This write up is appearing in A&E #360, the 30th AEnniversary issue. My apologies for any inaccuracies and misspellings -- if folks who were there let me know what they are, I can send in corrections next month. I already plan to mention Michael's comment about how I made a choice, not a mistake.

My Life With Master

In this game, the players create a B-movie Master and his minions. We created the minions of a Master who was trying to recreate the language used before the Tower of Babel, planning to have it sound from a hideous organ build of heads and using the blood and fluids of its victims.

GM and Master: Michael Miller

Ben Lehman: Matthias, a thin thief.
More than Human: Can enter any building, except one open to the public
Less than Human: Cannot speak, except in the presence of a child.
Michael: One of the Master's titles is Child of God.
Connections:
Lily, an adolescent child on the verge of womanhood. How long would Matthias be able to speak to her?
Christoph, the town drunk

Kat Miller: Corpsil, a taxidermist
More than Human: Can make anything out of body parts, except for someone who died on a Sunday
Less than Human: Smells like dead things, except when handling a dead things
Connections:
Samuel, the Smith
Hans, the Woodcutter's son

Andrew Morris: Petra, a strong creature of indeterminate gender who walked with a limp
More than Human: Can track anything or anyone, except for someone who doesn't want to be found
Less than Human: Cannot see, except in the dark
Connections:
Thaddeus the Butcher
Nina, the innocent child

Lisa Padol: Joachim, a scholar
More than Human: Can translate anything, but only if it is written, and only into another written language
Less than Human: Cannot divert attention from written material unless it is covered
Connections:
Hieronymous, the Librarian, a Rival Translator
Tobias, the Cellist
Later: Samuel, the Smith

I realize now that I did not make a weird enough character. MLWM minions are supposed to be way over the top, or perhaps, way under the bottom.

The game plays like a cross between an rpg and a boardless board game, or perhaps a bit of a choose-your-own-adventure book. Each player gets a turn and decides what kind of a scene she wants. There are scenes with the Master, work scenes, and enrichment scenes. Michael's house rule was that no one could call for 2 enrichment scenes in a row. This makes sense, as enrichment scenes increase a minion's Love for his connections, and the Love score is what finally enables one of the minions to kill the Master. This means that a cunning Master will try to bump off the PCs' connections. Besides, he needs them for his foul experiments.

We opened with the Master berating everyone for incompetence and sending them out on various errands. One can try to resist the Master's commands, but at game start, he has a huge advantage. Joachim was sent to steal a copy of a book he needed to translate. He spent some time bickering in a friendly fashion with Hieronymous, who bemoaned the lack of funds that would prevent him from getting new books for at least two years. Joachim then tried to drug Hieronymous' tea. Alas, he failed.

Hieronymous (spitting out the tea): Ptui! You can't even follow a recipe! Oh no! I spat it on one of the books! Get out!

Joachim tried again, this time sneaking in through a window or something. He got the book.

Matthias went to warn Lily that she was in danger from Petra, for the Master craved the voice of a liminal creature such as she, a child on the cusp of womanhood. Lily started out annoyed at Matthias' game, but was convinced.

Lily: I haven't played hide and seek in quite some time.

Matthias: I'll come back for you at sunset. Remember, Petra will come after dark!

Alas, Petra saw no need to wait. She put the startled and struggling Lily into a sack.

Lily (muffled): It isn't even dark yet!

Petra then stopped at Thaddeus' place, mourning her lot. Thaddeus urged Petra to move in with him, but she refused, terrified.

Corpsil was sent to get a pure white cat. She lured one away from the innocent Nina, and stuck it in a sack. On her way back, she met Hans, who was utterly disgusted by the idea of Corpsil delivering a cat to the Master's tender mercies.

Petra delivered Lily and was sent to fetch Nina, as the Master needed more bodies! Corpsil was told to capture Hans when he delivered the wood so that the master could drain him of his fluids. Corpsil protested that Petra had more fluid, being a bigger, um, person. The Master berated Corpsil, who let the cat go when he wasn't looking. Alas, Corpsil could not resist the Master's command. Letting Hans know she'd freed the cat, she lured him into a cage, saying that this was where the wood had to go, then locked him in. She then explained that she was trying to keep anything worse from happening, and she would let him go, but he was in great danger from the Master.

Corpsil: He wants to drain you of all of your fluid!

Hans: All of my what?

Corpsil: Blood! And... stuff.

Matthias tried to steal pipes from the Smith, but couldn't actually enter the smithy, as it was a public place. He broke into the Smith's home and managed to fish away 2 pipes before the whole stack collapsed. He brought the pipes to the Master, only to discover that they were mismatched. Ben did a hilarious job of mimicking Matthias hiding a pipe behind his back as the Master berated him. He was sent to help Corpsil with something, while we agreed that the white cat huddled under the organ.

Matthias was also told to dispose of Christoph, the town drunk, so that he never made an awful racket under the Master's window with what he considered singing. Matthias successfully steered him away, but I gather that, at some point, the Master had Christoph arrested and thrown into jail.

Joachim returned with the book. The Master asked if he were sure it was the correct one, and Joachim opened it to see. Naturally, he then had to read it until the Master covered it. By now, the Master was impatient with Joachim's needs for books, time, all of it.

Master: You are in the way. Do you want to be in the way, or do you want to be in the choir?

Joachim: I want to be in the choir of the only man I have ever met who knows how to use the word "liminal" correctly!

Master: And so you should.

The Master sent Joachim to get the smith to come with his finest sheet of metal to etch the final movement on. Joachim first visited Hieronymous, giving him some books he'd purloined from the Master.

Joachim: I was never here. And, you're still wrong about that semi-colon!

Hieronymous: I will consider it.

Joachim: Then, there is hope!

Hieronymous: Joachim, there is always hope.

Joachim convinced the smith that he would be well paid for this. The smith told his wife and his very large family that this job would save them. They were doing very badly, since a lot of people had left the village after the Master's arrival.

Petra was less successful in her errand, as Nina managed to escape. Matthias meanwhile discovered Lily locked in a cage and tried to rescue her. Alas, he was interrupted by the arrival of the Master, and dove outside the window. As the Master entered, Lily screamed. The Master was delighted, and, as Petra entered, explained why.

Master: Those pure tones! That wonderful set of pipes! Petra, only one thing would improve this!

Petra: What is that, Master?

Master: A duet! Where is the other girl?

Alas, Petra had to confess her failure, and the Master raked the poor creature over the coals and sent Petra off to help Corpsil exsanguinate Hans. By now, Corpsil and Petra had enough Love to trigger endgame if they resisted a command by the Master, so the action started to converge on the room with Lily's cage. As I said, there are elements of the game that are like a board game.

The Master spotted Matthias hanging outside the window.

Master: Yes, Matthias, you are absolutely right! The conjunction! (hauling Matthias in) We have no time to wait for Joachim! We must begin now!

I think Hans was released from his cage. I know Corpsil and Petra entered the room, and Corpsil successfully defied the Master. Kat also got the rare Sincerity die for her roll, as Corpsil admitted that not only was the Master wrong, but she was wrong as well. When playing correctly, the Sincerity die should be rare, and at least twice, I decided that my character just could not be Sincere, even though it would benefit him.

Michael explained that he'd set the scene for the other characters, and from there, we could decide what we were doing. He gave the Master whatever powers he deemed appropriate, and this worked because a) it built on what had been established already and b) the Master can't actually kill his minions. In fact, I don't think the Master can actually kill anyone himself. That's what he has minions for.

He sang a word in the pre-Babel language, and the stones crumbled under Petra's feet. She fell down the stairs, landing at the foot of the torch wielding mob and led them towards the Master. Hans tried to attack the Master, but another word of the pre-Babel language froze the boy in place. The Master called Corpsil his good right hand, and placed a scalpel in her hand, commanding her to exsanguinate Hans.

Matthias grabbed Lily and jumped out the window with her.

Lily: I knew you would save me, Matthias! I knew you would come for me when it was dark!

Matthias: Everything's going to be all right now, Lily.

Alas, just then, part of the mob showed up, and beat him.

Lily: Stop! He rescued me! Tell them, Matthias!

Alas, Matthias no longer had the power to speak. He was tossed in a cell with Christoph, the town drunk. However, Matthias was reasonably content, and beat time to a song for Christoph to sing.

Joachim led the Smith in, took in the scene, grabbed the metal, and told the Smith to run. The Smith snatched the metal, which had not been paid for, back, and then ran. Joachim wound up mixed in with the mob and tearfully confessed to Hieronymous that he'd stolen a book from the Master. Hieronymous forgave him, saying that he knew Joachim had had no choice.

Corpsil tried to kill the Master with the scalpel, but the Master sang another word, and the scalpel vanished from creation. After a last, desperate effort, the details of which escape me, Corpsil, possibly aided by Petra, killed the Master.

We then looked at what endings various folks got. I think Corpsil, Petra, and Matthias got integrated into the town successfully.

Ben: Petra and I get a home together, and we play with the little children.

Andrew: Ew!

Josh (looking over my sheet): Lisa, you don't have an end condition.

Andrew: It's okay -- there's an end condition for when you don't meet an end condition. Your minion goes off to find a new master.

Lisa: Michael, could that be Hieronymous?

Michael: Sure!

Hieronymous: You know, Joachim, the Master's methodology was completely wrong, but his theory was brilliant.

Joachim: His books were lacking. But, if they were combined with your books --

Hieronymous (putting an arm around Joachim): Joachim, let's talk.

And so the game ended. Michael makes a wonderfully scary Master, but I'm not sure if I could run the game well.

Josh, meanwhile, had won an Alhambra tournament before coming to see the end of the game. We toddled off to our room and managed to get a reasonable amount of sleep.

Thanks for the write up, Lisa.

The one thing that was really hammered home for me this session (only the second time I'd played MLwM) was that there is one and only one course of maximum efficiency in the game. Now, I'm not sure if that's good or bad, but it did jump out at me. In order to "win" (i.e. kill the master), you have to go for as many overture scenes as possible, until you're in a condition to trigger endgame, then defy the master like a mofo.

Now, I know MLwM isn't about winning, but, really, which player doesn't want his or her character to be the one who finally stands up to the master? Maybe it's just my competitive nature, but I was angling to be the minion who killed the master the whole game. I didn't succeed in this because of a tactical error (attempting to defy the master instead of accepting his order and going straight to an overture scene) that left me perpetually one turn behind Kat's character.

Understand that I thoroughly enjoy MLwM (I even bought a copy at the con), but this element frustrated me significantly. By making the "wrong" choice in my first scene, I was completely unable to catch up with Kat for the duration of the game, which made things a bit less exciting than they would otherwise have been.

Has anyone else noticed this?

Thanks, Andrew. Yes, this is what I mean when I describe MLWM as a board game with roleplaying elements.

-Lisa Padol

Andrew wrote: Understand that I thoroughly enjoy MLwM (I even bought a copy at the con), but this element frustrated me significantly. By making the "wrong" choice in my first scene, I was completely unable to catch up with Kat for the duration of the game, which made things a bit less exciting than they would otherwise have been.

Has anyone else noticed this?

Steve, I specifically avoided using the term Gamist to describe my experience, because I don't think I was pursuing Step On Up, as I understand the terminology. I was simply being competitive, which is not exclusive to Gamism (e.g. I could attempt to screw over another character, and achieve a personal "win" that way, but I might be pursuing a Narrativist agenda). I don't claim to know all about CAs, though, so I might be wrong.

As to the setting of Fear and Reason, I believe they were at 1 and 3, respectively. Hopefully, Mike Miller will chime in and verify or deny that, since my memory is a bit hazy.

Fear 2
Reason 3
one Innocent floating about

I always keep the levels low at conventions due to time constraints. There were no Horror Revealeds because of this. Also, Andrew, as Steve pointed out, you could have provoked conflict with Kat's minion during your scene,to increase her Weariness, or--and this is particularly nasty--you could have Provided Aid to the Townsfolk in her Overtures. Your extra dice would have made it more likely for the Overture to fail. She still would have gotten the Love, but her Self-Loathing would have gone up as well, bringing her closer to a Horror Revealed, a.k.a. "losing your turn."

Also, there was no requirement that you had to Provide Aid when she resisted the Master. You could have thrown your aid dice on his side. Remember, when minions fight, the Master profits.

Lisa:

Yes, this is what I mean when I describe MLWM as a board game with roleplaying elements.

Michael wrote:
you could have provoked conflict with Kat's minion during your scene,to increase her Weariness, or--and this is particularly nasty--you could have Provided Aid to the Townsfolk in her Overtures.

Lisa wrote:
I realize now that I did not make a weird enough character. MLWM minions are supposed to be way over the top, or perhaps, way under the bottom.

The game plays like a cross between an rpg and a boardless board game, or perhaps a bit of a choose-your-own-adventure book. Each player gets a turn and decides what kind of a scene she wants. There are scenes with the Master, work scenes, and enrichment scenes. Michael's house rule was that no one could call for 2 enrichment scenes in a row.
....
And so the game ended. Michael makes a wonderfully scary Master, but I'm not sure if I could run the game well.

I just played a session of MLwM today after a while (a great success, as usual), so I'm interested in commenting on the boardgamism and one-way-to-victory things. Here's my experience:

At first I read and played the game just like Michael: all players get an order, all players try to execute, all players get an overture, repeat until done. This works for the game, and is wonderfully simple as well, but it also makes the game somewhat expectable.

Now, today I do it differently, and my impression is that this is also how Paul does it: although scenes are framed, the framing is done on dramatic priority, not based on any kind of scheme. Players themselves decide what their character wants to do next, and the scene is framed based on that. Thus you can have more or less scenes than other players, several rolls to a scene, and more or less of different kinds of scenes. Some orders from the Master you can fulfill right away, they're just little stuff, while some require die rolls and/or scene changes.

When you interpret the game in the above manner, there is again no simple "winning strategy", if such a simple way of playing can be called such. Instead, the attention of the players is redirected towards the events of the game, where they belong. Our session today, for example, was very much about whether the minion could manage to win his internal struggle of loyalty and fear enough to free the innocent girl from the clutches of the Master, even when that would mean punishment for the minion. This action is constrained by the numerical scores, not inspired by it; unlike most games, the mechanics are not meant as starting points, but as limits of narration.

One thing to note in this kind of interpretation is that the players are free to try to avoid the Master or even leave alltogether. When the players ask about that, my answer is that if they manage it, sure, they can walk their characters out of the story. It's no different to leaving the session early, really, except that they get to say something with their characters. First, though, they'll have to deal with all the hooks that the Master has set on them (surely he has, for otherwise there's no discernible reason for the minions to be there to begin with). All connections of an abstaining character are doomed, of course.

Another notable thing is the "unfairness" of possibly giving some players more shit to deal with and some players more love, or something like that. That's system thinking, again. The point of the system here is not to meter out player protagonism, because you're not getting stronger by getting more of any statistic. The point is just to keep up with the developing dramatic theme. The brilliance of MLwM is that the reason for adding to those scores and all is to change the constraints your narration is working with, not to give you new capabilities for narration. Thus it's no better or worse to get more scores, even Love; it just means that your dramatic role is changing. Somebody starts as a monster but becomes a hero, somebody starts good but turns ugly, and so on. Those are pretty much player choices: the issue is usually confused, because the character cannot go to the Master and just not do what he orders. The player choice is in little things, in whether to go to the Master or not, when this or that thing is under risk.

So, my method of metering out scenes: the Master doesn't want you to have Overture scenes at all. Deal with it. If you do have one, you'll get punished, and the Master will probably do something petty and cruel to your Connection as well. You can try to hide it from the Master, and he might let you think you got away to see if you'll repeat your mistake. But the second time at least will lead to the Master confronting you and demanding in strictest possible terms that you'll never, ever, do something like loving a girl / giving food to the beggars / visiting your parents or whatever it was that the Overture was about.

But, apart from the Master not wanting it: no rules against it, go hog wild. If you don't return and instead go get the Overture, the Master notices. If you do it twice in a row, he'll send the other minions to get you and kill the impertinent Connection, assuming it's a single one (spread the love around for that reason). If you manage to do it thrice in a row, the Master will do all the absolutely most horrifying fucking things he can imagine to you. He can do it, too, assuming that he had any hooks on you to begin with. If he didn't, the first thing he did at the start of the game was starting to create them: blackmail, hostages, slow-acting poison, destroying your will to live, making the people hate you, giving you power, giving you love, giving you respect and gifts. Whatever gives him the hooks to make you do as he says. If you resist him the third time and go for a fourth Overture in a row (this'll probably start to be some kind of chase story at this point, with you and the Connection running from all the rest of the minions), there's not much to do except end the game, at least for your character; he's effectively out of the story.

Of course, the above assumes that you have some way of blocking the ordering die rolls. Because the first thing almost any Master can do is order you by proxy, which the GM will use if the plan seems to be all-out avoidance. He'll only need the one successful order to get you back, and then he won't let you get far anymore. Because the Master rules over the village, you'll have to get out of the village and by definition out of the story to escape his grasp. He might just step into his black carriage and ride out to you, you know. Assuming you're still playing in good faith, it's perfectly acceptable for the GM to frame the next scene with you and your Connection happily living in your hut, and the Master's carriage driving through the door. Try to escape that, you bastard! You see, the Master can never do anything significant without his minions, that's true. But that rule is very much broken when we're talking about things he does to minions. Towards them he can be hell on wheels. Not that I've never needed that particular technique, the players seem to understand that their purpose really isn't to just sit in that hut gathering Love.

So that's my wisdom for MLwM after tonight's game. The game is much more exciting with dramatic pacing, that's for sure.

Andrew wrote:

Michael wrote:
you could have provoked conflict with Kat's minion during your scene,to increase her Weariness, or--and this is particularly nasty--you could have Provided Aid to the Townsfolk in her Overtures.

I...ahh...hmm...damn, didn't think of that.