Playing the Host/ed

Conflicted, co-dependent, standoffish, unique. The Host/ed is a team all by themselves, with all
the arguments and difficulties and triumphs that come with that. They’re inclined to be kind of a
lone wolf or at least, they’re already doing a lot of work to work together so making room for the
team might be tricky.
If you’re playing the Host/ed, remember that you’re playing two people! Both the Host
and the Hosted, so you can revel a little bit in the mental dialogues and in-jokes and general
weirdness that they both bring. But don’t forget to share the floor - you don’t want to take the
spotlight for twice as long as everyone else.
Look for ways you can shine together with everyone on the team, or stand out as
especially weird or independent, or get into conflicts with yourself. You get twice the characters
as any other PC to work with, so have fun with the social aspect of it too.

Notes on your moves and extras

● For Alone time, if you go off on your own to brood before you’ve rolled + the highlighted
Label, the new one the GM gives you replaces the old one - you won’t ever have two
Labels highlighted at once for this move.
● For Loose cannon, when you get in a fight alone, you don’t trigger the rest of the enter
a battle as a team move - just this move, which adds a Team to the pool and gives you
+1 forward.
● For Weakness, when you take a powerful blow because of this move and roll a 6-, you
don’t mark potential twice - just once. But you do get to mark potential even on a 7+. The
second part of this move triggers when you’re struggling to fight past your weakness -
you can use any adult move if you’re fighting your weakness and you have every
condition marked, and then after that move, you’re immediately taken out of the fight.
● For Unlikely alliance, you can trigger this move with other PCs (and even just between
the two of you), and also with NPCs. If you trigger it with a PC, you both roll, and both
choose from the list. If you trigger it with an NPC, only you roll, and it’s up to the GM to
play out what happens.
● Symbiotic is pretty simple in concept, but works out to be pretty involved mechanically.
Predominantly, this extra is all about playing two people who are together one hero. Both
the host and the hosted have their own set of Labels, and when you’re working together
or in agreement, you use your combined Label (if the Host has a Freak of +1 and the
Hosted has a Freak of +1, you’ll have a total of +2!). When you’re not in agreement, or
working independently, you only use the Label of whoever’s doing whatever it is. You as
the player have widespread authority to declare which is the case, but it should still be
true - when you’re working together, describe how that’s the case, and vice versa. There
are some other mechanical quirks, like you don’t have influence over each other - your
relationship is more connected than that - and people who have influence over one of
you have it over the both of you. Lastly, there’s nothing stopping you from using
provoke or pierce the mask on each other mechanically - but it might not make for
particularly interesting gameplay. You can’t comfort and support yourselves (since you
share conditions), but you can definitely share triumphs and vulnerabilities.
Inspiration for the Host/ed
● Venom, Venom
● Shinichi, Parasyte
● Firestorm, Justice League Action
● Otto Octavius/Peter Parker, The Superior Spider-Man

GM Tips
● Treat them as one person/two people
● Compare them to each other
● Split them apart
● Give them alone time
● Give them opportunities that cater to one of or both of them

The Host/ed is definitely an advanced playbook,

for both the player and the GM. The extra is a
little fiddly, and it makes some GM moves a little
more complicated - you’re juggling two people!
But with a little practice and some help, it can
make for some really cool story beats.

The issue that’s absolutely at the heart of the

Host/ed is whether or not they can come
together to be one hero. Present them with
people who believe both, and see if there are
any such opinions on the team. Take advantage
of the fact that you can shift one of their Labels
up and the other’s down - some adults might
have really strong opinions about which of the
two of them is the “real” hero! And if that leads
to one of them working independently more
often than not, that’s a golden opportunity to
drive wedges between them, or set them up to
reconcile. Remember that their Label sets also
only go down to -1 and up to +2, so they’re
actually pretty vulnerable to taking conditions
from shifts that way.

It’s hard to split the two of them apart, but it’s a

valuable story beat. You should talk about what separating the two of them means ahead of
time, and telegraph that move or discuss it as a consequence before the game, the same way
you would with any issue that might make a player feel unsafe or uncomfortable. But if everyone
at the table is comfortable with it, find ways to see them try to grapple with situations on their
own. Giving them alone time from the team or from each other can push their arc in new ways.
As written, the Host & Hosted are not literally plural characters (that is, they are not alters or
different identities of the same person). But it would be disingenuous to claim that that’s not a
powerful or valid reading of the fiction. Take care not to represent the Hosted as “evil” or
stigmatize their existence, and please be mindful as you play of harmful tropes around
dissociative identity disorder. In particular, I think it’s important to treat both the Host and the
Hosted as true and individual people, each with their own agency. It’s always a good idea to
make sure everyone in your group is comfortable with the character and themes you’re looking
to explore!