From: "David C. Foyt" Subject: Revamped werewolf Synopsis of Changes Made to: Werewolf: The Apocalypse by: Christopher Pommier and Aaron Malakai Smyth with special thanks to Matt Burke _______________________________ Things we have disposed of : Lupus Breed Tribes Auspices The Triat of Weaver, Wyld, and Wyrm The Delirium The Renown System Permanent Rage Variable Gnosis Ratings Things we have added Virtues of Conscience, Instincts, and Courage Nature Demeanor The Five-Dot Renown System Different Bete as an option for players The Mark of The Curse The Pain of The Change Now for the Adjustments... The Virtues: Conscience: This is what influences the Man-Side of Werewolves and other Bete. The things one was taught as a human to respect and cherish are the province of this rating. A combination of this trait and Instincts, is what limits the maximum. a character's Gnosis Score can reach. Killing people, or other heinous acts can lower a character's rating in this virtue (dif = 5 plus the current Conscience rating). As the rating lowers, the character goes spinning away from any hope of balance or redemption as a human. This, along with Instincts represents which form the character feels more comfortable in. If the Conscience rating is higher than the Instincts rating, the character feels more comfortable in the skin of a human. Instincts: This trait influences the Wolf-Side of Werewolves. When a character assumes the skin of the wolf, the instincts rating will replace all social and mental scores for the purposes of dice-pools. When one walks as a wolf one's mind becomes immersed within the ancient consciousness of the wolf. If a character has a Conscience rating of zero and feels the need to change his body to that of a wolf, the danger is far greater of becoming a wolf and losing touch with humanity forever. Some have chosen this path, discontent with the boundaries of human society. But what they forget, until too late, is that the fetch, the beast, is always there waiting and may never be commanded. Only satiated. Instincts, along with Conscience represents which form the character feels more comfortable in. If the Instincts rating is higher than the Conscience, than the character always feels the red and white song of blood on the snow and hears the call of his brothers in the forest. Courage: Along with dealing with everyday life occurrences, this rating immediately effects The Change when a character tries to do it willingly. To do so, the Character must spend 1 Rage pt. and make a courage roll (dif determined by the ST). Failure means the character didn't have the nerve to force The Change due to the extreme pain of muscles, joints and tendons realigning and coarse hair sprouting like razors from every pore. A botch means the character overestimates himself and his ability to control his fetch. The Change takes place but the character automatically enters an uncontrolled frenzy. If the character tries to change form more than once per 24 hours the difficulty to do so increases by 1 each time (not including reversion to human form). Rage... Rage is the rating of the beast within the character. It is neither animal nor human, but the fetch created from the two selves overlapping. It is the darkness and the curse, the pain and enigma of the Bete. The fetch lies below the surface below the human, below, even, the animal and it hungers in the darkness. Rage is a temperamental thing which can be gained at the storytellers descretion. Usually any situation which angers, upsets, irritates or otherwise makes the character emotional, will cause their rage level to increase. Rage increases the difficulty for involuntary change by 1 for every point of rage the player has. Example: On the new moon, Jason tries to resist changing involuntarily during a party. Jason's Rage score is 4, added to the difficulty: 4 of a new moon makes Jason's difficulty 8. If Jason fails, he may opt to use willpower points to keep the beast back until he can exit the party. If he does that, then each willpower point will keep the beast back for about an hour, though if Jason gets into another emotional situation within this hour, he will need to spend another willpower point. If Jason had botched his roll, he would have entered an uncontrolled frenzy. If a character has more Rage points than Willpower points, each extra point of Rage increases the difficulty of all Social rolls. When Using Fetch Traits: To enter the shadow and coerce its powers from it is a dangerous task, it requires that the werewolf's own nightmares be held at bay as he draws on the tainted powers of his fetch. If a Garou fails his roll to use a Fetch Trait, then he will gain a point of Rage. If the Character botches he will have to make a roll not to enter a forced change (or if already changed, an uncontrolled frenzy) Gnosis... This rating shows how well the man and wolf balance in the character. Gnosis is an understanding of the Fetch, the beast that resides within the abyss between man and wolf, and how much balance has been achieved between the two through this understanding. When a Character has a low Gnosis rating then there is a tension between the two halves... a battle for dominance is waged in the mind and soul of the hapless victim. Gnosis also limits the level of Fetch Traits a werewolf (or other Bete) can use. Basically, the better a Garou understands her Fetch, the deeper she can travel into the dark stain on her soul to retrieve the unnatural powers which stem from the beast. And to use Fetch Traits, a simple Gnosis roll is required (against a dif of the Fetch Trait's level + the Garou's Rage). The Gnosis rating also approximates the size of the dice-pool when rolling to resist the forced Change that creeps onto a werewolf when the moon climbs into the sky. The character must also roll his Gnosis against his Rage to Fade, or enter the Umbra. Remember!!! : A Garou must Roll vs. The Involuntary Change EVERY night. The only things that can prevent this are sleep or powerful magicks. A werewolf that is put to sleep via drugs or magick will automatically revert to human form. In all other cases, warm, living flesh (of humans or animals) is necessary to change back into human form. The Garou need not always kill its prey to ingest enough for the reversion, but it usually takes either a strong willed Garou, or a tough victim in order to escape that fate. Any human bitten by a metis Garou, who survives must check to see if the madness sets in, or the curse is passed on to her. There are three states that may arise from being bitten by a metis, death, madness, or lycanthropy. Example: Gloria is bitten by Jason (In beast form). Jason gets shot, and is driven away by some townsfolk leaving Gloria alive, but infected. A simple roll of Stamina plus Survival is made by Gloria's player (dif = 10) to see if she will survive the infection. If someone is helping her with the recovery, every dot they have in medicine will decrease the difficulty by 1 (assuming, of course, that he has the proper medical equipment). As you can see, the infection is so severe that if one doesn't get medical attention, it is doubtful they will survive. If she succeeds the roll she will recuperate, if she botches the roll she is infected with lycanthropy. If she fails the roll, however, another roll is required. Another simple roll of Stamina + Survival is required (diff = 9). On a success she will quietly die and her soul will pass on to that place where none may tread. On a failure she will contract the madness, but, otherwise live a normal life span until the day she dies of malnutrition or old age in a dirty and forgotten room of an insane asylum.. And on a botch she will immediately and violently die, her muscles spasming all at once, breaking all the bones in her body. Eyes bulging and her tongue lolling in pain, she will die and immediately enter into the grey state of the furieux visiere, those people who have met a grim and violent death at the claws of werewolves and cannot rest until their killer is dead. The effects of the madness after two failed roles are as follows. The beast will surface in Gloria, but she is no werewolf and cannot affect the Change. A kind of pseudo-fetch is created inside of her, an imperfect and uncontrollable mockery of the wolfish curse, that will destroy all higher mental functions ... rupturing Gloria's sanity like an egg. She will be calm sometimes acting like a playful pup, rolling around on the floor, or chasing butterflies. At other times, she will be in full psychotic frenzy... she will lash out with fist and tooth and fury, and may even cause injury to herself. She will never remember being Gloria, though at times she may respond to the name, much like a dog would. If Gloria rolls a botch on her second roll she will die and become a Furieux Visiere ( FYUR' ee' oh viz' ee ' AIR ), a ghost that haunts the werewolf's dreams and waking hours. A furiex visiere is created whenever a person is killed by a werewolf. Rage, fear and confusion bind them like icy chains to the one who violated there spirits and brought their lives to an unnatural end. These ghosts aren't always there, and even when they are they may not interact with the character, though they will always let him know that they are present. At times they will taunt the Garou, or scare him. At other times they will take on a semi-physical form and battle the werewolf, doing damage as a normal mortal (non-aggravated). But this has only ever been reported when the werewolf has been alone, and it seems to take the spirit tremendous amounts of power to do, as they are seldom even seen for days after. There has been no reports of a werewolf dyeing at the "hands" of a furiex visiere. Most of the time they will try and fill him with guilt, hoping he will end his own life, for the death of the werewolf is one of only two ways they can be free. The other involves the shapechanger entering his own mind and absolving the ghosts there. This is normally done at a caern. A caern is a place where a werewolf can feel free from the unholy hunger of the beast for a short amount of time. It's also a place where one can feel safe enough to enter into a trance-like state that can last for days, wherein a werewolf finds himself in a strange land populated by his fears and desires. A landscape of inhuman features insanely woven together with personal truths and underlying pain. At the center of every shapechanger's mindscape is the darkness. Many see it differently, some see it as a boiling pit of black ichor, others see it as an immeasurably huge black tree, puss spilling from broken branches. However represented in the werewolf's mind, this is a symbol for the festering sore that is the curse. Somewhere inside this dark core the beast resides. And around it, drawn like moths to an unholy flame, are all of a werewolf's furieux visiere. Here, at this point, a kind of catharsis can be had. Here spirits can be exorcised and dealt with. Also here, however, is where the furieux visiere are at there most powerful. Here a shapechanger can be killed by her guilt. It should be noted here that, in order for a shapechanger to gain more fetch traits, or a higher Gnosis rating she must enter into the darkness at the center of her being and come back out. None speak of what they see there. None know what resides in others' private hells. But the fetch ... the beast ... that is eternal. Some Charts: Difficulties for involuntary change every night: Roll required - simple Gnosis Moon Phases - New Crescent Half Gibbous Full Base Difficulty - 4 5 6 7 8 Difficulty Modifiers - +1 to base diff. for every point of Rage. If diff goes over 10, than a number of successes is needed equal to the amount the assigned difficulty is over 10. i.e. Jason has a rage of 6 and watches the bloated half-moon rise over the treetops. His difficulty to avoid an involuntary c hange is 10 with 2 successes required (10 + 2 is 12, the number of moon phase + Jason's rage). If roll succeeds, control is regained for the entire night and no additional roles for an uncontrolled change need be made. If roll fails, character changes to beast-form and cannot change back to man-form without feasting on warm flesh (note: the forms allowed are from wolf to near-man. Near-man is still obviously inhuman). If roll botches, the character's consciousness is overwhelmed by the beast and he enters an uncontrolled frenzy along with an uncontrolled transformation. Difficulty for Involuntary changes from emotional situations Roll required - Simple Gnosis Difficulty - determined by Storyteller + Rage Difficulties for voluntary changes Roll required - simple Courage Difficulty - starting at 6, increasing by one everytime tried within a 24 hour time. If a failure is garnered, the character could not force himself to endure so much infernal pain. If a botch is acquired, the character believed that he could handle himself, but grossly overestimated his abilities. The player must immediately roll for entering frenzy. One difficulty level is lost for every day that passes since last voluntary transformation. Example: If Jason has voluntarily changed 3 time on Tuesday the difficulty is at 9. If Jason waits until Thursday (two days later) to voluntarily change again, the difficulty is back down to 7 (9-2). Extra successes cut the time to change to particular form by 1 turn per success. It takes approximately a turn to pass through each form. Difficulty for fading / stepping sideways Roll required - simple Gnosis Difficulty - Gauntlet in area. Difficulty for activating Fetish Traits Roll required - simple Gnosis Difficulty - level of trait + current level of rage A success means all is well. A failure means a point of rage is gotten and the trait fails to work. And a botch means a rage point is gotten and character must roll against uncontrolled change and uncontrolled frenzy. Difficulty for not losing Conscience after a kill Roll required - simple Conscience Difficulty - Current Conscience rating + 5 Difficulty for not losing Instincts Roll required - whatever roll you happen to be using Instincts for Difficulty - whatever difficulty you happen to using The only way to lose Instincts is to botch a roll that you are using Instincts for. A character's human tries to establish dominance and confuses the natural Instincts of the wolf. Difficulties for not losing Courage Roll required - simple Courage Difficulty - depending on action.