There was nothing notable about the town of Sioux Falls. It was the kind of place you only stopped at on your way to somewhere more interesting. That's why when a body is found practically torn to shreds, the local police are eager to label it a wild animal attack and move on. If they're very lucky, they might even be right. But that hasn't been your experience. You're one of the few that know the truth about the world -- that ghosts, vampires, and their ilk are more than the stuff of stories. So sure, this might be a one-off animal attack. Or it could be the beginning of much more. And if it is, you're one of the few people with the knowledge and skills to deal with it.
*****
Hello and welcome to my two-shot recruitment!
What is a Two-Shot?
It's two one-shots with connected plots. In this case, one thing that's a little different is that you'll be playing the same character but each one-shot is going to be in a different system. The first will be in Monster of the Week and the second will be in City of Mist.
MotW is a narrative-focused, rules-lite RPG where the players are Hunters, trying to find and kill supernatural threats. Think shows like Supernatural, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and X-Files. It's a Powered by the Apocalypse game, so if you've ever played one of those you should have a good idea of how the mechanics work. If you've never played a PbtA game, the main idea is that you roll 2d6 + some attribute (ranging from -1 to +3). A 6 or less is a failure. A 7-9 is typically a mixed success or success at a cost. A 10+ is a full success.
Characters are made by picking a playbook, going through and answering the questions on the playbook. See the end of the post for some useful links and playbook summaries. The assumption for MotW is that all the characters know each other/possibly have worked together before. Once a group has been picked, we'll go through the Histories section to set up relationships between characters and figure out the details of what brought you to the area.
What is City of Mist?
City of Mist is a role-playing game of film-noir investigation and super-powered action. It is set in a modern metropolis rife with crime, conspiracies, and mysteries. The protagonists are Rifts, ordinary people who became the living embodiment of a legend, their Mythos. While your Rifts may seek to strike a balance between the mysterious nature of their Mythos and their mortal aspirations, the powers within them always threaten to tear their lives apart. They have unwittingly become a part of a secret world of clashing stories, and soon other legends will come looking for them, with demands.
CoM is another PbtA system (see MotW section). Rather than playbooks, you create a set of freeform tags to build your character, which we can talk about more when we get closer to the second half of the game.
Some types of Mythos might be
- a human character whether they possess supernatural powers or not
- a supernatural being, such as a god or a fairy
- a legendary creature or monster
- an anthropomorphic animal (like the puss in Puss in Boots)
And some possible sources that they Mythos came from
- a mythology, such as the Egyptian, Celtic, Aztec, or any other
- legend or folklore, such as Arthurian legend or West African Ashanti folklore
- a fairy tale, such as the Grimm brother’s fairy tales or The Little Mermaid
- a folk story, such as the tales of the lumberjack Paul Bunyan
- a ghost story, such as Bloody Mary
- a famous literary work, such as Peter Pan, Frankenstein, or The Wind in the Willows
- an urban legend, like the Sewer Gators or the Hook
- a real world occurrence that has received legend status, such as Jack the Ripper
I don't know one/both of those systems.
That ok. Both should be fairly easy to pick up, and I plan to teach them as I go along.
Why are you doing this?
I've been interested in both of the systems for a while now. I've also been vaguely interested in running a home-brew thing, but coming up with lots of DCs and NPC stats and encounters has always discouraged me from trying. MotW seems like exactly the kind of rules system that would be easy to tell stories without me needing to come up with all this crunch, and CoM has a lot of story-elements and flexibility that I like. I'm curious to see how I feel about running a game in both systems and how I feel about running it in a pbp format.
Might this turn into a campaign?
It's possible, but as stated earlier, this is a test run. I have no idea how I'll feel about this several months from now when we're done with the two mysteries I currently have. The safest thing to do is to have everyone assume this is a two-and-done kind of thing, and then we can adjust and re-evaluate later if need be.
The Setting
The first part will take place in a small-medium town in a nebulously defined area of New England. You do not need to be local to the area; I have some ideas of ways to get people involved depending on what playbooks are chosen. The supernatural is not publicly known and magic is relatively rare. The second part will be in an even more nebulously located city. The supernatural and magic are much more common, but something called "the Mist" prevents regular mortals from seeing supernatural things (if you've read/seen Percy Jackson, it's the same concept as the Mist from there). Both parts take place in roughly modern-day in terms of technology, though I expect the CoM segment will have more seedy vibes.
- By and large, I expect the players to be the ones taking action to progress the story. If you're stuck or don't know what to do next, I expect you to post in Discussion saying as much. I'm more than happy to provide suggestions or guidance if I know they're wanted.
- Related to the above, I expect players to communicate. If you're stuck or waiting for something (like for the current scene to end so you can do something else), you should speak up. Silence could mean literally anything. If none of the players are posting anything, either nothing will happen or, if it's been a few IRL days, I'll just time skip until when the next thing happens (which might be after the point you wanted to do something if you haven't told me about it).
1) Both of these systems are much more narrative driven than Pathfinder typically is. As such, for it to work well, I need players who's typical post is going to be more than a sentence followed by a dice roll. Link me to some of your favorite roleplaying posts for other characters you've built. If you're new to the boards (and therefore don't have posts to link to), instead write me something in character for the character you wish to join this game.
2) What MotW playbook are you interested in (see below for links/summaries)? Keep in mind that two players cannot both play the same playbook. As such, you may (but are not required to) submit either 3 characters each with a different playbook or 3 possible playbooks for a single character. If you submit 3 characters, you will need to tell me about each one individually. If you submit 1 character with 3 possible playbooks, how does the character change depending on which playbook is used? Since I will be selecting characters rather than players, make sure anybody you submit would be someone you'd be excited to play.
3) Tell me a little bit about the character you want to play. Take a look through the playbook you want and include some of those details (for example, if you're the Professional, tell me a little bit about the organization you work for). You goal, in addition to telling me the basics of your character, is to convince me that they would help tell an interesting story. I personally tend to enjoy internal conflict; I like to see what will happen if I make someone choose between, for example, two things they want, or alternatively, between two things they want to prevent. So consider giving me levers I can pull to create drama or things I could tempt your character with.
4) What Mythos or legendary figure would your character be bonded to for the CoM portion of the game (see the CoM details section for some examples)? This doesn't have to be final, but I would like to give myself the chance to see if I can start working that into the narrative even before we hit the CoM segment. You may also want to set your character up to either complement your Mythos or conflict with it. A suave con man might be complemented by a Prince Charming Mythos or might come into conflict with an honorable knight like King Arthur.
5) What is your experience with Powered by the Apocalypse systems? This won't affect your chances of getting in; I just want to know my audience when I start explaining things.
I plan to keep this open for a little over a week, so I'll set the deadline for submission as Sunday June 14th at 10am US Pacific Time. I then hope to have a decision on characters by some time that night. I have one player already selected (who last I heard was leaning either Monstrous or Wronged), so I'm recruiting four others for a total party of five.
If you want to have a better idea of how MotW works while you're making your character, I would suggest checking out the Basic Moves Cheat Sheet linked below. I'll elaborate a little bit on the moves once a group has been selected. Let me know if you have any questions, and I look forward to reading about your characters!
- Core playbooks
- Tome of Mysteries playbooks
- Basic moves cheat sheet
- Alternative Weird moves: By default, all characters have the ability to Use Magic. If that doesn't fit with your character idea, you can choose to have one of these alternative moves. For example, if you want to be a PI, maybe taking Trust Your Gut makes more sense than Use Magic.
Playbook Summaries
- The Chosen: A once-ordinary person who discovered they have a special destiny, and who has been given the power to accomplish it. The Chosen is good in a fight, with some weird powers. E.g. Buffy from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
- The Crooked: A criminal turned monster hunter, haunted by their past and enemies. The Crooked is good in social situations and has a lot of contacts. E.g. Anna Valmont from The Dresden Files, Peter Bishop from Fringe.
- The Divine: An agent of a higher power, with a mission to fulfill. The Divine is very tough and has been granted holy powers. E.g. Castiel from Supernatural; Michael Carpenter from The Dresden Files.
- The Expert: The hunter who knows all about monsters and magic. The Expert knows a lot of hidden secrets and how to find out more, and also has a well-supplied base to work from. E.g. Bobby Singer from Supernatural; Rupert Giles from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
- The Flake: A conspiracy theorist. The Flake is great at finding things out and seeing how the events of separate mysteries are connected. E.g. Agent Mulder or the Lone Gunmen from The X-Files.
- The Initiate: A member of an ancient monster-slaying Sect, trained to fight and use magic. The Initiate is good with magic, and their Sect provides help (and sometimes problems). E.g. The Wardens from The Dresden Files; Annelise from the Twenty Palaces series.
- The Monstrous: A monster fighting for the good guys. The Monstrous is very weird, and can have a variety of different powers based on what monster breed they are. E.g. Angel from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel; Bill Compton from True Blood
- The Mundane: Just a normal regular person, especially good at dealing with regular people you meet and have to save, and at getting captured by monsters (which can be more useful than you might expect). E.g. Xander or Cordelia from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
- The Professional: You work for an agency that hunts monsters. The Professional is good in a fight, and a good team player. E.g. Riley and the Initiative from Buffy the Vampire Slayer; Olivia Dunham from Fringe.
- The Spell-Slinger: A trained wizard, wielding powerful magic in their crusade against evil. The Spell-slinger’s arcane training gives them an advantage when dealing with eldritch secrets. E.g. Harry Dresden from The Dresden Files; Willow from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, in the later seasons.
- The Spooky: Has psychic or magical powers. These powers are strange and sinister ... and not completely under the Spooky’s control. E.g. Sam Winchester from Supernatural; Willow from earlier seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
- The Wronged: revenge-driven, and really tough. The Wronged is all about killing a specific breed of monster and protecting others as you do it. E.g. Dean and John Winchester from Supernatural.
- The Gumshoe: The supernatural is just another case for this private eye to solve. A tough, ethical charmer, this shamus is in the fictional tradition that stretches from classic noir characters like Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe to the modern Jessica Jones and Lisbeth Salander.
- The Hex: A witch motivated by the pursuit of forbidden power, using magic more readily—and more recklessly—than other hunters. E.g. Willow during season six of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
- The Pararomantic: A hunter with a loving—but difficult— relationship with a supernatural being. Understands monsters’ intentions and can earn their trust, but puts their own heart, and even mortality, at risk. E.g. Elena Gilbert from The Vampire Diaries, Belle from Beauty and the Beast.
- The Searcher: After an encounter with weirdness, they dedicated their life to investigating the unexplained. Very strong investigator, especially at working out what sort of thing is going on. Not really a fighter, but has some defensive options. E.g. Roy Neary in Close Encounters of the Third Kind, or (historically) Charles Fort.
Dotting.
I've played a bit of PbtA before but not these versions. Let me have a read and see what I can come up with.
Hi, this sounds really interesting! I'm in another PbtA PbP game, and it's a great system. I've never played City of Mist, but I'm eager to read up on it.
I have a question: You made it clear that the plots of both one-shots will be related, and you've implied that at least some of the first adventure's story will inform the second. However, I'm unclear if there's any expectation of player's characters being connected between adventures. Is this a case of playing a PC for the PbtA game, and then re-designing the same character for the CoM game? Or are the characters in the second game going to be brand new characters?
I have a question: You made it clear that the plots of both one-shots will be related, and you've implied that at least some of the first adventure's story will inform the second. However, I'm unclear if there's any expectation of player's characters being connected between adventures. Is this a case of playing a PC for the PbtA game, and then re-designing the same character for the CoM game? Or are the characters in the second game going to be brand new characters?
Good question! Without giving too much away, you will basically be playing the same PC for both parts. They'll have the same memories and probably the same personality, motivations, goals, etc. but what they're good at might change and they'll probably be picking up superpowers from their Mythos. Hopefully that answers your question?
Hiya!
I'm the player who's leaning towards Monstrous or Wronged - both Playbooks would be for the same character, just representing different possibilities/points on her journey. In either case the idea would be that she's an afflicted werewolf whose transformations and bestial nature are more or less under control.
I'll forego her full spiel for now, but give a quick primer on the different ways she'd manifest through different playbooks.
As the Monstrous she has a greater degree of control of her abilities, but is a lot more ambivalent about her predatory side - possibly only working with the group because they've got her on a short leash (so to speak).
As the Wronged her lycanthropy would be on full lockdown at the beginning of things (through some kind of mystical but breakable means), but she'd be Very Aware of how bad things go when she's loose.
What Mythos she'd be tied to would depend a lot on which MotW path she winds up on too.
I have a question: You made it clear that the plots of both one-shots will be related, and you've implied that at least some of the first adventure's story will inform the second. However, I'm unclear if there's any expectation of player's characters being connected between adventures. Is this a case of playing a PC for the PbtA game, and then re-designing the same character for the CoM game? Or are the characters in the second game going to be brand new characters?Good question! Without giving too much away, you will basically be playing the same PC for both parts. They'll have the same memories and probably the same personality, motivations, goals, etc. but what they're good at might change and they'll probably be picking up superpowers from their Mythos. Hopefully that answers your question?
It does, thank you! I'll refine my concept a bit more and then review which playbooks will suit it.
Interesting...
Interested as well. No prior experience with PbtA, but always up to try other systems.
I will prepare a proper submission later this week.
So far I'm leaning towards the mundane…would someone who believes they have some sort of supernatural skill (but don't and are actually mundane) fit the playbook? I had in mind something like a high school teacher who's really into astrology or i ching and firmly believes that it can help facing monsters and the weird. Would probably replace use magic with empath or sensitive.
I'm interested in submitting. I'm thinking of a Spooky character.
So far I'm leaning towards the mundane…would someone who believes they have some sort of supernatural skill (but don't and are actually mundane) fit the playbook? I had in mind something like a high school teacher who's really into astrology or i ching and firmly believes that it can help facing monsters and the weird. Would probably replace use magic with empath or sensitive.
Makes sense to me. One interesting thing about the Mundane is that typically in MotW, you get experience by failing rolls. The Mundane can also get XP when they wander off by themselves or when they get captured by the monster, so thinking you have powers when you don't could certainly explain that impulse if you end up taking either of those moves.
Devin Cerrone – The Spell-Slinger
Ch: -1, Co: +1, Sh: +1, Th: 0, Wd: +2
Combat Magic:
Base – Ball (1-harm magic area close obvious loud), Wall (1-harm magic barrier close 1-armor obvious loud)
Effect – Force: Add +1 harm forceful to base, +1 armor to Wall
Moves:
Tools and Techniques: Foci, Gestures, Incantations
Advanced Arcane Training: If you have two of your three Tools and Techniques at the ready you don’t need the third.
Could’ve Been Worse: When you miss with ‘use magic’ you can choose one of the following options instead of losing control of the magic
- Fizzle: The preparations and materials for the spell are ruined. You’ll have to start over from scratch with the prep time doubled.
- This is Gonna Suck: The effect happens, but you trigger all of the glitches but one
Practitioner: Choose two effects available to you under ‘use magic’. Take +1 to ‘use magic’ whenever you choose one of those effects. (Do one thing beyond human limitations, Heal 1-harm from an injury, cure a disease, or neutralize a poison.)
Gear: Heirloom Sword (2-harm hand messy)
So thats the crunchy/mechanical bits, background and personality stuff is more dependent what else is going on with the group.
Here is my submission for a Spooky.
Charm-1, Cool-1, Sharp+2, Tough=0, Weird+2
Man, shadowed eyes, goth clothes
Gear: 9mm (2-harm close loud), Shotgun (3-harm close messy)
The Dark Side: Secrets, Dark bargain, Hallucinations
Moves
The Sight: You can see the invisible, especially spirits and magical influences. You may communicate with (maybe even make deals with) the spirits you see, and they give you more opportunities to spot clues when you investigate a mystery.
Tune In: You can attune your mind to a monster or minion. Roll +Weird. On a 10+, hold 3. On a 7-9, hold 1. On a miss, the monster becomes aware of you. Spend one hold to ask the Keeper one of the following questions, and gain +1 ongoing while acting
on the answers:
• Where is the creature right now?
• What is it planning to do right now?
• Who is it going to attack next?
• Who does it regard as the biggest threat?
• How can I attract its attention?
Jinx: You can encourage coincidences to occur, the way you want. When you jinx a target, roll +Weird.
On a 10+ hold 2 and on a 7-9 hold 1. On a miss, the Keeper holds 2 over you to be used in the same way.
Spend your hold to:
• Interfere with a hunter, giving them -1 forward.
• Help a hunter, giving them +1 forward, by interfering with their enemy.
• Interfere with what a monster, minion, or bystander is trying to do.
• Inflict 1-harm on the target due to an accident.
• The target finds something you left for them.
• The target loses something that you will soon find.
Alfie was born, for reasons unknown, with a natural talent to see spirits, some benevolent and some malevolent. The streets of the spirit world are as familiar to him as the streets of the physical one. He makes a living as a medium, often far more successful at his job than his clients would have wanted.
Eminently unprejudiced, he has never treated spirits differently than other human beings. Which is why both humans and spirits treat him as an oddball.
Alfie is starting to feel the effects of old age, which for him includes a loss of sight, hearing and possibly corporeality.
One general note to everyone: each playbook outlines a set of choices to compose of your "look". Treat these as inspirational suggestions. You can use them or you can completely ignore them.
- The fact that magic is real isn't widely known. How did you come to know about it? What then pushed you to learn how to wield it? Do you have a teacher or are you self-taught?
- Your spells need foci, gestures, and incantations. What happened in your past that made you decide you needed extra training to reduce that to just two?
- Whose sword are you carrying about and why did they have it? What significance does it hold to you/the person you inherited it from?
These are just meant to be ideas to get you thinking more about who Devin is and how he got to the person he is today. If their answers don't interest you, feel free to come up with details that do. Or if a question gives you an idea for some other detail that you think would be cool, feel free to talk about that.
It also sounds like you're expecting Alfie to be on the older side of things if he's starting to lose his vision/hearing. What sort of things has he been up to up until now besides from job as a medium? Does he have a family? Has he had to deal with monsters or perhaps malevolent spirits before? Who did he make his dark bargain with and what did he gain? Or perhaps someone else made a dark bargain on his behalf and that's why he sees spirits? Or does he just have a tendency to make dark bargains with the spirits he sees (and what kind of things does he try to bargain for)? How do you see the other aspects of your Dark Side coming into play? Do you try to seek out secrets or do you have a dark secret of your own that you're protecting?
You don't necessarily have to answer all those questions (I know I put a lot); I'm just trying to get some more details about who Alfie is. I'd definitely like to hear more about his Dark Side since that's my favorite part of the Spooky playbook.
For writing style, you can look at this character from a previous Monster of the Week game. (I never played City of Mist, but read the starter set a while ago.)
For Mythos (sorry, I missed the question earlier): I think it would concentrate on Alfie becoming similar to the spirits he knows, mentally and physically.
He lives alone. Married a ghost 20 years ago, was abandoned a few weeks later, and mostly forgot about it by now, except for a resolute decision not to marry.
On dark side: He doesn't consider his "dark bargain" to be dark; he is well-enough assimilated into the spirit world to understand it from their perspective (like someone born into a criminal organization). He doesn't give in to everything they ask for, but it isn't beneath him to unlock a tomb in exchange for some help cleaning out his shop.
Hallucinations are when he is unable to tell the difference between the corporeal world and the spirit world. The secrets are his research into the occult (for humans) and humans (for spirits).
Submitting Ahmad Elmohtar, the mundane high school counsellor. Let me know in case I missed anything.
Ahmad is a friendly and well-intentioned man (if at times manipulative) who, rather erroneously, believes he can predict the future with astrology. Despite whatever potential that technique may or may not hold, none of it actually works for Ahmad and all successes are either coincidental or due to very generous after-the-fact interpretations.
Mechanically he's focussed on support and interaction with the other common folk.
Though I'm thinking of him as a mundane, he could easily be converted into a searcher, which would simply mean his astrology stuff actually works. I could also downplay his friendliness and dig deeper into the trauma to make him a flake.
---
Ahmad Elmohtar, the only child of an immigrant egyptian family, is the counselor at Sioux Falls High School, doing his best to help children and teenagers of all ages -- and generally managing to do so, even if his wards will be loathe to admit it at times. The other inhabitants of the town tend to see him as a dependable and trustworthy person; indeed, they often note how Ahmad seems to know exactly what people are feeling, sometimes without anything more than a quick look or a brief stutter, and is relentless in his attempts at helping them in whatever way he can.
When his father died in a freak accident at a construction site, Ahmad struggled with coming to terms with a world built on cruel randomness. As if to regain some sense of control and ownership over his own life, the then teenaged Ahmad dove headfirst into whatever divination techniques he would find on the internet, eventually homing on astrology as the most reliable weapon in a budding soothsayer's arsenal. He would craft daily horoscopes and charts for his friends and, more importantly, his mother. Whenever ill omens appeared, he would not leave her side for any reason whatsoever, which could be sweet, annoying and slightly creepy all at the same time. His efforts, he believes, were more than rewarded, as she is still alive and healthy, still running one of the few restaurants in town with an iron grip.
Now that he is nearing his thirties, Ahmad knows that not all people understand his valiant efforts at keeping a finger on the pulse of fate, but that does not prevent him from doing it anyway as he spends a few hours every night charting the stars and destinies of those he cares for. This activity has become even more urgent after he became aware of the existence of monsters: he may not be able to shoot fire from his fingers nor is he some sort of professional hunter, but he knows that the glimpses of the future he uncovers can make the difference between life and death.
Ahmad has a fairly dark complexion, dark eyes, quick smile and usually wears jeans and shirts. He's just a bit overweight and actually thinks that it suits him really well.
Once we get to the second playbook, I was thinking Ahmad's wildest dreams would sort of concretise, as he would embody the egyptian soothsayer Tiresias. On the upside, this would probably give him some divination powers and/or some limited shape-shifting (since Tiresias lived both as a woman and a man), but on the downside his eyesight might worsen drastically and there's a bit of a funny thing going on with snakes too, which could destabilise/distract him just like in the myth.
Not sure how exactly he would react to suddenly having actual powers. He could struggle even more with his manipulative side or perhaps become desperate due the realisation that knowing something will happen does not necessarily allow him to change things.
---
moves
1. oops
2. the power of heart
3. let's get out of here
weird move
empath
stats
// line #2
[Charm+2, Cool-1, Sharp+1, Tough+1, Weird=0]
gear
// 2 mundane weapons + 1 means of transport
1. multitool
2. small handgun
1. van
moves
1. first encounter: psychic event
2. fellow believer
3. just another day
weird move
sensitive
stats
// line #3
[Charm+2, Cool=0, Sharp-1, Tough+1, Weird+1]
gear
// laptop, car, camera, binoculars, 2 investigation tools, 1 self-defence
1. maps, blueprints, building reports
2. a bag of cameras and microphones
1. heavy flashlight
---
Two from a campy elven witch:
https://paizo.com/campaigns/TheNebtensDemand/gameplay&page=34#1671
https://paizo.com/campaigns/TheNebtensDemand/gameplay&page=28#1376
Two from a spiritualist:
https://paizo.com/campaigns/v5748p75ivkov/gameplay#27
https://paizo.com/campaigns/v5748p75ivkov/gameplay#40
Two from a galtan bard/political activist/orator:
https://paizo.com/campaigns/GMGiuseppesPathfinderSocietyCoreCampaignSEASON1 /gameplay&page=11#525
https://paizo.com/campaigns/GMGiuseppesPathfinderSocietyCoreCampaignSEASON1 /gameplay&page=2#71
@Alfie: Sounds good.
How open is Ahmad about his belief in astrology? Asking because you say the town views him as trustworthy and dependable, but in my experience at least, most people don't really believe in that sort of thing. So I'm curious if he keeps it low-key, or if it's more of a "Well, he's dependable but a little eccentric" kind of a vibe.
You mention that he has a tendency to be manipulative. Can you elaborate on that a little? What sort of things does he manipulate people into? I'll also note that if this was a reference to the Manipulate Somone move, "manipulative" has a negative connotation while the Manipulate Someone move isn't really negative. It can be used that way, but it could also be used to, for example, convince an innocent bystander who doesn't believe in the supernatural that a situation is dangerous and get them to leave.
It doesn't matter too much, but I think Tiresias is Greek? Either way, an interesting choice. Especially given that a large part of Greek prophecy winds up being that as soon as you know the future, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
A little over 5 days left for submissions. Hopefully, we get a few more, or I might need to leave this up for another week.
Completed Submissions
- Alfie Afla: The Spooky
- Ahmad Elmohtar: The Mundane/The Searcher/The Flake
Incomplete Submissions
- Devin Cerrone: The Spell-Slinger
Happy to hear you like it!
Answering your questions:
I was thinking he would have learnt early on that it's the sort of thing best kept secret from common people (who are not ready for The Truth™), or at least how much he actually cares about it. So some people might know he's a bit into astrology, but not that he actually really believes in it.
Things would be different with his crew, since they are less likely to ostracise him because of weird stuff.
What I had in mind was the sort of borderline abusive behaviour of an overbearing relative/friend. Perhaps controlling would be a better term? He would have no problem with overriding someone's right to make their own decisions if he believed/the stars indicated that a decision might put that person in danger, but he wouldn't want to antagonise them by doing anything that could be perceived as directly hostile (he cares about them, after all).
Example: if he believes a swimmer friend should fear death by water, he might try convince them to start playing tennis and remark how good they were, which is, in a sense, innocuous, but also a tad calculative and dishonest? How far would he go to "save" that person if gentle nudges didn't work? Is there a threat big enough for him to actively undermine his friend's confidence as a swimmer, thus depriving that person from something they might love?
Well, that's embarrassing. I thought he was Greek, then did a very quick research to confirm something else and saw he was born in Thebes, so was like "oh, I always thought he was Greek, good thing I saw this before I posted and made a fool of myself". TIL that there were two Thebes, one in Egypt and the other in Greece. And, yeah, the self-fulfilling prophecy bit is partly the reason why I wanted a greek seer (had considered Cassandra too =).
@Ahmad: Makes sense. Thanks for elaborating!
Completed Submissions
- Alfie Afla: The Spooky
- Ahmad Elmohtar: The Mundane/The Searcher/The Flake
Incomplete Submissions
- Devin Cerrone: The Spell-Slinger
For the people who have dotted but not submitted or completed their characters, are there any questions I can answer? Or even just further thoughts on what kind of character you'd want to play or if you're no longer interested/too busy? If I don't hear back by tomorrow, I'm probably going to PM you.
Also, unless I get a sudden influx of submissions by Friday, I'm likely going to extend the deadline by a week. While I can run this with just 3 players and MotW doesn't have the same party size/party balance issues of Pathfinder, I feel like 3 players strongly reduces the likelihood of an interesting role play spark between characters. 3 players is also the minimum I'd want to run with, so we'd have no safety buffer if someone needed to bow out.
I plan on submitting a character. The submission is mostly written. I just haven't had time to finalize it.
Awesome, I look forward to reading it! :-)
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Hi, here's my submission!
"I think I was 12 at the time, so about 12 or 13 years ago. I was asleep in my bed. Just a regular bed in a regular house owned by regular parents in a regular suburban neighborhood. I woke up in the dead of night; I'm not sure why. But I woke up with something feeling off. I got up and looked around, not able to shake off the feeling that something was wrong. I had this full-length mirror on the back of my bedroom door, and the feeling was strongest when I looked at it. As I approached, I noticed something standing in the room behind my reflection. I looked behind me, but this thing wasn't actually in my bedroom. It was only in my reflection.
"Looking back in the mirror, it was still there. It was like this giant, scaly egg with cricket legs and taloned tentacles. In the mirror, it started to reach for me."
I put down my fork and push the plate away from me. I don't see the diner I'm in anymore. I only see what happens next.
"I don't know why, but since I couldn't see this thing over my shoulder, I started to warn myself -- my reflection -- about the danger behind it. But the 'me' through the mirror only did what I did. It didn't turn around like I wanted it to. One of those tentacles started to wrap itself around my reflection's shoulders. And when it did, I could feel it's touch on my shoulder.
"I recoiled away from the touch, but there wasn't anywhere to go. I was right up against the wall. Against the mirror. Still, I was terrified, and I tried to move. And... I fell into the mirror. I fell through it. I landed on my bedroom floor in shock. Looking back through the mirror, I saw...."
I have to pause at this point to swallow and get moisture back into my mouth.
"I saw my reflection standing right where I was standing. I was... my reflection was screaming in pain, and the monster -- now on that side of the mirror - -was crawling inside of me. This thing was like three feet tall; it shouldn't have been able to even fit, but it had ripped me open from behind and was somehow squeezing itself into my torso.
"I didn't even realize I had been screaming until my parents came into the room. And their reflections came into my room on the other side of the mirror. But everything was 'normal' after that. They chalked everything up to a nightmare, and so did their reflections. But after they left, my reflection... or what used to be my reflection, I guess... it still did everything I did, but when I'm not facing the mirror, but I can still see it out of the corner of my eye, right? It smiles at me. It's a nasty smile. It does it a lot, but only when I'm not looking directly at it. Maybe it thinks I can't see it. I don't know.
"I never thought I was crazy. Not once. Becaue I remember all those years when I wasn't left-handed. When cars drove on the other side of the road."
I'm still not hungry, but this seems like a good time for a sip of coffee.
"Ever since then, as I lived my life over here, I would notice that sometimes I would see... a version of people that others didn't. Excuse the play on words, but it was like I was seeing a dark reflection of certain people. Someone's really a werewolf? If they pass in front of a shop window, sometimes I can see their other form in the reflection they make. You know how vampires aren't supposed to have reflections? For me, sometimes, they do. It happened a lot when I was younger; less so now that I'm older.
"And here's the thing; here's what makes me tick: Between those reflections, and my own reflection...
"I am scared s~!!less. All. The. Time.
"But when nobody around you sees what you can see, there's nobody to hide behind. Hiding's just not an option. So, I had to fight back. Hunt them down and take them out. Once I knew what to look for, I could see what they would do, and I guess that's when I became a Hunter."
The waitress comes to the table and I nod that she can take my half-eaten breakfast away. I study the man across from me as he studies me in return. I didn't tell him about the things that still trouble me. Thoughts I can barely handle. Was the reflection of myself that got pulled through... real? Is this entire world just a reflection of my own "real" world? Or do I have it backwards? Am I the reflection of a dead boy?
1b) Role-playing examples:
- Here is a recent schpiel from another MotW game I'm in. My Wronged character is explaining how he knows the group's Divine character.
- This post is roleplaying my annoying, uppity wizard out of a phantasmal killer. He'd already passed his save, so this was just color.
- Here is a conversation between my paladin PC and his sister/cohort working in the mechanics of a magical armor that outwardly displays one faith but can be used by another.
2) Playbooks: I'm envisioning The Flake playbook for this guy, but The Spooky could also work. I can develop him to be a bit more experienced to use The Expert or The Spell-Slinger. He would be less afraid of things and more confident in social situations. The Professional strays a bit further from how I'm initially portraying him, but I could make it work.
I'm not that familiar with the Tome of Mysteries playbooks, but The Searcher feels like a good fit, and I could make The Hex work without too much effort. Flavor-wise, The Hex doesn't look much different than The Spell-Slinger.
3) Further information:
My character's name is Oscar Hallward. (I'll create an alias if selected, of course.) He has a compulsion to try and keep everything about himself symmetrical so that it doesn't show up reveresed in a reflection. He parts his hair down the middle, he only wears clothes with symmetrical patterns (or no patterns), and if he receives an injury that leaves some sort of blemish (cut, bruise, etc.), he'll try to mask it in a way that won't show up in a reflection (such as wearing both gloves to cover a cut on one hand).
Oscar is wracked with guilt and uncertainty about what happened to him as a kid. He feels guilty that someone else suffered the fate meant for him, and he feels uncertainty about whether or not he should feel guilty. Is his reflection "real?" And if so, how close should he feel to it? He is terrified about the supernatural situations he finds himself in more often than not, but as I tried to convey in my in-character dialogue earlier, he doesn't feel that hiding or ignoring what's out there is going to help. Tackling the threats is how he copes with all of these feelings. While he considers himself a good person, his Hunting is self-serving rather than altruism.
4) Mythos:
The one that jumps out for me is Dorian Gray. In The Picture of Dorian Gray, the main character has a painting that ages and is worn down by a hedonistic life instead the man who was the subject of the painting. A parallel would be how my character escaped being the victim of a supernatural changeling by giving up his reflection to it. At the end of the story, Dorian Gray tried to reform, but he did it for the wrong reasons. We could play the Mythos as his further attempts to redeem himself.
However, there's a lot of parallels to a modern version of the Bloody Mary folklore should that work better. Or perhaps something to do with portals.
5) PbtA experience:
I have played in one other MotW game. This is a PbP here on the Paizo boards. I play someone who's lost someone they love to vampires. I'm using the Wronged playbook.
As for general PbP experience, I'll add that having GMed PbP campaigns (although not on Paizo boards) and having played in various campaigns on the Paizo boards, I am familiar with how it works and I understand the importance of keeping posting momentum going, and I understand that's the responsibility of both the GM and the players.
I've been playing since 1st edition D&D (barely), GMing since 2nd edition, and have been involved in a number of related, continuous PbPs since 2006. Those aren't on this board, but I am involved in a fair amount of other PbPs on this board. I'm pretty laid back about the rules as a player, and I enjoy playing flawed characters that aren't supposed to be taken too seriously.
Let me know if there are any questions, and good luck to everyone!
I have played PbtA (mostly Masks) for about 2 years, and in addition to playing I watch a lot of actual play of PbtA games.
Playbook and Mythos: Mainly looking at Spell-Slinger although I have several ideas for other playbooks if someone else has their heart set on Spell-Slinger. As far as Mythos goes I have no idea to be honest.
RP example: This Rory my protege from the Masks game
Leaving town before his senior year, believing he was the source of the troubles, Devin now in his twenties, travels around seeking to help those in need especially if the problem is supernatural in nature. A surprising issue that springs up from time to time is that the more formally trained magic users don’t seem to take kindly to people being self-taught, often viewing them as dangerous rogues with no regard for the rules of magic. And Devin liked to bend the rules, he learned to cast while relying on fewer elements and who to mitigate when things go wrong, very important when self-taught. Despite some prejudices in the magical community he was able to glean some knowledge off of some of the more open minded wizards.
Looking good guys, gals, and non-binary personages! Since we now have at least the number I was hoping to recruit, I will not be extending the deadline. I believe I've heard from a couple of people who still want to submit, so y'all still have until Sunday morning US Pacific Time (I said 10am earlier, but it's really more "whenever I get up" which might be a little later).
Either Mythos would be an interesting choice, and you'd have some time to think on it anyway since that's in the second portion. One thing that might help you narrow things down is that in City of Mist, your Mythos is both trying to drive you to complete its story and is probably going to give you some degree of powers. A Dorian Gray Mythos might try to drive you to party or, if you're doing end-of-the-book version, to redeem yourself and might give you abilities to help you absorb/withstand damage. Bloody Mary might drive you to seek escape from your "mirror" and give you the ability to move through reflective surfaces. Though both of those are just off the cuff ideas. You could instead focus on completely different parts of their respective stories.
I would say one big difference between the Hex and the Spell-Slinger is the Hex's Temptation, which is similar to the Monstrous' Curse or maybe the Spooky's Dark Side. Also the fact that when the Hex's magic goes wrong, it hurts other people instead of them. Though yes, you could probably play a Hex-like character using either of those other two playbooks if you wanted.
@ElbowtotheFace: Looks good! Thanks for the extra details. Since the CoM portion is second, you'd still have some time before you'd need to know what it is, but it'd be good to have that mulling over in the back of your head as something to build towards.
@Alfie: Since you also didn't have a specific Mythos in mind, I would similarly suggest you keep in the back of your head as something to build towards.
*****
On a separate note, seems like most of the people who have submitted thus far have a little bit of PbtA experience, but it was suggested to me that I make it clear a differences between, say, Pathfinder and PbtA systems, so people know about them now rather than later if it's not your thing.
PbtA systems tend to be a lot more sandbox-y than your typical PF game. PF, especially the modules, tends to make some assumptions about what the players are going to do/how they do it. In some ways, the plot is already laid out for you, so it's easy to see what you're "supposed" to do next. That is not the case here. I have no plan for how you're going to deal with this monster (or monsters?); I expect you to figure that out. That's what I was alluding to when I said that I expect this to be player-driven. If you find a corpse devoid of blood and two puncture wounds in its neck and decide your next best bet is to go ask Old Man Winters if he's seen any UFOs lately, you can totally do that. Just be aware that the world won't stand still while you do; the monster has its own agenda and if you don't stop it from doing so, it's going to be pushing forward with it while you do your own thing.
Completed Submissions
- Alfie Afla: The Spooky
- Ahmad Elmohtar: The Mundane/The Searcher/The Flake
- Oscar Halliward: Various but sounds like a preference for The Flake
- Devin Cerrone: The Spell-Slinger
- Oscar Halliward: Various but sounds like a preference for The Flake
Yes, I wrote the above as if I was going for The Flake playbook, but if that creates a conflict, I'm more than willing to adapt.
As for who Oscar is talking to in my dialogue earlier, it's undefined. It was just a contrivance to tell Oscar's origin story and submit a roleplay sample. I guess I was writing it as if he were talking to someone from an organization from The Professional or The Chosen playbooks, but it could also just be another Hunter who feels the need to understand him better. If you're going to team up with someone you don't know very well for a life or death situation, you want to make sure they're not going to flake out on you reliable.
I like your ideas for a City of Mists Mythos! I'd want to read the rules before I settled on something definitively. I didn't know how the Mythos affects a player's personality, for example. I think the Dorian Gray Mythos is thematically interesting, but my concern with is that an ability to transfer damage isn't terribly flashy. Glad there's time to think about it.
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Well, so far no one else has expressed interest in The Flake, so I think you're probably good. :-)
And narrative device makes sense. I was just wondering if you had anything else in mind for it.
I wouldn't say your Mythos affects your personality so much as your Mythos wants to re-enact its story. What part of its story is up to you, and you can choose to ignore it (though if you do that too much, your Mythos may start to fade. Though that may be out of scope for what I have planned thus far).
Depending on your definition of "flashy," I wouldn't worry too much about my example ability. Yes, Dorian Gray probably isn't going to be flinging lightning about, but that doesn't mean abilities related to him need to be defensive. Maybe you want to do something around the painting aspect (maybe bring paintings to life?). Or...honestly I haven't actually read the book, so I'm mostly going off of pop culture, but I'm sure there are other aspects you could focus on. Or just more creative ways of using the elements I've mentioned to get different kinds of effects.
If you want to see an example CoM character, here's one that may look familiar who has a Lady Justice Mythos. Though admittedly that may not be the best example because there they're focusing more on his mundane life than his Mythos. But that's also definitely not the only way to do that character (or a Lady Justice Mythos).
About a day left before recruitment closes, if anybody wants to add a last -minute submissions.
Depending on your definition of "flashy," I wouldn't worry too much about my example ability. Yes, Dorian Gray probably isn't going to be flinging lightning about, but that doesn't mean abilities related to him need to be defensive. Maybe you want to do something around the painting aspect (maybe bring paintings to life?). Or...honestly I haven't actually read the book, so I'm mostly going off of pop culture, but I'm sure there are other aspects you could focus on. Or just more creative ways of using the elements I've mentioned to get different kinds of effects.
Well, Dorian Gray sold his soul so that he could party without consequence, so maybe something cocaine related?
(This is a joke.)
Do you like to party?
so maybe something cocaine related?
…snow white? (I'm sorry)
Ha!
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Writing Sample: Here although it’s a touch older. It’s the only time one of my characters has died and I wanted to do something special. This one is a little more recent, and a lot of fun to fo do. It involves a member of a special police force berating another officer for treating someone badly because they thought they might be a criminal, without evidence of any crime.
Playbook: I’ve built Rani as a Hex, but the Spooky could work too. She’s heavy into spellcasting, and is infact addicted to it, hence the choice of Playbooks. Another heavy magic Playbook could work as well, but wouldn’t be quite as good a fit.
Character Concept: Rani is intended to be someone who is something of a party face, being charming, cheerful and friendly. She truly wants to be a hero and help people by hunting down monsters. The flip side of this is that part of her motivation is that Hunting is the only job that let’s her use her Magic on a regular basis, and she’s addicted to its use.
Her primary abilities will, not shockingly, involve magic - which is awkward because unlike a normal character, others suffer from her magical backlash (if a Hex). She can both inflict a lot of damage and heal, but both carry...risks. Just not as many to her.
Mythos: I don’t know the system, yet, so I’m not sure this would work, but ideally she would likely be linked to Heka. Heka was originally the ancient Egyptian system of magic, which was eventually built up over the years until it BECAME the Egyptian God of Magic as well. It’s an idea I find fascinating, and would love to explore it a little, how magic can take on a life of it’s own and become something else. Hence the addiction. I imagine it’ll be somewhat akin to the magic taking over as Rani goes, and whether she wrestles back control or gives in will be a big part of her development.
Experience: I’ve run a few games of Monster of the Week, and played a couple too, one online here on Pazio and one in real life. I’ve also played a couple of other PbtA systems like Dungeon World and Monsterhearts, too, which were also fun.
Name: Rani Nakushi Agneyastra Arya
Playbook: The Hex
Ratings
Charm: 2
Cool: 0
Sharp: 0
Tough: -1
Weird: 2
Temptation: Addiction - Use magic for mundane things, regardless of utility. Giving in to this temptation marks experience. Resisting it requires an Act Under Pressure roll. If the situation would call for magic regardless, do not mark experience.
Playbook Moves:
Bad Luck Charm: When using Magic the Backlash rarely affects the character, but instead targets someone nearby - another Hunter, or one that they are trying to protect.
Burn Everything: When choosing to Use Magic to inflict harm you may either damage the area with 3 Harm damage, or one target with 3 Harm Ignore Armour. Both qualify as Magic and Obvious.
This Might String: Use Magic to heal 3 Harm. However, on a 7-9 it also leaves a significant scar, and regardless of scaring the process hurts.
Equipment:
Athame - 2-Harm Hand - Silver - Magic
.38 Revolver - 2-Harm Close Messy.
[i[Casting Tools[/i] - Book of Heka.
Origin
Rani was never the best student in the orphanage she grew up in, but she was charming and pretty. She got along well with everyone, and frankly bar the lack of parents she was quite happy. Averting the stereotypes that television always showed to her, her home wasn’t a nightmare of abuse and horror, and she didn’t suffer woefully at the hands of sadistic adults.
About the only thing she wasn’t fun of was all the Latin lessons. It was a dead language, right? And Rani could already speak English, and her native Hindi. But it was a Catholic run orphanage, and learning Latin was one of the things at least some of there caretakers liked them to do.
All things end, and for Rani her time at the orphanage ended when her Aunt who was living in England finally found out what had happened, where she was and went through the process to adopt her and bring her home. She completed her education, and got a simple but boring job as a saleswoman.
Then her brother asked for her help. Well...a boy from the orphanage, but they considered themselves a loose family, and one who’d gotten his forever home long before her. He’d gone to university and become an archaeologist, and found something. Something he needed help with. Something he couldn’t show people he didn’t trust, he said. Something in Latin. Well...how was he supposed to know those boring damned lessons would ever be important? But Rani had paid attention…
What he had found was a Latin transcription of a far older Egyptian tablet. The Egyptian version was missing, and even if it wasn’t it would probably be impossible to decipher, but Latin was a lot easier. Even the ancient version of the script wasn’t impossible to translate with a little effort.
Or so Rani assumed, anyway. She had no idea what happened that night. She went to the hotel, she went to the room...and the next morning she was sat in the park with the book in her lap, a lock binding the book closed. She didn’t remember opening it, or reading it, but she did know what was in it - magic. Powerful magic. Real magic. Her magic, now.
Returning to the hotel revealed...nothing. Her brother was gone. She remembered the clerk telling her the room number, the night before, but now they had no record of him. No memory of her going to see him, either, or even leaving. She looked different enough to their usual clientele that they’d definitely have noticed. So they said.
No one else really knew where he was, either. Or who he was. It was like he no longer existed. But Rani knew him, remembered him. And she intended to search for him. As she did she found that magic was...useful. Powerful. Enjoyable. She began to look for people who needed help that the authorities couldn’t provide, but she could. After a year or two she headed to the United States, because there were more opportunities to help. With magic.
Appearance
Rani is dark skinned and dark haired, with liquid brown eyes. She’s a shorter woman with a lithe build, and is never the most physically intimidating hunter by any stretch. She tends to wear her hair longer, and in a neat braid down her back, intricately woven and braided with colourful ribbons of silk embroidered with symbols from her Book.
She tends to wear bangles, anklets and necklaces, and prefers looser, lighter clothing - she has an intense dislike of being too hot, and thus sundresses or simple shirts and larger pants are her usual wardrobe, with sandals and other open shoes. Rani also tends to wear lighter, brighter colours and simple patterns. Her makeup tends towards lighter metallic colours, such as bronze and silver, which stand out strongly against her dark skin. As a side note she tends to prefer Jasmine perfume, as it was something she remembers her mother wearing.
Additionally, Rani has a tattoo covering her upper back and left shoulder, a series of golden images and symbols. She has no idea where it came from, as it first appeared after she began casting spells, and can’t read the symbols. Finally, her Book is always on her person somewhere. It’s small, not much larger than a paperback novel although the strap and lock bulk it up somewhat, and can thus be carried in a pocket.
Well, so far no one else has expressed interest in The Flake, so I think you're probably good. :-)
In that case, I've gone ahead and built the character. I'm not assuming I'll be selected, but if I am, it seems worthwhile to have the abilities chosen.
Name: Oscar Hallward
Flake special: When you spend a point of Luck, pick an aspect of the current situation. The Keeper will tell you what other conspiracies that aspect connects to.
RATINGS
Charm=0, Cool+1, Sharp+2, Tough-1, Weird+1 (+2 after the Crazy Eyes move below)
MOVES
Connect the Dots: At the beginning of each mystery, if you look for the wider patterns that current events might be part of, roll +Sharp. On a 10+ hold 3, and on a 7-9 hold 1. Spend your hold during the mystery to ask the Keeper any one of the following questions:
• Is this person connected to current events more than they are saying?
• When and where will the next critical event occur?
• What does the monster want from this person?
• Is this connected to previous mysteries we have investigated?
• How does this mystery connect to the bigger picture?
Crazy Eyes: You get +1 Weird (max +3).
Suspicious Mind: If someone lies to you, you know it.
GEAR
Magnum (3-harm close reload loud)
Watchman’s flashlight (1-harm hand)
Butterfly knife (1-harm hand)
LOOK
Man, suspicious eyes, neat clothes
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And with 5 submissions, recruitment is officially over. I should have another post up hopefully in a couple of hours asking people to report in, I just have to finished writing a few things and actually create the approrpriate threads.
I didn't really feel like picking just one person to exclude, so I'm just going to say that everybody with a completed submission, go ahead and make an alias. Once you've done that, report in on the Discussion thread and dot and delete the Gameplay thread. We're going to get started on filling out the History section of your playbooks.
Thanks, DM!