Hey everyone! I’ve had some difficulties in the past convincing certain friends to try PbtA games that use playbooks (which so far has been almost all of them I’ve seen) – they like the idea of the system as a whole, but they really dig character creation with in-depth tweaking and prefer it to be a more open and flexible process.
On the one hand, PbtA games might just not be a good fit for these friends and I may have to resign myself to that fact, which is fine if that’s the case. But on the other hand, I was wondering if anyone had recommendations for PbtA games or supplements that might break the mold and offer more flexible character creation methods? Uncharted Worlds comes to mind as letting you mix and match a bit more than most of those games.
Spirit of 77 has mix and match playboooks with lots of Options.
Also, Worlds in Peril. And, oh, Simple World.
Worlds in Peril has about the crunchiest character creation of any PbtA game I’ve seen; you mix and match a couple of playbooks, and your superpower creation is freeform and pretty in depth.
Dungeon World using Class Warfare is pretty flexible, too. You build a character out of three specialties / compendium classes.
City of Mist is kind of a blend of the two. You pick four semi playbooks, each one has a bunch of options, and then you write a bunch of narrative tags to nail down what you can actually do. There’s no digital version for reasons that are quite beyond me, though.
Dungeon World + Class Warfare is where I’d start.
The alternative might be to make some in depth love letters that ask a lot more questions during character generation and have extra custom moves that let them choose things about the setting and their character.
Uncharted Worlds is a very modular take on a sci-fi PbtA game. Both characters and setting is very tweakable for players.
Wow, lots of cool suggestions! Thanks everyone!
James Etheridge, City of Mist isn’t actually out yet, right? That would be why there’s no digital version (yet).
When they first announced the preorder, I asked about digital or softcover and they said they weren’t currently pursuing anything but a hardcover print, but “may make other options available later.” They had pure digital backer levels, which is why no digital pre-order option for non backers baffles me.
Oh :S well snap, that is weird then
I’d say just don’t play pbta with those friends.
Time for new friends!
To elaborate, playing pbta requires a certain buy-in. Not every pbta game has playbooks exactly, but they all have places where they go against the assumptions of a more typical rpg. Finding games that lack the most obvious put off Chang and avoiding just that won’t actually solve the deeper problem.
Alan Scott Well, it wasn’t any of the mechanics that bothered them when I described how the system generally works. It was only what they perceived as an inflexible character creation process. Hopefully if I present them with a method of character creation they are comfortable with, they’ll be content with the rest of the system.
Uncharted Worlds is a near infinite grab bag of combinations. I think the math worked out to literally hundreds of thousands of possible starting builds once you get down to picking individual moves from Origin and Careers, and that was even before the Far Beyond Humanity expansion was just released with a bunch of additional Origins, Careers, and unique moves.
Marshall Miller DW+CW is exactly where my head went. They can go super custom if they want.
Oh! Also World of Dungeons, and if you’re feeling especially bold Simple World. Nothing restrictive or complex in those games unless you bring it in yourself.
Who are these strange people who play RPGs but won’t try anything new? Hello, we’re all weird nerds, don’t get precious about your cred.