I have tried several times to grok PbtA’s appeal and don’t get it. So you’re not alone here.

Having run Root by Magpie Games a few times, I’ve really enjoyed how cinematic it feels. DND combat can be very fun and tactical, but it can also drag as players have to use turns to prepare attacks and then go sit in the back of the line for 10 minutes. PBTA on the other hand always felt quick and quirky with the different playbook abilities. But it’s of course not going to be as deep as a crunchy game, and therefore I dont think it suits OPs needs

I think the problem is that I was playing cinematic-feeling games beginning in the '80s. (Late '80s, to be fair.) A game being “cinematic” isn’t new to me. And the parts of PbtA that are actually new … I just don’t grok the appeal of. As in I don’t like it and I don’t understand what it is people who like it see in it.

I don’t like Savage Worlds, as an example, but I see what some people enjoy in it. It’s just not for me. I can see what they were going for. I can see how someone might enjoy the outcome of it. I just happen to not like the system. Ditto for GURPS or even D&D: I don’t like it, but I see what the appeal could be.

With PbtA I don’t understand it enough to even see what it is people like about it. And I can’t find an “explain like I’m five” overview that closes that comprehension gap. All of the intros seem to presume I know what’s appealing and are intent on showing me how to do it. None of them explain the actual appeal, leaving me lost.

I’m not a super experienced pbta player, mainly have only run dungeon world, but I love it because how rules light it is and I can just run the game mainly like having a fun conversation with the players. Once players kind of grock how the system works, it can be very freeing in what they can do. Like they don’t have to think too much about specific abilities in their character sheet and can just say/act what makes sense in the situation. “Since I’m behind the baddie,I grab him by his tail and try to pull him away from…” And then there’s a very simple move. “Okay cool, roll+str.”

Then there’s a quick resolution after the quick die roll. It’s fast paced and keeps the scene moving. There’s no rolling on my part. I don’t have to just tick off some hp when players attack or get attacked but can throw in all sorts of fun, random stuff, and players can do the same. I also then don’t have to track whose turn it is with initiative or whatever, I just turn to whoever it makes logical sense to do something or whoever speaks up with another thing they want to do.

I would say the game is definitely not for those that enjoy the tactical combat of games like dnd, but personally I hate that.

Again you’re talking as if rules-light, narrative-focused games are new and unusual. They’ve been around since the (late) '80s. What you are calling “freeing” and new and exciting to you is Tuesday to me. Or any day that ends in ‘y’ really.

That isn’t the part I don’t grok.

What I don’t grok you touched upon, however: the “moves” (and all the other related paraphernalia like the “playbooks”). That whole bass-ackward game mechanism is something that I look at and fail to understand at any level, beginning with “what problem is this trying to solve?” and ending with “how is this intended to be fun?”. I also keep hearing the claim that the game is “hackable” but when I look at “hacks” they seem like “jack up the paint job, insert a whole new game, lower the paint job”. About the only thing constant across the PbtA that I can see is that 2d6 system of bass-ackwards rolling.