My wife started running a campaign of Monsterhearts a few weeks ago, and we have two sessions in so far (one session of worldbuilding and one of actual play). I will be chronicling it from my character’s perspective. So far it is a great group who really click with the nature of the game.
Cast of Characters
Carlotta the Ghost – attended the high school back when it was an all-girls boarding school, “fell off a cliff” and died but there may be more to that death than she realizes.
Mark the Infernal (my character) – a teen who has become addicted to online gambling, in desperation he summoned a demon associated with luck and now finds himself collecting jars of blood to feed the beast and keep his winning streak going.
Chad the Mortal – the new kid in town, on the school’s sports team (football? Basketball? baseball?). While he is dating Heather, the bitchy leader of the cool girls, his secret true love is Evelyn.
Evelyn the Witch – Evelyn used to hang with Heather, then she got in witchcraft via, The Monkey’s Paw, the local occult bookstore. Now she collects tokens and personal mementos and is learning that Waterhole is a much more complicated place than she realized.
For the first session the group went wild building up the world around Waterhole, Oregon. Some interesting locations on our map include:
- The Monkey’s Paw – occult bookstore run by practicing witch Poe A. Tree.
- Video Dome – locally owned video store (a name was dropped in the second session that I personally love, “I Died in the Video Store”).
- The Galleria at South Brook – the mall, the brook has been drained to build the mall
Our classroom is populated by a very vibrant and fleshed out group of students, some of whom include:
- Jerry, a football player beloved by everyone who has been passed through grade after grade due just being likable.
- Heather, the queen bitch with her toadies Tabitha and Joselyn
- Scarlett, the drama nerd starring in the school’s production of Wicked as Elphaba
- Darren, the religious freak who passes out tracts and is a flat earther
- Alison, sickly kid who is always suffering from some ailment and out of school
- Sofia, most likely to be valedictorian and someone Heather is intent on humiliating
- Levi, the secret teen wolf who is the lead of his own series running parallel to ours, we appear as background characters in his show
- Angel, chill burnout who has become an anxious wreck since Chad moved to town and started throwing better parties.
Our first full session had the action focused around Chad’s Saturday 80s themed house party. Chad has a little sister, Cheryl and their parents (aerospace engineers are constantly out of town) have left them thousands in cash to pay for whatever they need. My character, Mark the Infernal is desperate need of money and tries to awkwardly put the moves on Cheryl but is called out for pulling a “bro foul” by Chad. Carlotta the Ghost listens in on a conversation between Mr. Savage the science teacher and some other faculty. Savage is on edge and is reading into the lore of Waterhole. That brings Savage to The Monkey’s Paw where Evelyn swipes a handkerchief and uses it to divine what the teacher is up to. He is researching some sort of ritual sacrifices that are rooted in the town.
The party kicks off and Carlotta creeps on everyone while Evelyn and Chad end up in the rec room making out. Heather is distracted with Cheryl who is having a breakdown from having to manage her brother’s life. Mark happens to be in the rec room looking to snatch some things to pawn for cash later and catches the makeout session on his phone. Downstairs he ponders over if he should blackmail his friend, Carlotta spies and tries to push him to delete it but he refuses.
A scream pierces the revelry of the party and Tabitha stumbles out sliced open from the front, blood everywhere. Mark has ended up handing so many Strings to his Dark Power that he is now in his Darkest Self and compelled to feign helping put pressure on the wound only to soak up some of the blood. Heather is suspect of Chad and Evelyn but they twist it into Evelyn wanting to reconcile with Heather in the lead up to her birthday party. The police break up the party and a number of characters end up at the ER with Tabitha.
Mark anonymously sends the makeout pic to Chad and asks for a few thousand to stave off sending it to Heather. Chad plays a little dumb but agrees to meet in the alley behind Video Dome with the money within the hour. Carlotta follows, turning herself invisible, but Video Dome is the site of her death. Her arrival corresponds with a strange fluctuation in the electrical grid. Mark wears a mask and ends up tussling with Chad, stabbing his bro but not hitting any major organs. He gets some of the blood and runs off into the night, but not before Evelyn gets her hands on the pocketknife. Mark reaches his car a few blocks away only to find the bag with the money is full of empty gym socks.
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