W20 - Changing Breeds.pdf

Changing Breed GamesThe easiest way to avoid the challenges associatedwith bringing one of the Fera into a Werewolf gameis for your entire troupe to create characters from theother Changing Breeds. This book provides plenty ofinformation about each shapeshifter Breed, so you candecide whether you want to play a game focused aroundthe themes of one specific Changing Breed or if youwant to accommodate several Breeds working together.Mixed MessagesA chronicle that features a variety of Changing Breedshas several advantages. Not only is every character in aposition to play off the other Breeds, but each player hasa chance to play the Changing Breed that most appealsto him. This lends itself to a game where each individualmember of the group has a chance to shine — and wherethe players all enjoy watching each other take centerstage. If everyone wants the spotlight but doesn’t wantto share that with the other players, keep an eye out andsuggest how they can get spotlight time by helping theother characters out rather than overshadowing them.A group of mixed Changing Breed characters candraw on a very wide range of skills and abilities; whilethe Ananasi and Bastet sneak in to the mining company’sHQ to extract proof of their corruption, their Mokoléand Gurahl allies destroy the infrastructure around themine itself. Such a diversity of abilities runs the risk ofsome players feeling useless — a Kitsune traveling witha Gurahl, a Khan, and a Rokea is unlikely to pull herweight in an exclusively combat-driven story. The Storytellershould vary the challenges that the group willface, mixing things up to ensure that each player feelslike she has contributed to the overall story, even if she’shad to take a step back in some scenes.A mixed-Breed group also offers the opportunity toexperience the breadth of a different culture, either thetraditional multi-Breed sentai of the Beast Courts, or asone of the great social experiments that may turn theAhadi from a pipe dream to a force that can revitalize allof the Changing Breeds of Africa. Different Breeds reflectdifferent aspects of these societies, and a diverse charactergroup paints a more complex picture of the culture involved.Outside of one of those larger structures, however, agroup of mixed Changing Breeds can lack focus. Somemembers of the group may not have reason to get along,and their very meeting and continued operation as a groupcan look implausible. Canny groups can turn this into astrong point, though: who says that the Ahadi and BeastCourts are the only examples of Changing Breeds tryingto overcome their differences in the world?20CHANGING BREEDSSingle BreedIn many ways, it’s easier to focus on characters of asingle Changing Breed, as these games work much morelike the usual Werewolf story. The players don’t need tojump through hoops to justify their characters workingtogether; characters of the same Breed have some commonality,even if they are strangers.The trick with Storytelling such a chronicle is tokeep the strengths of the Breed in mind. An all-Coraxchronicle should be very different than a game focusedon a slew of Rokea. The occasional curve-ball is fine,but keep the themes of each Breed central to their game.AjabaAn all-Ajaba game can go in a number of directions.Black Tooth’s Simba have cut the Choosers ofthe Slain off from their homeland. The werehyenas’story today is that of surviving from day to day, hopingthat the Endless Storm does not find them. But a youngAjaba named Kisasi is trying to forge some kind of unityamong the Changing Breeds of Africa under the nose ofthe occupying Bastet. To that end, an Ajaba chroniclecan run the gamut from dealing with Simba war-crimesto forging tentative links with other Changing Breeds.AnanasiThe misunderstood children of the Weaver’s daughter,the werespiders’ goals are lofty. They seek to returnbalance to the Triat, to free their Queen from the Wyrm,then to untangle the Weaver’s webs and return the Wyrmto sanity. Like the strands of a spiderweb, however, theirpaths to those goals are subtle and complicated. AnAnanasi chronicle might reflect their plans within plans,focusing on hidden secrets and subtle manipulation.BastetThe Bastet prize knowledge above anything else,each striving to discover new secrets. Naturally solitary(apart from the Simba and Swara), the werecats occasionallygather together in prides, often simply becausethey are curious about the same thing. An all-Bastetchronicle could focus on the driving curiosity and theneed to know, along with the consequences of protectingthose secrets — how far will the Bastet go to stop othersdiscovering what they know?CoraxNaturally inclined to fly solo, Corax can work togetherfor a time when the cause is right. Whether aloneor in a group, wereravens excel at information gatheringand spreading word. Unlike the Bastet, the wereravenshave no taste for violence, and their stories often holdcloser to classic espionage tropes of observation, stealth,