For those who just want the highlights, here they are:

• Cole, the chaos ghoul, made another student’s lab experiment explode, probably killing the poor NPC. Cole jammed the door as gas filled the room, to create more chaos, yet when he finally stopped pretending the door was stuck and dragged the unconscious NPC into the hallway he was hailed as a hero!
   
• Jane, our part-machine Hollow dealt 3-harm to an NPC with a Terminator-strength bitch slap in a cat-fight, hospitalising her.
   
• It was subtle, but I really liked that Aurora and Cole shook hands on a promise and both lingered slight, both rolling 10+ on to turn each other on. In the backstory, Cole has had love rekindled in his dead heart after seeing Aurora frolic naked in the woods. Before we even started play Aurora had 4 Strings on Cole, now it’s 5.

• More than anything I loved how the game played, how we all suggested how things could go and how as the MC I didn’t have to strain to come up with where things would go next. Snowballing and chain reactions are awesome.

Everyone was throwing ideas in and relationships in our Home Room were very tangled before we even began play. So much so that I wrote up some ‘gossip‘ based on what we had developed as a group. Here’s our Home Room seating plan, too.

So we have Jane the part-machine terminator-inspired Hollow, Amelia the century-old Ghost, Aurora the hot and dainty male Fae, and Cole the badboy chaos Ghoul. In the book, Joe suggests getting to know the routines of the PCs in the first session so that then you have some ‘normal’ thing to break away from. I intended to do that, but the story got feral

We started with roll call in the Home Room. Jane was already there when the bell rang, watching and emulating others. Amelia was in the back corner, but nobody saw her come in. Aurora arrived after some NPCs and Cole finally rocked up long after his name was called. He bumped into Fat Steve’s desk – poor guy has a permanent Condition – and knocked things off it. He said “Sorry man” and kept going, but then he sat down and as Fat Steve was leaning over to pick things up, Cole kicked his chair forward.

Ms Cavanaugh saw or deduced this and gave Cole detention at lunch time. My players then suggested that the teacher should give some announcements. I like coming up with graphics for games, so I had already developed the logo for our school’s lacrosse team – here’s a zip of iPod and 1280×1024 wallpapers with and without text – so I decided that the girls team had won on the weekend with the jock NPC girl Mags as most valuable player, but the boys team had lost their match. Tryouts were being held today – at lunchtime, to Cole’s annoyance – for new players on the boys team. Also cheerleading tryouts would be after school.

Then things go messy. Cole and Aurora were in science class as lab partners, working on some volatile concoction. Aaron’s lab partner was away so he was having trouble with the experiment. Sam who is trying to be like Cole started a coughing fit at Cole’s gesture and distracted people, including Aaron. Cole dropped something into Aaron’s experiment and soon there were exploding beakers and noxious green gas. Aaron passed out and knocked his head on the table, maybe killing him.

Everyone tried to get out, but Cole made it to the door first and pretended it was stuck. He shouted to smash the windows. Everyone complied, while Mr. Bohr science teacher tried to regain control. Cole was feeding on the chaos. He shouted to one boy, Sanjay, to pull Aaron out of there and over through the window, hoping to cause more chaos as the unconscious boy was dragged over broken glass. He failed his roll to manipulate an NPC so Sanjay still tried to help but then called back to Cole for assistance. Cole pushed Sanjay aside and dragged Aaron the door, finally getting it ‘unstuck’. Cole was praised as a hero as the paramedics arrived.

Oh, an Aurora knew about all this, but tried to get out and ran away into something worse: diving out the window and pushing through some bushes he was confronted with a charging Mags playing lacrosse and pursued by two other players, none of them noticing Aurora. He avoided harm by running away again, successfully making it to the sidelines.

Meanwhile in history class Amelia and Jane were learning about an old haunted house. I asked Jane’s player who else she knew was there and randomly it was Max and Jenny. Mr. Phillips the history teacher was explaining who the house was the site of several murders and there were stories that some young girls had been locked up there and starved. Max is from an old rich family, so the teacher mentioned that his family would have been around at the time and might even know something about it. Mr. Phillips decided then that everyone’s homework was to talk to an old person, a relative if possible, and learn something interesting about the history of Edgegate.

Amelia, normally quiet and unnoticed had latched onto the fact that Max’s family might’ve been around and involved in the murder of the young girls – of which she thinks she is one. She gave him the blamed condition and glared at him for a long time, but she failed her roll on her Unresolved Trauma move, so she was struck silent. Just as Mr. Phillips demanded that she stop glaring, which she didn’t, and that she speak when spoken too, which she was unable to do. She suddenly blamed him too, seeing as he seemed to know too much about this and she started re-enacting her death: starving to death locked in a mausoleum.

So, there she is, quiet little Amelia banging on the walls, screaming silently. Mr. Phillips takes her to the Principle’s office as everyone mutters about what a psycho she is. Jane picks up on this and mutters along with the rest. One the teacher is gone the class start having some fun and Max and Jenny go into the back of the classroom to make out. As the MC at this point the situation had apparently stopped snowballing.

As soon as I mentioned the making out, Jane ran with it.  She knew that normal teenage people shamed each other and spread rumours, so she called out a comment about Jenny sleeping with Sam. Jane was shutting her down, but only got a 7-9 so they gave each other Conditions: Jenny being labelled as a slut and Jane as a gossipy bitch. Soon people were calling for a cat fight. Seeing as this seemed to be what people wanted, Jane complied to fit in. Jenny scratched her for no harm and then Jane – who we established had a mechanical arm – lashed out physically for great harm, dealing 3 harm and breaking Jenny’s jaw, sending her sprawling unconscious across some desks onto the floor.

Sudden silence fell followed by whispers that Jane was “scary brutal” which Max pinned on her as a Condition. He confronted her as everyone muttered about telling the teacher. Jane tried to manipulate Max to keep quiet about the whole thing, but she got 7-9. So I told her that sexual or physical domination would make Max do what she wanted – either get with him or hurt him physically. She knocked him down for 1 harm and told the whole room “You saw Jane hit me first. It was self defence”. Max nodded, and said okay okay and explained the situation as such when the paramedics (from the noxious gas lab up the hallway) rushed into the teacherless room.

Finally, with both classes on the sidelines of the playing field, Aurora started extracting promises. He calmed Amelia down – who had run down here – while turning her on with hand holding and big fae eyes. He convinced her – thanks in part to Lure – to tell him the truth about why she reacted like that and to not tell anyone else. Amelia agreed and awesomely, the truth turned out to be “I don’t know”, which now she can’t use as her excuse to anyone else without breaking the promise.

Aurora moved on to Mr. Bohr realising that he could blackmail him for good grades if he kept quiet about the teacher letting Aaron work without a lab partner, not having enough safety equipment, handling the evacuation very poorly, and so on. Aurora also asked for Cole to get the same good grade. He rolled a 7-9 so Mr. Bohr said that if Aurora could make sure the story didn’t get out – that the other students didn’t talk – then he would give Aurora and Cole the grades they wanted. Aurora agreed and they made it a promise.

Aurora then went to Cole and informed him, extracting a promise for his help, which they sealed with a handshake that turned both of them on, giving them each a String over the other. Cole then sought Sam – nobody knew Sam’s gender or sexual preferences, but Sam seemed to have a thing for Cole, or perhaps that was just to impress Jenny. Anyway, Cole failed his manipulation roll too, so I told him that Sam would help keep the class quiet if Cole gave himself to Sam or took Sam under his wing. Cole chose the latter and the agreement was made.

Then the bell for second period rang.

Insane amounts of awesome fun in one hour of in-game and three hours of real time with basically zero prep. I am impressed and we all loved it. I can’t wait to play a longer session this weekend. Some PCs are going to advance soon, Jane’s conditions will drive her, Cole will soon be hungry for chaos again – and then there’s detention with the sultry Ms. Cavanaugh – Aurora wants to seek more promises and Amelia will decide how to treat those she blames for her death. I hope to see some more PC-PC interactions, and I think/hope some sex moves and Darkest Selves might come out.

Mostly, though, we have no idea what is going to happen so we’ll play to find out, and that is awesome!

One of the Principles of MCing Monsterhearts is to ‘Ask provocative questions and build on the answers’. Joe Mcdaldno, the author, has given some great examples in the text of reasons for asking provocative questions. As soon as I read them I thought it’d be handy if they were pulled out onto a reference card to prompt me during play.

I made this quick reference card, and seeing as it now exists, I thought I may as well upload it for fellow MCs. I’ve included three versions: one sparse, clean one with just the question prompts, a second one with the example questions from the text, and a third that’s just a copy of both in the same document because why not. Enjoy.

Click to embiggen

Obviously, Reverb Gamers is prominent after a month of posts. Some of the other words are just things tacked onto the end of each post. But it’s  interesting to me to see the size of the other words to give myself an idea of the content I’ve been putting out.

Just for fun, here are the Wikipedia articles for role-playing games, magic, zombies, superheroes, cthulhu mythos deities, and Bas-Lag. Click any of them to enlarge. Favourite thing out of this: Batman is hanging upside-down in grey just under ‘comics’.

To be perfectly honest, we haven’t been using the aspects properly. I wrote this system and we implemented it but it’s mostly just used for re-rolls and we only really burn through bennies during tough combats, so compels are easily forgotten.

However, they’ve always been in the back of my head and I have learnt a lot from implementing them but not fully utilising them. We have also just started a new campaign recently and we want to make good use of the aspects. So, I am writing this post as a manifesto of things I’ve noticed that I should be doing more and some pitfalls we’ve encountered. Hopefully it’ll be helpful to anyone else hoping to run a non-FATE game with aspects.

Be Aspect-Aware

Our main problem is we just are having so much fun playing that we forget about aspects. We haven’t played FATE-like games very much, so it’s easy to slip into old habits (especially when the system, Savage Worlds, works fine without them).

Using aspects requires awareness on both sides. The players need to invoke their aspects often and request bennies for ‘self compels’ (playing to an aspect which would lead to trouble without the GM compelling it). The GM needs to compel the players’ aspects often and remind them when invoking could be useful. Having a list of all their aspects really helps.

A great way to remember about aspects is to make them exciting or catchy, like the example in Spirit of the Century, which replaces Strong with Strong as an Ox, and finally the best incarnation: “No one is stronger than HERCULOR!!”.

Don’t have too many aspects, either, and combine where possible. I suggested 5-10 per character originally. 10 each could be too many, if you’ve got several players. For one, it’s probably okay. Mostly, the same aspects will come up over and over with the rest used occasionally. You’ll find which aspects you do and don’t use through play. We had “Amnesia” and “Haunted by Significant Dreams” as two aspects for the current character, but seeing as they’re related we’ve combined them into “Amnesiac Haunted by Significant Dreams”.

Make Aspects Matter

Something I’ve noticed is that the aspects work much better if they’re well-thought out and if there are some solid ones from the very beginning that are core to the character. Last time we introduced them part way through the campaign and it only sort-of worked. You should also introduce them due to changes in the fiction, but be careful to make them usable for compelling and invoking. Recently, my wife’s character gained the aspect “Confidant of the King”, which helps her get audiences with him and hear private news from him, but also makes others jealous of her, makes her a target for the King’s rivals, and she can be sent put into danger just by knowing the King’s secrets.

This new character is also a “Foreign Beauty” which draws people to her, but also marks her as not from around here. This lets her invoke it to seduce or charm someone or otherwise draw attention, while I can compel it make her stand out in a crowd. She has had more people ask her where she’s from that she can count.

She had a dream where she chose to follow the path of leadership and physical power. She now bares the  ”Mark of the Sword”, which helps her summon weapons from thin air and fight well, but also manifests as a presence that compels her toward battle and foolhardy bravery at times. This works well to invoke for re-rolls in combat and to compel to have her fight when talking might be a better option, etc.

If you’re playing a game with a solo PC, it’ll also make a big difference if the PC has an aspect relevant to combat. This is because they can then re-roll missed attacks using a benny, rather than only being able to get a plus one and not re-roll at all. When you’re alone in combat, being able to re-roll can make all the difference.

Aspects shouldn’t all be good or all be bad. Think about the situations you the aspects could be used in. If you can think of a few interesting ways they can be compelled and a few interesting ways they can be invoked, you’re set. If it’s hard to see how you’d use an aspect, maybe you need to scrap it or reword it somehow. Sometimes aspects will sound awesome but actually be pretty difficult to use. Just review them once you’ve come up with them and again after the first few sessions.

Tagging Aspects & The Environment

Scene aspects or environmental aspects are an important feature that was underused in our previous campaign. Now, I want to start every scene by jotting down a few notes about the scene aspects, using similar words as what I’m describing to the players. So, when the player arrives for a midnight duel at the old ruined tower clinging to a windy seaside cliff face I jot down Crumbling Tower, Dark, Windy, Long Way Down. Now, during the ensuing duel the player can tag these aspects for an advantage.

I would advise that when teaching this system to players, the GM should jot down the aspects on index cards and put them in the open between you, so everyone can see them. It reminds the players that they are in an exciting dynamic location, not standing still in a 10×10 room beating each other with swords. If the aspects are out in the open, players unfamiliar with the idea of aspects are much more likely to use them, and it reminds you as a GM too.

One more example: the King’s fiance as requested you to attend her for the day. You arrive and discover that she is a harsh, stubborn, self-entitled mistress, feared and hated by her servants. Remind the PC that the queen-to-be has aspects that can be tagged. In this example, some are pretty obvious: Stubborn, Self-Entitled, Soon to be Queen. Another one the PC deciphered was something along the lines of “Too Good For This Place” and she used this to help her convince the queen-to-be to head back to her own country where people would respect her and pander to her more.

Temporary Aspects

In the above example the PC probably has some temporary aspects on her now too, like “In the Presence of Royalty”. I can compel this one really often, giving her bennies to obey the queen-to-be’s demeaning commands and smile politely as she berates her servants. This rewards the PC but also gives the queen-to-be more power in her realm.

I like the idea of NPCs (and PCs) having a “On Home Turf” aspect when they are in their element (the queen-to-be in her palace, a gang leader in his hideout, a captain on his ship). Giving the PC or NPC this aspect means even if they’re otherwise equally matched, they have an advantage because they know the area or have power here.

Moving onto conditions, Savage Worlds already has the ‘shaken’ condition, so making that also an aspect that others can tag is pretty harsh. I think it’s either one or the other here: it stops them acting properly, or it can be tagged. Not both. However, aspects work well for other things with no mechanics like being Entranced, or having a Busted Leg, or being Lost. If something like this applies to a PC or NPC, tell them they have that aspect until they can rid themselves of it. Sometimes, that’ll be easy and an in game action can do it – like jumping in a lake to remove the aspect, On Fire. Sometimes, it’ll last until they leave the scene, sometimes even after that.

Changes to ‘Savage Worlds with Aspects’

In addition to the above changes of practice, I might also change the refresh rule to be closer to official FATE:

When a refresh occurs, players bring their number of fate points ”’up to”’ 5. If they have more, their total does not change.

This is mainly because with a single player we sometimes dip too low if a fight is going poorly, especially as bennies are used to soak as well.

Also, sometimes, a player will do something awesome in-character that has nothing to do with any of their aspects. Going just on the rules of FATE, I can’t reward this with bennies, but Savage Worlds says:

The Game Master may also give you more Bennies for great roleplaying, overcoming major obstacles, or even entertaining everyone with an outlandish action, side-splitting comment, or other memorable act.

I like rewarding and encouraging this sort of behaviour, I’ve added that back in as an additional way to gain bennies. I don’t think it’ll blow things out too much, and it’ll reward good roleplaying as well as good use of aspects (so the characters can move beyond those words and phrases that define them and still be rewarded).

Finally, I would keep any Edges (and perhaps Hindrances) that have a mechanical effect other than a straight +/- 2. Like, the Berserk edge which is a whole little power of its own, and the Arcane and other casting edges. But things like Attractive, I would just change to aspects.

Conclusion

If using aspects with Savage Worlds works out well (or not) for me over the next little while as we play this new campaign, I’ll post my findings.

Where to go from here? Well, we are going to readjust my wife’s aspects, adding, removing and rewording where necessary. I’ll keep a list of them handy during play, and I’ll work out a list of some scene aspects that come up fairly often, or even just prompts that I can fill in. I may post this if it proves useful.

I’ll also have an index card reminding me to tag and compel. I’ll try to adjust my thinking so that each scene and person has at least an aspect or two. To start with we’ll work with aspects in the open, for the most part, to remind ourselves to use them. Hopefully, all of that will help us make the most of adding aspects to our game.

If LordOrlando or anyone else has any other questions, tips or comments on using aspects, please comment below. I’m happy to discuss. And thanks LordOrlando for inspiring this post and getting my me thinking on aspects again.

Not convinced? Interviews with the developer are here and here. Example of play here.

Read on for why I’ve backed the project and why I think you should too.

Monsterhearts is a thorough hack of Apocalypse World’s mechanics but with a different setting exploring the messy, volatile lives of sexy teenage monsters. Joe’s currently funding it on IndieGoGo and there’s 48 hours left until the fundraiser ends. Back the project at any level and you’ll also get PDFs of Joe’s other games: Gun Thief and Perfect, Unrevised (either of which are worth the prices of admission alone). You’ll also get two bonus Skins (characters/playbooks), the Hollow and the Selkie.

Monsterhearts is a sexy, messy, feral game of teenage monster drama and there are some really interesting mechanics and themes at play. You might think sex moves and rolling to turn someone on would be weird at your table. But in the interviews linked above Joe tells you why the mechanics make these things easier (and less uncomfortable) and could in fact even open your players to new avenues of roleplaying. He also talks about the source material, inspiration and why cheesy fiction equals great roleplaying fodder.

In Monsterhearts you play as sexy, broken teenage monsters, like Vampires, Ghosts, Witches and Werewolves. It’s an awesome game for so many reasons, but particularly because teenagers are so volatile and emotional anyway, but when you’re a monster too, things are bound to get crazy.

Mosnterhearts also has some cool new mechanics like Strings, representing the emotional hold over others that you can use to manipulate them; and each Skin has a ‘Darkest Self’ like the werewolf transformation, the witch hexing anyone who slights her at all, and the fae taking everything as a promise – woe to you if you break them.

Monsterhearts has reached the impressive $10,000 mark in funding. If this thing reaches $11,000 Joe will design and release a new Skin called the Angel. Joe says:

The Angel is about dealing with the fact that you’ve been cast out of heaven. Do you work to redeem yourself, or to punish the folly and impurity of those around you? Is it better to do the lord’s work or follow the lord’s rules? Mechanically, the Angel will introduce new thinking about: the significance of highlighted stats, access to moves, alternatives to sex moves

Sounds pretty sweet to me. If this game (or any of the extras) sounds interesting to you, or if you just want to help an indie game developer out, head over to the IndieGoGo page in the next 48 hours, spread the word and back Monsterhearts.

Moonlighting

Whenever there’s a stretch of downtime in play, or between sessions, choose a number of gigs to work. Choose no more than the number of dice you have in Smarts. Describe a gig then roll your wild die and the relevant skill, like Fighting for protection gigs, Stealth for picking pockets, or Investigation for academic research.

• On a raise, you get profit from the gig you chose; if you get multiple raises that means exceptional success, perhaps extra pay, recognition or connections.
• On a success, you get profit but with some complication (or failure but you got out of it clean: no profit, no fallout, no hard feelings).
• On a failure, you failed the gig and suffer some fallout, like lingering wounds from a protection gig gone wrong, fines or jail time for criminal activities, and maybe someone is mad at you.
• On snake eyes, double ones, you can’t roll for any more gigs this session and your failure was a fiasco: someone is definitely mad at you, you’ve probably lost something you care about, and the trouble is immediate.

The GM should discuss any profit, complications or fallout with you. If you didn’t roll snake eyes, you can now roll again for any remaining gigs.

It’s heavily based on the Apocalypse World version which, if you don’t own the game, you can check out in the free playbook downloads; moonlighting is one of the Operator’s moves. In AW you roll once for all your gigs combined, using the main stat of the ‘class’. I decided I wanted this to be a mechanic any SW character could use, so I’ve generalised it. I also then adjusted it to take multiple raises and critical failure into account, just for fun and granularity.

Gigs can be anything the character has the skill and opportunity to do. If you have a high boating skill and you could reasonably get sailor’s work or own a boat you can ferry people on, that’s a gig. Gambling can be a gig. Most skills should work fairly well.

It’s the profit and failure that require the most thought on the part of the GM. I haven’t listed what the profit would be because it’ll be different depending on how long the downtime was, what sort of gigs the character did, and so on. AW does list some gigs and their profit (1-barter, 2-barter, etc.) but SW isn’t that abstract. Profit can also be information, if you’re doing some research on strange magical runes, or could be connections and friends if you’re using persuasion or streetwise to schmooze with the nobles or bar flies. It’s intentionally left open for the GM and player to discuss.

One last thing worth noting is that regular success comes with complications. I took inspiration for this from AW and the way I like to run my games. It turns the mechanic into not just a profit machine for PCs, but also a story machine for GMs. So, PC, you took a protection gigs and failed? Well, maybe you’re on 2 wounds and the person you were protecting has gone into lockdown: no chance of pay now. Snake eyes? Well, you really screwed up:  2 wounds, the person you were supposed to protect has been kidnapped (or killed) and now the ones who did it are after you too, hot on your trail. No time for any other gigs. What do you do?

Savage Worlds Deluxe has the Interlude mechanic too, but moonlighting is a different flavour. I’m pretty excited about it. I hope you enjoy using it too. And if you do – or have some other downtime mechanics you like – I’d love to hear about it.

Happy moonlighting!

Issue #14 was the extra-big Gen Con issue, and in its pages you’ll find:

• Exclusive Pathfinder content, including two articles by Paizo staff
• The Ecology of the Tengu—in Golarion and in Zobeck
• An interview with 4th Edition D&D lead designer Rob Heinsoo
• Treasure Trove articles with phat loots to improve your game and bring smiles to players
• Paladins, secret languages, and aasimar PCs
• Secrets of Game Design by Monte Cook
• So much more that it makes us dizzy to even think about it!

All you need to do to get your PDF copy is go to the KQ Store, add issue #14 to your cart, and enter the coupon code KoboldWelcome at checkout. Enjoy!

REVERB GAMERS 2012, #31: How would your life be different if you’d never gotten into gaming?

I might have tried to get into video game design. I would have not made some of the friends I have made. I would have met my wife still, but things would’ve been pretty different – we play roleplaying games a lot! I would not have come up with the awesome worlds and ideas that form parts of my worldbuilding and games. I would have missed out on lots of good times with friends, but maybe had different good times instead.

I can’t think of any major life choices that would have been that different. I think I’d still be where I am but who knows? I’m happy that I got into gaming. It’s a huge part of my life, my relationship with my wife, and with my close friends. It lets me be creative, it lets me share stories with others, it lets me explore the worlds that other people make for me.

All I know for sure, is that if I hadn’t gotten into gaming, I wouldn’t be writing this post

Well, that’s the end of the Reverb Gamers list of questions. I don’t know if there’s going to be one for February, but it’s been great having the prompts this month. It’s got me thinking more about my hobby. I hope it’s been interesting. Thanks, Atlas Games!

REVERB GAMERS 2012, #30: What lessons have you taken from gaming that you can apply to your real life?

Plenty of things. Too many to list. I knew most of it already, but roleplaying has enforced those lessons and enhanced my understanding. Some of these things are skills like organising a group, collaborating, time management, catering communication to individual needs, improvisational skills, how to channel my creativity, and so on. 

Others are parable-like lessons. Doing the best you can is all you can do. Sometimes you’ll fail, but it’s usually not the end of the world (usually). You can find and make friends in the strangest places. Friends are important and we’re stronger together. Some people are awesome at things I’m not. Let them help, and help them where my skillset prevails. Cities are amazing places to explore. Reality is often stranger than fiction. Life is what you make of it for yourself. Money and gear aren’t everything. Helping others can be it’s own reward. Don’t judge a book by its cover. Going outside your comfort zone once in a while can be a good thing. Experiment in safe, well ventilated places with someone you trust. Scary things are sometimes only scary because you believe they are. The world is full of adventure, wonder and magic; you just have to look for it. Mirrors are always trouble.

Most of all: play well with others, don’t take yourself to seriously, and have fun!