Basic Rules
The short version
Rosemont is a game about teenage monsters: their secrets, their crushes, and the damage they do to each other. You play one student. Other players will play other students. The DM plays everyone else at school.
There is no turn order. You say what your student does, and the conversation moves on from there. When what you do matches one of the Actions, you roll.
(Don't worry, your DM will try and make sure that everyone gets a fair amount of character moments)
Rolling
Roll two six-sided dice and add the stat the action asks for.
- 10 or more: it works, the way you wanted.
- 7 to 9: it works, but there is a cost, a choice, or a complication.
- 6 or less: it goes wrong. The DM decides how.
Your stats
Every skin starts with its own spread of four stats, from -3 to +3.
- Hot: charm, desire, getting people to want you.
- Cold: distance, composure, cutting people down.
- Volatile: violence, panic, acting without thinking.
- Dark: the strange, the occult, the part of you that isn't human.
Strings
A string is emotional leverage you hold over someone: a secret, a crush, a debt, a moment they would rather forget. You can hold strings on someone who also holds strings on you.
Spend a string on someone to:
- tempt them to do what you want, and they mark experience if they go along with it
- give them -1 on their next roll
- add +1 to your own roll against them
- add 1 harm when you hurt them
Conditions
A condition is a label that sticks to someone, like Humiliated or Ugly. When you take advantage of a condition someone has, add +1 to your roll.
Harm
Each skin has its own number of harm boxes. When you get hurt, mark harm. When the boxes run out, things go very badly, and the DM tells you how.
Your Darkest Self
Every skin has a Darkest Self: what your monster becomes when it stops pretending. Some rolls and moves can push you into it. Your skin tells you how you get out again.
Sex moves
Every skin has a sex move. It happens when your student has sex with someone, whether they for that move to trigger or not.
Growing up
- A new character starts at level 0: a skin and nothing else. Make your skin's starting choices in setup and you reach level 1, nobody plays at level 0.
- Experience fills up as you play. When it fills, you take an advance.
- Each advance follows your skin's own track. Some steps let you choose, some don't.
Engagement
Monster Hearts is a fairly rules-light game, and is primarily fueled by roleplay, so get ready to really get into character. Make a playlist, do your make up, whatever fun things that help you be your character. You only get to bring D6s, so you better make sure they're the perfect fit for your character.
Actions
These are the things every student can do, whatever their skin. Your skin adds its own moves on top of these. These moves have basic 'default' uses, but sometimes an action doesn't fit any of the traditional uses, and your DM will have to fit the mechanics to the narrative. That's cool, it's their job, actually!
Turn Someone On (Hot)
Primarily, this move is used to make someone want you.
- 10 or more: you take a string on them.
- 7 to 9: they choose: give themselves to you, promise you something, or give you a string on them.
Shut Someone Down (Cold)
You cut someone down with words, a look, or silence.
- 10 or more: choose one: they gain a condition, you take a string on them, or you carry +1 into your next roll.
- 7 to 9: choose one, but you come across as cruel, cold, or desperate.
Hold Steady (Cold)
You keep it together when something frightening, painful, or tempting is in front of you.
- 10 or more: you hold steady and stay in control.
- 7 to 9: you hold, but it costs you. The DM tells you what.
- 6 or less: you flinch, break, or give in.
Lash Out Physically (Volatile)
You hurt someone.
- 10 or more: you deal 1 harm.
- 7 to 9: you deal 1 harm, and the DM picks a complication: you go too far, you get hurt as well, or it shows something about you.
Run Away (Volatile)
You get out of there, physically, or maybe just emotionally. Sometimes, you just need an out.
- 10 or more: you get away to somewhere safe.
- 7 to 9: you get away, but something comes with it: you run into something worse, or you leave something behind.
Gaze Into the Abyss (Dark)
You look inward or outward, into the dark, for answers. Gazing into the Abyss can be very rewarding, but it is not without risk, you're flirting with the monster inside.
- 10 or more: the abyss shows you something true, and you take +1 when you act on it.
- 7 to 9: it shows you something, but it is confusing, frightening, or both.
- 6 or less: the abyss looks back. Expect your Darkest Self.
Skins
Not available
Chosen
Powerful, vengeful, conflicted, masochistic. The Chosen is a monster slayer who finds themselves drawn to the darkness.
Pick one set of stats:
Hot-1
Cold+1
Volatile+2
Dark-1
or
Hot+1
Cold+1
Volatile+1
Dark-2
Moves
Come Prepared
You have an outlandishly large armory, complete with ancient artifacts. Just in case the need arises.
Final Showdown
Spend 4 Strings you have on an NPC to kill them. They are irrevocably dead. They can spend any Strings they have against you to deal you harm, 1-for-1, on the way out.
Growing Pains
When you fail to protect your friends, mark experience.
Light the Way
Whenever your friends follow through on your commands or your lead, they add 1 to their roll. (If your friends are NPCs, they instead act at an Advantage.)
Mercy
When you decide to spare someone you have reason to kill, take a String on them.
Take the Blow
When you leap into the way and take the blow instead of someone else, roll with Volatile. On a 10 up, you take the harm instead of them, but reduce it by 1. On a 7-9, you take the harm instead of them.
To The Books
When the chips are down, and the sinister villain seems unbeatable, you can turn to your friends for research help. Roll with the number of people assisting you. On a 10 up, choose two. On a 7-9, choose one:
- ask the Storyteller a question (Storyteller must answer truthfully);
- your enemy gains the Condition secret weakness;
- gain a String on your enemy;
- carry 1 forward.
Sex move
When you have sex, heal all of your wounds, and cure all of your Conditions. If they disgust you, give them a String. If you disgust yourself, give them a String
Darkest self
None of your friends can help. They're not strong like you are. You need to chase down the biggest threat imaginable, immediately and alone. Any challenges or dangers that you encounter must be faced head on, even if they might kill you. You escape your Darkest Self when someone comes to your rescue or you wake up in the hospital, whichever comes first.
Fae
Alluring, exotic, fickle, vengeful. The Fae is all about extracting promises, and wielding faerie vengeance when those promises are broken.
Pick one set of stats:
Hot+2
Cold-1
Volatile-1
Dark+1
or
Hot+1
Cold-1
Volatile+2
Dark-1
Moves
Beyond The Veil
When you attempt to commune with the Faery King, gaze into the abyss. On a 10 up, add this option to the list: find a hidden String against someone. On a 7-9, add this option to the list: the visions are clear, but the Faery King demands a favor of you.
Faery Contract
If someone breaks a promise or contract made to you, take a String on them. When spending a String to even out the score and get justice on a broken promise, add these options:
- they fuck up something simple at a crucial moment;
- add 2 to your roll on an act of vengeance;
- they suffer 1 harm, whether the cause is obvious or not.
Guide
If you spend a String on someone willing, you can bring them across the veil, into the faery court. The spell doesn't last long, though, before you're both returned to the mundane world.
Lure
Whenever someone makes a promise to you, they mark experience. Whenever someone breaks a promise to you and you seek vengeance, mark experience.
The Constant Bargain
When someone asks you to do something important for them, and you do it, roll with hot. On a 10 up, they lose a String on you, and you gain one on them. On a 7-9, choose one or the other. On a miss, you've shown that they can walk all over you, and they take a String on you.
The Wild Hunt
When you draw upon your most feral manner, echoing the lithe movements of a cat or the voracity of a wolf, add 1 to your roll to turn someone on.
Unashamed
You can give someone a String on you to add 3 to your attempt to turn them on.
Sex move
When you lie naked with another, you can ask them for a promise. If they refuse, take 2 Strings on them.
Darkest self
Everything you say is a promise. Everything you hear is a promise. If a promise is broken, justice must be wrought in blood. To escape your Darkest Self, you must in some way re-balance the scales of justice.
Not available
Fetch
Everyone's favourite person. Relatable, easy to talk to, always there. You are someone's double, and you wear whatever face the person in front of you wants to see. Seen in the morning, you are good luck. Seen in the evening, something bad is coming.
Pick one set of stats:
Hot+2
Cold+1
Volatile-1
Dark-1
or
Hot+1
Cold-1
Volatile-1
Dark+2
Moves
Morning Fetch
When you help someone at the start of something (a day, a date, a test), they take +1 forward, and you take a string on them.
Evening Fetch
Spend a string on someone to warn them that something bad is coming. They choose:
- Heed you: they take +1 forward to avoid it.
- Ignore you: when it happens, they take 1 harm or a condition, and you take +1 on all rolls against them for the scene.
You can only warn each person once per scene
The Mask
When you do someone a kindness while secretly working against them, take a string on them. If they ever find out, they take two strings on you.
Everyone's Friend
You belong in every group. Once per scene, if your character is physically nearby, you can say you were there all along. No one will act surprised by your presence.
Two Stories
When you tell two people different versions of the same story, take a string on each. If they ever compare notes, they each take a string on you.
Confidant
When someone willingly tells you a secret they have told no one else, take a string on them. When you use that secret against them, it counts as two strings.
Last to See Them
When someone near you takes their fourth harm, you can slip away unseen. If you do so, anyone familiar with them will have a vague feeling that you know more about their last known actions.
Sex move
When you have sex with someone, you become their omen. Choose morning or evening: something good, or something bad, happens to them before nightfall, the week's closing, or the month's end. You choose which, and you tell them only if you want to.
Darkest self
You become someone else's fetch. Choose someone you envy. You dress like them, and behave the way they would. You get out when the person you copied takes something from you, whether that is something physical, or something intangible like social standing.
Ghost
Tormented, insecure, intuitive, fickle. The ghost is all about channeling past trauma, seeing people's true selves, and having spooky powers.
Pick one set of stats:
Hot-1
Cold+2
Volatile-1
Dark+1
or
Hot-1
Cold-1
Volatile+1
Dark+2
Moves
Creep
When you secretly witness someone in their most intimate moments, perhaps showering or sleeping, gain a String on them.
Dissipate
You can walk through walls.
Forgive and Forget
Whenever you accept that someone isn't responsible for your pain and suffering, and absolve them of their blamed condition, mark experience.
Hungry Ghost
You find sustenance in sadness. When others dump their emotional problems on you, roll with dark. On a 10 up, they lose all their conditions, and you choose one:
- Mark experience,
- Carry one forward,
- Gain a String on them
On a 7-9, they choose one:
- They lose all their conditions,
- They gain a String on you
Unresolved Trauma
Whenever you project the blame and trauma of your death onto your current situation, roll with dark. On a 10 up, give two people the blamed condition. On a 7-9, give up to two people the blamed condition, but for each, choose one:
- You gain the delusional condition,
- You can't speak during this scene,
- You suffer one harm,
- You start re-enacting the scene of your death.
Vengeful
Whenever you lash out physically at someone with the blamed condition, roll using Dark. Add 1 extra harm to whatever harm you deal.
Sex move
When you have sex with someone, you both get to ask a question of one another's characters. This can be spoken by your character, or simply asked player-to-player. The other person must answer honestly and directly.
Darkest self
You become invisible. No one can see you, feel you, or hear your voice. You can still affect inanimate objects, but this is your only avenue of communication. You escape your Darkest Self when someone acknowledges your presence, and demonstrates how much they want you around.
Ghoul
Cold, unwavering, hungry. The ghoul died, and came back with dulled emotions and a hunger for human flesh. The ghoul benefits from being disaffected and malicious.
Pick one set of stats:
Hot-1
Cold+1
Volatile+2
Dark-1
or
Hot-1
Cold+2
Volatile-1
Dark+1
Moves
Disaffected
When you turn someone on, roll with cold.
Ending
You remember how you died. When you tell someone about it, give them the Condition morbid, and roll to turn them on
Satiety
When you satiate a Hunger, choose one:
- heal one harm;
- remove a Condition;
- mark experience;
- carry 1 forward.
Short Rest for the Wicked
When you die, wait it out. Some hours later, you wake up fully healed.
The Hunger
You have a Hunger for specific things. When you heedlessly pursue a Hunger, add 1 to rolls. When you ignore a feeding opportunity, roll to hold steady.
Watchful Golem
When you defend someone without them ever knowing about it, mark experience.
What the Right Hand Wants
Your body was stitched together in parts and pieces. And those parts and pieces echo different histories, want different things. Create another Hunger.
Sex move
When you have sex with someone, add "having sex with [this person]" as an additional Hunger. If you already have this Hunger, mark experience.
Darkest self
You will maim, kill and destroy anything in between you and the nearest object of your hunger. You will feed relentlessly. You escape your Darkest Self when someone restrains you or fends you off for long enough for you to regain your composure - at least thirty or forty minutes.
Hollow
Not quite real. You have no childhood, no parents, only makers who forgot to give you a place in the world. You are lost and searching for a self, and you hold on to any label that might help you build one.
Pick one set of stats:
Hot+1
Cold-1
Volatile-1
Dark+2
or
Hot-1
Cold-1
Volatile+2
Dark+1
Moves
Better Than Nothing
When you gain a Condition, mark experience.
A Blank Canvas
When you act in a way that lives up to one of your Conditions, and let it change who you are, cross that Condition off and take +1 to the roll.
Try Harder Next Time
When you mess up, give yourself a fitting Condition and take +1 forward.
Fake
Take +1 to any roll you make while lying.
Metamorphosis
When you Gaze Into the Abyss and get a 7 or more, the abyss also shows you what you have to become, and you may permanently swap two of your stats.
Strange Impressions
When another player's character hurts you or helps you heal, you can stare at them and study them. If you do, you borrow one of their skin's moves, any move on their skin, until you use it once. It does not take the move away from them.
Sex move
When you have sex with someone, you each secretly write down whether it felt confusing or soothing. If you both wrote the same thing, you both mark experience.
Darkest self
Your body feels like a cage you were put in. You put it in danger and make it hurt, looking for a way out of it, and you go looking for your makers to make them answer for what they did to you. You get out when you come to see that someone else feels more trapped than you do.
Infernal
Powerful, desperate, addicted. The infernal has a demonic sugar daddy: someone who gets them things they want. At a price.
Pick one set of stats:
Hot-1
Cold-1
Volatile+2
Dark+1
or
Hot+1
Cold-1
Volatile-1
Dark+2
Moves
Can't Save Myself
When somebody saves you from forces too powerful for you to reckon with, they mark experience, and you gain a String on them
Dark Recruiter
When you bring an innocent soul to the dark power, mark experience.
Soul Debt
Name a dark power that you owe a debt to. Choose two Bargains that it has made with you. It can hold Strings against you. Whenever it collects 5 Strings against you, trigger your Darkest Self.
Unknowable
When you lash out physically against someone, on a 10 up, they lose 1 String on you. On a 7-9, add to your list of options: they lose 1 String on you.
Bargains
Elsewise Power
You can give the dark power a String to use a move you don't have, just this once. This move can come from any playbook.
Numbing It Out
You can give the dark power a String in order to remove a Condition or up to two harm.
Strings Attached
You can ask the dark power for something that you really, really want. The Storyteller will attach a price to the thing you want, and hint at an undesired twist in its nature. If you pay the price, you'll get what you're after
The Power Flows Through You
You can give the dark power a String in order to add 2 to your next roll (choose before rolling).
Uncanny Voices
You can give the dark power a String in order to realize a secret about someone you're talking to. The owner of that character will reveal one of their secret fears, secret desires, or secret strengths (they choose.)
Sex move
When you have sex, the dark power loses a String on you and gains a String on whoever you had sex with.
Darkest self
You can't get what you need, anymore. The world has left you cold and alone, shivering in the wake of your own addictions. The dark power will make some open-ended demands of you, and it'll promise you some lucrative (and perhaps volatile) things in return. Every demand you fulfill brings you a little closer to feeling whole again, to rekindling the fire in your heart. Whenever you fulfill those demands, remove a String it holds on you. You escape your Darkest Self when the dark power has no more Strings on you, or when you agree to an even worse bargain with an even more dangerous dark power.
Kitsune
A fox spirit wearing an ordinary life. You feed on the people around you, and your powers only work on those you have drained.
Drained: a condition. Kitsune abilities only work on people who are Drained. It goes away through magic, by sleeping a full night, or by eating a full course meal.
Pick one set of stats:
Hot+2
Cold0
Volatile-1
Dark0
or
Hot+1
Cold+1
Volatile-1
Dark0
Moves
Ki
When you share something intimate with someone, choose one:
- Give: you both heal 1 harm, they lose the Drained condition if they had it, and they take a string on you.
- Take: you heal 1 harm, and they gain the Drained condition.
Late Night
When you keep someone up past midnight, talking, texting or out together, they gain the Drained condition.
Stolen Bite
When you eat from someone's plate or share their drink without asking, they gain the Drained condition.
Centre of Attention
When you make a scene about yourself in front of others during someone else's big moment, take a string on the person who was supposed to be the centre of attention, and give them the Drained condition.
Fickle
When you walk away from someone who wants you, they gain the Drained condition, and you heal 1 harm.
Trickery
You know two tricks. Tricks only work on people who are Drained.
Mask Off
Whenever you directly address a subject that someone is trying to avoid with you in conversation, you both get a string on each other.
Borrowed Glow
While anyone in the scene is Drained, take +1 Hot.
Sly
When someone catches you in a lie, give them a string on you, and they believe you anyway.
Tail Growth
You get all remaining tricks.
Tricks
Dream Visit
If someone who is Drained is asleep in the same room, roll Dark to visit their dreams and ask one question.
- 10 or more: they answer honestly and remember only that they dreamt of you.
- 7 to 9: they answer, and remember the whole dream.
- 6 or less: they do not answer, and you fall asleep until they wake up.
No matter the result, they are still Drained in the morning.
Fox Money
Give someone who is Drained a worthless gift. It becomes of great emotional value to them, and you may ask a reasonable favour in return immediately. When they stop being Drained, they see what it really is, and take a string on you.
Foxfire
Spend a string on someone who is Drained. Ghost lights lead them astray: before the scene ends, they end up somewhere of your choosing, unless they succeed on a Hold Steady roll.
Kitsunetsuki
Spend a string on someone who is Drained. You affect their mood: they take -2 on their next roll, and you decide which stat they roll it with.
Rumours
Spend a string on someone who doesn't really know you and is Drained, to make them believe something about you. They believe it until they are ever alone with you.
Sex move
Fox Bride: when you have sex with someone, they become bound to you. Until one of you breaks it off, you may always act as if they had the Drained condition, but you may never act to harm them intentionally.
Darkest self
You become your Darkest Self when you reach 3 harm. Anyone who gets close to you gains the Drained condition. You must roll Volatile against anyone with the Drained condition at least once to drain them. If you succeed, heal 1 harm, and they take 2 harm. You stop being your Darkest Self if you go to 0 harm, or if someone allows you to drain them willingly: they take 1 harm, and you heal 2 harm.
Kraken
Something vast and ancient under a calm surface. People feel safe around you, and they never see you whole. You hold on, and you drag them down.
Pick one set of stats:
Hot-1
Cold+1
Volatile-1
Dark+2
or
Hot0
Cold+2
Volatile-1
Dark0
Moves
Calm Surface
Nobody notices what you're doing until it's too late. Take +1 to Hold Steady when you're hiding something.
Drag Under
When you hold on to someone, emotionally or physically, they can't leave the scene unless they give you a string, and then succeed on a Run Away roll. They may attempt this multiple times.
Lure
When you get someone to follow you somewhere they shouldn't be, Drag Under starts the moment they arrive, even if you aren't holding on to them.
Many Arms
When you spend a string on someone, you may spend a second string on someone else in the scene for the same effect.
Pressure
When you roll to Gaze Into the Abyss, you may choose to take someone willing with you. If you do, the nature of the action changes depending on how deep you take them.
- The Shallows: you roll as normal, and you see a true thing about the other that you most want to know.
- The Dark: both of you roll to Gaze Into the Abyss, take the highest roll. If you succeed, you both gain the requested information. You both take 1 harm as you come out.
- The Trench: both of you roll to Gaze Into the Abyss, take the lowest roll. Success or fail, you both gain the requested information, and you both take 1 harm as you come out. On a failure, something native to your abyss hunts one of you, DM's pick. That player emerges with the condition Drowned, in a location of the DM's choosing.
Safe Harbour
When someone comes to you for comfort, you may take 1 string on them. If you choose to Shut Them Down instead, add +1 to the roll.
Sex move
When you have sex with someone, you take something of theirs down into the deep: a memory, a fear or a secret. They forget it, feel lighter, and heal 1 harm. You get a string on them labelled Sunken, with that thing as its context. If they go into the Abyss with you, they recover it automatically.
Darkest self
You rise. Everything you've kept under the surface comes up at once, and it sinks everything near you. You may not speak lies, you may not hide the truth, anything about you is there to see for anyone who dares to look. You get out by sinking again: letting go of something you were emotionally holding on to, and going quiet.
Mortal
Vulnerable, codependent, magnetic, beautiful. The mortal is all about benefiting from codependency, and racking up experience.
Pick one set of stats:
Hot+2
Cold-1
Volatile-1
Dark+1
or
Hot+2
Cold-1
Volatile+1
Dark-1
Moves
Down the Rabbit Hole
When you go poking your nose in affairs not meant for your kind, someone involved in the situation gains a String on you, and you mark experience.
Downward Spiral
When you gaze into the abyss, you may cause yourself 1 harm. If you do, add 2 to your roll.
Entrenched
If you and another character have a total of 5 or more Strings on one another, gain 1 to all rolls against them.
Excuses Are My Armour
When you ignore some blatant problem with your lover or how they treat you, mark experience.
Mess With Me, Mess With Them
When you use your lover's name as a threat, add 2 to your roll to shut someone down or hold steady. Your lover gains a String on you.
Sympathy is My Weapon
Every time you forgive someone for hurting you, and excuse their base nature, take a String on them.
True Love
You always have exactly one lover. The first is chosen during your backstory. If you ever fall in love with someone else instead, give them a String and they become your new lover. You always carry 1 forward to earning your lover's heart or fancy.
Sex move
When you have sex with someone, trigger their Darkest Self.
Darkest self
Nobody understands you, or even wants to. They'd rather you disappear. Well, you're not going to disappear. You're going to make life a living hell for them. You'll betray the wicked to the judges, the weak to the executioners. You'll pit humans and supernaturals against one another, until everyone looks like monsters. Only seeing the pain that you're causing your lover will let you escape your Darkest Self.
Queen
Commanding, irresistible, bitchy, sexy. The queen is about turning cliques and popularity into weapons.
Pick one set of stats:
Hot+2
Cold+1
Volatile-1
Dark-1
or
Hot-1
Cold+2
Volatile-1
Dark+1
Moves
And Your Enemies Closer
When someone betrays you, gain a String on them.
Bought Loyalty
You can give an NPC a String against you to add 2 to your manipulate an NPC roll against them. (You can only choose to do so before rolling.)
Many Bodies
When you promise one of your gang members to someone, add 2 to your roll to turn someone on. When one of your gang members has sex with someone, it triggers your Sex Move.
Streaming
You have a telepathic connection with your gang members. You can always hear their emotions and fears. When you try to hear specific thoughts, gaze into the abyss about it and add 1 to your roll
The Clique
You're at the head of the toughest, coolest, most powerful clique around. They count as a gang.
The Shield
When you're surrounded by your gang, subtract 1 from any rolls against you. (NPCs act at a Disadvantage.)
Sex move
When you have sex with someone, they gain the Condition one of them. While the Condition remains, they count as part of your gang.
Darkest self
They've failed you. This is all their fault, and there's no reason why you should have to suffer the consequences of their idiocy. You need to make an example out of each of them, a cruel and unwavering example. You escape your Darkest Self when you relinquish part of your power over to someone more deserving, or when you destroy an innocent person in order to prove your might.
Vampire
Icy, manipulative, pretty, hypnotic. The vampire is about emotional entrenchment and emotional dominance.
Pick one set of stats:
Hot+2
Cold+1
Volatile-1
Dark-1
or
Hot+1
Cold+2
Volatile-1
Dark-1
Moves
Cold as Ice
When you successfully shut someone down (7 up), you may choose an extra option from the 7-9 list.
Hypnotic
You can hypnotize people who have no Strings on you. Roll with hot. On a 10 up, they do exactly what you wish and have no idea that anything is wrong. On a 7-9, the hypnosis works, but choose one:
- they realize you hypnotized them;
- they fuck up your commands;
- their sanity is unhinged.
Inescapable
You may spend a String on someone to demand that they not walk out on you. If they still do, gain 2 Strings on them
Invited
You cannot enter a home without being invited. Whenever someone invites you, take a String on them.
Marked for the Hunt
When you feed on someone, you establish a close bond with them. When you gaze into the abyss concerning their whereabouts or well being, roll as if you had Dark 3.
The Feeding
You feed on hot blood. If this is the first time they've ever been fed upon, you both mark experience. When you feed, choose two:
- you heal 1 harm previously suffered,
- you carry 1 forward,
- they don't die.
Sex move
When you deny someone sexually, gain a String on them. When you have sex with someone, lose all Strings on that person.
Darkest self
Everyone is your pawn, your plaything. You hurt them and make them vulnerable, for sport, like a cat does with a mouse. You feed to the point of death whenever you're alone with someone, though you take your time. You escape your Darkest Self when you're put in your rightful place, by someone more powerful than you.
Wendigo
You know what winter does to people. You are the one who keeps their head when things go wrong, the one who has what's needed, the one who makes the hard choice. Everyone wants you in their group, right up until you leave them behind.
Pick one set of stats:
Hot-1
Cold+2
Volatile+1
Dark-1
or
Hot0
Cold+1
Volatile+1
Dark-1
Moves
Cold Logic
When you Shut Someone Down by explaining how their actions would fail, take +1 on that roll.
Endure
When cold, hunger, exhaustion or the elements would hurt you for the first time since you were last comfortable, they don't.
Hunter
You can always pick up a trail. When you go looking for someone you've seen in the last two hours, the DM tells you where they went and one thing they did there. You still have to get there.
Long Winter
When someone meaningfully wrongs you, you can wait. Take three strings on them labelled Malice. Every scene you share with them, lose one of these strings. If you Shut Them Down or Lash Out Physically, you must use all of these strings. If you succeed, give them the condition Frostbitten.
If you lose the final Malice string on someone and they are Frostbitten, mark experience. If they are not, you lose all strings on them and gain the condition Thawed Out.
Rations
When someone in your group is hurt, you can take their harm onto yourself, up to 2. They take a string on you, or you take one on them, your choice.
Stash
Whenever you leave a place, you can grab an ordinary item. If it is not of great importance to anyone in the room, no one will notice.
Triage
When things go wrong, you decide who gets saved. When you leave someone behind to save yourself or others, take +1 ongoing for the scene. They take a string on you.
Sex move
When you have sex with someone, you're both warm. You both heal 1 harm, and you count as comfortable for Endure. They take a string on you. Until the end of the next session, they count as part of your group for Rations and Triage, and you can't leave them behind.
Darkest self
Survival mode. Everyone is either a resource or a threat. You take only what you need and you cut off those who you think might slow you down. You get out when someone you left behind stands tall without you.
Werewolf
Passionate, violent, muscular, fickle. The werewolf is all about using physical violence and transformation to get what it wants.
Pick one set of stats:
Hot+1
Cold-1
Volatile+2
Dark-1
or
Hot+2
Cold-1
Volatile+1
Dark-1
Moves
Bare Your Fangs
While you are your Darkest Self, you may use Volatile instead of Cold to shut someone down or hold steady.
Heightened Senses
When you rely on your animal instincts to make sense of a charged situation, roll with dark. On a 10 up, ask the Storyteller three questions. If you act on one of the Storyteller's answers, add 1 to your first roll. On a 7-9, ask one:
- Where's my best escape route or way in?
- Which enemy is the most vulnerable to me?
- What's their secret weakness?
- What poses the biggest threat to me?
- Who's in control here?
Howl at the Moon
When basked in moonlight, add 2 to your Dark score.
Primal Dominance
When you harm someone, take a String on them.
Scent of Blood
Add 1 to all rolls against those who have been harmed in this scene already.
Spirit Armour
When basked in moonlight, any harm that you suffer is reduced by 1, and you add 2 to hold steady rolls
Uncontainable
When you attempt to escape any form of physical entrapment, roll with volatile. On a 10 up, you escape. On a 7-9 the Storyteller will offer you a hard bargain: agree if you want to escape.
Unstable
When you become your Darkest Self, mark experience.
Sex move
When you have sex with someone, you establish a spirit connection with them. Until either of you breaks that spirit connection, by having sex with someone else, add 1 to all rolls made to defend them. You can tell when that connection has been broken.
Darkest self
You transform into a terrifying wolf-creature. You crave power and dominance, and those are earned through bloodshed. If anyone attempts to stand in your way, they must be brought down and made to bleed. You escape your Darkest Self when you wound someone you really care about or the sun rises, whichever happens first.
Witch
Manipulative, secretive, judgemental, brooding. The witch is all about casting silent judgement, and powerful hexes, from the safety of her own bedroom.
Pick one set of stats:
Hot-1
Cold+2
Volatile-1
Dark+1
or
Hot+1
Cold-1
Volatile-1
Dark+2
Moves
Bide My Time
If you've got a sympathetic token against someone, add 1 to all rolls to hold steady against their actions or to run away from them.
Hex-Casting
You can cast Hexes. To cast them, either expend a sympathetic token during a secret ritual, or meet the target's gaze and chant at them in tongues. Then roll with dark. On a 10 up, the Hex works, and can easily be reversed. On a 7-9, it works but choose one:
- the casting does you 1 harm;
- the Hex has unexpected side effects;
- trigger your Darkest Self.
Sanctuary
You have a secret place for practising witchcraft. Add 1 to all rolls you make within this space.
Sympathetic Tokens
You gain power from sympathetic tokens - items of personal significance that you take from others. Each sympathetic token counts as a String.
Transgressive Magic
When your ritual transgresses the community's moral & sexual standards, add 1 to your hex-casting roll.
Hexes
Alter Sense
For a brief moment, you may cause the target to observe one specific thing that is not there, or not observe one specific thing that is. This effects wears off shortly, and can only affect one object.
Binding
The person cannot physically harm others.
Illusions
Pick one: snakes and bugs, demonic visages, false prophecies, non-existent subtext. The hexed sees that thing everywhere. You have no control over the exact images or manifestations.
Ring of Lies
Whenever the person attempts to lie, they hear a piercing ringing noise. Big lies will often make their knees buckle and disorient them. Severe lies can cause harm or even brain damage.
Watching
You enter a deep sleep, and begin to see the world through the eyes of the hexed. You can feel their reactions to and impressions of what they are seeing.
Wither
The person loses all of their hair, or their teeth start rotting and falling out, or their period comes and it comes by the bucketful, or their skin gets all sickly yellow and spotty. Whatever the specifics, it's bad.
Sex move
After sex, you can take a sympathetic token from them. They know about it, and it's cool.
Darkest self
The time for subtlety and patience is over. You're too powerful to put up with their garbage any longer. You hex anyone who slights you. All of your hexes have unexpected side effects, and are more effective than you are comfortable with. To escape your Darkest Self, you must offer peace to the one you have hurt the most.