How do y’all implement this “countdown”. I am new to the game, and I am having a hard time figuring out how to actualize the process. Thanks.
How do y’all implement this “countdown”.
How do y’all implement this “countdown”.
3 thoughts on “How do y’all implement this “countdown”.”
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I’m new as well and wondered about this. Page 199 had some clues. It seems to give a progression to the mystery. The players might do something that gives the keeper the opportunity to introduce the new countdown event. Or if things aren’t moving well for the hunters, the keeper might use an offscreen move for a countdown event to motivate the hunters. I think of it as an event deck in a board game.
I think it’s vague because it’s not something that is a mechanical countdown but can vary. I assume if I’m playing a one-night mystery, I’d use the countdown a little more often than a two-night mystery.
Am I on the right track?
Also, how far into the countdown do most mysteries get? It seems like midnight would be very rare, maybe even nightfall. But I can see foreshadowing them.
That’s exactly right… it’s what would happen if the hunters never came, or they totally failed. Your countdown should describe everything terrible that will happen, and if the hunters don’t stop those elements, you may introduce them into play.
The main idea is to sketch out where the badness is going. That helps you, as Keeper, decide on the effect of the hunters’ actions.
To build on what Gary Beason and Michael Sands already covered, the countdown gives you a clear idea of the trajectory of the mystery from its very beginning. If the Hunters never showed up, the following things would occur, in the following order.
If i sit down as a Keeper with the vague idea that a ghoul is eating people, i am only vaguely prepared to improvise in response to the keepers. but if i already know, from the start, who the ghoul will eat, and in what order, and what else they might do, i am in a better position to answer questions from Investigate a Mystery, or otherwise respond to the Hunters’ actions.
Will the Monster attack the Hunters directly for interfering? Or lay low for awhile, hoping to hide until they leave? Or run away, leading to either a chase or a loose end? By having a countdown in mind from the start of the Mystery, you can more easily figure out what, and how, the Monster will do as the Hunters become a nuisance.