Dungeon World

[Messageboard Golem]

A world of adventure... locked in deadly darkness!

Dead to your friends, abandoned by the gods, your character awakes among the stone tunnels of an underground world. The dead find no rest in Dungeon World

 

[Lady Dragon]

The statistics-This book is a 192 page hardcover with a black and white interior by Fast Forward Entertainment written By Timothy Brown and James Ward as well as several others.It costs $29.99.

The Cover-The cover art is done by Larry Elmore. It features a beautiful female Drow holding a wicked looking polearm in one hand and she has a skull floating above her other hand.She is standing in front of what appears to be a stairway into the dungeon.

This cover is excellent as good as anything I've seen in the industry.Of course I'm admittedly bias since I think Elmore is the best artist in the industry.

Interior Artwork-The interior artwork in good and the maps are clear and easy to understand.I think they are computer generated.

The Idea-The premise behind this book is a campaign world that is similar to Ravenloft in that the character gets pulled out of his regular world after he "dies" and thrown into this new infinite Dungeon.The Dungeon is apparently an infinite plane located somewhere between life and death.The character has no equipment and is stark naked and somehow he has to escape from this purgatory.There is also a way for the rest of the party to join him fully clothed and armed.

The content-The first part of the book expains about the premise,how to end up there and about the conditions inside the dungeon.It also talks about the other residents of Dungeon world as well as its masters,The "Caretakers" They appear to be godlike beings that run the joint.Similar to the "Powers"that run ravenloft.Except these "caretakers seem to take a more active role in what goes on in the dungeon.If a character wants to escape back to his own world he needs to complete a quest for these Caretakers.

The first part also discusses clerics and how they slowly lose there abilities and lose contact with there deities.This therefore makes healing spells difficult to obtain.

Characters get to Dungeonworld when they Die and the caretakers then send them to Dungeon world instead of wherever they would normaly go.There friends can join there fallen friend if they can figure out what has happened to there friend.There big hint being that his body doesn't decay.

Campaign section-There is a relitivly short section on how to make this into a feasible campaign and how to add future supplements to this book.This section talks about living conditions in the dungeon and how to please the Caretakers.

Monsters-There are 5 new monsters that serve the Caretakers,They are the naughty ones,mud urchins,Rock Brats.Maze bullys and tattlers.They serve the caretakers in various fashions.I didn't find any of them to be exceptional.

The Dungeon-Starting on page 33 and going through page 181 is a massive 25 level dungeon.with mosters ranging from Orcs to Dragons to Demons,Devils and slaad.This dungeon features tons of treasure,lots of traps and varied enviorments.

The first level features 10 temples to deities from varied pantheons.level 2 is called the orc warrens and it has a Demonic leader.This level is important because it is the level the character(s) are most likely to start though there are 7 other possible starting points.Level 3 is filled with tombs etc.

Each room entry starts with a brief description of the purpose of the room.Followed by a section called Occupants with describes briefly who and what the occupants of the room are.If this is the first appearence of this type of creature the creatures stat block appears below.The stats appear to be typical D20 stat blocks.Next is a section labeled appointments which tells what furnishings are in the room.Finally each room entry has a section called treasure which lists what treasure can be found in this room.

mixed in are a few more new monsters of various types.and lots of interesting levels such as the remaining pieces of the Altlantean empire and a level filled with Duergar which is basically a small city. Lots of the levels feature specific monster types such as undead,molds and slimes or Slaad.There is even an aquatic level,several Dragon lairs and a hideout for a long lost arch-devil.

The quests-The book ends with a list of possible quests that the Caretakers could assign to the characters in exchange for there freedom and the right to access the portals out.

The faults-First I would like to say that I like this book and by pointing out the faults I am not saying its not worth buying just that there are a few problems that some DM might need to fix before they use this product.

First they give out waaaay to much treasure there is even an idol worth 1,000,000 gp.Ha! They also frequently use monsters and Magic items that appeared in some of Fast Forwards previous publications, and other than basic stat blocks they do not repeat them here in this book instead they tell you to referrance the other book.Of course a clever DM could always change the monster or magic item to something more preferable.

The biggest problem that I see however is they do not give any level suggestions.I personally think that the levels are meant for Higher level characters but the challenge rating are varied so lower level characters might be able to survive certain sections with a little luck.

Overall I think this book is a cross between Undermountain and Ravenloft without the horror.You have to really like dugeon crawls to like this book but then with a title like Dungeon world I think that Dungeon crawl lovers are the target audience,and if you are a member of the target audience I don't think you will be to badly disappointed.Could they have done better yes they could have but it still a worthwhile product,even if you only want to use it for the dungeon or for a level or two in a more conventional campaign.

Thanks for reading this my first attempt at posting a review.

Lady Dragon.

 

[Psion]

Dungeon World

Dungeon World is a hardback volume detailing a self contained dungeon campaign setting. Dungeon World is by Fast Forward Entertainment, who also did the Treasure Quests book and the Items of Power series of books.

A First Look

Dungeon World is a 192 page hardbound book priced at $29.99. This is a little on the pricey size. Fast Forward's own Encyclopedia of Demons & Devils bears a similar price but has 224 pages. Fantasy Flight Games' Dragonstar Starfarer's Handbook has a similar size and price ratio, but has better art and color plates. However, the interior of the book has reasonably dense text and fairly slender margins.

The cover of the book has the same grainy red background texture that all Fast Forward d20 system hardbound books to date have used. The front cover is dominated by a picture by famed D&D artist Larry Elmore depicting a drow elf woman bearing a spear and levitating a skull in front of her, against the backdrop of a stony staircase. The picture appears familiar and I suspect this same piece was used before in D&D.

The interior is black and white. Interior artists listed are Andy Hopp, Daniel T. Strain, and Tony Parker. Some of the interior illustrations are very good, including some dramatic action scenes and some panoramic views of sites listed in the book. Some, however, are not so good, and many resemble old public domain etchings and have a certain rustic look.

The interior maps are fairly decent and have scales and most have relatively simple keys (if any). The scale on most of the maps is rather large, which puts the responsibility on the GM's shoulder to provide details at a smaller level. Also, the maps are not too clear about entries and exits from the various layers, meaning you have to pore through the text to discover where precisely the entries and exist are between each level. There is, however, a side view which shows which levels connect to one another.

A Deeper Look
(Warning: This section contains major spoilers behind the concept of the book and nature of the adventures therein.)

Thumbing through this book in the game store may lead one to believe that Dungeon World is a multi-level dungeon complex like Ruins of Undermountain, Greyhawk Ruins, or Rappan Athuk. However, the story is not quite that simple.

The Dungeon World book details Nex, a section of another plane entombed in rock. It is somewhat difficult to navigate your way directly to Dungeon World; most of its guests weren't originally planning on going there.

How does one reach Dungeon World then? Well, at the GM's option, if one or more of the players are killed, instead of truly dying and having their souls transit to otherworldly planes, their soul may be drawn into the Dungeon World. The character in question arrives naked, bereft of all equipment and other possessions. Quite a pickle, eh?

If your whole party has died, you can in all likelihood begin your experience in Dungeon World with no further ado. But if only one or some party members are slain, the process of getting there is a bit of an adventure in and of itself. First, they have to figure out that their companion isn't really dead. One symptom that may trigger their suspicions is the fact that the body is not decaying and that (since the soul is now in a fresh body in Dungeon World) it cannot be raised or resurrected.

However, if the characters investigate at this point, they may learn that there is a strange purgatorial plane that sometimes draws in souls. Further research may turn up a spell called retrieve. The spell requires the body of the person whose soul is in Dungeon World, and causes the characters to join their companion. Unlike their companion, the newly arriving characters keep their equipment, as well as any infirmities they had in their native plane.

Other options are mentioned for getting to Dungeon World, but those seem less likely. The book waives the restriction on teleportation only applying to the same plane and states that you can teleport to dungeon world – at considerable risk. Planewalking to Dungeon World promises to be a time-intensive project requiring much research to find the right pathway. Finally, it is alluded to that some curses can place one in Dungeon World in a manner similar to having one's soul trapped their after death.

So having gotten to Dungeon World, how do you get out? Well, those who come involuntarily may arrive without equipment, but they do get one thing. Such characters mentally receive a quest that they are cognizant of immediately upon arriving. Should they complete the terms of this quest, they are immediately transported back to their own world.

These quests are the result of the Caretakers, beings that are never seen but watch over Dungeon World. It is apparently they who draw souls into Dungeon World, and the quests are ones that have some manner of impact on the society or creatures within Dungeon World.

Other than the Caretakers, there are a variety of portals that exist throughout Dungeon World. Portals are somewhat random, only returning the characters to their own game world about one-third of the time unless the character learns (and has sufficient magical mastery to utilize) the technique to control the portal. If the character is not returned to their own world, they may end up elsewhere in Dungeon World or be sent to a totally different campaign world.

Dungeon World's other major property is that it is somewhat shielded from the touch of the gods. Divine spellcasters who arrive in Dungeon World slowly lose their spellcasting abilities over time.

The pages that lay out the above details are actually a minority of the book. The majority of the book are the various levels of this section of Dungeon World. Societies have formed from those who have been trapped here, though in some cases the book is not to clear about how some of the denizens arrived here (though frustratingly, some refer to it.) It appears by some levels it is possible not only for individuals to be drawn into Dungeon World, but major sections of cities. For example, the first level described is the temple quarter of a major city; the temples were apparently drawn to Dungeon World during an event called the Night of Rage, but little else is said about it.

Other levels in the book include remnants of the legendary city of Atlantis, a lair dominated by various Duergar clans, a lair dominated by a curios cabal of necromancers, a level controlled by an evil wizard's school with tortuous entry requirements, a largely aquatic level, levels related to the four elements, levels infested by specific types of outsiders, and so on.

Each level has an encounter key and one map, as well as random encounter tables. The maps point out where portals lie (mostly well hidden) as well as arrival points. There are also new creature write-up interspersed through the chapters as needed.

The stat blocks are generally better than earlier FFE products, but there are still some head-scratchers and outright errors. For example, there is a new type of undead called the warriors of horus that have a constitution score and a corresponding hp bonus, but the incorrect HD type. In another place, there is an "11th level blackguard" with no listed levels in a core class.

Perhaps more annoying than this, I felt that if they were selling Dungeon World as a campaign world, they probably should have spent more time developing the state of relationships between different power groups, personality and motives, and so forth. Having the PCs as "strangers in a strange land" that mess up local politics is an old saw in SF/F literature and shows that would have been well deployed here. In this case, there were only a few cases where I saw these sorts of details important.

Finally, two other common FFE error pops up: inappropriate treasure and lack of level guidelines for levels or encounter areas. The GM would likely have to do a lot of preplanning to ensure that the party doesn't get overpowered. This applies doubly so considering that the party may have had a considerable impact to their abilities.

Conclusion

I found Dungeon World to be a rather refreshing idea, one that reminded me of various books and TV shows of my youth in which the main characters are heroes caught in a strange land. Though you could use it as a simple dungeon, the strange twists of the setting could make it so much more.

However, I feel that as wonderful as the concept was, it falls a little short of supporting the idea. Not only do lack of attention to details such as encounter difficulty hinder any GMs effort to make use of the book, but the somewhat dryly statted nature of the book leaves out some important details that would make a campaign in Dungeon World really hum. However, a fairly good GM should be able to brush in many of these details; Dungeon World is certain fertile ground for adventure.

-Alan D. Kohler

 

[JoeGKushner]

Dungeon World is something a little different in a campaign setting. The introduction compares it to Ravenloft and Spelljammer in that it’s a place to go in order to experience and explore different realms than your own and play with the rules a little bit.

The book starts off with the “The Nature of Dungeon World”, which provides the GM some basics. First, Dungeon World is its own plane. Light is rare because it’s underground. Time flows differently here depending on the GM. Weather and temperature vary depending on where one is in the dungeon. The world is fully three-dimensional because characters can move up and down. Food and water are rare. It’s also far from standard planes so clerics start to lose their spellcasting ability and can’t gain experience after a certain point. This section could’ve been expanded a bit to include notes about other divine spell uses like rangers, druids, and paladins who seem to remain unaffected.

Other information included is what type of people lurks in Dungeon World. Roughly, this is broken up into four main types. Newcomers, people who’ve just arrived, denizens, people who accept their fate, lost, those who will not accept their fate as being trapped, and escapees, people who’ve made it out of the rock.

People usually arrive in Dungeon World by dying. Powerful beings known as the Caretakers swipe the characters soul and place it in Dungeon World. There are a few other options for getting character to Dungeon World like planetravelling and even a high level spell, but death is most common. Those not interested in running a full campaign in this setting provide the characters with quick quests for the Caretakers and after said quest is done, the characters leave behind this strange world and return to their undecaying bodies. Those not given a quest have to search for a portal to escape and unfortunately, not all the portals lead back to a prime material plane so let the user beware.

One thing that’s a little unclear is if the character loses a level when he returns to his body. In standard practice, you lose a level after being raised from the dead, but in this case, since it’s a near death experience, do you punish the players with a negative level? If you don’t, then everyone will want to go to Dungeon World when they die. A chance to explore a new realm and not suffer an experience point loss? Sign me up!

Some of the options briefly touched on include having old foes already in Dungeon World. I thought this original as it provides the GM with a chance to use someone who may’ve fallen due to poor die rolling or to utilize a nemesis that the players thought gone for good, without being unbelievable or cheesy. After all, if the characters are here, their enemies can’t be too far behind eh?

The section on Dungeon World campaigns provides GMs with information that effects players directly. For example, rust and decay run rampant here and items will fall apart much quicker than they normally would. Despite arriving in prime shape with no wounds or even scars, characters will face the dangers of starvation and disease.

The bulk of the book is Nex, the so-called heart of Dungeon World. There are twenty-five levels here. A table shows which ones have starting points and exit points in Nex, but lack page references. In addition, there is no EL listing. This would’ve been perfect for determining what level the players’ wake up in. Still, the area reference is a useful tool for those wishing who’ve fully read the book and have assigned their own page reference and level references to it. The section that introduces Nex has a nice summary of the twenty-five different levels and can help a GM determine which locals are appropriate for his party.

Each section starts off with it’s level, name, for example, Level 1: Temple Ruins, general character, a brief description on what the level is and what its been used for, construction, information on what the walls and floors are made up of, doors, information on standard doors, environment, the weather around the level, and locations, which provide details that correspond to the map. The maps are generally high quality but may be a little difficult to understand their scale. For example, Level 3: Tombs and Guarded Places, has a black square off the map that states, 60’. Now if that’s the case, then the hallways and doors are 60’ as well which is strange. In addition, some maps suffer from having a background to similar in color to the maps that makes reading details difficult in some cases.

The levels give the GM with a wide variety of creatures to use but care must be taken as no Els are provided for the GM to gauge combat on. In addition, GMs must be sure that they want their players to acquire some of the magic that is just lying about at times. For example, in Level 9: Bug Tunnels, the starting area has a +4 robe of protection, two continual light coins and 4000 gp. Not bad for waking up naked from a deathly experience eh?

After the descriptions of the levels, there is a section entitled, Quest of Next. These twenty-five quests are good but brief examples of different style quests to escape Dungeon World that the GM can use. Each one includes a section to provide the players with a method out, as well as a section for the GM that provides information specific to the quest. For example, quest 2. Fungi Planting, provides the GM with a sickle that is meant to be used for harvesting fungi but is +4 with lots of bonus damage against undead.

Because single players can easily wind up in Dungeon World, a chapter on solo playing would’ve been great. Unless you’re playing a cleric, you’ll have to rely a lot of healing potions and other non-spell based methods of staying alive and some advice on how to do such things would’ve been useful for newer GMs or GMs who have newer players.

In addition to the dungeon itself, there are numerous new monsters scattered throughout the book. I would’ve preferred them all in one section. The first batch of beasts are the Caretakers inventions and includes the Naughty Ones, huge creatures that resemble moving boulders like the creature from the movie Galaxy Quest. Mud Urchins, gargantuan worm-slug like monsters that are sent to destroy whole communities and Rock Brats, irritants to warn individuals to move on and complete their quests. Other monsters are placed where they’re encountered like the Warriors of Horus, undead guardians, or the Wellwalker, powerful constructs crafted from the living Stairwell that attack with massive claws.

The book may be a tad on the expensive side for some. When Scarred Lands, and Fantasy Flight Games hardcover books are $25 bones and Dungeon World is $30, there are some choices that have to be made in how much you’re willing to spend. I’m not a great fan of the art style either. Many illustrations look to be taken out of Dover books in that they’re old line drawings. They’re not bad, but perhaps not the most appropriate style of art for a modern fan reader who’s more used to the visual aspects of RPGs. Thankfully, not all of the art is like that and there are several excellent illustrations. In addition, while the mechanics are better than previous books by this company, they are by no means perfect. Challenge Ratings, bonuses, and creation rules are wrong or just plane left out.

So what would this product have to do to get a five star rating? One, better D20 mechanics. This isn’t hard. It’s not rocket science. Two, better art. Three, better and more useful charts. Four, lower cover price. The price isn’t outrageous, but it’s not competitive with other hardcovers. If those four things are handled in the next book in the series, then Fast Forward Entertainment is doing their job and listening to feedback. If not, then people will continue to grouse about the poor job FFE is doing in the D20 market.

Dungeon World is an interesting diversion and if nothing else, provides the GM with twenty-five different levels that can be modified and added to any standard dungeon.

 

[Simon Collins]

This is not a playtest review.
Beware! This review contains major spoilers.

Dungeon World presents an unusual campaign setting set in a plane of endless caves.

At $29.99 for a 192-page hardcover book, this is slightly above average in price for a hardcover book. 10 of those pages are not direct game information, but the rest of the space is used fairly well. The art ranges from appalling to good, with most being poor (excluding the Elmore front cover of a female drow with floating skull, which rises well above the rest). The maps are dark and lack detail. Bizarrely, some of them show compass direction, which is kind of strange for the world concept. Writing style is basic, with regular editing mistakes.

Dungeon World is an interesting concept - a plane ruled by the mysterious Caretakers, completely encased in stone with no known surface. Certain characters find themselves transported to the plane after death, naked, cured of all ills, and set a quest by the Caretakers in order to regain life back on their home plane and escape from Dungeon World. This underground plane is populated by denizens who have died and been brought here by the Caretakers. The plane itself is currently believed to be infinite. It can also be accessed by planewalking, through portals, or via a spell or curse. The core area of Dungeon World, known as Nex, is detailed in this book, and looks much like a very nasty 1st Edition-style dungeon at first glance. This is where newly-dead PCs first arrive. Those who die in Dungeon World return to the land of the living as ghosts.

The book puts forward Dungeon World as a diversion for PCs from the main campaign world. Individual PCs from a party are picked out by the Caretakers for 'resurrection' into Dungeon World. The rest of the party may discover the PCs body does not decay when he dies, and seek out means to enter Dungeon World to rescue the 'dead' PC. They may help the PC complete the Caretaker's Quest, help the PC escape Dungeon World by other means or become trapped in Dungeon World themselves.

The book describes the nature of Dungeon World at some length - covering issues such as light, time, temperature, terrain, up and down, food and water, atmosphere and ventilation. Dungeon World is perhaps most notable for PCs for its lack of spirituality - Clerics begin to lose levels after more than a month's stay and these are only slowly regained even if they escape Dungeon World. The various types of citizens are discussed, before the book gives some good advice for introducing and integrating the concept of Dungeon World into your campaign setting. Another notable aspect of Dungeon World is magical items are less powerful. In addition, materials other than stone and gems are hard to find, and the effects of rust and decay on items is greater than in a normal setting. The denizens also suffer from the environment - such aspects as respiratory problems, skin conditions, poor nutrition, and depression run rampant.

Some further detail on the Caretakers is given for the GM - these beings seek to maintain the balance of power in Dungeon World, and set quests for newly-dead beings that aim to keep powerful entities of Dungeon World in line. This enables the odd ecology/politics of Dungeon World to be maintained. In addition, the Caretakers create five types of monsters to aid them when adventurers fail, refuse to help or are not powerful enough. These five 'Children of the Caretakers' are detailed with stats, and an explanation is given of how they use their abilities to keep the factions of Nex restricted within the Caretakers' designs.

The remainder of the book details the 25 locations in Nex. At its centre and connecting all the other levels is a demonic stairwell. On each side of the stairs are entrances to the various levels of Nex, with various areas ruled by demons, dragons, and giants, whilst others are the realms of fungi, bugs, undead, paladins and wizards. In addition, some levels are dominated by Elements - Air, Earth, Water and Fire. Each location varies in size, from many miles to a few hundred feet. The locations are detailed from a very 1st-Edition perspective with occupants, furnishings, and treasure mentioned, though the level itself begins with some notes on the politics and atmosphere. There are also wandering monster tables for each level.

The book concludes with some Caretaker quests - in essence, adventure ideas to set the PC on his entry into Dungeon World. These are described as if the GM was reading them to the player who finds himself naked and alone in Dungeon World as he wakes from 'death'.

Conclusion:
This is a clever and cohesive campaign setting, with meta-game implications that may suit many DMs and players, especially those who crave a good old 1st Edition epic dungeon crawl (though there are certainly roleplaying opportunities). However, there is an unsettling artificiality about the setting that annoyed me somewhat. It seems deliberately developed to pander to meta-game considerations such as the death of a PC, justification of underground ecologies and the need for adventure hooks. The setting deals with all these aspects very cleverly, but in a way that left a slightly bad taste in my mouth.

In addition, the various levels lacked enough detail for my liking - there needed to be far more information on the inter-relationship (both physically and politically) between the various levels to justify the deus ex machina of the Caretakers' influence. The idea behind leaving information sparse on each level was to allow the GM to fill in this information for herself - I felt this was a bit of a cop-out. Further, the errata that accumulated in reading through the text of the levels was quite stunning at times - examples of it have been noted in other reviews, but there was even a major mistake on the back page.

All in all, I thought Dungeon World was a great concept, let down by its execution. 1st Edition-like Dungeon settings are not really my type of thing either so I have to admit to a bit of bias here too. For those who like the concept and are willing to do a great deal more work fleshing out the Nex levels (and other possible levels of the GM's choosing), are willing to work out the creases of the rules and editing mistakes, and are willing to ignore (or revel in) the artificial flavour of the setting, there's still a lot to take away from this. For me, the concept wasn't good enough to forgive the poor execution.

 

[Canada_K]

The Bottom Line: Oh dear!

The Nitty Gritty Review:
The Premise: To put the concept crudely, Dungeon World is Ravenloft underground. It is an insulated dimension of endless rock, administered by the mysterious and all-powerful "Caretakers". The Caretakers take people from their own worlds at the moment of their death, to use them to fulfill their own incomprehensible purposes. The who, what and why of the Caretakers is left to the DM. Countless caverns and chambers are carved into the stone of this place, making it essentially an endless dungeon.

The concept is very cool, but that's about it.

The Game: The largest chunk of the book is spent detailing (I use that term loosely) 25 levels of the Dungeon World. Each has its own theme, for example:
- a level of duergar
- the lair of an ancient red dragon
- the lair fo an ancient blue dragon
- part of the lost city of Atlantis
- an extension of the plane of elemental fire
- a level infested with warring formians and spiders
- an aquatic level inhabited by warring tritons and lizard men
You get the idea.

The Look: There is good use of space throughout. There are a lot of words packed into this baby, and not a lot of wasted paper. The drawings are pretty feeble, and in some cases unrecognizeable. All in all I would say the art was terrible! The maps are also universally poor. They were probably meant to be printed in color, but in black and white they were far too dark, drab, and just plain ugly. A lot of them didn't have a compas or a scale.

What Works: As I said above the concept is a neat one. And level 25 was something truly unique, and I throughly enjoyed it.

What Doesn't Work: The whole thing is disjointed, inconsistent, and severely lacking in detail. I agree with another reviewer in saying it had a very distinct 1st edition feel... but not in a good way. Each room contained a monster, a treasure, and a description, and precious little else. Little to no time is spent explaining NPC motivations, or even giving them personalities. Another thing that troubled me was that these dozens of races on the different levels apparently don't interract. Obviously they have to, but there should be some detail in the book. Just because two levels aren't directly connected doesn't mean the inhabitants don't have frequent contact. There are two evil ancient dragons in close proximity, they should be fighting, spying, and undermining each other constantly. A paladin has set up an underground town of goodness in the same neighborhood as a well-established community of devils and an outpost of demons. Huh? There just isn't enough back-story here to make the encounters credible.

I suspect that each of these 25 levels was designed to be a stand-alone little dungeon, and that someone decided to shoe-horn them together under a very thin plot device. It doesn't work very well. The Ruins of Undermountain is an example of a sprawling dungeon that works, so I know it can be done.

The book is also burdened with poor grammar, spelling errors, outright rule violations, stat block inconsistencies, and things in the book that aren't on the map (or vice-versa or both). I'd say Dungeon World was poorly edited.

This book cost me $50 Canadian. For that money I was expecting a little more. This was my first experience with a Fast Forward Entertainment product, and I'll say now it will be very hard to convince me to try another one. Read the other reviews and draw your own conclusions, but I'm afraid I just can't recommend this one.

 

[Messageboard Golem]

By Bruce Boughner, Staff Reviewer, d20 Magazine Rack and Co-host of Mortality Radio

Sizing Up the Target
Dungeon World is a 187-page hard cover adventure/accessory published by Fast Forward Entertainment. Tim Brown and James Ward are the concept creators, while 9 others are listed in the credits as designers. The cover is done by long time D&D favorite Larry Elmore, interior work by Andy Hopp, Daniel Strain and Tony Parker and retails for $29.95.

First Blood
Let me begin by saying that this product has been on the shelves for a while and is one that I have picked up again and again but never purchased in favor of the Wotc accessory, hot pick, etc of the week. This was a mistake on some levels.

Dungeon World is a campaign setting, but it isn’t, it is an accessory for sure, but supplies no new spells, items, classes or anything new for your existing campaign. What Dungeon World is, is a campaign concept thought up back in the days of Spelljammer, Ravenloft and Planescape. These were prestige campaigns, explains Tim Brown from when he was at TSR, and had this gem of an idea percolating in the back of his mind for many years. It is a side trek for long standing campaign to give the DM a chance to breathe and assess where his own story is going without having to stop regular play.

Dungeon World is like Ravenloft in that it is a world-sized trap for your characters to escape, unlike Ravenloft, is that the duration of the stay in the adventure is as long as the DM wants to make it, whereas the Demi-Plane of Dread has no escape. It was also designed like Spelljammer in that it was a way to break up a campaign allowing time to segue into the next major adventure. And like Planescape, egress from Dungeon World is had when the party has found the correct portal or keys to leave, these being predetermined by the DM.

Because the Players are leaving their home plane, time can flow differently where seconds pass between departure and return or months, years or centuries could have passed. Characters can advance in level with the exception of cleric, who along with the other divinely powered classes are cut off from their deities and slowly lose their spell casting abilities and depending on the tenure in Dungeon World, their faith as well.

The milieu is a totally enclosed world, as advertised a world comprised totally in a dungeon. It is a way of having your players encounter races and creatures they would not normally meet (like kender or kzinti), introduce new players, or springboard into the next round in your own campaign by planting clues to the adventure ahead, a map, rumor, item etc.

The book moves in to living conditions and changes in a world where there is no sun to stimulate plant growth, atmosphere that grows stagnant and stale, little to no light and varying temperatures. The lack of access to divine providence and those denizens who are unable to leave, don’t wish to leave or those who would sacrifice their souls to leave. Language can be an obstacle until new arrivals adapt to whatever language the DM might wish to have as a common tongue.

Crippled players find their injuries healed, scars gone. Age is unaffected, but the deleterious side-affects of aging are returned to youthful standards. Disease is abolished when entering but players can contract possibly lethal infections there and return them to their own world. All players are naked and must begin from scratch to outfit themselves.

Differing from Ravenloft, Dungeon World has it’s own masters in the form of the Caretakers who arbitrate a characters arrival and possible escape from Dungeon World, occasionally granting quests to achieve a portal home or to some other destination the DM may wish to deposit the party to. The character’s original body is left behind in a suspended state resembling death near –10 HP. If this body is destroyed, the person cannot return to their world as anything but a spirit. Dying in Dungeon World can be returned to their original bodies or reincarnated to a different place to start over.

The book advises to be mysterious. Give the players what they want or need in carefully planned doses. Perhaps allow them to encounter an old character who had ‘died’ and been trapped here. Give them near-death visions to inspire them to act out your plot. But of all things, make it difficult.

Conditions for moving around and what they may find or could find and time in a world without days are described before moving into a few critters native to this world. A brief description of the heart of the world follows where the players arrive and data on the levels mapped out round out the book, with monsters specific to these level given within their respective chapters.

Critical Hits
As a way to increase player’s abilities break up the monotony of a campaign or just a way to impress recalcitrant party members that the DM is god; Dungeon World brings an impressive concept to fore. A totally subterranean world where the party can grow in experience or be spat out and returned upon ‘death’. A way to discover new friends or enemies or give your players needed growth outside of the regular campaign. A ‘Q’ world for the DM’s use, it can be a great tool to experiment with your own designs without disrupting the game greatly.

A wide assortment of familiar challenges dropped into a crazy quilt world with no up or down, rhyme or reason to give the players a direction to charge off into, they become totally dependent upon the DM (read: caretaker) to save them from this purgatory world and restore them to home.

Critical Misses
Weird Uncle Rufus has influenced me on occasion to go or not go with a particular product based on his recommendation. In this case, he unfortunately has made several key points on the sparseness of detail in the descriptions in the book. Fast Forward seems to subscribe to a less is more policy. While it allowed for more variety in the described encounters, it did not go into the possible depth of description they may have needed and left too much up to the DM.

Coup de Grace
Dungeon World gives me something I have wanted in a long time, a place to throw whatever monsters or races or cultures I want into a place that does NOT require I make sense of it. It could be a Monty Haul or a Jack Benny campaign, feast or famine.

If you are seeking a change from the same ole, same ole, this could be it for you. A little work on your part and this world can be the biggest rat’s maze your players could ever face.

To see the graded evaluation of this product, go to The Critic's Corner at www.d20zines.com.

 

[trancejeremy]

Dungeon World is a setting of sorts for d20. It's somewhat reminescent of Phillip Jose Farmer's "River World" combined with his "The Dungeon" (which he didn't write, but had his name on the novels for some reason I never really understood). Basically, when a PC dies, instead of dying, they go to Dungeon World.

It's a hardcover book priced at $29.99. (I paid $20 for it on ebay). It's 192 pages, though the last few ones are ads. It's an interesting product, one of the better ones from Fast Forward, but like most of their stuff, is somewhat flawed, especially when it comes to maps and d20 stats. (Though it's much much better stat wise than their previous products that I've seen.)

The art is also pretty ugly. The cover is by Larry Elmore, and is okay, except it's from 1999, and has nothing whatsoever to do with this product (and like a lot of his work, the face seems to look like a cousin of mine, which is disquieting). The interior art wouldn't be out of place from a book from the late 1800s. It's bad. Bad and nonsensical, almost. Though on the plus side, the paper quality is pretty good. And the cover and binding is also very solid.

Dungeon World is essentially what is sounds like, one huge dungeon. The first 32 pages describe the basic premise, the background, how to use it, etc. As mentioned, the basic premise is that when certain people die, they end up in Dungeon World. Presumably the PCs just happen to be some of those people. If they can escape Dungeon World, they can return to the living.

It's essentially it's own plane. It's run by mysterious beings called "The Caretakers". They usually leave the inhabitants to their own devices, but sometimes give some of them quests to perform. If they do, they get rewarded, which usually consists of letting them leave the place.

The most notable thing, and quite possibly most annoying, is that Clerics get screwed. There's no real other way to say it. Essentially, for each month in the place, they lose one level of cleric. This is pretty much permanent, even when they leave the place. They can regain the levels, but only by advancing as a cleric - they get one lost level back for each they level up.

However, there are a number of NPC clerics mentioned in the book. None of them seem affected by this, except when it comes to spells. But that is different than what the rules section implies. I would recommend that most people just ignore this rule, much like the writers seem to have. They also seem to have ignored the rule that all magic items' effectiveness are reduced by 1.

The bulk of the book, the 150 pages or so after the intro, detail the dungeon. While Dungeon World is apparently really really big, if not infinite, only part is detailed here (called "Nex"). More is detailed in future products (one additional book was just released).

This is where my main disappointment sets in. The 25 dungeon levels are pretty dull. There's a bunch of ruined temples (some of which are for Gods from the World of Greyhawk, which aren't open content, AFAIK). There's ruins of Atlantis (but this is glossed over), a level full of orcs, 4 levels for each element, some Egyptian tombs, a level for Duergar, a level full of Undead, one full of Slaad, one for Bugs, one for evil Wizards, one for good people (run by a Paladin), a couple with dragons, and a couple more I can't remember.

There were a couple nice ideas, like the Atlantean section, but they are implemented poorly and skimpily. The really memorable and legendary dungeons, like Castle Greyhawk or the City of the Gods or Undermountain have areas that are interesting or memorable or just plain cool. This really doesn't have anything notable. Take the Atlantis section. It's a remanant of the famous lost city. Except, you're not really told how many people live there, what the economy is, how many buildings. You just get a vague desciption of the major parts of the city. (It's greek like. Whee!)

They're also too static. Frozen in time. Each area is somewhat keyed like a regular dungeon in a D&D adventure. Like there is a corpse in section x. There's a woman kidnapped in section y (the number of people held prisoner is amazing!). That's not really realistic, nor is it very helpful if I'm going to use Dungeon World as a well, world, as opposed to a once through adventure. I would also have liked to have seen more dynamicism between the various levels.

Another problem is that they are very poorly mapped. Vaguely mapped, I should say, rather than minute, detailed maps, you just get a general, back of the envelope style map. The scale is just too big, usually one square = 50 yards, though in some cases more (up to a mile per square), and the maps themselves are tiny (usually only about 1/3 of a page!). So if you want to use this product, you'll have to come up with small scale maps on your own.

Though the maps are also poor, because once again, like in most of their previous products, the maps were apparently originally in color, then reduced to B&W when it was printed out. The resulting is a horrible, blurry mess. (Though to be fair, WOTC does the same thing, and I hate it when they do it too. Give me nice clear maps like in the old days of TSR).

Again, let me take the example of the Atlantean level. We get a pyramid shaped map about 3 inches by 3 inches. This has a bunch of vague drawings and numbers. Is that really an adequate map of a city? No. Not even close. There's also a rectangle, rather dark and blurry, about 1 inch by 2 inches. This is numbered from 1 to 10. What exactly is this thing? I don't know which is supposed to be the keyed map for the level, to be honest. Both suck as far as maps go.

Not to beat a dead horse, but Fast Forward still does not have a good grasp of the d20 system. Or the OGL or d20 STL. In many cases, they seem to still be using original AD&D things. For instance, hit points. In some places, Rangers have a d8 for hit points. Somehow, a 16th level Barbarian with 17 Con has only 78 hit points. They should have 60 hp just due to Con, and another 12 hp from first level. That leaves the character to have gotten 6 hit points in 15 rolls of a d12 (the average of one roll should be better). Hit points for a lot of characters seem low. In some places, you just have to scratch your head. For instance, some characters have a skill called "Spellcasting" (there is no such skill in D&D 3e/d20).

The whole thing makes me think that perhaps the people at FF should put away their AD&D books and pick up the 3e rulebooks for a good read.

Or maybe not. As noted, in some cases, they used Intellectual Property from WOTC that is not in the SRD, but from the Player's Handbook. Most notably the gods from the world of Greyhawk. Maybe not a huge thing, but it's something they should know better than to do.

So, basically, they've taken a really neat idea and really fumbled it. That shouldn't be a shock, they've done that enough that it could be their company motto. (Another motto could be: "We're the Cincinnati Bengals of the d20 industry")

The sad part is, the company is full of industry professionals. I'm sure they can do better. Unfortunately, they seem to take sort of criticism as a personal attack, or misguided, rather than listening and attempting to make better products. (I also think that perhaps some of their problem is they always have a legion of writers. When you have 10 writers for a book, things can get somewhat disjointed. AEG has the same problem with their line of one word d20 products, though most of their writers at least know something about the d20 rules)

That said, it is salvageable, like most of their products. And you do get a lot of text. Just be prepared to do a lot of work, especially maps and stats. D+

 

[Messageboard Golem]

Dungeon world is a campaign setting that can be used in several ways, but basically it is a place where characters go when they die... maybe. It features a world that hovers between the world of the living and the world of the dead, maintained by the mysterious Caretakers. If the characters have their wits about and manage to complete one of the Caretakers' quests (or their heroic comrades barge in to save them), it is possible to cheat death and return to the land of the living.

The product details a part of Dungeon world called Nex, which consists of a series of interrelated dungeons with a lot of strange denizens and several quests for characters to perform in order to escape from Dungeon World. Otherwise there is really no escape. If you die in here, chances are that you reappear somewhere in the dungeon, or else that you live on as a ghost.

Let me say it at once: I found the concept of Dungeon World exciting. It is a potential way of solving inopportune character deaths by giving the character a chance to come back to the living when there is no raising available. Or characters could be trapped there by other means (like imprisonment spells) and need saving. Or you could stage an entire campaign there, if you like the bleak and gritty feel that would be a consequence of the conditions described in the introducition.

The execution, though, is abominable. Many of the ELs are ridiculously high, especially since the characters are supposed to arrive alone and without equipment. The treasure is seriously out of whack, and many of the levels (including the maps) are poorly detailed and lacking in consistency. The product could usefully be mined for some cool encounters and NPCs but it's nowhere near presenting a viable campaign (or even a reasonable dungeon).

Let's take a closer look. After a short introduction we are introduced to the basic characteristics of Dungeon world. Obviously you need to eat, drink and breathe in this world, and all of that presents problems. The air is bad, the food is scarce and the entire environment is so depressing that clerics eventually lose their faith (and their powers). Still, clerics abound in the dungeon part and there is no mention of level loss, nor is there any mention of food sources for the inhabitants. Now I am not picky about dungeon ecologies but this severely challenges my suspension of disbelief.

There follows a discussions of ways to enter and exit Dungeon world. The default option is that you may end up there if you die (DM's discretion) and the only viable way to exit is to complete one of the Caretaker's quests. The Caretakers are not specified - all you know is that they are very powerful and seek to maintain the balance of the world. Really, I feel that they are merely a device of DM arbitrariness. If character actions disturb the balance of the world, a number of different creatures may be sent to harry them, from the CR½ Rock brats to the CR 12 Mud Urchins. Five new monsters are detailed, of which a few (Rock brats and Maze bullies) seem useful while the Tattler that screams to attract monsters if they detect strong deviances from a neutral alignment) just seem pointless.

The caretakers are a kind of gods, which I find to be a problem. If Dungeon world siphons off souls of dying characters for an indefinite time, this should concern the gods of the campaign world. Yet there is no discussion about how to integrate it into the cosmology and the mythology of an existing campaign world.

The bulk of the book is devoted to detailing a complex of interrelated dungeons called the Nex, which is described as "the heart of Dungeon World". Presumably the DM is supposed to detail other areas that connect to the Nex. It contains 25 levels of widely differing difficulty. Although they are all connected, each is described as a self-contained unit and the inhabitants don't seem given to wandering the levels (although many of them are quite small.

Here the main problems start. The levels are crammed with powerful characters and monsters, but there seems to be no rhyme nor reason to their actions. There are several CR 20 encounters but no discussion of tactics or goals of these very powerful characters. There is generally way too much treasure (which might not be a problem, since it is doubtful whether you can bring any of it out of the dungeon. The cartography is bad, and many of the areas simply don't make sense.

On the positive side, there are a number of interesting encounters and some of the art is good, with a haunting quality to it. Generally I think that this book would be most useful if you chose to run little pieces of it as a kind of dream-sequences. There is some kind of internal logic to some of the levels, but it the kind of logic you find in a dream. For a change of pace, some of the ideas could come in handy as mini-adventures, but as a campaign setting it is simply awful.

At its relatively high price I am tempted to give it an 1 but it has a number of redeeming qualities, so I rate it as a 2.