Hi All – My regular group of gamers is looking to branch out and everyone is kind of taking turns running different games. I’ve never GMed anything before, but I wanted to give a whack at MotW.
So here’s my struggle – I’m about ready to start up. I think I’ve got a pretty good grasp on how everything works. But I’m torn on where to start. Does anyone have something they recommend for beginner players that has a good mix of combat and mystery? It’s also kind of a large group (ranging from 3-5 players plus me), so I’m willing to bump up enemies myself if need be.
Thank you for any and all help, advice, etc
See what you like: .https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B7cav44145d9NEU5NE55U1d0RHc
I would start with something simple like Vampire Hunt.
Mark Tygart Holy crudolee Mark! These are GREAT! 😀
I’m a big fan of MotW, and PbtA games generally. I highly recommend that you take this whack at MotW.
The list that Mark provided is a great resource. My group just recently finished “Creature Feature” over the course of three different two-hour sessions. I also referenced them heavily for inspiration on how to construct my own Mysteries.
The best thing about the structure of Mysteries is that they are generally open-ended enough that you can customize them to fit your group.
In your situation, my first order of business would be to have a character generation session where you can figure out what sort of team the players want to be, which playbooks will be featured, and what sort of theme(s) the players, including you, are interested in exploring.
From there, i’d go through Mark’s list and pick a suitable candidate – i second his recommendation of Vampire Hunt, if it’s appropriate to your group.
As you begin new Mysteries, always keep an eye on how to incorporate character backgrounds and playbooks (such as start of Mystery moves or the consequences of marking Luck for The Crooked).
A Mystery will have as much combat/mystery balance as your players invoke. If they respond to everything by fighting it, you’ll have lots of combat. If they want to slowly poke through every situation, you’ll have lots of mystery.
It may help to frame the game with them: the sessions are less about the Mysteries and Monsters, and more about learning about the Hunters. Think of it as a show: most monsters are defeated by the end of any episode; we tune back in the following week to see the characters’ arcs. The PCs get to be the stars, and the Monsters/Mysteries are simply here to put them in dangerous/exciting situations to see how they respond. As a Keeper, your goal isn’t to advocate FOR the Monsters winning, but to use the Monsters to provoke reaction and drama from and for the PCs.
I found it useful to point out at the start of the early sessions that the general arc of each Mystery is: 1) find out what kind of monster they face; 2) find out what its weakness is; and 3) kill it!
Two questions, and action – that’s it. The Players can resolve Mysteries boringly fast if they just jump straight at the questions and kill it. They can drag them out to be boringly dull if they try to answer every possible question before acting. Work with them, talking to the Players, not the PCs, to help develop a pace that the group enjoys.
Since you haven’t GM’d before, i’d also advise that MotW doesn’t require you to adjust the enemy stats to make them more or less difficult. I’d recommend leaving the Monsters as designed. You can adjust the difficulty of scenes by adjusting your Moves against the PCs. If a scene is too lethal, choose more interesting flavorful options in lieu of dealing danger (generally do this anyway!). And remind them they have Luck to spend to fix rolls or avoid Harm. If a scene is too easy, move aggressively to split up the group, make them respond to multiple threats, or give them interesting dilemmas.
Mark Tygart Wow – that’s a lot of adventure! I hadn’t realized you made so many! Thanks for sharing.
Andrew Fish This is a lot of great info, thanks so much! I really appreciate the info.