PbtA Games: Sell One Well +

[Malmuria]

3) I'm not sure how to put this perfectly kindly but it upsets the most gentle lambs of the world, a lot of whom seem to play certain other PtbA games, because it intentionally emulates D&D, which they see as inherently pro-colonizer, pro-violence (perhaps even pro-genocide), pro-raiding and so on. I'm not kidding nor overstating here, to be clear. And they are, on a level, correct. D&D has always been quite about those things - "Kill monsters and take their stuff" - and you can see this reflected in a lot of Gygax's own comments (including his "nits make lice" approving reference, or his description in the '00s of how a Paladin should operate). But for the vast majority of D&D players, that's either not an issue, or just not how they see it, which is imho also totally valid and possibly more reasonable.

I did notice this in the rulebook, that they almost played up the violence/colonialism of the game.

 

[overgeeked]

With agency handlers as the mentors?

Exactly. Waller and the other agents as the “adults” in the game. There was a lot of Peacemaker vibes in the game as well. Seeing the criminals as petulant teenagers definitely put the game in a certain light. And it worked better than I hoped.

 

[Reynard]

Exactly. Waller and the other agents as the “adults” in the game. There was a lot of Peacemaker vibes in the game as well. Seeing the criminals as petulant teenagers definitely put the game in a certain light. And it worked better than I hoped.

I was hoping for something more "standard". Luke, what PbtA would you use for Morrison's 2000ish JLA with Big Damn Heroes in Cosmic Crises, or maybe Astro City, Slice of Life Supers?

 

[overgeeked]

I was hoping for something more "standard". Luke, what PbtA would you use for Morrison's 2000ish JLA with Big Damn Heroes in Cosmic Crises, or maybe Astro City, Slice of Life Supers?

Worlds in Peril is more your standard superheroes game. That and Galaxies in Peril (more BitD) are what you'd look at for the big damn superheroes vibe. But again, I haven't really dug into those or played them. If you can dig it, there's a PbtA game that does Bronze Age 1970s street-level supers and other 1970s badasses to a T that I'm just starting a write up on. It's called Spirit of 77.

 

[Faolyn]

A bit more on Monster of the Week: It is a sleekly designed machine to tell one kind of story, the "monster of the week" episodes of Supernatural, Buffy, X-Files, Kolchak and so on. (I think I remember that the game was originally designed as a homebrew system to run a Supernatural campaign.)

The playbooks create pretty much every character from those series -- sometimes pretty blatantly -- but with enough flexibility to make things your own. (When I run it, I intend to have the Chosen One be chosen by a UFO cult, rather than a bunch of upper class English twits, for instance.)

The player-side mechanics help drive the plot forward, with every playbook having some sort of related plot hook (maybe you're working against a conspiracy that attempts to foil your monster hunting, maybe you are fated to die saving the world, etc.) that ticks forward when you accomplish certain things or spend XP.

Player characters are heroic badasses to various degrees (even the sidekick types get to have their moments, as in BtVS's "The Zeppo"), with failures typically being partial successes or successes with a cost. But eventually, the fight against monsters will consume them all, leading to another monster hunter taking their place. (Player characters have a non-replenishing Luck score, and when a character's Luck runs out, you should start thinking seriously about your next character.)

Adventures have an open-ended design, typically featuring a monster with an unknown weakness that has to be discovered in order to defeat them. But there's a ticking clock: If the players dither, the monster's agenda keeps moving forward with some sort of horrible event happening when the clock has ticked down. So the player characters are spurred into action to get investigating and attempting to disrupt the activities of the unbeatable-at-the-moment monster in the meantime.

It's episodic in nature, but the player-side plot engines form campaign arcs through regular play. And if they're at all synched up, you can expect one hell of a season finale every dozen or so sessions.

There's a new crowdfunding campaign to introduce new settings and group playbooks via a supplement (play Locke & Key or Penny Dreadful in Monster of the Week!) and a new hardcover version of the game, with a bit of new material (including material from a prior supplement I suspect they want to let fall out of print) comes out on Feb. 27.

This is not Hunter: The Vigil, with hunters eventually becoming serial killers who justify their actions for the greater good, or even the upcoming Apocalypse Keys, which is more Hellboy trying to prevent the world (or becoming the thing that will cause the end of the world himself).

But if you ever wanted to play a government monster hunter having to look over their shoulder for the conspirators lurking in the shadows of their own agency, or the criminal who's seen too many things in the dark to look away any more, or even a vampire (or werewolf or angel or whatever) siding with humans against the supernatural -- and especially if you want all of these folks to team up -- this is the game for you.

Thanks for the link! I'm going to be running a game of MotW soonish--well, either that or Root, although I'm leaning to MotW--and I'm really enjoying what I've read so far.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Thanks for the link! I'm going to be running a game of MotW soonish--well, either that or Root, although I'm leaning to MotW--and I'm really enjoying what I've read so far.

It's an amazingly well written rulebook. The author is practically shaking the reader by the shoulder and saying "let's play right now!"

 

[overgeeked]

Sex, Drugs, and Rock and Roll.

The Best parts of a Bad decade...

Can you dig it?!

Spirit of 77 is a love letter to the 1970s. It absolutely nails the time period and related pop culture. The GM is called the DJ, each character should have an era-appropriate theme song, and you're playing in an alternate history where aliens are real, super science is proliferating, Tricky Dick is still in office, and the power of rock can save you.

Spirit of 77 in three images. The cover. Art from the back cover. And the first piece of interior art.

Looking over the book to try to encapsulate the game, I was reminded of this page of the text. So rather than try to write something better than this (I can't), I'll just post this long quote...

What is Spirit of 77?

The Best Parts of a Bad Decade
Evel Knievel and Pam Grier. Alice Cooper and Bruce Lee. The Dukes of Hazzard and the Six Million Dollar Man. Shaft. Spirit of 77 is a combination of muscle cars and Mack trucks, CB radios and kung fu fighters, cross-country road races and big scores in the big city with a killer soundtrack. Can you dig it?

Non-Stop Full Throttle Action
Put the pedal to the metal and drop the hammer. We got places to go, ammo to use, and buckets of fuel to burn. This isn’t a game about exploring deep personal relationships between characters; it’s about fast-drawing gangsters leading angry cops on a non-stop high-speed chase through rain-slick city streets, swaggering away from explosions in slow motion and striking a cool pose while delivering an awesome one-liner at just the right time.

Being Cool Over Bean Counting
Math is hard and nobody really cares how many iron rations you have in your bedroll. Time spent keeping track of nonsense like ammo, fuel and money is better spent blowing suckas away and burning rubber. Running out of ammo only happens when it’s appropriately dramatic, and if you run outta gas it’s because you’ve just arrived where someone is in desperate need of a boot to their ass.

Watergate and Weird Science
What’s more amazing, the superscience of X-Technology that brought us things like Skylab, bionics and computers that can fit on your desk or “Tricky Dick” Nixon beating the Watergate rap with a public apology? Both are complete mysteries, making the ’70s into the weird world it is in Spirit of 77. Politics and truth-seeking have become even more dangerous since the manufactured flap over that hotel break-in, and the end of Vietnam went weirder than anyone could’ve predicted.

Music In The Streets
In 1977, music is a powerful force that not only inspires and motivates, but in some cases can even be weaponized. Musicians everywhere devote themselves to the pursuit of hitting the big time, and in every club and on every corner, the omnipresent voice of the City’s soul can be heard. The DJ, always wise, always mysterious and always taking requests.

Say What? - Wheaton’s Law In Effect
Spirit of 77 is not a historically accurate representation of the 1970s. It’s a fictionalized fantasy world and a chance to play kung fu fighters or clever detectives, good ol’ boys or disco divas. It should never be an opportunity to indulge in racial or sexual stereotypes. Bigotry in any form isn’t fun or funny.

 

[Reynard]

If they exist, what are good PbtA games for the following genres:

Zombie Apocalypse
Baroque Space Opera
Abercrombie grimdark fantasy
Gonzo Post Apocalypse
Whatever genre it is Neil Gaiman writes

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Abercrombie grimdark fantasy

Is this attractive young people stabbing each other in gloomy castles?

 

[Reynard]

Is this attractive young people stabbing each other in gloomy castles?

No. It is mud and blood gritty military low fantasy.