Semi-hypothetical question: I want to give a PbtA game to someone with limited RPG experience (some modern–4th & 5th ed–D&D, not much else). Which published game is best? Dungeon World is the obvious answer, but is it the correct one?
Semi-hypothetical question: I want to give a PbtA game to someone with limited RPG experience (some modern–4th &…
Semi-hypothetical question: I want to give a PbtA game to someone with limited RPG experience (some modern–4th &…
I suggest running Dungeon World for them. It will probably blow their mind, and then you can answer any PBtA quations they have. If you are just sending them a copy in the hope they will read it, maybe World of Dungeons would seem less intimidating.
I’d say Monster of the Week. It teaches the game well, is about killing monsters D&D style but is removed enough from D&D that it might be easier to learn. Going into DW might involve a lot of annoying unlearning of Fantasy RPG Tropes and grappling with how DW does D&D standards very differently. Your friend might be fine with that dissonance between D&D and DW! I just know a lot of D&D diehards post on the DW page with very confused questions about basic PbtA procedures. I vote Monster of the Week. Its a great teaching tool.
Sundered Lands has a pretty low barrier to entry. Monster of the Week might be good because they won’t have to fight their D&D instincts.
Apocalypse World is super easy to play and run for anyone with RPG experience–even small experience. Why not go with it?
AW is fine mechanically, the issue with new players is more often around theme.
I’d have to cast another vote for Monster of the Week, though Monsterhearts is also a pretty great take on the engine if you can get buy in for the setting.
Do a game in a setting which is familiar and comfortable for them. They will be better served by having an understanding of the genre than by playing what is technically ‘the best game’.
I say NO to D.W. Because USUALLY in the groups I’m in, every time you bring a new system to play a the D&D game “in another way” (or “in a better way” if you think it, and you tell’em), it’s common to see people doing “direct confrontations” without digging and exploring the new way. “What, here you can get just +1 to your actions?” “What, you have no +5 weapons? So, +1 for all the campaign?” “What, only 10 levels?” etc.
Maybe, if you start with another type of game, they COULD like it, and maybe they could start to ask (and propose) “ehi, could be nice to play a fantasy game with this system!”, so NOW could be the moment to bring D.W. at your table.
(of course, you have to be a good PbtA master to start with, ’cause if you can’t bring the awesomness of the new way, they could stay tepid)
^Those are good points about the cognitive dissonance between D&D and DW for people without a lot of experience with roleplaying game systems. Monster of the Week is a good alternative choice.
But if you really want to ease them into PBtA games, consider running a session of Nano World by Marshall Miller for them. It fits on two business cards, the setting and situation are generated on the fly by the players’ input, and you can play a fun session in under two hours. Nano World’s only drawback is that you probably need previous experience with PBtA games to run it. But if you’re willing to do that, no problem.
Richard Williams has it right: what do they like? I still think AW is one of the best ways of employing that system, but if they don’t like post-apocalyptic fiction it will fall flat. And The same is true for everything else, really.
also, what others have said about DW is right: it might be too similar, and they’d risk playing it as they played all other games before, and not noticing the true strong points of the Apocalypse Engine – people like this are quite common in the Italian dw community, at least. I would really only consider DW if they are hardcore fantasy fans who wouldn’t like anything else.
Came here to post much the same things as Alfred Rudzki and Marshall Miller
Sundered Land is awesome in that it’s structure is so different from most RPGs that they will approach it with a clean slate. Also, it’s the greatest GM training tool ever.
MOTW is just so clearly written. It’s also a great game.
I tried to use Monsterhearts to introduce a bunch of World of Darkness players to PBTA games. It was a disaster. The games were just close enough that they were resistant to the differences.
DW will be awesome for them…eventually. For this first game, I’d play something as completely different as possible.
What did they think of 4e & 5e? You say they’ve got limited experience. Did they find all the rules intimidating or limiting? The combat turns too long/structured? Did they just want to do things but found the rules getting in the way?
Plenty of folks like the D&D motif but not so much the game system. If these are such folk, go straight for DW. It’ll feel like coming up for air.
But if, like, they think D&D4/5 is how an RPG should play? What everyone else said?
Yeah, like everyone else said, if your friends like the fantasy vibe of D&D but not the rules, then Dungeon World could work. Otherwise I’d probably go with Monster of the Week, too (or Apocalypse World if they like the gritty post-apocalyptic setting).
Monsterhearts may not be the best game, unless your friends are willing to try an emotion-heavy game where the characters are very sexy and hurt each other a lot.
If you have some experience, run tremulus for them. 1920s are easy to get into. Who doesn’t like some Lovecraftian horror? Bonus: no administrative stuff between scenarios like in DW. Frameworks and Playsets make it comparatively easy to run, too.
But arguably one of the weakest AW hacks…
There is nothing “weak” about it for players new to AW inspired systems. As soon as you stop fruitless comparisons with the other “hacks” and take it for what it is, you see that it does what it wants to do very well. It’s very accessible. Great stories come out of it. You’ll most likely go insane or die (or both). It has everything what makes the genre of Cthulhu-related games great. My players love good stories. Tension. Atmosphere. They couldn’t care less if there are other AW hacks with better/more creative playbooks, differently written rulebooks or if tremulus ist voted into the AW-Hack Top Ten. YMMV.
Relax. tremulus just isn’t a perfect implementation of the system, and that’s okay.
Wait, let me clarify: are you giving them a rulebook to read, or planning on running a game? Because ApocWorld makes for some seriously great reading and really lays out some good practices for gaming in general. Full of insights. However, if you’re running a game then all that matters is what genre they want to play, really. AW, DW, MotW maybe.
Okay, time to clarify some things:
As I said before, this is semi-hypothetical. I’m thinking of doing this, but I’m not sure I’m going to. However, I’m talking about giving a physical book (or possibly sending a PDF…) to someone who is NOT a personal friend, who I do not have real life contact with and thus am not in a position to run a game for. So I’m wondering what people think is the best AW-based game to read for someone with (presumably) limited RPG experience. FWIW, my personal favorite is still AW itself, though I know some people have been really turned off by the style of the text.
Maybe the dungeon world guide?
Monster of the Week, definitely. It’s very clear, not a lot of moving parts, and it doesn’t have the pesky style problems that turns a lot of people off of Apocalypse World. Additionally, it skips the step of “oh my god what? SEX Moves? What the hell??” that AW gets a lot of.
Okay, I think I got it. I absolutely love AW’s text but it can be kinda dense if you’re not an experienced gamer. I vote for Dungeon World, then: very clear and concise, full of recognizable tropes, an Agenda that anyone who’s into fantasy can internalize quickly, and a focus on easy combat moves (a lot of first-time gamers expect exciting combat).
Bonus for DW: that beginner’s guide that I co-wrote is available for free and many people have told me that it helped them understand the system. I go into a lot of detail on the ‘how’ and ‘why’ of the engine in there. (I hate self-promotion but I dunno, it’s mad popular so there you go)
Also bonus for DW: they can read it for free here. http://book.dwgazetteer.com/
Jeremy Strandberg Nice! I almost forgot it was under a CC license.
If I’m suggesting any RPG book to read, it’s almost always the AW book. It’s damn-near perfect, and communicates the core idea of all of these things in a very compelling way.
Ordinarily I’d suggest AW. Whenever I have new players (like, their first rpg) I head for AW. But if they’re gonna be off running it on their own, I think DW is a little less serious and relies more on tropes that they’ll grasp quicker.