This Has Made Monsters Of Us is a mini RPG where players take on the role of the recently deceased. As you hunt for your killer, you must try to balance your desire for revenge and your dwindling humanity.

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This Has Made Monsters Of Us

You awake in a shallow grave. Your nails scratch at the coffin lid above you and the beating of your fists breaks the rotting wood. Your fingers part the perfumed earth.

The night air is cold and tastes of blood and longing. You can smell the soil in your nostrils and something else, something… new.

Around you, you hear fingernails breaking as your new siblings claw their way to the surface around you. Something in you has changed. You are not what you once were…

You are a brood, now. United in death. You desire, as one, to hunt for the one who made you this way, though you do not know why or to what end.

At night, The Hunt awakes and you are compelled to find them. In the day, the feeling weakens and you may strive to keep what is left of your humanity intact.

The Resurrection

You are changed, now, and the darkness awakens something within you. It is your home, your keeper and your friend. Somehow, you know the day is no longer yours.

Whenever you attempt something and the outcome is in doubt, you will be asked to make a roll. If it is day, you will roll your white dice, or SUNLIGHT POOL. If it is night, you will roll your black dice, or MOONLIGHT POOL. Sunrise is considered to be day. Sunset is considered to be night.

When you are asked to make a roll, roll all of the dice in the appropriate pool and count any roll of 6 or above as a SUCCESS.  Whenever you roll the maximum on a dice, count the result as a SUCCESS and roll the dice again. If you have no dice in a pool, roll 1d6.

Answer the following questions about your new form, which will build your SUNLIGHT and MOONLIGHT POOLS. For each answer you give, take a d10.

If you choose the first answer for a question, take a white d10. If you choose the second answer, take a black d10.

I rise… Like a cockroach after a bomb / Like a phoenix from the ashes

I run… Like a mouse to a hole / Like a moth to a flame

I fall… Like a leaf in the autumn / Like a snowflake in winter

I stand… Like a mountain in the ocean / Like a tree within the forest

Flaws & Powers

Your new form is stronger in the night. Whenever darkness falls, you may use your MOONLIGHT POWER. If you wish to use a MOONLIGHT POWER in the day, you must spend PULSE.

The sun was once your mother, but now it makes you weaker. When you walk in daylight, your SUNLIGHT FLAW affects you. If your GM rules that a SUNLIGHT FLAW would hinder you in a task, then you must roll 8 or above to achieve a SUCCESS. To ignore your SUNLIGHT FLAW, spend PULSE. Roll 1d10 on either side of the table to determine your FLAW and POWER.

SUNLIGHT FLAWS	d10	MOONLIGHT POWERS
Your teeth grow loose and fragile	1	You move faster than the wolves run
You are so cold, and it hurts	2	You vanish in shadow as if you were never there
Daylight burns your misted eyes	3	You walk on night air as if it were stone
You no longer have a shadow	4	You whisper to the beasts and they bend to your will
All that you consume turns to ashes in your mouth	5	You speak a sharp, violent word and break a mortal’s spirit
Nothing can make you laugh anymore	6	You can taste fear on the wind, and find its tantalising source
You can smell the marrow in their bones	7	You tear steel as if it were a shroud
Your reflection moves, even if you do not	8	You know which footprints were left by the living
When your heart beats, it hurts	9	You hear all the screams in the night and know their maker
Your skin is paper-thin and brittle	10	You sink your teeth into flesh and know its owner’s weakness

Anchors & Pulse

The Hunt for your killer consumes you when the sun goes down, but your aching heart must still be maintained by tending to something you love – this is your ANCHOR.

Whenever it is daylight, you can choose to stray from The Hunt to attend to your ANCHOR. Discuss with your GM how the ANCHOR manifests and what maintaining it entails.

When you attend to your ANCHOR, decide on a GOAL to achieve with your ANCHOR for that day, such as keeping a friendship alive or tending to a garden, then ask the GM to run a scene with your ANCHOR. If you achieve the GOAL, then you gain PULSE.

PULSE can be spent to use your MOONLIGHT POWERS in the day, or to ignore your SUNLIGHT FLAWS. You begin the game with 1 PULSE. You can have no more than 2 PULSE at a time. If the sun sets and you have 0 PULSE, then you must immediately fulfil a MOONLIGHT DESIRE, or be dogged by inhuman cravings. Once you fulfil a MOONLIGHT DESIRE, gain a new POWER.

Running a game – For GMs

When the game begins, ask each Sibling what item they were buried with. It can be something that helps lead them to their Killer, or a remnant of their former life.

At Night, when they hunt, the Siblings will deal with The Undead and The Monstrous – servants of The Killer, who act out their MOTIVATIONS.

In the day, these things have no power, but human beings can be just as wicked and keeping love alive may be more challenging than The Hunt.

Throughout the game, you will need to challenge the Siblings. When the Siblings make a roll, count the number of SUCCESSES:

3+

They get what they want, no more, no less

2

They get most of what they want

1

They must make a compromise to get what they want

0

There is a troubling complication, a tragic outcome, or The Killer strikes in line  with their MOTIVATION

The Killer

The Siblings’ Killer will act while the hunt goes on and their servants will act on their wishes.

Roll on the table to determine The Killer’s nature and motivations:

d6	NATURE	MOTIVATION
1	SADIST	To hit where it hurts the heart most, day or night
2	TRICKSTER	To make a mockery of their pain and struggles
3	LURKER	To be hidden deep within the hardest found places
4	MENACE	To be a constant, waiting threat of violence
5	DEVOURER	To destroy and consume without discrimination
6	TEMPTER	To seduce those in power with the promise of more

Moonlight Desires

When night falls and a Sibling has 0 PULSE, roll a d10 to determine their MOONLIGHT DESIRE. If they fail to act on their DESIRE, then they receive another SUNLIGHT FLAW and only count SUCCESSES on 8 or above for any task not related to their desire, until they regain PULSE or it is fulfilled.

1	…taste living blood, fresh from the vein	6	…split flesh from bone and make it art
2	…crush something weaker than you	7	…fill your mouth with another’s teeth
3	…dance to the music of breaking bones	8	…consume old memories from a newly fractured skull
4	…be the ruination of a beautiful thing	9	…weed out a liver from its warm, wet home
5	…drive a wedge between two loving hearts	10	…burn down a place where love resides