Monster of the Week vs Public Access
Compare Monster of the Week and Public Access side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.
| Monster of the Week | Public Access | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Horror, Modern | Horror, Modern |
| Play Style | Narrative, Beginner-Friendly, Investigation, Playbook-Driven, Fiction-First, Character-Driven, Theater of the Mind | Investigation, Mystery, Collaborative, Player-Only Rolls, Fiction-First, Character-Driven, Atmospheric, Corruption |
| Core Mechanic | Roll 2d6 + stat. 10+ full success, 7–9 success with a cost, 6 or less the Keeper makes a move. Playbook moves trigger from fictional actions. Luck points turn failures into successes but never come back. | When a move is triggered, roll 2d6 plus one of five ability modifiers. A 6 or less is a miss, while many moves split hits into 7–9, 10–11, and 12+ tiers. After a result is narrated, a player can turn a Key to raise it one tier and replace that outcome with a different timeline. |
| Dice | 2d6 | 2d6 |
| Complexity | Low | Medium |
| Accessibility | Medium | Very High |
| Runnability | Very High | Low |
| License | Generic Games Third Party License | Proprietary |
| Cost | $$ | Free |
| Publisher | Evil Hat Productions | The Gauntlet |
| Year | 2023 | 2023 |
| Best For | Groups who want episodic monster-hunting adventures inspired by Buffy, Supernatural, and The X-Files: investigating mysteries, confronting creatures, and dealing with hunter drama. | Groups seeking a finite collaborative analog-horror campaign where player-built theories, personal histories, and found-footage prompts shape the truth behind a small-town conspiracy |
| Highlights | Very easy to learn, mystery countdown gives the Keeper a clear prep framework, playbooks map directly to genre archetypes | Clues have no fixed locations or canonical answers, so players assemble them into a theory and roll to establish whether it is true. Turning a Key raises a resolved roll by one tier and replaces the narrated failure with an alternate timeline. Odyssey tape prompts let players author uncanny broadcasts that become a campaign timer and feed connections back into Deep Lake. |
| Considerations | No pre-written mysteries in the core book, limited mechanical depth for long campaigns, custom move design requires GM experience, monster creation guidelines are loose | Dawn, Day, Dusk, and Night must occur in order, which constrains free-form scene pacing. The Keeper must synthesize campaign discoveries into a custom final TV Odyssey mystery. The intended campaign engages childhood trauma, body horror, ritual sacrifice, and other dark material. |