Backgrounds
Jun 11, 2016 2:07:01 GMT
Post by The Northern Lights on Jun 11, 2016 2:07:01 GMT
Backgrounds
Allies are people who help and support you, either out of love or common interest. They can be family, friends, or even organizations that are friendly to you. Some allies have useful skills — doctors, hackers, and soldiers, for example — while others have community influence, with contacts or resources they can use on your behalf. Although allies aid you willingly, without coaxing or coercion, they are not always available to offer assistance; they can only ignore so many of their own concerns for the sake of your relationship. Except in special circumstances, your allies don’t usually know you are a werewolf (that knowledge would probably alter the relationship for the worse), but they may know that you have contacts and skills that most people don’t, and they will come to you for favors.
After all, friends help each other out, right? You’ve got a closer relationship with your allies than with contacts — they’re your friends, and they’ll listen to you. Convincing your fishing buddy that a local refinery is spilling toxins into a major fishery can do wonders for your cause when he’s an aide in the governor’s office. Of course, just as your allies are more loyal and directly useful than your contacts, they can also require more in return. But you’d help your buddies out, right? You should work out who your allies are at the beginning of the game, as well as how you know them. Maybe they’re old brothers-in-arms or friends from a local environmental society. Maybe (if your Allies rating is 5) you’re an old hunting buddy of the governor. Allies may be pooled among a pack.
• One ally, of moderate influence and power (doctor or veterinarian, local activist)
•• Two allies, both of moderate power (district ranger, deputy sheriff, popular blogger)
••• Three allies, one of them quite influential (newspaper editor, local philanthropist).
•••• Four allies, one of them very influential (city councilman, military base commander).
••••• Five allies, one of them extremely influential (mayor, senator’s aide)
Allies need to be defined and described in your character forum so that the ST can use them appropriately.
Ancestors
Ancestral memory in humans is no more than pseudoscientific nonsense. To the Garou, who can contact the spirits of their ancestors, it’s a fact of life. Many werewolves carry some of the memories of a distant ancestor; some even allow their forebears to take over their bodies.
Once per Scene, the player of a Garou with this Background may roll his Ancestors Background (difficulty 8, or 10 if he’s trying to contact the spirit of a specific ancestor). Each success allows the character to increase any Ability by one for the purposes of a single die roll, even if he has no dots in the Ability — and he doesn’t suffer the penalty for not having the Ability. For example, young Emil, a pure flatlander, must scale an immense cliff to come to the aid of his embattled pack. Emil has an Ancestors rating of 4 and Athletics 0. He calls on his forebears to guide him, and Emil’s player rolls four dice at difficulty 8. He scores three successes. Emil contacts his great-great-great granduncle Cragtamer, who guides him over the sheer face and over the top. Now the player has an effective Athletics rating of 3 to make his climbing roll. If the Garou had an Athletics rating of 2, then his effective dice pool would be 5. All effects last for the rest of the scene.
While it is more difficult to contact a specific ancestor, successful contact provides either useful advice or precognitive visions at the discretion of the Storyteller.
Botching an Ancestors roll may indicate that the character becomes catatonic for the remainder of the scene as he’s overwhelmed by the memories of thousands of lives. Alternatively, the ancestral spirit refuses to relinquish the body. How long the ancestor stays depends on the Storyteller.
• You have brief, hazy visions from the distant past.
•• You remember faces and places from past lives just as you remember those of your early childhood.
••• You put names to faces among your ancestors.
•••• Ancestors converse with you on a regular basis.
••••• Your ancestors watch your adventures with interest, and they often come to counsel you.
Ancestors will play an important role in the 'traditions and history' theme of the game. If you have ancestors, please add a description of some prominent ancestors that your character knows of in your private forums. As you roll dice to try and contact random ancestors for help, the ST will devise others that may be added later.
Contacts
Contacts are the people you know from all walks of life. They’re acquaintances, drinking buddies, or friends who don’t mind letting you know what’s going on, but wouldn’t take a bullet for you. In addition to a general network of people who you can con or bully information from, you have a few major contacts — people you trust to feed you accurate information in their area of expertise. You should come up with a name and a field for your major contacts, either at the start of play, or as you use them. You also have a number of minor contacts around the area. They are not quite as friendly or reliable in a pinch, but they work in a whole range of different areas and you can bribe, intimidate, or manipulate them into telling you what you need to know. To get in touch with a minor contact, make a roll using your Contacts rating (difficulty 7). Each success means that you have located one of your minor contacts. Because major contacts are closer to you (they’re usually good friends), they are easier to find. Contacts may be pooled among a pack. You may only ask for one contacts roll a week per Major Contact.
• One major contact
•• Two major contacts
••• Three major contacts
•••• Four major contacts
••••• Five major contacts.
Contacts need to be defined and described in your character forum so that the ST can use them appropriately.
Fate
The Fate Background represents a prophecy that accompanied your birth or the creation of your pack. A Fate is always something significant, but it’s as likely to be dark and infamous as it is to be full of glory. In these times of Apocalypse, the Garou cannot afford to sacrifice even one warrior, no matter how dark the portents surrounding them are. However, even those with terrible fates often prove to be some of the greatest Garou, perhaps because they try so hard to defy their fate. Some even succeed.
In addition to the fame or infamy these prophecies garner you, once per month you may use this Background to add successes to any roll that either failed or achieved fewer successes than were required. The player rolls his rating in this Background (difficulty 8) and adds any successes to those that were achieved in the original failed roll. If this means the action succeeds, the player should describe what fortuitous events caused him to succeed. If the Storyteller feels the player’s actions run against what he is destined to do, she may choose to disallow the use of the background.
When Fate is pooled among the pack, each member may call on this Background once per month. If the action failed involves the entire pack in some way, then the player may draw on an amount of Fate up to the highest individual Fate in the pack. If the character is acting on her own, the player can only draw on an amount of Fate up to the lowest individual Fate in the pack (to a minimum of
one). In a pack with pooled Fate, any character can raise her personal Fate with experience points, much like the Totem Background. However, she can only raise it up to the same level as the highest Fate in the pack — if no member of the pack starts with more than three dots of Fate, no pack member can ever buy Fate up to four or five dots. If your pack has no one with Fate none of you may buy Fate above 1. If you leave a pack and buy fate and rejoin, we will notice and this will be a serious infraction and we will consider that Meta-gaming.
Packs tend to garner prophecies of greater proportions than individuals. This is not only because of the greater weight a pack can swing compared to a single werewolf, but also because the Garou tend to see a pack’s accomplishments as more legitimate than those of just one person. For roleplaying purposes, consider the pack’s Fate to be equal to that of the highest Fate rating in the pack. Fate may be pooled among a pack.
• Your pack will be involved in an event that will make you known to the entire Garou Nation. For now, though, only those in your sept know of this prophecy.
•• Your pack will be the cause of an event that greatly impacts your sept, such as the destruction of a long time enemy or a highly admired Garou. The Garou throughout the city or local geographical area in which you reside might know your fate.
••• Your pack will be responsible for an event that impacts werewolves across the continent, perhaps singlehandedly saving (or destroying) a caern. Any Garou in your hemisphere might know of the prophecy.
•••• The actions of your pack will affect the entire Garou Nation, such as the defeat of a great Wyrm enemy or the massacre of dozens of Garou. There might be a cub or two that hasn’t heard of your destiny, but don’t count on it.
••••• You, or your pack, will be a direct factor in the fate of the Apocalypse, one way or another. There isn’t a cub that hasn’t heard of your destiny.
Your fate will be worked out with the ST before you begin play, though twists and turns may be added through play.
Fetish
You possess a fetish — a physical object into which a werewolf has bound a spirit. The spirit grants a number of powers to a fetish, so they are very significant to the Garou. Such things are valuable, and other Garou (or other supernatural beings) may covet them. Each dot makes 1 or more fetishes available for you to possess. The total level of fetishes you have entering game cannot exceed the dots you have in Fetish. Once you enter game this limit no longer applies. All fetish requests may be vetoed by STs, as certain fetishes are plot specific, or very prestigious to own and it is unlikely a cliath starting character would have such great fetishes without adequate story reason.
Kinfolk
Kinfolk are otherwise normal humans and wolves who descended from Garou without inheriting their spiritual duty. Through this Background you are in contact with a number of Kinfolk. While Kinfolk are normal members of their species in most respects, they are immune to the Delirium, giving them the dubious advantage of looking upon a Crinos-form werewolf. They know that you are Garou, and they are willing to help you however they can, although most are not in positions of power (such people are considered Allies). Networks of Kinfolk are a valuable way for werewolves to deal with the human world without risking frenzy or discovery. Some Kinfolk may be related to you directly, while others are contacts you have made through your sept. Kinfolk may be pooled among a pack. Kinfolk in this game will be played by each player or the ST if they desire.
• Two Kinfolk
•• Five Kinfolk
••• 10 Kinfolk
•••• 20 Kinfolk
••••• 50 Kinfolk
Please do not make sheet for your Kinfolk. All of them are average people doing average things. If you take Kinfolk 4 or 5, obviously you do not need to write them all up, but please describe a few key ones in your private forums, maybe those that help organize the rest of your Kin. Kinfolk otherwise need to be described with a brief synopsis of their personalities and what they can do for you. Remember. Average people doing average things.
Mentor
A Garou of higher Rank has taken keen interest in you, and will look after you — to a point. The rating of your Mentor Background quantifies how powerful your mentor is within the tribe and what rank he or she has achieved. A mentor can teach you skills, advise you, or speak on your behalf at a council fire. He has a pack of his own, and his own duties, so he won’t be present to save you whenever you bite off more than you can chew. Of course, your mentor will expect something in return for his assistance, be it good company, an occasional gofer, a champion, or perhaps a supporter in sept politics. His demands can make an excellent source of story hooks. In general, however, you will receive more than you give. Other werewolves may wonder what your mentor sees in you — the two of you deal as individual werewolves, rather than as members of your respective packs.
A powerful mentor doesn’t have to be a single person; a pack or council of elders might be considered a collective mentor. The latter would almost certainly have a rating of four or five dots, even if no one on the council is above Rank 5.
• Mentor is Rank 2
•• Mentor is Rank 3
••• Mentor is Rank 4
•••• Mentor is Rank 5
••••• Mentor is Rank 6
Your mentor will most likely be one of the NPCs. If not, please define who they are and what they do in your character forum.
Numen
This Background represents a spirit tied to the character.They player must choose what type of spirit it is (Animal, Plant etc) and what it qualifies as (Glory, Honor, or Wisdom). A player may spend a point of gnosis to draw upon the spirits strength and add its Numen rating to any one Physical (Glory), Social (Honor) or Mental (Wisdom) roll.
•Gaffling: 4pts for R/G/WP, 1 Common charm, 1 specialty charm, needs spirit speech to communicate (or in the case of an animal spirit, beast speech will work).
••Potent Gaffling: 6pts for R/G/WP, 1 Common charm, 1 specialty charm, It may also communicate verbally. The spirit may also lend the use of a charm.
•••Lesser Jaggling: The spirit gets +2 (total of 8pts) points to put anywhere among its traits (R/G/WP). It may also communicate verbally and telepathically with its companion. The spirit may also lend the use of a charm.
••••Strong Jaggling: The spirit gets +1 (for a total of 9pts)points to put anywhere among its traits (R/G/WP). It can communicate verbally and telepathically.The spirit always knows where to find its companion.
••••• Very Strong Jaggling: The spirit gets +1 points(for a total of 10pts) to put anywhere among its traits (R/G/WP) can communicate verbally and telepathically.The spirit always knows where to find its companion.
Your spirit is a living thinking, sentient being. If you neglect or abuse your Numen, it will shun you, and you will lose the background off of your sheet until you atone, or permanently depending on how severe the infraction. Abuse could be consistently putting its life at risk, not tending to its needs, acting against the spirit's nature, performing the spirit's taboo while it is near, failing to perform chiminage for other spirits, angering other spirits, or any number of other things to be determined on a case by case basis.
This background is restricted, as it is not intended to be the 'free spirit pet' background. Characters with Numen should have a solid story reason for their existence and spend a good deal of time building and characterizing the Numen before trying to play them. They are not animals, even if they are a spirit of an animal. In most cases, they will have personalities and opinions of their own, and should embody the 'alien' nature of a spirit's thinking.
Pure Breed
Garou take great stock in ancestry, and the werewolf who is descended from renowned forbears has a definite advantage in Garou society. This Background represents your lineage, markings, bearing and other features of birth. Other Garou revere werewolves with high ranks in Pure Breed as heroes of yore come to life — and such werewolves are expected to act the part. The higher your Pure Breed score is, the more likely you are to impress elder councils or receive hospitality from foreign tribes. Each point of Pure Breed adds an extra die to formal challenges (such as Rank challenges) and to Social rolls involving other Garou (even Ronin or Black Spiral Dancers).
Pure Breed is a nebulous combination of bloodline and spiritual inheritance. A character with high Pure Breed looks and carries himself like an archetypal member of his tribe — however, if he does not join that tribe, any benefits of Pure Breed are removed by the tribe’s totem. Many werewolves with Pure Breed can trace their ancestry directly, while others resemble distant ancestors who cannot be connected without a degree of genealogical exactitude that is lost to the Garou.
Some tribes place more value on good breeding than others, but Pure Breed is almost universally respected. It’s a mystical trait, and werewolves can tell instinctively whose blood is particularly pure. Of course, Garou expect those of pure blood to live up to the standards set by their noble ancestors. They frown on those who can’t or won’t accept the challenge.
• You have your father’s eyes.
•• Your grandfather made a name for himself at the Battle of Bloody Ford, and you carry that name with pride.
••• Your pedigree is blessed with pillars of the Garou Nation, and the blood tells.
•••• You could be dressed as a beggar and still command respect.
••••• The greatest of heroes live on in you.
Purebreed will be heavily scrutinized. In most tribes, the tribal bloodline is diluted by breeding with humans and kinfolk from other tribes. Purely bred Garou are rare, especially in clans like the Children of Gaia and even the Fianna. Higher Pure breed might be possible for Get of Fenris because of the insular small island Sept that this is. Silver Fang must have Purebreed 3, of course, but even they will be questioned at 4 or 5. Characters with Purebreed need to spend some time figuring out their lineage. Such lineages are not usually outlined in the books (with the exception of some noteable lineages for Silver Fang) so you'll be expected to do your own research and make up your own. Once finished, your lineage will be added to a in-game-canon list that others can reference.
Because of the extra work involved with having Pure Breed, it will be a significant bonus to social interactions with NPCs. That said, please be judicious while buying this background. If you're not willing to do the work, don't take it.
Resources
The Resources Background describes your character’s access to and control over a range of valuable assets. These assets may be actual cash, but as this Background increases, they’re more likely to be investments, property, or earning capital such as stocks and bonds. A character’s Resources depend upon the standard of living she’s comfortable with — a lupus in the Yukon isn’t likely to get a wire transfer from her broker each month. A character with no dots in Resources can have enough clothing and supplies to get by, or she may be homeless, sleeping in a den in her lupus form.
You receive a basic allowance each month based on your rating, so make sure to detail where this money comes from. A werewolf’s fortune can run out if she’s fighting in the Amazon rather than managing her stock portfolio. You can also sell your less liquid resources if you need the cash, but this can take weeks or even months, depending on what exactly you’re trying to sell. Art buyers don’t just pop out of the woodwork, after all. Resources can be pooled among a pack.
• Sufficient. You don’t get many spending sprees, but you’ve got a decent place to live, a car that doesn’t crap out every week, and a decent standard of living for the working class.
•• Moderate. You’re thoroughly middle-class in income, and can afford the odd indulgence. You can hire specific help as necessary. You have enough available cash, portable property, and valuables that you can maintain a one-dot standard of living wherever you are for up to six months.
••• Comfortable. You own a house and some land outright, which you may let the sept use or keep for your pack, and you’ve a reputation that gives you easy access to credit at good terms. More of your assets are tied up in property than in cash, and if needs be you can maintain a one-dot standard of living wherever you are for as long as you like.
•••• Wealthy. You have serious financial power, and are one of the richest people in your country. You don’t deal much with actual cash, using more valuable and stable assets to pay off debts as they arise. When you can’t focus on maintaining your level of Resources, you can live at the three-dot level for up to a year, or a two-dot life indefinitely.
••••• Extremely Wealthy. You’re one of the richest people on Earth. You have multiple homes, many forms of luxury transport, and frequently show up in glossy magazines and on gossip websites. You have assets everywhere, and can hobble the Wyrm’s activities with a ten-minute phone call. You can live at the three-dot level indefinitely if you ignore your fortune; higher if you put a little effort in to it.
Resources is another background that will be heavily scrutinized. Werewolves have a hard time holding down jobs. Rage, even in small doses, makes it next to impossible to work with normal humans, and people don't deal with people who scare them. As a mostly rural Sept, opportunity for lucrative businesses is slim pickings. Inheritances from rich parents are very nice and all, but they also don't last long in reality, and aren't really a good representation of real resources. Most Garou's 'resources' stat will represents an allowance from their Kinfolk families, so in some way, these two backgrounds are linked.
That said, the rural nature of the campaign also means that resources won't be necessary for most people. Iceland can be expensive, but Garou are capable of taking themselves in other ways as well. Please consider other options for points than dumping into resources. Fancy sports cars and big houses aren't going to work in the Westfjords anyway.
Rites
Rituals are an important part of Garou life. This Trait denotes how many rites the character knows at the beginning of the game. The rating represents levels of rites, so a character with four dots in this Background may have a Level Four rite, one Level One and one Level Three rites or any other combination. Remember that to learn a rite the character needs a Rituals Knowledge rating at
least equal to the level of a given rite. While Rank is not necessarily a factor, many Theurges would need a pretty convincing reason to teach a Level Five rite to a Rank 1 Garou. Note that two minor rites can be purchased in place of one Level One rite.
• You know one level of rites.
•• You know two levels of rites.
••• You know three levels of rites.
•••• You know four levels of rites.
••••• You know five levels of rites.
Spirit Heritage
The Garou are creatures of duality — torn between man and wolf, and between flesh and spirit. The Garou share a kinship with inhabitants of the spirit world, but some have a stronger connection than others. For some reason, perhaps an ancestral tie to a household of spirits, certain types of spirits react more positively to you than others. This doesn’t need to be a friendly relationship — spirits may be fearful and respectful of you, in awe of you, or feel a sense of duty to you. No matter what the relationship, one group of spirits is more likely to cooperate with you.
When you select this background, choose one type of spirit. Examples of possible groups are animal spirits, plant spirits, elementals, urban spirits, and even Banes. When dealing with spirits of this type, the player may add his Spirit Heritage rating to any Social rolls, or rolls involved in challenges. Spirits whom you are attuned to view you, to some degree, as one of their own — a daunting prospect for those attuned to Banes, when other Garou discover their heritage. If you act against such spirits or ignore their plights, you may be seen as betraying them.
• Spirits can smell their scent on you, though no one else can
•• The spirits note your arrival. You bring your chosen spirits to mind in others when they look at you, though few understand why.
••• In the Umbra, you emanate an intangible, though noticeable, sense of your aligned spirit type.
•••• In the Umbra, you have visible hints of your aligned spirit type. Those attuned to nature spirits may have tiny twigs emerge from their fur, for example.
••••• Some question if you really are only half spirit.
Totem
Totem is a Background that applies directly to the character’s pack, rather than the individual. Unlike other pooled Backgrounds, the pack spends all of the points that members have invested in this Trait to determine their totem’s power.
Each totem has a Background cost rating; the pack must spend that amount to ally with that totem. Some totems are willing to lend great powers to their adherents; their point costs are correspondingly greater. See Pack Totems (p. 373) for a list of possible totems. In addition to their Totem bonuses, all beginning totems have a base of eight points to divide among Rage, Willpower, and Gnosis. The totem also begins with the Airt Sense and Re-form Charms. Apart from bestowing power, totems start out somewhat aloof from the pack, and they have little influence among spirits, unless the players buy a closer connection with Background points. With time, roleplaying, and experience points, pack totems can grow in power as their pack grows in Rank and influence. Some totems can even become the totems of whole septs or — in legendary circumstances — even tribes.
Most of the powers that totems bestow are available to only one pack member at a time. At the end of each turn, the Garou with the power declares who the power may be given to next turn (assuming that she doesn’t keep it). After spending the initial cost of the totem, the players can spend any remaining Background points to add to the totem’s strength and abilities.
Cost Power
1 Per three points to spend on Willpower, Rage, or Gnosis
1 Totem can speak to the pack without the benefit of the Gift: Spirit Speech.
1 Totem can always find the pack members.
2 Totem is nearly always with the pack members.
2 Totem is respected by other spirits.
2 Per charm possessed
3 Per extra pack member who can use the totem’s powers in the same turn
4 Totem is connected mystically to all pack members, allowing communication among them even at great distances.
5 Totem is feared by agents of the Wyrm. Either minions of the Wyrm flee from the pack, or they do their best to kill the pack.
Remember, some PCs may have personal totems, Spirits willing and worked out with the ST.