MP1: The End of Known Space

We’re switching things up a bit with the monster manuals produced by our patreon project. The End of Known Space is our first collection of science fiction monsters for Dungeon World (and Adventures on Dungeon Planet). It’s our first monster planet!

The Maldoran system lies at the edge of the universe, a world full of corruption and danger. Take a safari on the planet or explore the cornucopia of pharmacological substances available there. Try your hand at mining the asteroid belt, investigating the abandoned moon base, or use the system as a launch point for an expedition into the elusive darkness that lies beyond the end of known space.

Like the MM series of monster manuals, The End of Known Space contains previously-released Monthly Monsters material that has been revised and expanded, with more illustrations and rpg content.

The End of Known Space is available in print and pdf from DriveThruRPG. The pdfs are halfletter digest size (5.5×8.5″) and 110 pages. One version has full-colour backgrounds behind the text while the other has black text on white pages, with the same illustrations. The print book is US trade size (6×9″), premium full colour, and 110 pages.

You can also buy the print book on its own from Lulu.

Class Warfare Condensed

After trying out Lulu’s dustjacket hardcover format for The Nightmares Underneath, I went back and tried it with Class Warfare. In doing so, I also ended up completely re-working the layout of the book, and the result is Class Warfare Condensed, a much better and more compact version that squeezes the same book into a mere 330 pages. The text is slightly smaller and there is less white space, and the book lies flat on the table, for ease of reference.

The digital files at DriveThruRPG have already been updated, so if you’ve bought the pdf already, you will be able to download the condensed version (inside the Class Warfare zip file) from your library. If you haven’t bought it already, but do so in the future, you will receive both versions of the pdf.

The print version of Class Warfare Condensed is available via Lulu, for US$30.

Battle Between the Worlds Actual Play

The Ogre Plays Games podcast has posted part 1 of an actual play of Battle Between the Worlds. It clocks in at about 90 minutes, and includes character creation and bonds and stuff at the beginning. Part 2, yet to be released, will include the exciting conclusion to the hijinks on Mars, and a short interview with myself.

Link:
Ogres Plays Games Episode 07: Battle Between the Worlds Part One!

Space Wurm vs. Moonicorn video

Space Wurm vs. Moonicorn blog post.

Space Wurm vs. Moonicorn

Three years ago, my buddy Jackson Tegu asked me to write a stretch goal for his Second Skins kickstarter. Based on two of those skins, the Wyrm and the Unicorn of course, I had an idea: combine Jackson’s ideas with Adventures on Dungeon Planet and make a campaign supplement for Dungeon World. From the very beginning it was an overambitious rpg monstrosity, and then I decided to add one-shot rules. And now it’s finished.

Space Wurm vs. Moonicorn is a science fantasy supplement for Dungeon World that combines the flavours of Adventures on Dungeon Planet and the characters from Jackson Tegu’s Monsterhearts expansion, the Second Skins, into 368 full colour digest-sized pages, with well over a hundred illustrations, including fantastic art by Chiara Di Francia, George Cotronis, Iolanda Zanfardino, Jakub Rebelka, James Fenner, Jon Cairns, Nate Marcel, and Taylor Winder.

Featuring six new Dungeon World character classes…

• Space Wurm, the most important person in the galaxy, bar none. And yet, there is more that lies outside your power than within it. Will you conquer the universe, or see it fall before your foes?
• Moonicorn, a rebel and a revolutionary. Those who despise your integrity are out there hunting for you. Can you make your dreams a reality, or will you have to watch it all come crashing down?
• The Lover, the third point of a romantic triangle with Space Wurm and Moonicorn. Is this what true love is, or just a fleeting dream?
• The Mogul, a master of industry. You’re not the boss of everything, but you’re the boss of your thing.
• The Other, a visitor from far away. Can you find a place in this new world, or will you just lose your heart again?
• The Spy, a double agent, a saboteur, a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Does anyone knows where your true allegiance lies? Do you?

…and seven fronts, with four dangers each, for the GM to create the world and their antagonists from: aliens, cybernetics, the Imperial throne, interstellar travel, religion, the secret police, and the spice. Each game has three fronts that must be defeated in order to win. Who will reach their goal first and secure the future they are fighting for, Space Wurm or Moonicorn?

Space Wurm and Moonicorn are rivals, fighting over the future of galactic civilization. Will they let the universe crumble around them while they duke it out? Will they band together against the outside forces trying to ruin everything? Which one will betray the other first, in order to secure the future they believe in?

The other PCs move between them, choosing sides or not, trying to mediate and reach consensus, or feeding the flames so they can watch it all burn. But neither Space Wurm nor Moonicorn can succeed alone. In order to win, they need the support of the other PCs. What will they do to win their loyalty? What—and who—will they sacrifice in order to come out on top?

Space Wurm vs. Moonicorn moves Dungeon World away from typical adventuring parties and us-against-the-dungeon situations, in favour of more intrigue, more politics, and more interpersonal conflict between the PCs. You’ll need your laser swords to defeat the alien invaders, but you’ll need something more to win over their hearts and minds. Each of the new character classes are there to promote narratives of interpersonal drama, political intrigue, and social change. They give the players reasons to experience the shifting allegiances of competing rivals, to win each other over and then turn against each other, again and again.

It’s still Dungeon World, just with an expanded pallette, and more dimensions to explore.

If you can’t commit to a long-term campaign, fear not! There are quick play rules for running one shot games of Space Wurm vs. Moonicorn, in the same style as Battle Between the Worlds. Quick play versions of the six Dungeon World character classes are joined by seven more classes: the Alien Queen, the Creature from the Ghoul Star, This Planet’s Messiah, the Serpent Princess, Space Ghost, the Star Vampire, and the Void Rat. Or use the characters from Battle Between the Worlds, these rules are fully compatible.

The print version is 6×9 US Trade size, for both hardcover and softcover.

The PDF is 5.5×8.5 digest size, and includes character sheets and a version of the book with black text on white pages for ease of printing.

Preview!

CLICK HERE to view a 53-page preview of the book, which includes the Table of Contents, the Space Wurm class, the introduction to the Interstellar Transport chapter and 2 of its dangers (Disease Control and Space Madness), as well as two dangers from other fronts chapters.

Purchase!

Buy it from DriveThruRPG at this link right here.
You can also buy a softcover version from Lulu, but because of their full-colour print costs, you will need a discount code to make it even close to price-competitive.

MM3: A Market in the Woods

The Monthly Monsters project is back with a third monster manual for Dungeon World!

Deep inside the Spritewood, hidden from the sight of civilized eyes, there lies a secret market, where monsters meet to trade their ill-gotten gains. Under this canopy, the angry dead return to life and the living change , unwilling, into beasts. But if you can reach the market safely, a brand new world will open to you. What is it you seek? Alchemical wonders, history’s greatest mercenaries, or magic to challenge even gods themselves?

The only question left to ask is: what did you bring to trade?

A Market in the Woods includes 13 monster entries, describing a hidden marketplace, some of the inhuman beings that gather there to buy, sell, and trade, as well as a few schemes that may or may not be unrelated. Each entry is illustrated in full colour and may include different variations of the monster, random tables, adventures, dangers and their grim portents, custom moves, items, locations, plot hooks, secrets, and more.

Like MM1 and MM2, A Market in the Woods contains previously-released Monthly Monsters material that has been revised and expanded, and adds more illustrations and content.

A Market in the Woods is available in print and pdf from DriveThruRPG. The pdfs are halfletter digest size (5.5×8.5″) and 112 pages. One version has full-colour backgrounds behind the text while the other has black text on white pages. The print book is US trade size (6×9″) and 112 pages.

You can also buy the print book on its own from Lulu.

Wizard-Spawned Insanities

Wizard-Spawned Insanities is a monster manual for the Dungeon World role-playing game. The thirteen monster entries it contains are illustrated in full colour, along with a host of variations, random tables, adventures, dangers and their grim portents, custom moves, items, locations, plot hooks, secrets, and more.

This is NOT just a reprint of the Monthly Monsters material! Each monster has been revised, expanded, and given new illustrations. Every page contains full-colour background art.

WHERE TO GET IT: From DriveThruRPG, click this link

The pdf comes in two versions: one full-colour, the other printer-friendly (with B&W text pages and full-colour monster illustrations). Both are digest-sized, 110 pages, for US$15.
The print is US trade-sized, full colour, 110 pages, for US$30 and comes with the pdfs for free if you want them.

You can also buy the print version by itself (no pdf!) from Lulu at this link. The quality is almost identical, but some countries get much better shipping rates from Lulu.

Battle Between the Worlds

Battle Between the Worlds is a set of rules for running one-shot Dungeon Planet adventures. You get new characters with truncated, personalized rules and a bunch of adventure situations to choose from. The GM still has to know how to run Dungeon World, but you can play using only this document.

The character sheets include illustrations by George Metzger, Juan Ochoa, Mike Jackson, and Nate Marcel.

Here is a link to the pdf on DriveThruRPG.

The print version is available from Lulu.

Druid Specialties for Class Warfare

I didn’t break down the Druid into specialties for Class Warfare because when I wrote that book I didn’t really see how to do it well. I had already figured out the first step, which was realizing that there are only two archetypes to the Druid: a shapechanger and a nature person. The Mechanic class from Inverse World gave me the idea to allow character classes made of 2 specialties, with an advanced move from one of them as an additional starting move. But even then, the Druid has a whole bunch of powers clustered around shapechanging. Spirit Tongue is underpowered compared to the Ranger’s Wild Empathy, while Born of the Soil and Shapeshifter seem inseparable. But if we consider most of these to be half-strength moves, we can bump each of them up a bit and build a specialty based on Shapechanging with the other aspects of it as advanced moves.

Like so:

Druid Specialty #1: Shapeshifter

Starting move is the Druid’s Shapeshifter, but use this rule instead of Born of the Soil:
Choose 3 monster moves and distribute them between 1-3 other forms that you can assume through shapechanging. You can only assume these 1-3 other forms, and you can only spend your hold on the move or moves you have assigned to that specific form.

Example: Dracula can turn into a bat and use the move Fly Away, or he can turn into a wolf and use the moves Track Prey by Scent and Bite the Shit Out of a Foe. Dracula’s other starting moves are probably blood drain and hypnotize.

Advanced Moves levels 2-5:

Born of the Soil, but with this caveat:
Choose a category of creature, and you can assume any form in that category, but the GM assigns that form’s moves. You could also select a category other than “land type,” the same as taking Thing-Talker or World-Talker. And maybe you can take this move more than once, as with The Druid Sleep. The actual categories can be anything, and should probably be based on the campaign setting.

Studied Essence
Add the form of any spirit you contemplate (not just animals). If you can observe a creature or spirit or a spirit teaches you its form, you can transform into that type of creature or spirit.

plus:
Formcrafter
Red of Tooth and Claw
Shed
Thing-Talker

Advanced Moves levels 6-10:
Blood and Thunder
Chimera
Doppelaganger’s Dance
The Druid Sleep
Embracing No Form
Formshifter
World-Talker

As you can see, this is one big-ass specialty, with tons of moves. But I think it balances against the other specialties in Class Warfare okay.

The specialty left over after shapechanging is removed from the Druid is not quite as coherent though:

Druid Specialty #2: Nature Hippy

Either one of these as your starting move
1. By Nature Sustained, the Druid starting move.

2. Wild Empathy (the Ranger move).
(This is basically halved for Druid starting moves, since you can only speak to animals you can change into).

Advanced Moves levels 2-5:
Balance
Barkskin
Communion of Whispers
Elemental Mastery
Eyes of the Tiger

Advanced Moves levels 6-10:
Weather Weaver

This one either needs more moves to fill it out, or we should just redistribute these moves to other specialties. Which is basically what I did. These moves are all in Class Warfare, though I think Barkskin only appears as a Dwarven racial move.

So anyway, this breakdown of the Druid also proposes an interesting way to make classes. Take more than three moves, but reduce the effectiveness of each of them and group them around a theme. It won’t feel like a disparate collection of different abilities if they are arranged around a theme, and by putting greater limits on them, the class won’t be overpowered compared to others or steal spotlight time away from them.

Terrors of the Ancient World at Lulu

I managed to get a Lulu version of the Terrors of the Ancient World book together. It looks great! There’s barely any difference between Lulu’s colour quality and DriveThruRPG’s premium colour. So if ordering print from DriveThruRPG means exorbitant postal rates because of where you live, hopefully this option will make it easier for you to get the book. Because it looks pretty good.

Not as good as the next ones will (or, if you are reading this far in the future, not as good as the later books look), but still pretty good.

CLICK HERE TO GO TO LULU