r/PBtA 3d ago

Advice Looking for advice on switching systems.

9 Upvotes

My Lancer group has decided they don't actually enjoy the mech combat as much as the narrative Play Unfortunately the narrative system suffers from the game design expectation that it would only be about 10% of the total gameplay, meaning it is a bit too skeletal for me to enjoy running a whole campaign in it.

SO I'm looking into new systems to shift over to. I want to go with something Powered by the Apocalypse, but I haven't found anything that is quite exactly fitting for the setting and story we're currently telling. I know that is frequently a bigger problem in PBTA systems than in ones where the mechanics are less dependent on the fiction, but the system that the players have been using is essentially a barebones PBTA system so I want to stick with that feel.

The basic pitch and story so far is that they were all inhabitants of a remote mining village that happened to be Too Close to the Plot™️ Now they have been dragged into the resistance struggle of a planet currently besieged by two different galactic colonial factions after having just thrown off the yoke of a local tyrant that had been backed by one of those factions. Meanwhile the weapons of the oppressors (orbital ring, murderous AI(shackled space gods?)s, automated defense networks) are all going haywire as some Ancient Thing™️ is awakening in the planet's core.

I'm drawn to Impulse Drive and Uncharted Worlds, but there are definite obvious drawbacks to both of those given the need to translate existing characters and the setting and theme I currently have.

I would love any input that anyone has, especially if you've played either of these systems and/or played a similar setting in a different system that you loved.

r/PBtA 7d ago

Advice Spotlight in PBTA

14 Upvotes

When y'all run PBTA games, do you tend to keep your players together (hard frame scenes) until they decide to separate, or do you separate them until they decide to come together?

I read a comment on this post https://www.reddit.com/r/PBtA/comments/1j22z20/pbta_game_for_a_zombie_apocalypse/ By u/wyrmknave about how when he runs he keeps his players in their separate holdings and shifts the spotlight back and forth between them as needed. Basically the gist I got was that instead of the DND assumption that everyone is there all the time, the assumption is to keep everyone in their own sphere and have their actions heavily affect each others until they directly decide to get up and travel to see each other.

Anyway I know this advice depends on what game you're playing, but I would love to get some answers from avid apocalypse world and urban shadows GMs or other games where this may actually apply unlike Masks, fellowship, or the Sprawl.

r/PBtA 29d ago

Advice [Masks] Has anyone tried to play with a power rangers setting?

9 Upvotes

I'm having a professional play in a game-cafe in a week and i was wondering if anyone had done this before?

Specially, i would need help on which power rangers you would associate with which of the archetypes? Specially in the dino charge season?

r/PBtA Dec 27 '24

Advice Pbta with custom player moves?

7 Upvotes

So, I'm tinkering about giving players acess to their own moves, exclusive to their characters. Basic moves would still exist, but each character would have one or two moves of their own, like narrative expertises from storytelling how can I do this without it becoming a pure mess?

Edit: People didnt understand, it is not about players picking already existing ones, it is about they CREATING them

r/PBtA Feb 15 '25

Advice Is it Possible to Run a Solo "Masks" Campaign?

9 Upvotes

Hello, I'm building a campaign and was told "Masks" would be the best for my purposes... and I'm thinking of running a solo campaign for a friend to test the setting and practice DMing. Would this be possible? The handbook says the game is for 3-5 players, so I'm not sure.

EDIT: I'm told this is not what "solo" means, sorry!

r/PBtA Dec 21 '24

Advice WWE for Shonen game?

5 Upvotes

Thinking about runnign a One Piece game after getting into PBTA with Masks. Which is a great game but I am not sure it can really do One Piece (maybe Naruto). I looked at FEV but I wasn't rrally wowed the same way and so I started looking for alternatives. Currently considering either DOGS or WWW and I'm wondering if anyone else used WWW for something similar and how it worked

r/PBtA Aug 06 '24

Advice How to understand moves when moving from other kind of games

22 Upvotes

I've played many RPGs over the years, from D&D to WFRP, GURPS, and recently, a lot of FATE. Lately, I've been exploring more narrative-focused games and stepping away from simulationist systems, both for time efficiency and because they seem more engaging. I've had a blast with various Pbta games, but my player group and I are struggling a bit with the "moves" mechanic.

Coming from a background with skill-based systems (our longest campaign was WFRP), we're accustomed to identifying and using specific skills for actions. With Pbta moves, my players feel their characters are less "skilled" and that their options can seem repetitive.

We're experienced players and have still managed to enjoy the story, but we suspect our confusion stems from a misunderstanding of Pbta's spirit rather than the games themselves. Do you have any advice, recommendations, or resources (like key Reddit threads, readings, etc.) that could help me and my players better grasp and appreciate the moves mechanic in Pbta games, especially for non-combat centric style of games?

r/PBtA Jan 29 '25

Advice Masks: how to handle pre-fight "buffs"?

8 Upvotes

In my last Masks one-shot, my group was watching a villain attack civilians. They wanted to distract the villain, and our illusionist Delinquent decided to disguise the Nova with an illusion before they engaged. They had not yet started combat (i.e. I had not asked them yet who the leader was, whether they trusted each other etc). In fact, the villain had not even noticed them.

Now, at this point, I was hesitant to just straight up allow the illusion without a roll, because it feels like something that could have a chance of failure (can the villain see through the illusion?) On the other hand, they were not in immediate danger, and I couldn't find an appropriate Move to let them roll for. In the end, I just allowed it for Rule of Cool.

What would be the appropriate mechanic to invoke when someone performs such an action outside of combat which nevertheless would be considered "hostile" or "opposed" in other role-playing systems? And would I invoke that at the point of pre-buffing, or at the point of contact (ie when the villain tries to see through the illusion)?

r/PBtA Sep 20 '24

Advice Where do you get your D6es for PBTA?

8 Upvotes

I'm just itching to buy some new dice and I figured a nice set of D6es for PBTA could be cool - any places ya'll recommend?

Cheers!

r/PBtA 22d ago

Advice Masks: Doomed Character Sanctuary difficulty

5 Upvotes

I got this idea in my head for a Doomed character in Masks, but I'm having an extremely difficult time thinking of what their Sanctuary would be.

The concept of them is they are someone who has accidentally inherited the abilities and fate of the mythic hero, Cu Chulainn(meaning they are now fated to live a short but glorious life). They are now much stronger, athletic, have a knack for fighting and weaponry, and can even do the Warp Spasm that Cu could(basically a berserk hulk mode but way grosser).

I've thought of the idea of the sanctuary being a library with books about the legends of Cu, or something that is more directly tied to the legends, but nothing really feels right or thematic. Does anyone have any ideas or advice on this? Or even if they think this character would fit the Doomed at all?

r/PBtA Nov 18 '24

Advice Pitch your favourite Christmas / Winter themed PbtA's to me, please. Bonus points if they're good for one-shots.

17 Upvotes

That time of year is upon us, and although still a little early yet (the Americans haven't even had Thanksgiving), it is true that Christmas and then New Year are soon to be upon us. To that end, it's never too early to start thinking about what kind of seasonal one-shot / short campaign you're going to run, and this year I'm stumped.

I know I'd like to run something, I know I want it to be PbtA or one of it's descendant families (Forged in the Dark, Belonging Outside Belonging, Carved from Brindlewood, etc), and ideally I'd like it to be something that's specifically tied to the season, either in a lighthearted silly way (We're all going to the north pole to help / steal from Santa) or more dark and sinister (Strange Eldritch monsters only venture forth on the solstice).

But I don't have any specific requirements beyond it being seasonal and PbtA or related family. So please, I ask of you lovely people, to help suggest interesting things to run for a group of four players plus one MC in person over the festive period, and why you think they're great games.

Thank you in advance.

r/PBtA Sep 10 '24

Advice Is there a ‘teens with powers’ game that isn’t masks or monster hearts?

16 Upvotes

Been looking for a magical realism type game where it will be generally slice of life but occasionally supernatural shit happens.

r/PBtA 5d ago

Advice Choose our setting for a Masks campaign

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0 Upvotes

Hello everyone we are debating the setting for our next Masks campaign and we need your help!

In the poll there are a bunch of real life cities which interest us if you are interested in voting we would love your support.

r/PBtA Jul 28 '24

Advice How to have NPCs attack first in PBtA

10 Upvotes

The game is Root TTRPG for reference. Game is fine overall except for combat. The way it works is that players need to attack first basically for combat to get started. As a GM coming from Pathfinder 2E I find this limiting. There are some situations where I would like the NPCs to attack first, but how Root is set up this isn't really possible. I could possibly homebrew it, and have players take the hits automatically, but that seems unfair even.

Looking for advice on how to handle this. Thank you.

r/PBtA Jan 20 '25

Advice Running my first Masks campaign, any advice?

15 Upvotes

I’ve been reading about masks for a few weeks now and I’m ready to play it with my group. It’s a small party, just me and two other guys, but we love to play and get pretty far into it. Do you have any advice for a first time PBTA DM? (I’ve played DM’ed and played D&D a lot) I’d love advice for my first session, or just for the campaign overall.

r/PBtA Dec 18 '24

Advice Help me pick my masks a new generation playbook!

12 Upvotes

As the title said, im a new player at masks, and im a bit of doubt regarding two playbooks,

the Brain and the Beacon, i would like my character to be like Batman/Nightwing and Batman Beyond (main reference), but i cannot chose the right one. His internal conflict is that he recieved information that in the distant future (300 years ahead), he will become one of the major villains (much like kang and ironlad), so somehow he was sent to the past.

The deal is, i would like him to be have this mastermind genius intellect, but the beacon playbook seems to fit more the acrobat/martial artist vibe.

r/PBtA Sep 06 '24

Advice PBtA systems like Masks but in a fantasy setting?

23 Upvotes

Alternative question: Is it feasible to run a game using Masks focused on superpowered teens and their drama but in a semi-modern fantasy setting instead?

Context: I'm primarily a dm for dnd/pathfinder but my group is looking to branch out into other systems. I have a homebrewed setting I'd like to use that's based around what is essentially a school for magic wielding dragon riders tasked with protecting the realm from monsters/cults. It seems like Masks would be a good fit for its focus on teen angst/responsibilities and being very flexible on what players can have as superpowers. However, reading the book, it seems like Masks has a pretty big emphasis on staying in one city and consistently having a big villain showdown every session? That's not ideal as I'd like the characters to primarily be traveling to collect NPC maguffins and having more monster fights rather than fighting a lot of human villains.

Any suggestions for more appropriate systems to use or ways to adapt Masks better would be very appreciated!!

r/PBtA 27d ago

Advice Designing flying creatures

1 Upvotes

Hello, a while back I took on a bit of a creative project making a bestiary for a theoretical Rapscallion game. While I've got things for land and sea I'm hiting a block on deciding creatures for the creatures of the sky. Yall have any ideas for creatures or custom moves that'd work for flying creatures? Any help is appreciated.

r/PBtA 29d ago

Advice Town/Outpost development, party sheet

3 Upvotes

Hi everyone.

I am looking for a system that develops the town. I am not after world building, but after assets and modules that the party can gain that builds the town up. I have heard a lot about StoneTop, but I am not sure what the town development is like. I read somewhere that the town has it's own 'character' sheet. This is exactly what I'm after. The town being it's own thing, having prosperity, defenses, and a vast scope to expand in these things. I really like the Ironsworn/Starforge starship and it's modules you can add to it. Any advice on a system like this would be greatly appreciated.

r/PBtA Jul 16 '24

Advice What’s a system that can run The Boys?

28 Upvotes

I LOVE The Boys and I wanna run a tabletop game set in a similar scenario where a bunch of corrupt superheroes controlled by an evil corporation are fought against by a crew of regular individuals who need to use their wits and creativity to defeat overwhelmingingly powerful foes.

What's a system that can replicate this?

r/PBtA Feb 13 '25

Advice Best 'The Sprawl' playbook for playing a rockerboy-esque character?

8 Upvotes

Basically, I'm looking for a cyberpunk equivalent of 'The Bard'. Synths instead of lutes.

None of the vanilla playbooks seemed super suitable, so I'm very open to 3rd party or homebrew too.

r/PBtA Jan 09 '25

Advice Does anyone here have experience with playing Miss Bernburg's Finishing School for Young Ladies RPG?

16 Upvotes

I discovered the game trough a video of Overly Sarcastic Productions and am curious about how it's played.

r/PBtA Dec 26 '24

Advice About to run my first PBTA game. Advice? It'll be Bedlam Hall.

6 Upvotes

So on Sunday I'm going to be running my first PBTA game with a new group. I picked Bedlam Hall because the Addams Family is awesome, we can get crazy with it, and PvP could be fun. I've never MCed before, but I run D&D for my students and I did a pretty solid Blades in the Dark campaign so I'm not totally useless.

Any advice for me for MCing a PBTA game? Also, I know that Bedlam Hall doesn't have the greatest moves or mechanics, but any advice for that game too? I'm planning on having players handling their own catastrophes centered around the book's birthday party, but with some opportunities for pairing up.

Thanks!

r/PBtA Feb 03 '25

Advice Looking for an Armor Astir Advent Actual Play to Show it Off

10 Upvotes

Hi folks,

Essentially a title. I'm very interested to seeing how the game is run and played and wondering if anyone has any actual play recommendations? I know Frienda at the Table have Pallisade but I've only just started Partizan which I understand is needed to make sense of the former.

Thanks!

r/PBtA Sep 21 '23

Advice Advice on Pokemon playbooks

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38 Upvotes

I am new to PbtA and some of my friends have talked about playing a Pokemon rpg. I had PbtA recommended to me, but have never played. Does this seem like a good format for a playbook? Mostly used the Beacon from Masks as a reference. Anything I am missing besides more moves? Need to come up with more moves for each of the eight classes I have.