# Werewolf: The Forsaken Interest Thread



## Tokiwong (Oct 12, 2006)

I want to run another world of darkness game for Werewolf: The Forsaken, not sure how much interest I will get but I am throwing this out there.


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## Tokiwong (Oct 12, 2006)

Well I want to run a Werewolf: The Forsaken game alongside my Mage game, I find those to be currently the two most interesting World of Darkness settings; with my gentle nod going to werewolf as my top favorite game.  It can be creepy, violent, and mystical all at once.

Those familiar with the older game, should know that this is NOT an update of the old game.  They bear a similar name, and even some similar mechanics and terms but the games are very different.  Suffice to say that the new game focuses not on some great worldwide struggle against an Omni-oppressive entity, but a more focused and territory  based game of maintaining the balance between the physical world and the spirit world.

Nature is not your friend, it can be, but often is not.  Werewolves are born of two worlds, they can dominate both, but are often rejected from both sides.  Too violent and otherworldly to exist in polite human society and hated by spirits for taking up the role as the stewards and hunters of spirits that dare to overstep.

Werewolves are hunters, they are loyal to their pack, without a pack most uratha, their term for werewolf, are lost and weak.  The world is dangerous for a young pack, and even more so for a young uratha.  There is no grand nation of wolves, but they do have tribes that exist in some form in every location on the globe, even those places where wolves traditionally have not roamed.

I have a few ideas for this game, actually a ton of ideas!  I can run chronicles in a foreign city, werewolves in Japan would be fun… I have both Chicago and the Rockies settings as well, and both are excellent works.

Anyway I m just gushing now, hopefully someone, somewhere is interested.


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## Shayuri (Oct 12, 2006)

Hey, I'm interested...but two caveats.

I'm in your Mage game. 

And I don't have the Werewolf book. I could probably fake it, but I can't run out and buy it like I did for Mage.

If those things aren't problems, count me in.


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## IcyCool (Oct 13, 2006)

I'm potentially interested (had a character in Werewolf:The Apocalypse that I enjoyed a great deal), but don't have the book.  I can probably borrow it long enough to make a character though.


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## Graf (Oct 13, 2006)

I’m actually also interested.

I’ve played more ‘old’ Werewolf than new but I like the new better. The animism is clearer and I’m thrilled that 1) the focus has shifted to a more local area 2) there is a lot more ambiguity about who is good and who is bad 3) deempahsis on a monolithic evil (all-evil-is-the-Wyrm, the-Wyrm-is-all-evil). 

Are you thinking of a traditional “young tribe takes (or is given) territory and learns to oversee it” or something else?

I can’t commit to post more than once a day however.


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## Tokiwong (Oct 14, 2006)

*Graf*

I am just glad to have the interest and once a day is fine, I post alot, but I post at the speed of the players...

*Icycool*

Sure I would love to have you.

*Shayuri*

I have no problwm with either caveat... I am glad you are interested.


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## Mimic (Oct 14, 2006)

I loved the old W:TA game and would definately make time for this, count me as definately interested.


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## Tokiwong (Oct 14, 2006)

Mimic said:
			
		

> I loved the old W:TA game and would definately make time for this, count me as definately interested.



 Awesome love to have you aboard!


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## Graf (Oct 14, 2006)

Cool!
I have a few character concepts I'd love to play but maybe I should hang out for a bit and see what others are interested in.

-if- people aren't as familiar with the rules/system, etc. it might be interesting to start off as 'mortals' and then roleplay some sort of "group first change". Or that could be a bit too artsy.

Is there a minimum number of players you're looking for?


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## Shalimar (Oct 17, 2006)

> -if- people aren't as familiar with the rules/system, etc. it might be interesting to start off as 'mortals' and then roleplay some sort of "group first change". Or that could be a bit too artsy.




I really like this option, though there would have to be a reason for all the characters to not be the same auspice.


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## jonathan swift (Oct 17, 2006)

If you still need anyone else I'm definately interested as I have been itching for a Werewolf game for a while now.


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## Graf (Oct 17, 2006)

Obviously it depends a lot on what Tokiwong is interested in running.

Having said that I don’t personally feel that there are any Auspices that are –must- have. If we wind up with more spiritualists and sneakers then we’ll effectively play a more detective/investigation type game. More Rahu and it’ll be more combat oriented.

One issue with a “first change” type game is that the characters can be tricky to string together unless the players work on it. I.e. making each other blood relatives, or from the same town, or something like that. Starting off a game by running 5 different preludes and then weaving them together can be a lot of work.


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## Shalimar (Oct 17, 2006)

Graf said:
			
		

> One issue with a “first change” type game is that the characters can be tricky to string together unless the players work on it. I.e. making each other blood relatives, or from the same town, or something like that. Starting off a game by running 5 different preludes and then weaving them together can be a lot of work.




I was figuring something more a long the lines of him saying, have your characters be at a certain place or whatever reason and we could start with the actual change.  Perhaps a change induced by malicious spirits in daylight so we could still have various auspices.  But yeah, it depends on what Toki wants to do.


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## Festy_Dog (Oct 17, 2006)

Tokiwong, I'm certainly interested. I'd like to see how this pans out.


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## IcyCool (Oct 17, 2006)

*sigh*  Looks like I'm out of luck on access to the book.  Just as well I suppose, I can only post on the weekdays.  Sorry about that Toki, looks like I'll have to back out.


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## Tokiwong (Oct 18, 2006)

I think a first change game would be fun, my only fear is that everyone has to be on board with the idea; it works well for tabletop, but sometimes things can fall apart in PbP because of the slower medium.


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## Shayuri (Oct 18, 2006)

I think a first change game would be fun.


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## Graf (Oct 19, 2006)

Since it seemed like we were relatively new to the setting, and a lot of people don't have the book it seemed like a reasonable way to ease into the setting.

But if it's too logisitically tricky perhaps it should be dropped.

We could also do an initial event/adventure when the first change happened and then "fast forward" a few months to "starting werewolf" power level.


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## Graf (Oct 19, 2006)

Shalimar said:
			
		

> I was figuring something more a long the lines of him saying, have your characters be at a certain place or whatever reason and we could start with the actual change.  Perhaps a change induced by malicious spirits in daylight so we could still have various auspices.  But yeah, it depends on what Toki wants to do.



This would probably work a bit better, for play by post gaming.

My understanding is that during first change you don't have much control; fiction centered around first change in the books is often "and then he woke up in the woods and couldn't remember anything but the bear was found horribly mangled".

But we could be a special case.
I really don't think the Auspices are going to be an issue, but why doesnt everyone just post what they're interested in so we have an idea about where things stand:
Preferred: Irraka (New Moon)
2nd choice: Cresent Moon, Rahu (Full Moon)
(I can play anything of course)


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## Tokiwong (Oct 19, 2006)

First Change it is.

More info to come.


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## Shalimar (Oct 19, 2006)

My concept works with whatever auspice.  Actually having us all go through the first change at once means we could most likely all play any auspice really, I personally am not sold on any one, but Cahalith is closest.


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## Shayuri (Oct 19, 2006)

The concept I'm toying with would probably lean Rahu, but there's wiggle room.


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## Festy_Dog (Oct 19, 2006)

Heh, I had actually been cooking up a Rahu concept as well. With it's popularity however I think I'll see what adjustments I can make to the concept to vary it sufficiently.


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## jonathan swift (Oct 19, 2006)

My book should be getting here soon so I'll hack something out then.


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## Shalimar (Oct 19, 2006)

Festy_Dog said:
			
		

> Heh, I had actually been cooking up a Rahu concept as well. With it's popularity however I think I'll see what adjustments I can make to the concept to vary it sufficiently.




I think Rahu are the easiest concept to work with, they are the warriors, they don't generally deal with spirits or tricky stuff, so thats why we will see a lot of people going for the them I think.  Not to say thats bad, especially when getting intoa new system less tricky is a definite bonus,  I almost want a Rahu but I figure a Cahalith is close enough and that since we are all first changing, then the auspice wont really matter too much.


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## Mimic (Oct 19, 2006)

I don't have the books unfortunately, although I would still like to play. If it is going to be a problem then I will bow out.

First change story sounds good to me.


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## Festy_Dog (Oct 19, 2006)

Shalimar said:
			
		

> I think Rahu are the easiest concept to work with, they are the warriors, they don't generally deal with spirits or tricky stuff, so thats why we will see a lot of people going for the them I think. Not to say thats bad, especially when getting intoa new system less tricky is a definite bonus, I almost want a Rahu but I figure a Cahalith is close enough and that since we are all first changing, then the auspice wont really matter too much.




Very true. 

I've given it some thought and I've got a concept in mind, but I'm unsure of what kind of limitations background-wise we have. In a nutshell my idea is an Irraka Hunter in Shadow.

Tokiwong, when you say you want to run a Forsaken game alongside your Awakened game does that mean the games will take place in/nearby the same locality? (Assuming it's even the same game world.) I ask because the fairly basic draft I've cooked up for the character places him at the current point in time in a town more or less the same as that in your Mage game.

My concept is a Russian man who left his nation of origin and moved to a pleasant little town (or what he thought was a pleasant little town) to get away from a deeply troubling past with the military. There he tries to get back to his roots, come to terms with his various experiences and find a new calling for himself. In doing so however he rouses the wolf blood in him and ends up on the path to experiencing his First Change.


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## Tokiwong (Oct 19, 2006)

The games would take place theoretically in the same "world" but probably not the same place; I am thinking of using the Rockies as the setting.  I have the sourcebook and it makes for a dynamic setting recovering from the depredations of Gurdilag, and is definitely a place for youg uratha to be to cut their teeth...

For characters create normal World of Darkness mortals with standard rules.


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## Shalimar (Oct 19, 2006)

Tokiwong said:
			
		

> The games would take place theoretically in the same "world" but probably not the same place; I am thinking of using the Rockies as the setting.  I have the sourcebook and it makes for a dynamic setting recovering from the depredations of Gurdilag, and is definitely a place for youg uratha to be to cut their teeth...
> 
> For characters create normal World of Darkness mortals with standard rules.




Can we save a few of our merit points for mentor and primal urge type stuff, or should we spend them all as mortals?


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## Tokiwong (Oct 19, 2006)

You will be reicieving some extra XP to use on Werewolf stuff


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## Shalimar (Oct 20, 2006)

ok, sounds good.


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## Graf (Oct 20, 2006)

*Lack of books*

I like the Rockies setting! I haven't read the book but I did skim the back of the write up in werewolf, and I've seen it used as as background flavor for a few games that WW employees run and I think it's both dynamic and interesting.

Regarding having or not having books. I think that it shouldn't be a huge deal from a rules standpoint (basically, making a werewolf is like):
make normal person (usual nWoD rules),
pick auspice,
skills specializations for auspice
tribe
renown
pick 3 gifts
spend merit points
you're done

But, the world is a bit detailed. There's lots of stuff that players should be at least familiar with (IMHO natch). Though if Tokiwong (or somebody else) is cool with "roleplaying" teaching that info (lots of typing) it's overcomable.


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## Tokiwong (Oct 20, 2006)

Graf said:
			
		

> I like the Rockies setting! I haven't read the book but I did skim the back of the write up in werewolf, and I've seen it used as as background flavor for a few games that WW employees run and I think it's both dynamic and interesting.
> 
> Regarding having or not having books. I think that it shouldn't be a huge deal from a rules standpoint (basically, making a werewolf is like):
> make normal person (usual nWoD rules),
> ...



 We will probably go over the teahcing scenes as well 

Max Roman likes to make his packs succeed


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## Graf (Oct 20, 2006)

*Character concept*

I'm going to be going away for few days on a trip. I will make a serious effort to get online but we're traveling with a purpose (wedding planning) and we may get either tight on time or 

To make sure I don't interrupt the flow I 'preemptively' made a character.
He's non-traditional Irraka, or maybe he should just be a cresent moon... not sure

Obviously this can all change (he's a bit weak in terms of combat skills, etc.). I'm happy to change various stats/backgrounds/etc to work better with the game needs.


Theodore "Camera" Van
Concept: Underground illustrator

Appearance
[sblock] _At first glance the black man in front of you simply looks large, then, seeing how bent his gaunt frame is you realize he must be tremendously sized. The way hisover sized and ill-matched clothing hangs from his frame, and his scraggly beard, and long dreadlocks add to his outlandish appearance. The writing tablet seems almost comically small in his immense charcoal-smeared hands._[/sblock]

At first glance the black man in front of you simply looks large, then, seeing how bent his gaunt frame is you realize he must be tremendously sized. The over-sized and ill-matched clothing hanging from his gaunt frame, scraggly beard, and long dreadlocks add to his outlandish appearance. The writing tablet he clutches seems almost comically small in his immense charcoal-smeared hands.

Background
[sblock]
Theodore Van the third grew up in a difficult neighborhood. The government built the projects his family lived in; poverty and violence was commonplace. His huge size was something of adeterrent ; he was always larger than his brothers and by the time he was 10 he would have been the height of a normal man if he ever stood up straight. But when he was that age his almost constant confinement in their mothers apartment had already given his form it's hunched appearance. The confinement was a simple fact of life, after one of his brothers wasparalyzed by a stray shot, he and his siblings almost never left save for furtive trips to school. The four walls of his shared bedroom were, for a boy of his imagination, an entire universe. Sitting alone in the room his mind carved out landscapes around him, vistas he could see whenever he closed his eyes.
People often said that nothing seemed to bother Theodore very much, he seemed was easily distracted and unconcerned with events around him; as a child prone to long periods of quiet repose, once he discovered comic books he he would frantically scribble drawings. Even as a child he was obviously gifted. He could draw anything he had seen, even just once. His mother called him "camera". But he was utterly interested in mundane subjects for sketching; he was forever driven to draw the vast and improbable landscapes and creatures that seemed to flash through his eyes. The drawings wereiriee and off-putting and few paid them mind.
He enjoyed school as well; if not so much the others there. He learned quickly to avoid others, traveling with his brothers whenever possible and avoiding conflict with others. His brothers liked this life less and complained frequently, but it seemedimminently natural to Theodore. In fact, for someone of his size he was positively gifted at avoiding detection. He slipped into class just before the bell rang and was always then second or third out the door. It was difficult not to notice the immense hunched figure as he trundled about but even his own classmates tended to presume that he was from some other year.
And so he lived and years passed. His brothers grew up, one became a drug dealer but most managed to leave. And it was only Theodore and his mother in the apartment. Theodore went tocommunity college instead of high school. It was better there, classes were more interesting. He made a little bit of money traveling to the better parts of the city to sketch tourists on the weekends. He had less trouble in his neighborhood as well; his brother's reputation for for violence was well established, and everyone knew that Camera didn't have enough money to make it worth while.
A few years back though people noticed a small change: Camera still moved like always, usually hunched over and near a wall, but he was moving more quickly. Like he had some place to go; he stopped going to school, except for thelibrary where he was hunched over computers forever reading forums and newsgroups devoted to the weird, to the impossible; he stopped drawing tourists. He had no money and ate infrequently. His visions got stronger, louder, more intricate and more consistent. His trips, alwaysfurtive routes through and between buildings became intricate, baroque, incomprehensible. He was sighted on rooftops, in condemned buildings, staring into open manholes, lying under abandoned cars. Camera had become convinced that he wasn't imagining things. He was seeing them. All he needed was to find a doorway.
One day he came home and told his mother that he though that it was all true, that "they" were hiding the truth. The world wasn't really the world, that it was some kind of "taffy" covering another world. "I'm looking for a door through the taffy," he explained in a matter of fact voice.

His mother sighed, picked up the phone and called his older brother to tell him, in a matter of fact voice, that Camera had finally lost it.
[/sblock]

How does he wind up in Colorado?
Option 1
[sblock]The projects are condemned by the government. Camera moves out to Colorado to live with relatives (or his brother's family)[/sblock]

Option 2
[sblock]The brother's wife has family in Colorado; including a sister who is a nurse practioner. They manage to get Camera to moved to Colorado where he is staying at a (lightly guarded) care facility for the mentally insane.[/sblock]

Option 3
[sblock]The family was in Denver all along. His mother lives in a nearby housing project, one of his brothers is a drug dealer there, the others have found work outside.(probably need to spend merits a bit differently if this is the case[/sblock]

Game Stats
[sblock]
Attributes
Mental: *Intelligence* ** *Wits* *** *Resolve* ***
Physical: *Strength* * *Dexterity* *** *Stamina* ***
Socail: *Presence* * *Manipulation* ** *Composure* ***

Skills
Mental: Academics *** (Research), Computers *, Investigation ***, Occult *** (conspiracies and cults) (1 unspent)
Physical: Larceny *, Stealth ***
Social: Expression (Drawing) ****,  Streetwise **, Subterfuge*

Merits: Edictic Memory (**), Giant (****), Contacts (* - Internet Conspiracy Hunters)

Derived Traits: Defense 3, Health 9, Initiative 6, Willpower 6
[/sblock]


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## Shalimar (Oct 20, 2006)

My concept is a highschool student who starts of focused on school stuff, sort of like Claire from Heros.  Popular, attractive, and completely in denial about anything that would change it.  Faith is currently in a wiccan phase, the lastest thing to ignore her parents's marital troubles.  Her father is a regional bank executive and her mother runs a tech consulting firm, neither of which leave them with much time to actually be around Faith, instead they just pitch a hefty allowance at her and expect good grades and no problems.  So long as she delivers good grades, Faith is allowed to do what she wants without much question.

Faith works best as a Cahalith but she can probably fit in other auspices.  I'd also probably go for a Stormlord if we get to choose a tribe since they are the most social, but that will probably change during play.  I'll have Faith be living in whatever town it is that you want to set the game in, she is fairly portable, and her parents would most likely have along commute regardless of where the game was set since that fits into her not getting to spend much time with them.

Appearance:
Faith is a pretty girl, actually she is rather stunning and could be a model if she wanted to be.  The teen is average height for a girl her age standing 5 foot 4, with a thin but still healthy looking build.  Faith normally has reddish/gold hair, but its currently dyed pink and long enough to almost brush her shoulders.  Faith mostly wears highe-end fashionable clothes.  

Stats
[sblock]
Attributes
Mental: 
Intelligence **, Wits ***,  Resolve **

Physical: 
Strength *,  Dexterity ***,  Stamina **

Social:
Presence ***,  Manipulation ***,  Composure **

Skills
Mental:
Academics *, Computers *, Medicine *, Occult *

Physical:
Athletics *** (Acrobatics), Brawl **,  Stealth *, Survival *

Social:
Empathy **, Expression **, Persuasion **, Socialize ***, Subterfuge **

Merits: Striking Looks **, Resources *,  Barfly, Natural Immunity

Derived Traits: Defense 3, Health 7, Initiative 5, Willpower 4
[/sblock]


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## Festy_Dog (Oct 20, 2006)

Tokiwong, question related to character creation: Do all guns which fall under a specific category possess the same magazine capacity? ie. Do all light autoloaders carry 17+1, all heavy autoloaders carry 7+1, etc. etc.?


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## Festy_Dog (Oct 24, 2006)

*bump*

My character will be finished very shortly, just polishing a short piece for his background.


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## Festy_Dog (Oct 24, 2006)

*Oops*

*double post*


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## Festy_Dog (Oct 24, 2006)

*Piotr Chernekov*

[sblock=Description]
Piotr is not a big man, but is fairly muscular. He looks older than he actually is, but is reasonably attractive nonetheless. His eyes are dull hazel but his hair is quite unique, being an even blend of black and brown. Not to say that his hair is dark brown, but that there is an even mix of black hair and brown hair on his head. It's the feature he's most proud of. To make things more interesting his fringe turned grey due to stressful events from his past. It usually earns him a fair bit of attention from customers. He usually keeps his hair shoulder length and tied back. He is most often clean shaven, but it's surprising how quick he can grow a small beard when he takes a weekend off to go hiking. 

Piotr's also characterised by his thick Russian accent, and is renowned among those who know him as being very blunt (almost to the point of being rude) but also exceptionally generous. He isn't the smartest man in town, and he knows it. It's something he doesn't mind joking or being the butt of jokes about. He always carries an orienteering compass with him. It is a good luck charm of sorts, a gift from his long-time friend Anatol when they both successfully got into Spetsnaz.[/sblock]

[sblock=History]
Piotr's childhood lacked much in the way of material wealth, but it wasn't something he placed much value in anyway. He grew up on a farm in some of the colder farming regions of Russia. His parents were never terribly successful, but the community they were a part of was quite tight-nit, and everyone supported each other where they could. Piotr learned a number of good values during those times. While young he felt a calling to spend time in the outdoors on a regular basis. He was quick to anger as a child, and remained so throughout his life, but nature always had a calming effect on him.

Piotr joined the army at the age of eighteen, back in 1990, with dreams of eventually getting into Spetsnaz. Things hadn't been easy since the collapse of the USSR and the military seemed like stable enough employment to see him through the rough economic patch. He performed well, showing promise as a sharpshooter and scout, and was made a designated marksman of his unit. In regards to sharpshooting he cut his teeth on the Dragunov SVD, and continued to depend on it for the majority of his military career. While not a sniper rifle in the truest sense of the term he accumulated much experience with it.

During the invasion of Chechnya his unit did not see much fighting, taking more of a rear-guard role in most instances. They did see action on occasion but it was not terribly often. It was around this time, August 1995, that he had the experience which has haunted him until the present day. There had been a shift forward of the troops they were rearguard for, and they were required to find a place closer to the front to occupy.

There was a village roughly where they were wanted to be, so they decided to occupy an empty mansion outside of the village as it would provide more comfort than they were used to. The locals didn't give much information as to why the mansion was deserted, but generally made it clear it wasn't a good place to stay and that the troops weren't welcome. This wasn't a big difference from the receptions they'd received thus far from any densely populated area.

During the first night they spent there though everyone had strange dreams, and by morning someone was missing, presumed to have deserted during the night. Morale was generally low during the Chechnyan war, so a deserter wouldn't have been a surprise. Piotr and few other skilled trackers though couldn't find any sign of the passage of the missing soldier in the wilderness area surrounding the house. The officers questioned locals who gave mixed feedback, likely wanting to confuse the occupying troops.

The following night another two soldiers went missing, and the dreams got worse, most described having nightmares. The scouts and officers did their rounds again but came back empty handed. The officers were confused from their questioning of the locals, and had started arguing about the mansion. It was decided that round the clock sentries would be posted, and they'd change to a different location the next day.

That night Piotr and his friend Anatol were on sentry duty with a number of others, both were respected scouts. The night was uneventful, but the next morning they discovered three people had gone missing during the night. Seeing as there was no activity outside of the house during the night a thorough search of the house was held. Blood was found dripping from the ceiling of one of the bedrooms in the guest wing, so five soldiers volunteered to go investigate. Piotre and Anatol were amongst the five.

Even though it was daylight hours the attic was pitch black. Power to the house had been cut some time ago, and there were no windows in the attic. At that time Piotr's sidearm was a Makarov, so with that in one hand and a flashlight in the other he ascended into the attic through the hallway entrance with the four others close behind. Once he was up there the scent of fresh blood was almost overpowering, and some of the shadows created by his torch were quite odd. One man barely had his head through the attic stairwell when he vomited from the smell. Once everyone was in the attic they proceeded towards the section of the ceiling where the blood was leaking through. The attic was cluttered with stuff roughly dating back to the start of the century.

When they found where the blood was coming from Piotr's torch fell upon a pile of dismembered corpses. An axe had been lodged in a torso lying on top of the pile. His stomach twisted itself into a knot, and he would have vomited had he had breakfast earlier. Anatol had turned pale, and was muttering beside him. The man who had vomited before, and someone else, vomited behind him.  There was a thump, and three torches fixated their beams on a head rolling out from behind an old cupboard. A shadow somewhere near it moved and Anatol snapped. He emptied the entire magazine from his AN-94 into the furniture littering the area around the head. The image which burned itself into Piotre's mind was when he thought he saw something lit up by the light of Anatol's muzzle flash, just for a split second. He can't recall the details very well, but he remembers recoiling, completely horrified, and fired a couple of shots himself.

At the sound of automatic gunfire half of the entire unit came pouring into the attic. The situation was resolved, of sorts, and they recovered the bodies to send them back to Russia for burial. That same day, the officers and a sizable escort seized all the petrol they could from the village and used it to burn down the mansion. After the invasion of Chechnya, Anatol and Piotr successfully qualified for and transferred into Spetsnaz in an attempt to get the incident behind them.

Out of the five men who went into the attic, only two remain alive now. One was killed in action in early 1996 when the unit was cycled out of rear-guard and put into combat operations near the capital of Chechnya, another was killed in the incursion into Dagestan in 1999, and Piotr's friend and fellow scout Anatol was killed in a Spetsnaz training accident in 1998. The mansion incident in itself was terrifying enough, but Piotr started getting flashbacks and nightmares which continued even after the end of the war. He could hardly get a full night's sleep. It took about a year of this for Piotr's hair to start going grey. Regardless of this he remained an excellant, if somewhat troubled, soldier.

The last major military operation Piotr was involved in before leaving the armed forces was the occupation of Pristina airport in June, 1999. Once Russian involvement with the Kosovo situation had ceased though he left the military and moved to the US, settling in the Rockies. His intent was to leave the horrors he had seen back in Russia, and allow himself a fresh start. Hopefully a change of scenery would lessen or completely rid him of what haunted him still. He took a little bit of time to determine what to do with himself. He was eventually trying to determine whether he should join a private military company or maybe just open a guns and outdoor supplies store. With the money he had been putting away during his military career he decided to try his hand at running a business. Much to his surprise he was actually successful. There was a fairly high demand for firearms and camping supplies, and those customers who got to know Piotr beyond his gruff attitude always received generous discounts on things they needed.

Piotr started hiking again, something he hadn't really done since he was a teenager. It felt good to be out enjoying nature for its own sake again, although there was a strange yearning in him to stalk prey like he used to do back in the military. The change of setting worked like he hoped it would though and the nightmares stopped troubling him, but all wasn't as well as he'd hope. He would hike further and further, taking interest in the places people hadn't been for quite some time, but after some time of wandering the paths less travelled something really started gnawing at him. He was getting a feeling, a bad one. While he was in the military he had developed a sense for when someone had the drop on him, a danger sense of sorts, and sometimes while deep in the wilderness this sense would go off like an alarm. He thought he was having panic attacks until he actually realised something (or things) was stalking him.

He bought himself some firepower. As he made a business of selling guns it wasn't terribly hard. Piotr got a hunting permit (although he never actually hunted, he liked animals too much) and a gun license and made a point of working the rust off the skills he picked up back in the military. He's not quite as good as he used to be just yet, but his equipment is quality and he practises hard at the local firing range. He even took up handloading so that he didn't have to spend much on ammunition.[/sblock]

[sblock=Stats]Name: Piotr Chernekov
Age: 34
Virtue/Vice: Charity/Wrath

*Attributes*

Mental: Intelligence o , Wits ooo , Resolve ooo
Physical: Strength ooo , Dexterity ooo , Stamina oo
Social: Presense oo , Manipulation o , Composure ooo

*Skills*

Mental: Crafts (firearms) oo , Occult o , Science o
Physical: Athletics o , Brawl ooo , Firearms (sniping) ooo , Stealth oo , Survival oo
Social: Animal Ken (wolves) oo , Streetwise oo

*Merits*

Danger Sense oo , Language (English) o , Fast Reflexes o , Resources (gun & camping supplies store) ooo

*Advantages*

Defense: 3
Health: 0000000
Initiative: 7
Morality: 7
Speed: 11
Willpower: 000000

*Equipment*

Saco TRG42, w/ scope
Para-Ordnance PRX745B, w/ suppressor (ooo) & LAM
thin kevlar vest
brass knuckles
flashlight
gunsmithing kit
survival gear (ooo)[/sblock]


----------



## Tokiwong (Oct 25, 2006)

Not sure on the gun question I will check, and I will probably get the prelude thread thread started shortly.


----------



## Graf (Oct 25, 2006)

Back and keen to play!

I like how the group is coming together… I think we’re likely to be a profoundly quirky bunch to start off with.

Once question about *Piotre*…
How did he get into the States? All things being equal it’s almost impossible to get a green card right now; and if you haven’t got a green card you need to be working to have a visa (no switching employers and if you lose your job you’re supposed to leave the country).

Since the character concept is cool, and the game is not Immigration: The Hassle, it would be best to handwave it somehow. Two (random) suggestions: 
1. *Piotre* has some sort of weird grandfather (friend of Max’s?) with a lot of clout and a strange obsession with getting distant relatives from the “old country” into Colorado.
2. *Piotre* won the “green card lottery” (the US government apparently runs a lottery each year that allows people to “win” a green card). I knew someone from Slovakia once who’d done this; there are no real requirements, you just apply at the US embassy.

Actually that does raise an interesting question: what time period are we playing? I assume it’s “early in the 2000s” or “right now” but I figured I’d check.


----------



## Festy_Dog (Oct 25, 2006)

Hmm, the thought never even crossed my mind. Not exactly the first thing I think of when creating a character.

I guess a relative would be the easiest piece of reasoning to use. The odds seem too stacked against him for the lottery thing.


----------



## Shayuri (Oct 25, 2006)

Hmm...thinking of a rookie police officer concept here. Would that work? Maybe private security, or something... Hmm...

I shall try to get something more concrete up tonight.


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## Shalimar (Oct 25, 2006)

Shayuri said:
			
		

> Hmm...thinking of a rookie police officer concept here. Would that work? Maybe private security, or something... Hmm...
> 
> I shall try to get something more concrete up tonight.




Sounds cool to me, so far the pack is shaping up to be old guys and a teen it sounds like your concept might bridge that age divide a bit.


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## Shayuri (Oct 25, 2006)

Yep! Fresh outta college and the Academy at age 23 is what I'm lookin' at right now.


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## Shalimar (Oct 26, 2006)

Mimic said:
			
		

> I don't have the books unfortunately, although I would still like to play. If it is going to be a problem then I will bow out.
> 
> First change story sounds good to me.




I'll give whatever help I can if you want to play


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## Graf (Oct 26, 2006)

Festy_Dog said:
			
		

> Hmm, the thought never even crossed my mind. Not exactly the first thing I think of when creating a character.
> 
> I guess a relative would be the easiest piece of reasoning to use. The odds seem too stacked against him for the lottery thing.



Yeah. It's the opposite of "interesting story material".
Grappling with the authorities and struggling to get a visa has figured promintly in the life of litterally everyone I know who tried to immigrate to the states (at least in the last 10 years or so); so I thought I'd mention it.



			
				Shalimar said:
			
		

> Sounds cool to me, so far the pack is shaping up to be old guys and a teen it sounds like your concept might bridge that age divide a bit.



For the record I see Camera as being in his mid-to-early 20s. He was in college but never graduated.

I should also mention that, while I am fairly attached to my character concept, I can be flexible if Toki (or others) think we need to be a more cohesive bunch of characters.
I posted mostly because I was worried that if I lost internet connectivity I'd hold up the game (and the character came together surprisingly quickly, which helped).


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## DrZombie (Oct 26, 2006)

Any room? Unlike Mage I do have the Werewolf book. Lemme look this weekend and see what I can come up with.


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## Shayuri (Oct 28, 2006)

Grumble grumble. Sorry for delay. Here's the raw crunchability for my Rahu-ish were-to-be. A nice Jewish-Italian gal with a yen for avenging wrongs who graduates college with a degree in criminal justice and joins the city police force against the wishes of her rich businessman father. She's still a rookie at game start, since I dunno how easy it'll be to mix a mudnane career with "turning occasionally into a huge ravenous monster." 

[sblock]Name: Ariella "Ari" Rosetti
Virtue: Justice
Vice: Wrath
Gender: Female
Age: 23
Exp: 0

Defense 3
Health 7
Initiative 5
Morality 7
Size 5
Willpower 4
Speed: 11

Attributes: 5/4/3
Strength ***
Dexterity ***
Stamina **

Intelligence **
Wits ***
Resolve **

Presence **
Manipulation **
Composure **

Skills: 11/7/4
Athletics ***
Brawl ***
Drive *
Firearms **
Stealth *
Survival *

Empathy *
Expression **
Intimidation **
Streetwise **

Computer *
Investigation ***

Merits: 
Striking Looks **
Danger Sense **
Resources **
Status: City Police *

-----
[/sblock]


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## Tokiwong (Oct 28, 2006)

There is plenty of room, i have just been MIA, but I have some free time tonight and tomorrow to go over things.


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## Shalimar (Oct 29, 2006)

Shayuri said:
			
		

> A nice Jewish-Italian gal with a yen for avenging wrongs who graduates college with a degree in criminal justice and joins the city police force against the wishes of her rich businessman father. She's still a rookie at game start, since I dunno how easy it'll be to mix a mudnane career with "turning occasionally into a huge ravenous monster."




Maybe she can take a confused highschool student under her wing.


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## DrZombie (Oct 29, 2006)

[sblock= background, feel free to look]

Drake O'Connor is from Irish descent. His mother tried to take care of him and his four siblings. He never knew his father, and it is not a matter that is discussed in the family. He helped in granddad's pub, working in the kitchen, helping at the bar, cleaning glasses. His education was in the hands of a lot of 'uncles', travelling singers that played at the bar for a few nights, then travelled on, making the circuit. He learned to play guitar, to sing, how to set-up sound equipment, how to drink, smoke, fight, steal and flirt with women. Only thanks to his mother did he still go to school, and surprisingly didn't do all that bad, taking everything into account.

One night his world turned upside down. When he was out watching a concert, the pub was robbed, and something went wrong. The police never told him what exactly happened, but the place turned from armed robbery to a massacre. His grandfather, mother, two brothers and sister got butchered. He nevr saw their faces again, they had to be buried in closed caskets. They used a blood sample and dental records for identification.
The pub got sold to pay of the debts.
While rummaging through the stuff of his mother, he found some things presumably belonging to his father : a big knife,a guitar, and a picture from a mountaintop, showing his mother in her early twenties and a fierce looking, unknown man.

For the last years Drake has been roaming the states, making his way from town to town, singing and playing the guitar, or working, in bars, as a seasonal worker, moving around, looking for a mountaintop and a fierce looking man. His music is strange, haunting, full of sorrow and loss. He keeps writing more and more songs, some of them in what he thinks is old gaellic, a language taught by one of the weirder uncles. He is restless, and sleeps as little as possible, for his dreams frighten him, and he fears that he is slowly going mad.

Drake is tall and fairly handsome, with long blond hair tied in a ponytail, and thick bushy sideburns. The year on the road has made him thin, and there is an uncomfortable wildness in his eyes. He walks around in well-worn jeans and stout hiking boots, with his guitar in a reinforced case and his knife in a holster between his shoulder blades, tucked away onder his jacket but still easy to reach. He has a small bag with a change of clothes.

I'm looking for a more martial Cahalith, not sure about the tribe, probably the same as the one his mentor or whatever will be.

[/sblock]


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## DrZombie (Oct 29, 2006)

[sblock=charsheet]
Name :  Drake O' Connor
Tribe : Storm Lords
Auspice : Cahalith

Int ***
Wits ***
Resolve **
Str **
Dex ***
Stamina **
Presence **
Manipulation**
Composure **

Computer *
Crafts *
Occult **

Athletics *
Brawl *
Firearms *
Larceny *
Stealth*
Survival *
Weaponry ** Spec sword


Empathy *
Expression **** Spec Guitar, Spec Singing, Spec Howling
Intimidation ***
Persuasion *
Socialise **
Streetwise **
Subterfuge*

Virtue : Fortitude
Vice : Pride

Merits : 
Language (primal tongue) 1
Barfly 1
Fame 1
Resources 2
Klaive 4
Totem 1

Primal urge 1
Essence 10/1
Social penalty -1

Renown : 
Glory 2
Honour 1


Gifts :
Dominance 1:
Warning Growl : Presence + Intimid + Glory (7) Vs Comp + Primal Urge.

Gibbous Moon 2:
Pack Awareness : Wits + Emp + Wisdom (4)
Resist Pain : Stamina + Survival + Honour (4)

Background:

Drake O'Connor is from Irish descent. His mother tried to take care of him and his four siblings. He never knew his father, and it is not a matter that is discussed in the family. He helped in granddad's pub, working in the kitchen, helping at the bar, cleaning glasses. His education was in the hands of a lot of 'uncles', travelling singers that played at the bar for a few nights, then travelled on, making the circuit. He learned to play guitar, to sing, how to set-up sound equipment, how to drink, smoke, fight, steal and flirt with women. Only thanks to his mother did he still go to school, and surprisingly didn't do all that bad, taking everything into account.

One night his world turned upside down. When he was out watching a concert, the pub was robbed, and something went wrong. The police never told him what exactly happened, but the place turned from armed robbery to a massacre. His grandfather, mother, two brothers and sister got butchered. He nevr saw their faces again, they had to be buried in closed caskets. They used a blood sample and dental records for identification.
The pub got sold to pay of the debts.
While rummaging through the stuff of his mother, he found some things presumably belonging to his father : a big knife,a guitar, and a picture from a mountaintop, showing his mother in her early twenties and a fierce looking, unknown man.

For the last years Drake has been roaming the states, making his way from town to town, singing and playing the guitar, or working, in bars, as a seasonal worker, moving around, looking for a mountaintop and a fierce looking man. His music is strange, haunting, full of sorrow and loss. He keeps writing more and more songs, some of them in what he thinks is old gaellic, a language taught by one of the weirder uncles. He is restless, and sleeps as little as possible, for his dreams frighten him, and he fears that he is slowly going mad.

Drake is tall and fairly handsome, with long blond hair tied in a ponytail, and thick bushy sideburns. The year on the road has made him thin, and there is an uncomfortable wildness in his eyes. He walks around in well-worn jeans and stout hiking boots, with his guitar in a reinforced case and his knife in a holster between his shoulder blades, tucked away onder his jacket but still easy to reach. He has a small bag with a change of clothes.


[/sblock]


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## DrZombie (Oct 29, 2006)

TW, you should have plenty to both scr*w me over and give me goodies from my background. Any comments?

Other, according to the system performing is int + expression. Now I think it should be presence + expression, since i know a few very good performers who are 'mental midgets with the IQ of a fencepost' to quote tom waits. What is your feeling about that?


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## Graf (Oct 30, 2006)

Shayuri said:
			
		

> She's still a rookie at game start, since I dunno how easy it'll be to mix a mudnane career with "turning occasionally into a huge ravenous monster."




Maybe decently, maybe really really badly.
I think it's a good concept; it fits in well with a lot of the typical werewolf personality traits (protective, territorial, authoritarian). In some ways Werewolves are the "cops of the spirit world" (or at least the Border Marches).

I'm hardly an expert but most routine police work is not usually all that stressful; but if you want to try to keep the character on the force you want to invest some more points in stats that are going to help you resist going all furry if somebody gives you lip on the street. I don't have the books in front of me but Resolve and Composure ** each may put you in a tight spot.
(What is the roll to resist going Death Rage on something that pisses you off? Can't remember).


----------



## Festy_Dog (Oct 30, 2006)

DrZombie, if I remember correctly there's been some errata and additional languages only cost 1 dot. Probably best to check that at their website but I'm hoping I'm correct, that way you get more merits to spend (and I don't have to redo mine   ).


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## DrZombie (Oct 31, 2006)

You're right, FD. Huray for americans-speaking-only-one-language-and-europeans-protesting-so-now-the-merit-going-from-3-to-1-point-making-evryone-happy.


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## Tokiwong (Nov 2, 2006)

LOL I am going to get things started by the end of the week with some preludes.


----------



## Graf (Nov 3, 2006)

Yay!
Is there anything we can do to help Tokiwong?


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## Graf (Nov 10, 2006)

:bump:


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## Tokiwong (Nov 18, 2006)

I am back from my self-imposed exile.

I was on vacation till just a few days ago.


----------



## Graf (Nov 18, 2006)

Welcome back! Have a good vacation? 

You have any thoughts on continuing this project?
(Running multiple games is a lot of work but I'm still keen to play if you're interested in running.)


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## Tokiwong (Nov 18, 2006)

I want to run this, and will start preludes this weekend.


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## DrZombie (Nov 18, 2006)

cool, I'm still up for it


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## Shayuri (Nov 18, 2006)

I'm posting "me too!"


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## Graf (Nov 19, 2006)

Let us know if there's anything we can do to pitch in, or if characters, etc. need to be tweeked (or just changed) to help the flow of the game and/or get the group together.


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## Festy_Dog (Nov 19, 2006)

Looking forward to it.


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## Tokiwong (Nov 19, 2006)

Game thread now live http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?p=3182907#post3182907


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## DrZombie (Nov 20, 2006)

Tokiwong, Just to make things clear : singing and playing guitar is int+perf?


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## Shalimar (Nov 20, 2006)

I thought it was charisma + expression?  I know that the ability score involved changes based on what you are doing, ie writing a factual essay is Int+ Expression while writing poetry is Wits + Expression.


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## DrZombie (Nov 20, 2006)

's what I thought, untill i looked up the rules. They don't make any sense, but as long as we'reclear what we're using that's fine with me, I've worked with some weird rules before.


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## Graf (Nov 20, 2006)

I was surprised when I looked up the rules for drawning as well. I think it was supposed to be Craft or something. I'm using expression unless some one has a fit about it.
I just don't see Camera as being able to stripdown and rebuild a car or a log cabin and that's what a high craft seems to be for.


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## Tokiwong (Dec 5, 2006)

we won't be using the actual rules rules till the next session, this is typical Prelude rules with the focus on the characters and their changes and their new lives...


----------



## DrZombie (Dec 5, 2006)

For a while I thought this game had gone belly-up, but I'm very happy to be proven wrong. Very nice gaming.


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## Tokiwong (Dec 20, 2006)

You guys can start applying your templates, I figure the next chapter will pick up probably right after the Rite of Passage 

The next chapter will probably pick up about four weeks later... but this chapter, the Preludes is not quite over yet


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## Shalimar (Dec 20, 2006)

will it be assumed that we pass the right of initiation in our tribe of choice then?


----------



## Tokiwong (Dec 20, 2006)

Shalimar said:
			
		

> will it be assumed that we pass the right of initiation in our tribe of choice then?



 yeah you can assume that


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## Shalimar (Dec 20, 2006)

Subject to in-character developments, it looks like Faith will go Storm Lord though Iron Master is a possibility.


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## DrZombie (Dec 20, 2006)

I'll be on holiday 'tween x-mass and new year, won't be able to post for a week.


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## Graf (Dec 20, 2006)

Tokiwong said:
			
		

> but this chapter, the Preludes is not quite over yet



I hope not. I haven't actually managed to do much.
My own fault for playing an artist-type I suppose.


----------



## Tokiwong (Dec 20, 2006)

I would say that Camera had a more subdued chapter, but I think he did plenty


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## DrZombie (Dec 21, 2006)

I think I'll go for blood talon Cahalith. Drake turned out to be a little more violent then anticipated.


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## Graf (Dec 21, 2006)

Tokiwong said:
			
		

> I would say that Camera had a more subdued chapter, but I think he did plenty



Cool.
I'm going to be traveling for the long weekend. Odds are very high that six hours or so from now I won't be able to post again until Monday night.

Probably should have mentioned that sooner.


----------



## Tokiwong (Dec 25, 2006)

Merry Xmas and stuff...


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## Shalimar (Dec 25, 2006)

Merry X-mas Toki and everyone, or if you would prefer happy holidays.  May good  things happen to you and your family as things wind to a close.


----------



## DrZombie (Dec 25, 2006)

Same here. Merry-insertmidwinterendyearfeasthere y'all


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## Tokiwong (Dec 27, 2006)

It looks to me that the pack will probably end up taking up the territory where Camera's family and Faith's family resides  with is closest to Isaac's pack, which really needs a name lol 

woohoo Suburbanite wolves... but of course this is open for discussion


----------



## Shalimar (Dec 27, 2006)

I'm all for them being a suburban pack, it would make things easier for Faith at least, she will probably try to get through school before she leaves her home and starts being a Werewolf full time, and that means sticking with her parents.

Toki are there any woods relatively close to Faith's and Camera's Neighborhood?


----------



## Tokiwong (Dec 27, 2006)

Shalimar said:
			
		

> I'm all for them being a suburban pack, it would make things easier for Faith at least, she will probably try to get through school before she leaves her home and starts being a Werewolf full time, and that means sticking with her parents.
> 
> Toki are there any woods relatively close to Faith's and Camera's Neighborhood?



 yeah there are woods


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## Graf (Dec 29, 2006)

Apologies for my (second) sudden disappearance. The taiwan quake did bad things to my internet.

I'm for a suburban pack thing. I know very little about the 'burbs so I'll probably be assuming everything is some combination of Desperate Housewives and American Beauty unless I hear otherwise.

I think that since we have a bone shadow Camera may go Iron Masters.... but his father is a Bone Shadow... no?


----------



## DrZombie (Dec 29, 2006)

suburban is cool, anywhere drake can open an irish pub or sumptin


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## Tokiwong (Dec 29, 2006)

Graf said:
			
		

> Apologies for my (second) sudden disappearance. The taiwan quake did bad things to my internet.
> 
> I'm for a suburban pack thing. I know very little about the 'burbs so I'll probably be assuming everything is some combination of Desperate Housewives and American Beauty unless I hear otherwise.
> 
> I think that since we have a bone shadow Camera may go Iron Masters.... but his father is a Bone Shadow... no?



 His father is a Bone Shadow yes, but that does not always determine tribe, Camera or the gods decide that


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## DrZombie (Dec 30, 2006)

Say guys 'n girls, what tribe-auspice combo do we have going?
I'm going for blood talon cahalith, but might still go for iron lord cahalith or something else really, still got a few options open. WOuld be nice if we had a golden pack or whatchamacallit.

Second, I'm not really sure how we're going to go from here. I see drake opening a pub (or, you know, have an adventure with the pack and cleanse and use an old theatre or whatever, something the GM can twist and turn into a plot or subplot or whatever), and use that as a sort of headquarters for the pack.


Third, TW, didn't you say something about getting additional freebees when we applied our templates


----------



## Tokiwong (Dec 30, 2006)

Yeah I would probably give you guys a few extra xp points on top of the template for the Prelude 

And yes this is a good time to start discussing tribe and auspice


----------



## Shalimar (Dec 30, 2006)

Ariella looks to be a Rahu Bone Shadow

Faith is a Cahalith, though I'm not sure on her tribe, Stormlord or Iron Master though her only offer was from the Blood Talons

Drake from what you said is a Cahalith Blood Talon

Camera may or may not go Bone Shadow, and we don't know his auspice

Piotr maybe a Rahu or not, not really sure on tribe, but the Blood Talons do like soldiers though hunters in darkness could be good as well.


----------



## Tokiwong (Dec 30, 2006)

LOL I actually see Faith more of a Elodoth now, since she is trying to keep balance and peace... Cahalith are glory hounds and lead the uratha into battle with their warcries and songs of greatness.

But she could do Cahalith too


----------



## Shalimar (Dec 30, 2006)

I think she is sort of in the middle of both of them, and I think she can pull off the role of the Elodoth, but she isn't really the balanced perspective judge that the Elodoth are, she is too impulsive for that sort of thing, and fixing things is beyond her.  I mainly focused on the expression part of the Cahalith when I was making her, that is what really fits her, she is majorly into expression, persuasion,  and socialization.


----------



## Tokiwong (Dec 30, 2006)

Shalimar said:
			
		

> I think she is sort of in the middle of both of them, and I think she can pull off the role of the Elodoth, but she isn't really the balanced perspective judge that the Elodoth are, she is too impulsive for that sort of thing, and fixing things is beyond her.  I mainly focused on the expression part of the Cahalith when I was making her, that is what really fits her, she is majorly into expression, persuasion,  and socialization.



 Well go with what you like, just my observations, her youth will make her impulsive no matter what auspice she was.


----------



## Shalimar (Dec 30, 2006)

What tribe would you guys suggest for Faith?  She is a little frightened of the Blood Talons, and a strength 1 Blood Talon might not really work out too well, but Candace did invite her personally...  What does everyone think for her tribe?


----------



## Shalimar (Dec 30, 2006)

Ok, I think I have the template and everything added on correctly, though I did do a bit of flip-flopping on things before I was happy with them.

Faith is going to be an Elodoth Blood Talon, and I suppouse that will probably sound odd considering her stats, I think having her toughen up can be a nice plot hook.  She is already pretty athletic and capable of at least some self-defense.  Her focus will really be on keeping the pack together and harmonious, she is way more sociable then the average Blood Talon, but she sort of has a strength through Unity ideal going on, which I think would work for a Blood Talon.  Besides, she gets to annoy Candace as a tribemate, and that will be hilarious, at least til Candace kicks her butt.


*STATS*
*Auspice:* Elodoth  *Tribe:* Blood Talon
Attributes
Mental:  Intelligence **, Wits ***, Resolve **
Physical:  Strength *, Dexterity ***, Stamina **
Social:  Presence ***, Manipulation ***, Composure **

Skills
Mental:  Computers *, Crafts *, Occult **
Physical:  Athletics *** (Acrobatics), Brawl **, Stealth *, Survival *
Social:  Empathy **, Expression **, Intimidation *, Persuasion **, Socialize ***, Subterfuge *

Specialties: Athletics (Acrobatics), Empathy (Emotions, Motives), Persuasion (Males)

Primal Urge: 2 (3 merit points spent)

Merits: Striking Looks ** (4pts), Resources *, Barfly, Natural Immunity
Gifts: Inspiration *(The Right Words), Insight *(Scent Beneath the Surface), Rituals * (Rite of the Spirit Brand)
Renown: Glory 2, Honor 1
Derived Traits: Defense 3, Health 7, Initiative 5, Willpower 4


----------



## Tokiwong (Dec 30, 2006)

http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?p=3252132#post3252132

That is the Character Thread, please put your character there with the Template added and 3 XP, also if you are banking Merit Points for a Totem note that there.  This will be put towards the totem of the pack, if you guys decide to have one 

Which I recommend.

Edit: Also list each gift by the name of the gift i.e. *Traveler's Blessing* and not Knowledge **

Edit - Edit: Each character gains 3 Merit Points as well.


----------



## Shalimar (Dec 31, 2006)

Faith is up if anyone wants to copy and paste her sheet for the formatting, getting all the alternate form stat modifiers was a pain.  Hopefully appealing to Drake's better nature works because Faith's next step is to pull a play out of Candace's book and Drake could most likely beat her to a pulp.


----------



## Shayuri (Dec 31, 2006)

Not while Ari's watching. 

Hmm...I seem to have lost my Werewolf links...anyone know of good sources of online info about werewolf templates?


----------



## Tokiwong (Dec 31, 2006)

Shayuri said:
			
		

> Not while Ari's watching.
> 
> Hmm...I seem to have lost my Werewolf links...anyone know of good sources of online info about werewolf templates?



 Do you know what auspice you want Ariella to be?


----------



## Shayuri (Dec 31, 2006)

Rahu Bone Shadow, guilty as charged.

Found a resource that gives me the stat changes per form...still looking for the auspice and tribe effects. -May- need help with Gifts...but I think I have a lead on those.

Hee.

I loves me teh intranet.


----------



## Shalimar (Dec 31, 2006)

Shayuri said:
			
		

> Rahu Bone Shadow, guilty as charged.
> 
> Found a resource that gives me the stat changes per form...still looking for the auspice and tribe effects. -May- need help with Gifts...but I think I have a lead on those.
> 
> ...




If you need any help let me know.

Auspice effects for Rahu are:
Gift Lists:  Dominance, Full Moon, Strength
Renown: Purity
Specialty: (pick 1) Brawl, Intimidation, Survival 
Auspice Ability: Warrior’s Eye. Once per session, a Rahu can attempt to “read” a foe, determining who is the superior warrior. The player rolls Wits + Primal Urge; success indicates that the werewolf can roughly tell whether the threat is stronger or weaker than he is, while an exceptional success grants more understanding of the gap between the two (“He’s much more powerful than me.”). A dramatic failure indicates that the character greatly misjudges his target. The warrior’s eye takes into account only those abilities that might affect a direct fight. A werewolf might read a skilled vampire assassin as “weaker,” even though the vampire is much more deadly when it can choose the time of engagement.

Tribe effects for Bone Shadows are:
Gift Lists: Death, Insight, Warding
Renown: Wisdom

Taken together:
Renown: Purity 1, Wisdom 1 (choose one more)
Gift Lists: Death, Dominance, Insight, Full Moon, Strength, Warding
Specialty: (pick 1) Brawl, Intimidation, Survival


----------



## Shayuri (Dec 31, 2006)

I think I see...

And for Gifts, you pick one from your Auspice, one from your Tribe, and one additional from any list. And they all start at 1 dot...

Hmm. What to do with these merit points... 

And the specialization from Auspice is in addition to the ones you can pick normally?

How does Renown work? Is there a good reason to, say, put my discretionary dot in Wisdom and have 2 dots there, as opposed to putting it in Cunning?

Coming together! Thank, Shalimar!


----------



## Tokiwong (Dec 31, 2006)

You can't have a higher level gift then you have Renown rating... meaning with Renown at 1 you can only have level 1 gifts.  With Renown 2 you can have level 2 gifts, but at character creation all gifts have to be gotten in order, this is not so when you start increasing stuff with XP.


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## Shalimar (Dec 31, 2006)

When you increase your renown by spending experience, you also gain a gift at the new renown rating so going with 3 level 1 renowns and bumping them up is a valid plan too.

As to the merit points, the original human ones could go into status to show your a cop, resources as your paycheck, maybe a mentor on the force or something, possibly a fighting style or striking looks.  For the 3 merit points we get as werewolves I bumped Faith's Primal Urge to 2.  Any points you do have leftover would certainly be useful to put into our pack totem, but thats up to you, I had 1 extra merit point that I put into the pack totem but everyone doesn't have to.

The auspice specialization is in addition to the normal 3 specializations, so we all end up with 4 specs.

If you have more questions feel free to AIM me @ 'Shalimar GG'


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## Tokiwong (Dec 31, 2006)

I am working on the territory now; the basic features there are several housing developments which are jointly called Mile High Palisades, there is a man-made pond with a park on one side and waterfront homs on the other side.

There will be a mall, a church, a local high school, a library, several stores, and even some woods bordering the territory.  Your neighbors will be the Ashen Rebirth pack, and then unclaimed territory starting where the woods begin leading into another housing development 

Anything else you woud like to see let me know


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## Festy_Dog (Dec 31, 2006)

I'm definitely wanting Piotr to be a Hunter in Darkness. As far as auspice goes I'm thinking along the lines of Irraka. I remember Graf wanting Camera to also be an Irraka so I'm a little uncertain there since I don't want to step on any toes.


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## Graf (Dec 31, 2006)

I like that we have a Bone Shadow Rahu, btw. Not sure why but I think it's cool.

I like Irraka but I'm not possessive. And Camera, roleplaying wise, is veering toward 'crazy visionary' more than sneaky dude.
Especially since his father seems like he'll be present in the campaign then it would be interesting to have a "similar but different" theme. So Theurge Iron Masters would be cool.
And stealthy mystic seems to work better in my mind than mystic sneaky guy.

The in-laws are about so I'm still a bit swamped. I'll try to get some space to do the stats soon.

I'd be keen to put one of my gift dots into rituals (leared from Issac?), so we have access to some of that. I'm not an expert but a lot of it seems useful. And it would help Camera a bit in terms of fitting in.

I am also bullish on blessed pack, but only if everyone would be happy with their characters doing that.
Also happy to put points into a totem.
I don't suppose we could have a gecko? I have a lot around my house now and I like the "creepy protector" thing.
But a combat totem might be better if we're going to have some wimps some of the characters aren't going to be combat worthy.

[edit=last line wasn't a dis on anyone. Camera is woefully unprepared for combat. And I think that's good. It's more fun to roleplay up to a position of strength than for everyone to start off with four dots in brawl and dex. Just thought I would mention it.]


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## Tokiwong (Dec 31, 2006)

I really like Camera as an Ithaeur, not because his father is one but because he seems to be the most spirit touched, and has that odd air about him 

Plus yeah Isaac would definitely teach him some rituals.


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## Tokiwong (Dec 31, 2006)

BTW Scent Beneath the Surface is the first level gift for Half-Moon not Insight Shal


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## Shalimar (Dec 31, 2006)

Tokiwong said:
			
		

> BTW Scent Beneath the Surface is the first level gift for Half-Moon no Insight Shal




Okie doke, I'll fix it.


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## Tokiwong (Dec 31, 2006)

BTW I see 4 points for Totem so far; we can do two things with Totem, you guys can start the next story with a totem and put it in your backstory that happened in the intervening 4 weeks or so, or you can begin the next story hunting for a totem... oh and if you have a totem, you definitely will need a pack name


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## Shalimar (Dec 31, 2006)

I'm all for searching out a totem, I think that could be a good bonding experience.


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## Shalimar (Dec 31, 2006)

Graf said:
			
		

> I'd be keen to put one of my gift dots into rituals (leared from Issac?), so we have access to some of that. I'm not an expert but a lot of it seems useful. And it would help Camera a bit in terms of fitting in.




I gave Faith a dot of Rituals for Spirit Branding but if Camera is going to be an Ithauer and do rituals then I can give her a gift instead. 



			
				Graf said:
			
		

> I am also bullish on blessed pack, but only if everyone would be happy with their characters doing that.




Well if your an Ithauer then yes we have someone of every Auspice.  If blessed pack means that we also need to have every tribe as well then you and Drake would have to be a Storm Lord or an Iron Master.




			
				Graf said:
			
		

> Also happy to put points into a totem.
> I don't suppose we could have a gecko? I have a lot around my house now and I like the "creepy protector" thing.
> But a combat totem might be better if we're going to have some wimps some of the characters aren't going to be combat worthy.




Faith does have a bit of Brawl, but your right, she isn't a primary fighter with a strength of one. That will improve once I get 10 EXP to bump that up, but her first 3 exp is going into bumping up Candace as a mentor to Mentor *** when combined with the 3 exp we have already received.

I think a martial totem would probably be a good idea since we will probably neeed the help.  As far as totem traits, I think a strong totem might be good since both Faith and Camera are on the weak side.  Maybe a bear totem or something similair?  I don't really care what but your point about needing a tough totem is a good one.


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## Tokiwong (Dec 31, 2006)

Blessed Pack is all auspices represented  multi-tribal packs are not common


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## Shayuri (Jan 1, 2007)

Yee...I need to sneak a peek at the book I see. 

Ari, for what it's worth, is built as a pretty solid fighter. I plan on raising her Stamina a bit, as well as her Willpower and Resolve...

Can anyone suggest possible good choices for Gifts?

I'd be happy to toss my 3 bonus Merit points into the group totem or blessed pack or whatever.


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## Shalimar (Jan 1, 2007)

Here are my thoughts for a totem spirit, feel free to critique and we can ditch it and move on to something new, I just want to get the ball rolling while I am stuck in an old folks home piggybacking on some random wireless signal.

Fierce-Mother-Bear

Bear is a strong totem, a lord of the forest, tender to her cubs but a deadly foe if roused to anger.  She has a place in her heart for young of all species and does her best to protect them.  Originally simply a bear spirit, since moving into the suburb the spirit has come to identify human children as her cubs.

10/7 totem points (3+3+1)  plus whatever from Camera and Drake, I do think that we should keep the total to 10 totem points though, I'd like to avoid a level 3 ban if possible.

Power: 0000, Finesse:00, Resistance:000
Essence: 15
Initiative: 4
Defense: 4
Speed: 13 (6+7-size)
Corpus:  10 (3+7-size)
Influence:  Bears 0, Family 0
Numina: Material Vision, Materialization
Bonuses: Brawl (Given Skill) [5pts] Crushing Blow (Pack Gift) [5pts]
BAN [Severity 2]: The pack must protect Children from harm, as Fierce-Mother-Bear does for her cubs.  Failing to act when a child is threatened with harm removes Mother-Bear's gifts from the pack until an offering is made in contrition.


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## Shalimar (Jan 1, 2007)

Shayuri said:
			
		

> Yee...I need to sneak a peek at the book I see.
> 
> Ari, for what it's worth, is built as a pretty solid fighter. I plan on raising her Stamina a bit, as well as her Willpower and Resolve...
> 
> ...




Blessed Pack just means you have a werewolf of each auspice, which we do, you don't need to buy it.  We could use the merit points towards the totem if your up for that though.

For your tribe gift you have to select from Death, Insight, or Warding lists.  All three of which can be good, Death's level 1 (Death Sight) isn't so good, but the higher level gifts are very good once you build off of it.  Insight's level 1 (Sense Malice) can be pretty useful to a cop, and so can Warding 1 (Ward versus Predators) that can keep all predators outside of a 1 mile area for a month, and the warding list only getss better from there with humans, technology, and a ward against spirits.

I'd suggest Ward vs Predators because it can be good and the rest of the list can be very good, but any of the three would do very well.

For your Auspice gift you can choose from the Dominance, Full Moon, and Strength lists.  Strength 1 is Crushing Blow that allows you to do Lethal damage with unarmed attacks after spending a will power point, the other strength gifts are also good.  Dominance 1 is Warning Growl that forces an opponent to win a contest roll or else you get +2 defense against it, the upper level gifts continue in the vein of using supernatural intimidation to get your way.  Level 1 of Full Moon is Clarity, by spending an essence point you add 5 to your initiative, the rest of the list gives the reasons why the Rahu are the most Badass Uratha.

I would actually suggest taking Dominance 1 (warning growl) as your auspice pick, and then using your free pick to take Full Moon 1 (Clarity).


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## Tokiwong (Jan 1, 2007)

and here I was thinking the pack would have an SUV spirit for a pack totem, the bear is good though


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## Tokiwong (Jan 1, 2007)

Shalimar said:
			
		

> Here are my thoughts for a totem spirit, feel free to critique and we can ditch it and move on to something new, I just want to get the ball rolling while I am stuck in an old folks home piggybacking on some random wireless signal.
> 
> Fierce-Mother-Bear
> 
> ...



 I approve of Fierce-Mother-Bear


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## Shayuri (Jan 1, 2007)

Hee hee. That predator ward could be pretty powerful depending on how literally it takes the term "predator." And how tuneable it is. Like, could I specify a certain type of predator, or is it just a blanket ban?

Hmm. Though it strikes me that barring all predation within a mile for a month could -reeeeaaaaally- mess up an ecosystem too. Meow.

On some review, I agree Full Moon is good, reinforcing the "Rahu Wahoo" factor. I b'leve I'll take that as my Auspice choice, since I can pick just about anything with my freedom choice...

I've got a list of Gifts, but no descriptions, so yer post was most useful, Shalimar, thanks. 

Death, Insight, and Warding. Hm. I believe Insight was more your thing, as I recall...so I'll leave that to you. Warding seems interesting, but perhaps not the best thought-out of Gifts. Like, Warding technology? How does that work? At what point is a tool regarded as technology? A hammer? A wrench? A lawnmower? BEH, I say! Let us simply avoid the issue altogether!

Plus, for RP reasons, it's cool to have a tie to Death. 

So! Full Moon, Death, and...something else. Dominance maybe, but I don't know if I like the idea of Ari having to use supernatural intimidation to browbeat folks. On the other hand, that would kind of make her the Big Stick to use, if gentler diplomacies fail. Decisions decisions.

Any other Gift categories come to mind? This is the free pick we speak of, so anything goes.


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## Tokiwong (Jan 1, 2007)

Dominance are some sweet gifts  or you can get Father Wolf's gifts those are nice too


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## Shalimar (Jan 1, 2007)

Dominance gifts are good in general and great for Rahu.  You should feel free to take Insight gifts though too, its not stepping on my toes since I'm not, and Insight is one of your tribes gifts.

Some other good gifts if you don't want either of the above are Mother Luna's gifts 1 (Partial change) which lets you change only parts of your body if you are trying to avoid being conspicuous, like just your nose from human to wolf for the extra perception dice.  The level one Nature gift, speak with beasts can be fun too since we'll have animals in our territory.  The level 1 rage gift (Mask of Rage) makes the lunacy that werewolves inflict on humans occur even in your human form and it strengthens it in your non-human forms.

As for warding, the ward only keeps new predators from coming into an area, it doesn't kick the current ones out.  With the technology ward at level 3, it simply stops complex machines like guns and computers from working within a 5-30 foot area for a short time.  It gives werwolfs a leg up in a fight if a human comes after you with guns and chainsaws or other tech stuff.  The people ward can keep people out of somewhere werewolves don't want them, like away from part of the park in our territory that houses our pack's locus so no one wants to develop the land, or wanders into the middle of a pack meeting place or something.


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## Tokiwong (Jan 2, 2007)

*Partial Change* is what Isaac used to speak wolf to Ariella while in human shape, the hishu form...

It can do other things like changing your ears, or giving yourself claws in hishu form... lots of nifty tricks


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## Shalimar (Jan 2, 2007)

Since Camera is going to be going with the rituals I guess I'll drop rituals 1 and go with another gift instead like Speak with Beasts.


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## Graf (Jan 2, 2007)

Not quite on top of the thread or character design but I've skimmed and would comment:

Happy to be ritemaster; which is cheaper as an Ithatuer.
Honestly the Ithatuer and Iron Master Gifts are fairly weak but Know Name and Two-World Sight are worthy.
I want to kick in some points for totem but I'll try to pick up a few extra rituals as well to.

People understand that you don't have to buy all the gifts in a list, right? 
You can 'jump around' a list.
Since a lot of gifts are neither interesting nor useful I wouldn't be wedded to the idea of taking all of the ones in a list.

Personally, if we're going to spend 5 points on a gift I'm not sure why we should take crushing blow. I'd either take another point of brawl, or else something protective (befiting the nature of Bear as a protector). 
Sense Malice would allow any member of the group to pick up on trouble or threats in advance.


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## Shalimar (Jan 2, 2007)

I know you can jump around, but there are a number of level 1 techniques that are good.  Besides, it is more expensive to buy gifts out of order isn't it?  My plan was to use renown raises to get the higher rank gifts as opposed to buying the higer ranks outright.

Graf we need 3 totem points between Camera and Drake and you each get 3 points, so hopefully its not too much from either of you.  I can maybe drop my barfly merit to pitch in another merit point into totem but I would like to avoid that if at all possible.

I went with crushing blow because a bear is a symbol of strength, but like I said, It was just my first thoughts on a totem spirit, and the Bear Totem example had pack Crushing Blow.  We could really use anything that would fit in with Bear or as a protector.  Warning Growl could also be a good fit.  Another Rank of Brawl would do, but I think a gift is more personalized to the spirit.  I'm good with the Brawl or Warning Growl though.  That would pump Faith's brawl up to 4, and Piotr's up to 5 which would be very good and probably Ari's up to 5 as well.


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## Graf (Jan 2, 2007)

Merit points are useful but Camera doesn't need them. I'll happily cover whatever Drake isn't.

I'd noticed Grizzly giving crushing blow.
I guess it's either a situation where nobody needs it (because we're all in combat forms) or everyone needs it because we're trying to be sneaky.

Why don't we go with Warning Growl?

It -is- more expensive to buy a gift when you've skipped a gift before it, but not as much as it would be to just buy all the gifts.
Since some of the gifts aren't very useful, and you can only do one thing a round, personally I'd rather not have them and have more xp to spend on stuff that is useful.

-but- that's not relivant really for us at this point anyway.


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## Graf (Jan 2, 2007)

I could be wrong but is Faith short a speciality? She only seems to have three.


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## Shalimar (Jan 2, 2007)

Graf said:
			
		

> I could be wrong but is Faith short a speciality? She only seems to have three.




Faith does have 4 specialties, she just happens to have 2 specialties in empathy, 1 from regular specialties and 1 from her free werewolf specialty.  Empathy (Emotions) and Empathy(Motives)



> Merit points are useful but Camera doesn't need them. I'll happily cover whatever Drake isn't.




Coolies

Warning Growl works for me and it is appropriate for a bear trying to protect her cubs, she would try and warn things away before they threatened the cubs, then she would kill if that didn't work.


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## DrZombie (Jan 2, 2007)

cool, blessed pack. I'm not sure about tribe. I can go either way : blood talon for he's a pissed off sob, Iron Master 'cause he's a city boy, Storm Lord 'cause he's a leader (yes he'll be going for alpha). Depends on the IC bits, I guess


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## Shalimar (Jan 2, 2007)

Well, as Faith pointed out earlier she isn't likely to follow him if he goes around insulting people that are going out of their way to help the pack by doing things in their territory that they asked him not to do.  Piotr and Faith did point it out to him IC, but that kinda got buried among all the other posts so it was easily overlooked.

Faith will also be going for Alpha from the standpoint that she doesn't trust him not to start a lot of uneccesary fights.  Feel free to go Blood Talon or Stormlord since that wont really influence whether or not he is the alpha, I'd think the pack alpha would come out of RP over time.  As an interesting side note the only tribe not already represented is Stormlord though you shouldn't feel constrained to that.


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## Tokiwong (Jan 3, 2007)

This game is good.


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## Shayuri (Jan 3, 2007)

<Tick> ...yes, it is good, chum.</Tick>


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## Shalimar (Jan 3, 2007)

This is leading up to a fight fairly quickly as in my next post will be Faith going for Drake's throat for ignoring her concerns and then patronizing her while he did it.  I would like to avoid that if possible.  The tension is totally good, people just meeting each other shouldn't automatically see eye to eye.  But I don't know how productive it is at the moment, especially since Drake doesn't have stats if we end up in a fight.

Its not neccessarily a bad thing if that is what Drake is aiming for I guess, I just wanted to let you know OOC what Faith's next move would likely be though Dr.Zombie in case that wasn't your intention.  Same for Toki.  I don't want you to change your post or anything, I just want us to be on the same page as to what is going to happen before something happens that is hard to take back IC.


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## Graf (Jan 4, 2007)

Without commenting on where this particular scene, which I think is generally going well, should go I do think that one of the big things that separates Werewolf from other games is that Urthra fight fairly frequently amongst themselves.

I don’t think that an intra-party brawl need be the sort of game killer that it would be in, say, a normal DnD game.

Or to put it another way, Drake and Faith (as well as other members of the party, probably) are almost certainly going to fight, and, since they’re werewolves, instinctively see things as a dominance game and will heal back to full health in a couple of hours no matter what happens, some of those fights are going to be physical.

I get an unstructured-fight-club impression from the books. Especially, nWoD, since one of the chances from oWoD and nWoD was that Werewolves don’t do aggravated damage to each other with their claws.

But I could be reading too much into it, or we may just want to take a more limited interpretation of physical violence (i.e. it’s more highly ritualized, first blood type stuff) if people aren’t comfortable with intra-party claw-fests.

P.S. I am sorry that Camera is being so quiet. I’m just not sure he’d have much to say right now. He's not a talker.


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## Tokiwong (Jan 4, 2007)

You are correct Graf, you guys will fight, and sometimes violently and physically 

And I like Camera he has alot of promise


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## Shalimar (Jan 4, 2007)

Its not something that she feels like she can back down from.  She thinks he is putting all of them in danger by mouthing off to important people.  She also really doesn't like being patronized or singled out for her age.  Thats where she is coming from at least.


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## Graf (Jan 4, 2007)

I think that another way to say what I (and perhaps Tokiwong though I don't want speak for anyone else) am saying is that you shouldn't particularly feel the need to back down.
Or justify your actions.

And if it does come to blows it's not really serious-intra-party-conflict the way it would be in another game. You'll both be fine in a few hours anyway.

Incidentally, as I'm sure most people know (so sorry if this is a repeat), there is actually a mechanic in the books for "freaking out and attacking someone if they insult you". If your character is being insulted or belittled Toki has an obligation (under the rules anyway) to force you to make a roll (harmony?) to avoid frenzying.

As inexperienced wolf-cubs we'll probably all have to make the checks for this sometime soon.

PS I like Extreme Moon, I'm glad they showed up, if only for a cameo.


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## DrZombie (Jan 4, 2007)

First of all, it's just a game. I won't be angry at you if your character trashes mine. I'm having a great time.
Second, it's all a big misunderstanding, but our characters are pissed off, so it'll happen.
Third, it's werewolf. we fight. often. without killing each other. 

Now let's see what you posted


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## Shalimar (Jan 4, 2007)

DrZombie said:
			
		

> First of all, it's just a game. I won't be angry at you if your character trashes mine. I'm having a great time.
> Second, it's all a big misunderstanding, but our characters are pissed off, so it'll happen.
> Third, it's werewolf. we fight. often. without killing each other.
> 
> Now let's see what you posted




Okay, thats good, I've seen games wrecked over less then one character trying to eat another's face.  Should be interesting, Drake needs some stats though so she can pound on him


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## DrZombie (Jan 4, 2007)

yeah well, still looking at the system and seeing what can be done. Hell, we might even still work this out without poundin each other to cheese.


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## Shalimar (Jan 4, 2007)

DrZombie said:
			
		

> yeah well, still looking at the system and seeing what can be done. Hell, we might even still work this out without poundin each other to cheese.




Not likely, my next post is going to, or possibly was going to be shifting into Rahu or possibly Urshal and diving for Drake.  Now that I see Drake's newest though it might work out, then again might not, they are new shifters and werewolves aren't known for their sweet dispositions.

Just le me know if how strong he is going to be, picking a fight with a man-mountain is a bit below her IQ.  Is he going to be about average for strength (2) or is he bulky?  Faith doesn't exactly look like the strongest person in the world and the strength difference could prove telling, but such is life I guess.


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## Graf (Jan 4, 2007)

Wanted to ask... are we RPing the tribal initiation?

If so Camera's would be.... interesting.
I think Camera probably wouldn't intentionally cheat, but I see him as potentially being daffy enough that he just doesn't "get" the rules he's supposed to be following.

A sort of probationary period that functions as your intitiation period could be cool. I.e. Don't have tribal gift or specialization yet (Know Name for me).


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## DrZombie (Jan 4, 2007)

Shalimar said:
			
		

> Not likely, my next post is going to, or possibly was going to be shifting into Rahu or possibly Urshal and diving for Drake.  Now that I see Drake's newest though it might work out, then again might not, they are new shifters and werewolves aren't known for their sweet dispositions.
> 
> Just le me know if how strong he is going to be, picking a fight with a man-mountain is a bit below her IQ.  Is he going to be about average for strength (2) or is he bulky?  Faith doesn't exactly look like the strongest person in the world and the strength difference could prove telling, but such is life I guess.





He's tall, not skinny but not fat either, and he looks as if he's been in a few streetfights before. Both him and piotr still got flecks of dried blood on them, btw.


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## Tokiwong (Jan 4, 2007)

it is up to you guys if you want to do the rites of initiation we can do that...


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## Tokiwong (Jan 4, 2007)

Probably won't be a post up from me till Friday the 5th; moving into my place this evening and getting my cable turned on Friday, yay!


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## Shalimar (Jan 4, 2007)

Well, it looks like the fight is more or less calmed down for the moment.


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## Shayuri (Jan 4, 2007)

Meow. I didn't even have to spray y'all with pepper spray. Or use my beanbag gun.


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## Tokiwong (Jan 6, 2007)

Like I said before each character earned 3 xp for this story 

If you need help finishing your character please post here, so I can help as best as I can 

Also I need to know if the Fierce-Mother-Bear is the preferred totem so I can work her into the next story


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## DrZombie (Jan 6, 2007)

The totem would work with Drake, in a twisted sort of way. But with a totem like that Faith will be patronised by the whole pack


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## Shalimar (Jan 6, 2007)

She doesn't really see herself as a child, but yea that hadn't occured to me.  Either way the totem is fine.  Faith actually sees herself as just as much of an adult as the others as far as being Uratha is concerned.


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## Shalimar (Jan 6, 2007)

There isn't going to be any make up between Drake and Faith, at least from Faith's side of it.  It doesn't warrant it.  Drake was doing something without thinking it was pointed out and eventually he fixed it nothing to make up for.


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## Tokiwong (Jan 6, 2007)

there will be plenty of time for that when the real story gets under way


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## Festy_Dog (Jan 6, 2007)

Fierce-Mother-Bear appears fine with me.


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## Graf (Jan 6, 2007)

In order to speak the first tougue (which I'd like Camera to be able to do) I need to spend a merit point.
Don't suppose I could free one up from the totem merit for that?


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## Graf (Jan 6, 2007)

I had a post about this earlier but I think the internet may have eaten it.

I don't mind the core attributes of Fierce-bear (nuture/protect children, strong), but I'm wondering about the 'bear' thing.
We have bears in rural NY, but not really in any suburban environments that I'm aware of.

I know the SUV thing was a bit of a joke, but it atualy seems more likely to me that we'd wind up with something like that instead of a bear.

While we still have a chance to talk about the totem... why the children focus. I know that some people have run into a spirit preying on children but long after that particular plot thread is tied up we'll still have the same totem.


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## DrZombie (Jan 6, 2007)

That was my 'old gaellic' language   

I'm still a bit confused about the 3 xp. Can we put those in merits as well? Or what's the plan? (had a busy night, brain a bit f'd up)


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## DrZombie (Jan 6, 2007)

Another thing 'bout mother bear and the children. As a father of two adorable children, I can assure you that nothing can get your rage pumping like a four year old. There's enough descriptions in the book (part about werewolves and family) that suggest that werewolves and kiddies don't really match. On the other hand, there's a fierce protective streak inherent in the werewolves...
I guess it depends on how dark TW's world of darkness is, but we lose our totem if someone freaks out at the wrong moment, not to mention all the dastardly plots I would work out if I were storytelling it.
That being said, I dunno what otyher people see as a totem. Since we're a pretty young pack, we'll have to rely on cunning and stealth to get things done, so maybe laughing coyote or raccoon or something in that order may be appropriate.
Bt i'll go with whatever the rest thinks is appropriate.


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## Graf (Jan 6, 2007)

I should say that I appreciate all the work that Shalimar went through in making up in FMB and that I think that its a good solid werewolfie totem.

I can imagine some sort of story about a mother bear protecting her cubs (at some point in the past) and being shot somewhere. 
Then somebody builds a child-care center there called "Mama Bear" which has a little bit of a bear theme and a lot of dedicated staff.
Over time the bear spirit, which was a savage protector, mellows out a bit and becomes more nuturing.

Then the child-killer-spirit shows up and she gets upset and offers to 'totem' the pack in exchange for getting rid of the "bad" spirit.

Or something. I'm just having trouble seeing a strong 'pure' bear spirit around in suburban Dever. Some sort of  human myth or legend built around a pre-existing bear spirit would be better. (maybe?)


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## Graf (Jan 6, 2007)

I think this is what the territory is like....


			
				Paraphrasing Tokiwong said:
			
		

> Territory Features
> Mile High Palisades (housing developments)
> +park with a man made pond (adjoining)
> +waterfront property (adjoining)
> ...



Questions:

Is this Hillside Heights? If not how are they related?
Does the area have a known locus or is it just "turf".
Piotr's shop is in BME turf right? That's close or far?
Do we have a coffee shop? A bar?

Socioeconomic ranking of inhabitants?

Camera would like to do some research on this history of the area at the library during the "month of downtime".


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## Graf (Jan 6, 2007)

DrZombie said:
			
		

> That was my 'old gaellic' language
> 
> I'm still a bit confused about the 3 xp. Can we put those in merits as well? Or what's the plan? (had a busy night, brain a bit f'd up)



I think languages were erratta'd to only cost 1 merit dot.
Not that I'm not digging the old gaellic of course.

Per pg.247 you can buy a new merit dot of 2 experience points (provided that you it's one of the handful you don't have to buy at character gen. Those you can't buy with xp).


----------



## Shalimar (Jan 6, 2007)

You can put your Exp into merits, at least I am, I put my first 3 into picking up Candace as Faith's mentor.  Still have 3 to go before she is a full mentor 3.

As to the background of the spirit itself it was a female bear spirit that lived in the area before it was developed and turned into a suburb and the living bears were forced out and hunted.  Originally she was angry with the humans but eventually she came to see a similarity between how she bears cared for their cubs and how humans cared for their children.

Fell free to change it though, or go with another spirit.  I think we are just waiting on this and character stats before we start the next game thread.


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## Tokiwong (Jan 6, 2007)

The SUV spirit was not really a joke, it would be an appropriate spirit for a suburban pack all jokes aside… the bear can work too, but yeah a human myth spin to it may help or legend; one that everyone knows is also just as good. 

I am working on the territory details and will have that to you soon; Hillside Heights is on one side of the Pond/Lake; while Mile High Palisades is on the other, but the area is just called Mile High Palisades to be simple.  There is a Mall and a High School in the territory, and a commercial area with a coffee shop, some shops, and an upscale supermarket. 

History wise, I will work that out, is there a locus, well yes, there is a locus in the park on the Hillside Heights side of the pond, focused around a gazebo; probably won’t be much stronger then a 2 strength; the rest you will have to hunt down on your own or take.

Just some of my errant thoughts.


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## Shalimar (Jan 6, 2007)

For the  Totem points, this is what we have so far, I think we were agreeed on wanting 10pts between the 5 of us.

Ariella 3pts
Faith 1pt
Camera 3pts
Piotr 3pts

that is the 10pts

If you need one of the merit points back for camera so he can pick up the first tongue thats cool, we would just need to come up with one last point that could maybe come from Drake?  Is that ok Dr. Zombie?


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## Shalimar (Jan 7, 2007)

Here is an alternate totem that might be more to people's liking then Fierce-Mother-Bear, if not this then someone else should put something forward.  Time sensitive though since Totem hunting is going to be the next chapter, stats too.

Juggernaut is the embodiment of the mascot of Jefferson High School, a spirit that was brought to life by the intense emotions of the community.  Juggernaut is the embodiment of overwhelming strength in battle.  While the battle's of the school team's are of a recreational nature, the spirit is a warrior at heart that prides itself on its strength and victories.  

Power: 0000, Finesse:00, Resistance:000
Essence: 15
Initiative: 4
Defense: 4
Speed: 13 (6+7-size)
Corpus: 10 (3+7-size)
Influence: Strength 0, Victory 0
Numina: Material Vision, Materialization
Bonuses: Brawl 00 (Given Skill) [10pts]
BAN [Severity 2]: Juggernaut is a spirit that feeds on victory and struggle, it expects to feast on the pack's accomplishments.  Twice a month the pack must hold a victory celebration where they declare their victories

(I made it every 2 weeks instead of every week, since the example ban that is very closest to this is weekly and level 3)


----------



## Tokiwong (Jan 7, 2007)

I like that very good use for a conceptual as a totem... and also very much tuned for a pack of wolves... even if it isn't used I will probably add this spirit to the hisil


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## Graf (Jan 7, 2007)

I like this one too. Very creative.

I think the ban is a bit too rural-animal in nature.

If it's really a mascot I think the totem would probably be more HS sports type. Purely for the purpose of debate how is the following?

BAN [Severity 2]: Juggernaut is a spirit that feeds on victory and struggle, especially on pysical competition. The every individual must engage in 30 minutes of physical training once a day. The "training" must be training, it can have no purpose other than to physically improve the werewolf. (So Jogging around the neighborhood keeping an eye on things isn't acceptable, but jumping rope in your garage would be).
It also demands proper competitions. Once a month the pack must challenge an outside group to some sort of challenge. The challenge must be announced in advance and awknowledged by the opponents. It must have certain agreed upon rules. Winning is not so important but during this challenge the pack must show "good sportsmanship" (as decided by the totem). 

If we do take this one, maybe one of the granted skill dots should be athletics?


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## Shalimar (Jan 7, 2007)

The victory celebration idea actually came from going to a bunch of these in high school.  We had Bon fires a couple of times a year and we cheerleaders always painted our faces in the school colors.  We also had some very fun victory parties , we weren't in a rural area, we're in a suburb of Philly so I don't think a victory party is all that rustic.  We did spill over into the park that was next to the field though.

The spirit is a spirit of victory and strength so sharing stories and celebrating victories feed it.  Whatever the Ban is I think it should reflect the spirit's influences of Victory.  On a side note, I think that Ban is rather harsh for a level 2.


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## Graf (Jan 7, 2007)

I admit my HS didn't do much in the way of sports so I'm not really sure what a victory party entails.

Having said that "having to have a party every couple of weeks" doesn't seem like much of a ban. Bans generally are things that people 1) wouldn't do regularly 2) wouldn't much like to do regularly.
In that context the work-out-daily is a bit weak but it's only a severity 2 ban and it's only part of the ban. The compeition theme in the second part of the ban allowed for 1) interesting roleplaying 2) didn't require us to actually win. 
I.e. if you put in the time you satisfy your spirit.
That's about where I see 2... little chance of failure under normal circumstances, but definitely a pain in the rear.

I can see wanting to emphasize a victory influence, but I think that would be a requirement to actually be victorious in something (a party that happens every two weeks no matter what seems like it would be a Celebration Influence).
If you're looking for a severity 2 Ban with a focus on victory I think we'd need to look at somthing like:
Every season your pack must openly challenge and best a worthy oponent. The spirit cares about winning, and nothing else, but you must best your foe in a decisive manner.


----------



## DrZombie (Jan 7, 2007)

Yeah I'll put one point in totem. Either one is fine, I guess.


----------



## Shalimar (Jan 7, 2007)

The ban I suggested was taken from the list of level 3 bans, so it is definitely harsh enough if that was the worry.  We aren't burning any material symbols of our victories but a bonfire would certainly be appropriate.

A level 2 ban is only suppoused to conflict slightly with what the pack would normally do with out the ban.  The 30 min a day requirement is actually harsher then a level 4 requirement of praying to a spirit 5 times a day for 2 minutes.  At level 2 the service should be a weekly thing that requires a bit of time and effort.  Having a victory celebration each week would certainly count as conflicting with what the pack would normally do since they wouldn't do it at all.



> I can imagine some sort of story about a mother bear protecting her cubs (at some point in the past) and being shot somewhere.
> Then somebody builds a child-care center there called "Mama Bear" which has a little bit of a bear theme and a lot of dedicated staff.
> Over time the bear spirit, which was a savage protector, mellows out a bit and becomes more nuturing.




That works too, altough I think Juggernaut would be a cool totem spirit.


----------



## Shalimar (Jan 7, 2007)

Another option would be to put forward a few spirits and then let Toki surprise us.  I'm good witheither but I prefer Juggernaut, and I definitely think that we need all the help we can get with combat since Camera has no brawl at all and Faith has no strength, and we are a generally weak pack combatwise.


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## Tokiwong (Jan 7, 2007)

I can do either option, if that helps you guys can put forward some spirit ideas, I like the Juggernaut and agree 1 point of Brawl and 1 point of Athletics is very approriate; it excels in war and phsyical competition


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## Festy_Dog (Jan 7, 2007)

I've found myself to be a big fan of Juggernaut, it's really struck a chord with me. 

The Brawl points seem to be very helpful for the party at present, but I think if we don't move one of those points into athletics then if/when we put more points into Juggernaut in future we should probably add a point or two in athletics since the origins of Juggernaut's birth are in competitive sports.

As far as the bans go there's always that option of taking a harsher ban than we need to in order to get a bonus, but then there appears to be a preference for minimising the ban's severity.


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## Tokiwong (Jan 7, 2007)

*Pack Territory*

The pack territory is about fifty square miles of housing developments, mainly Hillside Heights on the south side of Palisades View Pond; and Mile High Palisades on the north side with its many lakefront homes.  Located nearby is Jefferson High School, home of the Juggernauts; where most of the young people from these housing developments go to school.  There is a mall on the outskirts of the territory, Hillside Mall.

The region is not spiritually dead but most uratha consider the region spiritually weak; although the thick woods bordering the developments are strong with spirits, but rumors fly that they are home to powerful and vengeful entities that hate the encroachment of man… other rumors tell of Predator Kings that haunt the dark woods, and perhaps even worse things.

The pack is aware of a locus in the Palisades Park, a Gazebo that is known among the young people as a popular place to bring a date and get lucky.  The resonance is one of lust and is moderately potent; *Locus 2*; supposedly a powerful spirit haunts it, but none of the uratha have ever seen it.

History wise, the region used to be in the care of native American tribes before the rise of the white settlers, even after Denver came into its own his region was largely undeveloped and only within the last fifteen years or so have people begun to settle with any regularity.  The High School has only been around for about seven years, and in that time has risen to prominence in competitive sports and education, having much to do with the relative wealth of the region.


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## Tokiwong (Jan 8, 2007)

http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?p=3267005#post3267005

New thread started...


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## Shayuri (Jan 8, 2007)

Posting sheet here and in Rogue's Gallery. Comments welcome! Heeeelp me! 

Name: Ariella "Ari" Rosetti
Virtue: Justice
Vice: Wrath
Gender: Female
Age: 23
Exp: 0

Defense 3
Health 7
Initiative 5
Harmony 7
Size 5
Willpower 4
Speed: 11
Primal Urge: 1

Attributes: 5/4/3
Strength ***
Dexterity ***
Stamina **

Intelligence **
Wits ***
Resolve **

Presence **
Manipulation **
Composure **

Skills: 11/7/4
Athletics ***
Brawl *** Spec
Drive *
Firearms **
Stealth *
Survival * Spec

Empathy *
Expression **
Intimidation ** Spec
Streetwise **

Computer *
Investigation *** Spec

Merits: 
Striking Looks **
Danger Sense **
Resources **
Status: City Police *
Totem (Group) ***

Auspice Ability: Warrior's Eye. Once per session, a Rahu can attempte to 'read' a foe by rolling Wits+ Primal Urge. Success reveals whether the threat is stronger or weaker than he is, while an exceptional success grants more understanding of the gap between the two.

Gifts
Auspice: Clarity (*)
Tribe: Death Sight (*)
Choice: Wolf Blood's Lure (*)

Renown:
Purity 1
Wisdom 1
Cunning 1
-----


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## Tokiwong (Jan 8, 2007)

don't forget your 3 XP from the current story unless that is already added in...


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## Shayuri (Jan 8, 2007)

Those are the 3 Merit points I bought a Totem with...I thought.

Maybe I was confused...


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## Tokiwong (Jan 8, 2007)

Shayuri said:
			
		

> Those are the 3 Merit points I bought a Totem with...I thought.
> 
> Maybe I was confused...



 You get 3 extra Merit Points and 3 XP


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## Shayuri (Jan 8, 2007)

Yee! Thanks then. I shall fix it.


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## Graf (Jan 8, 2007)

I geek out on this kind of stuff.

Sorry if there's lots of irritating questions about it.



			
				Tokiwong said:
			
		

> *Pack Territory*
> 
> The pack territory is about fifty square miles of housing developments, mainly Hillside Heights on the south side of Palisades View Pond; and Mile High Palisades on the north side with its many lakefront homes.  Located nearby is Jefferson High School, home of the Juggernauts; where most of the young people from these housing developments go to school.  There is a mall on the outskirts of the territory, Hillside Mall.



When I hear housing development I keep thinking “housing project”.
I assume we’re talking about suburban sprawl…. i.e. lots of different similar looking houses with slightly different themes. Some (most?) of the houses have fences but the developments themselves don’t. Am I on target?

50 sqm means that we’re talking about 7.07 sq miles on a side, right?
So the furthest point from point to point (i.e. diagonally) would be 10 miles or so?
(Obviously not exact, just wanted to get a feel for it).



			
				Tokiwong said:
			
		

> The region is not spiritually dead but most uratha consider the region spiritually weak; although the thick woods bordering the developments are strong with spirits, but rumors fly that they are home to powerful and vengeful entities that hate the encroachment of man…



Cool. This has lots of potential.



			
				Tokiwong said:
			
		

> other rumors tell of Predator Kings that haunt the dark woods, and perhaps even worse things.



Cool. Very bad for the pack, but cool.



			
				Tokiwong said:
			
		

> The pack is aware of a locus in the Palisades Park, a Gazebo that is known among the young people as a popular place to bring a date and get lucky.  The resonance is one of lust and is moderately potent; *Locus 2*; supposedly a powerful spirit haunts it, but none of the uratha have ever seen it.



Innnnteresting.



			
				Tokiwong said:
			
		

> History wise, the region used to be in the care of native American tribes before the rise of the white settlers, even after Denver came into its own his region was largely undeveloped and only within the last fifteen years or so have people begun to settle with any regularity.  The High School has only been around for about seven years, and in that time has risen to prominence in competitive sports and education, having much to do with the relative wealth of the region.




In terms of wealth level are we talking American Beauty or higher up the scale, like the richer side of Desperate Housewives? (i.e. to people cut their own lawns or have someone do it for them?)

Are the stores spread through out the area or clustered somewhere?

Random spirit suggestion (not sure where this came from):
The True Slam Kings were a bunch of passionate street dancers; tolerated by the police for their as straight edged antics were generally confined to the park and isolated side streets (and reportedly because one of the members was related to a police officer).
Over their four years at Jefferson the tight knit group’s focus gave birth to a spirit; it appears in the form of an urban outfit with no wearer and backed up with a half formed floating boom box (the actual composition of which changes over time; though it is always marked somewhere prominent with the TSK tag). Unfortunately, from the spirit’s standpoint, most of the TSK’s graduated last year and the group broke up.
Now starving of essence it’s desperate to find a new source of nourishment. It’s been hungrily eyeing the cheerleading around Jefferson, but it fears the aggressive and pugilistic Juggernaut. 

I’m going to stop asking about the ban.
I think people are right and we need to move on. 
Obviously if Toki is satisfied with the severity I should be too.

So the following should therefore be considered a tangent
[sblock]Something I realized that I was interested in:
I guess I was writing from the stand point of having a ban be significant in story terms. Something that is minor once every couple of weeks doesn’t seem like it would come up very much at all (however see below). Given that we have months of downtime I guess I expect it will just be handwaved. Or if we try to make it significant then the way internet games work (i.e. usually it will take someone, sometimes me, more than 24 hours to respond the game grinds to a halt).
So something that we do every day that acts as a backdrop, or something that is semi-frequent but a big deal, seems like it would be better suited to the game.

And now for a technical discussion:


			
				Shalimar said:
			
		

> A level 2 ban is only suppoused to conflict slightly with what the pack would normally do with out the ban.  The 30 min a day requirement is actually harsher then a level 4 requirement of praying to a spirit 5 times a day for 2 minutes.  At level 2 the service should be a weekly thing that requires a bit of time and effort.  Having a victory celebration each week would certainly count as conflicting with what the pack would normally do since they wouldn't do it at all.



I just don’t agree with your assessment about ban severity.
Example: I work out 30 minutes most days. It requires a bit of dedication but doesn’t affect my life much at all. I can do it at home, I can go to the pool, I can do it when traveling, I can do it before I go to sleep. 
Really, it has no impact on my life or limits my options.

The observant Muslims that I know who pray five times a day are in a very different position.
The country I’m in does a good job of putting prayer rooms and so forth in convenient locations, and is committed to making it easy for people to be observant, but it’s still a major commitment.
I mean… to a certain degree… they have to constantly be paying attention to what time it is, how long it is to their next prayer time, where they’re going to pray etc.
It affects when they can schedule meetings, the sorts of activities they can participate in, and every other aspect of their lives.

So, sure, 30 minutes a day is more “time” (i.e. 20 minutes more than 5 2 minute breaks) but for sheer “life disruptiveness” the 5 times a day is a much bigger hassle.
Bigger hassle = more severe ban
(IMHO natch)

Not that constantly building bonfires in the suburbs without a license doesn’t have the potential to cause problems… 
Actually now that I think about it there are all sorts of terrible things that could come out of this…
[/sblock]


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## Graf (Jan 8, 2007)

[edit: a big chunk of this post was wrong. I've fixed it to avoid confusion later.]



			
				Shayuri said:
			
		

> Posting sheet here and in Rogue's Gallery. Comments welcome! Heeeelp me!



I think I may have mentioned this before but:
Mechanically speaking any time you’re in a stressful situation where you (or someone you care about) is threatened, you’re injured (outside of combat) or someone does something sufficiently, challenging/insulting/humiliating you need to make a roll to resist death rage.

IIRC that roll is composure + resolve. (if I’m wrong someone correct me)
As far as I know there aren’t any merits or lower level gifts that help control rage so it’s really about stats.

[edit: If you're in serious combat there is a chance you could get pulled into death rage (see the death rage post below.]

You’ve got 4 dice right now. Your flub rate is 12.96% (i.e. the odds that all four dice show a six or less). Not bad.
But if you get hit with a die penalty or two then it’s 21.6~36%.

A normal police officer won’t probably have a whole lot of stressful situations, but it’s possible, you may wind up mixing work&urtha life.
And one bad role (freaking out and mauling a suspect in custody because he mouths off) could really blow your character’s life up.
Since the odds of you taking an aggravated wound, or getting hit with a critical success "on the job" is pretty low it's probably not something you should worry about. 

Sorry to have brought it up!


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## Shayuri (Jan 8, 2007)

I'm not sure what to do about that, honestly.

I could beef up those stats...but at the cost of my effectiveness as a warrior.

As it is, and as has been noted, we're pretty short on warriorality. 

If anyone has suggestions or ideas, I'm open to them. I'm just not sure that the tradeoff would be worth it. But then again, I'm obviously a bit out of the loop on how bad these rage episodes can be, and how frequently they can occur.

If there's anything that can mitigate it...like a sort of "strong will" perk or something, that might be worth looking into.


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## Graf (Jan 8, 2007)

*Death Rage made simple*

If I understand it correctly this is what you need to know:
[edit: I was basically wrong about how serious this is. No starting character is going to got into death rage because they get insulted. I'd misread the rules. Sorry for the confusion. Just  think of this as FYI.]

Garou form is the ultimate war-form. You’re fast, strong, and so covered with fur and superhuman muscle you actually get armor. You also are fast and have wolf senses.
It’s like a barbarian rage + Shapechange.
But you’re rage unbound; iirc you need to make a check to force yourself to not attack something each round, or speak, or open a door, or do anything that doesn’t involve clawing or biting.
But the Uratha still controls the rage, you can choose to tear open a wall instead of cutting your friend standing next to you.
Generally you can’t stay in Garou form too long. And you can only do it once a day (or once a scene?).

Death Rage, _Kuruth_ is part of the Forsaken curse (it applies to Pure too I think but anyway). It’s related to the death of father wolf, the shattering of Pangea and the raising of the gauntlet.
You resist _Kuruth_ by rolling composure + resolve.

The three ways you go into Death Rage in combat:
*Somebody hits you with aggravated damage (including silver).
*Somebody hits you with an exceptional success.
*Seriously injured (i.e. you fill in one of the ‘last three boxes’)

There is also a chart, based on your harmony, that  includes additional (out-of-combat) Death Rage inducing events.
For our purposes:
*Loved one or packmate is slain or betrays you
*Ally betrays you

(If your harmony drops to 6 or lower you have to start checking for things like "loved one in danger" or "takes aggravated damage outside of combat".
Below 4 is where getting insulted or humiliated could trigger _Kuruth_)

When in Kuruth you are in Garou form but there are some extra factors.There are two big changes
1. You’re totally berserk. Total lost of character control; always attack the closest creature. Nothing matters*, no wound penalties**, no limits on how long you stay in Garou form. 
2. You’re channeling dark forces that rose when Father Wolf was killed. So the spirits really don’t like it, or you, or the pack. So even after the crisis has passed there is (or can be) an additional spirit related sets of issues. At the very least you have penalties to dealings with spirits for a certain period of time.

*=Again this is from memory but I -think- that if you’re gonna do something really really bad, like eat your own baby or whatever, you get a second chance roll. Don’t quote me though.

** =You aren’t affected by the wound penalties but it changes the sort of Death Rage you have. Instead (i.e. if you’re seriously injured per the definition above, or affected by certain gifts) the Death Rage manifests as a “flee” type directive. If we can’t get someone (like a pack mate) out of death rage then beating them down to seriously injured and then getting them to run away is really the –only- solution.


----------



## Tokiwong (Jan 9, 2007)

Graf said:
			
		

> I geek out on this kind of stuff.
> 
> Sorry if there's lots of irritating questions about it.
> 
> ...



You are on target, there are mock fences that denote each development... although Mile High Palisades is gated.


			
				Graf said:
			
		

> 50 sqm means that we’re talking about 7.07 sq miles on a side, right?
> So the furthest point from point to point (i.e. diagonally) would be 10 miles or so?
> (Obviously not exact, just wanted to get a feel for it).



Yeah this sounds about right.


			
				Graf said:
			
		

> In terms of wealth level are we talking American Beauty or higher up the scale, like the richer side of Desperate Housewives? (i.e. to people cut their own lawns or have someone do it for them?)



Hillside Heights is American Beauty... Mile High Palisades is a little higher then that, homes in the Palisades start at the high end of Hillside Heights.


			
				Graf said:
			
		

> Are the stores spread through out the area or clustered somewhere?



Clustered closer to the mall.

I will handle the Ban, I have a decent idea of hat I want it to be


----------



## DrZombie (Jan 9, 2007)

TW, the knife drake got from pops, I put a bit more background dots in it, so it's a klaive 4 now, to beef up the fighting ability of the pack.

I was thinking something that looks like a survival-bowie knife kinda thingie, but when activated it grows to the size of a sword, and looks as frightening as possible, giving the holder an aura of fear (intimidate +2? +3?).

I've put one background into totem, and used the 3 xp to buy survival at 1 dot.

Now I'm at work 'til the weekend , so could anyone help me out with the things like initiative and such, 'cuz I only have the werewolf book with me? And where's the RG? thanks.

[sblock=charsheet]
Name :  Drake O' Connor
Tribe : Storm Lords
Auspice : Cahalith

Int ***
Wits ***
Resolve **

Str **
Dex ***
Stamina **

Presence **
Manipulation**
Composure **

Computer *
Crafts *
Occult **

Athletics *
Brawl *
Firearms *
Larceny *
Stealth*
Survival *
Weaponry ** Spec sword


Empathy *
Expression **** Spec Guitar, Spec Singing, Spec Howling
Intimidation ***
Persuasion *
Socialise **
Streetwise **
Subterfuge*

Virtue : Fortitude
Vice : Pride

Merits : 
Language (primal tongue) 1
Barfly 1
Fame 1
Resources 2
Klaive 4
Totem 1

Primal urge 1
Essence 10/1
Social penalty -1

Renown : 
Glory 2
Honour 1


Gifts :
Dominance 1:
Warning Growl : Presence + Intimid + Glory (7) Vs Comp + Primal Urge.

Gibbous Moon 2:
Pack Awareness : Wits + Emp + Wisdom (4)
Resist Pain : Stamina + Survival + Honour (4)

Background:

Drake O'Connor is from Irish descent. His mother tried to take care of him and his four siblings. He never knew his father, and it is not a matter that is discussed in the family. He helped in granddad's pub, working in the kitchen, helping at the bar, cleaning glasses. His education was in the hands of a lot of 'uncles', travelling singers that played at the bar for a few nights, then travelled on, making the circuit. He learned to play guitar, to sing, how to set-up sound equipment, how to drink, smoke, fight, steal and flirt with women. Only thanks to his mother did he still go to school, and surprisingly didn't do all that bad, taking everything into account.

One night his world turned upside down. When he was out watching a concert, the pub was robbed, and something went wrong. The police never told him what exactly happened, but the place turned from armed robbery to a massacre. His grandfather, mother, two brothers and sister got butchered. He never saw their faces again, they had to be buried in closed caskets. They used a blood sample and dental records for identification.
The pub got sold to pay of the debts.
While rummaging through the stuff of his mother, he found some things presumably belonging to his father : a big knife,a guitar, and a picture from a mountaintop, showing his mother in her early twenties and a fierce looking, unknown man.

For the last years Drake has been roaming the states, making his way from town to town, singing and playing the guitar, or working, in bars, as a seasonal worker, moving around, looking for a mountaintop and a fierce looking man. His music is strange, haunting, full of sorrow and loss. He keeps writing more and more songs, some of them in what he thinks is old gaellic, a language taught by one of the weirder uncles. He is restless, and sleeps as little as possible, for his dreams frighten him, and he fears that he is slowly going mad.

Drake is tall and fairly handsome, with long blond hair tied in a ponytail, and thick bushy sideburns. The year on the road has made him thin, and there is an uncomfortable wildness in his eyes. He walks around in well-worn jeans and stout hiking boots, with his guitar in a reinforced case and his knife in a holster between his shoulder blades, tucked away onder his jacket but still easy to reach. He has a small bag with a change of clothes.


[/sblock]


----------



## Shalimar (Jan 9, 2007)

Rogue's Galery

I don't have my book with me at school, I'll look the stuff up later.


----------



## Tokiwong (Jan 10, 2007)

+2 to all rolls of Intimidation sound fine to me on the Klaive, give it a cool name


----------



## Shalimar (Jan 10, 2007)

Toki it hasn't been used yet so I was wondering if I could drop the Barfly merit?  Thinking about it, it doesn't make sense for a 16 year old who honestly looks rather young to have it, I would just put the freed up point into mentor so that I'd only be 1 exp away instead of 3.

Since they go to the same high school, has Faith run into Kim?  Or heard of her?  I know we wouldn't really stand a chance against the 3 sisters, but it is our territory so they probably at least introduced Kim to us since she is in our territory daily, right?


----------



## DrZombie (Jan 10, 2007)

Tokiwong said:
			
		

> +2 to all rolls of Intimidation sound fine to me on the Klaive, give it a cool name



Could the klaive dedicated? I'm imagening something like a knife in human form, a sword in the inbetween form, and a twohander in the garou form, and just disappearing in the wolf forms, just leaving a palpable aura of menace, as a name I'd suggest 'Dragon's fang', with a hilt of carved ivory depicting a dragon.


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## Graf (Jan 10, 2007)

Camera has rite of dedication so dedicating it to you is not a problem.
[edit=rest of comment wasn't useful. nuked it.]


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## Graf (Jan 10, 2007)

Here's how traits are derived
Defense= lower of Dex and Wits
Health=Stamina + Size
Initiative= Dex + Composure
Harmony = 7
Size = 5
Speed () = Strength + Dex + x
    for human form x = 5
Willpower = Resolve + Composure

Starting Essense = Harmony (7) I think


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## Graf (Jan 10, 2007)

Toki,
Camera is keen to do some research before going to the sites of the murders.... will we do that OOC or IC?


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## Tokiwong (Jan 10, 2007)

Graf said:
			
		

> Toki,
> Camera is keen to do some research before going to the sites of the murders.... will we do that OOC or IC?



 we can do that IC


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## Tokiwong (Jan 10, 2007)

Shalimar said:
			
		

> Toki it hasn't been used yet so I was wondering if I could drop the Barfly merit?  Thinking about it, it doesn't make sense for a 16 year old who honestly looks rather young to have it, I would just put the freed up point into mentor so that I'd only be 1 exp away instead of 3.
> 
> Since they go to the same high school, has Faith run into Kim?  Or heard of her?  I know we wouldn't really stand a chance against the 3 sisters, but it is our territory so they probably at least introduced Kim to us since she is in our territory daily, right?



 she knows of her, and has probably seen her in passing, and yes that is fine for the Merit change


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## Shalimar (Jan 12, 2007)

What language do spirits speak?  I ask because Faith only speaks english and I was wondering how that would affect her role as a spirit negotiator.


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## Graf (Jan 12, 2007)

They speak the first tongue a spoken only proto-tongue that only werewolves can understand.
Any werewolf can make out a few words of it but you have to pay for fluency.

You can buy it with a dot of speak language (Camera picked it up with 1 merit point but you can get it with xp too.).


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## Tokiwong (Jan 12, 2007)

BTW everyone has Essence equal to their Harmony


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## Festy_Dog (Jan 12, 2007)

Tokiwong, just felt the need to compliment the twist with Anatol showing up. Took me totally by surprise, impressive stuff!


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## Shalimar (Jan 12, 2007)

I think the best place to meet might be the highschool assuming its central to our territory and relatively close to the park, which it theoretically would be if it services the two communities, although my understanding is probably flawed.  The other option is to have set a meeting point of the Locus since that would be the only way to get into the shadow of our territory.


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## Tokiwong (Jan 12, 2007)

Your welcome Festy I am glad you enjoy the twist 

I do read the backgrounds, at my liesure


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## Shalimar (Jan 14, 2007)

Interesting Dream interpretation.  Faith of course isn't going to ackowledge Drake as the alpha of the pack, she'll either say the interpretation is wishful thinking or that he made up the dream.  If it came down to a fight, then without the super-klaive it would be an even one, then again if he pulls a knife on her so that he gets to lead the pack thats rather telling too.


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## Tokiwong (Jan 14, 2007)

Piotr as alpha.


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## DrZombie (Jan 14, 2007)

We'll see. Allready the dream is coming true. Faith is allready arguing with drake before they even meet lol.


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## Shalimar (Jan 14, 2007)

Tokiwong said:
			
		

> Piotr as alpha.




He or Ari would work.



> We'll see. Allready the dream is coming true. Faith is allready arguing with drake before they even meet lol.




Its not like they weren't arguing before.


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## Tokiwong (Jan 14, 2007)

I think honestly the pack has a ways to go before they determine their pecking order, but I am interested to see how all this plays out.  I have some subplots plotted out, and I am hoping to have each character going with their own side story arc 

If there is anything you would like to exlore, let me know.


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## Tokiwong (Jan 14, 2007)

Don't forget to post Drake to the Rogue's Gallery

http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=184065


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## Tokiwong (Jan 15, 2007)

as far as experience in the Shadow, you guys have been there... but you guys are still rookies


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## Tokiwong (Jan 15, 2007)

_Made my changes to Juggernaut..._

*Juggernaut*

A spirit of victory and competition; Juggernaut is the embodiment of the school’s spirit, but more then that it feeds off the need for competition and victory for the school in its sports endeavors.  The spirit is a greater gaffling and is pretty potent amongst the conceptual spirituals that hunt in the Shadow of the high school.  

*Greater Gaffling*
*Attributes:* Power 4, Finesse 2, Resistance 3
*Willpower:* 7
*Essence:* 15
*Initiative:* 5
*Defense:* 4
*Speed:* 13 (6+7-size)
*Corpus:* 10 (3+7-size)
*Influences: * Strength 1, Victory 1
*Numina:* Material Vision, Materialization
*Totem Bonuses:* Brawl 1 (Given Skill) [5 pts.], Athletics 1 (Given Skill) [5 pts.]
*Totem Ban [Severity 2]:*  Juggernaut demands that those that serve him, maintain good sportsmanship and conduct; to prove that they are loyal to him they must maintain Harmony 6 or higher.


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## Graf (Jan 15, 2007)

Tokiwong said:
			
		

> as far as experience in the Shadow, you guys have been there... but you guys are still rookies



I was thinking that too.
But it will be an interesting first adventure either way.


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## Graf (Jan 15, 2007)

It's funny, I was looking derisively at the one dot (*) Ithatur gift from Lore of the Forsaken that lets you speak to a single spirit without stepping over into the Shadow...
(you channel the spirit so it speaks through the Ithatur... so everyone gets to talk to it)

Now I'm thinking that Camera's next lot of xp maybe should go that direction.


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## Tokiwong (Jan 15, 2007)

Graf said:
			
		

> It's funny, I was looking derisively at the one dot (*) Ithatur gift from Lore of the Forsaken that lets you speak to a single spirit without stepping over into the Shadow...
> (you channel the spirit so it speaks through the Ithatur... so everyone gets to talk to it)
> 
> Now I'm thinking that Camera's next lot of xp maybe should go that direction.



 There are many nice gifts in *Lore of the Forsaken*


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## Tokiwong (Jan 15, 2007)

http://www.enworld.org/forums/showpost.php?p=3252132&postcount=1

This post has a listing of NPC's not covered in the books, this will also include spirits that the group encounters, just to keep things straight


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## Festy_Dog (Jan 17, 2007)

I'm going to be unable to contact the boards for about a week, but I'll pop in if I get the opportunity during that time.


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## Shayuri (Jan 18, 2007)

Er...what DO my Gifts do? I just picked the ones that seemed most in concept from the names.


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## Tokiwong (Jan 18, 2007)

I am sure someone will let you know, or I will give you the lowdown when I get home from work


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## Shalimar (Jan 18, 2007)

Death sight allows you to see ghosts and you can see where people or higher level animals have died via phantom blood stains.

Clarity is a Rahu gift that gives you an extra +5 to initiative for 1 essence point, it lets you get the jump in a lot of battles.

Wolf's Blood Lure gives you a +1 to social rolls dealing with dogs and wolves and you can communicate with them in any of your forms.


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## Tokiwong (Jan 23, 2007)

I am here, sorry Burning Crusade came out and sucked away my life, updates this week


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## DrZombie (Jan 23, 2007)

that's one addiction i stayed well away from (i don't have any self-control whatsoever, but I know myself, so I don't start   )


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## Graf (Jan 23, 2007)

WB!
No sweat!


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## DrZombie (Jan 29, 2007)

Tokiwong said:
			
		

> I am here, sorry Burning Crusade came out and sucked away my life, updates this week




Aren't you lvl 70  by now?


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## Tokiwong (Jan 29, 2007)

DrZombie said:
			
		

> Aren't you lvl 70  by now?



 Only 46, at the moment, I still work had to start over from 1 or I would be 

On with the game.


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## Graf (Jan 30, 2007)

sorry for slow responce. just cleared a monster 48 hours. should be back on top of things for a while.


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## DrZombie (Feb 13, 2007)

anyone here from tucson, arizona?


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## Graf (Feb 14, 2007)

Fraid not.


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## Tokiwong (Mar 1, 2007)

I am back, had some serious life issues lol, I apologize and understand if people do not wish to continue.


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## Graf (Mar 1, 2007)

WB! Interested in continuing.


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## Shayuri (Mar 2, 2007)

Moi aussi. That goes for the mage game too.


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## Tokiwong (Mar 2, 2007)

sounds good


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## Festy_Dog (Mar 2, 2007)

I'm still here.


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## DrZombie (Mar 2, 2007)

Still here, ready to go. Real life doesn't really care if you have a campaign going on ENWorld. A pity, that is.


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## Shalimar (Mar 3, 2007)

Still around thoughthis is the busy part of the semester with all my projects/finals coming up,


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## Graf (Mar 7, 2007)

Awesome. Action!
(now I have to figure out what Camera would do in a fight)

Camera is in Dalu (the near-man form) (see post #146) I think Piotr is also shifted (see in post #140).


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## Tokiwong (Mar 7, 2007)

Graf said:
			
		

> Awesome. Action!
> (now I have to figure out what Camera would do in a fight)
> 
> Camera is in Dalu (the near-man form) (see post #146) I think Piotr is also shifted (see in post #140).



 I shall update the post then


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## Shalimar (Mar 7, 2007)

While your updating, its Faith not Chance, she isn't that much of a psycho.


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## Graf (Mar 7, 2007)

Cool. Now that my Str has doubled I'm ready to dish out some harm.

Just to confirm, we declare actions in initiative order, right?
I.e. Fiesty declares for Piotr, action is resolved, then Shayuri declares for Ari, action is resolved, right?


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## Tokiwong (Mar 7, 2007)

yeah for the most part although you can sort of lay the frame work if your action is independent of what will come before


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## Tokiwong (Mar 7, 2007)

Shalimar said:
			
		

> While your updating, its Faith not Chance, she isn't that much of a psycho.



 LOL I made the changes


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## Graf (Mar 15, 2007)

Tokiwong said:
			
		

> yeah for the most part although you can sort of lay the frame work if your action is independent of what will come before



Hadn't realized this. Was studying yesterday. Didn't catch the updates till this morning.



			
				Tokiwong said:
			
		

> _Camera forfeits his action this turn, and _



_
Fair enough. It's very in character anyway._


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## Tokiwong (Mar 15, 2007)

I apologize, it had just been a few days and I wanted to keep the story moving


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## Graf (Mar 15, 2007)

not at all. I made a committment to post once a day, you gave me 24 hours. More than fair.
It's an important way to keep the game from dragging.

(For bonus points you also supplied a reasonably good IC reason for Camera not doing something)


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## Tokiwong (Mar 15, 2007)

LOL thanks, this encounter should not be too bad for the pack, a little test of their strength


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## DrZombie (Mar 15, 2007)

TW, just a question : can you use powers while in war form (resist pain, in this case?), and do they take up an action? At work this week, no acces to books.


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## Tokiwong (Mar 15, 2007)

DrZombie said:
			
		

> TW, just a question : can you use powers while in war form (resist pain, in this case?), and do they take up an action? At work this week, no acces to books.



 Yes you can use Gifts, and yes they take actions dependent on the gift, but changing using essence is a reflexive action so he can shift and attack with his mighty klaive


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## Graf (Apr 1, 2007)

I will be heading away for my wedding/honeymoon in a few days (i.e. on the 3rd) and returning on the 17th.

I will try to stay in touch but we'll be moving around a lot and it may not be possible.

Camera will generally continue to transform into garou and attack like a proper werewolf. After the battle he'll be mopy and a bit quiet and follow people's leads.


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## Shalimar (Apr 1, 2007)

Umm, we just filled up on essence, and we are standing next to an essence battery, just use a point to successfully transform.


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## Graf (Apr 2, 2007)

I like the idea that Camera is young and inexperienced. And also that he thinks of essence as being a valuable commodity.


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## Tokiwong (Apr 6, 2007)

*War against the Pure* is freaking awesome!


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## Tokiwong (Apr 8, 2007)

I will be out of town for the week, starting Sunday the 8th through Friday the 15th, expect slow posts while I am on Holiday.


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## DrZombie (Jun 6, 2007)

Annual leave with wife and kiddies for two weeks, off to southern france, swimming, drinking wine, hiking and doing nothing; I'd say i'll miss you guys but i'd be lying.


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## Tokiwong (Jun 6, 2007)

DrZombie said:
			
		

> Annual leave with wife and kiddies for two weeks, off to southern france, swimming, drinking wine, hiking and doing nothing; I'd say i'll miss you guys but i'd be lying.



 Have fun boozing it up


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## DrZombie (Jul 3, 2007)

Is this show still running?


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## Shayuri (Jul 3, 2007)

I haven't seen Toki in awhile now...


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## Graf (Jul 4, 2007)

I confess to wishing to continue to play.
I know the story has been somewhat erratic but, in addition to being attached to my (admittedly obnoxiously quirky) character I was looking forward to seeing the development of our pack.

Oh plus the usual: Love/want to play nWoD Werewolf and don't have time to play in a "real" (i.e. over-the-table) game.

I also thought we had a good character mix. Sometimes people struggle with their own desires for their characters and the needs of the group but I thought we were doing well. Nice werewolfie tension without tipping over into (too many) random brawls.

Oh and we were finally getting to the good stuff too.


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