Let's talk Monsterhearts [Interest Check]

[wigglebiscuit]

For Kicks and Giggles, what do you say to a theme song to set the mood?

Most teenagers get to grow up without encountering
anything scarier than gang violence, drug overdoses and
chlamydia. They think that’s the worst that the world has
to offer them, and they have the luxury of laughing.

You don’t have the luxury of laughing. You know the world
has hideous, horrible things hiding in the shadows. You
know because you’re one of them. There’s wickedness that
dwells within your chest, darkness that courses
through your veins.

Is this for you?
Consider this...
This is a story game. To play, we invent characters and roleplay as them. We say things, and the rules of the game respond to some of those things - changing where the story is going. The rules are there to keep the story feral - no matter how gorgeous and perfect we imagine our characters to be, they are never given the luxury of domesticating their fate. They are always in the lurch, which means they are always interesting. The rules are there to make sure that it isn’t my story, and it isn’t your story. Instead, it’s something between us, raw and alive.

Specifically, it’s a story game about supernatural romance and teenage desperation. Vampires, werewolves, witches: they dream and suffer among us. It’s unclear whether they can live among normal people, and whether their wicked hearts can be redeemed. When you play Monsterhearts, you become one of these teenage monsters. You explore their secrets and fears. You bring them to life.

You play because the characters are sexy and broken. You play because teen sexuality is awkward and magnetic, which means it makes for brilliant stories. You play because despite themselves, despite the world they live in, despite their fangs and their bartered souls and their boiling cauldrons, these aren’t just monsters. They’re burgeoning adults, trying to meet their needs. They’re who we used to be - who we still are sometimes. You play to get lost, and to remember.

And let’s be honest. You play because you have a guilty attraction to supernatural beasts and harlequin love stories, but you harbour the secret presumption that you could write them way better yourself. Good. This is your opportunity to prove it.

This game is unabashed about its subject matter: it’s a teen sex horror story. It revels in codependency and untenable promises. If that sounds compelling to you, keep reading.

Caveat Emptor
As you may have guessed, this game will contain moments of teenage sexuality, in all of its awkward and unsatisfying glory. It goes without stating that we will fastidiously obey the site rules, but beyond that, if you are uncomfortable with the idea of teenagers having sex, this isn't the game for you.

Furthermore, the mechanics of this game are crafted in such a way that, just like when we were teenagers, we don't get to choose who/what turns us on. The move Turn Someone On isn't negotiable. If a player or NPC rolls to turn your character on and succeeds, your character will be turned on regardless of their sexuality.

You still get to choose how your character responds, but you still have to accept the fact that your character was aroused by something that they perhaps find intensely disturbing.

Finally, and this is more for those of you already familiar with Monsterhearts, this is a game that will kill your character.
Page 139 of the rule book makes this statement:

Ultimately, the PCs are stronger than any villain you introduce.

In this game, that qualifier is laughably, terrifyingly, untrue.

There will be plenty of adversaries that are within the grasp of the PCs, even individually. Others, the entire party will have to come together, pooling all of their resources, to hope to vanquish. Still others...well...if you come across them on a dark night, run. Run your ass off. Because if they catch you...

Still Interested?
This isn't a recruitment thread. Don't tell me what Skins you want to play. We're not ready to talk about characters just yet.

This is sort-of an interest thread, in that, if things move along, and we generate some steam, we will take it to the next level.

So what are we going to talk about? The high school. The town.

The school is named Burnside, after some old dead general. What's it like? Who is the principle? Who are the deans? What creepy, unsettling things are happening there?

The town is...well, it doesn't have a name yet. You guys are going to name it.

It's a small town, less than, say, 20,000 people. Where is it located? When is it located? What sort of places can be found there? Who lives there? What sort of high-strangeness is happening there? Don't be afraid to make bold moves. Create locales. Create NPCs. I'll take notes and ask questions.

When a clear enough picture develops, I'll invite some people to play. Four, maybe five good writers. But that's a ways off yet. For now, just have fun and be creative.



Town: Communion
Overall Tone: Traditional and conservative to the point of almost seeming like a modern-day Pleasantville. Much underlying sexual repression.
Think of it like a retro-future 1950s town where people still say H-E-Double Hockey Sticks instead of 'Hell'.

Highschool: Ambrose Burnside

Region: ?

Menace: snakes?

Locales within Town: An abandoned quarry (great idea). A new church in town siphoning off members (creepy cult?)

Interesting Characters: Creepy Bus Driver.
Howard Thomas Burnside - the current principal and descendant of Burnside.

William Thaddeus Adams: Coach/Gym Teacher, may or may not be banging students on the side.

[wander]

I'm very interested in this, though I wouldn't say I'm confident enough to call myself a good writer. Still, I'd like to play.

[MiraMirror]

I've seen this played a little and I think I'm also interested in playing.  That said, you're the judge.

[wigglebiscuit]

Hi Wander and MM, thanks for stopping by.

I think the first order of business is to name our little sandbox, that  is, the town where our story takes place. It should be appropriately gloomy, don't you think?

I named the high school...what suggestions do you guys have for the town?

[MiraMirror]

Shady Heights, maybe?  It's not really the gloomiest, though.

[wigglebiscuit]

Shady Heights, maybe?  It's not really the gloomiest, though.

Not a bad start!

I'll leave this here for inspirational as well as comedic purposes: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Unusual_place_names

[Ty]

I am pretty interested in this. Partially because I'm trying to find some stable posting to level out my activity on E, partially because I almost played a game of this on IRC, but scheduling went to pot. Letting the game dictate various things to the character (like the Turn Someone On move) and being a dumb teenager has appeal.

Feels to me like even if it's a small town, it might have one of those weird guidebook oddities. Like the largest single cemetery in the state. Maybe rumours it's the estate of an old plantation, haunted so no attempts to work the land end well. If you believe in ghosts. Which is dumb, obviously. Right?

[Crash]

I'll play wiggle.

Blackwater Cove?

[Cold Heritage]

The school is named Burnside, after some old dead general. What's it like?

It is old and is busted and we will never have the new hotness. They said they took out all of the asbestos, but they did not. Text books still refer to the Soviet Union. The teacher's lounge has a liquor cabinet, right next to the coffee machine, and it's full of bourbon.

Who is the principle?

Howard Thomas Burnside, a direct descendant of the General Burnside who gave his name to the school. A one-time parish sheriff who misses the good old days, and stresses the importance of the three 'R's: reading, writing, and arithmetic. He's also a wizard. But not the good Harry Potter kind.

Who are the deans?

One of them's William Thaddeus Addamms. He's a known Snake Handler. He's also a physical education teacher and coach of the football. It's a lot of hats to wear but Bill just says he has a big heart. Bill's a very firm believer in the running game, and the Burnside Blues have been a running team for all twelve years of Bill's firm, fatherly guidance. And Bill gets results: the Blues have gone to state championships every year, and won four times. Bill's a married man, but his union is barren. His wife Ethyl's suffered through a few miscarriages and Bill's special dedication to the kids at Burnside fills the void created by the childlessness of his marriage. He is emphatically not engaged in any sexual misconduct with his students.

What creepy, unsettling things are happening there?

There's the Klan. That's never a good time. Bunch of good old boys get in their pickups, get some shotguns, some beers, and they raise hell all night long every full moon.

Or the Snake Handlers. There's a longer, fancier, formal name for their denomination, but everyone calls them the Snake Handlers - even themselves. They're all super polite. Too polite. And nice. Way too nice. Every time there's a fundraiser or volunteer event the Snake Handlers show up to help out. Like, all of them. If you have Snake Handlers in your neighborhood and you start to do something like put up a new fence, they'll show up with their spades and tools and offer to lend a hand. They just know. They always know.

It's a small town, less than, say, 20,000 people. Where is it located?

American South!

When is it located?

Now. 2017.

What sort of places can be found there?

There's the old abandoned quarry. It floods in the summer, if you're lucky, and there's good swimming.

People talk about there being an old Indian burial ground up north on an abandoned plot of land a couple miles out of town. There's a graveyard there alright, but it's not Indian: an entire regiment of Southern soldiers met their end there in a battle that never made the history books. It was General Burnside's last stand, and the only people who know the truth of the matter are the descendants of General Burnside . . . and the Snake Handlers.

There's a Silver City. It's got a 3d movie screen, even. Pretty good entertainment for a small town.

Who lives there?

Lots of people. Backbone of the economy is raising pigs. After that there's tobacco. There's processing plants for both. Used to be some steel but that collapsed in the '70s and the infrastructure either got re-purposed or collapsed.

What sort of high-strangeness is happening there?

Every year there's someone who says they saw a dead body in the quarry after it dries out. Nobody ever finds a body, though, whenever they search. That doesn't make the person who saw the body a liar, though. What they saw was real.

There's a giant snake under the town. The Snake Handlers worship it and take care of it.

The Klan aren't always out to commit hate crimes when they raise hell every full moon. At least, the targets for their hate crimes aren't always human. I'm talking about snake people. The kind conspiracy nuts say are taking over the world. Only, they're not from outer space.

[wigglebiscuit]

Excellent post, Cold Heritage!

So, a thing for snakes, eh? I'll get back to that...

Seriously, though, I love your character ideas. We're gonna talk about threats (Menace, according to the book) soon.

Before we go on, let's talk a moment about isolation.

***IMPORTANT***

High school is a lonely time, even for the popular kids. We hate feeling different, even as we struggle to assert our budding individuality. (My favorite Tee from high school: Be Different. Just Like Everyone Else.)

To reinforce this, unless your skin specifically states otherwise, your characters aren't aware of any specific supernatural events/creatures/etc.

You are alone. Being a monster only makes you more alone.

An example of an exception to this rule is found in the backstory of the Ghoul:

Did anyone watch you die, or watch you come back to
life? If so, you both gain 2 Strings on each other.

In this case, the character who watched the Ghoul die and come back to life would know about the Ghoul, but not necessarily about any other supernatural happenings around town. The Ghoul probably wouldn't know, for example, that the character who saw her die is a witch, unless the rules specifically state.

One of the things that is going to draw you guys together, and then break you apart, is that you're all monsters.

Having said that, your characters are definitely aware of high strangeness about town. So as players, feel free to discuss certain Menace, but remember your characters won't know about it. Keep it in the happy box.

The only issue with setting the town in the South is that Burnside was a Union general, not a confederate. I grew up in the Dirty South, we name our high schools after proper American generals like Robert E. Lee and Jeb Stuart. /sarcasm_off

Chime in, folks:

Do you want our small town to be in

A) The South
B) New England
C) Someplace Else (list it in your post)

I've been thinking about names, too.

So far, we have:
Blackwater Cove
Shady Heights

I'm considering some old school Puritan names like:
Temperance
Rapture
Charity

Or something Biblical like:
Shiloh
Hinnom (a place where children where sacrificed to pagan deities, apparently. Fitting, I think.)

Lemme know.

[Ty]

I'll admit the only real difference to me between the South and New England, is the weather, and possibly the acceptance of bigotry (but small town kind of trumps state anyway). But giant snakes and such feel more suited to a southern arid setting.

Putting aside the humour of using a name like Desert Bluffs, I feel like Shady Heights works a bit better for New England (which I always imagine as greener and lusher, which is it's own kind of danger). If we keep Snake Handlers and such, maybe a religious name like Communion for the town would suggest a subtle darker purpose for the place, although I guess that's a Catholic term?

If the Klan are opposed to various types of others, perhaps they could be owning and maintaining the large cemetery as a way of sealing dark forces, and/or leeching power from them (both for the purposes of killing them and to improve the lot of the Klan). If a dark bargain like power is wanted, one of the seals could be failing and have corrupted a high up in the Klan, who might infect others, possibly a PC if that kind of playbook is used.

I do quite like the filling/draining quarry, but partially because I have a soft spot for drowning in teenage horror drama, and aquatic horrors are classic. Maybe in thematic competition with snakes though?

Maybe the town has a few churches, but in the last few years/decade a new preacher came on to one of them, and is upsetting the balance of attendees, subtly poaching parishioners from the others by means no-one is quite sure of. He's charming, but not that charming.

Would this kind of place have a school bus? If so, maybe it's the same old one it's been since your parents went there. Maybe the same old driver, maybe not. Childhood memories are weird. It kind of belongs to the driver's family though, so seeing it driving at night shouldn't be too weird. If it wasn't following the old routes. Don't try to draw the routes on a map. It's too confusing.

[Cold Heritage]

The only issue with setting the town in the South is that Burnside was a Union general, not a confederate.

Is it an issue, or more spooky weirdness about a town with an army of spoopy skellingtons in its closet? [insert X-Files theme here]

I've been thinking about names, too.

I'll throw my hat in for Communion. Ty's got a good idea there.

[MiraMirror]

I third Communion, as sassy a name as it is.

[Ty]

It's both been a looong time since I was in school and a different country... and being outside most of the social circles at the time. So is it worth trying to talk about what kind of pecking order or cliques or gangs might be in the school? Or is that a later step, wigglebiscuit?

[Hexed]

Possibly stupid question.

Monsterhearts is a rpg game system? With aquireable books? And not something homebrew buried in a forum?

[Ty]

Monsterhearts is purchasable on DrivethruRPG if nowhere else. It's based on the ApocalypseWorld system if you've heard of that.

Disclaimer/Afterthought : I am not the person intending to run this game, I don't know if ownership of the book or knowledge of the rules will be considered required or useful. Just answering your question.

[Crash]

Possibly stupid question.

Monsterhearts is a rpg game system? With aquireable books? And not something homebrew buried in a forum?

I think you can download the play books for free on the games website.

I am fine with any City/City Name/Geographic Location. 

[Kitteredge]

Hey, General Burnside is one of my favorite generals! He was a really shitty general!

[wigglebiscuit]

Hey Kitteredge!

Wow...has this turned into a sausage fest or what?

[Ty]

Hah. Well, in terms of writers, I guess.

[Amarlo]

I am very interested. However, after reading, I believe I saw something that suggests this might be from an rpg book? Is that true? Will I have to find a way to get said book, if so?

Also, Town name suggestion: Black Hollow?

[MiraMirror]

I am very interested. However, after reading, I believe I saw something that suggests this might be from an rpg book? Is that true? Will I have to find a way to get said book, if so?

Also, Town name suggestion: Black Hollow?

Let's just name it "Gaping Hollow" while we're at it, Amanamnonnom.  =w=

[Amarlo]

We could just name it "Triggerton" >.>

[wigglebiscuit]

Possibly stupid question.

Monsterhearts is a rpg game system? With aquireable books? And not something homebrew buried in a forum?

Happy Monday, all.

Ownership of the pdf is not required to play the game. There is, or was, a handy pdf out there, that is, free, containing the base skins, which we will be using for this game. Unfortunately the game creator seems to have taken it down as a way to push MH2, it seems.

I've found a zip file with all of the base skins in a hand-dandy form-fillable format, so all I need to do is find a place to host it. If any of you cats have a link were people can easily download and peruse the base skins, that would be awesome.

If you're interested in picking up the game itself, you may do so here: http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/100540/Monsterhearts
Though I recommend waiting on that.

It seems the only town name that has gained any traction is Communion. We're going with it.

We have some new interest (Welcome aboard, guys).

Check out the first post: I've created a running synopsis at the bottom with What Has Been Decided.

Two things on the agenda:

1) Deciding the Region

2) Populating the Town

So, deciding the region. Let's take a vote. You have two choices: The South, or New England. Go.

Populating the town.
We already have an abandoned quarry and a school. What else would you like to see? If inspiration leads you to develop some NPCs, go with it!

[Ty]

The reference stuff on buriedwithoutceremony.com is here

https://buriedwithoutceremonyblog.files.wordpress.com/2017/01/monsterhearts-skins1.pdf
https://buriedwithoutceremonyblog.files.wordpress.com/2017/01/monsterhearts-reference-sheets.pdf
https://buriedwithoutceremonyblog.files.wordpress.com/2017/01/the-serpentine.pdf

But yes, weirdly don't have a full page about the previous version (and MH2 isn't even out yet?), but it is still available to purchase.

For region I'll vote The South just because abstaining doesn't seem helpful. And the whole southern american gothic vibe has reach.

Any opinion on my suggestions about a cemetery earlier? No offence taken if it's not a fit for you. Just kind of checking if the synopsis is you filtering ideas down or such.

The quarry might be called Blackwater Cove. But only by kids and teens when they use it as a swimming hole. The actual name is mostly rusted out with a few holes made in it to let the few remaining letters spell a rude word. Until those rusted too. There's still a bunch of old equipment, buried in rot and growth, around the place, abandoned with it because it was too expensive to move and scrap.

The Sheriff would probably be an important role, as the teens are going to do bad things at times, even though teens themselves almost never turn to authority. As there are probably factions, public or not, in the town, he could be apart from all that. A neutral balancing factor. He moved in as a young man so he lacks the family ties to bias him. Adults think he's stern but good and reasonable, teens obviously think he's a totally unfair monster looming over any attempt to actually have fun in Communion. All the names that spring to mind are a bit on the nose, so I'll leave that.