Editing, ho! [Werewolf: The Forsaken]

News, Open Development, Werewolf: The Forsaken

The big news? Werewolf: The Forsaken 2nd Edition has gone off to editing. I’ve compiled everyone’s final drafts, incorporated playtest feedback, and cross-checked as best one person can that everything lines up. It’s taken a while, not just because of little things like the W20 Book of the Wyrm kickstarter, but also things going on offline. Anyway. That’s all sorted and the book’s hit a blood great milestone.

When last I blogged, we’d just announced that the book formerly known as The Idigam Chronicle was now Werewolf: The Forsaken 2nd Edition. Doesn’t time fly? In the comments to that post, people asked about three things. Well, mainly one but also a couple of others. Let’s get in to them.

Totems

Lots of people want to know about totems. Which is cool, as totems are cool.

Totem creation is the final step in pack creation, which we’ve gone in to before. The details of a pack’s totem are worked out between the characters. First, you come up with a name and a concept for the spirit, then add an Aspiration and a Ban. The Aspiration works like any other character’s, but it applies to members of the pack as well. The ban also applies to the whole pack; anyone who violates it once is forced to uphold it by the totem’s power. Should he violate the ban again, the totem withdraws its blessing from that member of the pack.

Pack members contribute dots in the Totem Merit. These dots determine two things. First, the number of totem points gives the pack a number of Experiences that they can use to buy benefits, including Merits, Skill Specialties, Skill dots, or Attributes. This benefit applies to everyone in the pack. A powerful totem could add a dot of Strength or Wits to every pack member, while others get additional Resources, or have the benefits of Striking Looks or being a Barfly.

Secondly, the players use these combined Totem Merit dots to buy the totem’s traits. The totem is, after all, a member of the pack. It joins them in the Siskur-Dah, and some Facets call on the totem’s power directly in the world of Flesh.

Primal Urge

Primal Urge is the Uratha’s innermost instinct; it’s the fire inside that yearns to overwhelm, kill, and consume. As her Primal Urge increases, a werewolf sheds her human upbringing. She becomes closer to the Goddess of the Hunt, the ultimate predator. A few werewolves, those who follow the raging beast within, feel the drive to become something more — a bodhisattva predator akin to the Firstborn, or even to Father Wolf himself.

Primal Urge still covers how much Essence a werewolf can hold and spend, and yes, we’ve updated it to bring the Essence amounts into line with the other World of Darkness games. It also covers how much Bashing damage a character regenerates each turn, from one point of damage at Essence 1, to six points of damage each turn at Essence 10. Spending one point of Essence allows that regeneration to heal lethal damage instead. It also gives a bonus to tracking, which plugs in to the new tracking system that we’ve got going on.

Primal Urge isn’t all good, of course. The higher your Primal Urge, the longer you spend in Basu-Im, the killing insanity stage of Death Rage. At higher levels of Primal Urge, you have to engage in the Siskur-Dah more often, or you start bleeding Essence and suffering Breaking Points. It also limits what you can eat. At lower levels of Primal Urge, you may just have to eat meat, or raw meat. As you grow in power, you start having to eat the flesh of other carnivores. At the apex level, you must consume Essence. Most werewolves try to limit themselves to spirits. Others turn to the far more common source of spiritual power: human flesh.

Lunacy

Lunacy takes the form of a breaking point for witnesses who use Integrity. Creatures that don’t use Integrity don’t suffer Lunacy. The roll to resist the breaking point has modifiers based on the werewolf’s form and Primal Urge.

Succeeding at the breaking point works as normal. The character gains a Condition, but also has a –2 modifier for the rest of the scene as she tries to work through the fear. The interesting thing comes when she fails the roll. Characters who fail gain a Lunacy Condition, reducing her to atavistic savagery, shutting down her ability to process the world in front of her, or makes her open to spirit possession.

On a dramatic failure, the victim of Lunacy also becomes Wolf-Blooded.

Questions?

In two weeks — no, really, I’ve set a reminder — I’m going to post again, but it’s not going to be on one (or even three) topics like it has been. Instead, ask me a question in the comments to this post and I’ll put them up in the next blogpost. Think of it like a Reddit AMA (ask-me-anything). Be as general or specific as you like, but bear in mind that I can’t talk about future books until Rich announces them.

Finally, Half Man Half Biscuit speak to the Uratha experience.