining the Discord and directly communicating there with the designers is a useful way to communicate community desires.

 

[Elvish Lore]

The fact that it is distancing itself from OSR is a big win for me. I never loved DW 1e because of how closely it adhered to really archaic ideas.