Let’s get one thing straight: We hated Dungeon World.
I mean, I could have tried to sugar coat it, but I feel that we’ve hit a stage in our relationship, readers. You have the right to know the truth, and the truth of the matter is that Fandible had a horrible time playing Dungeon World. And… let’s just say it wasn’t hard to detect when listening to our podcast. We clearly did not have a fun time.
And for awhile, we were content with posting our review of this game. We had a right to tell the audience our opinion, right? And you want to hear an honest opinion, don’t you?
The only problem was after our break from podcasting, a few of us relistened to the podcast and realized something; we were assholes! Not only did we rip Dungeon World apart, but we also went looking for those it loved and destroyed them as well (My condolences, Monster Hearts). It was ruthless, mean spirited, and… as I said… asshole-ish.
So, there we all were after listening to the podcast and someone sort of asks the question of ‘why’. Why were we so mean? And then someone brings up that maybe Dungeon World was a victim of our burn out. Dungeon World was the game we played prior to our sudden vacation. It was right after that game that the ice shattered and we all agreed that we needed a break before the break found us. So… could Dungeon World have been a victim of our own anger?
Truth is, we don’t know. Maybe? I’ll be the first one to admit that I did not like Dungeon World. And I believe the Fandible crew agrees. We like to paint ourselves as crazy, hippies who are in this for the ‘story, man’. But at the end of the day, we always seem to want to play a game that has a nice, consistent rule base. So, in truth, maybe Dungeon World just didn’t work for us because we just weren’t that into it.
In other words — it wasn’t you, Dungeon World, it was us.
So we felt it wasn’t the right thing to do to post our Dungeon World play session and review until we tweak it. Dungeon World has quite the fan base. People seem to really enjoy how it runs, and some of the problems we experienced might have come from us not using the rules properly. That, along with it really being too ‘free’ for our liking, made for a poor time.
And let’s not forget the previously stated ‘burn out’ which might have amped up our aggression.
When I look out into the gaming community, I see a lot of negative. And that isn’t exactly a bad thing! The new SimCity needed to be cursed, the closing of City of Heroes needed to be mourned, and the reveal of the X-Box One (is that how many minutes it took you to come up with the name?) had to be mocked. Fandible has been negative before and we’ll be negative again.
But I like to think Fandible tries to be fair. And the review for Dungeon World wasn’t fair. Or at least we aren’t sure if it was entirely fair or not. So, to play on the side of caution, we’ve decided to trim some of the ‘fat’ from the review before posting.
Dungeon World has a large community who clearly enjoys the game. It wasn’t the sort of game Fandible enjoyed but clearly that doesn’t mean it wouldn’t be for you. The game allows for a strong narrative component, and it’s built to make a character feel incredibly awesome during scenes.
But Fandible isn’t Fandible without us clinging to a simple set of rules like a security blanket, and it sure the hell isnt’ a session without David fucking a roll up and looking like a wanker.
Stay fresh, Fandible.
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Are you planning on bringing this topic up in another episode of your gritty GTRT podcasts? Not that you need to explain your creative FandiCisions to anybody, this is all a labour of love, after all. But it seems to be something that’s stirred up quite a hornet’s nest with you fine folks, so it would provide a good excuse to record another Geeky Topics Optionally-Shaped Table discussion. You guys always manage to veer drastically off topic in entertaining fashion, in any case, so bottom line: can haz more GTRT, pleez? 🙂
@Pencil-Monkey Glad to hear you like the GTRT and you’re absolutely right that our experience with Dungeon World would make a good topic for discussion. Now that we’ve had some time to relax we can probably come back to the table with cooler heads and accurately explain why our experience with such a beloved game was sub-par.
As for something that would be considered a “hornet’s nest”, I think you’ll find if we ever try to approach the topic of Planescape you’ll hear a group of friends devolve into verbal violence. It will be like an interpretive reading of the “28 Days Later” screenplay.
Oh, wow. I feel kind of bad for suggesting you play it now. I can see how it’s style of gameplay isn’t for everyone, though. I hope you have more fun with the things you do in the future : /
Hey not every game fits every gamer. I attended a talk by the creators of Dungeon world last Pax East (as the only person who didn’t own it let alone back the kick starter.) I Liked what I heard so I picked it up on drivethru read it once and deleted the PDF. I could have given it more of a chance yes but there are plenty of fish in the sea.