Oh holy Jesus. This one link is like a decade’s worth of MotW ideas. Seriously, seriously creepy.
Oh holy Jesus. This one link is like a decade’s worth of MotW ideas. Seriously, seriously creepy.
http://m.tickld.com/x/31-horrifying-monster-drawn-entirely-on-post-its
Some moves for the awesome extra-dimensional symbiotes by +Nathan Riddle.
Some moves for the awesome extra-dimensional symbiotes by +Nathan Riddle.
Knitter Hive
You have become a breeding colony for the knitter organisms. They swarm through your vitals accelerating cellular regeneration and performing other far more mysterious functions you don’t understand within your body.
Regardless of how much harm you take, your wounds are never unstable. You can heal serious wounds (4+ harm) without medical treatment at a rate of 1-harm/night of rest and moderate wounds (1-3 harm) heal at a rate of 2-harm/night.
When you wake up after a night during which the knitters healed you, roll +Tough. On a 10+, you’re hot and shaky, but generally fine. On a 7-9, choose one: take -1 ongoing for most of the day from nausea and cramps, or take 2-harm ignore-armor right now from barfing up… something.
Phobogen
You have a small triangular organ attached to the inside of your sternum. When active it hyperstimulates the fear centres in anyone that looks at you, triggering intense flight/fear responses. People have been scared to death because of this symbiote.
When you lock eyes with someone and activate your phobogen, roll +Weird. For an NPC, on a 10+, choose one. On a 7-9, the Keeper chooses one: they flee from you, screaming in terror; they curl into a fetal position, babbling nonsense; they attack you in a blind panic. On a miss, the Keeper chooses one and the NPC is going to need serious medical attention real soon.
For another Hunter, on a 10+, choose one: they flee from you, screaming in terror; they curl into a fetal position, babbling nonsense; they attack you in a blind panic. The Hunter marks XP if they do what you want and is acting under pressure to do anything else. On a 7-9, you still choose one and the Hunter is still acting under pressure to do anything else, but they don’t mark XP if they give in.
Phaseworm
A phaseworm is a long slender symbiote with lots of little legs like a millipede. Once implanted it latches on to the underside of your spine. The legs connect it to your nervous system and once the two of you finally get along, you can ask it to create localized spatial distortions around you. These fields can let you compress, stretch or sidestep distance.
When it cooperates, the phaseworm’s spatial distortion fields allow you to instantaneously cover any distance of up to about a city block. Mentally asking your phaseworm to create a field is manipulating someone. Lord only know what you have to promise the thing to make it cooperate.
Flenser
Black razor sharp tendrils lair in your mouth. Their reach is impressive, easily able to tear the flesh from a person across the road.
Unfortunately you can never get rid of the taste of blood, whether it’s another’s or from the cuts in your mouth.
Flenser (1 to 4-harm intimate close near messy)
If it’s been 6 hours since the flenser last tasted flesh, roll +Tough. On a 10+, the tendrils writhe and twitch, but you keep them under control. On a 7-9, the range and damage of the tendrils are halved until they deal at least 1-harm to a living creature. On a miss, the Keeper gains hold 1 in addition to whatever else they say. The Keeper can spend this hold at any time to deal 4-harm messy to a nearby living being as the tendrils attempt to feed.
Can someone help me out with dice probabilities? Math isn’t my strong point.
Can someone help me out with dice probabilities? Math isn’t my strong point.
I’m trying to figure out how much a range band shift is worth. In other words, if a move shifts a result up one level (turning a 7-9 into a 10+ for example), what value would you have to add to the 2d6 roll to get a similar result?
With no bonus (roll+0), it looks like a player has a 58% chance of getting a 7+, a 16% chance of getting a 10+, and a 3% chance of getting a 12+. With a +3 bonus (roll+3), they have a 97% chance of getting a 7+, a 58% chance of getting a 10+, and a 27% chance of getting a 12+.
So if roll+0 has a 58% chance of getting a 7+ and roll+3 also has a 58% chance of getting a 10+, does that mean a range band shift is roughly worth a +3 bonus? Or is my math wrong?
Another custom move for Monster of the Week that I’m looking for feedback on.
Another custom move for Monster of the Week that I’m looking for feedback on. It’s for a monster who is incredibly skilled at wrestling and grappling.
When you’re grabbed by the [redacted], roll +Tough. On a 10+, pick two. On a 7-9, pick one.
– you aren’t knocked to the ground;
– your arms aren’t pinned to your sides;
– it doesn’t lock it’s fingers around your throat.
On a miss, you’re in big trouble.
It seems harsh, but there is absolutely no way you want to get caught in this thing’s grasp.
Fear Powers
Fear Powers
Has anyone come up with a nifty custom move for fear-based powers? I’ve come up with this (which people are welcome to use), but I’d just like to pick other people’s brains.
When you [redacted], tell [redacted] your deepest fear and roll + Hard. On a 10+, you’re OK. On a 7-9, you’re unnerved; hold 1. On a miss, you are visibly shaken up; hold 3.
The Keeper may spend this hold on a 1-for-1 basis any time you attempt to act against [redacted] to force you to Act Under Pressure. You may eliminate any amount of hold by fleeing in a blind panic from [redacted].
Thoughts? I’m intentionally keeping some parts secret in case my players read this. 😉
Based purely on anecdotal evidence, I’ve noticed that male players are willing to play as female character more…
Based purely on anecdotal evidence, I’ve noticed that male players are willing to play as female character more often in _Monsterhearts_than in other games. I wonder why that is? Has anyone else noticed a similar trend? Thoughts?
This could be because:
1) It’s more OK for males to play a game about sex when they’re playing as a female character. I’ve had male players say this straight out. “If I’m gonna play a game about sex, then I’m gonna play as a chick.”
2) Similar to number one, it’s more OK for males to explore emotions, especially in regards to romantic relationships, if they play as a female character.
3) Monsterhearts emulates supernatural romance and other “female-targeted” media (Gossip Girl, Pretty Litle Liars, etc.). The protagonists in this type of media are frequently female, and so having a large number of female PCs in the game is simply emulating that media.
Just thoughts off the top of my head.
A couple of things I’ve been wondering as I work on some more Japanese-inspired Skins.
A couple of things I’ve been wondering as I work on some more Japanese-inspired Skins.
First, has anyone added 0s to the stat arrays, rather than just using two sets of 1/-1? If my math is correct (and it may not be), there are only six possible starting stat configurations if you use only two 1s and two -1s. Using one 1, one -1, and two 0s (1/0/0/-1) adds another six possible configurations, while still keeping the total of the stats at 0. Thoughts? I don’t see some of the Skins I’m working on to be particularly bad or good at certain stats.
Second, how do people feel about not being given any optional moves at character creation? Meaning certain Skins would start with two or three “mandatory” moves only? Does that feel like too much of a straightjacket?
Has anyone toyed around with adding a second player/character resource to #Monsterhearts? Besides Strings?
Has anyone toyed around with adding a second player/character resource to #Monsterhearts? Besides Strings?
For some reason, ideas for a Changeling: the Lost hack (that I had given up on) started popping back into my head last night (while I was trying to get to sleep). But this time the idea to introduce a new resource showed up for the first time. Completely out of the blue.
In C:tL, the Lost can harvest glamour from the emotions of mortals, which they then use for various supernatural effects (like powering Contracts, activating special abilities, opening gates into the Hedge, etc.). While Lost can “feed” passively by just being around strong emotions, it’s easier to try and evoke that emotion from a target.
That sounded like it would be a great move, as all kinds of things can go wrong when a Changeling is getting someone all worked up to “feed” from them. You’d want players to harvest emotion fairly often so that their lives are constantly interesting, so you’d have to give them an incentive to do so.
My original idea was to allow characters to clear Conditions or take +1 forward after harvesting emotions. Sort of like a healing move, but that didn’t exactly line up with the fiction I imagined. You don’t heal from harvesting glamour, you just have it to use. Then I thought about giving characters a number of hold they could use to trigger special effects. This seemed like a better idea, as Lost can hold onto glamour to use at a later time, rather than it being a “use immediately” kind of thing. From there my mind went to giving them points of a whole new resource (glamour) that they could spend to activate or enhance special abilities. There would be some basic moves that all Changelings had access to, that cost a point of glamour to use. Each Skin would also have special things the player could spend glamour on, making them all feel different from each other.
Of course this means tracking both Strings and glamour. That might get complicated or clunky, or just be more trouble than it’s worth. So I’m curious if anyone has done something similar, and if so, what happened.
I statted him up for Dungeon World yesterday, but after Michael Sands Tweeted about him, I had to do him for MotW…
I statted him up for Dungeon World yesterday, but after Michael Sands Tweeted about him, I had to do him for MotW too.
The Krampus
So Rufus and I are holed up in this empty apartment trying to dodge the cops. He’s got the stuff we lifted from the jewellery store laid out on the table, and I’m crouched down next to the window, listening for sirens. All of a sudden there’s this flash of light and heat. Like someone opened the grate on one of those old steam ship furnaces, cause there was this roaring burning sound, too. Then this… this thing steps out of the window. The window! We were up on the eighth floor, for Christ’s sake! This thing just steps into the room, and I can’t see much of it cause I’m behind it right, and it’s got this giant wicker pack strapped to its back, but what I can see scares the shit out of me. Mangy black fur, backwards bending legs like some kind of animal, and these long, knobby goat horns on its head. It raises a giant claw to point at Rufus and I see its got manacles on. Like someone tried to chain the thing up but failed. Then this voice, I guess it could speak, this horrible voice says “You’ve been a very naughty boy this year, Rufus.” Everything’s dead silent for a split second, and that’s when I notice all the fingers poking through the gaps in its pack. Then Rufus kicks over the table and pulls his 9mm. I scramble for the door to get the hell out of there, but I can still see the thing out of the corner of my eye. It dodged the shots and just slammed right into Rufus, knocking him to the ground. I could hear him screaming as I tore down the hallway. Right as I get to the top of the staircase, that voice echoes “I know you’ve been a naughty boy too, Charlie.” That’s the honest to God truth. Now I’ve confessed and told you where all the stuff is. Lock me up or whatever, just keep me away from that thing.
Monster: Collector (motivation: to steal specific sorts of things).
Powers: Immortal. Incredibly strong and stealthy. Knows if someone’s been bad or good. Can turn an existing portal (doorway, window, sewer grate, etc.) into a temporary gateway to Hell. Limitless space inside his pack.
Attacks: Claws/horns: 4-harm hand messy. Rusty chains: 3-harm hand/close heavy loud.
Armor: 2-armor (he’s just generally tough and hard to hurt).
Weaknesses: Particularly fond of buxom women. Only attacks bad people, especially children (if you’ve been good he’ll leave you alone, or at worst remind you want will happen if you stop being good).
Harm capacity: 8-harm will cause the Krampus to open a portal and flee (but you can’t ever really kill him).
Custom moves:
He Knows: The first time you lock eyes with the Krampus, roll +Cool. On a 10+, tell him the nicest thing you did this year. Mark XP if you also tell him the worst thing you did. On a 7-9, tell him both the nicest and the worst thing you did this year. On a 6-, tell him the worst thing you did this year. He’ll decide if you’ve been naughty or nice based on what you tell him.
Only the Wicked: The Krampus only attacks and kidnaps people who have been naughty. Fighting the Krampus, interfering with his activities, or lying to him is a sure way to get put onto his naughty list. And you really don’t want that.
Tonight We Dine in Hell: If you’re quick enough to follow the Krampus through one of his temporary portals, congratulations! You’re now in Hell. Good luck finding a way back.
In another thread (https://plus.google.com/108053817066303198241/posts/RrzN8ebwhky) I mentioned how it would be…
In another thread (https://plus.google.com/108053817066303198241/posts/RrzN8ebwhky) I mentioned how it would be thematically appropriate to use some sort of “binary number generator” as task resolution for a TRON-inspired hack. Marshall Miller suggested flipping three coins, though I was thinking of rolling three “binary dice” (I have d6es with Xs and Os on them for playing Ubiquity). You could also use playing cards (six cards, three red and three black) or a bag of tokens (again, six tokens, three of one color and three of another). It got me thinking about probabilities (which is a tangent to the original thread), I I made a new one.
In standard AW, rolling 2d6 gives you a 41.6% chance of a miss (6-), a 41.6% chance of a weak hit (7-9), and a 16.6% chance of a strong hit (10+). Rolling 3d2 (flipping three coins, drawing 3 cards, or drawing three tokens), you have a 12.5% chance of getting three 0s, a 37.5% chance of getting two 0s and one 1, a 37.5% chance of getting two 1s and one 0, and a 12.5% chance of getting three 1s.
That gives four ranges of results, similar to Fate. Maybe something like failure, success at a cost, success at no cost, and success with a bonus. While AW does occasionally have the 12+ “super success” result for some moves, I want to stick to the AW three range “standard” of failure, success at a cost, and success.
So we’ll have to combine two of those ranges. If you count anything less than two 1s (three 0s or two 0s and a single 1) as a miss, two 1s as success at a cost, and three 1s as success, you end up with percentages closer to standard AW.
One 1 or less = miss = 50% (AW = 41.6%)
Two 1s = success at a cost = 37.5% (AW = 41.6%)
Three 1s = success = 12.5% (AW = 16.6%)
So using 3d2 makes misses more likely while making success (in any form) less likely. Looks like The Grid is a pretty dangerous place.
But using 3d2 also makes bonuses incredibly powerful. Giving a Program a 1 in a stat (meaning they always add one 1 to whatever they roll when using that stat) drops getting a miss to only 12.5% (as rolling three 0s is the only way they’ll end up with a result of one 1 or less), keeps a success at a cost at 37.5%, raises getting a success to 37.5%, and allows them to get an extreme success (four 1s) 12.5% of the time. Competent Programs are therefore incredibly competent.
While this isn’t totally out of place for the setting (Programs can do some incredible stuff in the TRON films), it does significantly reduce the range of stats. That means less difference (at least stat array wise) between characters, and it also means less room for advancement (again, mechanically speaking). Raising a stat from 0 to 1 makes you very competent in that stas’s associated moves, and raising a stat to 11 (two 1s) make you a god, as you will never get anything less than success at a cost, and can get a result of five 1s.
This got more technical and “math-y” than I intended. I’m just spitballing here, the digital equivalent of scribbling ideas onto some scrap paper. Thoughts?
https://plus.google.com/108053817066303198241/posts/RrzN8ebwhky