We’re Becoming Magical Vets With the ‘Monster Care Squad’ RPG
Most games ask you to slay the monsters when they get erratic. But Monster Care Squad asks why, and what we can do to help them feel better.
There are a lot of fantasy tabletop RPGs out there. But most focus on all of the monsters you’ll fight and kill, either because they’re terrorizing the local town or because you want that sweet sweet treasure they’re guarding. But Monster Care Squad is a very different kind of game for a very different kind of adventurer. Here, you’re a fantasy veterinarian, doing everything you can to help all of the fantasy gods and monsters of the world.
Monster Care Squad
We love fantasy creatures and monsters. Even in games where they’re often then enemy, a lot of us try to adopt the baby dragon or keep around Boblin the Goblin. Partially because it frustrates the GM, but also because we all love a cute animal. And that exact love and energy made the 2020 Kickstarter for Monster Care Squad very successful.
This is a Ghibli-inspired game that’s been compared to titles like Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind and Pokemon. Which is fitting of a game that has a cozy, friendly ‘helping animals’ feel to it. Taking place in the tranquil world of Ald-Amura. Peace hasn’t always been a given in this world, but now the community is unified by their shared history into an almost universal love for each other and the planet.
Players take on the roles of ‘monster care specialists’ or elite vets with the specialized knowledge to heal any wound… given enough prep time. Your characters travel the world finding monsters, diagnosing their magical illnesses, and crafting the cures.
Character Creation and Gameplay
Operating in a variation of the Powered by the Apocalypse system, Monster Care Squad is relatively simple both to set up and to play. Character creation involves picking your character’s training and background, your specialty and special moves, and assigning bonuses to your skills and attributes. From there give yourself a name, collect your equipment, and start healing monsters. There is a fairly expansive list of trainings and backgrounds to choose from. So players probably won’t have characters who are stepping on each others metaphorical toes too badly. But PbtA games tend to make character creation simple, and this is no exception.
Game sessions are broken up into three phases. Diagnosis is where players figure out what the monster in question is and what’s wrong with it. Synthesis is the middle stage where players make their plan of attack and begin work on the cure. The final phase is Symbiosis, or confronting the monster and making them better… even if their ailment has made them unapproachable and difficult to treat.
Rolls are also simple. Players roll 2D6 and add the appropriate skill or bonuses depending on what in their training or background applies. Higher numbers are successes.
In the Symbiosis phase a ‘control track’ comes into play. More control on the player’s part will make it easier to help the monster in question. But falling below the bottom on the control track and the creature’s behavior will become too erratic to cure at that moment. This will force the monster care specialists to retreat and try again later. Once a monster is cured, the specialists move onto the next town and the next monster in need of help.
It’s very monster-of-the-week session layout… But in a way that’s calming and nice. Every session is a new episode, and every episode helps a new monster.
If you’d like to play Monster Care Squad for yourself, you can learn more on the Sandy Pug Games website here.
Have you played Monster Care Squad? Do you prefer fighting the monsters, or giving them some TLC? What magical creature would you try to befriend if you had the chance? Let us know n the comments!
Happy adventuring!
