Yesterday, we conducted a Frankenstein PbtA experiment: we each picked two moves from different PbtA games and threw them together in the melting pot to see what kind of game they suggested. The moves could be from anywhere in each game, so basic, peripheral or playbook, but the concept required that they all be treated as basic moves for our game.
We ended up with moves from Dungeon World, Velvet Glove, Apocalypse World and Masks, among others: the combination of these lead us to create a setting about magical female spies for a fantasy kingdom who went into situations to prevent wars and other conflicts from breaking out! It was epic and fun and we even got a serious story out of it in which our characters judged and executed a young noble.
It briefly gave me the urge to compile an encyclopedia of PbtA moves and pack it with rules for the ‘create your own unique game & setting’ our MC presented us with.
Some of the inspiration came from Crowsmantle, which encourages players to collaborate in creating entirely new moves and other mechanics for the game; our MC for that just thought “Hey, you could just use existing moves from other games,” and it snowballed from there.
Do you realize you’re not allowed to have your fun this way?
(sounds awesomely cool, I’ll read the article later).
What about the GM moves? Have you chosen them from the various games?
Good point… you know, we never even discussed MC moves? We were very player focused. so I guess we defaulted to the broadest, most generic set. The next time we do this, I’ll suggest to the MC that she come up with some MC moves, or we all do… or she’ll tell me it’s my turn to MC! :-O
The sounds a bit like Dungeon World’s Class Warfare, but on a higher, game design level.
I’m curious, what were the moves?
I may not remember them all, but I know we had:
Metal Hurlant from the Bard in DW
Use the Goods from Velvet Glove
Go Aggro from AW
Tradecraft from the Agent in Companions
Run Away from Monsterhearts
Not So Different from the Reformed in Masks
Nick It from the Thief in The ‘Hood
Sounds like a great idea and something I should try too.
You could combine it with my Chaos Agenda meta PbtA in which Agendas and Principles are mixed together.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1_NZ0JXC-0blPO5RWQjskjHErlFh-l-4JiSVyqMrF2-Y/edit?usp=drivesdk
docs.google.com – Dysfunctional PbtA – CHAOS AGENDA
This sounds pretty amazing!
I want to try this so bad
That is so cool— I’m super happy Crowsmantle’s been useful to you.