Werewolf: The Forsaken - Blank It

228
Chapter IV: Storytelling and Antagonists
in the real world have consequences for the spirit word, and
vice versa. The lives that the Forsaken currently live are
considered a direct consequence of their ancestors’ putting
down and taking over for Father Wolf. The problems in the
Shadow are consequences of allowing humanity to grow
and strengthen away from the yoke of the spirits. These
are all examples of consequences played out on the macro
stage, but the same should apply to the werewolves in the
micro stage of the pack and its territory. The resolution of
one story might have unexpected consequences. The family
members of a slain Spirit-Claimed might come looking for
their relative’s murderers, for example, or the local spirits
might grow distrustful of a pack that’s prone to dealing with
troublesome spirits in a violent manner as a first recourse.
Sometimes these consequences arise immediately. Sometimes
they come to a head much later in the chronicle. Whichever
way it occurs, the characters don’t have the option of walking
away (because they’re bound to their territory) or ignoring
the issue (because the problem will just grow worse, possibly
causing damage in the spirit world and creating greater
problems for the characters).
Therefore, it’s best to think of your chronicle on two
levels. There’s the individual story level, in which the
characters face a challenge and deal with it. Then there’s
the larger level, the major plot arcs that determine how the
pack’s territory develops. Once you’ve got that introductory
story or two out of the way, it’s time to start thinking about
the first major plot arc. Those introductory stories give you
a feel for what the players actually enjoy most in the game,
be it in-character roleplaying, out-and-out combat, investigation
or lupine territory patrolling. These aspects might be
completely different from what they said they wanted when
you started setting up the chronicle, because what people
think they want out of a new Storytelling game and what
they find they enjoy are sometimes quite different. (This is
one good reason for devoting much of your initial energy to
the territory and the supporting cast, rather than the plot.
You can recycle the former to a different style of game far
more easily than the latter.) This should give you an idea of
what the major antagonists your characters are going to face
should be. Some examples include:
• a horde of spirit fugitives hiding among the local
population
• one person whose actions are disrupting the spirit
world
• a spirit that’s grown strong on a series of events in
the physical world, such as murders or car crashes, and is
using its power to terrorize the local spirits
• a neighboring pack that’s decided that the characters
are weak and that their territory is ripe for conquest
The next few stories should then start setting up this
bigger threat, as the werewolves start to deal with the
consequences of these adversaries’ interest in the pack’s
territory, from murders by one of the Spirit-Claimed to
incursions by the rival pack. Over the course of the arc,
which can run from two or three stories to many more,
it’s worth throwing in some random problems tangentially
connected with the spirit world or the local people. Random,
unconnected things happen in the real world, and
they can help make a fictional world seem more real, too,
just as long as you remember that the actions of everyone
involved should always have consequences.
FRESH START S
For a while, your chronicle can almost write itself.
Once you’ve introduced a number of elements and dealt
with the consequences of the characters’ actions, you can
let those stories play out in whichever order the players
choose to address them. After a while, though, you’re going
to have to start introducing new elements into the plot, to
create new arcs — provided nothing disastrous wipes your
characters out or renders their territory a desperate, spiritoverrun
mess, leaving the neighboring packs no choice but
to take over. The players might help you in this by deciding
to expand the territory’s boundaries once their characters
have a grip on it. That gives you the perfect opportunity to
seed new antagonists or problems for the characters to face.
If you’re going to introduce a new threat, though, it’s
better to make that part of a larger story arc, rather than
just a one-off story. Introducing one of the Hosts in one
story and then one of the Pure Tribes in another creates
a “monster of the week” chronicle, and lessens the feel of
place and consequence that makes for really good Werewolf
stories. If the Beshilu are invading and polluting the
pack’s territory, it’s fodder for a whole series of stories as
the pack tries to hold back a foe as powerful as themselves,
yet one that doesn’t have to deal with the same territorial
issues. If the Pure show up, it’s a matter that affects not
just one pack, but each surrounding werewolf pack, too.
Introducing new antagonists is a time-tested method to
shake up a chronicle that’s growing a little stale, but it has to
be done in a measured way. If you introduce them on top of
existing problems within the pack’s territories, the characters,
or even the players, might start to feel overwhelmed. If new
antagonists come out of the blue, you can undermine your
game’s sense of reality. Often, the simplest approach is to start
planning the conclusion of the current crop of running stories
and start hinting at the coming threat. Perhaps the characters’
friends start complaining that the rats are really bad lately,
or the characters catch the scent of an entirely unfamiliar
werewolf on the edge of their territory. They raise this concern
among the local Forsaken rumormill, but none of the neighboring
packs have any new members. Later, one or two other
alphas admit to having encountered the same thing. These
sorts of hints introduce the idea that something new is on its
way, without giving the game away and distracting the players
from their characters’ current concerns. It’s not a particularly
subtle form of foreshadowing, but when your chronicle is based
around a particular location, keeping the players’ suspension
of disbelief strong requires that you give a sense that the new
threats are moving in, rather than just having them turn up
on the werewolves’ doorsteps. The spirit world is particularly