The MC- Erin Sara

The Cast:

Cole the Ghoul- striking with hollow eyes. The most notable feature of his punk appearance was a long horizontal scar on his neck that he decorated with safety pins. He had a hunger for chaos. The circumstances of his death and resurrection remained a mystery. At one point he’d been in a band. He was always around when something bad went down. (Cash)

Helen the Vampire- pale with hungry eyes. She’d been turned into a vampire at a party. Her memory of the event was hazy. Her life was able to go on almost as normal. She still had her best friend, who had once overshadowed her in some ways, and a loving family. The thirst for blood complicated her life immensely. But with that thirst came some impressive new powers. (Martin)

Luna the Werewolf-unkempt with fierce eyes. She had been born and raised a wolf but when she was caught in a hunter’s trap, the moon blessed her. Upon waking, she found herself transformed into a human. The very sorry hunter, a big burly older man named Alan, took her in. She’d been human for about a year and still struggled to live within the bounds of polite society. (Dani)

Wit the Fae- disheveled with piercing eyes. A supremely talented violinist, the Fae captured him becuase of his music. Two centuries passed, yet he didn't age at all. Recently he was placed with a human family and released back into the world of mortals that he’d fortunately been able to observe! So while he didn’t struggle so much with technology, there were a lot of social niceties he struggled with. (Sam)

The story began in Mr. J’s history class. The class had just been assigned a project about significant events in US history and were told to pair up. Luna tried to pair up with Wit, who she was crushing on. An NPC (Callie) butted in. Cole offered to partner with Luna who reluctantly accepted. Helen paired up with her best friend Janelle and the two decided to meet after school to work on their project at Janelle’s place. Wit was brave enough to pull Helen aside after class into the library and confront her. (Wit had happened upon the scene at the party and brought a nearly lifeless Helen to the hospital.)

Cole and Luna worked on their project in the library. She overheard Cole mention that he needed a place to stay for the night so she offered him a place on her couch. In the meantime, Helen and Janelle were working on their own project. A failed roll lead to awkwardness between the besties who went for a walk to get some fresh air. Little did they know they were being stalked by the vampire that had sired Helen, a senior named Serena, who was in turn being followed by Wit. The Fae got into Serena’s car and announced that he knew what she'd done.

In the meantime, there was a rather awkward dinner at Luna’s place. Alan had a meeting and left the two teenagers to their own devices. Successful rolls (from earlier and at that moment) lead to Luna inviting Cole back to her bedroom. Sex Moves were triggered. Helen and Janelle indulged in some making out before Helen took the opportunity to feed. As for poor Wit, he was trapped in a car with Serena who was speeding down the highway. His life was spared when he managed to convince her to open a bit and not reveal her secret. But only if she promised not to attack anyone else from school.

We moved ahead to the lunchroom the next day. Helen informed Luna that Paul, an NPC had been spreading lies that he’d slept with her. Cole was at a nearby table and overheard, choosing that moment to slam Paul’s face into his lunch tray to start a chain reaction. That didn’t stop Luna from attacking Paul herself, causing him further injury and knocking him to the ground. (It turned out he died from his injuries in the ensuing chaos.)

A couple of Paul’s friends tried to intervene. One attacked Cole which set Luna off. She became her Darkest Self (right there in the cafeteria, causing mass panic) and went charging after the one that had hit Cole. Wit followed after and tried to distract her with his music. He almost succeeded but her prey’s efforts to flee caused the Werewolf to renew her attack. The poor boy ended up dead. Then she decided to follow Wit into the woods.

Helen and Cole, who had witnessed the scene, had a brief confrontation. Helen managed to get out of the classroom before the school went into lockdown. Cole was taken in by the police and put in custody. One of the officers decided that he was innocent and only needed some guidance, depositing him at a center for troubled youth.

Wit was up in a tree, playing for all he was worth, while Luna circled the base. Helen found them after making sure Janelle got home safe. A failed roll to Hold Steady meant that Luna could not lash out against the Vampire who used Hypnotic to make her fall asleep. (She seized the opportunity to feed on Luna of course.) The story ended with Cole at that center, Wit heading for the safety of home, and Helen waiting for Luna to wake up.

Another successful session of Monsterhearts in my opinion. The PCs definitely kept the story moving forward and created plenty of drama too, which is exactly how it should be. There were subtle intrusions of outside menaces from supernatural (i.e. Serena and the implication she was part of a larger group of vampires) and mundane forces. There were teenagers being awkward and impulsive and moments of levity balanced with darker occurrences. Lots of rolls were made (a good thing, as players are supposed to be making Moves) and Strings were earned, lost, and of course spent.

We’d all played Monsterhearts before, though it was Erin Sara’s first time MCing. She did a great job of making sure things didn’t stall and moving scenes along when it became clear that they had run their course. Having a group of players that knew the system and how this game should be played definitely contributed to a good time in my humble opinion. I felt there was good player chemistry around the table and that we were all on the same page for the most part.

Familiarity with the system meant set-up went pretty smoothly and there were only a couple times when mechanical questions arose. Mostly from me, I’ll admit, as I encountered situations that hadn’t come up in my previous experiences with this game but the answers didn’t detract from the experience in any way! (Totally how it should be in any story game.)

There was discussion around the table after the game about how having the three skins with the more generic Backstory options- The Vampire getting a String on everyone and everyone else having a String on The Werewolf and The Fae- made it a bit more challenging to establish connections between PCs. Martin was helpful in prompting us to elaborate more on those. There were two distinct subplots, one revolving around Helen and Wit, the other dealing with Luna and Cole, so there wasn’t a whole lot of crossover or interaction between Helen and Cole or Cole and Wit or Luna and Helen or Luna and Wit. It’s not a complaint, just an observation.

This would have been a great start to a multisession arc. There was a lot going on! Each of the characters had a lot of baggage that would have been fun to explore further! I had a good time and hope that I’m not mistaken in saying the others did too.

Thanks to Erin Sara for MCing and to Martin, Sam, and Cash for another enjoyable night of gaming.

- Dani, aka Luna the Werewolf