Masterful

Last night we finished the My Life with Master game, with suitably apocalyptic results. Ted's character was killed by the mob, Christina's character destroyed herself, and only Roy's simpering Minion was integrated back into society. Running this game again two and half years after I discovered it (and three and half years after its initial publication) was interesting, as my gaming has changed quite a bit in that time. At the scene level, I think the game is still state of the art. Both the way it handles scene-level resolution and the way it paces individual scenes work so well and mesh very smoothly with my style of gaming. I also really like the larger game pacing mechanic, though I don't think I run it as well as I should. I tend to let the players control their own fate too much, which sometimes gets in the way of smoother development and thematic consistency. I don't think that the endgame mechanics work as well as the rest of the game, however, or at least I don't see how to make them do so. It seems like the Minions have every incentive to team up and aid the Minion in conflict with the Master right away, as they only get weaker and worse off as the endgame continues. Last night, the pre-endgame grab for Love was actually more frantic than the actual endgame itself.

My Life with Master is a tremendously innovative and influential design, and I'm very glad we decided to take a look back at it. Even if it doesn't completely mesh with my GMing style, it's a great change of pace that continues to teach me about gaming.