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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Faolyn" data-source="post: 8415425" data-attributes="member: 6915329">Maybe I read the wrong thing, then. But on the Dungeon World SRD, if I click on the <a href="https://www.dungeonworldsrd.com/classes/bard" target="_blank">Bard</a> entry, I get a choice of racial Moves--and my choices are Elf and Human. If I click on <a href="https://www.dungeonworldsrd.com/classes/fighter" target="_blank">Fighter</a>, my racial Moves are Dwarf, Elf, Halfling, and Human. If I click on <a href="https://www.dungeonworldsrd.com/classes/paladin" target="_blank">Paladin</a>, I get one option: Human. If I do a search on DriveThruRPG on Dungeon World Playbooks, most of them are new classes (some of which sound rather interesting), but there's also "The Orc" and "The Fae" and other such racial classes. What this means is, I don't get to define what dwarf means in my game, because the game has already done so, using a race/class restriction that I hate. I know that this OSR-style restriction is popular among some, and that's absolutely fine, but I hate it.Do the DW books say or imply I can just make up new Moves if I want dwarf bards or elf paladins? If so, are there rules for that, or does "balance" not matter in this game? If the books don't suggest I can make new Moves, then what does it mean for my game?Yeah, but that's not the problem. The problem is that the book itself doesn't really inspire me. And I can--and have--defined the game world with my players using other systems, including D&D, Fate, and GURPS. So with Apocalypse World, I'm left with a meh setting and a ruleset that I find, quite frankly, confusing, counterintuitive, and strangely limited.I'll give you an example. I'm looking at the Moves Snowball, which gives an example of play and maybe you can explain what I'm not getting. We have a situation where the PC Marie is going to "give grief" to an NPC, Isle, and her brother Mill and lover Plover are there as well.Between this and the description for Read Sitch, I learn that it's supposed to be used in scenarios where there's potential danger, either on your part or the part of the NPCs. Does this mean I can't use it in any situation that isn't charged? I can't go into a room where people are just hanging out innocuously and where I have no intention of starting trouble and try to read the room? In comparison to any other game that has an Insight/Psychology/Sense Motive-type skill, this seems seriously limited. Does the game assume that nobody would use this ability unless there currently is or will soon be danger? Or does the game assume that there's always a potential for danger, no matter how peaceful the situation seems? The MC's response here--"You do? It's charged"--certainly indicates that you're not supposed to use this ability outside of potentially threatening situations. Anyway, Marie's roll succeeds and she wants to know who the most dangerous person in the area is:So I look up Misdirect.But... this is basically what nearly every practiced GM does. It looks like the point of this Move is to say "go after Plover," but it fails, because the PC attacks Isle instead. Does the MC's failure mean anything? Assuming I'm even correct as to the point of the Move, because the MC doesn't actually say.Also, I don't know why this is called misdirection, since you're (edit: not) trying to feint or lie here. The MC here is being very clear here and in later dialogue about the fact that Plover is a big bad mofo, and there's nothing to indicate that in reality, either Isle or Mill are secretly the most dangerous one and the PC hasn't found that out yet.Later on, we get this:What? How does Keeler know this? Did the MC here take over Keeler and force him to enter the armory in order to witness this? Does Keeler have X-ray vision and super-hearing? Are his gang members talking really loudly and narrating their actions? Are we to assume a third-person omniscient eye? I kind of hate this. If this were a TV show, I'd be rolling my eyes so hard right about now. Keeler's player should have to go into the armory to know what's going on, and if that means that that Keeler misses out on info if she doesn't, then oh well.Later on, Keeler's gang decides to attack Marie because she attacked Isle (I guess Plover knows that Marie is a psychic and was able to put two and two together when Isle started bleeding out her ear). The gang cuts open the top of her door at home and drop a grenade in.What? How is this misdirection? Is this game GM v. Players, but wants you to restrict your GM attacks to what makes sense in-game? It really looks like what this game calls misdirection is what every other game calls "describing what happens." Which would naturally be an explosion if someone drops a grenade at your feet.So what am I missing? Again, this is a serious question, not a gotcha or anything. I am literally not getting this.Yeah, and that's why I don't want to play Blades. To me, the setting is so important because it defines most of what makes my character tick. It's a major disconnect between the setting and the rules, and it makes me wonder why Evil Hat even included the setting in the first place. Why not make it setting agnostic, or make an implied setting, or set it in a more standard location? It feels to me like they had the setting and and the game and decided to combine the two.It's not that I would expect PCs to go investigate. It's that I'd use this setting for a completely different type of game. The world outside the city is a crumbling nightmare. It's your job to explore it. Demons and ghosts haunt the dark streets. It's your job to protect the commoners. Things like that.</blockquote>

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