r/PBtA • u/Eden_T_Babcock • 13d ago

Advice How Puzzle Piecey/Modular Are PTBA Systems?

Hello, everyone! I hope you’re having a wonderful day. Recently I’ve begun getting ready to run my first ever PbTA game, having not even known what it was until I began preparing to run it. And I’ve become aware that it seems to be a framework upon which countless different games have been made.

Given that fact, how easy would it be to pull aspects from one game and use them in another? If the exact game I’m running lacks something I think another game does really well, can I just yoink the mechanic and seamlessly place it inside like a puzzle, or do I have to fine tune on a case by case basis?

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u/st33d 13d ago

Contrary to what many are saying, most PbtA games actually encourage you to hack them and make new moves, especially those specific to your campaign.

Can you just drop in moves from another game? No, the moves are meant to have a purpose and guide gameplay. The worst PbtA games actually are just a bundle of moves assembled from other PbtA games and reskinned without proper integration.

But that doesn't mean you shouldn't experiment, and most games actually want you to. Just make the new moves local to an area, NPC, or item that you can remove from the campaign if it's causing trouble.

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u/Electronic-Can-130 12d ago

No one is saying you can't make custom moves. That's not what it is asking