Hello, all! I have been playing the heck out of Monster of the Week lately, and, in the spirit of these things, started working on two playbooks of my own that I'm particularly proud of, so I thought I'd share and see if anyone had any critiques to make.

The Beat is cop trying to balance a life of mundane police work with the real threat of supernatural horrors. Based on Karin Murphy of the Dresden Files, the playbook is geared towards either Sharp or Tough characters (depending on whether you're more a Detective or Guardian type) and tends to become a bit Weirder over time. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WDTJgVzvhmq475ebtZhyyJdrk9fuY8XxXz6aryc0ohc/edit 

The Protege is the favored pupil of a legendary monster hunter who has now gone missing. Based on Dean Winchester as he appeared at the start of Season 1 of Supernatural, part of creating your Protege is describing your character's former mentor and mentor choice determines which stat your character focuses on.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kiH1NyJipHBM-xAWx4ifZuoNwxCymYQM58lJPaSBdsU/edit

I had the uniquely twisted pleasure of playing not one, but two games of Monsterhearts recently with a friend of mine. We traded off on running and playing, and it was extremely fun, packed full of drama, angst, and dysfunctional relationships.

The first game, which I MC'd, featured the doing-what's-necessary Chosen, Carleen Lin. She was shipped off to the City of London Freemen's Boarding School, a high profile prep school with a habit of letting the students run wild. It was quickly discovered that Carleen was living in the shadow of her older brother Ian, an accomplished demon hunter and straight A student who had pretty much ruled the school before Carleen got there. This provided some interesting background, which ended up coming to the forefront when Carleen was out on patrol and stumbled upon her brother, broken by a superior foe and begging for her help. Yikes.

My favorite moments from this game included Carleen threatening a super-popular, bad boy vampire named Gabriel to stop drinking from a poor, mousy young girl named Steph. She ended up granting him Mercy, which he almost immediately seized as a chance to spread the rumor throughout school that she was a creepy stalker who had been peeping on him and Steph getting hot and heavy. Thus was born the trite yet impossible to be rid of nickname, Freak Girl.

A few things that came up:
-At one point, Carleen showed up at a a party wearing a very stylish outfit, and we weren't sure how to handle her attempt to turn almost everyone there on. In the end, she picked out a good five people and rolled individually, which worked out great, and also meant an instant advance for her.
-At the start, the player of Carleen asked if he could use the other playbooks as inspiration for NPCs; I thought this was a great idea and ended up inspiring a great deal for the second game we played together.

Wow! Cool playbooks, guys. Here's one of mine...

Seeker (Intellect)

They say it’s a useless quest, and they say I’m a fool, and they say that some things are best left in the dark. Well, I’ve never been one to submit myself to here-say.

What are we seeking? The Truth in a world of darkness.

Stats: Intellect +2, and divide +1, 0, 0, -1 among Instinct, Passion, Rage, and Will. Detail Intimacies (specific people or things that your character deeply cares about and which tie him to his humanity) equal to 1+Passion. Choose Lores equal to 1+Intellect.

Choose a Profession and gain two appropriate Influence. In addition, when you dedicate a week of your Downtime to actively working at your profession, gain +1 of the appropriate Influence.
   -Detective (2 Police Influence)
   -PI (2 Street Influence)
   -Scholar (2 University Influence)
   -Occultist (2 Occult Influence)

Gain all the basic moves+Notes+Contacts:

Choose Type:
   -Arcanum Scholar: Gain Arcanum Status +1. Choose the college of the Arcanum that you are a member of and gain College Status +2.
   -Malkavian: Gain Malkavian Status +0. Choose Camarilla (Status +0) or Independent. Calculate Beast and gain 3 Clan Disciplines. Detail your derangement. Gain the move Listen to the Whispers:
      -Listen to the Whispers: When you allow yourself to listen to the strange cobweb whispers of your fellows (or perhaps it's just in your head?), Roll+Intellect. On a Hit, gain a piece of useful information about something going on elsewhere or else-when. On a 10+, the information is concrete. On a 7-9, it's vague, shrouded in symbolism.
   -Nosferatu: Gain Nosferatu Status +0. Choose Camarilla or Sabbot (Status +0). Calculate Beast. Detail your hideousness. Gain 3 Clan Disciplines. At the start of each session, state any one rumor you’ve heard; the MC will tell you whether it’s true or false and a little bit about why.

Notes: Choose the Look of your Notes: Pocket Notepad, Marble Notebook, Ancient Journel, carvings, abstract art, or perfect memory.
Your notebook starts with five questions. Two of these will be written by the MC at character Creation:
The other three can be any questions you choose that you do not know the answers to. At the start of each session, choose 1. If you discover the answer by the end of the session, Mark XP. If you don’t discover the answer, then the MC will present you with a new clue or insight into that question. Once per session, you may add a new question to your Notes. If you ever discover the answer to every question in your Notes and choose not to add a new one, immediately Change Playbooks.

Contacts: Detail 2-5 characters (Kindred, Mortal, or otherwise; PC or NPC) that owe your character a favor for digging up information for them. At bare minimum this includes a Type (what are they?) and a Capability (what can they do?)

Basic Advancements: When you Mark XP five times, or commit a Fall from Grace, gain a new level of Discipline or mark off one of the following advancements. When you have marked off five advancements, gain access to the second list.
-Take +1 to any stat (Max +3)
-Take +1 to any stat (Max +3)
-Gain the move “Working Relationship”
-Gain the move “The Office”
-Gain the move “Deduction”
-Gain the move “Library of the Bizarre”
-Gain the move “Serious Professional”
-Gain +1 Clan Status.
-Gain a new Intimacy.
-Gain a new Intimacy with one of your contacts/clients.

   Ungiven Future:
      -Gain a Title within your Sect or Clan.
      -Advance 3 Basic Moves.
      -Create a second character to play.
      -Retire your character, either to Darkness or Safety.
      -Change Playbooks

Moves:
   -Deduction: When making a Read that relates directly to the question you’re currently trying to answer in your Notes, Ask +1 Question, even on a miss. You may attempt Read situations/people that you have interacted with in the past even after the fact.
   -Working Relationship: When you do a favor or job for someone, put them on your list of Contacts. You always count as having leverage over anyone on your list of Contacts for the purposes of Manipulate
-The Office: You have a space set out where people can come to you for your expertise. Whenever there’s a stretch of downtime, Roll+Intellect. On a hit, someone shows up there with the offer of a job. On a 10+, they’re offering something you really, really want or need in return.
-Library of the Bizarre: When you go into your personal collection (is it a computer database? A physical library? Detail) in search of rare Lore or Knowledge, Roll+Intellect. On a 10+ Ask 3. On a 7-9, Ask 2:
   -What is it?
   -What does it do?
   -What is it worth?
   -What is its weakness?
   -What do the stories of my people tell about it?
   -Where could I find out more?
   -Serious Professional: When you dedicate a week of your Downtime to actively working at your Profession, gain +2 Influence of the appropriate instead of +1. Gain the benefits of having at least one point in that Influence category even when you have 0 Influence.

Hey, guys! So, I've been increasingly entranced by the old (or "classic) World of Darkness after playing in a Mind's Eye Theatre game... and increasingly frustrated at the tabletop's "storytelling system." Specifically, there were all these dark, tragic, romantic, horrific themes... But where was the support in the rules themselves? But say... Wouldn't it be great if someone tried to take that setting (or a similar one) and work it into a system that could support awesome, badass characters mostly-destined for tragedy... like, say... Apocalypse World?

So, with a great deal of help from my dear friend, Antisinecurist, I started working on it. In addition to Apocalypse World, I've taken a great deal of inspiration from Dungeon World Hack... In a way, I'm hoping to for Vampire what DWH is doing for D&D. I'm keeping track of the rules and setting info on Obsidian Portal, where I hope to eventually chronicle the games I run with this hack.

http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaign/new-york-nightlife/wikis/main-page

Specific areas where I'd like feedback:
-Are players rewarded for driving their characters towards tragedy?
-Did I capture the feel and hidden meaning of each of the clans?
-Do you think it was a good choice to have character development largely determined by clan? I ask, because while writing it, I felt torn between two ideas. On the one hand, I don't think every character is necessarily defined by what clan they are, but on the other hand, I felt strongly that as characters develop, they go from being mostly defined by their Humanity, to becoming increasingly vampiric (where "vampiric" is defined as "more like their clan").
-Are there any glaring holes, things I'm missing, or general advice you'd like to share?

Thanks a lot!