How much prep is too much? I know the groundskeeper has got to make the horror personal, but knowing my own strengths and weaknesses as a GM, I can trip up on full improvisation a bit if I don’t come in with some ideas.
Is it generally fine to have a collection of rooms and horrors thought out ahead of time, maybe a few servants, and jettison them if they really don’t match up well with wedding prep? I’ve noticed some common threads in some of the actual plays out there, horrors or rooms that the groundskeeper falls back on but twists to fit the table, but I am just as concerned with coming across over-planned as I am with coming across like I have no idea what I’m doing.
Apocalypse World actually has a handy rule for this. Draw in Broad strokes but don’t sweat the details. It’s fine to think about cool twists or horrific imagery. But don’t bog yourself planning for every little aspect of the room.
Example: “What if I added a room where bloodied sexual organs hung from ceilings on hooks”
or
“I’m scared of drowning lets add something where that’s a threat”
Be general, throw ideas around pre game but don’t go into things until you’re in session. Listening to scary music, or watching horror movies, or reading a good horror book is a great way to come up with concepts.
Thanks Grant, that’s really helpful. I think where I’ve gotten tripped up in the past is that I tend to be a fairly improvisational GM, outlines, but not plots, and when I run PbtA I read ‘improvise more!’ and think I’m already doing too much. This makes me feel more comfortable with my usual level of prep.
The list of sample room themes and Moves is super helpful, too. I would have that in front of you at all times.
Thanks Lex, I plan to! I think my anxiety comes from the list of rooms and threats providing a really daunting number of possibilities, and narrowing down to the point where I can do something on the fly always gets me a tiny bit nervous. Here’s what I currently have in mind:
I’ll draw out a sketch of about 5 rooms with threats, and maybe a couple servants it could be fun to bring in. During wedding prep, listen intently to the players and circle 2 or 3 of my ideas that fit really well with what they bring to the table. Hit those ones first, call a bathroom break after you’ve used them up, and use the lead time to come up with enough additional rooms to get to the end.
From my experiences, the players’ first impulse is almost always to go to a master bedroom to find more comfortable shoes and clothes and to freshen up after a long journey, so you need something that fills that spot and has some elements to help frame the style of the game. Because the groundskeeper gets to pick the player who describes the first key, they can pick someone who is likely to describe something they prepped well for.
It seems like character creation is really focused on helping the groundskeeper determine what the players will find scary, there’s just a considerable time pressure to bring those fears to life quickly. When done well, the game works an amazing kind of magic trick, like a traditional forced card. The sisters create all the content, it just feels like the groundskeeper did.
I’ll toss this idea back to the moderators, because if it interferes with design intent, I don’t want to promote it, but could it be helpful for us to start a discussion thread of room ideas? Contributors would post one of the rooms, the threat they associated with it, and a couple ideas for objects to investigate and the outline of a horror, what happened to the former bride and how she expresses it.
You could also do the wedding stuff and then take a 10m break to plan stuff. WWWRPG has that built in. There is an explicit 10m chunk where the MC is told to go plan stuff.
Hey Vincent!
This is your (and everyone else here) community. You should post what you find helpful. If seeing other people’s rooms inspire you, awesome!
That being said, we do strongly encourage you to change them to fit your table. The Book of Rooms will contain examples that you can use as is, but you should always change them to nod at your players.
As far as prep goes, you mentioned that it seems the designers have a few touchstones they refer to frequently. That’s definitely true, as we’ve run a lot of sessions! 🙂 Grant’s suggestion of imagery is very good, as is listening to music, and Shane’s right – take a break to gather your thoughts.
Hope that helps!