2
\$\begingroup\$

During a game change I sent one of the players off into a God Machine experiment in New Mexico (See WtF - The Pure). The rest of the pack is now attempting to catch up to him (via details I gave through a dream). My question is, how might they go about making contact with local Forsaken once they're there? They've already gotten ambushed by Chupe's gang of moron's, which are currently unconscious. One option I was thinking of was have the local packs find them, but I feel like that's too easy, and should really only be used if they get stuck. Since this is basically enemy territory, and they ran off without doing any research...

\$\endgroup\$
1

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
1
\$\begingroup\$

I think it all depends on the kind of person(/garou) the character is. Which begs the question, why did they run off unprepared in the first place? Are they reckless, overconfident or just not expecting any trouble? There are many ways to try and find a pack, and each requires a set of abilities. I'll suggest a few.

Starting with human abilities:

  • If they're tech-savvy, they can investigate online for news, police reports, comments in online boards etc. of signs of garou presence. Did anyone report seeing anything strange to the police? Did the local crazy-news tabloid (think MIB) or forum mention anything?
  • If they are well-connected (or know someone who is), couldn't they call a contact and ask about packs in this area?
  • Are they silver-tongued enough to convince a sheriff to tell about reports without having to raise suspicion? Perhaps by pretending to be some form of academic, FBI or something like that (think Supernatural)?

Then we move on to more wolf-related abilities:

  • Can they track by smell? Shouldn't they be able to sniff garou apart from humans in a crowd?
  • Can they perhaps howl to local packs or would it invite too much human attention?

Finally garou-related:

  • Can they find any caerns? Or any nearby places that the local packs could use as meeting or training grounds? They can look for clues there?
  • Do they recognise any garou markings as they walk through the streets? Are they attentive enough?

In any case, initially I'd leave to the character the trouble of finding the packs, just try to think of things they might try and possible turnouts. If it's taking too long, you can interfere in the way you mentioned: just have someone else find them instead. I suppose you have ideas in that direction.

You can also make it fun by mixing both:

  • if they are trying to hack the local police database or snooping around the station, a garou in the force notices what they are doing and hunts them down and brings them to the pack. Now they have to explain themselves, why is a new person in town trying so desperately to find garou? Will the pack believe their story?
  • if they ask a local crazy-new reporter, they may attract the attention to themselves: why are they so interested? Have they heard of anything similar? Why don't they want to share? Now they, their pack and any local packs have to handle a nosy human trying to find out what they're here for. Whoops.

These are just random thoughts, but ultimately, you know the character, what they might think of and what would or would not be a good idea in the world you created. And don't forget you can suggest something to the player if they're less resourceful than the character they created ("Don't you think your character might try...?"). Good luck!

\$\endgroup\$
3
  • \$\begingroup\$ the "suggest something" is exactly why I asked this. The reason they took off unprepared is because they're new players, to this system, and perhaps in some cases any. \$\endgroup\$
    – xenoterracide
    Commented Aug 14, 2014 at 12:14
  • \$\begingroup\$ @xenoterracide I'm not sure if the bullet points above sufficiently answer your question. If you think the character wouldn't have done so (based on his sheet, life story, previous experience etc), as the GM I think you should call their attention to this, e.g.: "Wait, is it appropriate for a military character to run into battle by himself without even taking the time to grab a handgun?" or "Wait, your character has 1 intelligence, how can he think of this?". New players often forget to role-play and do what their actual selves would do instead. \$\endgroup\$
    – kadu
    Commented Aug 14, 2014 at 12:25
  • \$\begingroup\$ no it's pretty good, I probably won't suggest announcing themselves too much, because they're more likely to attract the attention of large packs that would rather see them dead. This is pure territory. I was simply more commenting to the pseudo questions in the answer. They do have a problem with role play, I had to remind them at the beginning of this story that their characters didn't actually know the other character was missing yet. \$\endgroup\$
    – xenoterracide
    Commented Aug 14, 2014 at 12:45
1
\$\begingroup\$

The first thing I thought of for finding other Garou when you aren't"in the know" for the area is to try some howls as you go. Keep your most perceptive pack mate on alert, throw out a couple howls of introduction when you're confident the enemy isn't around. It's always worth doing your research though, as kadu suggests.

Maybe talk to a few spirits for good measure as well for that extra subtle method. For those that are competent, stepping through the umbra could giveyou extra paths, allies, and insights that the "prime" plane on this side of the Gauntlet won't offer.

\$\endgroup\$
1
  • \$\begingroup\$ +1 for thinking of asking spirits, that's a great way for the GM to lead them the right way—or the wrong way, if they so please, by having the spirit lie. \$\endgroup\$
    – kadu
    Commented Aug 14, 2014 at 4:16

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .