Narrative Control Forums

I've run it twice, so no expert, but I remember that feeling of "how is this actually going to work". Luckily in practice it works very well.

I did My Life with Joker, which gave us a setting (Gotham) and some ideas of who might be fighting the Joker (although the Bat never actually made appearances in the game, he was a looming threat).

During character creation you find out who each minion loves and really work the plots around that. Send two minions out to do a job, which invariably means hurting, taking from, kidnapping, etc. one of their loves (that the other minion doesn't know or care about), and you watch what happens. In fighting, discovery, reveals, etc. Once we've had some a scene of that tension, I swap over to another minion doing some brutality and then, if I am feeling nice, to the fourth minion (assuming I have 4 players) in a Love building scene. Then mix up the pairs, rinse, and repeat, sorta. You know built off what they've just done, add in some complications and keep pounding on their loves. Oh, and the master KNOWS all even if he doesn't reveal it to all. Illustrate this once or twice by having him watch footage from surveillance feeds, get reports from NPC minions, or looking in a crystal ball. Then assume he can know anything that would be interesting for the rest of the game. Make sure he tells each of his minions about the others' weaknesses and encourages them to exploit each other.

I did find quite a bit of advice when playing MLWM (wish I still had the URLs) but many of them centered on portraying the master as you play, i.e. be an asshole to your players. Insult them, demean them, antagonize them, talk about how you are going to hurt or kill them. Never smile unless you have an evil plan, never laugh (unless you are mocking them), never show mercy. Personally, that is way too hard core for me. Yeah, I like the idea of the minions REALLY hating the master at the end, but I can't keep up that level of intensity. What I did for Joker, which may not really be applicable anywhere else but worked for me was take pictures of the players and print them out on my printer. Then, as they made me made I talked about how I was going to hurt them and started drawing with red and green crayon on their faces. Later, as they really irked me, I took out scissors and started cutting off bits of their picture. That was fun, fun evilness!

Holy fiendish fervor!

Did it ever seem like you had to force the final confrontation or where the Players always worked up during the course of the game to confront the Master?

Thanks,
-David-

Hey David,

Not really. I rely on the dice mechanics to handle all of that. Once the first minion refuses the master you enter endgame, from then on you just start frame one intense scene after another of things going down. I liken it to the car hanging on the edge of a cliff as it slowly slips off you have just a few more seconds before it falls to oblivion below.