Category: Monsterhearts

Just curious, has anyone ever played Monsterhearts where there were no monsters?

Just curious, has anyone ever played Monsterhearts where there were no monsters?

Just curious, has anyone ever played Monsterhearts where there were no monsters? The playbooks are still used, but basically all the monsters are just really twisted and broken people that act like monsters. The idea just boiled up as I’m reading MH2 and wondering how messed up of a game that would be.

Today I ran a sci-fi/horror one-shot based on Monsterhearts. I hacked the game to bits and came up with this:

Today I ran a sci-fi/horror one-shot based on Monsterhearts. I hacked the game to bits and came up with this:

Today I ran a sci-fi/horror one-shot based on Monsterhearts. I hacked the game to bits and came up with this:

The setting was Depression-era Arkansas, and the characters were entirely mundane, human, people. (Not teenage monsters, in other words.)

But as the game progressed, they experienced otherworldly forces and gradually were transformed into something rather alien and/or monstrous. In the end, it seems, alien forces were trying to make their way onto the Earth, slowly infesting humans with inexorable purpose.

In our playthrough, it’s pretty clear that they succeeded.

I should write this up sometime to share the mechanics bits and pieces – they are a lot of fun. The only regret was that we didn’t have longer to stretch out the game and explore the ramifications piece by piece. (Particularly the character transformations which took place.)

Dirk Detweiler Leichty, I used some of your Academy moves, and also the modifications we’ve discussed before. That part worked great! The fundamental mechanic of the game was inspired by your Level Up move. (Mark Causey was in on the discussions, too.)

The session before last, the Fae did a deal with the other fae that boiled down to:

The session before last, the Fae did a deal with the other fae that boiled down to:

The session before last, the Fae did a deal with the other fae that boiled down to:

I renounce all claim to rule my side of the fae war and make one of the Queen’s gang members (the one who is always trying to usurp the Queen) my proxy.

She signs off on everything the other side wants.

The fae stay away from our world (there are some exceptions, but it’s understood that if these apply, the fae in question is playing by mortal world rules and keeps fae stuff out of it).

The fae leave my world alone and don’t try to hurt or kill me.

The Wolf gets to sent her pack (she was raised by wolves) to the fae realm and to visit them whenever she wants, but it’s understood that she’s a guest there.

The Wolf is my champion only, not the fae champion, but let it be known that she’s resigning and was NOT defeated in combat (a really important point to the Wolf).

So, last session, I had consequences.

This started with Connor, a fae who could turn into a rabbit, trying to hide in the mortal world with the Witch, who wanted no part of this. Connor didn’t want to go back to the fae realm because he’d be executed.

But, if he stays, the contract is null and void.

The Wolf wanted to name the local gang leader the fae champion — he was originally totally separate from the Queen’s gang, but the player took second gang and the Queen had sex with him, so he wasn’t sure about conflicts of interest.

Well, says the Queen, who’s had sex with the Fae and the Wolf, it’s really dumb to kill your subjects and we don’t want the fae finding out about the broken contract, so obviously, there’s only one thing to do.

We take over the fae realm.

This suits the gang leader who’s now part of the Queen’s gang, as it removes the conflict of interest.

Also, the whole reason the fae made bargains with folks like the Witch’s grandmother was “otherwise, demons”.

The fae are gone.

The gang leader kept not being a jerk. Despite my intentions, he’s been astonishingly decent and understanding and helpful.

He’s obviously got to be the demon.

And a session or two ago, we learned that the Wolf was intended to be a sacrifice to a demon, only that probably didn’t happen. I’m guessing the Witch’s grandmother was involved. Or maybe the counterpart to the grandmother, whom the Wolf killed.

I mean, okay, it gets complicated, as it should. And that’s before we get into how effed up things are with the Witch’s family, how alien the Queen and her coterie are, and the vendetta the Wolf has with the school nurse, who used to be her friend.

But, that leaves me with the question of how the heck do I cover the upcoming invasion of the fae realm with the Monsterhearts rules.

A local gamer who’s not in this game said to use countdown clocks and make moves. I’ve my copy of Monster of the Week, my copy of Urban Shadows, and over two weeks until the next session, so will see what I can come up with.

I have to admit this isn’t a challenge I had anticipated.

An NPC has sympathetic tokens on two PCs for, er, reasons.

An NPC has sympathetic tokens on two PCs for, er, reasons.

An NPC has sympathetic tokens on two PCs for, er, reasons. It suddenly occurred to me that I’m not supposed to roll the dice. Do I just decide whether a hex the NPC does works or not?

Mind, for the PC Witch, I’m pondering asking the player to roll Dark and explaining, “So, Battler has a guilty conscience, and I’m figuring that if he succeeds on his Dark roll, the hex affects him.” But, that’s a special case.

I saw that the two backer tiers for adding new Skins to the game were purchased during the Kickstarter.

I saw that the two backer tiers for adding new Skins to the game were purchased during the Kickstarter.

I saw that the two backer tiers for adding new Skins to the game were purchased during the Kickstarter. Has anything been said about wht those Skins will be, and if they’ll be available to the public?