# Dungeon World *Created:* 2026-10-09, *Modified:* 2026-10-09 ![[Dungeon World (1e) (cover).jpg|600]] ![[Dungeon World 2 (Beta) (cover).jpg|600]] **Dungeon World** is the 2012 Adam Koebel and Sage LaTorra game that asked the obvious question nobody had bothered to: *what if Dungeons & Dragons ran on **[[Powered by the Apocalypse]]**?* It's a love letter to classic dungeon crawls — the fighters, wizards, dragons, and gold you grew up on — rebuilt on the fiction-first engine so the dice drive the story instead of the other way around. If you've ever wanted the comfort of a fantasy crawl without the rules-lawyering, this is the game that hands you the torch and points at the dungeon. Then, after more than a decade, the hobby's favorite PbtA conversion finally got a "2" appended to it. **Dungeon World 2**, designed by **Helena Real** and **Spencer Moore** under **Phinlos LLC**, keeps the 2d6-move bones but points the whole enterprise at what the characters feel about each other instead of what they've plundered. The original handed you a torch and pointed at the dungeon; the sequel wants to know why you're carrying it. ## Setting There's no fixed setting bible; **Dungeon World** works the way Apocalypse World taught — the table builds the world as it plays, with the GM's advice to *draw a map and leave blanks*. The tropes are instantly recognizable: parties, dungeons, monsters, treasure, and experience earned by doing the adventuring thing. The GM runs the world through **agendas** and **principles** — the dungeon master as a fan of the characters who makes the world feel real and plays to find out what happens — and the fiction is always what the rules describe. **Dungeon World 2** keeps the blank-map approach but shifts the pitch. Where the original was about gold and glory, the sequel describes a group of "messy people embarking on dangerous fantasy adventures and growing into a heroic found family" — the kind of party dynamics Baldur's Gate 3, *Honor Among Thieves*, and Critical Role's Mighty Nein made mainstream. There's no setting bible here either; there's a session-zero with a full run of safety tools (lines and veils, the X/N/O cards, the Script Change toolbox), and an awful lot of the rules spend their time on what the PCs mean to one another rather than on how many coins they've accumulated. ## Mechanics The signature is the **move** — when you do something interesting and uncertain, you roll **2d6 + a stat** and read the ladder: a **10+** is a clean success, a **7–9** a partial success with a cost or complication, and a **6−** a miss that hands the GM a move of their own — *and* marks an **experience point**, because Dungeon World is happy to pay you for failing forward. Basic moves cover everything: **Hack and Slash** for hitting things, **Volley** for shooting, **Defy Danger** for getting out of the way, **Discern Realities** for looking sharp, **Spout Lore** for knowing things, and **Parley** for dealing. Characters come from the classic **classes** — Fighter, Wizard, Cleric, Thief, and friends — each a playbook with its own moves and leveling, plus **Bonds** between characters that drive the story forward as surely as the dice do. Gear runs on **tags** instead of pages of statistics, and damage is a simple fistful of dice. ### Dungeon World 2 The second edition shares the engine but not the chassis. It trims to **five stats** — Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, Wisdom, Charisma — folding constitution into Strength (and pointing out that Intelligence is for noticing and deducing, not for recalling your character's own backstory). The 2d6 ladder survives intact, but the game around it is substantially rebuilt. - **Conditions.** Five of them — Angry, Distracted, Exhausted, Frightened, Insecure — sit on the sheet as either clear, marked, or locked. A marked or locked Condition imposes disadvantage on the roll tied to it (Angry hampers INT, Exhausted hampers STR, and so on), and marking your last one triggers **Reach Your Limit**, a roleplayed outburst that clears your Conditions but locks the one you acted out. It's a clean loop: the group's emotional state is a mechanical resource, not a vibe. - **Relationships & Bonds.** Instead of DW1's free-floating Bonds, 2e gives every PC a **Relationship** with another PC that accumulates **Depth**, and when two people hit 3 Depth they **Forge a Bond** — a named, shared connection (Comrades in Arms, Rivals, Siblings, Romantic Partners, Champions, and more) complete with its own shared moves. Comfort and Support is the main way to build Depth and clear Conditions. - **Struggles.** The headline addition. Each PC can carry one revealed **Struggle** at a time — Amnesia, Hunted, Doomed, Vengeful, Disillusioned, Secret Identity, and a shelf of others — which carry benefits (+) and drawbacks (−) and a personal track (Memory, Heat, Doom, Debt…) that ticks toward a payoff. You confess the terrible truth of your Struggle at camp or when you level, and when it resolves you level up. - **Campaign Mode.** A Treasure/Wealth ladder from Broke to Aristocratic, **Enjoy Downtime** (carouse, resupply, shop, train), and **Reveal Your Struggle** round out the longer game — one-shots are explicitly told they can ignore the wealth track entirely. - **Magic** runs through **Cast a Spell**, where the GM hands the effect a **Magnitude** (0–4+) and you check it against your Casting Stat — rolling with disadvantage if the spell's power matches your ceiling. **Combat** is **Trade Blows**, trading damage with the foe, with **Bloodied** and **Helpless** states and a **Face Death** move for the desperate. The classes are the classic nine — Barbarian, Bard, Cleric, Druid, Fighter, Paladin, Ranger, Rogue, Wizard — and the beta bundles a two-page sample adventure, *The Stolen Children*, in which the children of Glen-kar vanish into a briar-and-thorn wood. It is, at the moment, very much a beta: a text document with colored-in revisions, no finished layout, and a crowdfunding campaign still to come. ## Editions - **Dungeon World** (2012) — Adam Koebel & Sage LaTorra, published by Sagacity Games. A single core edition; it runs on the **Powered by the Apocalypse** engine. *In the library* (color and black-and-white copies, plus the playbook and backer-class materials). - **Dungeon World 2** (Beta, 2026) — Helena Real & Spencer Moore, published by Phinlos LLC (the license holder run by Luke Crane & John Dimatos). Public **Beta v3** (October 2026); the final book is still in layout and heading for crowdfunding. *In the library* (Beta v3 core, the Class Character Sheets, and *The Stolen Children* miniaturized adventure). ## References - [dungeon-world.com — official site & DW2 announcements](https://www.dungeon-world.com/) - [Dungeon World 2 Beta download](https://www.dungeon-world.com/beta) - [Meet the Designers: Helena Real](https://www.dungeon-world.com/meet-the-designers-helena-real) - [Meet the DW2 Designers: Spencer Moore](https://www.dungeon-world.com/meet-the-designers-spencer) - [Buy Dungeon World — Indie Press Revolution](https://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/Dungeon-World.html) - [Dungeon World — DriveThruRPG](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/108028/Dungeon-World) - [Dungeon World Review — Geek & Sundry](https://geekandsundry.com/dungeon-world-bringing-storytelling-to-the-forefront-of-your-rpg/) - [Dungeon World Discussion Thread — RPG.net](https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/dungeon-world-discussion.794652/)