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Combat in Dungeon World
I got a few questions today about combat in Dungeon World and how monsters work. That’s something that Adam and I are trying to clear up in the latest draft, but I figured it was worth taking apart a bit here.
One of the core ideas of Apocalypse World, Dungeon World, and Dungeon World combat in particular is that to do something, you do something. Moves are both prescriptive (they tell you how to do something) and descriptive (they tell you what happens when you do a certain thing).
The most general way to describe when monsters do things is: when the fiction says so. If, in the fiction of the game, a monster deals damage then they also mechanically deal damage.
I know that seems like a tautology, so here’s some specific cases:
The Hack and Slash, Pull a Stunt, and Make a Stand moves all have options that let you reduce damage. This should be read as implicitly meaning if you don’t choose those, you take normal damage. There’s some discussion of this in the Moves Discussion section I’m still working on. (Also, Make a Stand has some stupidly written choices in the last posted version, which doesn’t help anyone’s understanding.)
When a PC fails a roll, the GM’s move can be to deal damage as established. Whatever damage is hanging out there in the fiction, that happens.
Finally, when the PCs don’t do anything to stop something that would make them take damage. As a GM, you can totally say something like “The goblin rushes at you with his spear out, what do you do?” If the PC’s answer ignores the goblin, then they take the goblin’s damage.
All of these are just special cases of when the fiction says so. Hack and Slash, Pull a Stunt, and Make a Stand are just moves who’s fictional requirements say there’s the possibility of damage. The GM move says “as established” because it’s just about using something in the fiction. The last case is the purest: it’s just applying the mechanical effects of what we all know is happening.
Hopefully that clears up some issues. I’ll make sure something like this ends up in the game text.
