I was thinking about Carmilla (great webseries by the way) and how all the lead characters were obvious MH characters, but LaFontaine didn’t quite fit anything. So with them for inspiration I created The Mad Scientist. It’s very much a first draft right now; please tear it apart.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/15GU8i6ZFQUgyxDnhuJJEkYeqQkneVvUVP0WSykqrK90/edit
My take on it: There is a lot that is interesting here, a little that I think needs to get trimmed out, and a lot that I think just needs some refinement.
I don’t like “Apologize for the hardcore”, I just don’t see it coming up very often.
I see the purpose to “Tape Flamethrowers”, but I think it could be carried out differently to achieve the same thematic effect without quite so much damage getting pumped out. I mean, if you get two friends to equip and you are each dealing 2 damage before spending Strings? That seems an awful lot.
I also think you should change or cut out “Blood and Skin Samples”, because right now it is basically the same power as the Witch’s Sympathetic tokens.
I’m also really not sure I understand the “Mad” move.
I think the sex move is a great idea, though perhaps should still have some secondary effect if the move cannot be reciprocal? Perhaps you get to hold on to it until the next person you sleep with or simply take a string on the person you’re sleeping with?
That was a first draft as I said – I’m glad it appears to work and thanks for the feedback 🙂 I’ve expanded “We Do Not Apologise for the Hardcore” slightly to encourage the mad scientist to be used as bait. Sex move slightly tweaked to take account of skins like the vampire and unicorn (and gain a string if it can’t be reciprocal as you suggested :). Also slightly tweaked blood and skin samples (a good set of fingerprints also triggers it and I’ve slightly changed the conditions) – but it is thematically very like the Sympathetic Tokens. Mad (or rather Piled Higher and Deeper as that has fewer unfortunate implications and still fits the theme) is all about you not fitting in; you can force yourself to do so pretty well but at a cost to yourself and for a limited period of time. I’m leaving the flamethrowers as is for now; harm isn’t actually that useful in Monsterhearts in my experience and there’s permission for the MC to go nuts on any hard move.
Once again, thanks for the thoughts 🙂
I’ve finally worked out what was wrong with the core move. It’s become The PIgeonhole Principle and now feels a lot more Mad Scientisty – I’m going to take the old core move for a Changeling skin.