Category: Monster of the Week Roadhouse: General Discussion

First time running (haven’t played either) a PbtA game, after much study (reading several games, listening to tons of podcasts, etc). Been playing trad RPGs on and off since the 70s. I think I get it, want to try.

So just starting a one-on-one play by post game (slack) to get the hang of the system, and the player is taking the Crooked (Burglar) playbook and asking about The Crew move and whether that would help him as a solo player. My first thought is that he won’t need it, but of course could help. We still have a DnD type mindset mostly, so I am sure he is thinking that more people on his side means better ability to survive combat – I get that it doesn’t have to work like that. On the other hand, dramatically that can work too.

But the question is – how to handle allies/teams/crew in the game? I understand the narrative effect that it has – he can have one of his crew distract the guard while he sneaks in, have someone else cut the power at the right time, etc. But what mechanical effect does it have? If he has a crew member distract the guard so he can sneak in, he is still likely going to trigger a move, and then it wouldn’t matter if he had crew help or not. Or maybe, because the crew member helped, he doesn’t trigger a move trying to sneak in and just does it. I realize I may even be asking the wrong question about mechanics, and the answer is that the mechanics just enforce the fiction or something, but I am stuck on it.

Let me give you an example – Crooked has a Crew of “bodyguards.” (say the crooked is a 90lb weakling type and the Crew are his muscle). Crooked runs into a few of the BBG’s human minions and a fight breaks out. If Crew shoot at minions, as they likely would, do I just make the move “inflict harm as established?” I could hand wave the whole thing, one of the reasons trying something besides a trad game is because I don’t want to keep track of hit points for a bunch of bad guys, but I want to make sure the Crew is useful to the Crooked at the same time not too useful, if you know what I mean (maybe it is ok to be too useful, since I am a fan of the Crooked, but don’t want to blow the whole scene is his bodyguards just gunning down the minions. Or maybe I do.). I guess mechanically I just use the keeper moves, but hard to figure out how that will look with a group of evil minions, the Crooked and the Crew.

I know you guys will have some great thoughts on this. Thanks!