Shared MCing Monsterhearts rules

The following is experimental! I came up with these rules after reading lumpley's Edgar Allen Poe's The Raven's Ars Magica: A Quaint & Curious Volume of Forgotten Lore and mulling over the purpose of a dedicated GM in my own gaming. I haven't played with them yet.

At any time, make a common move.

When you don't have a main character in a scene, and everybody is silent, make an MC move.

When you don't have a main character in a scene, and someone rolls a miss, make an MC move.

If everybody has a main character in a scene, anybody can make MC moves, but not moves targeting their own character.

One person shouldn't make an MC move immediately followed by a character move, nor a character move immediately followed by an MC move.

Remember, the game is not a series of moves. It is a conversation about fictional events in which moves are triggered.

Common moves

  • Start a scene from scratch. Turn to another player and ask where their character is, what they are doing, and who is with them.
  • Frame a scene. Say where the scene is, who is there, and what they are doing.
  • End a scene. Ask if it's time to go to something else.
  • Recognize a move. If you think somebody has made a move without realizing it, remind them, and ask them to read out the text of the move.
  • Ask how a main character feels or what they think.
  • Ask about or describe some part of the scene in more detail.
  • Check on a clock.

MC moves

  • Put them together
  • Separate them
  • Tell them the possible consequences and ask
  • Inflict harm as established
  • Enact drastic measures
  • Turn their move back on them
  • Leap to the worst possible conclusion
  • Expose a dangerous secret to the wrong person
  • Take a string on someone
  • Spend a side character string
  • Write a villain Principle and Reaction
  • Start a clock
  • Advance a clock
  • Trigger a villain Reaction
  • Herald the abyss
  • Trigger their Darkest Self
  • Ask, "What do you do?"

Character moves

  • Turn someone on
  • Shut someone down
  • Keep your cool
  • Lash out physically
  • Run away
  • Gaze into the abyss
  • Pull a string
  • Anything on your character sheet

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