Not everyone is powered by a divine entity, have special connections to the spooky magic of the world, or are a walking immortal. Some monster hunters are just…people. While the Mundane class doesn’t have supernatural abilities or expertise that makes them a nightmare enemy, but just by being on the team they can unleash a flood of experience for themselves and other hunters at the table…and they make for pretty good bait for a trap, too.
The Mundane is an interesting class because their super power is that they really don’t have one. They do a lot of things well or well-ish, and they get experience bonuses by getting kidnapped or slapped around, giving them an absolute fast track to level up, and they can even help other hunters level up. Because normies need to be protected from monsters.
You heard about how monsters only pick on people with crazy powers who can fight back on even terms? Yeah, me neither. But, hell, I ended up in this monster-hunting team so I gotta do what I can, right?
Monster of the Week, p.66
The Mundane class does what is really hard to do well in a system: it creates a fun class that isn’t ultra-specialized or ultra-powerful. They do what they do, they’re incredibly middle of the road, and that’s that. This class can be power leveled up, which can be very strong if they stay alive in a campaign, but the mundane is a mundane class that somehow manages to be very fun.
There are multiple different ways to play the Mundane class, and at our table one of our awesome friends (and Patrons – thanks for the support, buddy!) played Burt Jeffers, a stunningly normal and mundane man with a mundane name who ran a Leftorium. Yes, he was 1/2 Ned Flanders, 1/2 Ted Lasso, and utterly delightful while stumbling through the game with full confidence he knew what was going on…when that was rarely the case.
But we all appreciated the extra experience from him wandering off and/or having to go protect him or save him!
What Is The Mundane Class In Monster of the Week RPG?
The Mundane is the ordinary man or woman who knows more than they should and has decided to do their part to fight back. They are often bait, a common target, someone with a huge heart who is willing to charge into danger…and has plenty of boosts for getting the hell out when you realize you’ve charged into something that is way above your pay grade!
As for roleplay, that’s completely up to you! Skateboarding teenager who saw something in the dark he shouldn’t have? Good-natured Ned Flanders type who owns a local business? A local librarian who looked up from her late work to realize not all Stephen King writing was actually fiction?
There are many options and arguably more than any other class the Mundane class’s moves are excellent with funny titles and perfect flavor text to describe this unique playbook in a monster-filled world.
What Type of Mundane Will You Be?
The core of the Mundane is that they’re a normal seemingly nice person. Charming enough to have friends, a normal social person who likes the backyard barbecues or is a normal member of local small town society who just happens to know about some secrets lurking underneath the surface.
The Mundane Ratings for MOTW Are
- +2 Charm, +1 Cool & Tough, 0 Sharp, -1 Weird
- +2 Charm, +1 Cool & Sharp, 0 Tough, -1 Weird
- +2 Charm, +1 Tough & Sharp, 0 Weird, -1 Cool
- +2 Charm, +1 Tough & Sharp, 0 Cool, -1 Weird
- +2 Charm, +1 Tough & Weird, 0 Cool, -1 Sharp
You are going to be a people person with a couple extra skills. This makes sense as the Mundane is far more likely to be able to easily fit in with normal people than most playbooks because they are normal people.
Nothing to pitch or sell – no monstrous weirdness or magical ability, the Mundane is just themselves and they build their tool kit to deal with monsters and contribute to the Monster Hunting team accordingly.
Think about what “normal” person you want to portray, what their quirks are, and how that might go into what gear they have. Are you a teenage kid with a skateboard and Nunchuks you may or may not be able to use well, or a five iron and a 78 Buick you love but should have been put down 200,000 miles ago?
The work for making a Mundane come to life is in the details and while the class name might indicate there’s not much that makes them scare the supernatural, when it comes to fun and roleplaying the Mundane playbook is anything but.
What Do The Mundane Moves Bring To The Table?
The Mundane’s moves are heavily in-line with the flavor of this class and deliver some awesome abilities, not to mention names, while picking exactly how you want your character to work in the upcoming game/campaign. So let’s take a look at the Moves, and it will become very apparent the 1-2 areas that all Mundane builds are likely to excel in.
- Always The Victim – When another hunter uses protect someone to protect you, they mark experience. Whenever a monster captures you, you mark experience. This is a move that can really help turbo charge the leveling up for the team as a whole.
- Oops! – If you want to stumble across something important, tell the Keeper. You will find something important and useful, although not necessarily related to your immediate problems. Very useful Move, especially if bad rolls lead your team to hitting a dead end while investigating a mystery.
- Let’s Get Out Of Here! – If you can protect someone by telling them what to do, or by leading them out, roll +Charm instead of +Tough.
- Panic Button – When you need to escape, name the route you’ll try and roll +Sharp. On a 10+ you’re out of danger, no problem. On a 7-9 you can go or stay, but if you go it’s going to cost you (you leave something behind or something comes with you). On a miss, you are caught halfway out.
- The Power of Heart – When fighting a monster, if you help someone, don’t roll +Cool. You automatically help as though you’d rolled a 10.
- Trust Me – When you tell a normal person the truth in order to protect them from danger, roll +Charm. ON a 10+ they’ll do what you say they should, no questions asked. On a 7-9 they do it, but the Keeper chooses one of three things (listed at the end of this bullet point) that happens and on a miss, they’re going to think you’re crazy and maybe dangerous, too.
- They ask you a hard question first.
- They stall and dither a while.
- They have a “better” idea.
- What Could Go Wrong? – Whenever you charge into immediate danger without hedging your bets, hold 2. You may spend your hold to:
- Inflict +1 harm
- Reduce someone’s harm suffered by 1.
- Take +2 forward on an act under pressure roll.
- Don’t Worry, I’ll Check It Out – Whenever you go off by yourself to check out somewhere (or something) scary, mark experience. If you’re not taking this one as Mundane and abusing it, you’re doing it wrong 🙂
Above any of these actually abilities is the fact that the mundane is fast-tracked to level up, and with level ups that allow you to grab moves from other classes, and you can have your common mundane with uncommon courage go in many interesting directions. This is a fun class to build, and the sheer number of ways you can gain experience, or grant teammates experience, encourages you to go full Scooby-Doo mode when investigating that mystery!
How Do You Play a Mundane?
There are a few thoughts on this, but the main focus comes back to the fact that this class is built to level up fast, and to help teammates level up. Level up enough and you do have the ability to switch to another class (sort of “maturing into it”), grabbing moves from other books that could make you a better investigator or fighter, or even retire and build another hunter.
The big thing to remember with a Mundane is that you’re not a superhero, you don’t have a natural gift to fall back on – but that doesn’t mean you have to play scaredy-cat. Burt Jeffers ran into danger with his trusty mundane sledge hammer all the time…but that’s because he was gung-ho Flanders level of faith and believed that God was behind him!
This wouldn’t save him from getting punched in the face or eaten by an Eldritch Horror, but it did allow him to sprint into danger and rack up the experience points while not only having an in-game reason to do so, but roleplaying an entertainingly hilarious character while doing so. You can be creative: you have options.
Here’s a YouTube video on one player’s thoughts on why the Mundane Playbook might actually be the most valuable and interesting one in the game.
Who Should Play The Mundane Class in Monster of the Week?
There really isn’t as set an answer for this as with other playbooks just because the Mundane is so unique in that it fully embraces the fact your PC is normal and, well, mundane. Ordinary.
I think this is a great class for players who want to help min-max their party, who love rushing into trouble where they get in over their heads, or even for players who have a hard time generally choosing a class or character. Play a mundane, create a second hunter when you get an idea, and use the Mundane to help level everyone up before switching off.
This is a really different class and the fact that I can’t think of a ready comparison in another system shows just how unique the Mundane is in the world of TTRPG systems.
This class won’t be for everyone, but if it sounds intriguing to you it can be a great way to jump into a Monster of the Week game and get the most out of your experience.
MOTW The Mundane Class: Final Thoughts
There’s not much more to say about the Mundane Class. They are a fish out of water, fighting the good fight in a world that is much more dangerous than they would like to deal with. They can rush into trouble, escape it, and get experience for a whole host of actions or events that other players don’t enjoy.
Because of that, they are an interesting class, one that is intriguing to many different types of players, and if it sounds like your type of game – go for it!
Other TTRPG Articles You May Enjoy
- Monster of the Week Chosen Class Guide
- Monster of the Week Crooked Class Guide
- Monster of the Week Divine Class Guide
- Monster of the Week Flake Class Guide
- Complete 5E Feats Guide
- 5E Warlock Patrons Guide
- Monster of the Week Class Guide
Proud to embrace the locally created moniker of “Corrupt Overlord” from one of the all time great Lords of Waterdeep runs, Shane is one member of the Assorted Meeples crew and will be hard at work creating awesome content for the website. He is a long-time player of board games, one time semi-professional poker player, and tends to run to the quirky or RPG side of things when it comes to playing video games. He loves tabletop roleplaying systems like Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder, Werewolf, Fate, and others, and not only has been a player but has run games as DM for years. You can find his other work in publications like Level Skip or Hobby Lark.