Hey All!

Once again, welcome to the weekly thread where you can link products, kickstarters, podcasts, videos, really anything you like, as much as you like.

As usual, rules 4 (1 advertising post) and 5 (no LFG) are suspended in this post.

New stretch goal? Post here!

Need two players for Night Witches? Post here!

Designer dropped a dev diary? Post here!

Handy dandy loaded dice on amazon? Post here? Please don't on that one actually.

Have fun, and lets see some interesting stuff.

Inspired by a joke from the host of my current game giving me the achievement ("Fuck 'Em" - Took little time ending the 'You aren't hunted.' safety of early Masks.) I've been thinking about achievements in Masks. I'm curious what y'all think would make a good one

Our group started playing Public Access recently. We had three sessions and so far it's amazing, frankly my best experience of running a game, players also like it a lot. However, I struggled with some things.

• What to do if characters make a theory that sounds good based on things that were mentioned or happened in the game but not listed as clues? It feels kind of unfair that it doesn't improve Answer the Question roll as clues do.
• We decided that if character turns the key to improve the result, they have vague dreamlike memory of what happend on a "bad end" roll, and one character, freaked out by this visions, started researching the forum for similar cases. I asked for a Meddling roll and then realised I don't know what clue I should give for that, since it's not related to any current mystery. She ended up finding posts by a guy who seemed to have similar visions before he went insane and killed himself. The clue was his weird ramblings about some Game and I listed it as Xxxagreus case clue, but I don't think it's a best way to handle it.
• Sometimes characters have a scene that clearly looks like Nostalgic move, comforting each other or reminiscing about the past together, but don't mention any Nostalgic items that would trigger the move. A few times I added up Nostalgic item as background to justify a move, but it feels kind of clunky.
• Removing physical injury conditions with Nostalgic move seems too weird.

So I would appreciate an advice on how to handle such situations.

Figured this was the best sub to try and find people who've played Interstitial: Our Hearts Intertwined.

If you don't know, the general thrust is that Interstitial is inspired by Kingdom Hearts and campaigns are world-hopping affairs, usually between works of fiction the players are fans of.

My GM idly mused that it would be cool to have information about other people's campaigns and what worlds they visited, and I agreed hard enough that I made a google form about it.

So if you have played Interstitial, and you want to tell a stranger on the internet about it to satisfy their own curiosity, here is the link to submit to the survey

I have no real goal for what to do with this data, but if I get a lot of responses and can figure out a way to present the information in a way that's digestible, I might make a post about it. There's an option in the form to have your responses discounted for this.

Thank you!

Keeping it short, my players have attracted the attention of a team of ageing superheroes who are looking for young blood to take over for them, and have assigned the PCs a mission to test their mettle.

I have no idea how to handle this - I've prepped it like a shallow investigation (i.e. 2 locations and a flexible link between them) followed by a fight with a villain.

Ive never done something like this with a pbta game before and can't tell if I'm setting myself up for a failure.

Maybe my search skill is low but I can't seem to find a long list of character classes that encompasses all PBtA games. I would think you could have a lot of crossover between flavor games and was just looking for a fuller list of those classes. Does anyone have a link to a place that might house them?

I really, really like Masks system of granting experience (potential) on failed rolls. I like how it incentivises players to not always do what they are best at, and make it feel less bad when they fail at something they wanted to succeed.

On the other hand, I didn't really like the whole trait highlighting system that other games use. I get what it's trying to do (incentivise players that do the kinds of things other people want to see) but from my previous experience it often felt kind of random because the players didn't really have a solid grasp of what they wanted to highlight, or forgot about their highlighted stats while playing.

I'm starting a Monster of the Week game soon, and I've been thinking of replacing the experience gain system with the one from Masks. Has anyone tried this? Is there something important I'm missing as to why this might be a bad idea?

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)?

Hey all!

I am currently working on a fantasy horror "Dungeoncrawler meets Slasher movie" PbtA game for Halloween one-shots.
I've got pretty good ideas for attributes, theme, etc. but the thing I struggle with the most is writing GOOD moves. (Especially the basic moves)

I've read a bunch of PbtA systems already, but are there any videos, blogs or some other material purely on how to write moves for a game?

Your help is much appreciated!
Max

Hey All!

Once again, welcome to the weekly thread where you can link products, kickstarters, podcasts, videos, really anything you like, as much as you like.

As usual, rules 4 (1 advertising post) and 5 (no LFG) are suspended in this post.

New stretch goal? Post here!

Need two players for Night Witches? Post here!

Designer dropped a dev diary? Post here!

Handy dandy loaded dice on amazon? Post here? Please don't on that one actually.

Have fun, and lets see some interesting stuff.

Would Brindlewood GMs/players out there please help me understand the advantage of the Night Move (as opposed to the Day Move) from the player perspective?

I could be totally wrong, but it seems like higher risk for the same reward? If that’s true, then in game wouldn’t their characters focus their moves, and gathering clues, during Dawn/Day/Dusk rather night?

I do understand how Night Moves advance the fiction. I run for fairly traditional gamers (they are all open minded to new games) and I want to make sure I can articulate the “why” they would take the risk when their reaction might be to stay home and lock the doors when the sun goes down…

Thanks in advance!

When I first got to know the OSR movement, I found many nice Youtube Channels on the subject: Questing Beast, Dungeoncraft, and many others. But I struggle to find creators that have any focus on PbtA games. Any recommendations?

I thought I would share this here. Also, if you don't know the PbtA (generic) Foundry System is well supported and has several modules adding in specific game UI, compendiums, & mechanics.

Fellowship 2e Module v1.0.0

The first release of a FoundryVTT module (using the PbtA system) for Fellowship 2e! https://foundryvtt.com/packages/fellowship-pbta

It Includes:

• Sheets for all the things except the Overlord (in-progress).
• A compendium of Playbooks, Destinies, Gear, Moves, Companions, & some NPCs (Threats).

Report bugs & feature requests in the Foundry Server -> PbtA Channel (tag me): https://discord.com/channels/170995199584108546/718595975693992017

Or if you have a github account you can use this: https://github.com/philote/fellowship-pbta/issues

Hey everyone! We're holding a One Shot day for January over at the PbtA Discord with a theme on cozy PbtA games. We're looking for anyone who might like to GM a game on the 25th of Janaury! If so, contact Otaara on the PbtA Discord! This is one of four One Shot days we've got planned over 2025. If you're interested in being a player, signs up will begin Wednesday!

You can get to the PbtA Discord through here: https://discord.gg/XUcP7RCC

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.

Hi, I've wanted to try Fellowship for a long time and I'm keen on the Overlord framework, but it also feels like it would fit better with a longer campaign. The thing is I don't think I have time for more than 4 session of 2-3 hour length. Is this enough for an overlord campaign. If not we'll probably have to with the Horizon playbook. What your minimum length for an Overlord campaign?

So, I just found out about Brindlewood Bay (and Carved from Brindlewood subgenre) today, and it really fascinates me, especially with the mystery mechanics (from what I've read about it, at least, haven't bought the book yet, but I'm considering it), but I'm not sure I really dig the theming. Is there something less of a "Lovecraftian Miss Marple" and more of a Cluedo (and genres it parodies)? A group of random strangers (possibly each is a suspect) in a closed off location - snowed-in mansion, train, or something like that - solving a murder in said location?

Hi!

I'm not here to say PbtA is bad, but I AM I think willing to ultimately conclude that it's not for me.

Edit - I've played several FitD games with a high degree of success. Looking at the Rapscallion book, I definitely did not use enough Fates Moves. It just feels like there are so many, though.

The game was Rapscallion, which I've been pretty excited about. I love the concept of the game, I love the flavors, and I've really found myself enjoying non-5e games over the last few years. My first 5e adventure was accidentally a pirate adventure (Tomb of Annihilation is not, but was for me), and so I got the core of that party together, prepped a scenario and a contingency scenario for when the first one failed, and then got into it.

Context note going forward, I think, all night, they rolled less than a 7 like twice, and they routinely rolled 10 and higher. With some of my other rules light games, I could compensate by just hitting them harder when the time came, but I felt like the time just didn't come.

My players found character creation to be pretty straight forward. Yay. I generally felt able to answer their questions without rereading rules. We were off to a strong start.

The opening scenario was a raid. I explained the setting, their circumstances, their goal, and some of the tools they may want to use, trying to emphasize what I understand the difference between moves and skills to be, and we started working through the "case the joint" part of a raid.

I think this was where the first struggle was - players would ask if they could make a check, and I would say to just tell me what they wanted to do, and we'd see if we needed to deploy a game mechanic. In retrospect, I'm wondering if I should have replaced "wanted to do" with "did." Tell me what you did to prepare for this raid.

Anyway, the raid happened. It felt really lackluster. The decision points where I would typically call for a skill roll where I'd be able to ratchet up the tension felt like they didn't appear. I wonder if I'm not understanding how moves actually work. They're not just checks but with longer outcomes, but... Uh, idk? Narratively triggered things to do need things to do, and I feel like when they hit on their moves, I maybe was progressing the plot too far, and/or allowing them to much narrative power?

I thought it was supposed to feel like I was doing less and players had more narrative control of the game. I understand players who have mostly or exclusively played 5e would need a push or two here, but that train never left the station. Maybe I had underprepped the scenario. Maybe I should have tried to force more non mechanical character development.

Another struggle point was deploying troubles or harm. Harm I get. But there's another track of bad news for Players (and me) to manage, and, once play started, I realized Ididn't quite get why. I'm missing something here. I don't knew what I'm missing.

Here's what I'm wondering from people who run pbta games: when you're Prepping, what are you actually creating? Encounters? NPCs? Environments? How do you know you've prepped enough to run?

How heavy is role play in your games? Are social encounters (specifically non combat) a centerpiece of your games?

I'm also open to any insights on how to better run pbta. I'll eventually run another pbta game, maybe even Rapscallion; I just want to make sure that I run it better than I did last night.

Thanks for reading my novel.

Hey All!

Once again, welcome to the weekly thread where you can link products, kickstarters, podcasts, videos, really anything you like, as much as you like.

As usual, rules 4 (1 advertising post) and 5 (no LFG) are suspended in this post.

New stretch goal? Post here!

Need two players for Night Witches? Post here!

Designer dropped a dev diary? Post here!

Handy dandy loaded dice on amazon? Post here? Please don't on that one actually.

Have fun, and lets see some interesting stuff.

I've purchased the deluxe versions, checked the publisher's downloads, and more, but I can't seem to find any source for form-fillable versions of the playbooks for play online (and Google searches keep bringing up Masks instaed of MASHED). Does anybody know of any sources for this, or am I out of luck and needing to find a way to make them form-fillable, myself?

Hey, so I just started narrating WWW for some friends, we had our session 0 last saturday, and now that we played a bit, one of the players wanted to change gimmicks, problem is that another player already plays that gimmick, and the book made me understand that it is only one player per gimmick, is that something that can break the game somehow? Or can we get away with having two monsters?

Anyone ever tried playing The Sprawl solo? Any tips?

Gonna try it later tonight.

I think the main issue is what the obstacles will be for missions. I'm thinking one obstacle will always be directly related to the playback I'm using (e.g it'll require violence of I have a more martial playbook), and one will be related to a random playback, to be determined in the moment or during Legwork assessment.

I'll let you know how I get on.

I'm looking for advice on a custom move for Masks: the next generation. The current situation is I've got two characters trying to run away from an insurmountable foe with the foes previous hostage in tow. I need ideas for a custom move for running away from something that would give chase. I'm not even sure which label I should use for the check. Anyone run into this sort of situation before?

Hey All!

Once again, welcome to the weekly thread where you can link products, kickstarters, podcasts, videos, really anything you like, as much as you like.

As usual, rules 4 (1 advertising post) and 5 (no LFG) are suspended in this post.

New stretch goal? Post here!

Need two players for Night Witches? Post here!

Designer dropped a dev diary? Post here!

Handy dandy loaded dice on amazon? Post here? Please don't on that one actually.

Have fun, and lets see some interesting stuff.

Do you have a separate forum for posting PBTA memes?

I understand what the book lays out - arcs are the villains going after what they want harder and harder, and hooks are trying to work out which of a pair of labels the PC prefers but phases and impulses confuse me.

like the book lists that mundane vs saviour is about "protecting people from threats both outer and inner" - is it always that? What about trying to get a PC to pick between their responsibilities as a civilian (their friends, their parents) or their responsibilities as a hero. That doesnt match up with what the book says mundane vs saviour is, but is still about which of the labels the PC sees themselves as.

And for phases I dont get how often I should be incorporating stuff from each phase? How do I know when to move from one phase ot another? What happens when one villain isnt featured for several sessions - are they in a different phase to one who has been getting featured? With my current understanding of them, forcing in stuff from phases in feels considerably less collaborative then I generally run PBTA as.

Like if they didn't attend class because they overslept, and things like that.