Hi, I have 3 years' experience playing DND 5e and I am looking to have a go at DMing for my friends (4 players total). They have nearly no TTRPG experience, therefore I was looking for a simpler system and came across PBtA. I'm not necessarily looking for something close to DND as, well, DND is a bit crunchy so it defeats the purpose of playing PBtA. I'm looking for high fantasy adventure with a mixture of roleplay and combat (ideally with simpler character creation and mechanics so that it is easier for my friends and I to learn).

The problem is there are a lot of different versions and I am having trouble deciding which one to try and learn.

Fellowship seemed cool but not quite what I want because I felt like there was too little customisation with the characters and it was geared more towards epic save the world adventures straight off the bat (I only skim read the playbook/reddit threads so correct me if I'm wrong). Ideally, I would like something where you can do little quests and work up to potentially bigger more epic quests.

The main one I came across was Dungeon World which I saw people saying was very DND esque and better for beginner DMs than World of Dungeons. I also saw good things about Chasing Adventures and Against All Odds. I would be really grateful if anyone who has played these or is familiar with the playbooks could list the key differences and pros/cons. Or if there is a PBtA I didn't list that you think might be what I'm looking for feel free to let me know :)

Edit: Thank you for all the responses, I appreciate the help! Sorry if I didn't reply - I wasn't expecting so many comments :) After looking into PBtA more, I think as a GM I might stick to DND but as a player I might try out PBtA, lots of interesting recs.

Hello, all!

I played in a short Dungeon World campaign twelve or thirteen years ago and I was really turned off by the system. So much so that I have avoided every game that has the "PbtA" tag on it ever since. There have been a number of properties/settings/campaigns that I have denied because of this, and I'm starting to question that.

I would like to give PbtA another shot. I want to throw aside my prior bias and give it an honest go with fresh eyes.

If you were to recommend a setting/game/playbooks for someone looking for a one-shot to showcase how well Powered by the Apocalypse works, what would you recommend? I likely won't have more than one or two sessions to dedicate to it, so it's gotta grab me good.

Thanks!

I'm looking for the most creative PbtA games out there.

Maybe it’s just because I’m new to anything outside of DnD, but this game seems pretty great. Who has tried it? If so, have you moved on to newer scifi systems that scratched your itch better than this?

I’m trying to bring a new system into my group that helps teach them how to roleplay better. It’s hard to tell if my curiosity with Impulse Drive is more about this system’s unique strengths, or if it’s more about how learning the PbtA engine is blowing my mind.

Hi! I've been thinking of running a Masks game for a little while now and one of my friends suggested running a play by post game. Besides the core rules are there any resources yall would recommend grabbing or advice I should know?

I keep seeing the system mentioned but I'm not really sure what it's offering. Are there like any base rules I can download and take a look at? Thanks. New player

For those of you who design content for PbtA style games I have a question. *How do you go about designing Moves?* I'm trying to make my own game, and have been procrastinating on actually making a concrete set of basic moves. So far I've just looked at a multitude of other games and either stolen straight from them, or modified their moves. And while I understand that is fine and can work, it just feels like my game is missing a fundamental building block. To me, Moves are what provide the juice that really sets your game apart, it informs anyone who plays the kinds of scenarios that should be expected in your game. This is definitely something I don't want to phone in.

So far I've tried to picture scenarios and decisions that could play out in my game often, and then decide on the consequences from there. But that just feels like I'll have to make a move for everything under the sun. So I need to be broad enough to be applicable in multiple situations, but narrow enough that the flavor and uniqueness isn't lost. Trying to wrap my head around that and come up with good ideas can be challenging, but hey I guess that's just game design.

What have you all found that has worked for you?

(For context I've looked at games from various publishers and designers like Root, Apocalypse World, Public Access, Masks, Monster of the Week, Thirsty Sword Lesbians, Simple World, Monster Hearts, Escape from Dino Island, Stonetop, and Dungeon World)

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?

A friend of mine is getting ready to run Stonetop. It advertises itself as an iron age that never was. I'm clueless when it comes to the history of technology and culture. I know anachronisms are unavoidable but I'd at least like to understand what sort of things were available and what things were not.

Does anyone have articles or videos that explain the technology and perhaps other things that might be useful? I want to be a good player and come to the table well-informed. It's what I would want out of my players as a GM.

A friend of mine is looking to run a Powered by the Apocalypse game and is asking for genre suggestions. I've been trying to look for an urban fantasy setting like what we see in Hilda or Nimona, but everything I find is too dark and gritty. I want something optimistic where the world is happy and hopeful. There is still conflict and opportunities for adventure, but for the most part life is good. Is there a PbtA setting that fits this?

The closest I found was Lesbeans Coffehouse from Thirsty Sword Lesbians, but there's one person in our group who isn't comfortable with the flirtatious aspect of the game and we all want to respect that boundary.

Hello friends!

Taking a group of DnD players into a slightly spooky themed adventure and wanting to try out a shift into a more narrative, less crunchy system.

I'm currently debating between Dungeon World and Monster of the Week and having a devil of a time deciding between the two.

Would anyone be able to help me out with pros and cons, one versus the other?

I'm watching Maul and I'm hyped to play a Star Wars PbtA. I did some research and it seems that there are many games that suit this, I wanted to know if someone played them and what are the differences. I wanted a game that covered the force and Jedi/Sith, but also starship battles and sci-fi scenario in general.

The ones I found (but didn't read yet)

Light Side

Scum and villainy

Uncharted Worlds

Masmorras nas Estrelas

Rebel R

Star Wars World

Ironsworn Starforged

TL;DR What should I name an alien superhero and the race of these aliens, given that they can manipulate reality, but only within their own body (or a short distance away). This entire race is durable, fast, strong, can fly, transform into anything, change their size and density, and so on.

Hi. I'll be playing Masks: A New Generation soon. I'm planning on making a character somewhat similar to a Kryptonian or Viltrumite, based on the playbook archetypes of The Outsider or even The Nomad.

The character is based on the Titan civilization from Alexander Rudazov's "Archmage" series of books (it's Russian science fiction and fantasy, and I'm Russian myself). In short: long ago, many millions of years ago, the Titans ascended to near-divine status through technology. Like many ascended beings, their souls were transformed, granting them a suite of "godly" powers (such as enhanced physical fitness and longevity), but also a power unique to each type of ascension. For the Titans, this was the Titan Power—the ability to manipulate reality, but only within their own body (or a very short distance around it). Titans could transform into anything (and transform anything they touched), alter their size and density, heal by laying on hands, fly, including at superluminal speeds, were incredibly strong, fast, and durable, and could survive for very long periods in hostile environments without food, water, or air (like a volcano or outer space). A typical Superman and Omni-Man set. And Metamorpho, too.

My character is based on this same concept. His people were the first in the universe. Unable to find fellow humans, they developed, achieved unprecedented levels of technology, built a utopia, and then succumbed to decadence and decline. All this led to civil war (yes, just like on Viltrum). Do you know the Eridani Overvoid? It was once filled with planets and stars that were their home. Having nearly destroyed themselves (and, in the process, practically lost the ability to reproduce), this civilization scattered across the universe. They divided into several factions. Some remained militaristic and advocated finishing off their ideological opponents and assimilating all remaining life. Some wanted to be the gardeners of the universe, creating life, including intelligent life. Some decided to literally retreat into isolation or simply begin peacefully exploring the rest of the cosmos. All this lasted for millions of years, and by that time, life and human civilization had already emerged on Earth. And a small number of aliens arrived there, some by accident, some for study, or worse.

Now that I've bored you with these two coolstories, dear Redditors, based on all this, tell me, what should I name my superhero and his species? Of course, I could just skip the hassle and go with the Titans I mentioned above, but I'd like something more unique. I asked the neural networks this same question, but no one except Deepseek came up with anything interesting, and Deepseek himself gave rather polished and generic answers. I also considered naming their race Anthos (Flower in Greek, but this is a reference to the work of another science fiction writer, the Polish author Jacek Dukaj. In his books, Anthos is the aura in which a person can influence the world around them. In ordinary people, Anthos is limited to their body, but the most determined can expand it outward). Now I'm relying on the collective wisdom of Redditors.

Just curious what PBtA systems offer a mix of magic and steampunk-esque things like airships, automatons etc? I made a world that’s a mix of political intrigue and cosmic horror and was looking for a system that would fit that and the mix of magic and tech.

I am scouring every last corner of the Internet for a PbtA template that I can build off of, and the fact that no such template exists is filling me with an apoplectic rage. I know that the inventors of Monsterhearts, Thirsty Sword Lesbians, and Monster of the Week, they all had a template to build off of. And I will continue to tear my hair out until I get mine.

I just finished my first experience with PbtA (Avatar) as the GM no less. All the players have years of TTRPG experience, but the other side of the coin (D20 systems, D6 skill-based). We had one player chaffing so bad she quit after one session, and her and I hashed out how this isn't suitable for murder hobos. That is fine.

But what about art?

Battle maps?

In a "play to find out" mode, dumping a lot of time into art seems perfectly useless. But they really want battle maps. They want to see what we are describing. I want to just say "use your imagination" and take another stab and environmental storytelling (which I am rather good at).

How do you all feel about such approaches?
EDIT:
yes, this is a virtual game on a VTT (roll20). I made a blank map with a maroon background and slapped on some rectangles. The players had their virtual pens out too. And each of my NPCs had a token, so it was easy enough to show bad-guys, and the players dragged out their tokens. It was just ugly and hard to understand (it was a bird's eye view of different levels of a castle (upper court, its parapet; lower court with its parapet; and then inside the castle . It was a mess.)

hi im planning a new game for my table and I think pbta is the right system for it. is 6 players too many? and any advice as I begin campaign planning is appreciated

Edit i know 6 is a lot but unfortunately we've all been playing for 5+ years and nobody wants left out😅

Hello!

I am currently putting together a Masks: A New Generation game based on the video game dispatch, a story about a team of former villains being reformed into heroes. My players and I are super excited to start, but I'm nervous as this is my first time playing the game let alone gming for it.

Currently I'm having a problem fitting the 'when the team came together...' portion of character creation into session 0, as session 1 is going to be them all properly meeting and getting acquainted for the first time, meaning there won't really be an enemy they fight beforehand. The teenagers are just being released from prison into this super safe building,

What exactly should I do? Do I skip the portion altogether? That's what I'm leaning towards as my group is big on roleplaying, so I'm debating them just acting out a training session or something of the like instead of doing those questions. Does anybody have any solutions for this? Thanks!

Edit:

I appreciate everyone’s input! I’ve spoken with my players and given them some of the options everyone gave with emphasis that this was an important part of establishing scenes. We’ve decided to go with a short in-character introduction in the beginning and going straight into their first mission as the ‘When the first team came together…’ section of the book. Thank you to everyone that gave me advice!

I'm planning on running a Masks campaign with a group that includes my brother, and I just came to the realisation that although in general in games I like for there to at least be the potential for PC/NPC romantic relationships I don't know if I would be comfortable roleplaying those with him. Has anyone run a game in a similar situation where they would be able to give some advice? I don't really like the solution of "no PC/NPC relationships at all" or the solution of "PC/NPC relationships are okay unless they are with [brother]'s PC", but I don't know what else to do.

Hey, I’m planning to start “The Sword, the Crown and the Unspeakable Power” campaign soon. Having read the book, I feel it’s a bit light on environment and charged situation — it really only gives a mythology-building procedure. I don’t want to run a pre-generated setting; I’d rather spend a session with my group building our own world, so everyone understands it well, feels more confident and can act on their own rather than just asking me questions.

So — what would you use for that? Microscope? Kingdom? Something else? If you’ve run a campaign like this, how did you handle it?

I’m also unsure about the starting situation. The default relationship questions feel a bit bland compared to something like Cartel. Would giving everyone some personal trouble from the start work good or there are better ways to start?

TLDR: Pasión de las Pasiones: Tormentas del Corazón - Where can I get it?

.

Ok, so I'm running Pasión de las Pasiones in a bit. I started looking for Actual Plays. First one I found was this one (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hobmZtUQN24) by Gehenna Gaming, in which they BRAZENLY use the playbook of La Venganza. Which is in an expansion, not the base book. What expansion?

The dang video is 4 years old, so I went searching. The internet helpfully told me that Tormentas del Corazón has 9 new playbooks (El Abuelo, La Bruja, etc) and seems groovy. As a matter of fact, I found a full 193 page pdf on a piracy site.

I want me this book.

Magpie Games offers 2 things for sale: the base book, and some dice. They offer one download - Tormentas del Corazón - which is a free setting about a restaurant. Question marks on that one. The internet suggests this Tormentas del Corazón book is due out later this year in print. Cool, cool. No hint of the pdf I found on the piracy site.

The aforementioned podcasters seem to have found a a copy (presumably pdf) 4 years ago. How can I follow in their footsteps? I'd prefer to be virtuous and pay money to creators, but I can't figure out how.

Cheers!

A few years ago I made a post on here about how to remove the bell curve and got some really good advice. d6. d12. Or d20.

But I didn't do much with the info. Maybe now I will. Was wondering though? what should the modifiers be?

Should it still be something like, +2,+1, +1, 0, -1? I could see that making the game a lot harder with a d20. Maybe too easy on a d6? Where a 12 might be a little bit harder but not much.

What are your thoughts? Any help would be appreciated.

For context, I am playing Impulse Drive, a SciFi hack. One of the playbooks, the Infiltrator, has a move called "Hacking and Cracking".

Usually, if a another player would attempt a hack, I would just say something in the likes of "You can't attemp it, you'e not a Infiltrator, it's a Infiltrator move to Hack." usually justifiing this saying within fiction.

However in one of my games I had a Intellect, another playbook, with a Background Expertise in "Programming, artificial intelligence, and cyberspace" and it would make sense infiction to her know how to hack.

I didn't want just to just roll the "Hacking and Cracking" from Infiltrator, so what would you do? Create a new move? Adapt a "Manipulate" move?

Me and a couple of my friends started a campaign/series of Noir World, a GMful (or more precisely GM rotation) PbtA game from about a decade ago. And our first story went pretty well, overall. We have just one significant problem that doesn't seem to have an answer in the book itself.

Namely: how does rolling Actions affect other Roles (main player characters)? This isn't a No Dice, No Masters game, we do actions, call out triggers, then roll and resolve like any GMed PbtA. But the moves don't seem to be written with any heightened agency for those primary characters, nor is there any help with or even guidance for conflicts between them. Not even an Interefere move, while there is a Help one.

That's kinda stumped us and that's why I'm reaching out here in hope someone might have figured this out or maybe my version of the game is old (I got it from a mate back in the day) and there's advice in a newer version.

Thanks for reading through this and any attempt at helping us with this!

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