@BedzoneII
There's really only two that come to mind, PbtA and 13th Age - both for different reasons....
13th Age excels at collaboration in world building. From the outset, the world is full of holes and the GM isn't supposed to fill all of them. First of all, every player has One Unique Thing (OUT). We're not talking special snowflake Dragonball Z levels of unique. Just something that is true for them that isn't true of anyone else in the story. 13th Age is set in the Dragon Empire. That means there's a Dragon Emperor. But that's as far as the book takes it. Holes, remember? So I could give my character an OUT of, "He looks exactly like the Emeror's son," and now I've just created the fact that the Emperor had a son. He didn't before.
Also, the players are encouraged to build the world by way of fact or rumour. The first Organized Play module includes this:
Ask the players around the table if their characters have been to Roachdale and if so what it is like. Start with anybody who has an obviously linked Unique or Background and say to them, "Your character has heard of Roachdale. Maybe they’ve even been there. Tell me about it."
Make a quick note of their answer and incorporate it into the adventure. If they say that Roachdale is a flying island then a skill check might involve climbing an anchor chain up to the island, if they say Roachdale is guarded by a fierce dragon then a skill check might involve timing sneaking into the place while the dragon is away hunting.
Beyond that, every character has relationships with the major icons of the setting. These icons aren't there to fight, anymore than a signature location would be there to fight. They're part of the setting in other words. What would the Dragon Empire be without a Dragon Emperor? Probably not that. The Emperor might change, and the new one might not be as good (or competent, etc.) as the old one, but there
is one. And so your character relates to all of them in various ways. Maybe I'm a rogue and I love the Prince of Shadows because he pulls off jobs I can't. Or maybe I hate him for the same reason. Or maybe
he hates
me because I pulled off a job a day earlier than he was going to. At any rate, I get to roll dice whenever he's relevant - or whenever the GM doesn't have anything planned for the next bit, and the story can change based on what I roll.
PbtA on the other hand is good because with a group of players that knows the system, the GM does not
have to do much more than set a scene. Take a simple example of combat (I'm using DungeonWorld here even though it's not perfect, because it's the one with an easily accessible SRD.
The typical system...
... determines initiative that the GM has to track.
... has set types of actions that the GM has to pay attention to and adjudicate when there's a problem
... come up with something on the fly when there's an off the wall idea.
... determines the outcome of combat rolls. (attack vs defense, for instance)
PbtA on the other hand...
... has players act when they act.
... has moves that are activated under specific pre-determined circumstances.
... has a fallback move for everything else.
... has players decide the outcome of rolls. (every roll is self-contained with pre-listed possibilities)
So in a small combat of a player vs a goblin, let's say, the player sees the goblin and gets the drop on him. That's it, sometimes, no rolls needed. An attack roll is only made when the target can defend themselves. But okay, lets say the goblin sees him too. So he rolls to attack. Well, he shoots an arrow at him. He's just activated Volley, which says,
"When you take aim and shoot at an enemy at range, roll+Dex." Wow, a 12. I don't need to wait to see if that hits, because my move tells me it does.
"On a 10+, you have a clear shot—deal your damage." All I need the GM to do is to tell me if it's still alive. And if the GM has provided me with player-facing stats, I know
that too. If he's still alive, and I know what I want to do next, I just do it. Monsters move when I screw up or when I don't know what to do.
GMs move when...
... everybody looks at you to find out what happens.
... the players give you a golden opportunity.
... they roll a 6-.
Last edited July 6, 2022 3:18 pm
