Managed to get some folks into MLWM last gamenight. We didn't quite get through minion creation, but we did a bang up job on the Master and setting:

***

My Life With Master:
The Kingdom of the Blind,
or
“The Eyes Have It”

I.
The Setting

Master: (as yet nameless) Aspect: Brain Type: Collector

A scientist on the bleeding edge- often literally- of the sciences of memory and the soul. Her research has revealed that a person’s eyes record everything they see, and she has devised a special projector through which to play back such recordings. Of course the eyes must be removed and placed into the device, but that is hardly an impediment to a scientist of her caliber. Furthermore, she has discovered that by careful and meticulous grafting of ocular tissues, it is possible to mix and match, piecing together a record comprised of bits of experience from various walks of life.

Needs: Eyes. Specifically, eyes with a story to tell. Also various fluids and ingredients for special preservative formulas.

Wants: To so impress the dean of the Royal Academy of Sciences that he will accept her as the only one worthy of his hand. Or, failing that, to replace his eyes with ones that have been tailor made to see her as the perfect woman.

Outsiders: The scientists of the Royal Academy. Specifically the dean, who has thus far spurned her advances both romantic and scientific.

Setting: A remote central European town, circa 1805, far from the beaten paths, situated between a dark and foreboding expanse of forest, and a brooding mountain range casting a long shadow over the land.

Demesne: An old Victorian style mansion full of blind cats, with a workshop in the attic that bubbles with strange tinctures and hums with arcane machinery, the walls lined with shelves and shelves of glass jars from which a multitude of eyes, singly or in pairs, keep watch on the macabre and sinister proceedings.

Fear: 3 Reason: 3 Starting Love: 1

***

Hopefully I'll be able to pull them together for another couple sessions. If so, you'll hear it here first.

Eyeballs? Ewwww!

I'd like to hear a little bit more about the people in play, how they interacted, and how various details of the Master were contributed. Did one person do most of the work? Were any "parts" of the Master produced through a rapid back-and-forth exchange?

It's cool to see a female Master. For whatever reason, and despite the excellent example in the rulebook, all the Masters in the games I've played (GM or not) have been male.

Best,
Ron

Well, sadly it doesn't seem as if this is going to continue, due to various factors... but who knows? I've got the notes, and we didn't get far enough into it that it couldn't be easily picked up again.

I missed your reply when it was posted, unfortunately, or this would all be fresher in my brain, but I'll try to recall what I can in response to your queries.

Players included myself, Steve, Alexa, and... one other guy whose name I did not catch, partly because he was laying on the couch when we started and kept tossing comments our way until we finally just made him get up and join us. Which at that point he was not at all reluctant to do.

Master creation was as egalitarian as one could ask for, with everyone adding and tweaking as they saw fit. When we dipped into chargen a bit, some people were having a harder time, but progress was definitely made. But there were several of what I now call "fan mail" moments during both parts where someone said something that was *right on* and everyone enthusiastically agreed.

Basically it was a great start, which makes me all the more sad that it probably won't get picked up again. But as I said, who knows? Maybe if we're all in the same spot and stuck for something to play... I will certainly hang on to the notes and have all the paraphernalia handy on game nights.

The part about being able to fabricate composite experiential narratives from disparate eyeballs was a particular point of joy. And everyone was psyched when the couch-guy stated that since the Master needed eyes that had experienced specific things, that one or more minions might be engaged in producing those specific experiences in townsfolk prior to harvesting their eyes. *click!*

I think the part I contributed was the "...and failing that (impressing the Dean), to replace his eyes with ones that have been tailor made to see her as the perfect woman."  Which is pretty creepy, if I do say so myself.

I think couch-guy's minion idea was some kind of door to door salesperson or collection agent or something that would put him in contact with lots of people. Alexa's was a fellow-scientiest lackey who was a genius in her own right, and half looked up to the Master and half wanted to outdo her. She was eyeing "rises from the ashes of endgame" right from the start, which I thought was great.

That's all I can remember, I don't have the notes on me right now (they're in the game night bag in the car).