This game is for the monsters, the weirdos, the freaks and sickos, the insane and the cripples, the trannies and fags and dykes, cunts and thugs and whores, the fatties, the junkies, the illegals, the terrorists, the exotic, the undesirables, the degenerate, the vermin, the suspicious, the anomalies, and every single body who was ever branded for its monstrosity.
We haunt them because they know they are not safe as long as we’re still here. And we’re not going anywhere
-Wendi Yu
"here, there, be monsters! © 2022 by wendi yu is licensed under CC-BY-SA 4.0 unless you’re a corporation or a bigot of any kind, which only have the right to fuck off and die."
https://wendiy.itch.io/here-there-be-monsters
I simply adore the various wonderful things folx do with licenses and their text!
Mörk Boggs Third Party license (https://morkborg.com/license/) and the Olivia Hill Rule (https://machineage.tokyo/olivia-hill-rule/) are also bangers.
As I go back over Here, There, Be Monsters I have to restrain myself from quoting and sharing everything. Wendi has such a way with words, which she wields as a beautiful, deadly blade that can dazzle, cut deep or widen your smile...
There are also passages and elements that hit hard, deeply resonate, and feel as if they were made for me in a way too few things do
"Remember: no bigots, only bigfoots."
We need to talk about how hard the back cover of Here, There, Be Monsters! goes.
"HUNT MONSTER HUNTERS
PUNCH NAZI OCCULTISTS
EAT THE RICH
PROTECT EACH OTHER
FIGHT BACK
HERE
THERE
BE MONSTERS!"
I challenge anyone to show me a back cover of a TTRPG/ supplement that is as powerful and sums up the vibe of what it holds within its pages more than this.
Your Character in Here, There, Be Monsters!
You just need a name &/or callsign, pronouns, what they look like, including a small detail from another player.
The mechanical aspects are handled by two tags applied to the verbs BE "anything that significantly defines your character", HAVE "anything important that your character carries" and DO "anything your character knows how to do", which modify the rolls made to overcome "dangerous/ Uncertain" outcomes.
(I'll cover rolls another time )
HTBM! also has an optional element for campaign play that provides narrative character progression and opportunities to swap tags when appropriate by establishing "wants" (things PCs want to achieve/ experience) and a "need" (something the PCs needs to go through/ reckon with to self actualize). These can be broken into 4 "beats" on their path to achieving them.
When needs are met a PC can retire in peace, but if wants are met first or can make things easier or prompt unfulfilled retirement.
I got... 53. CUCA
"You’re supposedly an immortal witch with the face of an alligator. When you die, you just vomit a huge egg and emerge from it as a newborn when it hatches. They say you eat misbehaved children and make jewellery from their tongues. Is that true? If so, why the fuck would you do that?
Tongue-jewellery is so demode. Take some bird familiars and a MAGIC TAG."
Chrysti (It/ Its)
Ancient, lost count of cycles, 23 years into this one.
Entwife Experience (Brina)
Evlyn Moreau