A old school gamer’s journey exploring PBTA ~ I hope to hear your perspectives on this ~ Experiences and Reflections…

3 thoughts on “A old school gamer’s journey exploring PBTA ~ I hope to hear your perspectives on this ~ Experiences and Reflections…”

1. Great comments and well thought out analysis. I’ve not really had the jarring, ‘pulled out of the moment’ feeling so much to be honest. Maybe I’m just used to that from other game systems?

   One valuable thing I’ve got from AW and it’s siblings is how to make abilities which seem bland in other game and turn them into powerhouses. In many game the skills or abilities for persuasion, seduction, trading, etc seem underdeveloped and don’t give you much game mechanical material to work with. In AW abilities like those really sing. I’ve found I can use what AW has thought be about abilities like those in other games, e.g. by offering players a menu of benefits on a successful role, AW style.

   Note that in AW it gives several examples and some discussion about play groups modifying and extending moves. There is even a specific step in the after game book keeping recommendations to note down any custom moves created during play. This is not a static, proscriptive system but intended to be a living system adapted by the group to suit their character’s and their campaign.

   Finally, it’s really interesting to take a look at World of Dungeons. It’s a heavily stripped down system which uses the move structure as a generic task resolution system. The conceit is that it’s supposed to be the reverse engineered ‘original’ alternate universe RPG that Dungeon World was based on and as such is radically simplified. What’s interesting. To me though is that once you’ve u have played a full fat AW game, you can use that as a training ground for using a simplified system. If AW has already showed you the kinds of benefits moves can provide, then you can graduate to winging it more and improvising these things as you go, avoiding the kind of jarring step out of the moment you’re talking about.

2. Simon Hibbs ~ Right on. I am hoping to experiment with Uncharted Worlds a bit more & follow my instincts while encouraging my players to do the same. ~ In many ways the core principles & guidelines are a distillation of best practices.

   It’s true that social skills are represented rather well via moves.

   A bias, but in character immersion (a “Simulationist Experience” if you will) is my preference. ~ As such, many “player facing” mechanics & procedures detract from that experience, so those aspects of PBTA remain problematic for me.

3. Thanks for sharing Ivan. It’s always good to hear the experience of others especially as I have only recently completed my first AW campaign as MC.

   I too got a little hung up on the procedural aspects of the game only because I wanted to ‘get it right’ for the group. As we continued to play, however, my GM instincts took over and are actually well reflected in the Principles and MC moves.

   I think there can be a tendency to feel disconnected from character with any new rule set as you get used to the rhythm of the game. I noticed this as well seeing friends play 5e on the weekend. There was a lot of time spent out of character consulting rules, procedures and meta gaming. This can be helped by an experienced GM who knows the game inside out, but I think this should be a shared responsibility.

   Our group has just started a Saga of the Icelanders game which I am excited about after our first joint creation session. My experience has been that PbtA games have the capacity to deliver intense and richly rewarding role playing moments more quickly than other campaigns I have run because of the way moves are designed to point at other characters and the world around them. Moves are a force of change in play and create compelling narrative moments in ways other rule sets do not. That’s my experience to date 🙂

   I encourage you to give them another go and worry less about procedure – that’s my intention 🙂 Thanks for sharing you thoughts. I found them very useful especially as I am building a PtbA hack. All the best with your gaming.

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