Hi, MotW fans! Michael linked to my mystery “The Haunted Case of Eleonore Zugun” two days ago, now I’d like to tell you a little more about its origins and share some parts of it with you 🙂
I’m a culture researcher and a traveller, I love to dig for strange things that happened in our world. I also love writing RPG materials, I’ve worked as a freelance game designer for a few years.
When I discovered MotW I felt that it was an ideal system for combining my passions. I started searching for pieces of history or culture that would be bases for a MotW mysteries. I have a pile of them in my notes. I mostly look for stories from non-English speaking countries because, being Polish, I feel a little tired with RPGs that happen in the US and I want to create more diversity.
Stories I’ve found happen in various countries and I want to turn them into functional print-and-play mysteries to be used by any group. So for each of them I have some tools for dragging hunters from anywhere around the world. They might be useful for you even if you’re not interested in the mystery itself so I’ve decided to share them here 🙂
So, for example, in “The Haunted Case” the hunters can apply for a research grant that provides free international travel needed to investigate the mystery. However, there seems to be a deeper conspiracy about the case so they might not want to declare their interest in it openly. To make both options interesting I’ve made two custom moves. They both worked great at my table:
A SERIOUS RESEARCHER
When you write your references for the grant program roll +Sharp. On 10+ your references are excellent and you are accepted immediately into the second step of the program. On 7-9 you are accepted but choose one:
• The board evaluating the references notices that you are totally sure that supernatural events are real
• The acceptance of your references is voted by a slim majority and some board members disrespect you
• To show your competences you describe something that should be kept out of public eye.
On a miss, choose – either all of the above happens or your references are rejected.
TRAVEL EXPENSES
If you don’t get into the second step of the grant program, every time you need to cover a major travel expense – like buying an international plane ticket – do one of the following:
• Sell a mundane but expensive item from your gear (one hunter’s gear per travel)
• Sell an occult item to someone interested in such goods (you surely know such people)
• Give the Keeper a very good explanation for why do you have an extra amount of money