Monsterhearts 2 Tabletop Roleplaying Game Review by Kristy Cutsforth (Perilous Pretenders podcaster)
Alright, I’m probably going to get crap for not writing a gushing review for Monsterhearts 2, but I just wanted to be honest since I’m a working artist and I have to be careful what my money goes towards. I love supporting indie role playing games and am even designing my own game currently (inspired by the Hulu tv show, Harlots), but I can’t help but feel slightly underwhelmed by this updated version of Monsterhearts. The thing is, I already LOVE the first book and Monsterhearts is one of my all time favorite games, so you know I felt torn about writing this piece; but I felt I should present the differences between the books so you can make your own choice as to whether you feel you need to buy the 2nd edition or not. If you are a fan, you probably will no matter what I say, this is just my own personal opinion as a Monsterhearts lover and MC.
I purchased the first book last year, so I felt pretty late to Monsterhearts party already. Maybe if I hadn’t JUST bought the first book, I might not have been so hesitant to purchase this particular update. If I’m going to have to fork over another $10 for a pdf copy, the game better have significantly changed and given me more material to work with as an MC. Avery is already great at understanding queer culture, and the social dynamics of the paranormal romance/teen monster genre. I really enjoyed her inclusion of Asexuality and that she hired a game designer of color to write the section on including racial tensions and dynamics in your towns (probably my favorite new section in this book and the must useful to me as an MC, as I really do care about creating characters of different races in a non-stereotypical way.
I was hoping to see her expand on the paranormal aspects of the game and include skins from different folklore and cultures. Maybe include more spell options for the Witch? I also feel its important that she explain how to help facilitate and create a horror setting for those who aren’t familiar with the horror genre or who haven’t spent their teen years obsessed with Buffy the Vampire Slayer. There is a tongue in cheek aspect and humor to good supernatural melodrama ,which may be difficult to grasp if you are only used to straight slasher flicks or paranormal romance that is far too dull to be witty (*cough* Twilight *cough*).
Instead of referring me to a list of movies and books to read for inspiration, please provide me with some inspiration directly from your book. The town maps are a good start, they are included separate from the book for ease of printing in the ebook format, but really don’t include the level of detail I was hoping they would (I would have loved to see illustrated maps with these since the kickstarter did incredibly well). There are so many wonderful roleplaying games that build rich worlds through their text and give me tons of inspiration to draw on, so I feel it is an industry standard, even for rules light games. Since Powered by the Apocalypse World games are highly dependent on creating worlds on the fly, there needs to be more inspiration to draw on so MC’s don’t get stuck on what to do with supernatural situations and folklore that they may not be familiar with. These could simply be supplemental materials, not all this needs to be included in a core rulebook....it would just be a nice addition she could add in the future.
Things I really did like about this version of Monsterhearts: I really do like how the moves have been streamlined a bit and that strings are now actually their own separate move on the player reference sheet so that players are reminded to utilize their strings on other PCs and NPCs more frequently. I like how instead of having the MC pick a stat to highlight and then the PC character with the most strings pick the second, highlighted stats are done away with entirely. My players never remembered to write down XP for using their highlighted stats and how was I supposed to remember who had what stat highlighted? Now, it simply states that XP is earned by rolling 6 or less, which is how I was doling out XP in my games already. Much less confusing this way. Also, you get two set stat blocks to pick from now, based on what your skin would naturally be good and terrible at. I like that a lot, especially for people who like to min-max instead of thinking about what their character is actually good/bad at. For the move, Lash Out Physically, a change that was made that I really like is that on a 10+ not only do you deal harm, but the opponent is also at a disadvantage because they are “choked up.” Gives more of an incentive to roll 10+ on that particular move, but I guess I would specify more about what that means mechanically from the MC’s point of view. I understand that it will depend on the situation, but it would be nice to have a specific in game mechanic to deal with that, since combat is already so rules light in this game. For me, I would probably give the next person to attack that character an advantage if it happens quickly after they took the first hit and still retain the “choked up” condition. “A few different moves in the game can lead a character to choke up momentarily. What this means varies depending on the context of the specific situation, but generally involves a temporary faltering or inability to act. It might mean a character going beet red and stuttering, experiencing a moment of panic-related blackout, or letting out a terrified scream and shielding themself from further danger. The consequences vary situationally as well – this might be an embarrassing moment in which a character loses esteem, or a dangerous opening for an enemy during a fist-fight.” pg. 22 Monsterhearts 2 by Avery Adler I also really like how the choices given in some of the moves have been reduced, like in Gaze Into the Abyss in particular. I hated having to read through the long list of choices every time someone picked that move, and it comes up a lot in this game. Now, on a 10+, you get the visions lucidly and instead of having a number of questions to ask the MC, you get a +1 Forward to addressing the situation in game. Makes things more fluid in game to the player and MC that way. On a 7-9, you get the visions, but you are confused and alarmed, that works nicely as well.
Making the Strings into its own separate move works very well, as I mentioned before. Not only that, but instead of having a huge list of options to choose from, which I think made players less likely to use their strings as they didn’t want to read through all that text (and they were on the back of their player reference sheets), there are only 4 in game options to pick from now: Tempt them to do what you want, Give them a Condition, Add 1 to your roll against them, or Add 1 to the harm you deal them.
I knew going in that Avery wouldn’t be including any more skins in the book, but in addition to not creating new official skins, she took away The Chosen from the regular skins selection. I think, what I would have personally done, was to find a way to make The Chosen less powerful, or given tips on which games to include The Chosen in and which kind of themes won’t work with a superhero type of character. This was already done in the pre-made towns section; they mention which skins would be great to include for the town specified, which I thought was quite smart.
After running my first game of Monsterhearts, I knew that for my next game I would pick skins that I thought would work well with the scenario and the game was definitely easier to roleplay between the different characters without feeling as forced. I would say if you don’t want The Chosen to be an option, or any of the more mechanically difficult Skins, just leave them out of the pile that players choose from.
I have run Monsterhearts with one of my players choosing The Chosen and it turned out just fine; I knew she could handle it and that she wouldn’t try to hog the spotlight. I think that is key, making sure you pick a player that is playing for the storytelling aspect, not a min-max style player. You can still pick up The Chosen skin on her website, but if you are going to take out a skin, why replace it with The Hollow (which is basically the character Dawn in Buffy the Vampire Slayer). If you could play Buffy or Dawn, who would you rather play honestly? That’s what I thought. Oh, and can I mention that I’m psyched that The Ghost skin actually has a more detailed description now for players to read aloud? I mean, “Ghosty ghost, you’re dead” is funny, but c’mon. “ You used to have a future. Growing up was a painful tumult at times, but at least you were growing. Now you only have a past - unfinished business to take care of before you can leave this world behind. Life is precious. You understand that, now that you’ve lost yours. You just want to help. You just want to be seen. But sometimes even the simplest desires feel so difficult to grasp. Ghosty ghost, you’re dead.”
If you have trouble with world building and creating your own town settings, the second book does have eight towns written up by various game designers. They are only 1 page a piece, however, and mention references to folklore without giving you more information in the text. So regardless, you will still have to do significant research to run games with these towns, but they will give you a place to start.
If you don’t already own the first book, I wouldn’t hesitate picking this, there is really nothing wrong with it. It is a well written book with streamlined rules and the text reflects that Avery really understands the themes presented. The whole metaphor for teens feeling alone, different, odd, or afraid to reveal their sexuality and playing as secret “monsters” works incredibly well and is the reason this game resonates so much with me personally. Hell, I’m 31 and I’m still figuring stuff out daily, trying to get my life together. If you already own the first book, maybe wait till it goes on sale and then pick it up? The rule changes can be pieced together through the player reference sheets, skins, and mc reference sheets already available on buriedwithoutceremony.com.
