glaucus

joined 1 year ago
[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

If you like the FFG Star Wars light/dark side point mechanic, you might also like how Fate handles Fate Points. Here's the gist:

Each PC has a pool of Fate Points (FP). At the start of each session, if their pool is lower than their character's "Refresh" score (typically 3), it resets to that score.

A player can spend an FP to:

  • invoke an Aspect on their character (or on the situation/location) to get +2 to a roll, increase the difficulty of an opponent's roll by 2, or reroll the dice. They can also give the FP to another character to make a hostile invoke on another character's Aspect. e.g. "since I'm a Debonair Swordsman, I'll add +2 to to my Fight roll", or "you still have that Slashed Palm from before, so your Fight roll is more difficult."
  • compel another character into some course of action that creates a narrative complication. The player controlling that character must either accept the compel (and receive an FP), or spend one of their own FP to refuse it. Unlike a hostile invoke, a compel is more about narrative complication, e.g. "you find a contact among the rebel militia, but uh oh, since you're a Debonair Swordsman it's an old flame of yours, and the breakup was pretty messy!"
  • establish some useful detail/contrivance. e.g. "I cast my eyes around the tavern for a suitable weapon. Is there maybe an old, still-sharp sword mounted on the wall?" would probably require an FP, but "is there a chandelier at this ballroom party?" wouldn't require one.

A player gains FP by:

  • accepting a compel or receiving a hostile invoke, as above
  • conceding a conflict.

If you gain FP in a scene, you don't get to use them until the next scene.

The GM begins each scene with FP equal to the number of PCs (plus any gained from the previous scene), pooled across all the NPCs they control. They gain and spend FP in the same ways, except that they don't need to spend an FP to make a compel.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I haven't played or read enough PbtA to list a "favourite" move, but I like the Theorize move from Brindlewood Bay:

When the Mavens have an open, freewheeling discussion about the solution to a mystery based on the clues they have uncovered and reach a consensus, roll 2d6 plus the number of Clues found, minus the mystery’s complexity.
On a 10+, it’s the correct solution. The Keeper will provide an opportunity to take down the culprit or otherwise save the day.
On a 7-9, it’s the correct solution, but the Keeper will either add an unwelcome complication to the solution itself, or present a complicated or dangerous opportunity to take down the culprit and save the day.
On a 6-, the solution is incorrect, and the Keeper reacts.

I also like how that game's Day and Night moves tweak the typical "Defy Danger" move.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I'm not familiar with the entire PbtA scene, but I found the Discern Realities podcast useful for getting my head around Dungeon World. It has some actual-play content, though it's one-on-one duet play.

https://www.gauntlet-rpg.com/discern-realities-index.html

Yochai Gal's One Shot World is a free Dungeon World hack that streamlines things a bit (not to the extreme extent of World of Dungeons) and provides some useful tools, prompts etc that the Dungeon World rulebook lacks. Stonetop is on my "to read" list though.

The last resource I'd suggest is 20 Dungeon Starters, which is a $5 PDF on DTRPG, though the product preview gives a good sense of what to expect. Essentially each dungeon starter is a double-sided A4/Letter page showing an appropriate amount of GM prep for a one-shot or beginning adventure of a campaign. A list of sensory impressions & situations, some custom moves and monsters, that sort of thing. The product page used to link to free versions of the starters, but DTRPG has helpfully stripped out the hrefs. This fandom wiki page has links to some of them, though some links are dead.