Wolf-Blooded

No fancy title for this week’s Forsaken Friday. No, we’ve got a lot to cover so let’s get stuck in. First of all, thanks for the huge volume of responses these post have got. I do read every comment and I jump in to read forum threads when I can, and you do make me think. I am however often busy with writing and development work, so I can’t give every comment a full response. It’s a shame, but I’ve got to keep busy.

As you can probably guess from the title, Wolf-Blooded won last week’s vote. While it looked like a sure thing, Lodges was the first choice to 5 votes, and held close until Wolf-Booded broke 20. In the end, it was 46–23. So let’s rock this.

The Wolf-Blooded exist in a strange place for Werewolf. They’re blood relatives of a werewolf, but the only advantage you get for your four Merit dots are Unseen Sense, a bit better chance of resiisting Lunacy, and a Specialty. That doesn’t say much about the Wolf-Blooded’s place in the world.

We’re changing that. The Wolf-Blooded have both a place and a purpose. Plenty of Wolf-Blooded never know what they are. Many do have the blood of werewolves running through their veins – some are the children of one or two werewolves, while many have Uratha further up the family tree – but that’s not the only way that a character can become Wolf-Blooded. A few people catch the eye of the mad moon god/dess in the throes of Lunacy. Others happen in response to spirit activity. It’s weird. Those werewolves who cling to the idea that Wolf-Blooded all share some scrap of werewolf ancestry claim that these individuals discover their heritage, but by their own measure pretty much the entire human population of the world should be Wolf-Blooded.

Whatever the case, each Wolf-Blooded has a Tell – something that sets him apart from normal people. This Tell gives him a purpose, how he should fit in to a pack. Though they have a spark of the power born of Wolf and Moon, the Wolf-Blooded do not have the same spiritual imperative to hunt that the Uratha do. Of course, in a few packs that’s not an option: the Wolf-Blooded have to hunt, or the whole pack dies. In very rare cases, the Wolf-Blooded want to prove themselves the equal of the Uratha, and see the Hunt as their chance to do so. And some embrace an entirely different Hunt – one that maintains a Vigil against all the monsters in the world, not just the Uratha.

A Wolf-Blooded’s Tell is a minor supernatural ability that replaces the generic “Unseen Sense” of the original Wolf-Blooded Merit. Some reflect the werewolf’s changing nature, while others provide a direct link to the Shadow. Each comes with a weakness as well as a benefit; being Wolf-Blooded is a curse as much as a blessing.

We’ve got about eight Tells worked out, though we’re still firming up the mechanics. Some evoke classic werewolf stories and moves — one can take Urhan form, but must shapeshift when the full moon rises. Another can take Dalu, but runs the risk of kuruth. One regenerates, but suffers penalties from silver like the Uratha.

Others give a Wolf-Blooded closer links to the Shadow — one can act as a 1-dot Locus to allow Reaching, though doing so leaves her Open. Another can allow a spirit to speak through her, though she suffers the spirit’s ban for doing so. Another can Reach and bring others with her, but acts like a beacon for spirits when she does.

By doing this, we’re cementing Wolf-Blooded as both facilitators to the hunt and buffers between werewolves and humans – they can protect human packmates while the Uratha are away, or patrol the pack’s hunting grounds, or deal with local spirits and let the Uratha know what needs hunted. We’re also giving Wolf-Blooded players a choice of which part of Werwolf they most want to engage with.

And with that, I’ll head off probably the main comment: “What do you mean, Wolf-Blooded & humans as part of packs?” I can’t explain that yet without explaining packs, and that’s a whole different topic. Yes, that sucks. Here, have some Wolf-Blooded themed CHVRCHΞS. It’ll make you feel better.

This week’s question is a choice between two big parts of Werewolf. Do you want to know more about Packs or Auspices?

133 thoughts on “Wolf-Blooded”

  1. If the goal is to make this a hard choice, you succeeded.

    I’m gonna go with Packs since this is supposed to the be the center of Werewolf’s civilization, but DAMN do I wanna know about tribes. You gotta start updating twice a week!(Take no orders from those in college, there’s a ban for you)

    Reply
    • Tribe was last week. It’s Auspices this week. I didn’t fuck up the question by writing it at 1am then sneakily edit it, and you can’t claim otherwise. 😉

      Reply
      • I can with a bottle of tequila, I bet.

        Course, once we get to that point I might not like the other side effects. Heaven forbid what the Apocalypse/Forsaken project lead designer will do before that point.

        Probably kick me every time I can’t grow a tail.

        Reply
        • The last time I had a bottle of tequila was at a hotel that I am not allowed to name as part of a legal settlement. Everyone involved agreed never to speak of it again, including the mongoose and both otters.

          Reply
  2. Here I was hoping for Lodges and Wolf-blooded have made themselves worthwhile. People’ve been clamoring lately for werewolves as humans who only change on the full moon and now they have two options for it. I like it. Very intrigued with the idea of them as packmates, and even moreso for humans.

    That said, I’ll still have to vote Tribes. Now that I’m interested in more than the Ithaeur (all of them, in fact) it’d be nice to see more.

    Reply
  3. Nice, VERY nice!

    The wolf-blooded smacked a bit too much like kinfolk in my mind, to be honest. And they are often played as such. Making them less human than makes them actually stand out ^^

    I want to hear about packs…also, did I read it right? Children of one or TWO werewolves? So breeding between Uratha is now possible?

    Reply
    • I’m glad you enjoy it! And yes, werewolves can have children with other werewolves. Unihar have a bunch of unfortunate implications, so we’ve quietly excised them. Something like the unihar may show up later, but it’s not going to be in the same context at all.

      Reply
      • Cool!

        Funny thing is, I have actually seen werewolf breeding werewolf games work just fine, so it makes sense. This also means that werewolves are more easily now packs in the actual wolf sense.

        Also, the feral undercurrent even in Wolf-Bloods makes WtF stand out much more now.

        Reply
        • I’m glad that werewolves can breed now for a number of reasons.

          I think I read somewhere that part of the rationale for not allowing two werewolves to breed is that it was felt werewolves needed to have more ties to humans. The idea of humans in packs makes it sound like that’s not as much of an issue this time around.

          Reply
      • I’m really glad you’ve removed Unihar. These changes make the Wolf-blooded a much better part of the setting, and they now add to the general background weirdness of the nWoD. Stealing them for my mage game. 🙂

        Reply
        • Concure. 😉 Even when I didn’t like previous iteration of Forsaken ( and I liked it hell lot more than Apocalypse ) those changes make system look as good alternative to my beloved Mage. At least I will make great NPCs with this. 🙂

          Reply
      • Is werewolf/werewolf breeding still socially forbidden? I just ask because that’s kind of important for werewolves still being connected to humans as it makes surviving as a completely separate society impossible.

        Reply
      • Another thanks for excising the Unihar (sp?) It was actually a breaking point (and thus something we’d taken out already) at a prior group for a few reasons.

        Anyway, I vote Auspice. (As much as I want to see how pack spirits work this round…)

        Reply
  4. …Didn’t we already get Tribes last week? I assume you meant Auspice, in which case that would be my vote. Otherwise, Packs.

    Reply
  5. I’m very interested to see more details on packs that include Uratha, wolf-blooded and humans. Obviously I have no idea what’s planned, but all kinds of ideas come to mind: Packs as families (including alpha male/alpha female relationships) would be better supported. It gives Uratha much more of a tie to humans. It could open up troupe-style play similar to Ars Magica. It allows packs structured like larger gangs. It makes it much easier to integrate the pack into the community. Human and wolf-blooded pack mates provide a great way to bring claimed, urged, and the consequences of human actions to the forefront in a personal way to the pack. And it even gives a way to do classic lycanthrope stories (a werewolf bite certainly wouldn’t usually turn you into a wolf-blooded who changed into urhan on the full moon, but it sounds like it could happen rarely…)

    Reply
  6. Oh wow, this is a tough choice…… I think I’m going to go with Auspice.

    And I love the idea of Tells and Wolf-Blooded working alongside or even in the pack… Although that makes me want to vote pack….

    No! I’m sticking with voting for Auspice!

    Reply
  7. Not really digging the new set-up for wolf blooded. Those Tells are a little to powerful than I’d want in a setting. I’ll keep the old way. Much better.

    Next topic I want Auspices.

    Reply
    • I can appreciate that. Not all tells are as overtly supernatural, so you can tailor what a give Wolf-Blooded can do, to give a range of capability.

      Reply
  8. Packs. I an anime fan and i love watching the way that humans and shapeshifters interact with each other in those shows.

    Reply
    • While I agree that aspects could use some work, it would also effectively destroy the entire Signs of the Moon book in the process.

      Reply
        • I am sorry but Signs of the Moon was great!! It gave my troop a closer connection with their werewolf because they could get Aspects more easily than loges. Also it proove that Luna was really insane in so many different colors that make her awesome and scary at the same time.

          Reply
  9. Casting in a vote for Auspices, much though the mention of changes to possible pack structure catches my interest.

    Reply
  10. Great stuff! You could probably play an entire game with just wolf-blooded in this form. though the idea that you’ve got them (and normals) in packs is interesting.

    And so, my vote is for Packs.

    Reply
  11. Kind of surprised to see Ghost Children no longer being about, but that and the relationship with Wolf-Blooded does help to push Forsaken to be less an Apocalypse retread, so that’s pretty sweet. The way that the Tell works with Wolf-Blooded is also nice in making them “weird” and a good place for origin story stuff. Much surprsied by this preview (I voted Lodges last week).

    I’m going to pick Pack, just becuase I’m curious to see how the basic unit works out in light of the above and the Tribe revelations.

    And stuff.

    Reply
  12. Gah! I want to know about Packs so badly, but I think I’m gonna do my vote for Auspices.

    Love the new Wolf blooded though, it’s gonna make New Calais and the Wolfblooded families there so much more interesting.

    Reply
    • Yes, but it might have to wait until a future book. We’re really straining to try to fit what we can into the page-count available.

      Reply
  13. How cheeky of you, writing those last two tantalizing paragraphs. Much as I want to see how Auspices are being reworked (for want of a better word), I don’t see how I can vote for anything but Packs now.

    As for the unihar: while I’m not especially sad to see them go, I do wonder what sort of *imperative* the Uratha will have for not totally abandoning the human world. I suppose the changes to Harmony will require holding on to some semblance of a human life in order to hit those breaking points, and there are always going to be individual motivations (compassion, etc.) that keep things on an even keel, but I’m just a tad worried about seeing a relapse of the Red Talons in some form.

    An unfounded worry? Probably. But I do like how these changes are really refining the core assumptions and themes of the game.

    Reply
  14. Hrm….

    I’m voting for Packs, given how the alpha-beta-others-omega structure is…not actually extant naturally. I’m curious to see how you incorporate that.

    Also, thank you. Wolf-bloods are now the lesser template they should be!

    Reply
  15. Love it!!!

    I always thought wolf-blooded were the weak ones of the minor splats of the main lines (even the Sleep-walkers were fully inmune to Lunacy). I’m really glad about how it has changed by now.
    I’ve got two questions:
    1) All minor splats had a strong version of them: ghouls have ghoul families, and sleepwalkers have the Proximi. There will be wolf-blooded families with special advantages towards “normal” wolf-blooded.
    2) Although I know minor splats usually cannot be added o a same character, Proximi made an exception, saying that they can be thaumaturges or psychics. I think that some of the ways of thaumaturges can add perfectly to wolf-blooded, as the shaman thamaturges. Will it be possible doing that?

    And my vote, Packs.

    Reply
    • We’ll get to Wolf-Blooded families may get a treatment similar to Ghoul families in Blood & Smoke. We’re pushing to the limits of our page count already. Likewise, we don’t have room to really consider outside sources like thaumaturges at this point. We will cover it at a later date.

      Reply
  16. I vote for Auspices. We’ve seen a bit about what the Tribes hunt, now I’d like to see a bit how each Auspice goes about the hunt.

    Reply
  17. Let’s go with packs, please. Wolf-Bloods sound very interesting, I like the new take on them. I house ruled in the past that they could take the Totem merit and join with packs for an additional -1 penalty on Degeneration rolls to avoid derangements but I like the addition of supernatural abilities for them beyond the basics. You’re making me want this book even more… and I already wanted it bad.

    Reply
  18. Interesting, my interest is titillated. I’ve never had a player take the Wolf Blooded merit, save one crossover chronicle but that player had the intention of having their First Change. I like the werewolf style aspects about the wolf blooded and am intrigued that they don’t necessarily have to be part of an Uratha lineage.

    As to next week, this is a tough one indeed. This Cahalith wants to know about his Auspice more than anything though.

    Vote: Auspice

    Reply
  19. Great new direction for wolfbloods, and no unihar is just icing on the cake.

    Am I the only one getting a feeling that “packs” are something like a crime family? Lots of blood ties between members, a secretive “family business” and a need to control turf. It’s Werewolf – the Godfather, and that’s wonderful.

    One vote for auspice.

    Reply
  20. OK; you got my interest. Auspices can wait; I want to see what you’re doing with Packs and how the Wolf-Blooded fit into them.

    Reply
  21. Do the Wolf-Blooded use Harmony or Integrity? If the latter, do they and humans in the pack have breaking points for hunting, killing, defending themselves, or seeing others’ supernatural powers or their own Tells? It seems like anyone with Integrity in a pack would quickly become a mindless monster.

    Reply
    • Integrity loss doesn’t make you a monster anymore. It makes you a gibbering mental institute patient, at worst.

      And it’s fairly difficult to lose Integrity if you have a high Resolve Composure score. The slippery slope isn’t all that slippery if that trait is high, as you only lose a few dice for low integrity, and even when you do lose integrity, as long as you’re not able to be reduced to a chance die (which becomes impossible if you have 6 or more dice in your base pool), you end up with the same conditions that you get when you succeed on the roll, so as long as you make sure not to let it drop to zero, there is almost no draw back besides an xp tax to raise it occasionally to prevent that drop to zero.

      Integrity loss is pretty much not a problem ever.

      Reply
      • “At worst”? There’s nothing in the Integrity section supporting that, and the effect is still the same: the character becomes a non-functional NPC. (If that’s been changed, there should be an explicit mention like Demon had.)

        Even if the character doesn’t have to worry about dramatic failures, getting the same conditions for a regular success or a failure means that she’ll spend a good amount of time on a hunt Shaken, Spooked, or Guilty. Furthermore, having a breaking point at various penalties whenever the character kills someone, witnesses a death or a supernatural occurrence, inflicts serious harm to someone, or is subjected to a supernatural attack gives a cumulative effect that will reduce Integrity faster than it can be bought (at 15 Beats per dot).

        Reply
  22. Dang, I never used to be interested in the Wolf-Blooded, but that has completely changed my mind. I especially love the idea of Tells and the different varieties. This is also probably the hardest vote so far, but I’m going to go with Auspices.

    Reply
  23. I like the new direction wolf-blooded are headed in. They seem like they can play a larger part in Werewolf chronicles than before.

    Is the Merit still four dots or have you gone with the variable rating from Blood of the Wolf?

    Reply
  24. Integrity’s Breaking Points aren’t that hard and fast, and I suspect that the Wolf-Blooded tend to have fewer problems with supernatural phenomena and violence than most people do.

    Still, I suspect that the GMC update for HtV in Mortal Remains (specifically, what it has to say about the Code in the context of Integrity) will be of great interest to the Wolf-Blooded.

    Reply
    • The ones in the sidebar about supernatural effects and violence seem pretty hard and fast, esp. killing which explicitly says that it should always be a breaking point. Stew himself defended self-defense having a penalty almost as severe as cold-blooded murder because there’s dead body (but says that the new Harmony breaking points will be similar to the attitude of the old Harmony sins, which say there’s no problem with a dead human if he wasn’t killed needlessly). The implication is that these are the floor, with the option to increase them for anything outside the character’s comfort zone (like seeing a lot of blood). Players are actually encouraged to do this.

      Changing things for Wolf-Blooded actually gives them their own form of Integrity almost to the point of their own Morality stat. Having to use an unpublished book to make a viable Wolf-Blooded or human character is problematic.

      Reply
  25. Well, that was certainly surprising in a good way. Playing Wolf-blooded should be much more interesting now. I especially like the idea of Wolf-blooded as Hunters.

    As for my vote, despite the intriguing teaser for packs I am going with:

    Auspice

    Reply
  26. I love this so much more than current Wolf Bloods, giving them some degree of customization. Will it still be a merit or is it a minor supernatural template that’s simply applied now?

    Reply
  27. I vote for packs. You hinted a bit strongly their at the end, and who am I to refuse such tantalizing bait?

    I am sad about the ghost children thing though. I felt that with some fleshing out they could have been really cool. As they were I can see why people didn’t care for them, but that doesn’t mean they didn’t have potential.

    Reply
  28. I love new wolf-blooded. It opens up posibilities for more “clasical” werewolves games with those fancy Tells. I dig.

    Man, this week it seems really even on a quick look. Agh, damm decision-block.

    ugh, errr….

    Auspices!

    Reply
  29. I really like the direction here. Wolf-blooded always seemed a bit pointless to me but with these changes they’ve become a lot more interesting. I love the removal of the Unihar, it makes pack ties that much stronger and it allows for more interesting politics within the pack.

    Definitely cover pack next

    Reply
  30. Very cool stuff here – will Wolf-Blooded be able to develop exttra Tells with experience, or is it a ‘one and done’ kind of deal?

    Reply
  31. Very cool stuff here – will Wolf-Blooded be able to develop exttra Tells with experience, or is it a ‘one and done’ kind of deal?

    Oh, and definitely Packs. Packs all the time

    Reply
    • We’re going to be play testing a couple of options, but I don’t think Wolf-Blooded are going to have more than two Tells at any point.

      Reply
      • Fair play – are you thinking of any other options for the Wolf-Blooded to delve into their supernatural side mechanically, or is their advancement purely mundane?

        Reply
  32. Packs.

    Also, I’m glad to see Unihar go. Now the Pure can get even more fucked up, and with Wolf-Blooded as they are it’ll be interesting to see where creative STs and players can go with this.

    Reply
  33. I feel almost as if wolf-blooded had been created in this post from scratch. I only used as background elements before. Great work. On the other hand, while I can appreciate the direction the new packs seem to be heading for, I will miss Unihar. Whenever a part of a setting disappears, I feel that setting was impoverished. I hope they will certainly make an appearance sometime soon, in an improved way. We’ll see whether the taboo of Uratha-Uratha relationships has disappeared or just weakened.
    Also, my vote for auspices

    Reply
  34. Purposefully not reading the comments until after I’ve given my vote. Don’t want to know how the vote goes, at least not until after I’ve given mine. Feels more fair, less peer pressure, and so on.

    It was a hard choice, but I’ll go for Auspices.

    After all, we’ve started pretty big. And since we know about the Tribes, I feel Auspices need to be explored. Oh, and we haven’t gotten Lodges yet, slowly move down the hierarchy until we end on the Pack, perhaps?

    Anyhow, to reiterate:

    Auspices.

    Reply
  35. I… I don’t know what to say. The Wolf-Blooded are finally as wonderful as they have deserved to be. You have _no_ idea what that means to me. Seriously. I had my hopes, but to see them come together…

    So really, as much as I’d like to hear about my lovely Irraka, put another on the board for Packs. Humans and Wolf-Bloods and Werewolves oh my! Seriously, you haven’t told us anything, and they still sound cooler.

    I will miss the Ghost Children, they were always that very special kind of creepy that makes everything else in the world feel ever so slightly less creepy, letting you change your own view of normal by showing just horrifically wrong things can be.

    Reply
  36. Packs please!

    I won’t misa Unihar myself. To me it always felt like a wrong kind of creepy. Like, something you should use if everyone at the table feels comfortable with.

    Reply
  37. How can you NOT vote for Packs, now??

    Also: I, for one, will totally miss the Unihar, in a totally messed up kind of way.

    Reply
  38. Huh, that’s interesting. The born Wolf-Blooded is a given, like the Kinfolk of Apocalypse, though what would the Uratha make of Luna-induced Wolf-Blooded? From what you’re saying, that means that Humanity has an equal chance of going Werewolf as they would Mage. Plus, since you talked about Vigil, does that mean that there will be a Werewolf conspiracy that completely contains Wolf-Blooded, much like the Cainite Conspiracy fully contains ex-Ghouls?

    My vote is for Auspices because:

    1. Packs seem to be a given. It’s just your basic Alpa, Beta, Omega, Warrior, Leader, etc. That has always been like that ever since Apocalypse. It’s the pack interactions that I was concerned with.

    2. Given that the Tribes was changed from the first edition, I would like to see what changes are in place for the Auspice that werewolves change under.

    Reply
    • Come now, if packs were going to be that simple, you’d think they’d merit a vote choice?

      Nothing’s that simple in Idigam Chronicles.

      Reply
      • I don’t think that packs are going to remain the same, I believe he just show us a really important part of the puzzle and no one has seen it.

        Reply
  39. Packs please. I might have chosen Auspices before today’s post, but the info about human/blooded/uratha just sounds too interesting.

    Reply
  40. Ooh…loving this to pieces. I’m using a modified version of the BotW scaled merit on the site I’m Wolf ST on, but I just may gank this idea early.

    Also, I vote packs. Can’t do otherwise after that teaser.

    Reply
  41. “We’ve got about eight Tells worked out, though we’re still firming up the mechanics. Some evoke classic werewolf stories and moves — one can take Urhan form, but must shapeshift when the full moon rises. Another can take Dalu, but runs the risk of kuruth. One regenerates, but suffers penalties from silver like the Uratha.”

    This seems exactly what was needed. If you can basically play a “classic werewolf” via these rules it’ll make an awful lot of folk happy.

    I’ll go with Packs as I’d like to know where it takes the Wolf-Blooded .

    Reply
  42. Man, I’m really love how Wolf-Blooded look, and the crossover potential with mortals and Hunters is PERFECT. Still despite all this, and it is an evil way to get the voting to be more tense, I have to go with Auspices as my choice.

    So Auspices.

    Reply
  43. Stew, these posts have been fantastic to read. As a big fan of W:tF, I’ve been really excited to see what changes The Idigam Chronicles are going to bring and, so far, your previews have not disappointed. I love that the tribes feel like they have a bit more of a focus beyond general philosophy, since many of them felt like the social version of auspice. I also think it’s great that the uragarum are getting a bit more treatment. They just never felt that special in W:tF.

    I have to cast my vote for auspice this week.

    Reply
  44. I’m like many other people that have posted here and never really cared much for how Wolf-blooded were done. They felt too much like a Apocalypse carry over into W:tF which caused me to overlook them in the stories that i’ve run. However, this is a new and very interesting take on Wolf-blooded and I’ll be happy to add this into any chronicle that I run.

    On that note, i’m definitely voting for Packs. I’ve got my hopes up for some serious changes here. I always found it strange that Geist and Hunter did group based benefits better than W:tF did and based on what I’ve seen already I won’t be disappointed.

    Reply
  45. I love this. I love the idea that all these classic werewolf movies might not even have been about full-on capital-W Werewolves but they might have just been wolf-blooded. It makes the Uratha more interesting to me, actually.

    If I can play a wolf-blooded with up to two tells, like was hinted in the comments, then you may have just sold another customer on this!

    Reply
  46. AWESOME POST!! (I can’t believe anyone has voted for Auspices, I love them and all but the pack structure changes everything!)

    Since Wolf-Blooded and Humans can join packs now… does it mean that they can join Tribes too??

    Since the primary social structure of the Werewolfs is a pack, this mean that basically every interaction in a game will change.

    Packs sounds like cults (making the Totem their God) and this gives them more chances to control a city than just been on the side lines while Vampires and Mages take everything for themselfs.

    I wish that Dominence gifts will change and they will affect humans as well and not only other Werewolfs and Wolf-Blooded. Since this was a really sadly disadvantage over other supernaturals.

    Someone said something about Integrity and how the Wolf-Blooded will be able to resist the rolls to lose it but I disagree… I think Wolf-Blooded and Humans should have no advantages on those rolls, after all they are still human living in a world of Predator and Prey. Werewolfs have to hunt but humans DON’T have that necessity and that means that if they hunt… they will go crazy.

    Vote: Packs!

    Reply

Leave a Comment