When comparing Dungeon World vs Basic Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition, the Slant community recommends Dungeon World for most people. In the question“What are the best tabletop RPGs?” Dungeon World is ranked 4th while Basic Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition is ranked 47th. The most important reason people chose Dungeon World is:
Unlike other RPGs where the GM creates the world and the storyline single-handedly, here GMs are specifically asked to leave blanks and players encouraged to fill them in.
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Encourages players and the GM to build the world collaboratively
Unlike other RPGs where the GM creates the world and the storyline single-handedly, here GMs are specifically asked to leave blanks and players encouraged to fill them in.
Pro Great advice and systems to help GMs along
Dungeon World provides GMs with great advice on how to run a good session.
Additionally, GMs can set conditions that, if fulfilled, will give a player XP. It gives the GM a way of enticing players to perform certain actions they might not otherwise have considered or wanted to perform.
Pro Encourages creating relationships between characters
Relationships between characters are established during the character creation process as well as at the end of each session via Bonds. Bonds are simple statements that explain how a character relates to another character. An example of a bond would be, "Avon proved himself a coward in the dungeons of Xax’takar. He is a dangerous liability to the party and must be watched." Multiple bonds can be established at a time. At the end of each session bonds resolved and new ones created give XP.
Pro Narrative driven fantasy RPG
Dungeon World is set in a D&D-esque world with a distinct slant towards combat and treasure gathering while emphasizing narrative over combat mechanics.
The game includes classic fantasy RPG classes such as Bard, Cleric, Druid, Fighter, Paladin, Ranger, Thief and Wizard and D&D style ability scores such as Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma.
Pro Has a self-regulating power balance system
In Dungeon World, XP is given for failures, and automatically for any rolls that are 6 or below. It provides many benefits and chief among them is the fact that it allows players to catch up to the difficulty of challenges faced. Additionally, it encourages the group to attempt harder challenges, reduces grief caused by failure and clears the GM from having to track each individual player's level.
Pro Encourages playing according to character's way of thinking and morality
XP is given at the end of the session if a character is acting according to alignment. Alignments are categorized as Good, Lawful, Neutral, Chaotic, and Evil.
Pro Does not require special dice
The game can be played with common six-sided dice.
Pro Bounded Accuracy
Bounded Accuracy is a core design ideal of 5th Edition. In short, it means the numbers don't get too big; this lets weak challenges remain relevant for longer, and strong ones become survivable sooner. In practice, it also places more focus on a character's inherent abilities and less on magical equipment than has been the case in recent editions.
Pro Easiest tabletop RPG to find someone to play with
As D&D is the largest tabletop RPG franchise and played by most people, it is the easiest tabletop RPG to find players for.
Pro Encourages character immersion
Numerous core aspects of 5th Edition exist solely to encourage thinking in-character, including mechanical rewards for good roleplay and detailed character backgrounds with lasting effects in the game.
Pro Minimal but versatile rules
5th Edition strikes an impressive balance in keeping the rules simple without limiting the creativity of players.
Cons
Con Hard for the GM with non-collaborative players
Con Combat system can be confusing for some
Dungeon World's combat system is not divided into turns in order to make it more fluid. But it can get confusing as to what happens in what order. It is purposefully frantic, but that can turn off some. Especially people with preconceived notions of how RPGs should be played.
In the most basic form - GMs narrate the beginning of an NPC's action to which the player responds. If the player's response triggers a move, roll the dice. GM narrates the conclusion.
Con It's not entirely free
The text is CC-BY but the game as a whole (graphics etc) is not free. You can make and sell your own games based off it but you won't find the PDF download for free anywhere.
Con You support Adam Koebel, a very controversial person
Con Lacks variety in various areas
In order to make the character creation fast and relatively simple in-depth customization options have been excluded from the basic ruleset. There's also a limited selection of character options (just 4 classes with a single sub-class), monsters, magic items, etc. The variety is to be found in the full game.
Con Still puts too much emphasis on spellcasters
The sword and sandal brigade, as well as the ever undervalued and undersupported Ranger class (Arcane Archer is under Fighter, not Ranger, where it belongs!), are still second fiddle to the magic slingers and rogues who are always overpowered.
Con Too easy to fall into the meatgrinder trap
Roleplaying falls by the wayside too easily as the murder-hobo set are catered to! Of course, it's also about the DM, however, majority of players want combat and that is exactly what D&D likes to provide - along with the archetypal and archetypical meat-grinder dungeon fest.