The New Sexy

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?

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.

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?

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.

"When you harm someone with your poisons, they mark it special-like. Until healed, it counts as a String against them."

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.

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.

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.

That suggestion may or may not have been autobiographical.

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?

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?

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.

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."

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?

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.