Monsterhearts: Scales

Scales
Writer/ Game Designer
Published: March 2020
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Scales provides two new skins forĀ Monsterhearts 2, inspired by two deadly and monstrous mythological creatures: the Gorgon and the Mermaid.
The Gorgon: Monstrous, defensive, and lonely. You are a creature that many fear and others seek out as a challenge to be bested. You have trusted and been betrayed. The Gorgon explores trust, betrayal, and the difficulties of creating positive attachments.
The Mermaid: Fluid, alluring, conflicted, and displaced. The Mermaid is a creature of two worlds, divided in loyalty and desires between the Land and the Sea. The Mermaid explores the lack of belonging, an uncertain sense of self, and balancing the demands of others with personal desires.
Contributions
- Designed and developed the initial concept and playbook mechanics.
- Wrote playbooks and accompanying materials.
- Utilized templates for playbook layout and design.
Challenges and Process
The primary challenge for the two playbooks in Scales was to create playbooks that felt significantly different from existing Monsterhearts playbooks, while effectively conveying the essence of the mythological creatures.
For each creature, I started with identifying the central conflict of the playbook. For the mermaid this was belonging, and for the Gorgon, this was trust and betrayal. From there I developed the core moves that would reinforce the central conflict, after that the playbooks were fleshed out by identifying sub-themes and additional moves to support these.
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