this post was submitted on 23 Jul 2023
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idc what anyone says, Blades in the Dark is not a PbtA game. It has like 2 things in common with PbtA systems
Also PbtA systems are great for a story focused games, but they're not exactly tactical and characters tend to be a little static. They focus on story pretty much to the exclusion of everything else. If you want story though go for it, they're great. I prefer more of a balance personally.
Worlds Without Number focuses on sandbox play and strikes a nice balance with story and combat. Stars Without Number is basically the Sci-fi version. Both are free with premium versions that have a bit of nice optional content, like more powerful options for heroic characters and Star Wars style space magic
I hate to be pedantic (this is a lie), but I'm pretty sure Worlds Without Number is actually the fantasy version of Stars Without Number, since Stars came out first. This doesn't change your point (also I agree with you) and I'm really not sure that this information is helpful in any way, but here we are.
I know Stars Without Number came first, but I figured that with the context of fantasy games Worlds Without Number made sense to talk about first. Once I brought up Worlds Without Number I felt that Stars Without Number should be mentioned too
Except BitD is an Apocalypse World hack, albeit a more thorough one. John Harper even calls it a PbtA game. I hate to link to stupid bird site, but he says it himself.
And personally, I can see how BitD contains a huge amout of PbtA DNA.
But I dunno, I guess you said you don't care what anyone says...