Megan Bennett-Burks – Powered by the Apocalypse G+ Archives

I’ve ran quite a few PbtA hacks, and played some as well.

I’ve ran quite a few PbtA hacks, and played some as well… but I’ve never had the chance to play “vanilla” Apocalypse World, and I REALLY want to, and then I will almost certainly want to run it for some of my players (who seem like a perfect as can be group for the game, since they LOVE intercharacter drama, and soap opera-esque games with love triangles and all kinds of such stuff).

So, anyone by any chance considering running perhaps a one (or few) shot in the next month (I mean around August) or so online, and looking for player still? If it’s a day I have free I’d really love to try it.

Has anyone done a Planescape hack for PbtA?

Has anyone done a Planescape hack for PbtA? A non-Dungeon-World one (I love DW but am not really wanting to use it for this).

I’m kinda itching to run a game that focuses on the factions in Sigil, so I imagine politics and intrigue as well as “what is the greater truth of all things”/power of belief being at the center of gameplay.

I’d love to just make one… except, I suspect I may not have a solid amount of time to do it well right now.

I’ve decided after I’m done with my present projects, I’m going to dive into Fennel Witches.

I’ve decided after I’m done with my present projects, I’m going to dive into Fennel Witches. I’m starting to research more and brainstorm though. I’m thinking… I kinda want part of the game setup to not just be character building but timeline building. Since, it’s an alternate history game, might be cool to include a section on taking important parts of history and deciding how they are different in a given game of Fennel Witches.

I love building timelines, but, I’m thinking that other people might like building their own alternate histories better for their games and enjoy guidance on it.

I’m also trying to figure out some way that the alternate history might have some deeper impact on the game, maybe even on some rules or what Playbooks are available (or how they work)… but, that could get excessively complicated too. Or maybe there’s a way around that?

Thoughts?

This is a pretty hot mess, but it’s a PbtA hack I used with my home group for a while.

This is a pretty hot mess, but it’s a PbtA hack I used with my home group for a while. It was a weird Dying Earth genre meets steampunky magi-tech and some other stuff where the players were involved in the game’s narrative (and doing world building to some degree) IN-character.

I really wanted to be a thing but couldn’t quite find a solid enough vision for it for it to really go anywhere. Still, maybe someone will find things in it which they want to use with their group, and can have some fun with.

I also used the rules formed in here as the basis for my current PbtA hack that I’m running with my group.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B7iiKs6gf8dDU2ZKb19GdFA3eFU?usp=sharing

This is the rather raw PbtA hack I’ve been running with my “meat-space” group, and I realize I haven’t posted here…

This is the rather raw PbtA hack I’ve been running with my “meat-space” group, and I realize I haven’t posted here (unless my memory is failing me). It’s generic (Thus I’m calling it the Generic Meat-Space System) since when I started running the game I’m using it for, I didn’t have a whole lot in mind beyond “multiverse science-fantasy where characters can be quickly made, and of a very wide variety”.

It’s been a lot of fun, and I plan to keep adding to it.

I’ve ran… I want to say 4-5 sessions of it now.

Hopefully someone else can have fun with it, or find something useful in it.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/11xXKQcuoBJBK9Oi08RbNZreAv4HezE4m2hek7IxW0E4

Starting brainstorming work for my game focusing on playing witches in a coven.

Starting brainstorming work for my game focusing on playing witches in a coven. Them game’s main schtick (one of them) is going to be about the threads that bind people together; the closer people are the more strongly bound they are together in the web of fate, and the easier they are to impact with magic by someone strongly interwoven with them. This means those with virtually no ties to a character will be nigh immune to being impacted by their magic.

There will be ways to create temporary threads to make weaving spells possible (this might be playbook specific, or be things like having blood, hair, etc… from a person).

Thing is though, this opens up the real meat of the game to be more or less a weird soap opera about all the drama that goes on due to the relationships that bind characters (PCs to each other and to NPCs) together, so those need to be rich and fleshed out in some way. I’m not sure what the best way to start off rich “beginning histories” with important ties that bind are. Naturally, characters can all be part of a coven, they can be family too. I’m debating even having the coven be a sort of “third character” that all PCs share in a way and build before they build their individual characters. But, I’m torn on if starting off relationships should be left as “hey, you can kinda build these however you want, but here’s some help to get you started”, or “your playbooks define your starting threads or at least give you some specific options to start with”.

I’ve been running a PbtA hack, which, while a lot of fun, has too much going on for me to hope to consolidate into…

I’ve been running a PbtA hack, which, while a lot of fun, has too much going on for me to hope to consolidate into something I can release anytime soon… I should start with something more focused if I want to actually get it “out there”.

I’ve been wanting to do a game focusing on something like the Benadanti and their conflicts with the Maladanti for a while, with the third “front” (or maybe character type) that they have to deal with being the Inquisition. My initial plan was for this to be for Fate and exist as an expansion for something else I worked on, but, I’m rethinking that.

This could be in a pseudo-historical context, or more fictionalised. I’m not sure it matters because the scope would probably be “a small town, where weird shit is happening”.

The focus would be on covens, and interactions between them, and them being rivals. There would have to be different witch playbooks… or maybe a pool of options chosen, I’m not sure which would be better.

Some sort of coven relationship-mechanic though I have to ponder, and I have no direction for it yet.

Are there PbtA games out there already that scream “too similar” is it a compelling enough basis to start something with?

The other thing I”m having trouble with is, the Malandanti seem to stark black in morality, and I don’t think I want that. Even if they are to be villains, I want them to have more complex motives…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benandanti

For my PbtA hack for my in-person group, I’m considering having the stuff you get (like a cult, gang, etc…) be…

For my PbtA hack for my in-person group, I’m considering having the stuff you get (like a cult, gang, etc…) be separate from the playbooks, and the playbooks are more “this is how you got weird” (since, the characters in it are mutations of a sort, and you may have “gotten weird” by dying and coming back, by being ridden by a spirit or so on).

Has anyone tried a mechanic where the stuff like mentioned above is separate from the playbooks? Could “background” (who you are as a person before you got weird, I guess) work as a distinct thing from “now you’ve gotten weird, and this is the stuff you can do because of it”?

I’m thinking for now, I may just ask players questions about their characters and give them stuff (gear, cult, etc…) based on how they answer it, and after seeing how that tends to work, maybe formulate backgrounds more solidly later.

Starting a PbtA game for my in person group, and wondering if there are any good digital tools for it; things to…

Starting a PbtA game for my in person group, and wondering if there are any good digital tools for it; things to help track (and quickly reference) characters, events, NPCs, character relationships, etc…?

I have played PbtA (Dungeon World specifically).

I have played PbtA (Dungeon World specifically). I’ve ran lots of Fate and Pathfinder. I’m going to run my first PbtA game on Sunday (Urban Shadows) anyone here have some tips for GMs new to running the system? For Urban Shadows in particular, or the system more generally… as, I plan to also run a longer campaign for an in-person group if I like it as a GM/Master of Ceremonies (I know I like Dungeon World at least as a player).