Okay, I got a proper skin made for my ‘Ice Queen’ type character, The Frozen.
It’s presented gender neutral for the most part, but the image I used presents as female.
I took down my previous post, as this is a much more refined version of the Skin I think. I’m sure there are a couple of typos I can work out though. (For instance I just noticed that the sex move should grant three Strings, not two).
While the influence for the skin shouldn’t be hard to guess, I find I like Skins best when they aren’t about ‘super-powers’ and rather each move really helps drive the drama. Generally I’d agree with others in the Group that starting with an emotional theme and then picking a monster to fit it is the way to go, this one kind of worked the other way. That said, I really tried to focus on the emotional issues and turmoil of the inspiring film character to drive the creation of this Skin.
I really am eager for feedback from people, if there is anything you like or dislike please let me know.
I’m already working on my next skin, and any tips from this could help me refine the next one before I put it up here – The Pixie.
EDIT: Version 1.3 now up
Neat! Seems really powerful. I can’t seem to fit a “Let It Go” reference into this post, so I’ll just say that I think it’s neat.
It hasn’t been fully playtested yet, I built it on the idea that you have to be really careful using your Moves too much or else you would drive yourself quickly into your Darkest Self. Does it seem ‘too’ powerful at all?
Oh, wowzers…(adds to his list of Must Play NAO).
Please do! Let me know how it goes for you, I’m really eager to see how it works for people.
I really like this Skin! Well done. 🙂
This seems pretty cool! I’m…less sure about the Cold Presence? I would almost want to mitigate it with “If they have a string on you, they are immune to this effect”. Alternatively, make using this power cost something, such as a Harm or a string.
Also, an important element of good MonsterHearts skins is bringing in the teenage experience. I’d love to see some more of the emotional consequences of being a loner. Obviously, the other potential source, an ambitious, powerful young woman who’s been told to fear/control that power, won’t work if you want the skin to be gender neutral.
I agree with Kelley Vanda, but I also think that a good skin should draw on more than one source. Think of some other tragic ice characters. Maybe add a little Mr. Freeze or Ice King, characters who also have powers that drive thier loneliness. I also think the darkest self is a bit too specific with the end clause. Still, there is a lot of potential here if you drift a bit further from frozen’s inspiration.
If you start w/ one move and get two more, you’ll have an effect where with advances, you can be a frozen with 5 of the 6 possible moves. You should add some moves or start with fewer to allow for replayability.
I also see a LOT of stat replacement. Part of MH is doing things poorly, so having 3 stat replacement moves means the Frozen won’t fail. And failure is fun.
That, combined with the defensive abilities of Cold Presence and Icy Glare, mean a lot of passivity. If everyone fails to gain strings on you (due to the -1s you’re throwing around, which can stack with conditions), you’re going to be in a continual cycle of Darkest Self. And if people can’t gain strings on you afterwards (or don’t WANT to turn you on after your rampage), you’ll darkest self again…
btw, where do you get the template to make nice looking MS skins
I hate to nitpick, but Ice-Bound Heart isn’t ticked as the starting move.
This is brilliant. I love Elsa and the story of sisterly love in Frozen. Your skin is very well done and seems imminently playable upon first read. I’ve been through skin testing and revising (The Incubus) and know it is a subtle art. I will give you more detailed feedback and suggestions some time over the holiday break. Thank you for posting this. Can’t wait to play a frozen character.
Thanks everyone for your feedback. I really appreciate it!
Charles, you are absolutely right Ice-Bound Heart needs to be checked. Thanks. Editing is half (or more) of the battle.
Kelley Vanda I will admit that the Cold Presence is the move I have been least sure of. It is a bit of an awkward mechanic compared to the normal wording of moves in Monster Hearts. …I was about to say that I didn’t like your suggestion because it swung things too far in the other direction of power, but after thinking about it a minute I like it quite a bit – but not for Cold Presence. I think I want to work something into Ice-Bound Heart (or maybe one or two other Moves instead) to give the Frozen a penalty against anyone with a String on her, that way other characters always have a motivation to try and gain a String on her when she is taking them away. If I leave it tied only to Cold Presence then it only comes into play if you choose that one power…maybe I’ll do both…hmmmm…
Adam Goldberg you have struck on a couple of my concerns that I have been mulling over. I would like one more move in the available options I think, but I like the “take this one and two other” to begin with. I think more options rather than fewer choices is the way to go. As for the Darkest Self cycle, well, see my response above to Kelley Vanda for one of the ways I think I will be addressing this – incentivising others to have Strings on the Frozen. As for the Stat replacement – yes, it is a lot, but I think that it is kept in perspective by the fact that if you choose to use Dark for a move (both of the Dark replacement powers say that you ‘may’ use Dark instead, not that you have to) you will be losing a string on someone else and so you might not want to do that all the time, if it means driving yourself to your Darkest Self. If the player wants to throw themselves into that all the time by drawing on their Dark then I figure that is their choice. Does this make sense to you? Do you think that will be incentive enough?
David Rothfeder I have an older version of Corel Draw, which I used to build the layout for the Monster Hearts Skin. It’s not as easy to play with as a ready-to-fill template, but I have a fair bit of experience with Corel Draw so it wasn’t hard for me to do.
I think there needs to be dysfunction besides the Darkest Self. Because if you’re hitting it twice or more a session, isn’t that your regular self?
I’d remove one of the stat replacers and give you something that encourages you to act with others, but only in a put-offish loner way. What does the cooler-than-everyone-else teen get from hanging out with people? Do they like manipulating others? Do they let others boss them around, then lash out?
The core skins have very few defensive moves ( the only one I can think of is The Shield from the Queen). If there’s a stiff penalty to interacting with your character,
-everyone’s gonna stop doing it–. Cue player frustration. (Seen this happen w/ the Unseen and the Devout, both which are heavily defensive loner/outsiders).Remember, Frozen is a Movie, but MH is inspired by episodic teen dramas (or huge novel serieses). If Elsa was in a high school every week, how could we convey her social isolation, knowing we have to put her in homeroom again on Monday?
How could she be more Cordelia or Willow and less Carrie?
I’d also suggest that it is important for differences in personalities to exist within the skin are important. A loved character who feels the need to drive those she cares about away (like Elsa) would feel very different than a desperately lonely person who seeks companions but who’s power drives others away (like Ice King) or a person who is isolated by their power and seeks to punish those who aren’t afflicted (Mr. Freeze) or even other themes that I haven’t listed. A great skin allows for multiple interpretations to shine.
Okay, so I’ve been thinking about this a fair bit and I think there are two things happening in the discussion here about this skin.
First off, Adam Goldberg you have some goo suggestions on the mechanical aspect of the skin, making things too defensive means it is just shutting down other players and the game in general. Monsterhearts is very much like improv in acting – it works best when everybody is saying “yes, and-” rather than saying “no”. I also do think, looking at the numbers a bit more, that the Frozen will slide into her Darkest self a little too quickly and easily, with only one option herself for trying to fight against that currently (sleeping around). Keeping it in the perspective of a weekly serial, where the character needs to keep coming back to the table (not just the player), I think I can tweak things that way.
The other thing that seems to be happening here is the discussion of the theme, and while I agree that the skin can (and probably should) be stretched out a little bit to be a little more encompassing, I think that people might be trying to stretch it a bit too far.
“cold” and “ice powers” are a power theme that have been used very widely in a variety of fiction, and there are personalities there that really don’t fit with the emotional core of this skin. I don’t think Iceman from the X-men would ever fit here, for instance. For as much of the ‘power’ and ‘FX’ theme of this skin might be drawn from Else, the other thing to keep in mind is that the emotional core of the skin is the most important part (to me). The emotional core is that this is someone who is withdrawn and has a lot of difficulty opening up to others for fear of being hurt. Just because Mr Freeze and the Ice King have cold powers doesn’t mean that they belong in this skin. From what I see though, Mr Freeze already is embodied here – he’s very firmly in his Darkest self though, not caring about anyone else or their lives in his pursuit of vengeance.
I have plans for another skin that is all about desperately want everyone’s approval and wanting everyone to like you, but that is not the Frozen. The Frozen is about needing some kind of close, personal connection but being afraid of the pain that comes from connecting to others.
Give me an hour or two, I will try to put up today my ideas for revising some of these moves in order to improve the interactions between the Frozen and the other players.
Okay, had to add the link in a new post. Let me know what you think of the changes.
I’m really excited to offer this at Kapcon, in January. Great work.
By all means, but I suggest using the revised version I put in my other post. Updated with more and better moves.
I will also be a slightly updated version soon with just some small tweaks and a rewritten version of “How to play the Frozen” section.