Werewolf: The Forsaken - Blank It

a spirit accepts their sacrifice. If the players and Storyteller
are all willing, the Storyteller can design a totem for the
pack and make a few of the choices so that the players
themselves can enjoy the element of surprise. While the
werewolves themselves must trust their own judgment in
their choice of spirit tracked down as a potential totem, the
players might prefer to ensure compatibility with the totem
they’ll be working with over the duration of the chronicle
by taking the totem-design process into their own hands.
The process of choosing — or, very rarely, being
chosen by — a totem should be more than a mathematical
discussion. That said, the game mechanics aspects of
the totem are important, too, and should be given their
consideration. A totem that can boost a pack’s efficiency
in an area where the characters would otherwise be weak
is a powerful asset.
Of course, it’s also possible to skip the math and use the
first story to allow the players to roleplay finding their pack’s
totem, which has advantages and disadvantages. The Storyteller
runs the risk of setting a mood counter to the paranoid
and horrific ambiance that best serves Werewolf: The
Forsaken. After all, the Shadow Realm isn’t benevolent, and
a story that
ends
with the pack becoming bonded in camaraderie might set
the wrong tone for the chronicle. On the other hand, if the
Storyteller presents the spirit wilds as a foreboding place, but
one into which the characters must venture in order to find
their spirit guide, the tone set can be entirely appropriate.
The characters venture into the dark, looking for a mighty
predator, not realizing that as they do, something is hunting
them in turn. Perhaps their intended totem would just as
soon kill them as guide them. This sort of story can give your
players a wonderful chance to discover what the pack is really
all about, what their strengths and weaknesses are and what
spirit best represents the characters. Players tend to take the
totem for granted much less if they’ve had to work for it. If
you feel like giving them an extra bonus, allow the players to
not only spend any Merit points they’ve assigned to Totem
during character creation on the totem, but any experience
points they gain during that story as well. Yes, this makes for
a more powerful spirit, but they’ve earned it!
BUILDING A TOTEM
This section discusses the mechanical aspects of building
a totem: how many points various benefits cost, how to go
about building a ban, how to improve the pack’s totem with
experience points and so on. While this section is presented
in game-mechanics terms, never forget the mystical and spiritual
experience that bonding with a totem represents. We’ve
included suggestions and reminders on how to translate the
numbers into the game more effectively.
Players can spend points on enhancing
the totem in two ways. First, they can
buy traits for the totem, making the
spirit itself more powerful. If a pack
serves a totem that grants the
werewolves few direct powers,
but is itself
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