[svachalek]

Dungeon World is a PBTA (Powered by the Apocalypse) game, one of many games inspired by Apocalypse World. I don't know much about DW in particular, other than it's an early PBTA hack and not generally considered one of the better examples of the system anymore, but it still has a lot of fans.

However, these games share a lot in common, usually including a focus on Moves. The GM determines if something is a Move or not. If it's a move the player gets to roll for it, and if it's not a Move, it just happens. Moves tend to cover very broad areas of actions and are lot less specific and nitpicky than D&D rules.

Unlike D&D, the GM also has Moves. These moves are usually tailored to the particular PBTA game and generally include various ways to keep pressure on the players in a way that fits the theme and setting and mood of the particular game. It codifies the GM's job in a way that makes it more approachable for many. D&D is among the most difficult systems to GM and it leads to a shortage of people wanting to GM vs those wanting to play. Experienced DMs over many years learn to be a little looser and how to wing things and improvise and make the jobs easier for themselves. PBTA games are designed to teach the GM how to do this from the start, partly by teaching the players that this is expected and correct.

[artimaeis]

Can you recommend some of the better examples of the system these days?

I've played some Monster of the Week and read up on Dungeon World. I've played D&D regularly since 2008. I like the idea of the PBTA system but I've had a hard time justifying leading people into PBTA games since D&D seems to have such a larger ecosystem.

I'd like to take another stab at PBTA games, hoping that looking through a system or two that you thin is a good example of the system might inspire me to pick up a game!

[drivers99]

I've been playing Ironsworn: Starforged (the sci-fi version of Ironsworn with similar but not identical rules; it's a solo-friendly PBTA game) for about 2 weeks, and as a generally non-creative person, it is stretching my brain in the best way. I can barely get my D&D 5e group to play D&D 5e (it's fizzled out completely now) let alone an alternate RPG so I joined a Play-by-Post game of Starforged that was just starting up. You can play it solo or co-op or guided (i.e. with a GM). We're playing it co-op and we're playing 4 player even though the game recommends 1 to 3 players. So we all have to be creative and figure out the rules together (we're also on the starforged discord where we can participate in discussion about the rules and ways to interpret them), as well as implement the best practices of play-by-post but we seem to be meshing very well so far.

One catch is you need more than the core rulebook. You'll need the asset cards, which you can download and print but it's easier to just buy the cards. (edit: or you can just copy the images of the specific cards you pick for your character into its own document instead.) And the reference book which is spiral bound so it can lay flat might be useful, although lately I've just been looking up each move in the index of the main rulebook instead. There is a free reference for the moves in the playkit as well.[0] I see they also have a preview version of the game you can get there.

[0] https://www.ironswornrpg.com/downloads