Tag: monsterhearts

MC: Sean Nittner
Players: Karen Twelves, Jennifer B. Warner, Avi Warner, Erin Sara DiPeso, and Duane O’Brien
System: Monsterhearts

Some questions I wanted to answer that sprang up from our last game.

• What does Thadius think of Georgia now that he’s seen her kill Jonas and attempt to devour him?
• Will Thadius tell Orville they were cousins when Orville was alive?
• What will Sora do with her disguises. How will she abuse them?
• Jonas is dead –
  • Will Nixon Blame Thadius?
  • Will P.U.R.E. use the disaster to stop the St. Wallace celebration?
  • How will Hanna Larson (wife of Jonas) feel about Nixon and Orville?

In the Royal Fork

Two days before the St. Wallace festival the Royal Fork is packed! Buffet food is a favorite for travelers and frankly there aren’t many other options in town. Despite this Pete and Ina Sørensen (Georgia’s parents) found a table that would fit all the kids. A corner top bench where everyone by the two on the ends were trapped inside. Pretty much the way Pete and Ina wanted them. Ina was making phone calls, trying to get everyone’s parents to come pick them up, while Pete was serving everyone molten-hot push-button buffet hot chocolates with no whipped cream.

So many crazy things happened at the table, I couldn’t keep track of them all. Here’s my best recap:

• Sora tried to get out but to do so Orville had to scoot out first (he was on the end) Sora was closest too.
• Orville started to get out but then stopped and looked longing at Georgia. She alone in the group of teenagers wasn’t freaked out. In fact she seemed…happy? He wanted to know why. He gazed into the abyss and remembered ice scatting on the lake with his cousin, who knocked him down. The sharp sting of falling on the ice rattled him and when his cousin scatted up to him he told him “She feeds off the dead. Maybe you should try it. Now get up!” Orville stated at Georgia in wonder, and was broken out of the trance by…
• Sora nudged Orville a bit, but he did it intending to brush naked arms with him (though cold outside they were both wearing t-shirts in the diner). He turned Orville on and asked if Orville would go with him to get whipped cream. [String spent to offer him XP to go]. Sure. Georgia wants whipped cream. He’ll go get it…sure.
• Nixon got antsy. He’s always trying to figure out what he should be doing, and this was one of those easy situations where someone had already told him what to do. He worked at the Royal Fork already and the place was busy. Tables needed to be cleared so he just started busing them.
• Pete, concerned Nixon was upset tried to reassure him he could just sit and drink hot chocolate but Nixon brushed him off. [Nixon shut him down but got a 7-9 result, they both walked away bruised]. As Nixon was about to take a coffee cup from a woman, Pete put a hand on his shoulder “you don’t have to do that Nixon”…”But it’s what I’m supposed to do.” They were both interrupted by the woman “Excuse me, is one of you going to take my cup?” [Nixon got the condition Difficult, and Pete got the condition Nosy]
• Meanwhile, left alone at the booth, Georgia and Thadius started making out. Well it was mostly Georgia licking the blood of Thadius’ face, but you know that turns to sucking face pretty quick.
• Also Meanwhile, Sora and Orville were in the walk in cooler doing whippets with the whipping cream canister. While Orville was taking a hit Sora took off his clothes, put on the clothes he had stolen from Georgia and hey, suddenly Georgia was doing whippets with Orville in the cooler. “Did you see where Sora went?”… “No, he must have left, want to make out?”
• “GEORGIA ANABEL SØRENSEN! WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU’RE DOING?” Intoned through out all of the Royal Fork as Ida caught her daughter making out with Thadius in the booth. “I need to come talk a walk with me young lady. Right. Now.” The shout startled Georgia (Sora) and Orville, and unsurprisingly, stopped Thadius and Georgia (Prime) in their tracks. Georgia (Prime) walked outside to talk with her mother.
• Pete, who had been distracted by Nixon until now, walked over and sat in the boot with Thadius. Pete pushed back his comb over hair, straighten his glasses, and told Thadius. “Thadius, I am a God-fearing man, but so help me, if I ever see you touch my daughter again, I will end you!” Thadius was a bit started, but mostly just annoyed that yet another father figure was trying to tell him what to do, shoved Pete out of the booth. What Thad saw was that Pete slipped on the hot chocolate that had spilled on the floor earlier and hit his head on the table across the isle. What everyone in the diner saw was Thad push him out and slam Pete’s head onto the table across the idle. [Lashing out physically, 7-9 result, going Darkest Self. Georgia is his higher power!]. “I’ve been grounded for a millennium!”
• Thadius ran away. [7-9]
• Nixon ran away. [10+]
• Gerogia (Sora) talked to her dad… who asked if she had a good conversation with her mother and then told her he really wanted to connect with her. She said she needed space right now but offered to pray with him first [Manipulate an NPC with a 7-9 result]. Pete’s eyes widened with surprise and then leaked with joy. It had been so long since his daughter had prayed with him.
• Orville just walked away. Nobody was paying attention to him and he was crushed that Georgia (Sora) just ditched him.

Soren and Nixon on the Lake and in the Morgue

Nixon went to the lake. It was a peaceful place. He wondered at how well it supported him, how sure his stride was on it, while Bobby Neilsen had fallen through the ice just like that.

Later Orville found him and told him they needed to go help Jonas.

Orville: “He’s needs us. Being dead is hard.”

Nixon: “Being alive is really hard to.”

Orville: “Yeah, it probably is.”

Awww…. all the feels.

In the morgue Orville failed to get the attendant, Mrs. Loretta Duff, to really care at all that his foster father was dead. Nobody but the police or medical staff were allowed in the morgue. Nixon stepped up to help out.  Loretta really didn’t want to look away from her phone (playing Bejeweled is addictive) but he got her attention when he noticed the way her voice got all fluttery when she mentioned calling the police. Clearly she had a crush on Officer Cory O’Brien and though it meant sticking around to bolster her confidence enough to talk to him, Nixon held out to give Orville a chance to slip into the morgue proper…

…Where he found a body on a table, covered by a white plastic tarp and two used blue latex gloves. Beside the body was a bench of tool prepared to an autopsy. In an adjoining office, Orville could here the sound of someone on a phone call. Wasting no time he pulled back the tarp, found the body of Jonas and cut off his forearm with a bone saw. Woah.

Georgia (Sora) and Pete at the Prayer Circle

I don’t really know what a Unitarian Universalist church looks like but I imagine it’s pretty inviting with a lot of religious-y looking things but nothing so iconographic that it espouses one denomination over the other. I imagine crosses but no crucifixes, votive candles, and a circular carpet with rings of different colors that folks can sit on and pray at, facing each other. I imagine you take off your shoes and you smile at other people there. So, that’s what it was.

Pete was positively giddy by the time the were there and lighting candles, but Georiga (Sora) was having second thoughts. “Dad, actually, I think I just need some time alone. Can I have the keys to the car?” Pete was crushed but what are you going to do. He just asked that Sora give him a hug and promise she would be safe [Manipulat an NPC with a 7-9 result]. Just as she was leaving he looked at his phone which had been ringing while they lit candles. He had missed a call from Georgia (Prime).

He looked up at Georgia (Sora) questioningly and she said “If the enchantment were broken, the edges would be very sharp. You momentarily notice a gap in my magic. Choose one:

• tear my magic away – my identity is revealed and the clothes are in tatters but you get scratched up in the process [take 1 harm].
• or, shake your head to clear it – it was nothing.”

Pete had already taken one harm from Thadius and though he doesn’t know it yet, he’s got a concussion. 1 more harm and he wasn’t going to make it. This was a tough choice.

“Ah, fucking Verizon, always showing missed calls way after they actually happened.”

I decided that Pete should live and the illusion remained.

Meanwhile Thadius and his Maker

Had something of a conversation. It went a little like this. Where is my love Goergia. [Gaze into the abyss 6- result]. “Here’s your view from the heavens where you can see time stand still. Here’s your beloved Georgia going to pray with her father. Here’s your angelic vision fading to black…lost to you now forever.”

Thadius ran, ran with all his might to find Georiga.

Meanwhile Georgia (Prime) and her mother Ida

Came back to the Royal Fork, having just discussed birth control in way more detail than Georgia wanted to ever know, and found the Royal Fork was empty. Well it was full, but it was empty of everyone they knew.

Ida left Georgia at the frosty freeze while she walked home to get the second car. They tried to call Pete but he didn’t pick up. She tried to call Sora as well but he didn’t either.

Along, Georgia dropped the frosty delight. It did not sate her. She set out for something that would.

How it ended

Thadius made it to the church just as Georgia (Sora) was about to get in her dad’s car. He stopped her and asked if she would take him with her. Then he gave her a kiss and found that unlike before where she seemed more like she was kissing all around him, this time Georgia’s kiss was genuine and all consuming. They did this while Pete watched from the church door and rubbed something out of his eye.

Georgia (Prime) made it to the morgue just behind Officer Cory O’Brien who was quite happy to come help out Mrs. Loretta Duff. She also snuck into the morgue just in time to see Orville with the arm and just as the medical examiner came back out of his office. Orville leapt into a body fridge and knocked over both the body of Jonas and the tools [Run away 7-9 result] leaving Gerogia (Prime) there to hold the bag, or in this case, the bloody bone saw.

Epilogue

Georgia (Prime) and Nixon in the police station. Officer O’Brien staring daggers at them.

Georgia (Sora) and Thadius having sex somewhere.

Orville dissipated [New advance taken] to slip out out of fridge (we googled it, they don’t open from the inside) and made off in the night.

What rocked

My players are so awesomely self-antagonizing. I hardly need to prompt them before they get themselves in all kinds of trouble.

I love that Thadius has gotten some (or actually, lots) of action. I guess we know his thoughts on Georgia Flesh Eater. She is his new god!

I love that Sora is causing trouble with Georgia’s clothes. Hearts are gonna be broken over that one.

I love that Nixon’s search is so earnest but the answers he gets are always just what other people want from him. Unaware they don’t know the answers either.

Orville sawing off an arm for happiness. What the fuck man. That is crazy.

We had a really good use of the X-card that made me super happy it was there and resolved a could-have-been uncomfortable situation easily.

I love that Ida and Pete are just regular, nice people.

We’re playing again. Yay!

What could have improved

I’m kind of shitty at playing angry parents. Which is odd because I’ve been an angry parent many times, but it’s not something I like. I don’t like losing my temper and I really don’t want to start yelling at another player like they are one of my kids (the transference on that is bad in both directions). Still, the kids were pretty terrible to their parents and I’d like the other to be a lot less so.

The game got a little gonzo. Gonzo isn’t bad but I want to make sure we’re grounded enough that consequence matter. Some of the questions for next session will be What Hannah and Pete do when they come for Georgia (Prime) and Nixon in the police station.

We need some more presence from P.U.R.E. I think Robert Neilsen (Bobby’s dad) is on it. He lost a son to the St. Wallace parade. He’s not going to let that happen again!

Quotable Quotes

Thadius “I’ve been grounded for a millennium.”

Georgia (Prime) “It was really awkward. Now I know all about dental dams.”

Orville: “He’s needs us. Being dead is hard.”
Nixon: “Being alive is really hard to.”
Orville: “Yeah, it probably is.”

MC: Sean Nittner
Players: Karen Twelves, Jennifer B. Warner, Avi Warner, Erin Sara DiPeso, and Duane O’Brien
System: Monsterhearts

This was a long week.

I had some crazy work trying to organize support for Big Bad Con, as well as a home for Big Bad Con, plus all the prep for and running Skull and Shackles character creation, plus just a lot of work work.

So when Karen asked if I was ready to MC Monsterhearts on Thursday evening, I was like “umm…sure, that should be good.” We rounded up skins and player reference sheets on Friday morning, got some index cards, sharpies, pencils, the Story Games Name Book, and a couple d6. Good. To. Go. Er close enough.

Such awesome players

Because I was pretty low energy, and I think as well because I was sitting on a couch and lower than most of the players, they really took charge in forming this dark, confusing, impulsive little world. I contributed, even curated at times asking questions like what would bring the kids together, but they gave our Frankenstein creation life!

Small Minnesota town of St. Wallace

Named after St. Wallace, the patron saint of loose women, this sleepy little town beside a lake doesn’t seem much activity for most of the year. Come winter solstice however, people flock in droves to celebrate St. Willy’s Day. The same folks like the Death Guild that build a Thunderdome every year at Burning Man come to the frozen lake at St. Wallace to put up exhibits, eat the locals out of house and home, or sell their home grown wares.

To capitalize on the tourist activity as well as the general growth of the town an outside Dana Rogers has moved in, bought an abandoned church, tore down all but the facade and built up a buffet style restaurant called The Royal Fork. Dana does quite well for himself and brought more business to the town with him.

In a town that only has state run liquor stores, that hates the debacle St. Wallace’s day has become, and is general religiously conservative, progress like The Royal Fork, however is considered a threat. A group of parents, concerned for their children’s morality formed the People Unified for Religious Equality (P.U.R.E), which wants anything but. PURE parents are fighting both the expansion of the town, and the debauchery associated with St. Willy’s day, but they are fighting an uphill battle against not only the outsiders but also their children.

There is a small Unitarian Universalist church in the town and pastor Jonas leads youth group there. Many of the kids who feel like they have to practice some kind of organized religion go there because it is the least dogmatic option in town. It’s the minimum passing grade of churches from the PURE perspective. Jonas lives way out in the woods, about an hour away from town.

Our Teenage Monsters

Orville, the Ghost (Avi) is meek with pained eyes. He’s lived here since the time of St. Wallace but was driven out of town by his Cousin, who suspected him of having an affair with his cousin’s fiancee. Orville ran off in the woods and died of hypothermia. Every winter he comes back, the same meek boy, reminded of all his suffering. Every year he relives his death on St. Wallace’s Day. Orville stays in a cabin outside Jonas and Hanna Larsson’s house, at least when he exists. Jonas is the youth group pastor and has let Orville stay there without asking too many questions.

Sora, the Cuckoo (Erin Sara) is a foster kid taken in by Jeanette and Oscar. He’s got a job working at the Royal Fork and keeps a pretty positive outlook on life. He’s got tempting eyes, always suggesting some kind of potential mischief. As far as the others are concerned Sora has his shit together pretty well.

Thaddius, the Angel (Jen) fell from heaven because he defied his creator. He loved a woman who’s soul was in hell and to punish him for it the creator raised the woman up to heaven and then unmade her. She was not dead, she was gone. Thaddius defied his lord and was cast down to heaven to repent. Thadius is reborn over and over to fulfill his trial, and every time he fails. He refuses to bend his will, refuses to stay chaste, and so, again, and again, he is punished. Thadius was Orville’s cousin many generations ago, and stays in St. Wallace, bound to him and the town. This time around Thaddius was born as an IVF miracle for Pauline and Lulu, who had been trying to conceive for years. They are his little miracle!

Nixon Clay, the Hollow (Duane) was made from snow and a wish from a boy.  Bobby Neilson created him, gave him life, and then fell through the ice in the lake an drowned, leaving Nixon alone and unaware of what or who he was. Nixon has been taken in by pastor Jonas and joined the youth group. He lives with the Larssons and his rageful dreams are calmed somewhat by the presence of Orville, who feeds on his sadness.

Georgia, the Ghoul (Karen) had a eating disorder and two parents who loved her too much. They didn’t kill her, they just made her feel ostracized by passive aggressively picking her apart. One night Gerogia went to a part and, as she as many times, was ignored. She got drunk and choked to death on her own puke. When she woke in the morning she felt much better. For the last three months since then she’s had to fight to keep any weight on. She eats and she eats but she’s never sated and she keeps loosing weight. Her parents Pete and Ima think it’s wonderful, but now of course worry she’s taking pills, or has become bulimic. So they pester her about that now. Her parents are fervent members of P.U.R.E.

Backstory

Sora has stolen clothing for Georgia. Just broke into her house and took her clothes, and a cross she work on a chain.

Orville doesn’t know it but Thaddius was his cousin that drove him to death because of his jealousy.

Georgia reminds Thaddius of what love is. He’s always been kind to her, even before she changed. Secretly he’s always loved her.

Nixon is picking up his social cues from Sora, who seems to have it together. Sora got him a job at the Royal Fork. He does lot of outdoor stuff like taking out the trash and carrying in deliveries. The cold doesn’t seem to bother him at all.

The Lord loves Sora more than Thadius, and a bitter rivalry has ensued!

Sora has clothes he borrowed from Orville. A pea coat, shirt, and trousers, so Sora could attending things that Orville wasn’t feeling up to.

Orville sneaks into Nixon’s bedroom (he always leaves the window open) and feeds on the sadness of his dreams, calming his fitful sleep.

Nixon watched Georgia die, just like he watched Bobby die… and did nothing.

Thaddius knows Nixon hasn’t been around, knows his made up story is a like, knows he’s hiding who he really is.

Georgia reminds Thaddius of Heaven. Yeah.

Waiting for Youth Group to start

Sora was there first, early, waiting outside the church which was still locked as the pastor hadn’t shown up yet. Parked on the street was Georgia, who’s parents didn’t want to let her out of the car until Jonas showed up. They were worried she would catch a cold.

Thaddius showed up on time and some verbal sparring ensued. “Nice jacket, same one you always wear.” “It’s okay to wear the same clothes if they are yours.” You’re privileged. You’re a thief. Neh!

“Isn’t that your boyfriend Georgia?” Her mother asked. “Looks like he’s arguing with that other boy.” Her father added.

“What, who? Sora, pshhhh. No!” she scoffed. “Oh, Thaddius…No. He’s not my boyfriend.” She blushed.

The continued to pester, telling her what they think she should do and then as soon as she was considering it backing down and telling her the didn’t want to tell her how to live her life. Parents! Amiright?

Driving into town

In the back of the Church’s big passenger van Nixon was nodding off, and the screaming was about to start. Orville just new it. His eyes widened as he tried to take it in, but he was distracted by Jonas trying to make small talk with him, apparently oblivious to Nixon’s ensuing night terrors, and spending a lot of time futzing with the radio to get a station that would come in clear.  “So, Orville, what do you think youth group should do for St. Willy’s day this year?”

Orville entranced by Nixon’s sadness, looked into the abyss and said something.

“A nature hike into the forest [where Orville died so many years ago]? That sounds great!” [Orville failed that roll].  You think the others will be up for that too? Startled by his own answer, or Jonas’ response to his answer that he didn’t remember giving, he shook Nixon awake and put him on the spot. “What do you think Nixon?” Jonas followed suit and as the arrived in town the attention was no on the bleary eyed Nixon.

Feeling a bit traumatized himself,  Nixon didn’t have any answers either… but Jonus kept asking. “Listen guys, this has to be about what you want to do. How you want to give back to the community. It’s not about me.” He looked at Nixon in the rear view mirror and saw young Nixon’s soulless eyes smoldering.

“Leave me alone Jonus. Stop asking me what other people want. Why don’t you ask them?” Jonus was startled he pulled into the intersection without looking away from the rear view mirror…and straight into the path of an oncoming semi.

CRASH

Everyone heard it. A lot happened. Here’ some of it.

Orville was thrown the from van and remembered his own death. He made Nixon and the truck driver remember it too, projecting blame on both of them.

Nixon looked to Thadius for advice, who just told him to remain calm. Calmness got him in a fight with the truck driver, who he injured badly, and locked up in the back of a police car, watching his father figure die in front of him.

Sora held on to Georgia. Held her close and whiserpered for her to stay with him. When she recognized that he was wearing her cross they started to make out.

Thaddius wanted to save Jonas. He looked into his heart and into the van. He determined that if he could get him to a hospital soon, he could save his life. He managed to pull open the passenger door and drag Jonas, bleeding from the van. When he looked for help from Georgia though she was smacking lips with Sora. He reached out to her, bathed in the blood of Jonas and asked for help.

For Georgia, after being heated up by making out with Sora, Thaddius was like a hot dude holding a big mac. She came to him…and feasted on Jonas! When her parents asked her “What have you done?” She cried crocodile tears, and with blood smeared all over her face, ran to them for solace.

Cut scene!

What rocked

As I said before, I really loved how much energy everyone else at the table had. We had so much collaboration and world building together. We actually spent so long doing it that we only had about an hour to play. But I had all kinds of questions I wanted answers to by the time we started. Yay.

Blanketing the world in darkness felt really human in this game. Parents antagonizing their children with concern, social status dividing people, and a tragic loss caused by a stupid accident. Dumb, stupid pain.

When rolls were missed, the hard move to make always felt really natural, the flowed great from the fiction. When Nixon failed to manipulate Jonus, the burning gaze worked, but worked too well and they got in an accident. When Thaddius tried to woo Georgia over to help Jonas and failed, she came to him but her hunger took over. I just loved it.

Everyone wanted to play again! That is like the best compliment an MC can ever get. I am so happy about that.

What could have improved

There was a time when Jen wanted to know how to save Jonas and was looking for an Angelic solution and I didn’t really have a move for it, so we just narrated what she knew. I realized now I totally should have had her Gaze into the Abyss. Of course heaven is the Abyss!

Questions I’m pondering now…

•  What does Thaddius think of Georgia now? What will happen when they are together next?
• Orville saw Gerogia kill Jonas. What will he do with that knowledge?
• What happens when Sora abuses one of his outfits?
• Does Nixon blame Thaddius for Jonas dying? If so, what will he do?
• Will P.U.R.E. use this tragedy to cancel St. Wallace’s Day?
• What was up with Jonas. He was such a nice guy but he lived way out in the boonies. Why? What about his wife Hanna, what will she do with Nixon and Orville now?

GM: Sean Nittner
Players: Matthew Klein, Allison Arth, John Harper, and later Karen Twelves
System: Monsterhearts

ULTRA-awesome!

This weekend Allison and John came to visit. They stayed at our place and we had the world’s greatest time going out with them to great food, fun bars, and even trying on costumes. On Sunday night Allison turned to me and asked if I could run Monsterhearts for John, Matt, and her. That worked out great because Erin Sara was over with her cousin and her cousins’s boyfriend, who also started up a game with them and Karen. HouseCon was on!

Before the game we had been joking about the name Principal Skinner since Apocalypse World had both Principles and Skinners. It was a bad joke that just got worse the more times we told it, but of course it stuck, so my game was definitely going to have a Principal Skinner in it, even though he was only present for a heartbeat (or did you feed on him slowly Morgan?).

On a Train

One thing I really liked about Mike Garcia’s game Those who Favor Fire was the conceit that the game took place on an overnight train on the way to Miami. As I had no time to prepare I decided to start with that. All the other bits from his game I left out, but liked having an easy-to-define sandbox.

As a group we built on that. The students were heading to a championship football game. On the train were football players, cheerleaders, band members, and of course, adult chaperons.  The students were coming from Chapel Hill, NC. Home of the Haymakers, but everyone called them the Fighting Blue!

Who is the Douche?

I find a really awful NPC is wonderfully polarizing. They create factions and tension just by their presence. Relationships with them establish status, allegiances, and enemies. Also, it helps if they are super petty and self-centered. So that’s what I asked for, and together we came up with:

Patrick Zuchatti (“The Zuke”) – Star quarterback for the Fighting Blue. Later we learned he was dating the lead cheerleader, but that was a recent development, after having just dumped Isolde (Allison’s Ghoul) the night before.

If there is someone on top, there is someone who wants to take that first someone down a peg. Or better yet, get on top themselves, enter:

Ricky Peterson – 2nd String Quarterback who has been working his ass off to be a starting player. Later we found he felt most betrayed not by Patrick (who had always been the first pick) but by Cain (John’s Infernal) who miraculously got pulled from the bench in the final play of the last game, caught the winning pass, and was now a starting wide receiver, despite his mediocre talent and fitness.

Picking Skins

After we had built up the school a tiny bit, and had some structure to work with, I set out five skins, we nixed the Mortal and Fae due to lack of interest and settled on these:

Morgan Maine – A hulking giant of football player. The defensive nose that crushes opposing teams quarterbacks (26 and counting). Think Idriss Elba with another hundred pounds of pure muscle. Morgan was so massive and mature that he was constantly accused of taking performance enhancers and had to submit to regular blood tests, which he passed every one. (Matthew’s Vampire)

Isolde “Izzy” – An Italian goddess complete with a bodacious booty and an indomitable desire to be the best cheerleader in the state.  Zuke dumped Izzy and that night she fell into Morgan’s arms, and then into a tobacco thresher and was shredded into bits. Now she is back and wants things, hungers for thing like she never has. Isolde was Frenemies with Brittney, the lead cheerleader. (Allison’s Ghoul)

Cain – A second string nobody that barely made the team during try outs. A mulato kid that didn’t feel at home anywhere. One lucky catch and he was now the starting wide receiver, but that was it. Still nobody knew him, nobody cared. Except Ricky who hated him for it. His coach Lance Quantas had given him something, a blood infusion, that gave him exactly what he asked for “to be a starting wide receiver” but nothing more. Now Lance expected repayment in kind. And of course it was only with his coaches help that he would continue to be noticed, continue to be on the starting line up. (John’s Infernal)

Filling out the Cast

A few more characters were needed to flesh this out, but these were practically all of the NPCs we had in the game.

Brittney Castleberry – Head cheerleader in the shadow of her mother. Frenemy with Izzy. BFFs on the surface, hateful and catty behind closed doors. (Later in the game, Karen’s Queen)

Lance Quantas – Coach of the Fighting Blue. Australian and incredibly competitive. Taking blood from Morgan (as per his tests) and giving it to Cain to boost his performance. In control of the who is on the team, despite their academic status or behavior. (Cain’s Dark Power, later discovered to be a blue dragon)

Rita Pugalis – Cheerleading coach. We didn’t see much of Rita during the game.

Patricia “Tigger” Castleberry – Brit’s mom. Wife of Mayor Castleberry. Entitled. Cougar.

Principle Skinner – Nominal authority figure. Eaten late in the game by Morgan. Not much authority after that.

Finally we added just a few people during play

Danny – Linebacker and blabbermouth of the team. He was the one man rumormill.

K’shawna Knightly – Cheerleader who braided Morgan’s cornrows. Also the “cherry popper” that had sex with guys when Brit wanted someone to break them in.

And that was it, no other characters ended up in the game, which is a really strong indication that, as Matt quoted someone saying, Monsterhearts could be played in a single room that nobody ever left the entire game. It is just that good at throwing people against each other.

Seating Chart

This was the extent of props used in the game. It worked just fine.

The play is the thing

Rather than give a blow-by-blow account of the action, here were the central conflicts that surrounded each of the characters:

Morgan <- -> Lance -> Cain <- Ricky

In the first scene with Cain he was in his passenger car with Ricky who was laying into him about how unfair it was that Cain was now a starter. This was the conflict that we knew would happen so I wanted to start it in motion early. Cain lost his cool and decided he was tired of the lies. He summoned some of his dark powers [Witch Hex: Illusions] to make the lights flicker, the door lock, and the car begin to shake and rattle.

From his suitcase he pulled out a syringe full of dark red fluid and confessed “This is it Ricky. This is why I’m a starter!” In a rage he dove at his friend and tried to put the needle in him but in the scuffle Ricky turned it around on him and the syringe plunged into his stomach and was emptied into Cain.

The reliance on his dark power, and the failure to inject Ricky started a cascading chain of events that left Cain perpetually indebted to his dark power, though in doing so got to learn his dark power’s nature. [Mechanically speaking Cain went Darkest Self after a failed Lash out Physically roll on Ricky. He had injected himself with the vampire blood too early and after a brief surge of energy was drained from the experience]

Later Morgan took notice of “Lucky Strike” and came to his aid [event taking the condition “My Brother’s Keeper”] but in the final scene when Ricky did get a syringe of his blood, he also knew that Lance needed this championship win more than he did. Despite his debts to his dark power, the emptied the syringe onto the floor in his first and only act of defiance.

Patrick -> Morgan <- -> Isolde <- -> Brittney -> Cain

Part of Zuke and Morgan’s bromance was an agreement to get Izzy out of her passenger car at night so that the Zuke could “ride the rails” and have sex with Brit in her bunk.

The tension between Brit and Izzy was also palpable. When you’re at the top, you do everything you can to stay there, and Brit was doing just that. Sabotaging Isolde at every turn to make sure she didn’t take the lead. Isolde on the other hand had a bigger picture in mind. Bigger things like Morgan Maine, the defensive nose, and finding out the source of everyone’s power.

I loved the scene when Izzy first turned the tables on Brit. Brittney was used to being desired having all the attention on herself. When Izzy showed interest in Cain she tried to take Cain from her, but then the footsies under the table got muddled and it was Brit getting turned on by Izzy, leaving her confused and unsettled.

The final scene with Morgan and Isolde, when he told her the story of his life as a slave, was really touching. I was happy for them, even in their darkness.

Cain <- Morgan <-Tigger -> Brittney

Morgan was not a kind man. In fact, his first interaction with Isolde to note was to feed on her. That she then fell into a thresher was an accident, but clearly not something he had remorse for. Perhaps fascinated by her unlife, having been a vampire for a few hundred years, he didn’t seem sympathetic to it…at least not until the end when he broke down and told her his story.

For the majority of the game though, he was watching after Cain. Cain seemed to get things wrong at every turn. In trouble with the coach, caught having sex with K’shawna by Principal Skinner, and (after some discovery) being taking injections of Morgan’s blood to boost his performance. All bad all the time. Morgan wanted to help Cain but doing so came at the constant wrath of the Castleberry’s.

First he spurned Brit, which earned her wrath in the form of her minions messing with him, but it also got her mother’s attention. In a horribly racist moment, she chided her daughter not to take interest or have involvement with Morgan. Only a scene or two later, when Morgan entered her room though and failed to intimidate her, she gave him the choice of giving he what she wanted (sex with him) or her screaming and calling the attention of Principal Skinner.

The scene, I think mostly because of the image of Idriss Elba in her head, had Allison screaming into her pillow.

K’shawna <- Britney -> Cain <- Lance

Karen came into the game late and took over Brittney as queen. Her boyfriends face had just turned to a rotten bloody mess [Cain using Wither on him] and she was sexually confused by advanced from Isolde.

A well trained social climber, she took it all in stride. She banished Patrick to go clean himself up and gazed into the abyss, asking the only question that mattered “who is responsible for this?”!

Realizing it was that loser Morgan was calling “Lucky Strike” she chased down Cain. When she found him, broken from his encounter with Lance (where he learned his dark power’s true nature) she went right for the jugular to make him fix what he had done. The deal? Sex. Good for everyone involved. Cain would be part of her clique, and under her domain, and he got to transfer some of his debt from his dark power to her, or at least to her proxy. [Thanks to the Many Bodies power, it was K’shawna that took the bullet for both of them]

Thoughts on this game

Let it be known all that John Harper played a meek and generally ineffectual Infernal in Monsterhearts. Cain failed at every turn and was never able to get out from under the thumb of his coach. Mechanically speaking this was in part a result of terrible rolls and going darkest self right out of the gate. But it was also John’s commitment to playing a character who only got exactly what he wished for and nothing more. Cain imagined he’d be star, but he was still a nobody. And now a hated nobody.

The upshot of this is that the attention at the table was largely focused on Cain, and it was his arc of trying to appease (and then defy) his dark power, and of trying to connect with Morgan (who he idolized), Isolde (who he wanted), and Brittney (who he hurt) that we were all excited to see play out.

FAIL TO WIN!

We really luxuriated in our scenes. Karen noticed this in particular when she joined the game late. It was like a football game with non-stop instant replays of the action. We’d have a scene and then break the scene to talk about how awesome it is, and then after the scene talk about it more. The game lasted six hours (which is insanely long for me) but it didn’t feel like it. Much wine and whiskey was drunk (not by the same people, we aren’t barbarians) and we just played for hours. Gleefully bouncing from one teenage tragedy to the next.

The technique I learned from Morgan Stinsion of “lets have a scene with you two” is still one of my favorites. In a odd ball occurrence of Isolde and Cain being seated in the same booth for dinner, Cain suddenly became a prize to be fought over, Patrick had a horrific hex cast on him, and we saw Brit and Izzy cat fighting at their worst.

Unexpected awesome. The scene with Tigger and Morgan was hot! Matt didn’t expect Tigger to be in her room when he went in, and I didn’t expect her to get what she wanted. In fact I didn’t even know what she wanted until Morgan started sniffing her clothing and leaning in close. This is where Monsterhearts made he game awesome. He missed the roll and I looked at my moves and “pay the price” jumped out at me.

My Australian accent is terrible. I could get as far as “Hallo Mate” and then I was lost. Thankfully my players were all very forgiving, it was Matt that made the coach Quantas, after all.

We had some pretty phenomenal chemistry at the table. There was a lot of trust here that everyone’s contributions would add to the drama and the story. They did! So much fun to play with great players.

Joe made a really great game. Everything I needed was either on the play books or on the pages of moves and principles. I MC’d this game with no prep, but thanks to a reminder form John the night before about looking at the list of moves, whenever I was stumped I just turned to my list and picked the first thing that looked good. Worked every time!

Final scene. Principal Skinner is dead, his body dragged into Morgan’s passenger car. Morgan and Isolde are having sex with the principal propped up in the corner, his dead eyes wide open looking (if he could look) right at them. I think this was the scene that was so hot it broke Matt. Good times.

Matt’s nicknames for people were just great. “Lucky Strike”. “Energizer Bunny”. Awesome.

Allison took to Monsterhearts like a fish to specially treated fish-happy water. She wasn’t just a natural, I felt like it was her game. She followed Joe’s principles and drove her character like a stolen car!

GM: Sean Nittner
Players: Noam Rosen, Jennifer Baumgardner, Mia Blankensop, and Karen Twelves
System: Monsterhearts

Phew, I was crazy worried about this game, which is silly but true. I had never run Monsterhearts before, and for quite a while I didn’t quite get the game either (the notion of happiness as the scarcity was rough for me to get my head around). Also Jennifer, who has been doing scripted plays and improv forever and is an amazing actor, was playing her first GM’ed game. She had played Fiasco before, but this would be her first time having a GM run a game… and I was that GM. Hellza nervous!

Monstercorps

To prepare I put some feelers out on the Internets and got some great responses, which I’ll share in case someone else is ever in my shoes.

@SeanNittner If you're playing from the book, it can be tempting to start in the classroom & stay there until everyone is satisfied. Don't!

— Japan Tengu (@JacksonTegu) July 2, 2013

@SeanNittner Highlight social repercussions of PC actions through a high-school (read as: snarky, misunderstanding) lens.

— Japan Tengu (@JacksonTegu) July 2, 2013

@SeanNittner Prompt players to spend Strings and make use of Conditions when those would help their situation; those mechanics get lost.

— Japan Tengu (@JacksonTegu) July 2, 2013

@SeanNittner Teach in layers, and forward-refer to how you'll tell them when they need to know (like you already know how.) 🙂

— Japan Tengu (@JacksonTegu) July 2, 2013

Carl added some advice, as well as links to some awesome resources!

@SeanNittner See the provocative questions thread linked to from http://t.co/dxHlkNaBDC . Monsterheart's MC advice is golden.

— Carl Rigney (@carlrigney) July 2, 2013

@JacksonTegu @SeanNittner Agreed on getting out of classroom after start. Recess, hallway, bathrooms, out back with the smokers, sleepovers.

— Carl Rigney (@carlrigney) July 2, 2013

@SeanNittner Always someone overhears or walks in at a bad moment.

— Carl Rigney (@carlrigney) July 2, 2013

Also Alan Hodges and Bryan Hitchcock followed up with me over email with some links to “setups” to kick off games with:

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BzUTkdniNXM1dlQ2ZnBwUk9oYmc/edit?usp=sharing

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BzUTkdniNXM1MG0tNkhpeFlYV1U/edit?usp=sharing

Yay, between all of that and the book itself, I felt prepared.

Introducing players to the game

With Karen’s assistance I gave a little introduction to the game. I made all the regular pop culture references and made sure to emphasize that bot the monster and the teen part of the game were important, and that if the focus was shifting too much towards one, I’d be introducing elements of the other.

We discussed veiling, which as it turns out, wasn’t needed, but we came awfully close in one scene. In fact, I said several times “I’m a terrible person” as we played out a particularly icky scene that made me squeamish.

Then we went to picking skins and talking about the ones we picked.

Character Creation

Everyone sifted through the skins, looking for what spoke to them.

Jen know very quickly she wanted to play the Fae. Immortal. Ethereal. Other. Carrow. She was the great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-granddaugher of Puck. Her family, which were all fey, got along by adapting to the times. She had the latest iPad, spent summers abroad, and in every way appeared a wealthy, fashionable girl. Carrow was everyone’s best friend, until the crossed her (which was an easy thing to do). Then you felt her wrath.

Noam played Cordelia, not Cordi, though everyone caller her that. She was a witch, as you’d expect. Not to many friends. Not really understood. Ready to fuck with people as she saw fit.

Mia made a ghoul named Cage. Her story (both backstory and in game) was the darkest. She was beaten to death her her father in a drunken rage. He had not meant it of course, murdering fathers never do. Since coming back Cage had hungered for chaos, tearing down all the carefully constructed walls people put up to hide from reality and heir own atavistic savagery.

Karen did something crazy awesome that I had never seen before. She played a hollow, all made up of wishes and fantasies. If Carrow was the Fairy, Zelda was the Fairy Tale. She was the “new girl” in school, the “princess” of every story. Zelda was perfect image of a young school girl because that’s all she or her family was, and image, a fairytale. Unlike Carrow, Zelda did not keep up with the times, and her greatest (if only) danger was being forgotten by a new era.

Backstory

I took a play from Morgan’s book. I had each of them read the first paragraph of their backstory, and describe what it meant in the fiction. For someone like the Fae, this means telling each other player at the table a time when they saw them wear their heart on their sleeve. For other playbooks it’s a bit shorter. Once we had gone around and read our first paragraph, which tends to be the more innocuous of the two, we did another round of reading the second.

Cage had spent some time living a Zelda’s house, but it was just too cookie cutter perfect there for her to stay long. Zelda had been watching Cordelia, seeing how she does things and copying her fastidious habit of never leaving physical remains (hair, fingernails, etc) behind. Cordelia saw how Cage died. Watcher her father do it through his own eyes (via her hex) and knew her secret. Carrow also knew secrets. As a Fae she knew immediately the moment that she saw her that Zelda wasn’t real. As story made flesh, but not real.

First day back at school after winter break

In a sleepy part of Denver, McKinley High was welcoming students back from their holiday break. As soon as I said McKinley, I was sure I’d heard it before in a show. And I had. In Glee. And in Freaks and Geeks. And in Wonder Years. What an awesome name. Totally not sad at all that I stole it. Also, their mascot was the Pheonix, which seems like a nice fairy tale creature, but didn’t end up being too prominent an element.

I stole another move from Morgan’s book and started up most, maybe all, of the scenes by asking two characters what they were doing. Maybe in a place, or at a time, but mostly I just wanted to see they were doing, what situations they would want to be in.

That first scene pretty much set the stage for the entire game. Zelda walked down the hall, with books stacked up to here! She stumbled and as they fell, a boy named Derrick helped pick them up. To Zelda he was prince charming, but Carrow saw the smug look he gave the other basketball players, and then it was on. Operation: Prove Derrek is a Douche!

Of other interest, Cordelia and Cage were in the library fucking with people. Cage really wanted to mess with Derrck, but Josh, the kid trying to roll a joint on the corner couch without being noticed was just too tempting a target. Once couch fire later, chaos had been served. Josh was burnt. Cage was burnt too (she had been hiding in the couch, it was an old sofa that you could hide in/under), and then Josh put out the fire but vomiting up all the fluids in his body thanks to Cordelia’s wither spell…. gross.

A plot – B plot

The A plot in our story was about who the girls thought Zelda should go to the dance with. And all of them thought it WASN’T Derek. Despite this she held onto her prince charming until he was literally stolen from her arms by another woman (Cordelia), she had a huge (and awesome) fight with Carrow (which included the line “why don’t you go bite an apple!”), and she lost control and hit her boyfriend (or maybe just was her boyfriend) with a ladder… giving her a concussion.

This is when things went bad. Darkest Self bad. Zelda had broken the rules, and when she went Darkest Self, so did her family. She was locked up in the attic of her house (the tower) and guarded by her mother, who now played the role of the wicked step mother, that feigned kindness but actually drugged the children when they came over to see Zelda and planned on baking them into a pie.

Eventually Zelda was free of her cage (when she realized Cage was actually more, um, caged than her) and went to the ball (read: dance) with her prince charming (Which was Carrow in the glamor of Adonis, the perfect man).

The B plot was much darker. Uncomfortably so for me, but we talked a lot out of character about what was going on, and veiled as we needed. Being in the middle of a fire got the attention of Vice Principal Pepper. Who wanted to talk to her… in his office. She was in trouble. He could make it all go away, if she did something for him. The scene was tense, and a bad roll to manipulate him ended in a trading a grope for some forgetfulness. Most of this tied into her own daddy issues. shudder

After that, she fell into the arms of Carrow, and he two of them became inseparable. Well, you couldn’t separate Cage from Carrow. She hungered for her.

And that only made things more interesting when Carrow then went to Zelda!

Thoughts on the game

There were a couple cases where Mia wasn’t sure about a choice. What Hunger to have, and maybe what moves to take. Since she is such an awesome coach at improv, I felt really that me and the other players could coach her as well to take her first choice and go with what felt right. Result – Cage was an awesome pyromaniac!

The cat fight between Carrow and Zelda was priceless. I wish I could have filmed it.

Poor Derek. I think he was kind of a tool, but by the end I was feeling sad for him. Knocked off a ladder, then hit with a ladder, then (while in the hospital) he had a wither hex cast on him. Aw.

I really loved that Zelda went Darkest Self so did her family. Sue and Richard Lionheart were the perfect parents when she was perfect, but Sue became the wicked step-mother when Zelda was bad. Noice!

Zelda was the coolest idea I’ve see for a hollow. Not created in some lab, but by our own myths and dreams!

Man, improvisers take to gaming like fish to water. Jen was a natural!