Introduction

Having finally MCed my first game of Monsterhearts, I thought that the system could actually have worked rather well for a supernatural high school horror based game. It was played in the point-buy system and was influenced by a variety of anime, notably including X, The superpowers in the game did not correspond with classical monsters and the tone was less romance than Lord of the Flies at times, so I've reworked Monsterhearts basic actions a bit back in the direction of Apocalypse World, though the former remains the primary system.

Ludology:

Glossary:

Materials available for download

Monsterhearts (MH):

Apocalypse World (AW):

Tarot Hearts:

Character Creation

1) Pick a Suit and Stats

Choose your suit

Chose from Wands, Cups, Swords, Pentacles, or the Major Arcana. Each of the first four suits are called Minor Arcana and have certain standard traits.

Choose your stats

There are five stats Hot; Cold; Volatile; Dark; and Sharp. Only the four are contained in Monsterhearts Each of them tie into certain basic moves as well as special persona moves. The moves have been adopted wholesale or adapted from those listed in Monsterhearts and Apoc. World. For details on the basic moves, see the Tarot Hearts quick reference sheet.

Hot:
Cold:
Volatile:
Dark:
Sharp:

The basic moves are described in greater detail in the Tarot Hearts quick reference sheet,

Two get a +1, one gets a 0, two get a -1, and you then add one. However, your suit influences your choices. Sharp is not associated with any suits, because Arcana aren't so sharp.

2) Choose your Suit Persona

Choose your Suit Persona from MonsterHearts (representing your emotional needs. If you are not a Major Arcana, choose a persona that you have a +1 in, even if it is not one of the two favored by your suit.

Select your "Look" from the lists for this Persona. Take the Darkest Self (and call it Reversed Self) and Sex Move (and call it Intimacy Move) from this persona.

If necessary, adjust both to re-flavor supernatural elements that are not applicable to TarotHearts. You may rewrite your Intimacy Move to trigger off sharing an intimate moment if you like, in a manner that preserves the essence of the move (e.g. the vampire should be triggered by denying intimacy). Be sure that the trigger conditions are clear, intimacy may not be mutual, but it shouldn't be ambiguous. If the Intimacy Move just doesn't fit, you may choose one from a different Persona.

When your reversed self triggers, you may instead work with the MC to take control of the reversed card opposite number for your character. Their behavior and power set may be more elaborate than that described in your Reversed Self, the MC should help you with this. This Doesn't Belong here.

Below is the list of available personas, broken out by stats (All are from Monsterhearts; Web: Add-ons from the web; 2S: Second Skin Prototypes). Apoc. World Personas are not available as they don't quite fit the emotional tone as well.

3) Choose your Rank, Thematic Power, and Rank Persona

Rank

For the Minor Arcana the ranks go from Ace through ten, Page, Knight, Queen, King. There are twenty-two Major Arcana. Read over the descriptions, we largely used this site for inspiration, and pick one. Once you have your Rank, find a move that aligns well with the card you've choosen. This is the trickiest step, and you might want to just specify what you'd like and ask someone more experienced with the system to help you. However, you can also hunt through the Monsterhearts and Apoc. World personas to see what might fit.

Thematic Power

Your character will be able to manipulate fundamental forces of the universe that are thematically linked to your suit and card. You have broad leeway to define your theme, but should apply it with great consistency for any given character. Talk about your theme with the M.C. and work out a way to describe it in a sentence on your sheet.

Rank Persona

Choose any Monsterhearts Skin or an Apocalypse World Playbook that fits with your thematic power. This will be your rank person. Some creativity and adaption is required to find a good match. If you have trouble finding moves to represent your core powers, you can work with the MC to pick out thematic moves or craft custom moves in the next step. In these cases, improvements from your rank persona may not come into play until later in the game. You may delay this choice until after character creation and instead choose it when making an advancement in play.

4) Choose Two Improvements

You can choose two improvements, with options from both of your personas and thematic moves. Many personas have moves with filled in bubbles. You do not necessarily have to take them. That said, those moves are often necessary for other moves in the suit persona to work, so be sure to consider them. When considering your suit persona, pay special attention to moves relating to strings and experience, as they have the strongest persona ties.

Cornerstone Moves:
Some Monsterhearts personas split their power among a larger number of moves. For each of these personas that you choose, you have the option of automatically taking one of move listed below for free as a cornerstone moves. These are typically limited to moves with filled in bubbles. Be warned, these moves are often mixed blessings for your character and may dramatically shape their destiny. As a result, these moves may only be dropped in the future should you change you suit or rank persona. As a reminder, mark the relevant move on your sheet with an *.

Paired Moves:
Some improvements have separate components, but count as only a single improvement when taken or traded away. Some Apocalypse World features have a move that is key to their use. For these features, consider it, alongside the move in question, to be paired and to only count as a single move for all advancement purposes. These are considered paired move in large part because they also place requirements on the characters.

Choosing an improvement:

You may fine tune keywords and titles for these moves to suit your character, with MC approval. These adjustments should refocus the move, rather than changing its overall scope or magnitue.

Power Set Moves

Each Arcana has their own power set, which can be reflected by a range of your moves. Whether or not you choose any power set improvements, you should still narratively flesh out your powerset. For those abilities not effectively captured by your rank or suit persona, four additional improvements are available to all Arcana for Unleash [your power], Redirect the Flow, Flashy Support, Stand Overwatch. Please see the Rules Guide: Advanced Moves and Related Rules: Power Set Moves (pg 3) for an explaination of these rules. In addition, note that some special Arcana powers, such as the "Raise a Field" and "Battle field" are folded into the Hocus and BattleBabe.

Playing the game

Catchup Advancement

For instructions on advancing your character, see the Rules Guide: The Long Game: Proposing and Framing Scenes, Projects, and Advancement (pg 4). The MC may instruct you to give your character one or more seasons of catch up growth. For each season, your character may choose to add:

Characters

The original Arcana characters are available via a Google Doc.

Appendix

Adapting from Apocalypse World and MonsterHearts Apocalypse World HX moves just don't transfer over properly as they have been removed. Similarly, some MonsterHearts moves are less appropriate due to the the addition of sharp moves and differences in tone. For replaced moves, see Rules Guide: The Long Game: Replaced or Retained Persona Moves (pg 7-9)