Must Be Tuesday (Part 2)

Does Must Be Tuesday sometimes feel more real than real life?

The first part of the critic can be found here.

5. Disassemble Engine

Games have a flow, which, when you hit, the game pretty much runs itself. It is extremely satisfying. After examining the interactions of game elements, we single out the most important - the one that sets the pace of sessions, or even campaigns. We focus on how that engine works, how it makes the game move along, and what to do to make it do what you want to do - and how to keep it running clean.

Lhuzie

A simple game is served best by a simple engine. And damn, does not Must Be Tuesday engine pulls a lot of its weight, more than adequate low cc. Ever look at Masks and think “yeah, the coolest thing of this game is the Influence mechanics, so it should be central, rather than a peripheric thing that has to be filtered through a PbtA baggage”? Well, if you were, then you were asking for Must Be Tuesday, and it asked and answered that ten years ago.

The game is moved through its Balance track mechanics. Your character and how it plays is at the mercy of a track with an axis between Mortal or Monster. Depending on your narrative role, you will advance in either direction when you give in to your Instincts or when you pursue your goals and/or when you help or hinder others chase their goals. When you are on the Mortal side of the track, you’re better at doing Mortal things; when you are on the Monster side, you are better at handling supernatural nonsense. If you ever go over the edge? Well, you get too Mortal, became unable to deal with all the Slayer-tier stuff going in your town and get eaten by a monster or something; new character! If you go over the edge in Monster, you turn Evil and join the villains; new character! So, you are pushed by Instinct and Goals to nudge the Balance sheet, trying to be on the side more useful for a given situation, all while avoiding tipping over the edge. Which is not as easy as it seems — especially because failure and success in actions will also give some recoil to your Balance track.

Simple, it is clear which levers you pull to have it do what you want to do, and will deliver a lot of character even in a one shot.

On top of that, as a support engine, it is always easier to do the petty, evil thing than to be a decent well-adjusted person. What a tempting nudge that is!

Brad

I love the balance mechanic; it is what makes Must Be Tuesday the perfect early seasons monster of the week show. Lose yourself in the drama as you become an unspeakable horror and devour some neighbors, or get devoured and weep at the loss of a wonderful character.

6. Essentials For Session One

So, you got this game; you are going to play it, but you don’t have the time to read everything. Or even worse, you have read it and now it is all jumbled together. Here we break down the things that you absolutely want to get right and/or hit during your first session, so you get the feeling for what makes this game stand out from similar art.

Lhuzie

As a one-shot game, Must Be Tuesday is pretty easy to bring to the table unprepared. Run the Session Zero procedure, then proceed into making characters together:

• Characters are made by combining two Archetypes: a Mortal archetype (which kind of teen you are) and a Monster archetype (not just the supernatural being you are, but how you are a little shit). This can easily be flipped if you want: for example, your Mortal archetype is Witch (you’re a teen witch!) and your Monster element is being an Influencer (you will trample anyone for the Gram!).

• Every character picks one of three (or a secret fourth one) Nature, which represents your mechanical “role” in the group and how you hurt people, hurt yourself and fail to learn anything from your experiences: Self-Destructive, Selfish or Impulsive.

• There are 3 Mortal skills and 3 Monster skills. You assign two sets of how much you need to succeed: 2 skills where you succeed at 4 or better, 2 skills where you succeed on a 5 or better or 2 skills where you need a damn 6.

• Create 3 Mortal talents and 3 talents. There are just things your teen is good at and come easier. On the flip side, you have a Monster Weakness and a Mortal Weakness.

• Create a Dream (what your Mortal side wants to get done this session) and an Instinct (how your Monster seeks immediate gratification at the cost of getting in the way of your Dream).

Make sure everyone gets how dice rolls work, how Balance is influenced, and you are ready to go!

Brad

Do what Lu says, but don’t be afraid to use one of the excellent settings in the back, they are a lot of fun and ready to run outta the box.

7. Playing The Game Wrong

Games are played wrong. Rules will be misunderstood, interactions will be confused, the importance of certain tech disregarded; etc. This is good, and it is good to acknowledge for: you cannot have the designer at your table, and even if they were, they would be just another player - and entitled to play it wrong. After identifying stress points of the game, things that don’t connect that well, we think of the things that are more likely to be (or have been) “played wrong”. What happens when you forget a line on page 273 clearly saying this is impossible?

Lhuzie

While Must Be Tuesday can quite easily — and in fact, to great effect — handle character death/villain turn between sessions, it is a still as awkward as you would expect if it happens early enough in the session where you cannot call it a night. Since you have established relationships with existing characters that are not Player Characters, it is less of a speedbump if you have a stated as a Player Character relationship of your character at the end of character creation; a natural replacement just in case your little guy flips the table or gets eaten by a dragon.

Brad

Must Be Tuesday runs like a finely tuned crossbow! I think the biggest pitfall is setting expectations, you are going to have characters die or join the bad side frequently and it can be a bit jarring to people who are used to characters having stronger sea legs and lasting a longer time.

8. What to Steal

Experiencing good art is the most important step in making good art. We look back at the things that worked and did not work about this game, see what we learned for design work, interesting tech and just a general overview of things that we will take from this game and bring into others. Or more honestly: since many of us may not play this game and we have it in our library, this way we can get some use out of it.

Lhuzie

Not only is Must Be Tuesday a good example of how to do a 2e edition, how to make a simple game for one shot, the expanded rules are just a delight. The magic and technology systems are worth the study for anyone that wants a simple, easy, free-form way to treat those things while still being mechanically satisfying.

Brad

Must Be Tuesday (or Must Be 2esday as I demand it be called from here on out.) is such wonderful example of what a second edition should be, a perfect clean update that simply delivers a more wholesome and perfect version of the first edition and if you ever want a wonderful take on shows like Buffy, or The Pink Opaque you need to give it a shot.

Lhuzie

Anything you want to share, Brad?

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