TLDR: very high potential, interesting basic design, mediocre polish, poor execution, salvageable system design, some fatal flaws

This is obviously a Powered By The Apocalypse game, but I think the author lacks some deeper understanding of what makes PBTA games work so well. I really like that depth of obvious theoretical understanding of what makes PBTA games great from titles such as Monsterhearts, Masks, and of course Apocalypse World (the game that started it all). As a result, parts of the system seem like poor fits for the PBTA style of play, some of the rules seem to push things in a less flexible and more micromanaged direction, and some of the author's other explanations (in online discussions) of how the rules are meant to be interpreted seem wildly out of sync with what makes PBTA game design so effective for encouraging fantastic gaming experiences. Worse, there are rules that I could interpret by how they're written in the book as fairly consistent with the general PBTA philosophy, but are written in such a way that it seems superficially like they're more like D&D or Gurps, and the author then offers an explanation in an online discussion somewhere that seems to blatantly disagree with with what he wrote in either of those interpretations and is easily the worst of the three options for how to apply the rule.

The writing in the book gets to be a bit rambling at times, with important rules notes just dropped in the midst of an undifferentiated half-page paragraph, often with no significant explanation of that specific rule, so you might never even notice them (especially if flipping through the book for reference instead of attentively reading every word). If you're not already familiar with standard features of PBTA game design you might not recognize the importance or meaning of such mentions at all, even if someone helpfully dragged a highlighter over them, because there's no elaboration of the specific principle of the rule.

The structure is a bit difficult to follow at times, even apart from that. Examples of how to apply the rules in the game only rarely contradict the text, but even "rarely" seems a bit much. More examples just fail to illuminate the reader about how the rules should be used because they end up illustrating use cases that are obvious, leaving the less obvious cases unaddressed. The system for selecting powers is plagued by thin and inconsistent (incontinent?) presentation, leaving it extremely difficult to use well at first, though with practice and some liberal interpretation to produce a consistent theory of power specification one could probably bend it into something very effective.

Despite all these flaws, the shape of a great system kind of lurks within it, struggling to get out. That could be mined for excellent ideas. As a result, if you ignore the online commentary from the author when players ask questions, it comes off like a book that could be a solid first draft of a great first edition that desperately still needs rigorous playtesting, beta readers, and very heavy copy and content editing before publication. The production value of the material object is really nice, too.

. . . then there's the problem of the downloadable supplementary materials. Mostly, they're not bad, but the "example hero sheets" are awful demonstrations that often seem nonsensical, poorly specified, contrary to the guidance given in the book, and just generally more of a hindrance than a help. Parts of them are whimsically absurd, probably by accident, so in places I found them entertaining.

I recommend playing [b:Masks: A New Generation|32065937|Masks A New Generation|Brendan Conway|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1474136620l/32065937._SY75_.jpg|52710477] before this (I reviewed that, rating it four stars but with at least 4.7 stars in my heart). Among other things, once you get into the groove of using Masks (both directly as intended and with significant thematic modifications to suit other styles of play) you should be better able to adapt Worlds In Peril into a fun experience from its published rules more easily. ( )