Alternative Playbooks

I have put up Alternative Playbooks for sale on Drive Thru RPG.

As mentioned in the product description, The Mage is being offered for free.

Not mentioned in the product description, so is The Artificer.

I've done a test printing, and they print off extremely well. These classes are ready to print and play as soon as you have them.



The Mage
Dungeon World holds many secrets. You know, because you've found one of them. You found the font of power that is magic, and you have held it close. It is yours, and with it you can work wonders. Whether you found power in The Dragon or The Mask or something else entirely, all those secrets were tucked away into that little wand you found. And now those secrets are yours to command.

You've found your power. You've only begun to see the heights to which you can rise. But you've also begun to find your limits. As much as you wish it was, your magic is not absolute. You can't do everything. You need your pitiful companions to win the day. But you know they could never do it without you.

For you are Magus, and none compare to your might.


The Priest
The lands of Dungeon World have been forsaken. No gods walk these lands, not anymore. Now these lands are a battleground between their followers, their remnants, their men of the cloth. It is not a battle that is always fought with blades, and that is why this battleground needs you.

With simple words, you spread the faith of your deity to those who would not believe. With humble words, you beseech your deity for a miracle, and it listens. Where you walk, so too walks your god, and it is through your faith that this power is made manifest. Wherever you go, the heavens follow. Your deity watches your every move, and through him, your success is guaranteed.

Spread the faith, Priest, and know that none shall dare lay a hand on you.


The Templar
Heretics. Heretics all. Everywhere you look in Dungeon World, you find blasphemy. Everyone pretends to be goodly, but you don't buy it. It's just different degrees of heresy. In the face of evil, you do not back down. You do not surrender, and you make sure none of those weaker types do either. You are here to do a job, and no man, no beast will stop you.

These men and women you travel with, they're better than most, but they're still mortal. They're still fallible. You're not. You're pure. Your cause is absolute. If there is an ends you must reach, you will take any means necessary to achieve them.

For you are Templar, and failure is not an option.


The Artificer
Dungeon World’s old technology is quite the mess, but you can fix it. No one else could, but that’s just because no one else is you. Pull some power from the leylines, run a little ambaric interference through the steam valve, tighten the sprockets, and it’s as good as new. Well, better than new, really. So maybe it’s a little more complicated than it was before, and maybe it didn’t need quite so many dials and whirlygigs. In your capable hands, every extra whirlygig is just another backup plan.

What do you mean, what’s it do? It should be obvious, shouldn’t it? It’s just an etheric matrix wand. It's not like you were building an ambaric compensator mechanism! None of them appreciate the intricacies of science, mark your words, not like you do! But you’ll show them. You’re the greatest scientific mind you’ve ever met! Okay okay, so maybe you don’t actually know what the etheric matrix wand does, per se, but you have a solid hypothesis! All it needs is some field testing.

If you knew what you were doing, you wouldn’t call it research.

If you knew what you were doing, you wouldn’t call it research.

Best. Quote. Ever!

Hey gnome7,

The free classes look cool. Could you please tell me which race options are available for the Priest and the Templar so I can add them to the DW index?

Also, I noticed that the Artificer looks quite similar to the class by theloneamigo. Did you collaborate with him on it?

Since someone had concerns about me selling The Artificer, I am still keeping the playbook available for free here: http://apocalypse-world.com/forums/index.php?topic=3056.15

I recognize the class was a community collaboration, and I am not attempting to take sole credit for it. theloneamigo definitely had a large part in the class's formation. It's included in the packet as a nice thank you bonus for anyone taking a dive on my random no-name creation.

Sanglorian: The Priest can be Dwarf or Human, and The Templar is Dwarf, Elf, or Human.

Since someone had concerns about me selling The Artificer, I am still keeping the playbook available for free here: http://apocalypse-world.com/forums/index.php?topic=3056.15

I recognize the class was a community collaboration, and I am not attempting to take sole credit for it. theloneamigo definitely had a large part in the class's formation. It's included in the packet as a nice thank you bonus for anyone taking a dive on my random no-name creation.

Thanks for clearing that up. It's situations like these that make me think that the DW community should get in the habit of applying the Creative Commons Attribution licence to everything we create (where possible). That way, we know exactly what we can and can't do with other people's contributions. I've written up my thoughts on this =http://apocalypse-world.com/forums/index.php?topic=5907.new%3bspam=true#newhere.

I think the price is a bit high, considering that  you are actually paying for just 1 different class, since both the mage and the artificer are freely available. Even more when you consider that it is 40% of the actual DW book.

You are getting 2 different classes - The Templar and the Priest. It's set where it is because the other extra classes on Drive-Thru RPG are set at 3$ for only one class, and they aren't formatted as well as these ones are. I don't think 4$ for two playbooks and an update to The Mage and The Artificer is unreasonable.

If you still think the price is too high, there is currently a bundle deal going on: http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/108806/Dungeon-World-Playbook-Collection-%5BBUNDLE%5D

EDIT: I would be really appreciative of anyone who has bought a copy if they would leave a review!

Pays me well to sleep badly and read stuff online. I think your price is good for 2 + 2 revised playbooks, and I agree they look very good, though I haven't seen the other playbooks on sale yet. I also have read the mage playbook and it looks very very interesting, reminds me a lot of presto from D&D cartoon, lots of 7-9 rolls there.

I think the price is a bit high, considering that  you are actually paying for just 1 different class, since both the mage and the artificer are freely available. Even more when you consider that it is 40% of the actual DW book.

Price is such a tricky thing. Comparing it against the DW book is somewhat unfair.

The Mage has undergone a fairly massive overhaul, for those still interested. It is already the most popular class from the playbook packet, but that just means I got a lot of feedback about it, and I put that feedback to good use. Take a gander!

Love the new version of the Mage.

One small thing: the "War Mage" advanced move lets you add +3 Piercing or +d8 damage. The extra damage is much better, and I suspect this arises from a misunderstanding of the Piercing rule. +3 Piercing does not mean "+3 damage, which pierces armour", it means "ignore three points of your opponent's armour". Piercing is worse than an equal amount of extra damage, since it's like extra damage that only applies when your opponent has armour.

For an example of how Piercing and extra damage are valued, note that the Fighter's Signature Weapon can either have +1 damage or +2 piercing.

I think "ignores armour" is comparable to +d8 damage.

Well, the main reason it's not Ignore Armor is because the options aren't exclusive - you can pick both Piercing 3 AND +1d8 damage. And on top of that, you can still pick +1d4 damage or Piercing 2 from the Battle Mage options, if you want to really make sure you hurt a guy bad. A Lightning Bolt from the heavens might be "Near, +1d8, Piercing 3, Piercing 2," at which point you've stacked it up to 2d8 damage that may as well ignore armor. Or make it 2d8+1d4 with Piercing 3. There's options here.

That said, thanks for the feedback! I've gotten a lot of good feedback on the new version already, and it'll have a few more tweaks before I update the one on DTRPG.

Double post but the update is live! Major overhaul to both The Mage and The Artificer, check 'em out.

Double post but the update is live! Major overhaul to both The Mage and The Artificer, check 'em out.

Made a typo on The Artificer, the link has been fixed with the fixed version.

Double post but the update is live! Major overhaul to both The Mage and The Artificer, check 'em out.

Not that you asked for them but here are my thoughts on the Mage template updates:

Separating damage spell-casting rules from regular spell-casting is a good choice in my opinion. It allows you to keep the non-magic damage dice low and keeps another character who multiclasses into Mage from getting all the magic goodies (has to choose between attack and utility magic) However, instead of having Two Targets as one of the Black Magic tags, why not treat it as any other class who attacks multiple foes: roll damage regularly and divide up the result as equally as possible to all of the targets. Also, since the Mage template allows for freeform magic which makes it an extremely capable class in most non-combat situations, maybe the spell damage could be reduced a bit. Maybe the 7-9 Black Magic roll does 1d6 and the 10+ does 1d8?

I like the idea of giving the Mage a move to "know about magical stuff" but Arcane Learning seems a bit underwhelming. Not sure what I would suggest instead though. Maybe there is no need for a starting move like this since the fiction of the Mage states they would know about magical stuff. Thus, the GM would tell them honestly about something magical or at least allow them to roll Discern Realities or Spout Lore in situations where the other classes wouldn't be able to.

I like the concept of choosing offense or defense magic to start but I wonder how real that choice is. Will any players really forgo all offensive abilities? If so, wouldn't Black Magic be a no-brainer choice for their second level move? Maybe Black Magic should just be the standard starting move and Counter Spell should just be an Advanced Move? Or maybe Counter Spell just replaces Arcane Learning? Or… maybe Counter Spell becomes an advanced move and Ritual replaces Arcane Learning?

The human racial bonus seems a bit odd to me. From what I can tell, in order to give it value, you have to restrict Elf Mages from offering to cast a spell as leverage which seems like trying to force the fiction to match the mechanics. However, I can’t think of what to suggest as a replacement since most human bonuses add some additional breadth/variety to a class and the Mage’s spell move is already VERY broad.

I really like the direction you’ve taken with the Foci. Adding a Look component is a nice touch.

I still worry that the Mage’s talents might be too universally applicable leading them to steal the spotlight from other classes/players. As they stand now, the core classes seem pretty well balanced (except maybe the bard) but when I compare the Mage to the Wizard, the Mage seems obviously superior which reinforced my fear. Have you considered a simple Mana system? Maybe you have as many points of Mana as your INT + 2 and spells that are neither Aligned nor Opposed use up a point of mana? Or maybe any spell that rolls less than 10+ uses up a point?

Anyhow, I really like freeform spell casting in theory and haven’t playtested the Mage so maybe my balance concerns are unfounded. Perhaps the granteed minimum of one complication (even on 10+) means the Mage will hold off from trying to solve every problem with magic.