[Luxifer]

Here's a proposal I sent off regarding what sort of setting changes you could make to turn Forsaken from TT to LARP; specially for the Camarilla.

Essentially I wanted something that wasn't city lodges. Also I accept that some people don't really go for the whole "ascendency equivalent" rules for Forsaken, but if they were used this is how I would imagine them working.


Werewolf: the Forsaken MET
The following is a list is suggested setting and rules expansions for the Mind’s Eye Theatre version of Werewolf: the Forsaken.

Chapter 1: The World of the Forsaken

The majority of the setting change revolves around the introduction of the City Heart, and City Avatar. These are spiritual reflections of the city.

The Tide of Essence

Humans are veritable Essence factories. Their habits, their routines, their daily existence and beliefs are an almost constant stream of essential energy that is poured out into the ambient urban environments. Often this excess essence is eaten by hungry spirits in the hisil. However, a fair portion of this is not taken by local spirits. In the case of large human events, be they a sports gathering, a festival or parade or any event where masses of people are focused in the same spot a tide of essence is released. For spirits this is like a fireworks display of abundant essence, though most of them will never see it.

This is because the city itself acts like a giant sponge, soaking up ambient essence like the baleen of a whale filtering for plankton. All of this essence is sucked up by the city itself, by the utashi, or City Spirit.

City Spirits

Everything in the material world has some form of reflection in the hisil. Cities are no exceptions. Human, though lacking in a spiritual reflection of their own, leave a tremendous impact upon the spiritual landscape of the Shadow. Through history their endeavors, their ideas and their activities have introduced new spirit choirs through technology, but also created new macrocosms in the hisil through the cities they have built.

A city is the very nexus of modern human activity. The sheer pressure of human urbanization has introduced an entirely new type of spirit known as the utashi, or city spirit. These spirits are unlike most spirits. To begin with, they have a highly potent visible reflection in the physical world that is thoroughly interlaced with human activity, and, like a living organism, the city in both the spirit and the shadow has an organic system. With roads as arteries, optical and electronic wiring as its neurons, financial flows as its food sources, a Central Business District as a brain and even manufacturing centers throughout the city that fulfils the organs of digestion. Like an amoeba, it spreads out tendrils of its influence across the countryside as it grows larger, chewing up the resources of its surrounding environment and emitting pollutants as its effluence.

Furthermore, like all organisms, they breed. Cities are colony creatures. When the utashi has collected enough food, it breaks of a portion of itself that will seed a new city far from the resources that it currently requires. When the utashi needs to breed, it releases portions of its stored essence in the form of a zeitgeist that infects a portion of its inhabitants. These people then take with them the essence of the utashi and relocate to the new area, where they found the new location. Only those childer who place themselves in rich sources of essence (for political, economic and other forms of growth) will truly grow to the megalithic sizes of the metropolises.

City Hearts

The City Heart is typically one of two locations. Either the site of the city’s founding where the seed of the city germinated, or located around a place that is iconic of that city. This is some form of monument that is generally synonymous with the city on a global scale. For the city of Sydney, this might be the Sydney Opera House, for New York City it could be the Statue of Liberty, for Paris, the Eiffel Tower and for London, Big Ben.

City Hearts have two important functions within a city. The primary one is that it determines the general resonance of the city. The resonance of the Essence within the City Heart creates a sympathetic effect across the city as a whole. If the Essence of the City Heart is fearful, then the general emotional tone of the city’s human populace will have an undercurrent of fear.

The secondary significance of the City Heart is that it is the location where seeds for the germination of new cities and City Spirits occur. When a sufficient amount of surplus energy is amassed in the City Heart, it splits off and spreads through the populace like a zeitgeist. The affected populace will bud off and found a new city elsewhere with the Essence they carry to give birth to a new city.

Large cities receive worship from its population. In the events where large amount of Essence is released, these are, in effect, creating a veneration of that city. Over time its population tends to consider the city to have a particular image, or persona, which manifests as the utashi’s avatar. Such an avatar will be visually symbolically of the ideas associated with the city as a whole, but as a general rule every single avatar manifests as a female persona. The avatar is limited to manifesting only within 100 yards of the City Heart where the Essence is strongest.

Managing the City Heart

In recent decades, the natural flow of birth and rebirth of City Hearts has been interrupted. In most locations around the world there is no more room to expand. Large urban cities are now facing problems as the excess Essence is finding no healthy outlet through budding and germination. As a result, this surplus Essence begins to glut the city, making it sick. The Essence very much takes on the qualities of a cancer, spreading throughout its domain, infecting the many humans within its populace. With no healthy way for this Essence to express itself it begins to manifest as problems of overpopulation, crowding, excessive pollution, street crime, corruption and massive xenophobia. For the Forsaken, this is unacceptable. It creates unmitigated fluxes in the hisil as decay and other deleterious spirits go forth and multiply in the cancerous blight of excess Essence.

For this reason, one of the primary duties of all Forsaken within a city is the management of this Essence, and the guardianship of the City Heart from many various hostile threats that would like to use it for their own purposes (the Pure and the Hosts in particular). Particularly ecologically minded Forsaken have attempted to use this Essence to work as a form of green energy. The claim being that the essence originally came from the natural world, and if they could somehow create a method of returning this Essence to the environmental components it drew from the city and the wilderness might eventually adopt a symbiotic relationship. Several key successes have come from this attempt, including the development of certain environmentally friendly technologies, and the opening of parks and reserves in larger cities.

Naturally, the City Heart and its Avatar are a significant phenomena that demands both protection from the pure, and managing the excess Essence. This requires the various packs of the city to come together on occasion (at least once a month). Essentially, the city consists of a common territory, and therefore all the packs of the city must work together to manage its Heart. Whether it is directed into the construction of a railroad to provide smoother transport in and out of the city, or to open up new areas for development of that city itself, or simply tapped for large occult rituals designed to wards out particular types of spirits, all of the Essence must somehow be expressed into the city or even into the outlying regions.

The City Heart is considered neutral territory for all Forsaken (as long as they can hold it). As such, the City Heart generates a peaceful resonance as a spiritual response to this perception. While in the City Heart, all Forsaken have an intuitive connection to the city as a whole, viewing the entirety of its expanse as ‘their territory’. As a consequence, the Forsaken of that city, whilst in the territory of the City Heart, can consider all of the other packs of that city to be a form of pack-mates. As an analogy, if pack-mates are akin to siblings, then the other packs would be akin to cousins. Some closer, and some more distant, and almost certainly some of them feuding over petty and serious issues.


Chapter 3: Special Rules and Systems

Auspice Symphony and Tribe Exaltation

A werewolf’s renown is how he or she exerts her influence and power over the hisil. When large numbers of a particular auspice, or a particular tribe are present, this creates a sympathetic effect throughout the territorial Domain of the particular city they belong in. In the case of auspice, the Lunes of dominant auspice congregate and their song above all others is sounded throughout the city, granting their members with an extra boon. In the case of tribes, the sympathy between tribe mates strengthens the power of their oath, making the tenets of that oath almost sacrosanct amongst the various Forsaken.

At the beginning of every calendar month, the domain’s chief Storyteller tallies the Renown ranks of every character who has been active in the previous month to determine the relative resonance of each auspice and tribe. The Storyteller uses the following guidelines:

• An individual character’s ranks in Renown count toward the tallies of both her auspice and tribe (they are not split between the two, both get all the dots).

• The Renown of characters in a Lodge is counted in their parent tribe’s total.

• The ghost wolves are considered a sixth tribe that can (very rarely) be exalted.

• Renown Rank dots earned by a character as a bonus for being in the previous month’s symphonic auspice or exalted tribe do not count in this tally.

• If a player has multiple active characters in play, only her primary or main character is involved in the tally; all others are ignored.

• Storyteller characters do not factor into this tally — only active characters portrayed by players do.

Once this tally is complete, the five auspices and the five (or six) tribes are all ranked in relative influence. The top-ranked auspice is termed the symphonic auspices, respectively. The top-ranked tribe is termed the exalted tribe. (Uratha can and do use these terms to refer to the overall standing of their auspices and tribes.)

Symphonic/Exalted Bonus

The symphonic auspice and exalted tribe receives several benefits. First, all members receive a number of bonus Renown specific to that tribe or Auspice. In the cast of Iron Masters Exaltation with Rahu Symphony, all Iron Masters gain an extra dot of Cunning and all Rahu gain an extra dot of Purity. If this extra dot of Renown is sufficient to increase that character’s Renown Rank up by one, then they are considered to have that effective Rank for all dealings with Spirits within that domain. The one exception being, that Uratha cannot demand to learn gifts based upon this bonus.

Active Members Bonus
1-4 No Bonus
5-9 +1 dot of Renown
10-19 +2 dot of Renown
20+ +3 dot of Renown

These extra dots and ranks of Renown are the same as those earned in any other way, but do not count in the next month’s tally. They vanish on the last night of the month and are recalculated on the first of every new month. The bonuses do not travel at all and will only affect spirits specifically within the Domain of the city.

Each character is likely to be part of both an auspice and tribe and can benefit from a Renown increase from both his auspice and tribe in the same month. The modifiers are cumulative. These bonuses, however, can bring a character’s Renown above 5 for the month and characters with such inflated Renown do not count toward the normal limits on the number of Uratha at Renown 4 and 5 in a single domain.

Exalted Tribe Bonuses

When a tribe achieves exalted status, its oath is the overriding influence on Uratha behavior in a domain. Its tenets, Totem wolf imprint themselves on the territorial domain of the entire city, and members find that they can exert territorial claims in both the material and spiritual realms. Exalted tribes and symphonic auspice benefits (see below) are cumulative — a single character can benefit from both in the same month. If they ever come into conflict, the tribe benefit always takes precedence.

• Blood Talons: When the tribe of Fenris-Ur is Exalted, his ferocious howls can be heard by all of the members of his tribe. It fills them with a terrible force that extends the duration that may spend in Gauru form. In game terms, the characters add their Harmony to the number of turns they can maintain Gauru.

• Bone Shadows: The gift of Kanduis-Ur grants the members of its tribe with a unique gift. Irregardless of where they are, the Bone Shadows can cross the Gauntlet. The sympathy between the Uratha’s spiritual side and material side are so aligned that they no longer require a locus to cross the Gauntlet. However, they still require a reflective surface to do so.

• Hunters in Darkness: Hikaon-Ur loves the darkness, and grants his favor to all hunters when he is Exalted. When put in a natural environment they gain +2 to all survival, animal ken or other skills related with wilderness existence and +2 to all stealth tests done at night. If this environ is also their pack territory they have an intuitive knowledge of when any spirit or human (and therefore Uratha) crosses the threshold of their territory and approximately where.

• Iron Masters: The accord between the Iron Master and their Urban territory is made exceptional when Sagrim-Ur is given exaltation. The Iron Masters, as the social savants of the city and close ties to humanity can extend their presence throughout the entire domain. All humans develop a social affinity towards the Iron Masters, and have a tendency to show obeisance. In game terms, all Iron Masters have a minimum dice pool on all social actions with humans equal to their Harmony and any social penalties gained from Primal Urge are eliminated. This dice pool can only apply to mundane social activities and do not affect the use of Gifts.

• Storm Lords: The calm demeanor of Skolis-Ur spreads throughout the Storm Lords. It fills them with a potency that raises their effective Primal Urge by one for the duration of the month. This temporary dot of Primal Urge only counts towards defensive bonuses gained from Primal Urge. It does not increase maximum Essence, or Maximum Essence expenditure or maximum duration in Gauru form. However, should the player’s Primal Urge go high enough to qualify for social penalties with humans, this is still included.

• Ghost Wolves: The Ghost Wolves are canny and capricious at the best of times. Life on the edge has taught them how to take care of themselves. When sufficient numbers of Ghost Wolves are in an area to be exalted, the City Spirit steps in and assumes the role of their ‘tribal totem’. Their affinity and communion with the City Spirit means they cannot be attacked by surprise and that they may declare an automatic escape from any combat with a spirit who’s spirit rank is no greater than one level higher than their own.

Symphonic Auspice Bonuses
Uratha in the symphonic auspice gain more than an increase in Renown. They may assume their auspice’s associated form as a reflexive action with no Essence expenditure and no draw (Irraka can assume Hishu, Ithaeur can assume Dalu, Elodoth can assume Urhan, Cahalith can assume Urshul and Rahu can assume Gauru reflexively). Furthermore, each symphonic auspice gains an additional benefit from their Lunes that expands upon their Auspice Ability.

• Rahu: The Ralunim’s ability of Warrior’s Eye is now sharply increased to grant a tactical understanding of any given lay out. Instead of being able to only espy the weakness of an individual target, the Rahu can pick out tactical locations and strategies that would help them lead the Uratha in a collective victory.

• Cahalith: The Cahalunim make the lucidity of her Prophet Dreams so potent that they spill out into a waking dream. The Cahalith is no longer requires to spend time asleep to gain prophecy, instead she may make an Intelligence + Occult roll to gain a small flash of insight regarding an object, person or place that she is in physical contact with.

• Elodoth: The Elodoth’s ability at Spirit Envoy is now conferred to the spiritual aspect of the Uratha. The dot dice bonus to Empathy, Expression, Persuasion or Politics dice pools are also conferred to interactions with Uratha. This cannot be used for bullying or intimidating Uratha.

• Ithaeur: The Ithalunim augment the Ithaeur’s natural Mastery at performing Rites. The Ithaeur can add their Primal Urge to the Harmony on all rite performances.

• Irakka: The Irralunim expand the Pathfinder’s Sense to become an innate Danger Sense. When the Irakka approaches a supernatural threat, their hackles will stand on end and send chills down their spine. With a success on a perception draw the Irakka can get a general sense of where this danger comes from, with an exceptional success, they gain an intuitive understanding of its nature.

[zenten]

I don't see why any of these are necessary, honestly.

[Luxifer]

1) these are proposals for Camarilla/MET rules.

Essentially W;TF is failing as a LARP because the TT setting doesn't translate well into the social dynamic of a LARP.

These setting proposals are designed to encourage a broader social dynamic at least within the given Venue.

2) I accept that the Exalted/Symphonic rules might not be needed, or superfluous, however there's been a bit of a discussion going on about the idea so I thought I'd put a few things together.

[zenten]

Ok, but I don't see how these improve social play.

Now, what could do that is if you loosen up the teritorial aspect somewhat, and make meetings between packs common instead of only for rare special occasions. But having social superpowers does not make a game have a better social focus.

[Luxifer]

Ok, but I don't see how these improve social play.

Now, what could do that is if you loosen up the teritorial aspect somewhat, and make meetings between packs common instead of only for rare special occasions.  But having social superpowers does not make a game have a better social focus.

The intention of the City Heart etc.. it to create a sensation of there being a "city territory" that lays on top of the localised ones. This means then that there is a city structure of some sort, and a central nexus for the Uratha to have to meet on mutual terms. It also should help make Tribal affiliations more important.


here's some criticisms I got from the WW forum, but they're thought out ...

1. The "Symphony/Exaltation" thing - while this works to a greater or lesser degree in Requiem, I don't think it'll work in Forsaken for two reasons:

-Werewolves don't really have a "city structure". While several packs in a city might work together (and boy would I love to see this a bit more in the Cam), it's unlikely that there will be a "ruling" pack, as they all constantly vie for territory.

-Basing it off Renown will pretty much keep one or two factions on top nigh-permanently, barring character death. Unlike City Status in Requiem, which fluctuates without XP cost, Renown can get downright expensive - not to mention the deeds you should be doing first to justify such purchases.

I'm not saying this is completely unworkable; but those are the biggest things that I see hindering such a construct.

my response:

Strider: Not a problem. I understand that many people think that 'acendancy' rules for uratha would be superfluous, but I know that a fair few people have been suggesting it is also a good idea.

I thought I'd do a write up of a suggested model for the purposes of a mental excersize.

You're probably right about basing it off renown, however I have found that in Cam usually only one group always gets Ascendancy, and if not them then the competetors almost always do.

As for lack of city structure, that's what the first half of the post is supposed to work towards setting up. The other way I could see about doing it is to have a form of "City" Status which doesn't reflect political standing, but instead reflects good relations with the City Spirit. This would have a similar spiritual function as Kindred's political City Status does and makes the Exalted/Symphonic resonance work much better.