2015 Monsterhearts with Selkie Proof of Concept

4 April 2015 Gaming Day

After Dreamation, I wanted a Monsterhearts campaign like Loveland. That didn't happen, but we did have a one day get together with a couple of friends. One improvised a game based on her irritation with Bill White's Fate Core setting, Romance in the Air, which she considered too Anglophiliac and blind to the downsides of the British Empire. It's a reasonable criticism. I don't remember enough to do a reasonable write up, but it went well enough that she thought about turning it into a larp, and may have done so.

We then talked about doing Monsterhearts. James Mendez Hodes, aka Mendez, was willing to run it, and said that, while, iirc, Jackson Tegu's revision of his Selkie skin is somewhat better, the Selkie isn't very playable. Josh disagreed and took that skin in the interest of proving him wrong. I took the Vampire skin, and the third player took the Mortal.

The setting was Barataria, Louisiana, 2012. My notes mention fishing, oil, tourism, "JLFk, and Gulliver, which may have actually been the name of the town.

Josh's Selkie (which I wrote as "Siren" in my notes) was Arabelle, and Mendez understood that Josh was doing a riff on Ariel / The Little Mermaid. I haven't seen the Disney film, and I don't think Josh has either, but we do know the original story.

My Vampire was Cassius Delacroix, a fairly happy-go-lucky fellow and former pirate. Originally, the Mortal was going to be Brandon Bell, then Benjamin Bell, a displaced Nobody with darting eyes. Benjamin had Arabella's pelt. The Selkie always starts with the sealskin in someone else's hands.

All of the PCs knew each other and knew their supernatural deal. We created a 10th grade homeroom or math class and seating chart. So, the human students were 15 or 16, and the supernatural ones either were or, like Cassius, could pass for that.

The school newspaper used to be run by someone we first named Dierdre, then renamed Dani Torres. She was a Ghoul whose hunger was for information. Originally, we said that she had passed the paper on to Ben. We changed that: Dani had either died mysteriously or had disappeared.

Yes, Dani had vanished, leaving all of her stuff -- including Arabella's pelt. Dani and Ben knew that the supernatural community existed. Dani had probably made a lot of enemies. Ben had not dating, but wanted her back. Ben was in love with Arabella.

How long had he had her skin? Since the beginning of last summer, 5 months ago. Ben had broken into Dani's house to keep her family from knowing about the supernatural community.

The Mortal moves the player chose were:

• Down the Rabbit Hole
• Entrenched

The task Arabella was told to perform in return for her sealskin's return was to find out What Happened to Dani.

Arabella was currently staying at the video game arcade, owned by Ben's family, I think. Previously, she had been staying with Dani.

Ben's mother was a Single Mom, Lucy Bell. She thought that Arabelle was a homeless kid with nowhere to go?

Other students included:

• Humphrey: -That- guy, always raising his hand! He was in the chess club.
• Matthew: The quarterback.
• Juliette: A bully, both social and physical, supported by Veronica and Heather.
• Heather Parris was from a swamp shack family.
• Where Dani's desk used to be now sat Francine, Ms. Goody Two Shoes.

Then, there was Liz. Ben's player decided she wanted to play Liz instead of Ben, so Liz was the one holding the pelt and in love with Arabella and trying to find out what had happened to Dani.

Liz and Ben were siblings, we decided. Ben was now a drug dealer, and I think my notes say that he had a crush on Cassius.

Mr. Corrigan was the math teacher. The school sport was (USAn) football, and the school mascot was the Caribbean Monk Seal. Although Dani had run the school paper, my notes say: "Newspaper -- No, just BB". Well, presumably LB, aka Liz Bell.

The town also had a bar called Arcadia anda strip club called The Rising Sun.

Ben wasn't in school. My notes say: "Matthew's Note: Get me at lunch re: the obvious matter." I don't recall whether that note was for Liz because Matthew was getting drugs from Ben or whether it was about something else entirely.

I think Cassius fed on Matthew, easing him down to the floor in a hallway of school lockers. I think this was before Cassius discovered a knife sticking out of his own back. I'm not sure if he found the knife before or after Francine.

He became aware at some point that Francine was watching him, and he did not have a shirt on, possibly on account of bloodstains, either his own or Matthew's. He got a fresh shirt from his locker and put it on.

Cassius: Sorry -- I ripped my shirt.

Francine: You should do that more often.

Cassius was pleased and watched her saunter off. At that point, he discovered and/or dealt with his wound. He also Gazed into the Abyss, and I got a total of 7. Cassius realized that the weapon was a Fairbairn-Sykes fighting knife. There were layers of blood in its past, including "Small human", animal, and something that was like nothing Cassius had ever tasted.

My notes at this point say:

Mrs Bei
Art Teacher -) Magic Pirate
Treasure
Dragonfly
Jade

I have no idea what this meant.

Meanwhile, Juliette, Veronica, and Heather were throwing their social power around, cowing people verbally, and, when that didn't work, Juliette would hit them with her umbrella. I think she got a whack in on Liz. I think Liz and maybe Arabelle as well were trying to stand up for Humphrey. During all of that, I think Arabelle succeeded in turning Heather on.

Mr. Corrigan noted that Arabelle was having a lot of trouble with the math lessons, so he invited her over to his house. Now, the usual Monsterhearts scene that would follow from this, insofar as there is a usual where Monsterhearts is concerned, would probably be Mr. Corrigan offering Arabelle a better grade in return for sex. Indeed, Liz and Cassius may even have told Arabelle that's what they expected to happen, though I don't recall.

However, despite Arabelle's desirableness, which Mr. Corrigan clearly did feel, the math teacher was utterly scrupulous. He welcomed Arabelle and instructed his daughter to help her, leaving the two students to it. The man is a ray of light in the usual Monsterhearts genre, totally unexpected.

We were also surprised that his daughter turned out to be Veronica, one of Juliette's supporters. Veronica was not happy with Arabelle, because of Arabelle's effect on Heather.

Veronica: You turned her gay!

Arabelle: That was before I came in!

Veronica: How does that even make sense?

Veronica was also completely bogged by the concept of bisexuality.

Veronica: You have to pick one or the other! It's like sports teams -- or Israel or Palestine!

I think Arabelle may have at least begun to make some headway convincing Veronica otherwise. Veronica may or may not have made some headway teaching Arabelle math. I am fairly sure that no sex happened.

Either Liz or Arabelle or both visited Heather. Heather lived by a bayou, I think, and turned out to be a werealligator, which, in Monsterheart terms would be build using the werewolf skin if Heather were a PC. I note this because the GM had a couple of NPCs who were modeling the skins the players hadn't chosen; fr'ex, Juliette was clearly The Queen.

Heather and her visitor or visitors got on well. As near as I can tell, she was by temperament fairly nice, although terrified of crossing Juliette or having her secret discovered. I think the werealligator thing ran in the family.

There was also a subplot involving Liz's brother, Ben, who was clearly in some sort of trouble. Ben, as you may recall, was a drug dealer. It turned out that he was a middleman, buying the drugs from none other than Dani's parents. They were pretty clearly beating Ben, I think because he owed them money. They were also distraught over Dani's disappearance.

Meanwhile, Cassius visited a vampire friend of his, Lucien Dark, who ran the House of the Rising Sun. Lucien was a black man, somewhat overweight, who bemoaned his lack of success in seducing cute coeds.

Cassius (comfortingly): Coeds have no taste.

He asked Lucien about the knife, and may have gotten some more information, but if so, I forget what he learned. Lucien was definitely nervous about the knife and the idea someone going around stabbing vampires, but was happy to chat with Cassius and offered him someone to drink.

Somehow, Cassius was informed that he'd be holding a party. Francine may have suggested it. Recognizing the social protocol, he approached Juliette, standing outside under her umbrella.

Cassius: I've been informed that I'm having a party.

He told her that it simply wouldn't be a party without her, and she agreed to come.

And, at some point, Liz and Arabelle had sex. I think this is where I jotted down, "I'm so sorry -- I'm totally going to try to turn you on now." My guess is that the apology was Liz's and in character, and the rest was someone commenting on the apology OOC.

My notes also mention crying during sex, and a roll of 12. I don't know whether that was a roll for one of the girls to Turn On the other or whether that was Arabelle's roll to try to get the sea to bring Dani back.

I don't know who said which line:

Will you keep your promise?

Of course -- she's already coming back.

Logically, Liz would have said the first and Arabelle the second, but Arabelle might have asked the question, as Liz had promised to return her pelt, in which case, the second could have been Liz's answer or Arabelle's answer to a question I didn't jot down.

But, the important thing is that the two had sex. The more important thing is that when the Mortal has sex, she triggers her partner's Darkest Self. IIRC, for the Selkie, this involves realizing how one has been used, and taking vengeance.

So, the next morning, Arabelle, her pelt returned, bid a cold goodbye to Liz and departed for the sea.

Cassius owned a building by the ocean, a bungalow, perhaps? The party was in full swing, with more people showing up and a storm gathering.

Juliette decided to punish Liz for whatever transgressions she had made against Juliette's moves, and did a fair amount of physical damage to the other student with her umbrella. Lucien protested, pointing out that they were in his house. Juliette was unimpressed.

Juliette (walking backwards onto the dance floor): This may be your house, but this (gesturing at the students all around) -- this is my kingdom.

Cassius decided that Juliette had crossed a line. Pretending to accept that, he danced with her. And, as they danced, he hypnotized her, commanding her to apologize to Liz.

After the song ended, Juliette walked over to Liz in a daze and did so. Shortly after, Juliette was talking with Francine.

Meanwhile, Arabelle went out into the ocean, swimming towards her father's kingdom, despite the storm. It was growing fiercer now. Her father's subjects were racing with the storm or perhaps ahead of it.

One of those subjects now was Dani, who had joined the sea king's realm as a new daughter, replacing Arabella, who had left. Arabella was still determined to reach her father, despite the storm.

Francine approached Cassius, suggesting they go upstairs to his bedroom, for some privacy. He agreed. Once there, with tie door closed, Francine asked him to blindfold her. He happily agreed and did as requested.

Then, she attacked him and demanded her knife back. Francine was the Chosen, hunting monsters like Cassius. And, the blindfold ensured that he could not hypnotize her -- and she was all too capable of fighting blindfolded.

By now, Arabelle reached her father and petitioned him. Yes, his anger was surely great, for the storm was reaching terrifying heights--

Sea King: What are you talking about? I am not doing this. You are.

Arabelle realized that he was right. And, filled with righteous anger, she moved toward New Orleans, determined to destroy it with the storm.

Cassius managed to escape Francine, at least for the moment. He, Liz, Heather, and eventually, Francine as well stood on his balcony, watching the arrival of the storm and Arabelle.

Somewhere in here, my notes say:

Oh does this make me gay?
No, it makes you lunch.
As long as I'm not gay lunch!
Throw [ illeg -- Jenny? ]
You are a very wise man.

I think the last was addressed by tie GM to Cassius, who wisely did not try to interfere in various threads of drama between the women. I'm fairly sure the following was on the balcony:

Heather: Hi. I'm really scared. I'm not really into salt water

Cassius mentioned that he had a speedboat, if the girls wanted to escape. He wasn't afraid to stay behind. This was around the time I took a move from a different skin. I looked at the Fae and Witch skins, but the GM pointed out the Infernal skin, and I agreed that this worked better. The Power in question was the Sea King. After all, Cassius had been a pirate and had a healthy respect for the sea.

He performed some minor rite acknowledging the power of the ocean as Arabelle arrived. Liz faced her lover and former victim, by now aware of what was going on and what was at stake, quite possibly because Arabelle told her.

Liz: It's me you're angry at. If you want to kill me, it won't take much.

(And, indeed, in mechanical terms, she had taken 3 wounds. A fourth would kill her.)

I no longer remember the important details, but I do know that she managed to talk Arabelle down. The silkier neither killed Liz nor destroyed New Orleans. I don't recall what the ending relationships among Liz, Arabelle, and Heather were.

I do remember a few bits from the epilogue:

• Cassius went back to the ocean, laughing and sailing away on his speedboat, alone, as Francine swore in frustration as she and perhaps Heather got to where the boat was supposed to have been.

• Some time later, Francine was chasing a fleeing Lucien.

• Some mysterious group was monitoring the news, I think. This has something to do with wrapping up the mystery of what had happened to Dani, but I don't know what was going on there.

Addendum: re Cassius being informed he is throwing a party: When I was in high school, I was so informed by one of my friends. Fortunately, my parents agreed, and the party was about four or five people. re the ending relationships: That should have included Dani, who I think was still a new daughter of the Sea King. This was how she survived her death, I think, even if I am vague on exactly how and why she died. As for Lucien taking his boat, I think the GM described the beginning of Francine's reaction with her and Heather reaching the water and Heather looking around, saying, "Wasn't there supposed to be a boat?"