Ran my first game of MoTW over the weekend, and for the most part we had a great time. I did however have a couple of issues we ran into that I wasn’t able to resolve in a satisfying way and I’m hoping someone here can clarify some things.
The Mystery I ran involved a motorcycle gang of werewolves who were rampaging across the Nebraska countryside, killing rural farm families and they were ready to graduate to a nearby small town.
My first issue involved the traditional weakness of a werewolf: silver. Once it was revealed that the team was up against a gang of werewolves, they immediately asked me if they had silver bullets and I honestly wasn’t sure, so we floundered in conversation about it for a bit and ultimately decided that they had some, but not many. I’m hoping someone might be able to point out a rule that somehow limits their ability to go “Oh, the monster is __ and it takes __ to kill it? I’ve got that right in my Mary Poppins bag of monster hunting gear!”
I know that in the revised rules under the GEAR section it says that “If you want something that you couldn’t just buy (like a flamethrower,or a magical artifact), or something you don’t have the resources to get, then you need to do something special (like call in a favour, or steal it). Tell the Keeper what you’re doing, and play through the acquisition attempt to see how well it works.” Does this apply to anything that the players couldn’t just go into a store and buy? I’m fine if that’s the intention of the game, but I want to make sure. Based on the tradition of the fiction, if the players are telling me their characters are experienced monster hunters, it’s hard to make the argument that they might have one thing and not another. Are there any rules I’m missing on where to draw the line with this?
The other problem I came up against involved a Wronged Hunter PC who attempted to Use Magic several times. I get that every playbook has access to Use Magic as a basic move (a thing I’m not crazy about personally) and it’s up to the player to explain how what they’re trying to achieve and how they go about doing it. My issue comes with the Keeper Requirements and the fact that they’re things that the Keeper “may” do. Sticking with the first question, let’s say the rules indicate that the players have to locate/make some silver bullets (or anything else that might act as a monster weakness). Does that also apply to “weird materials” or the “tome of magic” used during Use Magic? That feels kind of cheap, like at any point a Keeper could just go “Okay, you want to Use Magic to do __? That’s going to require some weird materials that you don’t have because we haven’t done a scene involving you obtaining them.” If I go the other route and establish at our table that anything you couldn’t buy from a store must be obtained by calling in a favor, or stolen, etc., but allow the weird materials and magic tomes to just be things they have, then I feel like one aspect of the game is contradicting another.
Would really appreciate some clarification!
My take on all this is that it depends on the tone of your game. The closer you play the rules on requiring acquisition attempts for anything “you couldn’t buy at a store”, the grittier it’s going to be. I think that it comes down to an agreement between you and your group as to how that should go. Kind of a shared fiction thing. Besides, one of the “success at a cost” or outright failure consequences could be “You are down to your last few silver bullets”, or “oops, your bag of magical tchotchkes just tore open and is all over the road”. So even the “prepared professional monster hunter” character can still be caught unprepared.
To be honest, I am still a neophyte as far as running PBTA games, so grain of salt and all that.
Gerald Rose has it right. This comes down to the style of your game, and where you (as a group) want things to be easy or hard.
For the silver bullets, whether they have them already would be a judgement call based on how well prepared that hunter has shown themselves to be (unless it’s already on their gear list, obviously). And that’s certainly something you couldn’t just walk into a shop and buy… well, barring some weird collector gun store, I guess.
For the magic, how often and how much you require should be based on how magic works in your game. This is a slider and intentionally not defined in the rules, so that you can pick something that works for your group. So yes, you could require them to go track down weird materials they need if the spell calls for it. Perhaps, if you want a game where use magic isn’t a constant crutch, then you need to be up front about that… get some agreement about what spells might require in general, e.g. something like: “most spells will need some kind of weird ingredient, and pretty much every spell takes 5-10 minutes to cast”.
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Michael Sands Gerald Rose Thanks for the feedback, guys. I thought that may have been the case, but because the text wasn’t up front about it I wasn’t sure.
I realize how indie games work, but should an Advanced Monster of The Week ever see the light of day, I feel a little more clarity on these two topics would benefit a lot of folks. Even if it’s just “your group needs to decide X, Y, and Z”
That said, I’m loving the game and don’t want to sound like I’m nitpicking. I literally told a friend of mine the other day that the information in MoTW about how to prep a mystery might be some of the most useful info I’ve come across in my time as a GM/MC/etc. I’m really excited to keep playing it, so thanks for your work, Mike!
Just sayin’, If there was such an animal as “Advanced MOTW” I would be all over that…
Gerald Rose the revised edition is it for the foreseeable future, although I will be including some new rules and options in the mystery collection that is currently in development. You can see the preview of those at: genericgames.co.nz – genericgames.co.nz/files/MotW_more_weirdness.pdf
Michael Sands Awesome! I look forward to the finished product!
For the silver bullets that totally could’ve led into a fun montage of antique store robbery to steal silver flatware and then melting them down into bullets a la Monster Squad!
Maybe that would have been a good use of Use Magic too, make the bullets and then a quick ritual.
That’s a tone thing as well but even in the most serious episodes from the sources of inspiration and touchstones for the game there are silly moments and side episodes.
But also like if someone in the past had loved ones butchered by werewolves and that’s what has driven them to do what they do then yeah they probably have a good amount of silver bullets, “Just in case, ya know?”, probably even enough to be a threat to the whole gang (depending on size of the gang).
Otherwise? Maybe a group of monster hunters has a handful of silver bullets in the grab bag in case of a single werewolf but probably not a whole gang or pack.
Marty B. One of the party members did actually end up breaking into an antique shop to find some silver. It was one of the more memorable scenes in the sessions because he blew it pretty bad, but turned it around at the last second.
Brandon Fincher haha excellent!