Monsterhearts vs Public Access
Compare Monsterhearts and Public Access side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, and more.
| Monsterhearts | Public Access | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Horror, Modern | Horror, Modern |
| Tags | Narrative, Fiction-First, Character-Driven, Drama, Roleplay-Heavy, Playbook-Driven, Player-Only Rolls, Theater of the Mind, Collaborative, Atmospheric | Investigation, Mystery, Collaborative, Player-Only Rolls, Fiction-First, Character-Driven, Atmospheric, Corruption |
| Core Mechanic | When a move calls for dice, roll 2d6 plus Hot, Cold, Volatile, or Dark. A 10+ is good, a 7–9 is complicated, and a 6 or less lets the MC introduce unpleasant consequences. Strings represent emotional leverage that characters can spend during interactions, while the MC never rolls dice. | 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 | Medium | Medium |
| Availability | Paid | Free core rules |
| Runnability | 5 of 5 book tools | 3 of 5 book tools |
| License | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| Third-Party Publishing | No verified route found | Not yet researched |
| Summary only, not legal advice. Check current terms before publishing. | ||
| Publisher | Buried Without Ceremony | The Gauntlet |
| Year | 2017 | 2023 |
| Languages | English, French, German, Italian, Polish, Spanish | English, French, Spanish |
| Best For | Groups who want collaborative teen-monster horror driven by desire, social leverage, and messy relationships. It suits an MC ready to discuss boundaries and facilitate safety practices. | 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 | Strings turn emotional leverage into a spendable resource, so relationships mechanically shape influence and risk. Every Skin carries distinct moves and an economy that gives each monster archetype a different mechanical focus. A fifth advance unlocks Season Advances for everybody, then the current session plus one more session take the campaign toward its close. | 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 | The game addresses sex, abuse, and trauma, and it calls for upfront conversations about boundaries. Physical violence uses the Lash Out Physically move, resolving harm through immediate consequences rather than a separate combat procedure. Strings and Conditions shape social interactions, while Skin-specific resources add extra tracking. | 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. |