Quick question about players and Gm

[Don D.]

I have ordered MLWM and am looking forward to getting it. From the reviews I've read I notice that the player's characters are often seperate from one another, possibly never even meeting each other in game.
  My question is, would it be possible, in a 2 player game (one player, one GM), for both players to create the Master and both players create their own minion.  At which point one player would set aside his character sheet and play the Gm.  Once that scene is over the players would switch roles (the master would be the same-just a different GM).  This is just a thought I had since I only have one other person who would be interested in playing.

  How well can MLWM handle one player and a GM?  It seems like most literature Masters have only one minion of importance anyways(Igor, renfeld, quasimodo etc) but I thought it might be cool to switch roles between players.

Don D.

[Paul Czege]

Hi Don,

I'd love to see a play report if you try it. I think it undermines the common device of ordering one minion to harm the connection of another minion. I just can't see myself ever ordering the other player's minion to kill one of my own minion's connections if I was playing. But otherwise I think it could work with overt handling of social contract. Specifically, the GM needs to play the Master with enthusiasm for the protagonism of the minions, and with an anticipation of being done in. You can't let yourselves get into using your turn with the Master to again and again put the shaft to the other minion on indirect behalf of your own minion's significance, creating a player vs. player social dynamic.

Paul

[Don D.]

My copy has not arrived yet but I am really looking forward to it.  I would like to try using the alternating GM method but for my first game I will probably do a more 'conventional' game with a single GM and a single Minion.
     Has anyone had a successful 2 person game?  Do you think some alterations would need to be made in the rules for it to work better with a single minion?  

Wished I had ordered the PDF version instead, I can't wait to read it :)

Don D.

[Mike Holmes]

Hmmm. One minion. No, I think it'll work just fine without adjustment. What it does mean is that the only way to strike at the minion, really, is to order it to attack it's own connection. Which I've often asked whether or not its kosher to do. I think it is, but I may have missed something about it. Anyhow, I've had it happen once in my game (sorta by accident, I forgot who was who), and it was a really powerful moment.

Doing that a lot would seem difficult, however. Repetitive. Maybe if the master started out with small injustices to the connections, and built up to having the minion kill them. That might do the trick. Hmmm.

I'm seeing a pretty darn short game, truth be told. The length of the game is proportional to the players playing (and other things like the fear/reason selection). Which might be perfect. I can see getting through it in one cool evening.

Mike

[Don D.]

Thanks for the advice.  I recieved my copy today and read it.  Great stuff and I'm jazzed to play.  Yeah, maybe I'll have the Master order the minion to start by doing things to the connections loved ones (indirectly hurting the connection and making it harder for those overtures to be successful- giving the connection perhaps a desperation die,  if he saw the minion kill her father or whatever). Then building up to the command (possibly near the end of the game) to begin destroying the connections in one blood filled night.  Perhaps that would be the order that would trigger the endgame.  Hmmmm.