[Interest Check] Dungeon World, High Level

Based on a recurring conversation I have been having --here and elsewhere-- I am thinking about running a Dungeon World (DW) game starting at high level (7ish?).

This would be aimed at players who have played DW, but not gotten to experience the higher levels. (GMs are also players, and welcome.)

Players will be expected to post most days.

All my games are LGBT+ friendly, minorities, disabilities, you name it, we take it.

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In order to solve two of the problems with high level play, I am thinking about lowering the starting Stats by one point each. This might be explained as being the result of some sort of curse that affects everyone (and could therefore be removed if the players choose to do so).

This solves the two-fold problem where high level characters don't get XP for misses --because they have all the good Stats and lots of options available to avoid rolling other stats (it is reasonable, and fun, for a character to use what they are good at)-- and where the game is 'easy' due to lack of said misses... and resulting GM Moves.

For instance, the Stat lines for a regular (fightery) character at level 1 and 7:
becomes:
So, two +3s and no negative modifiers.

With the adjustment, the same character would be:
Which we don't care about, since we are starting at level 7, where they could be:
Two negatives (for those of us who like negatives, and a +3 and +2 and +1.

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I foresee a few complication that this change introduces.

The questions of how to handle replacement characters (due to death or as per the level 11 options) are, respectively, simple "start at level 7ish? if you die" and, "better left for later" in the case level 11, which is a complex discussion.

And the question of 'fixing' the low stats when they are already 18. I say we leave that for if it comes up. This might (should?) not be our primary focus. But trust that I will not cheat you.

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I'm thinking: Official Playbooks only, since we are offsetting the "played it already" with the high-level choices that open up new options (some of the interesting L6+ Moves also need 2-5 picks that would not normally be taken, adding to the novelty). And because so many of the third-party Playbooks are broken, or untested at higher levels, and I don't know them.

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I am checking if people would be interested. We would build the world as we build characters. High level characters would tend more to 'hero of the realm' than 'vagabond', so this may be more high fantasy than my usual, grounded fair. Your descriptions of your previous adventuring life --getting you to this level-- will form the basis of the world-building.

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If anyone has experience playing at these levels, I welcome your thoughts.

I'm very interested to join a DW game. I have only GMd it and never played, so I'm not an experienced player, but probably familiar enough.

As for the stats changes, it's hard for me to tell without giving it a try. I have no problem with a higher miss chance. That's part of the fun :)

I'd like to play either a bard or a ranger (ranger preferred). Do you need a basic outline of my character already or is this something we're doing once the game starts?

Ah, good point.

Characters will be made together, after the game starts. Do not create characters now, completed characters will be rejected upon application.

There is no harm mentioning what we are interested in playing, though.

I can also see that some might want to bring their existing characters to something higher level. I had not thought about that till now. I encourage you all to try approach this with fresh eyes and try something new. Make something that fits the other characters and the world as we create it together.

And, if it turns out not to work, we can just have the curse get lifted and go back to normal stats.

I've never played Dungeon World beyond 4th level. I'd love to see what higher level play is like. I've never given a lot of thought to stats, TBH, so I've no issues at all with any changes to those. I'd love to play the Fighter or the Paladin!

Yep, that was the general consensus. Though, this is pretty normal for most games, and 4 levels of DW is like 8 levels of DnD (in DW you get 7th level spells at level 7! what a crazy concept!!:), and 'they say' most DnD games don't get past level 6, or something.

The question of Custom Alignments and Races was asked elsewhere, so I am adding the answer here.

So far as I am concerned, make up whatever 'alignment' you want. They are just behavioural triggers that give XP at the end of a 'session' ('session' is tricky in PbP, substitute 'chapter' or 'episode'). I also have no problem with changing this 'alignment' from session to session as the character grows. We might even replace it with (or add) a 'character goal' that you get XP for so long as you work towards your goal at some point.

We don't need to limit ourselves to the classic 'races', especially not a high level. Look at that sorts of mechanical options they give and make up something along those lines that suits your vision of the character. We can discuss it if there are complications.