Dos and Don’ts for the Forsaken
Developer Ethan Skemp and the rest of the Werewolf: The Forsaken crew are hard at work getting the second World of Darkness game ready for its February release. Next issue of the Quarterly will feature full coverage, of course, but in the meantime, we thought you all might like to take a glimpse behind the creative curtain. Ethan put together a massive bible for this project, including an extensive list of Dos and Don’ts for writers. These give a nice snapshot of the game’s feel. So, without further ado:
Do show blood. Blood is a key element to a werewolf story, and it’s the best way to showcase the savagery of an animal that has the mind of a human and the power of a monster.
Don’t play up blood to the point of splatter punk. Werewolf is not about carnage as comedy, nor is it about an arms race of shock value splatter.
Do remember to play up the negative aspects of being a werewolf.Being a werewolf is a cathartic release, and certain aspects of being a werewolf can be almost transcendent, but it’s not a life full of cheer and joy. You’re a protagonist in a horror game, and even though you’re powerful, the
power you have at your disposal is not fully under your control. That’s scary.
Don’t have werewolves come across as angsty head-cases. Nobody
likes a whiner.
Do make the world real.
Use brand-name vehicles or the names of specific types of trees or wildflowers. Describe actual city or wilderness environments.
Don’t use brand names excessively to promote a false sense of sophistication.
Werewolf isn’t a glossy ad in Maxim.
Do personalize antagonists.
Spin the opposition not as a global organization that holds South Dakota and is fighting over Miami, but as a shadowy horde that’s said to have a nest somewhere in your city and that may have some interest in you.
Don’t give werewolves lives that the average suburban kid is accustomed to.
Werewolves exist on the fringe of society at best. They don’t go home and watch TV for three hours before going to bed. Limit those popculture references, particularly for elders. There are plenty of real cultural references out there for you to cite without looking like a goob.
Do make werewolves sexy.
They’re predatory, passionate and, usually, in great shape. They’re all the hard-bodied, primal sexuality of a professional athlete with the stormy personalities that both men and women find appealing. Being in the presence of a werewolf should be exciting (when it isn’t terrifying).
Don’t overdose on the sex appeal or make it clumsy.
A female werewolf shouldn’t behave like some tart out of a bad-girl comic written by a pimply geek. She doesn’t need to be an exhibitionist or a dominatrix in order to be empowered. She can turn into a nine-foot-tall killing machine that can track her prey through a blizzard – she is empowered.
Do remember the myths, and celebrate them in your writing.
Even though our own werewolves aren’t typical movie or fiction werewolves, they should still feel close enough to the source that gamers can find lements they liked about werewolves before they found our game.
Don’t make werewolves blas about their condition.
There’s nothing matter-of-fact about having a supernatural hairtrigger temper and the constant presence of a totem’s eyes on your back.
Do use the word “werewolf.”
They may have a specific First Tongue name for their species, but that shouldn’t be the only word they use, any more than we don’t say “people” or “men and women” because we’re already using the word “humans.”
Don’t overuse gamespeak within in-character or fiction segments.
I know it’s hard to not have your characters speak like players around a
table, but it spoils the whole game. Careful word choice makes characters real.
Do emphasize the spiritual.
Werewolf takes place in an animistic world, and that means actions have repercussions. Think of weird, freakish things that would logically evolve from a spiritual reflection of our own bizarre society.
Don’t write Werewolf as if it were fantasy, pulp or sci-fi.
The spirit world is not an excuse to write some cheesy Weird Tales reject of a story and put some werewolves in it – it is a place of great meaning and danger, of lessons learned about our own world in the language of symbols and of evils that have been born out of our own souls.
Do provide ways for characters to interact with their environment and change things for better or worse.
Give them choices to make with consequences for each. Guide Storytellers and players alike to the style of gameplay where the players’ characters are the most important people in the story.
Don’t threaten the fabric of Reality Itself at every turn.
Being a werewolf and dealing with the threats of other werewolves, alevolent spirits and those freakish rats and spiders is stress enough if you
present it as such.
Do stress the territorial nature of a werewolf’s life.
A pack should look at crossing over into another pack’s territory as dangerous. Alliances with other packs and elders should be tenuous – a player should never assume, “Well, these guys will understand if we cross into their territory, ‘cause we’re all werewolves here.”
Don’t make your characters nigh-demigods who are So Much Older, Tougher and Cooler than the players’ characters.
A grizzled old man who turns into a nine-foot-tall werewolf with streaks of Silver in his fur is scary enough, if you write it correctly. He doesn’t have to be an ex-mercenary who learned how to kill grown men with a toothpick when
he was in ‘Nam.
Do have fun with what you’re doing.
Don’t have fun at the expense of the game line or the fans.
We call that crapping where you eat.
) 
