Last Sunday’s game went pretty smoothly for this rookie PbtA/UW GM.

Last Sunday’s game went pretty smoothly for this rookie PbtA/UW GM.

Last Sunday’s game went pretty smoothly for this rookie PbtA/UW GM. A few stumbling points and the PbtA guru had to bite his tongue in a few places.  But, it was all good and well.  The goal was to let everyone run around in their character’s skins and get a feel for the mechanics and setting we’re building.  Our guru said that the feel of the session was one long foreshadowing move, in that case, I’ll call that a win in my book.  🙂

I’m working on a session report, but not sure if that will be a published thing since we’re also an actual play podcast.  Hey guys, can we spoil our own show or should I hold the report for use as show notes?  

6 thoughts on “Last Sunday’s game went pretty smoothly for this rookie PbtA/UW GM.”

  1. “PbtA guru.” Snort! No gods, no masters, Todd. Gotta free yourself from my evil, kick-you-in-the-balls autarchy.

    As for biting my tongue, it was mostly to keep to the Player Principles. Notably, “Respect the GM’s role” and “Respect player boundaries.” Even such supreme and meritorious individuals such as myself make mistakes once in a while. 😉

    I’d say the first session was more in keeping with Apocalypse World than, say, the punchy opening scene from Mass Effect 2. Which is fine by me! I wanted conspiracy and subtle creepy-creeps. I got conspiracy and subtle creepy-creeps.

    Also hurt feelings. The character, not me!

    The others will have to fill in what they thought. But boy am I glad Dirk did some criming! And that Ari ruined my life! We wouldn’t have gotten any XP otherwise.

    Regarding session reports and spoilers, I’m pretty sure we have some Talislanta sessions in the cue before Uncharted Worlds drops in. Could take a little while, so either option is fine by me. I think our listeners are adult enough to decide if they want some pre-audio reporting or not.

    Of course, a good tease could wet the appetite for the real thing…

  2. I would find a UW game podcast inspiring and it would help me “get it” about the flow of a game.  I played a few sessions of Dungeon World but that was it.  The new-style games, you can’t be sure if you “got it” or not.

  3. Todd did an admiral job, and I did my best to not tell others how to play their characters mainly by keeping my mike muted. 🙂

    I’ve tried to run a PbtA game before and failed miserably. I think playing in a game with another PbtA newbie GM, I may learn some more about the system. 

    And Todd, you did a damn good job! Was I sociopath enough for my character? 🙂

  5. Pierre Savoie I can’t point you to any UW specific shows, but there are some pretty good panel discussions and actual play / post play YouTube series out there on the topic of Apocalypse Engine games.

    Lowell Francis’ Play on Target: Apocalypse World GM Jam is handy, especially since Lowell himself is new to the game: https://youtu.be/wPeZTI04ImI

    Roll20’s Apocalypse World AP/PP series is good, too. Adam Koebel (wrote Dungeon World with Sage LaTorra) runs granddaddy Apocalypse for a couple of veterans and at least one newbie. The best part is the post game series where he shows you how to work with fronts and threats and such.

    The Actual Play: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTj75n3v9eTmTM_YpZWLbBZgWM4aI3Eo4

    The Post Play GM stuff: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTj75n3v9eTkB2XskNcoSTv63uFvVzash

    Personally, I find having a passing understanding of AW definitely helps you get what different designers are shooting for when they use the engine: what they want you to focus on, what they think you should chuck, etc.

    Hopefully this’ll be of some help to you. 🙂

Comments are closed.