Tweet
Forsaken Youths
This thread is a continuation of Breeds in Forsaken, incorporating ideas from The Pack and Dark Eras. The idea is to port something akin to WtA's Breeds into the metaphysics of WtF.
First, these are Youths, not Breeds. Your parentage only matters in terms of what form you were born in and grew up in: a Hishu Youth was born to human parents in Hishu form, and grew up among humans; an Urhanu Youth was born to wolf parents in Urhanu form, and probably grew up among wolves. The notion here, first articulated by Charlaquin, is that Uratha aren't humans that can turn into wolves, they're shapeshifters that can take human form and wolf form: Hishu grew up locked in human form while Urhanu grew up locked in wolf form; but after the First Change, there are only lingering differences between them.
The Hishu Youth is straightforward: it is what Werewolf: the Forsaken offers out of the box. No rules changes are needed.
To facilitate the Urhanu Youth, I'm introducing a “wolf-blood” equivalent for wolves. For the time being, I'm referring to them as Dire Wolves. A Dire Wolf differs from a regular wolf in three ways:
• First, and most significantly, it's a lot smarter: like the velociraptors from Jurassic Park, the Dire Wolf is capable of reasoned thought; it's sapient, not merely sentient. When creating a Dire Wolf, start by creating a regular character; then apply the effects of the Urhanu form to it, as well as the Urhanu Youth described below. In particular, Mental and Social Attributes are chosen normally: Dire Wolves tend to prioritize Wits and Resolve over Intelligence and Presence and Composure over Manipulation; but there are no requirements that they do so.
• Second, the Dire Wolf has a Tell. Choose Tells from among the ones available for the Wolf-Bloods. Tells that normally grant access to Dalu form instead grant access to Urshal form, and vice versa. Likewise, a hypothetical Tell that would grant access to Urhanu form instead grants access to Hishu.
• Finally, the Dire Wolf has access to suitable Wolf-Blooded Merits.
Where do Dire Wolves come from? One theory is that they're descendants of the Firstborn. Another is that Luna sometimes chooses to bless wolves as she sometimes bestows her blessing on humans. As with Wolf-Blood humans, the truth is a mystery.
The main inspiration for Dire Wolves is “Mowgli's Brothers”, from Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book.
As mentioned before, the main reason for introducing Dire Wolves is to facilitate the Urhanu Youth. A werewolf with the Urhanu Youth was a Dire Wolf before the First Change. She gets a free dot in Animal Ken, with a free Specialty in Wolves (after all, she grew up as a wolf; comprehending how they think is second nature to her), along with the “no Primary Mental Skills” restriction and a Persistent Condition (“Raised by Wolves”) that replaces the -3 Unskilled penalty with automatic Chance Dice status until it's Resolved. Resolving this Condition involves spending enough Experiences to acclimate to human society, which should be at least as much as buying a Skill dot and maybe as much as buying an Attribute dot; I'm not sure which, but I'm leaning toward the latter. In the meantime, the Urhanu is picking up Beats from this Condition whenever her outsider perspective causes trouble, as per the normal rules for Conditions.
Thoughts?
First, these are Youths, not Breeds. Your parentage only matters in terms of what form you were born in and grew up in: a Hishu Youth was born to human parents in Hishu form, and grew up among humans; an Urhanu Youth was born to wolf parents in Urhanu form, and probably grew up among wolves. The notion here, first articulated by Charlaquin, is that Uratha aren't humans that can turn into wolves, they're shapeshifters that can take human form and wolf form: Hishu grew up locked in human form while Urhanu grew up locked in wolf form; but after the First Change, there are only lingering differences between them.
The Hishu Youth is straightforward: it is what Werewolf: the Forsaken offers out of the box. No rules changes are needed.
To facilitate the Urhanu Youth, I'm introducing a “wolf-blood” equivalent for wolves. For the time being, I'm referring to them as Dire Wolves. A Dire Wolf differs from a regular wolf in three ways:
• First, and most significantly, it's a lot smarter: like the velociraptors from Jurassic Park, the Dire Wolf is capable of reasoned thought; it's sapient, not merely sentient. When creating a Dire Wolf, start by creating a regular character; then apply the effects of the Urhanu form to it, as well as the Urhanu Youth described below. In particular, Mental and Social Attributes are chosen normally: Dire Wolves tend to prioritize Wits and Resolve over Intelligence and Presence and Composure over Manipulation; but there are no requirements that they do so.
• Second, the Dire Wolf has a Tell. Choose Tells from among the ones available for the Wolf-Bloods. Tells that normally grant access to Dalu form instead grant access to Urshal form, and vice versa. Likewise, a hypothetical Tell that would grant access to Urhanu form instead grants access to Hishu.
• Finally, the Dire Wolf has access to suitable Wolf-Blooded Merits.
Where do Dire Wolves come from? One theory is that they're descendants of the Firstborn. Another is that Luna sometimes chooses to bless wolves as she sometimes bestows her blessing on humans. As with Wolf-Blood humans, the truth is a mystery.
The main inspiration for Dire Wolves is “Mowgli's Brothers”, from Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book.
As mentioned before, the main reason for introducing Dire Wolves is to facilitate the Urhanu Youth. A werewolf with the Urhanu Youth was a Dire Wolf before the First Change. She gets a free dot in Animal Ken, with a free Specialty in Wolves (after all, she grew up as a wolf; comprehending how they think is second nature to her), along with the “no Primary Mental Skills” restriction and a Persistent Condition (“Raised by Wolves”) that replaces the -3 Unskilled penalty with automatic Chance Dice status until it's Resolved. Resolving this Condition involves spending enough Experiences to acclimate to human society, which should be at least as much as buying a Skill dot and maybe as much as buying an Attribute dot; I'm not sure which, but I'm leaning toward the latter. In the meantime, the Urhanu is picking up Beats from this Condition whenever her outsider perspective causes trouble, as per the normal rules for Conditions.
Thoughts?
Comment