Powered by the Apocalypse
| Powered by the Apocalypse | |
| Created by | D. Vincent Baker and Meguey Baker |
| Published | 2010 |
| Genres | Genre Agnostic |
| Dice | d6 |
Powered by the Apocalypse, commonly abbreviated to PbtA, is an overarching term for games with rules based on or inspired by the original Apocalypse World.
The author permits the "PbtA" name to be applied freely to any game directly or indirectly inspired by Apocalypse World's system, so there is no system reference document or standard rules. However, the following design elements commonly appear:
- Task resolution based on 2d6+stat, with three results: failure, success, and "success at a cost". Typically, NPCs do not roll their actions; rather, PCs roll to stop or oppose them.
- Player actions and GM decisions both quantified in terms of "moves", with defined rolls for each player action. GM moves are taken in "soft" and "hard" modes, depending on whether or not they demand immediate action by the PCs or threaten its need in the future.
- Character generation based on "playbooks" which provide stat options, equipment, and selections of custom moves.
- Explicit "agendas" listing improvisational goals for the GM.
It is important to remember that the original Apocalypse World is extremely well and carefully written, while many other PbtA systems are less well designed and introduce problems into the system that are not present in the original. For example, a common issue arises where a playbook move gives a PC rules for a mundane action, making it unclear if PCs with other playbooks are somehow unable to take that action; this never arises in the original, where all playbook moves either give abilities that are clearly exceptional or supernatural, or clearly provide bonuses or enhanced benefits from mundane actions.
The Forged in the Dark system is sometimes described as a PbtA variant, but the rules differ significantly except in the structure of GM advice.
