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In Monsterhearts, you explore some difficult themes: dysfunctional relationships, teen sexuality, coercive power, trauma, abuse, violence, and queer marginalization. The game includes a full chapter on how to handle difficult themes with care and limits.

What themes does Monster Hearts 2 deal with?

Avery Alder, the creator of Monsterhearts 2, said the game is inspired by media such as Twilight, Buffy, Ginger Snaps, The Vampire Diaries, and The Craft.

What inspiration does Monsterhearts 2 pull from?

Powered by the Apocalypse (PbtA) is a tabletop role-playing game design framework developed by Meguey Baker and Vincent Baker for the 2010 game Apocalypse World. Since then, it has been adapted to be used by hundreds of TTRPGs as the basis for their games as well!

Knowing every rule of the game may be helpful to some, but many players will learn the game as they play! If you want to read the rules ahead of time you absolutely can, but if you are a hands-on learner you can also just start playing, and if there is something you don’t understand never be afraid to ask questions, because everyone starts somewhere!

Do you need to know all the rules to play Monsterhearts 2?

Obviously this will vary from table to table, but here are some good places to start! If your game is played in person, most likely you will want to get a set of dice, something to write with, and paper to take notes. If your game is hosted online instead, you will probably need to make accounts on a few sites for things like character sheets, access to the Virtual Tabletop for maps and tokens, and sites like Discord or Zoom for video/voice calls during the session. You won't always need to have the rulebooks to start, but if you want to read through them to make sure you know all the rules, this might also be a good option.

What supplies do I need to play Monsterhearts 2?

In this video, Matt Mercer walks you through the basics of how to play Monsterhearts 2!

Handbooker Helper: Monsterhearts 2 

Monsterhearts 2e is my favorite TTRPG system by far. It's a system that perfectly encaptulates the queer teenage experience and then projects it into bombastic and exciting sessions with tons of twists, turns and emotional moments.

I can not speak highly enough about this game. If you're tired of combat-heavy games where you feel like you're just following the GM's story to its inevitable conclusion, with no real agency of your own, try this out. The design is laser focused on creating dramatic tension between the PCs (and their favorite NPCs), leading to an experienced focused on the *players* and their goals within the monsters-in-highschool world the game lays out. If this sounds even remotely appealing to you, find a GM and try this game out. You won't regret it.

Monsterhearts 2 is *the* game for telling queer coming of age stories.

Monsterhearts asks "What if Buffy and Being Human, but Cronenberg?"  It is a game about being different and knowing it and finding your hidden community.  It is about having a body that you don't fully understand and don't have full ownership over.  It is about how the ones painted as Monsters™ are often the victims, not the perpetrators.  

It is a game about having nobody, being on the edge, and out of control -- but finding your tribe in spite of (and often because of) the things that make you uniquely you.  I absolutely adore telling stories with it.

Monsterhearts 2

By the time they hit adolescence, most people have gotten over their fear of the dark. They spend their midnight hour on gushy phone calls, diary ramblings, and wet dreams. They fall asleep peacefully, assured that the shadows hold no monsters.

But the shadows do hold monsters. You know because you’re one of them. Wickedness dwells within your heart, hunger courses through your veins. High school weighs on you and teen drama puts you on edge, but you have power. What do you do next?

Monsterhearts 2 lets you and your friends create stories about sexy monsters, teenage angst, personal horror, and secret love triangles. When you play, you explore the terror and confusion of having a body that is changing without your permission.

Play MonsterHearts 2 Explore one-shots, campaigns, and homebrew adventures run by expert GMs across Roll20, Foundry VTT, Discord & more. Find your perfect game on StartPlayingGames!

Play MonsterHearts 2 Online –  Find a Game Master | StartPlaying

Skins

At the edges of this world, just beyond the veil, there are colours that few mortals even dream of. Beauty enough to shatter any heart. The Fae live and breathe at the edges of this world. They keep a dusting of that magic tucked behind their ears, just in case.
And the Fae are willing to share. They’re nothing if not generous, asking for only one thing in return. A promise. Keep it, and the true beauty of the world will be revealed. Break it, and feel the wrath of faery vengeance.

The Fae

You used to have a future. Growing up was a painful tumult at times, but at least you were growing. Now you only have a past - unfinished business to take care of before you can leave this world behind. Life is precious. You understand that, now that you’ve lost yours. You just want to help. You just want to be seen. But sometimes even the simplest desires feel so difficult to grasp.

The Ghost

Death changed you. It took away your contemplative joy, it dulled your senses, and it left you impossibly hungry. That hunger is always with you, like a hum in your ears that swells and crescendos until you can’t hear anything else. Unattended, it will come to dominate you - but feeding it may be just as bad.

There is a certain beauty to what you’ve become. Your gaunt body, its unnatural form - it draws people in. Your stark disinterest is beguiling. But underneath that disaffected presentation - the hunger, the hunger.

The Ghoul

They set out to make something from nothing. It’s not clear whether they succeeded or not. See, it turns out there’s a lot of grey area between something and nothing. You’re alive, but you’re not real. You don’t have a soul. You don’t have childhood memories, because you don’t have a childhood. You don’t have parents; you have makers. And those makers forgot to give you a place in the world.

The Hollow

At first, it seemed innocent. It gave you things, made you feel good about yourself. You came to it with your problems, and it fixed them. When you asked how you could return the favour, it told you to be patient - that all debts would be settled in due time. That was the first time you heard it mention debts. You’ve got Satan as your cornerman, or a demon in your brain. Or maybe the stars glow just for you. Regardless, you owe a debt to something much bigger and scarier than you’ll ever be.

The Infernal

None of them would understand. What you have here, in this dark and secret place, it’s beautiful. They’d warn you that this sort of beauty is dangerous, like a raging fire. Well some things are worth getting burned for. Love has eclipsed all hope, and the dark has left you feeling beautiful

The Mortal

You’re one of the special ones. A sovereign beauty. You deserve more than the rest of this wretched world does. You deserve the will and worship of those around you. And it’s not only because you’re better than them. It’s because you make them better. Stronger, more beautiful, complete. They’d be nothing without you.

The Queen

You are beauty eternal. You are the darkness that everyone wants to taste, but no one dares understand. It’s there in your eyes, your carefully chosen words, and your every gesture: you no longer have a soul. Some vampires revel in that fact, their afterlife a tapestry of hedonism and exsanguination. Others hate the evil in their skin, solemnly vowing to a chaste and lonely existence. Either way, someone suffers. The choice is yours.

The Vampire

Everyone around you seems so willing to play the roles they are handed, to quietly colour within the lines. They’ve been tamed, domesticated. You’re of a different stock: you’ve broken down the fence built to contain you. You’ve howled at the moon, and heard it howl back. Now, the transformation is complete. This is what you were always meant to be. Wild. Unwavering. Alive

The Werewolf

In every lock of hair, every furtive glance, every secret note that transfers hands during history class – there is an invitation. An invitation to be fucked with. Not that witchcraft is about fucking with others, exactly, but it’s hard not to notice how utterly malleable the world is, once you know a thing or two about magic. Of course, a good witch like you knows restraint. A good witch turns a blind eye to all those invitations, and doesn’t think about how sweet vengeance and control might be. A good witch is above that sort of thing. At least, most of the time.