Looking for some Monster of the Week advice. I’ve only played in one PbtA game, and I’ve never run the system. I’m planning on running a one story game (2-3 sessions) for my players to introduce them the the Apocalypse Engine. My idea is the players will all be prominent authors in 1920, a zombie Mark Twain, a wronged Charolette Perkins Gilman, a flake H.P. Lovecraft, a spooky Edward Stratemeyer, an expert Agatha Christie, and a mundane H.G. Wells.
I was looking for some advice/help on two fronts. 1) What are some of the challenges I should expect for a groups first PbtA experience. One player and myself have story game experience, the rest only trad games. 2) Does anyone have any suggestions for customer moves, or other playbooks that may fit the authors better or just be more fun?
Why not just run the sample mystery included in the game?
The biggest recommendations I can give for a PbtA game are:
1) Fiction first. Always, always, always. Paint a picture. Describe what’s happening. Make it real. Dice and stuff aren’t real. The werewolf’s saliva dripping in your face is.
2) Print out the Keeper moves and have them next to you. Anytime you’re not sure what to do, pick one.
3) Be ready to wing it. Things will go in ways you don’t expect, and that’s awesome.
4) Play by the rules. There’s a rhythm to PbtA games that’s heavily dependent on the rules, and it’s an awesome rhythm and it’s easy to lose if you assume it’s just any other game. Make moves when you can, ask “now what” and go from there. It’s typically going to be Keeper Move->Player Move->Keeper Move or player action.
One of the first PbtA games I ran was a session of Dungeon World for some pretty experienced RPG players. It ended up being a few hours of a single room in a cave and some kobolds. And the players had a hell of a time, didn’t even realize it was just a room with some kobolds until I pointed it out after the fact. It worked because these games work. Just do what they say, and you’ll be fine.
I like the author idea, but for your first time out, I would stick to the game as is. Allow the players to choose the playbooks that seem most interesting to them, and do character creation as normal. Part of the PbtA games is the group character creation and all the awesome stuff that comes out of it, so let them try it out seeing as how it’s their first time.
The big thing I’ve run into when running PbtA games for new players is the moves. Some players think that the moves on the sheets or the basic moves are the only things their characters can do. I had one player who would always look down at his sheet when I asked him “What do you do?” Help them understand that narration comes first. Encourage them to narrate their characters actions to make things happen, rather than naming mechanics.