Where was I? Oh yeah, Brad's character had just changed, the characters name is Christian but anyone who knows Werewolf will know that name won't last long. So, Christian is now gazing into the pool at his reflection in the water wondering just what happened, he looks at his Garou form with a million questions burning in his brain, both in and out of game. Christian wonders just what has happened to him. Brad wonders what exactly this new form is able to do, and why that strange woman turned into a White Tree. He is overcome by all of this, and drifts back into a sleep.
The Black Spirals stalking Christian have been slaughtered by the local Shadow Lords protecting the area, all the commotion near the Umbral Lake has alerted the local Theurges to something being up. The Lords find young Christian, unconscious. He is brought to the sept and left in the Den to be cared for.
When he wakes up. He wonders, was this real? Brad thinks that maybe everything was just a dream. He hears Thunder, he looks around and sees that he is in some sort of cave with strange marking littering the walls. The floors are padded with many animal skins and a fire burns smokelessly in the centre. A voice startles him.
"Awake, I see."
It is the Den Mother, Mekayla "Thunder's Last Strike", Fostern Ragabash speaking to him. Calmly she informs him of where he is, and answers many if the burning questions in his head. He learns that they have been expecting his change for some time, and that his true father is a Garou, and Warder to the Sept. He learns of Gaia and the purpose of the Garou, he learns the very basics from his Den Mother.
Mekayla introduces Christian to a few other Garou in the Sept. The guardian pack Endless Battle, they serve Alus, the Fog totem. The pack is three strong with an Ahroun (Umbral Stalker), a Ragabash ( Laughs at Disaster), and their Theurge (Dances on the Storm). Together they investigate the Umbral Lake. Christian has convinced the pack and the Den Mother that there might be something important about his vision. Upon reaching the lake, they find a pack do Red Talons who have also noticed something strange.
Immediately, tensions rise, some of the Lords and Talons have to bite back their rage just to resist an all out fight at first. After both packs argue over who should protect and investigate, rages heighten to the boiling point again.
"We cannot fight here. This is Holy Ground, like a Caern, ye shall take no action to violate it." Christians words rang true to everyone present, and they knew in their hearts that the mysterious white tree was a gift of the mother. While they all were technically in the protectorate of the Talons. After Christian spoke, informing all present of his vision, and of his belief that the mysterious woman was Gaia herself, the Talons, sensing truth allowed these Lords to inspect the tree. Brad was pleased, he got himself a boss roll, plus I congratulated him on good use of the Litany.
So they all gather around the tree, and it starts shimmering, a flower bursts out of a bun then quickly becomes a strange "White-capped acorn-seed-thing" that falls into Christians hands. The Umbral tree quickly dies, leaving a shadow of itself in the physical realm. The Garou all wonder at this, and decide to head to their respective septs to consult their more experienced Theurges. Brad himself knows he has to plant this seed somewhere, upon receiving the seed, he had a vision where he stood in a mysterious grove with four other Garou, each holding something important to that grove.
They all head back to their Sept. Brad talks to many Theurges, he asks a million and one questions. His attention to the details of the Umbra and how the Spirits interact with him makes me think he would have made a good Theurge as well, he also plays up the fact that he is a pup and everyone is his elder. Sometimes he forgets his place, but I have most of the NPC's snap him back into it. This is where he learns about totems and spirits and how they are effectively the Garou gods, he questions about the nature of the Wyrm and why they fight it. I give him the story they the Wyrm is mad, and has been corrupted. There is a shadow of its former self, the Balancer, somewhere in the umbra, but cannot resume its job until the corrupter is destroyed. He shares his visions with the Theurges, they decide that Gaia has chosen his pack, and that his will obviously have to travel somewhere else to meet his destiny. He is taught in the ways of Garou combat, he is taught the laws and he is taught how to be a Shadow Lord. All under the watchful eye of his father.
Time passes, and I feel he is ready for his rite of passage. He is to venture into the woods far to the west, and find a spirit with a large fang. He is to get the fang, anyway he sees fit. Brad likes this challenge, the fang he got from the raven worked really well, although it was missing when he later woke up.
The rite of passage Comming soon...
Thursday, 2 May 2013
The Half Moon
Okay, so I said I'd post the first step tomorrow, but I have some free time and I want to get as much of this down while it is still somewhat fresh in my mind.
I'd like to point out I'm using the oWod rules, I like the new mechanics, but am not a fan of the new setting. I know they really needed to clean everything up, but it's not a direction I would have gone in.
Brad's Story
Brad created a young werewolf using my variant of the White Wolf character creation method. 15 Attribute points, 27 Ability points, 20 Freebie points. He picked his breed and auspice gift upon creation. That's pretty much what a Rank 1 werewolf gets, but where I wasn't sure that everyone solo adventures would get them all on the same level, I informed everyone that during their individual gaming they wouldn't get XP but rather renown. Anyway, I digress. Brad's werewolf is Homid born, a Philodox, and he indicates that he wants to be a Shadow Lord. For his attributes he spreads them out fairly evenly, although his social and mental stats are both slightly better than his physical stats, good for a Philodox in my mind. Likewise, he spreads his Abilities out, although he centres on Empathy, Intimidation, Leadership and Investigation. I don't allow new characters to have any Abilities above 3 dots without good reason, mind you. His character is supposed to be a young teen who is the "Mayors Son" and as such receives good schooling, because of his skill set and his place in society, he chooses to play as the schoolyard bully, leading a small group of mean kids. I like this backstory, I think it will be fun to play. With his Advantages, he picks Ancestory and Pure Breed at 3 each. He picks Persuasion and Truth of Gaia as his beginning gifts, and finally spends points to make his Rage and Gnosis even at 4, and buys up his willpower to 5. Overall he has a well balanced starting character, with good dice pools for the skills he will be called upon often during his rite of passage.
I do notice he has absolutely no Primal Urge. I gleefully scheme inside.
I start with him dreaming. I figure that's probably the best way to start him off, to get him wondering. I throw imagery of storms, great trees, serpents, wolves and a great big moon. I know Brad, he isn't used to the metaphysical although he patiently listens, taking notes and trying to figure it all out. Over the course of the next few days this boy who is usually the bully of the school finds himself stalked by mysterious wolves in the woods, he hears them fighting just at the edge of his vision. This bully boy is scared. He dreams of a tree in the woods, and a little girl inside the tree. Bravely, or foolishly, he seeks out this tree, despite the fear of the wolves.
I should note here that Brad is under the impression that the wolves are "His People" just waiting for him to change. They are in fact, His People, fighting off a harrying pack of Black Spirals.
Brad is insistent that he will find something in the woods, some tree. I am sure I did not indicate to him that the tree is in the woods next to his house, but I figure I should give it to him. He finds a great oak tree that stands out from the rest, in a little grove. He surprises me, instead of knocking on the tree, or calling out or demanding some spirit come see him, he chooses to take in the beauty of the place, and sleeps under the tree.
Awe, look at him being all spiritual. So I decide that he should go through his first change somewhere around here. He wakes up in the glade, but it looks so much more alive and vibrant, he heard the laughter of a child and he plays a little hide and seek with the spirit living in the tree. Wordlessly, she guides him on a spirit trail, so a hidden lake where se sees a beautiful woman stroking a great stormcrow resting on her arm. She disappears, and the Stormcrow flies towards Brad, and gifts him with a sharp fang. Where the woman was, now resides a growing white tree. I tell Brad he sees something dark, a shadow in the lake, racing for the tree. He jumps in, and attacks what he finds out later was a nightmare bane. Lucky roller too, he one shotted it. I tell him when he climbs out of the lake, he notices that his hands are now huge, furred and have great talons on the tips of his fingers. He has changed.
Will continue this at a later time....
I'd like to point out I'm using the oWod rules, I like the new mechanics, but am not a fan of the new setting. I know they really needed to clean everything up, but it's not a direction I would have gone in.
Brad's Story
Brad created a young werewolf using my variant of the White Wolf character creation method. 15 Attribute points, 27 Ability points, 20 Freebie points. He picked his breed and auspice gift upon creation. That's pretty much what a Rank 1 werewolf gets, but where I wasn't sure that everyone solo adventures would get them all on the same level, I informed everyone that during their individual gaming they wouldn't get XP but rather renown. Anyway, I digress. Brad's werewolf is Homid born, a Philodox, and he indicates that he wants to be a Shadow Lord. For his attributes he spreads them out fairly evenly, although his social and mental stats are both slightly better than his physical stats, good for a Philodox in my mind. Likewise, he spreads his Abilities out, although he centres on Empathy, Intimidation, Leadership and Investigation. I don't allow new characters to have any Abilities above 3 dots without good reason, mind you. His character is supposed to be a young teen who is the "Mayors Son" and as such receives good schooling, because of his skill set and his place in society, he chooses to play as the schoolyard bully, leading a small group of mean kids. I like this backstory, I think it will be fun to play. With his Advantages, he picks Ancestory and Pure Breed at 3 each. He picks Persuasion and Truth of Gaia as his beginning gifts, and finally spends points to make his Rage and Gnosis even at 4, and buys up his willpower to 5. Overall he has a well balanced starting character, with good dice pools for the skills he will be called upon often during his rite of passage.
I do notice he has absolutely no Primal Urge. I gleefully scheme inside.
I start with him dreaming. I figure that's probably the best way to start him off, to get him wondering. I throw imagery of storms, great trees, serpents, wolves and a great big moon. I know Brad, he isn't used to the metaphysical although he patiently listens, taking notes and trying to figure it all out. Over the course of the next few days this boy who is usually the bully of the school finds himself stalked by mysterious wolves in the woods, he hears them fighting just at the edge of his vision. This bully boy is scared. He dreams of a tree in the woods, and a little girl inside the tree. Bravely, or foolishly, he seeks out this tree, despite the fear of the wolves.
I should note here that Brad is under the impression that the wolves are "His People" just waiting for him to change. They are in fact, His People, fighting off a harrying pack of Black Spirals.
Brad is insistent that he will find something in the woods, some tree. I am sure I did not indicate to him that the tree is in the woods next to his house, but I figure I should give it to him. He finds a great oak tree that stands out from the rest, in a little grove. He surprises me, instead of knocking on the tree, or calling out or demanding some spirit come see him, he chooses to take in the beauty of the place, and sleeps under the tree.
Awe, look at him being all spiritual. So I decide that he should go through his first change somewhere around here. He wakes up in the glade, but it looks so much more alive and vibrant, he heard the laughter of a child and he plays a little hide and seek with the spirit living in the tree. Wordlessly, she guides him on a spirit trail, so a hidden lake where se sees a beautiful woman stroking a great stormcrow resting on her arm. She disappears, and the Stormcrow flies towards Brad, and gifts him with a sharp fang. Where the woman was, now resides a growing white tree. I tell Brad he sees something dark, a shadow in the lake, racing for the tree. He jumps in, and attacks what he finds out later was a nightmare bane. Lucky roller too, he one shotted it. I tell him when he climbs out of the lake, he notices that his hands are now huge, furred and have great talons on the tips of his fingers. He has changed.
Will continue this at a later time....
Werewolf DA
The folks at White Wolf Publishing created a line of games that became quite popular in the mid to late nineties. It's flagship creation, Vampire: The Masquerade allowed RP Gamers to play out the "unlives" of Vampires stalking the night in a bleak and dark reflection of our own world. The system is elegant, easy to learn and very easy to tune for your own style of gaming. I have been playing White Wolf games for some 15 years, I would not say I am a master by any means, but I have learned a few wonderful Storytelling tricks of my own and proud of many of the games I have run.
So, a Dark Ages Werewolf game somehow creeped up on me. See, I was planning to run a Dark Ages Vampire chronicle (White Wolf uses chronicle instead of adventure) but my best Vampire player, suddenly gets an itch for Werewolf, infects the other confirmed Vampire players, leads a revolt, and now it's a DA Werewolf game. It was a little less dramatic then that I am told, but I disagree completely, it was like the battle of Waterloo damnit.
So most of these people have never even cracked a werewolf book, they're probably thinking the game is more like D&D, smash stuff, get reward, move on. Ha! I decided to help introduce them to the game by running their first change to rite of passage solo, individually away from everyone else. It's working out really well, so well that I want to document it's progress. This is that document, hopefully if you like what you read, maybe you can suggest plot hooks, NPC's that would be cool, themes that need addressing, or how I'm going too easy on the Players.
Okay, so we have in the group Myself (The Storyteller, same thing as the DM or GM, etc.) Brad (Christian Sees-the-true-Foe, Philodox, Shadow Lord), and Sara (Ariadne, Theurge, Black Furies). These two have either began or are finished the solo part of the game, we also have Andrew (Ahroun, Silver Fang) and Cavan (Galliard, Get of Fenris), these two haven't started the solo adventures yet so I won't talk much about them yet. Yes, I am trying to get one of each auspice, not easy around here. We need a Ragabash still, and I would like another female gamer, I find a good balance of girls and boys in game just enriches the experience for everyone involved.
My intentions for this game, is to try and weave a story that spans generations of Garou. My players, so used to Vampire and playing a static undead, unchanging thing across the ravages of time might like the opportunity to switch auspices, breed or even tribe as time goes on. I hope that some choose to play out a family line, strengthening the ties to their ancestors. One can hope and set the stage for grand things, alas, as always, it is up to the players, so for now, baby steps, baby steps, baby steps.
Step 1: Get the players into the skin of their characters.
More tomorrow!
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)