I managed to start a semi PBTA game in my main gaming group

#1

I’m so happy.

My group had a session last Friday, and the two game masters that had open campaigns had hinted they needed more time to prepare something,

So I started thinking and told them I would run a one shot adventure. For that I used World of Dungeons 1979. It’s not full PBTA as there are no moves at all, but the main dice mechanic is still PBTA. Dungeon crawling is something they know, and the rules were simple enough they didn’t get confused about them.

I used a lot of tricks I learned in podcast and this forum, like starting in medias res, doing epilogues and asking questions to the players, or taking voluntary contributions from players as canon if they fitted the game. I got great feedback from the players and that’s a great plus.

I also only designed a adventure skeleton, and we filled it together as we played. It was a great experience as GM and they players liked it. So, next time I get to GM again, I’ll use either Masks or Dungeon World, full fledged PBTA. Since the main dice trow is similar, I’m thinking they’ll now be more open to this kind of games.

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#2

Sounds like an excellent way to start your friends on some great gaming! Good luck with your future campaigns!

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#3

Thanks, one of the players asked me yesterday where to get the rules, since she wants to run a game in her house and found them good. And so it spreads.

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#4

Sounds awesome!

Could you mention which podcasts you found especially instructive? I’d like to get better at some of the GMing techniques you mention, and would love to find good examples to study.

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#5

+1 Forward, She’s a Super Geek, The Gauntlet Podcast, Discern Realities, Worldcasting Podcast.

Those are the ones that I took most things from. In particular, for techniques and discussions on GMing, the interviews at +1 Forward about what the guest wants to highlight are great. There are also some episodes in +1 forward that were made about 1 year ago that are about different parts of a PBTA game analyzed that helped me understand some mechanics better.

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