Are there any best practices for when someone isn’t really following their Darkest Self description even though they are in it? It feels bad to say “no. i feel like you should go more for it!” or something like that. How do you deal with this at the table?
Are there any best practices for when someone isn’t really following their Darkest Self description even though they…
Are there any best practices for when someone isn’t really following their Darkest Self description even though they…
I’d say, when in doubt, use Darkest Self as narrative permission to Put them in a Spot or flavor the kinds of Choices you offer them, especially in terms of scene framing.
That is what i am usually trying ye. Basically describing things as prey and reminding them how they wronged them etc.
hm, normally I remember players that they do not have to go for Darkest Self (almost always it’s their choice) and if they chose DS, they have narrate their characters behavior in particular way. I’ll remember them what the game is about. You may also force their character to do something horrible but from my experience if you have to do something like this, players rarely accept this, and in this case you may assume they just don’t want to play MH / that particular Skin / game is to serious for them.
It’s kind of hard to deal with that. MH depends on players being willing to “fail forward” in their Darkest Self. I tend to goad my players – when they’re not going all in, I say stuff like “WHAT DID HE JUST SAY TO YOU?! Are you going to LET HIM GET AWAY WITH THAT?!”
I occasionally go in all-out director mode and have them replay the scene until I’m satisfied. It can work remarkably well.
Its good to take exactly what the player said, but nitpick it from the perspective of the Darkest Self. Ie, if it’s the witch punishing everyone who slights her, I overanalyze everything being said and I look for ways that it could have been rude to the PC and bring that up.
My players are usually pretty good, but when in doubt there’s always failed rolls and Hard Moves, when you get to call the shots. But I like some of the suggestions here – I’m certainly going to try to subvert some of the things they say and goad them into darker actions.
I’m going to steal Alfreds way of handling it. Not because my players don’t handle Darkest Self well (they most certainly do) but to add an additional dimension.