Weaverdice

Weaverdice, sometimes spelled Weaver Dice, is a tabletop role-playing game based on the setting of Worm. The game was created by Wildbow, with help from fans and playtesters. It's currently a work in progress, with regular revisions.<ref>Both game and story were created by Wildbow, the former created with some help from fans and playtesters. It is very much a fluid work in progress (WIP), with revisions being made on the regular. - reddit thread by Wildbow.</ref> Initially Weaverdice was meant to be a system-agnostic guideline for character/power creation within the Worm setting for any TTRPG, but eventually evolved into a game on its own.

The ruleset is currently on its third version, started around February 2020.

Description

Weaverdice is akin to Dungeons & Dragons and many other tabletop role-playing games: A game master (GM) handles setting, story and non-player characters, while a single player or group of players navigate the roles of heroes or villains, all taking place in the setting of Worm.<ref>Akin to D&D or other pen and paper roleplaying games, Weaverdice has a game master ('GM') handle setting, story, and non-player characters while a solo player or group of players navigate the role of a hero or villain. All of this takes place in what is commonly known as the Wormverse, known to inhabitants of that 'verse as 'Earth Bet'. Starting in 1982, when a golden man was found floating over a spot on the ocean, superheroes started appearing with increasing frequency, and society changed to adapt to them. - reddit thread by Wildbow.</ref>

Weaverdice is unusual in how player characters are created.<ref name="SV1">Got tagged, responding.

Weaver Dice has had a basic resolution mechanic for a long time, and if Samdamandias is the person I'm remembering discussing the subject with, I remember pointing it out and getting an 'oh, duh' response, and I remember stressing that Weaver Dice was never meant to be a standalone roleplaying game system in the first place! It was meant to be a cape generation system that fit with the tone and nature of the Wormverse. I stated this explicitly at several points in the doc and when referring to the doc.

That said, with the basic system in place we have no less than nine ongoing games going at once with no input from me. I don't have the time to run RPs, much as I'd love to get more into it. - Comment by Wildbow on Sufficent Velocity</ref> Players do not control the process in full, but the player group collaborates and works within the setting's logic to devise a superpower or set of superpowers for the character.<ref>Unlike D&D and many other roleplaying games, Weaverdice doesn't have players decide their character. Where a player of D&D might decide to play an elf pyromancer and write up their sheet before presenting it to the person running the game and to the other players, Weaverdice is a system where the player does not have control over the powers they get nor the circumstances in which they get them. The group collaborates and works with the setting's logic to devise a superpower or set of superpowers for the character, and the player of that character then works with what they have. This is not a fair setting, and the system of perks and flaws can be similarly unfair. Once they roll a trigger, the group decides on a power, and they've rolled their perks and flaws, the player can fill in the remainder of the blanks and decide the particulars of the character. Players are thus challenged to make the best of what they're given. - reddit thread by Wildbow.</ref><ref>It’s a neat way to get variation in powers, and I think it suits the setting if you basically don’t get to choose which power you wind up with. - Comment by Wildbow on Venom 29.3</ref> Some groups opt to let players decide their trigger event themselves and pitch a power suggestion to the GM, who then creates something in the direction of the wish.

Versions

Weaverdice rules have gone through a number of iterations, and even spawed some fan-made variants.

Weaverdice 1.0

The first version of the Weaverdice rule where created around 2013, and was first intended to be a rules-agnostic guide to run wormverse games with any TTPRGs, but it eventually evolved into a standalone ruleset.

• WD 1.0 Rules

Weaverdice 2.0

The 2.0 edition was a set of revisions started around 2015 to the WD ruleset.

There are 6 main documents for Weaverdice 2.0, the current “stable” version. More fanmade docs can be found in the Welcome Doc

Gameplay Rules - The mechanics

Character Creation - How to make a character

Character Sheet - Self Explanatory

Equipment - Weapons, Armor and Costumes

Skills - What makes your character special

Play Guide - The guide for character and campaign progression

Weaverdice 3.0

Wildbow started his first drafts of 3.0 rules in 2020, and discussed changes on #gamedesign with community. It's still a work-in-progress.<ref name="3.0 rules WIP">As of November 2021, there is a definitive list of skills or description of them, and some frequently referenced skills like "Tactics" doesn't have it's own section.</ref> A number of fan resources have also been created.

Wildbow, on how the 3.0 version got started<ref name="WD 3.0">WD 3.0 why it was made</ref>:

[[...]] an attempt at doing a pre-made campaign module ended up being an excuse to revisit old rules while trying to do a more concise ruleset for the module.  There’s a general intent to make things more streamlined, reduce rolls, and increase clarity.

The desire to do a WD campaign module which led to an effort to cover the rules in a tidy and succinct way, and a summary look at the game rules and what could be cut.

Basic Rules

Rolls are usually done with one or more six-sided dice, where you use the value of the best roll and add some modifiers. The sum is either compared to a target number, or an opposed roll by another character.

• Weaverdice 3.0 Rules
  • 3.0 Character Creation
  • WIP Module Skills

Ability Checks

When a player wants to do something with a chance of failure, the GM will ask that player to roll a d6 and add or subtract a number based on their statistics. With their statlines, the sample characters each have two stats that get +1s and one stat with a -1. They would roll a d6, aim for a 2+ or 3+ (trivial to easy task), 4+, 5+, or 6+ (middling, hard, impossible).

When in doubt, default to requiring a 4+ to succeed.

• 7 Abilities: Brawn, Athletics, Dexterity, Wits, Social, Knowledge, and Guts
• The baseline score of Abilites is 3, and for every point above or below that baseline, characters get a +1 or -1 to the roll.

Skill Checks

Skills represent training and natural capability in specific areas, and impart both familiarity in that field and options when taking actions in that area. The familiarity is typically the first thing one gets when progressing in a field, and is represented with extra dice on rolls they’d already be making, with the player taking the best result (sometimes referred to as an ‘Xh6’ for ‘highest of X six sided die)

Effort and Exhaustion

Every notable individual has certain reserves to draw from that allow them to push themselves a little harder. These are: Stamina, Focus, Recovery.

Effort and Exhaustion is a mechanic new to 3.0

Morale

Morale is a reflection of a character’s mental wellness and is bolstered by self care. It takes the form of a sliding scale ranging from ‘Excellent’ to ‘Dismal’. Some powers and forms of attack may directly impact it, representing boosts or devastating hits to the psyche and mood. Having low morale impacts one’s performance and sets a strict cap on die results. High morale can be considered a buffer against these consequences, or it can be spent; lowering morale by one step to change a die result.

Combat

Initiative Tactics skill is rolled to determin action order. There are ways to change your initiative.

Attacks are a common action that involve an attack roll (Brawn or Dexterity, depending on weapon), made to beat a target’s static defense score. Players and important NPCs may respond to an attack by spending focus to try to dodge or block, each of which has its own benefits.

Defense Scores are the flat number that an individual needs to beat to hit a target. In part, this represents combat readiness and experience. At a score of 2, attackers need a 2+ to hit the target, representative of civilians who might be like deers in the headlights when someone comes running at them with a bat.

Damage

Attacks deals Wounds & Wound Effects, which is first resisted by armor or defensive abilities before character is wounded. A character can take up to their (Guts score) number of wounds before toppling. Attacks may sometimes deal only a wound effect, without adding a wound.

Wounds & Wound Effects:

• Wound Tiers: Lesser, Moderate, Critical
• Wound Categories: Cut, Bash, Pierce, Rend, Burn, Shock
• Wound effects are rolled with a d6 from their roll table

Variations

There exists a few variations of Weaverdice, among them are Khepridice, Skitterdice<ref name="Skitterdice">Hive Wiki - Skitterdice, Short article on Skitterdice.(warning: http link. Old hivewiki.de domains seems gone, so only direct IP link works)</ref>, WeaverFate, and Weaverdice d20<ref name="WeaverDice20">Hive Wiki - WD20, Short article on Weaverdice20(AKA. WD20). (warning: http link)</ref>.

Community

The Parahumans Discord contains Weaverdice channels and categories, with a bot<ref name="bot">Smiley - Discord bot on the official Parahumans Discord. Can perform various rolls & functions for WD</ref> to roll weaverdice aspects from trigger events to trading cards. There also exists some Discord bots that functions similarly to the IRC bot.

The online tabletop platform Roll20 has a character sheet for Weaverdice. <ref>A basic html/css sheet was made partly on request for the Roll20 platform, when some people expressed interest in playing Weaverdice through more interactive platforms than the IRC Link to theGitHub sourcecode Improvements to the sheet are welcome. Implementation of the irc rolls to Roll20 would be welcome.</ref> It does not yet contain the automated rolls the Discord bot have, but you can make stat & skill rolls easily.

The (now defunct) Parahumans IRC<ref name="IRC shutdown">The IRC was shutdown in 2019 after a transition period when the community was migrated to the Parahuman Disocrd</ref> had many channel for running weaverdice games, and had IRC bots for dice rolling trigger-events, powers, Flaws/Perk, and other related automation for the game. <ref name="IRC"> #weaverdice IRC(discontinued):

• Server: irc.parahumans.net
• Channel: #Weaverdice - reddit thread by Wildbow.</ref>. These have now migrated to the Parahumans Discord.

Campaigns by Wildbow

Wildbow has hosted four different Weaverdice campaigns, with one completed in full and another currently active. Independent Campaigns are also available.<ref name="campaigns">Weaver Dice: Campaigns, document updated by Weaverdice players.</ref>

WD Oakland

Takes places in the city of Oakland, where the powerful Guild member Poe is absent, and assumed to be close to dying as the result of illness. Different groups assume now is the proper time to move into the city.<ref>Poe has quietly, discreetly, dropped off the radar. It’s not public knowledge yet, but the local capes know, and it doesn’t suit any of them to let the details slip to any outsiders. Rumor is the man is dead or dying, but recent incidents have occurred, innocents getting hurt, and Poe really should and would have stepped in to do something, suggesting he wasn’t able.

There’s big money to be had for anyone willing and able to take a portion of the city for themselves. Unspoken agreements that defeated or lesser groups might be willing to fold into the bigger and more successful ones. - WD Oakland, document by Wildbow.</ref> Currently inactive.<ref name="campaigns"/>

WD Helena

Takes place in the town of Helena, located in Minnesota. Nearby a convoy of PRT containment vans on the way to the Birdcage was destroyed, with the prisoners freed and traveling into Helena.<ref>It was the word on the street before it even hit the news. PRT containment vans traveling down back roads to the Birdcage were interrupted before they could reach their destination. Not the most unusual thing in the world on its own, but this was something special. Four containment vans, eight capes, and four additional vans with foam sprayers were assaulted. This was a convoy of a sort that happen once every one or two years, bringing in the really dangerous birdcage-bound, where extra security is mandated.

The convoy and guards were disabled, the occupants of the vans freed. The rescuers, breakout specialists, were summarily killed or taken hostage, and the four occupants of the vans have apparently banded together. They’ve headed into a town of about thirty thousand people: Helena, MN.

The Kill Order was signed in record time. - WD Helena, document by Wildbow.</ref> Vigilantes and villains are hunting the escapees to receive the bounty of a kill order, with the PRT running damage control.<ref>Some of the people taking on the kill order are vigilantes, some are villains relishing the chance to hurt people and get paid for it, and some fit into other categories. The PRT is also in town, more to run damage control than anything else. There are little to no rules, and nothing that the hunters do here will get them prosecuted. It’s a situation that screams ‘opportunity’. - WD Helena, document by Wildbow.</ref> Currently inactive.<ref name="campaigns"/>

WD Lausanne

Takes place during the first appearance of the Simurgh, in the city of Lausanne, Switzerland.<ref>Bogotá, August 20th, 2002. Behemoth.
Lausanne, December 30th, 2002. Simurgh.
Seattle, April 1st, 2003. Leviathan. - Excerpt from Interlude 24.x</ref><ref>By Christmas of 2002, one way or another, things will reach a crescendo. - WD Lausanne, document by Wildbow.</ref> The campaign starts a bit earlier, where the Suits are branching out into city, answering a growing crisis, with minor villains flocking into the city, drawn by a group of Tinkers who are offering powersuits that also boost powers. Currently inactive.<ref name="campaigns"/>

WD Lincoln

Takes place during the Timeskip with a new corporate team called Lodestar, just getting set up in the eponymous city of Lincoln, Nebraska. Its top members are targeted and it falls to Junior members to deal with it.<ref>The 72nd largest city in the US, not due to receive a PRT office until 2016, Lincoln Nebraska hosts a total of two hundred and seventy-seven thousand people.

With the PRT having undergone a massive schism, members leaving established departments en masse, and early whispers in Anchorage suggesting that the newest departments are not doing as well as they could, some of the corporate teams have merged to form Lodestar, establishing themselves as an entity in Lincoln, with the purpose of serving as a stopgap or alternate PRT department. If Lodestar is a success, the PRT will not need to set up shop in Lincoln.

It’s a divisive decision. One that some call dangerous. Even if they’re undeniably heroes, their top brass being independents and corporate capes with a good track record, the fact that they’re operating as a corporate entity without government oversight makes some uneasy.

The founding event took place in Lincoln, a series of messages crop up on various parahuman related message boards. News media mentions the story until it is quashed by authorities.

There’s a bounty. Take down the top members of Lodestar.

This takes place in the summer of 2012 (timeskip), after five attempts were made and failed. Now, things seem quiet enough for Lodestar to go to work. Their gathered heroes are being dispatched across the city and to neighboring regions. Their guard is as lowered as it’s been since the bounty was offered. - WD Lincoln, document by Wildbow.</ref> The campaign was a one shot that was completed over two sessions.<ref name="campaigns"/>

Trivia

• Weaverdice is based on the system created by Taylor Hebert to illustrate the virtues of being a hero as opposed to a villain.<ref name="23.4">“Each of you write down the most horrible thing you can think of, that you can reasonably expect to happen to you in the next few years. No need to get too complicated. Think of something horrible that would give you a trigger event. Write it down.”
  
  I waited while each of the kids wrote something down. Other kids were gathering now, but they’d be bystanders. It was the stragglers who were the focus now.
  
  “Hand your sheet to the person to your left. Boston Wards, help me on this score. We’re going to make up powers that sort of fit the trigger events, in a vague way. No need to be specific.”
  
  [...]
  
  The kids rolled, one by one.
  
  Three dead.
  
  “You rigged the system,” Ned said, a little petulant.
  
  “I’m being a little harsh,” I said, “But this is it. It sounds dumb, but being a cape means beating the odds, again and again. If you’re a villain? The reward is pretty damn good, but the risk is bigger. You saw how few villains actually survived intact. Even then, a lot of them lost their money, or got hurt.” - Excerpt from Drone 23.4</ref>
• Weaverdice was mentioned as a game in Pact by Blake Thorburn when he was being interrogated by the police about the murder of a boy whose ghost he helped.<ref>Fuck you, I thought. I couldn’t let him control the flow of this discussion. I continued, heated, “The family said something about being involved in board games or something like that. Maybe it was a Dungeons and Dragons or Weaver Dice thing, maybe it was an Ouija Board thing. I don’t really know. But you could probably stretch the definition. Yes, if you have to ask.” - Excerpt from Pact, Conviction 5.2</ref>

Relevant Links

• Guide for Newcomers (aimed at WD 2.0?)
  • WD 3.0 Rules & Other Resources
  • The Weaverdice Vault
• List of former or current WD Campaigns
• /r/Weaverdice (Community, Reddit)

See Also

• Category:Weaverdice Characters
• Pactdice, based on Weaverdice, for one of Wildbow's other webserials, Pact.

References

<references/>