What is this Game?
Monster of the Week is an urban fantasy horror game where you play as a group of Monster Hunters investigating mysterious happenings and tackling supernatural phenomenon and creatures of the night. It draws heavily on media like Supernatural, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, X-files, and The Dresden Files. But any urban fantasy media from KPop Demon Hunters to Gravity Falls could be a Monster of the Week game. If that sounds cool, I’m going to offer a MoTW game later this year….but this game isn’t that.
Instead, in this short-form version you are the extras. The woman in the background mauled by zombies? You. The guy chomped on by his vampire date? You. The person snatched from safety at the last second? You. This time you get the spotlight. You get a chance to live and even survive.
The way it works
You will create a ‘Survivor’ caught up in a horrifying event provided by the GM (called the Keeper). Then you will briefly describe how something horrible tries to kill you and roll 2d6 + a modifier based on your action. If you roll a 7 or better, you live and get to choose a way to make your situation better for yourself or another Survivor, maybe even escape. If you roll a 6 or less, you die, I guess you’re just an extra after all!
If you escape or die, you can create a new survivor for the next round of posting if you want to continue playing.
Starting on Oct 6 and on each Monday through 27 Oct, the Keeper will provide a new scenario. Scenarios run Monday through Friday (with some wiggle room for friends in different timezones). If your character is still alive when the scenario is over, you may choose their final fate.
The game will run on the Onward Heroes Forum with a thread for each scenario with a Discord thread for rolls and OOC. Posting will be mostly self directed, building off each other’s post as we go. Though feel free to ask any questions.
New players are welcome to jump in anytime!
The Goal
The idea is to run through as many ‘Survivors’ as possible and at the end of the month, we’ll see how many lived and how many died. The Keeper will provide a google sheet that will track the Survivors and their fates.
Tone and Safety Tools
This game is a horror game set in the real world present day. The focus is on the character’s feelings of growing dread and helplessness as they are confronted with supernatural creatures and events for the first time. Characters are expected to die, and while some gore is expected, I don’t want extended descriptions of characters lingering in pain and agony or fountains of blood and guts. Neither should there be any explicit sexual content.
If any player has specific things that they wish to always happen off-screen (veils) or not be included in the game (lines). Please post in this thread or let the Keeper know as soon as possible during the game. There is no statute of limitations or time that is ‘too late’ to bring up anything that makes you uncomfortable.
Character Tracker
Below should be a link to the Google Sheet that has more information on building your first (and second, and third) survivor and a tracking sheet for their stats and ultimate fate.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1fuTb0m97XKl3EE7fJ6udrDV8uatCw5wr_yog8oj6Hwo/edit?usp=sharing
FAQ
Do all the scenarios happen in the same setting?
Yes. MoTW assumes by default that everything is happening in the present day ‘real world’. In theory you could take a ‘Survivor’ who escapes the first scenario and have them go to the second scenario - though that would be very mean to your poor character!
How often should I post?
Since this is a short, quick game, players should try to post once a day if they have a ‘Survivor’ who is still alive. You can definitely post more than that if you really want to grind through characters.
Do I need to make two posts (one to establish the danger and one after I roll to resolve the consequences) or just one?
I think either approach will work. You can write a post to establish the danger for your character, roll, and then edit the post to resolve the consequences. Or roll first to see what happens to your character, then write the post based on their fate. Once we are in game, I’m hoping one method might end up more practical than the other.
If I gain a +1 on my roll, how do I pass it to another player when I don’t know who they are?
I’m hopeful this will only be an issue on initial posts. Mechanically, I think the best method would be to put the +1 up as freely available to another player entering the scene. Narratively, it might make sense to leave an open-ended ‘hook’ (eg. Maybe you distract the monster or throw down a rope for others to use). There should be an OOC thread for some coordination as well.
What's the incentive to not Escape if I roll well? Why would I penalize myself?
Monster of the Week is a game driven by in-fiction motivation and what is established in the scene. Your character might selflessly remain trapped to help another player (or bystander) or they might take their first chance to escape. There is no right or wrong answer.