Monsterhearts Dreamation 2012

This year, I almost skipped Dreamation, as we were writing our larps up until the very last minute. But, there was a game of Monsterhearts that I really wanted to make, and I eventually decided that I'd bow out of games that I didn't need to play or that were too late or early for me.

To my surprise, this proved to be a good compromise. I did a lot of work on one of the larps, probably more than I would have if I'd stayed home. I had privacy and little distraction in the hotel room, and when I wanted company, I could come out. When I met Josh for meals, I would talk about what I had done, and what problems I'd hit in my writing. He was able to look at the problems with fresh eyes, and willing to do so, as he had not been spending so much time working on the game that he didn't want to discuss it.

Monsterhearts: Thursday, 8 PM

This was as awesome as I had hoped.

Brendon Conway -- GM

Sean Hawken -- the ghost, Spencer, who died in the 70s. He lives in a house with other, living people, but they don't know about him. Transfer student, brooding, decided to wander out a month ago.

Sean Levanthal -- the ghoul, Victor, who hungers for flesh and who died a month ago. He has hungry eyes and is a loner. He had friends before, but now they shun him. He doesn't know why.

Patricia Hirsch -- the hollow, Summer, transfer student, a month ago. Immaculate, wide eyed, product of a wish. Summer has no real past, rather like Dawn from Buffy, but also no real personality. She knows she's not quite real.

Me -- the queen, Regina, stunning, with calculating eyes. Gang designed something really cool about a month ago -- the gang did designer drugs. Cheerleading queen of the school.

Michael Miller -- the witch, Merril (female), who was disaffected about a month ago and dresses like she shops in the thrift store. She lives in a trailer park on the edge of town. Her purse is a military satchel. Book of Shadows.

The PCs were seniors, and clearly something had happened a month ago, even if we hadn't yet settled on what it was. Wilson Public High School.

The next step was the creation of backstories, where Strings were exchanged. A String is a unit of influence one has over a person, and by spending a string, one gets a mechanical bonus when acting on or against that person.

Puzzling through my notes, I think the starting totals were:

Merril:

• 2 strings on Victor -- either he's crushing on her or vice versa
• 1 string on Regina -- technically, not a string, but a sympathetic token with which Merril hex Regina. She has one of Regina's barrettes.

Spencer:

• 1 string on Spencer -- another sympathetic token, a bloodstained t-shirt that belonged to Spencer
• 2 strings on Victor -- Spencer saw Victor come back to life. This was the first time Spencer had left the house. Victor died in an accident in a cul-de-sac, and Spencer saw this and saw the mangled body snap back to life. Each had 2 strings on the other.
• 1 string on Regina -- Spencer has used his ghostly powers to get inside Regina's bedroom, spying on her as she sleeps, I think. Why Regina? She's the prettiest.
• 2 strings on Summer -- Spencer knew that Summer's past was made up.
• My notes have a question about who he's trying to connect with.

Victor:

• 3 strings on Spencer -- Spencer saw Victor come back to life, and I think Victor may have known that Spencer was dead.

Summer:

• 2 strings on Merril -- Summer has been studying Merril and taking social cues from her.
• 1 string on Regina -- Regina sees Summer as a threat
• 2 strings on Spencer -- I think because he knows that her past is made up, but I'm not sure.

Regina:

• 1 string on Merril -- Regina saw Merril rummaging through one of Regina's friend's stuff, and said nothing about it, believing that Merril was looking for drugs, and feeling vaguely sorry for the junkie.
• 2 strings on Summer -- Regina considered Summer a threat. Something was just off about her.
• 1 string each on Ramon, Raul, and Reyes -- these were NPC gang members, as the queen had a gang.

Regina's gang specialized in designer drugs.

Then, Brendon drew a diagram of the home room, 5 rows of 3 rectangles which we started to fill in with names:

[Door] [Blackboard] [Teacher]
[Merril] [Madison] [Lyle]
[Victor] [Mandy] [Summer]
[Raoul] [Regina] [Ramon]
[Ashley] [Reyes] [Empty]
[Spencer] [Empty] [Sam]

As the desks were filled in, Brendon asked us questions. We could all feel the storm clouds gather and the battlefield lines being drawn as questions were answered and desk rectangles filled in.

Either Merril had a crush on Victor or vice versa.

Victor hurt Ashley the most, with a 180 degree personality shift. They were dating, and he dumped her, and now she saw him crushing on Merril. Remember: Victor had a hunger for human flesh. Dumping his girlfriend was a way to try to keep her safe from him.

Lyle had a crush on Summer. This ticked Regina off.

GM: That's all it takes?

I thought about it and decided that Regina thought, incorrectly, that Lyle had had a crush on Regina until Summer showed up. Regina hadn't really cared one way or the other until she saw Lyle crushing on Summer.

Ramon lived in the same trailer park as Merril. What happened?

Michael, aka Merril's player, points to Regina / me: She happened.

Ramon had a taste for his position. He walked an hour each day to get onto the school bus in a better neighborhood.

Did he see her sneaking into the trailer she uses for her magical workshop, or did she see him making drugs in another trailer? He saw her.

Ashley lived next door to Spencer. Did he interact with her? Avoid her?

He made _some_ attempt to be friendly. The last thing he needs is for her to get interested in him.

GM: So she totally is.

Sam was the football star quarterback. Regina has feelings for Sam. No one can ever know he couldn't get it up for her. What would the school think of him -- or her?

So, Ashley currently had a crush on both Victor and Spencer. And now, we knew why Victor was down in the street where Spencer lived on the night that Victor died.. He was there to pick up Ashley, who lives next door to Spencer.

What was the worst thing Ramon did to Spencer?

Dis his clothing -- e.g., singled Spencer out for verbal ridicule in publish.

Ramon: The 70s called -- they want their suck back!

Raoul had slept with Regina. Ramon wanted to sleep with her. Reyes was gay and crushing on Victor.

Someone (accurately gauging the depths of Regina's personality): Because it's so classy to have a gay friend.

Why does Mandy have a thing about replacing Regina?

Mandy's sister was the previous queen,

Mandy had been making overtures to Summer to go shopping.

Summer: Okay. Humans do that.

The deal with Merril and Melissa -- what is it?

They were friends, but their friendship is currently strained. Merril hasn't told Melissa about magic, and ditched her to spend time in trailer. Melissa thinks Merril is cooking Meth.

The homeroom teacher was Mr. Anders. He was young enough to be a crush source, but old enough it is Totally Not Okay.

The last step of character creation was picking stats to highlight. The characters have four stats: Cold, Hot, Volatile, and Dark. Very generally, Hot turns people on, Cold shuts people down and helps one keep one's cool, Volatile is used to attack people or run away, and Dark is used for creepy stuff like gazing into the abyss for visions. What the abyss is and how one gazes into it varies from game to game and from character to character. This is simplistically inaccurate, but will do for now.

The person whose PC has the most strings on another PC gets to highlight one of that PC's stats. The GM gets to highlight another. Using either of these stats gets an experience point, so people are encouraged to work together and ask, "So, which stat do you want me to highlight?" if they don't already have an idea. It's fine to play towards people's strengths.

Highlighting stats:

• Summer: Dark (Regina), Volatile (GM)
• Victor: Hot (Merril), Cold (GM)
• Merril: Dark (Summer), Cold (GM)
• Spencer: Cold (Victor), Hot (GM)
• Regina: Hot (Summer), Cold (GM)

Five experience marks = buy something cool from one of the options listed on the character sheet.

Mandy suggested that Summer come to the mall with her, as she'd seen the best dress. It would look great on Summer!

Regina tried to shut Mandy down with a cutting remark. I forget what the mechanical results were, but regardless, it was clear that there had to be a trip to the mall to Check Out The Dress.

We decided that Summer had parents, sort of, but they were even less real than she was. And, we figured out whose wish Summer was: Mandy's. Mandy wanted to take Regina down, and Summer was the way to do it. And, Regina sensed both this and Summer's unreality.

Ashley gave her dirtiest look to Merril because of the whole Victor love / crush triangle. I'm not sure if Merril quite knew who Ashley was.

Ashley (to Victor, loud enough that the entire class could hear it): So, did you get tested yet?

Merril stared as Ashley, and the player rolled a 12 to shut Ashley down. The target number is generally 10, so 12 is very good.

Victor left the room.

Summer: Oh, hi Spencer. You almost were late!

Spencer: Yeah... I was...

Mr. Anders went to retrieve Victor who tried to explain what no adult is capable of understanding (at least in the opinion of most teenagers).

Victor: They were all looking at me! I couldn't be there!

Nevertheless, Victor returned to class, and Merril stared back at anyone who dared to stare at Victor.

The next scene was Lunchtime in the Cafeteria!

Victor and Merril sat at a table with 3 legs left. Well, one of them sat, probably Merril, given that there was only one chair at the table.

Regina and her gang had their own table, of course.

Spencer was a little away, Ashley dogging his steps.

Mandy and Summer sat together.

Victor left the cafeteria to sneak a note into Ashley's locker. The note said, "I'm so sorry."

Me: OMG you are totally going to Eat her!

Victor returned, and Max came over to him and Merril. Max was a leather jacket, chain in his pants kind of guy. He tried to warn Victor off Merril, but Victor goaded Max into attacking him, and just stood there, taking the punishment. Max got creeped out and he looked bad, socially speaking.

Merril: Boys! I grab my bag, and I leave.

My notes say that Mandy was Flustered, Max was Embarrassed, and Merril was Ignored. These are Conditions which have a mechanical effect where they apply. I think they cause -1 to a roll most of the time.

Victor succeeded in Holding Steady, but didn't roll 10 or higher. He had a +1 bonus to carry forward, but also took Harm. PCs can take 3 harm. If they take a 4th, they either die or become their Darkest Self for a time.

Ashley (to Spencer): Would you excuse me?

Spencer (sadly): Sure.

GM: You can even be trying to turn her on with your sad depressed look.

Spencer: Sure, well I guess Victor needs you more than I do.

Alas, the roll was not good enough to do anything other than make Ashley feel self-conscious about going after Victor.

I forget the context, but someone was giving Regina disgusting gossip, I think about Spencer, so probably it was Ramon.

Me / Regina: I basically make that oh you're disgusting tell me more noise.

Ramon also made a disgusted noise when Spencer's mouth was open, I think in a smile.

GM: Where you headed?

Michael / Merril: Ashley's locker, obviously.

After all, the note from Victor was a sympathetic token. There was also a photo of Ashley and Victor together.

Patricia offered an experience check in return for Merril inviting Summer in on breaking into Ashley's locker. Michael accepted.

Summer was worried about Max's behavior in the lunch room.

Merril (dismissively): He talks big.

Summer: No, I think that blood is more than talking.

Merril: Oh - it's only Victor. He's -

Summer (seeing Victor, who had left the cafeteria at this point): Hi, Victor!

Someone (possibly Summer's player): I was sure I would be eaten by now!

Merril (to Victor): If you keep going like this, you're life's going to turn into a car wreck.

GM: So, Regina, your nemesis, Summer, has left the cafeteria. Who knows what she's doing where you can't see her? Just, you know, throwing that out there.

Regina decided to take a little walk. She found Summer, Merril, and Victor. Originally, she'd planned to say hi to Victor and to tell Merril that she thought Merril was good for Victor, but for some reason, Merril didn't want Regina anywhere near Victor and made cutting comments. Regina responded in kind, and invited Victor to the mall with her and her friends. Victor and Regina turned each other on, and Victor accepted. And the war between Merril and Regina was on.

But, Merril had an unexpected ally, for she had just given Summer a cue: It is okay to _take_ things from other people. Summer successfully took something from Regina, although Summer got the condition Guilty in so doing. We agreed that this should be Regina's little black book. It wasn't outright proof about dealing and designing drugs, but it was her book of contacts, and a sympathetic token.

GM: You take it from her backpack?

Michael and Lisa: Purse!

After Regina and Victor left, Merril easily persuaded Summer to give her the book. She retired to her trailer to put a hex on Regina. If Regina tried to lie, there would be a ringing in her ears that would get steadily louder. It could harm Regina. It could kill her.

Meanwhile, Ramon and Raoul were not sure if they were okay with Victor or not. Reyes was giving Victor dirty looks. But, Regina and Mandy both went to the store in the mall with the dress. Whether the dress was good or not was really a matter of taste. Regina made some catty comment about it, maybe to the effect that it was overdone, and perfect for Summer.

Summer responded with an innocent comment about something that Regina could buy, possibly the very same dress, to make Regina look less fat. I think Regina slapped her.

GM: You're gonna hit her? That's awesome!

Summer responded by hauling off and hitting her, not a slap, a full force punch. Regina was starting to lose the respect of her people, and she just realized she'd lost her little black book. Then, somehow, her purse emptied all over the floor, pills everywhere! And, Regina was lying about exactly what happened to the black book, which made her head ring and her ears bleed.

Her gang, which had started to leave her in disgust, came back and frantically started picking up the pills. Victor got into some kind of altercation with Max that wound up with both of them outside the mall, and Victor attacking Max with the full force of his ghoul hunger. This was a game that could handle both Ginger Snaps _and_ Twilight, and we were getting both at once here.

Mandy, seeing that Regina was bleeding, picked up one of the pills.

Mandy: Have you been taking these? Stay here -- I'll get the cops.

Regina denied she had, and she said that Summer had gone insane. Alas, both were true, as far as she knew, but the situation was still dire.

Regina decided to Gaze Into the Abyss, symbolized by popping a pill, we agreed.

Her question: How can I salvage my social situation?

GM: _Immediately_ spread the rumor that Summer is crazy. Stop Mandy from telling cops.

Regina had her gang grab Mandy and hustle her outside. My notes say something about Mandy's repressed rage, which might have something to do with Summer.

GM: Back outside, where Victor is eating Max...

Quote whose context I forget: You could kiss her!

Ashley went outside and saw Victor eating Max.

GM: I'm gonna give you an xp if you go running after Ashley -- you just smelled the most wonderful meal!

Victor did. By now, Summer and Merril had arrived, and both tried to stop him.

Merril: And I happen to have a note. In Victor's handwriting. That he wrote to Ashley.

Summer tried to stop Victor physically, but this wound up with him attacking her and chewing on her shoulder. At this point, Summer, Spencer, and possibly Victor all became their Darkest Selves. This meant different things for each of them.

Summer needed to make her body suffer. The pain was the only thing that was real, as she wasn't. So, she was as happy as Victor that Victor was eating her shoulder.

Spencer was invisible, inaudible, and intangible. He could affect inanimate objects, but was otherwise stuck until someone acknowledged his presence and showed how much he or she wanted Spencer around.

Victor was hungry and ready to maim and kill anything between him and the object of his hunger.

Merril looked into the abyss by speaking in tongues, I think, and tried to find out how she could stop Victor. As no one was able to restrain him, the answer was clear: Victor had to be killed.

Someone (possibly me): I see we're playing Ginger Snaps.

GM: We are. Only it's called Victor Snaps.

Regina peered into the abyss again, asking: What can I do to make it stop?

Answer: Get Mandy to make a wish.

Regina told Mandy to do this, but then realized that this wasn't quite enough.

GM: You have to let her go. No strings attached.

Regina told her gang to release Mandy, and while they weren't sure of this, they did so. This left one question: Just what should Mandy wish for?

Someone: I wish it would stop!

Someone pointing out the potential problem with that: Everyone dies?

Someone else: Shouldn't she look at Summer and say "I wish I had never met you!"?

Brandon thought about it and decided that Mandy's wish was: I wish today had never happened.

There was an event reset. Everyone woke up in his or her bed. The day had started over, but all of the PCs, and I think Mandy as well, knew that it had happened and remembered every last detail. And there, we ended.

It was a good place to end the convention one shot, but I could see starting a new session from there. This was when I asked Brandon about the magical 6th session and he told me that that was when enough connections had been made that scenes just flowed into each other.

I see what he means, and it doesn't contradict the idea of starting with everything ratcheted up to eleven. We did that. We did that, and we escalated from there, and we could have had another session. We were learning about the characters as we told their stories. Many things had been established before play -- and many other things were being developed in play.

And I have a much better feel for Monsterhearts than for Apocalypse World, even though I later played in an AW game that Brandon ran, and it was fun.

I was in a playtest the following morning, but this was a tactical error on my part. I kept dozing off, and while everyone was tolerant of that, I'd have done better sleeping in, rather than sleeping after the game. But, so it goes.