Welcome to Beta!

After almost two years of hard work and three different iterations of our ruleset during Alpha, we're ready to move forward! As we mentioned in another entry, we're releasing the Dungeon World 2 Beta Quickstart (well, that's a mouthful)—or “DW2 Beta QS” for short—during Gen Con 2026 (which, we remind you, Spencer will be attending and Helena can't because it would put her at a high personal risk, as both a trans and Latina woman), in both physical and digital form. But what does that mean? How’s a Beta different from the three Alphas we have already released? When will this madness end?

Sadly we can’t answer the last question, but we can definitely attempt to elucidate the other two, so here we go!

Wanna Bet(a)?

The DW2 Beta QS represents a very important milestone for us, as it is the first “solid” version of our vision for the game. In it you’ll find all the general Moves in the game (20 in total), advice on how to play and run DW2, and five complete Classes, with all their bells & whistles (aka, Moves & Advancements).

By “solid” we mean that this is our starting point towards a final text of the rules. There may be many changes in wording, organization, and such, but this is a fundamentally realized version of what we see as Dungeon World 2 as a game. So… what’s that?

A Vision Restated

We’ve repeated it over and over again, almost like a mantra: “messy people embarking on dangerous fantasy adventures and growing into a heroic found family.” This vision, then, is reflected in the rules in at least the following ways:

• messy people — The player characters (PCs) are volatile, emotionally-influenced people (Conditions) who deal with big internal issues (Struggles)
• dangerous fantasy adventures — We have fantastic creatures (Escalations, Pull Strings, Sense Motive) in a fantasy world filled with wondrous and terrible places (Unearth Secrets), often attempting things that, if left unchecked, could hurt some innocents (Threats, Trade Blows)
• heroic found family — The PCs are connected to one another by strong ties (Bonds), the help each other out through their dangerous lives (Aid a PC, Comfort or Support)

Another way of expressing our design ethos would be: Defy Dangers, Forge Bonds. We want a fantasy adventure roleplaying game that’s both about the risks and the relationships.

Finally, we want to create the most new player-friendly, introductory Powered by the Apocalypse (PbtA) game possible. We want to create the on-ramp for people who want to wet their toes in indie TTRPG design, especially PbtA, when coming from traditional TTRPGs, like Dungeons & Dragons. How are we going to do that, exactly? Game modes, simple language, and familiarity!

One-Shot, Adventure, and Campaign Modes

A few paragraphs ago I mentioned that the game has 20 general Moves. I could add that each class also has 16 Moves total, and that with Bonds, Struggles, magic items, and Artifacts, we’re talking about possibly hundreds of Moves.

Pretty complex and unmanageable, right? Well, that’s where the Game Modes come in. 

Our design divides everything in the game into three broad categories:

• one-shot — These games last only a single session so, in this case, you can play with the first sheet of your PC and the 1-page Core Moves (9 Moves). That’s it! Very simple and condensed, but still very fun (we hope)
• adventure — An adventure lasts more than one session and has a clear beginning, middle, and end. Depending on length and desired complexity, the GM and Players may add the second page of the character sheets (Paths) and the Extra Moves (1 page, 8 Moves). This includes mechanics for further growth, resting, and journeys, among various others
• campaign — A campaign includes more than one adventure that are usually interconnected. In this instance the GM and Players may choose to bring in the Campaign Moves (3 Moves), which add Bonds, Struggles, and Downtime mechanics to the game (as well as tracking Wealth & Treasure)

This means that you most definitely will not need to read the whole thing to start playing DW2. We want people to engage with them on their own terms, to learn it as they go—if they want to—and to get from it what they need to have a great experience.

Speaking of learning…

“A rose by any other name…”

One of the most distinct features of PbtA games—starting with the OG, of course, Apocalypse World—is the almost poetic language it uses to name and describe its mechanics. It’s an understatement to say that it caused quite the impression on both of us as players and designers, being an undeniable influence in indie TTRPG design for the past 16 years and counting.

What we also remember, though, are the endless threads back in the Google+ days—especially in the Dungeon World community—asking about how to interpret the rules verbiage. Many players and prospective GMs found this a difficult obstacle to overcome, so much so that some swore off of PbtA design in general because of its obscure language and perceived unintelligibility.

Taking that into consideration, as well as the expectation that a lot of people's first PbtA game will be DW2, we’ve decided to simplify the language and make it as clear, direct, and legible as possible.

That’s the reason why we’ve included the 6- result on every Move, why we’re using formatting to indicate where the different results on a Move are—the little 🟎 you see everywhere—and, most importantly, why we’ve chosen to rewrite and condense the Principles and GM Moves to hopefully create a short list that’s easy to remember and use at the table.

“I understood that reference”

The final decision we made regarding the overall design general has to do less with what we think are the “best mechanics” and more about how we can make the game more accessible to people coming from traditional TTRPGs and even those who are deeply familiar with the original Dungeon World. 

For example, even though we clearly stated that, in our opinion, HP and damage dice were problematic in PbtA design—and we still believe they are!—we think that we’ve found a way to keep them in the game while adding to our overall design. In the same vein, that’s why we kept 5 out of the 6 classic fantasy stats (even with their usual names), and why we decided to lean into the 50+-year history of fantasy TTRPGs. That’s what influenced our decision when it comes to what Class Paths to include in the Beta rules (and their associated tropes), and even why we opted to focus on the specific fantasy character archetypes—aka Classes—that we’ve been working on.

In conclusion, we hope that all these efforts (and more) make the game easier to pickup to anybody who’s interested in playing a fantasy TTRPG and doesn’t want to deal with miniatures, combat grids, or weirdly obscure/contradictory rules. Our aim is to create a streamlined game that plays and runs smoothly, allowing people to experience the wonders of fantasy TTRPGs without all the hassle and baggage that other games may (unknowingly) bring to the table.

We have a special blog post tomorrow about Gen Con. On the post after that, you’ll get all the details about why we chose the Classes we did for our “Core 5” and what does that mean for the overall game design of them (and the rest of the Classes).

Until then, happy gaming!

- Helena