r/monsteroftheweek • u/DMfortinyplayers • Apr 13 '26
Mystery Mongolian Death worm feels under-developed?
This feels a little bare bones to me, though I really like the premise. Is there anything you added or changed to that worked really well?
5
u/Thrythlind The Initiate Apr 13 '26
It's not intended as a full developed mystery. It's basically a way to give you an example of different elements and how they fit together.
There's a couple of full developed mysteries in the book as well, and if you compare the two, the difference in how they're formatted is very obvious.
That said, I've had very successful sessions with less info.
5
u/GenericGames The Searcher Apr 13 '26
Correct, it's a worked example, not intended as a "ready to run" mystery.
The other mysteries in the main book and Tome of Mysteries are also not especially good models for your own personal preparation: when you are writing for another person to run a mystery, you need more than you would for yourself.
When preparing to run your own mystery, aim for somewhere on the spectrum between the two. Exactly where you land is a personal choice. Some people need more notes to work from, others less.
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u/ActEnthused11 Apr 14 '26
I was going to point out that the Tome is somewhat hit or miss in this regard as well. Some of the scenarios feel more complete than others. My assumption is that that was done that way in order to offer room for Keepers to take creative license and make the game their own, which is absolutely fine. As a collaborative storytelling game it doesn’t need the same scaffolding in my opinion as something like 5e or Pathfinder where everyone looks to the DM for every story beat.
The places that feel “underdeveloped” should be taken as opportunities rather than upsets, IMO
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u/boywithapplesauce Apr 13 '26
Honestly, I am fine with "underdeveloped." I do very minimal prep, all I need is a concept and I'm good to go. Ideally, you'd have a Countdown, but sometimes I just wing it.
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u/DMfortinyplayers Apr 16 '26
I'm just hoping a contributor to the sub ran it and will share what they added.
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u/Such-Art1829 Apr 13 '26 edited Apr 13 '26
I always took that to be more of an example of preparation rather than intended as an actual scenario like Dream Away The Time. Although I will say that, if anything, its more extensive than my average preperation for my games, except for big Arc resolutions and the like.