D&D Summer Camp #1: The Great Watermelon Fake Out

This is really making me want to check out Dungeon World. I like the idea of not really having to get bogged down with 45 minute encounters.

Not meaning to bury the lede, but what the heck is papercraft camp?

Also, very much looking forward to a writeup on how D&D ruined boardgaming. Only a few games caught my attention during my heavy RPG years (25 years) and I had to backfill a lot come the turn of the century, after nearly 12 years of weekly DMing. D&D in particular sucked up almost all of my table top time.

Dungeon World is really interesting, if you find 5e boggy. I got back into D&D with the Starter Set, and nothing else. The stripped down ruleset is good, the financial overhead is great (these should be in libraries) and I ended up using a lot of ideas from DW in my campaign, especially getting your players to do some of the world building. 5e has done a good job of incorporating some DW role play flavor, but I honestly love long combats and dungeon crawls because I have to do a lot less prep.

I'm torn between Dungeon World and Blades in the Dark. I'm really interested in Blades, but I suspect DW is easier for kids to grasp. Considering the size of the Blades rule book, I'm guessing it gets pretty detailed.

hotseatgames wrote: I'm torn between Dungeon World and Blades in the Dark. I'm really interested in Blades, but I suspect DW is easier for kids to grasp. Considering the size of the Blades rule book, I'm guessing it gets pretty detailed.

I had fun "winging" my way through BITD it as a player, but never quite grasped the rules, or what was going on with its high level of complexity, and its multitude of charts and maps. Dungeon World is diametrically different. No charts, no maps. It's mostly pure improvisation, but requires an incredibly sharp DM who can maintain high levels of mental energy from beginning to end. There are no "days off" from Dungeon World. It falls very flat unless everyone treats it like the opening night of "Our Town" at a regional theater.

hotseatgames wrote: I'm torn between Dungeon World and Blades in the Dark. I'm really interested in Blades, but I suspect DW is easier for kids to grasp. Considering the size of the Blades rule book, I'm guessing it gets pretty detailed.

Have a look at Savage Worlds too.

Before settling on 5e, I was very interested in all the Powered By the Apocalypse (PBtA) spinoffs (of which Dungeon World is the biggest) especially Monster of the Week, which was inspired by shows like Buffy and Supernatural. There are a ton of them, with varieties of flavor ranging from crime fighting, being in a MASH unit to being in a girl gang, or an aspect of a personality in a single person. The biggest tabletop renaissance is happening in RPGs right now, which makes the Board Game boom look pretty bland, by comparison. But the big lift in most cases, which has been stated earlier in the thread, is emotional buy in from players. Casual gamers will likely get more mileage from D&D

Sagrilarus wrote: Not meaning to bury the lede, but what the heck is papercraft camp?

Sounds like day camp where the kids come home every day with something like macaroni glued on construction paper.

Great write up! Sounds like a blast, and having a blast with your kids is always extra special.

If you've got a long family car-ride in your future, you might want to listen to The Adventure Zone, which starts with the same adventure. They might enjoy hearing how another group dealt with Klarg & co.