Beast: The Primordial by Kurieg

A quick foreword

posted by Kurieg Original SA post

Introduction

posted by Kurieg Original SA post

Beast: Introduction
Like most Onyx Path books, we open with intro fiction. And..well.


If you notice it seems to imply the whole "This kid is a beast and he was born a beast" then you're right, because it's reprinted completely unaltered from the initial KS Treatment. That's going to happen a lot.

One thing that is new with the final printing is that each bit of chapter fiction is accompanied by a "Tales of the Dark Mother" I don't know why there need to be two stories a chapter but sure?

I'm not really a fan of the writing in this book, it's very big and grandiose talking about these creatures that haven't earned the amount of gravitas that they're being given. Regardless, we get into the introduction chapter proper.

The people who have the potential to turn into beasts have a strong connection to the primordial dream of humanity from whence all wisdom comes. Sure you have terrible nightmares but when you wake up "things make sense". But not everyone has a connection to the dream, to gain it's knowledge they need help. But wisdom does not come easy, and the price to be exacted is fear.

Hrm, making a Faustian bargain for "wisdom", where have I heard this before.

Oh yeah.

Anyways, at some point another Beast encountered you during your excursions into the primal dream, and gave you a choice. Become a Beast, or keep dreaming. If you accept, your soul is devoured and replaced by a Horror, and you awaken as a Beast. You still look human, and you walk amongst them, but you aren't human anymore. You satisfy your Hunger and leave nightmares in your wake. You slip in and out of supernatural societies as easy as you do human ones, because all supernatural creatures are your kin and have their own wisdom to teach. You carve a lair out of the Primoridal dream and use it to empower your Nightmare.
Someone once described Beast as a game of spreading your brand for personal gain, and it's depressing how true that is.

Overview
"In beast the Primordial: You play one of the Children, a human being whose soul has been replaced by one of the great monsters of legend: dragons, gryphons, giants, kraken, and worse. Beasts are not born, but reborn." Yes they hammer that point home pretty hard in the first chapter. "This is the life of the Children: preying on humanity enough to feed the Horror within, teaching people to listen to their nightmares and take wisdom from loss and fear." Even prior to becoming one of the Begotten, they have a connection to the Primoridal dream, constantly having nightmares of being hunted, dragged into the depths, dropped from great heights, held under the thumb of something huge and powerful. But they wake up knowing how those visons relate to their lives. "The lesson wasn't always pleasant; often it was painful and carried loss with it. You almost always knew, though, how to incorporate the dream into your life." But not everyone can hear them, because, you see, "The world has grown too crowded; human settlements have grown too large. People's minds are overloaded, and they can't hear the lessons the Primoridal Dream teaches." Ugh. It's humanity's fault, you see, for growing too large. Just like in the Old World of Darkness! But then your soul gets eaten and everything gets better! I would like to add that nowhere in the book are rules for how you teach lessons. There are rules for feeding yes, but no rules to determine if you 'feed well' or just inflict pain. Also note that the only real reason to avoid being an asshole is that it makes you look bad within your community.

The Beast With A Thousand Faces
So now we get a section where they go over 'myths' about Beasts and whether they're true or false.

Beasts Aren't Human: True Beasts are born human, but they have a connection to the Primordial Dream (which still makes them special). Some beasts claim they have never been human, and that the Devouring merely cleared away the human detrius. Others claim that their devourings were spontaneous and involved no other beasts. And they're already renegging on the whole "Beasts are made, not born" thing, fantastic. Regardless of if they were spontaneously created or devoured or what, Beasts aren't human anymore.

Beasts are a literal bloodline: False While beasts sometimes say they are descended from the Dark Mother and divide themselves into Families, the connection is supernatural, not genetic. Any human can be a Beast.

Beasts have legendary weaknesses: Sorta True Beasts have no natural weaknesses, but if a Hero finds them in a moment of weakness they can force weaknesses onto a beast.

Beasts Physically transform into monsters: mostly false Beasts don't shapeshift in the traditional sense, but they can use their Atavisms and Nightmares to temporarily gain advantages related to their true form.

Beasts are inherently evil: False That's just a vile Hero lie! A beast is only as evil as his actions, and most beasts instill fear to teach wisdom! Seriously guys! Trust us on this!

Beasts are feral monsters: False Beasts use human cunning to feed their primal desires.

Beasts are solitary creatures: False Many beasts join a brood of other beasts after their devouring, and some run with other supernatural creatures. But true solitary beasts are rare.

Beasts must fight Heroes to survive: True All beasts eventually attract a Hero, as they grow more powerful they attract more and more beasts and create more violence which makes more Heroes in a vicious cycle. "Wise Beasts understand, however, that Heroes are often the people most in need of the lessons they can impart, and that instruction is more useful than violence. That being said, Heroes don't always give them a choice." Oh dear, if only Heroes were better people then they could understand that Beasts are necessary and good and wonderful.

Beasts are Immortal: False Even though strong beasts can live a very long time, they will eventually die of old age barring intervention from a Hero.


The Dark Mother
What is the Dark Mother? Since this is a Chronicles of Darkness game, no one knows! She might be Echidna, they might be Tiamat or Circe. She might be the embodiment of the Primal Dream itself, and since humans aren't listening to her anymore she's sent the Beasts to do the job for her. Regardless of what she is, the beasts see her as the first and strongest of her kind. As well as the mother of all monsters. As far as beasts are concerned, Vampires, Werewolves, Changelings, and other stranger things are all just siblings of Beasts. And while other monsters (rightfully) scoff at such a claim, Beasts have powers and abilities that back up the claim. And I assure you, several of the supernatural splats have very real concerns about being linked to beasts.

What do her Children Do? Feast! If a beast does not indulge her hunger, then her Horror will start roaming while she sleeps and draw attention(and heroes) back to her. The Primordial Dream was the method by which humanity shared wisdom. The most basic kind of wisdom comes from fear and pain. Don't touch hot metal or you will burn. Do not run along the narrow ledge or you will fall. Do not enter the cave at the edge of the wilderness for monsters dwell within. Over time human society became more complex, populations exploded, and the wisdom of the Primordial Dream became lost amidst eight billion voices.
This argument makes absolutely no fucking sense. People still know that fire is hot, and not to run along ledges, because people have parents. People have books. We have school to impart lessons. I'm reasonably certain that the primordial dream doesn't contain the primal forgotten knowledge of C++ and how to use a Pivot Table. What Beasts do seems completely superfluous in a modern society.

The Horror
Conversely I think what the Horror is is fairly straightforward and doesn't need much explanation. What is important is that a Horror isn't a flesh and blood monster. It's more of an iconic thing. Almost a platonic idea of what a beast is rather than an individual thing.

Devouring
Again, how? I can understand using nightmares to teach avoidance behavior, or recommend a course of action in the broadest sense. But actually imparting skills seems like it would be impossible. Also they keep beating on the drum of "WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO IS PAINFUL BUT YOU WILL DO IT!" which seems almost emo in a 'Existence is pain!' way.

The also apparently sometimes dream of other people's wisdom. A friend being beaten down by a terrible giant tells a Beast that they need to get their friend to quit their job before it breaks them down. Other times they dream of blood and bone and realize that one of their friends is a predator working their way through their mutual social circle. Which, I guess sort of works? But these are highly symbolic and require some rather liberal interpretation. How can you be sure that your target will get the right lesson? The capital-N Nightmare powers that Beasts get are all fairly miserable as teaching tools, beyond some of the Kinship Nightmares.

Regardless, eventually such a dreamer will encounter a Real Beast, who will give them the choice. And if they accept they have one last nightmare where they are finally caught, their soul devoured, and they see the face of the Dark Mother. Then comes their Horror. They see the primoridal dream stretching before them full of long fought wisdom.

The Lair
The Lair is a pocket of the Primoridal Dream that belongs to the Beast. It a reflection of her own nature and that of their Horror, and as they grow more powerful the Lair grows with them. From a hiding place, or a place of rest, to a world of it's own full of advantages for the beast and hazards for her prey. If a Beast joins a Brood, the lairs join together in impossible ways, allowing a form of mutual security but also mutual vulnerability. If a Hero gains access to one lair he gains access to them ail.

Hunger
I think this has been covered pretty well already, and I'm not sure why it needs it's own section, but there are some pretty... great.. quotations.

Or you could just leave the corpse somewhere someone will find it and rest assured that someone will learn something from the experience. Even if it's only what color their lunch is mid digestion.

Heroes
In the far flung past, Heroes were the ones who helped people understand and crystallize the wisdom of the Primordial Dream. They used their link to the Primordial Dream to parse the wisdom it was trying to impart and help teach the lessons. They were shamans, leaders, judges, or lorekeepers. But over time the stories became more about the Hero and less about the lesson. Before they could understand the wisdom of the dream but now they responded to it with instinctive, retaliatory disgust and rage. They were once willing to tell and retell the cautionary tales but now their egos had grown and they needed to forge weapons to kill the monsters in the dark. The stories became less about the lesson and more about the Hero who killed the beast.

At best, Heroes bear a strong resemblance to the protagonists of ancient epics. Deeply flawed people doomed to a glorious terrible fate. At worst they are gore splattered maniacs trapped in an obsessive quest that is dangerous to everyone around them. Beasts often sympathize with Heroes, to a point. After all they're both linked to the primoridial dream, and Beasts are monstrous. Yes, she has her reasons, but not all Beasts exercise restraint and maybe Heroes are good at weeding out Beasts who go too far. The "problem" is that heroes aren't actually trying to solve a problem. They're not trying to kill off a beast, they're trying to become revered for kiling beasts. While the children benefit from the burst of fear and realization that comes from a hard won lesson. Heroes benefit from the veneer of simmering dread that never goes away. They leverage fear into dependency and adulation.
What's that? It sounds like Gamergate and MRA Doxxing? Why what a coincidence that surely wasn't intentional at all.

With one sentence they spend all of the goodwill they've amassed so far. The last paragraph in this section mentions that the "Dominant narrative of hero kills monster sells Beasts short, demonstrates a breathtaking lack of faith in humanity, and winds up with Dead Beasts. Heroes seldom question their own Heroism, this is what makes them so dangerous." What faith in humanity? Humans can deal with nightmares. That's not the question. The question is should they have to. And it's a question the book never asks.

Nightmares
It may seem that Beasts would be most feared in a Physical sense, Beasts can also call upon the power of the primordial dream to inflict physical and emotional damage on people. The most powerful Nightmares can actually become real, warping reality for at ime to show a horrifying glimpse of the Primordial Dream. And some of the Nightmares are just terrible, miserable things, and I have no idea how they would be used to impart a lesson. There's one that forces a person to confront their own mortality, and realize that you can't take anything with you, so why bother? It then forces them to abandon all social connections, and divest themselves of physical wealth. And while I guess that could be used in a positive way if you're dealing with some rich asshole relative that no one wants to deal with, even that sounds like an absolute worst case solution to the problem. And even using a nightmare towards a positive end can spawn a Hero.

That said, one of the Nightmares is "Behold, My True Form!" where you use your sheer presence to inflict physical damage, and I love it from a thematic standpoint if nothing else.

Atavisms
Conversely Atavisms are an expression of the power of a Beast's Horror. And frankly I like them. These are the things where you breathe fire, or gain a giant's strength, or use your Horror's ability of flight. The most powerful Atavisms can cause physical changes, but other times your perfectly normal hands leave huge gaping claw marks. Atavisms aren't subtle but they are powerful.

Kinship
As far as Beasts are concerned, their family ties to other supernatural creatures are obvious. Even Mages, Prometheans, and Sin Eaters are kin to Beasts (And if you think about any of those for a second you should probably be going "Wait what?") Beasts can use the power of the Dark Mother to empower their kin, or use their connection to their kin to create new Nightmares.

Broods
Beasts have a culture of a sorts. Family doesn't always get along, but they do understand each other and that counts for a lot. Also any local area leaves it's own mark on the local primordial dream. Lairs link together and the most powerful supernatural creature in the are leaves it's mark on all the lairs beneath them. It doesn't necessarily have to be a Beast. If a Vampire Prince is the current area's Apex Predator, chambers in the areas may take on a "bloody, sensual flavor."

A Brood of Beasts can link their lairs and chambers together, and sate their hungers off of another member's feedings.

Inheritance
As far as "So what exactly is a Beast's end goal?" that's their Inheritance. Where a Beast reaches a reckoning between their Human nature and their Horror. If the beast merges into the human form in the physical world, they undergo the Merger, becoming a violent creature, losing all connection to the Primordial Dream and "Succumbing to the Hero's Narrative". Others undergo the Retreat, leaving their physical body behind and becoming nightmare beasts that roam the Primordial Dream.

A rare few fully embrace their Horrors and Humanity, becoming Incarnate. Incarnates are incredibly powerful and dangerous singular beings that are the "true monsters of the Chronicles of Darkness".

Themes
Time for another CofD staple.
No Neat Little Boxes
The is dripping out of that paragraph. No one has the whole truth, except Beasts.
Please ignore all the times previously and later in the text where we unequivocally state that Heroes are wrong.


You Don't Choose Your Family

So yeah, even though homosexuals Beasts chose to be who they are, did they really have a choice?

I feel like I need to take a shower.

Anyways, the choice of choosing the people who raised you, or the people who you're with now, as your 'real' family is a personal one every beast needs to make.

To Thine Own Self be True
Beasts are compelled to feed their Hungers, and no one begrudges them that, but they aren't excused from their consequences.

Inspirational Material
Some of the things we see here aren't surprising. Bill Willingham's Fables because of Bigby Wolf, yeah I guess. Disney's Beauty and the Beast I guess, Matt was beating the drum about Gaston being the Ur-Hero for months before Beast's release. But there's also Tucker and Dale Vs. Evil which honestly I'm not sure if that's genius, or missing the point to a horrifying degree.

Lexicon


So what's different?

Well Chiefly, in the original copy, Beasts were chosen to be who they are at birth. The Horror didn't exist, instead it was the Soul, and the Devouring was known as the Homecoming when you realized what you were and the soul claimed the beast.
The analogues between this and someone from a conservative family realizing they're Gay are almost painful.

The other big difference is in Heroes, they aren't even given the chance to appear sympathetic. Even though they do not really have a choice in the matter.
The level of self entitlement is disgusting to read about. Heroes have no choice in what they are, just like Beasts, if anything they have less choice because the narrative of a Human takes over their entire lives. They are literally unable to question their motives, but it's okay to hate them because the book says so.

Up Next: After the Devouring

Chapter 1: After the Devouring - Part 1: Horrors

posted by Kurieg Original SA post

Chapter 1: After the Devouring - Part 1: Horrors
Who's ready for more chapter fiction that wasn't changed to suit the new narrative?
Well i guess that's not entirely true, there was a little editing, and they added this sentence to try and justify the new 'teacher' narrative.
But they didn't change any of this, implying that beasts are still born the way they are. And the fact that the sentence about gaining wisdom is kind of haphazardly tacked on in the middle with no real justification is a pretty good metaphor for the whole situation.

And then fiction part 2.


Winners don't do drugs?

Beasts are divided into two splats, their Horror which is what kind of primal fear they represent, and their Hunger which is what kind of thing, physical or metaphorical, their beast feeds upon. Horrors determine what Atavisms you get access to, and each Horror has a unique power that's specific only to them.

Horrors


Anakim: Nightmares of Hopelessness
The Anakim are giants, figuratively if not literally. They are big and strong and cannot be beaten. "To be Anakim is to overwhelm your prey by the force of your own magnificent body. No one stands up to you. Who could, when you stand so tall?" "You are the fear that chases, the fear that crushes, the fear that tears limb from limb. Maybe someone called you unsubtle. Maybe that someone still has all their ribs. Maybe." I really have trouble sympathizing with any of these descriptions, as most of them are Egotistical "Fuck You, Got Mine" incarnate. The book then goes on to theorize that the Anakim were the firstborn of the dark mother when she mated with the terrors that she released upon the earth, or that they're the offspring of her and god, and that blood was spread throughout humanity. (PLEASE IGNORE THE PART OF THE BOOK WHERE THEY SAID BEASTS WERE NOT HEREDITARY KTHX).

We then get some example characters, including a street vigilante, a white hat safecracker, another street vigilante, and a big game hunter who kills animals with her bare hands. Charming. We also get some 'stories' in the human conciousness that beasts may have inspired, but it's all pretty standard 'the cyclops was an anakim! So were the Basque Basajaun! And every other time there was a monster and they were big.' stuff. We also get some example descriptions of how their horror feeds in nightmares. If they aren't going for the classic Fe-Fi-Fo-Fum thing, they're usually embodying an authority figure, a Principal, a boss, a parent. And even if there isn't physical violence there's a sense of hopelessness in the face of a superior force. "The dreamer is left with no doubt that might makes right, and that the Giant has all the right in the world." Which strikes me as particularly dangerous since instilling someone with the sense that might makes right would probably also make them inflict their might on those weaker than them. Hooray cycles of abuse!

Anakim Lairs usually include anything that makes movement difficult, or literally trap and imprison their victims. Their Birthright allows them to break through any physical obstacle without fail once a scene.


That Demon quote is somewhat infamous amongst Beast's detractors because the answer to that question is "Yes, a very angry Demon at full power who is probably going to kill you because you just ruined their only chance at happiness."


Eshmaki: Nightmares of Darkness
Eshmaki are the fear of the dark. Well they're the fear of things that live in the dark, because they're things that live in the dark. They're also sort of the fear of being alone but that's also trod upon by other Horrors. What they don't say is that the Eshmaki are also dragons, sort of. Thankfully there are more interesting sample characters
Well, that's not... too bad.
...Oh.
That's not how feeding works
"The rich need to be put in their place", fan tast ic.

The only notable historical figure the Eshmaki claim amongst their numbers is Grendel, Because.. sure. The horror inflicts nightmares of being stalked, or being alone, usually the only notable feature of such dreams are a pair of glowing eyes in the dark. Their lairs allow them to stalk their prey, but rarely inflict damage (that's for the Eshmaki alone), and their Birthright lets them automatically inflict a Tilt on an unsuspecting target with a successful brawl or weaponry attack.

That mage quote is so amazingly smug.


Makara: Nightmares of the Depths
Makara are the fear of drowning and beasts in the water. But of course "You're a link to the drowned history of humanity, to the knowledge that the oceans have reclaimed. To the sunken temples and lost continents, to the ugly wreckage and watery graves." "People like to forget that the oceans dominate the planet, that the blood in their veins is just nature's way of letting them carry a little of it around so they can survive in an unnatural environment. You know better." I'll leave you with some character examples as my eyes have just rolled out of my head.

That doesn't make any sense.

Yay time to teach people things and then murder and rob them! We're the good guys!

The Makara's horror causes nightmares of drowning and suffocation. The dreams might start innocently enough with a cruise, but always end with drowning. Other times they're lured into the water by a siren, finding they no longer care about breathing. Their lairs are the most likely to have damaging traits (apparently?) and are usually watery. Their birthright allows them to impose a sense of drowning or claustrophobia on a victim. It imposes the feeling of drowning, not an actual loss of airflow, so things that don't have to breathe are still affected.


Despite how this looks, they used to be worse.


Namtaru: Nightmares of Revulsion
Oh yes supernatural ugliness. That's fantastic. "Those who call you ugly miss the point. 'Ugly' is just another one of those things in the eye of the beholder. No, you're hideous, terrifying to normal people on a level as atavistic as the heritage that made you a beast." Oh and beasts are hereditary again. That's good.
So she doesn't lie about the prospects of her patients but she does prolong their suffering. Hooray.
Keep note of this one for later.

Unsurprisingly, the Gorgons are seen as the progenitors of the Namtaru and..well..
why do those heroes do such terrible things.

The Horrors of a namtaru unleash nightmares of maggoty things bursting through doorways. Rotting hands reaching out of drawers. They might 'wake' paralyzed and unable to move while the Namtaru hovers over them and does horrible things tot heir body. They might brand or disfigure them and set them loose upon their family to be sent away in terror. Their lairs are poisonous or hazardous and prevent recovery. Their birthright allows them to lower someones composure if they lock eye contact.


I should point out that Beasts hate Demons for some reason. They just do, it isn't adequately explained but Beasts hate Demons.


Ugallu: Nightmares of Exposure
Ugallu are exposure, both literal and figurative. Both being lost alone out in the open with no escape, and having all your secrets laid bare with no recourse. But their horror is the flying beast above them, waiting to swoop down upon the empty plain and end their suffering. Ugallu care not for blind alleyways or dense forests, for they are in the sky and only care about the path between up and down.

What does that have to do with beasts? How does it involve him hunting, or feeding? It doesn't, it's... just a dig at fringe quacks.

The Horror of an Ugallu creates nightmares of exposure. Lost and alone without shelter or food. Or those dreams where you're naked in class, yeah that's an Ugallu too apparently. Their lairs are stark landscapes, and their birthright allows them to find anything or anyone hidden.


That's enough time spent on that stuff. Next time I'll be covering the different types of Hungers


So what's different?

Most specifically, the Stereotypes. They were changed to make Beasts less immediately obvious as assholes. And to give the other splats an actual reason to want to interact with them.

Anakim
So yeah, the main 3 got changed to something that was actually somewhat complementary. Promethean, Changeling, and Sin Eater got altered a bit, but Mummy and Demon are still hostile.

Eshmaki
Much like before, the big three got made into positives. Though werewolf deserves special mention. Since, you know. "I violate Boundaries" is... very questionable wording. And the other five were left alone.

Makara
Vampire, Werewolf, and Changeling made slightly more positive. Everyone else left alone. Though there seems to be a theme of Beasts telling changelings they haven't faced enough suffering.

Namtaru
Not much has changed here, but what has changed is... important. The promethean quote. "WHY DON'T YOU MURDER PEOPLE?!" is probably the most tonedeaf evaluation of Promethean ever.

Ugallu
So, Vampire and Werewolf's stereotype were switched for some reason, Mage was made less openly hostile. Changeling is... terrible. Same with Sin Eater. And Mummy and Demon were left alone.

So yeah, the running theme of Beasts being randomly antagonistic to Mummies and Demons was there from the beginning, though they used to be antagonistic to everyone. Reminder that everyone else is also supernaturally compelled to like Beasts.

There's also one sample character that got changed, that Namtaru who protected druggies at the hospital? He didn't do it to protect them, he did it so he could collect their used needles. The nurse who ensured that everyone lived to the fullest as miserable suffering shells? She's completely unaltered.

Up Next: Do you like terrible sample characters? Because we've got dozens of them.

Chapter 1: After the Devouring - Part 2: Hungers

posted by Kurieg Original SA post

Chapter 1: After the Devouring - Part 2: Hungers
So Hungers are the second splat for Beasts and honestly they're not really that integrated into the game, mechanically. While your Horror defines what Atavisms you have access to, your birthright, and your lair; your hunger defines what things you should be feeding on and nothing else. And the hungers aren't very delineated, the hunger for Prey, Power, Punishment, and Ruin can all bleed into eachother. A predator can select their prey based on the wrongs that they have done, a Tyrant police officer could exert control over lawbreakers, a Ravager could systematically destroy all that protects a lawbreaker in hiding until all they're driven out into the open. It's ultimately up to the Storyteller to adjudicate how in theme with a Beasts' Hunger a 'feed' is, and for something as character defining as a Hunger is meant to be that's very soft enforcement.


Tyrants: Hunger for Power
It's too late. I've won. I own you now, and you are going to do exactly what I say.
Tyrants crave power, and bask in the adulation of those they have cowed into submission. Either from the top of the pyramid, or from the shadows while their subjects tremble in fear at the mere thought of their unseen king. Tyrants thrill at showing how powerless tiny mortals are against the stuf of nightmares.
Hey wait, that sounds an awful lot like the Anakim's whole shtick.

Yes, that's another problem with Hungers, they tread on the same ground as the Horrors do, ultimately devaluing them as well. A Makara tyrant wants to see the mighty put in their place just as much as an Anakim anything does, but they just do it differently.

On the Hunt
There is the obvious, stalking someone down and pulling them into an alleyway and making them beg for their life is enough for a light snack, but most Tyrants see that as inelegant and ultimately unfulfilling. A Tryrant in a corporate setting feeds by getting themselves promoted over their hated colleagues, delighting as they force their former equals to do menial tasks. A Tyrant Lawyer could find themselves working criminal law, finding sustenance in that moment when their opponent realizes they lost their case not because of the evidence, but because the Beast is just that good. "An elderly Tyrant might rule their local homeowners association with an iron fist, making all her neighbors live in fear of her visits."

And yes, barring the lawyer those are incredibly petty.

The Lessons
I'm sorry but What the fuck!? So yeah somewhere there's a Beast that goes around to Fast Food employees and terrorizes them into not trying to find another job because they're just not good enough. And apparently there's a Beast somewhere who would view the Special Olympics as an absolute fucking smorgasbord.


The Families
Anakim are well suited for the hunger for Power, as I mentioned earlier. Though they prefer being up close and personal when their prey realizes their failings. Their Horrors tend to look like literal monstrous tyrants, a Cyclops wearing a crown of human bone, or an Ogre Queen who's lair is strewn with twisted swords.
The sample Anakim Tyrant is a woman who catfishes men into touching her so she can beat them down.

Empowering.

Eshmaki tyrants enjoy the thrill of the hunt, and can get playful with concepts such as 'fair play' or 'sporting chance' before they crush their targets hopes.
A Beast Tyrant who beats up other people for having the audacity to behave like a beast. Remember this is supposed to be the crossover friendly splat.

Makara tyrants enforce their rule with the very lairs they dwell in. They're the masters of the depths, and will brook no discussion on that part. The victim of a Makara hunt might not even realize that there is an intelligence behind their suffering until it is too late.
So... the Tyrant feeds by basically kidnapping people, and dumping them in the bad part of town? How does that exude an aura of power, or anything other than 'Cabbies are dicks'? Also wouldn't he have your medallion number? Aren't there any number of other reasons this is an incredibly stupid and bad idea?

"Many Namtaru Tyrant Horrors resemble insects: a queen bee with mandibles that drip venom or a cloud of vermin surrounding the unseen master of their swarm. They may be vile, but they are also impossible to ignore." ...sure? Namtaru Tyrants are careful to select only victims that can display the proper amount of awe and humility that is their due.
Or they could just be mean vice principals.

Ugallu Tyrants enjoy feasting from afar, convincing their targets that they are trapped in a Panopticon and there is nowhere they can hide from the Ugallu's power. Their Horrors often resemble ancient winged beasts wreathed in flame ruling from a high perch.
...that's an incredibly inefficient feeding method for several reasons. How about you explain how this guy feeds during the several year spans between promotions? Oh right you won't because Beasts are supposed to be the good guys.


Collectors: Hunger for the Hoard
I wanted it more than he did. That makes it mine
Collectors gather things, but they don't feed off of having things, you see. They actually feed off of mankind's greed. People have to want what they have.

On the Hunt
Though collections have to be physical things, hoards can vary drastically. What they all share is that someone must be willing to risk life and limb to have it. Gold and Precious Gems are the obvious, but rare books locked away in a private library work just as well. Or you can be a Principal who confiscates students possessions and never gives them back. Because beasts are also petty as fuck.

Also, Beasts can't simply go out and buy something new, because that's trading value for value. They have to steal it for their hoard. While finding lost treasure counts, several Collectors become master theives, or work themselves into positions of power where they can steal from subordinates without giving them a chance to fight back but that's what tyrants do.

The Lessons
Nothing is forever, all things fade in time. A Collector forces their target to choose between something they are fond of and something they truly love. "What is the target willing to die to protect. What is he willing to kill to protect?" This is sounding awfully SAW here. "If you truly own nothing but what you can carry at a dead run, the collector forces her target to choose what to pick up before the running even starts. Some Collectors let it go at that. Cruel Beasts chase down the target and take his prize anyway." Because reducing someone to a single possession isn't cruel. You see.


The Families
Anakim Collectors hoard items that are a testament to their own strength. Weapons and armor worn by those who had failed to defeat them, for instance. Or personal mementos pried from fallen foes. Their lair is strewn with odds and ends, but the most prized pieces are worn by the Beast's horror, forcing a confrontation to claim them.
If you can beat an Anakim in single combat you get to keep what you have. This is apparently fair.

Eshmaki focus on the Owner, not the goods. They follow a target just long enough to see what they grip in fear, and that's what the Eshmaki wants to take. Other Eshmaki try to keep to more specific tastes, and ensure that if their target isn't precisely valuable, it is at least well guarded.
That's... absolutely nothing like what was just described.

Makara collectors have a knack for finding long lost things of value. "From ancient relics to knowledge that's been forgotten for centuries." Regardless of the fact that collectors need to collect physical things to feed.
That doesn't describe anything about her actually collecting anything, just being darkly mysterious and murdering anyone who shows a hint of curiosity.

Namtaru collectors hoards are "exquisitely terrifying". They're full of nice things but they're also covered in disgusting things.
So he's an asshole? Also shouldn't he be a Ravager since he's destroying and not keeping?

The most iconic collectors in history have been Ugallu. Winged beasts that perch in high places atop their glittering hoards. They're also the finders of things that are lost, a hidden murder weapon or a breakup letter thrown away are valuable to someone, and an Ugallu can feed upon it.
This is basically the only Collector actually doing what it's supposed to be doing and not murdering people over it. Good for you Ugallu.


Predators: Hunger for Prey
Oh you precious little thing. Why I could just eat you up
Predators remind people that while they may think they're on top of the food chain now, at one time they huddled by their fires in fear of the beasts that lurked outside the cave. When they're caught alone and unprepared they're just hairless monkeys. Some predators are subtle, others live for the open chase. And regardless of if their target survives the night, a Predator will take something, even if it's a pound of flesh.

On the Hunt
Predators don't need subtle manipulation and complex emotional states. The hunt is probably the easiest primal emotion to understand. Some predators are "lucky" and their horrors are satisfied with catch and release, as long as they take a trophy to identify that they have fulfilled their purpose as a hunter of man.
But I thought they had to take something and... there wasn't even a paragraph break, how could you forget that.

The Lessons
Predators teach Mortality. Tyrants "Show a victim that the climb is unsafe but manageable with the right preparation" (fucking lol) Predators show mankind the monsters that live at the peak. Some predators enforce humanity's ignorance of the supernatural creatures that live in the shadows, which steps on the toes of at least... three other supernatural groups that I can think of just off the top of my head. Some predators do this by showing them a glimpse of that horror and letting them escape, others just fucking murder a bastard and leave their corpse as a warning for others. Other Predators prey on trust. Because we're just completely leaving the idea of 'taking' things in the dust. "Humans want to trust each other, and they tend to believe what they are told if they are told earnestly. A Beast who Hungers for Prey might expose this folly."


The Families
Anakim Predators make their prey feel small. Because they're one note villains and this is getting old. An Anakim Predator's horror might be a hulking dinosaur from an ancient age.
Remember: this is for your own good.

Eshmaki Predators are stalkers, their horror demands the nourishment such a visceral hunt provides. They keep hidden until the last moment and strike from the shadows. They don't always kill but if they don't then they must mark their prey in some fashion.
... This isn't a Predator. This goes against everything you just wrote. What the fuck are you doing!?

Makara predators prefer elaborate tricks and traps to make their prey come to them. It might be a physical obstical but other use pleasant bat to get their prey to come out into the water. Beautiful makara play the mermaid game. If a makara's human form can't keep up with her inclinations Makara predators are more likely than others to use technology to compliment their abilities.
Again, this isn't a predator. Also, this is terrifying. I mean, yes, you might be indirectly responsible for deaths as the absolutely emotionally destroyed lifeguard fails to save other people. Or as they kill themselves trying to save a girl who can breathe water. But you aren't really teaching a lesson or 'hunting'.

Hunting with a Namtaru Predator at your side can be disconcerting. They work with a strange alien efficiency when give a task to do, even moreso when the task is a violent one. A Namtaru's hunger might require them to taste blood from a dozen separate tiny cuts, or feel all of a victim's ribs crack one by one under their bare hands. Other Makra use poison, letting their prey die slowly and in agony.
Getting a little metaphorical here, game. How does being hug-bled make people more loving of their fellow man? I would think a random person hugging me until I bled would make me more distrustful. Unless that's the point.

Ugallu predators are patient, because they are always watching. They're as long term a planner as their hunger will allow, and when they do descend on silent wings the results of their predation are swift, brutal, and efficient.
...this.. isn't.. a predator. It definitely isn't what you just described. And this is also terrifying.


Nemeses: Hunger for Punishment
I know what you've done. Now it's time for you to pay
Every culture has a fairy tale about creatures that punish the guilty. Children understand these fairy tales and obey them instinctively. But adults forget, so the Nemesis reminds them. They hunt down offenders and punish them for their crimes. They keep mankind's guilty conscience on edge, keep transgressors looking over their shoulder for a punishment that, rationally, should not come.

On the Hunt
To feed their hunger, a Nemesis must have a suitable target. Someone who's broken the law set upon them, or a law set by their hunger (ha ha! Jaywalking is now a capitol offense! So sayeth my balrog soul!) Whatever her rules are, a Nemesis must be reasonably certain that the target has broken them. How much evidence this requires is also completely up to the Nemesis. Once a victim is chosen, then the punishment begins. How this happens, again, is up to the individual beast. But the target must be made aware of precisely which rule they broke and know that that is why they are being punished.


The Lessons
Honestly this is the only 'lesson' that makes sense, because they're punishing infractions. But an asshole Nemesis could also teach that rules don't matter and the deck is stacked against you and everything, including justice, is arbitrary.

The Families
Anakim Nemesis are blunt and to the point, they punish violence with more violence. Murderers and physical abusers meet fists and claws. Their laws are simple and straightforward, easy to follow and easy to break.
Makes sense, simple and too the point. Am I reading the same book?

Eshmaki Nemesis draw out their acts of punishment. They revel in the terror they see in the eyes of those they punish, their target may ever even see the monster that's out to get them because the terror is part of the punishment.
....fuuuuucccckkk.... The transexual avenger who doesn't adhere to your gender binary or group dynamics but does kill date rapists and domestic abusers. Also this is the only time they use a nongendered pronoun like this. Shit.

Makara nemesis tend to have rules that protect a particular place or type of environment. They punish sailors for killing albatross, or for transgressing upon their hidden cove. But having such a specific feeding requirement makes it hard to sustain themselves, so they often seek out the companionship of broodmates that can help them satiate their hunger in other ways.
Well even if they barely managed to not make the transexual character outright offensive, they failed on the gay characters. A pair of Gay Makara who trick people into sacrificing themselves to feed their hunger.

Namtaru are particularly suited to this hunger since they're "objects of humanity's most cruel hatred." They tend to find laws that fit a past injustice they suffered. A Nemesis bullied for their looks strikes out against those who ridicule others. A namtaru who lost a loved one to violence punishes someon who would do that to others.
Yes screw the legal system let's just scare the shit out of people.

Ugallu Nemesese punish the most secret and hidden of crimes. Unfortunately they also seem somewhat petty. "Acting hypocritically, willfully deceiving a romantic partner, falsely professing belief in a religion, or other crimes of thought rather than action" Yes, Ugallu are literally thoughtpolice. They often like to leave clues days or even weeks in advance (usually because their guilty conscience will provide enough actual proof to suit their needs)
Yeah remember that Priest from before? We've got yet another bit of entrapment, make them renounce so that my best friend Benjamin has people to kill! Teach lessons!


Ravagers: Hunger for Ruin
You ever seen a hurricane, all up close and personal? Well, you're about to.
Ravagers must destroy to feed. It's not the act of violence that they feed from, but the change it causes in the humans who notice. When they see something destroyed they realize how fragile they are and wonder what will be destroyed next. That state of uncertainty and fear is what the Ravager feeds on.

On the Hunt
Most Horrors who hunger for Ruin aren't too picky about their meals. They might burn down a nightclub one day and take a hammer to an antiques warehouse the next. The randomness and the chaos makes feeding easier and also increases the uncertainness that sustains them. The easiest way to get the reaction they want is to destroy a symbol of security. Destroying a home will leave a family shaken and homeless, leaving gashes in the wall of a police station will have the same effect on an entire community. Ravagers rarely target people, but killing an important person can also have the same general effect. Killing a beloved mayor will leave a community shaken and broken.

The Lessons
"Life is Chaos. Death strikes at any moment." Ravagers teach people not to prepare for disaster (Because who can prepare for ruin? ) but to remain steadfast and resolute when it arrives. Disaster is survivable, victims can weather any storm, extinguish the fire, ride the hurricane. Of course if you teach the lesson to the wrong person you create a Hero. "Someone who thinks he can beat the storm, and that attitude is dangerous for all involved." Yes, ignore levees, and lightning rods, we should all just be grateful that it wasn't us.

Fuck you beast.


The Families
Anakim ravagers don't even fucking try to be subtle. Meaning they can't fit in with a mortal community, and forcing them to wander from town to town. This also creates more chaos and yadda yadda yadda.
Whatever, it's relatively benign, at least we're out of the outright murder.

Eshmaki Ravagers sneak into the most guarded places and leave signs of their intrusion to be found long after they have vanished. They're the most precise and particular of Ravagers, and also the most prone to go after humans.
.....what lesson is that going to teach beyond complete and utter paranoia and creating more and more secure systems that are completely worthless against someone who can turn into shadow and creep through cracks? This is just mindless terror. And super juvenile.

Makara ravagers often leave an aftermath that looks like a storm. As they're the ones most capable of using nature in their ravages.
This is a pretty good example of how even the nicest Beast is one bad day away from making 30 Heroes.

Namtaru ravagers don't 'destroy' so much as 'pollute'. Their horrors are pestilent monsters who poison the air and cover everything they pass in swarms and sludge. Their ruin is insidious because it can resurface long after people think they've repaired what was lost. They don't destroy a field, they salt the earth.
No.
No no no no no.
Fucking No.
That's not how Werewolves work. They wouldn't do that. No.
Also Cordyceps are terrifying.

Ugallu Ravagers drop from the sky like a smart bomb, flattening a structure before flying away. Their ruin is precise, and only destroy what they need to to feed. But when a more 'widespread' approach is necessary, they are an angel of death.
Murder for Hire.
Beasts are Good People that teach lessons!


So what's different?
Everything under "The Lessons" parts, obviously.
Other than that? Well, some of the example Tyrants used to be even more petty than they already are.

I'm sorry did I say petty? I meant secretly murderous.

The Namtaru collector was changed entirely, here's the old version.
Holy shit, that's actually a creepy collector, not some guy who shits on paintings in faux latin.

Other than that only a few things were changed, some slight wordings here and there, but the essence of the text was left alone. Which is kind of terrible in it's own way.

Up Next: Flesh and Blood

Chapter 2: Waking Nightmares

posted by Kurieg Original SA post

Chapter 2: Waking Nightmares
So, as usual for CofD, we open with some fiction. And, as usual for this book, it is horribly out of step with everything that has been written so far.
So we have a nemesis who is seeking out a person, rather than a crime. This person is also apparently still in High School (Meaning his devouring either came super early or we're dealing with another case of 'oh yeah beasts are born fuck you') and is a stereotypical geek sticking it to big burly jocks and bullies. This is pure 100% adolescent revenge fantasy, and at least Werewolf tries to be subtle about it.

So another fuckup beast is about to get their just reward but the Dark Mother personally intervenes so that the Beast can commence the torturemurder. Great.


"In the light of reason, humasn think they killed the monsters. The real ones, that is. The wolf needs their help just to survive. The only lions and tigers are in the zoos. Dinosaur bones are strung up like trophies in natural history museums. Secure in his fortress, Man tells himself he has nothing to fear." Clearly it's up to Beasts to fix this perception.

The Primordial Dream
Oh wait it's time for yet more fiction.
So the two gay beasts who are super gay and we really want you to know that they're gay are talking to someone who may or may not also be a Beast, or is at least a deep dreamer, showing one of the major issues with using fear to teach lessons, it's really only useful in lessons of aversion.

Anyways, we finally get into some real text. The Primordial dream is, basically, a repository for the collective fears of humanity. As we started to grow as a species we began to recognize patterns. A shadow would elicit the fear response of a predator, but the shadow isn't actually dangerous, we don't fear the shadow. We fear the idea of the predator that it represents, which exists only in the Primordial Dream. Fear is basic and primal. Fear teaches simple understandable lessons, do this, don't do that. Parents use fear to keep their children in line: fear of punishment, fear of pain, fear of disapproval. The Primordial Dream harkens back to a time before we had language, when we taught each other what we needed to fear and those lessons were encoded in the dream as monsters.

Noise
That..is..an incredibly dismissive way to describe the very real problems of racism. "It's not our fault! If we would just retreat to a hunter gatherer society then everything would be fine because we'd kill everyone who was different due to reasons of resource competition rather than misplaced fear" Apparently there are still some people who "dream Deep" Though, and they have nightmares that still impart wisdom. Like that their boyfriend is abusive, or that they need to kick their drug habit, or that something else in their life is dangerous and must be excised. Because the primordial dream keeps us safe through fear.

Chambers and Horrors
Every time a human being is shaken to their very core (read: Loses integrity) their fear creates a reflection of the place they are in the primordial dream. When humanity was young, these chambers were few and far between, but now there are so very many, and the oldest ones are being pushed further and further out into the formless depths. Some chambers are so far removed from their origins that their features warp into something between an accurate memory and an imagined narrative. Eventually something from beyond the depths crawls in - a horror.

A Horror is a nightmare monster, a creature from the dreams of the terrified. Modern beasts theorize that every time a person dreams of monsters, that monster already exists somewhere in the deep dream. Others theorize that when a Deep Dreamer has a nightmare they make a Horror. In either case the horror drifts aimless through the dream until it finds a chamber that it finds habitable. It settles down and bonds with it, and the chamber becomes a Lair. Horrors, on their own, rarely touch the minds of human beings deeply enough to have a greater effect beyond a particularly intense nightmare. It might be a cause for discussion but it won't cause lasting harm. Only when Lairs are close to the waking world do the nightmares have the potential to cause harm, and that only happens when a horror joins with a Beast. To summarize, the primordial dream is still doing it's job sometimes, and parents and schools teach the more important lessons. Also horrors would be mostly harmless if Beasts didn't get it in their heads to try and do the primordial dream's job for it. Why are Beasts the good guys again?

Flesh & Blood
This.. shouldn't be here anymore. Even if beasts are born the entire point is that their human bodies don't reflect their primal souls.

"A Beast is an atavistic throwback. It is a human bein with the souls of a mythic monster, itself a manifestation of fundamental fears: of the unclean and the unknown, of the predator lurking in the shadows, and of forces beyond human reckoning." Beasts disagree on whether they're born or made but regardless they have an uncannily deep connection to the primordial dream. This connection makes them outsiders. One dreams of the deep ocean where they sleep in solitude far away from their peers. Another's eyes stray to a sky that is always out of reach. At night a third one runs on all fours through a darkened forest only to wake up again in the stifling human world. Sometimes they wake up with wisdom that seems obvious in hindsight, but everyone knows the story of Cassandra, so even when they're trying to help they're outcasts. Not all dreams lead to wisdom, however, sometimes they dream of themselves as the monster, and when they wake up in human skin they know that the lump of flesh is not her. She is a prisoner of her own skin and blood.

The time spent as a social pariah leaves lasting psychological scars. The dreamer has every reason to hate their tormentors, but does that make the human race their enemy? What about her family? That one teacher who spoke up for her? That boy next door who had a crush on her even though she was "weird?" They are family even if they aren't kin, which makes her a part of that community. But why can't they recognize it? Beasts are raised human, and even after the Devouring they hold onto that against all odds. They live on the razor's edge between hunger and humanity, because the alternative is to becoem exactly what the Hero believes them to be.

And now I'm going to editorialize a bit because, honestly, if they still have amazingly shitty childhoods due to their connections to the primordial dream and carry those prejudices with them to their devoured life then it doesn't fucking matter if Beasts are born Beasts or not. Because they're born potential Beasts, and potential Beasts suffer the exact same way that Born Beasts used to. It's still a revenge fantasy against bullies who picked on you for things outside of your control. It's just that enough words were changed so that it's not obvious on a shallow reading of the text. People just see "Beasts are not born" in the first chapter, decide that that's okay, and never read anything else. Now back to the review.

Devouring
There is no blood or DNA test that you can use to find a Beast, their difference is only within their soul, or lack there of. Beasts are ever defined by their recurring nightmares, they are the first victim of the horrors they will inflict upon others for the rest of time. Potential Beasts make come to several conclusions about their nightmares. Some see them as their subconscious trying to tell them something, albeit in a weird allegorical way. Some assume they are psychic. Very curious dreamers might seek out the supernatural thinking that their dreams make them worthy to join the ranks of the unseen. "They aren't wrong, as it happens", we should just replace beast's skull logo with the emoticon.

Anyways, eventually the Dark Mother finds them. And that first exposure shapes them forever.
Uhhhhhhh, that paragraph has implications. Becoming a Beast is no longer a choice, it's something that can just happen. Which does put them more in line with the other Supernatural Creatures in the World of Darkness, but "Yeah I'm better than you because I'm both special and was chosen" is really really stupid.

The Final Nightmare
However it happens, the last thing the human dreamer sees is their own horror for the First Time.

Fffffffuck you McFarland. It's been a long time since I've seen so much passive aggression directed at proving one's critics wrong.

Apparently there is a choice given after your soul is devoured where you must choose to accept the Horror, even if you're devoured against your will. But I assume that the 'No' response results in you dying forever.


The Mythic Self
Most horrors are ancient things, their origins lying in the earliest epochs of human history. Rarely, a beast inherits a strong Horror with a name and a history. They aren't just Ugallu, she is Ashalla, the Idiptu wind-fiend who unleashed hell on ancient Babylon. But not every Beast has a mythic antecedent. Old fears evolve and new ones are born. Somewhere there's a beast who's Horror was born in a SARS outbreak. Beasts are born out of Humanity and Humans have no end of reasons to fear.
Beasts can bring aspects of their lair into reality, imposing supernatural heat or darkness upon their surroundings. They can also call upon Atavisms to let the strength of their Horror loose in the waking world, any nearby supernatural creatures or humans with a psychic bent will catch a glimpse of their horror as the Atavism does its work. It's not all hunky-dory between the Horror and the Human, the Horror is a ravening Id, blunt and instinctual and filled with a desire to feed. Morality is irrelevant to the Horror, it doesn't just want to do the things it does, it must, so some Beasts try to put that Need to work teaching humanity.

Family
Good lord more Homosexual beasts? I have no problems with gay people but half the fiction we've run across so far in this chapter has been Gay Beasts talking about their shared dreams.

Each family embodies an iconic fear from the collective unconscious, with individual Beasts being variations on a theme. The firstborn were insatiable in their struggle to feed their hungers and they spread nightmares far and wide that spawned more of their kind. Thus the relationship between myth and monster is symbiotic. Humans believe naming something gives them power over it, but Beasts can use these names to become more concrete in the Dream, giving themselves more concrete form and identity.

During the devouring, a Beast is reborn into their new family. It is essential to their identity from the moment they embrace their Horror and Hunger. He feels the echoes of their nightmares and are compelled to seek them out. They are not just familiar, they are of the same flesh and essence. Family is more than just lineage, it's shared experience. Even before the Devouring a Beast's dreams color their perceptions and bleed over into their interactions with people around them. They swap stories about childhood dreams and their eyes light up with understanding.

They then spend two pages describing the Families again but they did that in the previous chapter in more detail, so I'll just skip ahead.

Beast Culture
Hoooooooo boy, this part is entirely new added even since the copy of the book released in December. See, the Begotten don't really have a world spanning society, but they do have certain societal mores that they try to impose on the others that they initiate into their society.

We Are All Family
Beasts are all related to the Dark Mother, even if only symbolically. So they consider it a responsibility to take care of one another. Sometimes that means tough love, as a Beast who won't curb their impulses attracts attention from Heroes or their extended family, and that endngers all of the Beasts. For the most part, though, Beasts are expected to try and figure out why one of their siblings is out of control before taking violent or punitive action.

We Are Allowed To Be What We Are
Beasts are monsters, they can't not be. They must be allowed to hunt, feed, and even kill. Beasts debate over how monstrous they're allowed to be before intevention is appropriate, and some of that debate involves the specifics of the region, what kind of extended family is around and what their priorities are, what Hero activity has been like, and who the Apex is.

Eat to Live, Don't Live to Eat
Beasts must be more than just their Horrors. A Horror only wants to sate it's Hunger, but a Beast isn't just that Hunger. A Beast can use her hunger to teach the world, to bring it wisdom (not knowlege). Beasts expect their siblings to do so, to bring some kind of lesson with them when they choose their victims. Feeding for survival, of course, is different. If the options are "Feed without teaching" or "Starve" no one would begrudge a little mayhem. At the same time, Beasts encourage eachother to consider how their feeding affects the world, after all they have to be better than the Heroes make them out to be.


These are literally Geek Social Fallacies, we can't ostracise anyone because we're family, we can only do so if they're making the rest of us look bad. The idea that "outsiders" need to band together against the oppression of the popular kids and that we can't make any judgements about them because obviously we're just as bad and... yeah. Beast culture exists to reinforce itself and nothing else.

The Brood
Beasts feel the need for companionship very keenly. The Devouring opens the door to a new family, one that understand them intimately and accept them for what they are, no questions asked (Cough geeksocialfallacies cough) and will stand by them when Heroes come asking for blood. Beasts can sense each other in the primordial dream, and they will eventually find eachother there if they're in the same general are. This is how new Beasts are found and brought into the fold.

The brood is the only real form of Beast Social construction and the only one that really matters. The main difference is that they can comprise non-beast entities as well, Vampires and Werewolves, etc. Beasts are a clannish lot, they help their kin when possible (and convenient) but they will do anything to help their Brood.

The Hive
Once they're in a brood, a beast's lair will knit itself together with the other lairs into a shared hunting ground. Using the shared Lair they can communicate in dreams regardless of real world distance, though they abhor traveling apart from their Brood for any reasons, it just feels wrong. Furthermore a Beast can draw strength from locations resonant with his broodmates, and learn their Nightmares and Atavisms.

The bond does come with risks, however, if a Beast lets his horror starve and run rampant it will travel through the entire shared Lair. And if a Hero hunts them down such a confrontation can only end in the shared Lair. Hunger is no longer an individual concern in a Brood. Thus individual Beasts can choose to wall themselves off from the hive. It's usually a safe thing to do, but if you have a small lair then your hungry Horror will predate the same places over and over again, making it that much easier for a Hero to find you.

The Apex
Population centers spawn a large number of Chambers, and they remain unconnected unless a Beast chooses to bind them into their Lair. That doesn't mean that they're all different, they all share some similarity, an aspect granted tot hem by the supernatural figure that looms largest in the area's Primordial Dream. The Apex.

A creature can be an Apex without even really realizing it's influence on the Dream, though they must have regular, direct contact with humanity. A vampire who has his meals delivered wouldn't be the Apex regardless of how powerful he is. But a werewolf who leads his pack on regular hunts through the cities streets might have spawned enough nightmares and chambers to turn the local dream into a darkened steel forest. Beasts are slightly more likely to become the Apex just because they directly interact with humanity and their dreams, but it varies based on the city in question.

An Apex Beast isn't necessarily a leader, and might not take any interest at all in the other Beasts of the region, focusing only on their own goals, lesson or Legend. She might also set themselves up as a Dictator, using their power int he Dream to enter other Beast's Lairs and subjugate their Horrors, torture their family, or force them to use their Legends to serve them. Beasts as a whole have an odd relationship with such Cruel Apexes. They still feel the pain and humiliation, but they're also bound by their own social fallacies principles. They won't blindly obey the Apex (Since the Apex has no authority that they can't defend) but a patient and careful Apex can dominate the Primordial dream of an area for Decades, bringing multiple broods to heel.

Extended Family
Beasts are not just kin to eachother, they are also Kin to the other supernatural creatures of the world. Their instinctive search for kin might find a coterie of Gangrel, or a pack of Werewolves instead. And they probably have some explaining to do to their new 'family'.

Some Beasts feel that other supernatural beings, like Beasts, share an intrinsic connection to the Primordial Dream, but chose somewhere along the way to solidify that connection. A vampire is a highly specific type of nightmare (one of a corpse brought to life by blood and burned by the sun). A werewolf is a human who changes shape into a predator with silver anathema. Their own cultural beliefs are not invalid (Father wolf exists, changeling did escape captivity) but those events stemmed from the Primordial dream (somehow).

Other beasts think that that explanation is full of shit, even though it makes Beasts into the "Big Brother" of the entire supernatural milieu. There isn't a shred of evidence backing it up in any way. These are the Beasts who tend to get along best with the other supernaturals, that way there's no fighting over Who's interpretation of the Dark Mother and Father Wolf is correct.

The truth of the matter is that Beasts have a connection to the supernatural but not specifically supernatural beings. The horrors that they inflict on the dream are reflected in the Beast, and that is where the kinship comes from. And that kinship cannot be denied, Beasts are familiar, and Beasts can feed when their kin feed. But while every werewolf is a werewolf "every Beast is Unique".

Vampires
Vampires aren't really big fans of the way Beasts bring their hunger into direct focus. But both sides understand the need to feed and can bond over that. Relationships between the two are still fraught with tension, though, especially if Beasts compete with vampires for prey and influence. Vampires are also prone to treachery, which makes them problematic as allies.

I love that the Vampire of all people is going "The fuck is wrong with these people?"

Werewolves
The Wolf Must Hunt. They are a walking embodiment of the Hunger for Prey, and are blood brothers to beasts with similar appetites. Right down to competition over who's the better predator. Pack Loyalty more than makes up for any conflict if they can be won as friends. Moreover, Uratha have a natural affinity for the Primordial Pathways, which are not too different than the Shadow.

The werewolves rightly think Beast's are fucking crazy, got it.

Mages
Mages are more human than other kin, but they still have a hunger. For secrets, for knowledge, for power. Collectors understand this hunger, as they want to keep secrets so that they keep their power. A relationship between a Mage and a Collector is a cautious, protracted (and maybe flirtatious) game of cat and mouse as they decide how much to reveal to each other. "Since Beasts often find themselves involved in the deeper mysteries of the Chronicles of Darkness, though, they have enticing bait with which to lure a mage."

"Spiritual Genetics" Sure.

Prometheans
The Created are a puzzle. Their Disquiet causes nightmares similar to a ravening Beast's Horror, and their Refinements are draped in Mythic Symbolism. However they were created by human demiurges, and a Promethean's ultimate goal is to be Normal, which is in many ways the exact opposite of a Beast. They let Beasts accompany them on their Pilgrimages, but the Created are Rare and disappear without a trace once their time is over, making it difficult to learn more about them.

I'm not too well read on Promethean but.. I'm pretty sure that this would never happen.

Changelings
"The Lost are Beasts as far as the Children are concerned." which is among the several insults Beast will levy at that gameline. Since they walk in dreams and were transformed by some otherworldly entity. Attitudes about the "Fair Folk" vary, on the one hand they can understand their need to sate their hungers, but they're also beyond humanity and beyond dreams, which make Beasts Nervous.

.....right...

Sin-Eaters
Death is the root of all Fear, and has unmatched potential in the human Psyche. The Primordial Pathways touch the underworld as much as any other realm, and Beasts suspect that Geists are Horrors from a different realm. Perhaps the remnants of a long dead Family clawing back to life.

I know even less about Sin-Eaters than I do about Promethean.

Mummies
Their existence is mysterious! They cause a Sickness that resembles the nightmares of a rampant horror! Beasts think that they too are children who were bound to their current form by Human Sorcery. They're compelled by instinctual urges but the Arisen's are externally imposed by Duat.

Oh shut the fuck up.

Demons
The Unchained are extraordinarily secretive and hold the Children in contempt. Encounters between the two terminate in violence and vicious rivalry. Particularly if the Beast manages to see through the Demon's facade since that exposes them to the scrutiny of the God Machine. Whatever they are, they are not kin.

Yay! Demons are the new Good Guys! Please tell us how to kill Beasts, repeatedly, forever.


We're about halfway done with this chapter and butting up against the character limit. Also I'm kind of tired of writing about the various ways in which McFarland wrote his way around the requirements placed upon him.

Next Time: Feeding, Lessons, and Heroes

Chapter 2 Part 2: Food, Incarnation, and Heroes

posted by Kurieg Original SA post

Chapter 2 Part 2: Food, Incarnation, and Heroes

Roughly halfway through the chapter we have this big text dump.

Which is the another bit of "Beasts are actually lying to themselves" story but it doesn't seem like enough in the light of Heroes still being portrayed as unredeemable and universally wrong, and becoming a Beast being this weird combination of a choice, birthright, and affliction.

Food & Drink
This is the smuggest crap.
Mother's Milk
Though this is a strong competition for the title of "smuggest crap".

Beasts "Honor" the mother by feeding but they also force their hunger to have nuance. Beasts say that the world has grown "too loud" for them to hear the wisdom of the primordial dream, so they should teach through their feeding. Beasts "feed" in one of two situations, when their victim(and they do use victim) realizes that it's over and let out that sigh of relief that comes with the morning light, the "Catharsis"... or when they die. The Horror doesn't care about teaching lessons, it just wants to feed in the most brutal efficient way possible and that's by killing things. Beasts don't "shame" eachother for feeding their Horrors. Since the occasional indulgence is liberating, but without moderation they either fall into slumber or attract Heroes. And if they're overt enough then their kin might just run them out of town.


Feast
We've arrived folks, the Beast who punishes bad tippers.

Of course the game isn't done, it's time to wax about hunger in a way that borders on the sexual. "Hunger is pleasure. Anticipation is primal, an emotion that was branded into brains before brains learned to make thoughts. It’s the flood of endorphins as the fork passes the lips. It’s the relish of grilling filet mignon so rare it bleeds blue. It’s the thrill of stalking a wounded deer and its stuttering trail through the woods." So what I'm getting here is that Capital-H Hunger is to hunger as a Werewolf's Rage is to Anger.


What book am I reading again? What happened to teaching lessons? This sounds like Old Beast, the whole "Fuck You Got Mine" incarnate mindset and utter moral superiority over Heroes, combined with revenge fantasy.

Abundance
When a beast is well fed, their Horror grows content and slothful, allowing the Beast to steal away some of it's power to make Nightmares. And... I'm just going to quote the next few paragraphs cause this stuff is horrific.


Yeah, forcing people to relive childhood horrors, succumb to their addictions, and relive their worst pains over and over again so that they can squeeze that last bit of blood out of the stone.

How are these guys supposed to be "the good guys" again?

That said, a full Horror is exacting, no mere gold coin will suit them, they need bullion stolen from fort knox, there is no need for temperance when gluttony is a virtue. But if they push themselves too far, if they fill up completely, then the Horror falls into a complete slumber, leaving the Beast as weak and normal as any human can be. And his enemies are probably quite angry at whatever hellish fuckery they unleashed that manged to top them off.

Famine

This is another reason I hate the "Beasts are the good guys" narrative, if they go hungry for too long people start dying. And if a Beast isn't smart, if they leave too much evidence of their passing, leave too many broken people and bodies then they'll attract the police. They'll need to lie low, the hunger will come and it will burn.

Scarcity
As a Horror gets hungry it starts paying closer attention to what the Beast is doing, Atavisms get stronger as the Horror rubs closer to the skin, offering power in exchange for promised meals. But the Horror hates being hungry, if it isn't sated then it will start trying to do it on it's own. Roaming the Primordial Dream and feeding on it's own in nightmares.
Yes the worst part of that exchange is that it will summon Heroes. Shut the fuck up.

I'd apologize for all the giant quote blocks but this half of the chapter is particularly quotable, both in the sheer amount of on display, and the fact that there's giant piles of fiction interspersed in the last 10 pages. Particularly now because the book decides to provide us five examples of how beasts get hungry! Why? BECAUSE FUCK ME! I'll only torture you with three of them.

Oh.. So apparently there was another genderqueer character. And not a flattering one. Also "You're a horrible torture murderer but can you deal with the horrors of bureaucracy before you're forced to murder something you didn't want to murder?" sounds like a fucking parody.

So a Noir hero that also secretly supernaturally feeds by slandering good cops? I love how all the beast characters so far have either been completely unredeemable shitbags, or compelling characters somehow made worse by making them Beasts.

"Don't you see I wasn't a pyromaniac I was actually serving a purpose and now you've ruined everything noooo..."

If You Are Lukewarm
So why doesn't a beast just sit at middle Satiety? Because the Horror gets bored. No seriously. It wants to either be angry cause it's hungry, or happy cause it's almost asleep, it doesn't like to be in the middle. This bored contentment also leaves a Beast open to Anathema, because it's not paying close attention. A hero can come in and take control over the narrative and force the Beast to act as he expects him to.

Lessons

I don't want to do this anymore.

The primordial dream teaches a very simple lesson, Survival. Fear of the unknown is what kept early humans alive. Fear doesn't grant knowledge though, it grants WISDOM. Pain and Terror show a person that they do not want to experience something again. There's a fine line to be drawn between negative reinforcement (Teaching a behavior by associating it with the stopping of something unpleasant) and punishment(Teaching to avoid a behavior by following it with something unpleasant) but beasts aren't Psychologists and they don't like to split hairs. The primordial dream isn't a psychologist either because now you're covered in spiders WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?! LEARN THE WISDOM!

...yeah no sorry you don't get to be preachy at this point, Beast: The Primordial. You've spent all your goodwill capita with me around the cabbie who drops people off in the bad part of town then locks the doors.

Now Beasts don't need to teach lessons, and they can't require it from others. How could they, who would police that and how? Instead they do what family does, nag them until they succumb to the cultural expectations of the group. Beasts are helicopter parents.
And then they follow that up with this sidebar.


Choosing a Lesson
Beasts sometimes speak of instinctively knowing the lesson that they "must" teach after coming out of their Devouring, but the book flatly admits that the lessons Beasts want to teach probably come out of their own prejudices and no small amount of revenge. Also some Hungers and Families are better suited to teaching certain lessons than others.

Example Lessons
Not every lesson is benign or even helpful. Some Beasts take "Teaching Them A Lesson" in the colloquial 'beat the living shit out of them' sense. But others take their jobs as seriously as being a dream-torturer can be taken.

And they give about two pages of example lessons here, I'm just going to quote the more choice ones wholesale.

That has some connotations there... it also doesn't seem very helpful to teach the lesson.

Demon run dream support groups? This is just depressing.

So... we're playing Changeling now? A very violent game of Changeling?

...I.. have issues with this. Particularly since this doesn't seem much like a lesson and more like "Beasts use fear to shape the world around them and then convince themselves that they're teaching lessons". Like there's a Beast who really hates religion, so they use their powers to scare people away from the church and from faith. As far as they're concerned they're teaching lessons, and from their point of view they're helping. But that seems like a really shitty thing to do. Also not a very compelling character.

Delving in Darkness
Some Beasts occasionally dabble in more Esoteric pursuits. The World of the Chronicles of Darkness is riddled with Occult lore, most of which have at least some vein of truth to them. So many creatures in the world, both supernatural and not, create chambers in the Dream, and few if any have the capability to do anything with them. A Beast who learns of such things can expand their lair through little personal effort capitalizing on the suffering of others.

And if you're saying "This sounds a little harsh" then you're right, because this section was mostly left unaltered from the KS Draft.

Home
Beasts search out places in the world that resonate with the metaphysics of their Lair and pull impressions of those places out of the material to expand them. Failing that they force the issue, finding an unfortunate victim and pushing them to the brink of sanity to create enough of a psychic impression to make a nightmare. "Every place and broken person is another candle burning off fog in the Primordial Dream." Yikes.

That's not too bad, just a little bit weird and
What? No that's actively destructive and I don't think
No game! Pull up! Pull up!
What the fucking hell?! There's one more paragraph about a Tyrant who created a torture cult and feeds off of their worship and expands their lair every time a new cell starts up but we can leave that be for now. Because now there's a character who actively exploits the restless dead of Pearl Harbor and Hiroshima. I don't think we've actually seen a positive character yet in the game but I think this is amongst the most tasteless. It's also a giant tonal swerve from "Beasts teach lessons to stave off their own perceptions of their monstrosity." and we'll be swerving right back in less than a page.

Hearth
Sometimes entire Broods get into the secret finding business.. and now it's time to just get.. even weirder. Because I have no idea what these are going for.

"Oh right, we need to give the other splats a reason to interact with Beasts."
We've got the Beasty Doo Detective Agency less than 500 words away from "I make the ghost of Hiroshima tell me what it was like to die."
I'd like to add now that the book never really gives hard and fast rules for long term feeding like this. Or the fact that "Secrets" Don't really fit the hunger theme for anyone except Collectors. What's the Anakim Tyrant doing for food while everyone else is exploring the spooky mansion?
And yeah like I said this stuff is completely unaltered from the KS Copy so there's no mention or even lipservice spent tending to the "Teaching of Lessons". But I'm sure somewhere out there there's a Beast who's really angry that everyone else is making him look bad.

Family Secrets
Here we get some more Crossover information. And ideas for how to interact with other splats. Most of them are... not really in keeping with the game's themes anymore. I'll only quote a few.

...The guy running a literal nightmare sanitarium is named Asklepian? And he's teamed up with what sounds like a literal monster of a Vampire? Great.
"Hey you know the defining narrative of your gameline? That's dumb."
"Ha ha fuck you Demon."
Myth & Legend
The Book now touches on the Astral Realms. For some reason. The Oneiros is the realm of an individual soul. When a beast gives a person nightmares their Horror lurks in their Oneiros for a short time. The Temenos is the collective soul of mankind, containing a copy of every story, god, and idea that has ever passed between two people. The Anima Mundi is the soul of the universe. Why this is here in a game where we already have the Primordial Dream?

Here be Monsters
Because apparently the Primordial Dream lies between the Temenos and the Anima Mundi. There's honestly a lot of text here that's can mostly be inferred or has been spoken clearly earlier. A Lair is sort of like an Oneiros, it starts small but it grows by adding chambers. Chambers within a lair (either a single beasts or a brood hive) connect with burrows, sturdy burrows that are part of the lair and share it's traits. Chambers under an Apex are connected with Primordial Pathways, weaker connections but still something a Horror can trod if they get hungry.

The larger a Lair the more influence a Beast can have on humanity's collective psyche. The more areas fall under their sway and are subject to their nightmare, which is why Beasts are more likely to become an area's Apex. They're actively working in the realm in which the Apex is determined. "That's also why the Hero must ultimately pursue the Beast to her Lair. Where else can you kill fear itself?" Well, i mean, if you're killing the horror yeah, Beasts can die in the real world pretty easily.

If a Lair is destroyed, however, the Horror is forced to flee into the Beast, causing something far more monstrous.

Nightmares & Dreamscapes
When beasts are hungry their horrors run amok. If they address the issue quickly then a few visits from the Horror aren't going to cause lasting damage. If they don't then the people near them are going to start recognizing the Beast as the "Other", the thing at the edge of the firelight stalking them in their dreams. It's this instinctive revulsion that helps the Hero track down their target.


Inherit the Earth
Inheritance is the only "End Game" that beast has, if you win or you lose, Inheritance is how you go out.
Rampant
Sometimes a Beast looks at their life, at the constant razors edge of Hunger and Humanity, at the game of cat and mouse with Heroes, and says "Fuck this noise." They cast aside their humanity and become that which Heroes say they are. "Mythology tells us that becoming a monster is the ultimate depravity. One who transforms into a monster is surely cursed. But then, that's what mythology says; mythology was written by heroes." If a Beast's lair is destroyed, either willingly or by a Hero or some other force, a Beast undergoes the Merger and becomes a monster of flesh, bone, and hunger in the waking world.

Unfettered

If a Beast dies while their Horror is slumbering, sometimes the Horror goes free. Usually it's an accident, a stupid death while they were unprepared. But sometimes a Beast intentionally does this when they no longer want to live the way they are. "Even the most tormented beast doesn't want to see the Hero win, or anyone else who shunned her for what she was. She wants the legend to carry on, even if she's incapable of carrying it on herself." Oh damn it game, you were so close to doing something meaningful.

Incarnate

Or the Beast can rewrite the story, the one who wrests their life from the Heroes hands and merges with their Horror without either one of them dying. They are flesh and dream and nightmare. They're so steeped in their legend that they know all the twists and turns before they come up. They look at the loom of fate and rip their threads out of it. He betrays Gilgamesh. He devours Saint George. He burns every piece of Osiris until only ash and Isis' tears remain.

Beloved Enemies
The Cycle of Violence
A Hero feels the primordial dream, a fact which most Beasts are loathe to admit. They don't experience it the same way Beast's do, mind you. Beast's dream deep, Heroes dream Broad. They see everything, including the effect that Beasts have on the collective unconscious of humanity. They can see the damage being inflicted and try to instinctively cut it out.
Oh... oh... Yeah Heroes are just egomaniacs who want to murder Beasts. "Murder is his only end, regardless of bystanders. He'll bloviate about the innocents he saves, but at the best of times, protecting the innocent is incidental."

Not So Different, You and I
Apparently they missed the part where they as much as admitted that teaching lessons is a justification.
The good hero ignores the need to hunt and just stops being a Hero. The Good Beast can't do that, so the Good Beast is allowed to do whatever the fuck they want. That's not a 'dark mirror' game, that's false equivalency. And with the change to Heroes being born the way they are it's blaming people for not being special enough to be Beasts.

Monomyths
Fuck there's a lot of fiction in this chapter, and would you believe me that they actually cut it down?
There's something morally reprehensible about how the game co-opts the language of real life bigots and hate groups to describe their Heroes, both in and out of character, but never really goes out of their way to correct them. Like in this case, the hero is right, she is a monster. Her race has absolutely nothing to do with it. But she's still hiding behind her race to drum up the show trial to the point where he is driven to kill her, so she can kill him and still look like the better person. Yes this is making Heroes look worse but at the expense of making real life hate groups look better. Because Heroes are right and they literally do not have a say in the way that they feel.

There's a lot of talking about the Heroes Journey and the Monomyth. I'm pretty sure you've heard this song and dance before.

Subversion
That's.. just sad.

The Hero has expecations, they know the story is supposed to be about them. It's not the Beast who taught them how the tale is told. It's the media, it's video games, it's every movie they've ever watch. Sometimes the Hero isn't perfect, but the story is always about him.

Except that's the lie. The Hero needs to react to something. And Beasts know it. The Hero needs the Beasts to be Beasts for their lives to have meaning. But no matter what the Beast does, the hero can feel the ripples in the dream, and they act. Decisively. To the Hero this is important. If they waste time with things like "identifying the problem" and "seeing if they're a real threat" then the monster 'wins'.

Deconstruction
You ever think that this game might not be giving Heroes a fair shake? The examples we've been given so far include a Racist, a destitute shell of a man, and a gang banger.

"Heroes are more than the instruments of death they fashion themselves to be. They’re the world’s antibodies, a nagging reminder that the Begotten don’t belong. The Hero’s best weapon is alienation. If he can learn how to wield it, he’s already won."
Behold, the closes the game gets to admitting that Beasts are the bad guys. Relish it, because the game then states that Heroes aren't social animals and don't really have use for loved ones. Even though they do have Loved Ones. They save their spite for fellow Heroes. They might join up against a greater evil, but a smart hero always keeps a spare knife handy in case his allies decide that honor is for chumps. No Hero actually wants to share the glory of the kill. They want fawning lackeys, not allies.

But Heroes find lackeys. They can infect the dreams of others just like Beasts can, but they're much more subtle about it. They become the idol, the heroic champion that the community can rally around. In the past they were the village shaman. Interpreting the dreams they could see in the Primordial and informing the people of the message. But there are too many people now. They can no longer be Joeseph, speaking truth to power. They can only be David, spinning the sling. But people still listen to them. They follow them, and believe the 'truth' that the monsters are out there. But no matter how many torches and pitchforks the villagers raise, they aren't there to get the deathblow. They're there to be picked off, one by one until the job is done.

But Beasts? Beasts are family! Not like those terrible Heroes. They care for each other, even though they fight cause families fight! Even if they sin. "But the brood accepts all sins. It fights for the Beast’s right to sin again."

That's.. how the chapter ends.

Just like that. Don't worry though, cause we still have to go over what was different in the Kickstarter.

Chapter 2: Kickstarter Edition

posted by Kurieg Original SA post

Chapter 2: Kickstarter Edition

So what's different?

A whole fucking lot, and not enough.

Like I mentioned before. In the original Kickstarter treatment, you were born a Beast, sure you had some placeholder human soul kicking around in your body for a few years. But eventually your Soul decides it's time to move back in, and you have your Homecoming.

No seriously that's what they called it.

The section talking about the Tenemos used to be much longer... let's play a game. Guess why this was cut

That was a bit too on the nose to survive untouched. Thankfully he realized it.

As far as Heroes...

For starters, the section that's titled "Beloved Enemies" in the final book is called "You Brought This On Yourself" here. And it's far more unflattering..
Remember that he was still directly associating Heroes to MRA's and Gamergate at this point in time. Also at this point in time Heroes were still created by the excesses of Beasts. These are people who literally did not have a choice in the matter being demonized.

Also Beasts in the KS Treatment were almost giddy about fucking with Heroes.
And making them look incompetent
And ruining their lives
And cheating.
And just generally being dicks.
I seriously do not have any idea how anyone thought that people would agree with Beasts being the good guys.

There is one sad note, the change to the whole Beast/Hero dynamic did mean we lost this treasure.


But that's all for Chapter 2.

Up Next: "When Beasty Isn't Around, the other characters should be going 'Where's Beasty?' Also everyone should love Beasty all the time."

Chapter 3: Character and Traits

posted by Kurieg Original SA post

Chapter 3: Character and Traits
We open with another page in the saga of Ben.
I'm not sure how much later after the previous thing with the bullies this is supposed to be, but the next chapter says "a few weeks". So either he's dealing with bullies at college+ age, or he's ludicrously competent for his age. As we'll see later, the first is probably the more likely. This game has... opinions.. about bullies.

...what? Does the Dark Mother just randomly fuck with people for no reason?


Character Creation
This is a Chronicles of Darkness game, and Unzealous already covered how to make a chronicles of darkness character pretty well, the first main difference is in the Aspirations for Beast Characters, some example long term aspirations are "Become the Apex" or "Become Incarnate" Seeing as how those are the only two end-games that the game has that allow you to remain in control of your character that's not very surprising . The first main difference happens in the brand new Step 5

Add Beast Template
Choose your Family and Hunger, try and pick something that suits the character you want to play. Once that's done you choose your Legend and Life. Legend and Life replace the Virtue and Vice that a mortal character would have. Legend is the kind of monster that your Horror wants you to be. Life is the kind of person you want to be. We'll go over them in more detail later. Example Legends are relentless, seductive, unexpected, vicious, and watchful. Example Lifes are cautious, honest, loyal, parental, and shy.

This is the point where you describe your Horror in more detail, but not too much detail. Be broad and evocative, two or three key features that you want to emphasize above all others. Also describe your Lair, you start with a heart and one additional chamber, with a burrow connecting the two. You also have two Lair Traits at least one of which must be minor. You can choose to give up the additional chamber in exchange for two Experiences but that would be an incredibly bad idea for reasons that will become apparent later. When buying Merits you can choose to spend 5 merits to increase your Lair trait by 2. You also choose your starting Kinships, Nightmares, and Atavisms. At least one of your Atavisms need to be from your family, and if you have any appropriate Kinships established you can start with a Kinship nightmare. These will all be explained in more detail later. You gain experience and Beats the same way you gain them in a regular Chronicles game, filling aspirations, resolving beats, being inconvenienced by a beat, dramatic failures, etc.

Satiety
Beasts start with a minimum of 2 Satiety and a maximum of 7, and it provides a little questionnaire to determine where in that spectrum you start. Who are your Kin? If you consider another supernatural creature one of your kin, take an extra point of satiety due to the extra feeding method that's available to you. Does your belly fill easily? Do you feed in large, subtle feasts, or multiple small feasts. If you go the latter route take an extra Satiety since you've probably recently fed. Are you a social predator? Does your brood hunt together, if so take a point of satiety. How frequently do you show your true self? if you save your Atavisms and Nightmares for special occasions, take a point of Satiety to show that you conserve what you have. How drawn to your lair are you? If you didn't boost your lair trait earlier take another point of Satiety to show that you haven't needed to spend a bunch lately.


Example of Character Creation
Hoo boy, it's time to meet Magda.
Magda is just a little bit insane and creepy.
Step One: Concept and Aspirations
Magda decides to play "Mrs. Winters, the whole neighborhood's grandmother." Who came into her devouring late in life after her own children were already grown. When asked if she was spontaneously devoured(Which is still a fucking thing, damn it) or helped by another Begotten she decides it makes more sense for it to have happened spontaneously. She chooses for one of her aspirations to be "Learn about the begotten and figure out how she lasted so long without being devoured in the first place"

Step Two: Attributes
Physical is obviously tertiary, Mrs. Winters can knit like the wind and get around pretty well without trouble so she gets two dots in Dex and one in Stamina. Social gets priority over Mental, with two dots in presence and composure, and one dot in manipulation "Mrs. Winters is a charming old lady who keeps her cool, but doesn't have much need to get by on lying or misleading people (yet)." Wits gets two dots and intelligence and resolve only get one. "She won't say no to sampling a cookie before the bake sale starts."

Step Three: Skills
Mental>Social>Physical. There's some 'cute' justifications for her skills. Computers(her kids got her a laptop) Politics(City council meetings!) Persuasion(yes billy there's a santa claus) Brawl(T'ai chi classes at the Y) and Weaponry "because knitting needles make a fine weapon in a pinch. Orson shifts uncomfortably when Magda says that." She then decides that the dots in Politics suggest another aspiration. "Prevent the city council from rezoning and demolishing the neighborhood."

Step Four: Skill Specialties
Knitting (It doesn't apply to weaponry rolls, Orson is quick to point out) Local Politics, and "Sympathetic Ear" for empathy because she's a confidant for her neighbors.


Step Five: Add Beast Template
She picks Eshmaki because of the echoing darkness of an empty house. She chooses the Hunger for Punishment because..well..
Such a wonderful person. She chooses to avoid feeding on children if necessary. Giving her another aspiration to protect children. Her Legend is Judgemental and her Life is Maternal. Her horror is the stereotypical old woman cranked up to 13, long ragged fingernails and toenails, absolutely zero fat, hunched over, milky eyes, etc.

She accepts the starting lair value and takes Echoing and Darkness as her Lair Traits. "She also tries not to notice Orson scratching out a few lines in his plot notes as a result." Her Nightmares are "You Deserve This"(I hate this nightmare) and "You Are Not Alone". Her Atavisms are From the Shadows and Shadowed Soul. This also prompts her to take a dot out of athletics and put it in Stealth.

Step Six: Merits
I'm still not entirely over the fact that the boilerplate sample character for Beast is a nosy pensioner.

Step Seven: Advantages
Mrs Winters has no kin, since she only really interacts with her neighborhood and doesn't want to shoehorn in a werewolf or mage next door. She feeds often so takes a point there. She isn't a social predator (Doesn't want to have Predators and Tyrants around the neighborhood kids), and shows her true self often to keep the neighborhood in line. And she only has a lair of 1. So her starting Satiety is 4.

Legend/Life
Legend represents your expected behavior as one of the Begotten. If someone had to describe in a single word the horrible thing that came to them in their nightmares, that word would be your Legend. Canny Heroes can use this against the beast by encouraging this behavior. You regain a point of willpower when you reveal your primordial nature in order to scare/impress/convince someone to do something. Successfully activating a Nightmare or acting in accordance with your Legend without being compelled to do so could also apply depending on the scene. But unfurling ones claws just to get a bar-stool closer to the door might have consequences. You regain all your willpower when you act in accordance with your Legend despite knowing it will endanger yourself or your loved ones. They give some Example Legends and..uhh.. some of them are really fucking weak.
"Startling a room full of people" does not put your life in danger.
"Guys I failed my stealth roll again." "...you don't have any dots in stealth." "I know, weird right."

Life represents the person you once were, and the person you want to be again.They lend the Begotten some sympathy in the eyes of humanity, and might put an inexperienced hero off thier guard. You regain a point of willpower when you act in accordance with your life in a supernatural situation. You regain ALL of your willpower when you "act according to your life rather than being the primordial terror the world expects." Or for denying a Hero the chance to prove himself the bastion of all that is right in the world. Dear lord these are super vague definitions and very strong ones "Well I could have killed him but I didn't, I regain all my willpower."
Like this, "regain all your willpower for being a sneaky fuck"? Seriously?
...That's not Cautious. That's "Is Genre Savvy". And it's way too fucking strong. And why are you regaining willpower from your life for revealing that you're a Beast?

So yeah, Legend and Life combine to make Beasts into ridiculously deep wells of Willpower, you should probably make your WP pool as big as possible.

Which finally brings us to...
Kinship
Kinship is general term for the ties that Beasts have with their "siblings" in the world of the Chronicles of Darkness. Kinship functions differently depending on if they're "merely" a fundamentally human being or overtly supernatural.
Descended from the Dark Mother: Vampires, werewolves, changelings, Prometheans, Sin-Eaters, mummies, fetches, inhuman spirits. In general, any being that was never human, or was human but has since been totally transformed into or merged with a supernatural being, falls into this category.
Fundamentally Human: Mages, psychics, mediums, slashers, and ghosts. As a rule, any character who can be described with “mostly human, but” falls into this category. Notable- Beasts willingly associate with slashers.
Kinship Does Not Apply: Demons, as described in Demon: The Descent.

This does raise the question, is there some kind of common spiritual ancestry? Beasts say yes, everyone else says no. end of story.


Does this mean that if a Mage has the family ties condition with an entire brood they get +5 dice to cast a spell that aids or help those beasts?
Cause..
Damn.

Thicker than Water
Beasts have a natural affinity with all creatures of the Dark Mother. This doesn't guarantee deep abiding friendship, but it does allay the natural fear and suspicious that most supernatural creatures have when approached by someone they don't know that also knows exactly who they are...which can itself be kind of off-putting. Particularly if they don't know what the fuck beasts are.

Unless the Beast acts in a hostile fashion, treats the target poorly, or abuses their relatoinship: A beast starts with at least a Good impresion for the purposes of social maneuvering when it comes to dealing with any supernatural creature(including other beasts) Mostly Human supernaturals only start out with an "average" impression. Beasts can even use this power against mostly feral supernatural creatures but only really to establish dominance. That said they get to add their current satiety rating to any social maneuvering rolls with creatures like that.

This is a major bone of contention with a lot of people who play the other games. Because this is the game saying "No, you like Beasts, there's rules for it and everything" Despite the fact that Werewolves, Changelings, and Prometheans have legitimate greivances with a Beasts mere existance, as long as the Beast tries to be nice then they get a leg up on social maneuvering.

Family Resemblance
Beasts can recognize each other on sight, unless a Beast is using some kind of supernatural ability to hide their nature(Which initiates a clash of wills) If they want to learn more than "it's a beast, dumbass" Then they need to use this power normally. Detecting another full-fledged supernatural being is relatively easy, and happens reflexively if the beast is in their presence, success is automatic unless the target is hiding (which triggers a clash of wills). Each beast detects the other supernaturals differently, but it's always distinctive. A discordant chime for changelings, the taste of ashes for vampires, the smell of grave soil for geists. etc. For fundamentally human supernatural creatures, the beast needs to witness them calling on their supernatural power, after which allows them to roll.

The power does provide a fairly concrete definition of what you're looking at, but it won't give any more information (Strengths, weaknesses, any societies they're a member of, etc) Notably a dramatic failure on the roll (Wits+Occult+Lair-Target's Composure) sets your impresion to hostile automatically, but you have to choose dramatic failures in COFD. A success gives you the type of creature you're looking at, their supernatural power stat rating, and how "well fed" they currently are. It will also tell you a Beast's family and their current satiety level. An exceptional success gives you a general idea of the target's most powerful supernatural talent. It also removes two doors in social maneuvering.


Mother's Kiss
Beasts can temporarily boost the powers of other non-beast/non-demon supernatural creatures. As long as they're in the same general area, all it takes is a spoken name and some spilled blood. If the roll is successful, the target feels a rush of power, it's different for everyone but ti's unmistakable. The target can only be under the effect of a single Kiss at a time, and the effects fade at the end of a scene. Also for some reason(Game Balance) This power gets weaker the more powerful the target is.

Passing Resemblance
This power allows a Beast to 'pass' as another supernatural type that they have a Family Tie with. Usually to pass through hostile territory, ally suspicion, or escape immediate harm. It doesn't confer any actual new capabilities but it allows them to 'detect' as that kind of creature under casual inspection.

For a single point of willpower and an active family ties merit this power lasts for a scene. Notably this power is only a perfect disguise if the detecting person couldn't detect beasts with whatever method they're using. So a Beast using this gift would trigger the predator's taint with a Vampire, but if a werewolf uses a "Detect Supernatural Creature" gift on the beast, he would need to win a clash of wills to keep up the disguise. If a beast is at high satiety, the nightmare provides some minor visual illusions to keep the charade afloat. A "Vampire" would look paler and appear to not be breathing. a "Changeling" would have a somewhat horrific fae mien based off of their Horror's appearance.

Family Dinner
AKA: Let's blow the whole power dynamic and double-edged sword that is Feeding out of the water. A Beast can accompany any supernatural creature while it hunts, feeds, or both and gain sustenance from it. It doesn't matter if it's a vampire bleeding some drunk in an ally or a Werewolf stalking an intruder, as long as they are actively tracking prey and/or taking sustenance from the hunt. The Storyteller has final say on if it counts or not, but it needs to involve a monster's supernatural nature or appetites directly. You can't take your werewolf friend out to Burger King.

If the beast witnessed a successful hunt (one that results in taking down the intended quarry either literally or figuratively) they gain one Satiety. If they witness a feeding they gain one satiety. If they witness a hunt that results in a feeding they gain two. A Beast does not need to make her presence known to benefit from this, they could just stalk an unsuspecting vampire from the rooftops. But each successful use of Family Dinner removes a door on an attempt to place Family Ties on the target. If you already have the Family Ties condition on the target of Family Dinner, you gain another point of satiety. And a beast can choose to regain less satiety if they want to 'stay hungry' (AKA: For the love of god do not go to 10 satiety). You can only feed in this way once a scene, the target of the target's hunt cannot be a willing victim, and you need to be physically present. You can't feed via CCTV.

The Horrors just off the path
Beasts are also the unquestioned masters of the Primordial Pathways, they can go basically anywhere they want. Very few things can stop a determined beast from going anywhere they really want to go.

Skeleton Key
You know how there are several supernatural creatures that are very particular about their privacy? Werewolves like their Loci into the shadow, Changelings like their rooms hidden in the Hedge, Sin Eaters use their Avernian Gates to access the Underworld... well fuck that shit, the Beastly Kool-Aid man is here to tell that door to open the fuck up.

It doesn't specifically damage the gateway in any fashion, but to those who know how such things normally work it looks decidedly unnatural as a palpable sense of overwhelming force ripples through the area. As though some great force ripped the door off it's hinges right before it opened normally. Even if a portal resists being opened in this manner, the beast suffers enough backlash for it to be obvious that something isn't working right. That said Beasts have no innate way to sense these gateways, and need to at least know it's there before they can do their work. But once they know it's there they can use this power all they want. They can also, if they so choose, rip open such a doorway and tell it to instead make a path to the Primordial Dream. They can even do this to a Demon's Bolthole, but they can't actually open a Bolthole to the demon's secret realm, just the Primordial Dream. That said a Demon probably isn't super happy about it anyway.



Under the Bed
The easiest way for a Beast to access the Primordial Dream is through their lair, but if they're pressed for time, and want to absolutely ruin someone's day, they can leave a back-door in someone else's nightmares. To set up such a connection, the Beast must first sate their Hunger in the targets presence. They can be an accomplice, victim, or witness, and they don't even need to be aware of what's going on, but there must be no question in their mind that the Beast is responsible for it. After that all it takes is a point of satiety from the Beast and the connection is set. The beast can have no more of these back doors than they have dots in Lair, and the target cannot themselves be a supernatural creature.

The Beast much approach the target while their sleeping, and spend another point of Satiety, this infects the target with a savage nightmare which opens up a portal directly to the Primordial Dream, which the Beast slips through.
If you actually do this, it means that you planned to do this, and you're probably a horrible fucking person. Just FYI.


Hold the Door
A Beast can let others into their lair if they so choose. They must be at an entrance to the lair and grant their express consent. After that any named target can simply walk in with the beast. If the lair is shared by a Brood they're instantly aware when outsiders have been given access. If they've met the target before they know exactly who has been brought in, and they maintain an image of the person which can be recognized later unless they change their appearance. Both mortals and supernaturals can use such a door, but a mortal will probably take a breaking point from the experience. A Beast can be bribed, bullied, or coerced into providing consent, but not supernaturally compelled. The permission must be genuine, if begrudging.


Be My Guest
Alternately, the Beast can spend a point of Satiety and give a target free access to come and go to his Lair as they please. This is a rare and closely guarded privilege and a Brood will probably be very very angry if they aren't consulted before such a privilege is given. Unlike with Hold the Door, a mortal's mind is shielded from the worst a lair can offer with the use of this power. The Lair recognizes the mortal as a valued guest and eases off on them. Such permission can be revoked at any time, but if the target is in the lair already it won't forcibly remove them.


Next Time: Lairs and Feeding

Chapter 3: Part 2

posted by Kurieg Original SA post

Chapter 3: Part 2

Lair
Lair is a a measure of how 'big' a Beast's lair is, It's also the Beast's 'blood potency' or 'primal urge'. It's a measure of how strong they are, and how strong they can be. As their lair increases in size, they can add additional chambers, and add additional traits to their lair. Lair also imposes a limit on how many lair traits they can impose upon the real world in a scene, which is something we'll go over later. And since Lair is "Blood Potency" once they get to 6 lair or higher, they can start increasing their traits beyond human maximum and increasing your lifespan. It also serves as your supernatural tolerance trait

The Primordial Dream
All humans are connected on a spiritual level. All human lives are just fins on the great leviathan that is the Temenos, the bright dream. The human racial memory that contains all concepts shared between humans, the sum total of their civilization and culture. But down beneath even that is the Primordial dream, the animal instincts that we couldn't get rid of but hide behind the veneer of civilization.

God I feel dumb even quoting this.

The Hive
All the chambers in a region are a part of a larger region known as the Hive. The Apex of the area (Whether they're actually aware of it or not) exert their influence on the Hive. A Werewolf known for mercilessly hunting down foes might cause the chambers to echo with howls and smell of blood. A Mage known for their prowess with storms might cause peals of thunder and random lightning strikes. If the Apex is a Beast, then the Hive reflects their lair, a Makara might cause a single great river to flow through every chamber in the hive.

The Horrors of the Beasts in the area roam through the Hive while beasts sleep. If they're hungry they feed on sleeping humans and cause nightmares, these nightmares are no more damaging or traumatic as any other dream unless the Horrors repeatedly feed on the same person over and over again. Beasts can choose to sever their connection from the Hive, usually done if the Apex in the area is using their status to manipulate the other beasts or make their lives hell. But doing so limits the range their Horror can roam and makes attracting heroes more likely.

Chambers and Burrows
Chambers are Rooms in the Primordial Dream, they're connected via hallways called Burrows. Chambers also correspond to the physical location they represent. Beasts can attach a chamber to their lair by finding the physical location that corresponds to the Chamber as long as that location contains at least one trait that matches one of the Beast's lair trait and either A)The beast achieved an exceptional success on a Nightmare roll in the location B)Another character lost integrity/morality via a breaking point with the Beast present or C)a human character lost integrity in the location via an encounter with the supernatural. In the case of C the Beast needs to learn what happened and what supernatural being was involved before adding it to their lair, they can do this by examining the location and "tuning into it".

Chambers can last up to 5 years without being attached to a lair. But if even a week has gone by it gets harder to 'tune into' the chamber. Somewhat more, well not amusingly, but interestingly. If a Beast particularly likes a chamber but doesn't want to bother finding out more information about it, they can drag a mortal to the area and scare them into losing integrity to 'refresh' the chamber and add it. Once the Beast knows exactly what happened in a Chamber, and as long as it meets the trait requirement, the Beast can spend a point of Satiety and add the Chamber to their lair. This process is taxing, however, and can only be done once a story.

While stealing a chamber from the Astral might be useful for, say, protecting your Heart, it's basically worthless for actually getting to your lair normally. And you'd have to fuck with a mage buddy to get it.

The Heart
The first chamber of a Beast's lair is the Heart. It doesn't correspond to any physical location so it's less useful when opening a Primordial pathway, but that's also a good thing, since if a Heart is collapsed then the Beast Dies.

Burrows
Burrows are fluid dream-bridges between two Chambers. In the case of a Hospital chamber and a Factory chamber, this might manifest as a road between them. But you can link a Volcano and a back alley and the Burrow will figure out something. Every chamber in a Lair links to at least one other chamber. They can add another Burrow at any time by spending a point of Satiety, and remap them all with a point of willpower as long as no one is currently using them. But a Beast can only do this once a chapter.

Brood Lairs
Beasts are, in some way "The same Horror" just like all humans are "The same bright dream". So Beasts can join their lairs together. If a Beast spends at least a chapter interacting with another Beast, they can spend a point of Satiety when redefining their burrows to link one of their chambers to another Beasts' chamber. The other Beast can resist this with a clash of wills immediately. Or another Clash of wills when redefining their own Burrows to break the connection.
Secondly, two Beasts can make the same location a Chamber. Either by both being present for the same breaking point or by bringing another beast there after the fact and explaining what went down. This is simultaneously more intimate and more secure, as it creates two chambers superimposed over each other as a part of both of their lairs and can't be so casually broken away, but a Beast can collapse the chamber in their lair without the other Beast having a say in the matter. It's usually useful to draw out lair connections, especially with massive brood lairs.

Accessing the Lair
Soul Communion
Even while in the physical world, a Beast is aware of her Horror's satiety and mood. She doesn't know what it's doing but she can feel it's emotions mingling with it's own. At any time, no matter where she is, a Beast can concentrate to experience the inside of her Lair from her Horror's perspective. This is only a reflexive action, but remotely controlling the Horror requires an instant action, such that you can't act independently in the physical world and lose your defense.

Primordial Pathways
Beasts can open up pathways to and from their Lair whenever they need to act in their Horror's stead, or if they want to use their amazing cheaty Beast powers to go literally anywhere. It's more difficult to go someplace that isn't the physical location where a Chamber was created, but that doesn't mean it isn't possible. If you apply enough of your lair traits to a location you can overcome that difficulty, and it's still easier to go from your lair to the Hedge than it is from your lair to someplace that isn't a Chamber's physical location.

Pathways aren't portals or magic doors, a pathway causes the two locations to "overlap", and be both a part of the Lair and not. Anyone who was physically in the location beforehand who tries to leave finds themselves in the Beast's Lair, anyone still in the chamber when the pathway closes is safely returned to the physical world, including the Beast.


Invited and Uninvited Guests
Any supernatural being that can access the dreams or soul of someone inside the lair can find themselves in the primordial dream. Changelings can accidentally feed upon someone the beast is predating. A Mage can be exploring the astral realms and find a Primordial Pathway. Heroes can straight up open the path into a lair to do battle with the Horror within.

When a Beast approves of someone in their lair, they can choose to protect the guest from any lair traits that they choose to protect them from, and allow them through burrows with a reflexive action. Intruders, however, have to deal with any tilts in effect and have to force their way through Burrows with a point of willpower and an Int+resolve roll opposed by the Horror's Power+Resistance. This takes Lair/2 turns to accomplish.

Dream Form
Visitors or intruders using a primordial pathway from anything but the Primordial Dream are present in the Beast's lair physically. While characters who's nightmares touch the dream (Pre-Devouring Beasts, people the Horror has nightmare yanked inside) are in an astral "Dream form" which uses different rules for Attributes and Health.
Dream form characters are basically spirits so they only have Power, Finesse and Resistance. For most people this is equal to Intelligence, Wits, and Resolve. Dream Health is equal to Resolve + Your characters Attribute maximum (read: 5 for basically everyone) The last boxes of Dream Health impose penalties the same as physical health. When a Beast Merges with it's Horror they have the highest amount of damage as either of them.


Inflicting Nightmares
If a Beast goes too long without indulging her Hunger, the Horror takes matter into it's own appendages. The more powerfult he Horror, the shorter the period of time it can go without being sated and the more brutal it's attacks on dreamers. While the Beast sleeps, the horror hunts.

If the time elapses without Satiety rising to 4 or higher, the starving Horror ventures out of the Lair through the Dream, searching for suitable prey while the Beast sleeps. Any humans who are in a deep state of unconsciousness (dreaming, in a coma, unconcious through injury, on drugs, meditation, etc) The Horror selects a target at random and goes to town.
If the Horror doesn't raise Satiety to Sated, it feeds again after another interval.

Repeated Feeding
I hate how even when they're describing the Beast's biggest failing the game is still self aggrandizing. Oh thank god that the Beast didn't feed, he allowed Billy to reconnect with his family through existential terror.

That said if a Horror feeds lightly and the Beast doesn't pick up the slack, the Horror will feed again, and it will go for the easiest target it can find. Left to it's own devices it will find someone it fed on before and keep feeding, night after night, because it's easier. Each time a Horror feeds on the same person, the roll to enter the dream receives a +1 modifier. Eventually you are going to get an exceptional success and attract a hero. "Less savory" Beasts will use this tendency of the Horror to fuck with people they hate while still maintaining plausible deniability.

The Hive
If the Apex trait of your hive is one of your lair traits, or the Apex is a beast who has granted you immunity to the trait, your Horror can roam the entire hive rather than being limited to your Lair in miles. This doesn't prevent your Horror from visiting the same person every night, but you can spend a point of willpower before sleeping to nudge your Horror someplace else. If you've closed your Lair off from the Hive you're limited to a radius of Lair/2 in miles.

Destroying the Lair
Intruders can collapse a chamber inside a Lair to reduce the Owner's capabilities and eventually cornering the Beast in it's heart. Collapsing a chamber is a difficult process during which the Beast and/or it's Horror is likely to go on the counterattack. If the intruder is a Hero with an Anathema, or if the Horror is incapacitated. This can be devastating or deadly. Beasts can also willingly close off a chamber to close off an avenue of attack.


Once the target number is hit, the Lair starts to collapse. Anyone inside must escape through a Burrow within the Beast's Lair Raiting in rounds. Anyone still in the chamber when it collapses is ejected if there's an open primordial pathway connected to the chamber, otherwise they just fucking die. Characters who are only present in dream form get ejected and soul shocked. A Beast attacking another Beast's lair can instead steal the chamber with a point of satiety as long a they have a chamber open for the story. Anyone still in the chamber suddenly finds themselves attached to a new lair with new traits.

Which leads us to.
Lair Traits
Minor and Major Traits
Traits are divided into minor and major traits. This is mostly an elementary distinction for reasons we'll discover lator, but at least one of your lair traits needs to be minor. The reason why I say this is an elementary distinction is that Minor traits are at least possible in the physical world without the use of magic. They can provide dice penalties or bonuses to skills or count as Extreme environments with a rating of 2 or less. Major traits usually impose tilts that aren't physically possible, anything from turning people to salt or acid rain made of lava. These can provide dice penalties, bonuses to attributes, or derived traits like speed and defense. Or an Extreme Environment up to level 4.

Imposing Traits
When a beast finds himself in a situation outside their lair with one or more of his lair trait tilts already in effect, the location is considered resonant with their traits. While resonant they can impose any other lair traits they choose up to the limit imposed by their lair rating. At rank 1 this means you use one to impose the other.

Beasts often use guile and manipulation of the terrain to set this off, or capitalize on the poewr of other supernatural beings. Like setting off the sprinklers to take advantage of the "Downpour". At the end of the scene, or when the Beast wishes it to stop, the imposed lair traits vanish, though their aftereffects remain. Turning the air to acid will leave behind pitted and scarred furniture, but there will be no sign of the chemicals that caused such damage.

Environmental Immunity
The minotaur is not confused by it's cave. Beasts are immune to any environmental tilt matching their lair traits even if they occur naturally. This does not confer supernatural power unless it directly matches the tilt, an area can be cramped without being "Cramped", and it wouldn't suddenly grant your Anakim the ability to fit through a mouse hole unless he chose to impose the trait. But one who did that should be careful not to leave their area of influence while mouse sized.

Brood Lairs
A beast can use a Lair Trait from one of his Brood as either the trigger for imposing tilts, or one of the tilts they impose. They can also spend a point of willpower to grant their Brood immunity to their invoked traits. They don't gain immunity to naturally occuring traits.

Chambers and Lair Traits
If a location doesn't have any tilts that match your lair, but was used to create one of your chambers, y ou can spend a point of satiety to impose any of your lair traits without needing the initial tilt. If the area is instead similar, you can spend a point of willpower and roll wits+resolve with a penalty that gets more severe as you leave "Exact" (I.E. a Highschool when you have a Highschool chamber) to spiritual similarity (A School) to Narrative similarity (A room full of books) or descriptive similarity (You threw a book on the floor and screamed "School" at the top of your lungs).


Lair Traits
I could go into more detail and describe all the major and minor lair traits, but this is kind of a solved problem. Cause there's one lair trait that's easier to invoke than literally any other.
Poor Light (Minor)
Dim illumination, strobes, or flickering lights make it difficult to track movement and see clearly. Affected characters suffer a –2 penalty to visual-based Perception rolls, including ranged combat, rising to –3 at medium range and –4 at long range.

Seriously, how can "Sun reflecting off of snow and/or sand" "Dense tangled undergrowth" or "Literally a blizzard" compete in utility with "You turned off the lights"? So what does your Beast take as their second trait?
Burning(Major)
The Lair is engulfed in flame, whether in whole or part, burning anything combustible within the Chamber. To serve as a Lair Trait, a fire must be at least bonfire size (see p. 172 for fire rules) but a whole Chamber is usually an inferno. When this Trait is bought, the Beast’s player specifies the Size and
Intensity of the flames, which she must then match in order to use the Trait in Trait Imposition. Her environmental immunity, however, extends to all flames up to her Lair rating.
Corrosive(Major)
Whether it’s a pool of acid, a corrosive atmosphere, or more overtly supernatural environments such as flash-rusting metal or organic matter slowly petrifying or turning to salt, something in the Lair eats away at flesh and degrades matter. The Beast’s player defines what the corrosion affects based on the Lair’s description. Affected characters suffer one aggravated damage per turn of exposure, and objects lose one Durability per turn.
Darkness(Major)
The Lair is pitch-dark beyond the capacity of human nightvision — the darkness of a cave or a sealed room, not simply night. Without a source of illumination, characters within the affected area suffer a –5 penalty to any rolls involving vision and lose all Defense.
Electrified(Major)
The Lair features electrical hazards — bio-electrical stings, live rails, electrified fences, or simply lightning. When this Trait is bought, the Beast’s player defines whether the Trait represents Major, Severe, or Fatal levels of electricity as per the rules on p. 171. To use this Trait as the initial Trait in Trait Imposition, she must match the appropriate severity. Her environmental immunity applies to sources of electricity up to the Trait’s severity.
Suffocating (Major)
Rather than a harmful atmosphere as in Noxious Gases, a Suffocating Lair simply lacks oxygen altogether. It may represent the impossible heights of a mountain, the depths of a sealed cave, or simply be underwater. No matter how the trait manifests itself, characters staying within the affected area beyond their ability to hold their breath begin suffocating or drowning as per the rules on p. 328.
You turned off the lights, now everyone is dying in pitch darkness in your magical murder lair that leaves behind no evidence.

At Literally No Cost

Pictured: Artists Rendition of every lair ever.

These people aren't minmaxing enough.

This chapter is long and I'm easing myself back into it, so this is a good place to stop for now

Up Next: Smothering Frat Boys in their own vomit

Chapter 3: Part 3

posted by Kurieg Original SA post

Chapter 3: Part 3
Time to delve back into the Atrocity Mine.
Satiety
Yet more evidence that Beasts are horrible blights on the world that don't really need to exist, unfortunately we're on page 108 of 358 so They're going to keep talking about this shit.

Levels of Satiety
Satiety is measured from 0-10, and divided into 5 levels throughout that range. All of these levels are represented by Conditions.

This is suitably harsh, you want to avoid this at all costs unless forced to, but take note of that “Satiety potential 8” thing. Or you can just kill a Hero







What you can take away from this is that the optimal way to play a Beast is to feed from starving to gorged and then spend down to starving again. Congratulations you just got an experience point probably.

Feeding
The "shock" is the victim's soul leaving its imprint on the Primordial Dream, which strengthens the Horror. Which more solidifies the fact that it's never about the lesson, it's about the Horror. The Satiety potential of a feed is always up to the Storyteller to decide, but it can never go above a 10. It does provide some guidelines. Something that requires no time or effort is a base 1, something that requires a scene is 3, something that requires a chapter's worth of preparation is 5. The victim dying increases the potential by 4, and doing something like attacking multiple victims at once, feeding in your lair, doing an extended chase, or spending satiety in the hunt also increase the potential. A meal not fitting with your specific Hunger only inflicts a paltry -1 penalty to potential, less than "Someone else procured the meal for you" which is -2. It also says that merit purchases might also qualify as feeding, a Tyrant purchasing Status for example. Which just seems like double dipping since feeding progresses you through satiety conditions which gives you XP.

If the final satiety potential is equal to or greater than your current satiety, you roll at the end of the scene. A Dramatic failure loses you a point of Satiety and you need to feed again by the end of the chapter or you lose another. Failure gets you nothing. A success gains you your successes in Satiety but you can only chose to take less points than you rolled if you got an Exceptional Success. That's why I say that feeding when you're above 6 Satiety is risky, and 7 is downright suicidal. Cause if you don't get an exceptional success you're probably screwed.

And remember what I said earlier about needing a potential 8 feed to get out of Ravenous? Since Ravenous precludes advanced planning the only way to reasonably pull it off is to murder someone.

The Protagonists lady and gentlemen.

The Hungers
Here we get into the examples of what different Hungers view as high/moderate/low satiety feeds, I'm not going to go into all of the examples but I'm going to point out the egregious ones.
Like Gay Rape.

Or Saw.
But, celebritys are people, not things, that would be a hunger for Prey.. right? Who knows and who cares!
The Example Feed
I'm going to break with tradition here and post the Kickstarter version first, you'll understand why later.
I would like to point out that she waited until he started to retch before smothering him, meaning she smothered him in his own vomit. People were understandably alarmed at this ludicrously disproportionate response to someone stealing candy so they fixed it in the final version.

They made Brent a Frat Boy.

_{I mean they also changed the "he would make a good hero" bit to "he would be able to help heroes find Mrs Winters" thing as well but otherwise it's completely unchanged}

A frat boy stealing candy from children seems ludicrously petty. In the sense that "it probably would not happen ever." A teenager might, but no we have to use the acceptable targets that Geeks are okay with. Also using "You Deserve This" and turning his house into a chamber is bordering on "ruining his life forever" territory.

Losing Satiety
Beasts lose satiety when they reorganize their lair, activate certain Atavisms or Nightmares, use accelerated healing while in their Lair, or gradually over time. You can do this as an X per Week/day thing, but the suggested method is that (Lair) times per story the Storyteller can make THE OFFER, suggesting that you trade out a Satiety point for a Beat, there's nothing saying you have to, but Beats are Beats.

Merits
These are mostly retreads of the Core CofD Merits, but one thing that's new are "Advanced" and "Epic" Merits, which are upgraded versions of lesser merits that are their prerequisites. And usually require that you be a Beast and have higher stats than the lesser ones. For example, Normal Direction Sense just kind of lets you know where you are in space and makes sure you don't take penalties to navigate. Advanced Direction Sense lets you know where anything you've seen, touched, smelled, or directly touched is at any time. Epic direction sense lets you track things through time if something was destroyed you can sense when and where it stopped existing. You can also "Stake out" a location in time, sending your perceptions back X hours and then waiting to see what happened. There's also an Advanced version of Giant that makes you supernaturally dense the more sated you are, but also has the drawback of "You tend to fall through residential flooring". Advanced fast reflexes lets you roll twice for Initiative and keep the better one. Basically Advanced Merits are just another subset of Beast Only powers that some non-beasts can use occasionally.


Pictured: the “Relentless Assault” Fighting style.

Atavisms
Atavisms are you "inflicting" bits and pieces of your horror onto reality. People can see the results of what happens easily enough, you breathe fire or suddenly people are being choked by unseen tentacles. But only those with supernatural sight can see the dragon or the kraken that you really are. Atavisms aren't magic spells, they're an inherent part of what a Beast is. And since Atavisms usually only affect the Beast, they don't get supernatural resistance rolls, or really any way to resist them at all.

Atavisms have three modes, a Normal Effect that happens if you're at 4 dots or higher. A Low Satiety effect if you're at 3 or less. And a Satiety expenditure that happens when you spend Satiety to activate it. If this expenditure brings you down to 3 you also get the Low Satiety effect, otherwise you get the High. If you're currently in an area that's resonant with your Lair, you can instead spend a Willpower point to get the Expenditure effect a number of times per scene equal to your Lair. Remember that one of your starting Atavisms has to match your "breed" but otherwise you're free to chose anything that suits your Horror, or really anything you want. "Dreams are Malleable."

I'm not going to talk about all the Atavisms, because there are several but i will give some examples.
The out of combat effects aren't really what I'm worried about here, the Poisoned tilt inflicts 1 lethal a turn unless you succeed on a Stamina+Resolve check, if you decide to move this check takes a -3 penalty. If you use the Satiety expenditure version and choose Insensate (which you will) then they can't even move for a scene unless they spend a willpower point per turn, or until someone attacks them. To use MMO terminology, CC someone and inflict them with a DoT that can't expire? Fantastic.

On the one hand: thankfully it's a very short range (a light revolver's short range is 20) On the other hand Low Satiety gives you an infinite ammo auto-fire gun.

....alright yeah this is genuinely creepy.

Very genuinely creepy. Particularly since you could be a firebreathing swarm of insects.

This is neat but it feels very out of place as a "shapeshifting" effect, I guess it was so Anakim had something other than "is big" and "is strong" in their bag of tricks.

Nightmares
Nightmares are a Beast inflicting the primordial dream on someone. Exposing them to the "Primordial Truths" that they are nothing but prey huddled against the dark. While Atavisms are instinctual, Nightmares must be learned, either from another beast or by ferreting them out of the Depths of the Dream. Alternately you can use a Kinship to build a new Nightmare in line with your Kin's proclivities. A Kinship with an Iron Master could give you a werewolf Nightmare or a specific Iron Master Nightmare. To invoke a Nightmare a Beast must either touch a victim or have them look into their eyes (The victim must see the Beast's eyes, the Beast doesn't have to see theirs, one way glass or reflective sunglasses are fine, TVs are not), and say something relevant to invoking the nightmare. The victim doesn't have to understand what you're saying, and you can bury it in a conversation if you choose, but you have to say it. The effects of the nightmare can either take effect immediately or the next time the victim falls asleep, and generally last for a Scene once activated.

Nightmares are basically the inverse of Atavisms, in that you have to roll for all of them, rather than a few, And they have Normal, High Satiety, Satiety Expenditure, and Exceptional Success effects. Also unique to Nightmares, there are some cases where using a Satiety Expenditure Nightmare might be situationally beneficial to the victim, they'll be generally worse off but in one area they might excel.

I'll go over a few Nightmares, all of which have a name that wouldn't be out of place coming out of the mouth of Ming the Merciless.

Case in Point.
Here's an example of a "Beneficial" nightmare, you're basically trading off Willpower for near-guaranteed exceptional successes.

So here's another "beneficial" nightmare but it's also one that shows a real problem with the Nightmare system. You're rolling "Stat+Satiety" against a mortal's single stat, or a supernatural creature's composure+resistance. But at High Satiety that means you're rolling at minimum an 8 dice pool. +2 composure isn't enough to overcome that. "Go Jump Off A Cliff" is a real lethal threat at that point.

And here we are at my least favorite Nightmare. The guilty condition can only be resolved by confessing your crimes to an authority capable of punishing you. However this Nightmare doesn't specify what crimes you're supposed to be guilty of, or even require that you're guilty of a crime. Particularly considering a Beast's horribly skewed morality system. And the Satiety Expenditure version of this one reads as "We can torture this guy as much as we want and he won't fall unconscious so he has to tell us what we want to know!"


Combine this with "Run Away" and you can send an entire banquets worth of people falling to their deaths off of a Skyscraper.

The chapter ends with some information on how to make your own Kinship Nightmares, but that's not really worth going over.

Chapter 3 made it through relatively unscathed barring the narrative changes. There is one nightmare that was conspicuously absent in my reading though.

I've underlined the important bits. Combine this with one of the Nightmares that makes another nightmare contagious (there are others, I just didn't want to quote all of them) and you can create a soulless plague that only beasts can fix. And you can just turn off every other supernatural creature because they aren't as awesome as Beasts.

But don't worry, that got moved to another power later in the book

Next time: RULES!

Chapter 4: Rules

posted by Kurieg Original SA post

Chapter 4: Rules
As always, we open up with another chapter in the saga of Ben.
So he's dating/hunting with a hooker vampire.
....
He's sixteen.

So Hunters are supernatural and worthy of respect but Beasts are the ultimate adjudicators of who gets to live and die, fantastic.


This is basically the rules chapter from the Chronicles of Darkness with a few sidebars saying "Beasts don't have integrity but if for some reason you want to have a human in your game go ahead I guess." "Here are the rules for ghosts, spirits, and posession even though those are somewhat tonally inconsistent with our game." and "Soul's aren't the seat of conciousness so you can remove someone's soul without them becoming a zombie also vampires have souls and why the hell did we make a soul removing power?" Okay maybe I added that last sentence.

also there are pictures, not many, but some.

This is pretty goddamn Dresden Files.


What is going on here.. he's either defending that woman or horribly abusing her.

But beyond that this chapter isn't anything new, and since I'm already a few months behind I'm not going to spend 2 weeks reinventing the wheel.

Up Next: Heroes

Chapter 5: Heroes and Other Monsters

posted by Kurieg Original SA post

Chapter 5: Heroes and Other Monsters
The game is wearing it's prejudices firmly on the sleeve now. In this chapter's Ben saga, he is being a hormonal teenager, surprising no-one except literally everyone.


Yeah this isn't going to end badly at all.


I've asked this before and I'll ask this again, why on earth is the game even pretending that Beasts are good people?


And what the hell does this chapter image have to do with anything that follows?

The chapter opens stating that monsters exist in stories to be killed. And that Beasts are the monsters in the Story which means basically everyone wants to kill you. Always Heroes, sometimes other supernaturals, and even sometimes other beasts.

Heroes and Legends
Heroes like reading the old tales about Heracles, Marduk, Durga, and St.George. All of them they consider heroes out to slay some evil beast. I'm choosing not to quote three pages of literal hero worship but they call out Atalanta as being a "Feminist" icon so... yeah.


The Quest Begins
Like Beasts, Heroes are born different. But they don't "Dream Deep", they "Dream Wide", skimming the surface of the Primoridal Dream but experiencing a wider variety of it's offerings. In the past they served as an early warning system, sensing that the monsters were coming and trying to teach the needed lesson in a less deadly way. Heroes only hunted down Beasts that were driven to excesses by their Hunger. The game will not expound upon what "excesses" constitute. Then humans bred too much, got to numerous, and everything broke.

It All Went Wrong-
As mankind got larger their connection to the Primordial dream weakened, Beasts could no longer sate themselves entirely through Nightmares, they needed to go out hunting. Heroes could no longer skim the Dream, only sense where the disturbances were and go seek them out. The cultural narrative has changed so much that now Heroes assume that they must kill Beasts, and Beasts think the same.
It is taking a Herculean amount of effort to not just spam the wank emote this chapter.

First Contact
That's not how surface tension works. water would adhere to the hand if you were touching the surface of the water and a human isn't light enough to support themselves on the water without breaking the tension, even just resting their hand. They'd need to hold it in place which means that they would be naturally counteracting any kind of feeling they'd be getting from the water and this is such a dumb metaphor.

A hero that feels a quiver in the dream finds themselves drawn to the physical location where that disturbance happened.
So the "Good" Heroes are the ones that run across a mugging and cross the street to avoid it, and he "Evil" Heroes are the ones who stop it.

I'm sorry what?

The "Hero-to-be" who decides to hunt down the beast falls into an obsessive spiral that takes over their life. They start being paranoid, carrying weapons, not out of fear but out of a determination to be prepared for the eventual fight. Others consider such paranoia unhealthy but the Hero dismisses these claims. How could they possibly know what he's gone through to protect them? Eventually the fixation turns to hatred, the Hero sees the Beast as an abomination, a Monster. And Heroes Kill Monsters.

Yes their excuse is "Moral Heroes never encounter Beasts because Moral Heroes never encounter Beasts" also "Violent or Destructive Monsters", there is literally a hunger for destruction and two for violence.

And yes they are discussed in chapter seven, but not well.

Tools and Weapons
Heroes are not the rank and file of humanity, after all they're special. They're resilient to damage, able to track Beasts that have raised their ire, and are able to impose("Discover") weaknesses on Beasts that find themselves unprepared.

First Blood
Most Heroes don't come out of their first encounter with a Beast prepared and ready to kill. They'll survive, surely, but a nascent hero isn't very powerful and it's usually the strong Beasts that raise their ire. Occasionally a Hero will encounter a weaker Beast and kill it. Other times a veteran Hero will take a newbie under their wing and grant them the rite of the kill. Regardless with each kill a Hero grows stronger.

The Rest of the Cast
Heroes are often surprised when they encounter others like themselves, but every Hero of myth has sidekicks and helpers. Usually these sidekicks aren't other Heroes though, since their egos can't abide not being the Star of the show for too long. And Heroes usually don't work well in groups, a particularly noble hero may lay down his life for "his men", but all to often they decide that their men would be fine dying for his cause and leave them to hang.

Worthy Companions
Two heroes hunting the same beast will find themselves often working at cross-purposes trying to isolate the kill for themselves. If a group of Heroes does form, it's called a Band, few of which last after their first kill. Though some stick around, particularly in areas were the Begotten congregate. The first challenge a Band faces is dealing with the other Heroes. Tempers flare regularly and arguments happen over every little thing. Attempts at cohesion turn into a battle of dominance where only one person can be on top.

A quick and dirty method of getting a band of Heroes all on the same page is to attack their mutual interests. Wise Children who hear of a band forming don't attack before they are sought out for fear of galvanizing their efforts. Canny heroes will provoke lesser beasts into attacking them to rally their allies behind them(and come out on top). The other problem that shows up is who gets the kill. Only the one who lands the killing blow gets the 'level up' and more than one beast has escaped while the Heroes who bested them squabble over blood rights. Such arguments usually cause them to disband. Occasionally they will 'feed' the least experienced Hero, though several will argue the validity of such a kill, it doesn't really matter as far as powering up is concerned.

When heroes gather outside of the hunt it's either a rollicking good time (No one drinks like Gaston!) or a contest of egos that turns into a brawl. Such gatherings are rare because who has time for anything other than the hunt! That's not to say they don't cooperate, Heroes will seek eachother out for specialized training or knowledge all the time. Though the price of such assistance can vary. The advent of the Internet has also made communication between Heroes all the easier, though older heroes see it as a waste of time.

Followers
Heroes and Hunters often cross paths, and sometimes they work together. But it's never an easy alliance.

Heroes see Hunters as useful tools and shock troops, best left to deal with the vampires or werewolves. Let the second string benchwarmers fight while the REAL men fight the REAL threat. For their part Hunters see Heroes the same way. They can use Heroes to seek out the Beasts that are the lightning rods of the supernatural world.

Some compacts and conspiracies make active use of Heroes. Ashwood Abbey uses them like hounds to flush out the proverbial Fox. Members of the Union often find themselves in hero inspired mobs. Task Force Valkyrie, on the other hand, has a standing order to observe but not engage with any independent heroes since they prove too great a risk to equipment and personnel.

Other Nightmares
Heroes often assume that Vampires and Werewolves are cut from the same cloth as a Beast, waking nightmares who disturb the Primoridal Dream. But if they try and hunt such creatures they find the experience unfulfilling. A dead Werewolf doesn't provide the increase in power that a Beast does. But since Kinship is a thing, Heroes will run across them.

Vampires
Heroes don't usually mess around with Vampires because Vampires police themselves and are fairly hard to tell apart from a normal human. Vampires who have had the opportunity to do so say that Hero and Beast blood tastes the same.

Werewolves
"On the surface, it might seem that the Uratha would sympathize with Heroes, focused as they are on defending their territory and hunting down threats." Sure they would... Of course werewolf packs are packs and Heroes are lone hunters, so that doesn't really work. Also Heroes think that Werewolves are Beasts.

Mages
When they cross paths, a Hero and a Mage will butt heads because they're both willful individuals who refuse to back down. That said they probably won't cross paths except if the Mage has a kinship with the current Hero's target.

Changelings
Apparently Heroes that know of Changelings see them as powerful allies, if they can be convinced that the Beast is a threat then their skills at dream combat will aid them greatly. Or they could accidentally give the Beast a new ally.

Prometheans
The Created cross paths with Heroes so infrequently that any encounter at all would probably be a noteworthy event. That said, the Ego of a Hero makes them incapable of understanding why wanting to be simply human is a worthy goal. Prometheans have formidable powers, don't need real food, and can shrug off fatal injury with ease. Then the disquiet kicks in, the Hero tries to kill the Promethean, and wonders why he even bothered.

Sin-Eaters
Heroes view Sin-eaters as too wrapped up in themselves to be entirely safe. The only exception is if a Beast is hiding in an Avernian Gate, or if a Sin-Eater is carrying a Geist that died as a result of the Beast's actions.

Mummies
They don't really interact. The heroes that do interact desperately want the Rite of Return so they can kill Beasts forever. The Mummies think that is an incredibly stupid idea.

Demons
Demons have better things to do than even acknowledge Heroes and their insane quests. If a hero does find out that Demons are more or less immune to a Beast's wiles, they might try to get a Demon's help in their hunt, gladly selling their soul for power. And the Demon may oblige.


I love how the game basically admits, in character, that the only way they could make Heroes non-sympathetic was to give them a body count in the thousands.

Next Time: Hero Mechanics and neckbeards Sample Characters

Chapter 5 Part 2: Hero Creation

posted by Kurieg Original SA post

Chapter 5 Part 2:Hero Creation
Beasts don't spawn Heroes anymooorreeee.

There's a lot of stuff in here that refers to concepts that were retconned out in the post-kickstarter revisions. I've been mostly glossing over them. Also that statement is patently false, the only thing that Heroes and Beasts have in common is that their templates both contain legend and life. Heroes don't have satiety, Lair, Nightmares, or Atavisms. And even though they may have Aspirations, they're exclusively NPCs so they don't gain beats.

Hard to Kill
Heroes are sturdy and heal quickly, because the legend that drives them is stronger than mortal flesh. Heroes are immune to being Beaten Down and will never Surrender to a Beast unless doing so will give them a better opportunity to kill that beast later. They're also immune to mundane illnesses and never require medical attention for injuries, instead healing very quickly, 1B every 10 minutes, 1L every day, and 1A every three days.


Legend and Life
As mentioned before, Heroes have a Legend and Life. A Heroes Life represents the mortal life they had before they were a Hero, but their connection to it is more tenuous than that of a Beast's, they can only regain willpower by placing themselves or their mission at significant risk to try and buck the narrative, and only once per scene. Their Legend gives them 1 willpower whenever they act in accordance with their role in the story. And refills completely when they put themselves at great risk to keep the story going. Like breaking into a bank after hours to steal the object of a Beast's ire. Or enter into combat on the Beast's terms knowing that they're outmatched.

Integrity
Heroes don't use Lair, they instead use mortal Integrity ratings. Integrity is a measure of the strength of a person's self image and "Health of the soul", and any Hero that hunts beasts has an integrity of four or less.

Heroic Tracking
Heroes have an instinctive sense for finding disturbances in the Primordial Dream.
This seems a little bullshit, just FYI. In both the sense that there can be "Gentle and conscientious" beasts, and that violent murder doesn't disturb the dream.

Any power that explicitly states that it disturbs the dream (Under the Bed, Inflicting Nightmares) will alert the heroes of the region. "A more sedate or centered Hero might experience this as a series of troubling dreams and think no more of it." the "violent" heroes instead view it as a call to arms and seek out the physical location of the disturbance. If it resulted from a Horror feeding on a person's nightmare, the Hero finds the dreamer. Same with Under the Bed. If it came from an Atavism or Nightmare (Multiple exceptional successes, using them to kill a person) the hero finds the scene where the event occured. This doesn't require a roll, it just happens.

Here the scales start to fall off your eyes with regards to the fact that Heroes aren't meant to be anything other than plot devices or the inevitable stick you use to smack misbehaving players. They used to be something much different but we'll get to that later.

Heroic Stalking
Stalking is a "More intimate, dangerous activity than Tracking". This is the Hero trying to learn more about the Beast and setting up a confrontation. Some Heroes skip this step and go right to the stakes and pitchforks, they don't tend to live long. Once a Beast is being stalked, the storyteller rolls the Hero's Wits+Investigation or Composure to determine if he can sense a Beast nearby, or if a Beast has activated an Atavism or Nightmare within the last day, at the cost of a willpower. This doesn't manifest itself as a sense or second sight, but as an unshakable conviction in a truth suddenly revealed to him. Some Heroes view this as a message from God.
The Hero gets a bonus for every beast present, if any of them are Starving, or if any of them have fame.
"This is exactly what we said would happen when she made this house a part of her Lair but he's a frat boy so it's okay stop being such a whiner."
I remind you, this is the game's only native form of conflict and it's entirely storyteller controlled and has little to no actual interaction with the mechanics as a whole. If the Storyteller wants to summon a Hero from the Aether, he does.

Anathema
Smaug was missing a single scale on his belly. Other monsters are unable to stomach the blood of a true innocent. Still others are driven to vomiting by a baby's cry. When a Hero uses a monster's raging temper or vulnerable temper against it, he's only fulfilling the Death Wish inherent to it's very nature. This is the story that Heroes tell, and it gives them both courage and comfort in their fight.

Anathema are the secret weaknesses and inhuman urges that give mortals the ability to bring Beasts low. Rather than being an intrinsic part of their nature, however, Anathema are a thorn in their sides placed there by a Hero designed to draw them into the story that Heroes want. One where that ends in their inevitable death and the Hero's triumph. Once placed an Anathema burrows into a Beast's nature and tries to turn them into the monster that the Hero sees her as, whether she likes it or not

Placing Anathema
Every Hero is capable of placing Anathema on a Beast, though they are never conscious of this fact. In the Hero's mind they are simply discovering something that has always been there, with this revelation proving that they are destined to succeed in their fight.

To a Beast, Anathema are Conditions that Heroes can place in combat. And while Heroes are always looking to draw Beasts into their narrative, Beasts can defend themselves against Anathema most of the time without even thinking about it. While their Horrors are content and restful, the Beast is too human for the Anathema to stick. If the Horror is active and starving it can fend off an Anathema without even thinking about it.

In the middle ground, however, a Beast is neither too monstrous or too human to be safe. If a Hero makes an attack against a Sated beast, they can attempt to enhance their attack and weaken their foe. A point of willpower spent before the attack will cause an Anathema if the attack hits. But the Hero can't regain that Willpower until the Anathema resolves or the Beast is dead.

The Hero who inflicted the Anathema is immediately aware of it's exact nature and limitations, experiencing it as a great revelation. Other heroes can make a Wits+Empathy roll while in the presence of a Beast to figure it out themselves. Once a Beast is placed under an Anathema they become immediately aware of it. It feels like a thick iron spike being driven into their back or an iron chain being draped around their neck and locked in place. It is a foreign clinging thing that remains just uncomfortable enough to be impossible to forget. She knows exactly how it works and what it drives them to do, but it is completely undetectable to anyone else, even other beasts.

The Nature of Anathema
Once an Anathema is placed, it remains regardless of the Beast's resultant satiety. A Ravenous or Starving beast is protected by their monstrous nature, but a Gorged beast's defenses are lowered and suffer the effects more sharply. If their Horror is Slumbering, however, the Anathema has no effect, but "most would not consider this perk to be worth the problems associated with being separated from their Horrors" because this is a game where being compelled to torturemurder is considered desireable.

No beast can suffer under more than one Anathema at a time, and each Anathema has it's own resolution point, either going to Ravenous, or going to Slumbering. Which kind of creates a self perpetuating cycle. To get to Slumbering a Beast would need to do something that would gather the attention of a Hero. To get out of Ravenous they would have to do the same. Beasts should be literally inundated with Heroes all the time. The Anathema that resolve at Ravenous are conceptually pretty weak, because spending yourself low is easier than gorging yourself high, particularly when being at Starving will weaken the Anathema anyway, and killing a Hero is explicitly stated as one of the ways to resolve Ravenous. The ones that resolve at Slumbering on the other hand..

Example Anathema
I'm not going to go over all of them, just a few.

You may be thinking "Wow aggravated armor piercing damage that seems excessive" but remember that banes aren't supposed to be easily available and for the most part Anathema are inflicted in combat(There are other ways, but they aren't available to starting Heroes). So a level 1 hero can inflict this bane but not actually utilize it unless they run away, giving the Beast time to resolve the condition.

Again, this Anathema is pretty milquetoast because it needs to exist before the confrontation for the Hero in question to actually capitalize on it, and a Beast can just spend down to low satiety which is already a good place to be in combat because that's when Atavisms go into high power mode.
Even if it's probably of no use to the Hero who inflicts it(unless they run away) we finally have a Anathema that's a real hindrance to the Beast since it actively works against resolving it. How can you feed your horror to Slumbering if you literally cannot succeed at social rolls?

These last two are actually useful to a Hero in the heat of battle, but there are other ways to get anathema applied which we'll go over in a little bit.

Followers
Heroes don't have to fight alone, even besides forming bands. By tapping into the dream while a Hero sleeps, they can amass followers, showing them the vision of the battle to come. For most people this just results in some strange dreams that vanish with their morning coffee. But for people who have seen the supernatural or been subject to a Horror inflicted Nightmare, it triggers something deeper and more damaging. Forcing them into the Hero's narrative.
And then the game inexplicably decides to take three paragraphs to shame Heroes for being degenerate

Oh and the game never really touches on the morality of Heroes doing the exact same thing that Beasts used to do to create Heroes in the first place. They're NPCs why would you care about them?

Systems
There isn't one! The storyteller decides if a Hero has followers and he does! They don't have any supernatural qualities but they can aid him in other ways, like police officers and politicians making a Beast's life a living hell. They can also aid them in combat, either directly or through aiding him. If they aid him, each follower can grant the hero one of the following, +2 dice to his attack pool, +2 to his defense, -1 to the Beast's defense, or take the full damage of any one attack meant for the Hero. If a follower dies or is incapacitated for any reason, the hero gains a +3 dice modifier to his next action.... "Regardless of who kills the follower"... BECAUSE HEROES ARE EVIL AND WOULD DO THAT YOU GET IT YET!??!!??!?

Gifts
With each Beast killed, a Hero grows in power, gaining different gifts. Not all of them are interesting or notable. There's one that gives them 2/0 Armor whenever they're fighting Beasts, another that gives them +1 to a weapon group and +2 strength when fighting a beast, one that lets them Stalk beasts easier, and one that turns a chosen weapon into a "holy blade". Basic combat buff stuff, but there are a few that are special.

Loremaster
Loremaster lets Heroes place anathema on a beast from a distance, so long as they've encountered the Beast before in any capacity. To the Hero in question, however, they are simply researching something that was always there. If the Beast is Sated when the hero begins, an "Anathema Seed" takes hold and the Beast becomes aware that someone's researching her downfall. This doesn't grant the Beast any kind of insight into where or when or how, but if they know who and what the Hero is, then they can hunt them down and kill them, which will remove the seed. Even if the Beast removes the sated condition later, it's too late, the seed has taken hold. If the Beast isn't sated, the Hero is immediately aware that his current efforts won't provide any fruit, but they're free to try again later.
Actually pulling this off is an Extended action, which is an oddity for a Storyteller character exclusive power. But since you can only roll once per day, and the Beast can work against it, it's best to roll and keep track of successes. The difficulty is equal to the beast's lairX2, if the beast already has an anathema it's simply equal to it's lair.
This is one of the best ways to apply the "social" anathema to a Beast. But I imagine having Rage applied to you in the middle of a Board meeting might be... interesting.

Real World
This power allows a Hero to remove lair tilts that a Beast imposes on a scene. They do this by rolling (Power Attribute) + Occ.... wait what. Heroes don't have a power attribute, they've never had a power attribute. And this isn't just the PDF either

Man, fucking no one gave two shits about Heroes.

Saint's Whisper
This is the other non-combat way of inflicting Anathema, not through research or through divine inspiration. But through verbal beatdowns.
This is easily the most evocative power that Heroes have and I wish more of them had been like this.

Retirement
The end of a Hero's career usually involves his death. But sometimes Heroes just stop. The urge to kill goes away and they find a "fulfilling, normal, interesting life" by abandoning the monster that defines him.

Example Heroes

Desmond Oakes
"I stopped counting scars a long time ago"
A former navy Seal who took up the fight in order to protect other people. He's actually a pretty nice person who dislikes the hunt despite the sense of validation that it brings him...

Which is because he has Integrity 5 and shouldn't be an antagonist Hero going by their own rules. He's everything a Hero should be but isn't. Moving on


Thaddeus Pearson
"Never fear, milady. I've come to kill this foul Best!"
Yes, of course I'm going to be quoting this guy's entire entry.
So a nerdy entitled Incel?
A nerdy entitled Incel that wears a trenchcoat and a trilby hat. He's literally a MRA Caricature.

And yes, he uses a Sword.


Marian Jones
"It's filth like this that let the devil in. Clean up your act or I'll clean it for you."
A conservative, highly religious, stay at home mom who lived in a suburban home with her husband and two kids. Then her son turned seventeen, started listening to the devils music, and she started having nightmares. Finally one morning she woke up in a cold sweat and went to her son's room and found a woman, cold and unbreathing, but very much aware. So she figured out that her son was the devil and she needed to kill him. She does so by wearing milspec body armor and wielding an AK-47 still stained with the blood of her first kill. She's got a pile of kills under her belt and a lot of powers.


Sleeping Beauty
"I'm not a ghost, I'm just dreaming."
Damn. This is what Heroes should have always been.
This is the problem though. She shouldn't by any rights exist, what she does doesn't make sense within the rules of the game. One theory I've heard put forth is that she's a failed beast in need of someone to finish her devouring but that just kind of cheapens the whole thing.


So what's different: Hero Edition?

Chiefly, in the initial draft, Heroes were made by Beasts. The soul of a Beast touched the broken soul of an otherwise normal Human and turned them into something else. In some cases the Soul did this to create an adversary for the Beast to kill because they weren't being fed enough and were being pissy. In other cases they do it because it's a Beast Soul and doesn't fucking care. But since Heroes were made by Beasts, they took on a bit of that Beast's persona. Heroes made by a Tyrant became more self confident, seeing themselves as revolutionaries or leaders. Heroes made by a Collector become greedy hoarders and thieves. Predator Heroes become obsessed with getting stronger, being faster, being better. Nemesis' heroes try to live their lives as pure as possible, seeing fault in everyone around them. Ravager Heroes become paranoid, viewing everyone and everything as disposable or out to betray him.

The only other real change in this section is that to a certain degree Melanie is portrayed as actively malicious and "Will continue the hunt once she finds her body", but again, in this version after being touched by a Beast Heroes aren't even really themselves anymore.

Which is at once amazing and also kind of disappointing, because the game still blamed Heroes for being Heroes. When their only real fault was being Near a Beast at one point in their lives and having a low integrity. They were a side effect of Beasts behaving badly and also their nemesis. They were at once a Beast's greatest shame and worst fear. If they had actually treated them sympathetically and had Beasts talk realistically about the fact that no matter how moral they tried to be they were one bad day away from ruining someone's life it would have been a much better and more mature game.

That isn't what we got.


That said, this is still somehow better than the treatment Heroes got in the leaked playtest documents.


For you see when you have your life irrevocably changed by a horror that wants only for you to suffer, you turn into a Mysogynistic Dudebro.

Next Time: The rest of the supernaturals and why they might want to kill beasts

Chapter 5 Part 3:The Rest of the Cast

posted by Kurieg Original SA post

Chapter 5 Part 3:The Rest of the Cast
So we've gone over Heroes, how about literally everyone else in the Chronicles of Darkness, how do they deal with Beasts?

_Poorly
Chronicles of Darkness
As far as Beasts are concerned all primordial monsters are descended from the Dark Mother. This includes the first Vampires, the precursors to the Gentry, and Father Wolf. Obviously basically everyone has problems with this assertion.
Yes, Beasts believe that the gameplay mechanics put in place to facilitate the very existence of any kind of masquerade are what point to a common ancestry. This would almost be meta if it weren't aggressively stupid.

The Crossover Chronicle

Mixed Troupe or Odd One out
When you're making a crossover game you have to decide whether you're going to have a mixed troupe(E.G. a beast, a vampire, a werewolf, and a mage) or be predominately one supernatural type with one exception. The mixed troup allows players to be exactly the kind of character they want to be, but an Odd-Man-Out group has a stronger thematic focus and lets the "off character" be a "proud nail" that underscores it's themes.

Clash of Wills
If two supernatural powers are in conflict, a Clash of Wills occurs. The parties involved roll a dice pool of their supernatural tolerance trait Plus the relevant supernatural stat being invoked with the power. Since beasts don't have any secondary supernatural stats they always roll Lair+their highest resistance attribute. If the characters involves are both physically present and aware that a supernatural power is being opposed they can expend willpower to add dice to the roll. Otherwise the sides just continue rolling until one has more successes than the other. This doesn't necessarily cancel out the opposing powers, just means that one "wins". A Beast tracking a werewolf using supernatural powers to hide his passage would know where he was, but his gift would still effect everyone else.

Beasts in the Chronicles of Darkness
Insert 30 story tall wank emoji here.

Seriously, you don't need a Beast to explore or subvert the themes of a game. And Beasts shouldn't be the Herald that forces you to re-evaluate your character's perspective. Even better they don't even describe what themes Beasts are meant to subvert half the time.

Vampire: The Requiem
Beasts and Vampires are "Twisted mirrors of each other", but while Vampires resist what they are, Beasts embrace it. Beasts can be used as an object lesson to Vampires of "This is what will happen if you give in to the hunger", but some Vampires _stupidly think that Beasts are the Heralds of Golconda, and wish to become more like them. Beasts can serve to force Vampires into the more overtly supernatural side of the Chronicles of Darkness, as they are the most "physical" game. As antagonists they cross paths as rival predators.

"Hey guys, Beasts are basically Vampries mixed with Werewolves with neither of their weaknesses, isn't that kind of thematically problematic?" "Yeah just put in a sidebar or something saying to throw tons of Heroes at them."

Werewolf: The Forsaken
Speaking of which, let's address the other Elephant in the room. Why would one of the Uratha willingly associate with a Beast? Honestly they probably wouldn't. And the game agrees with this assertion. The first encounter with a Beast will likely be mistaken for a Spirit-Claimed, and a Beast will likely mistake an Uratha pack for a Hero Band. The one thing they point out that would work is a lone Uratha taken in by a Brood to serve as his surrogate Pack.


Yup, the mere existence of Beasts is harmful to the spiritual landscape, and if a Beast somehow actually manages to make it into the Shadow they're surrounded by an essence font of hunger and suffering which both spawns and feeds appropriate spirits.

To clarify, that is probably a very bad thing if you aren't trying to cultivate a war zone or something.

Mage: The Awakening
Mages are the annoying nerds of the Chronicles of Darkness who can't leave well enough alone and will turn over every single rock until they unleash the dread lord of angles and all of reality is consumed. Or something to that effect.

That's one hell of a tortured metaphor.

I'm not super familiar with the new Mage and there's a whole pile of proper nouns coming up, so I'm just gonna quote this next paragraph.


What I'm gathering from that is that Mages who are more interested in power can probably use Beasts as helpful knowledge repositories and nice bits of resonance with certain spells, and other "Hostile" mages see Beasts as rightfully horrifying and want to kill them.

Also if Reaper picks up the soul of a dead enemy he heals 50 HP.

Wait no.

Promethean: the Created
Promethean and Beast are both largely about Family. But Promethean is the story about what Family means to an Orphan. The Created are eternally outside of Humanity, and want desperately to be let into the world that Beasts left behind with their eyes wide open. Which might cause some ideological arguments and player discussion. For the Promethean's part, the Refinement of Silver studies supernatural beings and their relationship to humanity and a Beast is definitely gonna help in that regard.

The problem with the Created, however, is Disquiet. A Promethean who stays in one place too long starts to engender feelings of hatred and disgust in the surrounding community. Beasts are, of course, immune to this, but humans aren't. And just because they see themselves as the predators of humanity doesn't mean that they won't take pity on their "little brothers" who are rejected for their "otherness'. Less savory beasts might use the disquiet that a Promethean creates to unleash a massive spate of nightmares that can't be traced back to him directly.

Antagonistically, however, Prometheans might see Beasts as victimizing the people that they aspire to become. And Beasts might see Prometheans as unworthy pretenders to the supernatural community, since they're made by man and not directly descended from the Dark Mother. Then the game says "These Beasts make good antagonists for a Promethean chronicle, Predators 'gatekeeping' to prevent unwanted strays joining their prey." yes, they unironically use Gatekeeping.

Also Beasts love Centimani.

This is also an incredibly bad thing.

Changeling: the Lost
Changelings are all too familiar with monster stories. Seeing as how they spent their Durance in a realm fueled entirely by the narrative logic of Dreams. In Arcadia, the Hero slays the monster. If the monster wins then obviously that wasn't the Hero in the first place. They're not entirely sure how to react when a beast "refuses to follow the script."

For the Beast's part they see changelings as echos of themselves. Ogres possesses the theme of an Anakim, every darkling is an echo of an Eshmaki. But this is an extremely shallow surface level evaluation that you would be stupid to rely on or even try to leverage but it can start a conversation apparently.

And it's time for another quote block.
Alarm bells should be going off in your head right now. The Gentry Respect And Fear Beasts. Also Beasts with particularly powerful Lairs warp the Hedge like High Wyrd changelings or Gentry do.

Run away very fast.

Hunter: the Vigil
Except most Hunters would have an answer to that. "This gun", "God", or "Using the Power of Satan a Lucifuge has the right to kill monsters."

Instead of using Beasts as an antagonist in a Hunter chronicle though have you considered using Heroes?!!?!?!?!? They're the dark mirror to Hunters! They should make the Hunters ask hard questions!!!!!! Also Hunters very very rarely turn into Heroes, something about the "Hunter Response" supplanting the normal Hero reflex or something.

Also Beasts can't normally form kinships with Hunters unless they come from a bloodline like the Lucifuge, or are a slasher.

Beasts can form Kinships with Slashers.

I feel like I should just be keeping a tally of reasons why everyone in the Chronicles of Darkness should kill Beasts on sight.

Geist: the Sin-Eaters
When you get right down to it, all fear stems from a Fear of Death. Therefore the Dark Mother is the ultimate psychopomp, not the kindly reaper, but the final terrifying apparition that rips you down into hell. Sin Eaters can make excelent antagonists to a Beast, particularly if they're currently bound to one of the Beast's victims. They can even make decent allies to Heroes.

They can find common ground in their dual-natured souls, and attempting to balance their humanity with the distinctly inhuman other. One thing that's worth noting is that when a Beast forms a Kinship bond with one of the Bound, their corner of the lair takes on an aspect of death. Which is weird because Death usually isn't in the primordial dream. The fear of death is, but when you die in a dream you wake up. Sometimes they even form avernian gates letting some shades from the dark forgotten realms of the great below to come up and start fucking up people's dreams something proper.

Mummy: the Curse
To a Beast's mind, mummies are stupidly aloof and ignorant of their role in the tapestry of the Dark Mother. They've lost their own identities behind millennia of amnesia and servitude, gathering artifacts for their nameless masters. Beasts can understand that last bit at least somewhat, particularly those with a hunger for Hoard. Beasts also like that mummies get animal heads when they turn their powers up too high.

One thing worth noting is that any mortals affected by "Sybaris"(which is apparently some kind of magical backwash that Mummies can accidentally dump onto mortals near them when they wake up) are completely worthless as hunting targets, they don't feel terror, they just give in.
I know even less about Mummy than I do about Mage2, but it sounds like Beasts are thematically similar to their antagonist splat.

Demon: the Descent
They don't like each other!!! Since there's no kinship Beasts are usually content to leave them alone. No need to fuck around with the God Machine when you've got problems enough of your own. Use Demons as atagonists if you want to throw a curveball at the Beasts that just fuck up everything they're used to. The God Machine can even get at a Beast in their Lair with enough engineered nightmares.

From the Demon's perspective, Beasts are apparently more trustworthy than other Demons or Humans since they can't betray them to a master they don't even know, or be subverted by infrastructure. But there's no kinship so any alliances are tenuous at best.

Sibling Rivalries
"Beasts are family, but family fights"
Why do Beasts Fight?

• Conflict of Hunger: A Ravager burns a painting that a Collector was trying to steal. A Predator takes out a corrupt politician before the Nemesis can get to him. Basically normal "Too many predators in one place can thin out the prey herd" stuff. It's an easy misunderstanding to fix as long as it doesn't start becoming deliberate. Then party lines start forming
  
• Taking up another's cause: Basically having two packs of beast aligned with two ideologically opposed supernatural groups. One of the given examples is a Brood falling in with loyalist changelings that think they're helping Changelings out in the long run by returning them to their Gentry masters and why the fuck do beasts exist again.
  
• The Hive: Only one guy can be the Apex of a hive, quien es mas macho? Alternately several broods might band together to fight an actively tyrannical apex.
  

Cry Havoc
So what does open war between beasts look like? Well they call in their brood, and any friends of their brood that they can. And then the Authorities start to notice. The uptick in Beast population in a relatively small area increases the impact on the primordial dream and brings a lot of strange victimization in it's wake. The increased police presence makes Feeding more difficult and brings attention from Hunters and Heroes, which makes the other supernaturals in the area nervous.

The concentrated effect on the Primordial dream makes everything worse, as well. In urban areas entire neighborhoods can be posessed of a single nightmare as Lairs are destroyed and shockwaves echo through dreams. These psychic earthquakes also make Horrors restless causing them to burn through satiety and inflict nightmares as if their Lair were 2 higher. More importantly the nightmares that these agitated Horrors create tend to have outs, a weapon that they can grab, an answer to their conflict. An uptick in nightmares also brings with it an uptick in Heroes, or at least properly motivated Mortals willing to fight.

Sample Antagonists
Unfortunately these aren't that good. Honestly they're kind of disappointing.

Adrian King is a ruthless businessman Tyrant who's mad that his birth was apparently an accident and he had the worst parents ever. So now he's an Apex that wants to control everything.

"Nancy" is a nameless namtaru information broker who dresses androgynously because she wants to be a mysterious as possible. Also she pisses off mages and werewolf packs all the time and doffs blame on other Beasts to fuck them over.

Because.
Seriously there is no reason why the antagonists shouldn't be "Here's an absolutely horrific beast that is murdering a shit-ton of people and your Brood should be ideologically opposed to that."

Inheritance
After the Devouring, every Beast hears the siren song of the dark mother. Telling them that there is always more. Telling them that their life has changed and they can never go back, but they can go forward. Those that sing the song back at the Dark Mother can push past the flesh into something more.

The Retreat happens when a Beast dies while separated from their Horror, the Horror becomes free to roam the dream on it's own, a being of ephemeral power freed from the demands of the flesh and knowing only it's hunger.

The Merger happens when a Beast's lair is destroyed and rather than allowing themselves to die they pull the Horror into themselves becoming a physical monster on Earth.

The previous two occasions can happen accidentally or deliberately, but no one can accidentally become Incarnate, that requires a focused and concerted effort to establish your legend across the Dream, to become more than what you are, to become a Myth.

Herein lies the problem. Basically all three of these result in you becoming unplayable. And only one player can really pull this off which has complications for a troupe game. Either things are going to become party antagonistic real fucking quick or everyone has to get on board with this being Bob's story now and forever. Even fighting for Apex has a clear winner, there really shouldn't be room for Beasts to cooperate on anything that would be conceived of as a reasonable end goal of an RPG.

The Retreat - The Beast Unfettered

The Retreat happens whenever a Beast dies while it's Horror is Slumbering. This can be a willing choice, committing physial suicide for spiritual transcendence. A Beast might rightly believe that they will be more powerful as an unfettered than as a regular old Beast. It could also be accidental, a Hero catches a beast while they're slumbering, or that Werewolf that they killed for horning in on their turf had friends.

Initiating the Retreat
The game hilariously notes that the reason most Beasts undergo the retreat is when they go back to their Lair while slumbering and die to the horrifying death trap that they're no longer immune to. Regardless of the way the character dies, as long as the Beast is slumbering, it undergoes the Retreat.

This is an extended Power+Resistance roll for the Horror that requires 5 successes per chamber in their lair, and requires one turn per roll. The Dramatic failure result "The Beast Dies, and the other Chambers in the Lair remain in place as a grim tomb for the fallen character." implies that the Beast is literally burning up chambers for every roll, but that's not reflected elsewhere in the text. Instead a would-be retreater would probably be best served by collapsing all the chambers but their heart and just getting 5 successes.

A Fleshless Body
The Unfettered are basically spirits, and have Power, Finesse, and Resistance. They are of an effective Rank of their previous Lair, but the spreadsheet for Ranks only goes up to 5, but that still gives them a Trait limit of 15, 45 attribute dots, 50 essence, and 11 numina. Which is pretty damned powerful as far as Spirits go.

They retain their Legend, but lose their Life, and regain willpower as normal. They don't need to sleep so they can't regain willpower through Rest, but they can indulge their hunger like any other hungry Horror rolling Power+Rank-Composure. They don't speak or understand any languages unless they got an Exceptional Success on their retreat roll at creation and chose to retain some semblance of their mortal mind, and even then any understanding is remedial at best. They don't have Satiety as they are their Hunger. Their Ban is their previous Hunger, and their Bane is either the Anathema they died under, or another appropriate weakness. There are also some new Numina that they can pick, including Bane Sense, the ability to Invade Dreams and turn them into horrible nightmares (Denying the dreamer Willpower), the ability to manifest in the Shadow and peer into the physical, the ability to form weaponry out of their body, and the ability to create spiritual gateways to any realm. It also gains two influences related to the reasons for their Retreat, and their former Hunger.


The Mourning Owl
What? If she hated Feeding how did she manage to get all the way up to Slumbering? And what insane moon logic made her come up with "If I kill myself in the Lair then the other guy will die instead!" Also not sure how PCs are supposed to interact with this at all.


Greedy Squid
Again, How did he manage to get to Slumbering and not realize that something was wrong? And the only reason either of these two sample characters failed at all is because they weren't involved with a Brood. Even the storytelling hints for these characters are basically "They roam the primordial dream killing/stealing shit." Heroes can't even interact with them in any meaningful way so they just kind of exist forever then?



The Merger - The Beast Rampant
Note: The Merger is nowhere near as cool as this is, at least I presume because they appear to have forgotten to give it mechanics.

One: They switch pronouns in there a few times, which is annoying. Two: It doesn't give you access to Nightmares, it explicitly states as much in two paragraphs.

So how does this happen? I have no idea, the game implies that there's some kind of initiating process but there's no described roll or anything. The Beast just kind of goes "Merger now!" and it happens. His Lair collapses quickly (not so quick as to prevent escape, however) and her physical body warps to suit the newly present Horror. Stripping away their higher reason but leaving base cunning intact.

Effects of the Merger
For each dot of Lair the Beast possesses they can select one option from the following list, and they can be selected multiple times

• Armor: They gain 2/0 Armor, if they select it twice it becomes 2/2 and effective against firearms.
  
• Body Warp: Their body changes to suit their hunt better, getting chameleon skin or supernatural beauty or a tail, etc. Mechanically this is a bonus equal to half their lair to a particular skill roll.
  
• Increased Attribute: One of their attributes increases by 1 without being constrained by their lair stat. Though it should in theory represent one of their former lair's traits.
  
• Increased Awareness: +1 die to rolls made to avoid surprise or sate hunger as long as they're in their Territory.
  

Once merged their Hunger increases intensely, they now lose 1 Satiety every 24 hours. They also lose the ability to take sustenance from "Nuanced" expressions of their hunger. Meaning they can't BS their way through a feeding roll, they need to physically intimidate or hunt or kill to stay alive. They still possess satiety conditions but at Satiety 10 they simply go off to nap for a day then wake up at Satiety 9.

Furthermore the Horror in flesh starts to warp the area around their den (yes there are dens now, that wasn't mentioned before) reflecting it's nature. A Namtaru's neighborhood becomes more grotesque where as an Eshmaki's forest darkens substantially. This tends to attract other supernatural creatures either out of curiosity or exploitation. Which at least provides an opportunity for Beasts to interact with them since unlike the Unfettered, they're still physical and still technically Beasts.


Pard
<A low, quiet growl from the shadows>
Good lord every single one of these characters is basically "Grew up in a broken home and became a dysfunctional monster as a result". The storytelling notes indicate that, as a Nemesis, he punishes the rich. By stealing their children and murdering them. Or by destroying their cars, or shitting all over their gardens and ripping their gardener's arm off. You know, reasonable things.

Starless
"The ground ties you down, keeps your eyes lowered. Here, I’m powerful. Here, I’m free."
Rampants are supposed to be barely sentient, so I'm not sure who's supposed to be talking here.
Uhh..
"Woman of color attempts to become more than a stereotype, gets stressed out and becomes a literal living stereotype." isn't exactly an empowering message. She's bound to her ancestral reservation and makes a habit of doing a dominance display over anyone who isn't Makah. Because STEREOTYPES.

We're approaching the character limit so there will be a part 4 going over the Beast Incarnate very very soon.

Up Next: Phenominal Cosmic Power

Chapter 5 Part 4: The Beast Incarnate

posted by Kurieg Original SA post

Chapter 5 Part 4: The Beast Incarnate
We're finally getting into the neat stuff, unfortunately as I mentioned before it doesn't really work in a multiplayer game.
See, that's cool and evocative and way better than "one day Miranda got super depressed and turned into big sky medicine woman."

From the moment of the devouring, a beast's hunger drives them, a gnawing persistent force. But for some it pushes more than a simple drive to satiation. To simply be content is not enough. The Horror and Hunger push at the boundaries with a desire to be more than the flesh allows. If a Beast is powerful enough, if their Lair encompasses enough of the Dream, they can cross the final threshold while keeping themselves. They can become Incarnate.

This isn't an easy task, only the most powerful Beasts can pull this off (Lair 8) and they need to solidify their Legend as something bigger than themselves. There are multiple ways to do this but the game offers 3 options.

Subvert the Hero
Mechanically speaking, the Beast must engage a Hero in combat on his own terms. It doesn't matter in what form, what does matter is that the Beast must control the fight from the outset, and the Hero cannot land any lasting damage. Bashing is fine, Lethal is not, and an Anathema spoils the whole affair.

If the Beast succeeds in rendering the Hero utterly irrelevant, reinforcing that their life and story is the one that matters, the Horror leaves the lair and enters the Beast. Unlike the Merger, this is a harmonious existence, the Human and Horror become one. But they're no longer a Beast, and the new creature might not feel anything for its human or supernatural family. It's goals are inscrutable and horrifying.

Control the Hive
If you're at Lair 8 you're probably doing this already. But if not you need to become the Hive's Apex. If there already is an Apex this is simply a matter of killing it, if not then you need to insinuate yourself into the hive and take control.

Spawn Legend
The "Most Complicated" and "Most Straightforward" Method (I take some issue with that last point considering "Completely Dunk on a Hero" and "BECOME THE BEST" are very straightforward compared to this). To pull this off a Beast must feed their Horror in a large, grandiose, and probably Violent manner. They must sow fear in a way that captures the area's imagination for years to come and carves their name into the Primordial Dream with a fucking broadsword.

To put it pithily they need to sow a meme and become Slenderman.


Success: The Myth
Once the Beast Incarnates, they establish their Myth, a metaphysical construct that supports the monster they've become. It is their story writ large: the tale that will survive beyond their death. It provides a structure for the Begotten's strength and a buffer and filter so that they can control it. Through the Myth they improve their current abilities and gain new ones.

Adopt the Beast Shape:
The Begotten can, finally, transform into their Horror in the physical world. They can pick 1 trait from a long list for every dot of lair they have (Minimum 8, remember) including flight, Lair dots worth of Armor against all attacks, +Size equal to their lair, extra arms/heads/legs, medusa's gaze, deadly poison, night vision, lair dots in strength, or the ability to heal all bashing and lethal damage every turn unless it's inflicted by their Anathema. That last bit is confusing because

No More Heroes
Heroes can't place anathema on an Incarnate Beast anymore. In fact a Beast can remove all of a Heroes powers just by touching them.
Which is honestly kind of horrifying.

Master of Pathways
They can enter the primordial dream at will no matter where they are and use any primordial pathway.

Satiety
They still must feed, but they're immune to becoming Ravenous or falling into slumber, 0 is Starving, 10 is Gorged.

Legend/Life
The Incarnate replaces their Legend and Life with a single Myth. This isn't an adjective, this is a title describing who they are. They can regain Willpower through it the same way a Beast could their Legend.

Destabilization:
The Incarnate has one weakness, their Myth. They must keep ironclad control over their own story or else they have to abandon it and its power. If something happens that destabilizes their myth two things happen. First they are reduced to a normal (but still very high lair and thus very powerful) Beast, and anyone can place an anathema on them without even really understanding how.

Using the Beast Incarnate
Using an Incarnate as an antagonist is a disservice to both them and the players because a proper Incarnate Beast can straight up wreck an entire Brood without breaking a sweat. Instead if you want to include an Incarnate consider using them as a potential source of Knowledge, or as a pathfinder to places unknown, or even as a mentor to a smaller pack. The idea is put forth that the best way to solidify a Myth is to end it. Typhon is imprisoned forever beneath Mount Etna, but he's imprisoned forever because he's ludicrously scary, particularly what would happen if he escaped. Such a Myth would be immortal, terrifying, and untouchable forever.


Shen Lung
Run little rabbit, run. The chase makes your flesh taste that much sweeter.
Yup, this guy's pretty cool, and since he's the ultimate Apex predator now he only hunts other Beasts, or enemy Werewolves. And they provide information on how to destabilize his Myth as well, either his human parents (Though good luck finding out about them) or his Werewolf Pack, make them turn against him or use their better natures.


Boleslav, the Giant King
You've broken the rules. For that, you pay the price.

Boleslav is meant to be a ludicrously powerful beast with an extremely small sphere of influence. He can't leave his town because the people might stop fearing him, but the town is isolated and he's kept them from most modern conveniences so they don't understand that there could even possibly be an escape. If someone were to provide one his Myth would unravel almost instantly.



Ultimately the Incarnates are pretty damned cool, and an excelent end game in a single-Beast game that acknowleges it's own monstrosity, but in a Brood game where everyone's lying to themselves about being a good person I'm not sure what kind of end-game the story has.



So what's different?

Well, not much, though there was a section expanding on Beast-Beast conflict, mainly a bunch of stereotypes about how each family fought. "Anakim are direct and to the point." "Eshmaki are sneaky" "Makara are patient" "Namtaru are poisoners." etc. There's a some short stories for each of them but imagine the worst of classic white wolf purple prose and you get the point.

Up Next: A very abridged chapter 6

Chapter 6: Beasts of the World

posted by Kurieg Original SA post

Chapter 6: Beasts of the World


This would be better described as "Here's a bunch of sample locations and plot hooks". They're not particularly interesting, for example the location set in latin america has all the gangs titled "El" or "Los" something. Also there's a fairly racist depiction of Tokyo that I'm just gonna avoid(the Apex is the head of a Zaibatsu for starters). But there is one worth looking into once we've gotten past the two chapter intro bits.
So... two things, one: Ryan is that kid he rescued in like the first story. Two: Ben is now either gay or Bi, because of course he fucking is this is Beast.

Uhh.. sure... anyways

A Serpent’s Tooth
Hoo boy this isn't going to be fun.

Here's the first real oddity here, they depict an internecine rivalry between Beast families that doesn't really have any kind of support anywhere else in the game. They just don't really band together like that.

Seriously what the hell. This is kind of insane on several levels, "Let's manipulate the entire supernatural world to kill the guys who we don't like because they're better at swimming than we are and can't fly."

Also apparently George Wolf underwent his devouring at or before the age of eight.

Seriously the ugallu wiped them out down to a single brood, and apparently a mono-family brood because those also happen.


Yeah let's talk about that Kinship then.

Yeah, Makara can just shut off other supernatural powers and force them to acquiesce to their demands and they can never fight back because there's only one way to resolve the Abruption tilt. And they've got hordes of Vampires and Werewolves under their power. Also because the Werewolves are busy being the gophers of the Makara the spirit world is absolutely fucked.


This is not an interesting place to adventure, this is a great place to stay the fuck away from at all costs.

Next time: The Storyteller Chapter

Chapter 7: Storytelling

posted by Kurieg Original SA post

Chapter 7: Storytelling

Let's get the two story examples out of the way.

So let's just map out Ben's plot arc here, a teenager is told that he will be allowed access to a wider, darker world. He finds it amazing and horrifying but then is press-ganged into a family and forced to associate with a Vampire. After he befriends and falls in love with said vampire his "family" berates him for becoming too close. He's then attacked by a Hero and only the Vampires are there to save him, and he retreats into himself and becomes a terrifying sea-beast at the tender age of eighteen.

Yup Beasts are totally the good guys and their culture is completely functional.


Oh man if only the mages had listened to the wise oriental they wouldn't have died horribly.

I thought you were better than this Matt.


I... is that a young Haley Joel Osment?

Anyways, the chapter opens with some common threads for the Storyteller system. Engage your players, get aspirations, have them suggest plot points, don't be afraid of spoilers. Be consistent with plot elements (Don't let someone survive a fall off a roof unless you're prepared to let your PCs do the same). Build the world around player backgrounds (If you've got a teacher you need a school. If you've got a Makara you probably need a body of water.) And more than any other game be sure to include a supernatural culture in your planning.

Advanced Storytelling Techniques
Let's get into the new meat of the chapter.
Eschew Common Structures
Why? Because they're the antagonist splat. Because there has to be something to work against, something to stand in the way of your goals. Which if you're a Beast are probably going to be monstrous. Without acknowleging that structure you're just playing a sitcom where occasionally you need to go off and mindrape a jock and then the Westboro Baptist Church shows up and you have to murder them while lamenting your fate before going back to watch TV.

But.. Beasts aren't disenfranchised. By definition they're the most enfranchised of any supernatural creature just by their bloodline ties. And Grendel doesn't condemn or villify Beowulf, he's a leader protecting his people. Also, Grendel still dies in the end. The only condemnation the book makes is of the person who writes the story that vilifies Grendel for killing people.


Four-Act Style

Look, Rashoman is a good movie, and Multiple Viewpoint stories are good when they're well done. But they are very difficult to pull off and I think asking that of a Storyteller, even one of intermediate to advanced skill, is a bit much. Particularly as it's described here in the game

Act One: Introduction Is where you introduce your characters and story elements. The game suggests using this session to build characters as well. If you need to paint then it's a good thing you have dots in crafts. Oh look a locked door good thing bob is suddenly adept at lockpicking. Which seems interesting but also places a greater import on the story itself and forces the player characters to fit. Also:
1)This represents what's basically impossible about using a Rashoman style game because it requires a third person omniscient viewpoint that the player characters cannot, by definition, have. 2) WHAT THE FUCK!?!? "Oh Bob you used a nightmare, let me go into extreme detail so you will never use your superpowers again." 3) Yet another gay couple.

Act Two: Development is where you add plot. Not resolve it, in fact the game states rather insistently that you should not resolve any plot points in this section.
What's that talking about?

Just wait until the fourth act! Don't resolve anything! Because Act Three is going to be even more confusing.
Act Three: Twist Take away your players character sheets, you aren't playing Beast tonight, you're doing something completely different. And it's not related in any way until the fourth act.
I don't know why but this.. infuriates me in some way. Because once again it's putting the story before the players. So how does the storyteller resolve things in Act Four?

Act Four: Wrap-Up THEY DON'T. Surprise. The players do.
I didn't remove anything, that's the entirety of the Act Four section. This is why I really hate putting this idea forward. With a less experienced GM and a Group that's not ameniable to it, you'll just have a storyteller vomiting a string of ideas at random and then leaving all the heavy lifting up to the players to make sense of it. And they probably won't be satisfied and asking lots of questions that the Storyteller, by definition, will not have answers for.

Crossover
This section is fairly short and can be boiled down to a few important points. Focus on one or two strong themes: if you've got a Vampire, Changeling, and Beasts in a group together than focusing on Feeding and the descent into inhumanity is probably best. let players excel in their areas of expertise and be careful about stepping on each others toes: the Vampire player might be miffed if the Werewolf player takes all the social gifts and starts out-maneuvering them, players should state goals and where they want to take their characters and work with each other. Avoid conflicting social groups: a Changeling will find little of interest in the Vampire's dealings with Ordo Dracul.

Heroes
The chapter continues with a discussion on Heroes.
Well, this is true, however the issue is that the game is completely allergic to making Heroes sympathetic. Bad people can be sympathetic, but Beasts can very rarely be simply by their nature and the way the game is set up.
Again the game dances around the idea that a Good and Moral Hero could look at a Beast and decide that they need to die. Which is the conclusion that a Good and Moral person should come to.

Arguments
Did we mention that Heroes are internet trolls? "The only moral high ground that Beasts have to seize here is that Heroes generally attack preemptively, without bothering to see whether a Beast is doing lasting damage to people." Again, game, you've stated that Heroes only react to things that make ripples in the dream, which are the things that do cause lasting damage to people.

Conspiracy Theories
Heroes form conspiracy theories to justify their hate, we're talking huge thread walls with postit notes and newspaper clippings. Apparently. Which is rather... strange considering their previous characterization. "A simple, single belief is easy to discredit. If the Hero is wrong about that one single-minded topic, he can be shut down wholly in an instant and the entire fabric of his identity falls apart instantly. That leads to violent rages and Heroes who would give up their cause." but.. no?


Why do Heroes need a conspiracy theory? They're literally incapable of introspection and have the walls of reality screaming at them that Beasts are Evil every time a Beast so much as takes a shit nearby.

The Sidelines
Heroes have enablers that make excuses for him! Clearly he's not evil because he didn't kill that vampire over there! The game's back in full on Hero demonizing mode.

Heroes and Integrity
"Are they generally weak willed because of years of abuse and hardship and forced to adhere to a viewpoint not their own by an uncaring metaphysical universe?" is not presented here because it would, presumably, make heroes sympathetic.
That is not a thin line, that's a gaping divide. The only two options you're allowing are "Sympathetic character" and "hate mongering murderer".

Resolving a Heroes Threat
Kill them.


Oh no wait they want to provide other options than killing them because Beasts are supposed to completely reject the idea of a narrative.

• Alter the Heroes Dreams ....so brainwash them into not hating you anymore. Even if you're brainwashing them into what you consider a better person you're still brainwashing them!
  
• Go to Ground Hide until the hero gets bored. Use family dinner to feed without rippling the dream because the game acknowledges how broken of a mechanic it is.
  
• Surrender Surrender in a public place it'll force the Hero to either out themselves or accept that Beasts are good... sure.
  

The game really likes waffling back and forth between "Heroes cannot be reasoned with" and "Heroes are fragile little babies who will fall down weeping at the first sign of compassion." It's getting on my nerves and I'm really glad we're almost done.

Getting them Together: A Web
Have you player characters ask each other questions about how they know each other.
I just summed up two pages.

Lairs
Make lairs spooky, anthropomorphize them, make them seem like living breathing things so that your players will understand that they can die.
There's also this paragraph in a discussion on adding chambers.
.......
Fuck this game.


So what's different?
Heroes.
The section on why Heroes create conspiracy theories is mostly unaltered from here because back when Heroes were made they needed internal justification for the changes in their lives.

I reiterate, the kickstarter version of the game vilified abuse victims for their responses to abuse.

There's also this sidebar in the section on how to get player characters to work together
Have them fuck.

So that's it, almost. There's still one more bit of the book to cover. The sample adventure.

Spoiler Alert: It's not good.

Up Next: We put this wounded beast down.

The Morning After

posted by Kurieg Original SA post

The Morning After
No, this isn't the gnawing regret one has when you realized that you've spent almost a year hate-reviewing a terrible game. It's the name of the sample adventure put forth by Onyx Path. Yes it has some meaning within the context of the adventure but it doesn't come full circle until the end.


The game suggests running this as a part of a long term chronicle with the characters already established as residents and players in the French Quarter. Which is extremely limiting. They can be visitors but they take hefty penalties on investigation rolls for being newcomers, and the entire point of the adventure is that there are going to be far reaching and long lasting consequences for the Beasts of the French Quarter as a whole, and not having people with a stake in that fight will lead to a game where the players don't really give two fucks about what happens once they're done and just want to watch the fireworks.

In addition to Esmee, who is basically a plot device wearing a skin suit, there are two Hero NPCs that are relevant to the story. Allain Bourmand is an underground concert promoter who has been newly awoken to his Hero nature, mostly because Esmee fucked with him for this explicit purpose. Rhonda Blank is a Beat Cop who found out that her Detective Mother was killed by a Beast who wanted her position in the force and ended up killing him. She's not great at detective work and isn't exactly the best Officer, but she wants to be. Which makes her the character you want to sympathize with most in this story. Except the game wants you to murder her.

Esmee Comes Calling
Esmee shows up at one of the players homes or place of work and chats for a while, shares some rum, and leaves. The players can roll to talk her up and figure out what's going on but all they can figure out right now is that she's planning something, and that she's ludicrously powerful.

Explosion on the Water
Some time after Esmee leaves, there's an explosion near the riverfront. If the characters can get to him in time they can try to question him before he dies.
Of course the only way they'd get there in time is if they decided to follow Esmee after she left their place, because yeah, she was here a minute before the place went up. If the players are knowlegeable about New Orleans they might recognize that this guy is Stephen Olmos, who's ex EoD and sometimes works with the police department. If they have a mage who can heal him or a vampire who can embrace him they'll find out that Esmee had him build two bombs loaded with a potent toxin capable of killing anyone near the blast site. If they investigate the shop they'll find identifying personal effects of the place where Esmee met the characters, but they can't be sure they found them all.

NOPD
Rhonda Blank approaches the characters at their home or business in the french quarter, accompanied by a few uniformed police officers. This scene isn't much else than a way to get Rhoda on the scent of the Beast party so she can use Loremaster to put Anathema on them. If they perform particularly poorly in the opposed roll they let slip that they were at the shop so she has even more reason to think they're behind everything.

Trace Chemicals
Somehow the party needs to find out that Olmos had a supplier. Either from Olmos himself, or some streetwise rolls. This is Ghist, another one of the named NPCs that is a supernatural OF SOME KIND THAT ISN'T SPECIFIED AND IS SUPER COOL AND AWESOME AND WILLING TO ENTER INTO A FAMILY TIES CONDITION WITH THE BEAST AND GIVES THEM SPECIAL NIGHTMARE POWERS AND goddamn shut up. Anyways they find out that Ghist gave Esmee the poison that sill murder a bunch of people. If they're particularly adept at talking to Ghist they'll(BECAUSE NO GENDER IS SET FOR THIS CHARACTER WHO'S SO AMAZING AND GREAT) maybe tell the players about the fact that they've had dreams about the concert venue where Esmee is planning her big thing.

Concert Promotion
As they're leaving Ghist's place they find a bunch of fliers advertising for an underground concert. The Genre and Band are left ambiguous so you can pick whatever will get the players more likely to care and attend. They can interrogate the flunkies who are putting up the fliers, or just ask around about the concert. Which might let them find out about Allain, and that the concert is happening illegally because there's no way that Allian has permission to use the space.

Heroics
Rhonda attacks the players in a back alleyway. Allain doesn't participate but he does lend Rhoda some of his swayed followers and is watching from a nearby rooftop with binoculars. The players should have no reason to find him unless they're hyper paranoid and spread out to search for him immediately. This is meant to be a slaughter of Rhonda's followers by the player party and probably the death of Rhonda herself, if she gets away she'll put anathema on someone else and try again the next night, either way the party has bodies to hide and if they don't the cops will definitely find out about them.

Meeting with Esmee
At some point during this whole affair the party is meant to confront Esmee about what they've figured out.

This is the only time the players have to point out to Esmee that her plan is pretty fucking stupid. Mainly that killing a bunch of people and poisoning them isn't going to cement her legacy so much as remind people of a Terrorist Attack. Also the players can't really stop Esmee, she's got Lair 8, she will murder them. The only way to 'stop' her is to kill Allain first, which will just piss her off.

THE CONCERT

This isn't set up to be a massive brawl unless that's what the players want. This is the denoument as Esmee gets everything she ever wanted and flies away. If Rhonda is still alive and the players don't stop her, she might injure Esmee, or distract her long enough for Allian to do so, which ruins her plans.


So yeah she's had the power to one-shot kill him for years but wanted an audience and to murder a bunch of people in the process instead.

Remember that one of the themes of this adventure is "Do the players even have the right to stop Esmee?" I think the answer at this point is 'Fucking yes she's a psychopath like all Beasts are.'

Aftermath
And now the party's over, so it's THE MORNING AFTER .

Except with more cops, and probably Werewolves, and angry vampires, and mages, and VASCU, and Task Force Valkyrie, and the Quarter just lost it's Apex. Basically the point is that if the player characters are actually residents of the French Quarter they're in deep shit and that was the intent all along.

This is apparently the ideal Beast story, the players are just living their lives, someone comes in and fucks it up for them, they deal with it, then go back to watching TV.


That said, the book is now done. It's over. I no longer have to read the Beast Core Book ever again. That isn't to say that we're done with Beast yet, after all, Halloween is coming up. And what's Halloween without some scary stories?

Well, maybe not 'scary', more 'a whole bunch of justification that Beasts are actually terrible people in every conceivable way'.

Up Next: Gaslighting.

The Primordial Feast: Part 1

posted by Kurieg Original SA post

The Primordial Feast: Part 1


The Primordial Feast is the fiction anthology that was one of the Stretch Goal rewards for the Kickstarter. There are some good stories in here that portray beasts as every bit the Monsters they actually are, but that isn’t where the book starts.


It Gets Easier


The story opens up on Clara hiding in her mother's house waiting to terrorize and attack her. Clara brushes her hair, scrapes her nails across the walls, and otherwise makes spooky scary noises. When her mother tries the wall switch only to find that the electricity has been cut, Clara ambushes her and shoves her into the coat closet and locks the door. She eventually lures her mother into the kitchen and slams her face into the china cabinet door.

We cut to a short time later when she's turning the power back on and opening up the door to reveal her boyfriend Aiden, who is also a beast, a 6+ foot tall Anakim so that he can lug her mother upstairs and put her in the bedroom.
It's pretty safe to say that some of the stories in here have stuff that's more fucked up than anything in the core book.

Anyways, Clara carves "HOW DID YOU SLEEP!?" into the mirror with a knife, and then her and her boyfriend have some small talk that makes it very very clear that they're fucking before going home and not having sex because both of them are too tired, and Clara Dreams.

Which seems to imply that she underwent her devouring at a very young age. Or that this was written back when the default assumption was that Beasts were born what they are and thus 'changed' at a much younger age on the average.

She wakes up, heads downstairs, and their roommate Erin walks in from her night out on the town, because she's a Vampire you see. Erin hits on Clara, Clara tosses a pot of hot coffee in her face in retaliation because apparently that's very much against the rules they had set forth or something. Well more specifically, Clara's okay with her trying but she's going to react the same way every time. Aiden comes down to break things up because he's a Anakim Tyrant and keeping people in line is what he likes to do. Regardless, apparently Erin has some role in Clara's master plan, then goes downstairs into her secret Vampire Lair to sleep away the day. Clara gets a phone call from her father who wants to meet her for breakfast and to talk about soemthing.

Aiden drives her to the diner and drops her off with a kiss. Her father inquires as to what she's doing with a man who looks as old as he is, she says "he's not" and neglects to mention that he's instead much older. Her father got a call from her Mom about the attack last night, curious if Clara was involved in some way. Clara is insistent that her mom just dreamed the whole thing up and comes just short of spontaneously climaxing playing the victim for her father.


She's staying angry and intense to "hide her giddiness" and goes on to explain that her mother started referring to her as "the demon child" and "that thing" rather than her daughter, and again this happened at the age of 10, so she changed super young and her mother still wasn't strictly wrong.

Anyways, Clara gives Erin some of her blood for the "Mother's Milk" thing and Erin manages to seduce/put to sleep her mother's boyfriend who's waiting for her at a restaurant. Erin raises a fuss because he's old and dumpy but Clara scares her into compliance. The three of them drag him back to her mother's place, dump him in a chair, and kill the electricity. At which point Erin peaces out because she wants no part of what comes next, but Clara wants Aiden to stay.

Her mother comes home, Clara gaslights her a little more before the two of them decide it's time to go and pull her into Clara's lair.



You know, this is very good and evocative writing, and describes what's happening very well visually. But the content is ludicrously fucked up. A woman murdered her mother for the fact that she called her out for what she was, a monster that replaced her daughter at a young age.

Anyways, a week or so goes by, mom's boyfriend has been arrested for her mother's disappearance and likely murder. But then her Dad calls.

So yes, this is a good story, but if you want to put your best foot forward and say "Hey these are guys you want to play in a roleplaying game!" then you probably shouldn't open with 30 pages of torture/murder/revenge fantasy of a girl against her mother.

Mountain Devil's Trill
In Port Townsend an Eshmaki is seeding the local area with nightmares.
By dream castrating a power-assurance rapist, sure.

Anyways, as he's shadow-floating home, his Makara friend rebukes him for not feeding better. "Hungry. You are hungry and you need to eat something more substantial than the castration fears of middle-aged assholes.You know it, I know it, so for fuck’s sake just go into town and find some douchecanoe who deserves it. I promise I’ll help you hide the body." Our heroes everyone. The Eshmaki mentions that something "smells off" about the dream and it isn't just his hunger.

The next morning we find out that the Makara is Sonny Tselihye and the Eshmaki is Kevin Ashmun-McCray. They're also roomates and I'm pretty sure they're also gay. We find out that Kevin's been hungry because his normal hunting grounds are currently in the middle of a Forest Fire and he needs some crunching bone and blood. Sonny says that Rush week is happening in Seattle soon and that's a good way to find someone worthy of killing. Kevin responds that "Being a frat boy isn't a prima faca case for being an asshole. Neither is being a tourist or owning an Escalade." Which... seems a little bit self-defeating when being a frat boy is what turned someone into an acceptable target in the main book. But at least it's trying to be self aware. Anyways they go out onto the deck to try and wake up in the cold air and Sonny begins to smell whatever it is Kevin's smelling, and they suggest bringing in the "old man" who apparently initiated Kevin and Sonny in Beast things because soemtimes threats aren't really threats, like Kevin wasn't a threat or something.

Then Kevin's music student pulls up, because you see he's a Orchestra conductor and he also teaches his star pupil violin student on the side. Anyways, his student Samantha's in a tiff about something, generally being mopey and angry and nothing like the "cheerful ball of various energies" that she normally is. When she reponds to his good-natured ribbing with tears, he's eventually able to coax out of her the cause of her distress. Her father is out of prison and despite the restraining order against him he probably knows where they are and Samantha doesn't want to move again for the sixth time because she's got friends and school and is generally doing well. But he called her Aunt in Bellingham and her mom is pretty sure he knows where they are. Samantha is sent on her way and Kevin pulls up the fire map and lo and behold the fires are in a line from Bellingham to where Samantha lives isn't that super convenient.

Yes we're in for more parental murder escapism, how did you know?

That night in their dreams Kevin and Sonny notice that the primordial dream-hills around their city are on fire which is probably bad so Sonny agrees to go find the old man and leaves Kevin at home to lay low because kevin's got a reconstructed knee for some reason that I can't really be bothered to remember but it is important that he has one.

The next day Sonny is gone by the time Kevin wakes up, and Kevin goes about getting ready to teach more students at his home when he gets a phone call from Samantha's father who wants to arrange a "Parent Teacher Conference".


Anyways, Kevin wakes up in an abandoned Ranger Station high up in the mountains, with Palladino doing his best torture/captor impression, trying to get Kevin to spill on where his wife and daughter are so he can kill them, because they are his. Kevin lets on that he knows "what" Palladino is, and that the Old Man can help him, but Kevin doesn't want help.

Around this time is when Kevin manages to break free of his bonds and smashes a lamp, chair, and oven into Palladino's face before running away.

Also that last word was almost 100% going to be "Fag".

Kevin runs higher up the mountain as best as his knee can allow, to where the snow and damp wood should keep the fires at bay, of course they don't, because Palladino is a fire giant. Kevin also laments that "This isn't what his fire is for" because it's for punishing the guilty and blah blah blah. Anyways, it starts snowing with an unseasonable blizzard which is enough for Kevin to impose his lair on the mountain and merge with his Horror, which gives him the advantage over Palladino and gives him the ultimatum of going to go Learn with the "Old Man" and leaving his family alone, or he dies here. Palladino spits at him, and Kevin's Horror gets a good meal.

Oh, and Sonny helps him hide the body.

Death With Dignity
Ed wakes up in the back seat of a car, properly hogtied with a noose around his neck, and begins promptly struggling to get free. His horror, the great Fire bird, tries to help. He also tries to guilt the driver into letting him go since kidnapping is a crime before he realizes that he can't break free of the ropes because they're wrapped in leaves from Rock Creek Park and he can't break anything from there and that it definitely wasn't that way not even a few hours ago, meaning that his captor is a Hero.

The driver makes a hard turn which tosses Ed into the footwell face first and makes it nearly impossible for him to move, as the door near his head opens up he manages to squeak out a strangled "I'm sorry charlie" before the knife comes down... and cuts his noose (come on, the story just started, what did you think?)

There's then a flashback of Eddie as a kid with his best friend Charlie, who've run away from their class trip to Rock Creek Park. Charlie's sister, Mary, was supposed to be watching them. Ed had been having nightmares about a burning forest for weeks, that always ended with a bird descending on him. Coincidentally Charlie wanted to go see the mouth of the River nearby, and all of the trees and branches are looking awfully familiar to Ed. I'm reasonably certain that Ed didn't start the fire, but there's a huge forest fire nonetheless. And it's a lot smokier than his dreams, and the fire actually hurts.

that's... genuinely disturbing, made moreso by the fact that Ed isn't a beast yet.

Mary leads Ed into a diner at knifepoint, playing the part of the ditsy girlfriend to a T. They seat on opposite sides of a booth and Mary orders him his favorite, a Burger with extra Lettuce. Ed tries to reason with her, explaining that he had changed, but she had changed also, that this wasn't her. That she was different and going through the motions of something bigger than herself.

Mary continues that Eddie's always been a Firebird, and she should have known, if she had known then she wouldn't have let Charlie run off with him into the forest, if only she had stopped them then Charlie would still be alive. Ed tells her that that isn't true at all. Mary responds that she's been tracking him for months and that he's killed at least two people that she knows of. He says that they were guilty and needed to be punished, and that he was Hungry. Mary asks him if he was hungry when Charlie died. Ed says that isn't true and that he loved both of them like family.

Ed then inquires as to why she's doing all this, why she didn't just kill him in the car. Mary says it's cause he can only die in Rock Creek Park, where his fire has seeped into the trees. Edward points out that if that were true then he would have moved away years ago, and that it's all part of the Heroic Narrative and tries desperately to get her to stop. But she insists and finishes eating before leading him back out to the car.

There's another flashback, though a much more recent one. Ed and his brood are going out for a 'family meal' to celebrate his new job. There's a squatter in a building that someone wants gone and they're going to scare her off.

We rejoin Ed and Mary driving to Rock Creek Park.
Have I mentioned that some of these stories have really good writing? Because some of these stories have really good writing.

Mary stops the car at the entrance to the park and tries to escort him out at shotgun point, Ed refuses and tries to get her to stop. But they're interrupted by Ed's Brood's car pulling up. Ed runs into the forest and the Brood start going to town terrorizing and trying to kill Mary, all while Ed is trying to get them to stop. Eventually she trips and twists her knee, and Ed swoops in (literally) to try and talk some reason into her


The rest of Ed's brood catches up with her, and by the time Ed's aware of his surroundings again Anatoly is already shoulders-deep in his new snack.

We catch up with Ed and Ruth on the shores of the lake near Rock Creek Park. Ruth is worried about him because he's been acting strange since the attack, particularly because he's been gorging himself in an effort to put the Firebird to sleep. He's angry that he wasn't able to save Mary, but Ruth said he did what he could. He asks Ruth to take him to the underworld, because that's where Ghosts go, and because there are some ghosts there he wants to find. Well specifically she wants him to take his horror there, because he's going to undergo the retreat.


She starts crying, he hugs her, and then they both walk together into the forest so that he can return to the heart of his lair.


This is a good story, one of the better ones. But it just underscores the fact that Beasts are terrible people. This kind of character dynamic makes for a good story but there's no way in hell I would want to play something this soul wrenching in a tabletop setting.

But that's the first three stories in the book, there are six more. And the next one is... weird.

Up Next: I'm reasonably certain this isn't how Sin-Eaters work

The Primordial Feast: Part 2

posted by Kurieg Original SA post

The Primordial Feast: Part 2


Territory

This story opens with a kid named Jesse, drawn by a strange sound like someone banging on one of the steel doors in his college's art building.
It ends as you can expect.

We rejoin the story with our POV Beast character, Sam, eating lunch with her friends at the cafeteria, Sam has a stalker of some kind. A supernatural creature that she's never smelled before, and while she first chalked it up to novelty, it is clear that she's been following her. Her horror, a Sphinx apparently, has gotten bored 'gnawing on the mystery' and wants to just go over there and shake her secrets loose. Sam isn't too keen on that idea, and plans on hitting up a bar later to find a nice dumb frat boy to quiet it down. But she is going to talk to her stalker very soon.

The POV switches to said stalker, a Sin-Eater named Becca. Who's looking over old college yearbooks while the ghost of her boyfriend Tom watches the Simpsons. She's looking over yearbooks because she's found pictures of Sam in them, looking very much the same, and going back at least 10 years. Sam's been good at staying under the radar, not being in any club photos or group shots, but she's been in the background in a few photos. She's relatively new to her Sin-Eater powers, and as such was pretty grateful for a campus that seemed relatively free of ghosts, but after she was a few of them flocking away from Sam she got curious. And one of the ghosts she talked to referred to Sam as "The Monster" so Becca thinks she's responsible for it. Her reverie is interrupted by an envelope being shoved under her door that has "STALKER" written on it. Tom thinks it might be boobytrapped but, well, it's an envelope. So Becca opens it, and inside is a request to meet. "Think it’s time we talked. Lunch tomorrow, 1 PM @Ike Hall? You know where I sit." Tom wants to accompiany her there, but Becca doesn't want to expose him to danger, besides, she won't be alone.

The meeting goes about as you would expect considering it's basically an RPG trope at this point. "What are you?" "No what are you?" etc etc. We find out that Bella and her boyfriend were killed in a car crash, but she was brought back by "The Angel" and now they keep ghosts and humans from messing with each other. Sam expresses that "this is my place, you know? I like it here. This school, this town. I don’t let anyone mess with it." Which i guess is about as positive an emotion as you can get out of a Beast. Becca asks Sam that if she's been here for twenty years than she must know about the locks under the art building and the gateway.

Cut to said gateway.

I don't hate the writing in this story, it's kind of charming even, but it doesn't really do anything besides be an almost scooby-doo adventure with a Sin-Eater and a Beast.

Or even maybe Buffy-ish. It's just not really treating the subject matter as dire or serious, it's just happening. And also Becca may have killed someone the previous night, but the game doesn't mention it.

Becca performs a little mock seance to summon a spirit to inquire more about the door and what might be beyond it. Though the appearance of the smoke-creature does startle them enough for Sam to pull out her claws and Becca to reflexively merge with her Geist into some kind of metal-angel thing. The gist of the conversation that ensues is that there is a spirit bound behind the door known as the "Devourer" that has been put there by the "Keeper", and only the Keeper may pass, the Keeper has also been away for a long time as it's obvious that the door hasn't been properly opened in a while. And without the Keeper, the Devourer has gotten hungry and forced the door open a few times like a "Fucked up venus flytrap". Becca has no idea how to get inside, but Sam uses her beastly powers to rip the door off it's hinges, which is to say it disappears once she rips at it long enough.

Sam leaps at the devourer and cuts deep into it's arm, poisoning it, but it backhands her into a wall shattering half her face.

Becca decides that while she's never destroyed a spirit before, that this one probably deserves it, and then completely no-sells his punch to her face before ripping out his beating demonic heart and crushing it, because she's a Sin-Eater and killing ghosts is what they do. Becca suggests they leave before the place collapses, or does whatever happens when you destroy an evil devouring death-god. and they do so.

So yeah, like I said, very "Buffy". It's nothing serious, nothing new is expressed, but it's not fawning over how awesome beasts are Either so I'll give it a pass.

The Shepherd's lesson
Meanwhile I can barely bring myself to read this one again.
Ugh. Just Ugh.
Anyways the Beast in question is there with her friend Colin, who's a werewolf. She's apparently part of his pack and has never seen another Beast. But then she notices that the lead singer of the band is a Beast of some kind, with seaweed in her hair and what not. And they lock eyes. There's some talk from Colin about how the band is so much better in person and that the audience is watching with almost rapt attention. So they try to get backstage to talk to "Bec", the bouncer stops them because that's what bouncers do.
There's something about this writing style that just bothers me. I'm not sure why.



Again, this story isn't treading any new ground, the problem is more that it's retreading stuff that the core book has told us repeatedly and still talking down to us like we're children.
'

The rest of the story continues like you'd expect a story that needs to hit some bulletpoints to explain concepts. They find out there's a Evil Beast hunting Bec but Bec has a plan to kill him. So Sally volunteers herself and Colin to help. They go to the Primordial Dream which is like the Shadow where the Beasts merge with their Horrors. They go to Bec's Lair where they face the Shadow but Bec dies and undergoes the Retreat. Just imagine that except in more florid language that glorifies how awesome Beasts are.

Bigger Bites
This story is presented in segments labeled with "X Years ago" progressing from 15 years ago to present day. And focuses on two characters, Robin and Wendy, with Robin being the POV character.

Fifteen years ago, Robin is at a new school, studying Titus Andronicus to apply to the school play, in lieu of eating due to a billing issue with her dad's bank. The hunger is making it difficult to focus. She's interrupted and distracted by the appearance of Wendy who has Cataracts.

So basic Junior High stuff.

Twelve years ago.

So Robin is now a beast, and surprising no one so is Wendy.

Nine years ago.

Robin and Wendy are performing a sting operation on a Professor who's forcing female students to sleep with him to fix their grades, with Wendy serving as the bait.
Oh and he rapes lesbians... Prescott charges Robin, who kicks him across the room into his desk, or at least what would have been his desk if Wendy hadn't brought their lair in causing him to smash through one of the weaker walls in her tower. Wendy gives him an ultimatum to "make up for this" or she'll let Robin break his back. He tries to attack Wendy, wolf-robin hurls him back into the real world, and they leave into the primordial dream. Wendy chews out Robin for breaking parts of her lair since "that hurts, you know." and then Wendy kisses her, because they're also lesbians.

You know I really do like the way this story ends but it really hits some tired notes on the way there.

Five years ago.

Wendy and Robin are at a hotel where they were going to have some kind of Women's Awareness conference, but Robin obliterated half the parking lot earlier that night in a pique of hunger. She sits around and watches as the owner of the hotel talks about the damage and how there's no evidence of who did it while Robin feeds until her Horror falls into slumber, and then she starts sobbing.


Two Years Ago.

Robin is being taunted by a Vampire who's invaded her dreams. He tells her that she's a 'higher form of life' and needs to feed off of lesser things. And that the last time she's felt whole was when she accidentally destroyed Wendy's tower. Which... is hilariously convenient and weird. How does he know all this and how is he telling her this. He then states that he's been stalking her for 13 years and in love with her for 7 and is telling her this as a goodbye gift and that he's done with her now but that she was loved and... I do not understand why this section exists other than to shove the plot along in a very janky way.

One Year Ago.

Robin is sitting on the bench near her old middle school while her Horror gnaws on the chambers of one of her Broodmates. Wendy shows up and confronts her, asking her what the hell she's doing.

Wendy asks for the key to their apartment back, unless she wants to come back, to make it up to Mike and the brood.
And now we leave behind all the dumb heady lgbt stuff that Beast says it is, and we delve into what Beast actually is.

Now

Robin has been invited to Wendy's heart, though she doesn't know why, and has taken her up on the offer. She finds Wendy in her heart, and offers Robin an ultimatum. Wendy is offering herself up as one final sacrifice for Robin's incarnation if she'll leave everyone else alone. The rest of the Beasts in the Hive are worried, apparently everyone cares about Wendy and Robin's relationship and wants them to get back together, but Robin isn't buying it.


Yeah... turns out this was all a ruse to make Robin see the error of her ways and come back to the family! Cause obviously she feels terrible after all that happened!

I already told you this wasn't that kind of Beast story.

Next time: The last three stories

The Primordial Feast: Part 3

posted by Kurieg Original SA post

The Primordial Feast: Part 3

Family Reunion
Stephanie is at her local coffee shop, getting a venti iced coffee with an extra shot of espresso. She didn't sleep well last night. And as she sits in her corner, drinking, she notices a woman. Specifically she notices her again, the same woman who's been there every day for a while. She doesn't order anything, just sits there and reads "The new you", to the point that she could have finished reading it three times over by now. When Stephanie looks at her watch the ticking of the second hand makes her sick to her stomach, so she stuffs her watch in her bag, and leaves as fast as she can.

Apparently Stephanie is, or was, a Promethan who completed her journey and became human. Prin is treating the whole affair like an experiment, studying Stephanie to see how Nadia and hir can also complete their journies. Corazon, on the other hand, is a beast. Nadia and Corazon want to be a part of Stephanie's life "Humans need friends too" but Prin doesn't want her to be caught up in their disquiet and show up at their door with a Molotov.

Detective Anderson is a Hero, in case it wasn't obvious.

The next morning, Nadia's at the coffee shop watching Stephanie again. Stephanie looks worse than ever, dark circles under her eyes and that vacant stare of an extremely tired person. Eventually Nadia's concern for her friend overcomes her desire for anonymity so she approaches her.

Nadia rushes home and confronts Corazon. It turns out Cora has been intentionally starving her horror so that it will visit Stephanie in her dreams and try to make her remember her old life.
It turns out that putting the cheerleaders of inhumanity together with people who aspire to be everything that humanity represents is an incredibly bad idea. Particularly when said Beast has a hunger for destruction and wants to destroy her happy life simply because she has a happy life.

In the meantime, Kelly Anderson's heroic tracking has led her to Stephanie, she makes it sound like there's a murder investigation going on, but subtly lets drop a question on if Stephanie's been having nightmares before moving on to a more legitimate sounding line of inquiry. The hero has the Beast's target, and she knows the Beast will be there again. She circles the block a few time to make sure that she isn't being followed and pulls into a spot just down from Kelly's building to wait.

In Cora's apartment, she's struggling to sleep. As she drifts off she becomes aware of her horror trying to wrench control of Stephanie's dreams.
Cora thinks back, she hasn't fed since Sparks left them, it just wasn't the same without her there. The way she delighted at the expanded understanding of human terror. She was theirs and they shouldn't have to give her up. Cora doesn't want to forget, and she's going to go see if Sparks doesn't have to forget. Though she's going to at least try to do it without her horror getting in the way.

I'm just going to quote this whole section.


Prin and Nadia are running to Stephanie's apartment, since Nadia suspects some of what is going on. Once Prin realizes the severity of what's going on, she picks up Nadia, uses Pyros to elongate her legs, and takes off down the street, ignoring the horrified onlookers. At Steph's apartment, Nadia rips the door off it's hinges and rushes inside to find Stephanie unconscious and bleeding on the floor. They also realize that Cora has turned Steph's bedroom into a part of her lair, and force their way into the dream.

Elsewhere, Kelly wakes up, having dreamt of the hunt to come.
She notices Prin and Nadia breaking their way into Steph's apartment building, and the ruckus draws the attention of the members of the neighborhood, all woken from their sleep by Kelly's call to arms, and she rallies her miniature army to glorious combat against the monsters. And she leads them into Cora's lair through Steph's bedroom.

In Cora's lair, she's chasing Steph through a factory making hundreds of copies of faceless robot manikins. The monster is rending her flesh revealing the gears and circuitry underneath. "Cora watched her prey's flight, watched as the full horror dawned, threw her head back and howled at the sheer pleasure it brought her. But it wasn't enough. Sparks still didn't remember. The hunt was on." Meanwhile Nadia and Prin are in a dark subway station, every so often the N train rushes by but never stops. From the darkness ahead a mass of people and a uniformed police officer with a flashlight emerge.

I really want to play Promethean now.

Prin reaches Cora's heart, a vast barren plain studded with rocky formations beneath a stormy black sky. Flashes of lightning provide the only illumination. Prin reaches Steph around the same time Cora does.

The fight goes poorly for Prin, needless to say, the only reason she survives at all is because she's a Promethean, but her leg at least is broken.


Prin and Cora are left alone in Cora's heart as it falls apart. "I didn't want to die like this, not looking like this, not with you here. You thought of me as human, just with a monster in side of me somewhere. It was the one illusion I kind of liked."

Back in the real world, Steph wakes up with Nadia watching over her, after she makes it very clear that she has no idea who Nadia is and never wants to see her again, Nadia leaves. But she notices that she's still bleeding, that there's a dent in her closet door, that the nightmare happened, at least in part.


I really really like this story. I don't think I can state that enough, this is easily my favorite story in the book since it portrays the Beast as it actually is, a horrifying self centered monster.

Trinkets
Which is why I hate that it's immediately followed up by this.


It's a basic beast story told all over again. Long and short of it is that Miranda loves Jason, they've been friends since high school, surprisingly they're both beasts. Miranda does something dumb, raises the ire of a Hero, the Hero targets Jason, the entire brood bands together and kills the Hero, also Dav and Galen are basically one character since they don't do anything separate from each other, except they're also gay.

Let's move on.

The Primordial Feast: Finale

posted by Kurieg Original SA post

The Primordial Feast: Finale

Premeditation

Three years ago, Sandhya wakes up with a start as she was roused from a dreamtime feeding session, her attempts to move as her horror would just end with her falling out of bed with a start. Is that what it's like? Is this what I do to them? The lights flick on, revealing her Mage friend Hal looking groggy as she is, but staring daggers at her.


With that he teleports her out of his apartment and into the forest along with her things, and Sandhya Tembhekar resolves never to get involved with mages as long as she lives.

In the present day, Sandhya is working the aid station at a marathon, handing out water cups to the front runners. Ten minutes later an ambulance drives by as her Horror rumbles within her "Another leader humbled, another meal in her Horror's belly. It wasn't exactly lying in wait within a river to bite passing princes, but even nagas had to move with the times."

Two months later Sandhya stands outside the residence hall where Charles Foster's family retrieves his belongings. Charles was working with her at the Aid station, but he went missing the next day. He's the fourth student dead this year, the cops say that they're all ODs, but they keep showing up at the old Library. Sandhya has had her suspicions for a while, but by the time Charles' family came around she'd confirmed them. "She sat out there, long after the Fosters drove away, after the sun went down, thinking through her options, not liking any of them. I have to give him a chance, she decided."


That night she goes to the library herself, heading to an upper floor where she' knows she'll find her target. To her eyes he's just a short middle aged white man huddled in a heavy overcoat. To her horror he's a bent backed creature with round eyes, pallid skin, needles for fingers and wreathed in IV Lines.
As she plots out her next move she just hopes "he'd calmed down by now."

This story has a mixture of old and new beast in it, in that she was devoured but he kills to stop from "Making Heroes", I'm going to allow it because "Making Heroes" is probably one of the better points of real personal horror that Beast has.

That and Dave Brookshaw is an insane maniac.
Yes, this story was written by Dave Brookshaw.



Sandhya waits at the tube station in London, waiting for Hal. She took the train here then switched to the tube in an effort to hide her real origin in case the Mage was still angry at her. Fighting the urge at every stop to just go home and keep her head down, to hope that the problem solved itself. But after the final train pulls away with no Hal in sight she sighs and goes to leave out to the street. When she does she feels someone grab her arm firmly. Of course it's Hal, being secretive and unexpected as mages are wont to do. She asks to talk to him in private though he wants to stay in a public space. When he asks what she wanted to talk about she says that when he teleported her away he hurt her. And threatened to kill her, and she wants to know if he can actually do it.

Later they're at a diner with Halcyon(yes) masking their conversation to be something dull about work. He mentions that she looks "fed" and wonders how things are going for her. Since he hasn't heard anything 'big' through the grapevine but she's obviously doing well.
I could mention high tension people who kill themselves after such a 'stumble' and that even her measured feeding method can still be dangerous, but the story makes it pretty obvious that she's justifying it to herself. Particularly since she also goes over the "other" option, where she can kill someone and go for months without feeding, but she doesn't. The problem is that someone does and she needs to stop him. Halcyon says he'll help and he'll meet her at her home. "What makes you think I'm ready to tell you where that is?" "What makes you think I don't already know?".

At her Flat, Sandhya tells him more about Vance. Mainly that he's the Apex of her area and he's got deals in place with all the local Vampires and Werewolves that means she can't attack him in the physical world. And since he's the Apex he'd kill her in a Horror to Horror fight. The way he feeds is by imposing his lair on an abandoned building and chasing his prey until they're exhausted, then injecting them with toxins that are a part of his lair which means they go away when the lair does. Leaving nothing but a dead body with injection marks. The way he feeds is costly but rewarding, making a vicious cycle. Sandhya wants his help to kill him since it's become obvious that Vance won't change his ways, preferably in a way that doesn't lead back to her since his allies might want to get revenge on his behalf. "Can you do it?" "Not alone. And not just with your help."

“Welcome to Marrakesh.” Teleportation is definitely a quick way to travel, if nothing else. "Vance's realm is urban and maze-like. We need someone who can navigate through that environment, who's immune to his tricks and traps. A contact of mine lives here, and she's uniquely qualified. Also, unlike many of the beings we might recruit, her kind can make the trip we're about to make." When Sandhya asks why she'll help them, Hal mentions that this woman has been hunting someone for the past twenty years and Hal knows where he is, He's known for five years, he's just been waiting for an appropriate time to use the leverage. "Keep your friends close, Sandhya, and always keep something to offer them if you need them in the future. We’re here." Their target is a woman in faded pants, a loose top and a headscarf, with large golden eyes. Najat.

And I'm just going to quote this next bit.
With this Dave Brookshaw resurrected a pain I put to rest a year ago and has become my sacred enemy (not really).
And since Matt McFarland didn't say otherwise, Changing Breeds are completely immune to nightmares. I guess if Ferals have to exist in this world, them being the ultimate foils to the only thing worse than them is an acceptable niche.

The following day, Hal decides to give Sandhya the mage's perspective on things.
It's worth that Mage is the only game where premeditated murder is less of a sin than killing in the heat of the moment, because you get kind of fucked up in the head when you can change the laws of reality and losing control is a bad thing.

That night they meet up with Halcyon and his apprentices on the hill overlooking the town. They enter a prepared tent and all go to sleep after Hal links their minds. They wake up in the Temenos and begin walking through the memories of human history. They start off in a riot, continue through the French Revolution, the English Civil War, a realm made entirely of tall black gallows, all the while heading towards the Horror of the Proud Man Humbled, Sandhya's lair.

When they find it, Sandhya merges with it, and they wait for Halcyon's apprentices to finish their part of the spell.
at least the Feral is clowning on the Beasts and Mages alike.

The apprentice lets Hal know that her spell is done and they're able to continue through the primordial dream. They leave Sandhya's lair through the last place that she fed, and in the split second that she's separated from her horror but not yet in control of it it tries to eat Hal ("We'll talk about it later.") But now that they're in a Chamber of the Hive, they'll be able to find the Apex's lair. As they get closer they can hear the whispering of the Omphalos, being brought closer to the Primordial dream by Hal and his assistants, meaning it's time to go to work.


But Vance's Horror can't keep up, and Najat can see through all his tricks, eventually she actually manages to lead him (and all of them) Out of his lair and through the space between lairs, straight to where Hal wants him to be. They land in the midst of a great desert, winds and hot sands eroding away at their dream selves while Najat just kind of watches. Vance howls in pain while Sandhya is at least somewhat protected by Hal's spell.


The police find Vance's body and chalk it up to another overdose. Sandhya feeds by bringing the mighty low, and she just killed the _former Apex. Her horror is happy, and for now isn't trying to bite Hal's head off. Things are mostly right with the world.


And that's it. And you can see after that last story why I was compelled to finish off this review with the fiction anthology.

If you haven't listened to it and you have the time you can listen to our Podcast Review of Beast now that it's technically not full of spoilers.
We also did a review of the Beast Kickstarter when that first came out (After we spend 2 hours talking about better games ).

I will probably review the Beast part of Dark Eras when that's finally released _{since being the one person who can stomach this game enough to hate review it is the superpower that I never actually wanted} but this review is done. Get thee behind me Beast.


Oh Right.


DON'T BUY BEAST