Werewolf Roleplay Game at Werecamp!

[Anonymous]

Hi, my name is Jaemin (formerly Snowjay) and I will be hosting a roleplay game of werewolves at werecamp! I am representing Twin City Garou for those who want even more details and to learn about a regular LARP in Minneapolis.

What you need to participate:
1. An understanding of how to play Rock-Paper-Scissors
2. Comfortable saying “My hero goes to slay the dragon”
3. A character to play. There will be some pre-made and rules below to build your own.
4. Arrive as you are. Paper and Pencils will be provided.

Fursuit Friendly? Maybe. If you can use pencil & paper and do rock-paper-scissors comfortably, feel free to be in suit. However, this is largely a sitting game, even though it’s treated as a LARP.

What is LARP? LARP stands for Live Action Role Play. Don’t be shy! I will be hosting a very casual LARP experience. You will not be expected to costume, dance around, or use any props. The key difference is being encourage to be your own character. If you can say “my hero goes to slay the dragon”, then it’s time to start saying “I go to slay the dragon!”
No Roleplay Experience Required to Participate.

If you know World of Darkness, you may recognize I have simplified this weekend adventure for quick-play for more people of all skill levels.

The Plot and Setting:
You are a werewolf. You’re not a Hollywood werewolf, the one who howls under the moon and goes on a frenzy. You’re a civilized shapeshifter known as a Garou. Garou are werewolves who fight on behalf of Gaia, the spirit of the Earth, to protect continued existence against the ultimate evil known as the Wyrm. The Wyrm desires nothing less than to bring destruction, death, and the end to all things.

You live, breathe, and defend Gaia in the real world, today, this very minute, here in Minnesota. Your territory spans both the real world and the spirit world, known as the Umbra. Your supernatural existence gives you the power to move between the Earth and Umbra at will.

You and a number of fellow Garou have been captured by agents of Wyrm. You hardly remember the events with hazy memories of being bombarded by teargas and shot with tranquilizer darts. The adventure will begin as you regain consciousness in an unknown facility which you must escape with the other Garou (fellow players). You may face a variety of enemies such as Hunters (humans), Black Spiral Dancers (evil werewolves), and Spirits of the Umbral Realm.

How to Play:
I will be the Storyteller (or Dungeon Master) and guide players on how to play actively and during the adventure – learn by doing and practice. Instead of using Dice to determine when actions succeed or fail, we play games of Rock-Paper-Scissors. Your character will have Traits that allow them to take an action and Abilities that let them play Rock-Paper-Scissors more times to try and win. See Terms & Definitions if you want to immerse yourself in the details.

[Anonymous]

Terms & Definitions:
Don’t let this overwhelm you or discourage you. It is much easier in practice by playing than reading!

Umbra: The spirit world. It overlays reality as a mirror reflection and serves as home to spirits that represent living beings, inanimate objects, and even concepts or emotions.

Gauntlet: The invisible spiritual barrier that separates the world from the umbra. Garou have the unique skill to claw through this barrier to move between the world and the umbra.

Garou: A werewolf able to control shapeshifting in 5 forms between human and wolf.
• Homid: Human, exactly as you are. No bonus traits.
• Glabro: A large, burly, taller human – think Neanderthal or half-giant. Bonus 4 Physical Traits
• Crinos: The true Werewolf form and pinnacle of strength. Bonus 8 Physical Traits
• Hispo: A large, burly, oversized wolf – a wolf beast of nightmares. Bonus 8 Physical Traits
• Lupus: Wolf, exactly as we know them. Bonus 5 Physical Traits

Circles not Numbers: Character statistics are represented as Circles instead of numbers. A circle, or dot, is a spendable point to attempt challenges and actions that require focused effort. These are a limited resource.

Tempers: Rage, Gnosis, and Willpower describe the most fundamental strengths of your character. Tempers are represented as circles that can be crossed out: “OOOO” means 4 Tempers.
• Rage is the primal instincts of survival. It is used for extra actions in combat and a few gifts. It is easily gained be entering and being injured in combat.
• Gnosis is your spiritual strength as a creature part human and part wolf. It is used to get into or out of the spirit realm. It is also used in gifts, activating talens, and can be regained with long rests or by eating rare spirits called englings.
• Willpower is your control of self and focus of duty. It is used for gifts and to resist supernatural gifts. It is also used to resist the call of Frenzy or escape from Frenzy. Can be regained with long rests only, making it very dangerous to run out of Willpower as a creature of rage.

Frenzy: When the primal beast of being a werewolf takes over and you lose control of your character to a bloodlust. Frenzy is most often triggered at the edge of death as a dangerous failsafe – losing control to instantly regain a portion of Health.

Traits: These are your count of Physical, Social, and Mental endurance. These are needed to begin a challenge. Traits are represented as circles that can be crossed out: “OOOO” means 4 Traits.
• Equipment that gives +X Traits only increases trait totals when determining winner of a tie. These traits are not spent or lost unlike character traits.

Abilities: These are skills your character has trained in above and beyond normal. The more ability points you have, the more times you may use that ability to retest a lost challenge. Abilities are represented as circles that can be crossed out: “OOOO” means 4 uses of the ability.

Health Levels: Werewolves have 7 Hit Points. These are divided as health levels and use circles that can be crossed out based on Damage types taken.
• OO Healthy
• OOO Bruised (-1 trait counted on tiebreakers)
• OO Wounded (lose ties automatically)
• O Incapacitates (knocked out for 10 minutes or until healed)
• O Mortally Wounded (Dying. Must Frenzy or be healed in 1 round to avoid death.)

Damage: Can be taken as Bashing, Lethal, or Aggravated. Bashing is marked with 1 line through a health circle. Lethal is an ‘x’ or 2 lines through a health circle. Aggravated is marked as a star or 3 lines through a health circle.

Regeneration: Garou heal remarkably fast with supernatural regeneration, except in Homid form. Shapeshifted Garou recover 1 Bashing or Lethal damage each combat round or every 6 seconds outside of combat. Aggravated damage is healed at 1 per day, in all forms.

Combat Rounds & Actions: Combat is broken into Rounds, with each character taking a Turn. After all turns are Rage Attacks before next Round. A turn consists of 1 move action and 1 attack, talen, or gift activation (a challenge action). Rage Attacks require spending 1 Rage point to make an immediate extra attack, following the same turn order if multiple characters use rage attacks. Characters cannot make Rage Attacks the same Round they used a Gnosis (such as for a Gift or activating a Talen).

Challenge: Playing Rock-Paper-Scissors after bidding a Trait to use (instead of rolling dice).
• Winning: You complete your action and keep your bid trait.
• Losing: You fail the action and lose your bid trait.
• Tie: Your total Traits of the bid category is compared against the target’s Traits of that category. Highest wins or Defender wins if the Traits are equal.

Retest: Characters can increase their odds of winning a challenge by retesting it, if they lose. Retests are earn with Abilities, preparation, or supernatural boons. Each source of a retest may only be used once per challenge by the same character.

Gifts: Supernatural powers you can use. If a gift says to spend a Rage, Gnosis, or Willpower, this cost is required. If a gift says to use 0-X Traits, this is an optional cost after winning a challenge. Gifts based on an ability use that ability for retests, but do not require it.

Talen: Charms with a spirit living inside them. Talens require an activation challenge or a gift of Gnosis to release the spirit and receive a boon.

[Anonymous]

I am customizing a lot of details to give characters more power to start with. The below guide supersedes the official link provided in the first post, since this is a weekend only game.

Build your Character with the Following:
1.Name your Character

2.Record your birth as Homid and your rank as Cliath
o Homid is how you were born and raised – born to human parents, raised as human, discovered shapeshifting as teenager or older.
o Cliath is a werewolf social rank – You’re young and learning, but you’re trusted to get serious tasks done.

3. Select your Class, known as an Auspice. Ragabash, Theurge, Philodox, Galliard, or Ahroun. While all classes can fight, each has a unique focus.
o Ragabash: Act as Scouts or Assassins. They are best known for their ability to move unseen, just shy of invisibility. Play this as a jack-of-all-trades scout or ranged fighter.
o Theurge: Act as Summoners or Healers. They are best known as the only class capable of speaking in Spirit language. Play this for a support-heavy role, focused on healing with a boon to getting supernatural information.
o Philodox: Act as Paladins or Judges. They are best known as leaders who can always find the truth among lies, deception, or riddles. Play this for a balance of combat and identifying enemies.
o Galliard: Act as Bards or Historians. They are best known for their ability to inspire allies and terrify foes with their voice. Play this to be a social negotiator or grant combat bonuses to allies.
o Ahroun: Act as War Heroes or Commanders. They are best known for their bravery and combat prowess in all situations. Play this for classic in-your-face brutal combat.

4.Record your Rage, Gnosis, and Willpower.
o Ragabash: 3 Rage, 3 Gnosis, 4 Willpower.
o Theurge: 2 Rage, 5 Gnosis, 3 Willpower.
o Philodox: 3 Rage, 2 Gnosis, 5 Willpower.
o Galliard: 4 Rage, 3 Gnosis, 3 Willpower.
o Ahroun: 5 Rage, 2 Gnosis, 3 Willpower.

5.Assign your Physical, Social, and Mental Traits.
o Assign 7 points to one category, 5 to another, and 3 in the last. Then add 5 points split across all categories in any combination.
o Physical: Ability to hit with melee attacks and used to evade melee or ranged attacks. Important for Ahrouns, Philodox, and the most used trait in any combat.
o Social: Ability to guide conversations, negotiate, and handle spirits. Important for Theurges who work with spirits and Galliards.
o Mental: Ability to hit with Ranged attacks, solve puzzles, and spot hidden objects or ambushes. Important for Ragabash, survivalists, and ranged combat.

6. Assign Ability points that define what actions your character is very good at. All characters can perform these actions. These Abilities are used to re-test and improve odds of winning at an action.
o No ability can have more than 5 points.
o You have 15 points to spend on any combination of these combat based abilities:
 Archery: Using Bow & Arrow to attack
 Brawl: Using fists, claws, or bite attacks
 Melee: Using close quarter combat weapons to attack
 Firearms: Using guns to attack
 Throwing: Using thrown weapons or objects to attack
 Dodge: Used to avoid taking a hit and negate all damage
 Survival: Used to take a hit while reducing damage to half, round down.
o You have 15 points to spend on these exploration abilities:
 Athletics: Keeping balance, running, leaping, climbing, swimming, or sports.
 Awareness: 6th sense to spot ambushes and detect supernatural effects
 Computers: Capable of hacking devices with a UI to gather or plant data
 Empathy: A sense to others’ emotions, used in social situations to detect lies
 Enigmas: A knack for solving puzzles, riddles, mazes, and mysteries.
 Intimidation: Frighten others in a social situation to coerce action or information
 Investigation: Find hidden objects, collect clues, find patterns and meaning
 Leadership: Inspire allies, be a commanding figure in social settings
 Spirit Lore: An understanding of how spirits act and how to manipulate them
 Umbra Lore: An understanding of the broad scope of supernatural existence
 Primal-Urge: Control over your human, wolf, and werewolf forms primarily to shift forms instantly in combat or move your body between the real world and the spirit realm
 Rituals: Ability to perform sacred rites that summon spirits or cure supernatural illnesses
 Security: Skilled at picking locks and identifying electronic security devices
 Scrounge: You happen to just find what you need, lying about, in a pinch
 Stealth: Moving unseen, silently, and finding optimal hiding places
 Subterfuge: A good liar, trickster, or saying half-truths to maintain deceptions

7.Select supernatural abilities known as Gifts
o For being Homid, pick 1 of the following Gifts:
 Apecraft’s Blessing: Spend 1 action focusing on your weapon or other tool. The first time the weapon or tool is used, you have 1 free retest to try and win the challenge.
 Jam Technology: Spend 1 Gnosis and 0-5 mental traits to disable all electronics in 50ft area for 1 round plus spent traits. Challenge ranges from 6 to 12 mental traits. Retest with Security.
 Persuasion: Spend 1 Social trait to gain a retest in any social situation, regardless if the target is human, spirit, or supernatural and if any other retests have been used.
 Staredown: Spend 1 action to lock eyes with a target and 0-5 mental traits. Challenge with social traits vs target’s. If you win, simple minded targets cower and flee from you for 1 round plus spent traits. Supernatural targets cannot flee or attack you as long as you maintain eye contact, locking you in a staring contest until one of you are attacked. Retest with Intimidation.
o Ragabash receive Blur of the Milky Eye and pick 2 of the following Gifts:
 Blur of the Milky Eye: Spend 1 action. Fails if the targets can see you activate this gift, you interact with the environment, or make a noise above a whisper. You move at half speed to remain effectively invisible to almost all observers unless they have a supernatural gift to look for you and suspicion to do so. Lasts until being spotted or willingly ending this gift.
 Emergency Exit: Spend 1 Willpower and 0-5 Mental Traits. You get an intuitive sense of where the nearest exit is (not necessarily the safest). Spending mental traits grants additional details about the exit such as safest path, where it leads, or alternative options. Retest with Survival.
 Liar’s Face: Spend 1 Willpower in a social situation you want to lie and deceive the listeners. Social challenge against supernatural listeners. You actually begin to tell the truth with such flare, mockery, and supernatural undertone that listeners ignore whatever you’re actually saying and disregard all truths you speak. Humans always fall for this trick. Retest with Subterfuge.
 Open Seal. Spend 1 action to challenge your gnosis rating against the gauntlet. If you win, a single targeted mundane lock or closed device unlocks or opens immediately, as intended, and does not trigger embedded security alarms.
 Sense of the Prey. You must have some form of knowledge of the target creature. Spend 1 action to challenge Mental traits vs target’s if they are actively hiding, or automatic success. You gain an unerring sense of which direction you must go to find your target, leading you within many feet of their location. This does not reveal hidden targets that you can track with this gift but will bring you very close to them. Based on Enigmas.
o Theurge receive Mother’s Touch, Spirit Speech, and pick 1 of the following Gifts:
 Mother’s Touch: Spend 1-5 Gnosis. Touch a friendly Garou, other than yourself, to heal them for 1 point of damager per Gnosis spent, regardless if the damage is Bashing, Lethal, or Aggravated.
 Spirit Speech: Automatic. Theurges can understand and speak the language of spirits.
 Ritual Summon Spirit: Spend 15 minutes, 0-3 Social traits, and challenge Socials vs static 5 traits. This ritual beckons a spirit to the Theurge’s location in the umbra. The number of social traits spent determines how friendly and cooperative the spirit is. The Theurge should be prepared ahead of time to explain to a spirit why it has been summoned such as gathering information, assisting an attack, or granting a boon to the summoner. Cooperative spirits expect to gain something for assisting a Theurge. Retest with Rituals.
 Command Spirit: Spend 1 Willpower. Challenge social traits vs target spirit’s. On success, the targeted spirit follows a simple and precise command that it is capable of performing and does not violate the nature of the spirit’s existence. This is the forceful method of getting hostile or difficult spirits to cooperate. Retest with Leadership.
 Sense Wyrm: Spend 1 action focusing to challenge mental traits vs the Storyteller. The more Wyrm presence in the immediate area, the easier it is to detect. This gift doesn’t pinpoint evil Wyrm sources, it only gives an idea of how strong the evil presence is. Retest with Enigmas or Investigation.
o Philodox receive Omen of Truth and pick 2 of the following Gifts:
 Omen of Truth: Spend 1 Minute and 1 Gnosis to challenge Mental traits vs Storyteller. With supernatural guidance on your intuition, you receive a hint to an answer you seek from your physical environment (provided by the Storyteller).
 Fangs of Judgement: Spend 1 Willpower. Your natural attacks are empowered against any Wyrm tainted creature. Attacking with fists, claws, or bites deal 1 additional aggravated damage to such creatures. Lasts for one scene or hour.
 Resist Pain: Spend 1 Willpower at any time to immediately and for one hour ignore all wound caused penalties.
 Scent of the True Form: Spend 1 action to automatically identify if a target is a human or werewolf. For other creatures, challenge Mentals vs 8 to determine their supernatural nature. Does not discern if the target is a friend or foe. Retest with Primal Urge.
 Truth of Gaia: Spend 1 Action to challenge Mental traits vs target’s. On success, for one social scene you know every time a target lies to you, provided they are lying by compulsion or intention. Targets with misinformation tell the truth of what they know incorrectly.
o Galliards receive Call of the Wyld and pick 2 of the following Gifts:
 Call of the Wyld: Spend 0-2 physical traits. Challenge physicals vs 8 traits. Your howl carries a message over twice the usual distance. If you spent 1 physical trait, all allies who hear the howl gain 1 trait on their next challenge. If you spent 2 physical traits, all enemies who hear the howl lose 1 trait on all combat based challenges when determining ties for the remainder of the scene. Retest with Intimidation.
 Distractions: Spend 0-5 social traits and challenge social traits vs target’s. By making many yips, shouts, and other noises, you distract a target to impose a trait penalty on all their actions during the next round. They temporarily lose 1 trait plus a number equal to social traits you spent.
 Heightened Senses: Spend 1 Gnosis. Instantly, your senses are supernaturally empowered to gain 3 Mental Traits on any non-combat challenges. This is primarily for spotting hidden objects, tracking by scent, listening through closed doors, or other sensory dependent actions. This comes with a risk as you are more sensitive to sudden flashes of light, klaxon alarms, chemical odors, and possibly gunshots. Overloading your senses can stun you for up to 2 rounds. Lasts for 1 scene or 1 hour.
 Reverie: Spend 1 action to challenge social traits vs target’s. The target is distracted by memories, nostalgia, or daydreaming and loses 2 traits on all mental challenges for 5 minutes. A loud noise or attack against the target snaps them back to awareness.
 Unified Force: Spend 1 Gnosis at the start of combat. All pack members act on the best initiative in the pack with a coordinated rush to action.
o Ahrouns receive Razor Claws and pick 2 of the following Gifts:
 Razor Claws: Spend 1 Rage. You must have claws in your current form. You sharpen your claws on a nearby hard surface to deal 1 additional aggravated damage on all successful claw attacks. Lasts for one scene or hour.
 Falling Touch: Spend 1 Gnosis to challenge physical traits vs target’s. You strike your victim with such power or at a pressure point as to drop them to the floor. They must spend 4 actions to get back up and may spend rage to get up faster, if they have rage. This effect lasts for 15 seconds outside of combat. Retest with Medicine.
 Inspiration: Spend 1 Gnosis. You let out a rousing speech or howl that grants you and all lies in earshot the boon Inspiration. Inspiration may be spent to win a defensive willpower challenge, spent in place of a willpower for activating a gift, or automatically suppress the risk of Frenzy. The boon is available until used. It cannot stack, but can be regained.
 Pack Tactics: Spend 1 Willpower. Chose a target to focus all your combat effort on. You and all pack mates gain 1-5 traits in physical challenges against that target, attack or defense, based on the number of pack mates with you (max +5). This effect lasts until the target is defeated or you attack a new target. Pack mates do not break this effect for attacking other targets.
 Spur Claws: Spend 1 Rage. You must have claws. Your claws become barbed and rip off on your next successful clawing attack to embed themselves in your victim. The victim loses 2 traits on all challenges until they spend 1 full turn to remove the painful claws. Your claws take 1 full round to regenerate, preventing use of claw attacks. This does not end Razor Claws. Spur claws remain ready until next successful claw attack or end of scene.

8. Select your Equipment of 2 Weapons, 1 Armor, and 4 Talens. All equipment is assumed to be bonded to Homid form unless you choose to notate otherwise. If you are in a form the equipment is not bonded to, it will take 1 action to draw the weapon or don the armor. Talens do not suffer this delay as instant use items. Listings are followed by appropriate retest ability.
o All characters have the following Natural Attacks based on form.
 Homid or Glabro can punch and kick for 1 bashing damage. Brawl.
 Crinos and Hispo can claw or bite for 2 aggravated damage. Brawl.
 Lupus can bite for 1 lethal damage. Brawl.
o Weapons grant traits to win ties and determine a type and amount of damage dealt. Chose if the weapon is made for Homid & Glabro form, or Crinos form, only. This is due to weapons requiring specialized size and grip for a hand or monstrous paw.
 Dagger: +1 trait, concealable in pocket, deals 1 Lethal. Melee or Throwing.
 Shortsword: +2 traits, concealable in armor, deals 1 Lethal. Melee.
 Morningstar: +3 traits, cannot conceal, deals 2 Bashing. Melee.
 Javelin: +3 traits, cannot conceal, deals 1 Lethal. Throwing.
 Compound Bow: +3 Traits, cannot conceal, 2 handed, deals 2 Lethal. Archery.
 Heavy Pistol: +2 Traits, concealable in pocket, loud, deals 2-3 Lethal. Firearms.
 Shotgun: +3 Traits, concealable in armor, loud, 2 handed, 1-3 grouped targets, deals 2 Lethal. Firearms.
 (All ammo, arrows or bullets, will be simplified to infinite with no special effects)
o Armor grants either health levels or bonus defensive traits. Fits to Homid, Glabro, or Crinos form thanks to elastic banding materials.
 Padded Clothing: 1 Health Level, Concealed, Does not protect against firearm attacks.
 Plated Armor: 3 Health Levels, no Concealment, Does not protect against firearm attacks.
 Ballistic Vest: 2 Health Levels, Concealable under clothes, does not protect against melee attacks.
 Large Shield: +2 Traits, No concealment, Does not protect against shotguns or other area attacks
o Talens grant supernatural boons but may only be activated once. Pick any combination of 4 talens to have available for use.
 Healing Talen: A water spirit resides in a small vial. Splash on wounds to heal 2 levels of damage immediately.
 Solidify Reality Talen: A spider spirit rests within a patch of metal. Attach to any armor to increase its health levels by +3. Cannot be removed once attached. Armor must be equipped to benefit. Does not stack with itself.
 Armor Talen: A wind spirit rests within a feather. Flick the feather to gain 2 barrier armor levels as the wind picks up suddenly to deflect an attack (or two). Effectively absorbs up to 2 damage before blowing away. Remains if you shift forms. Does not stack with self.

Feel free to contact me with questions or post them here.

[Wren]

Quick question: will the entirety of this be on Saturday afternoon (where it’s listed in the schedule of activities), or will there be a few sessions throughout the weekend?

I’ll only be there Saturday for the day, and I’d love to take part if possible (and if it turns out I’m not, I’m still excited just to see how it turns out 🙂 )

[Anonymous]

An exmaple to how your character sheey may appear if you create your own.

Jonny Werewolf
Cliath, Homid, Philodox

Rage: OOO Gnosis: OO Willpower: OOOOO

Physical Traits (7+2): OOOOOOOOO
Social Traits (3+1): OOOO
Mental Traits (5+2): OOOOOOO

Combat Abilities (15):
Brawl: OO
Firearms: OOOOO
Dodge: OOOOO
Survival: OOO

Exploration Abilities (15):
Athletics: OO
Primal-Urge: OOO
Investigation: OOO
Empathy: OOO
Scrounge: OO
Intimidation: O
Computers: O

Gifts: (and notes as you see fit for how to use the gift)
Apecraft’s Blessing
Omen of Truth
Fangs of Judgement
Scent of the True Form

Equipment:
Dagger (+1, 1 Lethal)
Shotgun (+3, 2 Lethal, 1-3 Targets)
Padded Clothing: O
3 Healing Talens: OOO
1 Armor Talen: O

Health:
OO Healthy
OOO Bruised (-1 on ties)
OO Wounded (lose ties)
O Incapacitated (Out for 10min or healed)
O Morally Wounded (dying)

[Anonymous]

Wren wrote:

Quick question: will the entirety of this be on Saturday afternoon (where it’s listed in the schedule of activities), or will there be a few sessions throughout the weekend? I’ll only be there Saturday for the day, and I’d love to take part if possible (and if it turns out I’m not, I’m still excited just to see how it turns out  )

Answer: I left the scheduling open so this could hassle-free on organizing around other events. I do not mind running the adventure as players come-and-go or on other days and times. I’ve a few years experience being Storyteller and DM for other systems, so I can make up miniture adventures or have your character explore the same adventure from a different starting point.

[Author]

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