remind me to do a write up on why i dont really like pbta games or playbooks in ttrpgs i remembered just now but i might forget later.
ok i ate dinner and remembered.
so i'll preface all this with i have played pbta games before, i've played games with playbooks before. it is perfectly fine to enjoy these types of games and play them, i just don't really like them.
the big umbrella beef i have with with pbta games and games that heavily rely on playbooks is that your character's arc and progression is basically planned out from the beginning. pbta games are really easy to pick up because you have an archetypal character to work with out the gate, but they feel utterly stifling to someone like me where i approach character creation from a concept first and then find the mechanics that suit the idea i have.
i am also the type of person that i need to play a character in order to understand them and the kind of person they are. every longer term ttrpg character i've played have only gotten better with time and the decisions i've made about characters at the start of the game have changed or developed because they as a character have changed and developed through interacting with the narrative. playbooks feel too solid out of the gate that they don't leave much room for your character to be able to pivot as their own narrative takes hold their motivation shifts. some people might be happy with the guide but i am of the belief that if your character enters a ttrpg narrative and exits it having the same ideals at the end then in my opinion that's not a really good ttrpg narrative.
i've seen pbta games that have accommodations for switching playbooks, and some feel more successful in than others, but in the end it still feels like trading around abilities and powers rather than a character growing and becoming something new through the progression of the story. it's all still trying to follow archetypes and examples and throughlines. i want to become more, i want to become different, i want to be unique!!!!
the "moves" mechanic are probably things that work the most for me in pbta, and for people that are trying to get familiar with ttrpgs in general or games in general this is a really good way to help people understand stuff. however, keeping track of all the moves as both a player and gm always just feel like a headache for me.
like all of these things are just fundamentally my preference as a person. i just really like well developed or considered progression systems in ttrpgs and they're some of the hardest things to design for, but literally any amount of consideration is better than not. in the ptba games i've seen and played they never feel like they consider the potential of a character as like... a multi-dimensional and complex person/creature/entity that is facing down difficult odds. there's sometimes parts of characters that don't come out until facing certain situations or resolving certain parts of the stories.
that's the trade off though, you sacrifice ease and completeness for the complexity of character and their machinations. it might be more difficult to get a foot hold in the latter in a more free form system, but i will still ultimately prefer it at the end of the day.
so yeah. that's my whole beef with pbta and playbooks.
also, i want to roll more dice than just 2d6 all da time. i wanna roll all my pretty rocks.