D. Vincent Baker’s 2010 RPG, Apocalypse World, has been hugely influential. Not only was it a successful RPG in its own right, but the underlying engine has spawned a huge number of new games. Back in 2019, I took a look at some of these games. Namely, I looked at:
- Dungeon World
- Legacy: Life Among the Ruins
- The Sprawl
- Monsterhearts
Of course, since posting this article, there have been a ton of other games released using the same engine, proudly bearing the label of ‘powered by the apocalypse’.
If I were to do a follow-up article covering more PbtA games, I think I’d probably look at titles such as:
- Masks (superhero-themed roleplay)
- Monster of the Week (action-horror roleplay)
- Thirsty Sword Lesbians (queer melodrama)
- Urban Shadows (World of Darkness-esque urban fantasy politics)
- City of Mist (neo-noir detective roleplay)
There are likely a huge number of other fantastic PbtA games, but these are the ones that have really grabbed my attention.
No Rerolls 
As an old RPG gamer grognard, I am a late convert to how well PbtA games work in practice. The playbook concept works really well when you want to lean heavily into a specific genre style. I have really enjoyed running MASKS and am planning a Halloween one shot of Bluebeard’s Bride next week. Future plans include running Ironsworn or Starforged. I’m still fond of more old school games like Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay and Traveller, but there are lots of good ideas in the PbtA core concept which can be mined.
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Yeah, I love Traveller as well. There are lots of games where there are bits that just work really well. For PbtA it’s the workbooks. For FATE, I really like the aspects.
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FATE Aspects are great – you do need to encourage people to pick double edged ones to make things interesting. I had a lot fun running Fate of Cthulhu and have just finished playing in FATE StarTrek.
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Dresden Files was my best FATE experience.
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