Painting the Dungeon Red

Get the next Alpha!

Dungeon World 2's Alpha vRed is here! Read through it, play it, and let us know what you think of it.

What is This Update?

As we said two weeks ago, Alpha Red isn't a step forward, as much as a step to the side. This isn't an abandonment of Alpha v1 (now called Blue), but another experiment to see how much of Dungeon World's other extreme, D&D-like aesthetics, terms, and mechanics, we can use while still creating "narrative-focused found family fantasy adventure" experiences. Here is what that looks like in general:

• HP and Damage dice have been added to the game. HP is determined by Class and Armor. Damage is determined by weapon.
• Conditions now focus much more on emotions. “Crossing” a condition has been removed as a game mechanic.
• Stats have been changed to Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma.
• Defiance has been removed and Defy Danger has been re-added, though this version uses CON instead of a variable stat.
• Affinity has been removed. Now when you Aid a Companion you either mark your Bond with them or mark a condition.
• Burdens have been removed.
• The Cleric, Fighter, and Thief have been significantly overhauled. The Bard and Wizard have been tweaked.
• Group Advancement has been simplified to a single track of Progress
• Hyperlinks within the document have been fixed.
• Items and Equipment have been revamped, and Load has been reintroduced
• Drives have been reworked to Ambitions
• New Character Moves related to Ambitions and Conditions have been added
• Magic Items have been removed while we test an alternate Equipment system
• Bare Your Soul has been removed as a core move
• Threats in the GM section have been renamed Dangers
• Advantage and Disadvantage now upgrade/downgrade the results when stacked

Q&A Stream

On Wednesday Oct 1 at 2pm EST (2 weeks after this post) there will be a Q&A stream where both Helena and Spencer will discuss and answer your questions live at twitch.tv/dungeonworld2. Feel free to send us questions in advance by email, reddit, or discord. The last Q&A stream went really well, and we think this one can be even better!

What's Next

We're going to take a short break, listen to your feedback (seriously, the form is our best way to hear from you), and then get to work on the next Alpha update!

And yes, we've already internally started calling the next update Purple.

Thanks for reading,

Spencer and Helena