Peetu – Aura Havukangas (Ghost Council, Theurge)
Tuomas – Japi (Ghost Council, Ragabash)
Petri – Sampo ”Sudenlaki” Saarni (Red Talon, Ahroun)
Mikko – Matias Kalmanlehto (Bone Gnawer, Galliard)
Due to the interest in the sourcebook I’ve been creating for modern nights of Finland, our Werewolf: the Apocalypse games will be written in English.
Our initial approach to Werewolf is just to try it out. A pilot film, of sorts. This places some restrains for me as a GM as well as the story. But it also enables us skip parts of the rules that aren’t that important for a single story.
About the Characters
We started this chronicle by sitting down and creating the characters two weeks ago. It wasn’t exactly like Session 0, even though we talked about the campaign, etc. It was enough to get us going though.
Tuomas wasn’t present during this session, but since he is fairly new to roleplaying we build him a character that went through his first change very recently to explain his personal background. Making his character, Japi, a Ragabash is meant to also reflect this, allowing him to act in non-conventional ways. (Which, it turned out, wasn’t that necessary, as he immediately acted according to his tribe anyway.)
Other players are WOD veterans. None of them have played any edition of Werewolf, but as per usual, have read a lot of the sourcebooks (that are now obsolete).
Peetu already had plans for his character and built Aura on the spot. Petri wanted to concentrate on ripping things apart so he came up with the Red Talon Ahroun Sampo. Mikko wanted to try something different and created a Glass Walker hacker at first, but ended up creating Matias as a completely different character between the session.
Chronicle Tenents
Our actual first gaming session this Tuesday began with as deepening the characters and discussing about the scenario a bit more in advance. We also went through the basic premises of the game to get everyone on the same page. Each player got to know their character a bit more, and got a semirelatable idea about the other PCs as well.
The aim of this discussion for me to get a clear idea about the group dynamics, and to establish the chronicle tenents. As the PCs do not have a certain Caern to at this point of the story, and learn to know each other at the beginning of the session, the tenets weren’t easy to come up.
I assume that getting to know the system and the story if WtA this might get easier. But for now we just borrowed one line from each of the examples provided in the core book.
- Do not cling to the old ways (helping us to establish our own narrative)
- Never cause harm to Gaia (to guide the PCs to the fight for Gaia)
- Heed your elders (to introduce inner conflict within the group as well as to make the possible encounters with NPC garou more meaningful)
None of these did anything for our first session, though. So we (as in ”I”) might end up revising them for more impact.
Actual Story
As with many stories do, this one also began with a dream. The characters dreamt about an owl crying a single word for required assistance. They woke up with a the test of moss and ash in their mouths and a strong pull towards Jämsä.
It was Japi who contacted Aura to seek council for the strange dream. Having seen the same call for help, Aura realised this dream might have reached more than her and Japi. She contacted a few local Garou she knew, and they made plans to meet at the local Hupikeskus Karhula at Jämsä.
On her way to there from Tampere, Aura came across local wildlife and learnt about a logging operation taking place in the Isojärvi National Park. As she explained the situation to the other Garou, it was clear that their rage was building. Logging itself wasn’t anything unheard of even in the Isojärvi, but this time it was clear (at least to the PCs) that this wasn’t a legal operation.
Enraged, the group left the bar to rush straight to the logging site. No planing, no investigating, just straight to the source of the problem, singing the songs of rage.
The howls of the wolves didn’t escape the locals. Luckily Japi was able to spot the hunters just before they fell upon the PCs in Lupus form. Apparently the hunter were expecting to run into wolves, and this proved their demise. Competing with each other for the first kill, Matias and Sampo rushed forward.
Witnessing Matias in his Ahroun form to trashing through the undergrowth to the commercial forest was enough force the hunters to flee in Delirium. This proved to be in vain for the Garou quickly reached them and tore them apart. Aura had warned the hunters’ dogs so they were spared.
Wanting nothing to do with the hunters’ carcasses, the PCs pushed forward, quickly reaching the logging site. Caring little of surveillance and a lot of what they perceived to be right, Matias and Sampo charged forward, destroying a harvesters in their wake. Only moments after did the rage overtake Japi as well and he began ripping the surveillance cameras of the site apart.
Getting his bearings straight, Matias calmed down a bit and picked the lock of the loggers’ barrack. Searching the premises he found only some maps, and a printed poster on the wall indicating that the loggers should take care of piling certain logs into a distinct pile.
Their rage quelled the Garou gathered in the barrack to investigate the poster. Aura was quick to point out that the mark on the said trees was clearly not the work of the company behind the logging-it was a Garou glyph indicating a perceivably weak Gauntlet in the area.
Debrief
The first session was well enjoyed by all. We managed to establish a lot, got into a fight, and found out a deeper mystery. All players showed keen interest in all of the characters as well as the event in the game. There were some mandatory jokes, but they weren’t as tacky or unnecessary than the setting could have inspired.
As I haven’t ran Werewolf (and WOD for that matter) ever, there were an expected amount of rules checking, and a quite high number of dice rolls (even with the use of taking a half). Nothing too lengthy to derail the story nor hinder the atmosphere.
We parted still discussing about the events of the game as well as the actions the PCs should take during the next session. These are both great indicators of a good session in my books. So even if our middle-aged timetables seem to spit on our plans to get the next session planed, I’m confident we’ll get there.
It was also fun to witness that the answer to the games ”when will you rage?” tag line seems to be ”immediately”.
Diceblastes 