Brand New To PbtA Games
I’ve been an RPGer since I was a kid (35ish years ago).
I’ve been looking around for new systems to try out lately. I’m favoring game systems like Cortex Plus that are quick, easy, and involve the player at the table more in the narration.
I stumbled onto PbtA games and hacks and want to learn more before I get my hopes up and buy.
In looking at PbtA games, Urban Shadows stuck out. Very World of Darkness with one rules system (as far as I can see). I was a WoD fan from day one, but one of the things that I disliked was the fact that each group (vampire, garou, mage, etc) was almost its own game when it came to rules about their specialties. An expert in Vampire may very well have been a failure when trying to understand Mage rules, and so on.
So my questions to the community here are:
1. How fast is action resolution? I prefer Cortex Plus’ one or two rolls then done over rolling dice for four hours to accomplish ten seconds of action.
2. How much is the player at your table involved in the narrative process of an adventure?
3. Is there a single general rule-set that defines each supernatural class or, as I mention above, is each class a brand new set of rules?
Thank you for your time and your help, all! 🙂
1. All pbts has super fast resolution!
2. A lot! pbta has the notion of “play to find out” meaning, among other things, that the GM doesn’t know what’s going to happen, either.
3. There are a general set of “moves” that every player has access to. The playbooks (classes) sometimes modify those, and sometimes give you entirely new moves. Its quick to pickup.
I hope that helps!
William Nichols Very much! Thank you!
And I definitely like the “play to find out” ideal – very interesting.
Okay there’s a lot here, but I’ll try to answer as best I can.
First off, while Urban Shadows may look a lot like World of Darkness, it is not just World of Darkness using the PbtA mechanics. It is a game about competing factions of a city. Race is an important factor (Anglo/Hispanic/Asian/African, etc..) as well as what supernatural race you are a member of. Odds are in US you are not forming a party, grouping up and beating the big bad. This is a game where often PCs are against other PCs (and NPCs), and will form temporary alliances, but then split back up again.
BUT you asked some specific questions so here it goes.
The first two are general to PbtA systems, while the third is more Urban Shadows specific.
1. Quick. PbtA in general, is roll 2d6 + modifier conflict resolution system. You are not doing blow-by-blow actions, but often resolving how the whole conflict resolves (or escalates) with a single roll.
2. Extremely involved, players need to be ready to answer leading questions and be able to do a little improv and setting generation on the fly.
3. Yes, each is it’s own ruleset, but with caveats. Each archetype (think class) has its own moves (rules) which govern what they can do. There is a set of general “basic” moves available to everyone. This means the werewolf can fundamentally do different stuff then the vampire or the veteran. All of these moves look similar and are in the general framework (possibly what you are thinking about for “rule-set”). Most archetypes can take moves from other archetypes, so they interact well. The different moves are built in niche protection, to keep all the characters different and interesting, but are designed to work well together.
Yoshi Creelman Really great explanations there! Thank you! I certainly am enjoying the idea of the various simultaneous/intertwined politics going on in this game and how they matter and are integral to the game.
Keep them coming. 🙂
Here are two little bits that occurred in my game’s first session that might answer your questions a bit:
The game has, among other things, a Spectre PC and a Vamp PC. During character creation, the leading questions and the debts between characters gave us a juicy setup where the Spectre’s link that keeps him bound to the world is his daughter, who also happens to be enamored of the Vamp (she has read too much Twilight) and regularly brings her college friends to his wine bar where he feeds off of them. Even before play we have a major character, created fully by the PCs, and a major conflict over that character.
Later on in that session, the Spectre was looking for his police contact (whom he helps solve crimes because he’s a ghost), an happened upon him just as he was shot in the stomach by some gang bangers. The Spectre decides to Let It Out, which is a move that covers supernatural abilities, causing the wind to pick up and howl and screech as fog rolls in from nowhere, taking vaguely humanoid shapes. The bangers book it (he chose “Impress, dismay, or frighten them” from the choices as a result of his roll), and he physically manifests to be able to carry his contact to the hospital.
Aaron Griffin VERY cool!
Aaron Griffin Funnily enough, the first game of US I ran had a really similar setup (in terms of conflict over a link). The Spectre’s link was an ancient and powerful sword that the Spectre had used to fight during the crusades (he was the ghost of an Arab soldier). However, the sword was now in the possession of a powerful demon who kept it hidden away in a secret vault under the Tiergarten in Berlin. Of course, the Tainted character’s patron demon was the owner of the sword and the Tainted was responsible for the sword. That relationship ended up driving a lot of the events of the game.