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My Life With Monday a My Life With Master campaign.
MLWM cycles through the minions, offering them a scene at a time. Each scene climaxes or ends with a single die roll, based on one of the Formulae. For this reason:
- it's very easy to take session notes, just note the main event in each scene (although you lose some of the being-there flavour, this can always be recounted later with a "let me tell you about my character" ;)
- it's easy to maintain a log in a simple matrix
Session 1
In the first session I learnt that task-based instructions from the Master (e.g. picking apples) are not useful, instead, instructions must have impact on someone's well-being. For example, when Oi'u willingly stole from the blacksmith, I should have gone back to him (this session or later) and described how he was destitute as a result. (Or had the Master require something to be forged.) In other words, every task should have dire consequences for someone, even if it's some time down the line.
| Marigold | Oi'u | Methusulah |
| 1. Having muddied the strawberries, Master Monday instructs Marigold to go and get apples from the orchard. | 2. The Master instructs Oi'u to steal a box of tools from the blacksmith. | 3. Methusulah tries to resist the Master's command to kidnap an old-timer from the village. He is beaten for his efforts and forced to comply. |
| 4. Marigold meets a boy playing in the orchard. (New Connection. 1 Love.) | 6. Oi'u slides down the blacksmith's chimney and steals his toolbox. She leaves little black footprints running out the forge and down the street. | 5. Methusulah meets a youngster (he still has his teeth) called Old Willikens. He offers him some eggs. (New Connection. 1 Love.) |
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| 7. Marigold returns with apples and is immediately instructed to find the bones missing from the graveyard of the Master's Uncle Woden. | 8. Oi'u steals a habit from the convent so that she can clean the Organ. | 9. Old Man Mountain takes Willikens up to the Organ. |
| 10. A dog has stolen the bones. Marigold is savaged as he tries to retrieves them. | 11. While operating the Organ Oi'u begins to drown in apple juice. The priest saves her, but notices the habit. Oi'u points at the Master, "He made me do it!" | 12. All the while Willikens has sitting in the chair (connected to the Organ), with Methusulah unobserved. He asks Pastor McGee? after Agnes Longfellow and passes on a compliment to her embroidery. (1 Love.) |
| 13. Marigold is saved by Dorias the Dog-catcher (an Innocent) and makes friends with him. (New Connection. 1 Love.) | 14. Priest tripped. He promises Oi'u a special seat at the front of the church. (1 Love) | 15. Meets Timmy at Sunday School. (1 Love) |
| 16. After returning the bones to the graveyard rather than the Master, Marigold is set upon by the ghost of Uncle Woden. | 17. The Master commands Oi'u to begin the Organ's operation now that Willikens is in the chair and attached to a tube leading to the apple juice. | 18. Luckily, Methusulah had the forethought to adjust the piping, so Mr Willikens didn't mainline apple juice. Instead, his pie explodes. |
I also decided after this session that if someone simply accepted the Master's instructions, the scene would not end ('cause there would be no die roll) and instead continue till there was a die roll (relevant to the task, e.g. Violence or Villainy, or not, e.g. Making Overtures).
Session 2
I decided that Reason 5, Fear 3 was a bit whacked and would prolong the game (because characters were gaining Weariness faster than Love, making Endgame difficult to achieve), so I brought it down to Reason 4, Fear 2 (same difference, but lower).
Overture rolls were still a pain, as I could only ever roll 1 die in opposition, which meant that when Minions did make the roll they'd certainly get the Love. I guess this balances things out, but next time I'll try Reason and Fear the other way 'round.
| Methusulah | Oi'u | Marigold |
| 1. Methusulah resists the Master's command to kill the cows. | 2. Although she's Desperate not to, the Master forces Oi'u to flatten rats. | 3. Marigold find the little boy, Tommy, in the orchard again. (1 Love) He doesn't want Marigold to chop down the tree with his swing on. Neither does Marigold. |
| 4. Methusulah grapples with an escaping cow. | 5. Oi'u finds a rat to squash but fails miserably and is mauled. | 6. The Master offers Marigold a choice between Tommy and the tree. Marigold dithers and Tommy gets it. (Loses associated Love.) |
| 7. Methusulah meets with his great-great-great... grandson Timmy and gives him sweeties, making him promise to eat them only after supper. (1 Love) | 8. Oi'u fries up a fur coat to make a reasonable facsimile of a fresh rat. Then she must go to the train station to fetch Granny Tuesday. | 9. Marigold commiserates with Tommy's dad (1 Love) and is non-commital about plotting to overthrow the Master. |
| 10. Mr Willikens receives a massive egg pie. (GM rules food is an automatic Intimacy bonus to roll.) | 11. Oi'u willfully misinterprets the Masters eyebrow wiggling and throws Granny out the window... | 12. ...into Tommy's freshly dug grave. Marigold uses his nurturing ability to bring Tommy back to life as a little zombie boy. (Returns with -1 associated Love) |
| 13. Jeremiah, another suitor for Agnes' hand, intimidates Methusulah. Triggers Capture. Methusulah is taken to the pub by a horde of angry old men. | 14. The Master commands that Timmy is kidnapped. The longevity in his bloodline will rejuvenate Granny. | 15. Marigold offers the zombie boy brains from the butcher. (1 Love) |
| 16. Methusulah tricks the Agnes Longfellow Fan Club and slips out the bathroom window... | 17. He meets Oi'u in the street, and she tricks him into revealing Timmy's whereabouts | . |
Timmy is Methusulah's great-great-great-great... grandson. Tommy is the kid who used to play in the orchard and is now a zombie boy.
We used the bonus dice a bit more in this session.
In this session and the previous one, Yancke came up with cunning arguments in Methusulah's attempts to resist the Master's plans. It still boils down to a roll to resist the command, though, so sometimes the Master just beat him, which I can imagine was frustrating.
Session 3
One year later... (because it felt about that long by the time we got this session)
By involving Connections in the Minions conflicts, I didn't need to add much at all to the story (Mistress Saturday pretty much disappeared); the players were at each others throats from the start, and the Master just pushed things along... too far!
| Oi'u | Methusulah | Marigold |
| 1. Having observed Timmy for a year, Oi'u is familar with his movements and habits. She leads him to the Master's demesne with a trail of sweeties. | 2. Methusulah thinks about Timmy as he finishes collecting mushrooms for Master Monday's supper. (Tie in Minion vs Minion roll.) A ball of fire suddenly hurtles out of the sky. | 3. Marigold was leading the zombie boy to the little figure picking up sweeties. He throws the zombie into a water trough to save him from the explosion. (1 Love as the zombie cries with gratitude, or just leaks) |
| 4. Oi'u tries to get Timmy into the Master's castle. | 5. Methusulah saves Timmy and ignores the mushrooms and his duties to take Timmy back home. Very. Slowly. | 6. Marigold encourages the zombie boy to make friends with Timmy. He waves sleepily from Methusulah's shoulder. (1 Love with zombie boy connection) |
| 7. Out of the remains of the explosion steps Mistress Saturday, the Master's sister, a witch. The Master berates Oi'u for taking her in, and Oi'u accidently reveals she didn't deal with Timmy as requested. Triggers Horror Revealed. | 8. The following morning Methusulah has eventually reached Timmy's house. The Master has beaten Timmy's mother, so that she remembers his instructions for the old man: Methusulah must collect the blood of Agnes Longfellow. | 9. The Master wants an erection outside his house, and Marigold must clear away the glasshouse, the plants inside, dig the foundations and line them with dead pigeons. The Master demonstrates by wringing Marigold's neck when he refuses. Triggers Endgame. |
| 10. Horror Revealed: Everyone is at the park for a picnic, including Oi'u with a barrel of spirits. She circles the park, pouring the spirits out. Once she has spotted Timmy (she thinks) she lights it, setting the park on fire and catching the child in her sack. | 11. Methusulah searches the flaming park for Timmy, weighed down by children who cling to him for safety. He carries them as he searches, eventually passing them on to adults he meets. Finally he finds Timmy. (1 Love) | 12. Already traumatised, Marigold is enraged when he notices the park is on fire. He struggles to throw the Master over the cliff into the flames. |
| 13. Oi'u is runs away from the park as the flames spread through the village. At the church the priest tries to help her, but to prevent him from seeing what is in the sack, she tries to brain him with a rock. She fails. | 14. Methusulah assembles his prodigious progeny to create a bucket chain of Mountains from the river. (New Connection) | 15. Marigold tackles the Master and takes him down the hillside, to his doom. |
There were a couple of times when players had conflicting goals that the Minions weren't neccessarily aware of (e.g. Bronwen and Yancke battling over Timmy, one of Methusulah's Connections). I ruled these as Minion vs Minion conflicts. The first ended in a tie, which means an interruption and escalation, hence the fireball and another of the Master's wacky relatives.
Bronwen realised that she was limited to an Epilogue choice she didn't want. By eliminating her Love she could have opened up a new option, but Sean managed to kill the Master before she succeeded.
Epilogues
Epilogues are narrated exclusively by the players.
- Marigold tumbled with the Master to the bottom of the hill, where Tommy's father took his axe to the Master. Marigold's freakish spade-shaped hand was in the way, and was chopped off. Under the care of Tommy's family, Marigold found his place in the village.
- Oi'u ran away from the priest, who was now bleeding from the forehead. As she ran, she stumbled into the mother of the child she stole, and was promptly killed by an angry mob.
- Methusulah saved the village from the flames, and spent many, many, many more years in its comfortable environs, with Agnes Longfellow-Mountain at his side.
