#pbta

[prokopetz]

Opinion on PBTA?

I have no strong opinions about the Apocalypse Engine. I just wish more people writing PTBA games actually understood how it works!

(Seriously, reading through the average PBTA game is just like: "Okay, that's not what 'fiction first' means... that's not how hard and soft moves are customarily distinguished from one another, either, and if you meant to propose an alternative definition, what you've set forth here isn't a useful one... all right, this playbook has fantastic flavour, but its central rules toy is worse in every respect than the basic move it's replacing... wait a minute, you don't think all possible results on a sum of 2d6 are equally probable, right? Right?")

[probablyfunrpgideas]

The farther down you go, the simpler the ruins get. Our castles of cut stone and mortar stand atop our ancestors’ town of clay bricks, which was built on the earthen ramparts of their ancestors’ wooden hill fort.

Not all of the people who lived here left records. There were silent populations who lost the use of writing and had to spend a century inventing it again. But they always made their mark with tools or buildings or the things they threw away. The royal chronicler is working on a timeline of the groups who called this place home.

But nobody had ever seen ruins like those we found, working down through the deepest dungeon and clearing a collapsed shaft. Nobody had ever read the language on the cracked walls of smooth stone. It took all our priests, historians, and clerks to interpret it - the words had common roots with some of our languages, and the pictures helped. What it said… well, the Queen had the most succinct response: “Why would anyone choose to build here, if they read that?” After all, this is not a place of honor.

Idea: play Mutant Crawl Classics in a setting with some established towns and nations. What kind of cool cultures, economies, and politics can you develop in a world where people live with mysterious powers and dangerous creatures?

[heybiji]

[sarahcarapace]

Violet Core - High Speed Sapphic Mecha TTRPG

After a long time of working on the game on-and-off, it's finally crash landed on Kickstarter!

(edit cuz the post keeps getting bumps!) We successfully funded in Oct 2024! So Violet Core is currently my full time job and things are currently looking good for the planned release in Nov 2025! Progress is going well and I post public updates on the KS every month (and usually here and on my blusky as well) or so if you'd like to follow along :3

the rest of the post is unchanged for archival purposes💜...

Violet Core is a sapphic focused ttrpg about sad space lesbians dueling each other and making out while stranded in space. Drawing inspiration from the absolutely wonderful visual novel Heaven Will Be Mine as well as GunBuster, Zone of the Enders and Knights of Sidonia. It focuses the dramatic tension between friends, rivals and comrades. It's a game whose beating heart is deeply lesbian in a way that is a touch tricky to put into words...its indelibly infused. It's a game preoccupied with a looming horizon of destruction and what we do in the face of calamity.

Wish me luck! And if it looks cool and/or sweet to you, please share it around! My platform is tiny and sucks unlike the game which is huge and rad.

(edit...omg the tags. I'm blown away TT u TT my heart is doing a thing)

(art by myself and @portentous-offerings) Link to the Kickstarter >>> Here

[maximumzombiecreator]

On the subject of TPKs and failure in TTRPGs, I gotta say, I love a good mechanic for losing.

I love that Fate gives you metacurrency for conceding a scene, and I love that taking extreme consequences creates a new aspect for your character.

I love that when you die in Blades of the Dark, if you're still attached to the character, you can just become a ghost.

I love that in Monster of the Week, when you need to avoid harm it costs a point of luck, which triggers a character-specific consequence and lets you see when your character's luck is literally going to run out.

I even love that in Cyberpunk they've created an omnipresent group of amoral, heavily armed paramedics, so no matter where your character gets gunned down, there's always a chance of pulling through.

Basically, any game that is set up so that losing is going to make things more interesting, not less, is a game that's going to help great stories happen at the table, and I love that.

[clairebearsparkles]

Hiya, I was just wondering if there were any updates on your TMA TTRPG project because it seems super fun and I am gnawing at the bars of my cage to hear more about it :D

Thanks for asking about it. I unfortunately never found the time to test the system, but I think it’s at a point where people can at least look at it, so here’s my google doc of the PbtA heavily based on Monster of the Week tma system

[the-art-block]

RED THE CANNIBAL

Pirate | Wizard | Spelljammer Helmsman

Last week I got the ultimate pleasure of playing alongside @skaerdir in a Spelljammer oneshot and played this usda certified piece of shit!!

The game was run as a Dungeon World hack ran by @syntheticmortal and not only was the whole plotline an absolute riot, but the mechanical adaptation of Spelljammer's rules to the PbtA system was flawless and skillful. Amazing as always ✨

I look forward to future games 🤩

[anim-ttrpgs]

Y'all state in the Eureka rulebook (at least the version I have) "In our experience, the more preparation,the better, no matter the genre." I was wondering if you've expanded on that anywhere? I've been rambling in my drafts about how different games talk about prep, including PbtA games which often state outright that you should only make limited preparations.

Yeah this is something that it would be a good idea to expand upon, because “GM prep” is word that has been so diluted and corrupted by D&D5e and its toxic critical role play culture, where “GM prep” means “they will do this, and when they do, the music will be timed just right and the battle map will be so impressive, etc.” PBTA is telling you to avoid prep because it doesn’t want you doing that kind of prep (and no good RPG does). This can work for PBTA for a number of reasons that I actually don’t want to get into in the interest of time but it has a lot to do with the pure genre emulation and the limitedness of the playbooks.

Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy, however, cannot get away with this because it is both a much more expansive “toolbox” game and because it is explicitly a mystery-investigation game. There are many other games that do also really benefit from the type of prep that Eureka wants from its GMs, such as dungeon crawlers, but Eureka needs it the most.

But the kind of prep Eureka wants isn't “they will do this and when they do it will be perfectly timed and look so impressive,” it is “what if they do this? What if they do that? What if they do some other third thing?”

A Eureka GM needs to have something ready for the shed behind the house, in case a PC decides to go to the shed behind the house, because this is a mystery game. You can’t just improv it, if you make something up on the spot, then and that thing doesn’t perfectly adhere to the facts of the case, the case can be ruined. That’s why we push for using adventure modules so much, because they’re literally designed to do that prep for you.

TL:DR

TTRPGs are games where anything can happen, so instead of being extremely meticulously prepared for one possibility, a good GM is moderately prepared for a wide variety of possibilities. In a game where “the facts” not 100% lining up doesn’t fully matter or isn’t likely to be pried into, you can get away with lower prep in each of your possibilities you’ve prepped for, but in a game where “the facts” and tiny little details are all that matters, you should have a high level of preparedness for each possibility, and the best way to do that is to use an adventure module.

[haveyouplayedthisttrpg]

Have you played APOCALYPSE WORLD ?

By Vincent & Meguey Baker

Something’s wrong with the world and I don’t know what it is.

It used to be better, of course it did. In the golden age of legend, when there was enough to eat and enough hope, when there was one nation under god and people could lift their eyes and see beyond the horizon, beyond the day. Children were born happy and grew up rich.

Now that’s not what we’ve got. Now we’ve got this. Hardholders stand against the screaming elements and all comers, keeping safe as many as they can. Angels and savvyheads run constant battle against there’s not enough and bullets fly and everything breaks. Hocuses gather people around them, and are they protectors, saviors, visionaries, or just wishful thinkers? Choppers, gunluggers, and battlebabes carve out what they can and defend it with blood and bullets. Drivers search and scavenge, looking for that opportunity, that one perfect chance. Skinners and the maestro d’ remember beauty, or invent beauty anew, cup it in their hands and whisper come and see, and don’t worry now what it will cost you. And brainers, oh, brainers see what none of the rest of us will: the world’s psychic maelstrom, the terrible desperation and hate pressing in at the edge of all perception, it is the world now.

And you, who are you? This is what we’ve got, yes. What are you going to make of it?

Apocalypse World is the award-winning and critically acclaimed game that launched the Powered by the Apocalypse school of rpg design.

[worstgirleva]

Spine of Eternity: Everybody Wants to be a Star is a Powered by the Apocalypse Tabletop RPG.

In a modern fantasy setting where fame is power you play as an adventurer traveling the land to earn the strength to reach the Stars.

Coming out November 16.

[forlorn-plushie]

Styles of Prep - Games that Care

Yet another of the lies that Wizards of the Coast has sold TTRPG players, which they've bought into wholeheartedly, is that there are different styles of preparation, and all are valid for every game (because both are valid for D&D, and D&D is right for every game, of course.)

I'm gonna go over a couple games I've run, and explain that actually they all care about the type and level of preparation the GM does.

Indie games are often honest and open about what they want. To take a high-prep example, I recently ran Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy. It is not subtle! In the narrator section, right after the introduction, it says "We cannot advise you strongly enough to use prewritten adventure modules". It's not just there - throughout the rules, there's an emphasis that the situation, the state of the world at the outset and thus at every time that follows, is known and rigid. Eureka is a mystery game - the who, what, how, why, and more are all set in stone. The narrator is forbidden to change the scenario on the fly.

Eureka is very forceful of this because the authors, writing a game for mystery investigations, are well aware that it's damn near impossible to make a coherent mystery up on the fly. I'm sure they've tried. I've tried. It's impossible. Something will contradict, and you won't notice until well after the players have reasoned from that contradictory information. It can be done, but not well, and the mental load on the GM is going to kill them.

It's not a genre thing - Eureka is a game about the act of solving mysteries, but so in Brindlewood Bay. I don't have experience with Brindlewood Bay myself, but I do know that the GM doensn't have a real mystery ahead of time - there's a move which is rolled to determine whether a theory is correct. Both are mystery games, but they approach them differently - and each makes a vastly different demand of the GM's preparations.

On the opposite end of the spectrum from Eureka, more in line with Brindlewood Bay in fact, is just about every Powered by the Apocalypse game. Apocalypse World is very clear about what to prepare, and it's more or less the opposite of Eureka: "Daydream some apocalyptic imagery, but DO NOT commit yourself to any storyline or particular characters."

The rules actually tell you to start on what would typically be 'prep' during the first session: "Work on your threat map and essential threats". It's more like note-taking, at that point, just placing the names of stuff that gets mentioned in the session. After that first session, and between each other, you do some real out-of-session work, solidifying the notes you made into Threats.

I won't go into it at length, but Dungeon World is much the same - though there's no 'map' for threats, as characters are expected to be far more mobile, the system of solidifying problems that were mentioned in-game into problems with some mechanically attached descriptors is much the same.

Now, on to the elephant-sized dragon in the room - Dungeons and Dragons. The game itself is, truthfully, quite honest about this. It's the marketing team and the community, having fallen for their propaganda, who pretend low-prep is a valid way to play Dungeons and Dragons.

The 2014 DMG, correctly, focuses on prepared play. It asks DMs to consider "Do you like to plan thoroughly in advance, or do you prefer improvising on the spot?", but everything in that book is either rules text or preparation guides. Mostly the latter.

D&D, as it has existed since 3rd edition, (this is what I have experience with - I can't speak to earlier editions, except to note that there are alot of modules in their time and in the OSR tradition) is a game that thrives on prep. Even if that prep is procedural - tables of encounters and wandering monsters for an area, for example - it's impossible to run the game from nothing, without a lot of background, and have it work.

Imagine not knowing D&D, at all - you pick it up, read the non-list rules (so skipping most of the classes, races, spells, feats, backgrounds, weapons, etc) in the PHB and DMG, and try to run a game entirely improv from the rules and vibes. You'd quickly end up scouring the monster manual for appropriate encounters - and the game, by the rules, demands appropriate encounters! There's a budget system! It's a game about killing monsters and does a lot of math to try and make sure it's challenging without killing player characters.

D&D, at least in the books, is pretty honest about what it wants from preparation. It wants a lot! The playerbase pretends otherwise, but they're wrong. I've yet to find another game that tries to lie like this. Eureka wants you to use modules. Apocalypse World wants you to wing it. I have yet to find any game that actually doesn't care.

[tallyowlpress]

ABOLISH THE MONARCHY (in this brand new TTRPG)

Guillotine: Crown of Blood

Harness heretical magic, discover cutting-edge technology, and overthrow the crown in this Gothic fantasy TTRPG.

KICKSTARTER LINK

--------------

GUILLOTINE: CROWN OF BLOOD is a TTRPG where you can -- and should -- destroy the Crown. Use magic. Use wit. Use weird new technology, forged by your own hand. Use prayer, even if it's unorthodox. Use rhetoric to win hearts and minds. Or just beat the shit out of them. It's up to you.

Fact Sheet:

FUNDED IN JUST SIX HOURS!! Plus, we've unlocked our first stretch goal (character generation tables!)

Runs on the Powered by the Apocalypse system.

Based on games like Armour Astir, Heart: The City Beneath, Monsterhearts, and Monster of the Week.

Play as members of a Cause, against an oppressive Crown of your own making -- then play as the antagonists during a Villain Turn where you can torment each other's characters, or otherwise advance the plot.

Ten unique playbooks.

Includes weird magic, talking your way out of trouble, strange gods, and a worrying amount of blood.

Mechanics that let you become unhealthily obsessed with your friends, lovers, rivals, and political scapegoats. The more you interact, the more you understand them: for better or worse.

BONUS: Use Martyr moves to permanently remove your character from the narrative, irrevocably changing the fabric of the city, the revolution, or even the laws of physics!

All you need are some friends (or at least fellow travelers) and you're good to go! Do you have what it takes to destroy the Crown? Will you destroy yourself in the process? There's only one way to find out.

KICKSTARTER LINK

PLAYBOOK PREVIEW

ART PREVIEW

[valtharr]

Pictures that make a "the only TTRPG I know is D&D"-person spontaneously combust:

This is the entirety of the magic mechanics in the game "Interstitial: Our Hearts Intertwined"

I'm keeping this post for the next time I hear someone say they don't want to try a new game because it's too hard to learn a new system.

[heybiji]

[sarahcarapace]

Violet Core is funded!

TT u TT

We reached our main goal! I'm gunna have a little lie down. It ain't over yet though, there is still a whole host of potential stretch goals to unlock and there are still 15 days to go (as of writing)!

I posted a little update that can be read here (like all other updates, you don't need to be a baker to read it) Again, thanks everyone for the support!