What do you do to Gaze Into the Abyss? I don’t grok how it fits into fiction like I do the other moves.
It seems odd to me that every character would be, effectively, mildly psychic. The existence of this move is influencing my game more than my game is influencing this move.
Advice?
#Monsterhearts
The GM hasn’t asked me to describe it yet, but I’m playing a Witch so I assume she’s uttering blasphemies under her breath while staring intently at a person whenever she does it.
It’s different for everyone – whatever the character does to shut out the outside world, so it might be more or less supernatural. Cranking up the music. Doing a google search. Drugs. Cutting. Zoning out. Carefully applying make up. Braiding hair. Going for a run or workout. Taking a shower. Prayer/meditation. Ritual. A physical chore. Anything that might lead to enlightenment or allow for scary thoughts.
Honestly, despite the way the game depicts it, I think of it more like a dark insight more than a psychic ability. I picture the dark brooding of Batman or the mad genius of Sherlock Holmes. Or maybe Clarice talking to Hannibal Lector.
Another perspective: when my MC narrates me gazing, it feels like making a deal with the devil, you get your information but it is tainted and there is a trepidation to acting on it.
My Infernal just let his anger, his “fire” (his Dark Power was Loki) emerge and acted following that instinct.
My Doctor (extra skin for the Italian edition, think of it as a Mad Doctor type) broke down the reality in logical, mathematical schemes that he could understand and manipulate. I often described it like those special effect in movies when you see the subjective of a carachter with green lines, labels, and superimposed numbers.
Lavinia Fantini’s Mortal sung Twinkle Twinkle Little Star while cutting herself and was scary as hell.
Roughly, the Infernal in the campaign I’m running utilizes it when the demon he’s contracted to opens a channel of communication; the Fae uses it when he gets a mirage-like glimpse of the faerie realm, and the Witch uses it when she casts a particularly risky incantation. In every case it’s disorienting and leaves a residue of misgiving and despair in its wake. GOOD TIMES.
The point is, I think, the PC is just immersing themselves in their own dark nature. What is their abyss? What is that thing that pull them, that urge them, that make the things easier, but not necessarily righter?
My chosen (a cyborg girl abtucted and enhanced by aliens, to save the world from monsters) had a neural-connection in her brain which analysed everything around her. That was her abyss, her inhuman part.
I think Ezio Melega nailed it. My characters all use it as an excuse to brood like teenagers, in preparation for flipping out however they are going to flip out. And I use it as one of the few tools I have to tell them what I want the setting to look like, by adding in details. Think about it in terms of Buffy: every character in the show, even Xander, can be introspective, and that introspection gives them insight. Sometimes it has a supernatural tinge, like if Willow is scrying or Buffy is having a Slayer dream, but sometimes it doesn’t, and a character just realises what they need to do next.
Donald Sheldon , I think the point of the move is that it does effect the game. I haven’t played as much monster hearts, but in AW, the equivalent was opening your mind to the world psychic maelstrom. In the early sessions, people opening their minds help define the psychic maelstrom and the MC can build off the themes the players suggest. I’d think in MH a similar strategy can be used to define why these mythic creatures exist, or at least establish a continuous link between them.
My perspective is: it CAN be a supernatural thing, and I kind of dig the questions raised by “What is this ‘Abyss’ that lurks near the heart of not only all monsters, but the hearts of those close to them as well (mortal, chosen, etc)?”… but it can also be a mundane thing. When you’re introspective and brooding, are you gazing into the abyss? You’re looking within yourself for answers, and in this case, the MC answers as what you find inside yourself. So if you’re all “What’s the deal with Cassius?” the MC can be all “Well, now that you think about it… he’s always sitting away from the windows on sunny days, and you’ve never seen him eat food at lunch, and there was that one time John scraped his knee in gym and Cassius freaked out…. Could he possibly be… but no, that’s silly! There’s no such thing as vampires, right? I think what the ‘abyss’ thinks you should do is try to prove or disprove this idea somehow, carry 1 forward to doing so.”
I have a question. Why does peering into the abyss have to mean the same thing in every game?
There is a very good discussion about it, starting here:
http://story-games.com/forums/discussion/comment/407133#Comment_407133
This is an artifact of hacking Wierd in AW.
You’ll note there’s no sharp equivalent. You can’t read a person or a sitch. While that’s kind of part and parcel of the alienation and separation teenagers might feel, it can also be problematic.
The problem with ‘gazing’ is that it’s a generic terms that connects you to your supernatural element. The staring into space and being psychic is only one way to go with it. It’s using your non-human bits to get info. Strange dreams during new moons. Sniffing folks and learning far more than you should. Tasting their blood. Etc.
Also (cheap out) but technically your players should tell you what they’re doing to trigger this. Moves flow from fiction, not the other way around. If they can’t explain that as the Infernal their connected Power is whispering dark secrets about people to them – the move just doesn’t trigger.
As everyone’s said: it’s being a shitty teenager and moping or being “cool” and detached. Mostly, usually, sometimes, unless a player describes it differently.
My group’s werewolf Gazed whenever he was in pain, so the player could only use it when her character had Harm. That used to be the case… Now that The Wolf in his head is talking out loud, he can now gaze by talking back.
My group’s Fae gazes by talking to bugs who bring him news and opinions.
The Vampire gazed by straight up brooding and being moody.
The Witch gazed by looking into the elements — water, snowflakes — and they’d arrange themselves into informative images.
And the cool thing is these are all different Abysses so they’re all different NPCs. The elements, mystical leyline Witch-stuff can make demands on the Witch! Kujo can make demands of the Werewolf! The bugs can beg the Fae for help!