So, my weekly group is going to try to play MotW!

So, my weekly group is going to try to play MotW!

So, my weekly group is going to try to play MotW!

However, we only have a 2-hour slot in which to play, and we don’t really want to carry a mystery over from week to week (one player is unavailable half the time, and another has unreliable transportation).

Anyone have any experience running this in a condensed timeframe? Have any suggestions for doing so?

19 thoughts on “So, my weekly group is going to try to play MotW!”

  3. After character creation you could probably squeeze in 2 hour sessions but my experience has been the free flow story building the AW games encourage can build a lot of tangents. Some of this depends on game play style of your group and complexity of the story that gets told but 3-4 hour sessions seemed to be our sweet spot. 

    So on average we voted on weekly 2 hour sessions.

  4. The MC has a lot of control in pacing with this game.  You can shorten the investigation phase by throwing lots of detail that points directly to the monster, and spend more time on the confrontation, or vice versa.

  5. Just start as late as possible in the narrative. Maybe “loveletter” the entry sometimes, as in writing up a special move that takes them to the point of the Mystery where it gets exciting.

    Also doing cliffhangers every once in a while should be cool.

  8. Probably. For our first session, I’m going to give them a single creature to confront. We’re all new to MotW, so I want to sort of focus on gameplay first, get them used to the flow. They’re all GMs, though, so at least they’re creative….

  9. I haven’t tried it, but I’d probably try to make the whole game a single mystery that the players need to unravel. Make it more like a season of agent carter than an episode of supernatural.

  10. I may do that in a later “season,” but I have a tendency to take on a longer campaign than any group of adult players can consistently commit to playing. I’m going to stick with episodic play for now.

    On the up side, we have a very small group of players right now– 4 total, including the “part time” player.

  11. I did it with our first game of MotW which was also our first PbtA game.  It went fairly well, but I did have to spit it into two parts – I would estimate that each one was about 2.5 hours.  

    However, I also used a Skinchanger as the monster and it had a human partner.  This left them very suspicious and they proceeded more slowly in the mystery as a result.  A simpler monster than a shapechanger could probably be wrapped up more quickly and easily.

    For my Dungeon World game, it is generally 2 hours per session since we play on weeknights.  It means you have to stay on task a bit more, but I think it is quite workable overall.  

  13. Simple is best, the gang or bikers that are actually traveling werewolves, the high school wallflower now possessed by a demon, the nightclub that is actually a summoning pit etc..

    Something with a clear, STOP THIS THING, and once you find it that is it

    let them deal with the fallout, then the investigation, then a glimpse, realisation/planning and then confrontation 

    Let them make characters in advance, (upto the bonds bit) will save time

    can also be good that you do some of the setup before the session, so the rumours, and primary investigation etc.. drop them right in the fallout of it getting worse and they need to act

  14. Just to add to the general advice, keep the mystery simple, and keep the pace up by skipping detailed planning discussions. 

    My usual group has 2.5 hour sessions, so I am used to keeping things fast paced. Tactics that I like include

     – Interrupt in-character discussions with a move (often calls for Investigate, Read a Bad Situation, or reveal future badness).

     – Jump cut: “so you’re going to the old factory? it’s dark here and there’s bloodstains visible on the floor just inside the doorway” 

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