Book Review: The Rage - A Forsaken Player’s Guide

The Rage, the player’s guide to the Forsaken, is the how-to-be-a-werewolf guide that the core rulebook of The Forsaken doesn’t provide. It offers detailed answers to in-depth questions on what makes a Forsaken werewolf tick.

Want to know about werewolf physiology? Want to know more about the motivations of a Blood Talon? Want to know how werewolves think, feel and behave, or what Storm Lords look for when recruiting a new cub? You’ll find all that and more in The Rage.

Part One

The first section of The Rage addresses each of the five tribes, giving detailed exposes on how the tribes think, behave and feel. It includes how the various Auspice rolls fit with each tribe and how each individual might view his or her identity when dealing with other tribes.

At the end of each Tribe chapter are Gifts that you won’t find in the core Forsaken rulebook.

Part Two

The second section of The Rage gives you more goodies and a few interesting options for fleshing out your werewolf character concept.

New merits are very detailed, providing you with both an effect and a drawback for each merit. A new list of flaws balances out these new merits.

More Gifts continue in Part Two of The Rage, those that aren’t Tribe specific, such as Gifts for battle, subterfuge, pack and many others. New rites enhance the deeply spiritual side of the Forsaken.

Next are fetishes and cursed items. Fetishes are items that have been bound with certain spirits for specific tasks. A fetish can be as simple as a jar of dead bugs that, when activated and opened, releases a swarm of insects at the enemy. It might be as elaborate as a Klaive, a type of sword forged with as much ceremony as the finest katana straight from Japan.

This second section of The Rage also covers how to form or join a pack, pack tactics, dealing with spirits and finding a pack totem.

Part Three

This section of The Rage helps players understand Forsaken society as a whole. It begins by covering the various types of alliances that Forsaken packs might have, the operations of these alliances and various rules that the Forsaken follow.

Part three then moves to deal with various types of cultures as well as how packs might induct new members and the ways a Tribe may vary from city to city or country to country. Blood Talons in rural Quebec will be very different from their Talon brethren in the city. The Storm Lords of the United States will have major differences from the Lords of European countries.

Should you get this book? If you enjoy werewolves, or are a Forsaken player, then yes. It’s a very good resource for any player’s gaming library.

While perusing White Wolf’s website looking for news and other tasty tidbits of gaming information, though, I ran across one bit of news I hadn’t expected: After only a year on the shelves, The Rage, the player’s guide to the Forsaken, has gone out of print.

Just because The Rage has gone out of print doesn’t mean can’t still get it. You can still The Rage until it goes out of stock or get in PDF form from Drive Thru RPG.

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Creating the Best Antagonists

I love creating antagonists. They’re bad, they’re often evil and they’re human.

Sometimes writing about the antagonist is more of a challenge than writing for the protagonist because not only do you have to make this character bad, but very often you want to make him so bad that people can’t help but like him.

Maybe bad isn’t the right word. After all, in the antagonist’s eyes he’s probably not bad at all. He has an agenda and it makes perfect sense. He’s just as driven towards his goals as the protagonist.

The way the antagonist achieves those goals aren’t always in line with what’s acceptable in society.

The Human Element

Some of the best antagonists I’ve ever seen have one quality in common: They have issues that shaped their personality.

Lex Luthor didn’t start out as Superman’s adversary. They were friends and close ones at that. Lex’s personal experiences led him down different roads from the wholesome farm boy, and before long, the two were at opposite ends of the moral spectrum.

Another example is the Marquis De Sade in Quills. He might have been a twisted bastard, but I couldn’t help but feel sorry for him. All the Marquis wanted to do was write.

His writing wasn’t acceptable to most of the public (or rather it was, but nobody wanted to admit enjoying the guilty pleasure of the Marquis’ works in private). His writing landed him in a great deal of trouble. The Marquis’ methods were highly questionable and harmful.

But deep down, the Marquis was just a victim.

Classic antagonists have a basic flaw or concept that many people can relate to. The world can look and say, “Yeah, I know how he feels.” You may not agree with the way this antagonist behaves, but you can understand the motivation behind the actions.

Conflict

The idea behind an antagonist is to give the protagonist a source of conflict. A good antagonist is someone whose values and goals directly oppose that of the protagonist. Without conflict, without obstacles to overcome, the protagonist is just a couch potato.

Balancing out conflict is a skill in itself. You can’t make an antagonist so powerful that your protagonist has no hope at all in defeating him, nor can you make the antagonist so ridiculously simplified that readers can see how the defeat will happen three pages into your novel.

You have to have balance and quality of both your story and your antagonist in nearly direct proportion to one another. How many times have you heard a hero say, “You’ve finally met your match!”

That’s because the hero and the villain are a match. Each one is opposed at each end of their spectrum, and so, they are very much alike. Maybe your antagonist and protagonist recognize these similarities, fueling the fire of conflict even more.

When Luke Skywalker discovered Darth Vader was his father, he denied the similarities. Over time, he realized they existed. Were these similarities desired by Luke? No, he didn’t want to be evil like his father. Luke had to fight the pull of the Dark Side and do his best not to give in.

How to Create Interesting Antagonists

I’ve had many people ask me how I come up with the concepts for my antagonists. I never thought about it before, but it’s all about observing human nature.

I like to know what makes people tick and why they do what they do. I like to understand what experiences shaped a person into the individual I know.

When I watch a movie or read a novel, I pay close attention to the antagonists and how the author shaped the events of that character’s life. I look at my friends and family to examine the choices they’ve made. What if I made a different choice? How would that have changed who I am?

You can do the same thing with your antagonists. Dig deep into their lives, look for the critical turning points, figure out where they may have gone off track and why. The event doesn’t have to be elaborate. The simpler, the better.

If you’ve never created a good antagonist, try it. Sit down and write a character concept with a bad guy in mind. If you have a novel in progress or if you’re involved in a role-playing game, who would make a good antagonist for your character, and why?

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Does Your Character Have a Weakness?

Every character has a weakness. Even the most powerful antagonist and the seemingly invincible protagonist have their Achilles’ Heel.

Weaknesses help define your character and make him interesting as much as his strengths. Who wants to read about the perfect person? It’s no fun when the character can do everything and do it perfectly every time. Life isn’t like that. Your character shouldn’t be either.

Protagonists

As you’re fleshing out your character you’ll have to decide if the flaw you give him is one that he or she has always been aware of or if it’s one yet to be discovered. Maybe someone else discovers it on behalf of the character, revealing it to light.

The idea behind a good flaw is to go beyond the usual basic fears and turn them into something unique. Start with a flaw that your readers can relate to. For example, maybe your character is afraid of the dark and he or she can’t sleep without a nightlight.

Ask yourself why the flaw exists. What event triggered the flaw’s existence? Did the character get scared as a child by an imaginary monster in the closet or under the bed? Was his or her father a fireman or militiaman? Did he get called away one night and your character woke up the next day to find his father was killed in the line of duty?

Now think of which flaw is more interesting. I’d say the death of the father. Not only is there a fear of the dark, but there are abandonment issues to toy with as well.

Antagonists

Many times, whether in a role-playing game or in a fiction novel, protagonists meet an antagonist who seems invincible. By giving that antagonist a real and often simple weakness turns the tide of the whole plot.

A novel or game plot can revolve around finding the weakness of the characters your character faces and exploiting it. This task might take some time and might entail your character overcoming his weaknesses in the process, but it can lead down some very interesting roads.

What is your character’s weakness? What would bring him to his or her knees if anyone found out?

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How To Build Anticipation and Create Suspense

How do you keep a reader in suspense?

I could be mean and leave this post at that question just to illustrate my point, but that wouldn’t make for interesting reading, now would it?

Suspense is all about building anticipation. That anticipation keeps your readers turning pages or stuck on the page, and anticipation keeps readers coming back for more. Anticipation and suspense makes a story great.

Bait and Hook

There is a term in both writing and music called “the hook”. The hook is the part of the story or the song that makes the reader want to come back for more or makes the listener want to hear the song again. The hook is an element so addictive that no one can stay away.

In writing, the key element to a good hook that creates suspense is that it doesn’t give readers what they want. You heard me: Don’t give them a thing.

Maybe readers have an idea where the plot is going and they’re not quite sure, or maybe they have no idea at all and want to find out so badly they can’t stand it. Either way, don’t reveal your hand too soon.

The Strip Tease

The more you tease, holding back on giving out, the more readers want to know what happens. Just a hint is enough to entice curiosity and make a reader want to have more of what he or she can’t have right now.

Do you remember waiting for your birthday to come or Christmas to arrive? You might have counted the remaining days on the calendar or even tracked hours until that special day arrived. Your parents might have been the type to drop little teasing clues along the way, just enough to keep everyone guessing.

That’s how you add suspense in your story. Reveal a little bit at a time. Heighten the uncertainty. Create a situation where the reader catches just a glimpse of what’s coming and yet cannot say for sure that will be the outcome.

Creating suspense and anticipation is an art. Reveal too much, and you’ve blown your cover. Sound the surprise too soon, and it won’t have impact. Wait too long, and readers lose interest.

The Prestige of the Moment

Finally, you pull back the curtain with a flourish, revealing the truth, and you shout, “Ta DA!”

If built up to the moment properly, readers smack their palms to their foreheads. They should have seen it coming, and of course! How fantastic! Then all the clues and hints you’ve revealed will fall into place, and readers see that it was right there in front of them the whole time.

Creating good suspense is like hunting. You might have to sit in a tree stand in the cold dawn for days on end, waiting and watching while readers wander in and out of your sights. The suspense of their suspense is as much of a flurry of anticipation for you as it is for them.

Finally, the time is right. You can draw the bowstring back and let the arrow fly.

Do you enjoy suspense? How do you feel when anticipation starts to build? Have you recently experienced that agony of not knowing and the need to know more?

(Click here for full lyrics)

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Common Werewolf and Vampire Myths Dispelled

In the genre of horror, there are many common werewolf and vampire myths. We’ve all heard a few of them, like myths that claim silver bullets kill a werewolf and garlic repels vampires.

When it comes to Escaping Reality and the World of Darkness, though, some of these myths apply and others don’t.

Werewolf Myths and Facts:

True or False? Silver bullets kill a werewolf.

True: Silver harms a werewolf or other shifter. The slightest contact causes a burning sensation. A small cut heals slowly as if the werewolf were only a human and may leave scars.

If a werewolf is shot or attacked with silver, results can be deadly. The injury won’t heal quickly and the werewolf could die if the wound is serious enough

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True or False? Werewolves only change at the full moon.

False: Werewolves can change forms any time they please. It’s best they do it when there is no one around to witness it except other shifters. We wouldn’t want people to know, now would we?

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True or False? A character can become a werewolf by being bitten by a werewolf

False: The ability to become a werewolf is part genetic and part connection to the spirits. A bite won’t do it.

However, the Forsaken do mark potential shifters with a bite or scratch so the person can be tracked through a spiritual link to the blood once the Forsaken has tasted it.

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True or False? It’s easy to spot a werewolf.

False: Nope. Sorry. Forsaken and other shifters look the same as everyone else. However, their actions, words or behaviors might give them away, especially those of inexperienced shifters.

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True or False? Kill or dismember a werewolf while in wolf form and the body or appendage reverts to human form.

True: Cut off a piece of a werewolf in one of its non-human forms and that piece turns back into its human form. The body also reverts to human form upon death.

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True or False? Werewolves always travel/work alone.

False: The Forsaken are pack-minded creatures. They can’t go for extended periods of time without the support or contact of their kind.

Vampire Myths and Facts:

True or False? Vampires have an aversion to garlic.

False: The only aversion a vampire will have to garlic is if the individual never liked the smell or taste of it in their previous life.

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True or False? Vampires have an aversion to crosses and holy water

Partially true. If there is enough belief in the heart of the individual wielding the cross or water, then that object burns the vampire. If the character never believed in those things or has doubts, the objects are not going to have an effect at all.

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True or False? A stake through the heart kills a vampire.

False: A stake through the heart won’t kill a vampire, but it will incapacitate him. When staked, a vampire goes into a state called torpor. The vampire can see/hear/feel everything but is basically paralyzed and can stay in this state indefinitely until the stake is removed.

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True or False? Cutting off a vampire’s head kills him.

True. Cut off a vampire’s head and your character destroys him.

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True or False? Vampires turn to dust in the sunlight.

Partially true. Sunlight has to touch the vampire’s exposed skin. Vampires with the ability to “stay up late” can walk in the daylight, but they have to be very well covered.

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True or False? Fire kills a vampire.

Fire kills a vampire. Many vampires have such an aversion to fire they can’t even tolerate a lighted match. Some, like those in the Ordo Dracul, work hard to overcome this primal fear of fire, but the action is one that needs a roll of the dice to determine success of action.

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True or False? Vampires have to sleep in coffins.

False. That’s a vampire’s personal preference. Some (the Gangrel) go underground and sleep in a hole. Others might have an elaborate lair tricked out with more security than Fort Knox.

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True or False? The bite of a vampire turns a character into a vampire.

Partially true. A single bite won’t do it. The change only happens with what the Kindred call the Embrace. This is a process where the the vampire sucks out all the blood from the victim to the brink of death and then the victim is forced to drink the blood back from the vampire.

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True or False? Vampires live forever.

Partially true. A vampire can survive forever, if he’s smart, but there are ways to destroy him.

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True or False? Vampires can shape-shift and fly.

True. Some vampires have Disciplines (supernatural abilities) that allow them to change forms (wolf, bat, mist). With practice, they can fly in bat form.

Any other questions?

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Where Do Storytellers Get Their Ideas?

I’ve finally gotten around to watching Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. It wasn’t the best of the four Indy movies, but it was fun.

I had the plot and several twists figured out five minutes into the movie. As I watched the movie, my thoughts progressed to how the writers put their plots together. They took several seemingly unrelated elements and made them work.

Note: Spoiler Alert has now been activated. If you haven’t seen the movie yet, read no further.

Crystal Skull is set in the 1950s. Its base level plot revolves around the 1947 Roswell incident and the possibility of aliens having visited earth throughout history. It also tied in ancient Mayan mythology and a Russian conspiracy during the Cold War.

No wonder my Dad was grinning when he asked me, “But do you know what the Crystal Skull is?” He knew I’d appreciate the way the ancient myth of the original crystal skull was used.

Remember Your History Lessons

The end of Crystal Skull had me groaning with these two lines:

Mutt Williams: I don’t understand. Why the legend about the city of gold?

Indiana Jones: Well, the word for ‘gold’ translates as ‘treasure.’ But their treasure wasn’t gold, it was knowledge. Knowledge was their treasure.

But now that I think about it, a lot of the classes I took in college and high school are rich sources for my story ideas for games and fiction. Knowledge is a treasure and it will serve you well throughout life.

For example, we recently used a time warp on Escaping Reality. We didn’t know we were going to torment present the players with that situation until I dug into some Nevada history.

One thing led to another and the inspiration came easily.

Stay Sharp

Another way to keep coming up with plot twists that rock your players’ worlds is by paying attention to the details that happen throughout a story. I’m notorious for remembering nearly insignificant incidents and using them later on when no one expects them.

Early on in Escaping Reality, several of the characters met a mysterious preacher at an equally mysterious church. When one of the characters met another preacher during the time warp, he discovered the preacher had the same name.

I don’t plan this stuff. Honest. It’s like I have a massive file in my head and every so often a little mental red flag pokes up and says, “Use me!”

Timing Is Everything

Timing is definitely the key to a successful twist. All those little sticky notes cluttering the edges of my monitor are fantastic, but used too soon and they’re not worth the paper they’re written on.

Introducing a plot twist takes patience. Like a hunter, you have to sit and wait on a tree limb for a while before the prize wanders into your sights.

The Collective Consciousness

I get so many of my ideas from movies. There’s nothing wrong with using what someone else has done, provided you put your own special spin on it. As much as our players admire how I might put a twist on a bit of plot, I also admire people better than me at doing so.

My advice? Just keep your eyes open. Take what might not fit on the surface and look deeper. Make it fit, but make it fit enough to suspend disbelief and leave your players or readers wondering what hit them.

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