Monster of the Week Roadhouse: General Discussion – Page 32

Game Geeks #259 Monster of the Week By Evil Hat Prod.

Originally shared by Joey Mullins

Campaign project:

Setting: a 80’s Marvel Cinematic version.

Concept: Group hunts down mutants.

Possible mysteries:

Caliban & Morlocks, Emma Frost & Hellfire Club, the original Days of Future Past saga, The Trial of Magneto, the Horsemen of Apocalypse… all from the point of view of humanity (or divines, or monstrous, or… – “play to find out what happens!”).

Can this work? What are the issues I should be on the look out for?

How well would Monster of the Week work for a game with a GM but only a single player?

How well would Monster of the Week work for a game with a GM but only a single player?

While enjoying monster of the week, there is some areas that should be addressed.

1. The advanced moves prove useless to a game where a majority of the time the game is:

A. One shot scenario.

B. The hunters already have an extensive backstory and history.

What I would suggest is enabling advanced moves for one shot games, especially the advanced kick some ass move, as that is the only way outside of luck to go toe to toe with a monster boss without taking near deadly harm.

2. The failed roll XP reward system is something I do not like. The PC’s should get experience from progressing the mystery and acting their character, hence the highlighted stats in the previous edition was a better mechanic. If the PC’s do well in an investigation through a string of successes, their advancement slows to a crawl. Also failure means the mystery drags on as hard moves and failed rolls means you miss out on valuable information that may progress the plot. How is being shitty on your rolls worthy of an XP reward?

So what do you say about my beefs?

Although I’ve owned the MotW book since last summer, this past Saturday was my first opportunity to play it.

Although I’ve owned the MotW book since last summer, this past Saturday was my first opportunity to play it. I had a blast as a Meddling Kid mash-up of Velma and Daphne.

I picked up the Reinforcements pack this evening, and I have a couple of questions about the playbooks. First, what’s the difference between the originals and their revised counterparts? Is it just the Experience rule? I’m wondering because it seems that most of the other playbooks out there haven’t been revised.

Also, something I noticed with the Meddling Kid playbook is that two of the Ratings options (#1 and #5) are nearly identical, except that one has Cool -1 and the other Cool = 0. Is that a typo, or is it intended to suit a particular style of roleplaying?

You could run a Thundarr the Barbarian game using MotW, AW, or DW depending on what you want to focus on in that…

You could run a Thundarr the Barbarian game using MotW, AW, or DW depending on what you want to focus on in that world. Thoughts?

Idea for a bit of mythology.

Each time a specific spell is cast it gains in power and complexity. Especially as the caster adapts the spell to more purposes.

Normally spell casters create a formula and only use it themselves to limit its growth.

Eventually a spell evolves to being an elemental. Instead of manifesting as a burst of energy or other more or less discrete phenomenon, it manifests as an object or creature. Usually based on the subconscious of the caster or casters. They have to be commanded to do their task or wielded but have some instincts/programming.

Eventually elementals evolve to spirits which often appear human (as their increasing complexity causes them to be viewed more anthropomorphically) like but remain soulless tools connected to the caster.

Spells, elementals and spirits can be dreadfully powerful. Especially if summoned by large groups of people. Or powered by a living sacrifice.

Spirits eventually evolve into beings at which point they gain a soul, emotions and so on. They usually have childlike emotions combined with great power and intelligence.

Patient zero supernaturals are usually former spells. For example the first vampire might have been a curse of illness. Now it reproduces by sacrificing a living person to create a new vampire (which might progress straight to spirit but take a while to become a free willed being). Yuki-Onna was a siege defense enchantment that was left summoned for a long time until she became a being. Etc.

Possible glitch for use magic includes your spell evolving. A monstrous could be a spell once overcast by the expert or spell-slinger.

A spell formula might collapse (it dies) so next time you have that effect you might need to take more time to create a new formula.

Etc.

Hey so I just ran my first motw game a while back and one problem I had was when the player failed a sharp roll.

Hey so I just ran my first motw game a while back and one problem I had was when the player failed a sharp roll. When they failed I had to ask them a question or two so that either the person they are talking to or the monster could find out something about them. The problem is I couldn’t think of any good questions for them to answer and for a good way in the context of the story for the monster to find out about this fact. Could any of you help out with this?

Anyone ever crossed MotW with Dungeon World to get a more Medieval monster hunting vibe (I recognize MotW and/or DW…

Anyone ever crossed MotW with Dungeon World to get a more Medieval monster hunting vibe (I recognize MotW and/or DW can probably do this right out of the can)?

If so, did (or, would) you make any changes to Kick Ass, e.g. porting over Hack and Slash and/or Shoot?

The reason I ask is that I prefer the MotW classes, which break out of the classic mode of fighter-thief-mage-cleric and would like to see for example, a Professional-Crooked-Spell Slinger-Initiate group (if you wanted run something parallel) instead.

Also, the reason I specify Hack and Slash/Shoot is to possibly add High Heroics or Pulp to the mix vs. the gritty realism of Kick Ass.

Am I overthinking it?

Hi all!

Hi all! Looking for a group of hunters willing to brave the night and take on some monsters! A friend and I are looking for 2-3 people who would be willing to commit to a 6-8 week arc. We are both comfortable with the Apocalypse Engine, but this is our first time running MotW. We are planning on meeting Mondays at 7pm CST using Hangouts and/or Roll20. If you’re interested message me or comment here and I’ll get back to you!

If there is enough interest, we hope to get going next week (Jan. 4). We might put it on air so others can witness the tomfoolery and horror!