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Monsterhearts / Things!
« on: June 24, 2012, 10:34:53 PM »
A while ago, I ran Monsterhearts; the intent was to podcast it. We did, for the first few sessions. (http://heliumbuffalo.tumblr.com/)
Mostly, the game worked very well. But it fell apart at the end of the season, and it left me wondering if the game itself was flawed or if our group/play was incorrect for it.
A few things came up that indicate that perhaps the game wasn't optimized for multi-season play.
In particular, the fact that there are only 9 advancements available for each Skin; this means that if your character hits their 5th advancement (triggering the end of the season next session) and then takes something other than switching playbooks for their Season Advancement, the character will only have four slots left for advancement. This seems like it could very easily leave a character in the second season with no advancements to take midway through.
Similarly, we had a great deal of trouble with the timing of the season finale. The game said that things should be wrapping up in the world by then, so I kind of figured that, you know, they would be. But they weren't, and the season finale felt very awkward and forced; we HAD to resolve all these conflicts RIGHT NOW. In the words of one of the players, it wasn't feral at all, and it kind of made everyone mad.
We elected not to make public the final session.
Maybe some sort of advice on how to handle these things might be useful?
Mostly, the game worked very well. But it fell apart at the end of the season, and it left me wondering if the game itself was flawed or if our group/play was incorrect for it.
A few things came up that indicate that perhaps the game wasn't optimized for multi-season play.
In particular, the fact that there are only 9 advancements available for each Skin; this means that if your character hits their 5th advancement (triggering the end of the season next session) and then takes something other than switching playbooks for their Season Advancement, the character will only have four slots left for advancement. This seems like it could very easily leave a character in the second season with no advancements to take midway through.
Similarly, we had a great deal of trouble with the timing of the season finale. The game said that things should be wrapping up in the world by then, so I kind of figured that, you know, they would be. But they weren't, and the season finale felt very awkward and forced; we HAD to resolve all these conflicts RIGHT NOW. In the words of one of the players, it wasn't feral at all, and it kind of made everyone mad.
We elected not to make public the final session.
Maybe some sort of advice on how to handle these things might be useful?