Tips on Writing Your Werewolf’s First Change

All characters who become supernaturals go through a transitional period when they start to become what they’re destined to be.

For the Forsaken, this transitional period is usually a long process, often starting months before the actual change happens. The closer the time comes to the actual change and shift to animal form, the more the symptoms magnify.

So how do you write this process effectively? Turning into a werewolf or another supernatural character isn’t an everyday occurrence. There’s really no one you can ask to recount theirfirst-hand experience.

The Best of Times and The Worst of Times

For the player, the First Change is one of the most exciting periods in your character’s life. Your character is still the same person, but now the character is forced to face traumatic changes.

A First Change will tear your character apart. He will have nightmares and long periods of missing time. She’ll start doing things that normal people don’t usually do. His personality might become more animalistic as instinct overrides reason. Emotional levels run high and it doesn’t take much to set off an argument or a fight.

Unless your character is lucky enough to have mentors around him, his First Change usually ends in tragedy. A simple domestic dispute takes a bad turn when the inner Rage takes over. Sometimes the new werewolf wakes up bathed in the blood of his loved ones.

Depending on the auspice, a new shifter might take a nosedive into hedonism or try to run away from everything. They might get lost in the spirit world and lose touch with reality. They might have dreams and visions that make no sense at all, further blurring the lines of reality.

Resources

One of the best resources for before, during and after a First Change is the Forsaken sourcebook, Blood of the Wolf. If your character is about to go through this ordeal, you’d be doing yourself a favor by picking up this book.

Another excellent book is Robert R. McCammon’s Hour of the Wolf. This spy thriller with a werewolf twist is set during World War II. The book alternates between the lead character’s childhood in Russia, his adolescence as a new werewolf, and his adult life as a spy and assassin for the Allied forces.

The way McCammon takes Michael through the process of becoming a werewolf is very close to the way we view the First Change in Escaping Reality.

Movies are another excellent resource. There’s the 1981 American Werewolf in London series, and Wes Craven’s 2005 film Cursed with Christina Ricci. Cursed isn’t the best movie I’ve ever seen, but it does have some good First Change ideas.

There’s also 2004’s VanHelsing, which in my opinion, has the best looking werewolves I’ve ever seen.

The Best Laid Plans

A First Change isn’t something you can map out in advance. You could try, but chances are that your character is going to surprise you. This is one time you will have to take some risks and resign to the fact you will have to hurt your character while he or she lives through a dramatic situation.

It’s a wild ride to be sure. Enjoy it and get as much as you can from the experience. Explore all avenues and leave no stone unturned. Although you may create other characters that go through a First Change, your first character’s change will always be special. Make it rock.

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Writing From Inexperience

Write what you know is one of my mantras. I tell this to new writers and gamers all the time. First-hand experience of an event or a particular local makes your fiction writing work come alive with detail.

But what if you have a character so unlike you that you’ve never experienced half the things your character has? A little research takes care of that.

I’m talking about the little things we take for granted. What if your character needs to roll a cigarette, but you’ve never rolled your own? What if your character gets drunk, but you’ve never been drunk yourself?

Within the larger scheme of experiences, no one would know the smaller details unless they have been through it themselves.

Living Vicariously

How do learn an experience? Where you find this information?

The Internet is your friend. It’s amazing what you’ll find if you look. Need to know the effects of a particular drug or the effects of alcohol? You’ll find everything from medical reports to first-hand accounts on the web.

I had one player ask me how to roll a cigarette, and while I’ve done that, I couldn’t explain it well. A quick search on You Tube provided dozens of how-to videos.

If you want more flavor, you could risk a little bit of embarrassment and ask someone who’s experienced the situation to describe it. I find that when you tell people that you’re a writer and need help, they’re more than willing to go through a quick interview.

Videos and articles can give you the basics, but there are small details people can tell you that bring the experience to life. These details add credibility to your fiction so that your reader says, “Wow, he really knows what he’s talking about! I felt just like that!”

Much of dissecting experiences is emotional. People never have the same experience. Just look at how different people act and behave when they’re drunk. Some are happy drunks, some get mean, others get downright stupid. Sometimes the type of alcohol plays a part in modifying basic behaviors while drunk.

In some ways, writing from inexperience is no different from writing about a specific genre or setting, like writing about medieval times or futuristic space. You still have to do your homework and research.

There are certain experiences you can try for yourself, but use discretion and don’t try anything dangerous. Half the fun of writing is acquiring vast knowledge on many subjects. It keeps your writing fresh, your readers interested, and goes a long way in creating strong suspension of disbelief.

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What to do with Missing Players

Oh the joy of a great scene! The excitement is fresh, the players are raring to go, the characters are set for action. Everyone is ready to explore the possibilities the scene has to offer. Game action begins rolling along and then suddenly…

…one of the players disappears.

Alright, no problem. You wait a day. Then another. Then you wait three or four days. The scene starts to lag and everyone realizes, “Hey. That player’s gone.” No one hears anything from the player and the scene is left with an inactive character and a gaping hole.

What Now?

What should you do in a case of a disappearing player? What if the character was integral to the scene or the current plot? Should you act as if this character never existed? Should someone create an in-game excuse for the player’s sudden disappearance?

I’ve been on both sides of this issue, as both player and Storyteller. No matter which side you’re on, it’s a frustrating situation and it’s also a little annoying. As a player, you’re left hanging and waiting on some action. As a Storyteller, you have to create a reason why the character isn’t active anymore.

In a best-case scenario, players who know they won’t be playing in the game anymore should be kind enough to notify fellow players and Storytellers of their retreat from scenes. This gives everyone ample time to fill in the blanks and work a solution into the story in a realistic manner.

Players sometimes find the commitment to a role-playing forum is more than they can handle. They’re often embarrassed to admit it. Sometimes it’s a lagging interest, because the game isn’t what they expected, but they don’t know how to tell others they’re just not having fun.

So, these people take the easy way out and just stop playing. More often than not, no one gets advance notice and no one ever knows the reasons for the disappearance. Not cool - but what can you do?

Storytellers are usually the ones who decide how to handle the issue. Here are some options a Storyteller might explore:

• Ignore it: Sometimes a character wasn’t all that important or impressive. The character may not have made much of a dent in a plot or scene. It’s sometimes easy to pretend that a character ever existed and just move on. Remaining players can use whatever past history they had with the missing character, but should move on as if the character was never really there.
• Create mystery: Sometimes a disappearance works well. It’s a timely moment and the missing character’s disappearance is discovered by remaining characters. That leads to extra plot and material for remaining players. What happened? Where did the character go? They may find the missing character and they may not. That character may have been murdered, taken by enemies or eaten by something that goes bump in the night.
• Use the character as an NPC: A Storyteller may opt to adopt a missing character and keep playing him as an NPC. If the character was a good one, why let him or her go to waste?
• Temporary absence: Some players who leave a game may want to return later when life is less busy. The character is written out of scenes, either by the departing player or Storytellers, and goes on a temporary hiatus. The character returns from his “adventures” at a later date.

For the most part, missing characters don’t interrupt flow of scenes or stories very much. With good storytelling strategies and so many options available, all it comes down to is using the imagination to make the disappearance work well. Most of the time, scenes don’t even skip a beat.

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When to Use Dice Rolls to Determine Outcomes

Dice rolling in role-playing games provides a means to determine the outcome of actions made by characters.

In tabletop role-playing games, dice play a large part in generating actions and reactions. In Live Action Role-Playing (LARP) games, the preferred method is rock/paper/scissors.

Online games are a little different. For the most part, they use an honor system. Most sites have dice generators players can use, or players and storytellers roll dice alone at home.

80% of the fun, though, is the anticipation of taking a chance. You never know if a move will succeed or fail. Making a risky move and getting an incredibly lucky roll or an epic fail makes the game that much more interesting for everyone.

This is where true role-playing comes in. Dice results give you the unexpected in an already touchy situation.

When To Use Dice

The best time to use dice rolls is in combat or when trying to use a certain skill or ability. Dice are also helpful if your character uses a skill never before tried or one he or she hasn’t learned yet. Shooting a gun in a high-stress situation? Roll the dice. Cornered on rooftops and attempting to leap to the next building? Roll the dice.

Dice have other uses too. We frequently use dice rolls for results such as when a character is faced with a choice of two options that could result in very different outcomes.

When your character’s actions involve another character, you need to roll the dice. Your character can attempt to kick a knife out of someone’s hand, but the other character may have too good a grip or have faster reactions.

Smaller rolls to determine outcomes don’t require the intervention of a Storyteller, though. Players can perform rolls between themselves or alone.

You may not even need dice. For example, sometimes James and I just ask each other to choose odds or evens, a number between one and ten or to pick heads or tails. (Of course, James always chooses evens, six, and tails). This is perfect for players who don’t have dice or access to an online dice roller.

Results are always final, though. We abide by the resulting success or failure even if we’ve just royally screwed over our characters.

When Not To Use Dice

Once you become intimately familiar with your character and know his or her personality well enough, or when your Storyteller has a good grip on the character’s personality, skills and abilities, results are more common sense than rolled by dice.

If you know what your character is capable of doing, then you can logically figure out the chances of success or failure. If the action is one your character has learned and performed countless times, there’s probably no need to roll the dice.

Dice rolling and number crunching can get tedious if you take it too far and bog down the thrill of the game. If you know when to use dice and use them well, their spontaneous results can spice up a gaming experience tenfold.

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Taking Risks With Your Character

I’ve participated in role-playing games with many people in my life. The most memorable players were the ones who took risks, and I enjoyed playing with those risk-takers a great deal.

Risk-takers aren’t people who make stupid go-for-broke types of risks. The number one rule in role-playing is that stupid gets your character killed. Risk-takers, players who take calculated risks that make a game rock, know this very well.

Too often, role-players become very attached to their characters. These players constantly choose safe, predictable routes that often lead to a major snooze-fest. This happens because these players don’t want their character to get hurt, either physically or mentally.

Take a Chance - Go On, You Know You Want To

Conflict is the key to any good game or fiction novel. One way to bring about conflict is to take chances with your character.

Part of the fun of being in a role-playing game is getting your character out of sticky situations (or into them). Sure, you could go the safe route and do what you might do in the situation, but why not really take the time to think about what the character would do?

What’s the worst that could happen? Well, if you’re stupid your character might die. Taking a chance doesn’t mean being stupid, though, and the results could be spectacular.

These chances and risks might not always seem the safest or easiest course, but sometimes a risky move could set off a whole chain of events you never dreamed possible.

Out of Character For My Character?

When you’re in a crisis situation or under a lot of stress, do you really act like yourself? You probably do things that are out of character for your personality and everyone who knows you notices.

Likewise, it’s alright if your character steps out of line. Maybe he found a well of courage he never thought he had or maybe he’s not as tough as everyone thinks he is.

Think of these situations as defining moments for your character. Just like you, your character needs to grow and develop. The only way is by taking chances.

So this week, go ahead and take a chance. See what your character is capable of doing - but remember, be smart!

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Don’t Jump the Shark in Your Scenes

How many of you remember the television series Happy Days? Happy Days played for a long time – 10 years, in fact. It was a household staple of many people my age.

Did you know that Happy Days coined the term “jumps the shark”?

At some point in long-term series, the writers begin to run out of new material. They scrape for something to write about – like the episode of Happy Days when Fonzie jumped over a shark while on water skis. Many people believed this was the point when Happy Days got absurd and went downhill from there.

The term stuck.

I was watching Heroes recently and wondering if the show had jumped the shark. The plot used to be great, with lots of incredible twists. Now it seems that the added twist value is simply for the sake of cheap shock.

The same thing happened to Lost, and Smallville jumped the shark the moment superhero costumes came into view.

How to Avoid Jumping the Sharks in Your Scenes

None of us wants to get so excited about something that seems really cool and then watch it fall flat while people laugh at the absurdity of our action. There are ways to avoid wrecking scenes and jumping the shark:

• Don’t do something just because it seems like a cool idea.
• Make sure you’re not drunk on your own words. It’s easy to get caught up in what you think is the greatest scene ever, but be careful that you’re not so involved that you can’t see how cheesy it is.
• Know when to leave well enough alone. If you’ve reached a particular climax, let it happen and be done with it. Don’t insult the intelligence of your audience by saying, “Wait, there’s more!” Defining moments are just that: the definitive moment when the story reaches the point of no return. Let it go and move on to something new.

Can you think of television series or a series of novels that jumped the shark? When did you notice the shark? Have you ever jumped the shark in any of your own scenes?

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Supernatural Antagonists: Those Who Shall Not Be Named

The supernatural world has more shades of gray than a foggy night on the coast. If humans think supernatural characters have nothing to fear, they’re quite mistaken.

It would be easy if supernatural characters could actually tell the difference between themselves and the so-called bad guys - but they can’t. Antagonists often don’t appear any different from any other character.

In the case of Kindred and Forsaken, the shades of grey between good and bad become even more blurred. Read on.

The Bad Guys Don’t Always Wear Black

The Forsaken and the Kindred have to deal with adversity from within their own Tribes and Covenants and also with outside forces as well:

The Pure: This group of werewolves feels that the Forsaken are traitors. In the mythology of the Uratha (werewolves), the story tells that Father Wolf, the patron totem, was killed by his children because he was too old to carry on. The Pure believe that Father Wolf was murdered and that the only way to save the earth is to purge Forsaken from the face of the land.

Bale Hounds: The enemy of my enemy is my friend. In the case of the Pure and the Forsaken, this common enemy would be the Bale Hounds.

Bale Hounds are werewolves who have fallen from grace. They have allowed their bestial side to consume them and want nothing more than to drag the rest of the race into the darkness right alongside. They uphold no oaths and have no loyalties.

Since they are indistinguishable among other werewolves, they easily infiltrate the ranks of both the Forsaken and the Pure Tribes to increase numbers. They’ll pretend as long as they have to in order to bring new recruits to the dark side. They feed on negativity and the decay of humanity.

Bale Hounds believe that newly changed cubs never stand a chance and that older, wiser werewolves eventually have to let their guard down.

Belial’s Brood: These Kindred have literally embraced damnation and claim a bloodline straight from hell itself. They let the Beast within run wild, and the only Prince they answer to is Satan himself.

VII: While the Brood may be misguided and destructive, the VII are outright dangerous to other Kindred. This group believes they are the ones to seek vengeance for crime committed against some obscure king ages ago. It is rumored that once the taint of the Damned is purged from the earth, the VII will once again be saved.

The VII are tricky, too. Their abilities include a trait that they don’t suffer from the frenzy that sometimes takes a vampire when meeting another undead for the first time. VII also have the ability to look at anyone and know immediately whether that individual is a vampire or not.

Probably the most frustrating of their abilities or defenses is that whenever anyone attempts to read the minds of a VII, the reader only sees the Roman numeral representing number seven.

If forced to speak the truth and reveal what they are through supernatural means, the VII are hard-pressed to come up with a definitive answer themselves.

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Vampire Covenants: Status and Politics Among the Kindred

In the underworld of the Kindred, status is everything. While the Forsaken have their politics and hierarchy, the Forsaken Tribes aren’t as politically charged as the Kindred’s’ covenants.

Strange Bedfellows

Kindred are solitary creatures by nature. They don’t feel a need to run in packs like the Forsaken do, nor does their unlife depend on it. Most vampires are perfectly happy to live out eternity without interacting with others of their kind.

Unfortunately, Kindred society is so power-hungry that if a vampire were to alienate himself from other Kindred, he may have more problems than he would if he were to shun the world as a whole.

The Basic Questions

Is it mandatory to join a covenant? No. Unlike the Ghost wolves of the Forsaken, Kindred have no social stigma attached to shunning covenants.

How do you join a covenant? Your character may receive an invitation from a member or know another vampire already in a covenant and request admission. Alternatively, your character may have no choice and his or her Sire may determine the covenant.

What are the benefits of joining a covenant? Status and power, plain and simple. If your Kindred character has ambitions to one day become Prince of his city, he’s going to have to start at the bottom and work his way up. He’ll need the connections a covenant provides.

The Five Covenants

The Ordo Dracul: I had to start with my favorite covenant. The Ordo Dracul are also known as “The Dragons”. This covenant follows the teachings of Vlad Dracul, who claimed that God, rather than another vampire, sired him after Vlad renounced his faith.

The Ordo teaches that nothing is permanent, not even this state of unlife. Many of the Ordo strive to understand and master themselves and their affliction with the hopes of one day conquering it and reversing the effects of the Curse.

The Lancea Sanctum: This covenant is the most religious, trying to reconcile the Kindred’s’ internal conflict of damnation and salvation. The crusade began with the testimony of Longinus, the soldier who became a vampire when he pierced Christ on the cross with a spear.

The Lancea Sanctum serves as the priests and spiritual leaders of the Kindred, working hard to convert whomever they can, often with the zeal of the Spanish Inquisition. It is common to find a member of the Lancea Sanctum serving as the right-hand man or woman to an Invictus Prince.

The Invictus: Like the Ventrue, The Invictus are considered royalty among the covenants, and no doubt many Ventrue swell Invictus ranks. This covenant believes that power is everything. Since many of the members are elder Kindred, they more often than not always get their way.

It is also believed that the Invictus were the ones who came up with the Kindred ranks (Prince, Bishop, Senechal, etc.). They are the self-proclaimed aristocracy. Like any other aristocracy, they fail to see their short-comings. Some believe it’s only a matter of time before the Revolution brings them down.

The Circle of the Crone: Steeped in blood magic, or Cruac, the Circle believes that vampires are a part of nature and meant to be just as anything else that walks the earth. Many of the Circle’s members refuse to pity themselves and seek enlightenment in order to grow. They refuse to be held down with the same guilt so many other Kindred suffer.

The Carthian Movement: Carthians are the total opposite of the Invictus; they are young and idealistic. Carthians, much like Iron Masters of the Forsaken, seek ways to move their kind forward and improve rather than be stuck in the stagnation of the old ways.

Here’s an interesting exercise: If you were a Kindred, which covenant would you follow?

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A Look at Forsaken Tribes

Welcome back to our series on supernatural characters. We’ve touched on some basics for transforming your character into something special:

The fundamental decision of whether you should upgrade your character
Choosing an auspice for your Forsaken character
The workings of Kindred clans

Today, we introduce you to another option for your werewolf character: Tribes of the Forsaken

What Is A Tribe?

The Tribe represents a larger pack of individuals on a global scale who have a like purpose in mind. Each pack has its own agenda steeped in its own politics and religious beliefs. Tribes are part canine behavior (the pack mentality) and human nature (the need to be a part of a community with a greater purpose).

Since the Forsaken no longer fit into the confines of human society and they weren’t really pure wolves, they needed something else. This is how Tribes evolved.

Why Join a Tribe?

Why join any kind of organization, party or club? Sometimes the reasons for joining a Tribe are as simple as socializing and other times as complex as a legacy in a long family line similar to the concept of a fraternity or the Free Masons.

Maybe your character’s ideals resonate with the beliefs of a specific Tribe. Maybe none of the Tribes appeals at all. Only you and your character can decide if joining a Tribe is the right thing to do.

Do I Have to Choose a Tribe?

No. Tribes, unlike auspices, are optional. The characters who have no Tribe are called Ghost Wolves.

Keep in mind, though, that these Ghost Wolves are often looked upon as outcasts by many of the other Tribes because of the strong pack mentality of the Forsaken

What Are the Advantages of Joining a Tribe?

When your character joins a Tribe, you get some pretty cool Gifts (special abilities granted by spirits and patron Totems of each Tribe) that aren’t available to other Forsaken. Each Tribe has their own set of specialties.

Just because they’re called Gifts doesn’t mean they come free. Your character still has to convince the spirit to teach the ability.

Tribes also offer a pack beyond immediate pack, like a worldwide brotherhood. Remember the shades of gray that make this game so much fun. Meeting up with another Blood Talon won’t automatically make him or her like your character. Friendship is never a given.

However if a pack of Storm Lords was heckling your Talon brethren, your character would do best to represent the Tribe and set the Storm Lords straight.

How Do I Join a Tribe?

Joining a Tribe comes about in many ways. Of course, it all starts with the player discussing the options with the Storytellers. Then the Storytellers create a prelude to induct you into that Tribe.

Most of the time, your character might know a few Tribe members from when the player went through the First Change. For example, in Escaping Reality, Lizzy Quinn already knows Johnny Cooper (a Hunter in Darkness). If the Hunter ideals fit hers, it would be reasonable for her to ask Johnny if she could join that Tribe.

Or, if Johnny sees that Lizzy has what it takes to be a Hunter, he might extend a personal invitation to join his Tribe.

Other times, some Tribes keep a close eye on their kinfolk. They watch for the signs of Change and wait. The character may be approached and asked to join, and in some cases, the request is one that cannot be refused.

Can I Change Tribes Later On?

You can change your character’s Tribe later on, but it’s not always easy and it’s not always accepted. Other members of the Tribe may look at your character as a traitor. The patron Totem of each Tribe may just take it as a personal insult.

The choice to renounce a Tribe shouldn’t be taken lightly. If a Tribe isn’t a good fit, change once and with good reason. You may live through it, but you may not be so lucky the next time.

The Tribes

There are five main Forsaken Tribes:

Blood Talons: These are the warriors of the Forsaken. They are the first into the fray and the last to leave the battlefield. They are also the ones closest to the primal wolf inside all Forsaken.

Make no mistake, Blood Talons may sound like the Rahu auspice, but there is a very big difference. Blood Talons might be likened to samurai. Their main goal is to be the ideal warrior in body, mind and spirit. Talons are all about self control and honor.

Bone Shadows: Bone Shadows are the spiritualists of the Forsaken. They know there is much more to both sides of the world than others see. Bone Shadows walk that fine line between life and death. Many times other Tribes don’t understand a Bone Shadow’s behavior, since many Bone Shadows don’t adhere to the rules of the physical world. Their world is ruled by the spirits and what the spirits do doesn’t always make sense.

Hunters In Darkness: Hunters are the protectors of the land. Their territories are first and foremost and must be defended at all costs. At the extreme end of the spectrum, they are the eco-warriors of the Forsaken.

This mindset goes much deeper than thinking green. At the foundation of it all is protecting sacred space, whether it’s the wild outback of Australia or in the heart of a sprawling metropolis like New York City or Los Angeles.

Iron Masters: If the Forsaken had an IT department, the Iron Masters would be it. It’s more than an affinity for gadgets and modern technology, though. Iron Masters are visionaries in their own right. They think towards the future, take risks to achieve their vision, and never stop looking for new and innovative ways to do things.

Iron Masters adapt quickly and often get frustrated with other Tribes for being bogged down in ancient dogma and outdated practices. The Iron Masters are always the ones asking “Why? Isn’t there a better way?”

Storm Lords: No other Tribe is more frustrating to deal with than the Storm Lords. This Tribe considers themselves the true Alphas over all the Tribes, much to the resentment of the rest of the Forsaken. They are natural leaders and their main objectives are acquiring power and status.

There is only one right way to do things, and that’s the Storm Lord’s way.

This attitude is easily mistaken for arrogance and greed. The truth of the matter is, Storm Lords want power, but they want power with a purpose. True, a Storm Lord can be overbearing, but their conviction is very strong and it’s this drive that often pushes others away.

Note: In last week’s post “What’s Your Moon” I mistakenly said the book “Tribes of the Moon” was about the auspices. It’s not. I goofed. This book goes into detail about each Tribe. If you’re considering a Tribe for your Forsaken character, I suggest you have a look at this excellent source book.

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