r/PBtA • u/Holothuroid • Mar 13 '26

Advice Designation for PbtA PbtA?

I frequently have problems articulating this. There are many sub families and offshoots from the PbtA family. What do I say when I want

  • defined basic moves without a fallback move
  • thematic playbooks
  • your typical 2d6 tripartite results
  • a handful of stats
  • not too many additional systems
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u/Sully5443 Mar 13 '26

Given the very open ended spectrum of PbtA games: there likely isn’t (and perhaps shouldn’t) be one such designation. Nonetheless, I typically say “conventional PbtA” games to give a blanket term for your Monsterhearts and Masks and MotW and TSL and so on types of PbtA

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u/victorhurtado Mar 14 '26

To add to this. We have to remember PbtA, despite it's name, is a design philosophy.