Hi All
Have been having a blast with MOTW, but recently my groups has really gotten into the whole stand off at a distance or hole up and wait to ambush with guns.
Aside from throwing things that are immune to firearms, how can I start to move the group away from the gun heavy mentality.
Sniper rifles and grenade launchers I can foresee problems with in the future.
Cheers
Jerry
The monster is someplace they can’t bring or can’t risk firing weapons – airports, malls, indoor places with short corridors.
Big magic is needed before they can even SEE the monster.
Ghosts don’t mind bullets.
The monster requires solutions that are not mundane. A ritual banishing. Entrapment. A negotiation. Killing them might risk the ire of more dangerous powers or other enemies (or friends!).
* A monster possesses innocent people to use as weapons.
* A monster that reflects back high tech weapon attacks twicefold.
* A monster that must be resolved or placated rather than killed.
* Monsters that are regular innocent people most of the time (e.g. classic werewolf).
* Hordes of zombies/goblins/etc. Sometimes it’s good to lean in to a problem!
That last one could be fun. Give them a few to shoot at, feel successful, then flood them!
You might also want to create some custom moves for this sort of situation so it’s not just a lot of inflict harm/act under pressure moves.
E.g.
When you fortify your location, roll +Sharp.
On a 10+ choose 3 that are true, on 7-9 choose 2 that are true, on 6 or less choose 2 you want to be true but the Keeper gets to decide if they are or not.
* You have a secure way out
* There’s a bottleneck they must come through to get to you
* You found and blocked all the hidden ways in
* You get +1 armour in your position
* You have plenty of ammo and supplies stashed here
When you’re defending a secure location, roll +Cool.
On a 10+, inflict your weapon harm +1 on a few attackers.
On a 7-9, inflict your weapon harm on a few attackers and choose 1: something gets past you, something hurts you, you fail to notice something important
On a 6 or less, your position gets overrun.
Note that the important thing is to ensure, with the choices available, that these situations stay interesting to play through.
(Innocent) bystanders are my favorite, it works great on film – and it’s really great playing no-nonsense non-heroes having heroism thrust upon them.
My players in warhammer always love it when they move away from trouble, then see someone weak (maybe a child?) move towards the trouble.
Having the monster be in the right?
I.e. The Vegan werewolf hermit being pestered by youth/gangs/public servants. Up until now he’s only scared them, the person hurt in the hook actually fell in a ravine (and he helped her get up and placed her in the path of the ambulance workers he called.)
——-Ghost that were murdered – why don’t avenge them by having their murderer sentenced, granting the ghost etarnal rest?
—I’d also add complications from the law more often than not. If a travelling band of whatever often have shooting incidents occur, someone will know. A good-at-her-job sheriff will ask them to give notice on wereabouts, and she will know if they trespass.
Watch Supernatural.
Michael Sands The First Move is absolutely brilliant.
Your question represents that the problem is that they have a “gun heavy mentality” and that you want to “help” them move away from it.
Are your players doing this because: (a) they enjoy it; (b) it’s a ‘best solution’ for the types of encounters you have developed; or (c) it’s all they can think of doing?
If (a): there is no problem to fix. They’re having fun. Instead of helping them move away from it, throw lots at them to shoot. Things like zombie hordes, as previously suggested. Make them burn through ammo, threaten to overwhelm them, make it loud and explodey – but let them enjoy the fireworks!
If (b): ethereal or bullet proof monsters will help them develop new tactics. Use monsters with new weaknesses – even if they shoot it to pieces, it won’t solve the problem until they exploit the weakness correctly.
If (c): talk to the players about what they want out of the game. Note that the sessions have turned into gun-heavy action movies, and see what sorts of things the group as a whole might want to change. Simply discussing culture touchstones, like moves, shows, comics, video games, etc. that they all enjoy, can help them think of novel solutions in game, and can help you decide how to develop future mysteries and respond to questions mid-session.
Finally: the Moves above are phenomenal. Michael Sands wrote a helluva game here, and those moves may well end up in my next Mystery!
While they wait, monsters take out innocents/friends/family.