Thats right, welcome to the area that will hold the majority of information concerning this world of darkness game. Here you can expect to see definitions, in game references, local information and more. Itll take some time to fine tune it all. So lets get started.<br/><br/>My rules<br/><br/>1) Have fun or else!<br/>2) Be nice to your players and me<br/>3) Wait for others in the same sceene as you<br/>4) If your going to be gone for an extended period of time let me know<br/>5) Contact me anytime you have a question or a concern regarding the game, alternativly you can also post it in the ooc area.<br/>6) Only the core World of darkness and W:tF books are usable for this game. Ill consider other material on a case by case basis but before it becomes usable there will be a discussion about it with everyone.<br/><br/>My goals for the game.<br/><br/>1) To have fun and to provide a fun enviroment for my players.<br/>2) To challenge my players psychologically and philosophically<br/>3) To in turn, find new challenges and overcome them myself.<br/>4) To create an excellent roleplaying game that is rules light and gets new/unfamiliar players interested in the world of darkness<br/><br/>Notes<br/><br/>1) This game will be extremly dark, foreboding, and gruesome. It is likely that you might find sceenes involving blood and gore to extreme lengths. This of course will always be away from any sexual interaction.<br/>2) As events progress I intend to put up "Behind the sceenes" threads so that players can see whats going on elsewhere that effects them. Of course they wont know that the cops were tipped off till after they have played through that.<br/>3) This game is mostly character driven. Ill put in hooks but its up to the players to progress things.<br/><br/>Rolling dice and such<br/><br/>Heres a link to a dice roller http://www.irony.com/igroll.html. I do not intend to use dice rolling often and the<strong>LAST</strong>thing I want is the game to turn into 1 line posts followed by masses of dice rolling. In the world of darkness system you roll only 10 sided dice (d10s) and want to hit a taget number (or get higher then that target number) as many times as you can with that roll. Dice pools vary but they are dependant on your skills, attributes, and sometimes equipment. When using a normal skill you will almost always roll a number of dice equal to the dots in your skill. In the case of getting a 10 on any roll you count that as a success and roll that die again counting a success if you get one (and rerolling again if its another 10)<br/><br/>=============================<br/><br/>Auspices: An auspice is the moon-sign that marks a Werewolves first change and a role that he/she plays within Uratha society.<br/><br/>Full Moon/Rahu: The full moon is the face of Luna the destroyer. Werewolves born under the Full moon tend to be warriors and/or tacticians. A Rahu, though often violent, need not be a berserker or extremely violent. Their life revolves around combat and battle, being the werewolves that lead battles and that run into a fight before any other and be the last out.<br/><br/>Gibbous moon/Cahalith: The Gibbous moon is that of Luna's voice. Cahalith, like many Rahu, are passionate Uratha though their passion is directed in another way. They are the werewolves who sing and howl out to mother Luna and their pack. They remind the pack why they do what they do and nothing can make a pack work harder then the insightful howls of the Cahalith. Though their howls and words revolve around expression and communication the Cahalith's secondary role is that of a storyteller and lorekeeper.<br/><br/>Half moon/Eldoth: The half moon is the face of Luna's balance. All werewolves live in duality, being half man half wolf but the eldoth takes it a step further. The eldoth are diplomats, judges, mediators, and executioners. They understand the passion felt by the Cahalith, the need for the blood letting of the Rahu, the insightful wisdom of the Itheaur, and the cunning of the Irraka. It is their duality and understanding that is mother Luna's gift.<br/><br/>Crescent moon/Itheaur: The crescent moon is the face of Luna the oracle. Itheuar are the shamans of werewolves, understanding the shadow and the ancient rites of father wolf and countless others. When the Rahu's claws fail to rend spirits and the Eldoth's negotiations go sour is the Itheaur that steps forward and binds the spirits. While other werewolves might understand things about the shadow and spirits, it is the Itheaur that truely knows their secrets.<br/><br/>New Moon/Irraka: When the moon has disappeared into the night it is the face of Luna the deciever. Irraka tend to be scouts, using their cunning, stealth, and deception to assist their pack. While other werewolves can hide in the shadows the Irraka becomes the shadows. They stalk from the shadows at arms length of their pack and strike silently but with deadly precision. Often they are the uratha charged wtih taking steps to ensure that mortals never know of the pack.<br/><br/>===================================<br/><br/>Tribes<br/><br/>There are five tribes that the forsaken are commonly a part of. Each one having different philosophies and goals. As tribe mates are your friends, packmates are your family. Remember that should arguments ever come out. On another note I did pretty much the bare bones here since I suck at explaining tribes.<br/><br/>Blood Talons: The blood talons are warriors, defenders, and champions within Uratha society<br/>Bone Shadows: Shaman, wisemen/women that travel deeper then any normal Ithaer into the shadow to seek out its mysteries.<br/>Hunters in the darkness: They reveal natural surrondings and fuction as assasins and guardians<br/>Iron Masters: They hide within the cities like a wolf in human skin. Learning from mortals and using their technology to meet the goals of the uratha<br/>Storm Lords: They believe themselves to be leaders and commanders of werewolf society. Taking charge when it isnt always needed but when they do lead they do a good job of it.<br/>Ghost wolves: Tribeless werewolves<br/><br/>===================================<br/><br/>The oath of the moon: Consider it the 10 comandments of werwolves<br/><br/>The Wolf must hunt: Easy enough right? Wrong. Werewolves hunt all manner of beings from humankind that threaten their territory to spirits to feed on essence and for a variety of reasons. As a GM I believe that as long as a werewolf hunts something (not neccasarily draws nutrition or glory and honor from it) that they have fulfilled the first oath.<br/><br/>The people do not murder the people: Sounds simple right? Yes it is. The people refers to werewolves themselves, the uratha. In their society ritual combat and battles break out all the time often developing into bloodletting but rarely death. Death of other uratha in combat can happen but it is when an Uratha engineers the death of another werewolf that this oath comes into play. Even in tests and rituals that involve combat the looser of such a battle is often shown mercy as a sign of honor and respect. To finish off any werewolf after winning a contest is also one of the lowest things an uratha can do and violates this oath.<br/><br/>The low honor the high; the high respect the low: Reffering to station within werewolf society. The alpha and elders lead and should continue to do so till they are no longer capable of doing their job. At the same time, the high must respect the new pups that come into their society. For if they alienate the next generation and make them turn from their duty, who will continue the hunt?<br/><br/>Respect your prey: Though we were all human at one time we are now something more. We hunt spirits to keep the balance between reality and the shadow but as we do that we respect the beings we hunt. The same goes for human beings, people who were once our bretheren, as well as all other animals and werewolves. Honor spirits, humans, werewolves, and animals because they make a great sacrifice to hold the balance between worlds.<br/><br/>The uratha shall cleave to the human: Werewolves mating with other werewolves creates an abomination of the ancient tenets as well as no wolf can bear the child of a werewolf. Breeding is a duty to werewolves though often physical pleasure and lust can be quite tempting at times. Mother Luna forces the people to mate with humans so that the people do not breed to the point of weakness. As GM, and considering our community, as long as no children are made between the werewolves then I believe this oath is fulfilled.<br/><br/>Do not eat the flesh of man or wolf: Sounds easy right? I think it is.<br/><br/>The herd must not know: Do not let humans know of you. While changing into your supernatural forms you induce lunacy but at the same time we do live in a world of cell phone camera's and the internet can be as much of a weapon against the people as a hidden blessing.<br/><br/>Tribal vows: Each tribe has a ban of some kind and Ill not go into further detail of my views on them here. If you have questions or want to know my view on it, contact me.<br/><br/>=======================================<br/>Shapechanging<br/><br/>The Uratha have 5 different forms with which to fight their enemies. My rules for shapechanging are a little different. Normall you would roll Stamina + primal urge + survival (using the characters base stamina). I only make you roll for Dalu, Gauru, and Urshal forms. Dalu and Urshal forms being difficulty 5, Gauru being dificulty 6. Meaning when you roll dice that at least 1 out of those dice must equal or exceed that score to do what you want. Werewolves can shapechange at any time despite the phase of the moon.<br/><br/>Hishu, the human form that makes a werewolf look exactly like a human.<br/><br/>Dalu, the near human. A form slightly bigger then Hishu, very hairyer, and that grants the werewolf claws and a devestating bite. Additionally it also induces Lunacy in mortals.<br/><br/>Gauru, the half man half wolf form. The nightmarish form that legends were spawned from and that throws an uratha into true rage. Gauru is the war form of the people that has no true equal. When in this form werewolves must attack something (as long as an enemy is within reach) or run to the closest enemy. The war form is taxing above all else and Uratha can only remain in it for a limited time (a number of turns equal to your Primal urge + stamina) but on the nights of the uratha's auspice the form lasts a little longer. (Add your primary auspice reknown if applicable.) Once the rage takes hold there is no way to stop until it has run its course and an uratha can not use the warform again for that battle.<br/><br/>Urshal, the near wolf or what I call the dire wolf. Urshal is much like the dalu form, being a step in between the war form and a pure form. As dalu is the step between Human and rage urshal is the step between wolf and rage. The large more canine like body induces lunacy in mortals that see it.<br/><br/>Urhan, the wolf. The other side of the Uratha's soul. The wolf that drives his primal side.<br/>=======================================<br/><br/>Pack totems<br/><br/>Any group of werewolves can gather and fight together but it is the pack's totem that truely binds them spiritually and makes them family. Often a pack chooses a totem by finding a powerful spirit that they respect and then beginning a hunt to prove that they are worthy. However there are rare instances when a spirit will offer to join a pack. Totem spirits bless their pack often with gifts or other abilities as well as often fighting along side them in battle.<br/><br/>Mechanically building a totem is a long process that requires a lot of thought and diliberation between the players. Werewolves can further empower their totem by purchasing the totem merit with their hard earned experience.<br/><br/>=======================================<br/><br/>Experience and such<br/><br/>If your new tothe world of darkness system then the first thing Ill tell you about the experience system is there are no levels. Experience is spent to make certain abilities grow more powerful. These can be just about anything on the character sheet.<br/><br/>Exp point cost list<br/><br/>Attribute: New dot x 5<br/>Skill: new dots x3<br/>skill specialty: 3 xp<br/>Gift/rituals for auspice, tribe or common: new dots x 5<br/>Other gifts: New dots x 7<br/>Rite: new dots x2<br/>Merit: New dots x 2<br/>Totem Merit: 3xp per dot<br/>Primal urge: new dots x 8<br/>Auspice/tribe Reknown: new dots x 6<br/>Other renown: new dots x 8<br/>Harmony: new dots x 3<br/>Willpower: 8 xp per dot<br/><br/><strong>How I award experience points:</strong>Assuming you have participated in some way I will award 1 experience point at the end of each week. Should your roleplaying be exemplarary I will award an additional 1 point. Finally at the end of each major sceene I will award 1 point.<br/><br/>=======================================<br/>The local area.<br/><br/>I will try to get a map up for that in the next week but no promises. Your local territory currently spans about a 6 block wide area. I will however give you a listing of locus points and spirits of interest.<br/><br/>Locus points<br/><br/><strong>The skyline apartments. Room 415:</strong>Recently this 3 dot locus was mostly unavailable to the local werewolves but a shooting last week changed that when the couple that owned the room were gunned down in a driveby shooting. In the apartment is what looks like a major dungeon with who knows how many toys on the floor, shelves, and dresser. The bed itself is the locus' physical manifestation and it emits essence attuned to passion. When standing anywhere on the 4th floor of the building people become incredibly horny and the feelings do not pass for 8-12 hours after a person leaves the floor. Produces 12 'passion' essence per day.<br/><br/><strong>Skyline apartments, Room 603:</strong>On the outside of this room is a single window and a telescope pointed up to the sky. This telescope is the physical manifestation of a one point Night locus. Only active on cloudless nights, this locus is hardly ever used at all since the owner of the apartment almost never goes anywhere. Produces 3 'night's sky' essence per day.<br/><br/><strong>Backalley of the Skyline apartments:</strong>An almost pitch black area home to a two point locus that emits essence attuned to darkness and is centered around a small brick lodged in one of the buildings cracks. Due to the placement of the buildings and fire escapes the area is almost completly black 24 hours a day. No matter how many times city mantienance teams try to fix the nearby street lamps the powerful spirit that calls this one home breaks it. Produces 6 'darkness' essence per day.<br/><br/><strong>82nd street Gym:</strong>This 2 point locus is centered around a benchpress that seems to be used a great deal. Anyone using the benchpress seems to pump more and more wieght till their muslces literally cant continue and the entire gym seems to make people desire some sort of 'physical activity'. A few people have even been injured because of the locus' power and a powerful spirit that resides in the gym. Produces 6 'strength' essence per day.<br/><br/><strong>Wharf 12:</strong>A locus controlled by the Azlu and centered around one of the posts that make up the dock. No one is sure how powerful or what type of locus it is. Local werewolves only seem to know that there are a ton of Azlu guarding it and continuing to thicken the guantlet all around the area as they breed.<br/><br/>Local problems<br/><br/>1) Gangs. Recently a blood war happened between two large rival factions of a local yet large scale gang. Now only about a dozen members hang around but they still continue to pump drugs and weapons into the streets as well as opening a chopshop in the neighborhood. Recently they have even disturbed a few of the local spirits who have opened discussion on how to deal with them.<br/><br/>2) Drugs. Due to the gangs local dealings many ridden and depression, maddness, greed, and poison spirits have moved into the neihborhood making things much worse in the shadow. If things continue on this route much longer, it could effect the nearby loci.<br/><br/>3) The Pure. Werewolves part of the pure, a rival faction that hates and kills forsaken, have moved in but as of yet it is only a small pack of 3. Their base of operations is unknown as well as their knowlege of forsaken in this area.<br/><br/>4) Azlu. A large group of Azlu are working around the docks and claim a locus there. The rank and condition of the locus in that are is unknown. Inadvertantly the azlu have taken care of an unsespecting smuggling operations run by the russian mafia but one can only wonder what was in the shipment they hit. Furthermore, they have been very busy making the guantlet around the wharf extremely thick and thus, hard to penetrate.