UnEarth + Extra Moves for World of Dungeons

#1

UnEarth is a simple bootstrap for fantasy roleplaying based on World of Dungeons. Altogether, it’s not very exciting - it’s sort of a collaborative toolkit for DIY gaming. A stark and dry landscape.

That being said, a little thirst can be welcoming in an RPG. Games that are too soggy can be a little impenetrable, after all.

It’s called UnEarth for three reasons: It’s unlike our Earth, you spend your time unearthing treasure from ruins, and you are also unearthing your potential. Functionally, it differs from WoDu with its advancement structure, ability methodology, and XP, each of which take cues from Dungeon World. You can find it here:


What I’d most like to share, though, are the “optional rules” further inspired by Dungeon World. WoDu’s one-move core is simple and easy to remember, but many of the additional moves in DW are cool and helpful! These optional rules allow you to gain a measure of that utility without bogging things down too much. I’ll present them here:

Additional Moves

  • Adventuring Gear: Instead of noting every torch and length of rope in a character’s possession, the GM may supply a player with a number of uses of “Adventuring Gear.” Spending one of these uses allows a character to produce a timely and useful tool from their pack.
  • Discern Realities: Instead of rolling to perceive every hidden door and lying tongue, a GM may supply a player with a number of uses of “Discern Realities.” Spending one of these uses allows a character to reveal a truth about a situation, to their advantage.
  • Spout Lore: Instead of coming up with every trait of a bandersnatch or arcaneum, a GM may allot players a number of uses of “Spout Lore.” Spending one of these uses allows a character to reveal knowledge of a being or location; it’s always fun to ask how their character learned of this helpful tidbit.
  • Lucky Break: A GM may award players “Lucky Breaks” to represent good fortune or divine favor. A player can spend a Lucky Break to re-roll any single die.

Additional Attribute Value Bonuses
Your value in each attribute may offer additional benefits:

  • Strength: A number of uses of Adventuring Gear, replenished when feasible
  • Dexterity: A number of Lucky Breaks, replenished at the start of a session
  • Constitution: Additional hit dice to roll when leveling up (keep highest)
  • Intelligence: A number of uses of Spout Lore, replenished at the start of a session
  • Wisdom: A number of uses of Discern Realities, replenished at the start of a session
  • Charisma: A number of hirelings at your command, replenished when feasible

What do you think of these? Could they use any tweaking? Would you like to use them in your own game of WoDu? If you do so, I’d love to hear about it.

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#2

I love this metaphor very much, and will be stealing it for everything that benefits from stripped down design.

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#3

I’d use Charisma for some kind of Parley move, Hirelings really complicate stuff.

Beyond that, this is great, and really fixes some of the gaps I find mildly vexing with WoDu.

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#4

I really, really liked this “stats as uses” things. It takes advantage of the otherwise limited PbtA stats in such an elegant way. I’ve already built the idea into my WoDu hack.

I’ll second Jim in saying that I dislike hirelings and that a Parley Pool would be better. I’m thinking something like “you can make a compelling statement X times per session, giving another character pause and getting them to listen to your side of things”

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#5

Is the idea that the PC or the GM will narrate responses to the discern realities/spout lore question?

#6

I was imagining it would be up to the player, but usually the player would just come up with the “answer” and skip the question. “Oh I know something about this place,” (marks Spout Lore) “It was said to contain a magic anvil that forged a legendary artifact.” GM says, “Cool, where did you hear about that?” Or, “Ah, I know what’s going on here,” (marks Discern Realities) “This guard’s been paid off by the thieves’ guild. Luckily I have that membership charm…”

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#7

Interesting… I will say, as a GM I love that DR is GM-facing - it makes me have to think about things in a different way. I also love SL as player-facing - ie just having them tell me stuff.

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#8

Hmm that’s a good point - having one player-facing and one gm-facing move is a good balance.

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#9

I really like this! Thanks for sharing :slight_smile:

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#10

This is a really interesting bridge between WoDu and DW, especially the way abilities advance.

I’m fighting the urge to lay out the character/rules sheet, because this is not the week for such an undertaking.

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#11

I’d appreciate any insight you may have to offer @elStiko! Layout is something I’m interested in but have little experience with.

#12

I was just really interested in how the uses could be displayed, and the advancement of abilities! It’s a puzzle to solve, that’s how I see layout of character sheets. A puzzle to be solved with prettiness, where possible. Again, way too busy for a puzzle like that right now, but the bait smells delicious.

EDIT: I’m finding the economy of stat-based advantages completely fascinating! I think I’d like to play/run a game where ChaMod was # uses of “I know someone who might be able to help”

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#13

I’m an addict, so I’ve drafted something up on paper, will see what I can do digitally on the train home…two thoughts so far:

  1. Is there any concern that players could hoard potential? I’d lean towards just letting them add/advance an ability at even levels, but that’s just to avoid someone going nova out of the blue.
  2. Are you concerned with disambiguation with regards to the board game of the same name?
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#14

  1. I haven’t playtested this at all, but I imagine that there is a challenge with coming up with an ability on the fly. I plan on making a list of examples, but the free-form nature of, say, FATE aspects is something that I have personally found challenging to work with in the past. I hoped that by putting characters in a dire situation, it might help spark creativity: “What ability or power do I really wish I had right now?” Now, you can have it!

  2. I was not familiar with that game until now but I could see there being some confusion! I’ll have to brainstorm on that.

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#15

You could limit potential to one to encourage spending, as a middle ground. I have half the charsheet done, ran out of time. More soon!

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#16

Okay, so this is really scrappy and I didn’t leave any room for branding, but it’s the first digital draft of what my brain did when it read these rules. I took liberties (as usual) and am certainly not finished, but thought you might want to see it: Super-Scrappy UnEarth Sheet Draft Thingo

EDIT: Since posting yesterday, I changed some of the boxes to [a] give them dotted circles and [b] clearly show unusable/usable boxes, along with some other things. Link remains the same.

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#17

I had an idea burning in my brain this week and it ended up being a slimline black hack with a mutation of your usage idea, so I came by to say thanks again for being inspirational! I probably won’t ever release it but it was another good process to see how the parts could fit together as a gm-less one-pager.

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