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.
To make your HTBM! Group, you first establish "how they met, how and when did they join the group, and what unites them beyond their missions", grounding and establishing their connections from the start.
Next, you name your monster-saving org and establish its "structure" and "scale", is it a part of an extensive network or a small, insurrectionist operation?
I love the way there is a solid foundation and ties for the organization of the group and PC's roles through questions and prompts.
A d12 able of Group Traits is provided with a 24 suggestions to help establish the aspects of your group.
It is also encouraged for each player to create an NPC in the group with 20 example NPCs, including ". Luhr, a powerful caipora who smokes all the
time and hunts abusers", "W. L. Alyx, a flirty kung fu wizard who loves taking
psychedelics", and "D. Bland, an environmental activist who comes
from a post-apocalyptic future with the intention
of preventing it."
In a game that encourages you to punch nazis & fight oppression, nothing could be scarier to your enemies than the idea of your Haven. The ultimate safe space home base in a pocket dimension. Only accessible by your group.
Together you decide on its size and features, promoted by more great questions and four D12 tables for Physical Structure, Ultilites, Internal Vibe, and Access Mode.
I got
Physical Structure: Cave
Utilities: Lab, Doctor on-site
Internal Vibe: Cyberpunk
Access Mode: Tunnels
I love the note "Combat is not special. Just do the same stuff as the other actions."
Some games are focused on combat (or just happen to have 99% of their mechanics focusing on it), but in HTBM! combat is just another interaction, which the dice and tags cover well, but punching Nazis isn't the only thing the game wants you to consider.
(The image in the previous toot is page 105 in the book and I only share it in full as it is up on the itch page: https://wendiy.itch.io/here-there-be-monsters)
It's possible to collect 3 conditions, before the next risks a condition becoming permanent, taking the place of one of the PC's tags "with an appropriately dramatic scene"
The next permanent condition causes a PC death or makes them give up/ retire - or if using wants/ needs a want can be swapped to remove a condition or a need changed "to learn to live with it"
HTBM! isn't particularly deadly (except for bigots & oppressor), focusing on changing aspects of the character as they experience...
...the world and evolve. PCs can die, but it's much more about growing, changing and reacting to their circumstances and the hardships they face.
The rolls are simple, but the roles can shift and change over the course of a campaign to leave you with significantly different PCs than you begin with through the beauty of the tag system. Something that, for a narrative focused game like this, is far more exciting and rewarding than worrying about getting taken out by a huge chuck of damage.
HTBM! has an appropriately anarchic and wild magic system based around d4 of d66 magic words, after all "Magic is playing dice with the universe."
Chrysti's words: Soul, Darkness, Sight, Spore
The more words you in a spell, the more dice you get to roll to choose the highest on a scale from complete failure and backfiring to total success with an addition beneficial effect.
Casting also involves stating the intention, what could go wrong and wagering something on the success...
Chrysti's words: Soul, Darkness, Sight, Spore
I used Chrysti's words and the pun encouragement to come up with this:
Ar'Soul Sight: See another's surroundings through their anus
Two words: 2d6 (3) lesser success: It is able to see though the rectal opening, but not through any underwear/ material
I love the chaos and creativity of more open and dangerous magic systems like this. The risk/ reward, wagering, and creating unique spells based on keywords imbues magic with a otherworldly energy.
These examples provide a flavour of the remixed classics, comedic contrasts, and, creepy cool and gross that artefacts can be. The full list provides a great deal of utility and inspiration for creating tour own.
I came up with these:
A hot pink balaclava (active) that can hide you from those who oppose and/ or oppress you and their apparatus for d4 minutes at a time.
A bolo tie with a burnished shell clasp (passive) that allows to sing an heartbreaking lament or terrifying dirge.
"And now, some people to meet (and possibly punch)" aka factions in HTBM!
The Bureau
Presented in classified and partially redacted documents, these are the "Black Suits and Dark Shades. You know the ones, and they know you know. Careful, they may be watching you right now...They are the ones who seek to preserve ‘normalcy’ at all costs...
My own encounter:
You receive a cryptic message in hidden inside one of your unpaid bill notices, in the place of your bookmark that bubble butt big foot book you've been reading, pinned to the body of one of The Watchers who had been harassing a local co-op, or somewhere equally unexpected. It claims to be from a former member of The Bureau that could be instrumental to your group. Could this be a trap?
The Watchers of the Many-Angled One
"Neonazi occultists, guided by a resurrected Julius Evola. Usually, they would be just your typical nazi punchable
annoyance, but now they’re toying with dangerous forces that they don’t even comprehend."
I wasn't aware of Evola (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_Evola), but they are an appropriately heinous figure to be resurrected by a Lovecraftian cult that "worship a Something they call the Many-Angled One...
I love this note:
"If you want to use the Watchers in your game, don’t worry about making them complex antagonists; don’t worry about making them have a point; don’t worry about making them charismatic. They don’t need any of that. They’re nazis that want to summon a cosmic horror. Just punch them and be done with it."
d6 suggested encounters with The Watchers included, friendly monsters being assaulted by frenzied cultists in concerning attire...
My own encounter:
A gallery is holding an exhibition of Duckio di Ridacchiare, a famous Late Medieval Period Italian painter, unknown to much of the world to have been a transgender Anatidanthrope (Wereduck). This is huge for the local trans and monster communities, especially with the first public showing of The Transcendent Madonna with the Impressive Nduja since its rediscovery...
The Brotherhood of Thoth
"They’re very, very rich, therefore they’re complete assholes. Hoarders that call themselves collectors. Robbers that call themselves scholars. Some are in it for knowledge, others for power, others for fun. Many are just there because they can."
The Brotherhood are another occultist society of stinking rich bastards who feast on sentient magic creatures and want nothing more than to own everything and learn secrets...
...they endlessly ponder and pontificate over, simply to exert power. Expect pomposity, privilege and pith helmets, as well as being treated with contempt, amusement or a pawn in their machinations.
d6 suggested encounters with The Brotherhood included, saving a monster from becoming dinner, setting right the pillaging of a certain Han Solo lookalike, mummy problems, and stealing an old grimoire from a certain transphobic billionaire writer who happens to be part of the Brotherhood.
My encounter:
Sticky, green serpents have been causing chaos downtown. They seem to be spilling from a private estate on the edge of the city. There are rumours the Brotherhood had something smuggled out of Egypt thought lost. You are approached by a disgraced and disinherited second cousin to some earl or other who mentions an impending ritual involving flat earth and Atlantis involving the item
(cont.)
Other Groups
The Legion of the One True God
An ancient, secret offshoot of the Templars, unknown to most of the Catholic church's hierarchy. "Christian extremists who want to promote a Magic Genocide" and want to "destroy everything they consider anomalous (and you can see how broad that defi nitioncan be)", despite their reliance on 'Holy Artefacts'...
My encounters:
1.
A number multi-faith worship spaces about the city have been attacked. Witnesses report what looked like "a renaissance fair troupe, but, like, armed to the teeth" and strange explosives that "like something out of a video game". It seems the places were ransacked with items of cultural and/ or spiritual significance and documentation being loaded into pickups, before the places were set ablaze...
...Spiritual, religious, and secular community leaders are requesting a variety of assistance, including tracking down the stolen artefacts.
2.
A group of religious extremists have appeared on the city, embarking on a crusade of burning 'witches'. Sources confirm some of the victims were friendly witches, while others were ordinary people. No one seems to know who the terrorists are...
Blackblood Solutions
"Occult mercenaries." Ex-military and security forces who encountered the "anomalous unground" and chose to use that information to make money, build up ridiculous a ridiculous hightec arsenal, and kill monsters for awful people with money, regularly employed by the Brotherhood and Basilisk Inc., and "are most certainly infiltrated by sleeper Watchers and Bureau moles."
My encounter:
The local police, believed to be bought and paid for by one or more wealthy factions, have been showing off some terrifying new tech and military vehicles, as well as a brutally violent special task force. This new unit are clearly paramilitary and being used to raid monster homes, whether they are doing this out of a hateful whim, or they are looking for something or someone is unclear.
Basilisk Inc.
"A transnational conglomerate that exploits Magic for prof it." Expect ruthles exploitation, extremely unethical experiments, and other shady awfulness from soulless capitalist titans. They are the dirty money and heartless greed behind the scenes, not dirtying their bloody hands, so shell companies, subsidiaries, funded professional criminals, on all sides of the law, with sticky fingers in many illicet pies...
..."from trafficking anamlous drugs to kidnapping monsters for R&D experiments."
This anarcho-communist urban fantasy was missing some disgusting bigwigs and vile execs, which Basilisk Inc. have in spades. I'm surprised they were included as additional additional groups and not expanded upon, but they are absolutely something I am already planning to included in my games and possibly more, and one of the Manifesto examples is a player asking to not have capitalism in the game, so...
My encounter:
The City isn't exactly safe for Monsters, but recently the number going missing is alarming, even more so for the fact they seem to have vanished without a trace. In other news, SMILE have opened Make Work, Hard Fun fulfilment centres in prime locations across the city, and the streets are filled with their masked delivery 'drones'. Can you get to discover the fate of the missing monsters & will you be the first person to ever see the face of a SMILE Drone?
The Unfortunate Truth
"A bunch of conspiracy theory bloggers who got very close to ‘the truth’ and don’t even know it." Tinfoil allies like the Lone Gunmen or one of the only funny actors in Stranger Things. They know about big occult stuff going down, but said information comes "alongside lots of paranoid nonsense."
My Encounter:
You have been getting countless notifications from Switch, a proud transfemme hacker, including on accounts you thought you deactivated and apps you didn't think you had installed. There are reems of text that seem to be a mix of darkweb occult news, what appears to be a self-insert fanfic about their TTRPG character and xem being gay and doing crime, titled 'Not Like This', and a string of EldritchBay receipts...
...The confusing thing is that they all mentionn a pig-faced militia with a lair in the sewers beneath the city causing absolute havoc in a local marketplace with magic swords.
I actually shared this with Wendi who surprised me with how excited she was about it and has convinced me to add, expanding it into a full scenario, which will be an interesting challenge with keeping the open-ended, emerging narrative feel of HTBM!, but I'm excited to get to it eventually!
Entwife Experience (Brina)
