High Magic Low Lives is a game about playing social media influencer criminals who livestream their wizard crimes against the immortal aristocracy to build their #brand. The game copy says it's about wizard school drop-outs, but not all the classes are wizard school drop-outs.

Barachois, for instance, got his wizard degree. Magic domain: shellfish. He picked it because the classes worked with his work schedule, he liked the university location, and it had nothing to do with divination or horrors and he wanted to invest his actual effort into literature and organising open mic nights for poetry. Or comedy, if the people insisted. He wasn't out to make enemies, he was out to provide a voice to the mic.

Anyway, unfortunately, psychic visions didn't really give a shit about what he wanted his magic to do or not. So he has a degree in shellfish magic and a tendency for horrible migraine assaults from the future if he goes to sleep without taking precautions. Aside from his poor mental barriers against timelines yet to come, he also has poor mental barriers against the femme/homme fatale, who seem to have a homing instinct for his visions, and come bearing bad news and worse paychecks. He keeps telling himself that this is the last one, then he's out and back to trying to get a job as a very specific kind of marine biologist.

But now he's fallen in with a certain crowd. Gotten a rep. He didn't try and build the brand, so now he's branded with an image he didn't build or get pick. He has the near-empty video page, and a slowly climbing follower counter. Help.

Prophetic Visions: When you sleep without wearing any protection you learn a secret about the world that you couldn’t possibly have learned on your own. It may not be useful, but it will definitely be true.

2 Half tuna sandwich (Δ4)
Bedroll (d4)
Rope (Δ6)
Sun hat (d6)
Blue Potion & Tequila Δ6
Disposable Phone Battery Δ8
A length of pipe (d6)
A spider in a glass orb, perfectly content and healthy (d6)

I think the concept of this game is interesting and fun. Like, the d66 tables for dating profile! The goth/prep, nerd/jock alignment chart! The ridiculous magic domains! But I don't think the mechanics as presented jive super well with the game as presented. It seems like it ought to be either more story-centric and thus less dice heavy but we have a bunch of different types of dice to keep track of. Or, if you did it the other way, and just had a romp with ridiculous backstory but the fun was supposed to be the encounters, it doesn't provide enough mechanical information to really feel like that's what it was trying to do, either. A weird midpoint of a game. Still, I'm happy with the character I made for it. Here's his misc information because I didn't really feel like they deserved their own section on the character sheet:

Connection: Member of a secret death cult known as The Obsidian Eye (Δ6)
Blood type: B positive
Seeking a: Wilderness Prep for a Ritual Partnership
Music preference: Crystal Fuzz
Criminal record: Media piracy

Monster of the Week is what it says on the tin, so it functions as Buffy the Vampire Hunter: the Game. Or Supernatural: the Game. Or X-Files: the Game. Between them all, Pearl is definitely more from a Buffy background, than a hunter who grew up in this business. A popular girl, though never the queen bee, she was in with that crowd. After all, her parents are jewelers. She might be a metal shop girlie at heart, but on the surface level she has the money and the access to glitz to buy her access to the good social circles. Her burn scars are under gloves, anyway, so they're basically not even there.

But while other people can ignore what's not on the surface, she's... bad at that. And that's why she got tangled up in this supernatural shit, and now that she is what is she supposed to do? Just ignore the constant threats hanging around her house and the school and ruining her nightlife and also maybe her regular life? She's not chosen, she doesn't have an inherited gift, she's not part ghoulie or beastie. She's just dead if she decides to stop using the little bit of strength she's found a way to give herself.

And because that's in her head, she'll ignore danger to find out more about secret, dangerous, and forbidden magic. If she's dead either way, she might as well take the risk that might show her a way to make things better. Or at least, make things go her way. Things do usually go her way, though not necessarily to the way of people around her. Pearl's magic, when it goes awry, doesn't go for her as long as there's someone else around to hit. Allies, bystanders, and sometimes maybe even an enemy.

Ritual components: Bag of unpolished, raw gems & semiprecious stones. Used for her rote.

Ritual components: Object of power. Ring. "Found" in a gorgon den. Stolen. Used for her rote.

Wizardly weapon: Athame (2-harm hand magic silver)

Wizardly weapon: .38 revolver (2-harm close reload loud)

Bad Luck Charm: Whenever you use magic and miss, the backlash never affects you directly if there’s someone else around to hit. It’ll go for allies, other hunters, and innocent bystanders. Sometimes, every so often, it might even hit an enemy.

Burn Everything: When you use magic to inflict harm, you can choose to inflict 3-harm area magic obvious or 3-harm ignore-armour magic obvious.

This Might Sting: You can use magic to heal 3-harm, but the process is exceptionally painful. On a 7-9 it also leaves a gnarly scar.

Girl's Best Friend:

Requires: An expendable component such as sulfur, sage, or incense, which must be burned, blown, or scattered during the casting. (Stone/glass/gem, shattered) | An object of power (wand, talisman, orb, staff, etc) which must be wielded (ring)

Effect: Something is replaced with the material of her shattering.

10+: It works exactly as she planned. The blanket is now a diamond shield. The door is glass, and can be shattered. The plastic toy sword is now sharp steel. The wolfman's leg is now stone.

7-9: It works, but the area of effect is wrong or there is another complication. Perhaps she only meant to affect the zipper so someone couldn't break into a bag. The whole bag is now stone— what's inside is safe now, but hard to access. Maybe the whole wall is glass, instead of the door, and the cultists inside can see you and are forewarned. Etc. The wolfman has heavy stone claws and fur slowing it down, but it is still coming.

Miss It goes awry. Something unhelpful is effected. The lightbulb turns to jade and shatters on the floor, plunging the room into pitch black. A gun turns to soft gold and firing a bullet deforms it. The wolfman has diamond tipped claws.

Character number 5! Monster of the Week feels like a good follow-up to Monsterhearts 2, since they use very similar systems. I've played Monster of the Week before though, and have another character for it, but I decided to make a new one just for fun! My other character uses the Divine playbook, and is a very shitty angel who is trying his best who makes primarily bad decisions.

So I went into making a new character with the Bad Decisions as her primary trait! Pearl is not a good girl and she really isn't trying to be. I support women's wrongs. Not that her core wants are bad or anything, but her playbook is definitely geared towards like, Willow in peak bad decision season of Buffy. It's been a while, I forget which one that was. Season 6? The core concept of the playbook is like, uses magic regardless of the detriment it causes to others around them, because this girl was thrown into the middle of supernatural bullshit and decided to latch onto magic because they feel they don't have another option.

Her playbook is not one of the starter playbook options, and can be found here.

As an aside, she's also named after Clara Driscoll.

Monsterhearts 2 is a game of literal metaphor: in which that kid is literally a vampire, but they're also a drain on everyone around them, who uses charm to bypass other people's boundaries and get what they want. High school is messy and terrifying, and the secret monster double lives everyone is leading only amps that up.

Jury is "the unseen", a monster that is perfectly transparent, unseen even by cameras. The cause isn't even something of their own doing— the bystander to an event with more overt consequences for others, Jury was already a cold outsider so no one even realised Jury's change. Resentful at others for their own lonliness, Jury has not been using their newfound invisibility for good. No, it's blackmailing time. Without a social circle, Jury is making good friends with untouchability and being totally unaccountable, out less for money and more for torment.

There's also another side to Jury's plight.

The reason Jury didn't get to close to anyone to begin with, and another reason this condition is both a torment and a blessing. Puberty was a betrayal, and being perceived as female and having others treat them that way is hard. It's easier to just be apart from everyone, if they can't be who they actually are. Who Jury is— who he is inside his head— isn't percieved by anyone. They don't see him. They just see the body he wears, and now they don't even see that. He now has to do make-up to make his skin visible, foundation and blush to try and mimic actual skin, a wig atop invisible hair, and his clothes hang off a hated feminine frame.

His choices are thus: put effort into being perceived as a false self, or shed the disguise and not be perceived at all— there's freedom in separating himself from how others perceive him, but it's very lonely. He resents having this choice: deep down, he'd like not to be lonely, but not enough to give up on who he is.

See right through you: You are perfectly transparent. Nothing including cameras can see you. This only affects your body, not anything you wear or carry. You can still be sensed by anything but sight. Interacting with others normally may involve wearing bandages, full covered clothing, or a mask. If your disguised and your nature is exposed roll Cold. On a hit, you can retain self-control and make a hasty escape. On a 7-9, you are enraged and embarrassed. All onlookers get a string on you.

Blackmailer: When you spy on someone in a private moment, take a string. When you a spend a string to offer experience, keep the string if they refuse.

Character number 4! Since Monsterhearts 2 is a very textually queer game, I wanted to make a character that spoke to my experience being a queer teenager. There was a lot less trans awareness I feel when I was in high school. That said, while Jury ended up stepping out of the social sphere entirely, I ended up volunteering at an LGBT center downtown. I think there's enough common ground though that he'd be an interesting character to play.

His playbook is an unofficial one, rather than one of the starter ones. You can find the supplement it's from here.

Felix didn't come to the city of madness because he was running— he already had an escape. It was a few too many nights of all-nighters with commission work, with staying up and sniping merch sales off yahoo auctions. One night he loses a bidding war— not even to the guy he was bidding against, a last minute sniper— on a rare figurine. He looks about his prized collection, consoling himself, and puts on a jacket and takes the elevator down to see if he can scrounge up a can of something caffeinated from the all night convenience store to get back to work with, only for the elevator to stop at a floor that doesn't exist.

WHAT'S BEEN KEEPING YOU AWAKE?

Desire. Staying awake to bid at the right time to win specific rare figurines from the obscure object of his obsession. Staying awake to earn the money to bid.

WHAT JUST HAPPENED TO YOU?

Covered in Background. Even his walk of defeat didn't turn out right.

WHAT'S ON THE SURFACE?

Gangly, unwashed, anime t-shirt, motorcycle jacket, skinny jeans, aviator glasses with transition lenses. Visibly distracted by his phone at all times.

WHAT LIES BENEATH?

High self-esteem (in his graphic design skills, making money and not needing to depend on anyone), low self-esteem (he needs to not depend on anyone because anyone meeting him won't like him. There is nothing good about him except the things he is good at. He will make you a website and you will not see his face nor room even once, nothing outside of emails and portfolio work.) Escapism and collecting objects that help him immerse in fantasy so as to not face the reality of his discontent. In his experience, acting on his discontent does nothing good. Getting kicked out of the house was not good, even if it's the best thing that ever happened to him.

WHAT'S YOUR PATH?

Stated: Independence. Anime figurines. In the immediate, he wants to use his access to the nightmare world that most people can't see to get cool things to keep at home.
Real, but unlikely: human connection. In the long term, he might come to see that he doesn't want to be an automaton of the city, just taking on a role, collecting and storing, possibly selling just because that will keep him safe. The harder path to becoming a real person might become clear.

EXHAUSTION TALENT:

Visual analysis. He can do the party trick of flipping through a book and then tell you what pages the headers were on, despite not having seen it before. Maps seen in passing can be recalled and followed, a quick visual sweep of very messy room will let him find what he's looking for.

MADNESS TALENT:

Can draw things into reality. Draws a cute anime girl with a gun to be a distraction? There is now a cute anime girl with a gun to be a distraction. Need a rope? He can draw a rope.

Character number 3 on the list. Don't Rest Your Head is a really edgelord mid-aughts game, and I wanted to create a character that fit into that time. I waffled a bit on the phone, but honestly I'm sure he had one of those early... not flip phones. Like the slider types, like a Motorola Droid or a Nokia E7. He might even have an early Japanese phone, since he's super an otaku, with the Galápagos syndrome Japanese phones benefited from, they were generally more capable than western phones of the same time.

What else. Oh! Gender is listed that way as a joke that's also not a joke. It's late 2000s so the discourse isn't there yet, but he's not female but also feels like he has failed out of the masculinity milestones and also doesn't even know if he wants to hit them? In modern times he'd probably use he/they pronouns and be somewhere on the genderqueer spectrum, but instead all he has is a discomfited feeling.

This game doesn't have a lot of stats, and instead has five major questions you answer when creating the character.