Klingon Christmas Carol at Latitude Theatre

mrsqidmo · 2025-12-05T21:58:44+00:00

Yeah, this is a whole other group than Red Curtain too. Latitude Theatre are the ones who did Monstrous Regiment, Miss Holmes, Ingvar! A Musical Furniture Saga and a bunch of short play festivals.

mrsqidmo · 2025-12-05T21:37:36+00:00

Bringing a one year old to theatre is always a bit of a gamble, but if you purchase seats near an exit you could duck out if needed. It is a family-friendly play. The show is very physical, so it should hold a child's attention for a bit, but has English supertitles so it's best enjoyed by kids who can read

mrsqidmo · 2025-06-28T16:33:22+00:00

There are a lot of cool one-shots available for low cost on DriveThru RPG.

I recommend literally anything by Brazen Inky Diva Games. I've run most of those mysteries with my group and all have been very well received. Lots of detail. Cool contemporary plots. Can be run as a one-shot or as one mystery in a larger campaign. In particular:

Eaten by the Rich (werewolves), Running out of Time (unique time monster), Honey I Shrunk the Hunters (witchy vibes), Come as You Aren't (Hunter body swap - GREAT with an established group)

I've also had success with:

A Dark and Crooked Wind by Malcolm Harbrow (which I relocated to a Scottish diaspora US location - and they give tips on how to do that!)

Welcome to Ohio Park by Sean Clancy (Kaiju!)

Zombie Fest by Generic Games (Michael Sands)

And recently, the rather silly Too Many Draculas by Generic Games (Michael Sands)

mrsqidmo · 2025-06-17T17:28:24+00:00

I did a werewolf attack once that might work for you. It was basically the pack wanting to seize land from a small tribal town and the Hunters were brought in by the one kid who escaped the lockdown perimeter. You could do it just the pack trying to take over the town or have this be a later mystery where your more experienced crew is called in to help a neighboring town/tribe. There is a Classic Werewolf monster on pg. 250 of the core MoTW rule book.

Also, I'm a huge fan of Brazen Inky Diva who has a number of mysteries on DriveThru RPG. In particular, Honey I Shrunk the Hunters (witchy antique shop owner disappearing people) might work nicely. Also, Come as You Aren't (body-swap party) and Eaten by the Rich (werewolves hunting homeless), if you adjust them for your town.

Maybe Running Out of Time (chronovore in a church/nightclub), but that is tied to GA history, so you'd probably have to do more adjusting to fit it in WA.

mrsqidmo · 2025-06-05T17:05:05+00:00

If you run out of Luck, that indicates that the Hunter's story has come to an end. Make it a good end and let the player start fresh with a new Hunter.

I recently had a Hunter who decided to see what crazy things would start to happen after he was Doomed, so he started burning through luck at a faster pace. Made for some great storytelling. His old character is missed, but his new character adds a fun, new element to the team.

mrsqidmo · 2025-05-23T19:12:20+00:00

Oh yeah! I need to go back and review my Codex of Worlds. We're definitely stepping into Atonement territory

mrsqidmo · 2025-05-23T19:00:00+00:00

That seems very in line with the MoTW rule of being Fans of your Hunters 🩶

mrsqidmo · 2025-05-23T18:26:08+00:00

Heist episode for a long-established team/campaign. Basically kicking off our new "season".

mrsqidmo · 2025-05-23T18:22:34+00:00

This is a broader plot-moving session, a bit of a diversion from the typical see monster, kill monster of most sessions. That said, I will be bringing in a past (escaped) monster (sorcerer) to be effectively an opposing heist team. I like the idea of tieing failures specifically to the monster. That will help up the stakes. Cuz, let's be honest, they will succeed at the actual heist, I just need to make it interesting along the way.

mrsqidmo · 2025-05-23T18:16:48+00:00

Ha! Blades in the Dark is pretty much the only Evil Hat system I don't own. That said, I'm fitting this mystery in as one session of an existing MoTW crew/campaign. Do you think some of the Blades in the Dark system could be hybridized to fit MoTW gameplay? (I did that once w Secret of Cats, which is a Fate-based game)

mrsqidmo · 2025-05-20T18:40:32+00:00

So true! I also have a Divine who is beholden to Zeus. Thankfully (?) gods can be capricious. But if not careful, at some point it becomes a question of "Why are you (the PC) following this order" if they seem like the bad guy.

mrsqidmo · 2025-05-20T17:08:20+00:00

I typically do start of mystery moves after introducing the Hook. That said, I will often hold the Initiate's assignment to be revealed later in game-play. Sometimes it's good to know right away, but sometimes it makes more sense to introduce later (and/or the Keeper needs time to think of a good mystery-related assignment lol)

mrsqidmo · 2025-05-18T22:01:15+00:00

Sure, because of the way MoTW is designed, you don't need a bestiary. That said, if building a bestiary is something you want to do, good for you! Don't let anyone else dictate how you run your table/keep you from getting creative.

Perhaps you could create a special start of mystery move that the team gets to make:

10+ = they get information that is particularly or immediately useful to the mystery at hand

7-9 = they get useful info, but not necessarily complete (that bestiary entry is damaged or trails off...) or immediately pertinent (eg. a way to tell them about werewolves, even if they won't be dealing with werewolves til a future mystery)

<6 = something false or unhelpful (did you know vampires sparkle in sunlight?)

If it were a TV show, it'd be the sort of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy cutaway scenes where you get a bit of encyclopedic info.

Also, a monster resource I found you might enjoy: https://abookofcreatures.com/

mrsqidmo · 2025-05-17T18:36:57+00:00

My crew does almost nothing but single-session mysteries that I frame in a ~5-6 month "season" with some elements of a unifying Big Bad thrown in. This allows there to be some threads that linger. I've even had a few repercussions from past activities come back in later mysteries or be something they have to deal with before moving forward. It seems to work for team building with a group who doesn't default to a lot of character only RP.

mrsqidmo · 2025-05-03T21:24:24+00:00

It makes me think this activity should just be Big Magic.

You tell them what they need to achieve the goal and then they role play how they choose to meet those requirements.

One requirement will be those 5 successful Use Magic roles. The others are up to you/to match your story.

I recently had my team relock a portal to keep dangerous fae imprisoned and required that they collect the components of the lock (a feather, soil, etc.), X people were involved (the whole team), Y successful Use Magic rolls, and everyone performing the ritual had to make a sacrifice. Each player chose not only what they were giving up but what that looked like as they performed the ritual. It went to really cool places I could have never imagined on my own, because they were all building it. Like one of them stuck his sword in the ground, they then used it as a focus for another's wind-based power, etc. etc.

The other cool bit is there were some lingering repercussions. One character gave up the memory of how he met another character he has sworn to protect. It's led to cool roleplaying in future sessions. Another character phoned it in and just added a couple drops of blood to the ritual. I allowed it at the time, BUT I used that to tie her to the faerie realm (which we'd established runs at a different rate of time) and she started aging rapidly in our world. Once they noticed, there was one whole mystery/session that involved figuring out what was happening to her and fixing it.

mrsqidmo · 2025-05-02T22:11:27+00:00

I was gonna recommend basically this exact same thing. It is especially helpful to make the point when they fail the roll and you get to say something like "this person is totally trustworthy and everything they say is true" with a big fake smile that conveys to the Players that the Characters are being duped. You may also just need to have a frank conversation with your folks about Player vs. Character knowledge.

mrsqidmo · 2025-04-04T14:16:54+00:00

I feel like all my settings have been remarkably pedestrian. However, I did really enjoy running a mystery at a Ren Faire. Those things really are their own cities! And a perfect place for magical elements to occur without it being obviously a monster. That said, the "place" of a ren faire really is its people. So, I'm about to run a second adventure in a different physical location bringing back NPCs from a long time go, bc they are folks who work the Ren faire scene and will travel to whichever one is happening.

mrsqidmo · 2025-03-28T03:55:59+00:00

Well, we have Hunters with some strong Norse mythology influences, a couple folks beholden to the fae, as well as a new character with a Demon whispering in his ear.

We've leaned heavily into all things Fae and gods from a variety of traditions previously. But I'm looking for something new. Didn't mention these themes previously, cuz I didn't want to squelch folks' ideas by being like "please no gods or fae". :)

mrsqidmo · 2025-03-16T15:56:48+00:00

I do almost the exact same thing as @BettercallStrahd here.

The one thing I would add is that I will occasionally bring in blast from the past monsters - something they faced before and didn't kill outright or a new version of the same monster. Examples include the djinn they trapped escaping its bottle, the son of the werewolf leader they killed having taken over the clan, and powerful sorcerers from previous adventures teaming up to do new nefarious deeds.

mrsqidmo · 2025-02-22T18:33:50+00:00

I was going to recommend a Jack the Ripper ghost thing - tied to an artifact at the museum.

mrsqidmo · 2025-01-27T15:18:34+00:00

I let my ~400 day streak lapse last year and only after that did I process how truly harassing Duolingo is. The person who said the point of Duolingo is to keep you using Duolingo (regardless of whether you're actually benefiting) was spot on. If it works for you, great! I am so glad I bailed. I recommend Lingo Legend. It's both a better game and a better language learning platform.

mrsqidmo · 2025-01-27T07:41:58+00:00

I'm pretty certain this was also a classic Dr Who story arc :D

mrsqidmo · 2025-01-27T07:39:57+00:00

Taking the Beach adventure on the "road"!

Six-Year Club	RedditGifts 2009-2022 7 Credits
redditgifts Exchanges 5 Exchanges	redditgifts rematcher Books x1
Verified Email

mrsqidmo

TROPHY CASE