World of Jinja - a WoDu Hack

Lurker here, daring to post a game (well, a hack) for feedback. I was more active on the G+ but have been slow to warm up to the new forum. Here goes…

Coming up from 2e AD&D, then to 3.5e, back to 2e, then discovering Dungeon World and narrative-focused gaming, it makes sense that I’ve fallen hard for World of Dungeons (WoDu).

Recently, I decided to reskin it to incorporate Samurai and Ninja. I’ve tinkered with WoDu often over the last few years, but a Japanese theme is very new to me (being a middle-aged white dude living in the US). Wanting my portrayal to be respectful, I was actually inspired to move forward by this post.

Drawing very liberally from such sources as:

  • Wikipedia (of course)
  • Legend of the Five Rings
  • Bushido
  • Shinobi & Samurai
  • Oriental Adventures (2e and 3e)
  • Freebooters of the Frontier
  • Maze Rats
  • Advanced World of Dungeons

Here is World of Jinja open for comment. “Jinja” being reference to common Shinto shrines.

A few differences from standard WoDu

  • Magic is more similar to Freebooters
  • Pulled Usage Dice from The Black Hack
  • Added a Speed mechanic to more explicitly support old D&D players
  • Incorporated Flags and Drives
  • A truckload of random tables, inspired by Maze Rats

My group played it just two days ago and I’m quite happy with how it worked. We used Mad Monks of Kwantoom to explore a randomly-generated pagoda - this settings version of a dungeon. Mind you, I generated in advance and not on the fly. The Kensei used Kenjutsu to turn away a group of hostile Kenku (similar to “I am the law!”) and the Ninja effectively used Abundant step to leap from the rafters and take down a Giant Bat.

Please have a look provide any feedback. Feel free to take it, rip it apart, and play any of all of it! The greatest joy of WoDu is how easy it is to make it your own with just a few tweaks.

1 Like

Welcome @bigbrother8 … Interesting re-skin.