Hey forum!

Just printed out Murderous Ghosts with the aim of bringing it camping in Germany next week, as there will be two of us and making up stories together is something we like to do. I haven't played the game before. Two areas of interest:

1) the game is wired in to a factory setting. However, most of the books is pretty generic apart from the beginning and end. I figure that playing rural horror in a rural setting at night could really boost the creepiness, and I'm wondering if people think that is feasible?

2) I don't 100% understand the draw. Can you add more than one card per draw (a la pontoon/blackjack) or is it only one? Also (possibly answered by first query) If you draw a five or below on an empty hand, you bust, with no chance to layer on another card?

Thanks people.

Best
Alex

I ran my first sesh of AW a few weeks back. I had a good time, and the players were pumped, pestering my disorganised ass to get the next session in motion. But there's an issue that bothers me a bit about the future, and that's scarcity.

We decided to set things in a British town, which had a much more accessible feel to us than the American blasted wastes and bikes post-apocalyptic vibe. (We do have a few bikes: they're fixed-gear pedalled choppers used by lieutenants to traverse the rough streets.) The players were excited and inspired by this, and although it wasn't exactly where my pre-game musing had been, I felt excited too. I think my mistake began here, by not emphasising scarcity from the off, to them and to myself. A game set in an urban location that isn't rubble but merely emptied out doesn't bring with it the same baggage of dirt, drabness  and absence, and as a consequence I wasn't alerted when some facts were introduced early on that for me feel undermining.

Specifically this is around our Hocus. S/he is basically a sex and debauchery cult-leader who holds the cult in sway by regular wild parties set to yammering drum and bass, that gathers huge ecstatic crowds beyond the cult hardcore. I basically nodded and said 'cool' - these were answers to my questions and honest, invested ones that synched with the whole table (we came of age amongst warehouse parties and breakbeat culture), but as we started to colour in, with a party in that first session, something began nagging at me. With cirque-du-soleil style acrobatics, banging soundsystems, strobe lights and sex parties, the player (and to a less extent the whole play group) had it 'all' from the off, at least in terms of what they prioritise. To add to this, when I opened the sesh by asking where the Hocus woke up and what they saw, smelt etc, her player described an opulent flat in a secret location, with satin sheets, prints on the walls etc, furnished by the cult's provisions over time.

For the other characters this has been less of an issue, but this scope of opulence feels like it's given too much from the off; that beyond doling out plasma screens

Lest I seem too dozy, I should point out that I did begin to burrow into these areas:

*I asked questions about how the parties were powered, we agreed on a generator, I pointed out that other factions were likely to covet it. I also made a move that had the generator give out mid-party which on reflection I'm not sure I'm so proud of - see below
*I had the Hocus bump into 2 followers on her rooftop exit from her block, who were proudly seeking out her resting place because they wanted to be closer to her. This didn't negate the secret nature, but did put pressure on it and introduce fiction first implications: if you are secretive, you're going to attract curious, awkward folk.

The last thing I want to do is be adversarial and take away all of their stuff: I feel a bit bad about the generator bit even though it was my hard move and it made sense from the fiction that it wouldn't be in perfect working condition, but due to the savvyhead's roles its forced them into the taboo part of town, which is more mission-focused than I would like. At the same time, it feels like a fully powered pleasure-warehouse in a time of intense scarcity and collapse would be bound to come under intense pressure, from the elements, the envious etc. But on the third hand, I don't want to screw on the players.

I'd really appreciate any thoughts on this. I've seen several people write that scarcity is fundamental to the game, and have that similar intuition. Is having leisure and comfort at luxury levels going to cause problems down the line?

Thanks

Alex