Monsterhearts 2 Skin - The Knight v0.5

You’re a hero. The Knight in shining armour, there to save the day. How many times have you saved a friend’s ass? You’ve lost count. Point is, you’re real good at it. But you’ve got a problem, sorta.

There’s a Dragon on the loose, now. I’m sure it’s not a big deal, right? Other people have bigger problems to worry about. Stick to what you’re good at: helping people. Even if it means you can’t help yourself.

Identity

Your Backstory

You fear The Dragon. It gains 3 Strings on you. It cannot be defeated if it has Strings on you.

You see somebody else’s problems as more important than your own. Gain a String on each other.

Darkest Self

You don’t have a chance of slaying The Dragon. Hell, you can’t even stand your ground and face it. You’re no hero, you’re lonely, pathetic, and scared. You can’t save anyone, least of all yourself. Escape your Darkest Self by getting a clear, undeniable win, or when someone faces their own mortality because you were too scared to save them.

Harm

Conditions

Stats

Choose one stat set
Hot -1 Cold 1 Volatile 2 Dark -1, OR
Hot 2 Cold -1 Volatile 1 Dark -1

Knight Moves

You get The Dragon, and choose one more:

The Dragon: You have a Dragon in your life, some big, looming threat that you are too afraid to face. When you come in contact with The Dragon, it may give you a Condition.

When you successfully defy, defeat, or drive off The Dragon, clear a Condition and erase 1 of its Strings on you.

Dragonslayer: When you face down a threat in someone else’s life, add 1 to your rolls and harm.

Can't Save Everyone: When someone gets hurt because you were too busy to help them, mark experience and they take a String on you.

In Shining Armour: You have a suit of ‘armour’ that is e.g. a costume, cardboard, sports equipment, or biker gear.

When you wear your armour, all harm you suffer is reduced by 1, and nobody can take advantage of your Conditions when trying to harm you.

Martyr: When someone with Strings on you is about to take harm, you can show up in the nick of time to protect them. You take the harm instead, and gain a String on them.

Righteous Cause: When you declare your intentions to someone, ask them if you are on the right path. If they answer yes, they take a String on you and you take 1 Forward. Otherwise, they can give you a Condition.

Sex Move

When you have sex with someone, ask them if they feel like you have things worse than they do. If they say that you do, mark experience, but The Dragon gains a String on you. If they say you don’t, take a String on each other.

Playing The Knight

Self-sacrificing, heroic, caring, and frightened. The Knight is threatened by something powerful and dangerous that they can’t face, in part because they can’t or won’t put themselves first. They could save everyone, but they can’t save themselves.

The two stat lines for The Knight let you choose between harsh and measured (Volatile 2 and Cold 1) or overly friendly (Hot 2 and Volatile 1). The Knight is woefully unprepared to face the reality of how bleak the world can get, hence their low Dark.

The Dragon is the core of The Knight’s playbook, and what specifically it is can drastically change the themes and scope of The Knight’s story. A literal dragon or other monster is certainly an option, but a helicopter parent, concerns about your sexuality, or the looming threat of college are all also options. Work with your MC to determine whether you want the threat to be supernatural, mundane, or a mix of both!

Dragonslayer allows you to face down threats to the lives of others, but not to whatever threatens your own life. However, if someone is threatening you and your little sister, that’s enough for you to pull a beatdown on them. A threat to someone’s life doesn’t literally have to mean they’ll die; it could mean getting grounded for an entire year, being horribly cursed, or being forced to keep living with an awful family.

Monsterhearts 2 Skin - The Knight