Four New Gifts

[Acrozatarim]

While I haven't yet finished up Five Pounds of Meat, I wanted to get this thread up slightly earlier as there's more options for people to pick from! Now, to be honest and upfront, I'm not going to be writing up four full new Gifts. They're a part of the game that requires more mechanical rigor, and I'd rather do one sort-of-thought-through Gift than four absolutely-banged-together-on-short-notice Gifts, as the latter are extremely unlikely to be useable whereas the former might actually be in decent enough shape to provide people with some fun.

So, this thread will not be picking from between two options, each of four Gifts. Instead, vote for which of the following four Gifts you want me to write up! Would you like:
a) the Gift of Tides; or
b) the Gift of Darkness; or
c) the Gift of Time; or
d) the Gift of Metal.

As per usual, disclaimer for this sort of stuff: Not an official write-up, superseded by any versions in future, etc etc.

[Aeveth]

That's understandable, I was just curious, might see them eventually anyway if/when they come up in new books.

[Acrozatarim]

We got Time and Metal gifts, I'm guessing, more like hoping actually, we'll be seeing the Tides and Darkness Gifts too? I'm curious about what you could come up with them, both seem rather interesting

It's unlikely at this time - I'm too busy on the development of Shunned by the Moon at the moment!

[Aeveth]

We got Time and Metal gifts, I'm guessing, more like hoping actually, we'll be seeing the Tides and Darkness Gifts too? I'm curious about what you could come up with them, both seem rather interesting

[21C Hermit]

Iron Truth invokes a symbolic quality of metal. It makes your fist metaphysically metal (though I would not recommend punching or slashing someone while raising the horns).

My own problem with Iron Truth is that it's too good for almost no cost. It shuts down temporary protections rather than just ignoring or suspending them. It can be used in conjunction with an attack. It costs a single Essence, and for that one Essence it can potentially shut down powers that would otherwise make the user temporarily immune to damage.

Gleaming Allure also invokes symbolism, but involves actual metal to leverage it. That was why I thought Iron Truth odd. Unless the Brawl/Firearms/Weaponry attack must involve metallic weaponry used, or metallic armor on the prey’s part? That might also help balance its power level.

[Tessie]

Iron Truth stands out as involving little of actual metal in its effect, or at least, having the possibility of involving no metal at all. Was that intentional?

Iron Truth invokes a symbolic quality of metal. It makes your fist metaphysically metal (though I would not recommend punching or slashing someone while raising the horns).

My own problem with Iron Truth is that it's too good for almost no cost. It shuts down temporary protections rather than just ignoring or suspending them. It can be used in conjunction with an attack. It costs a single Essence, and for that one Essence it can potentially shut down powers that would otherwise make the user temporarily immune to damage.

[21C Hermit]

Iron Truth stands out as involving little of actual metal in its effect, or at least, having the possibility of involving no metal at all. Was that intentional?

[Vent0]

You wrote the Gift of Metal not about the musical genre, yet it is still nice that the facets all sound like they could be Metal album titles or band names.

[Acrozatarim]

Hey folks! I've got an initial draft of a Gift of Metal for you here. I strongly suspect this needs a lot more work and testing, but it's in a viable initial form.

Gift of Metal

Verdigris Hex (Cunning)
Shining lustre stains before the hungry tongue of rust; sturdy resilience falters into brittle fatigue before time and tide. This is the lesson: the endurance of metal is naught but a masquerade.
Cost: 1 Essence
Dice Pool: Wits + Craft + Cunning – Resolve
Action: Instant
Duration: 1 month This Facet can be used against a character whom the Uratha touches.
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The Uratha gains the Ban Condition. She feels an extremely strong aversion to damaging or destroying anything made of or including metal in its construction.
Failure: The Facet fails.
Success: The prey is cursed for the Facet’s duration, suffering the Uratha’s Cunning Renown as a penalty to Craft, Computer, and Science dice pools that involve using or working on metal components in any way; circuitry degrades, metal components rust, or parts snap or break due to metal fatigue.
Exceptional Success: The prey also suffers the Ban Condition. They must strike or otherwise physically lash out at any technology that includes metal in its construction that fails to work, breaks, or frustrates them.

Gleaming Allure (Glory)
The shining hue of precious gold and silver has long bent humanity to the will of metal, twisting their resolve and breaking their wits.
Cost: 1 Essence
Dice Pool: Presence + Subterfuge + Glory – Composure
Action: Instant
Duration: 1 month, or until the effect is invoked
This Facet can be used against a character with whom the Uratha makes an exchange or offers a gift to of a precious metal such as gold, silver, or platinum.
Roll Results:
Dramatic Failure: The Uratha gains the Ban Condition. She must hoard shiny things, regardless of their actual value, for the Condition’s duration.
Failure: The Facet fails.
Success: This Facet has two effects if successfully. Firstly, the Uratha can treat the metal she is bartering with to serve, for that particular transaction, as if she had Resources equal to her Glory Renown—however, the beguiling effect will not last, and the prey will be aware of the true value of the exchange at the end of the scene. Secondly, if the trade or gift is accepted, then once in the next month when the Uratha can perceive the prey, she can cause the character to dramatically fail a single dice pool involving Wits or Resolve.
Exceptional Success: Instead of a dramatic failure, the Uratha may cause the victim to suffer the Blinded Tilt for her Glory Renown in turns; this is a metaphorical blindness rather than physical, the victim's mind too filled with the greedy glint of gold.

Steel Rancor (Honor)
The Uratha snarls insult at the slaves of steel, drawing the anger of the iron hornets onto herself.
Cost: 1 Essence
Action: Reflexive
This Facet can be used when an attack involving a metal weapon, projectile, or component is made against another character within Honor Renown x 3 yards of the Uratha. The attack is instead made against the Uratha; she can use this Facet up to her Honor Renown in times each turn. When multiple characters are targeted via effects such as autofire, the Uratha suffers only a single attack from a given source regardless of how many characters she protects with Steel Rancor; were she to retarget a spray of machine-gun fire or shrapnel that would hit two or three packmates, she is only hit by one instance of the attack.

Quell Silver (Purity)
Silver’s burning bite craves the flesh and blood of the Uratha; this Facet lets the wolf turn aside its ravening appetite, at least for a little while.
Cost: 2 Essence
Action: Reflexive
Against attacks or effects that would cause harm via silver, this Facet adds the Uratha’s Purity to her Defence or any other value opposing the effect, such as an attribute used for resisting, contesting, or withstanding.

Iron Truth (Wisdom)
There is truth in iron, a cold and hard edge of the real and the raw that grinds against the lofty and the ethereal with its cruel actuality. Humanity has long seen iron as a tool against that which is magical and mad; so too can the Uratha wielding this Facet bring some of iron’s harsh practicality to bear against her foes.
Cost: 1 Essence
Action: Reflexive
This Facet is used to augment a Brawl, Firearms, or Weaponry attack, triggering a Clash of Wills against a supernatural effect that protects the prey from harm. Success causes the supernatural protection to end or, for permanent and innate powers, to cease functioning for a number of turns equal to the Uratha’s Wisdom Renown. Note that a werewolf's regeneration is not an effect that protects the prey from harm.

[Acrozatarim]

Acrozatarim Minor nit-pick: Out of Time's dramatic failure should perhaps afford 8 again (or another beneficial condition) to a related roll, since initiative itself doesn't uses dice tricks.

Eh, nothing wrong with treating it with 8-again here, though. It just sticks a dice trick on anyway

So I have a relatively important question.
What kind of spirit can even give the Gift of Time?

I imagine spirits of large clock-towers are particularly tricky to negotiate with, but possessed of a particularly keen affinity for this sort of Gift. A few spirits of particular strands of memory, or certain slants on death, might also be able to carve the Gift. Some celestial spirits will fall into the category too, but it wouldn't be a general thing for all such entities.

[nofather]

Wouldn't they have to mask their totemic relationship from their Werewolf-hating God-king though?

Not really. Helios isn't going to come down to spank it or anything. Besides, if the totem got them to take care of and curb claimed and ridden and urged then it would be a plus. You might have to deal with some aggressive helions in response, but likely your totem would be cut out of the local choir.

There's examples of rogue lunes, too, like in War Against the Pure, even a magath-luna-helion that I believe is a Pure totem. It's generally up to the servants to deal with these things, and only Luna has servants right now.

[Master Aquatosic]

Cost of doing business, or it might actually appreciate that they didn't discorporate it. It's not as if Helions are especially powerful, though. There are probably packs with Helion totems. There's always exceptions to things, but as wyrd pointed out, just like Lunes are not Luna, Helions are not Helios.

That said I'd probably avoid both of them in a search for time spirits.

Wouldn't they have to mask their totemic relationship from their Werewolf-hating God-king though?

[nofather]

Yeah, because the spirits of the Big Ben or Prague's Astronomical Clock would be much more friendly :P

They'd be more direct. Lunes and Helions are going to be spread across a huge amount of things, from the various Renown to obscure stuff like Death-By-Daylight. It would be like finding a needle in a needle stack.

But find the big city spirit in its Place That Isn't, and watch what happens around rush hour and the opening or closing of business, and you can notice the time spirit collecting a tithe on behalf of its greater. Then just hunt it down at your leisure.

[LostLight]

That said I'd probably avoid both of them in a search for time spirits.

Yeah, because the spirits of the Big Ben or Prague's Astronomical Clock would be much more friendly :P

[nofather]

Yeah, but now you're got Helions with a -personal- grudge against your pack in particular.

Cost of doing business, or it might actually appreciate that they didn't discorporate it. It's not as if Helions are especially powerful, though. There are probably packs with Helion totems. There's always exceptions to things, but as wyrd pointed out, just like Lunes are not Luna, Helions are not Helios.

That said I'd probably avoid both of them in a search for time spirits.