Player Sheet
Make each main character’s life not boring.
Keep the story feral.
Say what the rules demand.
Say what honesty demands.
for Monsterhearts 2
Turn Someone On Lash Out Physically Pulling Strings
When you turn someone on, roll with Hot. On a When you lash out physically, roll with Volatile. When you spend a String on someone, choose one:
10 up, gain a String on them and they choose a On a 10 up, you deal them harm, and they choke Tempt them to do what you want,
reaction from below. • On a 7-9, they can either up momentarily before they can react. • On a 7-9, Give them a Condition,
give you a String or choose one of the reactions. you harm them but choose one: Add 1 to your roll against them, or
I give myself to you, They learn something about your true nature Add 1 to the harm you deal them.
I promise something I think you want, or and gain a String on you,
I get embarrassed and act awkward. The MC decides how bad the harm turns out, To learn about tempting someone, turn to page 26.
You become your Darkest Self.
For rules on asexuality and non-attraction,
turn to page 49. Healing
Run Away
When you take time to tend to your wounds, once
Shut Someone Down When you run away, roll with Volatile. On a 10 per session you may heal 1 Harm. If someone else is
up, you get away to a safe place. On a 7-9, you get there with you, tending to your wounds delicately
When you shut someone down, roll with Cold. On away but choose one: and intimately - and perhaps with erotic subtext -
a 10 up, choose one from below. • On a 7-9, choose You run into something worse, you may heal an additional 1 Harm.
one from below, but you come across poorly, and You cause a big scene, or
they give you a Condition in return. You leave something behind.
They lose a String on you, Skirting Death
If they have no Strings on you, gain one on them,
They gain a Condition, or Gaze Into the Abyss To avoid death, erase all harm and choose one:
You take 1 Forward. Become your Darkest Self,
When you gaze into the abyss, name what you’re Lose all Strings you have on everybody.
looking for and roll with Dark. On a 10 up, the
Keep Your Cool abyss shows you lucid visions, and you take 1
Forward to addressing them. On a 7-9, the abyss Conditions
When you keep your cool and act despite fear, shows you confusing and alarming visions, but
name what you’re afraid of and roll with Cold. On you get your answer nonetheless. If you take advantage of someone’s Condition
a 10 up, you keep your cool and gain insight: ask while making a move against them, add 1 to your
the MC a question about the situation and take 1 roll. A Condition goes away when the character
Forward to acting on that information. • On a 7-9, Experience suffering it takes appropriate action to alleviate it.
the MC will tell you how your actions would leave
Gangs
you vulnerable, and you can choose to back down Whenever you fail a roll, mark experience.
or go through with it.
Gangs add +1 to your rolls and harm as applicable.
MC Sheet
Make each main character’s life not boring.
Keep the story feral.
Say what the rules demand.
Say what honesty demands.
for Monsterhearts 2
Preparing to Play Principles Side Character Strings
As the MC, teaching the game often falls to Embrace melodrama. You can spend a side character’s Strings on a
you. This is an outline for how to teach the Address yourself to the characters, main character in four ways:
game, with page references to help you look not the players. Offer them an experience point to do
up anything you want guidance on. Feel free to Make monsters seem human, and vice versa. what you want.
modify this process and teach in whatever way Make labels matter. Place a Condition on them.
works best for you. Give everyone a messy life. Add 1 to the harm you’re dealing them.
Find the catch. Ambush them with a Reaction, setting it up
Gather Supplies (58) Ask provocative questions and and knocking it down in one fell swoop.
Explain Premise and Roles (59) build on the answers.
Introduce Safety Tools (60) Be a fan of the main characters.
Option: Small Town (60) Treat side characters like stolen cars. Villains
Pick Skins (61) Give side characters simple,
Choose Identities (62) divisive motivations. If a villain becomes meaningfully involved in
Establish Setting (63) Sometimes, disclaim decision making. the story, you can do the following two things
Discuss Roleplaying (65) to give yourself a bit of extra structure and
Discuss Moves and Strings (66) inspiration for playing them:
Choose Stats and Moves (67) Reactions Write a custom Principle for playing them.
Teach Reactively (68) Write a custom Reaction for them.
Establish Backstories (69) Put them together.
Set Up Seating Chart (70) Separate them.
Start Playing! Tell them the possible consequences and ask.
Inflict harm (as established).
Enact drastic measures.
The First Scene Turn their move back on them.
Leap to the worst possible conclusion.
Start the first scene in homeroom, and use your Expose a dangerous secret to the wrong person.
principles to help uncover tensions. Take a String on someone.
Herald the abyss.
If you’re antsy to get the story rolling, here are Trigger their Darkest Self.
three reliable options: At every turn: “What do you do?”
Stage a disappearance.
Plan a party.
Demand a fight.
Playing The Cerberus
Vigilant, relentless, judgmental, and perpetually in-
between. In ancient times, Cerberus was a three-headed
dog who guarded the gates of the underworld, making
sure the dead didn’t escape and the living didn’t enter.
Now, things are a little more complicated: they guard
a hazy boundary between two worlds, trying to ensure
that everyone remains in the place that they deserve
to be. Think Jughead, from the first season of Riverdale:
caught between the world of Southside gangs and the
so-called innocence of Riverdale proper. Add in a dash
of Gossip Girl, or even Pretty Little Liars.
The two stat choices for The Cerberus let you choose
between being harsh and exacting (Cold 2 & Volatile 1) or
brooding and bitter (Dark 2 & Cold 1).
Watch Dog requires some narrative choices at the outset
of the game. Talk to the MC about it, and figure out
which world the rest of the main characters belong to.
Many of the Cerberus’ moves revolve around
Conditions. Arbiter also works with the Conditions
you give yourself through your backstory and your sex
move. Doomed Outsider subverts the downside to being
given Conditions, which changes the impact of a 7-9
result on Shutting Someone Down.
Serpents at Your Back is me being cute and clever. See,
Cerberus was often depicted with writhing serpents
upon its back. Jughead donned a Southside Serpents
The Cerberus
jacket during his slow descent into darkest self. You’ll
have to figure out what this particular gang option
means in your setting.
It used to be simple: there was a river of fire, another of pain, and you kept
The “disrupted by a virtuous hero” clause in the Darkest watch at the gate. It was obvious who was doomed. Your claws were sharp,
Self is a reference to the twelfth labour of Hercules, and your eyes able to peer in every direction simultaneously.
to Archie trying to win Jughead back.
The threshold was unbroken for a very long time. If only it could have stayed
Credits that way: the wretched in one place, the innocent somewhere else. You still
guard the threshold. You always will. It’s just the world that’s changed.
This is a Skin for Monsterhearts 2, designed for William L.
Check out the game at buriedwithoutceremony.com
Identity Cerberus Moves ●
Loyal
Whoever currently has the most
Name: Alethea, Alison, Dan, Eyes: discerning eyes, sunken eyes, You get Watch Dog, and choose one
Strings on you is your Master.
Forsythe, Hayden, Lexi, Penelope, judgy eyes, cruel eyes, puppy eyes more:
When you take action to protect
Trey, Trinity, Ward or help your Master, add 1 to your
Origin: wrong side of the tracks, Watch Dog roll and they gain a String on you.
Look: trailer trash, loner, burly, wrong side of the River Styx, You exist in the liminal space
fiery, well-groomed begat by ancient monsters, visions, between two communities: one is When you become your Darkest
watched a lot of noir as a kid resplendent with light, the other Self, your current Master loses all
is damned to the shadows. It is Strings on you.
your duty to guard the boundary.
Your Backstory Strings Bark, Then Bite
Mark experience whenever you
When you take advantage of
Someone managed to slip past weed out someone on the wrong
a Condition that you gave to
you, a damned and wicked soul side of the divide and put them in
someone, it adds 2 to your roll
hiding among the pure. You’ve their place.
instead of 1.
tracked them down. Gain two
Strings on them. Arbiter Doomed Outsider
When you give someone a
When trying to drive others away
You don’t fit in. Give yourself a Condition, mark experience.
from you, or escape their care, you
Condition.
can take advantage of your own
Dig Deeper Conditions to add to your roll.
Darkest Self Harm
When you Gaze Into the Abyss
by snooping around for dirt on
Hot Take
someone, add 1 to your roll. On a
Experience
You do your best to be a good When you discover an injustice
10 up, the owner of that character
boy, but you come from a very that has long been hidden or
will tell you a secret, and you can
bad place. Let’s face it: you’re a covered up, add 1 to your rolls to
Add +1 to one of your stats. choose to give them a Condition
mangy, unloveable beast from bring it to light and to justice as
Take another Cerberus move. to reflect what you’ve learned.
hell. You were born to snarl and immediately as possible.
to bite. Anyone who’s gotten Take another Cerberus move.
close to you needs to be driven Take a move from any Skin.
Take a move from any Skin.
away, violently if necessary. You
must return to the shadows, You have Serpents at Your Back. Name: Dean Winterfell
dragging the damned back down
there with you. You escape your Conditions Eyes: Lost Eyes
Darkest Self when disrupted by a
virtuous hero, or when the power
Looks: Loner
of true love tempers your resolve.
Origin: Begat by anciente monsters
Hot Cold Volatile Dark Sex When you have sex with someone, tell them why you don’t
belong in their world. If they agree, give yourself a Condition
-1 +2 +1 -1 Move to reflect. If they disagree, you gain a String on them.
