Character-Driven Fantasy Adventure

#1

Hi everyone!

Wondering if you have any suggestions for games (preferably PbtA) that could do a sort of fantasy adventure/journey that isn’t much about combat, dungeon crawling, etc. More about the characters forming relationships, exploring strange new places, meeting new people, etc. Somewhat surreal and melancholic.

Dungeon World seems to adhere way too closely to D&D for our group’s tastes. I’m considering Fellowship, because despite a lot of the traditional trappings it looks like it could be molded into different types of stories, but it would definitely still be combat heavy. Any other suggestions?

I’m kind of looking for a game that fits the emotional tenor of a Fall of Magic, while also having playbooks and dice and a GM.

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#2

Hey, my friend @Alessandro_Piroddi is currently developing a Dungeon World hack called Fantasy World. It’s diverged substantially from Dungeon World and does exactly – quite uncannily – what you asked. Just consider, the game is in-development and changes constantly, even though it’s in a quite functioning state.

You can find it here:

https://tiny.cc/FantasyWorldRPG

(btw, I fucking love Dungeon World and have no problem with it.)

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#3

I think Fellowship is a great idea and Fantasy World sounds like it’d hit.

@edige23 did a hack of The Veil that may fit what you’re looking for.

@Jeremy_Strandberg’s Stonetop sounds perfect, too (that’s an old blog post, but I’m not sure where to look for the newest info).

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#4

Not PbtA, but Ryuutama is all about going on a journey and having adventures along the way. It even has playbooks for the GM, restricting or encouraging them to take certain approaches to the story.

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#5

+1 for Stonetop. Seems a perfect fit.

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#6

You could do DW but using Inverse World. Also, Fellowship 2nd Edition allows for more than just saving the world from the Big Bad.

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#7

My Veil hack’s very much about just life and existence for adventurers in a fantasy city. It can be a little Picaresque, depending on how you want to play it. It doesn’t really cover travel-- assumes a central urban setting.

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#8

Thanks for the 1up :slight_smile:
I would just like to mention how Fantasy World is not a DW hack… but actually a AW2 hack than, because it’s fantasy, started out adopting a few elements from DW too, which have now almost completely been shed away.
DW is a nice game, but it just doesn’t do what I look for in a fantasy story.

@chalk_baphomet see if the intro (with a handy TL:DR section) is more or less up your alley.
Also, check out the Long Rest and the Journey moves. I have a feeling you’ll like them :wink:

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