Author: J.D. Lichauco

Title

Title

I wrote a first session recap…… At 3am last night…….

SO……. On teenmonstersbrooding the show this session.

An npc we don’t have any reason to care about was murderated…..surprisingly NOT by any of the player characters. Emmaline (the queen) and Valentine (the mortal) were not dating, but kind of dating. But then suddenly after an initial antagonizing start to their aquaintance, Emmaline was kind of all over the sexy werewolf girl Sam…… Who though tempted, was very into the mysterious fae girl Jonah, but shy about it. Jonah’s friendliness wins the day and they make a lunch plan. Sam just doesn’t know what is up with this strange and enchanting girl. The initial brouhaha with Sam and Emmaline caused them both to be kicked out of class where they continued to sass and unexpectedly flirt. After Sam kissed Emmaline to make a power point or something but that kind of ended up backfiring as she kissed a queen and she liked it….. Emmaline made her bid via asking Sam on a dinner date and Sam agreed. Meanwhile Jonah and Valentine learn that a boy we still don know or care about was murderated, and sort out that Jonah is not very comfortable with electronic technology that makes scary noises yet. They agree to finish the plan to cut off Valentine’s hair and also solve that murder probs. Sam feels bad cause she realizes that the dinner date is really kind of a date even though that’s not really what she intended and Valentine punches her when she learns of Sam and Emmaline’s flirtations. She says that Valentine can keep Emmaline, Sam doesn’t really want to date her anyways. Then Emmaline sees this violence and disapproves. Jonah meanwhile has a tender moment with Sam where she cares for her wounded cheek. The worst idea for a road trip ever happens during lunch and Valentine tries to get Sam to break off her date with Emmaline. Sam tries, but Emmaline remains persistent and isn’t taking no for an answer. Sam and Jonah also snuggle some. Sam wants to ask Jonah out…. And kind of does….. Saying that they should hang out at Jonahs treehouse later after dinner, as Valentine has invited them to have dinner at

HER house. Sam helps Jonah cut Valentines hair and cousin Amanda (Sam’s preppy cousin) takes a picture of Jonah and Sam kissing and snuggling, apparently her and Helena (vampire who is BFFs with Jonah) were THERE THE WHOLE TIME GUYS! Boy they are quiet…… So Everyone drives back and apparently finishes school and later that evening as the moon rises and everyone (except Emmaline) is at Valnetines) Sam feels the stress of the day compile and goes full on wolf mode…… And comes across the bikers whose motorcycle she stole yesterday with Helena. For some reason they have a crossbow and are hunting I guess and intend to kill Sam. she kills the guy with the crossbow in one bite first and the rest scatter. Sam comes back to her senses and feels super terrible about the fact that she killed a guy. It’s bringing up all these feelings about when she killed her abusive alcoholic mom. Jonah and Valentine start dinner without Sam and Valentine introduces her family to Jonah, who find her funny and sweet if very very odd. Meanwhile wolfSam full of emotions and guilt finds herself turning back to human right outside Emmaline’s house, and is in quite the bloody, dirty, naked, and emotionally wrecked state. Emmaline comforts her and gives her a bath and tells her it’s okay as Sam tries to explain that she’s a monster……. Emmaline being so nice and comforting is too much and Sam ends up giving in and they find physical comfort in each other……….. Valentine and Jonah are wondering where in the world Sam is Valentine cuts herself and has a vision that SAM AND EMMALINE ARE DOING IT AND ALSO SAMS A WEREWOLF and killed a guy. This is understandably distressing…….. Jonah texts Sam being like “Sup”. What a way with words that girl has. Sam gets the text as the phone buzzed off the table and falls to the floor. Sam tells Emmaline that she has to go and she shouldn’t have done this and she is dangerous and also Valentine will be hurt, but Valentine, having had her heart hurt a bit too much by Emmaline and also being super fickle has set her sights on Jonah instead. Emmaline wonders what in the world has Sam so distressed, and by having sex with Emmaline Sam as unwittingly opened up her mind to the psychic. So Emmaline figures out that Sam is freaked out because she is a werewolf…………. And because she killed her mom months ago and this dude tonight……. Emmaline tries to tell Sam that she is powerful and amazing and that she shouldn’t fear or resist her blessing. But Sam is a little freaked out……. Mostly because Emmaline is inside her head. That’s not normal. Sam runs to valentines and Valentine seems to know all SAMs secrets too “MINDREADERS EVERYWHERE OMG” but then Sam realized that

Valentine is just regular kind of smart, and also I guess sort of visiony. Anyways then Sam and Valentine kind of end up in a tug of war with Jonah caught in the middle but she chooses Sam. Sam then leaves with Jonah and they go to her treehouse and snuggle………. Sam promises that if she freaks out again she will go to Jonah, and Jonah promises to be Sam’s girl. Sam figures out that Jonah is a Fae! And then they consummate their affection physically. Meanwhile Valentine and Emmaline are snarking over texts. Eventually I believe this leads to them also having sex. And the spirit bond between Sam and Emmaline is broken and one is formed between Jonah and Sam instead. However, Sam spread her psychic VD to Jonah and Emmaline is all like WASSAP in Jonah’s head and Jonah is all like “huh? Who dis?!” THE FUCKING END. literally.

Hi I had a question.

Hi I had a question.

Hi I had a question. So it has come up in sessions where one player were moving another players stats (based on the influence system) and they wanted to change a stat that had seemingly reached its limit. (I.e. Lower one stat and then Raise a stat that was already at 3 or raise a stat and then move down a stat that was already at -2).

Now the players in one game I’m in allowed this and had the player whose stat was changed just keep the stat at its limit while changing the one “changeable” stat and then having the player whose stats were changed mark a condition. (Ex. robin is changing Starfire’s stats He wants to raise star fires danger and lower her freak. Starfire’s freak is at 2 and her danger is already at three. So the GM says okay. Lower your freak to 1, keep danger at 3, and take a condition.) (or the reverse. Robin wants to lower her Mundane, which is already at -2, and raise her freak, which would put it at three. So the GM says to raise the freak to 3, keep Mundane at -2, and then take a condition.) now this approach does have the outcome of permanently giving or taking away a stat from a player. In the first instance Starfire suffers as she does not regain the point that was taken away from her when Robin lowered her freak. Whereas in the second scenario she gains a point by not having to lower a stat to match the raised Freak.

However, players in a recent game disagreed with this approach and dissallowed players to “change” stats past their limit. Essentially saying you can’t raise Starfires danger only lower it. Or you can’t lower her mundane, only raise it. Which essentially is partially locking the stat in my opinion, which is a benefit that you gain only from taking the advance to do it or using your moment of truth. Also it ignores the directions that if you CANNOT change a stat to mark a condition, with forcing the influencing player to choose to move the stat in the opposite direction than intended or choose a different stat completely.

So my question is which approach is right? The approach that maintains the full flexibility of stats that aren’t locked with the downside of people losing or gaining stat points permanently this way……. Or the approach that doesn’t allow this permanent yet seemingly arbitrary advantage or disadvantage to be forced on a player against their will, and errs on the side of caution with limiting the choices a player has to change another players stats. The way I see it it boils down to whether you give more power to the influencing system at the cost of the player being influenced or less power to the influencing system to try to maintain more of the power over the character to the player playing that character.

My gut says that the influencing system SHOULD maintain as much power as it can…. Power to the influencing player. That’s what it’s there for, their words are hitting you hard, they change you, and that’s what the condition statement is there for. Giving power over your character to another player…… That is always dangerous, but at times it can be beneficial, it’s all in your point of view. Also it gives a danger to having a stat at extremes without it being locked, which I don’t particularly disagree with. If someone has a stat at three that SHOULD have the ability to bite them in the ass. But ultimately, I definitely see the point of both views and I just want to know which is right.