thryth-gaming

[thryth-gaming]

Seras: Hey, so, I hear you've been empowered by your dead boyfriend's soul...

sword bf 💜⚔️

[thryth-gaming]

We're more like a queer Hallmark channel...

Last night MotW referring to Niamh's move from Searcher (S1) to Covenant (S2)

Player: What happened is we were a network show that got picked up by HBO and this is the HBO part.

Me: There's not nearly enough sex for this to be an HBO production. Aside from awkward flirting, the only thing sexy going on with Niamh is that she and Da-Hae share a room and a bed.

Player: Oh my god, you're roommates.

[thryth-gaming]

The Mummy and K-Pop Demon Hunters

Bisexual polyam had their turn.... (pink text on black background next to a collage of the cast of the Mummy)

...now it's time... (in purple text)

...for bisexual polyams to play. (blue text on black background next to shots of Huntrix and the Saja Boys)

[thryth-gaming]

Example of Playbook Change

A lot of times, you're going to have a playbook change happen between scenes or even between sessions. But sometimes, you have a moment where it just feels like to demonstrate it in play. That said, I suspect the level-up here actually occurred in the scene with Celine, but this scene very much feels like the moment where the player reveals how they just spent that level up.

[thryth-gaming]

Forgot to post here. </3

[thryth-gaming]

K-Pop Demon Hunter of the Week

Spoilers Ahead

---------------------------------------------------------------

So last night (or early this morning depending on how you're counting) I finally watched K-Pop Demon Hunters and was pleasantly surprised. You can find my general rambling impressions of it on my bluesky profile. I'm also going to post a link to this article about all the references to Korean culture in the story.

I've also done a short playlist of videos using bits from the movie as examples of how I approach the game. I tried to keep each video around a minute to 90 seconds, but I expand on them in the video descriptions.

Which Playbook to Use

Anyway, in monster of the week, there is often the question of which playbook or team playbook a particular character should be. Part of the confusion here is that any one fictional character could be easily represented by a number of different playbooks depending on what facet of their story you're talking about.

Some examples:

Batman fits The Wronged, The Gumshoe, The Covenant, and The Expert

Fox Mulder fits The Flake, The Professional, and The Searcher

Lara Croft fits The Crooked, The Hard Case, The Searcher, and sometimes The Wronged

This is less of a thing with team playbooks most of the time, but you do get exceptions. For example, let's look at Huntrix in K-Pop Demon Hunters since that's what's sparked this discussion in the first place.

Huntrix

Starting with the team as a whole we can look at the following

They fit the Chosen and Entourage with a "First Among Equals" style. All told, all three are "chosen" and objectively are equally required for their magic to properly function.

They fit several styles of the Storied Hunter Lineage because they have carried on a long tradition of performing shaman and exorcists. Rumi especially is blood descended from prior hunters.

They fit a "Superheroes with Fangs" Coven because they are a group of supernatural beings with related powers that have sworn an oath against evil.

They fit an "Ancient Oath" style of Guardians of the Borderlands since they are very much focused on keeping hostile entities from another reality out of their own world.

They fit the "Ancient Tradition" style for League of Double Lives due to how far back the hunter tradition goes and the amount of ways their public obligations intertwine with their hunter obligations.

And they fit the Touring Band team playbook explicitly because they are literally a trio of performing artists who use music to perform big magic and hunt monsters.

Looking at specific hunters. The movie gives a lot more focus to Rumi than to Mira and Zoey, but here's what I can see.

Note for people new to Monster of the Week: gameplay does not allow the same playbook to be active on more than one character. The idea is that even if each character shares elements of a playbook, likely only one of them will make it part of her core personality and narrative focus.

So I can't make them all Chosen or all Spooktacular. Not... directly.

All Three

They each can fit the Spellslinger playbook as they are combat spellcasters.

They each can fit the Spooktacular because they are members of a traveling supernatural show. Though one with better funding than most.

They each can fit the Celebrity because they are all famous people whose performing career is rooted in the occult.

They each can fit the Initiate as they are members of an ancient, if small, sect of monster hunters.

They each can fit the Chosen as wielders of magical weapons literally selected to fight evil with supernatural powers.

Mira

The Hard Case fits somewhat because she seems to be more focused on confrontation and conflict than the other two.

The Abandoned fits due to how she was neglected by her family for not fitting the mold.

Zoey

The Mundane fits because she's very much the heart of enthusiasm and supporting her friends.

The Flake is an obtuse fit if you focus on manic energy more than information gathering. Also fits her being the main lyricist.

Rumi

The Changeling fits because she is unaware of how to deal with her demon heritage and has been actively lied to about it. This would center on her ignorance about her self.

The Monstrous fits because she's half-demon and she is actively struggling with how her demonic nature is progressing. This would center on how her nature makes her suffer.

Handling these Overlaps

There are several ways to handle these overlapping concepts and for hunters, a lot of them are built right into the system as it exists.

For hunters, taking moves from another playbook and changing playbooks both covers these situations. This lets you contextualize the hunter's main theme with these other applicable themes. And if you feel like you have wrapped up a particular story arc, then you can change playbooks and focus on a different core theme moving forward.

When all the hunters share a common theme together, that's what team playbooks are for. For example, all three members of Huntrix could be the Celebrity, so you could represent that by deciding "we're all going to take a Celebrity move or two" but it might be better to hit that theme via a Team Playbook that hits it as a shared aspect.

EDIT: Especially in this case where the Celebrity aspect is equal between all three characters. You'll notice I do chose a playbook that is a shared concept for Rumi later. This is because the amount that Rumi interacts with that particular story arc is more intense than it is with Mira and Zoey.

So, overlapping, shared concepts on the hunter scale are easily addressed within existing frameworks. And I discuss this in more detail in the Slayer's Survivor Kit (as promised, I'm now linking it's store front it's not yet on itch, when it hits there, community copies will be available for people to get the books for free. Community copies are funded when other people add money to support pdf copies being made available. I myself funded 3 community copies). Overlapping themes for a whole team is a bit trickier since Team Playbooks aren't meant to change often if at all, but they can still use each others' asset and move lists.

Some teams do have additional mechanics that aren't normally in the list of moves that can be picked-up by other Team Playbooks, but as with hunters being able to borrow other playbooks' mandatory and unstated moves, it feels like something that can be done here as well... and while I don't think it's very necessary, I might be doing a little of that here.

The Build

Okay, moving on from general discussion of the game and approaching it to the specific build.

Monster of the Week in general assumes that a hunter has been doing monster hunting for a while before the first mystery happens. They all have a presumption of at least one major supernatural encounter, often more than that. So the fact that Huntrix are an experienced hunting team doesn't require giving them level ups... but... I think it is something that can be done for a shorter game like a one-shot or limited run story. And also, it's just fun and will help me show the broader build a bit here.

So, what am I looking at here is:

5 Team advances

7 Hunter advances each

Yes, this is a lot, and I anticipate not being totally satisfied. This is usually why I prefer to build low level characters and then work up to a more experienced version (reminds me I need to finish reading Katalepsis book one... finally). Building straight to high level always makes me worried I've left a narrative or mechanical hole somewhere and while mechanical isn't terribly important in a theoretical fan build, the narrative is an important thing.

But the key thing is that the movie feels like a complete story, so I feel like I should represent that by building them as a late game team.

The Huntrix

The two I come down to at center are League of Double Lives and Touring Band, and I am going to lean into Touring Band for this.

For style, there's the following options:

Pop which K-Pop is a variation of, though it's end session question is "Did we look awesome?" and that doesn't feel like it hits the core of the Huntrix.

Hip-Hop has the end-session question of "did we improve things for the local community?" which fits the core idea and Hip-Hop has a lot of influence on K-Pop.

Punk has the end-session question of "Did we fight for the downtrodden?" which fits the core as well, but is a very different style of music.

So instead, I'm going with the custom option and creating the following:

Idol Singer, at the end of each session ask "Did we uplift our fans?"

Team Enemy and Allies are easy

Team Enemy: Gwi-Ma, a demon king of shame, anxiety, and self-hatred.

Team Ally: Bobby (I considered the Fandom... but that's basically what the move Famous gives them)

For the first Team Move ... that's a little harder for finding one to start with because they all fit so well (so well that while I had initially intended to borrow moves from other team playbooks, I ended up taking four out of the five Touring Band moves instead). But I'm going to start with "Famous" because that's what the movie hits you with right off the bat.

For Team Asset... I'm going to give them something custom as well. Depending on how each table feels this would be a one-point or two-point asset and it is "Signature Weapons", which I will design like Chosen weapons. Since this is a theoretical I'm going to go for a single point and spend the second point on Home Venue.

Technically, I could have had the hunters pick-up a Chosen weapon as another playbook's move, but I feel like if you're using a Team Playbook, then this sort of whole-team thing feels better as a team thing.

As to advances I'm giving them the following:

Two points of Assets: Slush Fund (from Always on the Road) and Studio

Two point of Assets: Headquarters

Team Move: In the Groove

Team Move: Sacred Songs of Power

Team Move: Hit It

Those moves do the following:

For the Signature Weapons I went with the following. I linked an article above for where I got their names, but I'm going to re-link it here. It has some neat concept art.

Rumi's Four Tiger Sword (2-Harm Hand Holy Focus)

Form: Handle (1-Harm Hand Balanced)

Business End: Blessed (add "Holy"), Blade (+1 Harm), Focus (+1 to first weird move in a new location)

Material: Soul Energy

Mira's Gokdo (3-Harm Hand/Close Heavy Holy)

Form: Haft (2-Harm Hand Heavy)

Business End: Blessed (add "Holy"), Blade (+1 Harm), Long (add the "close" range)

Material: Soul Energy

Zoey's Shinkal (1-Harm Intimate/Hand/Close Holy)

Form: Handle (1-Harm Hand Heavy)

Business End: Blessed (add "Holy"), Throwable (add the "Close" range), Tiny (add the "Intimate" range)

Material: Soul Energy

As a note: everyone here has Use Magic as their basic weird move.

EDIT: I'm walking this back. I'm instead giving them all Benevolence where the manifestation is music. This works well with how their powers crack a bit when they're not so honest with themselves and their motivations. And also how their supernatural aspect is more subtle with less in the way of discrete spells.

Rumi

For Rumi, of all the playbooks that she could fit, the one I think best fits her is the Chosen, because while all three of the characters are Chosen, the duty and the destiny is very much the focus of Rumi's story.

So, to that regard, I'm going to start with determining Rumi's Chosen Fate. This involves two Heroic and two Doom tags. For that I think I'll go with the following.

Heroic: You can save the world, Mystical Inheritance

Doom: Sympathy with the Enemy, Doubt

I considered Treachery to cover both her aunt's toxic approach to raising Rumi and encouraging her to hide herself and lie to her friends and also her own lies toward them... but I think Sympathy with the Enemy covers her core conflict more fully and Doubt very heavily outweighs Treachery.

One of Rumi's vocal lines is "I know I'll believe" indicating that she doesn't yet believe but she hopes she will soon.

For moves, she takes the mandatory ones: Destiny's Plaything and I'm Here For a Reason. I'm also giving her Dutiful.

(honestly, Rumi having an XP generating move should realistically mean she gets one or two extra advances, but eh, I'm fine with this)

I'm not giving her a second Chosen weapon over the one I'm giving the whole team. But that's fine, to be honest.

For ratings, she has to have a high Charm and a decent weird given the magical nature of her task, so let's see what's available.

Not much with both good Charm and good weird to be honest. But that can be where some of her advances go. I'm going to play around with shuffling one of the ratings (allowed as long as you hit the same balance per Mike Sands) so I think I'll give her the following:

Charm +1

Cool -1

Sharp +1

Tough +1

Weird +2

Now, moving on to her advances. I'm giving her +1 to Cool, bringing it to +0. She has some of the most obvious emotional control problems, but she's also good at teamwork, so that feels like it should at least be average. I'm giving her +1 to Charm, bringing that to +2 because its sort of her main thing, and +1 to Tough, bringing that to +2 as well, because she's good in a fight.

I'm giving her The Big Entrance as another Chosen move. I'm giving her Dark Desires from Pararomantic as something she learned during the story to explain her manipulating Jinu since monsters can't normally be manipulated.Then I'm giving her "There's Always Tomorrow" from the Abandoned (a stretch goal from Slayer's Survival Kit, not yet officially released, but it was publicly available to backers and playtesters, so it's out there, as a note, that's why it is formatted differently from the other two moves in the graphic below... I only have the working files to paste from).

And then I'm doing something interesting.

I'm going to change her playbook to The Divine.

When this happens, the hunter is making a statement that their former playbook just isn't who they are anymore. They will likely keep several aspects of the former playbook and it will continue being relevant, but their focus, the core of their story, has fundamentally changed. This could be that their former story has concluded with tragedy, and they had to change. Or it could be that they turned away from that former story and went in an entirely new direction without finishing that road. In this case, I think it is because Rumi transcends her prior story into a new one.

At this point, I think she has moved past her Fate and replaced it with a Mission. She'll keep Dutiful but drop Destiny's Playing because it never really appears during the story. This is not to say that Divine is an upgrade to Chosen. In fact, another plausible direction would be to have a hunter who starts as the Divine and moves to the Chosen if they start to lose certainty in what they're doing. A Divine's mission is crystal clear even if they might have doubts about themselves or even the mission. A Chosen's Fate is very foggy, uncertain, and often confusing. So a Divine that begins to see past the surface on their mission could easily transcend their Mission into a Chosen's Fate representing their desire to seek something better but not knowing exactly what that is.

Regardless, whether the shift is positive (as in this case) or tragic, changing a playbook is like moving on to a new chapter in your life.

I considered Envoy, but the direct nature of her role is more Divine. Envoy's are indirect, guides, watchers... They're Gandalf from Lord of the Rings or Kosh from Babylon 5. They help but they tend to it more by guiding others to help themselves or use shady, behind the scenes methods. Rumi is a champion, she places herself between danger and the people and gives them courage to embolden themselves. So, Envoy wasn't a good fit.

And I believe this happens right before the last scene of the movie, in the scene where she confronts her aunt. My thought is that she triggers Dutiful in that scene, gains an XP and immediately transcends into The Divine. So she has a few runs of very bad rolls (low rolls grant XP in Monster of the Week) followed by a moment of making a decision about her life.

For Mission I'm doing a unique one "uplift and protect humanity".

She then gets three Divine moves which I'm going to make Angel Wings (yes, I know she only ever teleports once), Soothe, Cast Out Evil. (I considered Smite, but think Cast Out fits narratively better... perhaps Gwi-ma is destroyed at the end, but it's also possible she banished him before the girls then reformed the Honmoon.)

I did consider improving one of her stats, probably Charm, to +3, but overall I think the moves are more important narratively than a bonus. I also considered Advancing some of her basic moves, but honestly, I think the big things she does at the end are covered by Cast Out Evil and There's Always Tomorrow. And there are quite a few playbook moves that feel like advanced versions of basic moves.

Mira

My choice of Abandoned here hinges almost entirely on Mira's line of "I don't get to have a family." near the end of the movie. Since the Abandoned was built toward the idea of someone who appreciates the value and precious nature of friendship and family, but also has had it stolen in the past and thus is constantly afraid it will be lost again.

Starting with moves, I'm going to choose her Abandonment as Neglected, on the idea that her family had no patience for her behavior and thus basically pretended like she didn't exist.

For her starting two Abandoned moves I'm giving her Underdog and Trust Issues.

This means that when something happens to put her on the back foot (such as being severely injured or disoriented) then she has a benefit that helps her carry on.

For ratings, I'm going to do a bit of juggling again and go with the following.

Charm -1

Cool +1

Sharp +0

Tough +2

Weird +1

So, Abandoned doesn't normally have a +2 Tough option, but this felt good. I'll raise the Charm with level ups, but she's the least sociable of the three, so this feels fine. She's a competent ritualist and keeps her head in the game well, so +1 Cool and Weird felt right. And is definitely very much about fighting.

Which brings us to her improvements.

I'm going to give her +1 to Charm to bring it to +0 and +1 to Cool and Weird to bring them both to +2, which makes her so far the best at teamwork and resisting hazards... and she feels like the anchor of the team, so that seems right.

I'm giving her Furnace from Hard Case so she has a building Fire meter that she can burn off for bonuses. Then Tactical Genius from the Professional so she can get a good tactical read out of the situation. I'm also giving her another Abandoned move in the form of Mostly at Night.

Then getting to the advanced improvements I'm raising her Charm again to +1 and then I think changing her playbook as well, because I feel like this ends her Abandoned story arc definitively.

And I think it's going to go to the Hard Case. She's already got Furnace, so that carries over. I think she keeps Underdog and Mostly at Night, but drops Trust Issues.

For her Hard Knocks Choice, I'm going with Street Fighter. I'm not sure she actually did a lot of streetfighting, but it does fit under the term "wild" and fits better than any of the other options. Especially since it talks about fighting alongside an ally. I'm not sure that's meant to include other hunters since "ally" is a game term, but I'd play it that way at my table.

Then she gets two Hard Case moves. So, I'm giving her Always Angry and Stone Cold.

And that wraps her up. Once again, I did consider a +3 stat or advanced moves, but I'm thinking I'm keep the characters at about the same level.

Zoey - Original Version and Reasonings

EDIT: I was not happy with this version, but kept the discussion in for reference and showing why I felt a bit scattered in my approach here.

As a character for whom her abilities as lyricist are the most front and center, that's what I'm going with here. And to start with, I'm going to pick her show as "Problem Solvers"

Then she gets two Spooktacular moves and I'm choosing Easygoin' and Pay it Backward which do the following:

For ratings, I'm choosing the following (doing a bit of slight juggling of ratings again.):

Charm +2

Cool +1

Sharp +1

Tough -1

Weird +0

So, really good with people off the bat, not so good in a fight initially, but observant and cool under pressure while being okay at magic stuff. Don't worry, I have a plan. It might not be the most efficient, but it feels cool.

Now, on to improvements. I'm giving her +1 Sharp to bring it to +2 and +1 Weird to bring it to +1. Then I'm giving her a second show option in the form of "Supernatural Creatures" which I will then use to give her the "Ancient Fighting Arts" move from Initiate... that kinda stretches the definition of a "supernatural move" but her martial arts is magic and she's using a type of knife often used in rituals to cast out evil, so it fits.

Then I'm giving her Area of Study: Violence from Action Scientist so that she can Kick Ass with Sharp. And Expert Troll from Interface to represent her skill with lyrics and diss-tracks.

As for Violence, the way I'd run it for Zoey is give her the +1 Harm or +1 Forward if she describes herself doing something particularly clever with the nature of her magic knife.

Then for her last two, I'm going to give her another +1 Weird and I considered changing her playbook as well, just for symmetry, but then I don't think she particularly did or needed to conclude her act as a performer. I suppose I could change her to Celebrity or Mundane, both fit in ways. But I think instead, I'll leave her as a Spooktacular. And Instead give her another basic advancement by giving her a third Spooktacular move in the form of Put on a Show.

Which wraps up Zoey.

However, this build does leave out my solution for the -1 Tough making her bad at Protect Someone... Ancient Fighting Arts brings that to +0, but originally I was going to get Let's Get Out of Here from Mundane which would let her protect someone using Charm. Still... I think this is okay.

Zoey - Rework Version and Reasonings

Okay, reworking Zoey, originally I wasn't sure how to portray her and settled on Spooktacular. Emphasis on settled. Anyway, while Spooktacular is a story I don't think it's Zoey's story. At least not in the movie. I'm planning on using it as something she moves into. Instead I'm going to focus on her eagerness to please.

The immediate playbook that occurred to me for that story line was the Sidekick, but Zoey is nobody's sidekick. The movie doesn't focus on her or Mira as much as it does Rumi... BUT it is very clear that Zoey doesn't hero worship either of her friends, nor does she idol worship Celine during the movie. She is very much her own person.

So, I discounted that. I'm not sure why I discounted the Mundane, I'm usually very pro-Mundane. I think it was because Mundane is often seen as the "get into trouble" playbook and I think of it as the playbook that is in over the head but trying to help as much as they can. But on re-thinking, Zoey fits the Mundane fairly well.

I'm also going to be taking a less convoluted approach to giving her combat skills this time and not over worry about silly things like "one of them has to be the 'smart one'" or being self-congratulatory on coming up with something "clever". There's nothing wrong with those when approaching a new character, but when theorycrafting a fictional one, it's best to consider story first.

Actually... it's always best to approach things story first in Monster of the Week or similar games. However, when you're dealing with a new character and so much undefined being the smart one or having clever and strange move synergies becomes part of the story rather than working against it.

Anyway, let's start with Zoey's ratings. I'm going with the following:

Charm +2

Cool +1

Sharp +0

Tough +1

Weird -1

So, all Mundane's have Charm +2, that's a set thing. I also set her as being good at Cool to start, so that would mean handling hazards and teamwork. Tough is also at +1 meaning she's good in a fight. Sharp is average (for a hunter, probably better than average for a civie), which is a major departure from the first build, but really, these women are more about teamwork and heart than about investigative skill.

After saying that, someone might look at Rumi's final Cool of +0 and wonder about giving her average teamwork, but realize that she's just barely broken down her emotional walls, so it feels good.

Anyway, moving on to Zoey's moves. The Mundane doesn't have any mandatory or unstated moves, so I'm taking the following three.

What could go wrong and The Power of Heart are great moves for a more battle-ready Mundane a la Steve Harrington or Enid Sinclair. Let's Get Out of Here is the least on point here but is still very possible for Zoey to be good at basically rapping someone out of danger.

Which brings us straight to her improvements (Mundane is one of the simpler playbooks).

Giving her +1 Sharp, bringing that to +1. +1 Tough bringing her on par with the other two at +2 as well as a +1 Cool. I'm then having her borrow Expert Troll still (see the original build). And I'm also giving her Ancient Fighting Techniques (again see the original build).

Then I'm going to give her a +1 Weird, Mundane doesn't have a +1 Weird option available in the basic improvements, but it does have the normal +1 any in the advanced, so I'm using that. And finally... I'm going to change her to the Spooktacular. In a similar vein as with the others, I'm feeling like this would be a way to convey Zoey settling her concerns as to whether she actually belongs or not and accepted that, yes, she belongs here.

Another way to handle all of these ideas is to pick the improvement "Retire this hunter to safety" and assume that whatever other hunting they do in the future is pretty drama-free. However, I expect Huntrix still has stories ahead, hence the playbook change.

So now let's go back to Zoey's playbook change and this is going to be easy, because it's going to be the moves I gave her in the original build. This time I'll put on Put on a Show in the first two along with Pay it Backward (I really like the potential of that move for creating DRAMA). And for the type Show, Problem Solvers. I actually don't think that she drops anything from Mundane when she changes playbooks.

Side note, this version of Zoey is REALLY good at protecting people. When she's using her weapons and martial arts to protect someone, she gets a +3 to her roll due to Ancient Fighting Arts. And if she's in a position where she can't use violence she can use words and get a +2 on the roll still.

So that leaves us with the collective and excuse me as I grab the format from my Katalepsis write-ups.

Huntrix

Team Playbook: Touring Band

Team Style: Idol Singer

Team Ally: Bobby

Team Enemy: Gwi-ma

Team Move: Famous, Hit It!, Sacred Songs of Power, In the Groove

Team Assets: Signature Weapons, Home Venue, Headquarters, Slush Fund, Studio

Improvements

Take another Team Playbook move: Hit It!

Take another Team Playbook move: Sacred Songs of Power

Take another Team Playbook move: In the Groove

Take two points of Team Assets: Slush Fund and Studio

Take two points of Team Assets: Headquarters

-------

Rumi - The Chosen The Divine

Charm +2

Cool +0

Sharp +1

Tough +2

Weird +2

Fate: We Are Hunters

Heroic: You can save the world, Mystical Inheritance

Doom: Sympathy with the Enemy, Doubt

Mission: Uplift and protect humanity

Moves

Basic Weird Move: Benevolence

Chosen Moves: Destiny's Plaything, I'm Here For a Reason, Dutiful, The Big Entrance

Divine Moves: Angel Wings, Soothe, Cast Out Evil

Borrowed Moves: Dark Desires (Pararomantic), There's Always Tomorrow (Abandoned)

Harm: 0/7 (Unstable at 4, Dead at 8)

Weapons:

Four Tiger Sword - 2 Harm Hand Holy Focus

Improvements

Get +1 Cool, max +3

Get +1 Charm, max +3

Get +1 Tough, max +3

Take another Chosen move: The Big Entrance

Take a move from another playbook: Dark Desires (Pararomantic)

Take a move from another playbook: There's Always Tomorrow (Abandoned)

Change this hunter to a new type.

-------

Mira - The Abandoned The Hard Case

Charm +1

Cool +2

Sharp +0

Tough +2

Weird +2

Moves

Basic Weird Move: Benevolence

Abandonment: Neglected

Hard Knocks: Street Fighter

Abandoned Moves: Underdog, Trust Issues, Mostly at Night

Hard Case Moves: Furnace, Stone Cold, Always Angry

Borrowed Moves: Tactical Genius (Professional)

Harm: 0/7 (Unstable at 4, Dead at 8)

Weapons:

Gokdo (3-Harm Hand/Close Heavy Holy)

Improvements

Get +1 Cool, max +3

Get +1 Charm, max +3

Get +1 Weird, max +2

Take another Abandoned move: Mostly at Night

Take a move from another playbook: Furnace (Hard Case)

Take a move from another playbook: Tactical Genius (Professional)

Change this hunter to a new type

-------

Zoey - The Mundane The Spooktacular

Charm +2

Cool +2

Sharp +1

Tough +2

Weird +0

Moves

Basic Weird Move: Benevolence

Show: Problem Solvers

Mundane Moves: What Could Go Wrong?, Let's Get Out of Here, The Power of Heart

Spooktacular Moves: Pay it Backward, Put on a Show

Borrowed Moves: Expert Troll (Interface), Ancient Fighting Arts (Initiate)

Harm: 0/7 (Unstable at 4, Dead at 8)

Weapons:

Shinkal (1-Harm Intimate/Hand/Close Holy) - 2 Harm due to Ancient Fighting Arts

Improvements

Get +1 Sharp, max +2

Get +1 Tough, max +2

Get +1 Cool, max +2

Take a move from another playbook: Expert Troll (Interface)

Take a move from another playbook: Ancient Fighting Arts (Initiate)

Get +1 to any rating, max +3 (Weird)

Change this hunter to a new type: Spooktacular

------------------

There we go. EDIT: Now with a reworked Zoey... the below I wrote before reworking Zoey.

As a side note... I'm aware that the three characters can all see magic things that normals can't. Rather than give them all The Sight somehow, I just assumed that was a convention of the setting. Likewise, when they're flying at the end of the movie, that could be a side-effect of the big magic they were just part of, so I also didn't look for ways to add Flight into their builds.

I also originally planned to give them all at least one Abandoned move for each of them, but I failed when I got to Zoey. There's a limit of two more moves from your own playbook and two more moves from other playbooks in advances... unless you change playbooks. And I think I let mechanics get the better of me by wanting at least one of them to have high Sharp and then opting for a convoluted way of representing her fighting skill to compensate for low Tough.

On top of this, I definitely wanted her to have Expert Troll to denote her skill with diss tracks.

Basically, I had clear perspectives on Mira and Rumi, but my approach to Zoey was unfairly scattered. So I may come back to this later to edit it.

EDIT: I'm much happier with the reworked Zoey. Though I still didn't get her an Abandoned move, I think the Mundane moves fit the niche.

[thryth-gaming]

Level Up Plans

Me: So, when I leveled up last session, I took the move "Get Away From Them!" for my Abandoned.

Keeper(GM): Okay, what's that do?

Me: At start of session I get 2 Hold I can use to boost other hunters fighting the same monster as me because they get protective of me.

Keeper: Okay, cool.

Me: Later, I'm planning on taking "Always the Victim" which gives me XP when I get captured and gives the other Hunters XP when they rescue me.

Keeper: So, you're saying people are really going to be wanting to save you and protect you.

Me: Yep!

Keeper: Remind me what's your basic weird move again?

Me: Centipede Host!

Keeper: So, everybody's going to be lining up to protect the girl who periodically spawns monstrous centipedes from her body.

Me: Yep!

Keeper: Awesome.

[thryth-gaming]

It's finally in my hands!

And... of course... I immediately filled out both the casebooks with my 2-season veteran, the wereshark Searcher turned Covenant, Niamh Miller, and my newbie, 1-session under her belt, Sil, the Abandoned.

[thryth-gaming]

Are you dangerous?

The Professional in a lonely facility in the woods, sent there to recue a girl with next to no information. Finds my character in a fake 80s sitcom style house that sealed up as a cage.

GM: You've been asked to put down a lot of dangerous creatures that escaped or lost their usefulness. But now you're being asked to rescue you.

Professional: Are you dangerous?

My Abandoned: Wellll… Punky Brewster held tilt on a girl around 17-19 years old

GM: Roll Investigate a mystery.

Professional: 2 questions, what can it do? What kind of creature is it?

GM: What does he see.

Me: You didn't see them before in the darkness of the fake yard, but you're now seeing lots of dead centipede husks around the room and you might remember having seen a file somewhere about a bloodline that can produce centipedes from their body.

Professional: Oh boy….

[thryth-gaming]

We're gearing up for a very packed summer, Adventurers. So we're officially declaring it #HotSquadSummer Stay tuned for more details and updates about our upcoming shows. Let us know if we'll be seeing you at any of them! 🍁🍂✨

[thryth-gaming]

Parking and Motorbikes

Robot ally driving car first time: bumps over my Covenant's motorcycle (a rice rocket)

"Oh, that's not bad, just one motorcycle."

My Covenant: blink

The Flake: Hey… we have a job to do.

My Covenant about to spend a relaxing day with her non-hunting friends: blink

The Flake: Are you mad?

My Covenant: I'm not mad at you or the robot PC.

Robot ally completely missing they're not listed: Cool, should we go to the job then?

[thryth-gaming]

Supernatural containment

My Covenant: [The Professional] gave this doll to me because he thinks I can handle it better… which is probably true.

Covenant's GF: Okay, what is it?

My Covenant: A doll containing the soul of a witch who was impersonating Hecate and who stole memories from me.

Covenant's GF: Ahh… was it this creepy before?

My Covenant: I don't know, I didn't put her in the doll.

Covenant's GF: Right… gets empty server box … we're putting that in here.

[thryth-gaming]

Adventures in Blaektor - MotW

tonight on MotW, when the players split up all on their own…..

The Monstrous, "I'm hungry, I'm going to go deal with that… whoa, why is everyone suddenly think I'm hot! I can't take this right now… oh, hmmm, is that a monster coyote?" (hunter took Unnatural Appeal, rolled low on using it, and I described it as they were getting too much attention to get alone)

The Spooky, "well, the spirit thing attached to me is hiding, so my powers are gone… time to B&E on a cultist headquarters oh, hey, they're about to sacrifice someone (also, nice mystic library, don't mind if I do)."

The Celebrity, after being deep into corkboarding "Hey, look guys, I've learned a … hey, where'd everybody go? Well… I guess I'll investigate this person myself, sure hope I don't trigger an alarm that alerts the police."

[thryth-gaming]

Harmony

I have an idea that's making me cackle a bit.

Harmony's a scruffy young woman in her mid-20s who has a frame that should probably be carrying more weight than it is, but would still be somebody that gets tarred as too heavy be people with a magazine's understanding of properly healthy body weight. She's had a couple of doctors comment on the situation and either suggest the possibility of an eating disorder or, arguably worse, trying to push to lose more weight because apparently medical education does not apply to proper diagnosis of women. The actual problem is low wages. She often appears distracted with difficulty focusing on people speaking to her, sometimes turning her attention to either her right or her left or occasionally snapping out in a request for some quiet to let her think. She wears t-shirts, a hoodie, and jeans with old tennis-shoes and cycles through about five outfits she keeps in a camping backpack.

Harmony is beset by the images of two beings.

One presents herself as a severe, dark-haired woman in an outfit that blurs the line between military and religious. Two furry canine ears peek out of the long black hair tied up into a precise bun and a fluffy black tail slips out from her lower back. She calls herself Selene and her stance is as precise and strict as her speech and appearance. She tends to constantly point out to Harmony the various things she could be doing to help people around her, usually without any consideration for Harmony's own needs.

The second is a scruffy woman with disheveled tangled white-grey hair cut, or more accurately hacked short, to about shoulder length. She lounges about the environment with a broad sharp-toothed smile, scratching at her matted furry white ears and swishing her great white-grey tail about while making references to fairy-tale wolves and pushing Harmony to think of all the things she could be doing for herself, often in total disregard for other people that may be affected. She calls herself Flea.

Selene pushes her guilt, Flea pushes her poor impulse control, and their inability to see the value in the other's position or Harmony's agency is what leads to her self-destruction. If she could just get them to work together and with her, maybe she could find a balance, instead she lives in a chaos where her life is giving in to one or another's insistence while both believe their perspective is the appropriate one.

Ratings

Charm -1

Cool +1

Sharp +0

Tough +1

Weird +2

The Dark Side

Poor Impulse Control

Self-Destruction

Guilt

Moves

Basic Weird Move: Use Magic

Spooky Moves: Hex, Jinx, The Sight

Gear

.38 revolver (2-harm close reload loud)

Big knife (1-harm hand)

[thryth-gaming]

sigh... posted to wrong blog....

Arc 14 - Ensemble Play

Okay. This arc. So much happens this arc. In terms of chapter count, this is the third largest act at 18 chapters. Arc 15 coming up is a little bit longer 19 chapters, and the final arc of this book has 38.

So, let's talk about Ensemble play. This is a new set of optional rules that are coming out as a stretch goal for Hunter's Journal and Slayer's Survival Kit. Essentially, each player creates two characters, each with a smaller amount of Luck, and then alternates which of their characters they play as the game goes along.

This is very much not how this story started. There is a core set characters in the form of Heather, Raine, and Evee and the cast has spiraled out from those three. However, with the ability to create a second character, there has always been the option to develop into basically the same sort of play approach where players all have multiple characters but switch back and forth between them. My first game ended up sort of like this where we ended up running two or three mysteries simultaneously and spreading the players set of four hunters and numerous allies across all the various activities going on.

Ensemble is great to represent stories like this one where there are numerous characters who all seem to have equivalent or near equivalent levels of importance and agency. If you think about times when Heather is unconscious or otherwise out of action but things are still going on, that could be part of the explanation. In this regard, I think Heather's player only has the one character and my reasoning for that is that I would otherwise expect some perspective jumping.

(Of course, the real reason is that I'm reframing a first perspective story as a TTRPG game, and yes I will continue to point that out in these posts, HY deserves all the credit)

So, in terms of the action and investigation side of things there's two main bits here and they mostly focus on action involving Lozzie, Seven-Shades-of-Sunlight and Heather. This isn't to say that Evee, Praem, and Raine aren't involved. In the first segment they and Zheng are absolutely dealing with stuff going on around Heather's astral surgery. They likely also eventually figured out something was up when Heather didn't come back later after what was meant to be a small jaunt and back, but we're not going to learn about that until later. Twil doesn't seem to be involved in this arc.

I'm going to go ahead and give Evee, Raine, and Praem one improvement each. Then I'm going to bank another two improvements for them for once we see what's happened with them while Heather was elsewhere. I'm going to give Heather four improvements now because she's in every situation and I think she had a bit more action than any other character.

As for the other characters, for now I'm setting Twil aside, but I'm bringing in Zheng, Lozzie, and Sevens from the bonus thing I did. Tenny is around, but isn't pushing the narrative much yet, so leaving her as an ally for now here. Now, as to improvements, Zheng and Lozzie are each getting two, with one banked for Zheng til later. Then I'm giving Sevens three improvements.

Finally, I'm giving the Team three improvements. So, all told:

Heather - Four improvements

Evee - One improvement, two banked

Raine - One improvement, two banked

Praem - One improvement, two banked

Zheng - One improvement, one banked

Lozzie - Two improvements

Seven - Three improvements

Twil - off-camera

Nicole - off-camera

Tenny - ally for now

Team - Three improvements

This is starting to look a bit more like a standard MotW series where all the players are at various amounts of experience but generally all pretty close. That's one thing about this that has been a bit unrealistic in this process, that I've kept them at about the same number of improvements for my own convenience.

So, let's start with the Team playbook first. I'm going to fill out some capabilities. One of the improvements is going to two points of assets which will give them a Mystical Workshop... which sort of builds up on the stuff they got back when I had them in the Coven team playbook. A second improvement goes toward another team move in the form of Wardens, which allows them to once per session ignore all damage from one source or treat one roll as a 12. This functions exactly like spending a Luck point but does not trigger Luck moves. The move is vague on whether it means once for each character or once for the team as a whole. I'm going to assume it is once per character. I'm going to say the third improvement, or possibly first, was the team forcing a confrontation with the Team Enemy: the Lilburne Family. And, yes, one of the options for a Team Improvement is to have a mystery revolving around the enemy. At least half of that is the situation with the dead hands, but I'm expecting a further involvement with the family coming up soon.

Now, to Heather.

First, I'm going to give her a new Changeling move, which will be the second she's taken in leveling and thus the last (unless she changes playbooks and starts borrowing from this one). This will be a way to indicate her growing tolerance for "slipping". I had overlooked this move for her previously as my default assumption when I made it involved physically walking (or driving) between worlds. But honestly, it can easily be reframed to fit what Heather does and that is:

Then I was going to give her Just Another Day from The Searcher which lets her act under pressure with Weird instead of Cool... assuming the situation is supernatural in nature. But Raine already has that and while I've done this before, I prefer to avoid doubling moves within the same team.

Instead I'm giving her something that gives her better survivability when dealing with supernatural weirdness:

This will really help her with slipping around. It's important to note that even if she reduces harm to 0, that does not necessarily prevent pain. There's a list of "Harm moves" that the Keeper can do when a character receives Harm and this includes 0 Harm:

So, if her familiarity with zones of strangeness reduces Harm to 0, she can still be "momentarily inhibited" or take a -1 forward. And that feels like some of the more passing bits of post slip discomfort she's experiencing now. She doesn't as often hit the intense pain feel.

She's also gotten a lot better at managing her abyssal impulses and meshing them with her human ones. So I'm going to have her remove the "Strange Thoughts" tag. Now, an important caveat here is that the thoughts in question don't go away, it's more that Heather has acclimated to them and resolved most (not all) of the conflict between her human and abyssal sides. It's not gone, it's just become less of a problem. Basically, they're no longer strange.

I'm also going to finally address the way she interacts with inhuman entities on the regular now by giving her the Dark Negotiator move from Monstrous. Heather's approach is a mix of abyssal posturing, sheer nerve, and a bit of "I'm way too tired to care".

She also does a lot of threatening to inflict creatures with secondhand embarrassment and/or shame via her developing catchphrase "I will be very upset, I might cry."

And that covers Heather's improvements

Now on to Raine, Evee, and Praem

For the one improvement I'm going to do now, I'm going to use the Monstrous option to gain a haven to expand a bit on the house that is the overall headquarters of the team and give it the Luxurious and Convenient tag to represent the video games and other creature comforts Raine brings in as well as how the house seems to be within easy reach of most places in town.

For Evee, I'm going to give her a new way to manipulate people I should have earlier.

This is a move from the Flake playbook, the conspiracy theorist type character, but it does fit with how Evee uses logic instead of charm to get her point across.

For Praem, I'm giving her Lost Time as a complement to Evee's bonding time move... and yes, both moves can be triggered by the same interaction.

You know, as much as the concept of the third party Protector playbook is fun, it feels like it needs a bit more polish. I begin to feel like the thing of getting four moves at the character's beginning is a bit much. This isn't a power thing but more of a story thing. I feel like four moves defines too much of the character right out the gate and makes it awkward to develop further later.

This is especially true given one of the level-up options involves a move that you are not required to take.

Now, before we move on to Zheng, Lozzie, and Seven-Shades-of-Sunrise, you may notice I gave them fewer improvements than the other characters (except Twil, Dame Not Appearing in This Arc). I'm basically trying to account for how they have a few more advancements under their belt already. So the advancements they have both overlap with this time and also characters with more advancements tend to start not gaining experience as fast since they have more bulwarks against rolling badly, which is the primary way experience is gained. Seven gets three improvements because she was heavily involved in both parts of the act we saw.

For Zheng, I'm giving her the move warrior from The Exile, which is going to make her harder to hurt.

Then for Lozzie I'm going to give her the move Taste of Home and consider the apparent solution of the dead hands issue as "Repair your spaceship so you can fly in space again."

Taste of Home definitely fits Lozzie's approach to trying to convince people that Outside isn't so bad.

And finally, we're coming to Seven-Shades-of-Sunrise/Insert Heather's pithy wordplay here.

For one thing, given how she stands up to her family, or at least walks the line, I want to give her two Envoy moves. Prime directive and The Council has made a decision.

These moves together kind of hit how she interacts with her family... very cautiously ranging to measured defiance.

Finally, I'm giving her +1 Charm.

That brings us to the following (Twil and Tenny not included here for now):

The Sharrowford Coven

Team Playbook: Guardians of the Borderland

Team Style: Born and Raised

Team Ally: Lozzie, Zheng, Kimberly, Tenny, Nicky Webb, Seven-Shades-of-Sunlight

Team Enemy: The Lilburne Family

Team Move: Walkers between Worlds, Otherworldly Intuition, Wardens

Team Assets: Exploration Gear, Workshop, Mystic Workshop

Carried Over Moves: Laws of Hospitality; Shared Dangers (Last Survivors)

Carried Over Assest: Headquarters, Archive, Leyline Map, Wards and Barriers, Ritual Cupboard, Armory

Improvements

Take another Team Playbook move: Otherworldly Intuition

Make the next mystery about your team enemy, giving you a chance to interfere in their plans.

Two points in assets: Mystic Workshop

Take another Team Playbook move: Wardens

-------

Heather Morell - The Changeling

Charm +1

Cool +0

Sharp +1

Tough -1

Weird +3

Unknown Heritage: Homo abyssus

Strange Thoughts

Sensory Overload

Allergy to own powers (body trying to adapt to soul)

Moves

Basic Weird Move: Use Magic

Advanced Moves: Use Magic

Changeling Moves: Glamour, They are my People, Inhuman Talent: Pneuma-somatic adjustment, Force of Nature, Strange Paths

Borrowed Moves: Zones of Strangeness (Searcher), Dark Negotiator (Monstrous)

Carried Over Moves: The Sight (Spooky), Burn Everything (Hex), Third Eye (Spell-Slinger)

Harm: 0/7 (Unstable at 4, Dead at 8)

Weapons:

Burn Everything A - 3-harm, area, magic, obvious (Use Magic)

Burn Everything B - 3-harm, ignore-armor, magic, obvious (Use Magic)

Improvements

Mark Use Magic as advanced.

Take another Changeling Move: Force of Nature

Get +1 Weird, max +3

Take another Changeling Move: Strange Paths

Take a move from another Playbook: Zones of Strangeness (Searcher)

Take a move from another Playbook: Dark Negotiator (Monstrous)

Remove one Unknown Heritage tag. You’ve now integrated well enough to avoid issues.

-------

Raine Haynes - The Monstrous

Charm -1

Cool +0

Sharp -1

Tough +2

Weird +3

Breed: Slasher

Curse: Duty (Protect Evee and Heather)

Natural Weapon: Fighting Instinct 3-Harm Hand/Intimate

Moves

Basic Weird Move: Trust Your Gut

Monstrous Moves: Unnatural Appeal, Something Borrowed: Just Another Day

Carried Over Moves: Furnace (Hard Case), Brute Force(Protector)

Borrowed Moves (Monstrous): Partner: Heather; Empathic Connection, Speak in each other's Names, Separation Pains (Forged); Tactical Advice

Haven

Luxurious

Convenient

Fire: 0/13 (Fire increases when)

Each 1 Harm suffered

Each time a friend is hurt

Each time someone defies Raine

Harm: 0/9 (Unstable at 5, Dead at 10)

Improvements

Get +1 Cool, Max 2

Take a move from another playbook: Partner (Forged)

Take a move from another playbook: Tactical Advice (Forged)

Gain a haven, like the Expert has, with two options

Banked until I see more story

Banked until I see more story

-------

Evelyn "Evee" Saye - The Pararomantic

Charm +2

Cool +0

Sharp +2

Tough -1

Weird +2

Guide

Praem Saye-Morell

Nature of Relationship: Mother (Evee) and Daughter (Praem)

Trouble in the Relationship: Unprecedented, Uncharted Waters

Moves

Weird Move: Use Magic, Summoner

Known Summons: Tardus venandi, Servitors

Pararomantic Moves: Monster Empathy, Spirit-Touched, Bonding Time

Borrowed Moves: See, it all fits together (Flake)

Carried Over Moves: I've Read About This (Expert), Dark Past (Expert)

Haven: Mystical Library, Protection Spells, Magical Laboratory, Guardian

Relationship Status: 0/7 (relationship breaks at 7)

Gear:

Memento of her and Praem's relationship.

Bone Wand - serves as a requirement to some magic

Harm: 0/7 (Unstable at 4, Dead at 8)

Improvements

Get +1 Weird, Max +2

Take another Pararomantic Move: Bonding Time

Get +1 Charm, Max +3

Take a move from another playbook: See, it all fits together (Flake)

Banked until I see more story

Banked until I see more story

-------

Praem Saye-Morell - The Protector

Charm +0

Cool +1

Sharp +0

Tough +2

Weird +1

Won't Be Wronged

Evelyn is my mother and I will protect her.

Moves

Basic Weird Moves: No Limits, Empath

Protector Moves: I Can't Lose You, You'll Have to Go Through Me, Hardened, Got Your Back, Lost Time

Borrowed Moves (Protector): Soothe (Divine), Something Strange: 1 Armour and incredible strength (Visitor)

Carried Over Moves: Prepared to Defend, Keep Going and Going

Harm: 0/10 (Dead at 11)

Armor: 2 (Hardened, Something Strange)

Improvements

Take a move from another playbook: Soothe (Divine)

Get +1 Sharp, max +2

Take a move from another playbook: Something Strange (Visitor)

Take a another Protector move: Lost Time

Banked until I see more story

Banked until I see more story

-------

Lozzie - The Visitor

Charm +1

Cool +1

Sharp +2

Tough -2

Weird +3

Expatriation

Outside: Bizarre, Variable, Extradimensional, Nomadic

Why Left: Wanderer, to meet new people and find new horizons.

Why stay on Earth: To Befriend

Why drawn home: Homesickness, literally

Moves

Basic Weird Move: Use Magic, Sensitive

Advanced Moves: Use Magic, Sensitive

Visitor Moves: Something Strange (Adapted to Strangeness); Different World, Different Rules; Always Learning; Being Neighborly, Taste of Home

Borrowed Moves: The Sight (Spooky), Dark Desires (Pararomantic)

Harm: 0/7 (Unstable at 4, Dead at 8)

Improvements

Take a move from another playbook: The Sight (Spooky)

Take a move from another playbook: Dark Desires (Pararomantic)

Take another Visitor move: Being Neighborly

Get +1 Charm, max +2

Get +1 Sharp, max +3

Take a second basic Weird move: Sensitive

Mark two of the basic moves as advanced: Use Magic, Sensitive

Take another Visitor move: Taste of Home

Repair your "spaceship" so you can fly again, (she can slip again, yay)

-------

Zheng - The Summoned The Exile

Charm -1

Cool +2

Sharp +0

Tough +3

Weird +0

The Apocalypse

The Death of the King (her shaman)

World War (forced into the Mongols' continual wars)

Famine (side effect of war)

Plague (hit several times in the Mongol invasions)

Betrayal (several of her masters suffered this)

The Beast Slouches Into the World (facing Ouran Juh)

Breaking the Seal (Heather breaks the control tattoos)

Moves

Basic Weird Move: No Limits

Advanced Basic Moves: Kick Some Ass, Read a Bad Situation

Summoned Moves: Absolute Badass, Should I Feel That? Freakish, Mayhem, Whatever

Exile Moves: Learned, Hearty Constitution, Warrior

Borrowed Moves: Unquenchable Vitality (Monstrous), Tactical Genius (Professional)

Harm: 0/7 (Unstable at 4, Dead at 8)

Weapons

Red Right Hand/Unarmed - 3-harm hand magic

Improvements

Take another Summoned Move: Mayhem

Take another Summoned Move: Whatever

Take a move from another playbook: Unquenchable Vitality (Monstrous)

Take a move from another playbook: Tactical Genius (Professional)

Get +1 Weird, max +3

Mark two basic moves as advanced: Read a Bad Situation, Kick Some Ass

Change to another playbook: The Exile

Take another Exile move: Warrior

Banked until I see more story

-------

Seven-Shades-of-Sunshine - The Spooktacular The Envoy

Charm +2

Cool +2

Sharp +1

Tough -1

Weird +3

Overseer: The Yellow Court

Values: Truth, Artistic Expression

Concerns: Strict Rules

Moves

Basic Weird Move: Use Magic

The Show: Magic & Illusions, Problem Solvers

Spooktacular Moves: A Negligble Price, The Game is Rigged

Envoy Moves: A Certain Point of View, No One Listens to Zathras, Prime Directive, The Council has Made a Decision

Borrowed Moves: Shapeshifter (Monstrous), Angel Wings (Divine)

Harm: 0/7 (Unstable at 4, Dead at 8)

Gear

Access to Exclusive Places (Carcosa)

Whispered Revelation (0-Harm, Intimate Stun)

Improvements

Get +1 Cool, max +2

Get +1 Sharp, max +2

Get +1 Weird, max +3

Take another Show option: Problem Solvers

Take a move from another playbook: Shapeshifter (Monstrous)

Take a move from another playbook: Angel Wings (Divine)

Change to another playbook: Envoy

Get +1 Charm, max +2

Take another Envoy move: Prime Directive

Take another Envoy move: The Council has Made a Decision

[thryth-gaming]

Meet Jack Harrow—The Crooked

Once a notorious thief for hire, Jack Harrow spent years running jobs for people with deep pockets and dirty hands. That was until the heist that went south, where she was left with nothing but a bullet wound, a dead fiancé, and a cursed grimoire she can’t get rid of. Now, Jack wants nothing more than to leave her life of crime behind. But fate, or perhaps that grimoire she stole, has other plans. Cunning, ruthless, and fiercely loyal, she’s determined to put the pieces of her shattered life back together—if the past doesn’t catch her first.

[thryth-gaming]

Seriously, think about this.

You're a rampaging engine of destruction. A fallen angel of flame and darkness. You were one of those who repelled the veritable incarnation of senseless gluttony, greed, and hunger to the rescue of your dark lord. You are rampaging through this town of those resisting your lord and master.

And suddenly you hear the faintest but rising strains of orchestral music swelling to a crescendo. Especially since you were part of the heavenly chorus that helped God sing the world into existence and thus know beyond all doubt that music is at the heart of existence.

And some part of your divinely eldritch nature exists outside of normal time and you know that such music plays on video games made some time in the future just as some unlikely hero is about to come in and wreck something that should be well outside of their power level.

Eru has a sense of humor.

Balrog: Why do I hear boss music

Based on this post