Has anyone made a similar Skin, playing around with the idea of the Other? I cobbled together some notes over the months, and now I don’t know what to do with it (I don’t have a Monsterhearts group).
Please comment and criticize as you see fit: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1YMLBFbE3cCZgiV1VFDdU2Hl0VeJZxOsL34isiabZ7sc/edit?usp=sharing
This looks playable/okay at first glance.
I disagree. There are ways to make Victimization gameable in varying degrees (like the Mortal, the Ghost, and the Neighbor).
The Serpentine is a great metaphor for being of two worlds, neither of which is good long-term. What can the Ogre offer that the Serpentine doesn’t?
Neither the Serpentine nor the Selkie are really about racism. You can play with these elements but they are not a functional core of the character.
Cool. Awesome delicious comments. Please, more if applicable. (I’m distracted by other things, but I can take another dive later in the week.)
On reflection, what I dislike here is you’ve coded a right answer into the skin and made a huge contract for other player’s behavior. When they engage with you, you limit their options. Things like
“Yellow Fever” is rough: The name has a history of real life racism, and the move functions as an additional sex move. Redundant.
“Savage Love” is OK but it’s simple stat replacement. Meh.
“Alien” codifies other people’s play through failure: Someone spreads a rumor about you/ Someone calls you out on your behavior
are both “You do this to me” moves.
Gibberish also has negative triggers that other people have to feel. The “Always On” Orc condition means that anti-orc racism is ALWAYS SOCIALLY RELEVANT (fiction wise) and, mechanically, gives everyone a +1 against you in a 2d6 system.
I think the central mistake here was approaching the outsider FROM THE IN GROUP’S PERSPECTIVE. They’re weird (so they speak gibberish). They are anti-social (so they scare people away). Instead of playing, say, someone from Iran, this skin portrays what hayseeds think Arabs are Like. There’s no move to honor your culture (or choose Americanization, like the Serpentine). There’s no ultimate choice (like the Selkie has: stay or go and never return). There’s very little to hook other players; your sex moves make them either racist or emotionally unavailable. Even the advance (Conspiracy of Orcs) isn’t on the side of the PC.
Monsterhearts skins are the trickiest of all *AW skins to make, because you need to do three things:
-Track a monster
-Track a type of dysfunctional teen
-Create a series of moves that swaps you between the two.
A Queen can trade her brood’s sex for power; a Mortal can make excuses and forgive abuse; the Fae can lay elaborate traps. I don’t see the Orc as doing anything so complicated; what you have here is “Hey, Fuck You!” and “Hey, no Fuck You, [racial slur]”.
For comparison, there’s the Foreigner for WWWRPG, which plays on the us/them dynamic, even though wrestling is a less subtle genre.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qvLpu7vHnp0Zlhg2WY3Id7M880g9oNibfyXyDIUx0d4/edit
Adam Goldberg, thanks for your analysis; it’s helped me understand Skins so much better.
Hey, everyone, thanks for the comments. Obviously, I need to rethink this Skin. I’ll keep it open if anyone wants to make additional comments, esp. since I don’t know when I’ll get a chance to revisit this.