Nobody Remembers That Stat Modifier

Dungeon World Tavern
1

I’ve just listened to a talk with Scott Kurtz aka Binwin Bronzebottom, and apart from praising Dungeon World, he also makes a bold claim that I absolutely agree with. Paraphrasing, it goes something like this: when you do that remarkable thing while playing D&D and TTRPGs in general, tomorrow when you talk about it, nobody who was there and comes to talk to you afterwards, is going to say: “Oh, remember when you rolled that 18 and your stat modifier of 9 made it a 27”?

This, so much of this. As long as you tell a memorable story, nobody will care or remember what your modifiers were 5 months or years from now. But they’ll remember the story, and if the game makes the storytelling easier and faster, then that’s a game for me.

Listen to the whole interview here if you get a chance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tn3S_fAlCxE&index=203&list=WL

3 Likes
2

I listened to that interview also. I had some trouble picking out the voices (which is strange; because, they don’t have fully similar voices), so at times I forgot who was speaking.

But, that description he gave and earlier while decrying the state of having battles with goblins that are meaningless, that was a pretty interesting take on the table-top experience.

I felt some increased appreciation for BWHQ games and game design; because, the outlook seems to rely heavily on, ‘the game is a crucible for characters, and nothing is really worth rolling dice about if it is not part of that crucible.’

2 Likes