Paul Bode's Roleplay Game
Werewolf the Apocalypse
A big thanks to all the players and groups over the years who have contributed to the game.
House Rules
Spirit Bridges
Each garou has the ability to make a spirit bridge from one location to another. This is too allow speed of play, so garou can go from scene to scene. All spirit bridges have to be in the umbra. The difficulty is decided by how well you know a place:
Difficulty 10: You know the place from only a few visits, or you only vaguely remember the place/ Example: Holiday hotel.
Difficulty 9: You have spent over 2 weeks there recently. You know the exact area you are spirit bridging to well.
Difficulty 8: You have spent over a month at the place and can visualize the place in your head. Example: Regular holiday hotel..
Difficulty 7: You have spent a year at the place and you know it very well, including the areas around it. Example: A second home, Family caravan.
Difficulty 6: You have spent well over a year at the place and can easily visualize many areas around the site: Example: Family Home or any point you can visually see from where you stand.
If a botch occurs with a spirit bridge many things could happen. You could spirit bridge into another location, into the ground (fatal), or into the air. The spirit bridge could break, or snap or return you to the same point.
Spirit bridging into a caern, is usually fatal as well, the Totem will automatically defend the caern even from garou it knows. caern to caern bridges are called moon bridges and they are much more powerful and powered by caern spirits.
Range - Each success grants you a range of 100 miles. If the bridge won't reach it remains on the same course and the garou will fly of.
Speed - The longer the bridge, the faster you travel. A 100 mile bridge is crossed in about 10 seconds. It works like an elevator. There is no feeling of movement on a spirit bridge, and no G force.
Requirements - The bridge must be stable at both ends and if moving both points must be moving in relation to each other.
Breaking Spirit Bridges - Any action which causes a bridge to break, causes a 'umbral quake', these quakes get the attention of any hostile Wyrm manifestations.
Skillful garou have managed to master spirit bridge onto other spirit bridges.
Improvements to character sheets
Each improvement must be called for. What you want to improve must have been rolled within that session. Only under special situations or training can an attribute or an ability go to 4 or 5. Such improvements should be story driven and relevant to the character.
Rage is not recommended to go beyond 5 until rank 2. This is a recommendation as Wyrm frenzies become a possibility and harder to avoid as rage increases. Healing spirits become uncomfortable dealing with people with rage in access of 5 of their rank and will often not offer healing to such angry garou.
The maximum Rage, Gnosis or Willpower can go to is 7, without special circumstances until rank 2.
All purchases are made at the end of a session. Any Rites or Gifts will have to be challenged for and bought during the session and are made at the time of learning of the gift/rite.
Gifts are bought at 5 and 7 per level of Gift (Second edition rules), Rites cost the same as the Level of the Rite.
Merits and Flaws may also be bought if the story allows for it and they are made on a 1 xp per point basis.
Starting Characters
Once a player has achieved a rank any new character they generate may start at that rank with a bonus of 10 freebie points for each rank above the first.
New Gifts - rarity of gifts
A simple way of scaling the rarity of a Gift is to base it on the source material from which it comes. The favors and prices that individual spirits demand in return will still vary from spirit to spirit, but this scale provides a guideline.
Note that the level of a Gift also influences the price that a spirit will require in return for teaching. Higher level Gifts will require more of a sacrifice than lower level Gifts. The personality of the spirit teaching the Gift will also influence the price, and whether or not the spirit will teach the Gift to a garou not of the proper breed, auspice, or tribe.
Werewolf: the Apocalypse 2nd ed and 3rd ed.
A Gift from W:tA is very common among members of the breed, auspice, or tribe to which the Gift belongs. Spirits will not usually require a price out of proportion with the Gift's level. Reasonably experienced garou from other breeds, auspices, or tribes generally know that the Gift exists.
Tribebooks - both editions
A Gift listed in a tribebook is widely known to members of the tribe, but not very common at all. Spirits aren't jealous of the power, and demand a reasonable price; however, spirits will almost never teach such a Gift to a garou not of the tribe, and members of other tribes are generally not aware that the Gift exists.
Player's Guide 2nd. ed., Player's Guide 1st ed.
A Gift from one of the Player's Guides is uncommon, and is not well known even among members of the breed, auspice, or tribe. Spirits often require an unusual price for teaching the Gift, though not outrageous, and they very rarely teach them outside of the normal breed, auspice, or tribe.
Note that a Gift listed in PG2 takes precedence over its counterpart, if any, in PG1.
General source books
A Gift from most source books is unusual. Knowledge of its existence is obscure, and spirits certainly don't advertise its power. Such is Gift is usually gained only as the object of or during the course of some sort of quest.
Storyteller's Handbook
The Gifts listed in the Storyteller's Handbook are all of Level 6. They are, by definition, the legendary powers of the Garou, extremely rare and available only to the greatest heroes. To gain such a Gift, the Rank 6 hero must undertake a dangerous journey to the realm of an Incarna and petition it. The Incarna will demand a favor or quest before it will grant the Gift; such a price will surely by proportional to the ample skill of the hero and to the tremendous scale of a need that an Incarna could not itself fulfill.
Werewolf: the Wild West
Frontier Secrets
In the W:tA setting, a Gift listed only in W:WW is known but in the shady corners of legend, if it is known at all. Such Gifts are very hard to find, and most spirits do not even know how to teach them anymore. The ones who do are no longer bound by spiritual contract to teach them to garou. If a garou can find a spirit which knows how to teach the Gift, and who will admit it, the spirit will require an enormous price in return.
Gifts listed in Frontier Secrets are twice as rare as those listed only in W:WW.
Other Gifts - Dark Ages Werewolf
A handful of Gifts are, for some reason, unavailable to most Garou. Generally, this is because they "belong" only to members of a certain camp within a tribe. Such Gifts are marked within their descriptions, though not always clearly. Dark Ages gifts that have a modern equivalent are considered to have 'evolved' over the years and are not available in their original form. Other gifts are lost to time and would require an extended quest to recover the lost lore.
Automatic successes
To reduce the need for excessive rolling the Storyteller will generally call for roles when it is story appropriate to do so and may allow automatic successes to allow for continuous role-play without slowing down the game or distracting from the focus. In non-combat situations players may also call this if they have more dice than the required difficulty. Instead of rolling, players may opt for a single success instead.
Caern Shields
In my World because of the great ease there is to pollute a caern I have included spiritual shields in the umbra which are generated by the caern's spirit. These shields protect the caern from harm and burns any wyrm taint as it enters the area of the bawn, appearing as glowing opaque semi-circles in the Umbra. This shield goes down at the time of moot requiring the caerns defences to hold the line until the shield is back up again. If taint enters the caern it is cleansed as the rite of cleansing - but doing so weakens the spirit and pushes forward the time for the spirit to be recharged. For this reason, may city caerns use the Rite of the Hidden Glade which hides the caern and its shield. One should always annouce at a shield and be invited in, else the totem may defend the caern, killing any garou unwelcome. The same is true for spirit bridges that go through a caern shield. It is usually fatal.
Definitions in the game. What does the name of a Caern mean?
Names are given and will change during the history of the Caern. Any major event could trigger a change in name, a new totem, a famous event, a change of leadership or tribe members. Generally though names of Caerns are very old, and the Galliards sing of the origins of these names proudly.
Caern - The title Caern is given to a name when the position of the Caern is open and will gladly accept new comers and visitors other than Silent Striders. Caerns like this often have Garou from mixed tribes. They often also deal with inter tribal disputes. This only describes the mood of the Caern during it's naming process, and often Caerns become closed to visitors. These Caerns are most often prone to Wyrm attacks but often have plenty of Garou willing to come to their aid. These Caerns are often large and gain power quite easily due to the influx of Garou.
Sept - Often these Caerns are normally formed from a single tribe and are often solitary or even 'hidden' with the Rite of the hidden glade'. They do not offer memberships out freely, and some even refuse Silent Striders visitation rights. If the Caern is hidden it is difficult for the Wyrm to locate and attack the Caern, so they are the easiest of Caerns to defend. Often Septs are small but can cause resentment among other Garou when large and powerful Caerns are given Sept status.