Tips on Creating a Pack When Solo Playing Werewolf the Apocalypse

Now Playing aespa-Drama

The ruleset that I am developing for WtA assumes that the player will run a single pack as a unit. The system will simulate other friendly and antagonistic packs, but your Garou will be under your control. However, in the lore even powerful elders cannot control young packs, they can advise sure, inspire certainly but no one can truly control Gaia’s (the Earth’s spirit) warriors. This system will hopefully place the player in a similar mindset.

I will be creating a pack of four Garou, I will use Mythic Magazine #37’s rules for running a troupe style game, or in our case pack. I won’t detail the full system here, (pay Tana!) but just know that the system is weighted towards favoring certain characters over others. I will have one main character, a secondary character, and two supporting pack members. For each scene, I will roll which pack member I will be playing the scene as. Once the scene starts I will have full control of that member and the rest of the pack will operate under the assumption that they will work as a cooperative team.

We are using Mythic, and it’s Mythic’s or whatever GM emulator you are using to test those assumptions. So we will never really know if our pack members will stick to the plan. The longer I play with this group the more obvious it will be what each member will do in a given circumstance. Honestly I was about a day behind schedule while writing this article which means the pack is still somewhat unfinished, we will be playing to find out a lot with this pack. Enough talk, let's make a pack!

Random Pack Generation Tips

I will be randomly generating my main character as well as three packmates. Mainly to see if it works. There are five auspices (think of it like a job or role they perform in the packs) so we will roll a d10 for each member.

Auspice Table

1-2 Ragabash

3-4 Theurge

5-6 Philodox

7 Galliard (Artist)

8 Galliard (Thrill Seeker)

9-10 Ahroun

Alright let's do this!

10, 6, 10, 3

Well now. Two Ahroun could be a lot of fun. Against my better judgment let’s try it out. Time to choose a tribe, think of this as almost a religious group or werewolf political party. There are annoyingly eleven tribes so we have to do a little thinking if we want to use a d12 here. I’ll do it, but I won’t like it!

Tribe Table

1 Black Furies

2-3 Bone Gnawers

4 Children of Gaia

5 Galestalkers

6 Ghost Council

7 Glass Walkers

8 Hart Wardens

9 Red Talons

10 Shadow Lords

11 Silent Striders

12 Silver Fangs

Not super happy with this, in older editions Bone Gnawers were by far the most numerous so my increase odds was a nod to the older editions. I could make a weighted chart to make Silver Fangs less likely than say a Glass Walker but no time no time! I’d love to see other’s thoughts on this. Future me would either convert this to a d100 or d20 chart.

Ahroun 1 = Ghost Council

Philodox = Silent Strider

Ahroun 2 =Hart Wardens

Theurge =Children of Gaia

I chose the Philodox as my main character, and the Ghost Council Ahroun as my secondary. The others will act like supporting characters. I already have some rough ideas on what the character concepts will be. Usually they are a pair of one adjective and noun that describes your character in a nutshell, for example, laidback frat boy, or determined activist. My current ideas are,

Ghost Council Ahroun- Idealistic Student-Teacher

Silent Strider Philodox - Overqualified Gig Worker

Hart Warden Ahourn - Local Legend (a concept taken from p. 73 of the Core Book)

Children of Gaia Theurge - Reluctant Shaman

Pack Relationship Map

Before we delve deeper I want to do two more things before we stat out these four. I want to create inter pack connections and a rough structure of how our pack is run and what it is trying to do.

First using the excellent Relationship-Map Connections found here. I will create one positive connection and one negative connection with two different pack mates. A d6 will randomize who each connection is with. If you want more randomized pack dynamics, you could combine both negative and positive tables and then roll a d20.

Ghost Council Ahroun - Idealistic Student-Teacher

Negative Relationship: Child of Gaia Theurge-We had a brief, regrettable relationship and neither of us are over it.

Positive Relationship: Hart Warden Ahroun -Helped me find my tribe or brought me into the pack.

Silent Strider Philodox - Overqualified Gig Worker

Negative Relationship: Ghost Council Ahroun -Knows that they are keeping a secret the rest of the pack can never know. (They are in direct contact with a Black Spiral Dancer)

Positive Relationship: Child of Gaia Theurge -My older sibling: if not in blood then in deed. (In deed not blood)

Hart Warden Ahourn- Local Legend

Negative Relationship: Ghost Council Ahroun -Always in my personal business when they should worry about their own

Positive Relationship: Silent Strider Philodox -Taught me an important skill that I use everyday. (Reading, they are a Garou that is wolfborn)

Child of Gaia Theurge- Reluctant Shaman

Negative Relationship: Silent Strider Philodox -They think they are so smart and they never are.

Positive Relationship: Ghost Council Ahroun -Stood by me on a disagreement we had with the rest of the pack.

We have some very interesting dynamics here, I was surprised with the older sibling angle between the Theurge and Philodox as well as the brief love affair with the Ghost Council Ahroun. We will sidebar this for now, check back, and adjust, after going over pack dynamics. In the Shattered Nations supplement there is a list of four different pack dynamics. I will choose one of each to form my pack, afterwards I will choose my pack type.

Pack Dynamics Among Each Other

The Professionals: My pack schedules weekly meetups for “Garou work”, they try to stay out of each other's business as much as possible besides that. Though it looks like our Ghost Council Ahroun doesn’t agree with this style of management.

The Pack and the World of Spirits

The Problem Solvers: My pack goes out of it’s way to police or serve the spirts in the area as much as they can.

The Pack and the Veil

Veil Lowered: My Pack is trying it’s best to keep their personal lives and professional lives as far apart as possible.

The Pack and the Sept

The Linchpin: The sept is a bit of a mess, but my pack is doing its part to try and keep everything together.

Pack Type: Banishers

My pack’s primary job is keeping the local spirits in line, which totally fits with my chronicle setup. They are the ones doing the actual work while the other three packs are less productive. I’m more comfortable with this style of play because it most resembles Werewolf the Forsaken, a reimagining of Werewolf that was scrapped in favor of the current reboot we are playing now.

A Whole Month to Learn More

Truth be told I have already played two sessions and haven’t finished creating any of the pack. Stats have been chosen, as well as gifts. I still need to make my touchstones for each member. I also have decided that my main member the Philodox isn’t a Silent Strider, so that needs to be changed as well. I was happy with the rest of the pack, so I just started playing. You can’t prepare forever, things will be finished when they are finished. It’s time to put my money where my mouth is and just play. Wish me luck, and it is never too late to start your own thirty day solo sesh-a-thon. I will be posting play reports of my chronicle at least once a week, stay tuned.