This is the third and final playbook preview of the upcoming Advanced Playbooks bundle for Chasing Adventure. This bundle will be purchasable on Itch, DriveThruRPG, and this very site with the web store, all launching on November 1! This preview will be the longest of the three, as it has the most Starting Moves by far.
The Monster is a darker playbook all about fear and struggle. Internally, they grapple with terrible urges within themselves, fighting to retain their humanity. Externally, their presence can draw unwanted attention to the entire group by association. The Monster will never have an easy time of it, but if they can master their gifts, manipulate the fear of others, and manage their own temptations, then they might find the benefits outweigh the costs.
This playbook is a double-edged sword, with many powerful moves but many drawbacks, especially when they first begin. The perfect example of this is their very first move.
Starting Move – Dark Craving
You constantly grapple with a predatory urge deep within you. Your Craving is linked to your Nature, and cannot easily be changed. If you ever overcome your Nature or Craving fully and permanently, change Playbooks. When you satisfy your Craving, heal 1 condition.
A Monster’s Nature is something that replaces the Background of other playbooks, and their Craving is a powerful urge that can be rewarding to give into but difficult to fight against (similar to the Barbarian’s Herculean Appetites or the Druid’s Instincts). An example Craving a Monster might have is Gorge on meat, which can easily become a problem if blindly indulged.
Starting Move – Resist Temptation
When you refuse easy satisfaction of your Craving, roll+WIS. On a 10+ you fully resist. On a 7-9 you resist, but choose one:
- Your Craving still gnaws at you, take a condition.
- Your Craving distracts you, take Disadvantage Forward.
- Your Craving is obvious, drawing unwanted attention or suspicion.
On a 6- you lose control and indulge. The GM will tell you how.
The 6- result is makes the Monster so risky, there is always that chance to lose themselves to their Craving. When presented with easy satisfaction, do you give in and satisfy it by your own choice, or do you resist and risk going feral?
With the Monster being so dangerous to be around, they need to hide their Nature to exist in society, even at its fringes.
Starting Move – Reveal Nature
Your Nature is hidden due to precautions, concealment, or the Nature itself. When you reveal your Nature, choose one person here who is seeing it for the first time. They Fear you, the rest don’t.
By default, no one who knows your true Nature can Favor you, except other PCs. If someone who Fears you would Favor you (whether or not they can do so) you can instead remove their Fear of you. A character might simultaneously Fear and Favor you.
Revealing yourself to someone permanently changes their view of you. As stated above, even those who are willing to look past your Nature cannot truly Favor you if they know it. But Fear is a powerful tool when utilized properly.
Starting Move – Terrifying
Those who Fear you won’t reveal your Nature to others (if they know it), and you have Advantage to Defy, Scrutinize or Compel them. You can spend their Fear for other abilities even when they aren’t near you. They can remove this Fear by doing one of the following in a scene:
- Fight – lashing out against you or your allies with a new tool (e.g.
weapon, trap, crowd), or destroying something that belongs to you.- Flight – abandoning someone important to them, hiding their
location or identity, or moving somewhere new.- Flinch – creating an obstacle between you and them, or learning
one of your weaknesses.
Fear can grant you powerful benefits, both through the Advantage you gain above and through several future moves. The longer someone Fears you, the more opportunity they’ll have to act against you and remove it, so make use of their Fear while you can.
The fight/flight/flinch divide is partly for narrative flavor, but also due to an Advanced Move that interacts with that category of responses. Because most NPCs are reactive rather than proactive during a scene, it may be more difficult than it seems for them to remove their own Fear.
Fear also shows up in a few Paladin Advanced Moves. The Fear that the Monster uses is separate from either of those.
The Monster is more than just Fear and Craving though, they are something more.
Starting Move – Unnatural Aspects
Your body is dangerous and powerful. Choose three of its Aspects now:
- Nocturnal Adaptation: You can clearly sense your surroundings in pitch black darkness and similar circumstances. You have Advantage to Examine or Track Down in darkness.
- Grotesque Wings: You can fly as easily as walk.
- Vile Strength: Your attacks are Forceful. When you Engage, on a 10+ you can also choose for your enemy to Fear you.
- Twisted Weapons: Your body can harm any opponent like a weapon (teeth, claws, spines, etc.), and your attacks are Messy.
- Aberrant Limbs: You have several additional limbs, tentacles, arms, or similar appendages, and can manipulate many objects at once.
- Obscuring Shadows: While hidden in shadows, mist, fog, etc. you can quickly and easily vanish from sight.
- Afflicting Touch: You can create a substance or element (poison, webbing, fire, etc.) and wield it like a weapon (Intimate, Close). You can spend Fear to give it Near for a scene.
- Ephemeral Form: Your body isn’t real (ghostly, slime, swarm of creatures, etc.). Only your weaknesses or certain magics may harm you, but you can’t interact with the physical world beyond communication. You can spend Fear or take a condition to manifest physically for a scene (with all its risks and benefits). Your starting equipment must usually be carried by others.
With this move, the Monster can define some of their abilities and inform their appearance. Each are very powerful, either mechanically or narratively.
Ephemeral Form was an interesting challenge to design, as until now all PCs needed to have a physical body and otherwise be able to use the equipment they start with. I am particularly interested in seeing how players feel about it.
True to myths and legends however, all Monsters have some manner of weaknesses.
Starting Move – Reviled Weaknesses
Your Nature has vulnerabilities. What are they? Who knows of them?
- What always hurts you, piercing all Armor?
(e.g. Silver, Fire, Salt, Apples, Holy Water, Loud Noises)- What can detect or reveal your true Nature?
(eg. Animals, Mirrors, Rainfall, Magic, Blood)- What alters or limits your behavior? Start with either ‘I must’ or ‘I cannot’.
(e.g. I cannot enter homes without permission, I must protect true beauty, I must rage during a full moon, I cannot bear large crowds)
Though there are examples, these weaknesses are left up to the player to define. What is the most interesting? What might be tied to your Nature or Craving?
While many doors in the world are closed to the Monster, a few exclusive ones might be open.
Starting Move – Night Life
You can speak with Intelligent monsters. When you Scrutinize someone with a desire similar to your Craving, gain +1 Insight.
This simple move allows one to understand, befriend, manipulate, or otherwise socialize with entities that might be hostile to other PCs. Some Advanced Moves build upon this to allow the Monster to become a true shadowy socialite.
Like with Backgrounds, a Monster has three potential Natures to choose from. Each Nature provides substantial changes to how the playbook feels, more so than typical Backgrounds. The Transforming Beast can shapeshift into a false (but more socially acceptable) form. The Living Dead has few trappings of life and is nearly impossible to destroy. The Abomination is a master of preying on Fear, but is also the most likely to be hunted.
Sample Nature – Abomination
Maybe you were cursed by a dark god, or used in a foul experiment, or just born a freak. Even if you know the reason, even if you already took vengeance, it doesn’t quench the fire in your core. Perhaps this hatred is part of your burden, but maybe it’s just who you are.
While you can see or otherwise perceive someone, they cannot remove their Fear no matter what they do.
When you Reveal Nature, everyone seeing it for the first time now Fear you, not just one person. A Group or Horde NPC that Fears you shares that single instance of Fear across the entire Group/Horde, but multiple individual NPCs do not.
You can spend Fear to Engage or Let Fly with Advantage.
Starting Stats: +2 STR, +1 WIS
Equipment: Inconspicuous Hooded Cloak
Drive: Make a new friend or ally.
Craving: Obliterate safety or order.
That’s all for this preview. See the full playbook and more in the Advanced Playbook bundle coming out on November 1!