Use Magic: Spooky/Monstrous vs. all the rest

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Use Magic: Spooky/Monstrous vs. all the rest
« on: March 23, 2014, 12:59:51 PM »
First, I should say that I just ran my first session of Monster of the Week last night, and it went great. What was intended to be a one-shot is now going to be an ongoing game because people loved it so much.

I had just one rules question that I was hoping folks here might be able to help out with: Does the Use Magic move potentially work differently for different playbooks? I kind of ruled on the fly that this was the case, and that just about any magical effect required some time to prepare or perform it, plus some kind of genre-appropriate explanation for what the hunter does to activate it. For instance, one hunter wanted to Use Magic in trying to banish a demon, reciting prayers in Latin like he'd seen characters do in Supernatural, but he didn't have anybody covering for him, so the demon attacked him mid-ritual.

The exception to this rule, I figured, might be The Spooky (and perhaps the Monstrous, who was not in play), who could draw on their dark power source to Use Magic instantaneously. The way I ruled this on the fly was that if the Spooky used magic immediately rather than cautiously preparing like everyone else, I could ask them to do something revealing their dark side right then and there (like the playbook suggests).

To be honest, the main reason I made these rulings was one or two of my players tried to use "I Use Magic to trap him with an invisible wall of force!" every time they needed to deal with a potential enemy, and it was getting a little dull. I pointed out that trapping a Duke of Hell probably required a bit heavier mojo, including drawing circles around them and such, but I'd already let the Spooky get away with it, so ... that's where that ended up going.

How do others approach improvised attempts to Use Magic – the same for everyone, or based on the context of what certain characters/playbooks seem like they'd be able to do?

Re: Use Magic: Spooky/Monstrous vs. all the rest
« Reply #1 on: March 23, 2014, 02:01:02 PM »
For me, it's definitely the second. Different characters will each have their own way of doing things (although some ways can work for everybody).

For the wall of force problem - a monster like that could perhaps come up with a counter if the same trick gets used over and over.

Re: Use Magic: Spooky/Monstrous vs. all the rest
« Reply #2 on: March 24, 2014, 10:18:59 AM »
Okay, that is reassuring. Thanks!