[tMW]Toshi from 7 Samurai teams up with The Tall Man.

So I ran my first session of The Mountain Witch. The players were my brother Chris, Eric and Eeyore!. I really wanted to have 3 other prospective players, but one cancelled and I couldn't reach the others.

I've played with everyone a few times and were starting to really get into each other's grooves right now. When I asked people what they knew about the game:
Eric: Nothing.
Eeyore!: I know there's a mountain witch.
Chris: Nope.
Me: Well, my name's in the back.

I'm intereasted in making a step-by-step guide that collects the best encounter ideas for the first chapters of a mountain witch game, most of which I've taken from other's actual play posts, which I used during the game. I'll link it up sometime later.

Overall the game went pretty smoothly but there wasn't a big rush to have much exposistion by the characters. This lead to scenes going by pretty quickly (Went through 7 scenes in an hour and a half, but than again I push for a rather punchy narrative.)

I diverted from the rules suggestions in that I had 2 chapters for the introduction.

Trust scores for the most part gradually inclined. Eric was espicially trustfull of the other characters, and by the end of the session had raised his trust in Eeyore!'s character from a 3 to a 5. A scene in which a ronin accused Eric's character of attacking him ended with a stalemate and no evidence pointing either way, but had the powerfull effect of causing both Chris and Eeyore to drop the trust given to him by 1. In the last chapter however, everyone raised trust points for the other characters. I thought; Cool, but I'm going to push for trust being harder in the future with more Dark Fate action.

The Dark Fate use ranged across the board, with Eeyore!'s being focused and somewhat prevelant, Eric's being vague and occasinial, and Chris's being next to none, all of which I found acceptable for the first session.

I pushed for meaningfull choice in several scenes, with the most prominent ending with an "I choose... both!" conclusion, one which I did not find that unsatisfactory.Here's the set up:

Ghosts have stolen items that were important to the characters, and had escaped up the mountain. All of the ronin were chasing them, when they were sidetracked by an ogre preparing to eat a child, and I said stopping to deal with the ogre would mean the ghosts escaping. Two of the players were appreciably "Oh shit, what to do." Eeyore! Stated his character's plan, which was to invite the ogre to drink instead of eat the child(He had the ability "Can make drinking look like a good idea, anytime.") if the ogre stopped the ghosts. Eric's character Aided him by jumped a great distance in front of the ghost's path, and Chris's character helped by translating what was said into Ogrish.

Originally, I considered the ghosts being too far ahead for this plan to work, but I didn't establish as such in-game and didn't want to spoil such a plan. The result was predictably a double success, with one intent spent getting the items back and another freeing the child. I felt the sacrifice of an address of mild premise (When do you pursue selfish actions and when are you selfless?) was worth the address of a main theme (Trust is hella usefull and cool, yo.)

People are all into another session in 2 weeks, hopefully with 1-3 more players added in. My main question pondering being: What are more good ways to question each other's loyalty?