Extended Example of Play

This extended example of play covers an abridged session of Monster Care Squad across all three phases, and covers almost every gameplay mechanic from the game.

The Guide, Guide Mortimer, has led the party of Monster Care Specialists to a village in need, where the local Monster, Mzee, a giant tortoise, has been crying non-stop. His moans shake the Earth and shatter glass, and his lamentations threaten to bring down the whole village.

Guide Mortimer: You’ve come across a massive pile of rotten fruits and vegetables.

Vivian: It’s not compost?

Guide Mortimer: It looks almost like compost, except it’s in the middle of the street, and almost the size of some of the houses. Also it doesn’t look like it rotted unevenly, but all at once. Like they were piled here fresh.

Gabriel: Like leaving flowers at a memorial or something? What are they piled in front of?

Elliot: I’ll look around the corner.

GM: On the other side of the pile is the foundation for a house that looks like it was once carved into a hill. Now the foundation is sandwiched between the hill and this pile of rotten food.

Vivian: Are there any neighbors around?

GM: Yeah, let’s say there’s an old-timer in a straw hat, just kind of watching you guys. He’s sweeping up broken glass from his windows after the wailing earlier.

Vivian: “Excuse me, sir? Do you know what happened to this house?”

GM: We’ll call that Pulling a Thread. Roll 2D6+ALLURE.

Vivian rolls 2D6 and gets a 3 and a 4. She adds her Allure +2 to this for a final result of 9.

Vivian: Just made it.

GM: A mixed success! You’ll get your information, but it might not be the most reliable. His eyes go wide and glassy and he looks off in the distance. “She caught his eye.”

Gabriel: “She?”

GM: “Brought her fresh fruit every day, he did…till the day she died…”

Vivian: “A…person…who lived in the house?”

Elliot: No I think I’ve got it. “So the house was sticking out of a hill, right? And Mzee’s a giant tortoise? I… I think the old man told it to us exactly right. He fell in love with the house. They tore it down so he’d stop coming to town and… now he won’t stop crying. Oh my god. Poor tortoise.”

GM: Give me a roll+ACUITY cause this sounds a lot like the Here’s What I Got Move.

Elliot: [5+3]+2= 10! I got a 10! Okay, so I’m gonna choose… giving us a Session Ace because we know he’s in love, marking a successful Clock segment, and learning the name and effect of one Wound.

GM: Okay, so on closer inspection of the pile of fruit, let’s say you still see these weird, crystalline tears that have stuck around, but they have a kind of sickly yellow color.

Gabriel: I think we’re good to diagnose this tortoise.

GM: Yup, with that last mark, your Clock is full, so go ahead and roll. Four of the six segments on the Clock were successes! So go ahead and roll 2D6+4.

[ 6 + 5 ] + 3 = 14

GM: Wow! Alright, that’s a Critical Ace for later, and you can ask me a question about the cure.

Vivian: Is there something around here we can cook him to make him feel better?

GM: “Yes. Yes, a good soup will cure any broken heart. Even the heart of our colossal guardian. But a soup to cure the false gold will be an undertaking indeed. For we will need to procure a mighty basin…and a mightier broth!

How do we cure this Giant Tortoise?

Now that our specialists know that Mzee, the guardian of the province, is suffering a deadly love sickness brought on by the False Gold, they must gather the ingredients for a massive curative soup, and a pot large enough to cook it.

Gabriel: My time has come! I’m finally gonna use my specialty: Master Metal-worker to convince the artisans of the village to help me put together a giant stock pot.

GM: Since that’s your specialty, we’ll say you do just that. You head back to the village and tell them what you need to do. They’re skeptical at first, but you prove your expertise to them very quickly, and pretty soon you have a crew to build this giant pot, multiple different forges being put to work here.

Gabriel: Hooray!

GM: Okay, so you’ve got a team of artisans together to create, in a relatively short amount of time, a massive stock pot, using multiple forges and maybe an unprecedented amount of metals. And they’re down, for sure, but it won’t be easy. So we’ll call this a Take of the World roll. So roll +FORCE.

Gabriel: Perfect!

Gabriel’s Training in Blacksmithing uses the stat Force; he has a +2 in it that he can add to the 2D6 required for the roll. Gabriel rolls 2D6 and gets a 5 and a 3. He adds his Blacksmithing +2 and gets a final result of 10!

Gabriel: Wooo!

GM: Alright, pick two from the Move!

Gabriel: I’m picking a Session Ace and marking a Successful Clock Segment!

GM: Against the odds, with barely any time, you and your crack team of artisans make this gigantic stock pot out of basically whatever you can find. It’s an ugly thing, but it’ll hold the metric ton of ingredients the rest of the party has gathered, and it’s high up enough that you can make a roaring fire beneath it. All you need to do now is lure the Monster.

How do we catch this tortoise?

A massive soup is simmering in the center of town, close to the forges where it was crafted. On the outskirts of town Mzee, the guardian of the province, still cries. He is being lured to his cure. This is the moment our Specialists either save the village or doom it entirely.

GM: So Mzee is properly in town now, and this is the first time you’re actually seeing him. The tallest roof in the village comes to his chest or just about. Every step he takes nearly knocks you off your feet the closer he gets. The various huts are holding their own, but only just, and worse than all the walking are his sobs, which are getting louder and louder. The tears dropping down Mzee’s cheeks are that same yellowish ichor you know to be the work of the False Gold. They’re acidic, burning holes in roofs and carts. He approaches the big pot of soup you made, sniffs it, hisses, and sobs harder, looking at the place where the house he loved once stood. The tears sting his face, which causes him to flail wildly. You are gonna have to fight to get him to drink this thing.

Vivian: Okay, so I know he just got here and it’s extra risky, but let’s try to keep this tortoise by the medicine if we can. I’ll pull out my dulcimer and start playing a song for Mzee about how he’ll find love again.

GM: Okay, that sounds like Set ‘Em Up so go ahead and roll 2D6+FINE.

Vivian: I’m going to spend one of our Session Aces from when Elliot found out Mzee was in love. That’s why I’m playing him this love song.

Vivian rolls 2D6 and gets 4 + 4. She adds her Dulcimer training which uses FINE+1 and her specificity bonus for another +1 for a final result of 10.

GM: A little better!

Elliot: I helped!

GM: Mzee is completely spellbound by your song. Despite the burning tears running down his cheeks, he stops in his tracks, still near the pot. He can’t look away. You move up the track and we can now roll a D6 for a cure Move. Go ahead and pick one of the options from your Move.

Vivian: I’ll give +1 to Elliot for whatever they do.

Elliot: Thank you!

GM: But not so fast! Mzee standing still might not be a good thing. He’s towering above you and your beautiful song is actually making him cry even harder. Tears are coming your way.

Vivian: But I can’t stop playing or he’ll get further from the pot.

Gabriel: I rush over to Vivian with a sheet of spare metal from making the pot to cover us from the acid tears.

GM: We’ll call this a Get in the Way Move, so roll+GRIT.

Gabriel rolls 2D6 and gets a 3 and a 2 and adds the points from his Heat Endurance training. Since that’s a Relevant training it gives him an extra +1. The dice rolling 3+2 with +1 Training and +1 Training Relevance totals to 7.

GM: You manage to protect Vivian and yourself, and your sudden Move even shocks Mzee into not crying for a moment, so he moves back on the control track and you are now in control. But, you’ve gotta pick something to lose.

Gabriel: Have we actually spent all of our Supply yet?

GM: You’ve still got one.

Gabriel: Should we sacrifice it?

Vivian: Yeh.

Elliot: Fine by me.

GM: The tears bounce off the makeshift shield of well-fortified metal and hit your cart. It’s gonna be a rough drive back to Tinaris-Mal.

Elliot: But we’re in control! Time to cure this Monster. I’m going to use my Gymnastics training to get that soup in that Monster in the silliest way possible.

GM: Yes?

Elliot: I’m going to leap from one of the roofs into the pot and jump off the handle of the ladle, launching soup into Mzee’s open mouth.

GM: Open mouth?

Elliot: Open in awe at Vivian’s beautiful song!

GM: Hmmmm… alright. So you’ll be using the Cure Move. But remember, you can’t roll 2D6 for this one. You’re still in the D6 zone of the control track, so that’ll be only 1D6.

Elliot: But I got more than that bucko, I’m using the advantage Vivian just gave me, the Relevance of my profession, and the Critical Ace we got in the diagnosis phase!

Gabriel: Woah!

Elliot rolls a D6 for 6, a D8 from the Critical Ace which gives them a 3, plus their advantage and finally their Gymnastics and Relevance bonus, for a total of 6+3+1+1+1= 12!

GM: You mad lad. You leap from one of those thatched roofs into the simmering heat of this pot, somehow perfectly sticking the landing on the handle of this ladle so soup launches from the pot towards Mzee’s mouth, and then launching out again.

Elliot: I scream as I’m, like, dismounting, “Never underestimate good calisthenics!”

GM: All of you watch with bated breath as Mzee swallows some of the broth. Instantly, the color of his eyes begins to change, that sickly yellow color fading to reveal a healthy green. He stops sobbing for the first time since he arrives and gives a long, deep hum. Then he dips his head in the pot and starts slurping. That was his only Wound, team! You removed the False Gold from Mzee! He’s cured!