Ran my first game of MoTW over the weekend, and for the most part we had a great time.

Ran my first game of MoTW over the weekend, and for the most part we had a great time.

Ran my first game of MoTW over the weekend, and for the most part we had a great time. I did however have a couple of issues we ran into that I wasn’t able to resolve in a satisfying way and I’m hoping someone here can clarify some things.

The Mystery I ran involved a motorcycle gang of werewolves who were rampaging across the Nebraska countryside, killing rural farm families and they were ready to graduate to a nearby small town.

My first issue involved the traditional weakness of a werewolf: silver. Once it was revealed that the team was up against a gang of werewolves, they immediately asked me if they had silver bullets and I honestly wasn’t sure, so we floundered in conversation about it for a bit and ultimately decided that they had some, but not many. I’m hoping someone might be able to point out a rule that somehow limits their ability to go “Oh, the monster is __ and it takes __ to kill it? I’ve got that right in my Mary Poppins bag of monster hunting gear!”

I know that in the revised rules under the GEAR section it says that “If you want something that you couldn’t just buy (like a flamethrower,or a magical artifact), or something you don’t have the resources to get, then you need to do something special (like call in a favour, or steal it). Tell the Keeper what you’re doing, and play through the acquisition attempt to see how well it works.” Does this apply to anything that the players couldn’t just go into a store and buy? I’m fine if that’s the intention of the game, but I want to make sure. Based on the tradition of the fiction, if the players are telling me their characters are experienced monster hunters, it’s hard to make the argument that they might have one thing and not another. Are there any rules I’m missing on where to draw the line with this?

The other problem I came up against involved a Wronged Hunter PC who attempted to Use Magic several times. I get that every playbook has access to Use Magic as a basic move (a thing I’m not crazy about personally) and it’s up to the player to explain how what they’re trying to achieve and how they go about doing it. My issue comes with the Keeper Requirements and the fact that they’re things that the Keeper “may” do. Sticking with the first question, let’s say the rules indicate that the players have to locate/make some silver bullets (or anything else that might act as a monster weakness). Does that also apply to “weird materials” or the “tome of magic” used during Use Magic? That feels kind of cheap, like at any point a Keeper could just go “Okay, you want to Use Magic to do __? That’s going to require some weird materials that you don’t have because we haven’t done a scene involving you obtaining them.” If I go the other route and establish at our table that anything you couldn’t buy from a store must be obtained by calling in a favor, or stolen, etc., but allow the weird materials and magic tomes to just be things they have, then I feel like one aspect of the game is contradicting another.

Would really appreciate some clarification!

Hello All

Hello All

Hello All,

I intend to run my first game of Monster of The Week tomorrow night for my wife and a couple of friends and I’ve written up my first mystery using the vengeful spirit idea from the Revised manual and I’m hoping I can get some feedback.

I’ve ran my fair share of Dungeon World and The Sprawl, but both of those are a bit different, structurally speaking, from MoTW and I’m kind of worried that it’s not clicking yet.

There are several similarities in terms of the monster I’ve got and the example in the book, but I’m not really sure how to run a game set in a single location (in this case an old Opera House) and still make it interesting. I’ve got a monster and all the things that go with that, I’ve got a weakness and an attainable method for exploiting said weakness, but I guess I’m not really sure how to go about pacing and revealing information to the players so they don’t get hung up.

This group is very green, having only played a couple of rpgs ever, and never with any regularity, so the fear that they’re not going to have the skills needed to take the ball and run with it is also kind of a concern.

Anyhow, if any of you can take a look at what I’ve got and give me some feedback I’d greatly appreciate it!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1i9r0lXWCEwfE3GjShXnAnAEM-6so_ZngAGj_Mc3pmss/edit?usp=sharing

Let’s talk about consequences.

Let’s talk about consequences.

Let’s talk about consequences.

Last night’s session with my group was a dumpster fire that culminated with the team getting into a super messy gunfight inside a Vory bar. Ultimately, the dice rolls were some of the worst in any game I’ve ever seen and definitely the reason things went the way they did, but I’m wondering if I was too severe with the NPC actions. It was one 6- after another and I felt I had no course of action but to escalate the consequences.

Fictionally, the team was in pursuit of a group of thieves who had killed an executive and taken an ancient ceremonial katana that had been intended as a gift for the CEO of a major defense firm that the Exec’s company had recently merged with. While learning the location of the thieves, they had hardballed a hotel maid that was in on the heist and the ramification of that was that she tipped the thieves off. From there, the team headed to the bar the thieves operated out of, and found them there celebrating their score. Several failed social rolls later, one of the team tips off to the bartender that he’s interested in learning “what’s up with those guys”. At this point, the team and the thieves and the bartender were the only people left in here. The thieves hear this, and approach to confront the team. Another failed roll later, and the thieves are absolutely sure these are the guys asking about the murder/theft and things escalate.

Long story short, our party Killer has taken 5 harm, the Hacker has taken 3 harm, the Infiltrator is dragging him out of the bar, and the Tech is pinned down behind a table.

After talking with one of my players this morning, and being reminded that we lost a PC last mission, I’m second guessing myself.

Do you guys tend to run a lethal game of The Sprawl where bad choices are punished with severe consequences?

With the PCs in the campaign I’m running making a whole helluva lot of noise last mission, they decided that they’d…

With the PCs in the campaign I’m running making a whole helluva lot of noise last mission, they decided that they’d…

With the PCs in the campaign I’m running making a whole helluva lot of noise last mission, they decided that they’d lie low for a while. The Mr. Johnsons that aren’t actively trying to kill them won’t give them the time of day, so I’ve decided I’m going to introduce them to the criminal syndicates that occupy the seedy underbelly of our setting and have them run some missions involving the Vory and Yakuza.

We play on roll20 with a near identical setup to what Adam Koebel uses in his Roll20 Presents game, so I’ve got into the habit of making logos for all the faction clocks and I thought I’d share the two I’ve made for the Yaks and Vory. Feel free to use them in your own games if you’d like (I’ve got pngs without the black background if you want, just let me know).

Has anyone here attempted to run missions for/against non-corporate factions? I’d be interested in hearing mission ideas and experiences if you have any to share. So far I’ve begun compiling a little list of missions for each of the gangs, which happen to be at war with one another in our setting, so most of them, so far, involve one group hiring the team to do something to the other, but I’m on the lookout for more ideas, tips or suggestions.

So I’ve got a team with two Corp Clocks sitting at 21:00 and I’m looking for some advice on how to make that an…

So I’ve got a team with two Corp Clocks sitting at 21:00 and I’m looking for some advice on how to make that an…

So I’ve got a team with two Corp Clocks sitting at 21:00 and I’m looking for some advice on how to make that an issue. I know the advice the book gives regarding showing them the barrel of a gun and all that, but up to this point there have been no signs of an increasing threat on my part and I’m worried this is getting away from me. With this group, one of the two elevated Corp Clocks is the result of Links and Pre-Campaign Missions. The other is mission related. At 21:00, I know they need to be taking action against them. Should that be subtle or would they be trying to take them out at this level?

I’m sort of tempted to spend a session/mission dealing with this, but I also don’t want to just waltz into it with nothing planned and I’m worried that a whole session of Corp Clock fallout will require a lot of railroading and planning big combat scenes and I’m not sure that sounds like fun. Hamish Cameron do you (or anyone else for that matter) have a suggestion on steps to take in-game to simultaneously deal with a pair of angry Corporations that are gunning for my PCs? Should I just have a strike team from either corp show up at random while they’re doing stuff? I thought it might be entertaining to have them be in the midst of something only to have an unexpected attack occur. Would you make sure the attacking squad is identifiable so that they understand or would you keep them nondescript? Any advice is appreciated.

You guys ever open up a mission in medias res?

You guys ever open up a mission in medias res?

You guys ever open up a mission in medias res?

I know Hamish talks about the system’s flexibility to do so, and I think it might be a fun way to set an intense opening scene and fill in the blanks as we go, but I’m wondering if anyone has any experience putting it into practice.

My current idea is to set up a mission where the team is standing in a seedy hotel room with a dead courier laid out on the bed with a chunk missing from the back of her skull and her eyes scooped out of her head. I’d open by really setting the scene of how rundown and filthy this hotel room is, the way the searing light from some neon sign across the street is flooding the room with an unearthly glow, etc. Then I’d drop the body on them and describe the commotion of cops coming down the hall, then hop back in time and ask them some questions about the mission…

* Which one of you got the call about this job? What channel did Mr. Johnson reach out to you through?

* Mr. Johnson requested to meet you in a rather unusual location. Where was it?

* Mr. Johnson had a piece of very expensive custom cyber ware that caught your attention. What was it and in what way was it identifiable as custom? Was he trying to hide it or was it out in the open?

* Mr. Johnson had an associate with him. What was it about this person that made you nervous?

* What were you told you’d be picking up from the dead courier laid out in front of you?

Stuff like that.

So we’d RP out the meet, do the Get The Job roll, then cut back to the hotel where they cops are just about outside their door.

I’m thinking from there I’d mention that one of the team isn’t there with them and ask which one of them that was and where they are. If they were outside the hotel, I’d ask them what sort of situation were they currently dealing with that kept them from notifying the rest of the team that the Cops arrived Then we’d go from there.

As far as Mission Directives go, I was thinking something like this…

* When you escape the hotel, mark XP

* When you discover the location of the package, mark XP

* When you retrieve the package, mark XP

* When you clear your name for the murder of the courier, mark XP ??? (not sure if this is necessary)

* When you deliver the package to Mr. Johnson, mark XP

and maybe an added bonus for…

* When you exact your revenge for being set up, mark XP

This feels like a nice generic noir setup that you can dump in any sort of justification you’d like and hit the ground running. There’s probably some better questions I could ask the players that might further alleviate the truth about the setup/the contents of the package/etc, but those are just off the top of my head. Maybe tying in your +Hunted character’s pursuers into the mix, or any other faction they may have screwed over in a past game.

Question about intrigue in a mission…

Question about intrigue in a mission…

Question about intrigue in a mission…

What are your practices regarding behind the scenes machinations as it pertains to your missions? When your PCs get the job, how up front with them are you about what’s going on and why they’re being hired to do this thing? If you incorporate a mystery, bit of intrigue, or ulterior motive, do you do so with the intentions of working it into the things the players discover during legwork/action phases or do you drop the initial plot thread during the Get The Job phase and leave it to the PCs to either pursue or not?

In the games I’ve run so far, I’m finding that my players aren’t getting engaged in my missions beyond the surface, which is making me unsure of myself regarding my approach to information divulgence.

It feels like they’re not latching onto the “truth” about what’s going on with the missions they’re being hired to do and I’m wondering if I shouldn’t start taking a different approach with how I’m prepping my games to either eliminate the extra work (thus resulting in missions that are what they say they are), or start finding a better way of putting these mystery nuggets in the direct path of what they decide to do so that they’re “discovering” the layers of the mission without the work.

Anyone else have any similar observations/obstacles with their own game groups regarding the art of mystery storytelling?

Threw together a little logo for The Neo New England Nukes today and thought I’d share.

Threw together a little logo for The Neo New England Nukes today and thought I’d share.

Threw together a little logo for The Neo New England Nukes today and thought I’d share. I’m running a game tomorrow where one of the central set pieces is a BLOOD BALL Championship game where the players are hired to fake the death of the half time performer and smuggle her out of the arena without getting caught. Should be fun!

What’s your favorite meet location for Getting The Job?

What’s your favorite meet location for Getting The Job?

What’s your favorite meet location for Getting The Job?

I’m trying to come up with some options for fun and evocative locations/set pieces to drop my Mr. Johnsons in that aren’t your typical wild cyberpunk night club, dive bar, or penthouse apartment.

I’m interested in hearing about how you guys GM the Matrix for your games.

I’m interested in hearing about how you guys GM the Matrix for your games.

I’m interested in hearing about how you guys GM the Matrix for your games. In particular, how much descriptive flavor do you put on a given corporate server when your Hackers are poking around?

I’ve actually taken to prepping some notes about each MegaCorp in our setting and what a standard system for each of them might look like so that I don’t have to think about it on the spot. For instance, one of our Corps, Haitekko, is a child focused MegaCorp (think Disney) where they manufacture entertainment, food stuffs, etc. The system tends to look like something out of Winnie The Pooh, with colorful cartoon characters acting as ICE, the various nodes being represented by cottages in a 100 Acre Woods style village that’s populated by anthropomorphic animals, etc. (Not very cyberpunk, I know)

So yeah, when you’re setting a scene for your Hacker, how do you tend to describe to them the various spots like Login Gates, Databases, etc. or do you just kind of list it off and keep it very straight forward?