Der PigDog's PigBlog

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...

 Trigger warning: school shooting Werewolf with a gun, photo by Pumpkin Lizard on Deviant Art, a reference image during the game After last session, I realized I had made a mistake. I shouldn't have asked the other players "What do you want from the other main characters?". My intention was to push the main characters towards each other, but this was wrong. I shouldn't encourage the other players to make any particular decision, or have any particular orientation towards each other. Even apathy is fair. It's a valid move to isolate yourself from the others, play cold, and only interact with side characters. I said as much to the others, and instead asked them two two-part questions: What identity have you constructed for yourself? How secure are you in that identity? What do you want? What do you fear? My inspiration for the first question was Apocalypse World; at the end of every session, you're supposed to ask each player if their character is satisfied with...

We did a bit of a refresher since it had been two or three weeks since the last session . Refreshed both rules and the situation at play. I explained the string economy and asked everybody what their character had done last session. Everybody was, of course, able to remember their own activities, with just a few additions from me. I also read through the list of thematic objects, and asked if everybody was interested in them, and told them that if they wanted another topic dealt with, they had to bring it into play themselves, but that they can always talk about it outside play too. I wanted to revisit some threads that got skipped over last time. Evann's Fae had gone for a walk in the woods with her friend before the party; what happened there? I was interested in her feeling of alienation/inhumanity, and I wanted to push her into some decision about her place among humans. So I had the Green Woman, the Fae's mother, a 7 foot tall naked green lady, freeze time and greet her d...

CW necrophilia Here's the playlist I made and have been listening to as I prep the game: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0ih9SFciZe1a38sHqXWDsP?si=d7552f0144114e5f Played with my partner Misha, our friend Divya, Divya's boyfriend Ken, and our friend Evann. Misha has played a little bit of wargamey DND with me, Misha and Divya have played in the last session of Monsterhearts, and Ken played one session of some kind of DND before. Otherwise, no RPG experience. We spent a really long time -- maybe too long? -- talking about the nature of play, how it works, what the skins do. Ken and Divya (werewolf and ghost, respectively) chose their skins eagerly. Misha was happy with infernal, and Evann eventually settled on fae. The game is set in  Hudson, Ohio, where Ken grew up. 20k residents. Majority white. Educated, middle class or higher. Headquarters of Jo-Ann Fabrics. He did not like it there, and does not want to go back. The seating chart is still a great method of scenario prep. ...

A game of Monsterhearts! Misha, Lani, and Divya. Lani has played a good deal of 5e. Misha has played my vampire game and some OSR. Divya completely new. I explained the concept of the game -- play out the messy lives of queer teen paranormal romance and horror, like in Vampire Diaries, Twilight, and similar. Turned out we had very view Twihards in attendance (actually I was the only one) and the most common reference point was Riverdale. I also explained the medium of roleplay, conversation. You say what happens for things under your authority. In this case, just one character, for whom you advocate, their thoughts and actions. I say everything about the other people and world, though I'll often ask the others to say things instead. We read aloud the principles for the game. We read aloud the skins and everybody picked one. Lani chose werewolf, Misha vampire, and Divya infernal. This got the group buzzing. The skins are such fun! I talked about the dangerous topics we ...