[Mountain Witch] Bangs ?

[JC]

hey :)


[I hope this is the right place to post this ... if not, I apologize]

I just bought TMW and I'm planning on running it soon for some friends

but I've never played with bangs before (never played with a Nar CA at all in fact)

and since the players define their characters just before play begins, I'm having trouble prepping

this is a little unsettling for me, since I tend to be a prep maniac :)

so I was wondering if people could give me some examples of bangs they've used for this particular game


thanks !


JC

[Ron Edwards]

I'll tell you only if you promise to post about the actual play. (smiling gently) That's a deal, then.

1. I had tengu stalk the camp of the ronin in the night, and since the ronin all look alike to them, they ask the sentry if he or she is the one who "made the deal." This can be very disconcerting, because it's plain old evidence that someone's been dealing with the Witch. Also, it's fun because anything can happen. The sentry can say, "Sure, it's me," hoping to trick them ... but alerting a not-sleeping comrade that he may have betrayed them, even if he didn't. Or the one who has dealt with the Witch might kill the tengu savagely, to shut them up ... but clearly the damage has been done.

Even if someone doesn't have the "Pact with the Witch" Fate, the tengu in that case might just be making trouble. And just about anything they do, will succeed in that goal.

2. Offer opportunities for "Desperately in Love" along the way. For instance, they can find a smashed palanquin and a dead samurai, evidence of a struggle and abduction, and a lady's fan, and if a character has this Fate, you can bet he (or she!) may decide to incorporate the implied NPC into the Fate.

You can see where I'm going with these, right? Use the potential Fates. You don't know which ones they are, but that doesn't matter. The more raw material you provide which people want to use in developing their Fates for using later, the better. And tensions will skyrocket along the way.

None of the prep you used to worry about so much is necessary. The players will construct their own detailed back-stories with tons of NPCs, and you just need to be willing to use those NPCs as hard as possible.

3. Late in our most recent game, one ronin established that his little son was the one thing he cared about. Cool. I put the son in the fortress ... now apprenticed to the Witch and being groomed as his successor.

Do that sort of thing.

Best,
Ron

[Eric Provost]

Hey Ron,

Is number 2 actually a bang?  I mean, it seems like that's something that could be easily ignored.

I expect to be running tMW for a group of a half-dozen tomorrow evening.  It should be an interesting actual play report, as at least two of them have never played an indie game before and one of my core gamers (Ullyses) has expressed a little... apprehension about the game.

Frankly I'm still having a bit of trouble assembling some cool bangs, as the only thing we start the game knowing about the PCs are their Fates.  It's apparent that my bang-fu is still pretty weak because even considering that all six fates will be represented in tomorrow's game I can't seem to come up with even ONE bang per fate.  Pretty sad.  A little frustrating.

But I'm still working on it.

-Eric

[Judd]

Hey Ron,

Is number 2 actually a bang?  I mean, it seems like that's something that could be easily ignored.

Any bang can be ignored if the player is really dead-set on turtling.

Sometimes ya need a slavering demon to crash through the skylight and sometimes ya only need a red handkerchief in the breast pocket of a condescending antagonist.  Excuse the digression.

[Albert of Feh]

I will also be running tMW in the relatively near future.

Similar to Ron's #1: Midway through, the party is approached by an emissary from the witch, who tells them that his master has made an offer that any of the samurai who brings him the head of one of his fellows will be paid double the reward they were expecting for the witch's head. "Alternately," he'll say, "some other recompense of approximately the same value can be substituted." at which point he will shoot significant looks at two or three of the characters. I don't know which they will be, and it probably won't even matter. I'm just hoping it'll do some damage.

[timfire]

Besides the type of stuff people have already mentioned, something I do all the time is play up the moral ambiguity of the Witch and his minions.

Suppose the ronin have chopped their way through a field of oni, and now face the front door to the Witch's mansion. But standing there is Yuki-Onna or some other servant who says, "Please excuse the rudeness of my lord's lessor servants, a guest of the Witch should never be treated so badly. Their poor judgement will be duly punished. Now please, come inside and have a cup of tea..."

Another thing I like to do is, particularly when one of the samurai are by themselves, is bring in one of the Witch's servants who compliments the samurai and compares the "goodness" of the Witch with the mistrust of the company. "My, you are such a brave and strong warrior! I'm sure you made your former master proud. I'm sure the Witch would admire such skill as your own... unlike those other ronin---such dirty, greedy, good-for-nothings---who never seem to trust you, despite all the things you've done to help them..." Related to this, I frequently bring in minions who have no interest in (physically) harming the characters, but instead just mess with their heads and sow mistrust among the company.

See, if you make the Witch nothing but EVIL, then there's no reason why the characters should leave the company. It's part of your job as GM to make the path of the Witch and betrayal attractive for the players.

One other note---if you're going to make promises for the Witch, you need to back up those claims with actions. In other words, if you tell the players the Witch rewards his servants, you need to reward the character for joining with the Witch. If the players think the Witch will lie to or betray their characters, then it will kill any incentive to turn against the other characters. Making the Witch "honest" also highlights the actions of the other characters, who *will* very likely lie and betray one other.

How's that? Any more questions?

[JC]

Thank you kindly everyone for your input. I think I get the idea, although I still think I'll have the players create their characters a little bit in advance the first time, so I'll have some time to work on some solid bangs.

Just to make sure, here's the formula I've come up with for my first set of bangs:
a)   use the two basic background questions and make the PC chose between furthering his goals in relation to these elements but earning the distrust of his comrades, or sticking with the party
b)   provide the PCs with generic "grabby" situations so that they can develop their Fates
Once I get the ball rolling, I think it'll be a lot easier to come up with stuff based on what the players do with their Fates.
What do you think?

Ron: You've got yourself a deal, mister ;)

Tim: I get your point about making the Witch morally ambiguous. It's good that you point this out because it makes the whole thing a lot more interesting.


JC

[timfire]

Just to make sure, here's the formula I've come up with for my first set of bangs:
a)   use the two basic background questions and make the PC chose between furthering his goals in relation to these elements but earning the distrust of his comrades, or sticking with the party
b)   provide the PCs with generic "grabby" situations so that they can develop their Fates

Once I get the ball rolling, I think it'll be a lot easier to come up with stuff based on what the players do with their Fates.
What do you think?

You got the general idea. The game definitely gets easier to GM as the game progresses and you can riff off everyone's Fates and the rivalries/pacts that inevitably develop. But a couple of other suggestions.

I almost inevitably start the game with a battle of some sort. A battle doesn't require much characterization, so if players aren't sure what direction they want to take their character, a battle allows them to experience the system without the pressure to perform. But after the battle, I make sure to give the characters a "breather" scene to interact among themselves. (That's also a good time to start making "side comments" about how things went.) That usually gets the ball rolling.

I usually include more "grabby" situations in the beginning, because you don't know what the characters' goals are in the beginning. (Very likely, the players won't either---it usually takes players a little bit to decide what direction they want to take.) I still start sowing the seeds of mistrust in the beginning, but I don't push it hard. After it becomes apparent what direction the characters are moving in, then I start pushing the trust thing hard.

In my last game, I had good success with this scene---the characters are travelling up the mountain and encounter the freshly killed bodies of several ronin lying in the path. (Opening up the idea that there are other samurai trying to get the reward money.) The characters also encounter a couple of distraught ronin hiding nearby, who claim they were part of the ill-fated group and were attacked by yet another group of samurai... But were they? Maybe the distraught roin are the attackers? Or maybe the attackers are still around? Why would the other samurai seemingly join the Witch and start killing anyone that attempts to climb the mountain? Were the attackers really other samurai, or maybe just demons in disguise?

Oh---and one last thing, I say this in the book, but make sure you point out to the players that they need to foreshadow and develop their Fates, or else you won't change Chapters. Verbally reminding players has a surprisingly powerful effect on play.