Monsterhearts 2
A downloadable game
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.
This game is powered by the Apocalypse World engine. It draws inspiration from Twilight, Buffy, Ginger Snaps, The Vampire Diaries, and The Craft.
Purchase
In order to download this game you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $10 USD. You will get access to the following files:
Community Copies
Support this game at or above a special price point to receive something exclusive.
Community Copy
Can't afford the game? You're welcome to claim one of these community copies.
I'll add more community copies periodically, as the whim strikes.
Comments
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Bold, courageous, tender, heartfelt, and fucking messy. It's the perfect game about what it feels like to be a teenager, and it doesn't pull punches. Its strong stances on gender, queerness, and sex were ahead of their time when Monsterhearts 2 was published, and they're still timely and outperforming most of the field today.
The germ of the token economy of BoB can be seen in Strings, and the playbooks are all fantastically evocative of different elements of teenage experience. I am fortunate to have read this game, even more fortunate to have played it, and I enthusiastically recommend it to everyone.
Had a super great time at an all south Asian table trying out this beautiful game, that managed to convince me into doing the unthinkable /twice/ - playing in the highschool coming of age genre and playing a vampire!!
I cannot imagine a different game ever really succeeding at getting me to do either willingly.
Messy, emotional and heartfelt.
An absolute all-timer. Players and designers alike have so much to learn from and celebrate in this.
Lifechanging game for me. Helped me to realize buried dysphoria and help me on my way to transition. Also it made me a better game designer because there is no game that explains PbtA better than Monsterhearts. All this aside and overall I had a lot of fun playing Monsterhearts over the years.
Truly one of the best indie ttrpgs to ever do it. If you're at all interested in ttrpgs as a genre, a medium, or a history, this is required reading (source: I literally teach university game studies).
But it's not like eating your vitamins! It's a fun, messy, queer game that lets you play out the most cinematic and emotional version of what it's like to be a teen.
Monsterhearts remains a milestone game and point of reference for me. It was the first game I read that made me understand how PbtA is meant to work. It's an excellent drama engine that's monstrously fun to play. And it has a beautiful minimalistic, yet expressive layout that I keep referencing whenever people tell me a game needs tons of art to look great (it doesn't).
One of my all-time favorite games, an ingenious design that uses systems to talk about stories and emotions with nuance and power.
This game and designer are foundational to my ideas of what a great role playing game and a great designer can be! 10/10 Would become my darkest self again, with friends!
This game is campy, is queer, is fun and smells like teen spirit… and blood