14 thoughts on “Seriously, why isn’t the infernal everybody’s favorite one skin”

  1. Because it’s very hard on the MC.

    I love to play the skin, but it’s very hit or miss. To play well the MC needs to make the Infernal both wanting to use their powers and scare them even the Darkest Self comes, but the flags to do so are not made evident, and a lot of communication is required, together with the necessity for the player to understand all what they want from the game or the character from the very beginning.

    And the game doesn’t give you the right tools to do so, you have to improvise.

    But it you manage to strike the right chords, to have that communication and that clarity going on… You are in for an hell of a ride!

  3. I feel like the Infernal is hard on the MC in a different way… it’s asking them to make an NPC that can consistently overpower and outdo the PC. That’s never really going to work in a PbtA system, so the dynamic ends up with the MC bluffing all the time, and the Infernal PC constantly confronted with a choice between letting the bluff ride, or breaking the dramatic setup.

    For me, that makes it my least favorite skin… though the Chosen runs a close second for similar reasons.

  4. I posted this after seeing the infernal on the table for the first time. The bargains really do a great job of giving the infernal power at a cost. The dark power seemed to give the MC ammo as opposed to bog him down

  7. Make the infernal strings a physical object at the table. Every time they use a power make them hand you a token. Bonus points if they are shaped like bullets.

    Or make the strings no big deal… Until it comes time to cash them in.

  9. Ran a game if monster hearts this time (yeah, it was crazy doing two mh in a day). Somebody played the infernal. Still amazing and running the dark power was super easy. I didn’t even know what it wanted until the end of the seasion.

  10. I had fun playing the Infernal, although I had the advantage of a) Jeffrey Collyer running the game and b) 5 other players who all brought their A game. I don’t think you have to have the Dark Power bluff because I don’t think you have to have it be doing anything other than, you know, helping. Always there, always willing to help… at a cost. Mind, I didn’t go Darkest Self, so I’m not sure what happens then. You can also frame the Dark Power in a whole bunch of ways. I used “that guy who runs the antique shop” as mine, but I’ve seen Poseidon and Ravana, and I could see doing this as a mob boss or a sugar daddy/mommy. While mine was closest to a Satanic figure, my Infernal felt that he owed the man everything, as he’d been dead until the Dark Power raised him. The Infernal was dating the Fae, and she was the one who actually scared him.

  11. The Darkest Self is, in fact, the catch.

    The Power have to be threatening for the script to work. It has to make the Infernal wanting it to STOP, to not asking them any more horror so they will either commit atrocious acts just to get done with it and snap out of contact an higher power for an even worse bet.

    But, most of the time, it feels like shooting darts in the dark. The MC has to try through the game to understand what will be effective, with a trial and error procedure or with any reading and communication techniques they can think of for it to work,since there is nothing in the character creation that flags what the Infernal player fears and will avoid.

    It’s a bit like a short game of My Life With Master without the help of the group-created Master.

    All the MC has is a keyword and the hope the session(s) leading to the Darkest Self lended enough informations on the character and the player to aim correctly the Power requests, i.e. to the place the player will absolutely refuse to go.

  13. Of course. I said as much in my first post.

    But it still is difficult. It takes a lot from the MC personal skills and gaming toolbox and it depends entirely on the MC and the Infernal player harmony.

    What’s worse: there is nothing about this necessity anywhere in the rules.

    There is no flag about every the Infernal fears, what is their moral compass, what the player wants to be challenged about.

    It’s all “Play to find out”, that’s my favorite part of the game but, implemented this way, risks to backfire spectacularly and result in a flat Darkest Self, that is, in my experience, the most disappointing event in a Monsterhearts game.

    I’m not saying they the Infernal is broken. I’ve played and MCed it in long games and convention oneshots, with friends and strangers alike, so I’m well aware it can work exactly as intended. I actually love to play the Infernal, but I’ve also grown to consider it a difficult skin, the one with the greatest chance of backfiring during game.

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