Werewolf: the Apocalypse

And welcome back. Now that we’ve cleared the middle stable of old World of Darkness games, it’s time for some of the Big Three. And, seeing as I don’t possess a copy of Vampire (well, the old version), I guess we’ll just skip onward to Werewolf: the Apocalypse.

As the title implies, this is a real blood-and-thunder game. The idea behind Werewolf is that the titular angry puppies are the Garou, warriors for Gaia (hey, it was the Nineties) who fight against the forces of the Wyrm. The Wyrm was once the primal force that brought a merciful end to all things but, after getting its shit fucked up, ended up becoming a force that sought to prolong the suffering and corruption of all things. Its cultists, devotees, and twisted spirits seek to corrupt the minds and bodies of humanity, as well as the Earth itself.

While the Garou fight against the Wyrm, though, they themselves have fucked up the fight pretty roundly throughout history. Their need to go “Grr! Wyrm! Kill!” has led to the extinction of two of their own tribes, as well as three separate species of other shapechangers. But now that the Apocalypse is coming, and the final battle against the Wyrm approaches, will they be able to make up for the sins of the past? Well, that’s for the players to decide.

Now, character creation. One thing to be aware of is that Werewolf allows the players the chance not only to play as the Garou, but as any of the other Fera, or Changing Breeds, created by Gaia. And there are quite a lot of them. Wereravens, werebears, werecats, weresnakes, weresharks, werecoyotes… but to preserve my basic sanity, I think I’ll stick to the Garou for today.

Flipping through the tribes of Garou, I find the Children of Gaia (healers who focus on mending wounds, be it in the earth, between the Garou, or with the other Changing Breeds) appealing to me, partially because I’m a bleeding heart liberal. After thinking for a while about concept, I decide upon a werewolf who’s taken it upon himself to study how Wyrmtaint infiltrates people, spirits, and other things, how it affects the person, if it can be cured, and when it becomes irrevocably manifest. After all, if the Garou going kill crazy is what got them here in the first place, it would probably be best to make sure they don’t fuck up again. As a Child of Gaia, my werewolf is slightly more temperate than most, and gets four starting Willpower.

So, first things to choose for a werewolf are Breed, Auspice, and Tribe. I already chose Tribe, so it’s on to Breed. I decide my character’s going to be a Homid, or a werewolf who was born human. He has only one permanent Gnosis (spiritual firepower), but he has Gifts that will allow him to get places others don’t. Next comes Auspice. As my character tries to look at all sides of the issue fairly, I decide he might make a good Philodox, or judge. However, since he traffics in the research of spirits and those they corrupt, he might also make a good Theurge, or shaman. After thinking about it, I decide to go with the Theurge. My character will have only two permanent Rage (raw fury), but at least he’ll have a chance of healing those who’ve been corrupted by the Wyrm.

Werewolves don’t necessarily have a Nature or Demeanor (unless you whip out the Player’s Guide), so I’ll skip that step. On to Attributes. My character’s a researcher, so Mental Attributes will be extremely important. I put three dots into Intelligence, two into Wits, and two into Perception. I decide my character may have to do some close quarters reconnaissance in his investigation into Wyrmtaint, so I put Social Attributes next. I pop one dot into Charisma, two into Manipulation, and two into Appearance. Physical Attributes come last, but if you can shapeshift into an eight-foot-tall, nine-hundred-pound killing machine with claws and teeth, it might be a good idea to find other areas of expertise. I put one dot each in Strength, Dexterity, and Stamina.

Abilities come next. Same ol’ breakdown of Talents, Skills, and Knowledges. As my character is a big old brain, I’ll put thirteen points into Knowledges, nine into Talents, and five into Skills. I put three dots into Investigation and Science, as those will be big factors in my researcher’s ability to observe Wyrmtaint. He’ll also get two dots in Rituals, providing him with the know-how for the sacred ceremonies of the Garou. I close it out with two dots in Medicine, two dots in Computer, and one in Politics.

And now for Talents and Skills. I want my character to have some combat advantage, so two points go into Brawl while three go into Dodge (as he’s not a total combat monkey). Two more dots go into Empathy, and one each goes into Primal-Urge (his connection to the inner wolf) and Subterfuge. Skills go mainly to socials and sneaking: Two in Etiquette, two in Stealth, and one in Survival.

After Attributes, as usual, comes Backgrounds. Each werewolf gets five points to spend on Backgrounds, but some tribes have certain restrictions. The Bone Gnawers, the scavengers of the Garou, are restricted from taking the Pure Breed or Resources Backgrounds; the Silver Fangs, well-bred aristocrats of the Garou, on the other hand, have to take at least three dots in Pure Breed. As a Child of Gaia, my researcher runs into no arbitrary Background restrictions whatsoever. I decide that, as a Theurge, he’s going to need some knowledge of Rituals, so I give him two dots worth. This gives him a sum total of two Rank One Rituals or one Rank Two Ritual. I choose the Rite of Cleansing (which can drive the Wyrm from places and can cause agonizing pain to Wyrmtainted creatures) and the Rite of Talisman Dedication (which binds objects to the Garou so that they shift with them, meaning that shapeshifting does not equal losing your pants). I finish up Backgrounds by giving him two dots of Resources (to help with his research) and one dot in Contacts (to see if anyone hears something weird).

Next come Gifts, the “magic powers” of the Garou. Werewolves have good relations with the spirit world, and are able to learn powers from spirits. Each Breed, Auspice, and Tribe is eligible for different kinds of Gifts, although a character can, in theory, learn Gifts from any other list (it’s just kind of difficult). I select Persuasion from the Homid Gift List, which allows the character to lower the difficulty of Social rolls for a scene—a blessing for my character, given the research he’s doing. From the Theurge list, I select Sense Wyrm, which pretty much does what it says, and it likewise important. From the Children of Gaia list, I select Mother’s Touch, which allows him to heal others.

After Gifts comes Renown. Renown is a special kind of experience system, earned entirely through roleplaying. When a character performs deeds that are especially glorious for the Garou, they gain some form of Renown; when they perform shameful acts, they lose said Renown. Renown comes in three flavors: Glory, Honor, and Wisdom. Renown is typically awarded in temporary form; each ten temporary Renown equals one permanent Renown. When a Garou reaches a certain amount of permanent Renown in each category (depending on their Auspice), they achieve a new Rank. Higher Rank equals higher social prestige, as well as the ability to learn a whole new level worth of Gifts. As a Theurge, my character starts with no permanent Glory, no permanent Honor, and three permanent Wisdom. To hit Rank Two, he needs to get one permanent Glory and five permanent Wisdom total.

Finally come the bonus points. My character is… rather lacking in Gnosis, especially for a Theurge. So, I spend six points to boost his permanent Gnosis to four. I leave Rage as is, as my character is not a combat monkey, and high Rage can leave ordinary humans feeling queasy and panicky around werewolves. That gives me nine more points to spend. I put one more point into the Contacts Background, giving him a wider social network, and decide to buy one dot in Kinfolk (werewolf relatives who haven’t undergone the First Change and probably never will, but who carry the blood of the wolf in them and who aid the Garou), giving him two “research assistants.” Looking back over my stats, the twink within me decides I might want to make the researcher a little more suited for combat, so I pay five points for another dot in Stamina and put the remaining two towards another dot in Brawl.

Well, now that that’s all said and done, let’s see what we’ve got:

Name: Alan Ward
Breed: Homid
Auspice: Theurge
Tribe: Children of Gaia
Concept: Wyrm Researcher

Physical Attributes: Strength 2, Dexterity 2, Stamina 3
Social Attributes: Charisma 2, Manipulation 3, Appearance 3
Mental Attributes: Perception 3, Intelligence 4, Wits 3

Talents: Brawl 3, Dodge 3, Empathy 2, Primal-Urge 1, Subterfuge 1
Skills: Etiquette 2, Stealth 2, Survival 1
Knowledges: Computer 2, Investigation 3, Medicine 2, Politics 1, Rituals 2, Science 3

Gnosis: 4
Rage: 2
Willpower: 4
Renown: 0 Glory, 0 Honor, 3 Wisdom
Backgrounds: Contacts 2, Kinfolk 1, Resources 2, Rituals 2
Gifts: Persuasion, Sense Wyrm, Mother’s Touch
Rites: Rite of Cleansing, Rite of Talisman Dedication

And that’s it for now. Next time: Mage: the Ascension.

Wraith: the Oblivion

Welcome back to my voyage through a rather sizeable collection of old World of Darkness books in PDF format. Our next experiment: Wraith: the Oblivion.

As you might guess by the title, this is not exactly a happy sunshine game. For one thing, when it starts, you’re dead. Yup. You’ve shuffled off this mortal coil, and ended up right in the middle of the Shadowlands. It’s not Heaven, and it’s only a little bit nicer than Hell. The Hierarchy rules with an iron fist, and melts down any soul who objects into their base components. The Renegades move against the Hierarchy, while the Heretics seek Transcendence and the hope of a better afterlife.

And that’s not even the worst part. There is something gigantic and hungry in the afterlife called Oblivion. Its agents are the Spectres, who strike at the organized bodies of the Shadowlands and try to drag everything into nonexistence. That which they can’t destroy, they corrupt.

And you’ve got one of their agents right in the back of your head. Say hello to your Shadow; it’s that little part of yourself that will be bringing up the time you got caught picking your nose in debate class until you finally give up and become a soulless component of the all-consuming hive mind.

There’s hope in Wraith, though, even if it is slim. Each character has a share of connections to their old life, represented by Passions (the emotions that describe their existence) and Fetters (the people and objects that keep them tied to their old existence). By peacefully resolving their Passions and Fetters, a wraith can achieve Transcendence, and theoretically shuffle off to a kindler, gentler afterlife. It’s no guarantee, but it’s got to be better than this.

So. Onto character creation. After tossing about a few concepts, I’ve decided upon a Iraq veteran who got blown to kingdom come by an IED. After finally slogging his way back to America via the back roads of the Shadowlands, he’s become a private man-of-arms who works to protect others’ Fetters, as well as his own.

As with most World of Darkness characters, the first step comes in Nature and Demeanor. Nature determines the core of a person’s character, while Demeanor determines the face they wear for the world. Acting explicitly in either direction restores a point of Willpower. For Demeanor, I’ll decide our man’s a Bravo, a man who uses might to determine right. Since he usually fights for others, though, that makes him a Caregiver at heart.

Now, Attributes. Same layout as most of the other games. As a soldier, Physical Attributes are prime, so I’ll put 2 dots into Strength, 3 into Dexterity, and 3 into Stamina. I’d say he was a wise soldier who was usually on his guard, so Mental comes next, with 2 dots each going into Perception and Wits, and 1 going into Intelligence. Finally comes Social Attributes; my solider may have been many things, but he was usually soft-spoken and didn’t try to stand out too much. So, 1 dot all down the line.

Next comes Abilities. Now, in the old World of Darkness, Talents, Skills, and Knowledges did not stay constant between each game (an area in which the new World of Darkness has improved markedly). But, they share enough similarities to not create a total clusterfuck. I’ll put thirteen points into Talents, 9 into Skills, and 5 into Knowledges this time. Our soldier gets 2 dots each in Alertness and Athletics, followed by 1 point in Awareness (the sensation that some supernatural hoo-doo is going down). He gets 2 in Brawl and Dodge to reflect military training, 1 each in Empathy and Streetwise, and 2 in Intimidation (to scare away tough customers). For Skills, I put 2 into Drive, 4 in Firearms (again, military training), 2 in Melee, and 1 in Repair. Finally comes Knowledges, with 1 in Bureaucracy (the military can be that way sometimes), 2 in Investigation, 1 in Occult (probably from reading horror stories), and 1 in Politics.

Now we do Backgrounds. In Wraith, a starting character gets 7 points for Backgrounds. I decide that the soldier is well remembered by his family and the men in his unit, so I give him 3 dots in Memoriam, which will allow him to regain Pathos (the expendable poweer stat) more easily. I give him 2 dots in Eidolon, which helps him to resist the conniving of his Shadow. And I give him 2 dots in Contacts, to help him find out who’s trying to attack his clients’ Fetters.

Before we do more choosing, I’ll fill in the details intrinsic to all wraiths: 5 starting Willpower and 10 Corpus levels. Corpus levels work like Health Levels in any other World of Darkness game, except they only have two settings: normal damage (ranging from everything from bullets to baseball bats to sticking your hand through a door—yes, through, you’re a ghost, after all) and aggravated damage (really nasty stuff).

Next come the Arcanoi. Arcanoi are the special powers of wraiths. As you might have noticed so far in this write-up, there’s something different about Wraith: there aren’t any true character groupings in it. There’s nothing that a character necessarily has to choose. No Clan, no Tribe, no Kith, no Tradition, etc. Sure, there are the Guilds that come up with the Arcanoi, but you don’t have to be a member of any of them to learn their particular Arcanos. And there's the three-way struggle between Hierarchy, Heretics, and Renegades, but you don't necessarily need to be one of the three. You can always just be a free agent.

Anyway. Back on topic. A character gets 5 points to spend on Arcanoi, and when he picks up an Arcanos, he also picks up one of its Basic Arts (a low-level power with some token uses). As the character’s primary goal in life is the protection of Fetters, I give him 2 dots in Lifeweb. This Arcanos allows for the manipulation of Fetters, and my character’s level in it allows him to check up on any of his Fetters, detect another wraith’s Fetters, and use his Arcanoi or Social abilities through any Fetter he chooses. I’ll likely also need some Arcanoi that affect the physical world, as wraiths usually can’t do that themselves. I choose Embody, which allows the wraith to partially manifest in the physical world, and put 2 dots into it, which allows my soldier to trace a print in dusty or fogged-up surfaces, whisper and be heard, and appear as an indistinct yet very frightening phantom. Finally, I put 1 dot in Outrage, which allows my wraith to manipulate small objects (such as light switches) in the physical world.

Now comes one of the trickier parts: Passions and Fetters. In creating Passions and Fetters, you’re basically creating a character’s entire history. So, where to begin? Well, first come the Passions. Each Passion has a declarative statement (“Protect the man I love”), an emotion (“Love”), and a rating (“4”). Whenever a wraith comes across an example of the emotion behind that Passion in the world (say, two mortal lovers sharing a first kiss), he can roll his Passion to reap Pathos off of the act of the living. Of course, the character’s primary Passion will be “Protect others and their Fetters”, which I’ll say has the guiding emotion of “Hope” and a rating of 4. As he’s something of a born warrior, I’ll throw in “Take the fight to the Spectres” with a guiding emotion of “Anger” and a rating of 3. And of course, there are the folks he left behind, so I’d say “Watch over my unit (Love) 2” and “Help my family move on (Regret) 1.”

Next come Fetters. The man’s devotion to his unit would probably make them a 4-dot Fetter. His family’s house would be a 3-dot Fetter, and his boot camp might be a 2-dot one. To throw in a little variety, I’d decide the soldier kept a blog detailing his time in Iraq, which might count as a 1-dot Fetter. Huh. Guess that wasn’t so hard.

Finally, my wraith will spend his bonus points. Like in Changeling, there’s 15 to spend. Unlike in Changeling, however, the Wraith core book offers no Merits or Flaws, so I’ll just have to boost my own abilities. Suddenly I remember: I forgot to give my soldier a weapon. I look at Backgrounds, and find that to buy an assault rifle, I’d need to put 4 dots into Relics in order to get something rather useful with moving parts. I pay the price, 1 point for each dot, and pick up the rifle. Looking over the other lists of features, I realize my ability to affect the physical world could use some work, so I buy up Outrage to the point that I can lift things (and only lift things) in the physical world, costing me another 5 points for another level. That leaves 6 bonus points, which I’ll spend on another dot of Willpower (2 points), another dot of Dodge (2 more points), and 2 dots of Haunt, so he has somewhere safe to stay (yet another 2 points).

Now comes the fun part: creating the Shadow. That’s right, you get to make your own little Mr. Hyde. I decide that my Shadow has The Abuser as its core personality: where my soldier wants to protect, his Shadow wants to destroy. After determining nature, we fill in Angst (make your own “Of course we fill in angst, it’s a World of Darkness game!” joke). To do so, we roll the soldier’s Willpower (six) against a difficulty of 6 (in other words, each dice that comes up 6 or higher counts as a success). And… we get 2 successes, giving the Shadow 2 permanent Angst. The Shadow’s goal is to accrue temporary Angst by coaxing its host into allowing it to take over. Once it reaches permanent Angst 10, the soldier becomes a Spectre, and it’s game over.

Next come Dark Passions, which are basically twisted reflections of the Shadow’s host’s desires. The Shadow starts with seven points for Dark Passions. In this case, let’s do some reversing and make it “Ruin others’ Fetters (Spite) 4”, “Aid my fellow Spectres (Loyalty) 2”, and “Tear apart the host’s family (Anger) 1.” Pretty easy.

Finally, there are ten freebie points left for the Shadow. These points can be spent on Dark Passions, Angst, or Thorns. Thorns are little abilities and tricks the Shadow can use to make life hell for its host, or to tempt him into Oblivion. As my wraith wants to be a guardian and protector, the Shadow would likely offer him more power in times of need. So, I’ll buy 3 dots worth of Shadow Traits at 2 points each, which would grant the soldier 2 more dots of Strength and 1 more dot of Stamina whenever his Shadow takes over. That leaves 4 points, which I will spend on two dots of Temporary Angst. The Shadow’s now finished; it’s kind of weak, but it offers plenty of temptation.

Well, now that it’s done, let’s put it all together:

Name: Brad Erickson
Nature: Caregiver
Demeanor: Bravo
Shadow: The Abuser
Life: Soldier
Death: Explosive Device
Regret: Not being able to protect himself while protecting others.

Physical Attributes: Strength 3, Dexterity 4, Stamina 4
Social Attributes: Charisma 2, Manipulation 2, Appearance 2
Mental Attributes: Perception 3, Intelligence 2, Wits 3

Talents: Alertness 2, Athletics 2, Awareness 1, Brawl 2, Dodge 3, Empathy 1, Intimidation 2, Streetwise 1
Skills: Drive 2, Firearms 4, Melee 2, Repair 1
Knowledges: Bureaucracy 1, Investigation 2, Occult 1, Politics 1

Willpower: 6
Corpus Levels: 10
Backgrounds: Contacts 2, Eidolon 2, Haunt 2, Memoriam 3, Relic 4
Arcanoi: Embody 2 (Basic Art: Ghostly Touch), Lifeweb 2, Outrage 2
Passions:
-Protect others and their Fetters (Hope) 4
-Take the fight to the Spectres (Anger) 3
-Watch over my unit (Love) 2
-Help my family move on (Regret) 1
Fetters:
-Military unit (4)
-Family home (3)
-Boot camp (2)
-Blog (1)

Brad’s Shadow
Permanent Angst: 2
Temporary Angst: 2
Dark Passions:
-Ruin others’ Fetters (Spite) 4
-Aid my fellow Spectres (Loyalty) 2
-Tear apart Brad’s family (Anger) 1
Thorns: Shadow Traits (2 Strength, 1 Stamina)

And that’s Wrath in a nutshell. Next time: Werewolf: the Apocalypse.