Do all good games need to snowball? Or just “good PbtA”? 

There’s also the not-insignificant role of branding something PbtA, and the expectations that brings. That’s more of a marketing question, I guess, but it was also in mind when I was thumbing through Uncharted Worlds. When I realized that Sean Gomes had in fact not stuck his flag in the PbtA sand, that honestly let the game off the hook a lot on my evaluation. Now I don’t really care at all if moves snowball or if the moves are prompting an interesting conversation.

I mean I like those things! But the conversation-having, specifically, is a point I’ve always been super skeptical of applying to all RPGs.

OTOH when a game knocks those things out of the park, like Urban Shadows or Sagas of the Icelanders, then my expectations are fulfilled and, I suppose, reinforced for the next poor game that has to compete in that space.

It might actually be a super terrible idea to try and ride the PbtA coattails if you can’t deliver on that promise. And maybe that’s why the “bad hacks” thing is so virulent.