Gary Furash asked about player input in PBtA games, and the resulting conversation inspires this question to you all:
What are some of the best questions you’ve asked as MC of a PBtA game?
(Please indicate which game, because I’m curious to see if there’s a pattern there!)
(AW) “So what do you do with the bodies of your dead?”
(AW) “Brainer, what’s the startlingly unexpected thing on the walls in your room?”
(AW) “Chopper, where and how are you refueling now that the bridge is out?”
Crowdsourcing a location / person / monster/ artifact aspect from the players by asking each of them to provide one detail for the same thing. The results are often amazing.
DW: “What is unique about this monster?”
Urban Shadows: “What strikes you about the Gloves of Argoth?”
The Veil: “What is so creepy about this night club?”
Probably the best question I have ever been asked (DW) “Who is carrying the body?”
(followed by questions about said body, cause of the death, where are we heading to)
(DW) when transporting mysterious cargo on a river boat as payment for other things “which one of you is awake late enough to hear the crying from within the crates?”
(UW) when researching the corpse of the first alien species humanity has encountered “what stands out about the thing’s DNA?”
(US) there were a few good ones. “Do all vampires feed this way?” / on botching opening a portal to another realm “where’s the worst possible place this portal could go?”
I can’t think of specific questions, but my favorite trick is when a player narrates a course of action that seems dysfunctional, I turn to ANOTHER player and say, “(character), that seems pretty fucked up. What do YOU do?”
It’s a trick I learned from Dogs.
AW: What else has been living in that coat you never take off?
Aw: you use bags of blood as barter? Cool. How are they used?
Much like Anna Kreider, I love a good “And how do you react to this?” when someone does something that is tap-dancing all over another PC’s history/personality/territory/etc.
In Masks last month, our Protege got into a fist fight with the Delinquent and threw her off the team, so I turned to the Transformed and Outsider: “So they’re shouting at each other, and it’s looking bad: Whose side do you take?” That was a fun one.
(DW) Just last night, as the PCs were headed to the rogue’s hometown, the one he left years before play started for… reasons: “Mouse, who was the first person you ever murdered?” … “Yeah, okay, but I didn’t ask about the first person who’s death you caused… I asked: who was the first person you murdered?”
(AW) to the Faceless: Rolfball hired you to kill dog head, but now that shits hit the fan and Rolfballs trying to escape, don’t you think he’s acting more like prey than boss if this shitty town?
-Rolfball promptly ended up dead, creating a power vacuum Bette the Maestro’D has filled.
(DW) what makes everyday life in this world dangerous? -answer: the floor is lava.
(Impulse Drive) your Foible says you’ll stop the Abyss at any cost. It’s infected the entire planet. Do… Do you…. those planet killer bombs are still in your ships hidden compartment, right?
(Impulse Drive) the assassin robot will help you, if you give it the codes to give it free will. -the assassin bot ended up taking over an entire AI fleet to conquer the galaxy and try to destroy the Abyss itself.
(Demihumans) “How many of your people are left?”
(Monsterhearts) “Do you lead your pack into a fight against the androids in the school car park or call them into the woods with you & save their lives?”
I liked
(DW): “What here lets you know that this land is not worth saving?” “There are no resources and they’ve just given up: they play a card game where they wager their own fingers. Maybe other people’s too.”
(AW): “Awesome, there’s still one road that’ll take you out of here. But it’s blocked by something that you really don’t want to have to run over. What is it?”
(AW): (A half-dozen variants on…) “The wolves are coming for you. What do their screams sound like?”
(AW) Do you take the wrapper off before you eat it?
(Blades in the Dark) “You’ve heard a lot of rumors about these demonic flowers. What’s one that you know isn’t true?”
/sub to contribute later.
My favorite MH homeroom question is to start by asking “So who do you have a crush on?” and then asking another player “And who do THEY have a crush on?” and then repeating that last bit two or three times.
Also, it’s a really simple question I use for DW games (especially con oneshots) but the answers are often inspired: “What rumors have you heard about this dungeon/town?”
My AW standby is to start off by asking each character “Why would this place go to hell without you?” It’s a great way to grab some potential threats AND make the characters seem badass right from the getgo.
In Blades in the Dark today: “when the bullet splits open your chest and you’re certain — face down in the mud — that you’re gonna die, whose face is flashing before your eyes?”
As far as go-to questions for DW, during the first session, after establishing where they are (in front of a dungeon), some variation on:
“What have you come here seeking? Why?” motive
“What dangers are rumored to lurk here?” threats
“Why shouldn’t or can’t you dawdle?” time pressure
They’re usually worded differently, per the group and the “dungeon” I’ve got I mind. But the initial questions always establish those three things.
I’m not sure why, but “what do you most hope it [the ghost] doesn’t do” in Murderous Ghosts is one of my favourite PbtA questions ever.
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