Matt Schillinger – Powered by the Apocalypse G+ Archives

I’m just now starting to catch up documenting and archiving my MoTW New Orleans Campaign.

Here’s the Intro..

https://vimeo.com/89648233

Name: Ginny Greenteeth (Elizabeth Landry)

Type: Monster/Devourer

Motivation: A taste for flesh focused on children. Her appetite is never satiated.

Powers: Monsterform, Bond (children), Great Strength (in monster form)

Weaknesses: Reflection prevents changing into monster form, Binding Magic can trap her (Big magic)

Attacks: Slashing fingernails- 3, Bite – 4 harm intimate

Armor: 1 (monster form)

Harm capacity: 8

Description: In human form, a Ginny Greenteeth looks normal, except that close inspection reveals a green tint to her hair.

In monster form, a Ginny Greenteeth has a pale green skintone that is patched with mosslike fungus. This helps her camouflage in bogs and underwater. Her teeth and fingernails are greyish black and are sharp like little knife blades. Her hair is black with a greenish tint to it, that is almost imperceptible unless the viewer is close. Her eyes are black like coal unless she is angry or in the throws of eating, in which the coal eyes seem to glisten like a fiery ember.

Custom move: Soothing words

A Ginny Greenteeth can exhale an oxytosin-rich fume that causes children to instantly bond and trust her. She uses this to trick prey, or to initiate a new minion. She regularly employs children as minions to bring prey to her lair, removing much suspicion and keeping her whereabouts secret.

Custom move: Monsterform

Ginny Greenteeth can only transform into monsterform when either submerged in water, or when water is poured onto it. When a Ginny Greenteeth in human form can see it’s reflection, it cannot transform into monsterform (which is it’s most powerful form). Any reflection, including mirrors, or calm bodies of water would suffice to prevent the change. When a Ginny Greenteeth in monster form is exposed to it’s reflection, it will flee from the reminder of what it has become.

Origin: Ginny Greenteeth are made as part of a pact-curse, usually made voluntarily, but in rare occasions, against the victim’s will. The usual story is that a parent’s child is dying and the parent seeks help from a local witch or shaman to save the child’s life. The desparate parent agrees to give up his or her own life in order to save the child’s. What the parent rarely realizes, is that the process will not end their life, but change it into a ghastly creature, immortal and condemned to live as a creature of the water.

When the life force is drawn out of the parent and into the child, the void of the soul lies dormant for a moment, before the spellcaster replaces the void with a water demon. The water demon empowers the body and binds with the mind of the host. However, the water demon spirit is not a proper fit for the soul of a human, and thusly there is still a void to be filled. That void can only be filled by consuming souls like that which the parent gave its soul to protect, namely children. It is because of this that the being that the parent becomes after the ritual is ever-craving the souls of children. It obtains the soul by eating the flesh. But it is never enough, and the hunger always comes back.

All setup for character/team creation!

Here are some clues and a demon trap ritual that the crew will find along the way.

Does anyone else see Showtime’s upcoming “Penny Dreadful” as a potential Monsterhearts dead ringer for TV?

I need some advice on a mystery.. And this may just be a “I don’t fully get how to run a mystery yet” situation.

I will try to be succinct, but warning, that isn’t my strong suit…

I have a mystery I am developing that goes something like this:

Day: Hunters are called to a crime scene by a local cop. At the scene, they find a body of a man laying on a bed with blood coming out of his nose, ears, eyes, and corner of lips. The record player is running but no record is on the turntable. (there will be other little clues, but i’m shortcutting to the relevant. The land lord asks them to be quick because the tennant hadn’t paid rent in a couple of months, so he needs to flip the apartment to start bringing in some money.

Dusk: The hunters are called to another murder a few days later. In this apartment, the scene looks about the same as the first. Investigation will reveal that the dead man worked for a record store. There is also a flyer for a halloween party at a dance club featuring DJ Big Easy.

Investigating the record store ties back to the original murder scene because the landlord sold all the records of the first victim to the record store. Victim 2 found one of the records, a Louis Armstrong record he’d never seen before, and took it home to listen to it…

I will forego the rest of the mystery at this point, because this is enough info for me to pose my question.

After the hook (Day), I am unclear what kind of clues would lead to something else. I think that players would kind of have to spin their wheels attempting to investigate, but not really find anything until the second murder reveals more clues that can be followed and therefore dots to be connected. Is it fair to create a mystery that isn’t solvable until a sufficient amount of clues/events take place?

Secondly, within the context of the previous question, how do you deal with starting moves like, the Flake’s “When and where will the next event occur?” I don’t see how that could be determined after victim 1 is killed.

Any suggestions or thoughts are greatly appreciated.

I am pretty certain, but I wanted to be 100% sure before I run MoTW.

Luck does not replenish (under normal circumstances. It does not reload after every session.

Is this thinking correct?

I am considering creating a custom move called, “Jump Scare”.

The victim of “Jump Scare” gets a -1 carried forward for the remainder of the scene, due to being spooked.

I have my first MoTW game staring in a few weeks!

I have my first MoTW game staring in a few weeks! The plan is for the team to work out of New Orleans in the weeks after Hurricane Katrina. Lots of death and flood damage stirs up a slew of supernatural activity. Complicate things with the recovery efforts, crime, and out of town activism, and there will be plenty of trouble to go around.