Werewolf: The Forsaken - Blank It

and he’s able to parlay that feeling into a more powerful
and intimidating demeanor.
Finally, Jack has the potential for one last free Specialty,
depending on what auspice he chooses. Since Jack
hasn’t determined what his character’s auspice is just yet,
he leaves that fourth Specialty off for a moment.
STEP FIVE: WEREWOLF TEMPLATE
Jack now applies the werewolf template to what has otherwise
been shaping up as a seemingly normal human character.
The first thing he must choose is what his character’s
auspice (i.e., moon-sign) is. As Michelle has already said that
she wants only one character per auspice, Jack opens the
discussion up to his fellow players. He isn’t entirely sure what
auspice he wants to play, but both the Irraka and the Rahu
sound like fun. Two of the other players have similar ideas,
though, so Jack turns to Michelle for advice. Looking at his
character sheet and discussing his character concept with
him, Michelle says that Jack’s character just doesn’t sound
much like an Irraka to her. Jack sees the wisdom in that and
asks to play the Rahu. Another player has an arguably better
concept for a Rahu character, however, so Michelle makes a
suggestion. She sees Jack’s character as someone standing at
a crossroads with serious decisions to make over the course of
the chronicle. She also sees him as someone who cares about
law and tradition and who stands between those who do and
those who don’t. Jack agrees with that, so Michelle recommends
the Elodoth auspice — the judge and law-keeper who
must arbitrate between opposing extremes. It takes a few
minutes of thought, but Jack realizes that that sounds like
what he’s had in mind all along. Michelle okays the choice
and reminds Jack to look back at his Skill Specialties. Since
he’s an Elodoth, the character gains a free Specialty in Empathy,
Investigation or Politics. The choice is an easy one for
Jack since the only one of those Skills his character has any
dots in is Investigation. He chooses a Specialty of Personal
Searches, representing a keen ability to tell if a person is
concealing weapons or contraband on his person.
Next, Jack must choose what tribe his character
belongs to — a choice that is entirely up to him. He likes
the sound of the Hunters in Darkness, a tribe of quiet,
clever predators who defend their territories as much with
cunning and subtlety as with ferocity and savagery. The
way Jack sees it, his character can do his job and live a
seemingly normal life among his human peers, but when
his supernatural duties to his pack and his territory call,
he needs to operate with more care and subtlety. If he
can do so, he can keep from drawing attention to himself
that could mess up the rest of his seemingly normal life.
(It is, perhaps, a somewhat naïve expectation, but Jack’s
character is still a young werewolf who has yet to learn the
harder lessons that all the Forsaken have in common.)
The next part of adding the werewolf template to this
character lies in determining his supernatural aptitudes.
Those aptitudes include the character’s Primal Urge and
his Essence, both of which have a standard starting point.
Primal Urge starts at 1 for all characters, and Jack decides
not to increase it at this time. His character has not yet
fully embraced the scope and breadth of the supernatural
and has chosen to focus on the needs of the material
world for now, so a higher rating would not be appropriate.
The character’s starting Essence is equal to his starting
Harmony (i.e., Werewolf’s Morality trait), so Jack makes a
note of that. He’ll cross that bridge when he comes to it.
Then it’s time to figure out the character’s three dots
of starting Renown, and two of them are easily determined.
Since he’s an Elodoth, his first Renown dot goes
into Honor. Since he’s a Hunter in Darkness, his second
Renown dot goes into Purity. The allocation of his last
Renown dot is up to Jack, and he elects to spend it into
Cunning (which seems appropriate for a subtle, hidden
predator who hunts in the night).
The final supernatural aptitude a werewolf character
has is that of his Gifts (or individual supernatural powers
taught by allied spirits). Only certain categories of Gifts
are available to Jack’s character based on other charactercreation
choices he has made, and the maximum levels to
which he may rise in those Gifts at this stage are limited
by his Renown. Since Jack has no Renown category higher
than one dot, he can choose only one-dot Gifts. Both
auspice and tribe determine what Gifts are available to a
starting character, and a player may choose a Gift from any
other single list he likes. Since his character’s a Elodoth,
Jack can choose between the Half Moon, Insight and
Warding lists; since his character’s a Hunter in Darkness, he
can choose between the Elemental, Nature and Stealth lists
for his second pick. He chooses the Half Moon Gift: Scent
Beneath the Surface for his auspice pick and the Stealth
Gift: Blending as his tribe pick. For his free pick, he considers
the one-dot Gift from several lists, but ultimately decides
to spend the free pick on one dot of Rituals, with which
he would get a free one-dot rite. The Rituals trait allows
Jack’s character access to more rites during the course of
the chronicle, and he likes the idea of the Elodoth as ritual
judge. He chooses Shared Scent as his bonus rite.
STEP SIX: MERIT S
Like any other character, werewolf characters have
seven dots worth of Merits available at character creation.
For reasons of her own, Michelle assigns each character
one dot of Totem (which the players will later combine to
create a totem spirit) for free. She then asks the players to
purchase only those Merits that pertain to their characters’
pre-Change lives with their remaining seven dots.
Jack first takes one dot of Status to represent his standing
in the local human society as a campus police officer.
Not everyone in the community respects or admires him for
what he is, but anyone who sees him in uniform knows that
he has a certain amount of authority that they don’t. Next
he takes two dots in Contacts, reflecting those people in the
community that he knows he can count on for information.
To represent the salary he makes at his job (minus living
expenses and monthly debt payments, of course), he takes
one dot of Resources. Jack tacks on a dot of Language to
Character Creation
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