It is now being reported that Professor Morgan Paige, famed Canadian Author, was killed while on sabbatical doing research for her upcoming book “A history of local folk tales in Canada”. The details of her death are just starting to surface but it looks as though she was attacked by a cell of militant extremists. The Canadian forces has confirmed that they have neutralized the cell but is not releasing details at this time on where the cell was located. While the cell was an extremist group the military has stated that they do not appear to have any real ties to any of the active Terrorist organizations known. Why Dr. Paige was targeted is unknown, but its assumed that she was an unfortunate target of opportunity for the mentally unstable extremists.

More as details become available.

[Attached is a picture of Dr. Morgan Paige, the PC's will recognize the picture as "Howls the Glorious Tale"]

For some context, one of the concerns that we have been seeing in Forsaken is that violence, which is an important part of the game, takes forever to adjudicate.

Mooks (the Stormtrooper Rule)

Let’s face it, in any story involving combat, there are antagonists and mooks. Antagonists are important characters with motivations and history. They are important parts of the setting who have recurring roles. In the Matrix, the Agents are Antagonists. The soldiers and guards in the lobby shoot out scene are Mooks.

Mooks aren’t as tough as antagonists. Maybe they have a lower pain threshold, or they’re just not as motivated. But generally, one good shot and they go down. They may not be dead, but they’re effectively out of the fight.

Using Mooks is a great way to speed up combat and make it come across as faster and more furious. They all go at the same time, they come in, do their thing, and usually go down like a good faceless horde.

This is how I use Mooks in my games.

As a VST, I have every right to do this because it’s simply a form of guided mediation that I offer to my players. We make occasional tests to help determine what the result of a mediated encounter. It’s just something that you and your players need to agree on ahead of time. This is the first time I have written this stuff down. Until now it’s pretty much existed solely in my head. When I use this I just ask my players “do you mind if we mediate the action?” and this is how I do it. Maybe I’ll put this into my VSS as “this is a form of combat mediation that I use to speed up fight sequences and to encourage descriptive RP.”

• Mooks have two status levels: up and down. They don’t suffer from wound penalties (drama is wasted on them). If a player succeeds in taking a Mook down, then they should explain what they did. “I claw him” is boring and it takes away from the ability to visualize the scene. “I grab his arm as he stabs at me and rip out his ribcage” lets everyone know exactly what’s happening when werewolves fight. If the player doesn’t do it, then I feel free to make up what happens for story purposes.

• Mooks don’t have complete character sheets. They have three test pools: a primary test pool that takes care of their primary role (for example, a human thug might have a primary test pool Combat: 9), a secondary test pool that covers things that help them accomplish their primary role (for example, the same thug might have a secondary test pool for stuff like Climb/Jump/Run/Drive: 7), and a tertiary test pool that covers everything else (for example, Everything Else: 5). They have a single Resistance value that covers everything from Defense to Resolve + Composure to anything else (face it, it doesn’t matter if you knock a Mook out or scare him away, he’s out of the picture either way).

• Mooks don’t make tests. If a Mook is supposed to resist a pull (i.e. both people test and compare successes), just subtract his Resistance value from the player’s pool. If the player makes a success, then the Mook loses. If not, the player inflicted a flesh wound or the Mook managed to break eye contact before the mind control could take effect or whatever. When Mooks attack, they just add six (an average pull) to their relevant test pool. If they succeed, apply successes as normal. If not, then they just suck that round. If a Mook fails to affect a player, the player should explain why.

• Players can take out Mooks in groups. If a player wants to devote a series of actions to dealing with a group of Mooks, then he can declare that series and make a single pull. If he succeeds, then his series takes a number of rounds to accomplish equal to the number of Mooks he’s dealing with. For example, if a character is going to square off with five Mooks and decides to hit Mook One with a flying kick that knocks him into Mook Two, then uses Mook Two as a human shield to take a bullet from Mook Three, then vault over Mook Two’s falling body to tackle Mook Three, using the fall to duck shots from Mooks Four and Five, who then shoot each other, then that player has determined his course of action for five “rounds.” The Storyteller narrates each part of the sequence as he goes through each round of player actions. The player still does one thing per round, but he’s taken care of all of it with a pull. Fighting more Mooks at once imposes a penalty to the player’s pull, but coming up with cool narration that helps move the story along adds a bonus.

“Single Camera” Roleplaying (The Cinematics Rule)

For some context, one of the concerns that we have been seeing in Forsaken is that violence, which is an important part of the game, takes forever to adjudicate.

In a previous post, I described how I use Mooks in my game to help characters wade through faceless hordes much faster using mediation guided by limited use of tests. Now I’m going to address something that I’ve heard described to me as “Single Camera” roleplaying. Again, the Camarilla does make allowance for ideas like this through its mediation rule. As long as the players and I agree that this is something we are going to use, then the Camarilla allows us to do so as a form of structured mediation.

The premise is that a roleplaying game is governed by rules of timing and story flow similar to those that govern a movie. We all know when the pacing of a movie is good or bad. Likewise, we all know when the pacing of a roleplaying game is good or bad. The underlying assumption I’m making here is that a storyteller has one “camera” to use when putting together what his scene is going to look like. Therefore, he has to prioritize events and use his narrative skills to control the pacing of the story. Players want to breeze through the unimportant parts of a scene to get to the dramatic ones.

Let’s take a fairly typical narrative sequence from a movie and break it down into component parts. In Matrix: Reloaded, Trinity breaks into a power plant with the help of a motorcycle and her mad kung fu skills, fights her way to the control room, and then proceeds to hack the system, thus enabling Neo and Morpheus to get to their goal. The sequence has three basic parts: (1) the entrance; (2) making her way to the computers; and (3) the hack. Of these, the hack is the most important to the story because it has the greatest impact on the outcome. The entrance is of secondary importance because it’s how Trinity gets to where she needs to be and because it has some effect on character development in the future. The fight to get to the computers is of tertiary importance because it’s just window dressing.

If we played the scene out with standard rules, it would take forever. Every guard would be a full-blown sequence and we would be pulling cards all night. We don’t want that. So as a storyteller, you use your mediation power to get players to agree to change from a task-resolution paradigm to a goal-resolution one. Here’s the difference:

Task Resolution:

OK, I want to jump the bike, flip off it midair, and land it on the guard shack. That’s a Dex plus drive to make the jump, a Dex plus athletics to make the flip, another Dex plus athletics to stick the landing the next round, and a Dex plus drive to make the bike land on the shack. Then I spend a round standing up, a round pulling the helmet, and then I fight the two guards.

Goal Resolution:

OK, my goal is to jump the bike, flip off it midair, and land it on the guard shack. Landing it on the shack is gravy and it’s part of my attack plan, so clearly the most important part is making the jump and landing safely. So the pull is going to be Dex plus athletics. This is a hard maneuver so let’s impose a -1 penalty for the flip, a -1 for making the landing, and a -1 for hitting the shack. Then I want to take out the guards. They’re two mooks, so I’m going to use my helmet as a club and do some cool spin moves to confuse them. Let’s call that a single Strength plus weaponry pull with a -1 for fighting a mob.

Under the task resolution paradigm, you make a ton of tests, especially when you get to the fight sequence. Under a goal resolution paradigm, the focus is on the outcome of the scene, not the individual steps it takes to get there. So you accomplish the whole thing in two pulls.

The goal resolution paradigm relies on the storyteller’s ability to change the amount of time that a particular test represents. When something is important, you can compress time so each test represents a much smaller action where the individual parts of it are dramatically important. When something is less important, you expand time so that the player achieves a subsidiary goal faster and moves on to the meaty stuff.

For example, when you are dealing with mooks, the important thing isn’t each individual blow, but the end result of the fight. Going back to the Matrix, look how little time Neo and Trinity spend with each soldier in the lobby shootout. On the other hand, when you are dealing with important characters, each individual punch and kick becomes extremely important because you are dealing with a much more powerful opponent. Look how much time the camera spends on Neo’s subway fight with Agent Smith.

All pack tactics posted here are available to be purchased at low approval by any pack, I will update this as more become available.

#USA-SC-LF-0706-75395
The Wedge
Required Werewolves 5
Prerequisites: Brawl 3, Strength 2
Effects: The pack forms a Wedge shape with the Primary Actor at it’s head and 2 Werewolves forming a
“V” shape to either side of him making Strength + Brawl rolls to fend off enemy forces and for each
success on that roll allows the primary actor to increase their acting speed (not to exceed their Speed
rating) by one. Thus allowing them to attack a target in the middle of the battlefield.

Fastball Special
Required Werewolves 2
Prerequisites: Athletics 3, Dexterity 3 (Secondary) / Strength 3 (Primary)
Effects: A Werewolf in Urhan form (primary) is thrown by someone in Guaru Form (Secondary) at an
enemy. In the air, the thrown Werewolf shifts into Urshul or Guaru form and attacks. For each success on
the Dexterity + Athletics + Equipment roll to throw the Primary adds +1 to their attack roll.

Shadow Games
Required Werewolves 2+
Prerequisites: Stealth 3, Dex 2, Stealth Gift: Vanish
Effects: Each Werewolf uses the Gift Vanish, and circles a target, making small yips or other sounds.
Each Secondary Actor makes a contested Dex + Brawl vs. Wits + Composure test to make the target
believe that an attack is coming. For each success on the Dex + Brawl tests reduces the defense of the
target by one for the primary actors next attack in the same turn. This tactic can only be used once per
combat on a single target.

Good Cop, Bad Cop
Required Werewolves: 2
Prerequisites: Manipulation 2, Intimidation 2, Persuasion 2
Effects: When interrogating or negotiating (either with Physical or Spiritual beings) the secondary actor
(bad cop) makes a Manipulation + Intimidation Roll vs. the targets Resolve + Composure (in the case of
Spirits, Resistance). For each success on the Manipulation + Intimidation Roll, the Primary Actor gets +1
to their next persuasion rolls with the target.

Circle of Protection
Required Werewolves: 5
Prerequisites: Strength 3, Brawl, Weaponry or firearms 3
Effects: The secondary actors encircle the Primary actor while they perform a Rite. While encircled, the
Primary Actor gets +1 to their Harmony Roll for that turn for each successful attack that the Secondary
actors have (up to a maximum of +4) to cast the Rite.
* Approval #UK-UK-LF-0705-73743. Created by Phil Hyde; UK03021584

Harassment
Required Werewolves: 2
Prerequisites: Dexterity 2, Brawl 1
Effects: At least two Uratha attack a single target in hand-to-hand combat. Regardless of whether their
attacks connect or not, the pack forces the target into a more vulnerable position. On the turn after this
tactic is used, the target’s Defence is reduced by the number of Uratha who used it. This tactic can be
used by more than two packmates at once, up to the usual maximum (typically four assailants on one
target).

Cheers;

Lino Di Julio – ANST: Forsaken

After what many liberal environmentalists are referring to as “Natures Oceanic Revenge” residents of Canada’s inhospitable north are coming forward with more tales of increased acts of violence amongst the usually peaceful wildlife. The stories range from one man telling of being attacked while ice fishing by a rampaging polar bear, to wolf packs attacking northern campers, to seals assaulting children. Lizzy Monroe, an arctic environmentalist had this to say about the incidents:

“We can only destroy our environment for so long before it comes for revenge, if we don’t put a stop to Global warming the Arctic will see to it that it kills us before it disappears.”

Is there any truth to this though? Can changing climes caused by Global Warming really cause animals to frenzy on the people responsible? We asked Tristan Huang, a expert on arctic animals.

“Well. It’s unlikely that these attacks are targeting those responsible per se. However it is not at all unreasonable to assume that the increase in seasonal temperatures could cause these animals to become agitated to the point of violence. “

[Photo of Tristan attached]

In an event that Arctic Oceanologists are calling inexplicable Giant Sea spiders, once only thought to live in deep ocean climes, swarmed and attacked the CCGS Louis S. St-Laurent. The crew, who all wish to remain unnamed, claim that they were breaking through Ice blocks in the Arctic ocean when the spiders, measuring over two feet in length, swarmed up the sides and started attacking the crew. The crew of the CCGS say that it was simple luck that they had a military escort with them when the attack happened. The Military presence on the Ice breakers, originally intended as a safe guard in case of violent Arctic Water disputes, quickly disposed of the Giant spiders but not before the spiders were able to claim the lives of three Coast Guardsmen (James Simons from Halifax Nova Scotia, Jean Depaul of Hull Quebec, and Maria Sanchez of Toronto ON) .

Arctic Oceanologists around the globe are scurrying to claim some of the dozens of dead spiders that were left aboard the vessel.

[Photo of the deck with dead spiders attached]

Lino Di Julio – ANST: Forsaken – CAN