I feel like I’ve been out of the loop with PbtA games lately. Which recent games do you recommend taking a look at? What’s the cool new tech people have been working with?
I feel like I’ve been out of the loop with PbtA games lately.
I feel like I’ve been out of the loop with PbtA games lately.
Listening
.
The Watch is a solid read. I like that it has a progress track that leads to an end game scenario. I’m growing to appreciate games that have a baked-in ending so as to avoid burnout and have a finish line to shoot for.
I’m watching Mutants in the Night, by David Collins. It’s a “Forged in the Dark title about being the marginalized other in a dystopic pile of bullshit. But you and yours have the power to fight back.”
We’re starting to noodle around with Discord and Roll20 as #BakerHouseBand gets rolling this fall.
If you haven’t yet, you should take a look at City of Mist. It’s a blend of PbtA and Fate, taking the best parts of both and turning it into a real beauty. The setting is a noir type where you play ordinary people that channel a manifestation of a mythos or a legend. There’s a quickstarter available on drivethru if you are interested.
Well there’s a Monsterhearts 2 and Apocalypse World second edition
David South fair, but I am not quite that out of the loop 😉
Keith Stetson lol gotta be specific. I wanted to cover the basics haha
There’s a TON of PbtA games out, and I think a lot of the original surface has been scratched pretty well.
Masks: A New Generation isn’t super new, but worth checking out if you haven’t already. The King Is Dead is interesting because it has similar underlying principles to Apocalypse World but is really different from most PbtA games.
Spire isn’t really under the PbtA umbrella (I consider it a distant cousin), but it’s very different from a traditional RPG mechanically. In pretty much every other RPG your character has ability numbers for what they can do.
Spire has your stats being what you can take. They use 5 Stress tracks (Blood, Mind, Silver, Shadow, Reputation) and as you get hurt, see something disturbing, end up in debt, get your cover blown, or lose rep you mark Stress. As you take stress, the GM rolls a d10 under your total stress, if they roll under, you suffer Fallout (broken arm, acting weird, pawn a weapon, wanted posters go up, people stop trusting you). Your stats provide Stress you can take that won’t count towards a Fallout roll.
And an elevator pitch on the setting. The High Elves conquered a Drow city, 200 years later you’re in the Resistance.
Long writeup:
projects.inklesspen.com – FATAL & Friends — Spire
The full index:
http://projects.inklesspen.com/fatal-and-friends/
Worlds in Peril, Monster of the Week, The Sprawl, The Veil, Action Movie World.
Crossroads Carnival by Kate Bullock, Nahual by Miguel Espinoza, The Between by Jason Cordova, Atitlan Riders by myself, Good Society by Storybrewers, Girl Underground by Lauren MacManamon are all upcoming and maybe worth taking a look.
cough MASHED cough
😉
I appreciate the lists of names, but would be most helpful are the short blurbs about why these games are worth seeking out. My time, especially during the school year, is limited.
The new edition of Legacy: Life Among the Ruins has a lot to recommend. Character scale vs. Family scale, the Surplus/Need economy, and quick characters are all pretty cool tech. It’s castlevania-esque hack, Rhapsody of Blood, is worth checking out for the bossfight style mechanics.
I’m looking forward to the crowdfunding campaign of Demigods. I enjoyed the podcast campaign on Happy Jacks RPG and the system appears to be very solid. Love setting details like the science pantheon.
Keith Stetson Well, if you’re interested in a ‘war’ game where the conflict is living in wartime and putting people back together, rather than taking them apart, you should check out the MASHED rules (and the playbooks/handouts are free on DriveThru). Also, if you have any love for M*A*S*H, this will replicate that for you.