Category: Monster of the Week Roadhouse: Mysteries!

More help for my one-shot!

So, as I mentioned here before, I’m doing a one-shot where the players are all famous monster-hunters from media (e.g., Buffy, Harry Dresden, Hellboy, etc.). The setup is a local sf/gaming convention where fantasy has become real, sort of like SplatterCon! from Dresden.

My thinking is that the PCs are really attendees who were cosplaying and who have now become their subjects. However, with no memory of their true selves, I don’t really know how history/relationships and such is supposed to work. What should be done for this one-shot context? Does it matter?

I’m thinking the main villain is the con’s organizer who pulled off some Big Magic that got out of hand. What kind of monster does that make him? Sorcerer? Would it make sense to have a fake-out Big Bad, something created by the con organizer but not the true threat to be thwarted? I sort of like that idea.

As for the minions and such, thematically it would make sense if there were a myriad of different monsters running around, since most of them are transformed cosplayers: zombie LARPers, stormtrooper security volunteers, etc. Is there a “general-purpose” minion I can use for these threats, or should I just craft a few different kinds?

Also, I sort of like the idea of the PCs realizing that since the monsters are really just transformed attendees, they can’t just haul off and kill them wantonly (sort of like Buffy S02E06, “Halloween”). How would that be handled? Should I just add some color to how Harm is dealt, or should the PCs have to actively find ways of defeating them w/o doing Harm?

Any suggestions are welcome.

Anyone want to help me brainstorm a convention one-shot?

I posted a few weeks ago about putting together an all-star team of monster hunters for an event I’m running for Chicago Gameday. I settled on Buffy Summers, Hellboy, Harry Dresden Abraham Lincoln, and Velma Dinkley.

Now I need a monster for them to hunt! Ideas? I’ve played PbtA games before, but never MotW.

I was considering some sort of meta-explanation for why all of them would be teamed up, such as being drawn together across the multiverse in order to fight a similarly drawn-from-media threat. I.e., they are all fictional in each other’s worlds, and thus confused why they are actually together int he flesh.

Anyway, what I need is a Big Bad that would demand such a team-uo. I was considering the idea of a nerd who’s stumbled onto heavy-duty powers bringing about threats from his own media obsessions, and thus why four fictional characters need to team up to fight them, but I have no idea how that would work in MotW.

Anyone want to throw some ideas at me?

Also, any suggestions for handling this offbeat team of media heroes for a one-shot?