Western Michigian Gamer's Guild

THEME: Monstrous Duets

Hello! So I think I have one game that fits exactly what you're looking for, but I have a number of other games that feel like they're in the same wheelhouse. I'd definitely recommend checking them out to see if they might hit the same niche, or to see if they can be hacked to work for what you're thinking about.

Wandering Spark, by Nathan Blades.

You are a Wayward Engineer, traveling from city to city doing odd jobs, living meal to meal and driven to keep going by a quest that gnaws away at you.

You are an Emancipated Android, released from the servitude you were built under, gathering new and wonderful experiences, making sense of the life you now lead.

Your journey together is a free-form jazz improvisation. Will your melodies harmonize, or end up as solos?

I think it might be fairly easy to re-skin this as a game about a scientist and their creation on the run, with the scientist ruminating on the life they left behind for the sake of their creation, and the Reanimated Experiment's struggle to connect with human emotion. As you play, perhaps your Experiment character remembers memories belonging to the bodies they used to inhabit, before they died.

Altogether the game isn't about the process of creation in the typical sense, but from another perspective, it feels like the Creation / Android is creating their self throughout the course of the game.

Insatiable Cravings, by j.strautman.

Insatiable Cravings is a two-player roleplaying game about meal-making, courting, and bluffing.

One plays as the ravenous Monster, and chooses whether to eat the meal or the meal-maker.

One plays as the Monster’s Admirer, and chooses whether to cook something nourishing or deadly.

Can you stomach it?

Insatiable Cravings allows you to dance with monstrosity but allows monstrosity to flourish in both the Monster and the Monster's Admirer. It is a game about making and un-making, with the Monster never clearly defined. I think you could use this as a game about a Frankenstein's monster and a person who could theoretically be their admirer; whether or not that person is also their Creator would be entirely up to you.

the farmer and the bog body, by takataapui.

'the farmer and the bog body' is a game that is simply about a conversation between a body that's been in a bog for centuries, and the farmer who just dug them up.

this game is a two player game, and requires nothing else except a copy of the rules.

it is played in 7 questions, with players trading a question each back and forth. with many different branches, the possibilities for ways this conversation will go are many and varied.

The back-and-forth of the questions and answers of this game make it feel like a ritual, with the potential to create a slow, intimate pace as you internalize the things you say to each-other. It's kind of like a script, but I believe that while there are moments where you are to read a written answer to another, there are also moments where you take a moment to come up with your own answer to a question.

I wonder if there is a version of this game that could be about a body that was a re-animated being: I think that the format could definitely be used, even if the content needs to be changed!

A Modern Prometheus, by Mitchell Salmon.

A Modern Prometheus is a gothic horror roleplaying game for 2 players based on the Mobile Frame Zero: Firebrands framework by D. Vincent Baker and Meguey Baker (Lumpley Games).

Players take on the role of a scientist dabbling with dark forces at the edge of the natural sciences, and the creation that they bring to life as a consequence. Together, you and your partner will discover through play who is human, and who is monstrous.

You will take turns choosing from a list of mini-games specific to your character to craft a shared story of science, vengeance, humanity, and rage. No two mini-games are exactly alike. Use crafted prompts to guide your interactions as you explore the depths of your character, and discover their fate in the final confrontation between creator and creation.

This is the game in which one player is explicitly the mad scientist, and the other is the monstrous human they put together. The Firebrands engine that the game references means that as you play, you will take turns weaving together a story out of individual scenes, until the game climaxes in a final confrontation. If you like heightened suspense and body horror, you'll likely enjoy this game.

Dead Friend: A Game of Necromancy, by Lucian Khan.

Dead Friend is a roleplaying game for a necromancer and a ghost. That is, it's a collaborative storytelling game for two players. You will each play the role of a friend, one living and one dead. You will ask and answer questions to develop the characters, their community, their history together, and the motivations leading up to their final conflict. The script follows the dramatic structure of a necromancy ritual, and you will use the spell book of instructions throughout the entire game like a witch reading spells from an ancient grimoire. The mood may be spooky or intimate, heart-wrenching or hilarious — it is up to you as storytellers. Dead Friend requires 1 Tarot deck or 1 deck of mundane playing cards.

This is a game that could definitely be re-contextualized to make the necromantic ritual a raising of the dead, depending on how you flavor it. I think the through line of you two being friends separated by death still needs to be true, however. The game requires two coins and a deck of Tarot cards, which I think enhances the feeling of a ritual as you play.

Something Rotten, by Ex Stasis Games.

Sharing is caring, so they say… but they never had to share their body with an outsider intelligence they never invited in.

Decide which player is the host, and which is the parasite. Choose an ambition, form a plan… and take turns finding out who's in control. Will one of you wear the other down and claim that body as your own personal domain, or will you come to terms with sharing?

This is one of the games I stumbled upon that I don't think exactly communicates what you're looking for, but I think it might be in the same neighborhood. It flirts with the idea of monstrosity, invasion, and a body that isn't completely your own, and those all feel like themes that Frankenstein's monster would also wrestle with.

The Time We Have, by Elliot Davis.

The Time We Have: A Conversation Between Brothers is a game about what it means to be a brother—about all the complexity, vulnerability, and joy that comes with it. This is a storytelling card game played on opposite sides of a closed door and a conversation about saying goodbye.

This two-player TTRPG will guide you through the tragic and intimate story of two brothers and the final days before one of you turns. You will take turns drawing cards, asking questions, and processing this change together. Once the door is closed, your story begins. In the end, it is up to the surviving brother: Do you open the door?

I picked this game to add to the list not because I thought it would work as a Frankenstein-&-his-monster specifically, but because I thought it might carry some similar themes. You are two people who are incredibly close, but one of you is slowly turning into something that poses a direct threat to the other. You have to navigate the loss of your relationship while sitting on either side of a closed door. There's something really unique and powerful about playing a game with someone you can hear, but not see, even if you can see signs of their presence, such as their shadow under a door. It might heighten the horror!

Other Things To Check Out…

Mad Scientist's Paradise Game Recommendations.

here for you, by william lamkin & e. argoff.

The prototypical setting of the role-playing game is in an unspecified Central European country in the early 19th century. Players in the game portray the Igor-like minions of an evil Master (or Mistress) who preys on the nearby Townsfolk.

Do you know of any systems that have rules for monster/creature tracking? As in a party needs to kill a monster but first they need to travel through the wilderness and track the monster to its habitat.

I'm implementing rules for tracking monsters in the system I'm working on and was looking for points of comparison.

Thanks!

Hmmm.....

The only one I can think of right now is Wilderfeast but ....

It is a track phase where you always know where you're going and will reach the monster anyway.

In Monster Guts 2e, by Wheels Within Wheels Publishing (@ostermad-blog), you play as scavengers in an ecologically ravaged Pacific Northwest, hunting down big bio-engineered behemoths and harvesting their guts to build up your Village and upgrade your weapons.

Monster Guts has a tracking phase pulled from Trophy, which means it focuses on the story that evolves from the journey bringing you closer and closer to the monster. To find your quarry, you need to explore Hunting Zones. Hunting Zones have different locations within them, each location full of random encounters that you'll need to survive if you want to get closer to your prey. If you want to explore a hexcrawl-like scenario, the game also has optional Survival rules that require you to track supplies and time, so that you don't run out of resources before you find whatever beast you're hunting.

Apex Predator, by Peach Garden Games, is a solo monster-hunting game drawn from the Carta system, which means that you need a deck of playing cards to act as your map. You lay the cards out in a grid, and flip them over as you explore, uncovering various encounters and clues as you play.

Tracking the monster in this game involves finding sets of Monster Tracks: once you find 4 sets of tracks, the Monster Card becomes available, indicating that the monster is in its lair. Once the monster appears, you'll attempt to fight it, using dice and any advantages you've gained over the course of play.

There are two other versions of Apex Predator: Whitesky Reach, and The Phantom Isles, both of which give you new terrain to explore and new monsters to hunt.

Hunter Slash Prey, by Little Lab, feels a little less like Monster Hunter, and a little more like The Witcher. Your hunters are less likely to survive every hunt they go on, and the game reflects this in the moments in which the Hunters themselves become Prey. What you are able to do depends on what stage in the hunt you're in, but for the tracking part of the game, you'll be gathering information about monsters, attempting to reduce their danger score so you can attempt to lure them into an ambush.

Footnotes on foes: Eldrazi

Hey DMs, do you need an unfeeling aberrant force to threaten your campaign world at various scales but don’t want to use mindflayers? Bored of lovecraftian knockoffs threatening to drown reality in abstract but unspecified “madness”? Well have I got the monster for you friends, It’s the Eldrazi: an unknowable and all consuming horde that’s here to reduce your setting to nothingness.

I’ve always had a fondness for the Eldrazi after they originally debued in magic the gathering, alien beings that sap all life from their surroundings and seem to have no other aims beyond the total and complete obliteration of whatever world they happen to dwell on. (plus they have a super cool look, and in the end isn’t that what matters?)

Eldrazi have a lot of mystery surrounding them, but in trying to puzzle them out I came up with my own headcanon that was too good not to use.  Below the cut I’ll go into detail on how I think the eldrazi function, and how you can best use them in your campaigns.

TLDR: The eldrazi are the great decomposers of the multiverse, reducing dead worlds down into their base components, and then into dust to be reabsorbed by the cosmic cycles of the astral sea. A perfectly natural process, but one that can go catastrophically wrong should the eldrazi be drawn to a world that has not yet died as they often are by witless dabblers or disruptions to those same astral currents. When they end up on a world they’re not supposed to be they end up creating wastelands, fighting against nature like an infection.  

(art by ArtxBite on DeviantArt)

Science fiction and fantasy have a long history of fuzzy-to-nonexistent borders, and that sometimes means you get knights in space, which is absolutely awesome.

Now, anyone can wear heavy armor and wield a mighty melee weapon at least some of the time, but being a knight implies some sort of higher calling or oath that these warriors adhere to, and such is the case with the Star Knight archetype.

In fact, the core setting goes as far as to give us not just the Knights of Golarion, but also various Hellknight orders, both seeking to bring order and law, but in different ways.

And so this archetype was among the first Starfinder archetypes that offered different options depending on what order you belonged to (as well as generic options for if you belong to a different order beyond what has officially been written down.)

As a result, these warriors boast a few common abilities but also unique ones, so lets have a look, shall we?

True to the iconic armor they wear, these warriors learn to work with better and better armor, as well as how to capitalize on it to sometimes negate potentially critical blows.

With a charge and mighty blow, these knights can strike fear into the hearts of their foes.

Those belonging to some other order learn how to keep their weapons safe in a fight when not going all-out.

Such generic knights also demonstrate tremendous willpower and discipline, making it hard to undermine them mentally.

Those last two are generic options, but there are also options available to the specific orders. These include The Order of the Chain teaching basic magic to inhibit enemy movement; The Order of the Furnace able to set their weapons alight; the Order of the Nail issuing magical commands; the Order of the Eclipses extinguishing light in an area; The Knights of Golarion infusing their weapons with holy might; The Order of the Pike giving melee weapons reach and fusing them with longarms; The Order of the Gate summoning loyal minions; and finally the Order of the Scourge compelling the truth.

And that’s just the level 6 ability options. At level 12, all Hellknight Orders can send foes reeling with an empowered condemnation. Meanwhile, Knights of Golarion can ward an ally, absorbing some of the damage they take for them.

Obviously combat classes are the logical pick here, but any class can benefit from this archetype, getting some better defenses out of it and lending their skills to their order. Consider how Hellknights have their own mages in the form of Signifers, as well as how skilled classes can provide all sorts of tactical tricks.

How these individual knights behave will of course vary by their order. Knights of Golarion definitely will place a lot of value on honor and chivalry and whatnot, while the various Hellknight orders will focus primarily on the rule of law as well as their specific specialization. An order of the pike start knight might focus on fighting monstrous aliens that threaten settlements on colony worlds, or even straight up fight kaiju in mechs and whatnot.

The stronghold of the Order of the Stars is said to be impenetrable. However, clearly this is not the case when someone manages to smuggle in a mature quicksilver drifter, an alien life form with poisonous and metal ruining spittle, into the compound as a distraction.

Knighthood seems like a strange fit for a timid and scientifically-minded people like the osharu, but Ser Tobrinog is as steadfast as any other knight in the Order, though they speak little of why they have chosen this path. Regardless, his compatriots are not complaining, as his serums and boosters prove a major boon in keeping his allies in the fight.

Villain: The Widow of Lampara. 

Adventure hooks: 

Dark omens fill the countryside: in recent weeks the sun seems unable to part an everpresent gloom that’s settled over the land , ravens and other scavengers swarm in unnatural numbers,  and livestock has begun to collapse in the field riddled with unseen sickness and rot. Landowners and church officials alike seek an origin of this creeping darkness. 

Those traveling through the region are warned away from the Lampara estate, apparently folk in that region have been going missing ever since the old master took ill, and rumors of plague persist. If the party does investigate, they’ll find a perfectly maintained fields and elaborate lawns presided over by a coordinated staff of the withered dead. 

A harrowed youth has sought out the party for their reputation as heroes. Years ago she witnessed the death of her  family at the hands of a mob of dead men, who followed up their tireless massacre by burning her home to the ground.  Staying quiet for many years, she puts the blame squarely on the wicked old man her Aunt was forced to marry, who disappeared shortly after the engagement and hasn’t been seen since.  

A party with a reputation for good results and less than perfect morals may receive a gilded invitation to Lampara, delivered by a withered footman in exquisite livery. The Mistress of the Estate has need of their services 

Setup: The Widow Dahlia Lampara is not your typical necromancer. She cares nothing for raising an army of undead to assert her dominance over surrounding kingdoms, nor is she motivated by a fear of death that drives her to cleave mortal souls in search of eternal life. Raised as a member of the petty landowning nobility, she is more than happy to carry on that genteel existence, using her powers to ensure a life of comfort and routine, without the presence of any servants or social dues that may infringe on her solitude.  Her desire for isolation is such that she is currently seeking a way to carry her estate off to the shadowfell, in the hopes that the lifeless realm will provide less distractions from ignorant farmers or would be dogooders. 

Hello, everyone!

The group has been tasked with rescuing the princess from a fortress by the sea. Against all odds, they survived the encounters inside the castle’s walls. Finally they arrive at the princess’ chambers.

But there seems to be something wrong with the princess. A magic spell reveals the captive maiden is in fact a shape-shifting slime!

The creature tokens for this map are an Elf Princess, a Slime Elf Princess and a Trickster Slime. Emerald tier gets the Elf Princess while Diamond tier gets all three. In addition, Sapphire tier gets extra creature token variants.

You can see a preview of all of this week’s Patreon content here.

I love you Safety Wizard.

Candlelight by Glowing Roots Press

He doesn't think it's a rude thing to say in front of a monster. There are no rude things to say to monsters, only rude things monsters say.

"Don't worry," she says between bites, "You're one of the good ones."

"But I am still a monster," I do not say. I do not say that I love my claws and teeth, my prehensile shadow and my glowing eyes. That I cannot imagine giving them up even for survival, that to hide my shadow and trim my claws for them makes me feel diminished. In public I cannot say that I do not wish to be human.

They're progressives, this bunch, even if he carries a hero's banner with its proud history and none of them ask him to put it away. They know there are good monsters, monsters who can speak eloquently and hold the fork right, monsters you can be seen with in public. Some of their best friends are monsters.

They do not know the monster who is invited to brunch knows solidarity with the monster who is not. Believes and understands the monster who is not invited more than the human who does the inviting.

"Isn't that a little harsh?" says a third human, and I have not forgotten I am outnumbered. "We have ways of killing monsters without blood now, painlessly. And, of course, a monster should be allowed to live if it never growls."

He has never seen me growl. Yet how loudly and endlessly I will, when I'm out of earshot. He's talking about killing monsters who cannot stoop to civility, about mother and brother and lover who were never able to mute themselves like me, and does he not know how small a child who can only growl is?

Hello, everyone!

At the end of the jungle path, on top of the peak, a temple of evil magic rests.

Waiting for the right time, the warlocks begin the ritual to bring an age of ruin.

Send your group to stop the ritual before it’s too late and evil consumes the land!

The creature tokens for this map are a Hell Mosquito, a Vine Skeleton and a Werespider. Emerald tier gets the Vine Skeleton while Diamond tier gets all three. In addition, Sapphire tier gets extra creature token variants.

You can see a preview of all of this week’s Patreon content here.