Some updated Gifts

[Seidmadr]

My group and I have just recently started a Forsaken chronicle, and one of the things I kinda missed was the breadth of Gifts that 1e had. This combined with a caffeine-induced spurt of inspiration made me sit down and update a bunch of Gifts to 2e.

I'll just drop three of them here, since two are Bale Hound gifts, and I wouldn't want Tessie to learn too much.

EDIT: These are all Shadow Gifts

Gifts of the Alpha

Taste of Flaws (Cunning)

The character looks at a target to learn their weaknesses. Unlike the Insight facet Prey on Weakness, this facet gives generalities rather than specifics.
Cost: 1 Essence
Dice Pool: Wits + Empathy + Cunning vs. Composure + Primal Urge
Action: Instant
Duration: 1 Scene
Roll Results

Dramatic Failure: Misinterpret info, -3 on all rolls against target.
Failure: Unsure of flaws. No effect.
Success: Character learns target's flaws, and adds +[Cunning] on all rolls directly against the target
Exceptional Success: Target gets Guilty Condition, resolves automatically after one month.

So, this one is basically the same as in 1e, only I made it scaleable.

Alpha's Aura (Glory)

Project a terrifying aura of confidence, and danger, making your foes hesitate in their strikes.
Cost: 1 Essence
Dice Pool: -
Action: Reflexive
Duration: 1 Scene
Add [Glory] to Defense

This one is also a basic transfer. It just scales via Glory rather than Primal Urge.

Voice of Mastery (Honor)

You wordlessly send orders to your packmates, empowering their actions.
Cost: 2 Essence per pack mate targeted.
Dice Pool: Presence + Expression + Honor
Action: Instant
Duration: One action
Roll Results

Dramatic Failure: The character garbles the communication, and any attempts to get information across to her pack for the rest of the scene suffer a -3 penalty.
Failure: The character fails to reach her pack mates.
Success: The chosen packmates get a +[Honor] bonus to follow the given directive.
Exceptional Success: The packmates also receive the Inspired Condition.

This one I invented whole cloth. To add a bit more of a leadership touch to the Gift.

Lordly Will (Purity)

The character tries to shrug off all supernatural influences on their mind.
Cost: 1 Essence
Dice Pool: -
Action: Reflexive
Clash of Wills against all mind affecting powers influencing the character, if successful, the effects end immediately.

Again, just as 1E, but now with a Clash.

Pack Leader's Knowledge (Wisdom)

With a glance the Alpha can read his peak. Their strengths, weaknesses, and emotions.
Cost: 1 Essence
Dice Pool: -
Action: Reflexive
Duration: 1 Scene
Gain knowledge of state of pack members; mental, physical, and spiritual. This gives knowledge of injuries, relevant tilts and conditions, as well as willpower and essence levels.
Only works on pack mates you can in any way perceive.

A variation of the Sense Guilt gift (gods it is strange not to write Facet nowadays...), but transformed into a leadership thing.

Overall, I tried to keep to the old Gift, but explicitly without Alpha's Howl.



Gift of Opening

Lurker's Key (Cunning)

Open any locked or password protected lock.
This gift works on any object the Werewolf can see.
Cost: -
Dice Pool: Manipulation + Larceny + Cunning
Action: Instant
Duration: - or 1 Scene
Roll Results

Dramatic Failure: The lock seizes up and can now only be opened by force. Computer data must be restored.
Failure: The lock remains shut.
Success: The lock opens, giving the Werewolf access to what's behind it. If used on an electrical lock, or a password protected computer, the Facet may even power the device for the duration of the Scene, if necessary.
Exceptional Success: As a regular success, except that the fact that the lock has been opened is kept hidden from any sources surveying it.

Very basic, open stuff, possibly in a sneaky way. Differs from All Doors Locked, in that it works on range, but only on a specific lock.
I'm balancing the fact that it is free with that it takes an instant action.
Also, this is a merge of two of the facets.

Gauntlet Key (Glory)

The character tears a small hole in the Gauntlet for the pack to pass through.
Cost: 5 Essence
Dice Pool: Presence + Occult + Glory - Gauntlet Modifier
Action: Instant
Duration: [Glory] Minutes
Roll Results

Dramatic Failure: Gauntlet backlash. The character suffers a -3 Penalty to all rolls to cross the Gauntlet until sunrise.
Failure: No effect.
Success: A tear opens, and pack members may attempt to Reach across the Gauntlet as if they were in a Locus.
Exceptional Success: The tear is smooth, and pack members need not roll to enter the Gauntlet.

The big thing of the gift. I'm removing a bunch of the limits, and making it pretty expensive instead.

Opening Minds (Honor)

This gift helps the character open the minds of others.
Cost: 1 Essence
Dice Pool: -
Action: Instant
Duration: 1 Scene
Add [Honor] to Persuasion rolls.

Going a bit more metaphorical, and simple. Maybe it should include more skills, or perhaps even be changed to Presence and/or Manipulation. If it is just rolls, rather than flat attribute bumps, after all...
And yes, this one is a complete change from the 1e one, since a "flood someone's mind with info" didn't really fit the theme of opening.

Create Opening (Purity)

The character creates an opening in an object, or tears open a victim.
This Facet may be done at a distance of up to [Purity]*3 Feet, but it is then done at a -3 penalty.
Cost: 1 Essence
Dice Pool: Presence + Intimidation + Purity - Stamina or Durability
Action: Instant
Roll Results

Dramatic Failure: The facet reverses itself and the Werewolf takes [Purity] lethal damage.
Failure: The target remains intact.
Success: In an object, an opening as small as the Werewolf wants, and up to size [Purity] is created. An object with an opening larger than itself in it, is generally destroyed. A living victim takes [successes] Lethal damage.
Exceptional: An object may be closed again at the Werewolf's wishes, within a Scene. This, alas, does not work on living victims, where the only bonus is the terrible damage inflicted.

I know this is a break against the "no killing you"-powers, but I thought it was gruesome enough to fit in here.
Also, it twists objects, rather than actually damage them. I think that's weirder in a fun way.

Hunting Memories (Wisdom)

By touching the target, or making eye contact with, the Werewolf may dig out their deepest memories.
Cost: 1 Essence
Dice Pool: Wits + Investigation + Honor vs. Resolve + Primal Urge
Action: Instant
Roll Results

Dramatic Failure: The backlash confuses the Werewolf, who loses a point of Willpower. If she has no Willpower, she instead takes two points of Lethal damage, as the backlash tears into her mind.
Failure: Nothing happens. Perhaps the target doesn't think?
Success: The Werewolf reaches into the mind of the target, and she gains access to [Wisdom] memories.
Exceptional Success: The Werewolf draws strength from the connection and regains a point of Willpower.

A simple memory-read.

Hunting Memories is the only new one, since all the existing fit. Just that two of them had to be merged.



Gifts of Battle

Worry the Prey's Heels (Cunning)

With a glare, hobble those who try to run from, or chase, you.
Cost: 1 Essence
Dice Pool: Presence + Intimidation + Cunning
Action: Instant; Resistance is Reflexive
Duration: 1 Scene
Roll Results

Dramatic Failure: Can't use again on same target until moon phase has shifted
Failure: Target is not hindered at all
Success: Target suffers Leg Wrack tilt on one leg. (Healing attempts cause Clash of Wills)
Exceptional Success: Both legs get wracked.

In the original, this halves speed. Leg Wrack seems like an obvious, and fun 2e version.

Heart-Stopping Howl (Glory)

Howl and scare all enemies within hearing distance.
Cost: 2 Essence
Dice Pool: Presence + Intimidation + Glory vs. Resolve + Primal Urge, each opponent rolls separately.
Action: Instant; Resistance is Reflexive
Duration: 1 Scene
Roll Results

Dramatic Failure: The character fails to be scary. Can't use Facet on the enemies present for the remainder of the moon phase.
Failure: No Effect.
Success: Reduce the Defense and Speed of all who failed by character's [Glory].
Exceptional Success: As a success, but the penalty also applies to attack rolls against the character

Originally this one had a flat -3 penalty, that I changed to scaling. I also removed the attack roll penalty from basic success. Just to make the Exceptional so much juicier.

Primal Anger (Purity)

Channel the primal power of a werewolf's anger, and through it strike harder.
Cost: 1 Essence
Dice Pool: -
Action: Reflexive
Duration: 1 Scene.
Add [Purity] to all attack rolls.

I'm really split about this one. Thematically it fits. It is the obvious Purity-Facet, as it makes battle stronger.
It is a pure update from a 1e gift (but scales on renown rather than PU)... but it steps on the toes of Strength (Purity).

Warrior's Lore (Wisdom)

With a glance the Uratha can judge the combat capabilities of a possible opponent.
Cost: 1 Essence
Roll: Wits + Empathy + Wisdom
Action: Instant
Roll Results

Dramatic Failure: The character projects her own strengths and weaknesses, allowing the target to ignore 3 of the werewolf's defense.
Failure: No knowledge gained.
Success: The character learns the following: The target's preferred way to fight, her prowess in that method, her physical attributes, if she has any magic that can reinforce her capabilities, and what fighting styles they know, if any. All results are in relation to the werewolf's own current capabilities.
Exceptional Success: The werewolf will also learn of immediate external facts that relate to the target's danger as a foe, such as for instance reinforcements or prepared traps.

This is a re-make of the old Rahu auspice ability. It fit Battle(Wisdom) perfectly, I thought.

The two I removed were Visage of Fenris and Savaging, because basically they do a lot of the same things that Heart-Stopping Howl do.
I'm not done with the Honor Facet yet, but I'm thinking about having Honor as Armor during "unfair" fights. (Such as when outnumbered by equal or superior foes, ambushed, the enemy uses poison, or the like). I'm just not sure how to formulate this.



So, what do you think of my efforts thus far?

[Story Letter]

Gift of Agony
Stoicism (Honour)
1 E or 1 E per pack mate + Empathy + Honour
Action
Reflexive or Instant
System
Ignore any Tilt or Condition inflicted to the character for a number turns equal to Honour Renown in combat and an hour per Honour Renown out of combat. May be used on pack mates, with each success affecting one pack mate on the activation roll.

Claws of Agony (Glory)
1 E Per attack
Action
Reflexive
System
Attacks inflicted with fangs and claws add one die penalty per Wisdom renown to an enemy for a turn, the gift activates at no essence expenditure when the werewolf enters Basu-Im.

Transfer Anguish (Cunning)
1 E + Presence + Medicine + Cunning - Stamina
Action
Reflexive
System
The werewolf may choose to transfer wound penalties, conditions or tilts he may suffer himself to a chosen foe.
Additionally may redirect a point of damage per Cunning Renown inflicted to him by an attack, if an attack deals damage and inflicts a tilt the werewolf must choose one of them to protect him self from, but not both.
Exceptional Success
The enemy gains an additional physical tilt of the gift user’s choice or takes both damage and the tilt he would inflict to the character.

To Exist is to Pain (Purity)
System
The werewolf may inflict pain, be it tilts or wound penalties with gifts or physical actions, even to creatures that normally don’t feel pain, like spirits or werewolves in Gauru form. The gift is permanent once learned.

Mind’s Eye Suffering (Wisdom)
1 E + Manipulation + Empathy + Wisdom versus Resolve
Action
Instant
System
The werewolf may inflict one of the following conditions: paranoid, delusion, confused, madness, shadow paranoia.
Exceptional Success
The victim gains the werewolf’s Wisdom as penalty to rolls related to the obtained condition, until they manage to resolve their condition. Delusion: at all rolls that the character has to spend a Willpower, confused: to all Intelligence and Wits rolls , madness: to any Mental or Social roll (does not count as using the 10- Integrity die penalty), paranoid: penalty to Perception rolls, Social actions, and dice pools to draw upon the Allies, Contacts, Mentor, Retainer, Staff, and Status Merits. shadow paranoia: penalty to all Perception rolls, penalty on all Intelligence and Wits based dice pools.

[Charlaquin]

kinda slow in the uptake, check my last post.

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[nofather]

I see now that my brevity (I kept stuff deliberately short, so I wouldn't get stuck writing fluff for the gifts, rather than mechanics).

I gotcha. Was late at time of reading so didn't get all the way through. Was curious about the fluff of the +Defense one.

Here is how it's phrased in the 1e stuff:
"A good leader finds out all he can about his
enemies before confronting them. This Gift allows
the Storm Lord to sense his foe’s weaknesses, detecting flaws in his opponent’s speech, mental faculties or
combat style. This Gift does not reveal specifc weaknesses as with the New Moon Gift: Sense Weakness,
but instead reveals an overall picture of the target’s
flaws and shortcomings, allowing the Storm Lord to
work around them"

And if you succeeded on the roll to activate it, you got a flat +2 bonus on all rolls against the target.

There's gotta be a way to represent this better mechanically. Perhaps it gives the Informed Condition regarding the target? Or just turn the whole effect, with the + based on Renown into an Informed-like Condition?

I have to admit that I forgot the Command Artifice one.
The problem was that I couldn't really re-make Gifts of Opening without a power that lets you, you know, open stuff.

Yeah.

[Malus]

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kinda slow in the uptake, check my last post.

[Sparketh]

Underwhelming.

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Rule 2. Respect the conversation. Don’t try to incite others to break the rules, or distract from the subject at hand. This includes threadcrapping, the posting of short messages or images which add nothing to a thread and serve only to express a user’s displeasure with it.

[Seidmadr]

Taste of Flaws being a crapier Insight gifts it specifically references,

I had missed the +3 bonus that Prey on Weakness granted, I admit that. With that, I agree that it gets worse.

I'll probably re-write it as a way to figure out the biggest weakness of a group, then. Will fit better with the Alpha theme as well. Giving the user both the ability to figure out the weaknesses of her own pack, as well as learning how to strike at groups of enemies.

Lordy Will offering Clash of Wills while the Inspiration one affects the whole pack, I'd at least give it say, Rote action there,

Fearless Hunter makes it less likely to be affected, Lordly Will allows you to throw off the effects once they have struck you.
Also, I think they'd have rather good synergy, in that someone with Lordly Will could succeed in getting everyone free, if they have already been struck.

Voice of Mastery being so much worse than the Purity merit in terms of essence cost...

Yes, but the Tactician merit (which is what I assume you mean), is a lot more limited, since it only works on teamwork rolls, and only reduces circumstantial penalties. It doesn't give actual bonuses.

Opening Minds could curtail the natural number of Doors required to maneuver somebody rather than give flat out skill bonuses. I liked Warrior's Lore.

Yeah, I was a bit disappointed that the Warrior's Eye ability was lost in 2E, so I wanted to recreate it, but also make it a bit more useful.

[Malus]

Taste of Flaws being a crapier Insight gifts it specifically references, Lordy Will offering Clash of Wills while the Inspiration one affects the whole pack, I'd at least give it say, Rote action there, Voice of Mastery being so much worse than the Purity merit in terms of essence cost... Opening Minds could curtail the natural number of Doors required to maneuver somebody rather than give flat out skill bonuses. I liked Warrior's Lore.

Sorry I didn't made further comments, was lacking in the time department at the time.

[Elfive]

No problem.

Now as for actual comments: I think Primal Anger might be ok, because while it does overlap with Primal Strength a little it would also affect attack rolls that run off dexterity such as firearms or those performed via Fighting Finesse, which provides it a separate niche. Plus it should stack with Primal Strength which gives it synergy rather than redundancy.

[Seidmadr]

In hunting memories you said that they gain [honour] memories when I think you meant [wisdom].

Oh, yeah. Thanks.
I was changing it piece by piece as I wrote it, and in all the transitions, it turned into a Wisdom Facet instead.
Thanks for pointing that out.

[Elfive]

In hunting memories you said that they gain [honour] memories when I think you meant [wisdom].

[Seidmadr]

I've only looked at the alpha ones so far, but they do seem kind of underpowered compared to the other second edition gifts. For instance Pack Leader's Knowledge costs more than the Wolf Gift Pack Awareness, but does less. With Pack Leader's Knowledge you spend Essence to learn about pack members you can see, while with Pack Awareness you passively know where they are and their general wellbeing within Wisdom Renown of miles. In addition there's the special 'can't be surprised' advantage.

I see now that my brevity (I kept stuff deliberately short, so I wouldn't get stuck writing fluff for the gifts, rather than mechanics).
The intent was that for an Essence, you get in-depth knowledge of all pack mates you can perceive, and be able to keep up to date on the details, rather than the vaguer generalities of Pack Awareness.

I'm not sure what you mean by flaws in Taste of Flaws. What are you learning about them?

Here is how it's phrased in the 1e stuff:
"A good leader finds out all he can about his
enemies before confronting them. This Gift allows
the Storm Lord to sense his foe’s weaknesses, detecting flaws in his opponent’s speech, mental faculties or
combat style. This Gift does not reveal specifc weaknesses as with the New Moon Gift: Sense Weakness,
but instead reveals an overall picture of the target’s
flaws and shortcomings, allowing the Storm Lord to
work around them"

And if you succeeded on the roll to activate it, you got a flat +2 bonus on all rolls against the target.

And the Voice of Mastery does seem to cost a lot. Is there a limit to the 'given directive'? Can you just say 'Kill that guy' or 'kill them all' and everyone gets +Honor to attack rolls?

Yeah. That was kind of the point with it. To let someone who was more of a social leader have a strong role in combat, in buffing pack mates.

Just a glance of the first Opening One, I get that it's a smaller scale 'All Doors Locked,' but isn't it the same as Command Artifice? I suppose the lack of a cost helps.

I have to admit that I forgot the Command Artifice one.
The problem was that I couldn't really re-make Gifts of Opening without a power that lets you, you know, open stuff.

Gifts are tough. There's some first edition ones that should be left there (not that these are, just some things that didn't really need to be Gifts or were all over the scale). But there's a lot of neat ones there too and ones that should definitely be converted, especially given the thematics of the game. Acrozatarim, the guy who designed Gifts, wrote a couple blog posts about it, you may have seen them before. This one for Moon Gifts. And this for Shadow and Wolf Gifts. I tried making a Gun Gift a long time ago and put it on pause until Hurt Locker came out. Guess I forgot about the revisions after my werewolf game came to an end. But Acrozatarim gave some good, critical, advice about them there.

Yeah. I know. I've tried to use those posts as a guideline.

[nofather]

Yes, if you've a problem with it you should explain.

I've only looked at the alpha ones so far, but they do seem kind of underpowered compared to the other second edition gifts. For instance Pack Leader's Knowledge costs more than the Wolf Gift Pack Awareness, but does less. With Pack Leader's Knowledge you spend Essence to learn about pack members you can see, while with Pack Awareness you passively know where they are and their general wellbeing within Wisdom Renown of miles. In addition there's the special 'can't be surprised' advantage.

I'm not sure what you mean by flaws in Taste of Flaws. What are you learning about them? And the Voice of Mastery does seem to cost a lot. Is there a limit to the 'given directive'? Can you just say 'Kill that guy' or 'kill them all' and everyone gets +Honor to attack rolls?

Just a glance of the first Opening One, I get that it's a smaller scale 'All Doors Locked,' but isn't it the same as Command Artifice? I suppose the lack of a cost helps.

Gifts are tough. There's some first edition ones that should be left there (not that these are, just some things that didn't really need to be Gifts or were all over the scale). But there's a lot of neat ones there too and ones that should definitely be converted, especially given the thematics of the game. Acrozatarim, the guy who designed Gifts, wrote a couple blog posts about it, you may have seen them before. This one for Moon Gifts. And this for Shadow and Wolf Gifts. I tried making a Gun Gift a long time ago and put it on pause until Hurt Locker came out. Guess I forgot about the revisions after my werewolf game came to an end. But Acrozatarim gave some good, critical, advice about them there.

[Seidmadr]

Underwhelming.

Wow. Thanks.
Could you at least tell me what I'm doing wrong?

[Malus]

Underwhelming.