Broken Worlds aka Kill Six Billion Demons RPG - How is it? Does it do PbtA well?

#1

What the title says.

  1. How is it overall?

  2. As we have a lot of PbtA experts around, I am also curious about how good of a PbtA game BW is. Does it do a good job of filtering the source material through the Apocalypse World and/or PbtA design philosophy lense, so to speak?
    Why I ask? I recently saw a discussion about the new Kult RPG, where several PbtA fans were saying that Kult was a good game in and of itself while not being a very good PbtA implementation. I find such differentiation pretty interesting. So if you have an opinion on that aspect, please share it with us.

Thanks in advance!

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#2

hey there Indris!

I played a couple of sessions of Broken Worlds when it first came out. I haven’t read the full game, just enough to engage with the moves when I was playing. Keep in mind it’s been some time, so my thoughts are unfortunately vague. I almost didn’t respond, but this post’s been up here unanswered for two days, so it made me feel bad seeing out there, untouched.

For me, Broken Worlds’ system was clunky. For such a rich and detailed setting as K6BD, the game itself was mired in more conventional / traditional RPG trappings. Too many steps, too many complexities that hide the quick and beautiful combat system you might see in Dungeon World or Monster of the Week. Playing the game was frustrating for me because I kept thinking of how it could have just been a Dungeon World setting and it would have been so much more fun and exciting to play.

I haven’t touched the game since and don’t plan to play it myself.

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#3

Hey RichRogers,

Thank you for responding! And thanks for sharing your experience and view on BW. That doesn’t sound all that enticing. I was afraid it might go that way, to be honest. I am by no means a PbtA expert, far from it, but when I looked at BW I also thought : “that is quite detail-picky for a PbtA game…”. Mind you, this was just a feeling. I never played it. And as said, I am not an expert on PbtA games. I only played a few sessions myself.

On the other hand, and this is me being very honest…I might like it still. Why? Because normally I am someone who does love some detailed choices in relation to mechanics. I wouldn’t say I am a fan of heavy crunch system, but I am very comfortable in the middle range of crunch. And sometimes PbtA is just too light for me. So who knows…I might dig BW in play.

thanks again, Rich!

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