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In every playbooks in the Stat section they mention your maximum HP being: X + Constitution. Is it Constitution modifier or score?

It seems ambiguous to me.

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2 Answers

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When the text spells out an ability score, it means the score. When the text refers to the three-letter abbreviation, it means the modifier.

HP uses the Constitution score plus a class-specific value.

Dungeon World, page 17

Ability Scores and Modifiers

Many of the rules discussed in this chapter rely on a player character’s abilities and their modifiers. The abilities are Strength, Constitution, Dexterity, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma. They measure a player character’s raw ability in each of those areas on a scale from 3 to 18, where 18 is the peak of mortal ability.

Each ability has a modifier associated with it that is used when rolling with that ability. These are written as three-letter abbreviations: STR, CON, DEX, INT, WIS, CHA. Modifiers range from -3 to +3. The modifier is always derived from the current ability score.

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+1 Nice! I didn't consciously notice that the difference was in the phrasing! Do they explicitly say this anywhere? – wraith808 Feb 10 at 17:54
@wraith808 "Harm and Healing; HP", p. 22 – SevenSidedDie Feb 10 at 18:14
@SevenSidedDie - I meant the use of terminology. Like in some books at the beginning it says if we refer to something in this way, it means X. If refer to it in this way we mean Y. It just seems such a cool way to refer to it (and useful), that I'm sorry to have actually missed that if its there. – wraith808 Feb 10 at 18:33
@SevenSidedDie - and I answered my own question. Not sure how I missed it. "6. Figure out Modifiers", p. 49. – wraith808 Feb 10 at 18:37
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The other stats are available for custom moves. Adam mentioned using Wisdom for sanity mechanics and such. (In an earlier draft of Dungeon World, Strength was used to calculate Load, but it reverted back to STR.) – okeefe Feb 10 at 19:48
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up vote 1 down vote

Usually, if they just mention Constitution, they mean the score. If they talk about the modifier, they explicitly tell you.

I found a link in another forum that mentions this about Dungeon World as well: http://rpggeek.com/thread/843474/ooc-dungeon-world-preventing-tentacle-embrace-is

Use the search function of your browser to find the comment about starting hp.

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