PbtA stands for “Powered by the Apocalypse.” It means games inspired by our original game Apocalypse World, and now games inspired by other PbtA games more generally. It’s a self-applied label: because it depends on a game’s inspirations, only the game’s creator can really tell you whether their game’s PbtA or not. History of PbtA We began writing […]
Playing With Mortality
By Meguey Baker This article was made possible by the generous support of our patrons. Please consider joining them by supporting us on Patreon Playing With MortalityI had the privilege of speaking at Wesleyan University on Friday, October 13th. What a lovely thing! I love talking about game design and play and language, and the students correctly anticipated […]
Powered by the Apocalypse, Part 9: That’s What’s Happening
Using Apocalypse World to Outline and Draft Your Own RPG Here in Part 9, I lay some groundwork for the idea of underlying models by pointing out a crucial feature of Apocalypse World. This article was made possible by the generous support of my patrons. Please consider joining them by supporting me on Patreon. Normal RPGs A normal […]
Follow The Thread: A Worldbuilding Guide
By Meguey Baker This article was made possible by the generous support of our patrons. Please consider joining them by supporting us on Patreon Meguey is a museum curator and material historian specializing in textiles. Part 4: Screen Saver Technologies, Reading List, & Questions Screen Saver Technologies Finally, let’s talk “screen saver” technologies and skills. These are things […]
Follow The Thread: A Worldbuilding Guide
By Meguey Baker This article was made possible by the generous support of our patrons. Please consider joining them by supporting us on Patreon Meguey is a museum curator and material historian specializing in textiles. Part 3: Technology, Agricultural Impact, & Transport Technology Something to make a hole and something to pull through it. Before there is woven […]
Follow The Thread: A Worldbuilding Guide
By Meguey Baker This article was made possible by the generous support of our patrons. Please consider joining them by supporting us on Patreon Meguey is a museum curator and material historian specializing in textiles. Part 2: Babies, Washing, & Staying Healthy Babies Why is there a section about babies and fertility in an article about thread? Because […]
Follow The Thread: A Worldbuilding Guide
By Meguey Baker This article was made possible by the generous support of our patrons. Please consider joining them by supporting us on Patreon Meguey is a museum curator and material historian specializing in textiles. Part 1: Thread & Clothing When you are setting out to invent the universe, follow the thread. Literally. Thread is one of the […]
Running Apocalypse World in a Con Slot
(This is directly from the PbtA Q&A round 2, last question.) Back when I used to run a lot of Apocalypse World con games, 2013-2015 or so, here’s how I’d do it. Start Limit your selection of playbooks. I used to go with the battlebabe, the brainer, the chopper, the gunlugger, the savvyhead, the skinner, and one or […]
Apocalypse World: Custom Advancement
This article was made possible by the generous support of our patrons. Please consider joining them by supporting us on Patreon. The Question & My Answer Is there any solution that let players play the same playbook potentially forever? Andrea Ricciardi on Discord There absolutely 100% is, yes! It’ll take a little bit of work on your part, […]
Otherkind Dice
This article was made possible by the generous support of our patrons. Please consider joining them by supporting us on Patreon. “Otherkind Dice” is the casual name of a resolution system I came up with about two decades ago. Otherkind dice underpin a lot of my design work and — through PbtA — they’ve influenced a lot of […]