The Monster v1.

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YOUR LOOK
Skin: artificial, Asian or South Asian, Black, decorated, Hispanic/Latino,
Indigineous, Middle-Eastern, white, rotten, bone-white, wet and warm, furry,
pallid, _________

STATS
Assign each stat one of these numbers: +2, +1, +1, +0, +0, -1; your Meat should be
+2 or +1. An important aspect of your character will be the relationship between
your Meat and your Cool. You use Meat to be monstrous and do violence and you
use Cool to resist the monster inside you.

LETHAL ADAPTIONS
Instead of getting cyberware, the Infected relies on her super-human abilities.
Choose two from below.

Dermal Deposits: When you make the harm move, subtract 2 from your roll.
Subtract 3 from your roll if the harm came from a weapon with the +flechette
tag.
Heightened Awareness: Choose two senses which your powers have
improved. Whenever your enhanced senses help out, you may take +1
forward to assess.
Enhanced Sight: Choose two of the following tags +thermographic,
+light amplification, +magnification, +flare compensation.
Enhanced Hearing: Choose one of the following tags: +wide-
frequency, +dampening
Enhanced Scent: Gain two of the following tags: +bullshit-detector,
+discerning, +powerful-nose
Natural Weaponry: Choose one.
claws (2-harm hand messy)
fangs (3-harm intimate messy feeding)
acid spit (2-harm close messy corrosive)
essence drain (4-harm intimate slow feeding)
Improved reflexes: You react so quickly that you can almost dodge bullets. If
none of your enemies have Synth Nerves or Improved Reflexes, take +1
forward to mix it up. In situations where reaction time is critical, take +1
forward to act under pressure.
CORE MECHANICS
A Ticking Timebomb: You have a countdown clock that represents your Hunger.
When a move says to roll Hunger, roll and then add the number of segments of
your Hunger clock that you have filled in. The more segments that are filled on
your Hunger clock the more of a monster you become. Some of your moves get
stronger, but your control of yourself gets weaker.

When you begin a new mission: Reset your Hunger clock to 2200 (■■■■□□)
and then roll Harm to Table. If you roll well, you should get flesh from your
arrangement. For each flesh you get, erase one segment from your Hunger
clock. Any flesh leftover after your clock hits 1200 (□□□□□□) can be converted
into [snacks] that you can consume during the mission with Be the Monster.
When the clock strikes 2100 (■■■□□□): You begin losing yourself. Your
monstrous features become exaggerated and you become more and more like
the monsters of folktales. You must roll to Resist the Temptation when you
smell blood or happen across a fresh corpse.
When the clock strikes 2200 (■■■■□□): The Hunger grows more powerful,
even just the sight or smell of a new living human may tempt you and force
you to Resist the Temptation.
When the clock strikes 2300 (■■■■■□): You appear absolutely monstrous to
the uninfected. The Hunger makes you unable to focus on even simple tasks.
Speech is all but impossible.
Take -1 ongoing to rolling with any stat other than Meat.
Take +1 ongoing to rolling with Meat.
The experience of being this close to losing yourself is so harrowing
that many Infected who reach this point never fully recover. Describe
how this experience will change you forever and you may mark XP.
When the clock strikes 0000 (■■■■■■): Roll Cool to try to hold onto your
humanity.
On a 7+: you hold onto your humanity, just barely. Move the hunger
clock back to 2300.
On a 7-9: there's a great cost. You lost control and you might spend
your life paying for it. Pick one: +owned, +hunted or you've been
captured right now.
On a 6-: you've gone feral. Your mind is gone and you're now a
creature that acts only on instinct. The character is now an NPC who
may be used by the MC. My condolences.

Resist the Temptation: When you are out of food and hungry and you smell blood or
see the perfect prey but choose not to pursue it, mark XP and roll Hunger1.

On a 10+: Choose one.

You fail to resist the temptation, and must do whatever it takes to feed your
Hunger. Take +1 ongoing to doing horrible, desperate things that you would
never do if you were in full control of your facilities. NOTE: If you choose this
option and do not act on it, you almost definitely should be choosing the
other option.
You keep control over yourself, but you cannot focus on anything other than
your desperate need to consume, take -2 ongoing until you feed and advance
 your Hunger clock.

On a 7-9: the MC will choose one:

Your stomach gargles. You must eat something now or advance your hunger
clock. You don't get any benefits from be the monster for this meal.
You lose your footing
You lose your grip on whatever you’re holding
You lose track of someone or something you’re attending to
Someone gets the drop on you

On a 6-: You grit your teeth and bear it.

CORE MOVES
Be the Monster: Whenever you consume the essence of human flesh, choose two.

erase one segment from your Harm clock (you can choose this twice)
erase one segment from your Hunger clock (you can choose this twice)
take +1 forward the next time you roll +Meat

Harm to Table: Human flesh is not easy to come by. If you aren't hampered by a
moral code, you could hunt, but violence always comes with consequences. You
start with one of the following arrangements but you could establish more later. At
the start of each mission choose which arrangements you will utilize and then roll
Cool.

7+: You get the flesh provided by all your arrangements. Use this flesh to
determine the status of your Hunger clock, as described in A Ticking Time Bomb.

7-9: You're gonna have to pay the costs of at least one of your arrangements.

6-: The MC makes a move and your stomach grumbles.

Choose one:

Emotional: a person or a group lets you feed off of them or helps you get
medical waste at great cost to them.
Provides: 1-flesh
Costs: obligation, emotional ties.
Financial: you pay someone at a hospital/morgue/cyberdoc/crime-family to
ship their medical waste your way.
Provides: 2-flesh
Costs: cred, debts
Trickery: you have a way to take what you want without harming anyone.
Provides: 2-flesh
Costs: violence, the truth gets out
Violence: you hunt for your food.
Provides: 3-flesh
Costs: legal trouble, vendettas.

Hated: When you hit the street and roll 7+, choose an additional option.
Choose one:

Acute Weirdness: You may choose an extra Lethal Adaptation.

Certified Monster: When you mix it up with your Natural Weapon, you may inflict
+2 harm.

Cool as a Cucumber: When the Hunger clock imposes penalties on your stats, your
Cool is unaffected. Add the following option to Be the Monster.

take +1 forward the next time you roll Cool.

Disappearing Act: Whether you turn into a cloud of bats, become invisible or
simply go down on all fours and gallop away, your abilities make you a master of
getting out of tough situations. When you're trapped, cornered or in a bad spot and
you need a way out, advance your Hunger clock and roll Cool.

On a 10+: you’re gone, piece of cake.

On a 7–9: you can go or stay, but if you go it costs you: leave something
behind or take something with you, the MC will tell you what.
On a miss: you’re caught vulnerable, half in and half out.

Many Fingers in Many (Finger) Pies: You may choose another arrangement for
Harm to Table.

Monster Mash: When you mix it up, you count as a small gang.

Mouthful of You: When you Be the Monster, choose three.

Nightmares Exist: When you reveal the full extent of your monstrous nature to
someone who is unaware of the existence of magic/monsters, describe how you
reveal this to them and then roll Meat.

On a 7+: They get out of your way, right now.

On a 10+: Choose 2.
On a 7-9: Choose 1.
They do what you want before you let them go
They won't come back looking for you with friends, pitchforks and
torches
On a 6-: They weren't the only people watching your big reveal. The MC will
make a move.

One Scary Mother: When you use your monstrous nature to intimidate, you may
roll Meat when you play hardball.

Outside Looking In: Your position as an outsider gives you insights into humanity.
When you are assessing people by observing their behavior, take an additional
hold even if you miss.

Rasputin: shot, stabbed, and poisoned, you just keep coming. When you are being
scary as fuck and coming at someone, you can advance your Hunger clock to get +2
armor for the rest of this scene. You still get shot and stabbed, bleeding just
doesn’t bother you that much anymore.
Underground Networks: When you hit the street with a contact that is an outcast
even in the shadows, a fellow monster or someone else who is in the margins of
the margins of society2, gain the following benefits.

ignore the penalty from Hated

choose one fewer option when you roll on a 7-9

Unflinching Discipline: When you roll to Resist the Temptation, subtract your
Cool from the result.

GEAR
Choose two weapons :

Silenced machine pistol (2-harm close/near autofire)

Automatic shotgun (3-harm close/near loud messy autofire)
Heavy revolver (3-harm close/near reload loud)
Assault rifle (3-harm near/far loud autofire)
Sword (3-harm hand messy)
Machete (3-harm hand)

Choose one:

Body armor (2-armor)

Armored jacket (1-armor)
Trauma Derms
A old car with the windows all painted black to keep out sunlight.

Choose one:

Finger kabobs (1-snack)

Mystery meat sloppy joes (1-snack)
Leg of man (1-snack)
Ribs (1-snack)
Bag of blood (1-snack)

DIRECTIVES
Behavioral: Describe your ethical code. When adhering to your code hinders the
mission, mark experience.

Intimate: When you put your friend ___ ahead of the mission, mark experience.

Masochistic: When you suffer one or more harm, mark experience.

Optimist: When you refuse to do something necessary because you insist there
must be a more moral way, mark experience.

Rejected: When your former membership in ____ hinders the mission, mark
experience.

Tortured: When you deny yourself human essence for moral reasons and it puts
you at risk, mark experience.
Violent: When you deliberately choose to use violence to overcome a situation
when a non-violent option exists, mark experience.

ADVANCES
The Monster's advancement table mimics The Antiquarian. Since they were
changed by the rifts, they have more power over them than most people do.

NEW TAGS
+bullshit-detector: You're skilled at smelling the minute changes in body
chemistry that happen when a person is being dishonest.

+discerning: You can pick out individual scents even when there are a million
other smells covering them up.

+feeding: This weapon lets you Be the Monster when you attack a human with it.

+powerful-nose: You can pick out scents that are not particularly potent and may
even be several days old.

Monsters in The Sprawl

The Monster is a very weird playbook. It's meant to encompass all sorts of
monstrous cannibalistic para-human archetypes. Choose this playbook if you
want to explore being an outsider, agonize over moral decisions or just have a
power fantasy as an unstoppable badass. With their lethal adaptions, monster
mash and certified monster moves, a Monsters has some of the best killing power
in the game. And when they're losing ground in a fight, they can always be the
monster and take a mouthful of you to heal back up or get an edge. Of course, a
Monster is always a ticking timebomb and as your Hunger grows, you better have
the unflinching discipline needed in order to resist the temptation. Thankfully,
there's some harm to table options but a smart Monster has many fingers in
many (finger) pies.

Killing is not all they can do, with their heightened awareness and a position from
the outside looking in, Monsters always make good scouts. If they got caught,
they can always pull a disappearing act. Successful Monsters know that after
violence, fear is their next best tool. A Monster can get what she wants by being
one scary mother or revealing that nightmares exist to the unitiated. Though of
course fear cuts both ways, being hated means that the monster is shut out from
society, even the Monster's contacts will take advantage of her until she can
establish some real underground networks.

Credit
This playbook was written by Natalie Foust.
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-
ShareAlike 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://cre
ativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons,
PO Box 1866, Mountain View, CA 94042, USA.

1. NOTE: This roll has an inverted effect like the Harm move, modifiers (like +1
forward or -1 ongoing) DO NOT effect this roll.
2. Everyone in this game is in the margins of society, but only the most
marginal of those people should give you this effect.