Hi. I don’t have a ton of time to prep between games AND I’m not amazing at improvisation AND I’m not super into games that rely mostly on PVP. What PBTA or PBTA games would you recommend for this? The only one I can think of from my limited knowledge is Blades in the Dark, since it’s mostly the heist that players plan in the game so I’m doing improv but it’s very structured improve, then I just update some clocks.
1. Am I right about this:
2. What other PBTA games are like this.
Good question. Personally, I have a deep and abiding love for AW, and although I have a want to try and explain my process, I’m sure it’s not what you’re after.
Looking forward to the real answers!
I like Monster of the Week by Evil Hat games. Think Buffy or Supernatural type game. A team of monster hunters in a serial type game play style. Playbooks are awesome and the book gives templates for scenerio creation.
Dungeon World is significantly prep-lite and non-PVP, and there are lots of good resources – John Aegard ‘s Indigo Galleon might be a good starting point to work up to less structured prep, and see his notes on using Dungeon World for one-shots (all at http://john.aegard.com/)
Monster of the Week is pretty procedural prep, and because it’s investigative has a tight framework, as does The Sprawl. And there’s no shame at all in restricting options initially while you get your pipes in with the improv; once the game is going and options are reduced, it will get easier than when you’re sat at home the day before trying to get your head around it!
I blogged a bit about prepping PBTA one-shots and how this can help here, which may be useful.
burnafterrunningrpg.com – Under The ‘Hood – PBTA One-Shots
If you are not good at improv, you can offload some of that to the players.
The Sprawl is similarly laser focused on doing jobs and doesn’t have a lot of room for PvP, with the added bonus that a lot of the complications of jobs are generated by the players, so that’d take some of the creative burden off of you.
Masks is very team focused. It has a lot of growing up drama, but it isn’t built on PCs being deadly frenemies like (e.g.) Monsterhearts is. It also has a lot of GM moves tailor built for specific circumstances, like when specific playbooks are in the spotlight or when a villain takes a certain condition. Super smooth to run in the moment.
To be blunt, though: if you have trouble with both prep and improv, you’re going to have a tough time running most games, PbtA or otherwise. So my real advice is to pick something that really gets your juices going instead of looking for games that are easier to run. You’re going to run into problems either way (that happens regardless of skill level), but if you’re having fun it’ll be easier to get past it and will be a much better game for everyone involved.
Yea, the issue might be that I just don’t have enough time and skill for RPG, so there’s that.
Have you ran/played a lot of story focused RPGs? Because if the improv is something that intimidates you, I think it gets easier with experience. Even if you are running something like Blades, you do play the NPCs.
0 experience with story games other than 1 session of Masks which I played.
It will probably get easier for you as you play more story games. I think it usually takes some getting used to.
I would recommend you look at Iron Sworn. Mainly because in the GM section it has a randomized table of GM moves used when players miss rolls/get partial success. This may reduce the amount of improv you need to do.
ironswornrpg.com – Ironsworn – Tabletop RPG