Werewolf: The Forsaken - Blank It

64
Chapter II: Character
Ghost Wolves, who have no tribe, begin play with
one Gift chosen from the lists associated with auspice, one
chosen from one of the “open” lists that are affiliated with
all werewolves (Father Wolf or Mother Luna’s Gifts) and
one chosen from any list of the player’s choice.
It is possible to take one-dot and two-dot Gifts in a
single list at character creation. The list in question must
be affiliated with both your character’s tribe and auspice,
such as the Insight list for Bone Shadows and Elodoth.
In this case, your character has the one-dot Insight Gift
from, say, tribe, and then gets the two-dot Insight Gift
from auspice. You could also get a two-dot Gift in a list if,
for your character’s third selection you choose a list that is
affiliated with his tribe or auspice and from which you already
have the one-dot power. For example, if you choose
the one-dot Stealth Gift as your Irraka’s auspice-affiliated
power, you could use your third, free choice to acquire the
two-dot Stealth Gift.
Be aware, however, that other criteria must be met
for your starting character to have a two-dot (or higher)
Gift. One of your character’s primary Renown traits
(explained on p. 76) must equal the highest level of Gift
chosen. Therefore, a Blood Talon Rahu could have both
the one-dot and two-dot Gifts in the Dominance list, but
his Purity (the primary Renown for Rahu) or his Glory
(the primary Renown for Blood Talons) must be 2. Or the
aforementioned Elodoth Bone Shadow would need two
dots in either Honor (the primary Renown of his auspice)
or Wisdom (the primary Renown of his tribe) for him to
have the one-dot and two-dot Gifts in the Insight list.
It is even possible to take one-dot, two-dot and three-dot
Gifts in a single list at character creation, but only under very
specific circumstances. Your character’s primary Renown for
auspice and tribe must be the same, such as Glory for both
Cahalith and Blood Talons. You must then assign your third,
free Renown dot to Glory as well, raising it to 3. Then, your
character’s auspice- and tribe-affiliated Gift lists must have
one list in common, such as Inspiration for Cahalith and
Blood Talons. Finally, you must dedicate all three of your
character’s Gift options to that list alone. You would then
have the first three Gifts of the Inspiration list, but no others
at character creation. While going this route certainly makes
your character adept in a specific area of expertise, he is extremely
focused and could be vulnerable or incapable under
any circumstance that is not his forte.
For your third, “free” pick of Gift, your character cannot
acquire a power from a moon-phase auspice list other
than his own. If he’s an Ithaeur (for which the Crescent
Moon list has affinity), he cannot have the one-dot New
Moon Gift. New Moon has affinity with the Irraka auspice.
Nor can your character ever acquire any Gift from a
moon-phase auspice list other than his own.
The moon-phase Gift lists that are each exclusive to
their own auspices are the following: Full Moon (Rahu),
Gibbous Moon (Cahalith), Half Moon (Elodoth), Crescent
Moon (Ithaeur) and New Moon (Irraka).
Rituals
An alternative to choosing a Gift at character creation
is the Rituals trait. The “free” pick with which you can
normally choose a Gift from any list is traded for a single
dot in Rituals. (No more than one dot can be acquired at
character creation.) That dot grants your character access
to the rites that Uratha culture knows and teaches its members.
Presumably your character’s early days after the First
Change are spent near or with a ritemaster, or he spends
time learning how to strike pacts with spirits through rote
performances and services. The Storyteller could also decide
that your character acquires awareness of such rites in
the downtime of the first weeks of your chronicle.
One dot in Rituals grants your character a single one-dot
rite, as chosen from those offered on pp. 147 - 165. More onedot
rites can be learned during play through the expenditure
of experience points (see p. 66.) Your character can know as
many rites as you like, provided you have the required experience
to spend. He cannot, however, know rites with a dot
rating that exceeds his Rituals rating. So, with Rituals •, he
cannot know any two-dot through five-dot rites.
More dots in Rituals can be acquired through play
with experience as if the Rituals trait was a Gift list with
which your character has affinity. Therefore, new dots
can be acquired at a cost of new dots times five (see p.
66). If your character does not acquire the Rituals trait at
character creation, it can be purchased during the course
of the chronicle. Rituals is considered an “affinity” for
all werewolves, so new dots times five is always spent to
increase it with experience points.
With more dots in the Rituals trait, your character can
learn rites of increasing power. Remember, however, that
he can have only one dot of Rituals at character creation.
(Furthermore, only your free pick of Gift can be traded for
Rituals. A tribe-, auspice- or general-affiliation pick — the
last for the tribeless Ghost Wolves — cannot be traded.)
Each time your character acquires a new dot in Rituals,
he gains a new rite of the same value. So, acquiring
Rituals ••• grants him a free three-dot rite.
STEP SIX: SELECT MERIT S
A beginning character has seven dots worth of Merits,
which may be distributed at your discretion. These traits
should fit your character concept. For example, an Iron
Master Elodoth who was a reclusive movie geek before his
First Change shouldn’t have any dots in Fighting Style. The
Storyteller may encourage or disallow certain Merits, or
even provide a dot for free (such as a free dot in Totem to
represent a pack with a particularly strong totem). The fifth
dot in any Merit costs two dots to purchase.
See p. 79 for additional Merits available only to
werewolves.
RITES
If you have purchased a dot in the Rituals trait, you
may purchase additional one-dot rites during character