Cobbled together what I needed from the Gazetteer website while waiting for the rule book to get published again. Now, I've been playing AD&D with my kids, friends from the old days, and their kids for the past two years and after finding about about Dungeon World decided to give it a spin. My kids are eight and nine and had two friends over also aged nine and the event can simply be dubbed as magical. The kids had avoided playing magic users in AD&D as the one spell at first level just soured them. The tweak to wizards in Dungeon World just... well made wizards impressive in their eyes again. The descriptions of those normally dull and drab magic missiles became wreathing lightning and slashing claws of pure magic.

Character generation took about two hours as the kids sat around describing their histories together. The kids were familiar with classes from AD&D experience so had no issues really picking their favorites. A druid, a bard, a ranger, and a wizard took form as I listened and jotted down a few notes. Then the revelation hit that they were all playing elves. A few more notes to myself followed as the boys explained their alignment choices to each other. The stories came to conclusion and they looked to me.

I read a massive Feng Shui vibe from Dungeon World and dropped they right into the middle of the action.

I described the central temple to Gruumsh One Eye (as I will always have a love for Greyhawk) and how Shargunas Bloodwringer, a sword dedicated to slaying elves, lie upon the altar. They had disrupted the orcish ceremony to dedicate a new warrior to wield the blade against the elves and the party was determined to fighter their way through and liberate the weapon back to their elven freehold and hopefully stem the tide of war between elves and orcs.

"How did we get there?" asked my youngest son.
"You tell me," I replied.

Whereupon I was regaled with tales of the druid turning into a bear and scaring off some of the guards, the wizard using Prestidigitation in conjunction with the bard's songs to confuse other guards, and the ranger and bear managed to sneak through the temple in the confusion. And there they were, ringed and outnumbered by some very angry orcs. And, as they say, it was on.

Breaking down the action would be difficult as the kids went wild with their descriptions. During AD&D sessions the kids were much more dependent on me interpreting the dice roles but suddenly they were taking more narrative control. When the druid was surrounded, if only because the bard took a leap off the temple altar to finish off the Orc berserker destined to wield the elf slaying sword leaving to fend for himself, he shapeshifted into a mouse to skitter between the feet of the orcish press of warriors. The groans as the ranger failed his volley roll and found his sniping position located as an orc has stealthily flanked him and kicked him from the wall he had been unleashing a deadly torrent of arrows. The druid had the idea that he might take up the Bloodwringer himself and use it against the orcs and failing his discern realities move found his hand scorched as he gripped the blade and found out the hard way, "No, you don't try to wield a weapon dedicated to your race's destruction against its makers."

I'll tell you what, the kids were adventurers in AD&D but a single session into Dungeon World and they were HEROES! They've had great times playing AD&D since summer started but this one session overshadowed a lot of the normal play. They feel epic in stature and have grasped Dungeon World quickly and easily.

This was the experience I wanted to bring them with AD&D and Dungeon World brought it to the table and spiked their imaginations to an even higher level. On behalf of myself and the party of kids that are still denying Gruumsh his will on behalf of the elves I thank Sage and Adam for bringing this game to me.

I just really need the rulebook as I hated nipping off to check things on the computer. Print copy please!!!!