Bead Werewolf - not forsaken
Many years ago now I designed Bead werewolf, an alternative live system for Werewolf: the Apocalypse.
For the sake of clarity, let me go back to basics. I first came across using beads for live games when a friend ran an Ars Magica game. Then the concept was simple: you have a standard bag of "beads" containing some good and some bad. During a test, you pull a certain number out of the bag and the number of good beads are your successes. The beads are typically the glass beads used for all sorts of gaming functions.
Bead Werewolf then took this basic idea and spun it to try to represent their nature. Instead of straight good/bad beads, you had Fire and Skill beads. Fire were good for combat and bad for everything else (especially frenzy), with Skill beads being the reverse. The reason for having the different beads was that players could have different bead ratios depending on the ferocity of their character. Aggressive Ahround with high Rage ended up with more Fire beads, while contemplative Philodoxes had more skill. The difference was not massive, but it would add a subtle balance to characters. Moreover, as characters got stronger, they had more of each bead meaning they could achieve more successes. Finally, when moving into more feral forms, they gained Fire beads to represent a stronger instinct and weaker intellect.
I did run one game of Bead Werewolf and it was a lot of fun (at least for me). From all reports the system worked exactly as planned and I don't think anyone felt over/underpowered. There were some lessons to learn from the experience, but these mainly related to logistics.
Not long after I started playing live vampire again, I realised I wanted to run another one-shot werewolf game. I also wanted to make it a Werewolf: the Forsaken game. I know it's not as well known or appreciated but it is actually much better designed for a live game. In W:tA, the emphasis is very much on the fight against the Wyrm. In Forsaken, there is much more emphasis on inter-pack conflict. The difference is not absolute, but I do like it (it's too bad so many of the books are so cold).
Anyway, there's no way I'm running the game until my dissertation is finished, but while I haven't been sleeping well I've been going over it. I even found the folder with the rules and unused character sheets while I was digging for Laws of the Night. There are several changes:
For the sake of clarity, let me go back to basics. I first came across using beads for live games when a friend ran an Ars Magica game. Then the concept was simple: you have a standard bag of "beads" containing some good and some bad. During a test, you pull a certain number out of the bag and the number of good beads are your successes. The beads are typically the glass beads used for all sorts of gaming functions.
Bead Werewolf then took this basic idea and spun it to try to represent their nature. Instead of straight good/bad beads, you had Fire and Skill beads. Fire were good for combat and bad for everything else (especially frenzy), with Skill beads being the reverse. The reason for having the different beads was that players could have different bead ratios depending on the ferocity of their character. Aggressive Ahround with high Rage ended up with more Fire beads, while contemplative Philodoxes had more skill. The difference was not massive, but it would add a subtle balance to characters. Moreover, as characters got stronger, they had more of each bead meaning they could achieve more successes. Finally, when moving into more feral forms, they gained Fire beads to represent a stronger instinct and weaker intellect.
I did run one game of Bead Werewolf and it was a lot of fun (at least for me). From all reports the system worked exactly as planned and I don't think anyone felt over/underpowered. There were some lessons to learn from the experience, but these mainly related to logistics.
- I created all the characters and made a couple of annoying errors; I got a name wrong on one 'characters known' page, leading two would-be allies to be more stand-offish; and I gave a player a character whose pack never showed.
- The biggest criticism was actually on the character sheets, where the players wanted me to combine all the stats for combat in one convenient place.
- Players didn't bring their own bags. I expected them not to bring counters, but I thought a pouch would be easy. The lesson here is to source large numbers of cheap pouches. (Or persuade a friend to make them.)
- The players themselves were a mixture of non-werewolfy larpers and non-larpy werewolf players. It sort of worked, but nobody was completely comfortable to begin with. Luckily I borrowed zencadet to play the only elder which made things much easier.
Not long after I started playing live vampire again, I realised I wanted to run another one-shot werewolf game. I also wanted to make it a Werewolf: the Forsaken game. I know it's not as well known or appreciated but it is actually much better designed for a live game. In W:tA, the emphasis is very much on the fight against the Wyrm. In Forsaken, there is much more emphasis on inter-pack conflict. The difference is not absolute, but I do like it (it's too bad so many of the books are so cold).
Anyway, there's no way I'm running the game until my dissertation is finished, but while I haven't been sleeping well I've been going over it. I even found the folder with the rules and unused character sheets while I was digging for Laws of the Night. There are several changes:
- The original had four attributes - Rage, Will, Profession and Lore. Ignoring the badly written Profession section, I don't Rage and Will work for Forsaken. I largely used Rage because, when I decided that copying Rage over from tabletop as written would be too awkward to implement, I decided that subsuming it all into one big attribute would capture the whole angry beast thing better. At present I don't think that is entirely appropriate for Forsaken. It's certainly not appropriate for detirmining the bead pool (getting more combat skills - what it would represent entirely - should just increase the pull size not your whole character). And without that, it doesn't work for Will either.
- Instead I came up with a solution to use the Power/Finesse/Resistance for a 3-type bead pool (red/green/white). The exact ratio is chosen, although there would need to be limits. I'm thinking of a base 10 bead pool - this gives better options like 4/4/2 and 6/2/2, while the alternative of a 12 dice pool means that 3 is the practical minimum. I'm also thinking of adding a Rational bead, which is an autosuccess in human-like forms, and autofailure in feral forms (with an extra 3 Power beads added in those same forms). The side-benefit to this approach is that echoes the high
- Instead of Rage and Will, I've come up with either Physical/Mental or Passion/Control. I love the idea of Passion/Control but it's probably not practical, and I would prefer better names for Physical/Mental. As usual, I am leaving social traits to roleplaying. I would leave 'mental' traits to roleplaying too if I could find a better pigeonhole for the non-physical trait.
- I'll be sticking with Profession, because I think it both makes characters more unique and because the flexibility makes more real ability pools, but allowing multiple professions.
- Similarly, I'll be sticking with Lore as before. My only question is whether I use this in place of or as well as a Rituals trait.
- Essence, Will and Health will be the only expendable traits. Will will be taken from the Resistance traits, and will occasionally be pulled, and can be spent for a pull bonus as per Willpower in WoD2.
- Renown will work as per the published material (mostly).
- I'm tempted to use the generic basic and advanced levels of backgrounds/advantages from last time, but I think I will end up going with the full 5 point merit system. The sheer number of merits available means that trying to convert them all into a 2 tier system would be annoying.
- One of the final questions is what kind of trait levels we are talking about. Most Gifts will be trait+Renown, while other pulls will just be trait+bonus/penalties. This means that allowing traits of 6 or more gives the opportunity to use every bead. However, that seems reasonable to be honest, so I think traits will probably average 3. What we can then do is find an excuse to add more beads - probably when something increases beyond a certain point, either Renown or one of the core traits.