Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Piperken" data-source="post: 9597738" data-attributes="member: 7047091">I want to push back a little on this assessment with an anecdote:I'm not terribly versed in PbTA games/system, but got the opportunity recently to listen in to a one-shot of Night Witches by Bully Pulpit games, and got to ask questions while the game was in session.In the game, you play Soviet airwomen who are part of a storied, all-women bomber group in WW2 (you can look them up on wikipedia).A few aspects that I wanted to highlight:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The players were all strangers as I understood; the table runner had run this game before</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Given the adult topics present, there was some discussion about how players wanted to have the story presented</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">All were familiar with PbTA games; given it was a one-shot, they decided early in the character making process to purposefully select playbooks & moves that would naturally butt into/engage with one another</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">There's two broad phases to the game: on-the-ground vs. mission. The character moves one has is dependent on which phase you are in; there's a variety of fictional activities that can occur when the crew is not on a mission-- it's not  "downtime" (though it could be). However, what you do during that time integrates heavily into the mission later on</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">In this one-shot, this entire crew ended up dying on their mission when their bomber group was attacked by German fighters, a couple of whom were aces -- there was some question at the very end whether the mission was purposefully leaked, for the sole purpose of drawing out the German aces, so they could be shot down by their Soviet counterparts</li> </ul>I can say as a casual observer, it was a "lighter" game vs. a traditional (current edition) D&D game. What stood out to me was the play processes the game had in place to produce the experience (this was what it genuinely felt like, not a game but an experience) were consistent. There weren't any situations that came up that resulted in arguing over how something should be handled.In all, it's elegant. The game's design strongly delivers the experience it intends. This one-shot left a visceral impression on the players as well as myself; in my case, it was very much like listening to a radio drama.It's worth adding this game could run an entire campaign, because of all the potential issues characters can choose to engage with in the fictive world when not on a mission. It's robust enough to handle that.</blockquote>

Verification