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Monsterhearts #1
Monsterhearts
A roleplaying game about the messy lives of teenage monsters
Monsterhearts lets you and your friends create stories about sexy monsters, teenage angst, personal horror, and secret love triangles. When you play, you explore the terror and confusion that comes both with growing up and feeling like a monster.
Based on the Apocalypse World engine, this is a game with emergent story, messy relationships, a structured MC role, and a focus on hard choices.
It’s designed to evoke stories like True Blood, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Ginger Snaps or The Twilight Saga. If you like supernatural romances, or stories of monstrosity and personal horror, or if you just like watching sexy people ruin their lives, then you’ll love this game.
Monsterhearts lets you and your friends create stories about sexy monsters, teenage angst, personal horror, and secret love triangles. When you play, you explore the terror and confusion that comes both with growing up and feeling like a monster.
Based on the Apocalypse World engine, this is a game with emergent story, messy relationships, a structured MC role, and a focus on hard choices.
It’s designed to evoke stories like True Blood, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Ginger Snaps or The Twilight Saga. If you like supernatural romances, or stories of monstrosity and personal horror, or if you just like watching sexy people ruin their lives, then you’ll love this game.
170 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2012
3 people are currently reading
44 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
January 14, 2014
I got this after Numenara because it sounded like this one for sure really does change up the standard pen and paper RPG formula and get away from combat. And it does. The rules all revolve around pushing the PCs into embarrassing, uncomfortable, high school sex drama style confrontations, with the PCs all secretly (to the rest of the world) being different types of monsters as well, for good measure.
Instead of characters getting stats like Dexterity and Strength to fight monsters with, we get Hot, Cold, Volatile, and Dark, and can do moves like "Turn Someone On" (using our Hot stat), or "Shut Someone Down" (using our Cold stat) on each other or against NPCs when they try to advance their agendas against our wishes. The goals aren't to explore dungeons, find treasure, and level up, but to try to get your PC's selfish way among her peers, while the MC meanwhile makes sure no PC ever gets their way except with severe dramatic consequences and emotional cost.
There are all kinds of good gameplay ideas here, for example you don't get to decide what turns your PC on -- it's decided by stats and die rolls. If you are playing a male PC and another male PC tries to seduce you, you can't say "but my character is straight he wouldn't be turned on" -- teen sexuality is surprising and not under the control of the characters themselves.
Reading this rulebook was a blast and it's reassuring that there are people like Mcdaldno capably pushing out into the great unexplored spaces of role playing gaming and collaborative storytelling frameworks. It makes me curious how many other really new style RPGs like this there are. And how popular they are. This says it's based on an earlier game called Apocalpyse World.
I admit it's pretty intimidating to think about actually playing though, especially as an MC. It sounds super hard... would I be able to come up with enough cool and teen-dramatic moves to make the situations really play out as hilariously and satisfyingly as some of the examples in the book?
Instead of characters getting stats like Dexterity and Strength to fight monsters with, we get Hot, Cold, Volatile, and Dark, and can do moves like "Turn Someone On" (using our Hot stat), or "Shut Someone Down" (using our Cold stat) on each other or against NPCs when they try to advance their agendas against our wishes. The goals aren't to explore dungeons, find treasure, and level up, but to try to get your PC's selfish way among her peers, while the MC meanwhile makes sure no PC ever gets their way except with severe dramatic consequences and emotional cost.
There are all kinds of good gameplay ideas here, for example you don't get to decide what turns your PC on -- it's decided by stats and die rolls. If you are playing a male PC and another male PC tries to seduce you, you can't say "but my character is straight he wouldn't be turned on" -- teen sexuality is surprising and not under the control of the characters themselves.
Reading this rulebook was a blast and it's reassuring that there are people like Mcdaldno capably pushing out into the great unexplored spaces of role playing gaming and collaborative storytelling frameworks. It makes me curious how many other really new style RPGs like this there are. And how popular they are. This says it's based on an earlier game called Apocalpyse World.
I admit it's pretty intimidating to think about actually playing though, especially as an MC. It sounds super hard... would I be able to come up with enough cool and teen-dramatic moves to make the situations really play out as hilariously and satisfyingly as some of the examples in the book?
June 17, 2021
An excellent game about queer teenaged monsters, but I repeat myself. This game sets a standard of clarity and utility for Powered By The Apocalypse designs, significantly improving on the original game in its organization and ease of use. It is super, super fun to play and I just love it.
August 29, 2013
Setting the scene for a perfect gritty, messy, horrifying teen drama, MonsterHearts is the first system I've read in awhile that I didn't want to mess around with or change things for. The skins are well chosen, although I understand the need for the Chosen, it sets a tone to the game I'm not thrilled with, which is warned about in the book. The moves are perfect and interesting. The darkest selves are evocative. The sex moves are hilarious. Really, MonsterHearts hands you a book and says "Go forth and fuck up lives!" Which is something I love.
Although I know part of what I love is the Apocalypse World engine, I find MonsterHearts departs and goes into a direction that is more evocative of emotion and drama, which is what I felt players often avoided in the AW engine. Most of the time, when playing AW, people skirted the sex moves and avoided getting emotionally entrenched with one another. I find it's a common issue with most role playing games, the fact that gamers don't want to be emotional in their game. MH pushes that and doesn't give you an option, which is what excited me most about it.
The book has some fantastic ideas on role playing, and what to tell your players in terms of making bad decisions, in terms of sexuality, and definitely in terms of running a game. Although I wasn't thrilled with their "Queer content" page, mostly because I identify as queer and found some of the ways this was communicated leaving something to be desired, I get that it was to challenge gamers into thinking differently.
Can't wait to set up regular short campaigns of this! I feel it's a rule set I'll be going back to again and again!
Although I know part of what I love is the Apocalypse World engine, I find MonsterHearts departs and goes into a direction that is more evocative of emotion and drama, which is what I felt players often avoided in the AW engine. Most of the time, when playing AW, people skirted the sex moves and avoided getting emotionally entrenched with one another. I find it's a common issue with most role playing games, the fact that gamers don't want to be emotional in their game. MH pushes that and doesn't give you an option, which is what excited me most about it.
The book has some fantastic ideas on role playing, and what to tell your players in terms of making bad decisions, in terms of sexuality, and definitely in terms of running a game. Although I wasn't thrilled with their "Queer content" page, mostly because I identify as queer and found some of the ways this was communicated leaving something to be desired, I get that it was to challenge gamers into thinking differently.
Can't wait to set up regular short campaigns of this! I feel it's a rule set I'll be going back to again and again!
June 27, 2012
I bought this game solely because it is "powered by the Apocalypse." In other words, it uses the Apocalypse World system as its core. I haven't been disappointed. Despite being almost totally uninterested in the "teenage monster" genre, running the game has been a blast.
Other than the characters, the changes to the core rules are mostly minor ones. The main exception being the concept of Strings, which are things that PCs and NPCs take on one another as a result of their actions, and which then can be used to their advantage in future interactions with that character.
As the Master of Ceremonies (the game master), I've found running this game to be an intellectually draining, yet highly satisfying experience. The only reason it doesn't get five stars from me is that I'm still not interested in the genre.
I should note, in case it's not apparent, that this game is filled with very adult themes in terms of both sex and violence.
Other than the characters, the changes to the core rules are mostly minor ones. The main exception being the concept of Strings, which are things that PCs and NPCs take on one another as a result of their actions, and which then can be used to their advantage in future interactions with that character.
As the Master of Ceremonies (the game master), I've found running this game to be an intellectually draining, yet highly satisfying experience. The only reason it doesn't get five stars from me is that I'm still not interested in the genre.
I should note, in case it's not apparent, that this game is filled with very adult themes in terms of both sex and violence.
August 2, 2016
Este juego me ha llamado mucho la atención desde que me hablaron de él. Es todo lo que quise de Crepúsculo: relaciones tóxicas, angst adolescente, adolescentes que usan sus poderes para el mal (o el bien que acaba mal) y personajes horribles a los que les coges cariño.
Me ha llamado mucho la atención el uso que se le da al sistema Apocalypse. Auguro grandes partidas.
Me ha llamado mucho la atención el uso que se le da al sistema Apocalypse. Auguro grandes partidas.
April 27, 2022
Bin sehr gespannt. Das deutsche Cover ist auf jeden Fall schöner, als das hier.
January 18, 2016
Well, I do have to refresh my memory on certain sections but a really cool story telling game. Apocalypse World system has really taken off and this is probably one of my favorites in the system. Mainly because I usually like a little more crunch in my RPG (not GURPS crunch. I've recently become a big fan of Ubiquity).
However I'm a sucker for teenage wasteland and this is a great way to tell those tangled relationship webs. Just ran a 6 game session and brought that story ark to a close. Have this game, more than any game I've played, the players were so excited to talk about their characters, what happened, what was going through their heads, what is still left un resolved, and future possibilities. It was really like the season finale of a TV show.
However I'm a sucker for teenage wasteland and this is a great way to tell those tangled relationship webs. Just ran a 6 game session and brought that story ark to a close. Have this game, more than any game I've played, the players were so excited to talk about their characters, what happened, what was going through their heads, what is still left un resolved, and future possibilities. It was really like the season finale of a TV show.
May 31, 2012
Surprisingly awesome, taking into account the topic of this RPG.
It's sleek, well done, and clearly created by someone who loves the topic, and I devoured the book in an afternoon.
Now to find someone to play this with...
It's sleek, well done, and clearly created by someone who loves the topic, and I devoured the book in an afternoon.
Now to find someone to play this with...
January 26, 2019
Found this in a list of queer-friendly and combat-light tabletop systems on twitter and fell in love with it. The core rulebook is clear and concise, but takes time to linger on important but easily forgotten aspects of play in a system designed to touch on sexual and potentially triggering content, such as establishing the boundaries of consent and doing mid-session / after-session check-ins. Definitely worth a look if you like tabletop but think DnD has too much “hitting things with swords” and not enough makin’ out.
October 13, 2021
This is basically the gold standard for creating games using the Apocalypse Engine, even moreso than Apocalypse World itself. If you want to write a game, and you want to use the Apocalypse Engine, play a season (about eight sessions, give or take) of Monsterhearts.
March 16, 2017
Very practical
February 2, 2014
I thought I would really like this. As in I do like teen paranormal/urban fantasy stuff. Like the Fades, Hemlock Grove, Vampire High, Buffy and so on... but I guess I don't like the "romance" (or "sexy melodrama" as it's described in the book) as much.
I started reading it and thought.. oooh I like this... and then... oh dear, I can never play this game and then... I like this bit... and then... yep, don't want to play it. It seems to be a good system to simulate certain aspects of the genre, but, for me, it's aim seems to be to encourage a type of play I don't like at all. While I'm fine with a bit of in character player versus player, a whole game of it that revels in that is a bit too much for me.
Still, it's an interesting game that got me thinking. And talking with a few people who have played it, my perception of it's intent is probably different to how people do play it.
I started reading it and thought.. oooh I like this... and then... oh dear, I can never play this game and then... I like this bit... and then... yep, don't want to play it. It seems to be a good system to simulate certain aspects of the genre, but, for me, it's aim seems to be to encourage a type of play I don't like at all. While I'm fine with a bit of in character player versus player, a whole game of it that revels in that is a bit too much for me.
Still, it's an interesting game that got me thinking. And talking with a few people who have played it, my perception of it's intent is probably different to how people do play it.
September 10, 2014
When I found this game I knew immediately that I had to run it. It's what I feel Tremulus could have been (minus the angsty teenagers) but isn't. It is quick, simple, and encourages creativity in both the players and the MC (as the GM is called). I feel like it is the perfect platform for a one shot game of antics, but also has the potential for long term story telling. I am running it tonight for a group of friends and I am stoked! Let the teenage drama commence!
November 18, 2012
Monsterhearts is a wonderfully entertaining game that you can take in a variety of directions. Our play through went from funny to sexy to exciting to terrifying, with lots of interesting scenes on the way. If you really want to know what I thought, you can listen to our actual play at www.thewalkingeye.com.
November 7, 2012
I can't wait to run this. We've been playing Apocalypse World (though I am still reading the MC's half of the rules). It is such a breath of fresh air after years and years of D&D and other RPGs. Not that I dislike the tactical aspect of most RPGs, it's just so often that games promise "Role-playing" rather than rolling dice and then utterly fail to deliver on that promise.
August 28, 2016
Any game that demands that you "treat your NPCs like stolen cars" is alright by me.
Another great pbta book, remarkable in its concision and power. Can't wait to take the game out for a spin and wear down those NPCs to nothingness.
Another great pbta book, remarkable in its concision and power. Can't wait to take the game out for a spin and wear down those NPCs to nothingness.
May 9, 2013
Très bon hack d'Apocalypse World, le thème est simple, efficace et sa déclinaison en jeu est bien réalisé.
June 17, 2013
This is quite an interesting RPG with some unusual focus on relationships.
August 16, 2016
If urban shadows is Buffy seasons 5 - 7. Then Monsterhearts is Buffy seasons 1 - 4 both in a good and bad way.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews