Monster of the Week: Good Stories for Nightmares

dragon-likeMonster of the Week is a PbtA (Powered by the Apocalypse) system game that emulates TV shows like Supernatural, X-Files, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It encourages collaboration between players and GM so this particular game is set in a small town in New Mexico called Taos. Dwight, a Professional from Tartarus Inc. an esoteric-security firm, Tué, a Spell-Slinger, and William, an Expert in the occult, team up to investigate a series of strange events. It begins with teenagers burned to cinders outside of town, but who knows where this mystery will lead to?

This episode’s art was taken from a public domain book. Click here to see more, but the images have spoilers for this AP, so be warned!

Also, this is Shaun’s first posted AP! This is a different player than the guy in Masks of Nyarlathotep.

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12 Comments

  1. dat Bogleech headliner on the blog. AND THE ART. god, it reminds me of some much more sophisticated color-illustrated picturebooks I had as a kid that I now cannot find. email to the parents…

    Apocalypse Engine is always vying with A Dirty World/Better Angels for my favorite game mechanic. if RPGs are rules for conversation, then a good system channels improv. I don’t know if I know of a core mechanic that more recognizes that. “NO. YOU MAY ONLY ASK THESE QUESTIONS.” it feels old-school draconian-bossy at first, but the more you play it (or listen to it, in my case), the more it becomes clear it’s just a way to focus the infinite possibilities of any scene into something less intimidatingly broad. a system that has one characteristic that’s great for both novices and experts is a rare thing.

  2. When I clicked the link to see the public domain art, it directed me to the correct site momentarily. It then decided to send me to Zales to buy some watches.

    Just wanted to give a headsup.

    This episode is cool though. I like it. And I like Monster of the Week 🙂

  3. Author

    @Thomas that may be on your end. Nothing like that happened to me.

  4. Not to sound the snob, but Dreamlands? AGAIN Ross? XD

    But all joking aside, I love the characters, the setup and freaky monsters (public domain stuff is creepy and awesome!)

    Also, I like how Aaron’s character was swiftly devolving down the food chain of his own business as the game went on. Will an Aaron character ever have the status of minion supervisor…oh hi Moon Beasts.

  5. I also got a weird intrusive full-page ad when I clicked on the link from my phone. got past it one way or another. it’s worth getting past, they’re fucked up as shit.

    ALSO HOW COULD YOU FORGET BROWN JENKIN’S NAME ROSS YOU MONSTER HE WAS ONCE A MAN

    I got the feeling that final scene was inspired by the scene that I think didn’t happen in Sense, the one where the PCs meed Randolph Carter and an avatar of Nyasty

  6. For the record, Luck is never replenished automatically. There are advancements you can take to restore ONE point of Luck each, but you only get to do that a couple times tops. The idea is that once the character’s Luck runs out, it’s only a matter of time before their story is over one way or another.

  7. So, if Aaron ever needs a new character or to refactor, Google “monster of the week action scientist” (it exists for both editions of more)

  8. Aaron sniped a dragon. All arguments are invalid. A fun game, I loved the players enthusiasm for this. Everyone seemed to work well together. I’d have liked to see a bit more of a distinction between them, but when you all hunt monsters you are bound to have some similarities.

    Good fun. Play the wresting game based off of dungeon world next ;0

  9. so, the snotty little kid gets threatened with slug acid
    something tells me that was very in the spirit of the original book

  10. Once, a group of people played a drinking game where they had to drink every time Aaron said “It’s like.”
    There were no survivors.


  11. Enjoyed this a lot. Did some more research on Walt McDougall. His stories mostly appeared in American newspapers from 1902 to 1905 under McDougall’s Good Stories for Children, but he some of the earlier ones were published in a book: The Rambillicus Book; Wonder Tales for Children From 7 to 70.

    The book is long out of print but a pdf can be found here (legally, I think – it should all be under public domain as it was published in 1903): https://archive.org/details/rambillicusbookw00mcdo

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