So even though they are seperate games, done by different teams, I like to think of Urban Shadows as Monsterhearts all grown up. A lot of the playbooks appear in both (Infernal is Tainted, Witch becomes Wizard, Ghost becomes Spectre, the mortal most directly correlates with Aware, but could easily turn to any of the mortal archetypes, Chosen could become Hunter etc), so I sometimes thought that Urban Shadows is what happens when those Monsterheart teens had to graduate.
So I wondered, has anyone ever done an Urban Shadows game, where they or someone else was playing a grown up version of their Monsterhearts character? How different were they, not mechanics wise, but personality? What happened to them in the interval since high school?
If I ever got to play in another Urban Shadows game, I’d like to explore what happened to my Infernal Byron from Monsterhearts when he left high school. Is he still a servant to his old master Bertha the Butcher, or did he swear himself to someone much worse? Is he on the run from the police for all the murder he ‘probably’ committed? Did he ever reunite with his mother, or kill his abusive father?
Do they mesh well? Can moves translate between games with a little jiggering?
Joshua Faller I’m not asking about the moves translating. I’m asking about the characters, their personalities, their histories. Has anyone done that?
Like if a group of PCs stopped their monsterheart game, and did an Urban Shadows where their teens were translated into Urban Shadow adults. The moves change because of course they do, they aren’t teenagers anymore. They’ve grown up, they aren’t so flippant. They don’t turn to their darkest self as easily but when they do it sticks (aka, turn to a threat).
Just wondering outloud.
I haven’t done it, but there’s enough overlap that I can absolutely imagine it working. You could actually do one mechanical translation and turn every string into a debt, since they’re conceptually similar. It could give characters a ‘stuck on the past’ vibe, which is a neat space to start with Urban Shadows I think.
I’d probably start Urban Shadows with the ten year reunion of the Monsterhearts class, which naturally goes spectacularly wrong. There’s probably a dead body. See what happens when everyone is working through their old high school baggage, trying to deal with their own faction politics and getting dragged through the fallout of whatever happened at the reunion. Good times.
Yeah that could be a lot of fun. Especially when factions come into play. Back in school the Vampire and Wolf hated each other-but as adults they are both part of the Night Faction which mean they need to play nice, when all the Vamp wants to do is cross party lines and get with the wizard (whose suddenly much more attractive than she was in high school) but the Power Faction is persona non gratis right now with the Night leaders.
Maybe I should try and do something like that for my old group, if we can ever be in town at the same time to do it.
I’ve done it with Mobsterhearts->Monster of the week.
Chosen, Witch, Vampire -> Chosen, Expert, Monstruos.
I’m currently playing Urban Shadows with a characters from Monsterhearts, the witch. The Monsterhearts game never got to finish, and so I grew the character up and made them a Wizard.
Character personality-wise, her experiences as a teen have made her a bit more grounded and jaded for the adult world. No longer are the times where she could quietly lash out without any thought of repercussions, there’s now a whole city seething with supernatural activity and all those things bump back.
Bonus: she’s originally from a small town, which I wrote in was wiped out of time and space with a ritual she cast to stop the Big Bad. That place is now her Sanctum (wards and acts as a prison, but it’s hard to get to). She’s got some PTSD from the event…
I’ve always wanted to aim for this by running a Monsterhearts campaign with the intent of moving into a US one right after with the same characters. But for now it’s just a pipe dream.
Simone Micucci Now I’m sure that “Mobsterhearts” was a typo, but just on the off-chance… is there a Monsterhearts hack where you’re all children of prohibition-era supernatural bootleggers?
James Etheridge, yes 🙂
Well, I haven’t seen it happen in a game. But Buffy the Vampire Slayer and The Vampire diaries are both very much MonsterHearts-style shows, and they both got spinnoffs that were Urban-Shadows style shows. So that’s a really interesting idea.