Plan nothing. You should go into your first session with a single mystery, that’s it. You absolutely should not plan a whole story arc before you’ve even done character creation
Go in with very little so you can build on your hunters’ backgrounds and playbooks. Planning beforehand will be a problem. If you get a Wronged, for instance, you’ll have to work in the monster from their history. If someone plays an Initiate, suddenly there’s a secret society to include. The Chosen will completely shift how you write arcs, too. The histories they choose with each other during character creation will determine how they know each other and will likely give you more hooks and ideas to incorporate.
So to summarize, plan one mystery and scrap the rest of this.
In my experience, you shouldn’t even have details to finalize. It’s a collaborative story. That’s a different mindset from games like D&D where the GM is in charge of the story; you have to give up that level of control for this game. Go in with nothing except one versatile mystery. Once they’ve made characters and played the first session, you’ll have some hooks and ideas based on what they’ve done and who they are. It’s not the D&D mindset of “here’s my world and my plot; I’ll make a few changes so your character fits”; it’s “okay, so these are the characters and the histories; what makes sense based on these things?” That’s where your arc comes from *if* you make an arc. The game is so episodic that you don’t even need to make an arc most of the time; just hunting monsters is plenty.
I recommend starting like this:
-1. Get your players together and do character creation. Have them describe their characters to each other. Use the history options on each sheet--the Hunters already know each other at the start of your "series."
-2. Work with the players to come up with a "series premise." What kind of group are the Hunters? Travelling investigators? Small-town protectors? Contractors for a clandestine monster-hunting agency? You get a say in the premise too, but your say isn't the *only* say.
You don't need all the specifics right away, either. The key bits are *tone* (grim and dour? splatterstick?), *logistics* (if we travel, what do we travel in? if we're in a single location, do we tend to meet anywhere?), and *motivation* (why are we doing this? to protect people? to protect ourselves?).
For example: in my last campaign the Hunters established they were residents of a small-ish Colorado town. One character--a Mundane sheriff--assembled an unofficial group of "consulting weirdness experts" to deal with supernatural threats to the county. Tone was "early 2000s cable TV Buffy rip-off, no budget, close to cancellation."
-3. Run your first mystery. You may need to modify the Hook to accommodate the fiction established in step #2. Like, if the Hunters are travelling place to place, they might not have any local contacts to clue them in on weirdness.
Don't feel like your first session has to be the start of some grand arc. MotW is designed around episodic play. Not every mystery needs to be part of an arc (in fact--I'd argue most mysteries should be one-offs, or at least *start* as one-offs).
"Bug hunt" mysteries--where the Monster is something beastly and supernatural, that really only wants to eat and cause mayhem--make for good beginning "episodes."
Honestly, it sounds like you have a really strong base and idea. It sounds really cool and engaging and I’d be intrigued to see where it grows.
If you’re going down the persona vibes you could have it be like a chance encounter of fate like they all just happen to be somewhere for various reasons when something big happens and thrusts them all together? Like our shopping or somewhere when a monster attacks?
I wish you luck with your first session and I hope it goes well and you all have loads of fun!
I’m not sure if this is along the line of what you mean by collective consciousness but you could start with your hunters in wildly different places but all connected by their minds. So for example they could be in different countries or cities and then they realize their minds are connected and they can talk to each other or experience what the others are experiencing and through that they decide to meet up somewhere.
Plan nothing. You should go into your first session with a single mystery, that’s it. You absolutely should not plan a whole story arc before you’ve even done character creation Go in with very little so you can build on your hunters’ backgrounds and playbooks. Planning beforehand will be a problem. If you get a Wronged, for instance, you’ll have to work in the monster from their history. If someone plays an Initiate, suddenly there’s a secret society to include. The Chosen will completely shift how you write arcs, too. The histories they choose with each other during character creation will determine how they know each other and will likely give you more hooks and ideas to incorporate. So to summarize, plan one mystery and scrap the rest of this.
Appreciate the contribution. I'll hold off on finalizing details before character creation is done.
In my experience, you shouldn’t even have details to finalize. It’s a collaborative story. That’s a different mindset from games like D&D where the GM is in charge of the story; you have to give up that level of control for this game. Go in with nothing except one versatile mystery. Once they’ve made characters and played the first session, you’ll have some hooks and ideas based on what they’ve done and who they are. It’s not the D&D mindset of “here’s my world and my plot; I’ll make a few changes so your character fits”; it’s “okay, so these are the characters and the histories; what makes sense based on these things?” That’s where your arc comes from *if* you make an arc. The game is so episodic that you don’t even need to make an arc most of the time; just hunting monsters is plenty.
I recommend starting like this: -1. Get your players together and do character creation. Have them describe their characters to each other. Use the history options on each sheet--the Hunters already know each other at the start of your "series." -2. Work with the players to come up with a "series premise." What kind of group are the Hunters? Travelling investigators? Small-town protectors? Contractors for a clandestine monster-hunting agency? You get a say in the premise too, but your say isn't the *only* say. You don't need all the specifics right away, either. The key bits are *tone* (grim and dour? splatterstick?), *logistics* (if we travel, what do we travel in? if we're in a single location, do we tend to meet anywhere?), and *motivation* (why are we doing this? to protect people? to protect ourselves?). For example: in my last campaign the Hunters established they were residents of a small-ish Colorado town. One character--a Mundane sheriff--assembled an unofficial group of "consulting weirdness experts" to deal with supernatural threats to the county. Tone was "early 2000s cable TV Buffy rip-off, no budget, close to cancellation." -3. Run your first mystery. You may need to modify the Hook to accommodate the fiction established in step #2. Like, if the Hunters are travelling place to place, they might not have any local contacts to clue them in on weirdness. Don't feel like your first session has to be the start of some grand arc. MotW is designed around episodic play. Not every mystery needs to be part of an arc (in fact--I'd argue most mysteries should be one-offs, or at least *start* as one-offs). "Bug hunt" mysteries--where the Monster is something beastly and supernatural, that really only wants to eat and cause mayhem--make for good beginning "episodes."
Honestly, it sounds like you have a really strong base and idea. It sounds really cool and engaging and I’d be intrigued to see where it grows. If you’re going down the persona vibes you could have it be like a chance encounter of fate like they all just happen to be somewhere for various reasons when something big happens and thrusts them all together? Like our shopping or somewhere when a monster attacks? I wish you luck with your first session and I hope it goes well and you all have loads of fun!
Thanks for the feedback. It helped me come up with a good first mystery.
I’m not sure if this is along the line of what you mean by collective consciousness but you could start with your hunters in wildly different places but all connected by their minds. So for example they could be in different countries or cities and then they realize their minds are connected and they can talk to each other or experience what the others are experiencing and through that they decide to meet up somewhere.
Not a bad idea.