Barf Forth Apocalyptica
powered by the apocalypse => Monsterhearts => Topic started by: mcdaldno on April 01, 2011, 05:27:22 PM
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So, Vampires and Werewolves aren't played out, but they're certainly well explored. Ghosts and witches, likewise.
Help me find the new sexiness, the Skin that's easy to envision but not already a supernatural drama trope.
The Ghoul is my attempt at a sexy zombie, a gorgeously disinterested psychopath. That's a bit of a departure from the norm, but it's still the focal character of Jennifer's Body. So: not new enough, I'm still on the prowl.
I'm working on something called The Hollow, which is all about being not real. Dawn, from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, is a hollow. Mimics and dopplegangers and amnesiacs are all hollows. Carrie might be a witch, or she might be a hollow - her actions are so non-intentional and sporadic that she might be a hollow.
What else could exist?
Angels? Shamans/Mediums/Psychics/Channelers? Dreamwalkers? Merfolk?
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Something that isn't really explored too much is the alien and monstrous pathogen. It's sorta is in the move The Faculty. What I'm thinking is something more like Species or aliens in a teen-horror kinda way. Something like a swarm or hive queen. You know, like if the cheerleaders were actually insects.
Imagine the awkward of telling you boyfriend you lay eggs! Romantic!
So you get to play with themes of femininity turned up to eleven with a Skin that's the crawling wet sticky mass of life itself.
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Cool. When I first started on Monsterhearts, I had a Hive Queen idea. Others thought it was "out of genre" or "too weird." Good to hear that maybe it's not so impossible.
What would the Hive Queen's schticks be?
Being the head of a clique of drones (a la Heathers, Mean Girls, etc) is an obvious route to take. Adding in dripping sexuality + weird egg-laying ichor-spewing nastiness is another possibility. Where else do you go with that Skin?
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It is kinda weird and slightly less common than vamps and what have you.
I think their are a few options for the Queen Bitch of the Universe. The theme would be control and followers with motifs of insectile body horror and breeding. Thus, she has some kind of brood-gang and is pretty sexy.
There are a lot of ways to play her I think: sure, the cheerleader type is fine but she's could be some hipster chick that's all mysterious with a mysterious scene and habits. So, the followers should be an optional move.
As far of moves are concerned, being able to command the herd or hear gossip effectively. She should also be able to 'infect' or 'breed' in some way. Maybe she even has some kind of lair?
High Hot with highish Volatile. Can gain strings or shut people with her. Shuts down with hot or volatile. Always has an additional string with someone she's infected, stacks maybe. Things like that.
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"When you harm someone with your poisons, they mark it special-like. Until healed, it counts as a String against them."
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I'd be more like:
When the Queen has time and intimacy to implant/infect you, she takes a string on you. Mark it special like. The string is permanent until you remove the infection, special like.
Also take a string on her, cause you know her gross secret now.
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Also, you could have a Cassandra/oracular/savant type Skin. Dark visions, too much information, kinda weird and cryptic. Knows everyone's secrets but isn't interested in social politics. That kinda of thing.
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Holy crap, Nathan. That's just what I was about to post. I wrote this:
People who have come from the future to prevent a tragedy (or people who can see the future). Possible names: The Cassandra, The Observer, The Prophet.
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That suggestion may or may not have been autobiographical.
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Hey, y'all. This is awesome.
"isn't interested in social politics" doesn't fly in Monsterhearts. The players must be interested, or the game falls apart. The characters must have some agenda that can only be met through social power games, even if they are distant and disaffected when they pursue that agenda (see: The Ghoul).
I do like the oracle type character, though. I've also been thinking about the possibility of a "seer", who can read minds and invade people's dreams. Rolling prophetic visions into that is an easy possibility. What's it called? Possibilities: The Psychic, The Oracle, The Seer, The Medium, The Channel?
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I meant that as a source of tension. It should read as: doesn't understand them, is tactless, upsets the status quo with startling knowledge, &c. The oracle isn't interested in social power in and of itself, even though by knowing so much has potentially has a lot of it.
the source of conflict is in the knowing itself: knowing too much, knowing who to tell what, knowing but being powerless to prevent it and that kind of thing.
So, their interested in the sense that they need to tell people about their shit but not interested in dominance per se. Moreover, the other character will always be interested in using her to their advantage, doubly ensuring her uncomfortable involvement. Cassandra is cursed with terrible knowledge - it's typically a problem and not an asset. In the same way that being a werewolf is typically a problem and not an asset. It's very potency makes it a liability.
Thus, while the character isn't interested in social power games, there are compelling reasons for them to take part in them making the player interested in them. Primarily the impulse to tell and to know. In this way, the Oracle upsets power relationship with uneven distributions knowledge.
Like a journalist, they're out for the truth and not power, but it's rarely so simple as that.
There is potential for another character type here that gains social dominance with knowledge. A kind of gossip or something.
PS: my vote is for the Cassandra (Cassy/Casey), the oracle, the sybil, the spex or the sayer.
Another idea: have you toyed with the Ghost yet, Joe? Like someone who possess others?
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The Ghost doesn't possess others, but there is The Ghost.
The Ghost's deal is two-fold: reliving the past, and being a less-than-active participant in the present.
One central move is about reliving the scene of your death, superimposing it over top of the situations you're really being asked to deal with now, casting those around you as your murderers and betrayers and past friends.
One move lets you walk through walls.
One move is all about voyeurism and witnessing people in their most intimate and secret moments.
The Ghost is not an active participant in the present. They're stuck outside the glass in more ways than one.
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The Construct. Sort of fits in with the Hollow, but not-real happens in a different way. See: the Buffy-bot, Galatea, Frankenstein's Monster.
"You were made to be something for someone, and now that someone is gone. You're supposed to be the perfect daughter, the all-star valedictorian, the boyfriend who would never hurt her, and you did the best you could. Something bad happened, though, and maybe it was your fault, and maybe you were cast out or maybe your creator is just...gone. Either way, you were made to complete someone and without that someone, well, you're just going to have to find someone else to complete."
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Is the Hive Queen like a bunch of people with a hive-mind? So I can always have a drone present in every scene? Like Invasion of the Body Snatchers or something?
Can I play the girl from The Exorcist yet?
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The Construct. Sort of fits in with the Hollow, but not-real happens in a different way. See: the Buffy-bot, Galatea, Frankenstein's Monster.
Frankenstein's Monster is one of two builds for The Ghoul (What The Right Hand Wants, Watchful Golem).
"Fabricated being" is one of the two directions I was imagining for The Hollow. The other being "I don't know what I am capable of." The Hollow is the embodiment of existential crisis, of feeling lost, of feeling like some kind of fake person, of feeling like you don't know how to be human.
Is the Hive Queen like a bunch of people with a hive-mind? So I can always have a drone present in every scene? Like Invasion of the Body Snatchers or something?
Not what I was imagining, and not what I think Nathan was imagining either. Too weird!
You know the high school archetype of Queen Bee? Stamp the word "literally" on that. You get the Hive Queen. At least, that's what I was imagining.
Can I play the girl from The Exorcist yet?
Yeah. Well, except... the girl in The Exorcist just wigs out in bed. You need to wig out in other people's beds, in order to be a Monsterhearts character.
So, imagine the girl from The Exorcist occasionally manages to get her shit together, bartering with the demon for a day pass, and gets to go out and party. Then the demon gets back into the driver's seat, and she goes loco again.
That's The Infernal.
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I was thinking about a skin called "The Vessel". Basically someone who's been ritually prepared by a cult or some other creepy organisation (including their creepy parents) to be possessed or play some other part in a doomsday prophecy.
As a skin, it's a little more victim-y and a little less filled with cool magical powers. However, the Vessel might have a lot of mindshare-effectiveness. I'm thinking of playbooks like the Mundane in Monster of the Week and the Slave in World of Conan.
Basically, the Vessel would be for people that have been kept cloistered for most of their childhood and are only now entering the 'normal' world.
[Edited to add:] Actually, I like this so much I think I might mock up a version of this skin.
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Oh please, fuck off with your "too weird" crap. What if I want to play a brainwashed cult? If I can't play the teenage psychic mastermind of a whole teenage cult of brainwashed drones your game is bumshit! Bumshit I tell you!
By Exorcist, I don't just mean the one movie. It's the same girl in every movies, like in The Exorcism of whozit wuzzername Emily Rose? She has like a life and stuff too before the possession and exorcism. Is that the Infernal? Well, okay then.
What's the one where you're in somebody else's body and identity? Like a fake or a duplicate or undercover. You know who you are, but you look like somebody else and everybody else thinks you are that other person. Maybe like The Vessel or whatever.
I like the Construct idea. That character should be super-smart and stuff, but unable to interact with society without being attacked.
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Oh yeah, and the Construct is cool. I only played a demo scenario of Promethean: The Created, but I can remember that the concepts behind the game really helped our group bring some interesting stuff to the table.
Of course: The Ghoul hits that pretty well.
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You need to wig out in other people's beds, in order to be a Monsterhearts character.
This needs to be on the back cover!
Also, Johnstone, if I was me running things, then yeah, that's be pretty dope but they'd be more like followers that hive-mind. I'm mean, a little hive-mind, but not like Invasion styles.
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I WANT WANT HIVEMIND INVASHUN OV TEH BOOTY SNATCH0RZZ GIVE ME NAO
Twins maybe? Twins? Or is that predominantly 80s-based fantasy too crass and "if I have sex with two different characters at the same time in different places do their sex moves also affect each other and if so does that make them gay?" played-out that even Monsterhearts won't touch it?
Oh, speaking of the 80s, Joe have you seen Society yet? The one that starts off like the shittiest teen 80s movie you've ever seen and then barfs up Cronenbergist insanity? So good. Howzabout those characters as a playbook? No idea. Is there room for the character who is trying to get out of the crazy cult they are in? Like they don't want to be the Wicker Man?
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Brain waves while in the car:
The Alien: Obviously the touchstone here is Roswell, but consider also Escape to Witch Mountain, Starman, and the recent The Event.
The Hunter (/Slayer/Guardian): Your whole schtick is making sure the monsters don't get out of line and killing them if they do, but some of them--ok, that one in particular--are so sexy...
The Psion: May overlap with the Cassandra a bit, but someone who's mostly a mundane except for some weird power or other. The classics are telepathy and prophetic visions, but there's also psychometry, telekinesis, and so forth. Much opportunity for Psychic Nosebleeds. Think Willow before her full-blown witchiness, or Sam from Supernatural.
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Awesome, Neon Fox.
The Hunter already exists, but it's called The Chosen. Like, it's done and a handful of people have already played as The Chosen (3, I think?).
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TEH HIDRAW
A NU PLAYBOOK BY ME
By default, you start off with like 4 or 5 dudes, all the same. Or chicks, whatever, but then there is a dude who totally wants a threesome, cause like hello? twins? duuuh, winning!
hot 1 cold 1 steady 2 volatile -1 dark 0
this party has like its shit. to. gethah.
So Many Guys!: OMG you guys! you are like so many guys that you count as a medium gang instead of a small gang. are there even gangs in monsterharts? prolly not, whatever. it seems like all these playbooks are collections of powers, not people with extra resources that others don't get, like most of the playbooks in apocalypse world, so i guess this is like the monsterhearts version of the chopper or maybe the hocus. so, like, a dozen or so guys. maybe you are a full witches coven of 13, i dunno, it's your character, as if i even care.
Unwashed Massez: you have like sleeper agents all around, especially homeless people. at session start, roll+cockbite. on a 7-9 hold 1. 10+ hold 1+1. whenever there is a crowd of random people, you can spend your hold to have one of them turn out to be one of you! The first time you use this power, it is always Alice Cooper and he kills a dude with a broken bike. On a miss, one of you is FUCKING DEAD bitch, deal aight?
Darkest Self: assimilate! assimilate!
that's it right? im done? suhweeet...
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FUCK YES
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TEH HIDRAW
Great. It's fine if I publish this, right?
Oh please, fuck off with your "too weird" crap. What if I want to play a brainwashed cult? If I can't play the teenage psychic mastermind of a whole teenage cult of brainwashed drones your game is bumshit!
"Too weird" was totally the wrong choice of words. Things can be "too weird," and that doesn't bother me.
Here's the thing I think: playing the teen psychic mastermind is awesome. Having an army of drones is awesome. Having a move called "Hivethink" which gives you all psychic communication at near range is awesome.
I'd love to make a Hive Queen playbook, and have the emphasis on being the leader of this hive. Leader, not teeming masses, for a few reasons: it will be easier for more people to wrap their hands around, meaning it will see more play; it will make it easier for other PCs to push hard choices on this PC; it allows for amazing "What hath bugsex wrought?!!?" moments when the hive and the queen don't see eye-to-eye.
When you're your Darkest Self as the Hive Queen, I think someone else takes control of the swarm and you need to take it back.
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Great. It's fine if I publish this, right?
You wanna fuck up your own game, it's none of my business.
In all seriousness, sure, I see the point of having a leader and stuff, and not just total control over all drones, which I guess is the point of The Hydra. You could make it slightly more ambiguous though, like drones can lose touch with the hive-mind, and the center of that hive-mind can be one (or two maybe) bodies, or it can be where most of the bodies are gathered.
Basically, I guess your rolls and actions and description could determine exactly what the true nature of your hive-mind is, yeah? Your Darkest Self could be losing that hive-mind, whether that's losing control to someone else in the hive, or just losing the hive and reverting to your original personality -- or the original personality of whatever drone you happen to be playing at the time.
Then whether this hive-mind is the result of a ghost possessing multiple hosts, or two girls who want so much to be exactly alike they force it on other people, too, or one dude psychically controlling his weak-willed followers, would be something you discover in play, not before play.
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Oh, the other idea I had was sort-of related.
The Quitter.
Yeah, it seemed like a good idea at the time -- join the bike gang, worship satan, live forever* -- but now things have gotten out of control! The cult, the gang, the family, the frat house, whatever it is, you want to leave but you can't get out. Everyone you turn to seems to get caught up in trouble between you and your so-called "friends," no matter how much you care about them. What will you do? Who will get you out of this?
I guess it's sort-of like the mortal, but I'm thinking your "group" is all NPCs and the player can actually manipulate them to a fairly high degree, as long as it causes trouble for other PCs so that they do things to help you.
Although I guess one person could play the Hive Queen, and another could play a Quitter trying to quit the hive...
*Psychomania, 1971.
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Dr. Frankenstein
The Invisible Man
Mummy
The Blob
Godzilla (ha!)
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oh and how about these
the gremlin
someone who is physically deformed in some way, otherwise ostracized, maybe homeless or forced to live in the woods ala Black Hole
the goblin king
imagine young david bowie, he's got goblins to do his bidding. sometimes this works out great, sometimes, well, they're goblins.
The ogre
scary big kid, does great on the football team but has a serious anger problem and tends to break things
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So, The Invisible Man is so totally The Ghost. You take "Boundless" (You can walk through walls and other solid objects) and "Creep" (When you secretly witness someone in an intimate moment, something you've never seen before, mark experience).
The Ogre is awesome, but I'd need some way to distinguish them from The Werewolf. The Werewolf's deal is that they are awesome at dealing out physical harm, and converting physical harm into social control (When you harm someone, take a string on them - that's one of their moves). How can The Ogre be not The Werewolf? What's the new social niche?
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books in the teen romance genre I've read recently have featured angels - angsty reincarnated angels who attract demons who mess with their girlfriends
I'm reading one right now about a Genie - he's bound to stick around this girl until she's made her three wishes, but she's reluctant to wish for things because they won't 'be real' and then she falls in love with the Genie. He's terrified of staying too long in the Real World because he's ageless in his own world, but can see change happening in hours.
Not sure if that helps but that's what's being published.
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I posted this song by Frightened Rabbit in the Outsourcing thread and then played around with it for fifteen minutes or so, looking for a playbook angle. Never could get it. A doopelganger-type who can only relate to people as someone other than herself? And needs something from people, like their energy/heat or whatever. Maybe too close to the ghoul. It felt like a stealth ghoul.
You twist and whisper the wrong name
I don't care nor do my ears
Twist yourself around me
I need company, I need human heat
I need human heat
Let's pretend I'm attractive and then
You won't mind, you can twist for a while
It's the night, I can be who you like
And I'll quietly leave before it gets light
So twist and whisper the wrong name
I don't care nor do my ears
Twist yourself around me
I need company, I need human heat
I need human heat
I need human heat
I need human heat
I need human heat
I need
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I don't really have any new sexiness but I wanted to say that The Hollow sounds great.
One thought for Angels is that they are about serving beliefs/ideals that are effectively defunct (not unlike the punchy writeup someone did above for The Construct, actually.) Kind of like the premise of that Covenant (?) RPG condensed into a single splatbook. Servants of A Prophecy whose time has passed, or servants of A Prophecy who have been waiting so long for it to come to pass that they have lost hope or (if you want a flipside options, like for Vampires) become deranged or obsessive.
I am not sure what the String angle is, though, and I feel like that is the main thing for any new character type.
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Whenever angels come down to earth and get physical bodies, they are totally vulnerable to temptation. Give them human flesh, they start drinking and whoring and murdering people. That's how Venus became a star in the sky, by twisting Harut and Marut around her finger.
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THE VESSEL
You’ve been prepared since birth to be occupied by a supernatural entity. Now you’re out of your cult, and finding out about the rest of the world. Can you escape your doom?
First Impression: Frail, Untouched by the sun, Socially awkward, Wallflower, No sense of boundaries or personal space
Eyes: Wide, Glassy, Bright, Scared.
Origin: The compound, Runaway, Foster parents, The attic, The Cops say you can't be home-schooled anymore.
Stats
hot 2 cold -1 steady 2, volatile -1 dark 1
hot 0 cold 2 steady 2, volatile -1 dark -1
hot -1 cold 1 steady 2, volatile 0 dark 1
hot 0 cold -1 steady 2, volatile 1 dark 1
You get these these moves for free
Sect: You have recently broken free of (or are beginning to exercise your independence from) an secret religious order. Pick two scary advantages your sect has, and one problem they have when they deal with the outside world:
- Scary Advantages (pick two): magic lore; followers everywhere; influence in the community; integrated in society; well-funded; diligent recruiters.
- Problems (pick one): public suspicion; tradition-bound; short-sighted; paranoid; baroque hierarchy; factionalized; strict rules; total obedience; tyrannical leaders; antiquated gear; poverty.
At the beginning of each session, or whenever there is downtime, roll +Dark to see how your sect will make a move on you. On a 10+ you will know about their move before they make it. On a 7-9, you’ll know about the move, but the biggest threat to you in the sect will gain a string on you.
Fate:You only know the vaguest hints about what you have been raised to become. Pick three tags to describe how your Fate will unfold:
- Sacrifice // Ancient prophecies // Ascension // Death // Can't save everyone // Impossible love // Possesson // Nemesis // Pain // No normal life // Danger to loved ones
Strange Ways: Pick three tags to represent the way you were brought up:
- Purity // Confessionals // Regular incantations // Nudity // Dependence // Stream of consciousness monologue // Praise // Prayer // Dark rituals // Brutal honesty // Self-destruction // Seizures
The Keeper can ask you to take actions (in accordance with the tags) that reflect your training and upbringing – if you do it, mark experience.
Then choose between these two moves:
- Virginal: You get +1 Hot (max +3). If you lose your virginity, lose this bonus
- Knowing: You get +1 Dark (max +3).
Then choose one:
Often Overlooked: You come across as clueless and loopy. When you're in danger of having too much attention paid to you, roll +Steady. On a 10+ choose 2, and on a 7-9 choose 1:
- choose someone who will pay no attention to you during this scene
- gain a String on the person who most wants to know about you
On a miss, the hostile parts of the world will pay particular attention to you this time.
Doomed: When another player-character does something to you that helps fulfill your Fate, they get a String on you.
Flee: When you need to escape, name the route you're trying to use and roll +Volatile. On a 10+ you're out of danger, no problem. On a 7-9 you can go or stay, ... but if you go you'll pass the danger on to someone else. On a miss, you're caught halfway out.
The Power of Heart: when you help the person who has the most Strings on you confront a problem, you help them as though you’d hit the roll with a 10+, and you gain a String on them.
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Sex Move: The person you've just slept with falls under the crosshairs of your sect.
Darkest Self: You return to the embrace of your sect. (Removing your Darkest Self probably has something to do with your friends coming to save you.)
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Oh, and I really like the Genie.
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Steve, at first I didn't like it, but now that I've read the whole Vessel, I think it does the Quitter, or one version of the Quitter anyway. I guess the other version is The Psychomaniac.
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I was actually reluctant to post the Vessel for the longest time, 'cos I couldn't see how it was different from the Mortal. I'm still not sure, actually - but this combination of moves feels like it heads in an interesting direction.
What's the Psychomaniac version like?
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You're in a bike gang and you're all immortal because you all died. And whenever you talk to someone outside the gang, the other gang members come and harass them and stuff, etc.
The idea for the Quitter was that no matter what you do, the other members of your group come and interfere in it, and fuck it up for you, and you want to get out of your group. But if it's based directly on Psychomania (the movie from 1971), it would be an undead mystic biker gang. And maybe you could decide you DON'T want to leave it.
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io9.com has an article about Evil Overlord romance (http://io9.com/#!5798715/the-genre-mashup-wed-like-to-see-evil-overlord-romance): it seems relevant.