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The Feature choice that gives the whole party a bonus to initiative is great in a game where who strikes first and hardest (including a nova attack to take out key foes) is mighty. Similarly, the Immediate Action Attacks (2 great ones at first level!) allow for "double taps"+ and movement...

Since I switched over to a ~50% combat / 50% SC structure in 2018 or so for 4E, your post got me thinking, @AbdulAlhazred : What if SCs operated on something of a sliding scale, with increased Complexity offered for increased payoff. For example, the PCs succeed at a C2 SC with 6 successes and...

Blades in the Dark (John Harper), Apocalypse World (Vincent Baker), Dogs in the Vineyard (Baker again): "indie" narrativist games, with strong Story Now components.

I'll echo what Arilyn and Joshua say above: I've been super intrigued by this game since Harper first announced it (with a brief video on his YouTube channel); though I hardly have time right now for my Stonetop game, Agon remains on the short list! Even more so after your write up of these...

I think you're conflating GM decides inputs into a scene with GM decides a scene's outcome. By judging the challenge of a scene to the PC's current fictional position, the GM, in setting the parameters of a Skill Challenge (or similar mechanic, like Clocks etc.), decides in the abstract the...

Interesting observations! I agree entirely with your 1). We just haven't made enough Struggle as One Moves (your 2)) in our game yet for me to have a real sense of its distribution of outcomes, but I see the logic of your analysis. That said, this may be party dependent, in the sense that...

This is DW, right? What are the PC Bonds, Alignments, and other such considerations that you might build from to answer your questions? That's where I would start.

Cordova reports that he wrote the game as he was trying to solve the mystery component for his intriguing supernatural Victorian Penny Dreadful / League of Extraordinary Gentlemen PbtA game The Between.

I may have some thoughts to offer, but I doubt it will happen over the next few days, which I anticipate to continue being quite busy. Nevertheless, I'll put a pin in this and return when I have a minute.

I won't argue with your characterization of 4E as more gamist than simulationist. But in my experiences with 4E, reskinning was done not because the mechanics and pre-written fiction were at odds generally but rather that a specific PC's build depended on certain (a) fiction and/or (b)...

Forged in the Dark, an umbrella term for games derived from Blades in the Dark by John Harper.

Here's a good thread on the topic: Benchmarks

Some immediate thoughts: * where does Story Now end and Fiction First begin? Much of this debate revolves around the relative complexity of system mechanics and whether they impede/enable the playing of a PC inhabiting the fiction rather than focusing on the mechanics. *are Skilled Play and...

Wu-Tang, no?

Technically late bronze age. But the name is a tad obfuscating...

Excellent stuff! Looking forward to your insights on how ST differs in certain ways from DW (beyond those already outlined, and with specific examples). It's easy to see how the game's Playbooks are inputs to and tailored to the setting and premise in a way DW's more generic-D&D-genre-fantasy...

Sep, are you still running 3.5? 4E or 5E? Another system?

Crunchy is an elusive descriptor, and the only thing close to what I think you mean by the term that I play these days is 4E. Sure, I like (need) statblocks when I play 4E. But even there I think it's preferable to start with the pithy descriptors and then pick/reskin/design own statblock as...

I agree entirely with the usefulness of an image in helping to define character, be it PC or NPC. With rare exceptions, tho, when it comes to NPCs, image follows the introduction of the character in play, once the initial spare but evocative descriptors get fleshed out a bit through dynamic...

Bulletpoints of pithy and evocative actionable traits.