There are actually two games called "The Watch" in some way, there's the one I'm doing today, and then there's The Watch, a PbtA game from Peach Pants Press. I'll get to that one eventually.
The Game: The W.A.T.C.H.
The Publisher: Wolvesbane Manor
Degree of Familiarity: None with this particular game, but um, it feels pretty familiar in places
Books Required: Just the one
It's a lot like Chill, is what I'm saying, but I don't mean that in an accusatory fashion, just that it treads a lot of the same ground. You're playing members of an organization with a kind of tortured acronym for a name (Worldwide Anomaly Tracks & Cryptid Hunters, which, I have to admit, is better than the mangled Latin used to create SAVE) that hunts down and investigates supernatural occurrences. That's where the similarities end, both on a systemic and thematic level. See, Chill is explicitly about protecting people from a hostile supernatural force, particularly in Third Edition; the Unknown is definitively evil. In The WATCH (I am not putting the periods in every time, though I do note that even when I did that when googling to find the publisher, the Peach Pants Press version was all that came up), what exactly the titular organization is, is never defined. You might be a reality TV film crew, a cryptid hunting club, or a secret government organization doing X-Files shit (side note: Was there ever an official X-Files RPG? If not, why not? And don't say Conspiracy X, I know there's a bunch that could do it, I just wondered if there was a licensed one. Google it, Matt, you say, and I look down and whisper "no").
Ahem. Anyway, The WATCH is playable both with and without a GM ("Controller"), using random tables to generate clues and so on if you're playing without one. It's one of many games that I might consider playing if I didn't have Chill (or, in this case, Conspiracy X, or Bump in the Dark, or Monster of the Week), but I don't know that it thrills me on its own. But I dunno, the GMless version might be a fun one-shot.
So let's make a W.A.T.C.H.er!
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| Sup |
The PDF isn't bookmarked, grargh. However! There is one easy-to-use table summarizing chargen, so all is forgiven.
Well, can't exactly develop a concept that complements the team (though I do note that this game has solo rules, so let's assume I was going to do that, I guess). I don't want a tragic backstory, just because I'll enjoy the challenge of not doing that. I don't have a concept beyond that, though, so since music on my mind because of the character I did yesterday, I shall have my old friend "music library" pick a random song for me.
The first one it gave me was "I've Loved These Days" by Billy Joel, which I'm going to veto because as much as I love the Piano Man, that song is sad and I'm not doing sad today. I'm doing weird and random today. And the next song is...hey, Garbage! Specifically "Not My Idea."
Not complicated as song interpretations go; it's about being a young adult in the 90s and seeing the world starting to burn while older people tell you "these are the best years of your life lol!" (I...can relate.) So I think I'll make a character in that kind of demographic, and actually because I'm feeling the grunge vibe today, we'll say my guy was a drummer in a grunge band that actually did OK in the mid-90s, had a couple of hits that charted, and then their label screwed them, the band broke up, the lead singer went on to be a right-wing podcaster, the bassist has a good stand-up career, and my character is just...here. Does drum lessons, plays on studio albums once in a while...AND HUNTS CRYPTIDS.
I think what happened there is that he filled in for a drummer at gig at a music fest (let's say Bonnaroo, just because I've been to that one). He got done playing, was the first one off stage and into the green room, and saw something rooting around in the trash. It jumped out and ran out the door, and it was bipedal but only a foot high and it had four arms what the shit. My character, Aiden Harrell, never let it go and got a rep for being either nuts or drugged (he is neither), until he got hooked up with the WATCH.
That'll do for step one, I think. Now I've got 35 training points. My Aspects (which threw me, because I'm used to Aspects in the Fate sense, and these are not, they're more like Attributes in the SWADE sense) start at d4, and I can spend 4 points to jack them up a die type.
Aspects determine how much stress one can take in the appropriate area (Emotional, Intellectual, Physical, Social, Spiritual). I don't see Aiden as being particularly weak in any of these. Buying all of them up to d6 would cost most of my points, though. Does having a d4 mean I'm especially deficient in that area? Rolls in this game are Aspect + Skill vs. a difficulty, and a "standard" difficulty is 9. Then yes, having a d4 would make it impossible to do something standard without a complementary skill. OK, fuck it, 24 points to jack all my Aspects to d6, and then 4 more to raise Emotional to d8 (I wavered between Social and Emotional, but I think Emotional, which refers to empathy and keeping calm when faced with adversity, makes more sense for Aiden).
That leaves me 7 points for Skills. Which...how do these work? Oh, OK. You pay an initial purchase cost and then can spend more points to bump up the die type, but it's d6 by default, and it looks like most of the initial costs are low so I should be able to buy the Skills Aiden would have.
Well, I want Lore: Cryptids because I figure Aiden's always reading some book about them. That's 2 points, but I don't think more than a d6 is necessary. I want Intimidation and Interview; Aiden can be scary if he needs to, but he's much happier just talking to people. Buying both of those sets me back 3, which means I have 2 points left. I think I'll leave both of those at d6. I'll buy First Aid (Aiden's girlfriend back in the touring days once OD'd and nearly died, and that spooked him into both staying relatively clean and learning CPR), and finally...oh, obviously I need Performance, geez. Should have saved a few points so I could buy it up, but eh. Maybe Aiden's not in practice anymore.
Base equipment! Oh, cool, it's just "you get what you would logically have", rather than fucking shopping. Well, without wishing to get into the weeds on what Aiden might be carrying for a hypothetical mission, let's just say that he carries a smartphone, a lighter (he doesn't smoke anymore, but he's found having a Zippo is often useful), and a notebook (he knows his phone has a notes app, but he finds it much more expedient to just write stuff). He doesn't always carry drumsticks, but he's never far from a pair.
Mannerisms/descriptions/background! I think we've established background. Aiden is about 55. He's a little pudgier than he used to be (aren't we all), but he's doing OK. His hair is brown and graying, and varies in length depending on whether he feels like trying to recapture his youth this season. He wears jeans or khakis and has a lifetime supply of t-shirts from his band's tour, and he refuses to stop wearing flannels (look, they're comfy).
That's it! Can't deny that the process is pretty smooth and it's well-explained, which is a feat in itself.
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