Our season lasted 5 sessions with an additional two part pilot episode (since it started as a one shot which just sorta felt unresolved and grew from there). We tended to have one advance a session, perhaps an advance and a half depending on if we actually remembered to roll dice instead of just RP our way through it.

The pacing is as quick as the players want it to be. Since they determine when they roll for the most part. We actually found ourselves trying not to advance towards the end of our season cause we wanted to milk it for as much angst as we could and it became far more about the RP and less about the advancement.

In regards to the lifespan of typical character. You'll find that towards the end of the second season is where they tend to hit a wall advancement wise. Most skins have a stat boost for all 4 stats, a gang and perhaps 2 other skin moves. With a change of skin you get an additional 2 new skin moves and maybe a new gang. So that's around 10 advances. Not counting growing up moves, which you won't get if you chronically switch skins trying to get more moves.

So, a few weeks ago now we had our season ender in our MH campaign. My character the Ghoul ended up going Darkest Self at the worst possible time and attacking her little sister, and killing my boyfriends best (and only) friend. Despite the fact that the Werewolf (my boyfriend) was supposed to keep me in check if things got out of hand. In the post feeding frenzy remorse she went and hit rock bottom and committed suicide. To free herself of this "curse" and no longer be a threat to those she loves.

The bad part is that it didn't work. The magic binding her to this world was too strong and now she's a ghost. The problem is that since we are going to continue in the same town and same school. We figured that her just showing up and acting like nothing happened is sorta out of the question. What with, people knowing her and while her suicide happened at the tail end of a whole slew of murders and "unfortunate" deaths people know she's dead. So instead we are going the Being Human route of being invisible.

My question is, how has this worked for other people who did something similar? Did you just go invisible to normals while supernaturals can see and interact with you? or did you go all out? If you did how long did you go (or suggest) before you could interact with normals/other characters? Did you you encounter problems, can you offer some tips or advice to avoid issues that cropped up in your play throughs?

Personally I'd like to play up the frustration and angst angle of seeing people but not being seen or able interact with them. But at the same time I don't want to jack myself out of good RP time doing something that sounds neat in theory but is bad in practice.

Reading your last post it strikes me that we do much the dame thing. Often  a situation comes up during dialogue or in narration and we just sorta gloss over it. Unless we happen to remember that " Hey, there are rolls in this game. And they give us stuff. Well hell. let's roll that."

So having played Joe Mcdaldno's Monsterhearts a number of times now. And prepping for an AW game. I've been bitten by the hack bug. I was struck by the idea of making a game about the intrigue, political mechanations and backstabbing of courtly life. Particularly within the Mughal Empire, (I blame Indu Sundearesan's books for this) however it could just as well work for any highly political setting.

Anyways, I had two questions. Number one, is there already a hack similar to his in the works? I'd hate to step on peoples toes, or to reinvent the wheel. Second, is there any interest for this concept? Or is it too specific and esoteric? I'd be curious to hear what people thought/knew. Since pretty much anything I do would be a labor of love it's not like I expect it to be "the next big thing" but if there is no interest outside of my personal hang ups I really don't see the need to spend so much time on something that might essentially be a pipe dream.

Ok here's one from last Saturday.There's a whole lot more going on. And we tend to play 8ish hour sessions which are jam packed with stuff and were 6 or 7 sessions in. So this is just the tail end of a session.

 My Ghoul was transported/trapped/time warped/illusionated? by the Infernal big bad of the season back to a 1950's insane asylum. Once she was finally detained by the orderlies (after trying to escape and trying to hurt a guard) she was subjected to 6 months (relative time) of medications,therapy, electro shock therapy sessions and finally a threat of a lobotomy to cure her of this delusion of being from the future.

Finally as I was being prepped for the lobotomy, which terrified me cause I didn't know how to get back "home" and I'd not truly die and so not heal from it, the Infernal Sam appeared to me and offered me an out. Since I didn't have a soul I could carry her dead boyfriends back to the world of the living from it's current residence in hell. I of course quickly agreed. The bitch still let me be lobotomized and sit around as a vegetable for a few months just to be mean.

When I finally came back I was made aware that I had a deadline and a tidbit of foreknowledge. Whatever guy I had sex with that day would become her boyfriend. If I didn't, I'd die a true death at midnight. After much hemming and hawing about whether my death wouldn't just make the world a better place and not release a deamon on the world my boyfriend and friends convinced me that me croaking might not actually stop him from coming into the world. So I did what any red blooded troubled teenage Ghoul would do. Set up my skeezy-pedo-unethical-therapist who'd been taking advantage of me. We had one last "therapy session" at some skeevy hotel off the highway and then the gang piled in after to finish the job. He's now a very pissed off deamon in small , burned pieces in several shallow graves in the woods outside of town. With a very dead girlfriend whom I ate.

I don't have much to add. As I've never MC'd a game I can only go from what my MC did. And that was to start off with the classroom scene and before we had fully settled into our characters totally. He sprung a 5 minute oral history report on us that we'd forgotten about. All the while that we were giving our report and scrambling the popular kids in class were texting about us on the sly and making fun of us. It worked well to immediately make us feel like the outsiders and give us a focus for drama/aggression. And to make adults/teachers seem completely useless and blind to our troubles.

A few more that I've come up with. I find that the themes of inconveniencing the PCs and putting their privacy and secrecy at stake are the threat ideas that come to mind most easily for me.

It's For Your Own Good
Outline:
Due to one of the players recent erratic behavior, poor academic performance or some other suitably Monsterheartsey themed complication one of the characters has been assigned a social worker. DSSHS will be preforming random drop by inspections and interviews of the players family and home environment. Along with scheduled therapy sessions downtown at the courthouse or some other suitably authoritative location.

Stakes:
A concerned Big Brother is watching and keeping a careful eye on the player. Perhaps smoothing over small complications but ready to move in and make life miserable if major complications arise ( perhaps Community Service). What if they find out your secret? What will you do then?

Threats:
The PC's assigned social worker
The local Judge, police, sheriff
Non-in the know PC friends that may tip off or reveal too much
School Teachers, Family anyone looking out for their best interest

The Mayor Hereby Welcomes Omni Corp.
Outline: A major construction firm/corporation /big business has decided to move into town and make it their central base of operations. To do this old run down sections of town or tracts of unused land are being bought as a site for future construction.

Stakes:
A new major player is in town now. Snooping around trying to get a feel of the place, buying up peoples homes, farms, abandoned buildings etc. The same types of places that monsters like to skulk and get away form humanity. Perhaps where their past victims lay buried. Either way it might be best to lay low for a while.

Threats:
Various corporate drones looking to exploit the situation
Construction crews uncovering secrets/bodies, destroying ghosts houses
Town authorities that want to encourage the financial boom this will bring

Martial Law
Outline: One afternoon an announcement goes out over all the local stations. Martial law has been declared by the military due to a chemical spill or some other nebulous reason, A curfew will be in place and patrols will be out to enforce it.

Stakes:
Is the military telling the truth? Or do they know something more? Perhaps they have evidence of supernatural occurrences and want to apprehend the suspects. Now they have all their potential suspects in one place with no way out. Will the PCs be captured? Will they have to turn over someone to the authorities? Can they escape?

Threats:
Military forces, soldiers, officers, the general whose pet project this is/ Maybe even a Congressmen/MP
Other supernaturals that may be working with the military. Or just give away their presence
Supernaturals who may know about the PCs who might let information slip

I Want To Be Leader
Outline: A local Cult/Coven/Supernatural organization is undergoing what amounts to a civil war. With rival sides vying for control of the organization. Drawing the PCs into a messy tangle of loyalties and betrayal.

Stakes:
Who will the PCs trust? Who can they trust? What do they want form than and why? Will they back the right side or earn enemies. Sometimes staying neutral just serves to ensure you have enemies on both sides. Either way they must choose and choose quickly before things go to hell in a handbasket.

Threats:
Both sides of the organization
Others moving in to take advantage of the chaos

The New Messiah
Outline: A rather wacko religious cult has become aware of one or more of the PC's existence. They now consider the PC to be their new messiah. Congratulatons! You now have lackeys. The bad news is they are overprotective and possessive of you to the Nth degree.

Stakes: Will the PC bask in the adoration of their new found cult? Or will they rapidly tire of the attention. Will it alienate them from their friends, family? How will the “true believers” react if the PC denounces them/ goes Darkest Self/tries to slip away?

Threats:
The ATF or some other government organization that keeps track of such things
The PC's family and friends who may not agree with them or the Cult
The Cult members who may be more than a bit unhinged

So, I'm new to the game having only played once and just gotten the book but after finding the forums here and puttering around a bit I noticed that there are a lot of proposed skins and talk about the skins. But not much on other aspects of the game. So I figured I'd start a thread that people could contribute to that focused on ideas for menaces in the game. A tool for the MC to help them on the fly come up with interesting goings on in game. I hope I did the write ups right. If anything is wrong please feel free to comment and more than anything please add your own ideas for menaces the more we come up with now the less on the fly thinking we need to do later when our players are staring at us expectantly.

Reality TV Show Comes to the Campus
Outline:
The PC's school has been chosen by a major network to be the focus of a reality television show. In the upcoming semester camera crews and techs will have almost free run of the campus. Following interesting, attention whoring, outspoken, troubled and volatile students around in hopes of capturing “drama” and entertaining TV for the network. On site host optional, however it might make a good villain of a good focus for the PC's aggression.

Stakes:
The camera never blinks. Crews are roaming around the school recording everything , catching everyone in candid moments when they don't expect it. What if the PC's are revealed as monsters? What if they become the star of the series? What if the world finds out? What if the network heads are monsters themselves?

Threats:
Reality Show Host attracted to drama like a shark to blood.
Camera crews snooping around the school and town.
Exposure of the PC's secrets

The Stars Are Right
Outline:
The planets/starts what have you, are aligned for the first time in centuries and the PC's hometown is at ground zero for the convergence. Supernaturals from all over are being drawn to the location all with their own goals, needs and desires.

Stakes:
Will one supernatural achieve their goals and gain real ultimate power? Will the PC's become embroiled in the supernatural infighting? Will the PC's family, friends or teachers be in danger and used as leverage against the PC's?

Threats:
Various out of town supernaturals
Strange happenings as the convergence approaches
Increase/decrease in powers as the event nears. Daywalking vamps etc.

The Road Trip
Outline:
The PC's decide to go on a road trip and all the drama and complications that follow with that. New towns, new people the unknown.

Stakes:
Will being together 24/7 tear their friendships apart? Will they meet new unknown supernaturals? Will they meet the love of their life on the road? Will they run afoul of the authorities ( cops, FBI, vamp/witch/whatever cabals that control the city etc.)

Threats:
Various other supernaturals and unknown authority figures that don't like the PC's or want them for their own purposes
The unknown of a new town. They don't know the lay of the land and who's who
The PC's young impulsive natures or perhaps their hidden dislike for another PC