5 thoughts on “The Eighth Game Of Christmas, Monster of the Week.”

  1. I’m curious, if you’d be interested to discuss it further: What kind of stuff does Gumshoe provide for handling mysteries (beyond the principle that “you will always find a clue”) that you found you missed here?

    Also, I was interested to read that combat felt particularly dangerous in MotW – and that made me look up “kick some ass” and realize I haven’t been running it as written. I ran it like Dungeon World, where on a 9 or less you suffer the enemy’s attack (which may or may not cause harm, might just be a move like pinning or dragging you). “Kick some ass” does specifically say harm is dealt, though! The larger discussion in the book also notes that you shouldn’t use that move for every single attack, just the ones where the monster is fighting back, so you could certainly have one person distracting the monster with this or another move while someone else attacks from a safe distance or unseen angle. That sounds tricky, but I’m very curious to try it as written next time – maybe it’ll encourage more strategizing?

  2. Jason Tocci I think with Gumshoe the primary advantage it has is the idea that you get the clues needed without having to roll. Mostly though it is the advice it has on running mysteries. I think in games powered by the apocalypse, mysteries are just a bit outside what the rules do well. The rules for MotW handle drama creation quite well, but the rules for mysteries just feel too limited. I would often find that they could not handle certain questions that seemed obvious to me.

    As to the harm thing, just bear in mind that it may rustle some feathers with your players if you use the rules as written.

  3. Good to know, thanks! Also, you might find it handy to just export that one principle from Gumshoe to any other mystery game. Personally, I still have Monster of the Week players roll to expose themselves to potential complications, and good rolls get them more than they need, but Gumshoe basically taught me to consider “never hold back a necessary clue” an official principle right alongside “be a fan of the players.”

  4. Oh sure, you can fix the issues I have, my main issue is that the game doesn’t really help you do it. I think a bunch of the issue is that a majority of the investigation type thing should probably not be rolled fr at all, but then there is a move for that. More rules on how to deal with that divide would be neat.

  5. If you run MotW with the PbtA principle of ‘play to find out’, the GM, as well as the players, uncovers some important elements of the mystery through play. The things the players find out through the ‘Investigate a Mystery’ move become the important clues. Missing on the move just means the GM gets to move the narrative forward in a way that is more complicated and difficult for the players. It is a more flexible, improv approach to a mystery. It’s different and I struggle with it sometimes. But it is a lot of fun as a GM to be surprised by elements of the mystery.

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