I have been running some playtest sessions of my PbtA game, Malleus. The game is about 17th Century monster hunters. I have found sessions usually end up being more investigative than I intended, as I don’t think that is a major strength of the PbtA framework and isn’t really the kind of play I was aiming for.
Part of the reason, I think, is that the games have mainly been I one-shots and the easiest way to bring disparate characters together and give them a motive to act is to put a mystery or crime scene in front of them.
In the most recent session the idea of the characters all being involved in some kind of secret society or organisation came up. I feel like including that idea as a core element of the game opens up a way to introduce activities that don’t start with an investigation segment. Potentially I could develop rules for organisation creation, and maybe even playbooks. What I’m not sure about is – would that King of narrow structure work against the more free-wheeling nature of most PbtA games? I don’t know if there’s a need to add a mechanical answer like this to solve a problem that might just be my I creative GMing choices.
I’d love to hear the community’s thoughts.
Idea: A bunch of secret societies that descended from the same original cabal. At the table, you get to decide how your chapter has evolved/deviated/localized over the centuries. How have the local monsters defined the specialization and culture of your chapter? What are you known for hunting? This way you get the strong focused premise for the game but some at the table customization too.
Comment: It’s totally cool to make a game around one-shots or linked one-shots with longer term play being a secondary goal. Maybe look at the generational aspect of The Warren and make the game about that chapter so, even if you don’t get the monster during your intense one-shot, you just jump ahead 30 years for your next game…
If the goal of your game is to get straight into “the mission”/hunting/fighting monsters, then I think some sort of why-do-we-all-do-this-together constraint is perfect. If you don’t have that, then every time you start a game you’ve got to negotiate it from scratch, and that can seriously suck.
I did something similar in a (backburnered) hack about D&D-esque adventurers recruited into special forces during a fantasy world world. It’s a given of the game that they all belong to “The Lodge,” and that the Lodge is what sends them on their missions, and it has Lodge-houses scattered throughout the world. But at the start of a campaign, there’s some strengths & weaknesses to choose (ala a hardhold or a hocus’s cult).
Another thing that I think really worked was to build recruitment/backstory into the playbooks. Each one had a set of questions like:
I became a soldier… (pick 1):
□ to stand against the wickedness of the Enemy.
□ to protect my homeland.
□ to see the world and live a life of adventure.
□ when I was pressed into it.
□ to escape my past.
□ because what the hell else was I going to
□
Before I was a soldier, I was…
I joined the Lodge… (pick 1)
□ to do more good than I could in the rank and file.
□ to escape the meat-grinder of the battlefield.
□ out of a sense of duty to _______________.
□ because they recognize my worth.
□ to escape my past.
□ to atone for my sins.
□
Seems fine, perhaps the players create the society together in session 1, leaving its methods and motives open enough that it’ll suit different sets of players.
I think It would really cool to do that to bind them together and get things going from the beginning. They can still be at odds but there’s the commonality, unless that isn’t what you were doing for. I just watched a let’s play of blades in the dark and I think the “make a plan fast” mechanics and flashbacks could be incorporated to great benefit. Instead of an investigation maybe there is a flash back to get the ball rolling and they’re doing a roll to see how well that flashback turns out and then bam – we’re present time with them currently hunting whatever. Just a thought.
Investigation games are tough with PbtA. I’m hacking Dark Heresy, and there’s a certain amount of planning that has to take place, a bit beyond “write Fronts, draw maps, leave blanks.” Not that it’s impossible. Playbook-specific Moves that can advance the investigation are useful.
Giving some structure at the beginning, while it may not be “pure” PbtA, make a lot of sense for a short / one-shot game. I would start off by creating a constraint that the PCs are part of some sort of secret society, but leave some blanks for them to fill in regarding details of said organization.
The game isn’t specifically intended for one-shots, but unfortunately getting playtest games together has been tough so they have ended up largely as one shots. While I do want the game to include an investigation component, I intended it be more of a thriller than a mystery game (Night’s Black Agents is an inspiration here). The easy way to start one-shots with fresh characters has been to basically start with a murder or disappearance, which then results in an investigation. Part of the problem is my GMing habits, in making the “mystery” too complicated which means it takes a while to get to the action.
Some of that will be alleviated in campaign play, because fronts and threats can be established and brought to bear on the characters directly. There’s also the prospect of beginning a sessions in medias res and letting the players determine how they got there ( Fraser Simons I am running Blades at the moment, so I am looking out for ideas to incorporate). But I feel that having a clear starting premise is also a benefit, since 17th century monster hunters is pretty vague in some ways, and I’m eternally frustrated with games that have a cool setting but little guidance as to what it expects the characters to do in it.
The idea is definitely to have the players come up with the details of their organisation, but I think it probably needs at least some prompt questions, if not a full playbook. I think I might start working on something like that and, assuming it works in playtesting, include it as an optional framework.
I really like the idea of “team playbooks”. And I don’t think it’s in any way against the spirit of PbtA. It’s just formalizing some of the things you’re supposed to do during the first session like asking leading questions, barfing forth thematic elements, creating npc connections, etc.
Hi! do you have some updated version of your game? In my experience, the best way to tie characters is using some relationship mechanic and some common purpoise (Ex: Being member of some oranization or band), not necessarily a crime or something like that. I have been working in my own PbtA hack for the German RPG “Engel” and my campaigns has been about investigation in the first place and epic fights after that (really epics). The system supported all of this very well!! The relationship mechanics (a mix of World in perils and Golden Sky stories relationship mechanics) worked very well for us. tying all the characters togethers and giving to the game a narrative coherency. For us, the misteries that the characters faced were a mere dressing and the really important thing was what happened between each character. I would like to try your game because I love the monster hunters theme so if you have an updated version I would love the see it.
Very lukc in everything 😀
Danilo Jara the current draft is here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yGpNkbjkI1ycvHftMSYNwh1I-8JCyv4x9LvthPGsb8g/edit?usp=drivesdk
There is still a lot of work to be done, and I haven’t got very far in the organisation playbooks.
There is currently not an updated set of archetype playbooks available. I have done the layout for the archetypes, but haven’t finished the sheets for the moves and GM stuff.
Danilo Jara If you are still interested, I have posted the updated version of the archetype playbooks:
https://plus.google.com/107216179043491943888/posts/3feQWBSWTUM
Super interested! It’s the kind of game that I like. I also have been working t in a pbta hack during the last year. Sadly is in spanish (i’m a native spanish speaker) but if you are interested I can share it with you. It is a hack of the german rpg ENGEL. Do you know it? It has some common points with the theme of malleus.