I played my first game of Night Witches with three friends of mine wednesday.

I played my first game of Night Witches with three friends of mine wednesday.

I was the MC during the whole evening. We only had time for one session and I used the one-shot material from the handouts.

The One-shot material allowed us to experience most of the game system, which was great. But it was also a bit difficult to emotionaly involved the players during the NPC deaths (“Oh no, another aviatress who was nameless two minutes ago died…”) .

I was a bit afraid by the behavior of one a my player during the character creation. He obviously didn’t want to create a character who was too vulnerable, his pilot was the Section Leader but she was dangerously addicted to danger, always choosing the most difficult missions to get her shot of adrenalin.

She was also very cold, sleeping with another pilot she had no tenderness for and having no concern for the feelings of her teammates.

I was wrong: her character, Yekaterina, created a lot of interesting moments. She was a bit of a stereotype but it made her the main antagonist of the group. Everyone was afraid to fly with her and the other PC tried to outrank her and become the Section Leader.

Just before the last mission, another pilot managed to become the squad leader but Yekaterina disobeyed one of her order and it led to the death of another aviatress.

I was a bit surprised by the violence of the mecanics. The 7-9 results of the Night Moves generaly force the players to choose two consequences which is a lot (there is also a snowballing effect, some consequences trigger one or two other Moves which will also have consequences).

I guess it is expected that the players will have to spend a lot of time earning points for the Mission Pool.

What surprised me the most was to discover how effective it is to “bring [the characters] gender into it”. I didn’t have to force it* but the repeted remarks about their gender, the men always trying to “put them in their place” and the latent sexism were violent enough. It brought a lot of tension into the game.

Oh and for those who play the game in another langage than english…it’s difficult.

I didn’t take the time to translate the numerous playset and it was a mistake (especially because one of my players wasn’t bale to read them).

*We were three men and a women. During the debriefing my two male players were all “come on, the level of sexism was a bit too high” and my female player was all “nope! it wasn’t”.