I’m new to Monster of the Week and am working through my first Threat:
http://www.crossplanes.com/2016/09/monster-of-week-tsulkalu.html
I’m new to Monster of the Week and am working through my first Threat:
I’m new to Monster of the Week and am working through my first Threat:
Looks good. MotW is among my favorite games. 😀 I have one question and one comment though.
What does the Tsul’Kalu’s mind control do? It’s just noted as “-2 forward”.
Both the Day and Shadows parts of the countdown clock feel out of place. They’re things that have already happened rather than what will happen if the Hunters don’t get involved.
If something is my fault, I might as well be proud of it. MotW is the game that sold me on PbtA games.
Chris Stone-Bush Right now I have the mind control making things fuzzy so it’s just a -2 forward, but I probably need to address it better. I look at the countdown. Thanks for the feedback!
No problem.
-2 ongoing doesn’t really represent mind control to me though. It’s not allowing the monster to control anyone; it’s just making it harder to act while close to the monster. I think it would be a better fit for some kind of noxious cloud, psychic interference, or something similar.
For a power that actually allows the monster to control people’s mind, what about the mesmerism vampire power on page 245 of the book? That seems like it would fit much better for a mind control move.
Thank you, I’ll check it out.
The trick with mind control powers is to not make the player feel totally helpless. So a 10+ should probably mean the character shakes it off, a 7-9 result should encourage them to give in, and a 6- result should make it hard for them to resist. But ultimately the player still gets to choose what their character does.
That makes sense. I appreciate all of the help. I am really intrigued by the fact that as the GM I don’t have roll any dice (I loved it in the Angel RPG and in the Cypher System). But I’m still uncertain about some things and the help you’ve provided is awesome. Thank you.
Again, no problem. I love Apocalypse World-based stuff and am more than happy to help other people come to love it as much as I do. 😉
Mark Craddock one big difference between Cypher or Unisystem and PbtA games is in the first two the GM sets a difficulty and the player must overcome that numbers using the appropriate approach.
In PbtA games the player chooses the approach (a move) and the parameters for the acting are within the players own moves. So not just does the GM not roll dice, they don’t really set difficulties either. They might add bonuses or impose penalties. But the success, partial success, and failure range is part of the move. The GM is left to keep most everything in the fiction.
I’ll disagree a tiny bit with that Gaming Ronin.
You’re absolutely right that the GM doesn’t set a difficulty rating that the player has to equal or beat to succeed at what their character is attempting to do. The dice roll is always 2d6 plus a small modifier with a 10+ being a full success, a 7-9 being a mixed result or hard choice, and a -6 always meaning the GM gets to do something. So mechanically, you’re right.
But the GM does adjusts the difficulty, but through the fiction. For example, if a Hunter tries to take out a zombie with a katana, they’ll probably trigger Kick Some Ass. The dice will determine how they fare.
But if that same Hunter goes up against a super fast vampire? Well, the vampire is much faster and much stronger than a human. If the Hunter just walks up and tries to swing with the katana, the GM is totally within their rights to narrate how the vampire lazily ducks out of the way, grabs the Hunter by the throat, and tosses them into a wall.
You adjust difficulty in PbtA games through narration and fictional positioning. Things that are really hard force the players to find a way to even the playing field. Like, if that vampire was somehow immobilized or distracted, then the Hunters would have a better chance.
Chris Stone-Bush right, but I’m trying to illustrate the difference between PbtA games and games like Cypher or even D20 where the GM chooses a target difficulty for each individual action/roll. Which is true for games like Cypher and Unisystem, which are player facing games I know mark is familiar with.
Ahh, okay. Sorry. You are absolutely right Gaming Ronin. The GM does not set a target number for thr difficulty of character actions in PbtA games.
I’ve seen people complain that “everything is the same difficulty” or ask how they make things more difficult in PbtA games before. That’s really what I ended up commenting on, huh?
Chris Stone-Bush oh I totally agree, the fiction/narrative should drive the game. I was really responding to the -2, the idea that a more difficult action causes conflict it’s PbtA world style…effecting the narrative as you said is.