MONSTER GUTS Rules Clarifications
Hey folks!
First up, thank you all for your interest in and support of MONSTER GUTS! Writing and working on it has been an absolute delight, and I can't wait to be able to share the extra content y'all itchfunded (as well as a couple extra things thrown in cuz I felt like it).
Due to the terse styling of the game, there are a lot of gaps in what the rules cover. In general, go with your gut. I think that's a good rule of thumb for all ttrpgs, and it goes especially for MONSTER GUTS since the game (intentionally) covers such a small part of your scavengers' lives.
That said, folks have questions, and I the answers I'd give at my table. Y'all should be able to comment with any other questions you might have, and I'll try to keep this updated with answers.
0. If I want to write content that's compatible or based on MONSTER GUTS, what copyright/licensing should I use? Use whatever you like! You're welcome to write whatever you like for MONSTER GUTS, reserving whatever rights you wish, and charge however much you like. I'd appreciate it if you'd point people who read your content towards MONSTER GUTS. You are welcome to quote text from the MONSTER GUTS zine if you attribute it properly. However, all art assets and graphic design in the MONSTER GUTS zine are not for folks' public/commercial use, as a courtesy to myself and the artists I commissioned.
1. How much damage to basic weapon attacks deal? Basic weapon attacks deal damage equal to the weapon's current Edge (if it has Edge). Ranged weapons don't have Edge and thus do a fixed amount of damage per attack. Since melee weapons spend Edge on their special moves, the basic attack damage suffers until the weapon gets sharpened.
2. How does the Reload tag work? Great question. At my table, weapons with Reload can run out of ammo on a mixed success. I'll often have players roll a d6 to see what the mixed success entails. 1 - lose an Edge (if no Edge, then nothing bad!), 2 - get knocked back, 3 - must spend an action to reload before firing again, 4 - you get knocked down, 5 - you get staggered, and 6 - take 1 Harm.
3. How do elements affect scavengers? You can think of scavengers having a 1-count clock for each element. So, getting hit by a fire attack would trigger the Fire effect (increasing all incoming Fire damage by 1).
4. How do you get rid of Blisters? To get rid of your blisters, you'd need to hunt some new monster whose parts could be turned into a cure. Write one up for your table if you've a player or two in need of some medical attention. You could even publish it here and make money! Alternatively, don't worry about Blisters. That's going to depend on the feel of your table and the vibe you are pursuing.
5. Can you transfer earned tags between weapons? It depends on your table. If I wanted to run a grittier MONSTER HUNT game that leaned into an almost Dark Souls vibe with regard to the environment and tone, no, I'd lock earned tags to the weapon that slew the monster that produced that tag. In a more casual game, why not? Transfer all the tags you want!
6. What is the stunned condition for scavengers? The stunned condition eats the scavenger's turn. It's rough. The Staggered condition, on the other hand, limits them to 1 action between now and their next turn.
7. How does the Enrage mechanic work? When the monster crosses each indicated threshold, the Rage effects activate. They don't stack on top of each other by default. Rage ends when the Bout ends, so if the monster is currently enraged and then crosses another Health threshold, they stay Enraged, but don't get nastier. However, stacking rage is a really cool idea for a more powerful monster. Thanks for the idea!
8. Do affliction effects (Poison, sleep, etc.) occur at the start or end of the turn? Honestly, that's entirely up to you. I'd probably run it with them activating on the start of the affected creature's turn, but as long as you are consistent with the choice, either works fine.
9. How do you determine turn order when there are multiple enemies in the Bout? Such a good question. I wing it. As a rule of thumb, I think Beasts should act before Monsters, and I'd want enemies that are closer to the scavengers to go before enemies that are further away.
10. Can monsters and beasts be found in any environment? Up to you. In my games, each area has a distinct set of creatures that folks might encounter. I feel that separating them that way keeps zones feeling distinct for the players: you're unlikely to run into Gristlebears on the Hanford plains. Needleflies are going to be near still water. Ancorhynches, well, those fuckers are everywhere.
11. Are there any plans to add other monsters? I'm waiting on one of my contributors to release the two monsters that we itchfunded. Given the general state of the world, I'm giving them time and space to work on it. If there was enough interest, I'd love to do a monthly monster release similar to what Spencer Campbell did for the LIGHT season passes.
12. Do you have any guidelines for building monsters? Yes! 1. All monsters have a cool name and can be summarized in three words or less. I kid, that's already in the game. All the base monsters are designed for one-shot play, so they hover between 60 and 80 health each, with an estimated hunt time of 90 minutes. I got to the 60-80 range by estimating how much damage I might expect a single scavenger to deal (4-ish a round) and scaling that to two scavengers, aiming for 3 bouts of 3-4 rounds each. Scavengers with more tags, for the most part, don't do a lot more damage but they do have more control over the monster behavior (taking advantage of elemental weaknesses, triggering stuns more often, etc.) and they are hardier, so increasing the expected health range to 90-120 for a more intermediate/advanced monster seems appropriate.
*EDITED*
13. What about the ice roly-poly monster from the Top Shelf stream? You can grab it here: The Titanic Iceopod: A Monster Guts Hunt by Mads Madigan (itch.io) Also, you should join the TPK Discord and bother him to make more stuff for MONSTER GUTS. :-) I think I've linked all the 3rd-party MONSTER GUTS material in a collection on my itch page (unless there's been more released since I last looked!).
14. What happens to your scrounged items at the end of a hunt? When I run MONSTER GUTS, anything that's not used by the end of the hunt gets donated to the village. Unlike the Monster Hunter games, your home base is not in a stable condition - you need all the resources you can get.
15. Could you clarify what happens when more Monsters appear during a Complication? I'm happy to talk about what I do at my table. I only roll 1 Tempo Change at the end of the round, choosing whichever Monster to target as seems appropriate, given the situation at hand. I don't allow more than one extra Monster appear during any Bout, and if on a subsequent Bout a Monster should appear, I always will choose for it to be the Monster from an earlier Bout that Hunt. If the scavengers damaged that Monster but don't kill it, I'd definitely make that into a unique Monster with a vendetta against the scavengers, as that seems like a lot of fun. Monsters tend to focus on other Monsters unless the scavengers get in their way.
16. How might I determine where scavengers and Monsters start on a card grid? However you like. The initial setup is going to completely depend upon the circumstances of that Bout. The scavengers might be close together, the Monster might suddenly lunge out at them, the scavengers might have gotten separated and all arrive at the fight over several rounds, etc. Use your gut and ask everyone else what makes sense.
17. How important is monster facing and general positioning? OK, we're in for a longer answer here. The rules in MONSTER GUTS are written such that there is no need for a Facilitator. I think a Facilitator makes for a more dynamic session in MONSTER GUTS, as having a Facilitator allows for a more fluid connection between the dearth of rules and the abundant information of a game session. When you have a Facilitator in charge of the Monster, the Monster AI shouldn't be determined from just a 2d6 roll. The roll is an ignorable suggestion. No Monster is going to choose to attack empty air - they're going to target something. If that means they need to move or rotate as appropriate, then, yeah, they should do that.
19. Does a scavenger's position in relation to the monster's facing limit what parts they can target? In a more tactical, gritty MONSTER GUTS game, yes, absolutely. If a scavenger can only hit Close targets but the Monster is flying or has a particular part up in the air, that scavenger can't attack that part unless they change the situation. The Monster, too, could only hit targets within the indicated range of the part doing the attack (so a scavenger in the air over the tail would avoid a Bite attack). In a more power-fantasy MONSTER GUTS game, as long as the player had a way of getting to the targeted part, sure, awesome, go for it.
20. Can special weapon moves target a part specifically (if not explicitly stated), or do they hit the body? Do you ever need to roll for special weapon moves? Yes, weapon moves can target specific parts. No, you do not roll for special attacks.
21. On the character sheet, it shows that Companions can have tags; how are Companions affected by tags? Are there any limits to what tags can be applied to them? Treat Companions as scavengers with how many tags they can use and how those tags manifest.
22. On the character sheet, there is a section for Notches. Is this the number of hunts total the scavenger has survived, just the successful hunts, or something else? Do they have any benefit other than bragging rights? Nope.
23. Does Harm dealt to part damage also reduce the monster's body HP, or are they separate? Up to you. I waffle on this. When I've run MONSTER GUTS, Harm dealt to a part goes to both the body HP and the part. Attacks that graze or hit an already-broken part deal damage only to the body HP.
24. Does directing your Companion to use a tool cost an action on your turn? Yes.
25. If using a weapon with an elemental tag, does that weapon deal Harm as well as clocks, or does it just fill the respective clock? Adding the tag to the weapon means that the weapon gets the additional effect of increasing the clock. It does not change the weapon's regular function.
26. When a scavenger is afflicted by a condition (burn, ice, bleed, etc.) how long does it last? Until the end of the Bout, a set number of turns, or other? Up to you, but be consistent.
27. When harvesting tags at the end of the mission, if you harvest extra tags that can't immediately be applied to your weapon or armor, can they be saved and accumulated for later? That's going to depend how strict you are on tags being swapped around. A stricter game binds all acquired tags to whatever character/weapon was equipped during the Hunt, and either you have a tag or you don't - you can't have multiple copies of a tag (you could put a Fire tag on your weapon and gear after earning it one time, but you couldn't put a Fire tag on another weapon until you earned it on that weapon). On a looser game, once you have a tag unlocked, it's unlocked for everything. The one exception is the Ephemera tags, as you spend 2 matching Ephemera tags on a weapon to enhance it. You do want to track the number of each type of Ephemera you have acquired.
28. If you accumulate too many Blisters on a weapon to be able to use it, do you have to pick a different weapon entirely, or can you pick up a new weapon of the same type you were using before? If the latter, and saving tags for later is possible, can those tags be applied immediately? If you cannot use your weapon of choice, you'll need to use a different weapon. You cannot 'restart' the same weapon, as your body still carries the damage you've suffered from your hunts. If you have a player who only wants to play a single weapon, you should decide if you want to play with Blisters or play without them.
29. If it seems like the group is going to fail the hunt, is there any way to retreat from the hunt without gaining a Blister? If so, are there any penalties for doing so? You are always welcome to run away! Doing so might have narrative consequences, but you only gain Blisters from losing all of your health, not from retreating.
I'd like to reiterate that while I may have written MONSTER GUTS, I don't know how to play it any better than you do. The only way to be wrong while playing MONSTER GUTS is if you play as cops/fascists/white supremacists/etc.
P.S. The enemy, as always, is white supremacy and capitalism.
Get MONSTER GUTS
MONSTER GUTS
A monster hunting ttrpg based on LUMEN
| Status | Released |
| Category | Physical game |
| Author | Wheels Within Wheels Publishing |
| Genre | Adventure, Role Playing |
| Tags | improv, lumen, monster-hunting, Monsters, tabletop-roleplaying-game, Tabletop role-playing game |
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Hello again! I had two more questions for you:
Hello and welcome back!
Two great questions. For the first, either I'd use the Crush/Slice/Pierce values of the weapon used on the last Hunt (using whichever attribute best matches the approach taken by the player) or I'd try to find a way to resolve the situation that does not rely on dice.
For the second, I'm happy to share my thoughts. My take is that behemoths (kaiju-scale monsters) are just too big for scavengers to kill. Like in Monster Hunter World, the goal isn't to kill Zorah Magdaros, it's to redirect it to cause less harm. I see behemoths working the same way - if such a creature was heading towards your village, you'd try to incentivize it to travel in a different path, perhaps by driving some monsters it likes to eat in a particular direction, trying to hit it hard enough it decides to move away, etc. Within the game's setting, there is always a resource-dependent goal for slaying each monster - you need Artillamander bits for some cannons your village is building, you want to build a vehicle out of a Titanic Iceopod carapace, etc - and so for Behemoths, the central issue is what your scavengers want from the encounter. Make sense?
Absolutely! Thank you for your reply!
I know it's been a while, but I have been so inspired that this game has taken over my head space for over a month now. Just a couple days ago, I published a couple of supplements for it! Let me know if you would like a preview copy of the first one!
https://arkhadtoa.itch.io/threats-from-the-hanover-wastes
https://arkhadtoa.itch.io/mg-stalkers
Thank you again for putting together such a great game!
I'm so delighted to hear that! I'm excited to see what you've made!
A few questions of my own to add to the pile
- How much does an Element Tag move an enemy's Clock by on a successful attack? My assumption is that each hit moves the clock by 1, based on context clues, but it's never explicitly stated.
- If you use an ability or tag that moves an enemy's Clock and they don't have a Clock to move (e.g. casting Lullaby on a Sparksquirrel, who lacks a Snooze clock), what happens?
- This one's a bit more specific: Sparksquirrel has a Water Clock of 4, which has a stated effect of increasing incoming Shock damage by 1. Sparksquirrel is also, however, immune to Shock damage. What happens when you fill the Clock?
Good questions!
Yeah, increasing a clock by 1, and all Monsters have a base clock of 6 for each Element unless otherwise indicated.
Oh, darn. That's a good point. I might have written out what the clocks do after I decided what clocks monsters had... I'll need to fix that! Probably do something like Mizu's slippery condition.
Thanks for the swift reply! One more question: Ephemera tags state that they can be used to upgrade any one number on a weapon. Is this intended to include Health and Edge, or is this just intended to be for the core three stats?
You can upgrade your stats as well! Any number on the sheet.
This is excellent! I'm so excited about this game. Here are a few more questions that popped up during play for me:
14. Are items scrounged during a Lull good in your inventory until you use them (even in a different hunt), or do they expire? If they stay good, is there a limit to how much you can hold?
15. If a second monster appears during a Complication, do both monsters take a Tempo Change action? If so, is it possible (for really bad luck) for more and more large monsters to keep appearing?
16. In the case of multiple monsters, are there any guidelines on how they determine their target? Is their attention usually directed toward the first monster (like Turf Wars in MH World/Rise), do they team up on the scavengers, or is it random?
17. In the case of multiple large monsters, how long do the complication monsters stick around? A few rounds? The end of the Bout? The end of the Hunt?
18. If you are using the optional card-depicted range band rules, do the monster and scavengers all begin at Close distance to each other? If not, how is positioning determined?
19. How important is the direction the monster faces? In cases where the monster is facing one way, and all scavengers are behind it, does it ever automatically reposition to the nearest target, or does it have to wait for a Reposition move to swing around?
19. Does a scavenger's position in relation to the monster's facing limit what parts they can target?
20. Can special weapon moves target a part specifically (if not explicitly stated), or do they hit the body?
21. Do you ever need to roll for special weapon moves?
22. If using the Vespine Spear or a weapon with the Aerial tag, and you are in the air in Close range to the monster, are you still affected by the monster's Close attacks?
23. If you are using the Maul, and strike a monster on the head for the Stun damage, does it also damage any parts on the monster's head (like, horns or things like that)?
24. On the character sheet, it shows that Companions can have tags; how are Companions affected by tags? Are there any limits to what tags can be applied to them?
25. On the character sheet, there is a section for Notches. Is this the number of hunts total the scavenger has survived, just the successful hunts, or something else? Do they have any benefit other than bragging rights?
26. Some monster attacks say that the scavenger is knocked down. Does this impose any kind of penalty on the scavenger? What is required to recover from being knocked down?
27. If a scavenger is reduced to 0 HP, are they out for the rest of the hunt? If not, is there a set number of times the party as a whole can be reduced to 0 HP, or a limit per scavenger?
28. Does Harm dealt to part damage also reduce the monster's body HP, or are they separate?
29. If the Harm dealt (either by scavengers or monsters) is reduced by half, do you round up or down?
30. Does directing your Companion to use a tool cost an action on your turn?
31. If using a weapon with an elemental tag, does that weapon deal Harm as well as clocks, or does it just fill the respective clock?
32. If using a weapon with an elemental tag, does the amount of Harm you inflict equal the number of clock portions you fill, or does a successful hit only fill one clock portion?
33. When a scavenger is afflicted by a condition (burn, ice, bleed, etc.) how long does it last? Until the end of the Bout, a set number of turns, or other?
33. When harvesting tags at the end of the mission, if you harvest extra tags that can't immediately be applied to your weapon or armor, can they be saved and accumulated for later?
34. If you accumulate too many Blisters on a weapon to be able to use it, do you have to pick a different weapon entirely, or can you pick up a new weapon of the same type you were using before? If the latter, and saving tags for later is possible, can those tags be applied immediately?
35. If it seems like the group is going to fail the hunt, is there any way to retreat from the hunt without gaining a Blister? If so, are there any penalties for doing so?
36. If we want to produce third-party content for this amazing game, what rules should we follow? Is there an Open Gaming License or anything like that?
I've updated with answers to most of your questions, along with some guidance that should cover those I didn't specifically address.
I'm so delighted that you have dug so deeply into MONSTER GUTS. It genuinely has made me quite happy.
I'm glad it hasn't been too annoying! I played this with my wife over the weekend, and she really enjoyed it too. I really appreciate you taking the time to help answer my questions.
A few more rules questions came up during our recent play session; I hope I won't bother you if I keep asking. I have some idea of how they might work, but I like collaborating on finding answers. I'll ask them below:
Not at all.
The war bugle is intended to have a fixed base damage like bows and bowguns. I don't have their rules in front of me, but I think some of their special moves scale with Melody.
Yes, special attacks without listed Harm use the weapon's current Edge value. Also, Edge gets spent after the attack (to avoid the situation your wife describes).
I'd probably forego the Tempo Change if the monster was stunned, unless the scavengers were in need of a more challenging fight. In that case, I'd just pick something to intrude upon the Bout.
Wonderful! Thank you so much!