Monster of the Week Roadhouse: General Discussion – Page 47

Having fallen absolutely in love with Dungeon World, I today bought Monster of the Week.

Having fallen absolutely in love with Dungeon World, I today bought Monster of the Week. I loved what I saw of the playbooks and the reference sheets, and look forward to exploring and eventually playing the game.

I was a huge fan of the short-lived TV series Reaper, and that seems like a good premise for Monster of the Week to me.

My players think this idea is cool, so I figured I’d share it here:

As I’ve already made rough drafts for the next six games, I thought I’d let the players decide what to play next, so after every session they vote. Now, all I give them are episode titles that might spark an idera in their heads, I don’t give any details.

So far, our campaign began with “And then there was one…”, a story about a vengeful ghost that haunted mirrors and choked people to death with rich loam. Then followed “Smoke on the water”, which, af course, took place at sea. An arctic expedition was transporting ice-cores for research, and some crewmen had begun exhibiting strange symptoms. Probably not something you’d want to have hit your shores…

Last game was “Dead as Disco”, beginning with a young woman with her throat torn out, upped to mind-controlling vampires and a grand battle in the end. If I could have made it end in a dance-off in any concievable way, I would have 🙂

Our next session will be “School’s out for summer”, taking place in a lovely, posh British boarding school, and up for grabs for now )until I have some time on my hands to think of more titles) are “Tequila Sunrise”, “Something Fishy”, “Deep South” and a Christmas Special “On the first day of Christmas…”

I recently got the book and I really dig it.

I recently got the book and I really dig it. My one complaint was that the playbooks were more than one page. So, with a bit of work in InDesign, I whipped these up for the core playbooks really quick. I’m sure there’s typos and things, but these are only a first stab at them. Let me know what you think!

So, that Hard Case in my Play-by-Forum game finally applied his Weapon Master move to his three weapons, opting to…

So, that Hard Case in my Play-by-Forum game finally applied his Weapon Master move to his three weapons, opting to change one tag for each.

Behold the glory of his selections:

Chainsaw (3-harm hand messy healing loud heavy)

Magnum (3-harm close reload magic)

Magnum (3-harm close reload far)

I think this impressive audacity should not be tarnished by petty Keeper complaints, so I think I’ll let it slide. Let’s see how that goes.

We were actually chatting about how he might remove the “loud” from the chainsaw to get a lightsaber-like affair, but this… really takes the cookie. Have your Hard Cases ever done similar stuff?

I just gave some advice on what I’ve learned about running Monster of the Week since editing the book.

I just gave some advice on what I’ve learned about running Monster of the Week since editing the book. Thought I’d share it here:

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I would divide the mystery you create into two parts: the setting and the monster.

For the setting, I’d advise taking somewhere you know or something from a documentary or movie you’ve seen recently. An unusual setting that you can describe with authority. In the past I’ve done a Burning Man festival, a Christian themed haunted house theme park and a backpackers.

For the monster, all I’d say is what are you excited about? Like, I did a monster based on the one from The Host after I’d seen it, and then for another game I created a dragon that transformed when you injured it (after watching Pacific Rim).

As for running the game, my main advice is “Be rigorous about how magic is used”. It’s really easy for people to try and take advantage of the “Do one impossible thing” aspect of magic. That can quickly lead to the game becoming a game where the hunters are like superheroes.

I say: Let them have access to superheroic powers, sure … but make it Big Magic rather than the Use Magic move.

Does anyone know of any MotW recorded Actual Plays, other than the Jank Cast one? Can’t seem to find any.

Just watched the first couple episodes of Fringe.

Just watched the first couple episodes of Fringe. Now I’m pondering how I’d tweak the standard MotW formula to handle a mystery like that.

There was no Kick Some Ass evident in the mysteries; the point was to figure out what was going on, then contain the problem before it could spread. There wasn’t actually a monster to kill. Naturally, there was plenty of Investigate A Mystery, and we had techno-flavored Use Magic of a sort.

Any thoughts? Michael, I know you briefly touched on this, and I’m sure that X-Files (if not Fringe itself) was definitely a style of game you had in mind, as a type of mystery to run.

Had a greatly-successful session last night, though I very quickly decided that 3-armor was a very bad idea to throw…

Had a greatly-successful session last night, though I very quickly decided that 3-armor was a very bad idea to throw against starting characters. Even with a dragon. (I should really have noticed that most attacks don’t do that much damage.) I told everyone that I was going to knock it down to 2-armor, especially because the night was growing late.

Next session? I think I have my idea. Two words: scarab zombies. Oh yeah. Now to write them up.

(Also, I absolutely love the Expert’s “Dark Past” move, as a Keeper. The hunters were piecing together who was responsible for a burglary of a Manhattan townhouse. Guess who gave the dragon the idea to raid the townhouse, some time back?)

I’m just now starting to catch up documenting and archiving my MoTW New Orleans Campaign.

Here’s the Intro..

https://vimeo.com/89648233

Fear Powers

Fear Powers

Has anyone come up with a nifty custom move for fear-based powers? I’ve come up with this (which people are welcome to use), but I’d just like to pick other people’s brains.

When you [redacted], tell [redacted] your deepest fear and roll + Hard. On a 10+, you’re OK. On a 7-9, you’re unnerved; hold 1. On a miss, you are visibly shaken up; hold 3.

The Keeper may spend this hold on a 1-for-1 basis any time you attempt to act against [redacted] to force you to Act Under Pressure. You may eliminate any amount of hold by fleeing in a blind panic from [redacted].

Thoughts? I’m intentionally keeping some parts secret in case my players read this. 😉