Author: Bry Hitchcock

Sunday was awesome at Big Bad Con. I got to play in a game of MotW in the morning, run by my friend Rachel Tevlin. The game involved a mysterious house that appeared in the middle of the desert. This house was much more than just haunted. 🙂

In the evening, I ran a game. We had an Exile who was a White Chapel lady of the evening, followed through time by Jack the Ripper, who’s real goal was the destruction of all humanity. Throw in an HG Wells time machine, like the film Time After Time, and soon there were Shadow Jacks hunting the heroes in a time-stopped modern London. It was great fun.

Monster of the Week @ Celesticon in California

Greetings, Hunters and Keepers of Mysteries.

Over Labor Day weekend, I ran a game of Monster of the Week at Celesticon in northern California. It was one of TWO official MotW games on fairly small roster of games, meaning I got to run and play the game. I win!

I ran Creature Features, which is just a catch all for my MotW stories. I have 8 mysteries prepped, but I’ve been having fun creating mysteries on the fly, based on the characters and history the players establish during creation.

This one involved a series of drownings at lakes near the hunters’ home town. Investigation revealed it had been going on for years, but very slowly. Our hunters were a Chosen, a Flake, a Mundane, an Exile, a Wronged, and a Spooky. I had a great group of roleplayers who made me think and laugh a lot.

The wronged had  some sort of water spirit that had slain his older brother a few years ago. So I made that monster type a minion of the Big Bad so he’d have several possible chances to interact with them and maybe get vengeance on the one who killed his brother.

A couple of the players chose dark issues (drug abuse) for their hunters. But it was a shared addiction that brought the two characters closer together and added to the overall mood.

The Big Bad was an ancient, shadowy conquistador-sorcerer who planned to blow up a dam, sacrificing all the lives lost to bring himself more fully to life. He had evil selkies and some stealthy little water imps as his allies.                                                                                                         

I really enjoyed this game and continue a great streak with Monster of the Week. I’ll be running it again at Big Bad Con this coming weekend.

MotW with Zed 

I was very excited to play MotW for a change. Zed had a great selection of skins available to choose from including one I’d never seen, The Sidekick. O.O Well, I just needed someone to play a cool hero. Luckily a player I knew created just the thing, a Persian Initiate, a spiritual warrior against evil. I loved playing a damage sponge and trouble magnet. Our group also had a Snoop and a Mad Scientist. All the players were super fun and had good creative interaction.

Zed’s mystery was awesome, with a perfect mix of monster fighting and investigation. The conclusion was not a cookie-cutter monster slaying. The local setting added to the realism, and Zed kept it tight with some intense NPCs and great Keeper moves. I certainly picked up a few cues from Zed.

It was such a treat to play. Now where do I get my hands on this Sidekick playbook?