67. Hell, have a fight

Just because it’s the first session doesn’t mean you can’t.

Here’s a fun thing to do: ‘Keeler, this person named III corners you that night. She’s fucking pissed off, she comes straight at you, fists first. What did you do to her?’

Maybe Keeler’s player will answer with something. ‘Dude, sure, I’ve been sleeping with her guy.’ Great! Away you go. Or maybe she’ll say ‘what? Nothing. I don’t know.’ That’s cool too, must be a case of mistaken identity. Maybe Dog Head stole a can of pineapple from III but she thinks that Keeler did it. Say, ‘great! You don’t know why. Here she comes, though. What do you do?’

Just keep all your NPCs’ motivations simple and you can have them do whatever you want, fights included (101-102).

As I’ve been reading it, a lot of this chapter, even as it accomplishes separate instructional goals, is about demonstrating how to use moves to set up scenes. This only makes sense because in order to do everything required of you in the first session (finding where they are not in control and pushing there, putting them in scenes together in different combinations, finding out what interests you about these characters) you need to establish scene after scene to see how things play out. While there are no explicit instructions given, the suggestion created over the course of the chapter is that you needn’t worry about some grand narrative in this first session, or worry about flowing logically from one scene to another. Make jump cuts, put the characters in spots, follow up on whatever leads interest you from character creation. Having a smattering of disconnected scenes is perfectly fine for this first session. As the text says early in the chapter, “You have the whole world to create, you get the whole first session to create it in. You’re supposed to make their characters’ lives not boring, you get a whole session to get to know them” (96).

This particular passage is a great example for MCing the first session because it shows you that any answer a player gives to a question is going to work out well. Earlier we got the example of Marie and Bran put in a spot by the MC outside of the hardhold near some of Dremmer’s gang. The MC asks, “What are you two doing out here, anyway?” This is a similar setup with an in media res scene and a question for the character to justify the scene. Whatever the answer, you can roll with it. The player might use the opportunity to create backstory, or she might balk. What’s the answer to balking? “Great!” Man, I love that.

The reason that any answer is okay is that the NPCs’ motivation has been kept simple. III wants to beat the shit out of Keeler. It doesn’t get much simpler than that. The why, when it’s discovered, is going to be just as simple. I slept with her guy and you think I stole from you both come down to the simple motivation, I want revenge because you hurt me. The more you complicate III’s emotions and desires, the more difficult it is to let the players create answers for open questions and the more you force meaning and backstory into the play. Everything in this example is still open. III might be an incredibly generous and sweet woman when no one has slept with her guy or no one has stolen her pineapple. We don’t learn details about III, which gives the player a blank canvas to throw paint at if she wants. And the more the players throw the paint, the more you know what conflicts they’re interested in having and the stories they’re interested in telling. The more room you give the players to create, the more likely you are to spot those darting fish beneath the surface that will interest and delight you.

And that all starts with simple motivations for NPCs and MC moves that open up questions for the players.