Jump to content

Draft: Difference between revisions

From RetroMUX
← Older editNewer edit →
No edit summary
No edit summary
Line 1: Line 1:
<tabs>
Starts WW Main p135
<tab name="How to make...">


==Fetishes==
=Pooling Backgrounds =
Hammer and Klaive chapter 2 (pages 41-59)


===Step 1: Decide what your fetish will do===
''Sources: W20 Core, pg 140''
* Level 1 to 5 (H+K 46-47)
* Gnosis 4 to 8 (H+K 46)
** House rule:
** House rule:
** House rule:  


===Step 2: Optional modifiers to Rite of the Fetish difficulty===
Some Backgrounds can relate to the pack/et, rather than the individual. Specifically, the members of a pack may choose to pool their individual Allies, Contacts, Fate, Kinfolk, and Resources. Totem as a Background already applies to the pack rather than the individual character, thus is not a candidate for pooling.<br>
{| class="wikitable"
A character can draw on a pooled Background even if that Background is normally restricted for her type.
! Activity !! Dice Roll|| Difficulty Modifier || Notes
|-
| Research || Mentor or Kinfolk vs 8, or Allies or Contacts vs 9 (requires justification) || -1 per success || Takes one week per die rolled (you can choose to roll only part of your pool)
|-
| Rite of Cleansing || Charisma + Rituals vs 7 (6 if performed at dawn) (WtA 157) || -1 per success over the fetish's level
|-
|}
 
===Step 3: Decide what type of spirit to summon===
* Some optional modifiers depend on the spirit's Willpower
** Some options are listed with their stats in a tab here: [[URL FOR SHIFTER GIFT PAGE]]
 
===Step 4: Perform Rite of Summoning (W20 Core, pg 212)===
* Pierce or enter the Gauntlet (generally handwaved)
* <div class="mw-customtoggle-summon" style="cursor:pointer; color:cornflowerblue">[+/-] Summon A Spirit</div>
<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" id="mw-customcollapsible-summon">
 
'''Rite of Summoning'''
 
''W20 Core, pg 212''
 
'''Description:''' Garou mystics are adept at calling spirits, be they minor Gafflings, totem spirits, or even Incarna. Summoning spirits involves complex rituals, long periods of meditation, and tribal mantra chanting. Within the Umbra, this process is far easier. This rite compels spirits to seek those who call them. Furthermore, the spirit cannot escape its caller once the summoning is completed successfully, and it must attend the mystic. Many spirits, particularly minor ones, are too weak to resist a powerful summoning. Powerful ones come out of curiosity. The chance of a successful summoning depends upon the skill of the mystic, the power of the spirit, and the strength of the area’s Gauntlet.
 
'''System:''' The ritemaster must pierce the Gauntlet just as if he were entering the Umbra (Gnosis roll against the local Gauntlet level). A mystic already within the Umbra is not required to pierce the Gauntlet. The power level of the spirit determines the difficulty level of a successful summoning. The Storyteller can determine difficulty from the following chart:
 
{|class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;" width="25%"
! style="min-width: 100px" | Difficulty
! style="min-width: 125px" | Spirit Type
|-
|4
|Gaffling
|-
|5
|Jaggling
|-
|7
|Totem Avatar
|-
|8-9
|Incarna
|-
|10
|Celestine Avatar
|-
|}
 
For each hour the Garou spends invoking the spirit, his difficulty drops by one. No difficulty may fall below 3. The player must then make a Gnosis roll and achieve as many successes as possible, with the following results:
 
{|class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;" width="25%"
! style="min-width: 100px" | Successes
! style="min-width: 325px" | Effect
|-
|1
|Spirit comes eventually and is initially hostile
|-
|2
|Spirit manifests quickly, but is still initially hostile
|-
|3
|Spirit comes immediately and is neutral
|-
|4
|Spirit comes immediately and is passively benign
|-
|5
|Spirit comes immediately and is friendly
|-
|}
 
A botched roll is likely to have disastrous results. Often a botch summons the wrong type of spirit — or even Banes — in great numbers or with great hostility. The Storyteller should feel free to adjust the previous tables as she wishes, particularly as appropriate to totems. In certain cases, a Garou who attempts to summon a specific spirit will have no chance of success. At other times, he will have almost no chance of failure. The Storyteller is advised to treat each use of this rite individually and to use common sense in her decisions.
 
A Garou who summons an Incarna or Celestine avatar successfully gains two points of Wisdom Renown, unless the summons is done frivolously.
 
</div>
** If you get less than 3 successes, the spirit is initially hostile (+1 difficulty to Rite of the Fetish)
 
===Step 5: More optional modifiers to Rite of the Fetish difficulty===
{| class="wikitable"
! Activity !! Dice Roll|| Difficulty Modifier || Notes
|-
| Call to Duty gift (WtA 140) || Charisma + Leadership vs spirit's Willpower || -1 || Requires spending 2 Gnosis or knowing a specific spirit's name
|-
| Clever persuasion || Charisma + (Expression or Performance or Leadership) vs spirit's Willpower || -1 if you get at least as many successes as the fetish level
|-
| Spend ''permanent'' Gnosis || || -2 per dot spent
|-
| Taboo || || -1 to -3
|-
| Direct threat || || Up to -4 ''or'' automatic failure || Be prepared for combat if this fails!
|-
| Indirect threat || (Charisma or Manipulation) + Intimidation vs spirit's Willpower || -1
|-
| Activated using Willpower instead of Gnosis || || +2 || Allows fetish to be used by characters without Gnosis, e.g. kinfolk
|-
| Assistants above minimum || || -1 per 5 ||
* Can't reduce difficulty below 3
|}
* Remember that spirits unkindly bound can result in Cursed Fetishes.
 
===Step 6: Perform Rite of the Fetish (WtA 161)===
<div class="mw-customtoggle-rite" style="cursor:pointer; color:cornflowerblue">[+/-] Rite of the Fetish</div>
<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" id="mw-customcollapsible-rite">
 
'''Rite of the Fetish'''
 
''W20 Core, pg 213''
 
'''Description:''' This rite allows a werewolf to create a fetish (an object with a spirit bound into it). To do so, the Garou must first cleanse the potential fetish by placing it under running water (sufficiently drinkable flowing tap water counts), burying it in pure earth, exposing the object to constant breezes, or suspending it above flame for three consecutive nights. The Garou must then force or persuade a spirit to enter the prepared object. The Fianna claim that cajoling or flattering a spirit produces the best results, while the Bone Gnawers and Silent Striders claim that bribery (expending Gnosis) works best.
 
'''System:''' The ritemaster rolls Wits + Rituals (difficulty 10). Each point of permanent Gnosis that the character spends during the rite reduces the difficulty by two. The difficulty can also be lowered by roleplaying, if the ritemaster does a good job persuading the spirit to enter the fetish (by providing chiminage, undergoing a quest to prove her sincerity or worthiness, flattery, etc). If the Garou attempts to force a spirit into the fetish, she must first attack the spirit and reduce it to zero Essence before attempting to bind it into the fetish.
 
</div>
 
===Using a fetish (W20 Core, pg 221)===
* Attunement: Roll your Gnosis vs the Fetish's Gnosis rating.
* Counts as dedicated without using up a Rite of Talisman Dedication slot
* Since Fetishes have their own Gnosis rating, they do not count against the maximum number of objects a werewolf can have dedicated to him.
* Activation: Roll your Gnosis (difficulty = fetish's Gnosis), or spend a Gnosis (Rage cannot be spent in the same turn as Gnosis is spent, as usual)
 
===Multiple spirits per fetish (H+K 57)===
* Black Furies can perform Rite of Summoning multiple times, or use Call of Duty to attract multiple spirits
* Glass Walkers can perform Rite of Summoning multiple times
* Grand klaives and other fetishes with multiple effects (any tribe can attempt this):
** Perform Rite of the Fetish an additional time for the additional effect; if it fails, stop and try again later
** Roll the fetish's old Gnosis vs (new level * 2)
*** Success = existing spirit(s) get angry; fetish ruined, ritualist takes 1 (potentially soakable) agg per success
*** Number of dice can be reduced using same methods as reducing difficulty of Rite of the Fetish
 
==Talens==
* Same as fetishes, except Rite of the Fetish is replaced with Rite of Binding (W20 Core, pg 210)
<div class="mw-customtoggle-bind" style="cursor:pointer; color:cornflowerblue">[+/-] Rite of Binding</div>
<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" id="mw-customcollapsible-bind">
 
'''Rite of Binding'''
 
''W20 Core, pg 210''
 
'''Description:''' This rite binds a spirit to a werewolf, making it his servant. The more powerful the spirit is, the more difficult the process is. Although any encountered spirit is subject to binding, the Garou generally feel that spirits should be bound only when needed. Binding spirits for excessive lengths of time is generally viewed as callous abuse of those who should be the allies of the Garou. This point doesn’t go uncontested, however, particularly by the mystics of the Uktena tribe.
 
Spirits trapped through this rite may be bound into temporary service or into objects to create talens (see W20 Core, pg 227). No spirit allows itself to be bound unless it is friendly to the binding character’s totem. Spirits can be bound into objects, places, and people, although the Garou generally don’t perform the last feat unless the need is great. Failing this rite can be dangerous, for the spirit is very likely to become hostile and attempt to harm the mystic.
 
'''System:''' A Garou can attempt this rite only in the presence of a spirit, and it is usually performed in the Umbra. When attempting to bind a spirit, a Garou must first spend a number of Gnosis points (minimum of one). Each point of Gnosis spent reduces the spirit’s Gnosis rating by one. The Garou’s player must then roll Willpower (difficulty equals the spirit’s adjusted Gnosis). The number of successes indicates how long the spirit may be forced into service, with each success binding the spirit for one week. In the case of a talen, the spirit is bound until the object is used.
 
</div>
** Spend 1 or more Gnosis
** Roll Willpower vs (spirit's Gnosis - amount of Gnosis spent)
*** House rule: Optional modifiers to Rite of the Fetish may also be applied to Rite of Binding
 
==Rite of the Pain Dagger (W20 Changing Breeds, pg 183 and 191)==
* Same as the Rite of the Fetish, and only binds a War spirit to a Pain Dagger.
* Limited to Ratkin Warriors
* Summon a spirit
* Persuade the spirit
* Perform the Rite of the Pain Dagger
** War Spirit Charms may be added to the Dagger; each Charm increases the Dagger's level by one.
** Charms used require an activation roll for the Fetish (your Gnosis vs the Dagger's Gnosis rating) Use the successes on the activation roll in place of any required roll or spirit Traits — Armor or Freeze would use the successes in lieu of the spirit’s Rage or Gnosis, Shatter Glass or Tracking work as normal as long as the Fetish activation succeeds.
** Any of the following charms are available if the character has bound an appropriate spirit: Airt Sense, Armor, Blast, Create Fires, Create Wind, Freeze, Shatter Glass, Short Out, or Tracking.
* The difficulty to use is 5, and it deals Strength + 1 damage to anything except the Blade Slave bound to it.
** Costs a Gnosis each time it's unsheathed (unless you've run out, in which case it doesn't do agg that time)
 
</tab>
 
<tab name="Fetishes">
 
=Fetishes=
 
Gaia’s Chosen may use the Rite of the Fetish (see p. 213) to bind spirits into appropriately crafted and consecrated vessels. Such wondrous items are known as fetishes. The owner of a fetish can call upon the spirit within to perform specific tasks, depending on the nature of the vessel and the spirit. Given the multitude of spirits within the Tellurian and the ingenuity of the Garou, fetishes of almost any type imaginable may be created.
 
Werewolves hold great reverence toward fetishes, treating them as honored allies rather than mere tools. Such is the nature of the pact that binds spirits into fetishes; they are obligated to serve the Garou only as long as they are respected in return. It is possible to bind a spirit against its will, but these fetishes tend to be rebellious, and most Garou consider them cursed.
 
Of course, the servants of the Wyrm bind Banes into horrifying fetishes of their own...
 
The majority of fetishes are crafted from natural materials (wood, hide, bone, clay), although this is more a preference of most spirits than a hard rule — Glass Walkers, in particular, tend to bind spirits that prefer more modern, technological housing. Few fetishes are nondescript; Garou adorn them with carved river stones, feathers, beads, and other markings to honor and appease the spirit within.
 
To use a fetish, the Garou must first attune herself to it by making a Gnosis roll. The difficulty for this roll is the fetish’s Gnosis rating. Attunement establishes a spiritual bond between fetish and user, enabling the Garou to take the fetish anywhere in the Tellurian and providing instinctive understanding of the fetish’s powers. Only a single success is required to attune to the fetish; failure indicates that the fetish has rejected the character. Another roll may not be attempted until the werewolf has somehow reached accord with the resident spirit. Attunement also effectively “dedicates” a fetish to its wielder, as though the Rite of Talisman Dedication had been performed on it. Since fetishes have their own Gnosis, an attuned fetish doesn’t count against the maximum number of objects a werewolf can have dedicated to him.
 
Each time the wielder wishes to use one of the fetish’s powers, the player must make a Gnosis roll (difficulty equal to the fetish’s Gnosis rating) to “activate” the power. Alternatively, she may simply spend a Gnosis point to activate the power automatically. Rage may not be spent during the same turn in which a fetish is activated.
 
A list of sample fetishes follows:
 
----
 
==Gaian Fetishes==
 
<div class="mw-customtoggle-one" style="cursor:pointer; color:cornflowerblue">[+/-] Level One</div>
<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" id="mw-customcollapsible-one">
 
==Apeskin==
 
''Level One, Gnosis 6''
 
This somewhat gruesome fetish is nonetheless highly useful for metis and lupus Garou who need to hide their true nature. When activated, the fetish — which takes the form of a scrap of ape or human skin tattooed with a glyph — makes the werewolf suffer no special damage from silver in Homid form, and also renders the Garou unable to regenerate in that form — just as though they were born homid. One activation lasts for a full day.
 
To create an apeskin, a homid ancestor-spirit must be bound into the skin.
 
''Source: W20 Core, pg 221''
 
----
 
==Guidebook==
 
''Level One, Gnosis 5''
 
The Ajaba were forced to assimilate into strange cultures to avoid Black Tooth’s hunters. These simple fetishes make this task easier and have quickly spread throughout the diaspora. This fetish is made from an actual traveller’s guidebook for any location, with an ancestor-spirit bound into the pages. When activated, the Ajaba reduces the difficulty of any social or Streetwise rolls made to fit into a group or culture by 2.
 
''Source: W20 Changing Breeds, pg 55''
 
----
 
==Harmony Flute==
 
''Level One, Gnosis 5''
 
Carved from hickory, this small flute has many small songbird feathers decorating it. When activated and played (which requires a Performance roll), the flute emits an enchanting melody, reawakening ancient memories of peace from ages past, when the world was whole. When an aggressive creature hears the song, it must make a successful Rage roll or cease its struggles. Creatures without Rage may not resist the flute’s music. Any being listening to the sound may still defend itself if attacked. One activation lasts for as long as the werewolf continues to play.
 
To create a harmony flute, one must bind a bird-spirit or a spirit of peace, calm, or water into the flute.
 
''Source: W20 Core, pg 221''
 
----
 
==Magpie’s Swag==
 
''Level One, Gnosis 5''
 
The magpie’s swag can be pretty much any simple closable bag, satchel, sack, or similar container, which can hold thrice the amount of a regular bag the same size. If dedicated, it counts as a single item, even if filled with other fetishes or even non-dedicated items, and it is represented by a stripe of fur in Crinos, Hispo, and Lupus forms. Unfortunately, it cannot contain complex Weaver objects such as guns or laptops, unless these items are broken and useless, or have been independently dedicated.
 
Variations of this fetish include the corporate brief case of the Glass Walkers, the gym bag of the Bone Gnawers and the medicine bag of the Uktena. Also, a level two variation exists — the spider’s satchel — which is capable of carrying Weaver objects.
 
To create a magpie’s swag, one must bind a magpie or marsupial spirit into the container.
 
''Source: W20 Core, pg 221''
 
----
 
==Mirrorshades==
 
''Level One, Gnosis 7''
 
When activated, this pair of mirrored sunglasses produce a mirrored surface on the inside of the glasses, allowing the wearer to step sideways with ease. The Gauntlet is considered 2 lower than it would otherwise be when doing so.
 
To create mirrorshades, one must bind a glass elemental into the shades.
 
''Source: W20 Core, pg 222''
 
----
 
==Nyx’s Bangle==
 
''Level One, Gnosis 6''
 
A favorite of Ragabash, this fetish resembles a silver bracelet with glyphs honoring Luna carved into it. When activated, it allows the wearer to blend with shadows and move around unseen at night. Only the eyes betray the werewolf, shining like twin full moons in the darkness. Unlike the talen: Nightshade (W20 Core, pg 229), the wearer of Nyx’s bangle doesn’t turn into shadow, but merely has her presence masked. She gains four extra dice to Stealth pools at night when the fetish is activated.
 
To create Nyx’s bangle, one must bind a spirit of night or darkness into the bangle.
 
''Source: W20 Core, pg 222''
 
----
 
==Pain-Dagger==
 
''Level One, Gnosis 6''
 
The Pain Dagger is a sacred blade crafted from something of significance to the Blade Slave and bound with a spirit of war, of disease, or of pain. It is an expression of the purity of a Ratkin’s devotion to the Warrior Aspect. The blade is only used in battle; once it is drawn, the Warrior’s pride is at stake. Only a Blade Slave can own and bond to a Pain Dagger — stealing one from a Warrior is tantamount to stealing a piece of their soul, and any non-Warrior to own a Pain Dagger will not live to know the prize they have stolen. The Blade Slave must treat the spirit inside the blade with respect or face a significant loss of Renown.
 
Drawing a Pain-Dagger takes a point of Gnosis, which automatically activates the fetish. It’s an easy weapon to use — the difficulty to attack with it is 5, and it deals Strength + 1 aggravated damage to anything except the wererat bonded to the Pain-Dagger.
 
Some Pain-Daggers allow the wererat to use a Charm of the spirit bound within. Each Charm increases the Pain Dagger’s level by one. The wererat must take two dots of the Fetish Background per Charm. Each use requires an activation roll for the fetish. Any of the following charms are available if the character has bound an appropriate spirit: Airt Sense, Armor, Blast, Create Fires, Create Wind, Freeze, Shatter Glass, Short Out, or Tracking. Use the successes on the activation roll in place of any required roll or spirit Traits — Armor or Freeze would use the successes in lieu of the spirit’s Rage or Gnosis, Shatter Glass or Tracking work as normal as long as the Fetish activation succeeds.
 
''Source: W20 Changing Breeds, pg 191''
 
----


==Plenipotentiary==
<div class="mw-customtoggle-pooling" style="cursor:pointer; color:cornflowerblue">[+/-] How To Pool Backgrounds</div>
<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" id="mw-customcollapsible-pooling">


''Level One, Gnosis 5''
==The Anchor==


Those who know the ways of the Beast Courts say the Kitsune work as their diplomats and spies, and should be treated with suspicion. For those not familiar with their ways the werefoxes are just another unwanted shapeshifter intruding upon territory. In any case the Kitsune know that they can defray suspicions if given the opportunity to speak. Plenipotentiaries look like discreet jewellery, often rings, bearing fox images stylized with icons representing the Kitsune’s Court.
The players should choose one Background as the anchor that links their characters' shared assets together. For example, the players of a pack of Glass Walkers might choose Resources, with the money and property placed in joint ownership to the pack explaining how the pack can access skilled people, connect to Kinfolk around the world, and even serve their destiny as a pack of moneyed werewolves. Any of the poolable Backgrounds can serve as an anchor: packs with grand Fates often find their destinies include other people and resources.<br>
No pooled Background can have more dots assigned to it than the Anchor Background does at any time. If that Background is damaged by events during play or in downtime, the other assets drift out of the pack's control and it takes effort to win them back.<br>
Any character contributing to a pool may withdraw his stake at any time, but extracting personal assets from a pack causes some damage and bruises relationships: he gets back one less dot than he put in.<br>


'''System:''' The Kitsune activates the fetish and rolls Charisma + Expression (difficulty 6). Each success gives the werefox one turn during which she is safe from attack. The Kitsune cannot start a fight during the Plenipotentiary’s protection.
''Example:'' The members of the Irregulars build their shared Background pool around the pack's Allies: a group of ex-squaddies and political agitators in London who can put them in touch with a people in almost every field, and through whom the Irregulars can call on Kinfolk for assistance. They put a total of five dots into the Allies pool. Members of the pack add four points of pooled Contacts and two points of pooled Kinfolk.<br>
A pack of Black Spiral Dancers wants to make life difficult for the pack, and slaughters the people the Garou relied on for help. Their Allies rating drops from 5 to 3. With so many people dead, the Irregulars cant get in touch with many of their old Contacts, so that Background also drops from 4 to 3. Fortunately, the Black Spiral Dancers didn't kill anyone who knew about the Kinfolk, so that pooled rating doesn't change.<br>
Sustained effort by the Irregulars to help people out and forge new alliances and friendships in new areas can repair the damage. Who knows who their new friends will be able to introduce them to?


''Source: W20 Changing Breeds, pg 136''
As the Anchor Background rating rises again, so do the ratings of those anchored to it, as a result of storytelling directed towards the goals of improving the lost Backgrounds.<br>
Under normal circumstances, a pack cant change its Anchor Background, nor can it acquire a new one. While it may choose to abandon the assets represented by a given Background over the course of a chronicle, and thus free itself from the limitations of the backgrounds pooled to that Anchor, the fact that most Backgrounds can change value only as a result of the story's events means that the pack must acquire new Backgrounds in this manner. The only exception among pooled Backgrounds is Fate, and even then experience points should be used to improve it when discovering more about what the world has in store for the pack.<br>
While some want to pursue their personal goals, the majority pull together and act as a pack against any hardships. It can be hard for a pack to accept pooling their Backgrounds when they don't necessarily know or trust one another, but as time moves on, most packs see the utility in holding assets as a pack rather than an individual. It makes sense on a fundamental level - the pack, not the individual, is the fundamental unit of Garou society.<br>


----
----


==Remembering Remnant==
==Using Pooled Backgrounds==
 
''Level One (special), Gnosis 8''
 
A remembering remnant is a portion of a werewolf’s (or rarely, another shapechanger’s) skin, preserved through spiritual power. Anyone capable of using a fetish can activate the remembering remnant; the fetish then grants a temporary boost to the Ancestors Background of one point per success.


The remnant is much more useful in the hands of a Skin Dancer — or to be more precise, in his skin. A shapechanger created by the Rite of Sacred Rebirth can choose to bind the remnant into his body when attuning to it. The scrap of skin is absorbed into the user’s own hide, becoming part of him as if it were one of the skins used in the Rite of Sacred Rebirth. For instance, a Skin Dancer attuning a pale white scrap of Silver Fang pelt into his shoulder would always have the skin over his shoulder look like the skin of the remnant’s original owner. In Homid form, it would resemble the skin tone of the original donor; in hybrid or wolf forms, it would be a patch of white fur.
Pooled Backgrounds represent the pack's communal property. Anyone who contributes to any aspect of the pool has equal access to the full resources. Even a character who donates only one dot of Contacts still has equal access to all the backgrounds in the pool. Not everyone can use the pool at the same time. A pool of seven Allies represents the same seven people. Who is available to help which members of the pack depends on circumstances and agreements among the pack. Drawing on a pack's Fate has certain limitations that go beuond this; see the Background's description below for more information.


Once absorbed, the remembering remnant grants the Skin Dancer an effective point of the Ancestors Background; it allows him to channel the spirit of the deceased skinchanger. The Skin Dancer may increase its power by strengthening the ancestor-spirit, typically with offerings of blood and memory. In game terms, this is simulated using experience points to buy extra dots in Ancestors at 1.5 x the usual cost, with the roleplaying requirement that the owner works to enhance the legend of the original donor. Each dot of Ancestors gained increases the fetish’s effective level by one, to a maximum of five. The difficulty to activate these Ancestors dice is always 8 since the player always reaches a specific “ancestor” spirit, but the fetish is limited to the Abilities possessed by that one donor.
''Example:'' Four Glass Walkers form a pool around their shared Resources - their investments and the property and assets of their wholly-owned corporation. They wish to get dots of Contacts (people in the business world), Allies (specialists each werewolf has met in her travels), and Fate (the pack is prophesied to shake the Garou Nation from a pillar of wealth). Beth contributes three dots of Resources and one of Contacts; Danny adds two dots of Allies and one dot of Resources; Laura can contribute two dots of Resources and three dots of Fate; Chuck is short on dots, but can contribute a dot of Fate and a dot of Contacts. This makes the pool Resources 6, Allies 2, Contacts 2, Fate 4 (with a pack Fate limit of 3 and a personal fate limit of 1). Everyone can tap this pool equally: Chuck can draw on all the pack's Resources if necessary, while Beth and Danny can both ddraw on the pack's Fate for their own ends - despite not having anhy Fate of their own.


Increasing the fetish’s power is not without risk. The stronger the remnant becomes, the more it spreads — a Level Three remembering remnant, for instance, might make the Skin Dancer’s entire arm and part of his torso resemble that of his implanted “ancestor.” If sufficiently fed, the remnant may overwhelm its host.
Some packs may agree to place an individual access limit on shared Backgrounds, to reflect any agreements between the packmates, at the Storyteller's discretion. These arrangements are more common among packs who do not yet trust one another.
 
''Source: W20 Skinner, pg 8''


----
----


==Standard Issue Sunglasses==
==Upper Limits==


''Level One, Gnosis 6''
Packs can get Backgrounds that surpass the normal five-dot limit through pooling their points. This is normal, and reflects the many advantages of a pack working together - a pack can keep in touch with more people, or maintain tighter control over a range of investments than one werewolf can. Pooled Backgrounds don't have any absolute upper limit, but things get outright bizarre if you aren't careful - the world's 20 richest people aren't all members of the same pack. It's usually best if the Storyteller sets a 10-dot limit on the Anchor background.<br>
 
Some Backgrounds work best if they scale differently in a pool to the individual scale, especially when they break through the normal five-dot limit. If an average pack of four players each adds one or two dots of Resources to end up with a shared pool of 6, the effect isn't that they're secret billionaires. Instead, they're of modest means but it's damned near impossible to tear the pack's fiscal assets from them. As with all questions of balancing player expectations with elements of the story, the players and Storyteller should talk through the issue and set out some guidelines for what each sharedd background represents before the chronicle begins.
The Ratkin get everywhere but tend to be twitchy and easily noticed in a crowd. An air-spirit bound into a cheap pair of sunglasses, this fetish helps deflect suspicion. These sunglasses make humans ignore the presence of the Ratkin as much as possible.
 
'''System:''' When the Ratkin activates the fetish she becomes practically invisible to humans, no matter what form she is in. Anyone looking for the Ratkin must make a Perception + Alertness roll (difficulty of the fetish’s Gnosis); she needs to beat the Ratkin’s activation successes to find her.
 
''Source: W20 Changing Breeds, pg 191''
 
----
 
==Truth Earring==
 
''Level One, Gnosis 6''
 
This small golden earring acts as a fairly reliable lie detector when activated. Should the wearer be lied to, the earring vibrates softly. All rolls made to try and deceive the werewolf through speech or sound are made at +3 difficulty. The earring doesn’t warn against visual deception.
 
To create a truth earring, one must bind a servant of Falcon into the golden earring.  
 
''Source: W20 Core, pg 222''


----
----


</div>
</div>
<div class="mw-customtoggle-two" style="cursor:pointer; color:cornflowerblue">[+/-] Level Two</div>
<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" id="mw-customcollapsible-two">
==Bad Medicine Bag==
''Level Two, Gnosis 6''
This fetish is a small bag containing the bones of a small creature that died of disease and bound with a Rat-spirit. The Nuwisha use it to teach the strongest individuals lessons about the pain and torment of severe illness.
'''System:''' The Bag must be activated and hidden somewhere within the victim’s bed or sleeping clothes. Once he has slept a full night with the Bag, he will start to display the symptoms of a debilitating disease. He will not die from the illness and does not actually grow weaker, but he feels wracked with the disease. The difficulties of all rolls increase by 2 until the false disease runs its course.
It is difficult to convince the victim the disease is not real, even with medica evidence. The fastest way to remove the curse is to find the Bad Medicine Bag and burn it. Otherwise the false sickness lasts for one lunar month after which it disappears with no lasting physical effects.
''Source: W20 Changing Breeds, pg 176''


----
----


==Cup of the Alicorn==
<div class="mw-customtoggle-allies" style="cursor:pointer; color:cornflowerblue">[+/-] Allies</div>
<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" id="mw-customcollapsible-allies">


''Level Two, Gnosis 6''
=Allies=


The oldest of these carved and covered cups, handed down in old European septs, are said to be made of unicorn horn, though the truth of this is unknown. Any harmful substance is neutralized when poured into this cup. With a Gnosis roll against the Intelligence + Science of the poisoner, the holder of the cup can even recognize the type of poison by the changes in the cup’s shimmer or color.
''W20 Core, pg 135''


To create a cup of the alicorn, one must bind a spirit of healing, or a snake- or bear-spirit into the cup.
Allies are people who help and support you, either out of love or common interest. They can be family, friends, or even organizations that are friendly to you. Some allies have useful skills - doctors, hackers, and soldiers, for example - while others have community inflience, with contacts or resources they can use on your behalf. Although allies aid you willingly, without coaxing or coercion, they are not always available to offer assistance; they can only ignore so many of their own concerns for the sake of your relationship. Except in special circumstances, your allies don't usually know you're a supernatural creature (that knowledge would probably alter the relationship for the worse), but they may know that you have contacts and skills that most people don't, and they will come to you for favors. After all, friends help each other out, right?


''Source: W20 Core, pg 222''
You've got a closer relationship with your allies than with contacts - they're your friends, and they'll listen to you. Convincing your fishing buddy that a local refinery is spilling toxins into a major fishery can do wonders for your cause when he's an aide in the govenor's office. Of course, just as your allies are more loyal and directly useful than your contacts, they can also require more in return. But you'd help your buddies out, right?


----
You should work out who your allies are at the beginning of the game, as well as how you know them. Maybe they're old brothers-in-arms or friends from a local environmental socciety. Maybe (if your Allies rating is 5) you're an old hunting buddy of the govenor.
Allies may be pooled among a pack/coterie/etc.


==Chameleon Skin==
{| class="wikitable"
! Points !! Description
|-
|o ||One ally, of moderate influence and power (doctor or veterinarian, local activist)
|-
|oo ||Two allies, both of moderate power (district ranger, deputy sheriff, popular blogger)
|-
|ooo ||Three allies, one of them quite influential (newspaper editor, local philanthropist)
|-
|oooo ||Four allies, one of them very influential (city countilman, military base commander)
|-
|ooooo ||Five allies, one of them extremely influential (mayor, senator's aide)
|-
|}


''Level Two, Gnosis 7''
* Ratkin generally don’t have much in the way of Resources or Allies, and don’t have Ancestors or Pure Breed at all.
 
Garou needing to keep a low profile and stay out of sight commonly use this fetish. Generally a belt or headband, it allows the Garou’s fur to blend in with her surroundings. Chameleon’s skin is most efficient in the wild and other densely overgrown areas, but some Glass Walkers have fetishes that easily harmonize with their urban surroundings of glass, steel and concrete. When activated, this fetish acts as the Wendigo Gift: Camouflage, save that the power may function in whatever environment the fetish is attuned to.
 
A chameleon-spirit, naturally, must be bound into this fetish in order to create it. Chances are that the chameleon-spirit will be easier to sway if the skins are those of a lizard other than chameleons or, indeed, from another type of animal altogether.
 
''Source: W20 Core, pg 223''
 
----
 
==Dagger of Retribution==
 
''Level Two, Gnosis 5''
 
This particular fetish, an ugly iron dagger, was devised as a means of tracking down stolen possessions and the thieves responsible. The werewolf concentrates on the lost item while holding the dagger; the weapon gently tugs in the direction of the item until the Garou reclaims it. If the fetish’s owner knows the face or name of the thief, he may use the dagger to locate the thief as well. The fetish is treated as a knife in combat (Strength damage, difficulty 4); the damage may be lethal or aggravated at the Garou’s discretion.
 
To create a dagger of retribution, a werewolf must bind a vengeance-spirit into the dagger.
 
''Source: W20 Core, pg 223''
 
----
 
==Dream Stealer==
 
''Level Two, Gnosis 5''
 
A Dream Stealer, or Chimera Gem, is a multi-colored gemstone that can extract and project another’s dream. The gem is placed near the target when asleep, and when activated it will allow the user to view the target’s dreams, replayed in the depths of the stone.
 
To create a Chimera Gem, one must bind a spirit of dream or one of Cuckoo’s brood into the stone.
 
''Source: W20 Core, pg 223''
 
----
 
==False Protection==
 
''Level Two, Gnosis 6''
 
A Bastet’s Yava are her greatest secret, and her greatest weakness. Only a few werecats dare use these fetishes, for they risk spreading that secret. Most Bastet who know of them consider False Protection to be at least slightly blasphemous, but desperate times call for desperate measures. This Fetish can help protect the werecat from knowledgeable hunters and usually takes the form of jewellery with a symbolic representation of a great cat of a different kind to her tribe.
 
When activated by the Bastet, the fetish swaps her Yava with those of another tribe for the rest of the scene. The werecat sets her “replacement” tribe when the fetish is made — and must know the Yava of that tribe. An observer who is aware of the Bastet’s Yava can discern the purpose of this fetish by making a successful Intelligence + Occult roll (difficulty 7). Unknown to all but the canniest Bubasti, this fetish can also be used by the Ajaba.
 
''Source: W20 Changing Breeds, pg 91''
 
----
 
==In-A-Flash Drive==
 
''Level Two, Gnosis 6''
 
Once upon a time there was an easily-reproducible technofetish that took the form of a 3.5” floppy disk bound with a spirit of a magpie (or another animal known for theft) called the ‘Stretchy Disk.’ Upon being inserted into a computer, it would copy the entire contents of that computer, regardless of size or software, onto the disk for later retrieval in an instant. The In-A-Flash Drive is a modern update using a USB drive. The user plugs it into the target computer and activates it. It takes about three seconds to copy every single byte of data on the computer, and just enough of the user’s spiritual residue to unlock every password on the machine.
 
On plugging the drive into another computer, the werewolf can either search the cloned hard disk at incredible speeds, or start the cloned copy of the machine. When running in that mode, the werewolf never has to enter a password or answer a security question, even for secure sites that require a keyfob or similar hardware ‘key.’ The In-A-Flash Drive can store one imaged machine at a time; cloning another computer overwrites the drive’s contents. A level three, Gnosis 7 version of this fetish can store any number of cloned computers, and can steal from any machine it can contact over Bluetooth or that’s attached to the same WiFi hotspot.
 
''Source: W20 Rage Across the World, pg 54''
 
----
 
==People’s Microphone==
 
''Level Two, Gnosis 6''
 
This fetish, common among the Children of Gaia and rabble-rousing Bone Gnawers, is a megaphone with a spirit of revolution bound into it. It has the ability to channel the ephemeral spirit that forms when a crowd of people gather, using the spirit’s power to enhance the speaker’s words. If the user of the fetish is speaking on behalf of (or to raise the morale of) a crowd of up to 100 people, his relevant Social rolls receive a +1 die bonus. A crowd of 101-500 people provides a +2 bonus, a crowd of 501-5000 provides a +3. Every 5000 people beyond that provides another +1 up to a maximum bonus equal to the speaker’s Willpower. Normally, this fetish does not require spending Gnosis to activate but a werewolf who does can hand it off to a human or Kinfolk for their use.
 
''Source: W20 Rage Across the World, pg 54''
 
----
 
==Spirit Tracer==
 
''Level Two, Gnosis 5''
 
This fetish is a human hair suspended in an iron ingot. When the wielder activates the fetish and concentrates upon a specific spirit, the ingot pulls in that direction. This fetish only works for tracking spirits.
 
To create a spirit tracer, one must bind a predator spirit or a spirit that has the Charm: Tracking into the ingot.
 
''Source: W20 Core, pg 223''
 
----
 
==The City’s Pulse==
 
''Level Two, Gnosis 5''
 
As cities become more like living things all their own, certain metaphors become literal. Just as fat can block a living person’s circulation, so can the arteries of a city clog up with traffic. This fetish, made from a stethoscope and a spirit of flowing water, can find where the city’s life flows. The werewolf puts on the stethoscope and presses the chestpiece against a permanent structure within the city.
 
Activate the fetish and make a Perception + Streetwise roll at difficulty 6 to learn if the city’s services are being blocked or cut off and roughly where. ‘Services’ in this case includes roads, utilities, or waterways big enough to carry boats. The fetish reveals traffic jams, power outages, or similar events, from power going out in a single apartment to traffic snarls that gridlock several blocks. The werewolf receives a vague mental image of the event and a rough idea of its direction and distance. Multiple successes can pinpoint specific buildings where the power or phone lines have been cut.
 
The stethoscope can also find places where unusually high levels of pollution taint the water supply. This awareness gives the werewolf a better appreciation of a city as a whole rather than individual parts. For the rest of the scene, she gains a two-die bonus to Social dice pools when dealing with spirits of the blocked services.
 
''Source: W20 Rage Across the World, pg 54''
 
----


</div>
</div>


<div class="mw-customtoggle-three" style="cursor:pointer; color:cornflowerblue">[+/-] Level Three</div>
<div class="mw-customtoggle-ancestors" style="cursor:pointer; color:cornflowerblue">[+/-] Ancestors</div>
<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" id="mw-customcollapsible-three">
<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" id="mw-customcollapsible-ancestors">


==Baneskin==
=Ancestors=


''Level Three, Gnosis 7''
''Sosurces: W20 Core, pg 136''


This tiny piece of a Bane is wrapped carefully in cloth and worn as an amulet. When activated, it causes all malevolent spirits to react to the wearer as if she were a kindred soul — a wolf in Bane’s clothing, as it were. If the wearer takes any action against her “fellow” Banes, the guise is broken immediately. These fetishes cannot fool Incarnae or mightier spirits.  
Ancestral memory in humans is no more than pseudoscientific nonsense. To the GGarou, who can contact the spirits of their ancestors, it's a fact of life. Many werewolves carry some of the same memories of a distant ancestor; some even allow their forebears to take over their bodies.<br>
Once per game session, the player of a Garou with this Backgroundd may roll his Ancestors Background (difficulty 8, or 10 if he's trying to contact the spirit of a specific ancestor). Each success allows the character to increase any Ability by one for the purposes of a single die roll, even if he has no dots in the Ability - and he doesn't suffer the penalty for not having the Ability. For example, young Emil, a pire flatlander, must scale an immense cliff to come to the aid of his embattled pack. Emil has an Ancestors rating of 4 and Athletics 0. He calls on his forebears to guide him, and Emil's player rolls four dice at difficulty 8. He scores three successes. Emil contacts his great-great-great granduncle Cragtamer, who guides him over the sheer face and over the top. Now the player has an effective Athletics rating of 3 to make his climbing roll. If the Garou had an Athletics rating of 2, then his effective dice pool wouldd be 5. All effects last for the rest of the scene.<br>
While it is more difficult to contact a specific ancestor, successful contact provides either useful advice or precognitive visions at the discretion of the Storyteller.<br>
Botching an Ancestors roll may indicate that the character becomes catatonic for the remainder of the scene as he's overwhelmed by the memories of thousands of lives. Alternatively, the ancestral spirit refuses to relinquish the body. How long the ancestor stays depends on the Storyteller.<br>


To create a Baneskin, one must bind a parrot- or mockingbird-spirit into the skin.


''Source: W20 Core, pg 223''
{| class="wikitable"
 
! Points !! Description
----
|-
 
|o ||You have brief, hazy visions from the distant past.
==Beast Mask==
|-
 
|oo ||You remember faces and placces from past lives just as you remember those of your early childhood.
''Level Three, Gnosis 8''
|-
 
|ooo ||You put names to faces among your ancestors.
This fetish takes the form of a carved mask depicting an animal. When donned and activated, the werewolf assumes the form of the animal the mask represents. The character gains all the characteristics of the animal (flight, gills, heightened senses, etc.) but cannot use her regenerative powers nor change into other forms until she removes the mask.
|-
 
|oooo ||Ancestors converse with you on a regular basis.
To create a beast mask, one must bind an appropriate animal spirit into the mask.
|-
 
|ooooo ||Your ancestors watch your adventures with interest, and they often come to counsel you.
''Source: W20 Core, pg 223''
|-
 
|}
----
 
==D’siah==


''Level Three, Gnosis 6''
* No Ananasi may have Ancestors or Pure Breed; Ananasa doesn’t want her children dwelling on the past.<br>
 
* Bastet use most of the same Backgrounds as Garou, eschewing only Ancestors (with the exception of Swara).<br>
The d’siah, a knife with a flint blade curved like a crescent moon, is the signature weapon of the Silent Striders. Its sharpened outer edge is used for slashing attacks, while the trailing point can be used to thrust and tear on the return stroke. Because this knife takes skill and training to use properly, the difficulty to attack with it is 7. It inflicts Strength damage. The war spirit bound into the blade, usually one of Cobra’s brood, is somewhat more discerning than spirits usually bound to klaives — a d’siah does aggravated damage only to Wyrm-tainted creatures (use the same guidelines as the Gift: Sense Wyrm) and any type of spirit.
* Mokolé do not possess the Ancestors Background, replacing it with Mnesis instead. <br>
 
* Ratkin generally don’t have much in the way of Resources or Allies, and don’t have Ancestors or Pure Breed at all.<br>
In addition, after a successful strike, the Strider can activate the d’siah to drain a point of Gnosis from her opponent (or a point of Essence from spirits). Because this requires a Gnosis roll, the werewolf cannot use this ability of the knife on the same turn she spends Rage for extra actions.
* The timeless Rokea don’t have Ancestors, and don’t concern themselves with Pure Breed.
 
The greatest strength of the d’siah is directed against the Striders’ greatest foes: Egypt’s vampires and their snake-like minions. The cobra-spirit in the blade lashes out violently against its tainted reflections, inflicting Strength +3 aggravated damage.
 
''Source: W20 Core, pg 223''
 
----
 
==Fang Dagger==
 
''Level Three, Gnosis 6''
 
These daggers are always carved from the tooth or tusk of a great beast. After striking an opponent, the werewolf can activate the weapon, causing it to “bite” deeper into the wound. This doubles the number of successes on the damage roll, before soak. The damage is aggravated.
 
To create a fang dagger, one must bind a snake-spirit or a spirit of war, pain, or death into the blade.
 
''Source: W20 Core, pg 224''
 
----
 
==Partridge Wing==
 
''Level Three, Gnosis 7''
 
This fetish is made from the wing of a partridge bird, its feathers all completely unbroken and white as snow. The joint of the wing has a golden ring fastened through it, and hangs from a long golden chain. To activate the fetish, a werewolf must concentrate upon a memory that she wishes to remove from her mind, and then swing the partridge wing around herself counter-clockwise three times, letting the tips of the feathers brush in a circle around her on the ground. Memories of another human or Garou can also be swept away in a similar fashion, by dragging the feathers by the chain in a circle around them. This fetish is rarely used on Garou and should never be used without permission, but has come in very handy for restoring Delirious humans to their calmer states.
 
To create a partridge wing, one must bind a spirit of water or forgetfulness into the wing.
 
''Source: W20 Core, pg 224''
 
----
 
==Phoebe’s Veil==
 
''Level Three, Gnosis 7''
 
This fetish is a small, golden pendant in the shape of a half moon. These fetishes are usually worn around the neck, held by a strong leather thong. At night, when the pendant is activated, the wearer vanishes completely for one minute per success. Neither mundane creatures nor spirits nor technology may sense her in any way except touch. The veil remains drawn until the time expires or the pendant is removed.
 
To create this fetish, one must bind a Lune, a chameleon-spirit, a spirit of illusion, or a spirit of shadow into the pendant.
 
''Source: W20 Core, pg 224''
 
----
 
==Profile Skimmer==
 
''Level Three, Gnosis 6''
 
This is an example of a variety of technofetish referred to as ‘softwere.’ It’s not a device but a program that has had a spirit bound into it that can be sent off to do dirty work. This one in particular is bound with a Pattern-Spider and can be sent out to put together a profile on a target.
 
The user searches for a person based on either name and a rough description, or a photograph. The softwere uncovers any available information about the target. The player rolls the Profile Skimmer’s Gnosis with a difficulty set by the Storyteller based on how much information is available on the target, with 6 being the head of a country or famous television personality and 9 being an average Joe seen on the bus. With a success, the Skimmer comes back with a profile on the person composed of all publicly available information, along with police and government records, and full records for known aliases. With 3+ successes, the Skimmer can dig up information protected by supernatural security systems.
 
''Source: W20 Rage Across the World, pg 54''
 
----
 
==Rattle-trap==
 
''Level Three, Gnosis 7''
 
These fetishes were first made for the great hibernations of the Gurahl. These periods are a dangerous time for werebears, as they are helpless if enemies find their hiding place. The rattle-trap helps balance the odds by giving a hibernating werebear a chance to defend herself. A Gurahl can also use the rattle-trap during normal sleep.
 
'''System:''' The Gurahl activates the fetish prior to sleep; it remains active until she wakes. If a person or spirit intending harm comes within (Gnosis) yards of the Gurahl, the fetish rattles, passing the bear’s slumber to the intruder. The Gurahl may function without penalty while the intruder must make a Willpower roll (difficulty 7) to remain active or she succumbs to the Gurahl’s sleep. If the intrusion occurs in winter the intruder will suffer the Gurahl’s sluggish reactions even if she succeeds at her Willpower tests.
 
Canny enemies who know of the Gurahl’s magic will attack in numbers. The fetish will only affect one of their number, but the rattle-trap still brings the Gurahl to full awareness.
 
''Source: W20 Changing Breeds, pg 120''
 
----
 
==Sanctuary Chimes==
 
''Level Three, Gnosis 6''
 
When activated, this miniature tubular bell emits chimes into the wind. No spirit may materialize within 100 feet unless invited to do so. This fetish usually protects caerns or the homes of pregnant Kinfolk. One activation lasts for a full day.
 
To create sanctuary chimes, one must bind a spirit of protection or a turtle-spirit into the tubular bell.
 
''Source: W20 Core, pg 224''
 
----
 
==Sun Whip==
 
''Level Three, Gnosis 7''
 
This exotic fetish takes the form of a bullwhip with small nuggets of gold bound into the coil, weighted with a large nugget in the tip. The creator’s tribal glyph (or occasionally family crest) is carved upon the base of the handle. When activated, the weapon glows slightly and erupts into either sunlight or flame upon making contact with a vampire. The whip does Strength + 4 aggravated damage against vampires, and Strength + 1 lethal damage against everything else. The difficulty to strike with it is 7, regardless.
 
To create a sun whip, a spirit of flame or sunlight must be bound into the whip.
 
''Source: W20 Core, pg 224''
 
----
 
==Tracking Web==
 
''Level Three, Gnosis 6''
 
Ananasi frequently make these fetishes for their own use, but once one is made any shapeshifter can use it, though they must expend Gnosis in place of Blood Points. The Ananasi may activate the fetish by spending a Blood Point rather than using Gnosis.
 
To make a Tracking Web the Ananasi excretes a pound of web (this is easiest in Pithus form) and weaves it into a tight sphere no bigger than a grape. She then teases an inch of web out of the weave, which hangs from the otherwise perfect sphere. To use the fetish the Ananasi pulls on this thread, which extends another inch before breaking off. The small piece of web is sticky to anyone but her, and she can place it on almost any surface.
 
At any time thereafter, she may activate the fetish. It will gently tug in the direction of the lost thread, becoming stronger as the tracking web nears the thread.
 
The fetish may have as many active tracking webs as the Ananasi’s Gnosis. She may sever the link to any one as she desires but if she makes a new tracking web beyond her Gnosis the oldest thread crumbles to dust.
 
''Source: W20 Changing Breeds, pg 69''
 
----
 
==uPhone==
 
''Level Three, Gnosis 8''
 
The Corax claim to have invented this fetish — in truth, they stole a prototype from a Glass Walker and they quickly improved upon the design. The fetish is made from a normal smartphone with a Chimerling bound within. The uPhone works as a normal smartphone anywhere on earth, without charging the wereraven for calls or data use. When activated it can call other uPhones regardless of distance, even between Umbral realms or across the Gauntlet.
 
''Source: W20 Changing Breeds, pg 102''
 
----
 
==Vanity Mirror==
 
''Level Three, Gnosis 7''
 
This small metal trinket has a highly reflective metallic elemental spirit within. The Ajaba originally made it to escape from the Simba, but it works against others as well. When activated, everyone who can see the fetish must roll Willpower against a difficulty of the Vanity Mirror’s Gnosis. If they do not at least equal the number of successes on the Ajaba’s activation roll, they find any nearby reflective surfaces absolutely irresistible, and can take no actions for (Gnosis) turns. Attacking anyone so entranced gives the victim two extra dice on their action. The effect ends immediately if any of the distracted people are attacked; this fetish is for fleeing, not fighting.
 
''Source: W20 Changing Breeds, pg 55''
 
----
 
==Videophone==
 
''Level Three, Gnosis 7''
 
The Videophone is a perfect spy’s tool, made with a mobile phone and a spirit of a hive-insect, like a termite or bee. It lets the user see what’s happening on the other end of a phone call. The Garou activates this fetish while making a telephone call. The werewolf’s player must then make a Perception + Empathy roll with a difficulty equal to the Willpower of the person on the other end of the line (in the case of a speakerphone, the target is the person standing closest to the phone). If the werewolf succeeds, for the length of the call he can see through the eyes of the person on the other end of the line by looking into the phone’s screen.
 
If the target knows about the fetish and is willing, they can let the user automatically succeed.
 
''Source: W20 Rage Across the World, pg 54''
 
----
 
==Wind Whistle==
 
''Level Three, Gnosis 5''
 
A single, long blow on this whistle will summon a freezing cold wind, laced with snow. It will cover the tracks of the werewolf using the whistle, and his pack if appropriate, while chilling the bones of any pursuers, costing them one die from every roll while they continue to pursue the owner of the wind whistle. The effects of the whistle last for one hour.
 
To create a wind whistle, a wind elemental must be bound into a whistle carved from the bone of an animal that died of the cold during the winter months.
 
''Source: W20 Core, pg 224''
 
----


</div>
</div>


<div class="mw-customtoggle-four" style="cursor:pointer; color:cornflowerblue">[+/-] Level Four</div>
<div class="mw-customtoggle-contacts" style="cursor:pointer; color:cornflowerblue">[+/-] Contacts</div>
<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" id="mw-customcollapsible-four">
<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" id="mw-customcollapsible-contacts">


==Feathered Cloak==
=Contacts=


''Level Four, Gnosis 8''
''W20 Core, pg 136''


A highly difficult fetish to make, requiring thousands of differently colored feathers, a feathered cloak can take years to create, but the end results are spectacular not only in function but in form. Properly made, the cloak shows a dazzling array of different colors and patterns, and it is said that gazing on one for three days without wavering in one’s attention makes it possible to see the road of life itself in the pattern of feathers. This may or may not be true, but what is certain is the spectacular effect the fetish provides: The wearer can fly.
Contacts are the people you know from all walks of life. They're acquaintances, drinking buddies, or friends who don't mind letting you know what's going on, but wouldn't take a bullet for you. In addition to a general network of people who you can con or bully information from, you havve a few major contacts - people you trust to feed you accurate information in their area of expertise. You should come up with a name and a field for your major contacts, either at the start of play, or as you use them.<br>
You also have a number of minor contacts around the area. They are not quite as friendly or reliable in a pinch, but they work in a whole range of different areas and you can bribe, intimidate, or manipulate them into telling you what you need to know. To get in touch with a minor contact, make a roll using your Contacts rating (difficulty 7). Each success means that you have located one of your minor contacts. Because major contacts are closer to you (they're usually good friends), they're easier to find.<br>
Contacts may be pooled among a pack/coterie/etc.


When activated, the wearer can rise above the ground and travel horizontally at speeds equivalent to her running speed indefinitely. The flight is not perfect, however. The wearer cannot travel both horizontally and vertically at the same time, and vertical travel is considerably slower, progressing at walking speed. Finally, the entire experience causes a great deal of stress upon the body. For every ten minutes of flight, the player must roll Stamina + Athletics (difficulty 5). If the roll fails, then the pain from the stress has become too intense and the wearer needs to land and rest.
{| class="wikitable"
 
! Points !! Description
The feathered cloak is a full-length cloak that remains wrapped around the body, even during flight, and is bound with a bird-spirit.
|-
 
|o ||One major contact
''Source: W20 Core, pg 224''
|-
 
|oo ||Two major contacts
----
|-
 
|ooo ||Three major contacts
==Ironhammer==
|-
 
|oooo ||Four major contacts
''Level Four, Gnosis 5''
|-
 
|ooooo ||Five major contacts
Lesser versions of the mighty Jarlhammers, these one- handed hammers are potent war fetishes in their own right, and the signature weapons of the Get of Fenris. Forged of silver-laced iron, an ironhammer inflicts Strength +2 aggravated damage; Garou can soak these wounds, as the silver content is overwhelmed by the iron. A werewolf may hurl an Ironhammer up to 10 yards for every point of Strength; the hammer returns to its rightful owner after each toss.
|-
 
|}
To create an ironhammer, a spirit of war must be bound into a mighty hammer forged of silver-laced iron.
 
''Source: W20 Core, pg 225''
 
----
 
==Klaive==
 
''Level Four, Gnosis 6''
 
The signature weapon of the Garou Nation, klaives are fetish daggers of a singular design, made to be used in Homid, Glabro, or Crinos form with equal ease. Klaives are rare weapons made from the purest silver, treasured and passed down from hero to hero. A werewolf who carries a klaive loses one point from his effective Gnosis rating, thanks to the silver. A war-spirit is usually bound into the klaive, allowing it to inflict aggravated damage even to non-Garou foes.
 
Pulling a klaive on another werewolf is considered a grave action, for a klaive duel is almost always to the death. Nonetheless, such duels have always been dangerously common, and this practice shows no sign of abating even in the Final Days. Elders complain that too many of these sacred artifacts are in the ranks of reckless youths quick to use them for mundane tasks or to spill kin-blood; young werewolves argue that too many klaives are kept hidden away for rituals and great quests, when they could be better put to use against Black Spiral Dancers and other foes.
 
The difficulty to attack with a klaive is 6, and it inflicts Strength + 2 aggravated damage. Werewolves cannot soak this damage unless in their breed form.
 
''Source: W20 Core, pg 225''
 
----
 
==Labrys of Isthmene==
 
''Level Four, Gnosis 7''
 
A labrys of Isthmene is a massive, double-headed war-axe dedicated to Isthmene, the Gorgon of battle. A signature weapon of the Black Furies, the weapon is designed to be wielded two-handed, but may be effectively used with one hand by any being with Strength 6 or higher. Attacks made with the labrys are difficulty 7, and do Strength + 4 aggravated damage. Activating the fetish grants access to the Gift: Spirit of the Fray for the rest of the scene. The fetish will not function for a male Garou of any tribe.
 
To create a labrys of Isthmene, one must bind a spirit of war into the labrys.
 
''Source: W20 Core, pg 225''
 
----
 
==Monkeysbane==
 
''Level Four, Gnosis 7''
 
This slender wand of still-living wood has a wolf or archa spirit bound to it. When activated, it incites panic in humans who can see it. This includes human Kinfolk, humans turned fomori, mages, changelings, and other largely human supernatural beings, but it doesn’t affect Garou. The victim flees from the Fetish by the safest available route unless she either succeeds on a Willpower check (difficulty 8) or spends a point of Willpower. A human who stands her ground instead takes one point of lethal damage per turn until the werewolf no longer holds the Fetish in its hand or until the human flees. This damage ignores armor but can be soaked by other supernatural means.
 
A werewolf looking to create an Archa Torch or Monkeysbane must use the wood of the archa, found in the Ala Archa National Park, while the Compostela Scallop Shell (W20 RAtW, pg 82) is a reward for those Garou who complete the Compostela pilgrimage.
 
''Source: W20 Rage Across the World, pg 81''
 
----
 
==Monkey Puzzle==
 
''Level Four, Gnosis 6''
 
This amber talisman contains a single human hair. When activated, it causes all humans viewing the werewolf to believe her to be a normal human… regardless of the form she wears. However, the fetish doesn’t mask her actions — tearing out someone’s throat simply becomes the act of a cannibalistic lunatic rather than a werewolf. This fetish’s effects last for a day.
 
To create a monkey puzzle, one must bind a ghost, a spirit of illusion, or a trickster-spirit into the talisman.
 
''Source: W20 Core, pg 225''
 
----
 
==Portable Door==
 
''Level Four, Gnosis 7''
 
Made by binding an Epiphling into a simple piece of chalk, a magic marker or some other writing implement that can mark any surface, a Portable Door offers a trapped Nuwisha the chance to make a few new exits of her own.
 
'''System:''' The trickster activates the fetish and traces a circle or rectangle on a solid surface. The shape transforms into a door that the Nuwisha can open and use. The Nuwisha has no control on what is on the other side — which can range from inconvenient to dangerous. The door lasts for (Gnosis) turns or until the Nuwisha steps through.
 
''Source: W20 Changing Breeds, pg 176''
 
----
 
==Personal Umbral Digital Application==
 
''Level Four, Gnosis 8''
 
The Glass Walkers have, on occasion, a compulsion to create devices that could best be described as “cute,” and most would argue the PUDA more or less fits that category. This is because most people have not been subject to the devastating array of forces that the PUDA can bring to bear.
 
Effectively, the PUDA is a digital platform with a bee-spirit bound into it. In the past, this fetish took the form of palmtop digital assistants or powerbooks; modern iterations of the fetish are generally cell phones or digital tablets. This bee spirit creates a hive file structure in an Umbral space around the device, which can store and organize various rites before completion and then “execute” the rite at a later time. The Glass Walker simply has to use the PUDA to “record” the rite in some fashion, such as with a camera application. When finished, the rite does not have any effect, but (if successful) is then stored in the PUDA and can have its effect come to pass with the click of a touch-sensitive pad any time thereafter. Each activation can execute one rite, but if the roll fails, the rite is lost. If the roll for the rite depends upon outside factors, then all rolls are made when the rite is executed rather than when it is first performed to be stored.
 
The following rites work with a PUDA: Rite of Cleansing, Rite of Contrition, Rite of Binding, Rite of the Questing Stone, Rite of Talisman Dedication, Rite of Becoming, Rite of Spirit Awakening, Rite of Summoning, Voice of the Jackal, and Rending of the Veil. At the Storyteller’s option, other more obscure rites may be compatible as well.
 
Each rite stored on the PUDA requires some spiritual energy to be preserved, which is taken from the Glass Walker using it in the form of a single temporary point of Gnosis. This Gnosis does not restore in the usual manner, but is returned the moment that a rite is successfully executed. If the execution fails and the rite is lost, the Gnosis goes with it, but may be regained in the usual fashion.
 
On top of all this, the PUDA also works as a normal digital device.
 
''Source: W20 Core, pg 226''
 
----
 
==Spirit Whistle==
 
''Level Four, Gnosis 8''
 
When activated and blown, this ivory whistle emits a wailing scream that causes great pain to all spirits within the werewolf’s line of sight. Any spirits present must roll Gnosis and beat the fetish’s activation roll, or be compelled to flee from the scream. The power of this fetish is directional; spirits behind the werewolf don’t have to roll Gnosis.
 
To create a spirit whistle, one must bind a screech owl spirit, a spirit of madness, or a spirit of discord into the ivory whistle.
 
''Source: W20 Core, pg 225''
 
----
 
==Supplicant’s Compass==
 
''Level Four, Gnosis 7''
 
The supplicant’s compass is a fetish that takes the form of a small iron needle with a length of cord tied around its middle. If the needle is moistened with the blood of a shapechanger, it will point out an Umbral path to the spirit world lair of that shapechanger’s patron totem (tribal, personal or pack). These fetishes are rare as few totems take well to being called upon without warning.
 
''Source: W20 Skinner, pg 8''
 
----
 
==Unbroken Cord==
 
''Level Four, Gnosis 6''
 
This appears to be a length of hemp cord knotted and braided into elaborate patterns. Lengths vary, but there will usually be enough to make necklaces, belts, etc., for an entire pack.
 
When the pack leader wishes, she may spend one Gnosis point and share one of her abilities, such as a Gift or skill, with any pack member. She can only share with as many pack members as she has current Gnosis. One use for this is to share skills or abilities; another is to aid pack members by giving them the leader’s Rage or Gnosis. The effects last for one scene.
 
To create an unbroken cord, one must bind a unity spirit (such as the spirit of a flock of birds) into the cord.
 
''Source: W20 Core, pg 226''
 
----


</div>
</div>


<div class="mw-customtoggle-five" style="cursor:pointer; color:cornflowerblue">[+/-] Level Five</div>
<div class="mw-customtoggle-fate" style="cursor:pointer; color:cornflowerblue">[+/-] Fate</div>
<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" id="mw-customcollapsible-five">
<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" id="mw-customcollapsible-fate">


==Grand Klaive==
=Fate=


''Level Five, Gnosis 7''
''Sources: W20 Core, pg 137''


These mighty blades are the klaives of the most legendary heroes. Carrying one of these immense silver swords costs a Garou two points from his effective Gnosis rating. A war-spirit is usually bound into the grand klaive, allowing it to inflict aggravated damage to non-Garou.
The Fate Background represents a prophecy that accompanied your birth or the creation of your pack. A Fate is always something significant, but it's as likely to be dark and infamous as it is to be full of glory. In these times of Apocalypse, the Garou cannot afford to sacrifice even one warrior, no matter how dark the portents surrounding them are. However, even those with terrible fates often prove to be some of the greatest Garou, perhaps because they try so hard to defy their fate. Some even succeed.<br>
In addition to the fame or infamy these prophecies garner you, once per game session you may use this Background to add successes to any roll that either failed or achieved fewer successes than were required. The player rolls his rating in this Background (difficulty 8) and adds any successes to those that were achieved in the original failed roll. If this means the action succeeds, the player should describe what his fortuitous events caused him to succeed. If the storyteller feels the player's actions run against what he is destined to do, she may choose to disallow the use of the background.<br>
When Fate is pooled among the pack, each member may call on this Background, each member may call on this Background once per game session. If the action failed involves the entire pack in some way, then the player may draw on an amount of Fate up to the highest individual Fate in the pack. If the character is acting on her own, the player can only draw on an amount of Fate up to the lowest individual Fate in the pack (to a minimum of one). In a pack with pooled Fate, any character can raise her personal Fate with experience points, much like the totem background. However, she can only raise it up to the same level as the highest Fate in the pack - if no member of the pack starts with more than three dots of Fate, no pack member can ever buy up to four or five dots.<br>
Packs tend to garner prophecies of greater proportions than individuals. This is not only because of the greater weight a pack can swing compared to a single werewolf, but also because the Garou tend to see a pack's accomplishments as more legitimate than those of just one person. For roleplaying purposes, consider the pack's Fate to be equal to that of the highest Fate rating in the pack.<br>
Fate may be pooled among a pack/etc.


Grand klaives are very rare and usually tied to specific Garou lineages, especially among the Silver Fangs, Fianna, and Shadow Lords. Besides the usual war-spirit, a second spirit — such as a fire-spirit that might add extra soak dice against fire when the klaive is activated or an ancestor-spirit that might provide extra dots in an Ability such as Occult or Survival — is usually also bound into the grand klaive. The secondary spirit rarely minds sharing the fetish with another, as grand klaives represent the pinnacle of honor in the eyes of Gaia’s warriors.
{| class="wikitable"
 
! Points !! Description
The difficulty to attack with a grand klaive is 7, and it inflicts Strength +3 damage. Werewolves cannot soak this damage except in their breed form.
|-
 
|o ||Your pack will be involved in an event that will make you known to the entire Garou Nation. For now, though, only those in your sept know of this prophecy.
Werewolves, especially young ones, who possess a grand klaive attract the attention of the mighty. Elders often question the audacity of a youth who dares to carry such a sacred weapon, while his peers may covet the power and attention.
|-
 
|oo ||Your pack will be the cause of an event that greatly impacts your sept, such as the destruction of a long time enemy or a highly admired Garou. The Garou throughout the city or local geographical area in which you reside might know your fate.
''Source: W20 Core, pg 226''
|-
 
|ooo ||Your pack will be responsible for an event that impacts werewolves across the continent, perhaps singlehandedly saving (or destroying) a caern. Any Garou in your hemisphere might know of the prophecy.
----
|-
 
|oooo ||The actions of your pack will affect the entire Garou Nation, such as the defeat of a great Wyrm enemy or the massacre of dizens of Garou. There might be a cub or two that hasn't heard of your destiny, but don't count on it.
==Jarlhammer==
|-
 
|ooooo ||You, or your pack, will be a direct factor in the fate of the Apocalypse, one way or another. There isn't a cub that hasn't heard of your destiny.
''Level Five, Gnosis 6''
|-
 
|}
These mighty two-handed hammers are the pinnacle of Get craftsmanship. Like the lesser Ironhammers, they are forged from silver-laced iron and cooled in the blood of freshly slain enemies; however, the Get bind spirits of war and silver alike within. Each hammer inflicts Strength +3 aggravated damage; the damage counts as silver damage, and is thus unsoakable to Garou. Only a werewolf can throw such a weapon accurately, and only to a distance of 5 yards for every dot of Strength.
 
Whenever a blow from a Jarlhammer slays its target, the hammer resounds with a powerful thunderclap, announcing to friend and foe alike that another enemy of the Get of Fenris has fallen.  
 
There are seven of these hammers; some are wielded by powerful Jarls, while at least one has been lost. Each one has its own name and secondary power:
 
* Forge-Crusher blazes with fire when activated, and inflicts an additional health level of fire damage with each blow.<br>
* Grinding-Tooth can smash any stone into powder, obliterating a cubic foot of rock or concrete with every strike.<br>
* Spear-Chaser flies three times as far as its siblings when thrown, and the thrower never suffers any penalties for range.<br>
* Troll-Eater pulverizes bone and smashes armor; opponents lose one die from all soak pools to resist its damage.<br>
* Bright-Arm shines with the light of sun and moon alike; opponents who rely on sight to target opponents lose two dice from their dice pools when attacking its wielder.<br>
* Hag-Talon is fortified against the magic of enemies, granting its wielder three additional dice to any Willpower roll made to resist mind manipulating powers.<br>
* Pain-Eagle leaves wounds that throb with agony; those wounded by the hammer suffer double the usual dice pool penalties for their wounds.
 
''Source: W20 Core, pg 226''
 
----
 
==Runestones==
 
''Level Five, Gnosis 7''
 
Soothsay Runes, Tarot cards, crystal balls, divination bones — this fetish has almost as many names as forms. When activated, the runes show the caster a vision of what is to come. The number of successes on the roll should determine the degree of truth in the vision, and the Storyteller, based on how complex the reading is, should set the difficulty. Visions touching on the Apocalypse tend to be extremely complex and difficult to interpret.
 
To create any divinatory fetish one must bind a spirit of time, dream, enigmas, or wisdom into the tools.
 
''Source: W20 Core, pg 227''
 
----


</div>
</div>


----
<div class="mw-customtoggle-fetish" style="cursor:pointer; color:cornflowerblue">[+/-] Fetish</div>
<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" id="mw-customcollapsible-fetish">


==Weaver Fetishes==
=Fetish=


<div class="mw-customtoggle-one" style="cursor:pointer; color:cornflowerblue">[+/-] Level One</div>
''Sources: W20 Core, pg 137''
<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" id="mw-customcollapsible-one">


You possess a fetish - a physical object into which a shapeshifter has bound a spirit. The spirit grounds a number of powers to a fetish, so they are very significant to shifters. Such things are valuable, and other garou or other supernatural beings may covet them.


{| class="wikitable"
! Points !! Description
|-
|o ||You possess one Level One fetish
|-
|oo ||You possess one Level Two fetish, or two Level One fetishes.
|-
|ooo ||You possess one or more fetishes with a total of three levels.
|-
|oooo ||You possess one or more fetishes with a total of four levels.
|-
|ooooo ||You possess one or more fetishes with a total of five levels.
|-
|}


</div>
</div>


<div class="mw-customtoggle-two" style="cursor:pointer; color:cornflowerblue">[+/-] Level Two</div>
<div class="mw-customtoggle-kinfolk" style="cursor:pointer; color:cornflowerblue">[+/-] Kinfolk</div>
<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" id="mw-customcollapsible-two">
<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" id="mw-customcollapsible-kinfolk">


=Kinfolk=


''W20 Core, pg 138''


</div>
Kinfolk are otherwise normal humans and animals who descended from shifters without inheriting their spiritual duty. Through this Background you are in contact with a number of Kinfolk. While Kinfolk are normal members of their species in most respects, they are immune to the Delirium, giving them the dubious advantage of looking upon a Crinos-form werewolf. They know that you are a Garou/Bastet/etc, and they are willing to help you however they can, although most are not in positions of power (such people are considered Allies). Networks of Kinfolk are a valuable way for werecreatures to deal with the human world without rishing frenzy or discovery. Some Kinfolk may be related to you directly while others are contacts you have made through your sept.
 
Kinfolk may be pooled among a pack.
<div class="mw-customtoggle-three" style="cursor:pointer; color:cornflowerblue">[+/-] Level Three</div>
<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" id="mw-customcollapsible-three">


{| class="wikitable"
! Points !! Description
|-
|o ||Two Kinfolk
|-
|oo ||Five Kinfolk
|-
|ooo ||10 Kinfolk
|-
|oooo ||20 Kinfolk
|-
|ooooo ||50 Kinfolk
|-
|}


* Rokea can have at most a single dot of Kinfolk, as their shark Kin are spread so far across the seas, and their human relations are so very few.


</div>
</div>


<div class="mw-customtoggle-four" style="cursor:pointer; color:cornflowerblue">[+/-] Level Four</div>
<div class="mw-customtoggle-mentor" style="cursor:pointer; color:cornflowerblue">[+/-] Mentor</div>
<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" id="mw-customcollapsible-four">
<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" id="mw-customcollapsible-mentor">


=Mentor=


''Sources: W20 Core, pg 138''


</div>
A shifter of higher Rank has taken a keen interest in you, and will look after you - to a point. The rating of your Mentor background quantifies how powerful your mentor is within the tribe and what rank he or she has achieved. A mentor can teach you skills, advise you, or speak on your behalf at a council fire. He has a pack of his own, and his own duties, so he wont be present to save you whenever you bite off more than you can chew. Of course, your mentor will expect something in return for his assistance, he it good company, an occasional gofer, a champion, or perhaps a supporter in sept politics. His demands can make an excellent source of story hooks. In general, however, you will receive more than you give. Other werecreatures may wonder what your mentor sees in you - the two of you deel as individuals, rather than as members of your respective packs.<br>
 
A powerful mentor doesn't have to be a single person; a pack or council of elders might be considered a collective mentor. The latter would almost certainly have a raging of four or five digs, even if no one on the council is above Rank 5.
<div class="mw-customtoggle-five" style="cursor:pointer; color:cornflowerblue">[+/-] Level Five</div>
<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" id="mw-customcollapsible-five">


{| class="wikitable"
! Points !! Description
|-
|o ||Mentor is Rank 2
|-
|oo ||Mentor is Rank 3
|-
|ooo ||Mentor is Rank 4
|-
|oooo ||Mentor is Rank 5
|-
|ooooo ||Mentor is Rank 6
|-
|}


* Corax rarely stick with any single Mentor for an appreciable length of time, and dismiss Pure Breed as elitist nonsense.


</div>
</div>


----
<div class="mw-customtoggle-purebreed" style="cursor:pointer; color:cornflowerblue">[+/-] Pure Breed</div>
<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" id="mw-customcollapsible-purebreed">


==Wyrm Fetishes==
=Pure Breed=


<div class="mw-customtoggle-one" style="cursor:pointer; color:cornflowerblue">[+/-] Level One</div>
''W20 Core, pg 138''
<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" id="mw-customcollapsible-one">


Most often found in the hands of the Black Spiral Dancers, at the Storyteller’s discretion another servant of the Wyrm might possess one. Whether he knows how to use it or not is another question altogether.
Garou take great stock in ancestry, and the werewolf who is descended from renowned forebears has a definite advantage in Garou society. This Background prepresents your lineage, markings, bearings and other features of birth. Other Garou revere werewolves with high ranks in Pure Breed as heroes of yore come to life - and such werewolves are expected to act the part. The higher your Pure Breed score is, the more likely you are to impress elder councils or receive hospitality from foreign tribes. Each point of Pure Breed adds an extra die to formal challenges (such as Rank challenges) and to Social rolls involving other Garou (even Ronin or Black Spiral Dancers).<br>
Pure breed is a nebulous combination of bloodline and spiritual inheritance. A character with high Pure Breed looks and carries himself like an archetypal member of his tribe - however, if he does not join that tribe, any benefits of Pure Breed are removed by the tribe's totem. Many werewolves with Pure Breed can trace their ancestry directly, while others resemble distant ancestors who cannot be connected without a degree of genealogical exactitude that is lost to the Garou.<br>
Some tribes place more value on good breeding than others, but Pure Breed is almost universally respected. It's a mystical trait, and werewolves can tell instinctively whose blood is particularly pure. Of course, Garou expect those of pure blood to live up to the standards set by their noble ancestors. They frown on those who cant or wont accept the challenge.


==Brush of the Ancients==
{| class="wikitable"
! Points !! Description
|-
|o ||You have your father's eyes.
|-
|oo ||Your grandfather made a name for himself at the Battle of Blood Ford, and you carry that name with pride.
|-
|ooo ||Your pedigree is blessed with pillars of the Garou Nation, and the blood tells.
|-
|oooo ||You could be dressed as a beggar and still command respect.
|-
|ooooo ||The greatest of heroes live on in you.
|-
|}


''Level 1, Gnosis 8''
* Ajaba use all of the same Backgrounds as the Garou, although high Pure Breed becomes increasingly rare as the Ajaba scramble to shore up their decimated numbers.<br>
 
* No Ananasi may have Ancestors or Pure Breed; Ananasa doesn’t want her children dwelling on the past.<br>
A paintbrush made from wolf-fur and bound in silver, a Black Spiral Dancer can use the Brush of the Ancients to channel her ancestors to paint accurate scenes of the past, and of things yet to come. The messages hidden in the image take time to unravel. It takes half an hour’s study, and an Intelligence + Enigmas roll (difficulty 7) to understand the painting’s significance.
* Corax rarely stick with any single Mentor for an appreciable length of time, and dismiss Pure Breed as elitist nonsense.<br>
 
* Kitsune use many of the same Backgrounds as the Garou, eschewing only Pure Breed as redundant — werefoxes are all of the purest blood, after all.<br>
''W20 Book of the Wyrm, pg 183''
* Ratkin generally don’t have much in the way of Resources or Allies, and don’t have Ancestors or Pure Breed at all.<br>
 
* The timeless Rokea don’t have Ancestors, and don’t concern themselves with Pure Breed.<br>
----
==Stolen Eye==
 
''Level 1, Gnosis 2''
 
One of the few Fetishes used by Buzzards, the Stolen Eye is nothing short of a human eyeball, plucked from a still-living person. When she dips it in salt water and lays it on a flat surface, the eye wriggles and flops around until it looks in the direction of the nearest Corax. If their fragile texture doesn’t destroy the eye first, most Stolen Eyes last for about a month before becoming too rotten to use, though it starts to stink horribly long before that. If the original owner dies while the Fetish is still usable, it immediately decays to green sludge.
 
''W20 Book of the Wyrm, pg 183''
 
----


</div>
</div>


<div class="mw-customtoggle-two" style="cursor:pointer; color:cornflowerblue">[+/-] Level Two</div>
<div class="mw-customtoggle-resources" style="cursor:pointer; color:cornflowerblue">[+/-] Resources</div>
<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" id="mw-customcollapsible-two">
<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" id="mw-customcollapsible-resources">


==Bane Lantern==
=Resources=


''Level 2, Gnosis 5''
''W20 Core, pg 138''


An old-fashioned steel lantern painted with bizarre and obscene glyphs, the Bane Lantern needs no fuel. The user simply commands it to ignite — in either Pictish, the garbled Garou-speak of the Black Spiral Dancers, or the secret tongue of the Wyrm — and it casts an unnatural purple light. The light illuminates all spirits it touches, making them quite visible even in the material world. Fomori and other possessed creatures look much the same as normal, but their shadows reflect their spiritual passengers. While the lantern remains lit, spirits in the vicinity flock to the glow like moths to a flame.
The Resources Background describes your character’s access to and control over a range of valuable assets. These assets may be actual cash, but as this Background increases, they’re more likely to be investments, property, or earning capital such as stocks and bonds. A character’s Resources depend upon the standard of living she’s comfortable with — a lupus in the Yukon isn’t likely to get a wire transfer from her broker each month. A character with no dots in Resources can have enough clothing and supplies to get by, or she may be homeless, sleeping in a den in her lupus form.<br>
You receive a basic allowance each month based on your rating, so make sure to detail where this money comes from. The Storyteller will determine how much this is based on the area your game takes part in and the cultures you’re in contact with. A werewolf’s fortune can run out if she’s fighting in the Amazon rather than managing her stock portfolio. You can also sell your less liquid resources if you need the cash, but this can take weeks or even months, depending on what exactly you’re trying to sell. Art buyers don’t just pop out of the woodwork, after all. Resources can be pooled among a pack.


{| class="wikitable"
! Points !! Description
|-
|o ||Sufficient. You don’t get many spending sprees, but you’ve got a decent place to live, a car that doesn’t crap out every week, and a decent standard of living for the working class.
|-
|oo ||Moderate. You’re thoroughly middle-class in income, and can afford the odd indulgence. You can hire specific help as necessary. You have enough available cash, portable property, and valuables that you can maintain a one-dot standard of living wherever you are for up to six months.
|-
|ooo ||Comfortable. You own a house and some land outright, which you may let the sept use or keep for your pack, and you’ve a reputation that gives you easy access to credit at good terms. More of your assets are tied up in property than in cash, and if needs be you can maintain a one-dot standard of living wherever you are for as long as you like.
|-
|oooo ||Wealthy. You have serious financial power, and are one of the richest people in your country. You don’t deal much with actual cash, using more valuable and stable assets to pay off debts as they arise. When you can’t focus on maintaining your level of Resources, you can live at the three-dot level for up to a year, or a two-dot life indefinitely.
|-
|ooooo ||Extremely Wealthy. You’re one of the richest people on Earth. You have multiple homes, many forms of luxury transport, and frequently show up in glossy magazines and on gossip websites. You have assets everywhere, and can hobble the Wyrm’s activities with a ten-minute phone call. You can live at the three-dot level indefinitely if you ignore your fortune; higher if you put a little effort in to it.
|-
|}


''W20 Book of the Wyrm, pg 183''
* Owing to their rarity, Gurahl rarely amass much in the way of Resources<br>
 
* Ratkin generally don’t have much in the way of Resources or Allies, and don’t have Ancestors or Pure Breed at all.<br>
----
 
==Devilwhip==
 
''Level 2, Gnosis 6''
 
Just as the Klaive is to the Garou, so the Devilwhip is to the Black Spiral Dancers. A wickedly barbed 15 foot lash, a Devilwhip begins its existence as the severed tentacle of a Bane, cured in the smoke of rank-smelling herbs so that it can exist permanently in the physical world. The handle, sewn over the severed end of the tentacle, must be re-made every month as the tentacle oozes sticky ichor that slowly dissolves almost all non-living substances. The Bane controlling the Devilwhip can animate it as thought the Black Spiral Dancer was wielding it herself. In combat, a Devilwhip deals Strength +1 aggravated damage. The tip shrieks through the air like a wailing lunatic, laughing every time it draws blood. Cracked in front of an opponent’s face, the Black Spiral Dancer can activate the whip to compel her foe to prostrate himself before her (requiring a Willpower roll, difficulty 6 to resist).
 
''W20 Book of the Wyrm, pg 184''
 
----


</div>
</div>


<div class="mw-customtoggle-three" style="cursor:pointer; color:cornflowerblue">[+/-] Level Three</div>
<div class="mw-customtoggle-rites" style="cursor:pointer; color:cornflowerblue">[+/-] Rites</div>
<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" id="mw-customcollapsible-three">
<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" id="mw-customcollapsible-rites">
 
==Wyrmflesh==
 
''Level 3, Gnosis 6''


Few Black Spiral Dancers learn to make Wyrmflesh in modern nights — flaying a human over the course of a lunar month, carefully keeping him alive until the last moment, is bound to draw attention from law enforcement or Gaian Garou. The Dancer tattoos the skin with eye-warping glyphs, tans it, and then makes into a tunic. Wyrmflesh increases the wearer’s Soak against all damage (including silver) by three dice. It shapeshifts along with the wearer, providing protection in every form. Should any damage get through the Wyrmflesh’s protection, it lets out a deafening shriek and blood flows thick and red from even the smallest cut.
=Rites=


''W20 Book of the Wyrm, pg 184''
We do not use the Rites background here. Instead, if you buy the Rituals Knowledge, it will work the same: One level of rite per point of Rituals.
 
----


</div>
</div>


<div class="mw-customtoggle-four" style="cursor:pointer; color:cornflowerblue">[+/-] Level Four</div>
<div class="mw-customtoggle-spiritheritage" style="cursor:pointer; color:cornflowerblue">[+/-] Spirit Heritage</div>
<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" id="mw-customcollapsible-four">
<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" id="mw-customcollapsible-spiritheritage">


=Spirit Heritage=


''W20 Core, pg 139''


</div>
The Garou are creatures of duality - torn between man and wolf, and between flesh and spirit. The Garou share a kinsship with inhabitants of the spirit world, but some have a stronger connection than others. For some reason, perhaps an ancestral tie to a household of spirits, certain types of spirits react more positively to you than others. This doesn't need to be a friendly relationship - spirits may be fearful and respectful of you, in awe of you, or feel a sense of duty to you. No matter what the relationship, one group of spirits is more likely to cooperate with you.<br>
When you select this background, choose one type of spirits. Examples of possible groups are animal spirits, plant spirits, elementals, urban spirits, and even Banes. When dealing with spirits of this type, the player may add his Spirit Heritage rating to any Social rolls, or rolls involved in challenges. Spirits whom you are attuned to view you, to some degree, as one of their own - a daunting prospect for those attuned to Banes, when other Garou discover their heritage. If you act against such spirits or ignore their plights, you may be seen as betraying them


<div class="mw-customtoggle-five" style="cursor:pointer; color:cornflowerblue">[+/-] Level Five</div>
{| class="wikitable"
<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" id="mw-customcollapsible-five">
! Points !! Description
 
|-
==Baneklaive==
|o ||Spirits can smell their scent on you, though no one else can.
 
|-
''Level 5, Gnosis 7''
|oo ||The spirits note your arrival. You bring your chosen spirits to mind in others when they look at you, though few understand why.
 
|-
Comparable to the Grand Klaives of the Garou, the Baneklaive is a sword-length silver blade, engraved with twisted runes. Though not as well-made as other Grand Klaives (difficulty 7, Strength +3 aggravated damage), the faint traceries of balefire mean the blade is not just silver but also a Wyrm-emanation, for purposes of inflicting damage. When activated, add one die to the wielder’s Melee pool. When fighting spirits, the Baneklaive can steal their power. Every two points of damage dealt to the spirit returns one point of Gnosis to the Black Spiral Dancer, though this power only works on one spirit per scene.  
|ooo ||In the umbra, you emanate an intangible, though noticeable, sense of your aligned spirit type.
 
|-
''W20 Book of the Wyrm, pg 184''
|oooo ||In the Umbra, you have visible hints of your aligned spirit type. Those attuned to nature spirits may have tiny twigs emerge from their fur, for example.
 
|-
----
|ooooo ||Some question if you really are only half spirit.
|-
|}


</div>
</div>


----
<div class="mw-customtoggle-totem" style="cursor:pointer; color:cornflowerblue">[+/-] Totem</div>
<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" id="mw-customcollapsible-totem">


==Kinfolk Fetishes==
=Totem=


=Kinfolk Fetishes=
''W20 Core, pg 140, W20 Changing Breeds, pg 212''


While most Garou fetishes are not usable by most Kinfolk (as they require attunement through a Gnosis roll before being used) a few unusual fetishes are made just for Kinfolk. This arrangement usually takes more negotiation on the Theurge’s part, but, if successful, the spirits within accept a battle of will (a Willpower roll or spending a Willpower point) instead of Gnosis, for both attunement and use. The difficulty is still equal to the Gnosis rating. Any Kinfolk may use these items; they are specially prized and are often family heirlooms.
Totem is a Background that applies directly to the character’s pack, rather than the individual. Unlike other pooled Backgrounds, the pack spends all of the points that members have invested in this Trait to determine their totem’s power.<br>
Each totem has a Background cost rating; the pack must spend that amount to ally with that totem. Some totems are willing to lend great powers to their adherents; their point costs are correspondingly greater. See Pack Totems (W20 Core, pg 373) for a list of possible totems. In addition to their Totem bonuses, all beginning totems have a base of eight points to divide among Rage, Willpower, and Gnosis. The totem also begins with the Airt Sense and Re-form Charms. Apart from bestowing power, totems start out somewhat aloof from the pack, and they have little influence among spirits, unless the players buy a closer connection with Background points. With time, roleplaying, and experience points, pack totems can grow in power as their pack grows in Rank and influence. Some totems can even become the totems of whole septs or — in legendary circumstances — even tribes.<br>
Most of the powers that totems bestow are available to only one pack member at a time. At the end of each turn, the Garou with the power declares who the power may be given to next turn (assuming that she doesn’t keep it). After spending the initial cost of the totem, the players can spend any remaining Background points to add to the totem’s strength and abilities.<br><br>
A multi-Fera pack may pool its Background points to buy its Totem in the same fashion as a Garou pack. Owing perhaps to some similarity to the rites used by the hengeyokai, even Corax and Gurahl are able to participate in the rite, giving up Raven or Bear’s favor in exchange for that of the pack totem. The inclusion of a Nuwisha still guarantees that the totem attracted will be a trickster of some variety, however. In the incredible event that an Ananasi or Nagah participates in the rite, they gain only the ability to participate in pack tactics and the totem spirit’s favorable regard; Queen Ananasa will not relinquish her children to another, while the Nagah remain outside of the Pact that facilitates congress between the spirit world and the other Fera.


<div class="mw-customtoggle-one" style="cursor:pointer; color:cornflowerblue">[+/-] Level One</div>
{| class="wikitable"
<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" id="mw-customcollapsible-one">
! Cost !! Power
 
|-
 
|1 ||Per three points to spend on Willpower, Rage, or Gnosis
==Bloodhound’s Snout==
|-
 
|1 ||Totem can speak to the pack without the benefit of the Gift: Spirit Speech.
''Level One, Gnosis 5''
|-
 
|1 ||Totem can always find the pack members.
This is a dog’s leash that, when activated by a Kinfolk (who can roll Willpower or Gnosis to do so), will lead its owner along the trail of a particular target’s scent. The Kinfolk must have a sample of that scent, such as from a scarf, glove, or even water bottle the target drank from, and he holds that item up to the leash as he activates the fetish. This acts in every way like a normal, living dog tracking the scent. It can be fooled by all the sorts of things that can baffle a dog, such as by the target crossing a stream or rolling in animal scat to overpower his own scent, etc. During activation, the leash literally pulls out ahead of its holder, traveling along the ground as if there were an actual dog at the end of the leash. Each activation lasts until the target is run to ground or a full day passes, whichever occurs first.
|-
 
|2 ||Totem is nearly always with the pack members.
This fetish is bound with the spirit of a domestic dog. It is easier to make this fetish if its intended recipient Kinfolk is an experienced and caring dog-owner. If the Kinfolk has ever abused a dog, he cannot use this fetish; the spirit will not cooperate with him.
|-
 
|2 ||Totem is respected by other spirits.
''Source: W20 Kinfolk, pg 74''
|-
 
|2 ||Per charm possessed
----
|-
 
|3 ||Per extra pack member who can use the totem’s powers in the same turn
==Horn of Distress==
|-
 
|4 ||Totem is connected mystically to all pack members, allowing communication among them even at great distances.
''Level 1, Gnosis 3''
|-
 
|5 ||Totem is feared by agents of the Wyrm. Either minions of the Wyrm flee from the pack, or they do their best to kill the pack.
Only in times of dire need do Kinfolk sound these instruments. Such horns vary in appearance according to culture; most bear tribal markings. This fetish uses Willpower instead of Gnosis. When blown, a horn alerts all werewolves within a 10-mile radius. Whether they choose to come or not is their affair, but they know the sound of the horn means trouble.  
|}
 
Most often, these horns contain peacock-spirits, though a few hold spirits of Air.


''Source: W20 Core, pg 384''
The listed cost is in Background points, which can be bought through experience (see Spending Experience Points, p. 244) at the rate of two experience points per Background point. (Therefore, three points of Rage would cost two experience points.) The Storyteller should allow increases in totem powers only when it fits in to the story, such as when pack members gain a higher rank, a new member joins the pack, or when pack members gain new insight into the nature of their totem. When the totem is affiliated with a more powerful spirit, the greater spirit might grant the strengthening of its servant (pack totem) in return for a great service done it by the pack.


----
* As social creatures, werehyenas are much more likely to have pack totems than personal ones.<br>
* Queen Ananasa also serves as the totem for all werespiders, granting Occult +3 and Enigmas +2 while the werespider meditates in his Sylie. In return, they must obey her laws.<br>
* Bastet often use personal rather than pack totems, however (calling such patrons “Jamak”).<br>
* Corax have no pack or personal Totems, either; Raven claims each Corax for his own, granting them one free dot of Athletics, Enigmas, and Subterfuge. In return he asks only that they whisper each secret they learn into the air, that he might hear it as well.<br>
* All Gurahl have an aspect of Bear as their personal Totem.<br>
* Those not associated with a sentai or other pack-group may have either a personal totem or no totem at all.<br>
* Virtually all Nuwisha have a personal totem, inevitably a trickster spirit of some sort. Rarely, a Nuwisha will bind herself into a pack of other Fera — but only if the pack is united under a trickster totem.<br>
* Some wererats establish themselves under a permanent Totem, while others use a special rite to temporarily assume a Totem for the duration of only a single mission or quest, dissolving their bond to the spirit once their task is done.


</div>
</div>


<div class="mw-customtoggle-two" style="cursor:pointer; color:cornflowerblue">[+/-] Level Two</div>
<div class="mw-customtoggle-denrealm" style="cursor:pointer; color:cornflowerblue">[+/-] Den Realm</div>
<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" id="mw-customcollapsible-two">
<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" id="mw-customcollapsible-denrealm">


==Amulet of Kinship==
=Den-Realm=


''Level 2, Gnosis 5''
''W20 Changing Breeds, pg 210''


Garou bestow this fetish upon honored Kinfolk as a symbol of protection and service. All Garou, mages, and spirits that the wearer meets instantly know her to be Kinfolk of note and know the identity (deed name, tribe, breed, auspice, and rank) of the Garou who gave it to her. The Amulet of Kinship must be activated by the werewolf (Gnosis roll) when it is given to the Kinfolk; after that, no roll is necessary. The amulet doesn’t function if worn by anyone other than the intended recipient.  
The Bastet has built or acquired (either by inheritance or duel) her own Den-Realm, a sanctuary where she and the land have become one. In the Umbra, a Den-Realm resembles a Domain, one which other travelers cannot pass through without permission. The appearance of this Domain is up to the Bastet who owns the Den-Realm — a proud Khan’s Den-Realm may resemble a maharaja’s fortress, while a Balam’s might resemble an impenetrable forest.<br>
A difficulty 8 Perception + Occult roll is necessary to recognize a Den-Realm for what it is, and penetrating its walls uninvited requires a roll as though the intruder were stepping sideways (difficulty 9). This automatically alerts the Bastet that an intruder is coming in.<br>
A werecat inside of his Den-Realm enjoys several benefits: He may step sideways at any time within his Den-Realm, against a Gauntlet of 3. A number of times per scene equal to his Gnosis rating, the Bastet may make a Gnosis roll (difficulty 6) to blink between two points in his Den-Realm without crossing the intervening space. Any attack on the Den-Realm (whether by banes in the Umbra or bulldozers in the Gaia Realm) registers as a cold bolt of pain in the werecat’s heart. The Bastet can freely peer through the Gauntlet from either side within her Den-Realm. Finally, the Bastet can lead any others she chooses across the Gauntlet while in her Den-Realm as though they were packmates.<br>
A Den-Realm’s rating determines how big it is. The first rating is for urban Den-Realms, while the second is for the much larger Den-Realms possible in the wilderness.


To create the fetish, an ancestor-spirit must be bound into the device.
{| class="wikitable"
 
! Points !! Description
''Source: W20 Core, pg 384''
|-
 
|o ||The size of a house/one square mile.
----
|-
 
|oo ||The size of a mansion/two square miles.
==Songbird Staff==
|-
 
|ooo ||A city block/five square miles.
''Level Two, Gnosis 6''
|-
 
|oooo ||Two city blocks/10 square miles.
This oak staff is carved with stylized images of birds of all types, from wrens and vireos to crows — but not predators and scavengers like hawks and eagles. When a Kinfolk activates it (using Willpower or Gnosis), it will produce faint bird sounds, chirpings, cawings, or even scoldings. The user can understand simple messages about her immediate environment, such as whether there are people or predators nearby, if the weather is about to change (such as rain or snow is coming), or if there is imminent danger (a forest fire or a coming earthquake). The user can query the staff for more specific information by making bird sounds herself — they just have to sound somewhat like birds; they don’t have to be perfect — and will receive very basic replies: the group of humans over the ridge is armed, there are three of them; or the oily substance in the water originates five miles upstream. Generally, if it is information that would be known by the local bird population (even if they can’t think analytically about it), the staff can convey it.  
|-
 
|ooooo ||Five city blocks/20 square miles.
This fetish requires a bird spirit, preferably a songbird or a talkative bird like a crow or raven. It cannot be a bird that preys on other birds.
|-
 
|}
''Source: W20 Kinfolk, pg 75''
 
----


</div>
</div>


<div class="mw-customtoggle-three" style="cursor:pointer; color:cornflowerblue">[+/-] Level Three</div>
<div class="mw-customtoggle-glade" style="cursor:pointer; color:cornflowerblue">[+/-] Umbral Glade</div>
<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" id="mw-customcollapsible-three">
<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" id="mw-customcollapsible-glade">


=Umbral Glade=


==Blood Brother Blade==
''W20 Changing Breeds, pg 210''


''Level Three, Gnosis 7''
A Gurahl with this Background possesses a Den which opens into a Glade in the Umbra, serving as a “mini-caern” or wellspring of Gnosis. The size and location of the Umbral Glade determines how much Gnosis is available for the resident Gurahl. If more than one Gurahl remains within the Glade in order to regain Gnosis, the total Gnosis available must be shared among those wishing to partake of it.<br>
In addition to providing Gnosis for the Gurahl, an Umbral Glade gives the werebear an instantaneous doorway into the Umbra without the need for a rite.


This hunting knife is carved or painted with Garou pictograms representing Kin and/or Honor. When it is first made, a Garou and a Kinfolk each cut themselves with the blade and then join their blood together in the traditional “blood brothers forever” ceremony (any gender can do this). Those two are then mystically bonded through the blade. This bond can survive the death of the Kinfolk and pass to his or her bloodline children, but once the Garou passes away, the spirit inhabiting the fetish is freed.
{| class="wikitable"
 
! Points !! Description
The bonded Kinfolk can later activate the fetish (using Willpower or Gnosis) by cutting himself with the blade (a slice across the thumb will do). This alerts his bonded Garou that the Kin is in need of him. There is no supernatural compulsion to come to the Kinfolk’s aid, but since Garou do not idly hand out these fetishes, it is assumed that the Garou will do all in her power to come running.
|-
 
|o ||A 20 x 20 foot area, supplying one Gnosis per day.
Alternatively, the Kinfolk can activate the blade by cutting an enemy and drawing blood (or ichor, whatever the case may be). The bonded Garou will then know the scent of the enemy and be able to recognize it anywhere and be able to track it once she encounters it.
|-
 
|oo ||A 50 x 50 foot area, supplying two Gnosis per day.
This fetish is made by binding an ancestor spirit related either to the Garou or the Kinfolk participating in the ceremony.
|-
 
|ooo ||A 100 x 100 foot area, supplying three Gnosis per day.
''Source: W20 Kinfolk, pg 74''
|-
 
|oooo ||A 500 x 500 foot area, supplying four Gnosis per day.
----
|-
 
|ooooo ||A 1,000 x 1,000 foot area, supplying five Gnosis per day.
==Klaive Hammer==
|-
 
|}
''Level 3, Gnosis 5''
 
Werewolves often do not have time to devote to mundane crafts such as blacksmithing, and yet klaives are a vital resource for the Nation. Often times, while a Theurge binds the spirit to the weapon, a skilled Kinfolk with Gnosis forges the klaive itself. A Klaive Hammer allows the Kinfolk to craft a klaive so perfect of form that the summoned spirit may be pleased to accept permanent binding within the fetish. Using a weapon forged with a Klaive Hammer gives the ritesmaster creating a Klaive –4 to the difficulty of performing the Rite of the Fetish on that weapon.
 
To create a Klaive Hammer, one of the following spirits must be bound into a hammer touched by the crafter: Balance, Light, or Fire. Each Klaive Hammer is uniquely attuned to its owner, but if freely given by the old owner and accepted by the new one, the attunement can be transferred. In this case, either the old owner or the new one must spend Gnosis to fuel the attunement. Because of this, these fetishes are often created by Garou, handed off to Kinfolk, and then returned to the Nation when a Kin is no longer able to fulfill the taxing duties of smithing service.
 
''Source: W20 Core, pg 384''
 
----


</div>
</div>


<div class="mw-customtoggle-four" style="cursor:pointer; color:cornflowerblue">[+/-] Level Four</div>
<div class="mw-customtoggle-mnesis" style="cursor:pointer; color:cornflowerblue">[+/-] Mnesis</div>
<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" id="mw-customcollapsible-four">
<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" id="mw-customcollapsible-mnesis">


Any Mokolé (even one without this Background) may place himself into a Mnesis quest — a sort of autohypnosis in which the character journeys deep into the halls of ancestral memory, much like the Umbral vision-quests of the Garou. Because a Mnesis quest can easily last for hours and renders the seeker oblivious to the outside world for its duration, most Mokolé will only enter Mnesis while in the safety of their wallows. The rating of the Background determines how far back the Mokolé may remember.


==Hearth Caul==
{| class="wikitable"
 
! Points !! Description
''Level Four, Gnosis 7''
|-
 
|None ||Roughly a century.
This is the remains of a Kinfolk’s birth caul, a piece of birth membrane. Caul births are very rare, and much folklore has been built up about the magical uses for a baby’s caul. Should a Kinfolk be so lucky as to be born into a family who honors such traditions, the entire family can benefit. The caul must be saved and preserved with special herbs (the Herbalism Knowledge Ability can help with identifying and collecting them well ahead of time) and is then kept in a special box that is hidden somewhere inside the family’s hearth. If the family doesn’t have a fireplace, they’ll need to declare a hearth space, and be able to hide this box from view.
|-
 
|o ||Three to five hundred years.
So long as the family keeps the caul, its members (immediate family and extended family so far as uncles, aunts, and first cousins) gain good fortune. This is not miraculous luck, such as winning lottery tickets, but more protective and nurturing, synchronicities that might at first appear to be foul luck but then reveal themselves to be providence: Hundred-year floods that wash the neighbor’s houses away, leaving only the Kins’ unharmed, or a flat tire that prevents one of the family members from driving over a bridge just before it collapses.
|-
 
|oo ||Roughly a millennium.
Should a non-family member see the caul, its effects end until it can be re-activated by a family member using Willpower or Gnosis. The difficulty is one less if performed by the family’s recognized matriarch. Should a non-family member (except for a Garou) touch the caul, it is ruined; the bound spirit leaves the fetish.
|-
 
|ooo ||The Impergium and the beginning of human civilization.
The spirit inhabiting the fetish is an ancestor spirit of the Kinfolk or their related Garou tribe.
|-
 
|oooo ||The awakening of the mammalian shapeshifters.
''Source: W20 Kinfolk, pg 74''
|-
 
|ooooo ||The time of the Dinosaur Kings.
----
|-
|}


</div>
</div>


<div class="mw-customtoggle-five" style="cursor:pointer; color:cornflowerblue">[+/-] Level Five</div>
<div class="mw-customtoggle-wallow" style="cursor:pointer; color:cornflowerblue">[+/-] Wallow</div>
<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" id="mw-customcollapsible-five">
<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" id="mw-customcollapsible-wallow">


The Wallow Background means that you have ties to a Mokolé wallow, one with some history and other Mokolé residents. If you are a homid, this may be a village, rural homestead, or isolated island such as Komodo. If you are a suchid, it may be an ancient temple, jungle swamp, zoo, or gator farm. Any Allies, Contacts, or Kinfolk you may have likely live at the wallow. The wallow is a place where you can meditate to regain Gnosis in Sun’s light, hold gathers and perform rites. You may live there all the time; of course, if you don’t have Resources, your home might not be very luxurious.


{| class="wikitable"
! Points !! Description
|-
|o ||A poor wallow. One Mokolé lives there or perhaps only Kin.
|-
|oo ||No palace. A few Mokolé and Kin live there.
|-
|ooo ||The wallow has lots of land (maybe a national park) or places to live.
|-
|oooo ||A nice place: a village, isolated creek, or lake.
|-
|ooooo ||A temple, alligator farm, or large village.
|-
|}


</div>
</div>


----
<div class="mw-customtoggle-secrets" style="cursor:pointer; color:cornflowerblue">[+/-] Secrets</div>
<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" id="mw-customcollapsible-secrets">


</tab>
=Secrets=


<tab name="Talens">
The character possesses information that would be considered desirable — or damaging — by someone else. While such knowledge can sometimes place the character in danger, mostly it gives her leverage and advantages. What the character does with these secrets (bartering them for favors or cash, using them to take down minions of the Wyrm, or something else entirely) is up to her.<br>
The player and Storyteller should work together to determine what sort of secrets the character possesses. The Background’s rating determines the value and number of secrets the character knows. This Background is normally the province of Corax and Bastet, though other Changing Breeds (and even the odd Shadow Lord!) occasionally pick it up as well.


=Talens=
{| class="wikitable"
 
! Points !! Description
Talens are simpler versions of fetishes, created with the Rite of Binding, which are easier to create but more limited in effect. Like fetishes, talens are objects that contain spirits. They require a Gnosis roll to activate, but not to attune. However, talens can be used only once. After fulfilling the terms of its binding pact, the talen’s spirit departs and the item loses its potency.
|-
 
|o ||A small but noteworthy secret — a secret affair, a hidden sexual orientation, a minor crime.
Where forceful binding into a fetish is a slap in the face of the entire spirit world, werewolves consider aggressive binding into a talen acceptable, as the binding is only temporary.  
|-
 
|oo ||A moderate secret. The human identities of a Garou pack, the whereabouts of a criminal on the run, a significant crime, or evidence of two Garou sleeping together. Alternately, a few minor secrets.
A talen’s Gnosis rating is equal to the bound spirit’s Gnosis. One extra talen of the same type can be made for each additional success on the Rite of Binding roll. For example, three successes create three Bane arrows. Gafflings are commonly bound to make talens; more powerful spirits make the creation of multiple talens easier, adding two or three extra talens to the total number generated. Talens last until used.  
|-
 
|ooo ||A substantial secret, or equivalent amount of lesser secrets. A matter of life and death or utter ruination for someone. The location of a lost fetish that someone needs to stay lost. The identity of a murderer of one or more Fera.
If Storytellers wish to allow Kinfolk to use standard talens in their game, they may allow the talen to be activated by making a Willpower roll or spending a Willpower point, rather than Gnosis. Additionally, these talens have been created over time to aid Kinfolk in assisting the Garou Nation, and are activated using Willpower roll or expenditure rather than Gnosis.
|-
 
|oooo ||A heavy secret, or equivalent amount of lesser secrets. The location of a national fugitive, a vampire’s “little black book” of contacts, the location of a Gurahl.
A list of sample talens follows:
|-
 
|ooooo ||An enormous secret, or equivalent amount of lesser secrets. A high-level Pentex plot. The location of a legendary cursed fetish. The secret weakness of an Incarna.
<div class="mw-customtoggle-gaian" style="cursor:pointer; color:cornflowerblue">[+/-] Gaian Talens</div>
|-
<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" id="mw-customcollapsible-gaian">
|}
 
==Archa Torch==
 
''Gnosis 6''


When lit, this torch emits sweet-scented smoke that shrouds an area a few dozen yards across for up to six hours (less in windy conditions). Banes and other spirits tainted or twisted by the Wyrm increase the difficulty of all their actions by +1 (maximum of 9) so long as they remain within the torch’s smoke. A spirit of an archa tree or a Wyld spirit must be bound to this Talen.
* Bastet and Corax both have access to Secrets.
 
A werewolf looking to create an Archa Torch or Monkeysbane must use the wood of the archa, found in the Ala Archa National Park, while the Compostela Scallop Shell (W20 RAtW, pg 82) is a reward for those Garou who complete the Compostela pilgrimage.
 
''Source: W20 Rage Across the World, pg 81''
 
----
 
==Bane Arrows==
 
''Gnosis 4''
 
These obsidian-headed arrows unerringly seek Banes, whether or not they are visible. They hit Banes automatically and inflict three dice of aggravated damage. The bite of a Bane arrow is so painful that no Bane can resist howling in agony. Wyrm-spirits can sometimes sense the presence of these talens, and may not wait for the archer to fire before acting.
 
To create a Bane arrow, one must bind a spirit of war, air, or pain into the arrow.
 
''Source: W20 Core, pg 228''
 
----
 
==Chiropteran Spies==
 
''Gnosis 6''
 
These Shadow Lord talens look like wooden bat figurines, which come to life when activated. The Chiropteran Spies can serve as scouts, spies or diversions for up to 12 hours. When their tasks are completed, they turn to sawdust.
 
Similar talens exist among other tribes: The Silent Striders have clay scarabs, the Children of Gaia use porcelain doves, and the Glass Walkers have small metal insects.
 
To create a chiropteran spy, a bat-spirit must be bound to the carving.
 
''Source: W20 Core, pg 227''
 
----
 
==Compostela Scallop Shell==
 
''Talen, Gnosis 6''
 
A werewolf who completes the Compostela pilgrimage (W20 RAtW, pg 67) often receives this as a gift from the ocean spirit at the end of the journey. To use it, the Garou thinks of a destination and activates the Talen. The werewolf wakes each day with the knowledge of the next step he must take to reach that destination. Once he reaches that destination, the power of the Talen guides him home in the same way. The Talen’s spirit departs once the Garou returns home, even if he has not completed the journey he had in mind.
 
A werewolf looking to create an Archa Torch or Monkeysbane must use the wood of the archa, found in the Ala Archa National Park, while the Compostela Scallop Shell (W20 RAtW, pg 82) is a reward for those Garou who complete the Compostela pilgrimage.
 
''Source: W20 Rage Across the World, pg 82''
 
==Death Dust==
 
''Gnosis 6''
 
When broken open, activated and sprinkled over the dead body of a recently (within a day) deceased creature, this small jar of dust allows the Garou to communicate with the corpse’s spirit.
 
To create death dust, one must bind a spirit of death, communication or divination into the jar.
 
''Source: W20 Core, pg 227''
 
----
 
==Gaia’s Breath==
 
''Gnosis 5''
 
When this small, dried gourd is crushed and the dust sprinkled over an open wound, the talen heals up to four health levels of damage (even aggravated damage).
 
To create Gaia’s breath, one must bind a spirit of healing into a glyph-decorated gourd.
 
''Source: W20 Core, pg 228''
 
----
 
==Moon Glow==
 
''Gnosis 8''
 
This talen is a single moonbeam caught within a small crystal. Upon embarking on a journey into the Umbra, the wielder may activate this blessing from Luna. As long as it is carried continually, the journey should be a safe one. The crystal shatters once the Garou reaches his destination. This talen keeps away only incidental danger — it has no power to ward off enemies actively seeking the Garou, ambushes, or the repercussions of foolhardy actions such as insulting powerful spirits in their homes.
 
Only a Lune can empower a moon glow talen.
 
''Source: W20 Core, pg 228''
 
----
 
==Moon Sign==
 
''Gnosis 5''
 
This small wax seal bears the sign of the full moon. When activated and thrown down before any werewolf, the werewolf’s player must succeed on a Willpower roll (difficulty 7), or the character changes immediately into Lupus form. This talen works on Black Spiral Dancers and other Fera as well, making them shift to their animal form.
 
To create a moon sign, one must bind a Lune, Wyld spirit, or wolf-spirit into the seal.
 
''Source: W20 Core, pg 228''
 
----
 
==Nightshade==
 
''Gnosis 5''
 
This talen is distilled from the very essence of night. When quaffed, one fluid ounce of this liquid turns the imbiber’s body into shadow, rendering her virtually invisible in darkness. Only a watcher searching actively for the user can make a roll to spot her. This effect lasts only an hour.
 
To create a nightshade, a spirit of night or darkness must be bound into a vial.
 
''Source: W20 Core, pg 228''
 
----
 
==Wind Snorkel==
 
''Gnosis 3''
 
If a Garou needs to swim underwater, burrow through the earth, or venture anywhere that she ordinarily cannot breathe, she can use this peculiar talen. Fitting the end of the tube into her mouth or muzzle, the werewolf can suck enough air through it to keep herself alive and moving onward on her journey, for as long as necessary. The tube need not protrude into air to function. The spirit departs when the Garou removes the tube from her mouth.
 
To create a wind snorkel, an air elemental must be bound into a flexible, hollow reed or bone antler.
 
''Source: W20 Core, pg 228''
 
----
 
==Wyrm Scale==
 
''Gnosis 8''
 
This sigil possesses some protection against the power of the Wyrm. Servants of the Wyrm revert to their true forms if the sigil activates in their presence. Some believe that this action alerts the Wyrm to the existence of the sigil, but in any event, the sigil combusts in a greenish fire immediately after use, and is incinerated completely.
 
To create a Wyrm scale, a Wyrm-spirit must be bound into the sigil.
 
''Source: W20 Core, pg 228''
 
----


</div>
</div>


----
<div class="mw-customtoggle-umbralmaps" style="cursor:pointer; color:cornflowerblue">[+/-] Umbral Maps</div>
 
<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" id="mw-customcollapsible-umbralmaps">
==Weaver Talens==
 
<div class="mw-customtoggle-weavetal" style="cursor:pointer; color:cornflowerblue">[+/-] Weaver Talens</div>
<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" id="mw-customcollapsible-weavetal">
 
 
 
</div>
 
----
 
==Wyrm Talens==
 
<div class="mw-customtoggle-wyrtal" style="cursor:pointer; color:cornflowerblue">[+/-] Wyrm Talens</div>
<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" id="mw-customcollapsible-wyrtal">
 
 
 
</div>
 
----
 
==Kinfolk Talens==
 
If Storytellers wish to allow Kinfolk to use standard talens in their game, they may allow the talen to be activated by making a Willpower roll or spending a Willpower point, rather than Gnosis. Additionally, these talens have been created over time to aid Kinfolk in assisting the Garou Nation, and are activated using Willpower roll or expenditure rather than Gnosis.
 
<div class="mw-customtoggle-kintal" style="cursor:pointer; color:cornflowerblue">[+/-] Kinfolk Talens</div>
<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" id="mw-customcollapsible-kintal">
 
==Biting Bullet==
 
''Gnosis 7''
 
This is a bullet or round of buckshot. A Kinfolk (or Garou) who puts it between his teeth and bites down can fire the bullet at a target he faces, just as if he were taking aim with a gun. He rolls Dexterity + Firearms or Athletics to hit. The damage delivered depends on the caliber of the bullet; act as if it were a real gunshot. Unfortunately, the biter takes one level of bashing damage from the explosion in his mouth.
 
This talen contains a fire spirit.
 
''Source: W20 Kinfolk, pg 75''
 
----
 
==Dire Call==
 
''Gnosis 9''
 
This talen looks like a slender white stick about the size of a drinking straw. When the user snaps the stick in two and spends a point of Willpower, a call goes out which summons the nearest single Garou to the user’s location. If a group of Garou is nearby, this power targets the one that is physically closest to the user’s locale.
 
This talen differs from the Fetish: Horn of Distress, in that the werewolf must come (spending at least 10 turns or an hour, whichever is greater, doing everything in their power to reach the user’s location) once the Dire Call is activated. Using the Dire Call is risky because the talen’s power doesn’t distinguish between friends or enemies, nor does it demand that the Garou aid the Kin once he arrives. A Kinfolk could summon an enraged Red Talon, a Black Spiral Dancer, or just an indifferent werewolf with no vested interest in offering help.
 
A Lune must be bound into a birch stick to make this talen.
 
''Source: W20 Core, pg 385''
 
----
 
==Finders Keepers==
 
''Gnosis 5''
 
There’s an old joke about a drunk who loses his keys in the park but searches for them near a streetlight because that’s where the light is. With this talen, a drunk — or anybody who uses it — no longer needs the streetlight or even the park. This talen is a simple match, and it usually comes in a box or matchbook with four others of its kind. When lit, it will reveal to its user a vision of something he has lost or had stolen. If he dropped his keys under the couch, he’ll see an image of the keys there. If his wallet was stolen, he’ll see an image of where it is now, such as in the pocket of the crook who took it. When he strikes the match, he must speak the name of the object he’s looking for: “my keys,” “my wallet,” etc. Note that the image won’t necessarily reveal the exact location of the object, but there might be clues — the name of a Chinese take-out place seen over the shoulder of the crook who stole the wallet. The image disappears when the match burns out.
 
This talen holds a hawk or falcon spirit.
 
''Source: W20 Kinfolk, pg 75''
 
----
 
==Fumblegum==
 
''Gnosis 6''
 
This pack of five sticks of bubblegum has helped many a Kin (most often Bone Gnawer Kin) out of a jam. The Kin activates it by giving a stick a few chews. He then tosses it on the ground. It then winds up on the heel of anyone who is pursuing or following the Kin, even if he didn’t walk directly over it. The pursuer must succeed in a Perception + Alertness roll to notice that he’s got gum sticking to his foot. So long as the gum is stuck to him, he’ll find it harder to catch up to his prey. Passersby will inadvertently block his way, delaying him; cops will stop him to question him; traffic will prevent him crossing the street in time. If he outright tries to run after the Kin, he must roll Dexterity + Athletics not to trip and fall. If he succeeds, the gum’s effect ends. If he fails, the gum keeps working.
 
This talen is created by binding a rat or cockroach spirit.
 
''Source: W20 Kinfolk, pg 75''
 
----
 
==Hero’s Mead==
 
''Gnosis 5''
 
This talen is a dry, herbal mixture. The user mixes the herbs with liquid, then drinks the mixture while making a Willpower roll or spending a Willpower point. If the roll is successful, she finds her Strength doubled (to a maximum of five dots). The additional Strength lasts for one scene.
 
To make the talen, the creator must mix a recipe of rare herbs in a container, then bind a thunder-spirit to the herbs.
 
''Source: W20 Core, pg 384''
 
----
 
==Leaf of Grass==
 
''Gnosis 4''
 
This is a broad-bladed tree leaf (despite its name) which, when laid over a Kinfolk’s eyes, imparts to him the words of an original poem. That’s it — a poem. But it is a very good poem, and if he were to recite it or publish it, he’d receive high accolades. A Galliard would be envious.
 
This talen holds an elemental spirit.
 
''Source: W20 Kinfolk, pg 76''
 
----
 
==Long Whispers==
 
''Gnosis 7''
 
No matter where a recipient might be — in the Gaian Realm or the Umbra — he can receive a brief written message (a paragraph, or about five full sentences) via this talen. The talen itself looks like a sheet of smooth, blank vellum. The user writes down the message, addresses the note (by name only), then activates the talen with Willpower (roll or expenditure). The notepaper blows out of her hand as if moved by an unseen wind. After one scene, it comes into the recipient’s possession in much the same way.
 
To create this talen, a dove-spirit or pigeon-spirit must be bound into high quality vellum.
 
''Source: W20 Core, pg 385''
 
----
 
==Spirit Shield==
 
''Gnosis 7''
 
This talen resembles a small shield, about the size of a pendant, which can be worn around the neck. The user brings the talen to his lips to activate it and spends a point of Gnosis. The talen glows with a faint luminescence. This soft aura expands to surround the wearer, so that he, too, gives off a pale, unearthly light. All hostile non-Garou experience fear when they witness the aura and do not approach the wearer. Against Garou attackers, the talen has one of two effects. In order to attack the wearer, the Garou must roll Wits + Enigmas (difficulty of the talen’s Gnosis rating). If the Garou succeeds, she may attack the wearer, but the talen absorbs up to 20 levels of damage before dissipating. If the Garou fails the roll, her attack will miss, no matter how many successes she rolls on her attack roll. The talen disappears when it absorbs all the damage it can or when the combat is over, whichever comes first.
 
This talen can only be used by a Kinfolk, since one of the Kinfolk’s ancestor spirits is bound into the talen and will only protect one of its non-Garou descendants. Some Garou have several of these made for their Kinfolk if they anticipate the possibility of an attack. Kinfolk may also request these talens from a Garou kin if they know they will be fighting a Garou. This talen does not protect against the attacks of fomori or other Wyrm creatures.
 
''Source: W20 Kinfolk, pg 76''
 
----
 
==Test Vial==
 
''Gnosis 3''
 
This talen allows a character to determine whether a person is Garou or Kinfolk, assuming the character can obtain a cell sample: blood, saliva, skin, hair, or the like. It looks like a simple test tube with a stopper. The tester drops her sample into the vial, seals it, shakes it, spends a Willpower point, and within five seconds, she has a thick crimson glop (Garou), a small amount of brownish powder (Kinfolk), or nothing. (No matter what other supernatural associations the person might have, non-Garou or Kinfolk samples simply evaporate.)
 
Ancestor, Divination, or Crow spirits may be bound into a normal test tube to create the fetish.
 
''Source: W20 Core, pg 384''
 
----


The character possesses a wealth of experience and received information about Umbral navigation. These “Umbral maps” are not physical objects, but rather the collected lore of symbolic navigation among spirit paths, the entry methods for safe havens and refuges, the cycles of natural spirit paths, and reliable methods to bypass various obstacles along the way.<br>
This Background is normally the province of Corax and Nuwisha, though other Changing Breeds occasionally pick it up as well.


{| class="wikitable"
! Points !! Description
|-
|o ||A few safe paths and refuges. The character enjoys –1 difficulty to rolls to navigate the Umbra.
|-
|oo ||Several routes to common destinations. As Level One, plus once per story the character can re-roll a failed attempt to navigate through the Umbra.
|-
|ooo ||Safe zones, routes to virtually any place, and knowledge of where not to go. –2 difficulty to rolls to navigate the Umbra, plus one re-roll per story.
|-
|oooo ||Several safe places and refuges, extensive knowledge of Umbral paths and dwellers in those areas. –2 difficulty to rolls to navigate the Umbra, plus two re-rolls per story.
|-
|ooooo ||No one knows the Near Umbra like the character. –3 difficulty to rolls to navigate the Umbra, plus three re-rolls per story.
|-
|}


</div>
</div>
</tab>
</tabs>

Revision as of 07:42, 26 April 2025

Starts WW Main p135

Pooling Backgrounds

Sources: W20 Core, pg 140

Some Backgrounds can relate to the pack/et, rather than the individual. Specifically, the members of a pack may choose to pool their individual Allies, Contacts, Fate, Kinfolk, and Resources. Totem as a Background already applies to the pack rather than the individual character, thus is not a candidate for pooling.
A character can draw on a pooled Background even if that Background is normally restricted for her type.

[+/-] How To Pool Backgrounds

The Anchor

The players should choose one Background as the anchor that links their characters' shared assets together. For example, the players of a pack of Glass Walkers might choose Resources, with the money and property placed in joint ownership to the pack explaining how the pack can access skilled people, connect to Kinfolk around the world, and even serve their destiny as a pack of moneyed werewolves. Any of the poolable Backgrounds can serve as an anchor: packs with grand Fates often find their destinies include other people and resources.
No pooled Background can have more dots assigned to it than the Anchor Background does at any time. If that Background is damaged by events during play or in downtime, the other assets drift out of the pack's control and it takes effort to win them back.
Any character contributing to a pool may withdraw his stake at any time, but extracting personal assets from a pack causes some damage and bruises relationships: he gets back one less dot than he put in.

Example: The members of the Irregulars build their shared Background pool around the pack's Allies: a group of ex-squaddies and political agitators in London who can put them in touch with a people in almost every field, and through whom the Irregulars can call on Kinfolk for assistance. They put a total of five dots into the Allies pool. Members of the pack add four points of pooled Contacts and two points of pooled Kinfolk.
A pack of Black Spiral Dancers wants to make life difficult for the pack, and slaughters the people the Garou relied on for help. Their Allies rating drops from 5 to 3. With so many people dead, the Irregulars cant get in touch with many of their old Contacts, so that Background also drops from 4 to 3. Fortunately, the Black Spiral Dancers didn't kill anyone who knew about the Kinfolk, so that pooled rating doesn't change.
Sustained effort by the Irregulars to help people out and forge new alliances and friendships in new areas can repair the damage. Who knows who their new friends will be able to introduce them to?

As the Anchor Background rating rises again, so do the ratings of those anchored to it, as a result of storytelling directed towards the goals of improving the lost Backgrounds.
Under normal circumstances, a pack cant change its Anchor Background, nor can it acquire a new one. While it may choose to abandon the assets represented by a given Background over the course of a chronicle, and thus free itself from the limitations of the backgrounds pooled to that Anchor, the fact that most Backgrounds can change value only as a result of the story's events means that the pack must acquire new Backgrounds in this manner. The only exception among pooled Backgrounds is Fate, and even then experience points should be used to improve it when discovering more about what the world has in store for the pack.
While some want to pursue their personal goals, the majority pull together and act as a pack against any hardships. It can be hard for a pack to accept pooling their Backgrounds when they don't necessarily know or trust one another, but as time moves on, most packs see the utility in holding assets as a pack rather than an individual. It makes sense on a fundamental level - the pack, not the individual, is the fundamental unit of Garou society.

Using Pooled Backgrounds

Pooled Backgrounds represent the pack's communal property. Anyone who contributes to any aspect of the pool has equal access to the full resources. Even a character who donates only one dot of Contacts still has equal access to all the backgrounds in the pool. Not everyone can use the pool at the same time. A pool of seven Allies represents the same seven people. Who is available to help which members of the pack depends on circumstances and agreements among the pack. Drawing on a pack's Fate has certain limitations that go beuond this; see the Background's description below for more information.

Example: Four Glass Walkers form a pool around their shared Resources - their investments and the property and assets of their wholly-owned corporation. They wish to get dots of Contacts (people in the business world), Allies (specialists each werewolf has met in her travels), and Fate (the pack is prophesied to shake the Garou Nation from a pillar of wealth). Beth contributes three dots of Resources and one of Contacts; Danny adds two dots of Allies and one dot of Resources; Laura can contribute two dots of Resources and three dots of Fate; Chuck is short on dots, but can contribute a dot of Fate and a dot of Contacts. This makes the pool Resources 6, Allies 2, Contacts 2, Fate 4 (with a pack Fate limit of 3 and a personal fate limit of 1). Everyone can tap this pool equally: Chuck can draw on all the pack's Resources if necessary, while Beth and Danny can both ddraw on the pack's Fate for their own ends - despite not having anhy Fate of their own.

Some packs may agree to place an individual access limit on shared Backgrounds, to reflect any agreements between the packmates, at the Storyteller's discretion. These arrangements are more common among packs who do not yet trust one another.

Upper Limits

Packs can get Backgrounds that surpass the normal five-dot limit through pooling their points. This is normal, and reflects the many advantages of a pack working together - a pack can keep in touch with more people, or maintain tighter control over a range of investments than one werewolf can. Pooled Backgrounds don't have any absolute upper limit, but things get outright bizarre if you aren't careful - the world's 20 richest people aren't all members of the same pack. It's usually best if the Storyteller sets a 10-dot limit on the Anchor background.
Some Backgrounds work best if they scale differently in a pool to the individual scale, especially when they break through the normal five-dot limit. If an average pack of four players each adds one or two dots of Resources to end up with a shared pool of 6, the effect isn't that they're secret billionaires. Instead, they're of modest means but it's damned near impossible to tear the pack's fiscal assets from them. As with all questions of balancing player expectations with elements of the story, the players and Storyteller should talk through the issue and set out some guidelines for what each sharedd background represents before the chronicle begins.

[+/-] Allies

Allies

W20 Core, pg 135

Allies are people who help and support you, either out of love or common interest. They can be family, friends, or even organizations that are friendly to you. Some allies have useful skills - doctors, hackers, and soldiers, for example - while others have community inflience, with contacts or resources they can use on your behalf. Although allies aid you willingly, without coaxing or coercion, they are not always available to offer assistance; they can only ignore so many of their own concerns for the sake of your relationship. Except in special circumstances, your allies don't usually know you're a supernatural creature (that knowledge would probably alter the relationship for the worse), but they may know that you have contacts and skills that most people don't, and they will come to you for favors. After all, friends help each other out, right?

You've got a closer relationship with your allies than with contacts - they're your friends, and they'll listen to you. Convincing your fishing buddy that a local refinery is spilling toxins into a major fishery can do wonders for your cause when he's an aide in the govenor's office. Of course, just as your allies are more loyal and directly useful than your contacts, they can also require more in return. But you'd help your buddies out, right?

You should work out who your allies are at the beginning of the game, as well as how you know them. Maybe they're old brothers-in-arms or friends from a local environmental socciety. Maybe (if your Allies rating is 5) you're an old hunting buddy of the govenor. Allies may be pooled among a pack/coterie/etc.

Points Description
o One ally, of moderate influence and power (doctor or veterinarian, local activist)
oo Two allies, both of moderate power (district ranger, deputy sheriff, popular blogger)
ooo Three allies, one of them quite influential (newspaper editor, local philanthropist)
oooo Four allies, one of them very influential (city countilman, military base commander)
ooooo Five allies, one of them extremely influential (mayor, senator's aide)
  • Ratkin generally don’t have much in the way of Resources or Allies, and don’t have Ancestors or Pure Breed at all.
[+/-] Ancestors

Ancestors

Sosurces: W20 Core, pg 136

Ancestral memory in humans is no more than pseudoscientific nonsense. To the GGarou, who can contact the spirits of their ancestors, it's a fact of life. Many werewolves carry some of the same memories of a distant ancestor; some even allow their forebears to take over their bodies.
Once per game session, the player of a Garou with this Backgroundd may roll his Ancestors Background (difficulty 8, or 10 if he's trying to contact the spirit of a specific ancestor). Each success allows the character to increase any Ability by one for the purposes of a single die roll, even if he has no dots in the Ability - and he doesn't suffer the penalty for not having the Ability. For example, young Emil, a pire flatlander, must scale an immense cliff to come to the aid of his embattled pack. Emil has an Ancestors rating of 4 and Athletics 0. He calls on his forebears to guide him, and Emil's player rolls four dice at difficulty 8. He scores three successes. Emil contacts his great-great-great granduncle Cragtamer, who guides him over the sheer face and over the top. Now the player has an effective Athletics rating of 3 to make his climbing roll. If the Garou had an Athletics rating of 2, then his effective dice pool wouldd be 5. All effects last for the rest of the scene.
While it is more difficult to contact a specific ancestor, successful contact provides either useful advice or precognitive visions at the discretion of the Storyteller.
Botching an Ancestors roll may indicate that the character becomes catatonic for the remainder of the scene as he's overwhelmed by the memories of thousands of lives. Alternatively, the ancestral spirit refuses to relinquish the body. How long the ancestor stays depends on the Storyteller.


Points Description
o You have brief, hazy visions from the distant past.
oo You remember faces and placces from past lives just as you remember those of your early childhood.
ooo You put names to faces among your ancestors.
oooo Ancestors converse with you on a regular basis.
ooooo Your ancestors watch your adventures with interest, and they often come to counsel you.
  • No Ananasi may have Ancestors or Pure Breed; Ananasa doesn’t want her children dwelling on the past.
  • Bastet use most of the same Backgrounds as Garou, eschewing only Ancestors (with the exception of Swara).
  • Mokolé do not possess the Ancestors Background, replacing it with Mnesis instead.
  • Ratkin generally don’t have much in the way of Resources or Allies, and don’t have Ancestors or Pure Breed at all.
  • The timeless Rokea don’t have Ancestors, and don’t concern themselves with Pure Breed.
[+/-] Contacts

Contacts

W20 Core, pg 136

Contacts are the people you know from all walks of life. They're acquaintances, drinking buddies, or friends who don't mind letting you know what's going on, but wouldn't take a bullet for you. In addition to a general network of people who you can con or bully information from, you havve a few major contacts - people you trust to feed you accurate information in their area of expertise. You should come up with a name and a field for your major contacts, either at the start of play, or as you use them.
You also have a number of minor contacts around the area. They are not quite as friendly or reliable in a pinch, but they work in a whole range of different areas and you can bribe, intimidate, or manipulate them into telling you what you need to know. To get in touch with a minor contact, make a roll using your Contacts rating (difficulty 7). Each success means that you have located one of your minor contacts. Because major contacts are closer to you (they're usually good friends), they're easier to find.
Contacts may be pooled among a pack/coterie/etc.

Points Description
o One major contact
oo Two major contacts
ooo Three major contacts
oooo Four major contacts
ooooo Five major contacts
[+/-] Fate

Fate

Sources: W20 Core, pg 137

The Fate Background represents a prophecy that accompanied your birth or the creation of your pack. A Fate is always something significant, but it's as likely to be dark and infamous as it is to be full of glory. In these times of Apocalypse, the Garou cannot afford to sacrifice even one warrior, no matter how dark the portents surrounding them are. However, even those with terrible fates often prove to be some of the greatest Garou, perhaps because they try so hard to defy their fate. Some even succeed.
In addition to the fame or infamy these prophecies garner you, once per game session you may use this Background to add successes to any roll that either failed or achieved fewer successes than were required. The player rolls his rating in this Background (difficulty 8) and adds any successes to those that were achieved in the original failed roll. If this means the action succeeds, the player should describe what his fortuitous events caused him to succeed. If the storyteller feels the player's actions run against what he is destined to do, she may choose to disallow the use of the background.
When Fate is pooled among the pack, each member may call on this Background, each member may call on this Background once per game session. If the action failed involves the entire pack in some way, then the player may draw on an amount of Fate up to the highest individual Fate in the pack. If the character is acting on her own, the player can only draw on an amount of Fate up to the lowest individual Fate in the pack (to a minimum of one). In a pack with pooled Fate, any character can raise her personal Fate with experience points, much like the totem background. However, she can only raise it up to the same level as the highest Fate in the pack - if no member of the pack starts with more than three dots of Fate, no pack member can ever buy up to four or five dots.
Packs tend to garner prophecies of greater proportions than individuals. This is not only because of the greater weight a pack can swing compared to a single werewolf, but also because the Garou tend to see a pack's accomplishments as more legitimate than those of just one person. For roleplaying purposes, consider the pack's Fate to be equal to that of the highest Fate rating in the pack.
Fate may be pooled among a pack/etc.

Points Description
o Your pack will be involved in an event that will make you known to the entire Garou Nation. For now, though, only those in your sept know of this prophecy.
oo Your pack will be the cause of an event that greatly impacts your sept, such as the destruction of a long time enemy or a highly admired Garou. The Garou throughout the city or local geographical area in which you reside might know your fate.
ooo Your pack will be responsible for an event that impacts werewolves across the continent, perhaps singlehandedly saving (or destroying) a caern. Any Garou in your hemisphere might know of the prophecy.
oooo The actions of your pack will affect the entire Garou Nation, such as the defeat of a great Wyrm enemy or the massacre of dizens of Garou. There might be a cub or two that hasn't heard of your destiny, but don't count on it.
ooooo You, or your pack, will be a direct factor in the fate of the Apocalypse, one way or another. There isn't a cub that hasn't heard of your destiny.
[+/-] Fetish

Fetish

Sources: W20 Core, pg 137

You possess a fetish - a physical object into which a shapeshifter has bound a spirit. The spirit grounds a number of powers to a fetish, so they are very significant to shifters. Such things are valuable, and other garou or other supernatural beings may covet them.

Points Description
o You possess one Level One fetish
oo You possess one Level Two fetish, or two Level One fetishes.
ooo You possess one or more fetishes with a total of three levels.
oooo You possess one or more fetishes with a total of four levels.
ooooo You possess one or more fetishes with a total of five levels.
[+/-] Kinfolk

Kinfolk

W20 Core, pg 138

Kinfolk are otherwise normal humans and animals who descended from shifters without inheriting their spiritual duty. Through this Background you are in contact with a number of Kinfolk. While Kinfolk are normal members of their species in most respects, they are immune to the Delirium, giving them the dubious advantage of looking upon a Crinos-form werewolf. They know that you are a Garou/Bastet/etc, and they are willing to help you however they can, although most are not in positions of power (such people are considered Allies). Networks of Kinfolk are a valuable way for werecreatures to deal with the human world without rishing frenzy or discovery. Some Kinfolk may be related to you directly while others are contacts you have made through your sept. Kinfolk may be pooled among a pack.

Points Description
o Two Kinfolk
oo Five Kinfolk
ooo 10 Kinfolk
oooo 20 Kinfolk
ooooo 50 Kinfolk
  • Rokea can have at most a single dot of Kinfolk, as their shark Kin are spread so far across the seas, and their human relations are so very few.
[+/-] Mentor

Mentor

Sources: W20 Core, pg 138

A shifter of higher Rank has taken a keen interest in you, and will look after you - to a point. The rating of your Mentor background quantifies how powerful your mentor is within the tribe and what rank he or she has achieved. A mentor can teach you skills, advise you, or speak on your behalf at a council fire. He has a pack of his own, and his own duties, so he wont be present to save you whenever you bite off more than you can chew. Of course, your mentor will expect something in return for his assistance, he it good company, an occasional gofer, a champion, or perhaps a supporter in sept politics. His demands can make an excellent source of story hooks. In general, however, you will receive more than you give. Other werecreatures may wonder what your mentor sees in you - the two of you deel as individuals, rather than as members of your respective packs.
A powerful mentor doesn't have to be a single person; a pack or council of elders might be considered a collective mentor. The latter would almost certainly have a raging of four or five digs, even if no one on the council is above Rank 5.

Points Description
o Mentor is Rank 2
oo Mentor is Rank 3
ooo Mentor is Rank 4
oooo Mentor is Rank 5
ooooo Mentor is Rank 6
  • Corax rarely stick with any single Mentor for an appreciable length of time, and dismiss Pure Breed as elitist nonsense.
[+/-] Pure Breed

Pure Breed

W20 Core, pg 138

Garou take great stock in ancestry, and the werewolf who is descended from renowned forebears has a definite advantage in Garou society. This Background prepresents your lineage, markings, bearings and other features of birth. Other Garou revere werewolves with high ranks in Pure Breed as heroes of yore come to life - and such werewolves are expected to act the part. The higher your Pure Breed score is, the more likely you are to impress elder councils or receive hospitality from foreign tribes. Each point of Pure Breed adds an extra die to formal challenges (such as Rank challenges) and to Social rolls involving other Garou (even Ronin or Black Spiral Dancers).
Pure breed is a nebulous combination of bloodline and spiritual inheritance. A character with high Pure Breed looks and carries himself like an archetypal member of his tribe - however, if he does not join that tribe, any benefits of Pure Breed are removed by the tribe's totem. Many werewolves with Pure Breed can trace their ancestry directly, while others resemble distant ancestors who cannot be connected without a degree of genealogical exactitude that is lost to the Garou.
Some tribes place more value on good breeding than others, but Pure Breed is almost universally respected. It's a mystical trait, and werewolves can tell instinctively whose blood is particularly pure. Of course, Garou expect those of pure blood to live up to the standards set by their noble ancestors. They frown on those who cant or wont accept the challenge.

Points Description
o You have your father's eyes.
oo Your grandfather made a name for himself at the Battle of Blood Ford, and you carry that name with pride.
ooo Your pedigree is blessed with pillars of the Garou Nation, and the blood tells.
oooo You could be dressed as a beggar and still command respect.
ooooo The greatest of heroes live on in you.
  • Ajaba use all of the same Backgrounds as the Garou, although high Pure Breed becomes increasingly rare as the Ajaba scramble to shore up their decimated numbers.
  • No Ananasi may have Ancestors or Pure Breed; Ananasa doesn’t want her children dwelling on the past.
  • Corax rarely stick with any single Mentor for an appreciable length of time, and dismiss Pure Breed as elitist nonsense.
  • Kitsune use many of the same Backgrounds as the Garou, eschewing only Pure Breed as redundant — werefoxes are all of the purest blood, after all.
  • Ratkin generally don’t have much in the way of Resources or Allies, and don’t have Ancestors or Pure Breed at all.
  • The timeless Rokea don’t have Ancestors, and don’t concern themselves with Pure Breed.
[+/-] Resources

Resources

W20 Core, pg 138

The Resources Background describes your character’s access to and control over a range of valuable assets. These assets may be actual cash, but as this Background increases, they’re more likely to be investments, property, or earning capital such as stocks and bonds. A character’s Resources depend upon the standard of living she’s comfortable with — a lupus in the Yukon isn’t likely to get a wire transfer from her broker each month. A character with no dots in Resources can have enough clothing and supplies to get by, or she may be homeless, sleeping in a den in her lupus form.
You receive a basic allowance each month based on your rating, so make sure to detail where this money comes from. The Storyteller will determine how much this is based on the area your game takes part in and the cultures you’re in contact with. A werewolf’s fortune can run out if she’s fighting in the Amazon rather than managing her stock portfolio. You can also sell your less liquid resources if you need the cash, but this can take weeks or even months, depending on what exactly you’re trying to sell. Art buyers don’t just pop out of the woodwork, after all. Resources can be pooled among a pack.

Points Description
o Sufficient. You don’t get many spending sprees, but you’ve got a decent place to live, a car that doesn’t crap out every week, and a decent standard of living for the working class.
oo Moderate. You’re thoroughly middle-class in income, and can afford the odd indulgence. You can hire specific help as necessary. You have enough available cash, portable property, and valuables that you can maintain a one-dot standard of living wherever you are for up to six months.
ooo Comfortable. You own a house and some land outright, which you may let the sept use or keep for your pack, and you’ve a reputation that gives you easy access to credit at good terms. More of your assets are tied up in property than in cash, and if needs be you can maintain a one-dot standard of living wherever you are for as long as you like.
oooo Wealthy. You have serious financial power, and are one of the richest people in your country. You don’t deal much with actual cash, using more valuable and stable assets to pay off debts as they arise. When you can’t focus on maintaining your level of Resources, you can live at the three-dot level for up to a year, or a two-dot life indefinitely.
ooooo Extremely Wealthy. You’re one of the richest people on Earth. You have multiple homes, many forms of luxury transport, and frequently show up in glossy magazines and on gossip websites. You have assets everywhere, and can hobble the Wyrm’s activities with a ten-minute phone call. You can live at the three-dot level indefinitely if you ignore your fortune; higher if you put a little effort in to it.
  • Owing to their rarity, Gurahl rarely amass much in the way of Resources
  • Ratkin generally don’t have much in the way of Resources or Allies, and don’t have Ancestors or Pure Breed at all.
[+/-] Rites

Rites

We do not use the Rites background here. Instead, if you buy the Rituals Knowledge, it will work the same: One level of rite per point of Rituals.

[+/-] Spirit Heritage

Spirit Heritage

W20 Core, pg 139

The Garou are creatures of duality - torn between man and wolf, and between flesh and spirit. The Garou share a kinsship with inhabitants of the spirit world, but some have a stronger connection than others. For some reason, perhaps an ancestral tie to a household of spirits, certain types of spirits react more positively to you than others. This doesn't need to be a friendly relationship - spirits may be fearful and respectful of you, in awe of you, or feel a sense of duty to you. No matter what the relationship, one group of spirits is more likely to cooperate with you.
When you select this background, choose one type of spirits. Examples of possible groups are animal spirits, plant spirits, elementals, urban spirits, and even Banes. When dealing with spirits of this type, the player may add his Spirit Heritage rating to any Social rolls, or rolls involved in challenges. Spirits whom you are attuned to view you, to some degree, as one of their own - a daunting prospect for those attuned to Banes, when other Garou discover their heritage. If you act against such spirits or ignore their plights, you may be seen as betraying them

Points Description
o Spirits can smell their scent on you, though no one else can.
oo The spirits note your arrival. You bring your chosen spirits to mind in others when they look at you, though few understand why.
ooo In the umbra, you emanate an intangible, though noticeable, sense of your aligned spirit type.
oooo In the Umbra, you have visible hints of your aligned spirit type. Those attuned to nature spirits may have tiny twigs emerge from their fur, for example.
ooooo Some question if you really are only half spirit.
[+/-] Totem

Totem

W20 Core, pg 140, W20 Changing Breeds, pg 212

Totem is a Background that applies directly to the character’s pack, rather than the individual. Unlike other pooled Backgrounds, the pack spends all of the points that members have invested in this Trait to determine their totem’s power.
Each totem has a Background cost rating; the pack must spend that amount to ally with that totem. Some totems are willing to lend great powers to their adherents; their point costs are correspondingly greater. See Pack Totems (W20 Core, pg 373) for a list of possible totems. In addition to their Totem bonuses, all beginning totems have a base of eight points to divide among Rage, Willpower, and Gnosis. The totem also begins with the Airt Sense and Re-form Charms. Apart from bestowing power, totems start out somewhat aloof from the pack, and they have little influence among spirits, unless the players buy a closer connection with Background points. With time, roleplaying, and experience points, pack totems can grow in power as their pack grows in Rank and influence. Some totems can even become the totems of whole septs or — in legendary circumstances — even tribes.
Most of the powers that totems bestow are available to only one pack member at a time. At the end of each turn, the Garou with the power declares who the power may be given to next turn (assuming that she doesn’t keep it). After spending the initial cost of the totem, the players can spend any remaining Background points to add to the totem’s strength and abilities.

A multi-Fera pack may pool its Background points to buy its Totem in the same fashion as a Garou pack. Owing perhaps to some similarity to the rites used by the hengeyokai, even Corax and Gurahl are able to participate in the rite, giving up Raven or Bear’s favor in exchange for that of the pack totem. The inclusion of a Nuwisha still guarantees that the totem attracted will be a trickster of some variety, however. In the incredible event that an Ananasi or Nagah participates in the rite, they gain only the ability to participate in pack tactics and the totem spirit’s favorable regard; Queen Ananasa will not relinquish her children to another, while the Nagah remain outside of the Pact that facilitates congress between the spirit world and the other Fera.

Cost Power
1 Per three points to spend on Willpower, Rage, or Gnosis
1 Totem can speak to the pack without the benefit of the Gift: Spirit Speech.
1 Totem can always find the pack members.
2 Totem is nearly always with the pack members.
2 Totem is respected by other spirits.
2 Per charm possessed
3 Per extra pack member who can use the totem’s powers in the same turn
4 Totem is connected mystically to all pack members, allowing communication among them even at great distances.
5 Totem is feared by agents of the Wyrm. Either minions of the Wyrm flee from the pack, or they do their best to kill the pack.

The listed cost is in Background points, which can be bought through experience (see Spending Experience Points, p. 244) at the rate of two experience points per Background point. (Therefore, three points of Rage would cost two experience points.) The Storyteller should allow increases in totem powers only when it fits in to the story, such as when pack members gain a higher rank, a new member joins the pack, or when pack members gain new insight into the nature of their totem. When the totem is affiliated with a more powerful spirit, the greater spirit might grant the strengthening of its servant (pack totem) in return for a great service done it by the pack.

  • As social creatures, werehyenas are much more likely to have pack totems than personal ones.
  • Queen Ananasa also serves as the totem for all werespiders, granting Occult +3 and Enigmas +2 while the werespider meditates in his Sylie. In return, they must obey her laws.
  • Bastet often use personal rather than pack totems, however (calling such patrons “Jamak”).
  • Corax have no pack or personal Totems, either; Raven claims each Corax for his own, granting them one free dot of Athletics, Enigmas, and Subterfuge. In return he asks only that they whisper each secret they learn into the air, that he might hear it as well.
  • All Gurahl have an aspect of Bear as their personal Totem.
  • Those not associated with a sentai or other pack-group may have either a personal totem or no totem at all.
  • Virtually all Nuwisha have a personal totem, inevitably a trickster spirit of some sort. Rarely, a Nuwisha will bind herself into a pack of other Fera — but only if the pack is united under a trickster totem.
  • Some wererats establish themselves under a permanent Totem, while others use a special rite to temporarily assume a Totem for the duration of only a single mission or quest, dissolving their bond to the spirit once their task is done.
[+/-] Den Realm

Den-Realm

W20 Changing Breeds, pg 210

The Bastet has built or acquired (either by inheritance or duel) her own Den-Realm, a sanctuary where she and the land have become one. In the Umbra, a Den-Realm resembles a Domain, one which other travelers cannot pass through without permission. The appearance of this Domain is up to the Bastet who owns the Den-Realm — a proud Khan’s Den-Realm may resemble a maharaja’s fortress, while a Balam’s might resemble an impenetrable forest.
A difficulty 8 Perception + Occult roll is necessary to recognize a Den-Realm for what it is, and penetrating its walls uninvited requires a roll as though the intruder were stepping sideways (difficulty 9). This automatically alerts the Bastet that an intruder is coming in.
A werecat inside of his Den-Realm enjoys several benefits: He may step sideways at any time within his Den-Realm, against a Gauntlet of 3. A number of times per scene equal to his Gnosis rating, the Bastet may make a Gnosis roll (difficulty 6) to blink between two points in his Den-Realm without crossing the intervening space. Any attack on the Den-Realm (whether by banes in the Umbra or bulldozers in the Gaia Realm) registers as a cold bolt of pain in the werecat’s heart. The Bastet can freely peer through the Gauntlet from either side within her Den-Realm. Finally, the Bastet can lead any others she chooses across the Gauntlet while in her Den-Realm as though they were packmates.
A Den-Realm’s rating determines how big it is. The first rating is for urban Den-Realms, while the second is for the much larger Den-Realms possible in the wilderness.

Points Description
o The size of a house/one square mile.
oo The size of a mansion/two square miles.
ooo A city block/five square miles.
oooo Two city blocks/10 square miles.
ooooo Five city blocks/20 square miles.
[+/-] Umbral Glade

Umbral Glade

W20 Changing Breeds, pg 210

A Gurahl with this Background possesses a Den which opens into a Glade in the Umbra, serving as a “mini-caern” or wellspring of Gnosis. The size and location of the Umbral Glade determines how much Gnosis is available for the resident Gurahl. If more than one Gurahl remains within the Glade in order to regain Gnosis, the total Gnosis available must be shared among those wishing to partake of it.
In addition to providing Gnosis for the Gurahl, an Umbral Glade gives the werebear an instantaneous doorway into the Umbra without the need for a rite.

Points Description
o A 20 x 20 foot area, supplying one Gnosis per day.
oo A 50 x 50 foot area, supplying two Gnosis per day.
ooo A 100 x 100 foot area, supplying three Gnosis per day.
oooo A 500 x 500 foot area, supplying four Gnosis per day.
ooooo A 1,000 x 1,000 foot area, supplying five Gnosis per day.
[+/-] Mnesis

Any Mokolé (even one without this Background) may place himself into a Mnesis quest — a sort of autohypnosis in which the character journeys deep into the halls of ancestral memory, much like the Umbral vision-quests of the Garou. Because a Mnesis quest can easily last for hours and renders the seeker oblivious to the outside world for its duration, most Mokolé will only enter Mnesis while in the safety of their wallows. The rating of the Background determines how far back the Mokolé may remember.

Points Description
None Roughly a century.
o Three to five hundred years.
oo Roughly a millennium.
ooo The Impergium and the beginning of human civilization.
oooo The awakening of the mammalian shapeshifters.
ooooo The time of the Dinosaur Kings.
[+/-] Wallow

The Wallow Background means that you have ties to a Mokolé wallow, one with some history and other Mokolé residents. If you are a homid, this may be a village, rural homestead, or isolated island such as Komodo. If you are a suchid, it may be an ancient temple, jungle swamp, zoo, or gator farm. Any Allies, Contacts, or Kinfolk you may have likely live at the wallow. The wallow is a place where you can meditate to regain Gnosis in Sun’s light, hold gathers and perform rites. You may live there all the time; of course, if you don’t have Resources, your home might not be very luxurious.

Points Description
o A poor wallow. One Mokolé lives there or perhaps only Kin.
oo No palace. A few Mokolé and Kin live there.
ooo The wallow has lots of land (maybe a national park) or places to live.
oooo A nice place: a village, isolated creek, or lake.
ooooo A temple, alligator farm, or large village.
[+/-] Secrets

Secrets

The character possesses information that would be considered desirable — or damaging — by someone else. While such knowledge can sometimes place the character in danger, mostly it gives her leverage and advantages. What the character does with these secrets (bartering them for favors or cash, using them to take down minions of the Wyrm, or something else entirely) is up to her.
The player and Storyteller should work together to determine what sort of secrets the character possesses. The Background’s rating determines the value and number of secrets the character knows. This Background is normally the province of Corax and Bastet, though other Changing Breeds (and even the odd Shadow Lord!) occasionally pick it up as well.

Points Description
o A small but noteworthy secret — a secret affair, a hidden sexual orientation, a minor crime.
oo A moderate secret. The human identities of a Garou pack, the whereabouts of a criminal on the run, a significant crime, or evidence of two Garou sleeping together. Alternately, a few minor secrets.
ooo A substantial secret, or equivalent amount of lesser secrets. A matter of life and death or utter ruination for someone. The location of a lost fetish that someone needs to stay lost. The identity of a murderer of one or more Fera.
oooo A heavy secret, or equivalent amount of lesser secrets. The location of a national fugitive, a vampire’s “little black book” of contacts, the location of a Gurahl.
ooooo An enormous secret, or equivalent amount of lesser secrets. A high-level Pentex plot. The location of a legendary cursed fetish. The secret weakness of an Incarna.
  • Bastet and Corax both have access to Secrets.
[+/-] Umbral Maps

The character possesses a wealth of experience and received information about Umbral navigation. These “Umbral maps” are not physical objects, but rather the collected lore of symbolic navigation among spirit paths, the entry methods for safe havens and refuges, the cycles of natural spirit paths, and reliable methods to bypass various obstacles along the way.
This Background is normally the province of Corax and Nuwisha, though other Changing Breeds occasionally pick it up as well.

Points Description
o A few safe paths and refuges. The character enjoys –1 difficulty to rolls to navigate the Umbra.
oo Several routes to common destinations. As Level One, plus once per story the character can re-roll a failed attempt to navigate through the Umbra.
ooo Safe zones, routes to virtually any place, and knowledge of where not to go. –2 difficulty to rolls to navigate the Umbra, plus one re-roll per story.
oooo Several safe places and refuges, extensive knowledge of Umbral paths and dwellers in those areas. –2 difficulty to rolls to navigate the Umbra, plus two re-rolls per story.
ooooo No one knows the Near Umbra like the character. –3 difficulty to rolls to navigate the Umbra, plus three re-rolls per story.
Retrieved from "http://retro.darcness.net/index.php?title=Draft&oldid=481"