Do PBTA games work with PbP?

[silentfanbrother]

I want to really get into games that are based on PBTA systems like the City of Mists, MASKS, Avatar Legends etc. They seem really fun but I never could get into how the system works or how it will interact with PbP

[Malkavian Grin]

I've only played a small amount of Powered by the Apocalypse games, but they count among some of the hands-down best games I've ever played, PbP or not.

I'm no expert by any means, but I am currently running a game of Star Worlds as a one-shot. It's had ups and downs and lost a couple of players along the way, but I think I'm (finally) hitting my stride with the system's give-and-take mentality. It takes a lot to switch gears from many other RPGs to PbtA, but I think it's well worth it!

If you're interested in Star Wars, my Star Worlds game is a hack of World of Dungeons (which hacks Dungeon World). You can see how it functions on PbP and make your own judgements :)

[Butchern]

6 hours ago, silentfanbrother said:

I want to really get into games that are based on PBTA systems like the City of Mists, MASKS, Avatar Legends etc. They seem really fun but I never could get into how the system works or how it will interact with PbP

To summarize up top, PbtA games suffer the same kinds of problems that all RPGs suffer in PbP gaming but may suffer from some of the problems more acutely, depending on the individual game. The player-forward and bare bones nature of the rules, however, could be an advantage in PbP with the right players.

The long version: I think they do work fine, in theory, but only so long at the GM is flexible and the players are both active and proactive. And I think the PbtA games you'll find on MWers that are moving along quite well do so 1) because their GMs have adapted them (by filing down a bunch of the edges, metaphorically speaking) to make them work in the sub-optimal environment of PbP and/or 2) because everyone in the game is using some other non-PbP medium (like Discord or text messages) to compensate for the inherent problems of gaming "by post."

I have run several PbtA games in PbP, and in all my games, the system was typically waiting for the player to decisively make the next move to take the story in a direction they wanted it to go. And, often, the players need to reach a consensus on something before they can move forward. Most PbtA systems also require a good deal of back-and-forth negotiation between the player and the GM to decide the outcome of a roll.

I have found, however, that most PbP players are not decisive nor are they proactive. They have come to PbP, not because they want to game aggressively, but because they want a game to turn to every few days, for a few minutes, when they have the time. PbP players often want the GM to do all the hard work of story and description, so they can then post a few paragraphs of navel-gazing reactions to what the GM said and did. If they don't even have to read the posts of other players, all the better. These are the kinds of player who would never play a PbtA game around the table, but they jumped in to a PbtA game in PbP because the stakes are very low and walking away is as easy as just not posting there again.

I would also argue that "reaching a consensus," which is nearly impossible to do in PbP which moves at a glacially slow pace, is almost never actually accomplished in PbP. The active player(s) usually makes a suggestion of where to take the story, and everyone else either doesn't respond or just falls in line because they got to the discussion two days late and "man, trying to argue this stuff out in a forum is just a hassle, so . . . whatever . . ." After the second or third time that happens in a game like Monster Hearts or Apocalypse World, their characters are entirely irrelevant to the story now anyway, so those players just quit and move to a different game.

[Actana]

I find PbtA games work excellently for PbP, but with the large caveat that all the players need to be on the same wavelength and accept the assumptions everyone else makes when they are writing posts. In a way, some of the GMing burden needs to be shared between everyone involved, allowing everyone some amount of authority in making decisions on what options they pick in which move.

And, as a universal rule, having some place to chat in real time helps tremendously in keeping track of how things are going in general. Which goes for all PbP games anyway.