We’ve been playing Lovecraftesque on Mote lately, and the results have been fantastic. I wanted to share some advice on how to play this prep-less, dice-less story game on Mote, and how it got my gears turning.

Lovecraftesque is a GM-less storytelling game for 2-5 players by Black Armada Games. As you play, you and your friends will co-create a chilling short story in the style of H.P. Lovecraft.

Mote is a great match for Lovecraftesque first and foremost because these kinds of stories originate and thrive in the written medium. So much of the horror of a Lovecraft story is in the way you use your imagination to interpret the words on the page – in both what’s said, and what’s left unsaid – and the way that written words can suggest or give the impression of a thing while stopping short of fully realizing it. The interplay between text and imagination is an ever-present part of playing Mote, and it really adds to the experience of telling this kind of story.

Mote also naturally provides a really clear separation between table talk and the story you’re telling, which helps a lot to keep everyone in the mood while you play.

Since the conversation you’re having about the game you’re playing is happening through another medium entirely (we use Discord or, even better, Zoom), the story itself is able to really take center stage. If the story gets too intense, you can take a break and crack a few jokes, then pick up right where you left off.

We also really enjoyed being able to produce an artifact of play from our story using Mote’s Save as HTML feature. Each player can download their own unique edition of the story as it appeared on their screen and re-read it later.

You can even split your Lovecraftesque game into two Mote sessions on separate days and re-read the transcript of the first session ahead of time so you can pick up where you left off.

Preparing to play

One of the first things you’ll need to decide is how to handle the Witness in Mote. In Lovecraftesque, the Witness is the central character of the story, and every player takes turns playing them.

In Mote, the most straightforward way to create a character that you play is to make it your Persona. Your Mote Persona is who’s story you tell with your emotes and chats (when you aren’t using a Pet), and they appear as “you” in the text that you read. (Everyone else’s Personas appear in the third person.) But how to handle a shared main character?

• Witness as Pet One option is for everyone to create their own Pet to represent the Witness, and not using their Persona at all during play (the default Persona is “someone”). This can contribute to narrative distance, but may also reduce your identification with the character when you are playing the Witness.
• Witness as Persona Another option, and this is the one we’ve used, is for everyone to make the Witness character their persona. This means that in scenes when you are not playing the Witness, you’ll read about them in the third person, and in scenes when you are, you’ll read about them in first person. This may sound exotic to those not as familiar with Mote, but it feels like a truer translation of the game to Mote and our group had a lot of fun with it. I’m looking forward to future development making Personas and Pets more flexible that may present even more options for how to play this game.
• Special Cards We used the cardless rules for our game. I’m looking forward to trying this one day using the cards, but they were pretty awkward playing remotely with the PDF. If you have any advice for playing with special cards remotely, I’d love to hear it.

Investigation scenes

Most of your time playing Lovecraftesque will be taken up by Investigation Scenes, during which all the players will take turns filling one of three roles: the Narrator, who directs the scene and reveals a clue, the Witness, who portrays the story’s protagonist, or the Watchers, who add color and help fill out the scene.

Playing the Narrator

When it’s your turn to be the Narrator, you’ll be charged with setting up when and where the scene takes place and what’s going on. This may sound daunting, but remember this is a collaborative game. When you’re the Narrator, everyone you’re playing with is trying to help you bring your ideas to life! Here are some tips to get you through your first scene as Narrator:

• Start your scene with a chapter heading. This is a great way to set up what’s going on quickly without painting an entire picture with emotes and Pets. It’s also a great way to telegraph to the other players what you have in mind for the scene.
• Use parentheticals to establish time and place. Parentheticals are a new (and experimental) parser feature that let you add short phrases before your emotes. Parenthesize a phrase inside your emote, and it will be set off from the rest of the sentence with a comma. This is a great way to establish when and where things are happening. (See examples below.)
• Read in the other players when appropriate. Don’t hesitate to enlist your fellow-players’ help to get all the pieces in place, especially at the beginning of the scene. Tell Watchers which characters you want them to take on. Tell the Witness when you want them to enter the scene, and what you want them to be doing. If you need help establishing the mood, or bringing a big twist to life, ask the other players to help you.
• Keep it short. This one requires the most discipline. When you’re telling a story on Mote, and everyone is vibing, it can be easy to just keep riffing, especially when the story is as atmospheric and thrilling as the ones you will tell with Lovecraftesque. Remember that the whole point of an investigation scene is the one clue that you’re going to reveal. Once you reveal the clue, let the Witness spend some time reacting and rationalizing, and then end the scene.
• End your scene with a scene break. Use the Scene Break Tool to add a divider to the page to signal to all the other players that the scene is done. Decisively ending the scene, maybe even a little early, is a great way to keep momentum and avoid losing steam. When the next scene starts, the player who is the Narrator for that scene will be able to replace the scene break ornament with a heading using the Chapter Tool.

/(back onboard the ship)… 
/(the next morning)… 
/(after several hours)… 
/(in the room at the end of the hall)… 

Playing the Witness

Mote puts you in the driver’s seat of your persona. For many types of stories, this is great – it keeps you present and active, focusing on what your character does, and driving the story forward through strong, active characters.

But as the Witness in Lovecraftesque, this is the opposite of what you want! The most important thing you can do when playing the Witness is to pay attention to the Narrator – watch where they are leading the scene, and follow them there.

• Show what you’re thinking and feeling. One of the best ways to keep yourself from derailing the Narrator’s scene is to focus on the Witness’s thoughts and feelings. Read the scene the Narrator and Watchers are creating and use emotes to show what the Witness is thinking and feeling. (See examples below.)
• Find a way to show their strength and one of their traits in each scene. Every Witness starts the story with something that gives them strength, and over the course of the story they’ve acquired traits. Remember to call on these while you are playing the Witness. If you’re not sure how the Witness would react to something that’s happened, return to these for inspiration.

/realize that… 
/wonder why… 
/shudder at the thought of… 
/try not to recall how… 
/can’t believe that… 
/wish I hadn’t seen… 

Playing a Watcher

The Watcher can be the toughest role to get the hang of. You aren’t in charge, and you aren’t the main character, so what exactly should you be doing? And, just as importantly, what shouldn’t you be doing?

• Put the Narrator’s emotes on loop. I think of this like vamping or comping in music. The Narrator may introduce details and scenery, but their focus is on the plot. Pick up on the details the Narrator introduces, and continue to breath life into them and expand on them to enrich the scene.
• Use custom subjects to show scenery, details, and ideas. Custom subjects are another new (and experimental) parser feature that make it easy to create rich and varied scenes without stopping to make lots and lots of pets. (In fact, we now recommend you only make pets to represent actual characters!) To use a custom subject, just type the name of the subject, followed by a colon, followed by the rest of your emote. (See examples below.)
• Only play a side character at the Narrator’s request. Characters are major forces in stories, so only introduce one into the scene when the Narrator asks you to!
• It’s okay to just watch. You are a Watcher after all! The story you create with Lovecraftesque and your friends is going to be totally gripping, so it’s okay to take a break and just soak it all in.

/bitter leaves: whirl across the ground
/the pungent odor: hits @alice's nostrils
/the crowd: presses in
/darkness: descends
/shadows: creep across the lawn

The Ending

The final act of your Lovecraftesque story is a bit more freeform than the rest, an optional force majeur, followed by a real or metaphysical journey to a final climactic reveal.

My best advice for this section is to keep your turn-taking strict (our group limited ourselves to just three emotes per turn), and to use scene breaks liberally to add structure and pacing.

The Epilogue

The player who takes on the epilogue needs to have a solid plan (probably punctuated by some kind of twist) and strong facility with emotes. This part is like an epic solo, where you’ll quickly spin a scene that puts a cap on everything. Custom subjects and parentheticals are your friend here!

Once you stick the landing, signal to everyone that the story is done – if you happen to be the host, you can end the story from Verso; otherwise use the Scene Break Tool to mark the spot.

Future work

Every time I try something new on Mote, it feels like I dream up new features to go with it. This is good and bad (but mostly good!) Here are a few I’ve been thinking about that would really enhance Lovecraftesque:

• Being able to share and swap Pets and even Personas
• Being able to use a different perspective (third-person, first-person) and verb tense (past, future)
• Being able to add epistolary content to the flow of the narration, like letters, notes, signs, and poems

How to buy Lovecraftesque

You can buy Lovecraftesque directly from Black Armada Games in both digital and print editions through their website. An incredible amount of thought and care went into this game, which in addition to the rules includes several essays on grappling with Lovecraft’s life and work, and a broad collection of scenarios from a diverse group of writers.

I hope you love playing this game on Mote as much as we did! If you try it, I’d love to hear about it!

About Mote

Mote is a text-centered online space for collaborative storytelling and gaming I’m creating with my partner John Zajac. Mote’s narration engine weaves your chats and emotes into a story that reads like a book, whether you’re freeform roleplaying with friends, or playing a story game like Lovecraftesque. Sign up for our open beta to start exploring.