Werewolf: The Forsaken - Blank It

222
Chapter IV: Storytelling and Antagonists
applies, of course, to friends and relatives who live outside
the territory, as it becomes harder for the werewolves to
interact with them. If you give careful thought to where
your supporting cast members live, you can really bring
home to the players the alien nature of life as a werewolf.
Their characters have to think twice about going to places
that they could visit easily before their First Change.
ANTAGONIST S
Antagonists are a special form of supporting cast all in
their own right. They’re the enemy. When you watch a film
or read a book, it’s rare that all but the best supporting characters
stick in your mind. The antagonists, though, should
be really memorable. With most of the supporting cast, you
have time to develop their characters and quirks throughout
the chronicle. With antagonists, that work really needs to
be done up front. Antagonists might be around for only one
story, or possibly just a single session. You don’t have the time
to develop them much through play, and if you haven’t put
the work in up front, they’re going to come across as insipid
characters. That won’t do much to inspire an emotional
response in your players. And you want emotion: you want
fear, and anger, and even delight — in the sense of “we love
the idea of getting another shot at this bastard,” that is.
Like all characters, most antagonists fall into one of the
categories mentioned thus far. Rival packs of werewolves are
typically outsiders, for example. The walk-ons include the
henchmen, hapless pawns, security guards and other lowranking
opponents: good for a fight scene or a quick bit of
interrogation, but not likely to be around for long.
Recurring local characters are the local foils. They
might not be the same people to werewolves as they are to
the local populace. A thief is probably not doing much to
roil the Shadow, while a really vicious gossip might actually
change the context of local emotion enough to draw down
the attention of… something. Society would view the former
as a villain, but not the latter. The Forsaken might view the
situation the other way around. The outsiders are likely to
be the recurring antagonists in the chronicle — Pure Tribe
werewolves, malign and powerful spirits (either local or from
the deeper reaches of the spirit wilds) or even neighboring
Forsaken. In an urban chronicle, the antagonists could even
be vampires or human werewolf-hunters. With their cavalier
attitude to the spiritual effects of their sorcery, mages make
good recurring rivals too. (Yet, if the Elodoth is good at his
job, the characters might be able to strike mutual non-aggression
agreements with local vampires and mages who aren’t
immediately dangerous enough to necessitate driving them
off. Such characters can even go from being antagonists to
being recurring local characters.)
SPIRIT S
Spirits make up another category of supporting cast
that’s worth noting in its own right. The spirit world
plays a central role in a Werewolf game, and the werewolves
watch over its inhabitants carefully. The spirit
characters in your chronicle need to be richly detailed
just as the local humans and wolves are, if this part of
the chronicle is to take on the importance it needs. Of
course, you’re much more familiar with humans and
animals than you are with spirits. Much more detailed
information on the spirit world and its inhabitants can
be found in Appendix One. In the meantime, keep these
basic guidelines in mind.
Again, the three basic categories apply here. The walkons
are the weaker spirits that populate the Hisil and which
the werewolves can afford to ignore unless something’s
amiss with them. These are the spirits of the trees, the
plants, the buildings and other local natives, or the spirits
that pass into the physical world for a time before their Essence
depletes and they must flee back to the spirit world or
before the pack summarily disposes of them. Spirit “walkons”
establish mood, however, and shouldn’t be overused.
A step up is the recurring local spirits. These include the
pack’s totem, as well as other, more significant spirits: the
spirit of the forest that marks one edge of the pack’s territory,
the spirit of the lake at the bottom of the neighboring
valley and the many shifting spirits of the towns and cities.
Any Ridden whom the werewolves have allowed to live in
their territory fall into this category, as do any spirit fugitives
who choose to exist immaterial on the material side
of the Gauntlet. The outsiders are the powerful spirits from
the deeper spirit wilds, or hostile spirits from regions outside
the pack’s control.
Most often these spirits are antagonists, often directly
so — those that disrupt the werewolves’ territory or neighboring
areas through accident or intention. Sometimes
they’re sources of aid or teaching, hunted by the werewolves
who need to advance and learn new things from these wise,
older spirits. In any case, they’re significant figures who
have an impact on the chronicle and who deserve to have a
distinct character of their own. If they’re the rare exceptions
who aren’t as antagonistic or resentful toward the werewolves,
there should always be a reason for that to be the
case — an openly helpful spirit is unusual enough to cause
comment. It’s very easy to look upon spirits as being cookiecutter
beings, with indistinguishable personalities, but
that’s not fair to the themes of the game. Werewolves have
raised themselves to an implied position of authority over
the spirit world, and they’re part spirit themselves. While
most spirits are bitter and resentful of that authority, some
agree to respect, placate or cooperate with the werewolves
nonetheless. Their reasons for doing so vary based on the
individual, so their personalities should be as rich and interesting
as that of the people in the physical world.
HORROR
Like the other World of Darkness games, Werewolf:
The Forsaken is about horror Storytelling. Although
elements of investigation and mystery, strong elements of
action and violence, and even a little humor run through
the game, horror is at its heart. That might seem like a