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.
Comments
41 responses to “Editing, ho! [Werewolf: The Forsaken]”
Hooray.
Hooray!!
Just a follow-up to the Primal Urge section, does 2nd edition include any suggestions for when buying more Primal Urge is appropriate or how it feels from an in-character perspective?
BP in vampire increases every 50 years and Gnosis increase in mage is often accompanied by a mystery play, but werewolf never had anything more than “spend some xp and it goes up” for Primal Urge and it’s always bothered me.
Contagious wolf-bloodedness! I like it! Devious!
I wonder, can you spend more than 1 Essence on healing each turn?
Say you heal 3B each turn for free, and upgrade it to 3L with Essence, can you spend another point of Essence to heal 6L?
Damned hope so.
I really hope *not*. It’d turn combat with a higher Primal Urge Werewolf into agg or nothing, until they’ve burned through their entire essence reserve. That slows combat down excessively, or in the case of PCs, renders them all but invincible to non agg sources of damage, trivializing combat against things without similar regenerative capabilities, which, again, become attrition contests.
Capping out at 6 levels of reflexive damage regeneration feels like a good number. Most PCs won’t get that high, which means there’s a good number of sources that can cause enough damage to, if they can survive long enough, slowly whittle them down.
We already know that werewolves heal ALL Bashing and ALL Lethal damage EVERY TURN if they’re in Gauru form, so I’m pretty sure they won’t limit it this way.
Gauru form is very short lived, and tends to result in or be the result of, Kuruth. It’s not the same thing.
There’s a reason why the insane regeneration is limited to that form.
Oh that’s great news. I’ve been looking forward to this 🙂
Liked the idea of contagious Wolf Blood, but I would it rather be the result of the classic werewolf bite.
But anyways I’m dying to see the finished product!
Apply further penalties, OR another breaking point upon being bitten.
Or BOTH Breaking Point and penalty by being bitten by (wolf) Uratha. Voila, “I was bitten by the werewolf” story is true now. }:->
I love the new wolf-blooded so much. It really ties to werewolf myths of contacting the curse, makes being wolf-blood not a kinfolk sort of deal but a fate forced upon you and it shows why you can’t friggin’ trust lunacy to cover your tracks and walk away safely.
On the other hand, I can see plots involving massive displays of Lunacy to bolster either Pure or Forsaken ranks. After all, it seems there’s gonna be a rite to trigger First Changes.
…So Pure can now create shovelhead werewolves? Shit, that’s even better.
Shovelhead wolf-bloods, but otherwise yes. I don’t think Fire-Touched, of all people, have moral scruples against driving their agents mad to awaken the power of Father Wolf within them. They may actually regard it as morally purer.
Will there be any mention of other changing breeds in any capacity? I know they aren’t a major part of the mythology in this game but its always been rather vague as to whether the Forsaken shared their origins in some fashion with these others or if each changing breed is a product of a unique and very specific genesis in ancient history.
Additionally, is the story of Father Wolf as told in the 1e Core still the dominant origin story or will there be side bars questioning its authenticity or mentioning conflicting evidence / alternative beliefs held by Werewolves?
The top-level Essence/spirit consumption suggests that Father Wolf remains the dominant legend, since it makes the Uratha so much more like him.
There’s always been other myths, Forsaken was rife with them. In this one so far we know that the gender isn’t sure. So you could have Mother Wolf and Father Moon just as much as you could Father Wolf and Mother Luna.
Wonderful news. Skolis_Ur be praised!!
Maybe I missed it, but if I can ask anything. What sort of coverage do the pure get?
This all superbly awesome and I really like the insanity of contagious wolfblooding…that’s a total “Holy Shit!” moment.
I’m curious, about the werewolf’s senses. How do things like Hearing, Scent and Sight work in the various forms?
By the way I have a question: How are the mechanics for entering the Shadows? It’s still the same?
And do werewolfs still suffer from social penalties based on Primal Urge?(Personal opinion: I hope not, it’s such a remnant from Apocalypse, and Forsaken is stepping up to be its on game)
Five words: Wolf Blooded made from Lunacy! And human flesh eating predators bodhisattvas! }:->
I like it. And really glad to hear it’s on the move again.
One question, when you say, “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.”
Did you mean Primal Urge? Or is it dependent on how much essence they have?
This is so cool, I still can’t believe that were getting a second edition for all of the World of Darkness games. I can’t wait…no seriously, I can’t, Werewolf is my favorite WoD game, it’s killing me the waiting.
“On a dramatic failure, the victim of Lunacy also becomes Wolf-Blooded.”
This opens up so many questions. :S If you become a wolf-blooded this way does that mean you can go through the first change? If yes are there any differences between a “naturally born” werewolf and a “lunacy-cursed” werewolf? There has to be, right? This is also starting to enter Vampire territory. What happens when you curse someone? Is it considered a bad thing or a good thing? If you curse someone is it your job to take care of her? Are there punishments for doing this? Are the Uratha aware of this phenomenon?
Questions, questions, questions. :S
I think it hints that all uratha/wolf-bloods are less born and more just randomly chosen by Luna. You could be the most weepiest desk jockey and still Change in your 40s.
Minor thing, but to make it easier to reference later, can the Open Development and Werewolf: The Forsaken tags get added to the post?
Oh, also, I take it that, with the book only just going into editing that we shouldn’t expect it to release before mid-late December, at the earliest?
Can you elaborate on any changes made to how loci work and how they are formed?
I am intrigued by this, for sure. nWoD always frustrated me in that, I didn’t like the setting material quite as much, but I LOVED the rules so much better than cWoD. Though, it annoyed me that certain design decisions were made strictly for the sake of balancing. In other words, they had to limit the number of turns that Uratha could remain in Garou so that they wouldn’t have too much of an advantage in a fight with a Vampire, or whatever. It doesn’t make much sense to me, beyond that. I would be fine with it, though, if you could CHOOSE to remain in Garou beyond the Stamina+PU+Renown limit, but you MUST enter Death Rage. That is a little more in line with Werewolf mythology, I think, than a Werewolf who randomly changes to a different form in the middle of a fight.
Then run it that way? That’s a super simple house rule patch, if it’s bothering you.
What’s up with Blood and Bone?
This just made my day! Thanks.
The more I hear the more I’m looking forward to the second edition.
This waiting is torture. ;_;
Could something be said about the lodges?
This might be a little late for another question, but it just occurred to me to ask: Is there going to be anything in the book about how humans interact with the shadow? The big theme of werewolf is to keep the shadow and flesh in balance, this is normally done by making the spirits behave when they step out of line. Do you have any information about how humans step out of line, or push too much of the physical world into the shadow or anything like that? I’m really curious to see some presentation of Humans as antagonists especially since they’re one of the tribes favored prey.
I should preface my (last-minute) question by noting that my group mostly plays Mage; I’ve never played a high-experience Werewolf character.
Based on what you’ve told us so far, do you expect it will be very difficult for a werewolf with high Primal Urge to avoid hitting Harmony 0?
In One Foot in Flesh and One Foot in Spirit, you say:
“Werewolves face two kinds of breaking point. Breaking points toward spirit reflect events that remind a werewolf of her inhumanity and supernatural nature…. Uratha who want to retain balance need to find ways to hit breaking points towards flesh, because they’ll hit a whole lot towards spirit just by being a werewolf.”
and in this blog post, you’ve discussed the drawbacks of high Primal Urge, like needing to undertake the Siskur-Dah more often and needing to consume Essence (exclusively?) at “the apex level” — potentially by eating people.
Now, this has already been touched upon very briefly on the first page of the forum thread for this blog post, with an answer to the effect of “Harmony ? human upbringing” per se. However, I find it difficult to separate the two. How does “[shedding one’s] human upbringing” not make it harder to hit those breaking points towards flesh? I can’t imagine that being at high Primal Urge somehow absolves one from the human end of the Harmony spectrum. Also, it seems to me that both becoming part of Uratha culture and the sheer passage of time tending to rob a werewolf of “things that remind the werewolf of the human life before her Change” by way of death, alienation, etc., would compound the problem further. How would a high Primal Urge werewolf even relate to humanity and human life by that point?
By way of comparison, I didn’t have as much trouble grasping the concept in 1e W:tF, but then I feel this iteration better reflects the themes and mood of the game line. I’m just having trouble wrapping my head around this now.
Quick correction: the question mark in the phrase “Harmony ? human upbringing” should have been a not-equal sign (=/=), but apparently the comment system doesn’t recognize that character?
With the new Werewolf 2E, what type of feel are you attempting to cultivate with the new game line image? Before, it was Savage Fury and while it sounded good on paper, the game played out in many ways as angry spirit police.