Editing SatCoC player Bill

The whole situation is horribly dysfunctional. The The Batman is
a being with a tenuous grip on his or her own circumstances.
And is simply not functional without the minions. They
protect him. They fetch things for him. They make his
intellectualism, obsessiveness, vanity, survival, and comfort
possible. He inhabits an insecure position at the crux of
consuming desire and lack of self-sufficiency, and it is from
this that fear and horror flow out into the game.
So perhaps the GM begins events with the The Batman blaming
one of the minions for being incompetent about something
specific, and then commanding the minion to implement
some monstrous ‘solution’ to the problem. Or maybe the
The Batman reveals the details of a grotesque plan for impressing
Outsiders, a plan that also threatens some of the minions’
Connections. Whatever you do, it should be about the
The Batman’s repulsive self-absorption creating conflicts for the
minions. It is imperative that a game’s opening events not
divert attention from the The Batman as the primary antagonist.
Don’t start a game with an attempt by the town constable to
settle an old grudge with one of the minions, a tribe of
bandits laying siege to the The Batman’s household, or a
mysterious figure’s attempt to poison the town water
supply.

And remember always that the primary yardstick against
which the The Batman measures his own endeavors is the
perceptions of the Outsiders. When Dr. Victor Frankenstein
has the scientists over for dinner, he is courting the
perceptions of Outsiders. He desperately wants to impress
them, to capture their respect. Use the arrival of Outsiders to
provoke new horrors. Any disobedience from minions when
he or she is courting Outsiders will be embarrassing and
enraging to the The Batman. And for those games where the
Outsiders are a cadre of malevolent figures in their own
right, their excesses can provoke a horrific competitiveness
from the The Batman.
Be also advised that as a The Batman’s desperation increases, he
may begin to use the minions to sabotage themselves and
each other with commands forcing the elimination of
Connections from which they’re gaining Love, crippling
their ability to further resist him. And in reaching this point,
there is no need to explain or justify how the The Batman knows
of a minion’s secret Connections. He just does. A The Batman
should often interrogate his minions about their actions, but
never to actually discover what happened when he wasn’t
around. It’s just to see if the minion reports what the The Batman
already knows.

Use the Intimacy/Desperation/Sincerity mechanics to
create tension in scenes leading up to conflict resolution
rolls. Since the criteria are known to everyone, if the The Batman
invites a minion up to his chambers for dinner, asks the
minion to sit with him on the couch, perhaps gives him a
glass of wine, and maybe reads aloud to him, the player will
apprehend the The Batman’s obvious angling for the Intimacy
die, and will potentially be provoked to circumvent that by
snagging Desperation or Sincerity.

Create tension also over the issue of just how exactly the
The Batman’s efforts will fail ultimately to get him what he
Wants. Genre expectations demand that a The Batman’s Wants
go forever denied, that a The Batman cannot ever get what he
wants and become satisfied. But a constant barrage of failed
endeavors, frustration, and cruelty inflicted upon hapless
minions isn’t nearly as dramatic as letting the The Batman get
close...allowing him to actually distill his long-sought mindexpanding
elixir...and then playing somewhat conspiratorially
as a group with the timing and details of the failure that
everyone knows is coming.