Beast: The Primordial
Feb. 9th, 2016 06:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chuckroNightmares have always had a purpose: To teach humanity valuable lessons through fear. But now the voices of too many people drown out the lessons the Primordial Dream teaches. As one of the few who could hear them, you were Devoured, and reemerged as a nightmare yourself.
Where the NWoD versions of Mummy and Demon were an attempt to do something radically different (rapidly-declining gods and cold war spy games, respectively), this is very much a return to form, with clear influences from Changeling the Dreaming, only instead of drawing glamour off of people by feeding their creativity, you need to terrify them with valuable lessons to feed the Hunger of your Horror. (Everything is always darker in the NWoD—the major antagonists in this game are “heroes” who slay monsters such as your characters.) It feels like an attempt to get closer to Vampire than pretty much any of the other games—the characters are unabashedly monsters who need to hurt people to survive, and the game is about mitigating that and trying to retain some humanity.
It’s very much a crossover game, intended to interact well with any of the existing NWoD gamelines. Among other things, there are extensive rules for establishing “family ties” with other supernaturals, and every Beast has the power to “pump up” someone else’s supernatural powers. Beasts can also use any supernatural gateway and enter any of the various other realms. (This uses the full NWoD second edition/God-Machine Chronicle rules, incidentally.) The setting details and dedicated antagonists are relatively light—there is no world-spanning conspiracy of Beasts, for instance—mostly with the intention of having Beast characters fall in with mixed groups of other supernaturals and helping to fight their battles while pursuing individual goals.
Beasts are divided up by what sort of primordial monster they’re merged with (giants, shadows, leviathans, gorgons, raptors-birds) and what sort of hunger they need to satisfy (power, hoards, prey, punishment, ruin). Their “power stat” is Lair, the strength of their Horror’s dwelling within the dreamscape, which they actually increase by causing humans and other supernaturals to go through morality/integrity “breaking points.” Their morality and power stat are rolled up into Satiety, basically how hungry their Horror is. Their special abilities are Atavisms (generally easily-manifestable physical superpowers that have extra effects at low Satiety) and Nightmares (debuff-inflicting mental illusions they can bring forth that have extra effects at high Satiety).
Like any good WoD core book, this includes full setting details and character creation rules, plot hooks, sample antagonists, a sample game, and a set of quick reference charts near the end.
Overall: I missed the Kickstarter for the big fancy hardbound version of this, but I think I’m okay with that. It’s a new twist on the WoD formula, but ultimately it’s totally within that formula. You were normal until the hidden shadow world drew you in; and now you’re technically a monster and have both fabulous superpowers and a curse that risks your sanity.
Where the NWoD versions of Mummy and Demon were an attempt to do something radically different (rapidly-declining gods and cold war spy games, respectively), this is very much a return to form, with clear influences from Changeling the Dreaming, only instead of drawing glamour off of people by feeding their creativity, you need to terrify them with valuable lessons to feed the Hunger of your Horror. (Everything is always darker in the NWoD—the major antagonists in this game are “heroes” who slay monsters such as your characters.) It feels like an attempt to get closer to Vampire than pretty much any of the other games—the characters are unabashedly monsters who need to hurt people to survive, and the game is about mitigating that and trying to retain some humanity.
It’s very much a crossover game, intended to interact well with any of the existing NWoD gamelines. Among other things, there are extensive rules for establishing “family ties” with other supernaturals, and every Beast has the power to “pump up” someone else’s supernatural powers. Beasts can also use any supernatural gateway and enter any of the various other realms. (This uses the full NWoD second edition/God-Machine Chronicle rules, incidentally.) The setting details and dedicated antagonists are relatively light—there is no world-spanning conspiracy of Beasts, for instance—mostly with the intention of having Beast characters fall in with mixed groups of other supernaturals and helping to fight their battles while pursuing individual goals.
Beasts are divided up by what sort of primordial monster they’re merged with (giants, shadows, leviathans, gorgons, raptors-birds) and what sort of hunger they need to satisfy (power, hoards, prey, punishment, ruin). Their “power stat” is Lair, the strength of their Horror’s dwelling within the dreamscape, which they actually increase by causing humans and other supernaturals to go through morality/integrity “breaking points.” Their morality and power stat are rolled up into Satiety, basically how hungry their Horror is. Their special abilities are Atavisms (generally easily-manifestable physical superpowers that have extra effects at low Satiety) and Nightmares (debuff-inflicting mental illusions they can bring forth that have extra effects at high Satiety).
Like any good WoD core book, this includes full setting details and character creation rules, plot hooks, sample antagonists, a sample game, and a set of quick reference charts near the end.
Overall: I missed the Kickstarter for the big fancy hardbound version of this, but I think I’m okay with that. It’s a new twist on the WoD formula, but ultimately it’s totally within that formula. You were normal until the hidden shadow world drew you in; and now you’re technically a monster and have both fabulous superpowers and a curse that risks your sanity.
