Sharing this here to get additional feedback from folks who are more familiar with Monsterhearts than I am. I’m pretty happy with the “feel” – I think it hit the Carrie target pretty nicely – but could probably use more help with the mechanics. Be gentle, this is my first skin.
Originally shared by Topher Gerkey
Second draft of the Fury, a new skin for Monsterhearts.
#monsterhearts #skinning
The Fury
You never wanted this. You never wanted to be different or special or a freak. All you ever wanted was to fit in. To be liked. To be accepted. Maybe even to be loved. Was that so much to ask? You’re not a bad person.
But they wouldn’t let you fit in. They hurt you. Taunted you. Called you names. Exploited you. Betrayed you. They pushed and pushed and PUSHED and PUSHED and
They’re all going to be sorry when you start pushing back.
NAME
Choose a name:
Alice, Bea, Cam, Carrie, Charlie, Kim, Jill, Joe, Robin, Will
A diminutive name, a nondescript name, an unpopular name, a victim’s name
LOOK
Circle one from each list:
Raggedy, unfashionable, nerdy, nervous, beneath notice, frightened
Desperate eyes, brittle eyes, teary eyes, resentful eyes, twitchy eyes
ORIGIN
Circle one:
Genetic mutation, government program, confluence of bloodlines, abused child, experimental psychotherapy
STATS
Add 1 to one of these:
Hot -1, Cold -1, Volatile 1, Dark 1
YOUR BACKSTORY
You have a secret crush on someone. Take a string on them.
Someone has been bullying you. Give them a string on you.
Someone was kind to you once. Give them two strings on you.
FURY MOVES
You get this one, and choose two more:
X Futile Hope – Whenever someone acts kind or accepting toward you, gain a string on them and give them a string on you, and give yourself the condition Hopeful. If someone you trust betrays or hurts you while you are Hopeful, roll with Dark. On a 10 up, you lose all strings on them and replace Hopeful with Betrayed. On a 7-9, lose all strings on them, replace Hopeful with Betrayed, and choose one:
~ Give them an additional string on you
~ Take 1 harm from psychic feedback
~ Trigger your Darkest Self
O The Eye – When you gaze into the abyss, add 1 to your Dark roll. On a 10 up you can choose all three options. If you are Betrayed and roll 10 up, also mark experience. If you are Betrayed and roll 7-9, choose one of the 10 up options instead of one of the 7-9 options.
O Firestarter – Roll with Volatile to summon jets of flame, unleash destructive telekinetic blasts, instantly freeze the air, or otherwise psychically attack your tormentors. On a 10 up, do 2 harm and give your victim an appropriate condition (Burned, Frostbitten, Concussed, etc). On a 7-9, do 1 harm, give them an appropriate condition, and choose one:
~ Give yourself the same condition
~ Take 1 harm
~ Trigger your Darkest Self
If you are Betrayed, you may also carry 1 forward against them.
O Poltergeist – You can lash out physically using telekinesis instead of physical attacks, and your victim must roll to hold steady before attempting to run away. If you are Betrayed, do 1 extra harm when you lash out physically.
O Push – You can roll with Volatile to turn someone on via empathic projection. On a 10 up, in addition to giving you a string, they must follow one short-term command of your choice. On a 7-9 also give yourself the condition Creepy. If you are Betrayed, also give them the condition Enthralled.
O Scanners – Roll with Dark to invade someone else’s mind. On a 10 up, gain a string on them, and they must honestly answer one question. On a 7-9, gain a string on them and choose one:
~ They gain a string on you
~ You gain the condition Creepy
~ You each take 1 harm
On a 6 or less, they must answer one question with a plausible lie. If you are Betrayed, do 1 harm to them in addition to any other results.
O The Shining – You can roll with Dark to manipulate an NPC or shut someone down via telepathy instead of speech. If you are Betrayed, add 1 to your Dark roll and give them the condition Headache.
SEX MOVE
When you have sex with someone, take two strings on them and give them two strings on you. Give yourself the condition Hopeful.
DARKEST SELF
Nobody loves you. Nobody ever will. It’s all pain and loneliness and watching other people from the outside, and it will never change. They only pretended to like you so they could hurt you even more. There’s nothing left for you here but revenge. So burn it all down. Smash it all to pieces. Rip their secrets out and make them dance like dolls for your amusement.
To escape your darkest self, you must be confronted by someone who has never hurt, excluded, or betrayed you, or be shown an act of kindness that seems genuine.
That certainly sounds like Carrie to me!
Argh.
Not yoo–ooou! The other Carrie_!
uuuhhh, me likes!
I like it a lot. It’s pretty neat that you get to pick your flavor of revenge-powers, and all of those moves look pretty solid. The Hopeful/Betrayed dynamic is super-wonderful. And the vibe is right fucking on.
Only two things stood out to me as a bit off: 1, the Dark Roll under futile hope is a sort of “reverse move,” like AW’s Harm move, where a “hit” is bad for you. Which is fine, but it’s odd that the lesser hit has a chance to trigger the Darkest Self. If you’re Hopeful, get betrayed, and roll super-high with Dark, you come out pretty well in control, rather than batshit insano furious. Not to mention powering up a lot of your nasty moves! But if you roll only a LITTLE dark, then you might go full-on Carrie. Feels backwards.
The other weird thing for me is the Sex Move. I see what you’re going for; makes a lot of sense. But it feels lackluster because everything on that list is something you can get from elsewhere. Strings are useful, but not special, not unique to the sex. Ditto Hopeful. It seems like SOMETHING in the Sex Move should be something you can only get by having sex.
I’m sorry my criticism are more verbose than my praise! I really do think it’s an awesome Skin and I’m excited to play it. Fixing things always takes more verbiage than simply yelling “that’s rad!”
Meg, it’s just always bugged me that the two most famous characters with my name are this one and the chick who had enough shoes to buy a Manhattan apartment. (Seriously, there was a S&TC episode where she angsts about it.)
Well, there is also Carrie Fisher.
She’s not a character, she’s a real person. 🙂 Carrie Anne Moss from the Matrix, too.
Nice! I really dig that, IC, you’re desperate for kindness and affection, but OOC, you kind have a powerful incentive to show blind trust to people you know will abuse it. Would play or allow in a game I’m running, definitely.
Joel Shempert this was the kind of feedback I was hoping for, so thanks! I think you’re right about Futile Hope, and I suspect it was my gamer-lizardbrain whispering to me that loss of control is a failure state. I’m going to flipflop it and see what it looks like.
You’re also totally right about the sex move. I want to keep the string exchange and the Hopeful condition because it plays into this skin’s “engine,” so to speak, but it could definitely use something unique as well. Anyone have any ideas?
Ben Wray I’m glad that my intentions with the Hopeful/Betrayed dynamic are coming through! I really wanted to give everyone at the table an incentive to play along with the Fury’s cycle of hope and despair, and I think I managed to come up with something where everybody wins – the other players can build up strings on the Fury by being nice to him, then clear out his strings on them by abusing him. And he’s happy to let it happen because juicy drama and MOAR POWAH.
Revised draft for the core skin move:
Futile Hope – Whenever someone acts kind or accepting toward you, gain a string on them and give them a string on you, and give yourself the condition Hopeful. If someone you trust betrays or hurts you while you are Hopeful, lose all strings on them, replace Hopeful with Betrayed, and roll with Dark. On a 10 up, trigger your Darkest Self. On a 7-9, choose one:
~ Give them an additional string on you
~ Take 1 harm from psychic feedback
~ Trigger your Darkest Self
I think this is both easier to read and understand, and makes more sense given what kind of move Futile Hope really is. Thanks Joel Shempert !
Hmmm. It does feel a little weird that you have MORE choices on a 7-9 than you do on a 10+? Maybe you trigger your darkest self on a hit, but get some additional benefit on a 10+ (+1 ongoing until you leave it or something)?
I had actually thought about that – having the Darkest Self give an ongoing 1 forward to all the skin moves (which would certainly help emulate the climactic scenes of stuff like Carrie and Firestarter and The Fury), but I was worried that it would be overpowered (there’s my gamer lizard brain again). What do y’all think?
I would say, don’t worry about overpowered. Monsterhearts isn’t super balanced. Be true to the idea behind the skin. And personally speaking I think “stronger when out of control” is… pretty true to the skin, yeah?
I like stronger when out of control, but 1 forward doesn’t really do that very well. Better to widen the scope and destructiveness of the powers, say from people and rooms in the normal versions to crowds and buildings in the Darkest Self. Much more dramatic.
Piers Brown that would be a completely narrative power-up in Monsterhearts, right? I mean, not that I would have a problem with that at all, just making sure I have the right end of the stick. There wouldn’t be any mechanical effect, just scenery.
Yep. No straightforward mechanical effect, aside from the ability to affect multiple people–which is pretty terrifying.
Yeah, like your powers can affect (or target) individuals normally, but entire rooms, casually, when Darkest Self? That’s very nice and feels appropriate to the source material, too.
Yeah, I like that.
Hello everyone!
I’m reviving this thread because I’ve a question about the Fury. If I should rather open a new one please tell me where.
I’d like to ask you for your creative powers for some advice on palying the Fury in her Darkest Self.
—
TLDR: How would you play the Fury (Version 2; originally by Topher Gerkey ) in her Darkest Self when she’s her own Betrayer? Any cool ideas that would allow her to take vengeance on herself, maybe in some social suicide kind of way?
–I think some background is in order.
The Fury became her Darkest Self in the last session to survive a house collapsing on her.
The Fury is played according to Topher Gerkey ‘s version 2 of the Skin (https://docs.google.com/document/d/158pucrXLNzcRt4P87B-X8PQ0R-cNBkCSRWGMpjbCkwE/edit?usp=sharing).
We have an arrogant Vampire, a rather grown-up Werewolf, and a kind-hearted Mortal in the group, too, who are all in the same homeroom of course.
Generally, the Fury’s rather stand-offish and has trust issues (been Betrayed a few times too often before the campaign started). So, she hasn’t many friends. She has a recent crush, though. Besides, the Mortal (the crush’s brother), has been very sympathetic and forgiving. The Werewolf has been a voice of reason. The Vampire doesn’t take any lip from her and has shown a sexual interest.
Her parents who’re too scared of the things their child can do, have left her in the care of an old aunt who’s doing her best to be a loving guardian.
The Fury’s just learning her powers (= Moves, esp. Phenomenon) that stem from an unknown genetic mutation (think X-Men without the school). When she thought she finally did gain some control thanks to training with the crush, in the heat of battle, she accidentally killed a NPC who’s been a friend to the Vampire and the Mortal. She’s started getting acquainted with some Fae and Werewolves (NPCs) and promised them to track down a demon-summoning serial killer, the big bad.
She lost her Hopefull condition and became her own Betrayer then. Since then she’s been hating herself. (BTW, the Werewolf and the Vampire, who’s been rubbing her nose in it, were there at that time. She also confessed to the crush, and an old flame + betrayer). Now she’s just turned into her Darkest Self, too.
Here’s the description of the Darkest Self from the Skin:
“Nobody loves you. Nobody ever will. It’s all pain and loneliness and watching other people from the outside, and it will never change. They only pretended to like you so they could hurt you even more. There’s nothing left for you here but revenge, so burn it all down. Smash everything to pieces. Rip their secrets out and make them dance like dolls for your amusement. Your Fury moves are amplified and can affect groups of victims in the immediate area, and your destructive powers can affect large structures like buildings. Escape your Darkest Self when you have gotten vengeance on your latest, oldest or closest betrayer, or are shown an act of genuine kindness.”
I’ve been using her Phenomenon Move (vaguely like telekinesis, that is actually particle acceleration) a few times already to destroy things or hurt people in the spirit of vengeance even for little slights. Additionally, I’ve been gathering secrets for later ‘amusement’. The thing is, always smashing or blasting things and people gets old pretty fast. And, because we’re going to end the campaign soon, there isn’t much time for intrigue to use the secrets in.
What I’m looking for is something that the Fury could do to take vengeance on herself in a very self-destructive manner that would hurt her the most and involves other people.
What comes to your creative minds, fellow monsters? What would you guys do with the Fury in such a situation?