Skin Deep

So, I think you are perfectly capturing a game I have been trying unsuccessfully to design for a few years now.

What skin do you think Jason Voorhees would be?

See, I've been thinking about this for a few days, after watching Freddy vs. Jason (the only Friday the 13th-related movie that the rental place still had in last Friday).

So, slasher guys don't exactly fit into Monsterhearts as is. They need some re-conceptualization. But Jason Voorhees, re-imagined as a horny teen looking for love? Yeah, we can work with that.

Jason Voorhees is either a Ghoul (hunger: chaos, all-consuming: at night), or an Infernal (dread benefactor: his dead mother).

Michael Meyers is a Ghost.

Freddy Krueger is a Witch, or a [secret Skin that I'm working on in secret and not telling people about].

Infernal works.

So the concept is exclusively horny teens looking for love?  Not monsters looking for love, period? Because Jason is an exception amongst the slashers. The movies really wash over this which I think does the character a disservice, but Jason is pretty clearly seeking the love and approval of his mother.

So the concept is exclusively horny teens looking for love?  Not monsters looking for love, period? Because Jason is an exception amongst the slashers. The movies really wash over this which I think does the character a disservice, but Jason is pretty clearly seeking the love and approval of his mother.

Okay, so, with this interpretation/understanding of Jason, he becomes a much more viable character for Monsterhearts.

My concern is that he's got a very static relationship with the rest of the world. He kills, he gets killed, end movie.

Now, if Jason were to have a love/hate relationship with another monstrous killer (say, Michael the Ghost), and were to spend more time trying to communicate with mother, and were to have a born-through-blood connection to the final girl (who subsequently becomes a fucked-up accomplice, but she's in love with him now, but he isn't in love with her due to his mommy issues, so they have this ugly emotional standoff)... then we'd be in business.

In short, Jason needs to be manipulable, by the people at the table - emotionally, sexually, physically.

Awesome. That sounds great.

So you couldn't really play a solitary monster then. They need to be pretty socially enmeshed?

Can I play a teenage Dexter (as he is in the TV series rather than the novels) in Monsterhearts?

Can I play a teenage Dexter (as he is in the TV series rather than the novels) in Monsterhearts?

Jason is an exception amongst the slashers. The movies really wash over this which I think does the character a disservice, but Jason is pretty clearly seeking the love and approval of his mother.

So, one option that's emerging is the possibility of a Slasher skin.

Possibly. I mean there's definitely room for them here, but maybe as whatever the Monsterhearts equivalent is of Threats.

Slashers are humans that exemplify monstosity. When I think of horror movie slashers (excluding supernatural ones like Freddy) they channel inhumanity like a superpower. Michael Myers and Jason both gain this immortality as they become more monstrous than any of the skins I see here.

On every occasion in the movies, if the slasher drifts back towards humanity it makes them vulnerable. One of the early Friday the 13th movies has a good example of this when a girl pretends to be Jason's mother and he falls to his knees in front of her. She takes advantage of this by slamming a machete into him. Similarly with the Halloween remake, at one point there is the possibility that Michael is chasing his sister because she's the only family he has left, and there's this part of him that loves her. Then she stabs or shoots him or something.

It makes me think of slashers like some sort of weird shaman, giving up humanity in favor of monstrosity for powers. However, as they're not monsters the standard they need to maintain is even greater. Otherwise they bleed again.

Apart from a complete retooling of slashers like you did above with Jason, I don't think they conform to the needs of the game. Dexter fits that model. But then he doesn't channel monstrousness, he channels a perverted sense of justice (especially after the first season).

Yeaaaah....

Plus serial killer =/= slasher, at least in my mind.

But I'm not sure whether either has a place in Monsterhearts.

Which is why I asked.  :)

I think they totally have a place in Monsterhearts, especially with regards to "show monsters' humanity, show humans' monstrosity." It's just a matter of how they fit.

On every occasion in the movies, if the slasher drifts back towards humanity it makes them vulnerable. One of the early Friday the 13th movies has a good example of this when a girl pretends to be Jason's mother and he falls to his knees in front of her. She takes advantage of this by slamming a machete into him. Similarly with the Halloween remake, at one point there is the possibility that Michael is chasing his sister because she's the only family he has left, and there's this part of him that loves her. Then she stabs or shoots him or something.

Hellraiser 2. The girl reminds the cenobites of their humanity, they turn on the doctor-turned-cenobite, and get stone-cold-murdered (but buying said girl enough time to temporarily escape).

One more thing, as soon as you have a playable versions of the Skins, I will play this. It might be a one-player game though and I don't know if that works with your rules (but I think it does).

Well, The Infernal, The Ghoul and The Fay are ready to rock. The Fay needs a stat-block still - just make it up.