First things first. Let me state that I really appreciate all the feedback we get on these posts. Clearly we’re not going to be able to make everyone happy when you have different factions wanting different things out of the book, but it’s nice to not damn the torpedoes and forge ahead blindly. We like the feedback, thanks!
Second things: Upon review of the outline, seems we have a little more room for word count in the spreads of the Lost Tribes. The Gifts will not be part of the spreads: in fact, they’d had some room budgeted separately for them. So things are looking up.
Shall we have a sample?
Croatan
When the continents split apart and the Garou divided themselves into tribes, three made the long walk across the ice to the Americas. These three, the self-described Lands Garou, were the Uktena, Croatan, and Wendigo. Today only two remain. Middle Brother, the steadfast Croatan tribe, is gone. But tragic as their loss was, it was also noble. Where the Bunyip were slain by their own kin and the White Howlers fell to the Wyrm, the Croatan sacrificed themselves to the last to banish a great evil. To this day, many wish it hadn’t been necessary. If only they had lived, perhaps the Uktena and Wendigo would not be so close to the brink. If only they had had more help, perhaps the Garou Nation would still have their strength. If only they had been able to slay the Eater-of-Souls outright, the Wyrm’s strength would have been cut by a third. If only.
The Croatan earned their name of Middle Brother not from age-based seniority, but from their role among the three Pure Lands tribes. The Wendigo were always angry and rash by compare, full of the fires of youth. The cunning Uktena sought wisdom, sometimes at the expense of the here and now. The Croatan took the balanced path between the two. They were passionate but not mercurial, savvy but not over-introspective.
Another aspect of the Croatan’s tribal mentality came from their elemental connection. The Croatan drew strength from the earth itself, channeled through their totem Turtle. They were solid and steadfast, not as slippery as the water-influenced Uktena and their river serpent totem, or as cold and furious as the Wendigo and their bitter wind-spirit allies. This influence had its drawbacks, of course. The Croatan were a stubborn tribe, often to the point of inflexibility. When blood spilled between the Three Brothers — and it did from time to time — the Croatan had their share of the fault.
Also matching their ties to the earth, Croatan were strong believers in the sept and the caern. They took the concept of sacred lands more seriously than most Garou ever did. They were also a fairly practical tribe, not much given to poetry or fancy. They called the five auspices Trickster, Shaman, Law Giver, Songkeeper and Warrior — some say because they found the old Garou tongue names a little too nuanced.
The Croatan’s fall came in the late 16th century, when it seemed the Apocalypse was about to come early. Eater-of-Souls (also known to the Croatan as Jipijka’m), one of the three heads of the Triatic Wyrm, had drawn so near to the physical world that it would soon physically manifest. The entire tribe gathered to fight, even as they knew that battle would not be enough. When the Eater-of-Souls broke through into the material world, the Croatan enacted a great rite to make the ultimate sacrifice. They gave themselves to the last, dealing Eater-of-Souls a vicious wound and banishing it back to the Umbra for many centuries of healing.
Yet the cost was a tribe. The Croatan were gone forever — even their ancestor-spirits participated in the rite. Their bloodlines would merge with those of other tribes, or be lost entirely. In the modern day there are legends that perhaps a single ancestor-spirit survived, or that there is one cub of pure blood that might awaken Turtle as a tribal patron again. There’s always hope. But the Uktena elders shake their heads, and say quietly that it’s a vain hope — comforting, perhaps, but nothing else.
Appearance: In their hybrid or wolf forms, Croatan with strong Pure Breed tended to have rich dark brown coats that shone like mahogany, with a slight dark brindling or mottling along the back and hindquarters. They were otherwise a very diverse tribe, deriving as they did from an entire third of the various nations of the Pure Lands.
Kinfolk & Territory: The Croatan preferred to leave the most northern portions of the Pure Lands to the Wendigo, and never ranged as far south as the Uktena did. They favored the lands around the Mississippi and much of the North American East Coast. Stories place them alternately as staunch allies of Mound Builder societies such as Cahokia, or as the force that turned on them to destroy them — or sometimes both. They took their human Kin from a wide variety of nations, most of whom were adopted by the Uktena and Wendigo shortly after the Croatan’s disappearance.
Tribal Totem: Turtle, a mighty spirit of earth and water said to hold up the world. He taught the Croatan much about fortitude and enduring hardship, and with their loss, he fell into a slumber from which he has yet to wake. Other totems revered by the Croatan include Thunderbird, Corn Maiden, the Earth-burrowers and the trickster Trout.
Character Creation: The Croatan were the most social of the Three Brothers, and many expressed this tendency with their Attributes and Abilities. They were a stolid, enduring tribe, and favored Traits that enhanced their resilience in one way or another, such as Survival.
Initial Willpower: 4
Background Restrictions: No restrictions.
Beginning Gifts: Master of Fire, Mindspeak, Turtle Body, Wyld Resurgence
Quote: “Older Brother is wise, and teaches us wisdom; but he is also a little too wise for his own good, and so he teaches us humility. Younger brother is brave, and teaches us bravery; but he is also a little too brave for his own good, and so he teaches us patience.”
Croatan Gifts
• Master of Fire (Level One) — As the homid Gift.
• Mindspeak (Level One) — As the Galliard Gift.
• Turtle Body (Level One) — Many of the Croatan’s Gifts emulated the power of their patron, Turtle. This Gift allows the Garou to emulate Turtle’s stoicism by slowing his metabolism into a torpor-like state. The werewolf becomes inactive, but can go without breathing for hours at a time and ignore extremes of heat or cold. Uncontrolled bleeding stops, and any poison working its way through the werewolf’s system is greatly slowed, not taking effect for hours.
System: The player spends one Gnosis and rolls Gnosis, difficulty 6; success indicates that the werewolf enters the trance. The trance lasts for up to one hour per success, although the Garou may choose to awaken after a specific amount of time has passed.
• Wyld Resurgence (Level One) — As the Black Fury Gift.
• Strength of Purpose (Level Two) — As the Philodox Gift.
• Turtle Shell (Level Two) — The Garou can seal herself in a mystic protective shield that resembles a turtle’s shell. The shell is opaque from the outside, but those on the inside can see through it. The werewolf can opt to bring others into the shell with her, if her power is sufficient.
System: The player spends one Gnosis and rolls Stamina + Survival. Each success gives the shell two soak dice and two effective health levels; the radius enclosed is two yards per success. A Crinos-form werewolf requires about two yards radius, so with two successes, two werewolves in Crinos could be protected (or three humans or Homid-form Garou, or so on, at the Storyteller’s discretion).
The shell lasts for one scene, or until broken either by the Gift user’s will or by sustaining too much damage — whichever comes first. When broken, it shatters into pieces that dissolve like so much mist.
• Call Earth Spirit (Level Three) — This Gift is another of those that draws on the ancient alliance with Turtle, summoning an earth-spirit to rampage forth and crush things or people at the werewolf’s bidding. The Garou must have some earth at hand to invoke the earth-spirit, although a handful of dirt or a smallish rock will suffice.
System: The player spends one Gnosis and rolls Manipulation + Occult, difficulty 8. The spirit cuts a path of destruction in a straight line for up to 30 yards, inflicting 10 dice of lethal damage to anything in its path. Botching the summoning roll calls forth an earth-spirit of some sort that is hostile to its summoner.
• Shell (Level Three) — As the metis Gift.
• Hand of the Earth Lords (Level Four) — As the Uktena Gift.
• Stronger on Stone (Level Four) — Just as the Uktena were mighty in the waters and the Wendigo drew power from the winds, the Croatan were at their strongest when standing on the earth itself. This Gift allows a werewolf to mimic that strength — the closer the Garou’s tie to earth, the stronger he gets.
System: The player spends one Gnosis and one Rage. The character receives a number of bonus dice that he can add to Strength or Stamina (or divide between them) for the remainder of the scene, depending on where he stands. On dead wood, concrete or other artificial flooring, the bonus is one die. On living plant matter (such as thick grass or a tree root), the bonus is two dice. On bare earth, the bonus is three dice; on naked stone, four dice. If the character is separated from the ground (such in an airplane or on a bridge over water), the Gift has no effect.
• Katanka-Sonnak’s Spear (Level Five) — Some cultures that the Croatan took as Kin were sunworshippers. The Croatan in turn established strong ties with Helios and the Planetary Incarna of the sun, Katanka-Sonnak. This Gift springs from this alliance; by invoking the power of the sun, the Garou can call a shaft of fire from the sky to impale an enemy and immolate him in continuously burning flame.
System: The player spends a point of Gnosis and rolls Dexterity + Occult to strike the target; no range penalties apply, although the werewolf must be able to see her target. If the strike is accurate, the victim takes 10 dice of damage from fire damage each turn; this damage is aggravated, although shapeshifters are able to soak it. The fire cannot be doused with ordinary water; it will burn until 10 turns have elapsed unless quenched by a water-spirit, somehow dispelled, or until the victim takes no damage on a particular turn.
• Survivor (Level Five) — As the Bone Gnawer Gift.
Space allocated elsewhere, leaving more room for wordcount? Whoot! Now that you mention it, it would seem a bit odd that their gifts would be located in a separate place in the book.
Since the Croatan were not detailed until long after Axis Mundi, we have little-to-no idea [unless I’m missing a source somewhere] about Turtle’s Brood. Can you tell me what other Spirits might have followed Turtle’s lead? Or better yet, can we get a throwaway line in the book under each Tribal Totem’s entry about his Brood? I understand wordcount is at a premium, so even if you only gave us a sentence listing the major Spirits under each, it would still be a huge help. You know, nothing more than “Stag’s Brood includes the Spirits Dawn and Grain, as well as Spirits of rabbits, squirrels and white harts.” Even without crunch, one sentence like that gives a ton of flavor to work with.
And clearly I should not respond to these sorts of posts at 1:30 in the morning. I happened to be writing an email to my storyteller when I spotted this, and obviously I read too quickly. Consider myself chastised! ^_^;;;
If they disappeared in the late 16th century, then they probably had contact with the european settlers at that time. A lot of others told me (pre20) that they disappeared well before the first voyages, but that is awesome info for my campaign in the works! Modern day, revisiting old spirits and ancestors, healing current native/usa rifts, that sorta thing ^_^
late 16th century means latter half of 1500-1600 give or take a few decades.
I’d personally place their disappearance & sacrifice to 1620’s which was the time of the Mayflower and Roanoke colony.
Mayflower, yes, but the Roanoke lost colony was established in 1587 and was discovered to have vanished in 1590. The Plymouth Rock settlement came after Roanoke and Jamestown. It just gets all the press because we like eating turkey.
Teaches me not trust solely on memory when it comes to historical dates. 🙂
Yeah…it’s very interesting history. 1584 is when a colony settled on what is known now as Roanoke Island (23 years before Jamestown, 36 years before Plymouth). That is where Virginia Dare, the first English child (and in my story a possible Garou) was born. The colony was in need of supplies, so Commander White and his crew left for England, leaving behind 118 colonists. When he returned, the colony was completely empty and no evidence found of anything, other than the word “Croatoan” carved on a post in the fort, and “Cro” on a nearby tree. It is still unsolved, which is part of what the players in my campaign will be doing!
correction* 1587 was the correct date for the colony like Ethan said. 1584 was the charter signing xD
Nice, the word count in the description doubled. It’s still not “awesome” but I can see this solution being workable for me. I assume that there is a o% chance to get more gifts in? Will we at least have the lost tribal totems in?
I wonder if the Lost Tribes totems might show up in the Totems are of the book though and that word count is already figured in.
Katanka-Sonnak’s Spear: What is the difficulty to soak the 10 dice of damage/round? p.188 of W:tA Revised core rules would suggest a 9, or 10 difficulty, but having it stated in the Gift would be nice to have.
Also, it’s stated “or until the victim takes no damage on a particular turn.” Is that meant to imply that the flames go out when the opponent dies (i.e. “no longer takes damage”), or would it continue to burn for the rest of the 10 rounds?
Can/should this gift also be used on inanimate objects (not exactly “victims”), or would the spirits deny the use of the Gift on such things? Just curious if it would be helpful to say that it can be used like napalm or not. ^.^
More wordcount, awesome! And I like this write-up, very good.
I am a little bit confused by the Gift Wyld Resurgence — although I’ve never heard of it and don’t actually know what it does, its name and being a Black Fury Gift suggests that it is a pro-Wyld Gift. But according to Croatan Song, the Croatan were the tribe who most watched for unbalanced Wyld energy and opposed it, being allied to the Weaver. Croatan Song gives them the Gift Wyld Sight instead.
Also, typos: the first mention of Pure Lands Tribes leaves out the word “Pure,” and sun-worshippers is glommed into a single word in the above write-up.
Ahem. Please allow me to say…
BOOK OF THE CHANGING-BREEDS! This year, W20. Woohoo!
Is there going to be any address made of the fact that with a moon-bridge the ancient tribes could have always stayed connected with each other?
Also, I may have missed it but I hope combat with spirits is a little less murky. I always recall that it seemed nearly impossible to kill a spirit if it had enough essence, etc.
Ethan addressed this elsewhere recently in response to one of my posts in the Bunyip posting (I think). Basically, you gotta know where you’re going to open a Moon Bridge, and how to get there. For whatever reason, the Americas and Australia were off of the “maps” that the Garou knew at the time.
Now, that doesn’t quite explain how they didn’t run into one another in the Umbra at times, or why greater spirits didn’t clue the others in to their existence, but maybe the American/Bunyip worked hard to keep their whereabouts secret, for fear of corrupting their homelands if the others found out. I mean, they DID all agree to the Western Concordiate, and there was the whole War of Rage and Impergium and such. So maybe there was some VERY LIMITED communication at some points, but for the most part no one in Europe/Asia/Africa knew how to get to America/Australia if they even knew those places existed.
Here’s another explanation; They knew, but it wasn’t topical at the time.
European garou had their lands, their own caerns etc. They had no need to go to Pure One lands and try to take those places too (notice that even Stargazers are missing from werewolf the Dark Ages tribe roster, and they live in the same continent as the other tribes).
However, when the kin of european garou began to move to America, their garou followed and tried to establish themselves in this new land. But, because there were garou there all ready, the fight with Pure Ones happened.
I believe Rage Across Australia says the Bunyip sealed off all Umbral paths to Australia. The other Garou thought they had disappeared into the Deep Umbra, or something. IIRC, Cairns also mentions that the Uktena had to break though some magical barrier to set up a Moon Bridge to Uluru.
Similarly, I believe the Pure Lands Garou cut off all contact with the other Garou and fled to a continent that the other Tribes had no idea existed, all before the Garou Nation was set up.
Moonbridges require more than a few things.
1. A pathstone, presuably 2 of them one at each end.
2. Regular maintience, the bridge has to be opened at least once a month (Or year memory is fuzzy) to keep the pathway active.
3. Distance – bridges are distance limited and getting from here to there in a local hop is one thing but from here to there on another continent isn’t going to be possible from most places.
The best moonbridge location is the Wheel of Ptah in Morocco and it’s still limited to 10,000 miles which oddly doesn’t reach to the eastern side of australia but could potentially tap the western half. It could go anywhere else but not there.
A quick google map of sydney Australia shows that the only stuff within 5000 miles of it is indo-china, part of japan and indonesia. So unless the bunyip were tight with the emerald courts or the rokea there wasn’t anywhere for them to go.
Hello everyone!
I’m sorry I’ve been extremely busy with work and with my game in the past few months so I wasn’t available to continue championing the animal borns around here. I see the last update is from a month ago June 13th, I’d just like to know if something is wrong on my PC or if this is accurate. If so, good, that means Ethan and everyone is hard at work and I can’t wait to see what new jewel is coming our way. Still, is there anything new at all? Any announcement as for dates or ways to order the book? I’d hate to miss my chance at getting my copy 🙂 In a related note, any announcements made yet for a Grand Mascarade? Last time those two events were linked (book and mascarade) and I’d like to come this year.
Cheers!
On Saturday at Noon is the W20 panel at Gen Con.
On top of a LOT of big announcements from White Wolf/Onyx Path, I have a feeling we’re going to learn some new stuff there. 😀
Whether or not it was planned to hold off until the panel, or if there just hasn’t been much that they want to show, I think we’ll find out this weekend. 🙂
Oh that’s nice to hear. Thanks a lot Torakhan 🙂
To the risk of sounding like a broken record (sorry, I guess we just don’t get the publicity/news in Quebec), any news yet? I just saw that there’s a TON of new books on the way? Rage across the WORLD? Book of the Wyrm? Changing breeds? They look like actual new books for W20 too, unless I misunderstood and their reprints? The post talked about kickstarter, but I don’t find them.
It goes without saying I’m quiet eager to get my paws on a updated political setting. Sans goes for Victorian Lost, is that going to get printed and sold in shops?
Thanks and I hope you don’t mind me asking those kinds of questions here. I’m just a fan trying to buy those books 🙂
At the Saturday panel they said W20 would likely be on kickstatter by the end of this week or early next week and that they would media blitz 24 hours before if folks are wanting to get right on it. They said the other projects would also be kickstater deals like the V20 companion and would come along later. I only got to the W20 panel so I don’t have info on other product lines. They did say they were looking at setting up a mailing list at some point so that they can mass release info on kickstarter projects. They did not indicate a date for that at the panel.
Thank you very much. I’m glad I didn’t miss out on the opportunity to buy the books. I’ll keep an open eye for them. I even actually managed to order Victorian Lost (YEAH!).
Hey guys great work, are you going to upload the chapter 2 that was show in the gencon?
I’m waiting for the kickstarter, really great work!!
http://forums.white-wolf.com/default.aspx?g=posts&t=65764
I’ve uploaded a scan of the document that was at the Gen Con booth.
While you can view it on the Google Document site, downloading it will yield a better (20MB) file.
Hmm. I’ve been haunting this project off and on since V20. Looking forward to adding a shiny new WTA book to my stack soon. Hopefully I can round up a good pack of players once this releases. Salivating at the opportunity to throw some money at White Wolf again once they announce a kickstarter for this.
I am SO excited that so many WtA books are being made! It’s just super-great to see all those on the release schedule.
My main request for the Changing-Breeds is to totally redo how movement speed is calculated. Right now it’s based solely on Dexterity, and calculated the exact same way for every animal form except Mokole suchid forms. This results in Swara, for example, having ridiculous Dexterity modifiers in their non-homid forms. It also makes no sense — of all the animals Changing-Breeds can become, wolves are the ONLY ones that can cover long distances with the same kind of speed that humans can (which is why our nomadic ancestors domesticated them so much earlier than other animals). Not even horses can keep up with humans over long distances. Cats can sprint better than us, but none of them, including cheetahs, have anything like our long-distance endurance. Thylacines reportedly were quite slow and couldn’t sprint at all. And snakes, well you get the picture.
Movement speed should not be determined using the same formula for every animal and form. And for some (at least the Bastet) sprinting speed should be different from long-distance running/jogging/hiking speed. Also, the Long Running feat/ability should only be possible in homid and (non-Bunyip) lupus forms.
And on a totally unrelated tangent, is the White Wolf forum totally borked for anybody else?
It has been borked for 3 days straight for me.
Likewise, it’s been down for me as well.