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.