Powered by the Apocalypse: Dice & Strategy Guide

Powered by the Apocalypse (PbtA) isn’t a single game — it’s a design lineage that began with Vincent and Meguey Baker’s Apocalypse World and now includes Dungeon World, Monster of the Week, Masks, Urban Shadows and many more. What they share is a compact, story-forward dice engine: roll 2d6, add a stat, and read one of three outcomes. The dice are simple; the craft is in when and why you roll them.

The dice and the core mechanic

PbtA games use two ordinary six-sided dice. When you do something that triggers a move — a defined action such as acting under fire, going aggro, or reading a situation — you roll 2d6 and add the relevant stat (a small modifier, usually between about −1 and +3). The 2d6 curve centres on 7, which places the entire results table right in the game’s sweet spot.

The crucial idea is that the fiction triggers the dice, not the other way around. You don’t roll to “attack” in the abstract; you describe what your character does, and if that fits the trigger of a move, the move tells you to roll. If the fiction doesn’t trigger a move, you simply do the thing — no roll needed.

How a roll resolves

Total your 2d6 + stat and read the result on the same three-tier ladder used across nearly every PbtA game:

• 10+ — full success. You do it, and you get the good outcome the move promises. Clean and in your favour.
• 7–9 — partial success. You do it, but with a cost, complication, hard choice or reduced effect. This is the heart of the system — success that pushes the story somewhere interesting.
• 6 or under — a miss. Things don’t go your way. The person running the game (the MC or GM) makes a move in response — introducing trouble, a threat or a twist. A miss is not “nothing happens”; it is where the world pushes back.

Because the numbers sit on a 2d6 curve, the 7–9 band is broad and common. With a modest stat you will land in partial-success territory constantly, which is by design: PbtA wants most rolls to move the story forward on a knife-edge rather than resolve cleanly. Many games add extra texture on a 12+ (an exceptional result) and turn each miss into fuel for the narrative.

Effective strategy

• Lead with the fiction. Describe what your character actually does in the world. Set up the situation so that when a move triggers, you are already in a strong position — good fictional positioning is worth more than any modifier.
• Embrace the 7–9. Partial success is not a punishment; it is the game working. Lean into the costs and hard choices rather than groaning at them — they generate the drama the whole system is built to produce.
• Choose the right move. The same action can trigger different moves depending on how you frame it. Approaching a guard with charm, threat or deception invokes different moves that key off different stats — play to your strong stat where the fiction allows.
• Set up before you strike. Many playbooks reward teeing up a situation — reading a person or a scene to gain a bonus or hold you can spend later. A little groundwork turns a coin-flip roll into a likely full success.
• Treat misses as story, not failure. When you miss, you hand the MC a chance to make things vivid and dangerous. Good players roll into that willingly, because a great miss is often more memorable than a clean win.

Beginner tips and common mistakes

• Don’t roll for everything. The most common mistake is reaching for the dice constantly. If no move is triggered, you just succeed — roll only when the fiction demands a defined move.
• A miss isn’t “you fail, nothing happens.” It is an invitation for the world to act. Expect the situation to change, not merely stall.
• Read your playbook’s moves. Each character type has its own signature moves. Knowing exactly what triggers them lets you steer the fiction toward your strengths.
• Say what you do, not what you roll. “I want to intimidate him” skips the step that matters. Describe the action; the move and the roll follow from it.
• Different PbtA games tune the details. Dungeon World, Monster of the Week and Masks each adjust stats, moves and extra systems. Learn the 2d6 ladder once and the specific game second — the core reading of 10+, 7–9 and 6- carries across all of them.

Want a story-first system built for solo play? Read our Ironsworn dice & strategy guide.