As a GM coming from Dungeon World, you should expect things to be a little different. You should read this guide as a brief-ish summary of what to expect, when compared to Dungeon World.

Players in Kamisekai have more health, more basic moves, and more healing capabilities. Many moves were de-nerfed in significant ways. The players in Kamisekai are more powerful than their Dungeon World counterparts. Players can even dual-weild weapons, and slow weapons can do more consistent damage.

When developing or playing out monsters, consider giving them things like;

• More health and stronger attacks than you used to.
• More potent moves.
• More attacks per round of attack.
• Spells or moves that the player might not expect.

Keep in mind the number of players you have, as well. Players are much more effective when cooperating in Kamisekai than Dungeon World, and some moves or perks directly benefit teamwork.

Kamisekai has reduced base player stats compared to Dungeon World. This means players are going to fail more often. As a trade off, moves in Kamisekai had most of their drawbacks removed for 7-9 as well.

Since the goal is not to just kill the party, try to keep in mind choices you have for doling out consequences on failure, and try to balance them out to maintain tension.

• Consequences don't need to be immediate. Sometimes having nothing happen immediately is enough to make the players even more nervous.
• Instead of directly and immediately punishing the player, you can make the environment more difficult, such as;
  • Making enemies start looking for a stealthy player.
  • Facing them with a difficult decision about their situation.
  • Adding an environmental hazard later that they must overcome.
• Kamisekai has additional ailments built-in. Especially noteworthy are;
  • Restriction: Prevents a player from using a move again.
  • Broken/Feeble/Frail: Debilities that reduce armor, damage output, and HP
  • Armor damage: You can always strip someone or damage their armor.

Try to diversify your consequences a bit more than just damage and debilities.

Kamisekai does not have a bad-end roll! When a player falls, you have two options when a player's HP reaches 0.

• Death: Removes a player from the session, and applies a consequence to the character.
• Unconsciousness: Knocks a player out until either time can pass, or another player can revive them.

It's up to you to decide whether a situation warrants one or the other.

The penalty for Death is not nearly as severe as it's Dungeon World counterpart, Bad End. The standard consequence for Death is the loss of LP and Gold, you do not determine the effects of death on the players. You can describe what happens to them, how they died, what became of them, but in the end the system or their deity determine what the resulting effects on their character sheets are.

Since the failure rate in Kamisekai is higher, every roll imposes considerable risk on a player, even veteran ones. Consider letting players take more simple actions without having to roll for them.

Taking a brief look around might not require using Discern Realities, but digging through every drawer in someone's bedroom might. Climbing a steady ladder doesn't require a Defy Danger roll, unless of course it wasn't as stable as they thought it was, perhaps due to a prior failure. Slipping into a tight spot might not require a hold from Cat Burglar, for instance, but spending one should prevent them from getting stuck, or perhaps leaving out a detail where someone potentially spots them.

One more small difference exists in Kamisekai; elemental effects. These are intentionally left vauge in nature. When you encounter them in moves, it simply means apply some amount of commen sense effect on the environment or the targeted creature or object.

Players might even use such effects to manipulate the environment. Using fire to light a candle or start a fire, water to extinguish it, ice to freeze it, or wind to blow some papers around.

In some cases, you might want to indicate that an enemy is more vulnerable to one element or the other. A water-based creature might be weaker to lightning or ice attacks, but completely shrug off a water-based attack. Earth or Wind might have no extra impact at all on it.

In other words, use it as an opportunity to punish or reward players for their lack of thought or clever behavior.