Castles & Crusades

The Beginning of the OSR
From the Foreword written by Gary Gygax in Volume I Men & Magic:

ONCE UPON A TIME, long, long ago there was a little group known as the Castle and Crusade Society. Their fantasy rules were published, and to this writer’s knowledge, brought about much of the current interest in fantasy wargaming. For a time the group grew and prospered, and Dave Arneson decided to begin a medieval fantasy campaign game for his active Twin Cities club. From the map of the “land” of the “Great Kingdom” and environs — the territory of the C & C Society — Dave located a nice bog wherein to nest the weird enclave of “Blackmoor,” a spot between the “Great Kingdom” and the fearsome “Egg of Coot.”

 In 2006 Troll Lord Games started re-imagining the then current state of the hobby. The Open Game License and 3e System Reference Document released by WizBros stirred an interest in producing what is termed d20 games and material based on the SRD using the OGL. Castles & Crusades took the SRD in a new/old direction by using it to create a game system that feels very much like an older edition of the Advanced Game. First released in a small white box containing digest sized paperbacks which clearly signaled the intent of the designers to produce a retro game feel, Castles & Crusades is perhaps the original entry in the OSR catalog.
The hardcover printing shown above carries a 2007 copyright date. Troll Lord Games Castles & Crusades players handbook is now in its 7th printing and the latest copies have full color art throughout and are comparable to art the big publishing companies feature in their FRPGs. At 128 pages, including the OGL reference, the C&C players handbook includes all the rules needed to play Castles & Crusades. A Bestiary compliments the players handbook and complets the basic system. Some years after their release, a gamemasters volume was published including advice on how to run old school C&C and some optional rule suggestions. C&C is written to be compatible with material designed and published for older editions (pre 3e) of the World's Most Popular FRPG, although the C&C mechanics differ somewhat from the originals. Castles & Crusades is therefore not a clone or simulacrum of any older edition.
Castles & Crusades borrows from 1e with regard to its use of the original Advanced character classes and races. Like the older editions, each class in C&C has its own experience level and progression numbers. Departing from the older Advanced mechanics, C&C uses ascending armor class and does away with the traditional five saving throws, replacing them with Troll Lord Games' own SIEGE engine system. The SIEGE engine makes use of a d20 attribute roll against a target number of 12 for primary attributes and 18 for secondary attributes. Castles & Crusades uses the familiar six attributes (Strength, etc) and each of the character classes has an associated primary attribute. The player chooses an additional primary attribute for a demi-human character (two additional primaries for human characters).
Among the credits for the Castles & Crusades players handbook is a name that will reappear many times in the OSR, that of Mr. Matt Finch. Mr. Finch has design credits with the Old School Reference Index Compilation or OSRIC and Swords & Wizardry, two of the top tier OSR retro-clones and he also runs an excellent online channel, the Matt Finch RPG Studio.
Troll Lord Games deserves recognition as being among the first game publishers (along with Goodman Games) to actively promote a return to the traditional style of gaming many of us have always enjoyed. Thanks to the good folks at Troll Lord Games, the Old School Revival has become a Renaissance.

John Carter of Mars

2d20 Goes to Mars
"Those wargamers who lack imagination, those who don’t care for Burroughs’ Martian adventures where John Carter is groping through black pits...will not be likely to find DUNGEONS & DRAGONS to their taste. But those whose imaginations know no bounds will find that these rules are the answer to their prayers. With this last bit of advice we invite you to read on and enjoy a “world” where the fantastic is fact and magic really works!" These words are written by E. Gary Gygax in his 1973 Foreword to Men & Magic, Volume I of the original Little Brown Books. Forty-six years later the hobby that began with Mr. Gygax and Mr. Arneson has grown immensely and has arguably changed popular culture. Today we have a new fantasy roleplaying game published by Modiphius Entertainment titled John Carter of Mars.
Adventure is at the core of Edgar Rice Burroughs' popular novels and Modiphius' roleplaying game aims for that same target with John Carter of Mars. Set on Mr. Burroughs' version of Mars which he called Barsoom, John Carter of Mars includes many of the original troupes E.R. Burroughs created for his Martian world, green four armed giants, red martians, great white apes, flying ships, subterranean tunnels and diabolic plots.
The 2d20 system is Modiphius Entertainment's go-to mechanic and has previously powered their Star Trek and Conan games. The 2d20 engine is adjusted slightly in each of Modiphius' games to better reflect the genre and character in each setting, but essentially it consists of rolling 2d20 (or more) and looking for success against a target number. Multiple successes are possible with success past one adding "momentum" for future use to increase damage or to give players extra d20s in future rolls. Extra d20s may be purchased by players at the cost of giving the referee "threat" which can then be used by the referee/narrator to allow the NPCs to act before the characters or to introduce reinforcements or ambushes into a combat.
Obviously a game like John Carter of Mars contains not only chargen and encounter rules, but setting material as well. E.R. Burroughs' red planet is well known to many fans of fantastic adventure fiction. Mr. Burroughs practically invented the planet fantasy genre of science fiction with publication of the first John Carter novel, A Princess of Mars. John Carter of Mars allows one to play the iconic J.C., or another earth human transported to Mars, or a red martian, or a green martian, and so on.
Modiphius' 2d20 system uses d20 and d6 dice, although the latter have a unique game interpretation. They are called "damage dice" and one reads a score of 1 or 2 as 1 or 2 points of damage respectively. Scores of 3 or 4 are counted as zero, 5 and 6 as 1 point. A 6 gives a special result such as by-passing armor in addition to scoring damage. A score of a twenty on the d20 roll allows the referee/narrator to introduce a complication and players have a "luck" pool they can use to perhaps get them out of a tight spot. The Modiphius 2d20 system is a game engine that supports heroic play and although I just received my copy and have not yet brought it to the game table, I anticipate Modiphius' John Carter of Mars to give us many heroic adventures.

Melee & Wizard

The Fantasy Trip Returns to print!
It's back! A fan favorite and a game I have many fond memories of has returned to print. Steve Jackson Games acquired the rights to The Fantasy Trip last year. Designed by Mr. Jackson when he was with Metagaming Concepts and first published in a Microgame format consisting of a small booklet, map and cut-a-part counters, Melee and Wizard could be played as tactical games in their own right or used as the combat and magic system of a role-playing system. We did both, adapting them for use in our White Box and Advanced gaming.
The Fantasy Trip became its own FRPG with publication of In The Labyrinth, a softcover manual for fantasy role-play using Melee, Wizard and their Advanced descendants. Steve Jackson Games is now shipping the current, updated versions of his beloved The Fantasy Trip games following a very successful Kickstarter. They can be found online or in a store near you (if you are lucky enough to have one). Let The Fantasy Trip gaming begin!

Traveller Box

Mongoose Traveller 2e Starter Set
Mongoose Publishing has the current license to publish Traveller. The first edition of the game Mongoose released is very similar mechanically to the original Little Black Books and their second edition doesn't differ enough to make huge ripples among those in the hobby who follow Traveller. I can still use older material written for prior editions with Mongoose Traveller 2e. The Mongoose 2e presentation is excellent with much new art, slick glossy paper and a very nice box for the starter set which includes setting material, a nice map and beginning adventure. The core rules are also available in a stand alone hardcover book for those who prefer that format.

For me personally, I like games that come in a box. Boxes are nice. They sit nicely on the shelf, they hold the game materials together in one place and make transporting the game easy. The box adds a little class, especially if it's attractive...and it can feel like I am opening a hidden treasure, revealing something special when I remove the box lid. I appreciate Mongoose producing a very sturdy and attractive box with their starter set. It even includes dice!

Little Black Books 2 and 3

Traveller - a person who journeys through space
Book 1 covers Characters and Combat and it can be used without the other books if the referee is interested in exploring a story that will develop through play on a single planet. Honestly, that is how I like to run Traveller. The Traveller system, even in its earliest edition is much more than characters and combat. The original Black Box comes with three little black books. Book 2 is titled Starships and introduces rules for travelling through space (hence the Traveller name). Book 3 Worlds and Adventures includes information on worlds, equipment and psionics.

Book 2 Starships provides information on the standard hull interplanetary and jump capable space vessels. Traveller uses a bit of math (square root) in calculating how long it takes to get somewhere using maneuver drive propulsion. Jump drive travel is between star systems and takes about a week. Book 2 also covers ship design and weaponry and ship combat. Traveller uses a vector system for maneuvering spaceships, which means it takes momentum and gravity into account. Yes, Traveller relies a bit more on science and physics than some space opera style games. The math is minimal and it is quite simplified (space combat is played out on a two dimensional surface). There is just enough there to give the impression one is dealing with the game in a realistic, scientific manner.
Economics, trade and commerce can feature as a big part of a Traveller game if that is the direction the players want to take. Financing a ship, haggling for cargo prices and turning a profit transporting goods, passengers and mail can be one way to play the game - sometimes referred to as "space trucking". Traveller is intended to cover several play styles. It supports solo and group play, with or without a referee. This has been very formative in my own style of gaming which at times includes solo and unsupervised group play.

Book 3 Worlds and Adventures provides tools for exploring space and encountering new life forms and civilizations. Book 3 also includes the Traveller equipment list. Traveller exists in a far future as imagined in the late 1970's. One aspect which makes the Traveller universe so playable is the absence of faster than light communication. Messages travel at the speed of the jump drive. In other words, players are isolated and must often deal with trouble on their own.
Black Book Traveller is humanocentric. Player characters are humans. Robots exist, but they serve humans. The magic of Traveller comes in the form of psionics, ESP, telekinesis, and so on. This is the default as covered in the original system material, but its space...anything is possible and the referee and players can introduce anything imaginable. Book 3 ends with a strong suggestion for those playing Traveller to draw upon science fiction literature for game inspiration.
The Traveller subtitle, Science-Fiction Adventure in the Far Future, suggests a wide array of possibilities. Space exploration, colonization, conflict, trading, piracy, diplomacy, espionage and more, are all suitable for Traveller gameplay. My early days in the hobby were spent pulling stories from sources outside gaming, from novels, comics, movies and artwork, and converting them all into game material. (The 1979 film Alien served as inspiration for one such adventure.) Traveller is a vehicle for most any adventure story one might want to tell in a far future (or past). The Little Black Books, much like the Little Brown Books, comprise a referee's toolkit. The possibilities are endless, but Traveller does require the referee to do some design work (unless you are content running one of the published modules).

The Little Black Books

GDW Traveller
Released in 1977 by Game Designers' Workshop, Traveller gave the new hobby a chance to explore the science fiction side of adventure gaming. Over the decades Traveller has been published a number of times by various publishers and has seen several editions, but remains a popular system. With the exception of the GURPS version of Traveller, the core 2d6 mechanic is consistent across editions, a fact which makes even the earliest play aids still relevant. Traveller is currently enjoying a rebirth through Mongoose Publishing's second edition.
The first and second editions of Traveller come as three little black books, perhaps as a nod to the World's First Published RPG. Book 1 Characters and Combat (note the absence of an ampersand) covers just that. This is the famous character generation system that can result in your character dying prior to the first adventure. This may sound a bit unusual, but it makes sense.
Chargen in Traveller differs from most systems. Traveller introduces the career or life-path concept (although they don't use the term) which later re-appears in games such as The Burning Wheel. Once basic characteristics are determined by six 2d6 dice rolls, one each for Strength, Dexterity, Endurance, Intelligence, Education and Social Standing, the player decides which of six careers to try for, Navy, Marines, Army, Scouts, Merchants or Other. If the enlistment roll is not successful, the character is submitted for the draft and a random assignment to one of the six career paths.
Enlistment is for four years during which the character ages and acquires skills and expertise according to random dice rolls. There is also a survival roll, because life is dangerous in the Traveller universe. Failure on the survival check results in character death.
Traveller allows the player to choose re-enlistment or transfer to another career at the end of each four year term of service. It is not uncommon for beginning characters to have 3, 4 or even more 4 year terms under their belt prior to retirement and commencing play. The risk of survival and adverse effects of aging helps balance the accumulation of skills and wealth which can accrue during a lengthy pre-play career.
Traveller is a skill based system, the first I came across in gaming. Skills and expertises are acquired through one's terms of service and through adventuring. A skill or expertise adds to the roll for success during play. Success in Traveller is based on rolling 2d6s, adding the scores and any plus or minus die roll modifiers. The referee may award a plus of minus to adjust for easy or difficult tasks. A total score of 8 or better is needed for success.
I like the bell curve nature of rolling two dice. A frequent complaint of systems based on the roll of a d20 or less often percentiles, is the "swingyness" that can accompany rolling on a flat distribution die. The complaint about bell curve dice is that the plus and minus adjustments mean more or less depending on where along the curve you are. It generally boils down to personal preference.
The simplicity of the Traveller chargen and combat systems lend themselves easily to tinkering. I like games that I can add to and adjust to suit my tastes and preference. Traveller can be used to explore almost any setting - it's a big universe.

Table Trust

Running a Game
Trust is at the heart of most human relationships. The gaming table is no different. As the person at the head of the table, the referee is highlighted as being particularly important in establishing table trust. The players look to the referee to be just that, a referee, an impartial judge of events during the game. The players rightly expect the referee to apply the rules in a fair and consistent manner. If the rules include dice, and most do, the players expect the rolls to be fair and impartial. Survival is winning and risking the lives of our paper characters is the price of entry.
The referee has a reasonable expectation that the players can be trusted as well. Trusted to show up ready to play, keep accurate records during play regarding character hit points, treasure, and resources expenditure and to defer to the referee on all matters pertaining to the referee's game world. The referee in turn is expected to put forth a reasonable effort, to use rules that are agreeable to all, to be enthused, and to devise an interesting and entertaining setting for the adventure. Moving the game along, keeping track of experience points and improvising when needed are also reasonable expectations of a referee.
Occasionally dice need to be rolled. I say "occasionally" because it is my practice to keep dice rolls to a minimum. Why commit to chance anything that can be adjudicated through discussion? (It's a social game!) Why risk failure by rolling the dice if failure is an unacceptable outcome? As a general rule, the referee should seriously consider each situation and the possible outcomes and their effect on the campaign before committing the outcome to the randomness of the dice. In most games outside role-playing the dice roll is sacrosanct. One does not alter the outcome on a whim. Honor and trust the dice. Accept their "decision" when consulted.
The bell curve nature of rolling multiple dice should be used whenever possible to mitigate extreme outcomes, unless the extremes are relatively meaningless (or are occasionally desirable). Because of the flat nature of the range of possible d20 outcomes, I am leery of using critical successes and fumbles when using this die. The d20 system, which began as the "alternative combat system" in White Box has become prolific and almost universal. So common is the twenty sided polyhedron that it is essentially an icon of the hobby, but it has its disadvantages. The d20 is essentially a percentile die in 5% increments. Rolling a 1 or a 20 is just as probable as a 10 or 11 (or any other single number for that matter). Adding two or more dice together produces a normal distribution of random results and is therefore more predictable (and desirable in my estimation).
Regarding dice and the game, random tables are great for referee (and sometimes player) inspiration and many of these rolls need not be explained to the players except as regards an outcome that would be immediately evident to their characters. The same must be true of certain skill use or detection rolls where the character would be in the dark regarding how well or poorly the PC has performed. All other dice should be rolled in the open with the outcome narrated by the referee (or by the player if encouraged to do so by the referee). Dice rolls are a matter of trust.
The referee, referred to by whatever name is used in the particular system being played, must wear many hats - author, judge, director, story-teller, character actor, time keeper, accountant and many others. The referee's reward for all their hard work is to see one's creation, a personal world vision, brought to life by cooperative players. The referee's responsibility is to do one's best to provide a safe, fun and fair table. We play to find out what happens. We create as we play. The rules and dice may aid us, if we trust them, but first we must have trust in one another.

How I Like My Demi-Human

Not Too Exotic
The term demi-human appears in the Basic Rules (B/X) and refers to those character "races" or species, ancestries, aliens, etc., who are playable as characters, but are not humans. In the Original Edition of the World's Most Popular RPG they include the elves, dwarves and hobbits drawn from the fantastic fiction of J.R.R. Tolkien (and other sources). Hobbits are renamed "halflings" in the 6th printing of the White Box and the term continues to be used up to the present day. The Advanced Game adds gnomes, half elves and half orcs to the list of playable character races and that is the way the game has stood for many years. The Basic Game introduces "race as class" combining several previous ideas about class and the demi-human races (a term first used in Basic), a concept which gamers either embrace or reject, but seldom are they indifferent to.
I am on record as being a devoted fan of the Original Game - the White Box or 3 Little Brown Books where players choose to play either humans, dwarves, elves or hobbits. As referee of my own setting I also prefer to encourage a humanocentric milieu where most (all) player characters are human. This is (in my estimation) for several good reasons which include the following:
1) Being humans, I think we players tend to role-play humans, even when our PC has pointy ears, a bushy beard or hairy feet - we think, feel and react as humans. At some point the "in-character" persona breaks down and we are all role-playing a human.
2) Most of the fantastic fiction I like best, that featuring Conan, Fafhrd and Gray Mouser, and even Harry Potter, are all human protagonists. Non-humans are encountered and give added flavor to the setting, but are generally not the main characters. The work of J.R.R. Tolkien is an exception and likely forms the basis of including non-humans in White Box.
3) I believe the Original Rules encourage human player characters and that is consistent with much of the gamer legend which surrounds its original author(s) preference. Limiting the PC population to humans encourages imaginative creation of diversity within the set of human characters and promoting more thoughtful and believable role-play.
4) Finally, I like to make my non-human NPCs seem as alien as possible so as to increase the wonder and surprise players experience while exploring my "world". It's part of the "magic" of the game as I see it.
Including and embracing all people different from ourselves through our gaming activities should be a goal. An admirable goal...also keeping in mind we are all in reality humans. Diversity among our players, those humans sitting around the table, is absolutely desirable. Players should feel free to explore any aspect of human diversity during the game, but I feel the referee has the right to dictate what non-human races are available as PCs in their campaign. If a player would like to play a "special" character, such as a member of one of the "monster races", I suggest working with the referee to create a "one-off". That is how White Box suggests it be done.
Using a humanocentric PC milieu seems both more genuine and more desirable. The false diversity consisting of elves, dwarves, hobbits, dragon folk, winged faeries, trollkin and so on and on...often detracts from the verisimilitude of the game and misses the point of roll-play - that is to examine the referee's imaginative world through the eyes of another person (your PC), to react "in character" while drawing upon your own experience and to present a realistic portrayal of your PC for the entertainment of yourself and your fellow players.

Crypts & Things Remastered

Swords & Sorcery Roleplaying
Crypts & Things starts with the heroic stories of adventure that from a young age set me (and others) so many years ago on this lifetime journey to places people today only dream about. Journeys to the center of the earth, to antediluvian civilizations, exotic planets far across time and space and to a dying earth under a fading sun. These never-never land tourists are generally hard muscled men and women of action much like those illustrated on the cover of Crypts & Things and the sword & sorcery books that inspire C&T.
Crypts & Things also starts with the excellent Swords & Wizardry OSR rules written by Matt Finch to emulate the early edition play of the World's Most Popular FRPG. Crypts & Things is designed by Newt Newport and published by D101 Games. The original Crypts & Things dates to 2011 and C&T Remastered made its appearance in 2016. In keeping with its swords & sorcery feel, players choose to play a barbarian, fighter, sorcerer, or thief who will face a variety of brigands, bandits, cultists, and sorcerer villains as well as the occasional supernatural creature.
The contents of Crypts... includes The Scrolls of Wonder (chargen and system rules) and The Book of Doom which describes C&T's default setting, the Continent of Terror. Yes, that's the intent of Crypts & Things, a world of mystery and terror. Characters are heroic because they face the unknown. The game is intense because it involves discovering things mankind is not meant to know.
There are no elves, dwarves or hoblings among the peoples of Zarth or on the Continent of Terror. There are, however, beast hybrids, lizard people and serpent nobles, which give C&T some of its old school swords & sorcery feel. Magic or sorcery is classified as "white", "grey" or "black". The use of black magic in C&T carries with it the threat of corruption as do certain "vile" locations.
Many of us in the hobby like to play in our game the kind of characters and worlds we read about. For enthusiasts like me who enjoy old school swords & sorcery tales (often with some mythos thrown in), a game such as Crypts & Things can be a great means to that end.

Medieval Authentic Roleplaying

An RPG World Lit Only By Fire
As anyone who regularly reads this blog knows, I am enthusiastic about the OSR (Old School Renaissance) style play and games. The first generation OSR saw publication of the retro-clone rule sets, the big three being OSRIC (for Advanced 1e), Labyrinth Lord (for B/X) and Swords & Wizardry (for ODD), and the play aids. modules and settings published using these and the open license. In keeping with the old school spirit, the OSR hobby supports and encourages a do-it-yourself approach. The resulting creative content inspired by interest in the old school RPGs and the ease with which self publishing can be done today has resulted in an explosion of high quality OSR products. Recent contributions include games that offer a fresh take on role-playing adventure games written with the old school style of rules and game-play in mind. One of those is Dragon & Lion by RPGPundit.
Medieval Authentic in Lion & Dragon refers to an emphasis on role-playing in a fictional feudal society based on a real setting, that of England during the middle ages. Chivalry, knighthood, feudal obligation and a powerful monotheistic church are central themes around which play revolves. The monotheistic church structure parallels that of the medieval Roman Christian Church, but the author changes the name and deity for some reason. 
Lion & Dragon is not the first RPG to attempt at producing a game with a more authentic medieval feel; Chivalry & Sorcery sets this goal for itself starting around 1977. Fantasy Wargaming edited by Bruce Galloway and published by Patrick Stephens Limited in 1981 presents a detailed game system for role-play that draws heavily on wargaming and medieval history including medieval concepts of magic.

Dark Albion, also by RPGPundit, can be used as a setting for Lion & Dragon or with another OSR style game system. Like Lion & Dragon, Dark Albion draws heavily upon historic England for inspiration. Set in a fictional version of the War of the Roses, Dark Albion adds fantastical elements such as sorcery, clerical miracles and supernatural monsters to a setting ripe with the division and conflict of the civil war fought between the houses of York and Lancaster.
Lion & Dragon and Dark Albion are inspired by real events of England's past, but take considerable liberties with the history. The most glaring to me is the substitution of the worship of the Sun for the Roman Christian Church. Role-playing in a setting that resembles history, but clearly isn't avoids some of the potential issues to be encountered with a campaign set during an historic period. For starters, the fantasy version of history can differ in whatever areas the author/referee would like to change. If the bigotry of the period is problematic, change history by eliminating that fact. Any inconsistencies your in-game setting has with historic fact can be explained away by saying, "It's very much like the way it was, but different in some ways." How well this works probably depends on the willingness of your audience to suspend disbelief. In my experience, this only works well for periods of history that I personally have very little knowledge about. If it is documented and known and yet ignored, I am looking for an exit from the game. So my advice is don't change history, rather find an unexplained event or even better, some as yet untold story for the players to discover and possibly reveal.

This image of an under inspiring cover belies the quality of what lies within HarnMaster Gold. As a medieval authentic role-playing experience, HarnMaster in all its editions has few peers. Logic and real world experience inspires both the setting of Harn and the rule system designed for use with it. Harn/HarnMaster has an authenticity about its setting that is both detailed and extensive. Harn is a low magic world in the sense that magic users are rare and spell effects are often subtle. The existence of fantastic beings, dimensional travel and gods which take an active part in the world all suggest Harn and HarnMaster are quite magical, however. There are times when this approach, a magical world where characters command very little of the magic, is greatly appealing to me. Such a setting seems authentic to me in much the same way our own world contains many wondrous mysteries, despite our scientific discoveries.
The wonder of a setting is often strongest when players cannot command powerful world shaping magics, yet experience places of mystery and power. This basis is seen in the work of many of the classic fantasy authors whose protagonists are often folks like us who have been thrown into mysterious and alien settings. We as readers discover these mysteries alongside the protagonist. Reading is passive entertainment, but through the magic of role-playing we can become active participants in our entertainment, and yet our characters need not have the power to alter "reality" in order to play a significant role in our fictional events.
Authentic role-play, whether medieval, modern or otherwise in setting is more about being focused on the plausible, tangible and believable than the outrageously powerful. It is subtle and grounded in a world which we recognize, one that in many ways is much like our own, yet differs in a significant way. Medieval authentic differs primarily in societal ways, a feudal society being much different from our own, so different in facts as to be challenging enough to role-play convincingly. Adding in a bit of magic and a dash of the supernatural and we are probably pushing the limits of verisimilitude. I think this is one reason why so many games by-pass the medieval authentic and settle for a game set in a modern society, but one where people wear medieval fashions. There are just so many balls the juggler can keep in motion at once.

Dungeon World

Powered by the Apocalypse
Perspective! Sometimes reading or listening to a different perspective brings a thing into focus, sharpens our understanding and deepens our appreciation of something that has been with us so long that we just take it for granted that we understand all there is to know about it. I call this unsettling occurrence a nice surprise. Independent game publishers like The Burning Wheel offer that unique experience by taking the most well known RPG system in the hobby to the next unexpected level. They go beyond what we take for granted and teach us something new about a game we thought we fully understood.
Dungeon World is just such a game. Written by Sage LaTorra and Adam Koebel, Dungeon World  uses "Powered by the Apocalypse" mechanics called "Moves" and "Fronts" (and other system jargon), but that isn't what this post is about, rather I am focusing on how Dungeon World (DW) informs us about the Original RPG that inspired DW. Games like DW (and Torchbearer also by The Burning Wheel) have been called "love letters" and I think there is some merit to this description, but DW goes beyond praise and affection for the original and re-frames my thinking about it. Simply put, DW helps me better understand the Original Game.
Reading the character descriptions in DW, the classic archetypes of the class system are brought clearly into focus. Admittedly, DW looks at each class and race from a singular perspective in order to better frame the archetype, but I find it a useful and entertaining exercise.
Storyteller, poet, songwriter and charmer, the bard is both adventurer and recorder of heroic deeds. Armed with your father's mandolin, fancy clothes and a hidden dagger...DW paints a picture of the iconic bard. In contrast, BW depicts the druid as a wanderer, a spirit warrior draped in skins who rejects civilization and its gods in order to be closer to a greater power, that of nature itself. A shape-shifter with the ability to assume animal form and to speak with spirits, the adventuring druid assumes assumes a shepherd's role with respect to the party. An armored war machine and templar of the good, the paladin guides the party using gifts of righteousness and virtue because hell awaits.
Names, Look and Stats shape each individual character in DW. Alignment, Gear and Bonds round out the character concept. DW zones in on the unique elements that individualize each character and by doing so DW gives each player a handle on how to conceive of and role-play their character.
The GM section describes the job of planning and running the game and offers some practical and to-the-point advice such as... Portray a fantastic world, describe the situation, provide opportunities for heroic adventure and play to find out what happens. Regarding referee maps, leave blank spaces so that you may add things that arise during play. Talk to the characters, name your NPCs and play your monsters as if they are real creatures with sensible motives and individual personalities. Be a fan of the players' characters, but present riches at a price. Let them earn it.
The ability to bring key elements of play, those very elements so very common to the game we love and adore, is where DW and systems like it, really shine. Reading DW improves my understanding of "the game" and I believe, helps make me a better player.