I feel like I’m doing Start of Session moves incorrectly.
We just played session 8 last week. The first few times it was great because it gave us lots of new characters, interesting threads to pull on, and gave everyone some space to inform the other players what interested them about the world and the system.
Later, it got frustrating because everyone felt they had to bring in NEW people and NEW threads. When we agreed that we shouldn’t expand, but should try and contract (focus on existing characters and threats) things got a little better — until we got to weird territory where, in the middle of the arc, it’s suddenly, “OH YEAH, that enemy owes me a debt!” It felt like a clumsy kind of retcon.
We’re at cross-purposes with the move as we understand it: don’t expand, but try not to make unlikely debts in the middle of the game.
Our resolution, until the current set of threats have lightened up a bit, is to not do SoS… but I still want my players to mark Faction for advancement.
Any advice?
If the new information does not go against already stated fiction is ok.
I only used it every 2nd session – it generates too much story IMO.
First, it’s likely that you don’t need to use the SoS move at all, especially if your players are good at introducing new characters and ideas into the game. I would imagine that most games that are running for 5+ sessions have plenty to keep them busy.
In addition to that, remember that you get to say what the Debts are, not the players. Sometimes you might turn that over to them, but if they are introducing fiction that doesn’t make sense… then tell them, “That doesn’t really make sense. Try again.”
Finally, it might be time for custom move! 😀
“When you grow closer to a Faction at the end of the session, give someone in that Faction a Debt at the start of the next session to mark that Faction. Tell the MC what that person did for you between sessions.”
We used it to kick off new story arcs but not until that arc came to an end, around every 3-5 sessions or so.
To back up with the others are saying, for my game, we did a lot of world building before our first session, so we had a LOT to work with right away. I didn’t end up using the SoS until session 6 I think.
We do them most sessions but treat them as background rumours. We don’t do the roll unless we are feeding into setting up a new adventure thread /threat. Some rumours may sit in the background for weeks before I have a chance to weave into the story.
I am probably going to kick off with the move in the first session, for a couple reasons. One is that the group is doing a really good job at aiming their Debts at each other, to the point where we don’t actually have too many NPCs sketched out yet. Also, we’re going to post the AP recordings, so we want to trot out the mechanic early. But after the first time, if people are deep into stuff, we won’t use them.