Do I roll enough?

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Do I roll enough?
« on: November 18, 2012, 07:13:09 PM »
I  just had my third session of monsterhearts (I'm MC) and the game is great. Its surprising and entertaining and full of awesome character play. It has great momentum and we really enjoy it.

But we dont have very much rules interaction. I called for 4 or 5 basic moves in a 5-6h session. We rarely use strings and never use conditions.

We had much fun with Darkest Self ... that worked great.

So

1) I'm wondering if we play it wrong.

We are fine the way it works - the setup is amazing and when we call for the rules they do bring the game forward. So .. I'm not really asking if we should change our game - its great, we have lots of fun. I just wonder if other MH games run differently and if we might miss something.

2) the way we play the players dont earn much experience ...  with 4 players and 3 long sessions we just had 3 advances.

If the way we play creates less experience than usual I think I should hand out some bonus experience.

Re: Do I roll enough?
« Reply #1 on: November 19, 2012, 12:01:30 AM »
If it's working for you  and you and your group are enjoying the ride and having fun my advise would be don't worry too much about it. So long as your OK with your season probably lasting 10-12 sessions instead of the "more usual" 5-6.Personally, I'd rather have good and meaningful character interaction rather than rapid advancement.

As for our group, we tend to average about one advance per player per 6-8 hour session. So for our group your running on the low side. However, we happen to have some skins in the story that gather XP faster than some. For instance our Ghoul could potentially earn 3 XP from having sex with someone. So long as she'd had sex with them previously and killed and ate them afterwards. It didn't happen but it was a possibility. Our MC also tends to turn us loose as we pair off or form trios and RP amongst ourselves. Sometimes for over an hour, but more usually around 30 minutes or so. So while or games are longer than usual we also spend a great deal of that time not rolling and building a good dialogue.

Re: Do I roll enough?
« Reply #2 on: November 19, 2012, 09:10:37 AM »
Oh, I dont worry too much. :) The game as we play it is great for us - no real need to change a thing. I'm just curious if other people do it differently (esp. in that aspect)


Re: Do I roll enough?
« Reply #3 on: November 19, 2012, 12:04:04 PM »
I think it's up to your players. It's generally assumed that you'll be rolling plenty, because your players have a motivation for doing so (if you roll your highlighted stats, you gain XP). As such, most players will go out of their way to roll as much as possible, and in doing so will force you to make a bunch of hard moves and add more Drama.

Essentially, rolling forces pacing in play, and given the fact that you don't roll yourself, as the MC, the pacing is entirely in the hands of the players. If they want to change that, it's fine. If they don't, that's also cool.

Re: Do I roll enough?
« Reply #4 on: November 19, 2012, 06:32:10 PM »
Hmm ... there we might have something.

The way we play the players narrate what they do and sometimes I say "hey isnt that _MOVE_?" The players rarely or never ask for a move/roll.

It could be because I'm the facilitator (is that the word?) - the guy who owns and knows the rules. But they have all the moves in front of them (I printed them as playing cards) ... so they know what they can do.

Maybe I'm kind of afraid that I miss moves and overrule them and with that I cheat them advances and random play development.

Let me say again that we dont have a problem with the way we play and love it and it works great -- but I really like to broaden my horizon.


EDIT: removed that annoying marquee effect I accidently created. sry
« Last Edit: November 20, 2012, 02:15:24 AM by CoveredInFish »

Re: Do I roll enough?
« Reply #5 on: November 19, 2012, 08:52:10 PM »
Reading your last post it strikes me that we do much the dame thing. Often  a situation comes up during dialogue or in narration and we just sorta gloss over it. Unless we happen to remember that " Hey, there are rolls in this game. And they give us stuff. Well hell. let's roll that."

*

noclue

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Re: Do I roll enough?
« Reply #6 on: December 05, 2012, 02:51:54 PM »
Are the players not turning people on, shut them down, lash out physically, etc? Or are they doing those things and you're just deciding what happens?
James R.

    "There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments and which can not fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance-that principle is contempt prior to investigation."
     --HERBERT SPENCER

Re: Do I roll enough?
« Reply #7 on: December 05, 2012, 08:06:22 PM »
Turning people on doesnt happen that much ... although we triggered 3-4 sex moves in our 15 hours of play. Lashing out happened maybe 2-3 times.

I think it does happen .. and when I clearly reckon that I call for the roll. Sometimes I just give in, see no need for a roll, but when I do so there probably is none justified. Dunno

This just hardens my fear to cheat my players of roll opportunities (not that they complain)?!