I am interested in running either Monday or Tuesday a game of "Monster of the Week", a game that uses the Apocalypse Engine and allows easy and quick character generation. I am also considering mixing some elements with another game called "Monsterhearts" with the use of Strings and Conditions as well as some extra moves to add some social drama into the game. As for settings I am considering one of three settings: 1. High School Horror: A high school in a small town in Canada is a central point of mystical convergences attracting numerous supernatural threats. (AKA Buffy-Like) 2. Detroit Smackdown: Motor City has fallen to darkness and the monsters rule the night. But there are a few brave souls who stand to face the darkness (AKA Supernatural-Like) 3. Tokyo Rumble: Tokyo has always been a place of supernatural activity, where creatures of mythology live below the surface hidden from the eyes of mortals. But when they cause trouble, who are you going to call? (AKA Gonzo Style) Anyway here is a quick rules breakdown Monster of the Week uses a hack of the Apocalypse World engine. It is a simple system that allows for quick resolution of actions. Many actions you can do without even rolling if your character background supports it. When there is a challenge however that has to be faced you will have the option of using a "Move" to react to the situation. The general formula for most rolls are: 2d6 +/- Stat Rating +/- Forwards +/- Holds|Strings +/- Conditions|Situational Modifiers The result of the die roll plus or minus modifiers generates 1 of 3 results 1-6 Complete Failure: You fail in what you're doing. In addition the Keeper has the right to apply a Harm, Soft Move, Hard Move, Monster Move or a Penalty against you at his whim. 7-9 Partial Success: At this stage you either get a portion of what you wanted (Such as a minor clue instead of a major piece of info), or achieve your goal with some kind of price as defined by the Keeper. 10+ Solid Success: Excellent, you succeed in the action you were attempting. Ratings: How proficient your characters are are defined in part by your ratings. The 5 ratings are: Cool is how calm and collected you are. It is added to your die roll for the act under pressure , help out and shut someone down basic moves. Tough is how strong and mean you are in a fight. It is added to your die roll for the kick some ass, protect someone , and threaten basic moves. Charm is how pleasant and persuasive you are. It is added to your die roll for the manipulate someone and turn someone on basic moves. Sharp is how observant you are. It is added to your die roll for the investigate a mystery and read a bad situation basic moves. Weird is how attuned to the supernatural you are. It is added to your die roll for the use magic basic move. Moves: Where ratings define your strengths and weaknesses, your moves are what you can actually do. The common moves are bolded under the ratings. Your type also gives you access to additional moves and more can be bought with advancements. Harm: Harm is how much damage you can take before you die. All PC's have a harm capacity of 7 boxes. At 1-3 harm you are lightly wounded and suffer no serious penalties. At harm 3-6 you're seriously wounded. You suffer a -1 on all your die rolls and are considered unstable until you receive medical (or magical) treatment to stabilize you. At 7 Harm you are unconscious and at 8+ harm you are dead. To compare effects of damage, here are some stats for the harm of various weapons. Unarmed Strike: 0 Harm (But 2 in the same scene gives upgrades this to 1 harm) Knife: 1 Harm Sword: 2 Harm Pistol: 2 Harm Greataxe: 3 harm Shotgun: 3 Harm Sniper Rifle: 4 Harm Harm can be reduced by armor or by certain Type abilities. Luck: All hunters have a special resource called "Luck". Luck can be spent to do amazing things but is a limited resource. Luck is easy to spend but difficult to get back (involving advancements to recover). Spending Luck allows you to treat a die roll as an automatic 12 (even after the dice are rolled) or to ignore all harm from a single attack (but not necessarily secondary effects of the hit). Hunters start with 7 points of luck. If your luck ever bottoms out, you gain the "Doomed" tag and the Keeper has free reign to see to your character's demise. Often times bottoming out your character's luck means they're going to meet their final fate in the episode. Another downside of using luck is you cannot tag a Rating used for experience as you must actually roll and accept your fate to learn from your experiences. Character Creation: 1. Chose a hunter type: The Chosen: the chosen one, with a special destiny. The Expert: knows all about monsters and magic. The Flake: a conspiracy theorist, great at putting clues together. The Initiate: member of an ancient monster-slaying Sect, trained to fight and use magic. The Monstrous: a monster fighting for the good guys. The Mundane: just a normal regular person, especially good at dealing with regular people you meet. The Professional: you work for an agency that hunts monsters. The Spooky: has psychic or magical powers. The Wronged: revenge-driven, and really tough. The Snoop: An intrepid reporter out for the story of a lifetime. The Luchador: An athletic entertainer or masked vigilante. The Exile: Someone from another time or dimension stranded in the modern world. The Summoned: A monster from another plane of existence with a destiny for the Apocalypse The Constructed: An animated golem or robot. The Divine: An angel from heaven sent to fight evil. 2. Chose how your character looks, personalty, history and their motivation for hunting. Depending on your Hunter type and background you will get a set of assigned Ratings and appropriate moves. 3. Once characters are created, there will be a pre-start message board to build relationships with each of your fellow hunters. These are important to create a bond between various PC's and their reason for working together.
