Monster of the Week (2012)

Overview

Monster of the Week (MOTW) is an urban fantasy-horror tabletop role-playing game developed by Michael Sands. It was first published in 2012, and a revised edition was published by Evil Hat Productions in 2015. The entire theme of the game is heavily inspired by TV shows like Buffy, Supernatural, X-Files, Fringe and many others. The system it directly evolved from is
Apocalypse World (2010)
Description Players in the MOTW system take on the role of monster hunters. Capable of dealing with most creatures that might get in their way. Using skills to solve mysteries, track monsters and eventually defeat them.  System Overview & Key Features
Powered by the Apocalypse Engine (2d6) Players roll two six-sided dice (2d6) when performing actions, adding relevant character modifiers to the result. Rolling a 10 or higher is considered a success. 7-9 is a partial success, which will also carry some added consequences. Getting a 6 or lower means failure - you have not succeeded in whatever you attempted and dire consequences are soon to follow.
Basic and Playbook Moves Game mechanics are categorized into discrete actions called "Moves." Basic Moves are universally available to all characters and cover common actions such as "Investigate a Mystery," "Kick Some Ass," or "Act Under Pressure." Playbook Moves are exclusive, specialized abilities granted by a character's chosen Playbook, allowing them to manipulate the narrative or game mechanics in unique ways.
Finite Luck Points Each character possesses a limited track of Luck points. A player may permanently expend a point of Luck to retroactively alter a dice roll to a 12 (a complete success) or to entirely negate a single instance of sustained damage. Luck is a resource the players have to keep an eye on. Using too much can get you out of trouble, but if you don't have it when you need it most - trouble awaits.
Harm and Exploiting Weaknesses Physical trauma is tracked using a short monitor called "Harm." Player characters and adversaries possess low thresholds for sustaining Harm, making direct combat inherently dangerous. To successfully defeat a primary antagonist, players are mechanically required to investigate and utilize the creature's specific weakness, as standard physical attacks are often insufficient to achieve a permanent victory.
The Mystery Countdown To structure a gameplay session, the Keeper utilizes a tool called the Countdown. This is a chronological timeline detailing the sequence of events that will occur if the player characters fail to intervene. The Countdown is divided into escalating phases, ending with a catastrophic event. It serves to govern the pacing of the investigation and provide a sense of urgency.
Additional links evilhat.com https://evilhat.com - Official Evil Hat Productions website genericgames.co.nz https://genericgames.co.nz - Official home of Michael Sands and the original game files

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MotW
Monster of the Week
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Monster of the Week
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Monster of the Week
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Monster of the Week

Looking to set up a Monster of the Week campaign. I'm happy to use any of the settings in the game, either a fantasy horror using one of the two fantasy settings, or a straight up action horror set in modern day. I'm happy to teach rules to those who have never played before.

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MotW
Monster of the Week
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Oneshot
looking for casual players for weekly oneshots :D
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2/7
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Monster of the Week
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looking for casual players for weekly oneshots :D

Newbie friendly
New players are welcome, and nobody expects you to know the rules beforehand.
Adult
The table is for players who are 18 or over.
(FREE games only) Hi all! :D We’re a group of three looking for a few more players to host our weekly one-shots with! We are also looking to build up our Community group as a whole, so if you are a GM who wants a space to run your own one shots, you are more than welcome to do that here too! We’re all learning together. Very beginner friendly and low commitment, so no pressure at all to show up every week, just drop in when a session sounds fun ^^ You'll get taught everything you need to know if you're not fully familiar with VTTs as a whole. As of now, our main focus is on Troika!, DCC, Call of Cthulhu, and Mothership, and we’re open to trying plenty more! Everything we do runs over VTT & Discord since we’re spread across different countries. When we play: We usually hop on once a week around 8:00 pm (CET) / 7:00 pm (GMT). Weekly games are planned out in advance due to shifting work patterns, so a bit of flexibility goes a long way. If you’re 18+, curious, kind and up for some chaos, we’d absolutely love to have you! Feel free to DM if this sounds interesting to you :)

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Monster of the Week
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Specimen Unknown
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Monster of the Week
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Specimen Unknown

Eli Boone grew up in a small agricultural town in Ohio. He's a friendly, loyal, hardworking guy with strong small-town values. He believes in helping people, keeping his word, and doing what's right. He wasn't always a believer in the supernatural. That changed during a family trip to Wisconsin. While visiting his uncle, Eli experienced what appeared to be a genuine haunting: cold spots, voices, the sensation of being watched, and other unexplained events. During the same trip, his family's car was chased by what Eli believes was the Beast of Bray Road. On the drive home, the family witnessed two unidentified objects in the sky. Three completely different paranormal experiences in the span of one trip convinced Eli that the world was considerably stranger than he had thought. He posted about the experiences online, expecting people to think he was crazy. Most did. But one organization took his story very seriously. The Aegis Foundation The Aegis Foundation is a recently established international organization that publicly presents itself as a humanitarian and charitable organization dedicated to protecting people and improving lives. Behind the scenes, however, Aegis knows that monsters and other supernatural phenomena exist. The organization has wealthy international benefactors, extensive resources, official connections, rigorous training programs, and a growing network of facilities. It is also extremely bureaucratic and secretive. Aegis wants monster specimens—dead or alive—for reasons that aren't entirely clear. Eli was recruited immediately after high school and became the first paid field Hunter employed by Aegis. He's been extensively trained and equipped, and he's genuinely proud to work for them. Aegis gave him a purpose and took him seriously when everyone else thought he was crazy. The catch? Eli doesn't actually know what Aegis ultimately wants. And neither do I. I'd love to explore that mystery during the campaign. What I'm Looking For I'm hoping to find a Keeper who is interested in taking this premise and running with it. I'm particularly interested in: Monster-hunting and investigation Character-driven stories A little mystery surrounding Aegis The occasional horror, but not necessarily nonstop grimdark Humor and fun between the scary stuff Characters who have reasons to care about each other Collaborative worldbuilding The possibility of the characters gradually discovering what Aegis is really doing I'm new to Monster of the Week, so I'm looking for a group that's welcoming to someone learning the system. I'm not expecting the campaign to revolve around Eli or Aegis—I'd like the other players' characters and stories to be just as important. If you're a Keeper looking for a campaign idea, or a player interested in joining something like this, I'd love to hear from you.

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DND5E
Dungeons & Dragons 5E
DND5.5E
Dungeons & Dragons 5.5E (2024)
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Phobophiliac
Grimdark veteran Steady regular
I'm Nick, I'm a 32yo male/AMAB non-binary person, with a few years of experience playing D&D 3.5, D&D 5.0, and CoC 7th. I'm a little burnt out on those (mostly D&D/high fantasy) so I'd prefer to play a different system, but I'm not against those systems if the campaign is appealing enough. I'm open-minded, intelligent, and a quick learner so picking up new systems is pretty easy for me. The systems that appeal to me the most right now are Mutants & Masterminds, Cyberpunk, Mothership, Kult, Unknown Armies, any World/Chronicles of Darkness system, or any obscure or homebrew horror system (any setting with heavy horror). My ideal group would consist of people around my age but I'll play with anyone 18+. I'm friendly and get along with pretty much everyone, and have thick skin so I don't mind banter, darker themes, or adult content. LGBTQIA+ friendly (obviously lol), female friendly, POC friendly. I'm also not going to get too antsy if we get a little derailed from play sometimes, especially with goofier groups, but I love serious play just as much. Currently looking to play weekly on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, or Friday, during evenings/nights. Saturdays are undesirable at the moment but if I really love the campaign idea I can make the time for it. I can't play Tuesday afternoons and both Wednesday and Sunday are off limits at the moment. Long term campaigns are ideal. I'm a pretty dedicated player, I rarely miss sessions. Any VTT is fine (I love Foundry), theater of the mind is also fine. I'm not a big fan of Roll20 but I'll use it if I have to lol. I have and use Discord regularly. I also would pefer not to be on cam, but I do have a webcam. However I do not want to be recorded and posted on the public internet so skip me if you're running on a stream, youtube recording, podcast, etc. Recordings for private note-taking purposes are okay but do not post them online publicly. I love creating characters (especially flawed characters) so I usually have several character ideas for multiple systems either ready-to-play or brewing, even for systems I've ever played (such as M&M 3e, Unknown Armies, Kult, etc). I'm flexible enough to stick with RAW or go full homebrew, I will always work with the DM to ensure that my character is suitable for their campaign, especially if we dive into heavy homebrew. I generally prefer not to min/max but I'm not against it, I just find flawed characters (mechanical and flavor) to be far more interesting and fun to play. I don't meta game, backseat game, rules lawyer, and I don't have main character syndrome (if anything I'm a little shy of the limelight). I can also handle bad outcomes and character death, I believe that's just part of the storytelling aspect of TTRPGs. I love roleplay, combat, exploration, puzzle solving, pretty much every aspect of TTRPGs so I'm generally comfortable with any ratio. I also sometimes to photo-manipulation/digital collage art, drawn art (digital and traditional), etc for my character, other characters, campaigns, but I'm not very good at it (yet). Usually this is for comedic effect or out of necessity. I also do art and writing outside of TTRPG play. Not interested in play-by-post or paid games, sorry.
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Silver Spring
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Brian
I have been playing RPGs for nearly 20 years, and running them for 10. As a player I enjoy tactical combat. As a GM I enjoy running horror games with a blend of story/roleplay and combat.
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Posted 23 hours ago
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Homebrew
Homebrew
MOTHERSHIP
Mothership
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Lowell
JMtheGM
Hello! I'm an experienced GM and have been playing many TTRPGs for a long, long time. Let's just say my first set of D&D books came ina little white box. I love playing at a table with people who are looking to have fun and tell a great story. My games run form epic fanstasy to gritty to light-hearted. I have run games from one-shots, tournaments, campaigns, western-reaches style sandboxes, and short-run mini-campaigns. I lean toward character and story-driven games with palyer investment. I'd love to build a round table of gaming friends!
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