A few considerations

Hi. I'm playtesting DW at this forum http://www.gentechegioca.it/smf/index.php/board,99.0.html and with my friends. I never played AW. I apologize for my english.

I and my friend played 4 sessions and we enjoyed the game. I'm the DM and the party consists of an human cleric (3 level), an human thief (3 level) and an human paladin (3 level) who in the last session took the place of a dead fighter.

I prepared some notes and feedback for you all.

Monsters

Monsters are not always well balanced with their level. For example, Mummy is significantly stronger than Bullette (both 6-th level). Maybe it could be possibile to write an equation that links together HP, Armor, Damage (and some special moves) to the monster's level.

I noticed that monsters have relatively few HP. In this way battles are fast, and it's not bad, but I noticed that it won't be so hard for a lucky PC to kill a stronger monster.

Nevertheless, I think that it could be good to provide some notes about monsters' treasure or a reasonable reward for the PCs.


PX


Player make a lot of PX from highlighted stats (a lot from Dex because Defy Danger is a catch-all ability and it's used a lot) and very few from their alignment. Maybe it's not a problem. What do you think?


Too powerful moves

Aren't Bard's Divine Favour and Arcane Caster too strong? Why should a 2nd level bard be quite like a Wizard or a Cleric? I figured the same problem with Paladin's Divine Favour and Ranger's Natural Spells. I think that this moves are not so necessary and maybe they require some restrictions, like "you can choose only few spells,..."

The Cleric in my group chose Divine Protection as his 2nd level move. Obviously. It's a very good move: 2 armor, no cost, cannot be stolen and no load problems. But isn't too much for a 2-5th level cleric move?

Human Cleric move is "Your faith is diverse. Choose one wizard spell, you can cast and be granted it as if it was a Cleric spell." The Cleric in my group chose:

Magic Missile
Level 1, Evocation
Projectiles of pure magic spring from your fingers. Deal
2d4 damage to one target.

Obviously. Strong, spectacular and useful. But there's a problem: a cleric with a spell kile this becomes totally different from its concept. A cleric heals, empowers other people, inflicts damages only if it's evil or it's an high level character. Maybe it could be a good idea to put some restrinctions: your faith is different and you can choose a spell between..... but please not Magic Missile!

Maybe there could be the some problem with Elf Wizard's move ("Choose one cleric spell, you can cast it as if it was a wizard spell") and the healing spells but I don't know.

It's too easy to die

In D&D PCs with 0 HP don't die immediately. They can stabilize easily, wait a little time for help, they can be healed,... In DW if you have 0 Hp or less you have only one roll and, if you're not lucky, your PC is dead. If your PC has 1 HP it can fight like a lion, but just 1 HP less... it risks to die. In D&D it's different. There is some kind of safety threshold for the player (sorry if it sounds bad, but english it's not my natural language) so that under 0 HP you can't fight but die it' not so easy.

Greetings,

P.Jeffries

P.

In my experience, I have had no player characters die.  Some have come close, though.

Players know how much HP they have.  If they are low, and enter danger anyway, that is a choice.  They have chosen to risk death.

Having said that, I should point out that you are in control of the damage.  If this is a problem for you, use monsters that do less damage.  Also, not everything has to be about damage.  On a failed roll, a monster can trip, grapple, hypnotize, blind, or poison a character, or ruin his weapon or steal his food or eat his memories or more.

If a character enters danger, and might die, you have other options.

Of course, sometimes they deserve death.

You're right. Dealing damage is not the only option. I decided so because the battle was not necessary, and the PCs could easily escape after the first unlucky rolls. They just decided to go on... That's a matter of responsability: you're right, but maybe a "safety threshold" (low risk of death between 0 and -5... HP) could be a good idea.