[Solar System] Developing Territory for Werewolf
Courage75:
Quote from: chance.thirteen on February 11, 2009, 12:16:43 PM
I would think traits about the Shadow nature of the territory would be of use. Things like regardless of how it looks now, it has many ancient spirits from the previous centuries, so perhaps many tree spirits in what is now a town.
Yeah, I am already doing all of that. I am more after mechanics to allow a pack of werewolves to develop a territory over time and perhaps gaining themselves some spirit allies in the process. I'm still working on that.
dindenver:
C75,
I think the best way to do it would be to set up the spirits of the area and assign a difficulty level to each.
If they are actively opposed to the werewolves' goals, give them pool, abilities and secrets. For others, set a a minimum Effect to change them.
So, maybe a Wyrm infected spirit might have a "Spirit" pool of 5, an ability of "Spirit Charms" of 3 and a couple of secrets. But the Spirit of a playground might be tainted by recent activities of drug dealers and might need an Effect of 5 to turn around.
That's what I would do. although Eero's knots might work, I haven't tried them before though, so I don't know either way.
Either way, good luck with your game man.
Courage75:
Quote from: Eero Tuovinen on February 11, 2009, 01:14:17 AM
Have you looked into the Qek knotwork mechanics?
Thanks for the link, Eero. I had a look and I like the idea. However, it is a bit larger than what I am after. Most werewolf packs are lucky if they have one locus in their territory, which serves as a gateway to the Shadow, as well as source of spiritual energy. Some have more than one, but that is rare. So if the knotwork mechanics are used to simulate a network of loci it wouldn't be much use to an individual pack, as the other loci would lie in the territories of other werewolves. If the pack chose to travel to those loci, they would be trespassing on another pack's territory. As werewolves are a very territorial race, most packs would probably think twice before they attempted this.
Still, a knotwork could definitely be used as a guide to exploring "unclaimed" territory, or a multi-pack raid through the Shadow.
I understand that SS doesn't track large scale developments mechanically and focuses on the impact of developments upon the PCs rather than on the developments themselves. However, I am interesting in developing crunch that generates these developments and has an impact on the story. I really like the idea of giving the players strategic choices about what they can do with their territory which later generates conflict in the story. I prefer this than, as SG, unilaterally announcing that a change has taken place and that the players need to deal with it.
I like the idea of using Secrets in developing territory and I thinking of ways to do this. In the Werewolf fiction, werewolves have access to rites, which are ancient pacts between werewolves and spirits that the werewolves can invoke. Some of these rites can effect the Shadow and I think this might be the way to go.
Quote from: dindenver on February 11, 2009, 08:08:16 PM
I think the best way to do it would be to set up the spirits of the area and assign a difficulty level to each.
If they are actively opposed to the werewolves' goals, give them pool, abilities and secrets. For others, set a a minimum Effect to change them.
Thanks Dindenver. I have pretty much already done a lot of that, but it feels slightly disjointed. The problem with spirits in Werewolf: the Forsaken is that they are incredibly hard to destroy. Usually the PCs beat up an enemy spirit until it's form discorporates. However, the spirit is not truly destroyed until it runs out of Essence, which is a spiritual energy. A discorporated spirit can rebuild itself over time, although it is likely to avoid the PCs in the future.
So, the situation is more like a classic guerilla war. The PCs enter a hostile location, discorporate all the nasty spirits and leave to lick their wounds. However, some time after they leave, the nasty spirits return. The trick is keeping the nasty spirits from returning, something the PCs haven't figured out yet.
What I want to do is provide them with a system where they can keep the nasty spirits out by changing the emotional taint (resonance) of a location so it won't attract the nasty spirits anymore. The fiction provides a process in which to do this, but no mechanics. I'll post this process if people are interested.
By the way, there is no Wyrm in Werewolf: the Forsaken. In fact, there is no Gaia or Wyld either. Instead, every powerful spirit is a potential hostile to werewolves, which makes the PCs more paranoid. And that is just the spirits...
dindenver:
C75,
OK, that makes sense, but maybe you are over-thinking it?
The way I see it, if they win an ability check, they beat down the spirit, temporarily. But if they win an Extended Conflict, the spirit is booted from the territory and the spirit energy of the territory is improved.
I guess I took the advice to make the stakes of a roll be about what you are fighting for literally. So, in my games, rarely is an Ability check about success as much as it is about how the world is different after the attempt. Because of that I have been able to have players roll for stakes such as, "other factions will think twice before going against us." I think if you brought that logic to your werewolf game, it might fit the bill.
But on a more direct answer to your question, what if you used the Knot mechanics, but changed what a knot meant? Like each knot could be a spirit in their territory. Gaining the knot would represent the Werewolves' triumph over that spirit. Like maybe it is just dematerialized, but more than that, it is actively avoiding the pack? So, you could have a knot progression:
1) Finding the spirit or learning that it exists
2) Confronting the spirit
3) Exorcism
And the mechanics could be something like:
1) SG lets the players in on the gag. The spirit of the local playground has been turned ugly ever since that drive by shooting
2) Players investigate, culminating in ability checks
3) Characters buy a secret related to that knot And then perform the actrs that banish the spirit permanently.
I don't know, its just a loose framework, but it might be a good jumping off point for you...
oliof:
Hi,
maybe you can borrow a page out of REIGN's pages and look at that system's Company rules.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page