Monsterhearts vs Vampire: The Masquerade
Compare Monsterhearts and Vampire: The Masquerade side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.
| Monsterhearts | Vampire: The Masquerade | |
|---|---|---|
| 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 | Social Intrigue, Faction Play, Urban Fantasy, Corruption, Drama, Character-Driven, Resource Management, Superpowers, Social Combat, Lore-Heavy |
| 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. | Roll attribute plus skill in d10s, counting 6+ as successes against a difficulty. Paired 10s add extra successes. Hunger replaces ordinary dice in most pools: a winning critical containing a Hunger 10 becomes messy, while a failed test containing a Hunger 1 becomes a bestial failure. |
| Dice | 2d6 | d10 dice pool |
| Complexity | Medium | High |
| Accessibility | Medium | High |
| Runnability | Very High | Very High |
| License | Proprietary | Community Content Agreement for the Storytellers Vault |
| Third-Party Publishing | No verified route found | Commercial publishing allowed — Community content program |
| Summary only, not legal advice. Check current terms before publishing. | ||
| Cost | $ | $$ |
| Publisher | Buried Without Ceremony | Renegade Game Studios |
| Year | 2017 | 2018 |
| Languages | English, French, German, Italian, Polish, Spanish | English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Polish, Russian, Portuguese, Japanese |
| 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 who want campaigns about vampire coteries balancing political ambition, predatory hunger, and relationships with the humans they still care about. |
| 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. | Using supernatural powers can increase Hunger, making the next hunt harder to postpone. Convictions and human Touchstones make moral compromise carry consequences beyond winning the immediate conflict. Coteries share hunting territories and social assets, giving political ambitions a foothold in the city. |
| 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. | Messy criticals and bestial failures can put predation or compulsions into scenes where players hoped to stay in control. Character creation requires choices across clans, powers, feeding habits, advantages, and human ties. Establishing the chronicle’s relationships and boundaries for mature themes takes group preparation even when using a published city. |