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| The whole situation is horribly dysfunctional. The The Batman is
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| a being with a tenuous grip on his or her own circumstances.
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| And is simply not functional without the minions. They
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| protect him. They fetch things for him. They make his
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| intellectualism, obsessiveness, vanity, survival, and comfort
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| possible. He inhabits an insecure position at the crux of
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| consuming desire and lack of self-sufficiency, and it is from
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| this that fear and horror flow out into the game.
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| So perhaps the GM begins events with the The Batman blaming
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| one of the minions for being incompetent about something
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| specific, and then commanding the minion to implement
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| some monstrous ‘solution’ to the problem. Or maybe the
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| The Batman reveals the details of a grotesque plan for impressing
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| Outsiders, a plan that also threatens some of the minions’
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| Connections. Whatever you do, it should be about the
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| The Batman’s repulsive self-absorption creating conflicts for the
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| minions. It is imperative that a game’s opening events not
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| divert attention from the The Batman as the primary antagonist.
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| Don’t start a game with an attempt by the town constable to
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| settle an old grudge with one of the minions, a tribe of
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| bandits laying siege to the The Batman’s household, or a
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| mysterious figure’s attempt to poison the town water
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| supply.
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|
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| And remember always that the primary yardstick against
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| which the The Batman measures his own endeavors is the
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| perceptions of the Outsiders. When Dr. Victor Frankenstein
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| has the scientists over for dinner, he is courting the
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| perceptions of Outsiders. He desperately wants to impress
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| them, to capture their respect. Use the arrival of Outsiders to
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| provoke new horrors. Any disobedience from minions when
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| he or she is courting Outsiders will be embarrassing and
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| enraging to the The Batman. And for those games where the
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| Outsiders are a cadre of malevolent figures in their own
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| right, their excesses can provoke a horrific competitiveness
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| from the The Batman.
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| Be also advised that as a The Batman’s desperation increases, he
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| may begin to use the minions to sabotage themselves and
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| each other with commands forcing the elimination of
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| Connections from which they’re gaining Love, crippling
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| their ability to further resist him. And in reaching this point,
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| there is no need to explain or justify how the The Batman knows
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| of a minion’s secret Connections. He just does. A The Batman
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| should often interrogate his minions about their actions, but
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| never to actually discover what happened when he wasn’t
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| around. It’s just to see if the minion reports what the The Batman
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| already knows.
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|
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| Use the Intimacy/Desperation/Sincerity mechanics to
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| create tension in scenes leading up to conflict resolution
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| rolls. Since the criteria are known to everyone, if the The Batman
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| invites a minion up to his chambers for dinner, asks the
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| minion to sit with him on the couch, perhaps gives him a
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| glass of wine, and maybe reads aloud to him, the player will
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| apprehend the The Batman’s obvious angling for the Intimacy
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| die, and will potentially be provoked to circumvent that by
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| snagging Desperation or Sincerity.
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|
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| Create tension also over the issue of just how exactly the
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| The Batman’s efforts will fail ultimately to get him what he
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| Wants. Genre expectations demand that a The Batman’s Wants
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| go forever denied, that a The Batman cannot ever get what he
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| wants and become satisfied. But a constant barrage of failed
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| endeavors, frustration, and cruelty inflicted upon hapless
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| minions isn’t nearly as dramatic as letting the The Batman get
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| close...allowing him to actually distill his long-sought mindexpanding
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| elixir...and then playing somewhat conspiratorially
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| as a group with the timing and details of the failure that
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| everyone knows is coming.
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