Monster, What is Thine Heart For?

In Apocalypse World, motivations are clear. There is resource scarcity, and you got people trying to kill you, and you need to stake out a place in the world. Easy.

And if you're one of those classes that Vincent warns you won't have a constant instream of motivations, you still got that, 24/7. Some classes even have more motivation on top of that, like managing your town or leading your batshit-crazy cultists around.

Monsterhearts poses a new challenge, here. There is no material scarcity. While there is the threat of monstrous attack and weird violence, I imagine it being less immediate of a threat (unless you have your emotions at stake, which should happen all the time, if you're doing it right).

So, what is that motivation? What stops everyone from just accepting one another and having emotionally-validating sex with one another? What makes this a heartbreaking tragedy, in the most teenaged of senses?

I think that part of this comes into play when you look at the guiding principles, and how they drive situation. If the principles include Acceptance is Never 100% right at the top of the list, you've got a lot of the motivation right there.

What else?

What about control over other people?

You want her to love you, but she doesn't.
You want him to hunt the wicked, but he likes bleeding the innocent.
You want him to be safe, but he just wants to protect you.
You want her to think highly of you, but she thinks you're the spawn of Satan.

Some sort of conflation of barter and Hx?

Hey Sanglorian, cool!

Currently, there is a combination of barter+Hx+holds. It's called Strings. You get your fingers wrapped around their heart-strings, and suddenly you have a lot of power over what they do, what they don't do, and how they are feeling.

So there's that. And there's the principle that Acceptance Is Never 100%, and that Happiness Is Always At Someone Else's Expense.

And maybe that, coupled with a bunch of horny and violent teenage monsters, is all the motivation that there needs to be?

So there's that. And there's the principle that Acceptance Is Never 100%, and that Happiness Is Always At Someone Else's Expense.

And maybe that, coupled with a bunch of horny and violent teenage monsters, is all the motivation that there needs to be?

Given that these are teenagers, you might wish to add People Always Leap To The Worst Possible Conclusion.  How many times on one of these shows has someone been like, "I'm not sure I can meet you tomorrow night," and the person they're talking to goes, "What?  WHY DO YOU SUDDENLY HATE ME?!"

Quote from: mcdaldno on July 27, 2010, 10:33:09 AM

So there's that. And there's the principle that Acceptance Is Never 100%, and that Happiness Is Always At Someone Else's Expense.

And maybe that, coupled with a bunch of horny and violent teenage monsters, is all the motivation that there needs to be?

Given that these are teenagers, you might wish to add People Always Leap To The Worst Possible Conclusion.  How many times on one of these shows has someone been like, "I'm not sure I can meet you tomorrow night," and the person they're talking to goes, "What?  WHY DO YOU SUDDENLY HATE ME?!"

Yes. That's awesome.

Thank you.
Included.

Instead of scarcity tying people together, it's usually like, "we have to live among humans and pretend to be normal, but we'll never really fit in and always have to fear discovery."

Those principles are so spot on it fills me with glee.

(Though I think the Acceptance one will probably get rephrased at some point.)