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Monster of the Week (PBP) - Gateway to the Weird [Recruiting]

dresdenphiledresdenphile Watch out for snakes!Registered User regular
Most people don’t believe in monsters, but you know the truth. They’re real, and it’s your task to bring them down.

Do you like shows like Supernatural, Fringe, or Buffy? What about books like the Anita Blake and Dresden Files series? Then, you're in the right place!

Monster of the Week is a standalone action-horror RPG for 3-5 people. Hunt high school beasties a la Buffy the Vampire Slayer, travel the country to bring down unnatural creatures like the Winchester brothers of Supernatural, or head up the government investigation like Mulder and Scully.

As this is a Powered by the Apocalypse game, the players will pick an archetype, known here as a Playbook. A quick overview of the Playbooks:
  • The Chosen: A once-ordinary person who discovered they have a special destiny, and who has been given the power to accomplish it. The Chosen is good in a fight, with some weird powers. e.g. Buffy from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
  • The Crooked: A criminal turned monster hunter, haunted by their past and enemies. The Crooked is good in social situations and has a lot of contacts. e.g. Anna Valmont from The Dresden Files, Peter Bishop from Fringe.
  • The Divine: an agent of a higher power, with a mission to fulfill. The Divine is very tough and has been granted holy powers. e.g. Castiel from Supernatural; Michael Carpenter from The Dresden Files.
  • The Expert: the hunter who knows all about monsters and magic. The Expert knows a lot of hidden secrets and how to find out more, and also has a well-supplied base to work from. e.g. Bobby Singer from Supernatural; Rupert Giles from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
  • The Flake: a conspiracy theorist. The Flake is great at finding things out and seeing how the events of separate mysteries are connected. e.g. Agent Mulder or the Lone Gunmen from The X-Files.
  • The Gumshoe: The supernatural is just another case for this private eye to solve. A tough, ethical charmer, this shamus is in the fictional tradition that stretches from classic noir characters like Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe to the modern Jessica Jones and Lisbeth Salander.
  • The Hex: A witch motivated by the pursuit of forbidden power, using magic more readily—and more recklessly—than other hunters. E.g. Willow during season six of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
  • The Initiate: a member of an ancient monster-slaying Sect, trained to fight and use magic. The Initiate is good with magic, and their Sect provides help (and sometimes problems). e.g. The Wardens from The Dresden Files; the Medjai from The Mummy series.
  • The Monstrous: a monster fighting for the good guys. The Monstrous is very weird, and can have a variety of different powers based on what monster breed they are. e.g. Angel from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel; Bill Compton from True Blood.
  • The Mundane: just a normal regular person, especially good at dealing with regular people you meet and have to save, and at getting captured by monsters (which can be more useful than you might expect). e.g. Xander or Cordelia from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
  • The Pararomantic: A hunter with a loving—but difficult— relationship with a supernatural being. Understands monsters’ intentions and can earn their trust, but puts their own heart, and even mortality, at risk. E.g. Elisa Esposito from The Shape of Water, Belle from Beauty and the Beast.
  • The Professional: you work for an agency that hunts monsters. The Professional is good in a fight, and a good team player. e.g. Riley and the Initiative from Buffy the Vampire Slayer; Olivia Dunham from Fringe.
  • The Searcher: After an encounter with weirdness, they dedicated their life to investigating the unexplained. Very strong investigator, especially at working out what sort of thing is going on. Not really a fighter, but has some defensive options. E.g. Agent Mulder from X-Files or Roy Neary in Close Encounters of the Third Kind
  • The Spell-slinger: a trained wizard, wielding powerful magic in their crusade against evil. The Spell-slinger’s arcane training gives them an advantage when dealing with eldritch secrets. e.g. Harry Dresden from The Dresden Files; Willow from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, in the later seasons.
  • The Spooky: has psychic or magical powers. These powers are strange and sinister...and not completely under the Spooky’s control. e.g. Sam Winchester from Supernatural; Willow from earlier seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
  • The Wronged: Revenge-driven, and really tough. The Wronged is all about killing a specific breed of monster and protecting others as you do it. e.g. Dean and John Winchester from Supernatural.

Relevant Info:
MOTW Website: https://www.evilhat.com/home/monster-of-the-week/

Playbooks: https://www.evilhat.com/home/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Monster-of-the-Week-Revised-Playbooks.pdf

ToM Playbooks: https://www.evilhat.com/home/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/MOTW-Tome-Playbooks.pdf

Hunter Moves Reference: https://www.evilhat.com/home/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Monster-of-the-Week-Revised-Hunter-Reference-Sheets.pdf

More Weirdness: https://genericgames.co.nz/files/MotW_more_weirdness.pdf

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Game stuff:

I'm looking for 3-5 players for this. The only rule for character creation is that you can only have one of each Playbook in a group (e.g. the party can't have 2 Professionals and 3 Mundanes).

One other thing to be addressed is the Use Magic ability. By default, all characters can use magic to some degree. If you don't feel like your character would use/know magic, you can instead replace the Use Magic ability with one of the Weird moves from the More Weirdness document listed above. Doing so doesn't completely bar your character from doing magic, but it makes it much more difficult.

For now, this is a combined OOC/IC thread. Once the game begins, we can post OOC discussions/comments/questions/etc in spoiler tags to avoid clutter and confusion.

I expect each of you to post at least once a day (and I would prefer weekends, but for now I'll say it's optional) when you're able. If you'll be away for an extended period of time, let me know so that I can make arrangements to keep the game moving while you're gone (or go on hiatus if the majority is unavailable). I like to think I'm pretty reasonable, and I won't kick you out for missing posts once in a while. That being said, if you don't post consistently, you'll be removed from the party.

On that note, if you plan on having a baby/getting married/starting a new job/making a cross-country move/beginning the harvest of the unclean in the relatively near future that’s going to disrupt your posting availability, please consider that before applying. I see games die out all the time due to such issues, and while understandable, I’d like to minimize them as much as possible.

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