The Markus Project, pt. 3: Monsterhearts 2

(first published 31/12/2024 in its original form here.)

Welcome to the third post in my Markus Project, a blog series building the same character archetype in a bunch of TTRPG systems for educational and amusement purposes. Our third system is Monsterhearts 2, a grim, queer (sub)urban fantasy Powered By the Apocalypse TTRPG featuring scenes, moves, and strings exploring the messy process of coming of age as a literal monster.

To briefly summarize the project for those who might want a tl;dr of the opening post: I'm taking a common archetype I like to play and building him as a character in a bunch of TTRPGs, and in the process learning more about how each of these games works - and how their mechanics and flavour intertwine with their approach to 'character'.

Meet Markus, our archetype. Markus' key traits are:

• Gay or bi male
• An outsider with no desire to belong, except maybe to a tight crew or family
• Beefy and charismatic bruiser with a chip on his shoulder
• Expects the world to be hard and is determined to be harder
• Likes to talk himself into problems and fight his way out of them
• Not keen on making friends, but intensely protective of the ones who get past his guard
• Has a predilection for solving his problems up close, often with fists or melee weapons

In Monsterhearts 2, the players are a group of teenage monsters hiding in plain sight, grappling with desires and impulses that would horrify and scare those around them. So, exactly like adolescence, then! Each player picks a Skin, a playbook that operates on the literal and metaphorical levels. For example, to quote the core book: "The Vampire is an actual vampire, an immortal being who drinks blood. But they are also a manipulative person who treats consent like a game. They're both things at once, and the ebb and flow between them will help define the character's story."

The game is played in scenes, wherein the players converse in character and push the story forward as collaborators. Characters can use moves to pursue their goals and engage in conflict. There are moves available to all players - to turn someone on, to shut someone down, to lash out physically, to gaze into the abyss, and so on - that use a 2d6+STAT system, engaging stats like Hot, Cold, Volatile and Dark. There are also moves that belong to specific playbooks, and moves that belong to characters who have started to mature beyond teenage volatility, gained through experience. Moves have a staged success structure: a success on a 10 or higher, a mixed success on a 7 to 9, and a failure on a 6 or lower. Characters can also pull on strings (a mechanic literalizing the emotional debts or bonds the characters build with one another), receive conditions (essentially, reputation tags that effect the narrative), and can be harmed (and even killed). In some cases, a character may become their Darkest Self, a dangerous version of their playbook that is brought out in times of crisis that is likely to act in inhuman ways to achieve its goals, no matter the human consequences.

There are not necessarily explicit adventures or antagonists, though the MC, or Master of Ceremonies, might bring something like that to the table. The game can come from the inherent push-pull of the characters and their desires coming into conflict with each other and the world around them, producing drama and forcing them to make difficult decisions. As the advice to the MC in the core book tells us: "Embrace melodrama". And even better, from the game's shared Agenda for the MC and the players: "Keep the story feral".

And one last note! All images in this post are taken from free downloads available on Buried Without Ceremonies' site for Monsterhearts 2, available here.

And so, to our latest Markus. Some elements of this process would be done with other players, such as establishing backstory bonds and giving strings to other players. Since we're doing this solo, we'll skip those bits, but keep them in mind if you ever dive into Monsterhearts 2 yourself.

Even though we know he's gonna be a Markus, the rules leave name as part of the Identity later on, so following the rules, let's start off with playbook - or specifically, choosing a Skin. The game recommends focusing entirely on the flavor of each Skin as you assess which one you want to play, rather than mechanics. Then, looping back around to those a bit later.

There are ten Skins in the core book and three additional Skins available on Buried Without Ceremony's website; for the purposes of this, we'll use the base skins available in the core book, which are: The Fae, The Ghost, The Ghoul, The Hollow, The Infernal, The Mortal, The Queen, The Vampire, The Werewolf, and The Witch.

Going back to the Markus archetype, a few stand out as Skins to avoid. The Fae doesn't feel like an outsider, more like a liminal power player; The Ghost lacks Markus' charisma; The Hollow feels more desperate to belong, if only for the identity it provides, than Markus' queer as in fuck you vibes; The Mortal is explicitly wide-eyed and love-seeking; The Queen is the opposite of an outsider; and The Witch has a subtlety in their actions that feels out of step with a straightforward brawler.

This leaves us four main candidates: the ever-hungry Ghoul, the indebted Infernal, the alluring Vampire, or the feral Werewolf. All of them would make an interesting Markus, but the one that most perfectly matches the mix of aggressive charisma and blood on the knuckles of the archetype is the Werewolf, which feels practically built for Markus.

Next, we look to the character's identity section, which is composed of four components: name, look, eyes and origin. This means, before we start looking at mechanics, we start thinking about who our Werewolf might be, which can shape our mechanical choices later.

We'll start with name. Technically, the game asks players to select a name from the sheet and doesn't explicitly open the door to players creating their own. In the spirit of following the rules as written, while retaining the theming of this series, I'm going to select a name from the Werewolf playbook that works as a nickname: Flinch. Monsterhearts feels its strongest to me when it taps into real teenage experiences and then magnifies them; a Markus who was branded Flinch as a kid in a moment of weakness, and now silently resents it as he grows much more capable of violence, feels like a fun way of weaving his outsider status and hair-trigger temper into his identity. While it's not technically needed here, I'll give him a full name: Marcus "Flinch" Evans, a name that would easily fit into your average American suburban school, and gives him even more space from our previous Markuses.

For look, let's say Flinch is rugged; he's got rough manners and one hell of a temper, but I don't think he reads to his peers as explicitly primal or unkempt. He passes as 'a normal kid', if a bit of a bad boy, to those who aren't playing close attention - like, for example, most adults around him. For eyes, I'm feeling fierce eyes; he's not a hunting predator or a loose cannon, but a wounded kid with a chip on his shoulder. He's not indiscriminately violent, and he's not looking for prey; he lashes out at those whom he perceives as hurting or attacking him. And of course, like all teenagers, he's not always right about that. And finally, a very important one, origin. I don't think Flinch feels like his power is special (like awoken or favoured by the moon might be), nor does it feel like a shameful thing imposed on him (like bitten might feel). I think being a werewolf is like his hand-me-down clothes and slightly rougher manners: something inherited from his parents that he sees as part of his identity and accepts, but also, feels set apart from his peers by. So, born a wolf for origin.

The next step is more collaborative with the group, establishing a setting. Without a GM or a group of players, I'll play this fairly simple: your average small city high school, with enough kids for an individual kid to be anonymous but not so big that dramatic social events won't immediately ripple out to the school's whole gossip network. This is an aggressively normal space, and Flinch is constantly walking that tightrope knowing at some point he'll fall. And probably fall big.

After this, the next stage of character creation is choosing stats and moves. The game gives you two archetypal builds for each Skin; for the werewolf, you can either run hot and a little wild (Hot 2, Volatile 1) or a dangerous loose cannon (Hot 1, Volatile 2). Hot is used for moves such as turn someone on, and using your charm to get what you want; volatile is used for moves such as lash out physically and run away.

So, this stat choice gives us Flinch's strengths, but also has implications for his personality. Going back to Markus' archetype (charismatic, talks himself into problems he has to fight his way out of), 'hot and a little wild' feels more in the lane of the archetype. Flinch is a Markus who can generally get by on his charm. until something sets him off and gets him lashing out.

The last thing we'll be deciding for the purposes of this exercise is Moves, a suit of special abilities specific to a given playbook - in this care, the werewolf. We get to select two from the list of Primal Dominance, Scent of Blood, Howl at the Moon, Spirit Armour, Heightened Senses, and Unstable. These run a mix of giving the werewolf more supernatural senses and protection, empowering the werewolf to use force for their advantage, and rewarding the werewolf for losing control with Experience.

Flinch feels like someone who's very used to operating in a social hierarchy; he's an outsider, but even everyday survival means knowing where the social power sits. Plus, the nickname Flinch gives me the sense of someone who's been on the end of social humiliation before and does his best to avoid it now. So, I'll select Heightened Senses as Flinch's first Move: he's used to sizing up the situation, if only so he knows which person to hurt in order to get the rest of the clique to leave him be. Tying into that sense of regaining power through lashing out - a Markus fights his way out of problems, after all - I'll select Primal Dominance as his second Move. When he lashes out and harms someone, that gives him some power over them; he's reminded them that he's not someone to fuck with.

And that's Flinch! In a proper game, we'd move on to establish his backstory relationships with the rest of the party, handing out strings and establishing relationships, and we'd also develop a bunch of NPCs for the world around them. But for the sake of this blog, we've built our wounded, intense werewolf, Marcus "Flinch" Evans.

THE CHARACTER

Born to a lower middle-class family in your average American city, Marcus Evans had a fairly normal childhood. Running around in the woods with friends, playing in a tree fort, laughing and going on wild adventures. A good kid, with lots of energy and able to charm any adult who crossed his path. But as kids grow up, things change. Their adventures change. Social hierarchies form. Things get a little meaner, a little harsher. Some kids learn to cut other kids down with words; others learn how to win a fistfight. Little by little, in all the worst ways, you start to grow up.

It started in adolescence, when Marcus drew the ire of an older teenager with a cruel streak. In front of Marcus' peers, he threatened to beat the shit out of him - and, when he flinched away in fear, the teen howled to his group of teenagers that the kid "practically wet himself". The teenager went on with his life, but Marcus' peers had been given a gift that would follow Marcus as he grew, and hardened, and withdrew, over the years: Marcus' new nickname, Flinch.

It made him a target. It told his peers, This kid is weak. Easy pickings.

Marcus got used to being casually humiliated, his big bright energy getting smaller, and denser like a collapsing sun, until his glowering scowl became his trademark. As he grew into a teenager, he started running, lifting weights, dressing to intimidate. He learned proximity to power, staying at the edge of the 'popular crowd' and becoming, de facto, one of them. He learned to flirt, showing his teeth. How to leave his intentions ambiguous, to play to the crowd. He figured out when to laugh, when to joke, when to threaten. And, sometimes, when to hurt.

The nickname became ironic, eventually. But it was also a reminder: we know there is weakness within you. Deep, deep down.

And if you let us, we'll hurt you again.

While this was going on, his home life got a little... odd. His parents watching him with concern, asking him invasive questions about his body, about his mood, about his dreams. Quiet aside conversations he shouldn't have been able to overhear at a distance: "It wasn't like this for me. I don't understand how to help him, or even talk to him about it." His father's workshop in the basement suddenly being locked, when it had always been a place he could poke around. Flinch wondered, did they think he'd steal things? From his own parents? What did they see when they looked at him?

But, of course, his parents were worried about something else. On Marcus' 15th birthday, on a full moon, he transformed for the first time. He learned he was a werewolf while screaming in pain, in the fetal position, locked in the cage his father had made for him.

His loving parents - who had always been good, and kind, and careful with him - had known something about him and kept it secret. They'd kept their own natures secret. They'd watched him, whispered about him, built a cage in secret to lock him in. And despite their best efforts... the trust was broken. Flinch learned that even the ones you feel safe with will keep secrets from you, and try to control you. So he withdrew from them, too.

Now seventeen, Flinch is a wall: the tough, quiet, smirking tough at the edge of the popular crowd. Never close enough for them to trust him, never straying far enough that he becomes a target of their cruelty. Well, beyond the casual cruelty they deploy every day to one another. He keeps the softer parts of himself hidden away - and when his 'friends' make him remind them not to fuck with him, he'll do that. And some days, he even likes it.

He's charming. He's intimidating. He's forceful. He's respected. He's feared. And he's desperately, desperately lonely.

But they'll never hurt him again. Not in a way that matters.

At least, that's what he thinks.

THE SYSTEM

This is a spot for me to discuss what this process has taught me about the system of the game, including the assumptions it makes that shape the character, and the opportunities for building out the character inherent in the process.

As a starting point, I’ll take a look at how we were able to honour – or not – the points from our archetype:

Gay or bi male: Queerness is one of the elements at the heart of Monsterhearts, which explicitly tackles how sexuality and attraction can be a raw nerve in those years of adolescent transformation. After all, it's a base move to turn someone on, and the only ones properly exempt from that are asexual characters (whom the game has a specific rule to support). I'd say this part is supported in spades, and in fact is the game where this archetypal element has the most mechanical and thematic support so far.

An outsider with no desire to belong, except maybe to a tight crew or family: Unlike many group TTRPGs (like, for example, the afore-examined Dungeons & Dragons and Blades in the Dark), the characters in Monsterhearts are not explicitly a party. They are not necessarily a group of characters bound by a common goal and working in tandem, but members of an ensemble crushed into one another's social space by the obligations of society, who may even act explicitly as each other's antagonists or enemies. So, this game actually has more room for a Markus who doesn't trust easily and who keeps others at a distance than many TTRPGs would.

Beefy and charismatic bruiser with a chip on his shoulder: While the character types in Monsterhearts tend to be quite specific, the Werewolf turns out to be pretty much exactly this archetype to a T in a way others don't always have room for. Specifically, the combination of charisma and brawn - or, as Monsterhearts puts it, the werewolf's "rough, lusty gorgeousness" - is key to the archetype. So, this element of the Markus archetype is well-supported here as well, though not necessarily in a universal way.

Expects the world to be hard and is determined to be harder: The Werewolf's moves play into this nicely. Heightened Senses plays into the paranoia of living in a hard world, while moves like Unstable, Scent of Blood and Primal Dominance all support a Werewolf who is primed to take that brutality and weaponize it for their own needs.

Likes to talk himself into problems and fight his way out of them: This one's interesting, because the choice to talk yourself into a problem is a character choice – but as a Werewolf, Flinch would literally have a hard time talking himself out of problems, mechanically, since werewolves naturally have a low cold stat. So, unless he can smirk or seduce his way out of an issue, he's almost required to fight his way out of problems, or put himself at a steep disadvantage. That's mechanics-as-character in a really fun way.

Not keen on making friends, but intensely protective of the ones who get past his guard: This element of the archetype is also very specifically supported in a distinctive way: the Werewolf archetype, inspired by the many werewolf love interests in supernatural romance, has a tendency to focus in on the object of his affections. Focus in quite a bit, that is. In their backstory, they 'have spent weeks watching' another character, and start off with two Strings on them; and the Werewolf's Sex Move gives the Werewolf a bonus to rolls defending the one they've had sex with. This one means less 'found family' and more 'obsessed love interest'... but it definitely does align with the archetype!

Has a predilection for solving his problems up close, often with fists or melee weapons: This is, despite its supernatural setting, a fairly realistic contemporary game -- that is to say, no laser guns or fireball spells. While there's not really a system for an inventory or specific weapons (doing harm is mostly about rolling a lash out physically Move), the Werewolf archetype does really align with using fists or melee weapons as their main vector of harm. So, while I wouldn't say it's specifically mechanically-supported, I'd say this point in the archetype is definitely thematically supported.

Monsterhearts 2's character creation process is simple, really flavourful, and very keyed into the themes of the game. It trades flexibility for thematic cohesion and intent; you won't be choosing a dozen spells from a three-page list or carefully selecting armor and weapons, and each playbook has merely two stat combinations available to choose from... but every playbook has a strong theme that shapes play. The playbooks are simpler and more restrictive than a D&D 5e class, but they immediately offer the player an internal dramatic tension and Moves that will enable them to power the engine of the game, conflict, often by rewarding or promoting behaviour that creates as many problems as solutions. It seems like a ton of fun, and very appropriate for a game about monsters and about teenagers.

AMONG THE MARKUSES

This section is a little indulgence, because I love the idea of parallel universe versions of a person - or a character - coming face to face and dealing with how different they are. While the Markuses developed for this project aren't explicitly multiverse versions of the same man, I feel like the shared archetype makes this a fun little thought experiment. (And also, for this section I'll largely duck around the 'how would a regular teenager in our world deal with running into an orc?' or 'what world are these meeting in??' style questions to focus on them as characters.)

Marcus "Flinch" Evans meets Markus Vulneras (D&D 5e): Flinch would be immediately distrustful of Vulneras, whose place in the world torn between 'criminals' and 'cops' would read as snitch energy to Flinch. Unlike Vulneras and Silver, I actually don't think these two would strike up a rapport; Flinch would keep his distance from Vulneras . while Vulneras would see Flinch as a kid headed down a bad road and figure that the only one who can change that is Flinch himself.

Marcus "Flinch" Evans meets Markus "Silver" Svoloch (Blades in the Dark): Flinch would be both attracted to and repulsed by Silver. His confidence, his friendly manipulations, his casual weaponization of his sensuality. Silver is, in a lot of ways, the man Flinch pretends to be and can never quite nail, because unlike Silver, he gives a shit. I think Flinch would also know, with a growling in his gut, exactly how dangerous someone like Silver can be. Meanwhile, I think Silver would be amused by Flinch and his overcompensation. He'd see how much of Flinch's aggression is an ill-fitting coat, and rather than looking for ways to help him shed it, Silver would absolutely look for ways to make it fit the kid a little better. After all, this little brute could be useful in a crew, with a little shaping. And he'd have an easy time of it, if he could get close to the teenage werewolf; after all, Silver's great at manipulating the lonely and the lost, and Flinch is both in spades.

THE EXPERIENCE

This is where I can talk about how the character creation process feels -- was it fun, did it get me excited about the possibilities or frustrated at the limitations, did it get me daydreaming about playing the TTRPG or dreading it, etc. A totally subjective bit, but possibly for some folks, the most important part.

One of my favourite things about Monsterhearts 2 is the tone. It's rich, it's dark, it's grim, it's inviting, and it's so consistent throughout the core book. It's present in the art, the language, the construction: you are monstrous, because teenagers feel monstrous, and monstrosity can mean many different things. The game is a playground to grapple with vulnerability, anxiety, loss, anger, belonging, assimilation, sexuality, identity... all the things teens have to grapple with already, with changing bodies and social structures. This is not a game trying to be everything to anyone. This is a game with a very specific point of view.

That's baked into the playbooks themselves. The Playing the... section of each playbook goes into the themes and tensions of the character, the meanings behind stat choices, and how the powers hook into the character thematically. The heart of the Fae's powers are about reciprocity and debts; the core of the Hollow is about searching for identity, etc. And, the playbook advises how the two offered stat choices tie into personality, too. In some ways, there are a lot of limitations on character-building in Monsterhearts 2, in that each playbook has a lot of specific guardrails... but in that specificity, the game's voice and intent shine through. And what could feel like restrictions in another game feels like support here: you're given guidance for the intent behind how the playbook was constructed, how it's intended to hook into the game's themes and conflicts, and ways you can play it to engage with those things.

(And, I'll note, there are also some interesting and useful sections of advice for making your own playbooks, or altering the game. The vibe isn't play this way or else, it's here are the ways this game was constructed to feel good, which I love.)

All this to say: character construction in Monsterhearts 2 isn't the most flexible: there is a specific suite of playbooks, each with a strong pre-existing thematic hook that the character is built around, and character creation only really offers a handful of mechanical choices. But where I might have strained at the constraints in another game, it felt good to use them to hook into this game's intent. If I had a very specific character type I wanted to pursue that wasn't supported by any of the playbooks, I may have been more frustrated, but character creation for Flinch was easy, quick and really flavourful. And, moving forward, the option to take moves from another Playbook means that the character's evolution has a number of options to grow in different directions, too. So, yeah: Monsterhearts character creation isn't the most flexible, but it is really flavorful, which I love.

WHAT COMES NEXT

With this third Markus, this has really formed into a series, which I really like. I'm loving the opportunity to play around with (and write about!) games I haven't gotten to play, and Blades in the Dark and Monsterhearts are two near the top of my list. And I'm really pleased with how the three Markuses we've got definitely share DNA and fit the archetype, but also feel like distinct, different characters; a scene with these three people would be full of tension, conflict, and differing goals and needs. So, while I'm not sure if anybody is reading these, I'm getting a lot out of writing them... and that makes it worth it, at least for a few more in the series!

Next up is my first new Markus post in a while, where I'll be tackling a critical new entry to the genre from a group who've played a big role in TTRPGs gaining more popularity. Yep, I'm building the next Markus in Daggerheart! After that, well... y'all know I've got a list.

Until next time, monsters!