I’ve been in the pelt-mines working on Skinner this weekend. It’s running on some audacious ambitions, I think. I want it to be up to my personal standard of a story in that it needs to be adaptable. I’m a huge believer that a story’s plot should never be a script, and therefore the scenes you lay out are always meant to be a loose suggestion of potential events. At their most strict, they become like a flowchart, but even then you have to account for unanticipated branches. Not everything can be run through with “yes/no” or “A/B” decision points.

But there still needs to be a logical series of connections. So one of the things I use, that I’m working into the SAS structure, is essentially a reminder chart of the motives and goals of the various NPCs that are driving the story. I’d place it here, but oh man, the spoilers. Instead, consider how it would look for Romeo & Juliet, assuming that Romeo and Mercutio are player characters. (Admittedly this is also spoilery, but I think you’ve had enough time to catch this particular plot.)

Juliet: Wants to be with Romeo. Will abandon her family if need be, but has no real plans. Suggestible; will readily attach to a decent plan suggested by someone she trusts.

Tybalt: Hates the Montagues and wants to hurt them, bad. Hates Romeo in particular, but his uncle has forbidden him to kill the bastard. Wouldn’t pass up the opportunity to do so if it arose, or to injure someone close to Romeo.

Paris: Wants to marry Juliet. Won’t take violent action to get his way; instead is continuing to work on the senior Capulet. Planning to woo Juliet with the reasonable motivation of how advantageous their match would be.

Friar Laurence: Wants the feuding between the Montagues and Capulets to stop. Plans to marry Romeo & Juliet to force the two to make peace.

And so on. The basic idea is that whenever the story starts to veer away from a clean linkage between one scene and the one that theoretically follows it, the motives and goals of the Storyteller characters is the primary resource for figuring out what comes next. It makes a story flow more naturally than trying to stick to a planned order of events. If Romeo’s player suddenly decides that he’s more interested in the unattainable Rosaline than Juliet, then you don’t force the balcony scene to take place: instead, you might decide that Friar Laurence will start taking a more active hand in events, and of course Tybalt will be just as happy to kill Romeo over Rosaline if he can pull it off.

Another trick that I tend to use in anticipation of players being players is prepping lightly for things that are not strictly necessary. For example, I think it’s always useful to have abbreviated stat blocks at hand for possible antagonists. There’s nothing shameful in not statting out every last character that may appear in the course of a game. Let’s be honest, fully statting out a Storyteller character by the book takes time. If using an abbreviated stat block allows you to advance the story more quickly than taking time to put together a more detailed one, everyone will probably be happier.

Now, naturally an SAS is meant to spend that time for you: but I have a certain tendency to maybe put more characters in than is efficient. Werewolves, damn their furry hides, have this tendency to run in packs, so if there’s more than one pack you might encounter in a story, those stat blocks can eat up word count and space fast.

So frequently what I do is stat out the more relevant characters, and then use abbreviated stat blocks for the rest. Here’s an example of such a stat block, the sort I’m prone to set up for myself. As you can see, it doesn’t track Abilities meticulously, but rather skips ahead and lists the dice pools relevant to the character.

Veteran Werewolf

This abbreviated stat block can be used to flesh out the [SPOILERS REDACTED], or for the [THIS BLOG SHOULD BE PLAYER-SAFE].  Some suggested Gifts are offered; feel free to swap these around.

Attributes: Strength 3 (5/7/6/4), Dexterity 3 (3/4/5/5), Stamina 3 (5/6/6/5), Charisma 2, Manipulation 3 (2/0/0/0), Appearance 2 (1/0/2/2), Perception 3, Intelligence 2, Wits 3

Initiative: 6 dice

Brawl: 7 dice (8 in Crinos, 9 in Hispo/Lupus)

Dodge: 6 dice (7 in Crinos, 8 in Hispo/Lupus)

Gifts: (1) City Running or Primal Anger, Resist Pain or Spur Claws, Mindspeak, Razor Claws, Shroud; (2) Staredown or Curse of Hatred, Howls in the Night or Spirit of the Fray, Wyrm Hide or Horns of the Impaler; (3) Disquiet or Eyes of the Cat, Foaming Fury or Laugh of the Hyena

Rank: 3

Rage 6, Gnosis 5, Willpower 6

Weapons/Attacks

Type    Difficulty          Dice Pool        Damage Pool

Bite     5          9 (Hispo)         7 (Hispo)

Claw    6          8 (Crinos)        8 (Crinos)

Fetish Knife    4          8 (Crinos)        8 (Crinos)

So what do you think, Storytellers: are these inclusions worth it to you? Obviously, they don’t preclude more details: the main characters will still receive detailed character sheets, and their motives will be spelled out in greater detail than they are in the summary cheat-sheet. Is this particular bit of additional organization something you’d be likely to use?

Let’s put something out on the table. A little confession, if you will.

The SAS is the hardest thing I have ever written.

I’m not saying this to complain, mind. A challenge is a good thing. It makes you fiercer. But of all the things I’ve ever written, writing a story that someone else is intended to run, for a group of players that are not my own, is far and away the trickiest. I honestly think I would have an easier time writing a sex scene that I knew my mother was going to read. (I’m not in any rush to prove this, but I suspect it all the same.)

This is, I suspect, something of a failing for someone who considers himself a good Storyteller. It seems particularly bizarre when you consider that I don’t really run packaged stories, ever. Every session is either a plot of my own devising (and by “plot” I should stress that I mean “scheme” and not “script”), or just me having the world react to whatever insanity my players get up to. I should, theoretically, have a lot of practice.

But it doesn’t work like that. Because I have the luxury, when running my own games, of knowing my players. I know what they find interesting. I trust them not to behave spectacularly out of character in the interest of just livening things up. I know they’re not going to be disruptive, and I know we’re all at the table because we enjoy the same things.

When writing for an invisible audience, that is much more difficult. There’s no way I can anticipate all of your player characters. I don’t know what power levels you’re at, whether you favor the struggles of low Rank or the epic conflicts of playing elders. I don’t know how much you favor combat, or politics, or just sitting around drinking booze and swapping war stories. I don’t know who the important Storyteller characters are in your chronicles — who to threaten, kill off, or grant an opportunity to that would most quickly mobilize your characters into action. The most glorious thing about roleplaying games — the way that each chronicle is customized to its group — also makes an SAS that’s meant to be useful to you pretty hard to write!

That’s why some of this word count goes to concerns like that. Scaling the foes. Substituting scenes. Accounting for whether or not you’ve actually experienced some of the events I reference. I could almost fill half the word count with the various customization ideas that might be useful, but that would certainly be at the expense of the story itself.

But that said, I really like the SAS format. I like that it’s modular: you might want to use three-quarters of the provided scenes, ditch the rest, and have them occur in some order I hadn’t foreseen. Players may skip around some, and that’s perfectly fine. It’s been said before that to write a really good play session, you don’t want to start with a script: you want to start with a situation. This is what has been happening. This is what the antagonists plan to do, if you don’t get involved. And here are some stat blocks and challenges that you can use along the way.

And ultimately, as much as it’d be so much easier if I knew I was writing this thing for a specific group of specific characters with specific social ties and backstories… situations are delightfully agnostic. Customizing them is detail work. The situation itself is something that could perhaps happen at any sept.

So when the situation is that the body of a Garou of your sept has been found dead, and that the killer flayed the corpse and carried away the skin… well, I may not be able to anticipate what your player characters will do next. But I can help a Storyteller prepare for that. I can especially help them with preparing for what happens if your player characters do nothing.

Hint: You probably don’t want to do nothing. It rarely works out.

Apologies for it being so long between updates. Actually, there’s not much to show in development right now: Werewolf is moving from editing to layout, so it’s been quiet on my side. Right now I’m devoting most of my time to working on the Skinner SAS and waiting with dread for layout to move to the “pg. XX fixing/indexing” stage.

Have you seen this? Here are Eddy and Rich and Matt, much more articulate in person than I am, talking about the Open Development process at GenCon.

Also, as long as I’m talking about the SAS:

Yeah, there’s no secret I’m writing something about Sam Haight, or perhaps about his legacy, or maybe something of both. I’m really interested in the Valkenburg Foundation-era Haight, the serial killer he was a bit more than the crossover beast he became. I’m interested in the Skin Dancers, and perhaps what sort of spirit allies might seek them out. I’m certainly interested in their totem Minotaur, and just what might be implied by stumbling into his labyrinth rather than the Wyrm’s.

But on this as well, I wouldn’t mind seeing some feedback. What are your memories of the Skinner? Good, bad? What would make you interested in revisiting the days of flayed werewolf corpses and the rise to power at any price?

First things first. Let me state that I really appreciate all the feedback we get on these posts. Clearly we’re not going to be able to make everyone happy when you have different factions wanting different things out of the book, but it’s nice to not damn the torpedoes and forge ahead blindly. We like the feedback, thanks!

Second things: Upon review of the outline, seems we have a little more room for word count in the spreads of the Lost Tribes. The Gifts will not be part of the spreads: in fact, they’d had some room budgeted separately for them. So things are looking up.

Shall we have a sample?

Croatan

When the continents split apart and the Garou divided themselves into tribes, three made the long walk across the ice to the Americas. These three, the self-described Lands Garou, were the Uktena, Croatan, and Wendigo. Today only two remain. Middle Brother, the steadfast Croatan tribe, is gone. But tragic as their loss was, it was also noble. Where the Bunyip were slain by their own kin and the White Howlers fell to the Wyrm, the Croatan sacrificed themselves to the last to banish a great evil. To this day, many wish it hadn’t been necessary. If only they had lived, perhaps the Uktena and Wendigo would not be so close to the brink. If only they had had more help, perhaps the Garou Nation would still have their strength. If only they had been able to slay the Eater-of-Souls outright, the Wyrm’s strength would have been cut by a third. If only.

The Croatan earned their name of Middle Brother not from age-based seniority, but from their role among the three Pure Lands tribes. The Wendigo were always angry and rash by compare, full of the fires of youth. The cunning Uktena sought wisdom, sometimes at the expense of the here and now. The Croatan took the balanced path between the two. They were passionate but not mercurial, savvy but not over-introspective.

Another aspect of the Croatan’s tribal mentality came from their elemental connection. The Croatan drew strength from the earth itself, channeled through their totem Turtle. They were solid and steadfast, not as slippery as the water-influenced Uktena and their river serpent totem, or as cold and furious as the Wendigo and their bitter wind-spirit allies. This influence had its drawbacks, of course. The Croatan were a stubborn tribe, often to the point of inflexibility. When blood spilled between the Three Brothers — and it did from time to time — the Croatan had their share of the fault.

Also matching their ties to the earth, Croatan were strong believers in the sept and the caern. They took the concept of sacred lands more seriously than most Garou ever did. They were also a fairly practical tribe, not much given to poetry or fancy. They called the five auspices Trickster, Shaman, Law Giver, Songkeeper and Warrior — some say because they found the old Garou tongue names a little too nuanced.

The Croatan’s fall came in the late 16th century, when it seemed the Apocalypse was about to come early. Eater-of-Souls (also known to the Croatan as Jipijka’m), one of the three heads of the Triatic Wyrm, had drawn so near to the physical world that it would soon physically manifest. The entire tribe gathered to fight, even as they knew that battle would not be enough. When the Eater-of-Souls broke through into the material world, the Croatan enacted a great rite to make the ultimate sacrifice. They gave themselves to the last, dealing Eater-of-Souls a vicious wound and banishing it back to the Umbra for many centuries of healing.

Yet the cost was a tribe. The Croatan were gone forever — even their ancestor-spirits participated in the rite. Their bloodlines would merge with those of other tribes, or be lost entirely. In the modern day there are legends that perhaps a single ancestor-spirit survived, or that there is one cub of pure blood that might awaken Turtle as a tribal patron again. There’s always hope. But the Uktena elders shake their heads, and say quietly that it’s a vain hope — comforting, perhaps, but nothing else.

Appearance: In their hybrid or wolf forms, Croatan with strong Pure Breed tended to have rich dark brown coats that shone like mahogany, with a slight dark brindling or mottling along the back and hindquarters. They were otherwise a very diverse tribe, deriving as they did from an entire third of the various nations of the Pure Lands.

Kinfolk & Territory: The Croatan preferred to leave the most northern portions of the Pure Lands to the Wendigo, and never ranged as far south as the Uktena did. They favored the lands around the Mississippi and much of the North American East Coast. Stories place them alternately as staunch allies of Mound Builder societies such as Cahokia, or as the force that turned on them to destroy them — or sometimes both. They took their human Kin from a wide variety of nations, most of whom were adopted by the Uktena and Wendigo shortly after the Croatan’s disappearance.

Tribal Totem: Turtle, a mighty spirit of earth and water said to hold up the world. He taught the Croatan much about fortitude and enduring hardship, and with their loss, he fell into a slumber from which he has yet to wake. Other totems revered by the Croatan include Thunderbird, Corn Maiden, the Earth-burrowers and the trickster Trout.

Character Creation: The Croatan were the most social of the Three Brothers, and many expressed this tendency with their Attributes and Abilities. They were a stolid, enduring tribe, and favored Traits that enhanced their resilience in one way or another, such as Survival.

Initial Willpower: 4

Background Restrictions: No restrictions.

Beginning Gifts: Master of Fire, Mindspeak, Turtle Body, Wyld Resurgence

Quote: “Older Brother is wise, and teaches us wisdom; but he is also a little too wise for his own good, and so he teaches us humility. Younger brother is brave, and teaches us bravery; but he is also a little too brave for his own good, and so he teaches us patience.”

Croatan Gifts

• Master of Fire (Level One) — As the homid Gift.

• Mindspeak (Level One) — As the Galliard Gift.

• Turtle Body (Level One) — Many of the Croatan’s Gifts emulated the power of their patron, Turtle. This Gift allows the Garou to emulate Turtle’s stoicism by slowing his metabolism into a torpor-like state. The werewolf becomes inactive, but can go without breathing for hours at a time and ignore extremes of heat or cold. Uncontrolled bleeding stops, and any poison working its way through the werewolf’s system is greatly slowed, not taking effect for hours.

System: The player spends one Gnosis and rolls Gnosis, difficulty 6; success indicates that the werewolf enters the trance. The trance lasts for up to one hour per success, although the Garou may choose to awaken after a specific amount of time has passed.

• Wyld Resurgence (Level One) — As the Black Fury Gift.

• Strength of Purpose (Level Two) — As the Philodox Gift.

• Turtle Shell (Level Two) — The Garou can seal herself in a mystic protective shield that resembles a turtle’s shell. The shell is opaque from the outside, but those on the inside can see through it. The werewolf can opt to bring others into the shell with her, if her power is sufficient.

System: The player spends one Gnosis and rolls Stamina + Survival. Each success gives the shell two soak dice and two effective health levels; the radius enclosed is two yards per success. A Crinos-form werewolf requires about two yards radius, so with two successes, two werewolves in Crinos could be protected (or three humans or Homid-form Garou, or so on, at the Storyteller’s discretion).

The shell lasts for one scene, or until broken either by the Gift user’s will or by sustaining too much damage — whichever comes first. When broken, it shatters into pieces that dissolve like so much mist.

• Call Earth Spirit (Level Three) — This Gift is another of those that draws on the ancient alliance with Turtle, summoning an earth-spirit to rampage forth and crush things or people at the werewolf’s bidding. The Garou must have some earth at hand to invoke the earth-spirit, although a handful of dirt or a smallish rock will suffice.

System: The player spends one Gnosis and rolls Manipulation + Occult, difficulty 8. The spirit cuts a path of destruction in a straight line for up to 30 yards, inflicting 10 dice of lethal damage to anything in its path. Botching the summoning roll calls forth an earth-spirit of some sort that is hostile to its summoner.

• Shell (Level Three) — As the metis Gift.

• Hand of the Earth Lords (Level Four) — As the Uktena Gift.

• Stronger on Stone (Level Four) — Just as the Uktena were mighty in the waters and the Wendigo drew power from the winds, the Croatan were at their strongest when standing on the earth itself. This Gift allows a werewolf to mimic that strength — the closer the Garou’s tie to earth, the stronger he gets.

System: The player spends one Gnosis and one Rage. The character receives a number of bonus dice that he can add to Strength or Stamina (or divide between them) for the remainder of the scene, depending on where he stands. On dead wood, concrete or other artificial flooring, the bonus is one die. On living plant matter (such as thick grass or a tree root), the bonus is two dice. On bare earth, the bonus is three dice; on naked stone, four dice. If the character is separated from the ground (such in an airplane or on a bridge over water), the Gift has no effect.

• Katanka-Sonnak’s Spear (Level Five) — Some cultures that the Croatan took as Kin were sunworshippers. The Croatan in turn established strong ties with Helios and the Planetary Incarna of the sun, Katanka-Sonnak. This Gift springs from this alliance; by invoking the power of the sun, the Garou can call a shaft of fire from the sky to impale an enemy and immolate him in continuously burning flame.

System: The player spends a point of Gnosis and rolls Dexterity + Occult to strike the target; no range penalties apply, although the werewolf must be able to see her target. If the strike is accurate, the victim takes 10 dice of damage from fire damage each turn; this damage is aggravated, although shapeshifters are able to soak it. The fire cannot be doused with ordinary water; it will burn until 10 turns have elapsed unless quenched by a water-spirit, somehow dispelled, or until the victim takes no damage on a particular turn.

• Survivor (Level Five) — As the Bone Gnawer Gift.

One of the chapters of W20 is the Allies chapter: Kinfolk, spirits and totems, and yes, we’re putting some bits of the Lost Tribes in there. This shouldn’t be a surprise, since you’ve already seen the sketches. Well, here’s a stab at the format.

We’re not using advanced metaplot to make them show up in the modern world or anything: this is basically a skeleton that can be used for historical chronicles, inspiration for stories about legacies, and so on. You’ll note it’s not quite as fleshed-out as the tribal spread of an extant tribe; a little less word count on society, and no Stereotypes, so that we can put a workmanlike Gift list in place. Even then it’s a lot of words! We’ll see if this is feasible at all, but I’m certainly hoping it will fit into two pages per. Maybe three. We shall see!

Bunyip

 

The Bunyip of Australia were a strange tribe by the reckoning of the other Garou – the protectors of a peculiar land without any wolves to its name. Some weren’t sure that they were werewolves at all. This belief led to the tragedy known as the War of Shame, when other Garou made war on the Bunyip, believing them to be no longer cousins. They have the sad distinction of being the only Lost Tribe to fall to the claws and fangs of the Garou Nation.

The Bunyip’s beginnings as a distinct tribe came when they arrived in Australia along with the first human settlers. They chose to bond as deeply as they could with the land, the better to understand and protect it. Using a strange ritual that some say they learned from the Mokolé, the Bunyip altered themselves so that they would be able to breed with the marsupial thylacines native to the land.

For millennia they had no contact with the rest of the Garou Nation. They bartered and struggled with the spirits of the Australian Umbra, and walked alongside the aboriginal tribes. They weren’t perfect stewards, of course – like all Garou, they were subject to their Rage, and had occasional struggles with each other. But they took their role as spiritual stewards very seriously, and achieved a certain form of peace for a time.

Everything changed with the arrival of the other Garou. When European settlers came to Australia, bringing werewolves in their ranks, war quickly broke out. Some see the hand of the Black Spiral Dancers in the War of Shame, cleverly manipulating each side against each other so that Gaia’s most experienced local defenders would be overrun. Simple prejudice accounts for much of the tragedy: many of the newcomers couldn’t believe that the Bunyip were Garou any longer, without their wolf blood. The Bunyip were unwilling to fight their relatives with as much ferocity as was directed at them – and with their Kin falling prey to European migrants, it was soon evident that the war was lost. The last surviving Bunyip wandered off into the Umbra rather than fight any longer, and were never seen in fleshly form again. To this day the angry spirits of the Bunyip still haunt the Australian Penumbra, striking out at luckless Garou who wander too deeply.

Appearance: The Bunyip resembled the thylacine in their “wolf” forms; they were small and lean, with smooth coats, long and thin tails, and some striping on their back and flanks. Their Pure Breed manifested itself as more distinct striping, and frequently as a larger frame, a throwback to their size before they began breeding with the “marsupial wolves.”

Kinfolk & Territory: The Bunyip had spread across Australia and Tasmania, where they were close to their aboriginal Kin. They bred with thylacines rather than the dingo, and were careful to protect small breeding populations of their animal-Kinfolk from the more aggressive and stronger wild dogs that gradually supplanted them.

Tribal Totem: Bunyip, a strange water-monster with elements of mammal and reptile. The tribe also revered Rainbow Serpent, the creator-spirit of the Dreamtime, and were on good terms with many other spirits of the Australian Umbra.

Character Creation: The Bunyip were a well-rounded tribe, as they had no other tribes nearby to share duties with. They were particularly well-versed in survival skills and in dealing amicably with spirits.

Initial Willpower: 4

Background Restrictions: No restrictions.

Beginning Gifts: Bunyip’s Spell, Mother’s Touch, Resist Toxin, Sense Prey

Quote: “Thousands of years we carried out our duty, and all so we could be slain by our own cousins? I fear the Apocalypse must already have come in the world beyond the ocean, and now it simply reaches us.”

Bunyip Gifts

• Bunyip’s Spell (Level One) — Great Bunyip taught his children the trick of paralyzing a person with a glance, so that they might defend themselves against humans with mercy.

System: The Garou makes eye contact with the target; the player rolls Willpower, opposed by the target’s Willpower. For each success that the player gains over the target, the target is frozen in place for one turn and cannot defend himself. If the target is an ordinary mortal, the player may choose to spend a Willpower point to make the paralysis last for the rest of the scene. The paralyzed victim remembers not being able to move, but does not know why; it is rationalized away as per Delirium rules. This Gift cannot be used on shapeshifters or the undead, only mortals or those who are mostly mortal (such as most fomori).

• Mother’s Touch (Level One) — As the Theurge Gift.

• Resist Toxin (Level One) — As the Bone Gnawer Gift.

• Sense Prey (Level One) — As the lupus Gift.

• Coils of the Serpent (Level Two) — As the Uktena Gift.

• Crocodile’s Cunning (Level Two) — The Bunyip passed into the lore of humans as an aquatic monster. This Gift, learned from crocodile-spirits, allowed the Bunyip to defend their waterholes, swamps and rivers with clever ambushes, or simply to evade pursuers. Crocodile-spirits taught this Gift.

System: The player spends one Gnosis. The character may hold her breath for up to one hour, and gains two dice to any Stealth rolls made while submerged in water or mud.

• Lonesome Voice of the Bunyip (Level Three) — This Gift was one of the last Bunyip Gifts to be developed, as it directly arose from the pain and loss of the War of Shame. It is taught by Bunyip ancestor-spirits. The Garou using this Gift emits the booming cry of Great Bunyip himself, a frightening and saddening roar-howl of fear and loneliness.

System: The player spends one Gnosis and rolls Charisma + Performance (difficulty 7). The Gift affects all non-Bunyip within earshot. Those affected lose one temporary point of Willpower per success, and cannot regain Willpower until they have retreated from the Gift user’s immediate area (roughly earshot) or until the scene ends. No victim can be affected by this Gift more than once in any sunset-to-sunrise or sunrise-to-sunset period.

• Pulse of the Invisible (Level Three) — As the Theurge Gift.

• Dance of the Lightning Snakes (Level Four) — The Penumbra of ustralia is inhabited by, among other things, the lightning snakes — spirits that leap to the earth and rebound to the heavens during Umbral storms, bringing lightning and rain. This Gift allows a Garou to call on the lightning snakes to evoke a powerful storm in the Umbra, washing away spirits and lashing foes with bolts of spirit-lightning.

System: This Gift works only in the Umbra. The player spends one Gnosis point, and rolls Willpower, with the difficulty based on the spirit world’s existing weather (if any) — 5 if an Umbral storm is already brewing, to 9 if the spirit world’s skies are clear. The difficulty is reduced by 1 if the character is in Australia’s Penumbra, where lightning snakes are more plentiful. The storm gathers in three turns; it covers the equivalent of 5 miles per success, and increases the difficulty or Essence cost of any fire, perception or travel-related Charms by 1. The Garou may direct the lightning snakes to strike opponents (Charisma + Occult, difficulty 7 to hit; 10 dice of aggravated damage). The storm cannot bleed over into the physical world, although a sympathetic (and uncontrolled) rain or storm may gather in the material world.

• Quicksand (Level Four) — As the Red Talons Gift.

• Billabong Bridge (Level Five) — Great Bunyip’s children used this Gift to successfully cross large expanses of Australian terrain by using water as a shortcut. The Garou enters one body of fresh water and emerges from another such body any distance away; salt water “fouls” the Gift, and cannot transport the Gift user. Both bodies of water must be personally well-known to the Garou using the Gift.

System: The player spends two Gnosis points and announces her destination. At the Storyteller’s discretion, using this Gift to leave or arrive in an area of high Gauntlet may require a roll to step sideways to make the transition safely. The Gift user cannot take anyone with her while using this Gift; only those items dedicated to her complete the journey.

• Invoke the Spirits of the Storm (Level Five) — As the Wendigo Gift. This Gift invoked the Rainbow Serpent in its aspect as rainmaker.

 

Short post today, heavy audience participation with luck.

Werewolf‘s built on an interesting framework. It incorporates myth, zoology, ecology, and splatter horror into a combination that manages to work as a whole. It’s hard to imagine another game that could be prepped for by consuming Silent Spring, Egil’s Saga, The Mind of the Raven and C.H.U.D. But if you know Werewolf, then you know how each of those things could inform a chronicle. You also know that actual werewolf books and movies can sometimes be conditional — Van Helsing, for instance, has a pretty good CGI Crinos who uses Razor Claws, but not a whole lot else — while stuff without a werewolf in sight can be dead-on target (those The 13th Warrior aficionados know what I’m talking about). I can put together a list of sources I think are useful, but I imagine everyone’s is different.

So today’s question is:

What sort of sources do you think make optimal viewing, reading or other inspiration for Werewolf: The Apocalypse?

Right now I’m deeply involved with Chapter Nine: The Enemy. I understand this is something that will have a lot of you particularly interested, what with Black Spiral Dancers, a number of fomori powers rapidly approaching that of the original Freak Legion itself, Banes and other spirits, other supernaturals, and a treatment of Pentex — with a couple of new subsidiaries that carry on the Balefire-soaked parody of our own real-world horrible corporations, no less. Several points of interest here:

Big Ol’ Essence Pools. Drawing from the Book of the Wyrm, we see Dream Makers running around with Rage 10, Gnosis 10, Willpower 10, and Essence 300. This also indicated the possibility of bringing up the Nexus Crawler to match. Is a Nexus Crawler with 100 Essence far too much of a leap? Is it more of a necessary thing to get the critter up to a proper threat level?

Massive Amounts of Fomori Powers. There’s a bit of a Freak Legion vibe going on in the back of the book. Yes, there will be completely work-safe powers like “Chameleon Coloration” and “Claws and Fangs.” But there will also be powers like “Dentata Orifice,” “Fiery Discharge” and “Fungal Udder.” Powers like the latter are not actually explicitly sexualized or scatological — a “dentata orifice” might just basically be a mouth in the palm of the fomor’s hand or in his belly — but they can be taken as such. If that strikes you as highly problematic, I’d like to hear about that.

Black Spiral Dancers. Yeah… I know you’re all probably kind of interested in how they’ll turn out. Well, go forth, excerpt!

The Black Spiral Dancers are the only werewolf tribe to have wholly turned to the Wyrm. Some show signs of degeneracy from an early age, acting out through displays of violence and madness. Like some Garou, many have survived childhoods troubled by suffering or abuse. The tribe’s inherited madness and psychopathic tendencies inevitably increase after the trauma of a Black Spiral’s First Change. Once they’ve rejoined their brothers and sisters, most react poorly to the abuse they receive from their Kinfolk and others in the tribe. Their new extended family includes werewolves who (for whatever reason) have abandoned their former tribes, accepting this one. Recruits then corrupt their souls through a blasphemous ritual known as the Rite of the Black Spiral: an initiation ceremony that intensifies and fully subjects them to the Wyrm’s corruption. Occulted in darkness, the Black Spiral tribe has remained hidden for millennia, passing on powerful Gifts empowered by the Wyrm and a never-ending hatred for Gaia and other Garou.

Millennia ago, this tribe was known as the White Howlers. These white-furred werewolves were cousins of the Fianna, roaming the lands we now know as Britain and Eastern Europe. In the highlands of Scotland in the first century A.D., they lived among Picts north of Hadrian’s Wall, isolated from the rest of Western civilization. White Howler Kinfolk were known for their unrestrained fury and brutality, as tales of their heathen rituals became the stuff of legend. White Howler cubs proved their worth not only by defeating physical foes, but by going on spiritual journeys into the depths of the underworld. With typical Garou arrogance, they believed they could face the most horrific creatures of the spirit world and return unscathed.

Their greatest arena was a realm known as the Spiral Labyrinth, visited through a perilous journey they referred to as “walking the spiral.” The deeper they descended, the more imperiled their souls became, as they ventured further into the infernal realms of the Wyrm than any other tribe in existence. Spiritual corruption was like a cancer spreading throughout the tribe, as more and more of them abandoned their original tribal totem, the Lion. In the modern age, the tribal totem has long been abandoned, as the White Howlers’ legacy was ultimately corrupted by the Wyrm. Before the fall of the Roman Empire, the last White Howlers were dragged down into the Spiral Labyrinth after a valiant last stand at the infamous Sept of the Mile-Deep Loch.

Today, the tribe’s name comes from the labyrinth that ultimately destroyed the now-extinct White Howler tribe, replacing them with fanatics known as the Black Spiral Dancers. Rituals of “walking the Black Spiral” are still used to initiate cubs and wayward Garou into the tribe. Degenerating into this downward spiral is a soul-scarring journey, as it is still hidden in the depths of the Wyrm realm called Malfeas.  Each petitioner must betray the associates of his former life, forsake his former spiritual beliefs, and most importantly, descend into madness.

Black Spirals possess a wide array of mental disorders, ranging from insidious hidden delusions and phobias to overt and disturbing outbursts of mental illness. Even if a Black Spiral cub is separated from its own kind, the werewolf’s downward spiral into insanity is inevitable. This doesn’t mean Dancers are completely dysfunctional, however; Garou seem to think so because the most self-destructive Black Spirals are used as shock troops against Gaian packs and septs. At their best, relatively functional Spirals are cold and calculating psychopaths capable of infiltrating and subverting human society. The most obvious manifestation of the tribe’s psychosis is an enduring hatred of all Garou, an obsession that defies all reason.

Like Garou, Black Spiral Dancers run in packs and gather in numbers. Just as the Garou have caerns, Black Spiral Dancers thrive in Hives, whether they’re toxic hellholes no one would dare approach or subterranean tunnels hidden from vigilant enemies. The tribe has its own camps, rituals, and moots, many of which are dedicated to the three hydra heads of the Triatic Wyrm and its many subservient Urges. Public ordeals of victimization and orgiastic rites are common. Despite this, a Black Spiral pack can choose to remain isolated from the rest of the tribe almost anywhere, as long as they faithfully obey the whispered commands of the Wyrm.

Metis Garou are common in Black Spiral packs. Some are recruited from those who resent their second-class status in the Garou Nation; others are born into a tribe that willingly breeds metis to bolster their numbers. Black Spiral reproductive rights allow absolute freedom. The tribe’s orgiastic practices are perverse and frequent: outbreeding enemies is a biological imperative. The Black Spirals easily outnumber any of the Thirteen Tribes of the Garou Nation. Metis deformities, like other deformities, are proudly displayed.

Appearance: Modern Black Spirals are a mockery of modern werewolves. Most possess minor mutations and other forms of disfigurement that hint at their corruption. This might due to pollution, corruption, or radioactivity near their place of birth. In Crinos form, Black Spirals are frequently afflicted in some way: their skulls may be malformed or their jaws might slaver. A Dancer’s eyes typically burn an unnatural shade of red or green. Their fur is filthy, gnarled, or patchy; the most common shades are dirty black or sickly greenish brown pelts. Garou recruited from other tribes appear as corrupted versions of their former brothers and sisters. Many Spirals are deformed in some way, since nearly half the tribe is metis. A few exceptionally rare and exotic Black Spirals have the pure white fur of their White Howler ancestors.

Kinfolk & Territory: Black Spiral Kinfolk aren’t the most stable individuals. Sanity isn’t their strong suit, and emotional stability is a struggle. Most are used to conditions of financial adversity and questionable hygiene, supporting themselves through marginal jobs and living in squalor. For reasons they never fully understand, they are inexorably drawn to the Wyrm’s corruption. This may result in a lifestyle “improved” by a variety of spiritually harmful products created by Pentex and its many subsidiaries. To keep an eye on these relations, some Black Spirals manage to secure work for them in those same corrupt companies. There’s certainly no guarantee of employment, however. Some Kinfolk stray into what may seem like perfectly ordinary homes and lifestyles; that makes the moment when their dysfunctional tendencies finally manifest far more shocking than they would normally appear.

Black Spiral Dancers have relatively few lupus for a tribe their size; they rely more on breeding metis. Their wolf Kin live miserable lives in captivity, kept in small preserves at best and in the depths of Hives at worst.

Tribal Totem: Most Black Spiral Dancers serve the tribal totem of Whipporwill, a spirit of ill luck and ruin. In addition to their eerie wolf calls, Black Spirals can emulate the bird of the same name.

Initial Willpower: 3

Background Restrictions: Almost any Garou Background is allowed, although they tend to manifest in more sinister ways.  However, no Black Spiral can take the Pure Breed Background unless he takes all five dots, representing a throwback to the original White Howler bloodline.

Derangement: The Black Spiral breaks the minds of those who dance it. Each Black Spiral Dancer has at least one overt or covert form of insanity. (One optional way to represent this is by choosing a Derangement from another White Wolf sourcebook.)

Beginning Gifts: Bane Protector, Resist Pain, Resist Toxin, Sense Wyrm, Shroud

Quote: You’ll understand. Once you pass through the gates, your senses will be opened. You’ll smell the reek of the rotting wounds, hear the voices under the skin of the earth. You’ll see the truth about the world when the illusion is torn away. Come and dance with us. You’ll understand.

And the winner, with a grand total of two people suggesting their names: the Glass Walkers! Which is an interesting group either way you look at it, because also they’re one of the few tribes that gets a bonus camp Gift list (now with corrected spelling. I hope).

Glass Walkers

Many Glass Walker Gifts involve Weaver-spirits of one type or another. This association grants the Glass Walkers great versatility and an unparalleled rapport with modern technology; hopefully, it’s enough to make up for the lack of respect with which other tribes view their pacts.

• Control Simple Machine (Level One) — The Garou may command the spirits of the simplest machines, causing levers to flip, doors to unbolt, pulleys to roll and so on. Any technological spirit can teach this Gift.

System: The player spends a Willpower point and rolls Manipulation + Crafts (difficulty 7). The Garou’s control lasts until the end of the scene.

• Diagnostics (Level One) — The Glass Walker can tell what is wrong with a machine at a glance. He can then enlist the aid of the machine’s spirit in repairing it. Any technological spirit can teach this Gift.

System: The character automatically succeeds at all attempts to diagnose the problem with broken technological devices. The player spends one point of Gnosis as the Garou mentally convinces the spirit of a broken device to aid her in fixing it. The time required to fix the device is halved, as are the number of successes needed to repair it.

• Persuasion (Level One) — As the homid Gift.

• Plug and Play (Level One) — All of the Weaver’s works are connected through the same web, the same song. The Glass Walkers exploit this truth to draw more power from the modern profusion of technology, making their devices compatible with almost everything. A Net Spider teaches this Gift.

System: The player spends one Willpower point. For the next day, any computer the Glass Walker uses — no matter how simple — becomes fully compatible with any other digital device, regardless of obstacles such as different operating systems, lack of physically compatible access ports, or even the complete absence of any means of receiving or interpreting a wireless signal. Generally, Glass Walkers use this Gift to turn their smart phones into omni-compatible access keys to computer networks, security feeds, and even car GPS systems.

• Trick Shot (Level One) — This Gift allows the Garou to execute brilliant feats of sharpshooting, such as shooting a weapon from an opponent’s hand or firing down the barrel of an enemy’s gun. The Garou cannot use this Gift to harm an opponent directly, however, and can use Trick Shot only with rifles or pistols. Air-spirits teach this Gift.

System: As a permanent enhancement, the player adds his character’s permanent Glory rating to his dice pool when performing a really outlandish shooting trick. Again, the Gift does not allow direct damage to targets (“I’ll shoot the armored fomor through the eye!”), but can be used to injure opponents indirectly (“I’ll shoot out the blacked-out window behind the vampire so the sunlight hits him!”).

• Cybersenses (Level Two) — The Garou may exchange his natural senses for those of machines, witnessing the world in ways more traditional werewolves could never imagine. He might exchange normal hearing for radar, or ordinary sight for infrared or UV vision. Any technological spirit can teach this Gift.

System: The player spends one Gnosis point per sense affected. This Gift lasts for one scene.

• Hands Full of Thunder (Level Two) — Many Glass Walkers regard the gun as the ultimate sign of the power of the modern age, and make pacts with the spirits to assure that their firearms do not become useless, primitive clubs in the midst of battle. A technological spirit or war-spirit teaches this Gift.

System: The player spends a point of Gnosis. For the rest of the scene, any gun the Glass Walker fires won’t run out of ammunition, so long as it has ammo to begin with. Fire discipline is still recommended with automatic weapons to keep the gun from overheating and jamming.

• Jam Technology (Level Two) — As the homid Gift.

• Power Surge (Level Two) — By speaking with electricity spirits, the Garou causes a blackout over a widespread area. An electricity elemental teaches this Gift.

System: The player spends one Gnosis point and rolls Wits + Science (difficulty 7). The number of successes determines how large of an area is blacked out. One success would black out a single room, while five would cut the power to a whole neighborhood.

• Steel Fur (Level Two) — Focusing on his own being, the Glass Walker wraps himself in spiritual steel, turning his fur into hardened metal. Metal or earth elementals teach this Gift.

System: The player spends one Willpower point and rolls Stamina + Science (difficulty 7). Each success adds one die to the Garou’s soak pool for the rest of the scene. While this Gift is active, the Garou suffers +1 difficulty to all Dexterity rolls, and any Social rolls not involving other Glass Walkers. This Gift only functions in Crinos, Hispo or Lupus forms.

• Control Complex Machine (Level Three) — Similar to Control Simple Machine, the Glass Walker may now converse with and command the spirits of electronic devices such as computers, smart phones, and cars. A net-spider teaches this Gift.

System: The player spends one Willpower point and rolls Manipulation + Science or Computer. The Storyteller sets the difficulty based on how complex the machine is (8 for a standard laptop). The Garou’s control lasts for one scene.

• Intrusion (Level Three) — It’s impossible to keep a cockroach out of a house, and equally impossible to keep out a Glass Walker with this Gift. Once activated, this Gift allows the Glass Walker to open any barrier presented to her: doors unlock at her approach, padlocks fall open with no explanation. A cockroach-spirit teaches this Gift.

System: The player spends one point of Gnosis and rolls Gnosis (difficulty 7). For exactly one minute afterward, all forms of locks and barriers allow her passage, from computerized vault locks to barricades of 2x4s nailed up across doors. Mystically sealed barriers still require a roll to bypass, but every success on the initial Gnosis roll adds one automatic success to such attempts. Barriers disabled by this Gift do not automatically re-seal themselves.

• Electroshock (Level Three) — The Glass Walkers are the tribe of glass, steel and electricity. This last element can be used to directly damage opponents that the Glass Walker can either touch, or who are touching a conductive material such as metal or water. An electricity-spirit teaches this Gift.

System: The player spends a number of Rage points. Each point of Rage spent inflicts two levels of aggravated wounds on the Glass Walker’s opponents. These levels of damage may be divided among as many opponents as the number of Rage points invested in this Gift. As usual, the character cannot spend more Rage than half of his permanent rating in one turn.

• Elemental Favor (Level Three) — By begging, threatening or cajoling an urban elemental, a werewolf can convince the spirit to do her a favor by manipulating or even destroying its earthly shell. Thus, a glass sheet might explode at the Garou’s foes; a door might refuse to open, even if unlocked; or a car’s brakes might fail. An urban elemental teaches this Gift.

System: The player rolls Charisma + Subterfuge (difficulty 7). The Storyteller determines the precise effects.

• Attunement (Level Four) — As the Bone Gnawer Gift, but taught by a cockroach-spirit.

• Doppelganger (Level Four) — The Garou may take the exact likeness of any other human, wolf or Garou. A chameleon-spirit teaches this Gift.

System: The player spends one Gnosis point and rolls Charisma + Performance (difficulty 8). Traits aren’t duplicated, but everything else, including voice, posture and scent, are identical. The effects last for one day per success (though the Garou may end them at will).

• Signal Rider (Level Four) — From the telegraph to the cell phone, the Glass Walkers have always kept up good relations with spirits of cutting-edge communication. This Gift allows the Garou to open a moon bridge which rides the back of a telephone signal, transporting her instantly to the location of whoever is on the other end of the line. A Pattern Spider teaches this Gift.

System: The player spends one Willpower and one Gnosis to open the moon bridge. The Garou must have a connection between a telephone at her location and one at the target destination to use this Gift, although it doesn’t discriminate between landlines or cell phones — some werewolves have even reported success in riding the back of online conferencing software, although doing so successfully requires a Wits + Computers roll (difficulty 7). Signal Rider can take the character no more than (Gnosis x 5) miles—if the other end of the line isn’t within that range, the Gift fails.

• Tech Speak (Level Four) — This Gift allows the Glass Walker to contact others through any technological device. The Garou speaks to a Pattern Spider in or near a technological device and tells them the message to be delivered and whom it should be delivered to. The Pattern Spider then finds the receiver and uses any communications technology near them to deliver the message; phones yell it out (without picking up the handset or needing to be turned on), electronic billboards display it, computer printers print it out as text. If no communications technology is present, any other technology will activate, though no message will be imparted. If no technology whatsoever is present near the receiver, the Gift fails. A Pattern Spider teaches this Gift.

System: The player spends a Gnosis point and rolls Charisma + Science. The difficulty depends on the distance the message needs to be sent: The next room is difficulty 4, the same building 5, one block away 6, one mile away 7, a time-zone away 8. Beyond that is difficulty 9. The more successes achieved, the longer the message can be. A single success will only allow one word to be sent, five would allow unlimited length.

• Chaos Mechanics (Level Five) — Werewolves pulse with the Wyld’s energy, but all creatures with form and nature have something of the Weaver in them as well. Upon learning this Gift, the Glass Walker reconciles these aspects of his being, enabling him to summon primal energy and mystical form at the same time. Luna, who balances mercurial chaos into an orderly cycle of phases, sends the most powerful of her Lunes to teach this Gift.

System: A werewolf with this Gift may use Rage and Gnosis in the same turn with no penalty. This Gift’s effects are permanent.

• Summon Net-Spider (Level Five) — The Garou carries a great technological blessing, granting him an intuitive understanding of the ways of computers; additionally, he can summon a Net-Spider, a Weaver spirit that gives its summoner near-absolute control over any computer system. The Spider can disrupt, erase or destroy whatever system it is sent into (the exact effects are left to the Storyteller, but are typically destructive). An avatar of Cockroach teaches this Gift.

System: The player spends one Gnosis point and rolls Charisma + Computer (difficulty 8). If successful, the Net-Spider appears and heeds the Garou’s commands. In addition to the destructive power of the summoned spirit, this Gift allows the Garou to permanently halve the difficulty of all rolls to use, build, or hack computers.

[BEGIN BOXED TEXT]

Boli Zousizhe Gifts

A Chinese offshoot of the Glass Walkers, the Boli Zousizhe are somewhat more traditional than their ever-changing Western cousins, and employ several ancient Gifts rarely seen among other branches of the tribe.

• Sheng-Nong’s Eyes (Level One) — The Boli Zousizhe can see from the perspective of his tools and draw on their concentration for the task at hand, allowing him to perform multiple actions with ease. While this was originally used to wield two swords with equal dexterity, any tools can be used; even the werewolf’s own hands count as a “tool.” Either a monkey-spirit or a spirit of war teaches this Gift.

System: The player spends one Gnosis point to receive an extra action. For the rest of the scene, the Garou need not be able to see his opponents in order to attack them. No visibility modifiers or off-hand penalties affect his actions while this Gift is in effect.

• Fu Xi’s Honor (Level Two) — When confronted with a threat to a helpless member of the werewolf’s family or pack, the Boli Zousizhe can rise above her normal limits to defend them. The spirit of any animal that mates for life may teach this Gift.

System: The Storyteller must agree that the member of the Garou’s family or pack is indeed helpless and unable to defend himself. (With rare exception, any human facing a werewolf should be considered helpless.) The player may then spend one Rage and add one die to all her character’s Physical Attributes for every point of permanent Honor the character possesses for the duration of the scene.

• Yao’s Commands (Level Three) — As the Glass Walker Gift: Elemental Favor. When this Gift is taken, the Boli Zousizhe must choose to be able to command Eastern elementals (water, wood, fire, earth and metal) or urban elementals. The character may never command elementals of the other group.

• Yu’s Endurance (Level Four) — Yu was given the tremendous task of protecting Ancient China against the Yellow River flooding, so exhausting a task that none but he could do it. This Gift is identical to the Get of Fenris Gift: Heart of the Mountain.

• Huang Di’s Sacrifice (Level Five) — Whilst Huang Di was known for his inventions, he was also the Yellow Lord and a great leader. Normally used by the pack’s alpha, this Gift allows a leader to revitalize his followers in moments of darkness. This Gift is taught by only one spirit, who lives at the foot of Bull Mountain and cries eternally. It resembles nothing, and only teaches the Gift at sunrise.

System: The Boli Zousizhe spends two points of Gnosis and rolls Stamina + Leadership (difficulty 8). Each success allows one packmate to heal a number of health levels (even aggravated) equal to the number of successes rolled.

 [END BOXED TEXT]

So you know what to expect from the breed Gifts. Here, then, is a sample auspice Gift list to show you what’s going on there. Again, expect consistency; the Theurges won’t be getting more Level Two Gifts than these guys, for instance, even if there are historically more Theurge Gifts. (There might be, but I never counted.)

Philodox and Galliards seemed to be the two most requested for a preview. I went with the Half Moons, in completely arbitrary fashion. I could have flipped a coin for it, but that might have already indicated a previously existing Harvey Dent-style bias.

(There is a secret lesson to this: because Philodox and Galliards were the ones talked up most in the comments, I will probably be figuring out which tribal Gift list to preview based on chatter there as well. Use this knowledge as you best see fit.)

Philodox Gifts

Luna gifts her Half Moon children with powers of balance, judgment, and enforcement of law. The judges and mediators of the Garou nation use their magic to discern the truth, lead in times of peace, and mediate among their fellows.

• Fangs of Judgment (Level One) — It falls upon the Philodox to levy not only judgment but also punishment against those who have fallen from their proper stations. This Gift, taught by an ancestor-spirit, causes the werewolf’s claws and fangs to burn with the righteous power of law.

System: The player spends one Willpower point. For the next full day, all of the Garou’s natural weaponry attacks do two extra dice of damage to all beings who have fallen from their original purpose to the service of the Wyrm (such as Black Spiral Dancers, fomori, and corrupted nature spirits; Banes which came into existence as agents of the Wyrm are, regrettably, exempt from this Gift’s sanction).

• Persuasion (Level One) — As the homid Gift.

• Resist Pain (Level One) — Fortifying herself with purpose and will, the werewolf shuts out the pain of her wounds. A bear- or badger-spirit teaches this Gift.

System: The player spends one Willpower point; the character ignores all wound penalties for the rest of the scene.

• Scent of the True Form (Level One) — The Philodox is able to scent the truth of those she meets, literally sniffing out an individual’s true form. A vulture-spirit teaches this Gift.

System: The Garou can smell Kinfolk or a fellow werewolf automatically. In all other cases, the player must roll Perception + Primal-Urge (difficulty 6). One success will identify a normal human or animal; two successes will detect a vampire, changeling, demon, mummy, or other Fera; four successes are needed to sniff out a mage, ghoul, or fomor. The Imbued register as normal humans to this Gift.

• Truth of Gaia (Level One) — As judges of the Litany, Philodox may easily separate truth from falsehood. A Gaffling of Falcon teaches this Gift.

System: The player rolls Intelligence + Empathy (difficulty of the subject’s Manipulation + Subterfuge). This Gift reveals only which of the words that have been spoken are true and which are false. It doesn’t reveal the truth behind a lie unless the speaker utters it. If the speaker is uncertain whether his words are true or false, the Gift identifies them as neither.

• Call to Duty (Level Two) — Names hold great power in the spirit world, and the Philodox may exploit this to summon and command any spirit she knows by name. Only one command may be given, and the spirit departs immediately after fulfilling it. Alternatively, all spirits in the area may be called in times of great need. An Incarna avatar teaches this Gift.

System: The Garou must know the name of the spirit she wishes to summon. The player rolls Charisma + Leadership (difficulty of the spirit’s Willpower). The second mode of this Gift simply requires the player to spend two Gnosis points to summon all Gaian spirits within a one-mile radius. If the character has abused this Gift in the past (at the Storyteller’s discretion), the spirits might refuse the call — such a general summons is rooted more in appeal to duty than compulsion. The mightiest of spirits (Incarnae and above) are generally able to ignore this Gift if they choose.

• Command the Gathering (Level Two) — The Philodox draws all eyes to herself with a great exclamation, a clap of her hands, the striking of klaive to shield, or some other such gesture. Until she has had her say, none may depart or interrupt her. A lion-spirit teaches this Gift.

System: The player spends one Willpower point and rolls Appearance + Leadership (difficulty of the highest Willpower among those whose attention she seeks to gain). If the roll succeeds, all in attendance fall quiet and listen. Any individual who wishes to interrupt the Philodox or walk out before she has finished speaking must spend two points of Willpower to do so.

• King of the Beasts (Level Two) — The Philodox’s authority extends even into the realm of beasts, such that he can command the loyalty of any single animal. If successful, the animal follows the letter and spirit of his commands unconditionally. A lion- or falcon-spirit teaches this Gift.

System: The Philodox targets one animal within 100 feet. The player rolls Charisma + Animal Ken (difficulty 7). The power lasts until the Garou releases the animal from its obligation to him, but can only hold sway over one animal at a time.

• Strength of Purpose (Level Two) — Philodox use this Gift to fortify themselves in the face of the Apocalypse, turning hot passion and burning Rage into cold, steely resolve. A wolf-spirit teaches this Gift.

System: Once per scene, the player may roll Stamina + Rituals (difficulty 7). For every two successes, the Philodox recovers one point of Willpower up to her maximum.

• Mental Speech (Level Three) — As the metis Gift.

• Scent of the Oathbreaker (Level Three) — Oaths sanctified before a Philodox are a serious matter indeed, as this Gift grants the judges of the Garou nation the ability to know when an oath has been broken and to track down the oathbreaker to correct him personally. A dog-spirit teaches this Gift.

System: The Philodox may spend one Gnosis point to sanctify any oath or promise he personally witnesses, no matter how formal or informal. If at any point in the future one of the individuals sworn to the oath breaks it, the Philodox immediately becomes aware of this, and all rolls for the werewolf to track the oathbreaker by scent drop to difficulty 4. This benefit lasts until the Philodox next stands in the oathbreaker’s presence.

• Sense Balance (Level Three) — As the arbitrators of the Garou Nation, the Philodox have developed an attunement with the cosmic forces that balance the Tellurian. The werewolf may sense an overabundance of Wyrm, Wyld, or Weaver energies in a location. A cat-spirit teaches this Gift.

System: The player spends a Gnosis point and rolls Perception + Enigmas (difficulty 8) to detect the spiritual balance of an area, if any. Wyrm manifestations feel dense and oily, Weaver presence feels cold and unyielding and Wyld energies feel hot and trembling. The Philodox must be at peace and without distraction to use this Gift.

• Weak Arm (Level Three) — By watching an opponent’s fighting style, the Philodox can quickly evaluate his strengths and weaknesses. Snake- and wind-spirits teach this Gift.

System: The player rolls Perception + Brawl (difficulty 8). Each success grants one bonus die to add to her attack or damage rolls against that opponent. For instance, a Philodox who gets four successes could add two dice to her attack rolls and two to her damage pool, or four to her damage rolls, or three to attack and one to damage — whatever combination suits her. However, the distribution of dice cannot be changed once the Gift has been activated. This Gift can be used against a given foe only once per scene, and its benefits are lost at the end of the scene. A full turn of concentration is necessary to use this Gift.

• Wisdom of the Ancient Ways (Level Three) — All werewolves have an innate connection to their ancestors, a spiritual racial unconscious accessible through intense meditation. The Philodox can tap into these deep memories to remember ancient lore. An ancestor-spirit teaches this Gift.

System: The character must meditate for a short time, concentrating on the past. The player then rolls Gnosis (difficulty 9, -1 for each point of Ancestors the Garou possesses). The number of successes determines how detailed and exact the answer he receives will be.

• Roll Over (Level Four) — The werewolf radiates authority and power, allowing him to exert his dominance over others. Humans bow or kneel, while Garou roll over to expose their throats. A wolf-spirit teaches this Gift.

System: The player begins an extended, resisted Willpower contest. The results are compared to each of her opponents in turn; when the player has scored three more successes than an opponent, that opponent drops out of the contest and submits. If one of the opponents accumulates three more successes over the character, the contest ends. For the remainder of the scene, any individual who has submitted will take no actions at all without the approval of the character unless their life depends on it.

• Scent of Beyond (Level Four) — With a moment’s concentration, the werewolf can hurl her senses to any place with which she is familiar (even an Umbral location) no matter how far away it may be. Because a bird-spirit teaches this Gift, her senses perceive the scene from above.

System: The player rolls Perception + Enigmas (difficulty 8. If the spot is in the Umbra, the difficulty is 8 or the local Gauntlet rating (whichever is higher). This far-seeing continues for as long as the werewolf desires, but the character suffers a -3 penalty to any attempts to react to local stimuli while her senses are projected afar.

• Take the True Form (Level Four) — The Philodox can force a being into its true form. A wolf-spirit teaches this Gift.

System: The player rolls Manipulation + Primal-Urge (difficulty 7). If successful, Fera (including Garou) are forced to revert to their breed form for one turn per success. Other shapeshifted creatures (such as vampires masquerading as wolves) targeted by this power are likewise forced to revert to their true form.

• Geas (Level Five) — This Gift binds an individual or group to a sacred oath. While the geas cannot force and individual to act against her nature (such as to allow herself to be killed), it also doesn’t allow her to act against the task the Philodox has set before her. This Gift is taught by an Incarna avatar.

System: The player spends one Gnosis point and rolls Manipulation + Leadership (difficulty of the opponent’s Willpower, or the highest Willpower in a group). The compulsion to complete the task set out in the geas lasts until the task is completed or the target is harmed to the point of incapacitation in pursuit of the quest.

• Wall of Granite (Level Five) — Philodox have a stronger relationship with the elementals of the earth than other werewolves; just as the earth upholds those upon it, the Philodox uphold the Litany that sustains their people. While in contact with earth or rock, the Philodox can invoke a wall to protect himself. This wall moves with the Garou, defending him from all angles. Earth elementals teach this Gift.

System: The player spends one Gnosis point. The wall’s dimensions are three yards high, two yards long and one yard thick, and if the Garou desires, it may be extended to encircle up to (Gnosis) allies, so long as they huddle close. It has a soak pool of 10 dice, and 15 health levels must be inflicted to penetrate it at any point. The wall lasts for one scene or until released into the earth by the Garou.

• Break the Bonds (Level Six) — This Gift shatters all bonds, whether physical or mental, from sturdy iron chains to the slavery of a vampire’s bewitched blood. The Garou may use it to benefit any being, including herself. It is taught by any Incarna with the freedom to come and go as they please.

System: The Garou is automatically immune to any supernatural coercion, and may break bonds as though she had Strength 15. She may also break another’s physical bonds with that same Strength, or banish mental bonds from another with a Manipulation + Leadership roll (difficulty 11 – target’s Willpower).

How many Gifts are in Werewolf 20? A lot. Not all of them — that’s crazy — but a lot. We wanted a lot of choice to differentiate starting characters, so we went up to five initial selections for Level One Gifts. And there’s more than two per level thereafter. Duplication does occur, mind, but people shouldn’t be too disappointed at the lack of choice. At least I hope so.

But why not judge for yourself? Here’s the list of homid Gifts as will be printed in yon book, no more, no less.

Continue reading →