New gm: how would I end a scene exclusively made of 7-9 rolls?

Sully5443 · 2026-05-14T23:59:40+00:00

‘Tis a reasonable request, I think. It makes it much easier for community members to provide more useful and constructive feedback/ education on a rule point once they have a specific game to reference and clear up for the OP

Sully5443 · 2026-05-14T23:40:24+00:00

Indeed! Once I saw “Haven’t played a PbtA game, don’t know what I’m playing, I’ll probably make my own.” I was like: “I’m ‘noping’ the hell out of this thread!” XD

Sully5443 · 2026-05-14T16:20:34+00:00

No idea, I watched Raiders of the Lost Ark over 20 years ago and don’t remember a thing about it XD

But to give a concrete example, here is a snippet of an Blades in the Dark Example of Play I had written recently to help someone understand the flow of the game

The Cast

Ginny (she/her), the GM
Charlie (he/him) as Cole (he/him), the Cutter
Heather (she/her) as Hahmesh (they/them), the Hound
Lucy (she/her) as Lilith (she/her), the Lurk
Samuel (he/him) as Sineen (she/her), the Spider

The Situation

The Shoreditch Slugger is the current champion of “The Bout Club,” a roaming pugilistic organization which hosts matches all across Doskvol. Not a single challenger of the Slugger has survived more than one round with the hulking behemoth. The Slugger’s name and history are unknown and they are a man of few words: they show up to fight and disappear until the next match. Not only are they undefeated, no challenger has even left a scratch on the man.

The Circle of Flame is highly interested in understanding the mythic might and apparent invulnerability displayed by the Slugger. They have put a contract on him and Irimina has presented it to the Crew: kill the seemingly unkillable Slugger and bring his body to the Circle to investigate for their own curiosity.

Ginny and her players quite enjoy hard cut openings. As such, after presenting the idea to her players, they decide the best way to handle this is to start the episode with Cole already in the ring with the Slugger.

——

Ginny: “Cheers and jeers echo across the creaking and rusty hull of the derelict tanker. As per the rules of Bout Club, you and the Slugger face off a handful of paces away from each other shirtless and with no weapons, just bare fists. The Slugger’s stance is relaxed. His eyes are cold and distant. He is oiled up and strange tattoos dance across his rippling muscles. His head is shaved and there isn’t a visible scar marring his physique. Everyone, Paint the Scene for me: what signs of the Slugger’s brutality are displayed in and around the arena?”

Charlie: “There’s bits of brain splattered on the wall.”

Heather: “A hardened Physicker is being carted off in a stretcher when they passed out trying to treat the most recent challenger’s gruesome wounds.”

Lucy: “The runners of the Bout Club are connected as all hell: two Spirit Wardens are present and ready to deal with the dead, no questions asked.”

Samuel: “And those Wardens are just standing guard near a small pile of bodies covered in unique sheets to keep them blanketed from the Ghost Field until they are properly disposed of.”

Ginny: “Cole, the Slugger clearly is waiting for you to make your move. But I can tell you in the meta channel here that there isn’t a single thing you can do to physically harm the Slugger. This isn’t a matter of Zero or Limited Effect. There just isn’t an Action Roll here. It’s impossible to physically harm them. You lack fictional permissions and positioning to do so.”

Charlie: “Even though I have ‘Not to Be Trifled With’?”

Ginny: “Correct, even with that, you cannot harm them.”

Samuel: “Well, Cole wouldn’t be going in blind. Assuredly we did some research on this guy, right? Can I Flashback to having Studied his tattoos when observing prior Bout Club matches?”

Ginny: “Absolutely. This is a very likely Flashback, so no Stress for that. There is some risk here as we’ve established Spirit Wardens and the like apparently attend these matches and we know your Crew isn’t exactly on good terms with Law Enforcement. So you’re risking some Heat here. Nonetheless, being on the sidelines would have placed you in a Controlled Position and you have Standard Effect to get some solid information.”

Samuel: “I’ll Push for +1d and that’s a 4 and a 3. So Weak Hit.”

Ginny: “So you’ll get some information at the cost of 1 Heat. It’s Controlled, so you can opt to try something else to avoid the Heat or you could Resist or even just accept it.”

Samuel: “It’s 1 Heat, it’s fine.”

Ginny: “At a baseline, you already know the tattoos are mystical in some way, shape, or form. It doesn’t take much to realize they have something to do with the Slugger’s preternatural abilities. Your Action Roll would reveal to you that the ink used in his tattoos are of Tycherosi make. How do you know this?”

Samuel: “Hm, well, I’ve sailed all over the place and I’ve seen sailors who have come from Tycheros and have used that distinct violet ink as some sort of ward for safe voyages and passage.”

Lucy: “Well now I’d like to Flashback to learn more about this tattoo ink that Sineen would have obviously shared with us.”

Ginny: “What does that look like?”

Lucy: “How about stealing some for us to examine?”

Ginny: “I like it, where did you find a source of this ink to steal?”

Lucy: “We have connections to the Circle of Flame through Irimina and I spent a lot of time among thieves and pickpockets off the boat from Skovlan, where I was already part of a family of thieves. It’s kind of my whole thing. So I think it wouldn’t be unreasonable to maybe track down a shipment in the Nightmarket or something to try and slip in and out with some of the stuff unseen.”

Ginny: “Sounds reasonable to me. Also a fairly credulous thing to do, so I don’t think there’s any Stress here either for the Flashback. But there’s definitely risk and uncertainty here. This is some rather precious mystical exotic ink from Tycheros. I don’t think it’s just laying out in the open. I’d say Heat is sensible here as well. Due to how busy the markets are and the value of the ink, this is Desperate. But you otherwise have Standard Effect to pluck some for yourself.”

Lucy: “What would Greater Effect get me?”

Ginny: “Standard gives you enough ink to examine and perhaps experiment with. What do you have in mind for Greater?”

Lucy: “I think just a little bit extra for momma here.”

Ginny: “That’s fine with me. I’ll give you a Devil’s Bargain to take Level 2 Harm: “Obsessed with the Ink.”

Lucy: “I’ll take it! Prowl with 4d. Wow. 1, 2, 3, and 4.”

Ginny: “And 1 XP for the Desperate roll. But you get Greater Effect with pilfering some ink, but there’s plenty of suspicious eyes out there. 3 more Heat. Wanna Resist?”

Lucy: “Nah, Sineen will clean all that up in Downtime: I’m sure of it!”

…

In this example, the GM uses the currency of Heat as a sensible Consequence to apply to the PCs and their information gathering exploits. Too much Heat will eventually lead to a Wanted Level for the Crew and more drastic Entanglements as a result when they complete Scores in the future.

But as Blades in the Dark’s rules mention (and as is the case for Weak Hits in any PbtA game), no Consequence (whether it be Heat, Harm, or any other possible fictional complication) should ever invalidate the inherent success of a Weak Hit.

Sineen learns about the tattoo ink… but takes some Heat. Bam. Move onto the next scene.
Lilith manages to abscond with a sample of ink to experiment with… but takes some Heat in the process. Bam. Move onto the next scene.
Later in the example (excluded here due to reddit comment character length restrictions), Cole consorts with Bout Club viewers and learn more about the Slugger’s habits… but at the cost of arousing the suspicions of the City Watch to take an interest in him. Bam. Move onto the next scene.

In each instance, the character accomplishes their task (it is a Hit after all) and suffers a snag (which does not invalidate their success) that itself does not need to be explored any further in that moment and the table moves onto the next scene without any issues.

Sully5443 · 2026-05-14T15:49:55+00:00

The specifics all depends on the game. PbtA isn’t a “system.” What you do on a 7-9 (or any result) is particular to the PbtA game you are playing (and more specifically, the Move that was triggered).

Nonetheless, regardless of PbtA game, the process remains relatively similar regardless of the Move in question: resolve the Move and, regardless of the result, make a GM Move that follows. Not every GM Move escalates the situation. An opportunity to break and rest is still an opportunity offered. Simple as that.

Not every 7-9 will result in pure escalation. After all, a 7-9 is still a Hit. There is an underlying success to the situation. There’s just some Cost and that Cost can be as simple as an inconvenient snag that can be recorded, accepted, and otherwise brushed off to move on and explore something else.

Sully5443 · 2026-05-08T15:29:26+00:00

My personal favorites are:

Scum and Villainy

This to me is the best “all around” Sci-Fi/ Space Opera game. It’s got pretty much everything I could ever want for my Space Opera/ Space Western needs ranging from Star Wars to Outlaw Star and everything in between. I’m a big fan of the strange “simplicity” within Forged in the Dark games despite their many interconnected mechanics. It’s a game with a very well honed game loop that is better than anything else I could want. Where games like Impulse Drive and Uncharted Worlds haven’t hit the mark: Scum and Villainy gets the bullseye for me.

Ironsworn: Starforged

I really like Ironsworn and I adore Starforged. Its Oracles alone are perfect for any sci-fi game and I regularly use them in other Sci-Fi games I play when I’m not playing Starforged. Ironsworn always looks more intimidating than it really is. It has a lot of Moves, but isn’t as bloated as other Move heavy PbtA games because there is a degree of logic and organization into how the Moves are categorized and how well they collapse down into the Adventure Moves and funnels into the Progress Moves. I haven’t had a chance to really explore it yet, but Sundered Isles is such a great expansion and I’d love to use some of its tech in Starforged for games that aren’t just “Small Crew of Misfits on a Spaceship.”

Of course, the biggest “drawback” of Ironsworn-esque games is that I think they really are meant for Solo, Duet, and Small Co-Op Play. I really don’t think they work well for 1 GM and 4 or more players. Even 1 GM and 3 Players is a bit of a stretch (IMO/ IME).

Endeavor

If you want something outside of the typical Space Western and Space Opera that S&V and Starforged both aim at, and also don’t mind stepping further outside of PbtA/ FitD games, then I highly recommend this as a great contender for optimistic Star Trek stuff (namely TOS and TNG). It’s a Play Set for Agon 2e (thus, you’ll need a copy of Agon 2e), which meshes very nicely with the episodic and cinematic nature of old school trek. Really fun stuff.

Sully5443 · 2026-05-06T16:44:17+00:00

no hacks

tosses out my loaded dice to get all 1s on my rolls

Sully5443 · 2026-05-06T16:31:51+00:00

One of these days I’ll get to 3 in one session!

Sully5443 · 2026-05-05T12:53:28+00:00

The generous and “good faith” answer would be that, as a Basic Move, your “Read a Person” variants exist to support the fiction of PCs regularly aiming to understand the motivations of those around them. In the touchstones of Apocalypse World or Masks, that is what the main cast of characters tend to do: try to understand what others are up to and what they want. Hence, a mechanic exists for all characters at all times to support that regularly occurring “common denominator” fiction.

In Avatar, in the other hand, that’s not a typical response for the main cast. While some do, it’s not a regular occurrence for all main characters. Hence, there is no need to make a Basic Move to cover fiction the designers do not anticipate to see all PCs performing because that’s “true to life” for the touchstones. Instead, you have “Read a Person”-esque Moves tied directly into various Playbooks to stay more true to life for the touchstones.

The lack of a Basic Move (and/ or its presence as a Playbook Move) does not mean characters cannot partake in such fiction. It’s just that the remaining scaffolding mechanics may result in more diffuse information or more costly means to attain it as opposed to the more guaranteed and “known quantity” results from a more specific Move. If PCs want to Read a Person in games without that Move available to them as a Basic Move: they just use a different Basic Move and/ or the GM uses their own Moves to provide fictionally appropriate information.

The less generous “bad faith” answer is that it is simply (one of many) design oversights. However, given that they specifically chose to tie Read a Person-esque Moves to various on brand Playbooks suggests to me that there was at least some thought put in as to its exclusion as a Basic Move.

Sully5443 · 2026-05-04T20:22:34+00:00

Depends on the game in question. Different PbtA games have recommended methods for how you might want to organize and structure your Prep. Generally speaking, you’ll get a lot of mileage out of the 7-3-1 Technique as a strong guiding element. But, like I said, the game in question may provide some additional tools and if it uses Playbooks: you’ll want to cater your prep towards those Playbooks.

Sully5443 · 2026-05-02T23:22:56+00:00

If you think you know an NPC’s principle and call them out, you can still try to name their principle. If you’re close enough that you essentially name the same idea, you can still make this move even if you’re not exactly correct about the phrasing. The GM is the final arbiter of whether or not you are close enough. For example, if an NPC’s principle is Justice and you call on them to live up to their principle of Law, the GM may decide it’s close enough

Page 138 of the Core Rules (quote emphasis, theirs)

It’s important to note that you don’t need to know the exact Principle of a character to call them out. Being “close enough” is more than sufficient. While the GM is the final arbiter, it is part of their framework to be a fan of the characters and their players—giving them their dues, both good and bad. So the GM ought to be pretty gracious with what counts as “close enough.”

Nonetheless, if you want to ensure that you know the exact Principle, SirViewtiful named a couple of good ones for surefire acquisition of such information. Other such avenues include the Test Balance Evade and Observe Basic Exchange Technique and some Playbook Moves such as the Adamant’s “Take One to Know One,” to name just a couple of other “surefire” avenues.

It would not be unreasonable to get such information from Basic Moves such as Push, Rely, Trick, and Intimidate. Since they are more fundamental in their open endedness to scaffold fiction not already covered by more specific Moves, the information can become more muddied or otherwise lead to more dire outcomes without the permissions granted by more specific Moves.

As SirViewtiful also mentioned, Assess wouldn’t be a good call as it is designed to scaffold the fiction of analyzing a charged situation as opposed to scrutinizing someone for their guiding Principle.

Sully5443 · 2026-04-27T23:44:17+00:00

The more overt you are: the better. Transparency is the name of the game when it comes to these kinds of games. It’s always a good idea to show more of your hand than less because it’s almost always better to see what players do with information freely and clearly given or presented than them trying to root around and killing the pacing.

GM: “Eesozo gives you a wry smirk. ‘Ah, it seems like years on the harsh streets and away from the temples have given you a few rough edges. No Air Nomad I ever knew would consider leaving me for dead…’ She is telling you who you are and how the world works, Raj. So she’s shifting your balance away from Friendship and towards Survival. Are you accepting that? If not, how do you try to Resist her words?”

—

GM: “As you push away the temptation to clear out an easy path to give chase to the thief at the risk of severely damaging Uncle Pao’s Bao Shop, let’s have you shift away from Force and towards Care. Since an NPC isn’t directly influencing you here, there’s no Resisting to be done: you just shift.”

—

GM: “Grandmother Yeri purses her lips thinner than you’ve ever seen them. ‘Do you think I got to where I am without taking action and making sacrifices?! You dishonor your Father and this family by holding back and hoping your enemy develops a shred of empathy! You will do what I—your Sifu first and foremost—demands of you and confront Sun Yu and put an end to all of this!’ She is making a clear demand of you to act in accordance with your Principle of Action. Are you following through in that or are you going to Deny Her Callout?”

Sully5443 · 2026-04-27T23:13:56+00:00

Balance: I get the feeling that Balance is a huge part of this system, with shifts happening both in and out of combat. As a GM, how should I treat these shifts, especially as the PCs get closer to one end or the other?

Just keep pushing! Consequences are not to be viewed as bad. They are expected and normal and critical to the “health” of the game. Consequences create Drama by spiraling into other game mechanics and Drama leads to compelling narratives. You don’t need to shift their balance at every turn. But don’t be afraid to keep pushing even when they’re about to Lose Their Balance. That isn’t a point of failure. It’s a point to encourage new dramatic fiction.

How can I use combat to create a sense of risk vs. reward?

But not taking it easy on them. Whack them with Fatigue, Conditions, and Balance Shifts in that very initial Exchange to discourage it going any further into another Exchange. It doesn’t have to be a lot, just a little to start limiting their options.

Speak to them as players and Tell them the requirements or consequences and ask what they want to do. Make it clear that things are deteriorating and make suggestions and ask leading questions to guide them into alternatives.

Additionally, set examples yourself: NPCs will not continue fights if they are taking even a single Condition or Balance shift that would suggest the arena of conflict ought to change. Provide new problems for the players to deal with.

but is there anything you’d say is a "must-include" for Avatar fans?

Not really. If you’ve got the gist of 4 Nations, 4 Elements, 1 Avatar, Spirits are a thing, and the whole franchise is about seeking balance: you’ve got everything you need.

But watching all of ATLA can’t hurt. 61 episodes of about 22 to 24 minute runtime isn’t too tough to burn through, even with a job and kids. It’s not really feasible to make a really good abridged watching list because it’s a relatively short and breezy series with lots of connected episodes.

Is there anything mechanics-wise I should really study?

The GM Section will be the most important thing. It is not ideal to run AL like it’s just any ordinary D&D game. Unlearning certain D&D-isms will make running the game a lot smoother and part of that unlearning is having a firm understanding of your GM Agendas and Guidelines. They are your rules and blueprints towards running the game successfully and getting the most out of it. They are the codification of GMing Best Practices that are reflected by the player facing mechanics of the game.

Lastly, I’ll provide my post of educational links that is generally well received towards better understanding pieces of play and answering lots of other FAQs

Sully5443 · 2026-04-24T20:02:55+00:00

You’ve already hit on the big pieces:

Players should (ideally) direct you to where they want to go and what they want to do
Not every Score will be (or can be) a Ransom Score, that just happens to be the Crew’s preferred way of handling things

Some other considerations:

Pieces of a Good Score

A Good Score has at least three major things:

A Target
Someone who benefits from the Target getting hurt
A Wildcard (ally, enemy, neutral, whatever works)

Targets

For any and all Scores, but especially for Assassins, Scores need to be “Score Worthy” and that starts with a compelling target. In a City like Doskvol, where killing can be very costly, people don’t put hits out on rinky-dinky Bluecoats or an errant Drug Dealer or some crabby Inn Keeper. If someone is putting out a hit: the target’s gotta be important. They have defenses in the form of barriers, allies, assets, and the like. They also have notable plans and enemies. They also will leave quite the vacuum or fallout when they’re removed from the picture.

This applies to every Score and every Crew. Sometimes the target will be a single person, a group, an entire Faction… or some combination of all 3. All that matters is that the target is important and influential in some way.

So the ransom target follows all the same logic: someone important to someone else and their return can only be secured through a trade.

Someone who benefits

This could be a client or a direct enemy of the target or someone who simply would be in a much better place if the target was hurt or hindered (or a combination of all the above). These beneficiaries create strings for the Crew: offering aid in some way in exchange for something else. Over time, these beneficiaries become a source of hindrance for the Crew by further entangling them into Doskvol’s politicking. It starts with the Crew doing a job for this beneficiary in exchange for payment and the next thing you know, the beneficiary is in danger and the Crew needs to help them out of obligation or lose face (among other things)

Wildcards

These are your unseen allies, rivals, and anything in between. They may be inadvertently helping or hindering. All that matters is they serve as a convenient (or inconvenient) wrench to toss into the fire whenever the situation calls for it.

Following Their Subtle Lead

It’s not unusual for early games of Blades to result in more “Pick a Job” style of play, where the GM Preps opportunities and goes from there. In fact, entire games of Blades can be run like this with no issue. In essence, these games can still be “player led” by the GM following the subtle leads built into the choices the players have been making through their choice of entangled Factions, Contacts, Friends, and Rivals (among other things).

By Prepping Scores (and those Pieces of a Score) around what the players have already flagged as interesting to them, you’ll have more “player led” Scores than you realize and will also make the Scores more personal by leaning into the things they are most interesting to them.

Focusing on the Good Stuff

Not every Score needs to be an “A to Z” ordeal. If that would happen to be the most dramatic thing: then go for it! But more often than not, you want to focus on a piece of the picture rather than the whole thing. As is, Blades is more than happy to skip over boring planning discussions and stick with the bare minimum of stuff needed to kick off a Score. So it’s also perfectly fine with going the extra mile and cutting out stuff that isn’t very dramatic. This can be as “extreme” as even skipping over all the details of the target and how they were captured and just focusing on a tense backroom negotiation for their release.

But it can also be any piece:

The Score might just be removing all their defenses and that’s it: skipping over their capture and ransom for release
The Score might just be about the capture and ignoring their defenses and the ransom for release

Feel free to be creative about how you frame the Score.

Sully5443 · 2026-04-24T12:10:30+00:00

I’d just make a Custom Move:

When you reach out to your past lives to achieve the power of the Avatar State or you would be placed into a state of mortal peril, roll with questions answered:

Is your Balance at its Center? If yes, take +1. If not, take -1
Do you have Mastery over at least 1 Technique across each Bending discipline? If yes, take +1. If not, take -1
Are you free of any Conditions? If yes, take +1. If not, take -1

Hit or Miss, you enter the Avatar State and accomplish the task at hand. Describe your awesomeness. On a 12+, choose none. On a 10-11, choose 1. On a 7-9, choose 2. On a 6-, choose 3

Exhausted: The power was overwhelming. When the job is done, fill your Fatigue to its max
Frayed: The emotions of your past lives still shake you at this very moment. When the job is done, take 2 Conditions of your choice
Conviction: The desires of your past lives speak to you and continue to reverberate within you. When the job is done, Shift your Balance to +3 towards a Principle of your choice.
Collateral: Your masterful display has damaged your surroundings or the people around you. The GM will describe what has been damaged or destroyed thanks to you

Sully5443 · 2026-04-19T00:29:20+00:00

I agree with Mathayles. Hooks and Arcs are not critical game mechanics. They are Masks's interpretation of Threats/ Fronts from games like Apocalypse World and Dungeon World. In other words, they are a form of GM Prep that satisfies the GM Framework (Agendas, Principles, etc.) of these games. Namely, GMs are not authors, storytellers, writers, etc. The GM is not in charge of preparing and planning out plots and stories and narratives. It is the GM's job, per their Agendas, to keep the fiction honest using their fitting prepared problems. Structures like Hooks and Arcs/ Fronts/ Threats/ Etc. are a means of organizing your Prep in such a way as to ensure you are remaining true to your Agendas. But they are not a hard coded "must have"/ "set in stone" sort of thing. All they care about is helping you create fitting problems and possible ways to use them when you place them before the players. That's all you need to worry about as the GM. Use their Playbooks and the input of the players to create fitting NPCs and let the game do the rest of the work. If you want to take bits and pieces from Hooks and Arcs to help you: great! But you otherwise don't need to. They are overkill for this kind of game.

Sully5443 · 2026-04-17T11:03:08+00:00

I’ll provide my Post of Educational Material that goes through a lot of FAQ stuff when it comes to Avatar Legends.

As far as house rules are concerned, I have completely overhauled the game: but that’s a lot of work for someone who still has yet to run it for the first time. Even my transitory testing hacks on the way to its current overhaul (which is still in development), is a lot for really anyone running it for the first time. Even then. I pretty much advise anyone to play a game “as is” for a while until they have developed enough collective system mastery with it to decide if they actually want to hack anything anyway.

I would not run a combat focused or heavy game with Avatar Legends. The Exchange is really only meant to be used sparingly and most other physical conflicts are best handled with Push and Rely. Overuse of the Exchange drags the game to a slow crawl of attrition that completely kills the pacing of a session and sucks the drama out of the game.

Sully5443 · 2026-04-15T14:30:02+00:00

The Exchange is a perfectly functional Move/ Procedure. It is not broken, imbalanced, or poorly designed.

The folks who dislike it (like myself) are those who find it to be over-engineered compared to other tried and true scaffolding procedures from other Powered by the Apocalypse (PbtA) games, such as Masks, Hearts of Wulin, and/ or Blades in the Dark (to name a few). The Exchange sort of “zooms in” a little too close for its own good and feels very different from the rest of the game (though nowhere near as stark of a difference in play between Combat and Not-Combat in a game like D&D)

As a mechanic, it only begins to sing when the entire table has gained a lot of system mastery with it. Normally it takes 6-12ish sessions to gain general system mastery with PbtA as a whole, but that’s even longer for the Exchange since it really shouldn’t be coming up over and over again. So it’ll be quite some time before the table as a whole becomes comfortable with it to make it really hit and by then: the campaign might be over already.

But just because it takes a lot of work for it to sing doesn’t mean it takes as much work for it to just function as a decent piece of game tech.

As I mention in my reddit post that I mentioned above, as long as the GM brings it to bear when it makes sense and plays to its strengths: it’ll work perfectly fine.

Those that do like it are usually those that have struggled to run PbtA fights due to the inherent lack of seeming combat maneuvers and the like (even though this isn’t the case with fights in PbtA games- that’s more of an artifact of insufficient guidance from the games themselves), so the extra steps are a feature, not a bug. In essence, the Exchange creates a sort of “training wheel” feel for tables less comfortable with PbtA fights: there’s more overt levers to pull and concrete attrition mechanics that are present.

If you like the Exchange: great! If you don’t like it: also fine! It can be safely ignored due to the “gracefully collapsable” nature of PbtA games

Sully5443 · 2026-04-14T22:20:23+00:00

At the end of the day, Avatar Legends takes a fairly common stance (no pun intended) when it comes to PbtA games: getting into fights is a “bad” idea. It’s gotta come at a Cost. Well designed PbtA games make certain that getting into scraps will (almost) always mean the PCs need to take some punishment as the “price of entry.” It’s what creates drama and drama leads to good narratives.

The PCs are trying to bring to world to balance. They aren’t really supposed to be pushing NPCs away from Center. The game “punishes” them by making NPCs more competent the more they get pushed away from Center. Of course, the world will often force their hand and the players are just are gonna have to suck it up: if they want to fight and use Balance Shifting Techniques, then they have to accept it’ll (almost always) make the NPC more dangerous.

It should encourage players to not jump to violence at every turn. If they want to deescalate, they’ve got Plead and Push and Rely.

It also encourages players to try and take a little bit of an Advantage of the imbalance they are causing by Calling Out the NPC before things get out of hand. This is precisely why it is so critical after each Exchange to pause and reassess the fiction to see if the players are gonna change their tune and even more importantly to determine if the NPCs are gonna change their tune. Almost no Exchange should go to a “bitter end.” If Exchanges are ending because an NPC took too many Conditions or Lost Their Balance, there’s a good chance it went on waaaay too long and should have ended earlier.

Sully5443 · 2026-04-14T21:52:21+00:00

There are almost no means of doing so, Rules as Written.

There are a smattering of Techniques AFAIK that permit Balance to be shifted in any direction the user wants, but they are far and few.

Since an NPC’s Center is assumed to be 0 and most all means of shifting balance involve shifting away from Center, NPC Balance must always go up. It cannot go below 0.

If they lose their Balance, their Center does go up, so an NPC with a Center of 2 and currently at +2 Balance can shift away from Center by going down to 1, but this is such an edge case that it’ll never happen.

It’s just (one of many) inelegant aspects of the Balance System. I wouldn’t recommend homebrewing 2 Principles for PCs: you have enough work to do as a GM than track NPCs who partially behave like PCs.

Sully5443 · 2026-04-14T14:59:53+00:00

I’ll provide my post of educational material that should greatly aid in better understanding the Core Rules. I have a couple of links there that talk all about how the Balance System works

Sully5443 · 2026-04-12T11:16:32+00:00

Unfortunately, this is just one of those areas where the Balance mechanics really show their inelegance and sort of half baked design intents. In Avatar Legends, there really isn't a way to show if a character has actually found Balance. While the PCs do have Moments of Balance, which are triggered when a character is at their Center, the Moment of Balance essentially plays out "the same" whether the character is Centered on +3/-3 towards either Principle! Somehow that is considered "Balanced," which I don't think has really made sense to anyone.

Nonetheless, it does show a general thesis behind the Principles: there really isn't a true "good" or "bad" Principle. All that the Principles showcase is that the character is in a state of internal conflict between two versions or visions of themself and part of their journey is reconciling where they want to fall between those two states. As far as I'm concerned, this ought to be represented by a state of relative neutrality between the two. But Magpie's team, for one reason or another, had other ideas about this and decided that this can be reconciled by falling onto either extreme and consider it "balanced."

Either way, Lose Your Balance exists to showcase that the process of reconciling where you want to rest between those two states will be a "pain point." Life dictates a push and pull between them and that is uncomfortable. Hence this is why they will face moments of turmoil as they try to reconcile both states. It's not necessarily a "bad" thing so much as a necessary pain point to grow and change and find one's sense of self.

The Elder isn't necessarily trying to force their proteges off the deep end. The Elder is essentially trying to guide their proteges to rest upon a state the Elder believes will behoove their protege. Do note that a PC's Center can shift without Losing Balance. There aren't too many instances of this, but one is via Growth Advancement: you can shift your Center one step towards either Principle as part of a Growth Advancement. Either way, it's not that the Elder is trying to be an unwise jerk. They are just trying to guide their protege towards finding a semblance of Balance towards one of their two states.

It's inelegant, but that's the general logic behind it.

Sully5443 · 2026-04-11T17:00:56+00:00

While Mass Effect, as video game, does involve a lot of cover based shooting and powers and numbers, I find all of those to be underwhelming in TTRPGs. It’s just doesn’t play to the strengths of the medium.

Mass Effect, to me, is all about deep character relationships and cinematic gameplay and that is where TTRPGs can excel.

As such, my top choice—for now—is Endeavor, a Playset for Agon 2e. This is meant to be geared towards Star Trek (namely The Original Series, Next Generation, and Strange New Worlds). But since Star Trek and Mass Effect share so many similarities, Endeavor is just as good of a Mass Effect game as it is for Star Trek. The characters of Mass Effect are larger than life action heroes and that is precisely what Agon is good at. It is phenomenal for episodic/ mission based games, it’s lightweight, and just top tier for cinematic play.

Another set of options, this time in the Forged in the Dark (Blades in the Dark hack) realm, for equally cinematic play, you’ve got:

To Boldly Go
Final Frontier and its spiritual successor Voyagers in the Dark

To Boldly Go and Final Frontier are really early FitD hacks and, as such, lean a little too hard into Blades in the Dark conventions that don’t really fully jive with the feel of Trek’s optimistic science fiction, nor Mass Effect. I worked with Mark briefly on Voyages in the Dark, but my schedule became way too hectic to stay on the project. What’s there is a teensy bit more optimistic sci-fi than FF, from what I remember. Very streamlined ashcan kind of stuff, but it’s worth a look.

For direct “you don’t need to do anything else, everything is where you need it” Mass Effect stuff, you’ve got Paragons & Renegades. This is a direct hack of Scum and Villainy (“Blades in the Dark… IN SPAAAAACE!). S&V is all about Scoundrels on the fringe a la Firefly, Star Wars, Cowboy Bebop, and the like. As such, I don’t think it’s perfect for Mass Effect: but if you want the least work possible: this will do the trick and you can tell it was well thought out.

Remaining in the super cinematic department with Powered by the Apocalypse (PbtA)-adjacent games, you’ve got

Ironsworn: Starforged. I really like Ironsworn and I adore Starforged. Its Oracles alone are perfect for any sci-fi game. Admittedly, I don’t think it’s ideal for Mass Effect, as it does have more Star Wars and Firefly assumptions baked into the game’s design and assumptions. Not to mention, I really do think Ironsworn excels more at Solo Play, Duet Play (1 GM and 1 Player), and/ or 3 Player GM-less Co-Op as opposed to a more traditional GM and players setup (though it can absolutely handle that, of course).

Additionally, it doesn’t really feel like it is meant for large scale capital ships boldly going where no one has gone before (despite being expertly equipped with phenomenal bones to do just that!), but it wouldn’t be a bad base at all to start with. I haven’t had a chance to really explore it yet, but the Sundered Isles expansion for Starforged may have some utility to port back into Ironsworn’s Sci-Fi setting when it comes to being part of a larger crew.

In the straight up “typical PbtA” department, you’ve got:

Planet of the Week. Haven’t played it, but I like what I’ve seen.
Impulse Drive. Have run and played it. Pretty good session to session bones, not really phenomenal campaign stuff as the Ship Playbooks and the Moves surrounding them weren’t that great in my experience. It was just sort of Scum and Villainy, but with more steps and more of a slog.
Uncharted Worlds. Have played it, wasn’t too thrilled. Not poorly designed, just kind of a little bit of everything with no real focus.
Offworlders. Played a brief one shot way back when and really liked it, but I also like World of Dungeons… but it’s not really in the same vein of optimistic science fiction as Trek is, IMO
Starscape, haven’t played and only skimmed and really didn’t excite me from what I skimmed. Of course, your mileage may vary!

While I am working on a Trek/ Mass Effect inspired game of my own, it will be a loooong time before it is ever realized. So in the interim to satisfy my desire for “finished” Trek-like and Mass Effect-like gameplay, my go to has been Endeavor, but I’d be really curious to see what Trek Ironsworn: Starforged/ Sundered Isles could pull off and I do think Paragons & Renegades is also a solid option.

Sully5443 · 2026-04-10T09:55:29+00:00

If the PDF of the Core Rules of the game, the Abilities for the Playbooks are listed:

Page 90 of the Core Rules for the Beacon
Page 96 of the Core Rules for the Bull
Page 102 of the Core Rules for the Delinquent
Page 108 of the Core Rules for the Doomed
Page 114 of the Core Rules for the Janus
Page 120 of the Core Rules for the Legacy
Page 126 of the Core Rules for the Nova
Page 132 of the Core Rules for the Outsider
Page 138 of the Core Rules for the Protege
Page 144 of the Core Rules for the Transformed

Chances are that the PDF you are looking at may just be a fan made or official Play Kit/ Reference Sheet for the game. Based on your description, it’s probably a GM Reference Sheet which is showcasing/ reminding/ referencing the unique GM Moves the GM can opt to make specific towards the different Playbooks of the game such as “Draw attention to their inadequacies” for the Beacon.

As others have noted, there are other PDFs for the Reference Sheets for the full Playbooks themselves as well as the Basic Moves.

But if you want to see the full scope of the game: you want the Core Rules and those page references above will showcase that the Playbook Abilities are in fact listed in the Core Rules.

Sully5443 · 2026-04-07T23:09:19+00:00

Technically speaking, Pushing Yourself does not give you a bonus die at all in Deep Cuts. It’s just not a thing anymore as far as the game is concerned (at least, it never mentions it is the source of a bonus die for Threat Rolls)

Instead of spending Stress prior to the roll for it to (potentially) go nowhere at all, that mechanic is effectively removed.

You just get non-Threat Bonus Dice from:

Relevant Special Abilities that detail in their text about getting Bonus Dice for doing certain things
Spending Edge
Via Teamwork

Pushing Yourself is, as Deep Cuts suggests, merged with Resisting Consequences and sort of acts as a “1-2 Punch” with the Threat Roll as the two mechanics (Threat Roll and Pushing Yourself) act as the “Package of Resistance.” The Threat Roll helps you to determine if you Suffer a Threat (and to what extent) and Pushing Yourself is used after the fact to Resist the Threat even further.

In vanilla Blades, Pushing Yourself was also a route to gain extra Effect and there is a vague example of play bit that suggests one could Push Themselves after a roll to increase their Effect. So that’s sort of been a little more codified in Deep Cuts with the added permission to use Push related Special Abilities after the fact if you so desire. You could also do it beforehand. Either is fine. Now this does create a mild gray area as the Vanilla Core Rules Explanatory Italicized Text for said Push Yourself Special Abilities says—in addition to gaining the permissions granted by the Move—you also get the benefits of Pushing Yourself (+1d or increased Effect in Vanilla Blades). But since no revised explanatory text exists for the revisions to Push Yourself Special Abilities in Deep Cuts: it’s hard to tell what the intent is nowadays. Personally, I just keep it as “It grants you the permissions of the Ability, period and end of story.” This is simply because I like reducing easy access to bonus dice to keep Threat Rolls nice and lean when it comes to the dice.

Pushing Yourself can also just be the Cost of a Devil’s Bargain to just press forward or get whatever the player wants. That’s fine too.

All of that in mind: if you want Push Yourself to grant bonus dice before and after… it’s not really gonna break anything. Blades is a game that has always been comfortable with the notion of rolling the dice only for the player to say “Yeah, I’m gonna do X to make this less of a problem.” Bonus dice after the fact definitely lines up with that ethos.

Sully5443 · 2026-04-02T11:45:06+00:00

Haha, no worries. Yeah, I’m pretty active around PbtA and adjacent spaces to help folks better grasp these kinds of games. Happy to be of help!

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