Home
About GarouMUSH
The setting
Connecting to GarouMUSH
Roleplaying conventions
Applying for a character
Guide for writing a character
Example applications
Rank 1 gifts on GarouMUSH
Umbra/Spirit guide
Firearm guide
GarouWIKIA
(external link)
|
|
|
|
Gifts on GarouMUSH
What
is
a gift?
Gifts occasionally
fail to work
Learning gifts
Rank 1 gifts
What is a gift?
The exact nature of what a gift is is subject to
philosophical debate
by the Garou. It could be that it is a spirit teaching a Garou to use a
secret magic known to certain types of spirits. It could be the garou
serving as a conduit for the spirit into the physical realm. It could
be the spirit empowering the garou with magical energies or a special
spiritual attunement.
On GarouMUSH, a gift represents the ability to use a special power.
Gifts are "one trick ponies." They do just one thing, but they tend to
do so relatively well. For example: Sense of the Prey is described
thusly: "A Garou with this gift can track her prey (if she knows
anything about it, and it is not actively hiding) as rapidly as she can
travel." So this gift can be used to track someone down, but it cannot
be used to backtrack to find out where the "prey" came from beforehand.
Gifts
occasionally fail to work
First and foremost, gifts do not always work. While this
is obvious
with some gifts (Open Seal, Lambent Flame, Spirit of the Bird), it is
not obvious with detection gifts (Truth of Gaia, Sense Wyrm), which
won't register anything out of the ordinary.
Learning gifts
Learning a
gift
from a garou
In the majority of cases, gifts are learned from another
garou. To
learn a gift this way, you RP asking around IC who might have the gift,
convince them to teach it to you, and then both you and the other
player submit a +learn (or +teach) request.
Learning a
gift
from a spirit
On rare occasions, a spirit can be convinced to teach a
garou a gift.
Generally this is only acceptable on GarouMUSH in two situations: (1)
cubs who're on or just completed their RoP are granted their gifts by
spirits or (2) no one on the game has the gift.
To learn a gift from a spirit, the garou must have access to a caern of
equal or less rating that the level of the gift. This is one reason
that caerns are important and why being a member of a caern has
distinct priviledges.
With the exception of cubs learning gifts during or right after their
RoP, learning a gift from a spirit carries with it a significantly
higher chance for failure.
If you attempt to learn a gift from a spirit, you will need to locate a
GM to roleplay the spirit. Along with the +learn request, you will also
need to submit a detailed explanation/justification to the wizards of
how and why the PC is going about this task.
The
Mentors
and Allies backgrounds
If no one on the MUSH has the gift you want to learn and
you have a
Mentor or Ally background (that is a Garou), you can apply that
background towards your +learn attempt and greatly increase the chases
of success (depending on the Mentor or Ally background rating).
Garou with the Mentor background have a higher success rate for all
their Rite and Gift +learn attempts.
How
likely is a gift +learn to succeed?
As a rule of thumb, about 30% of gift +learns between two
garou will
fail.
As a rule of thumb, about 75% of spirit +learns will fail.
These base numbers can be adjusted up or down based upon a number of
factors:
- Did you RP the teaching? (Automatic
failure if the teaching
was not RPed out.)
- How recent was your last gift
+learn?
- How many gifts do you already have?
(The more you have of
one rank, the harder it is to learn more--for game balance purposes.)
- How many times have you done a
+teach in comparison to how
many times you've done a +learn from others? (A history of "leeching"
begets a higher failure rate.)
- Do you have the Mentor background?
(You will always get a
positive "fudge factor" with rite and gift +learns if you do.)
Learning
gifts out
of your Tribe/Breed/Auspice
Best of luck! Only about 10% of these attempts ever
succeed--and only
if there is a good reason for it.
If you simply must have an out of tribe/breed/auspice gift, your best
bet is to write the background for acquiring the gift into your
application and then buy it with 7 freebie points in character
generation.
Learning a tribe-exclusive gift--Aura of Confidence (Shadow Lords
only), Lambent Flame (Silver Fangs only), or Camouflage (Wendigos
only)--when you are not a member of that tribe is all but impossible.
A Garou that teaches another garou outside of the tribe a
tribe-exclusive gift is likely to be hunted down and killed if his
action is ever discovered--it's an outright betrayal of a tribe's
secret knowledge and what makes a tribe unique and special. The gift
learner could be in equal or greater danger.
Planning on learning an out of tribe-breed-auspice gift from a spirit?
Don't waste your time submitting the +learn: just RP out the failure.
Rank 1 gifts
The rest of this page
contains a
number of the most common R1 gifts on GarouMUSH.
Gifts that have been revised for GarouMUSH--and thus deviate from the
sourcebooks--are in the bulleted list below. Modifications were made to
either accomodate the MUSH environment or to provide better game
balance between R1 gifts as a few were massively overpowered in
comparison to the other gifts--especially Mother's Touch and Resist
Pain.
- Beast Speech----Animals have
limited cognitive/linguisitic
abilities, limiting any response from them to a single sentence with
just two words. The gift does not confer animal friendship nor
willingness to help.
- Mother's Touch----Minorly depowered
from the sourcebook in
order to make it more in line power-wise with the other R1 gifts. House
rules to prevent "touch tag" healing, particularly of badly wounded
garou. Clarifications on gnosis expenditure and healing non-garou.
- Resist Pain----Minorly depowered
from the sourcebook in
order to make it more in line power-wise with the other R1 gifts. A
garou using this gift still feels pain, but to a lesser extent. They
can ignore two level's worth of damage with respect to the negative
effects of pain. (They don't gain two additional health levels) If a
garou suffered 6 levels of damage (Crippled, -5 to rolls), a garou with
Resist Pain would function as if merely at 4 levels (Wounded, -2 to
rolls)--even though 1 more level of damage would render them
Incapacitated and an additional point above that would kill them.
- Scent of Man----In addition to
frightening off wild
animals, this gift confers a "Persuasion" gift-like bonus for
interacting with domesticated animals.
- Speed of Thought----Clarification
that it does not provide
extra attacks, only doubles the movement speed for one scene.
- Sense Wyrm/Weaver/Wyld----Badly
needed clarification of how
this is an area affect gift that cannot be used to pinpoint the source
of the Wyrm/Wyld/Weaver influence except under very specific,
controlled conditions.
- Spirit Speech----Clarifications on
use and that Beast
Speech does not work with animal spirits.
- Truth of Gaia----Clarifications and
social/renown/honor
implications of using the gift on other garou, particularly in a
frivolous or public manner.
Rank 1 gifts
Beast Speech
A Garou with this gift can speak with animals, but animals
have an
animal intelligence and often do not have particularly useful
information or a long-term memory.
As a general rule of thumb, if an animal cannot respond to a question
with a single two-word sentence (not two or three two-word sentences
strung together), it is beyond their mental capacity to respond.
"Did a human pass by here just now?" is within most animals'
capabilities to answer ("Yes/No.")
"Did a man with a yellow hat pass by here yesterday?" is not going to
get any information unless the man in question did something
memorable--like kick the animal or feed it--particularly if it's in a
location where multiple people pass by each day.
Also note that just because you can talk to an animal doesn't mean that
it wants to talk back or trusts trusts you, nor does it mean it will do
what you say. Beast Speech does not magically enable animal friendship.
Prey animals, if given the option, are simply going to run like hell
from a wolf rather than speak to it.
Blur of the
Milky Eye
This gift does not make you invisible.
This gift does not make you invisible.
This gift does not make you invisible.
This gift blurs the outline of your body, which helps to break up your
character's silhoutte. This makes it somewhat harder to see your
character (+1 or +2 to difficulty) if he or she has not yet been
spotted.
Once a blurred character is spotted, the gift's effect is negated;
however, if the spotter is distracted and takes his eyes off the
ragabash, the +1 to +2 difficulty to relocate the ragabash applies
again.
This gift is useful in getting a slight edge on sneaking up on or past
people. This gift works against spirits, too.
Blur does not reduce noise or mask scent.
Call of the Wyld
Maximum hearing range for the gift is about 15 miles for
someone in
crinos, hispo, or lupus--about double the distance they could normally
hear a very loud howl.
Maximum hearing range for the gift is about 4 miles for someone in
homid or glabro--about double the distance they could normally hear a
very loud howl.
Note that it takes time to travel to the source of a howl. If there's a
fight and you're miles away, that fight will likely be long since over
by the time you get there--even running top speed in lupus.
Call of the Wyld does not carry over across the gauntlet, so a howl
originating in the umbra cannot be heard in the realm.
Camouflage
This gift does not make you invisible.
This gift provides excellent camouflage for the garou that uses it, but
only if they are in the wilderness. It is useless within a city or on
someone's front lawn or even a meadow or park.
The gift confers no benefit to being quiet or disguising scent.
Once the Garou is spotted, this gift is useless unless the spotter can
be distracted and takes his eyes off the Garou in question--just like
with Blur of the Milky Eye.
Cardboard
Mansion
This gift does not alter the interior size of the box,
generate or
dissipate heat, or provide security. It simply insulates well and keeps
water out--which is a substantial improvement over a regular cardboard
box and terribly useful to destitute urban Garou.
Control Simple
Machine
This gift works only with relatively simple, non-electric
devices.
Use your imagination and you'll come up with a number of interesting
uses for this gift. Almost every Glass Walker with this gift knows the
trick of using CSM to have an opponent's clip drop out of their gun--or
turning the safety back on.
Very simple locks (deadbolt, chain latches, keyed padlocks) can
sometimes be opened, but the gift is nowhere near as effective as Open
Seal, which can handle electronic keypad locks, combination padlocks,
and safes.
Cooking
Just think! You could eat the blandest oatmeal (or
unflavored ramen
noodles) every day for the rest of your life! What fun! Just add old
discarded gym shorts and water!
If used on food that is already palatable, it will make it taste
bland--not better.
Create Element
Creates one or two cubic feet of plain old fire
(approximately 3 levels
agg damage), water, earth, or air at a distance of up to 1 foot from
the garou, making its use as a weapon pretty useless.
Created matter (water, earth, air) is permanent. Fire that is created
flashes into existence briefly and is gone unless it ignites something.
Air and water, inless contained, go where they please after created.
Faerie Light
Creates a light source that works like it's remote
controlled. Range is
as far as the Garou can see. Illuminates about 10' out from the light
source. Works in the umbra, too.
Find the Prize
By thinking about a generalized object (gun, knife,
bicycle, fried
chicken), the garou can get an idea of where to come across something
similar in the nearby area. However, that does not mean that the item
isn't owned by someone else or otherwise free for the taking or
accessible.
If there are multiple similar items in the area, the gift generally
points out the immediate location of the nearest object. For instance,
if a Garou saw a thug shoot someone with a 9mm pistol the night before
and uses this gift to try and find the pistol the next morning, he's
far more likely to get directed to a nearby cop, drug dealer, a gun
shop, or a home than directions to the gun used by the thug. If the
object is moving or moved before found, the garou's information becomes
obsolete.
Heightened Senses
This gift effectively doubles how well your character can
see, hear,
smell, taste, and feel.
If the gift user is in homid or glabro, the enhanced senses are almost
on par with those of a wolf or dog.
If the gift user is in crinos, hispo, or lupus, the enhanced senses
incredibly powerful--well beyond that of a wolf or dog.
Also important, there is no safety mechanism to prevent loud noises or
the like from stunning a garou using this gift--or temporarily
"blinding" a sense by overwhelming it. There is also no filter to cull
out unwanted background noises.
Someone that activates this gift while in crinos/hispo/lupus and in the
city will almost certainly be awash in white noise from sensory
overload--if not stunned outright by any loud noises nearby.
Mother's Touch
This gift allows the user to head another garou, human, or
animal of a
couple levels of damage. The gift user cannot use this gift on
themselves.
The undead and spirits are not affected by this gift.
It takes a full combat round of contact to use this gift on another. If
either the user or recipient is moving or attacking/defending, the gift
will fail--or botch. You can't go "Tag, you're healed!"
Once Mother's Touch has been used on a garou (even if it failed or
botched), it cannot be used again on the same garou until the
recipient garou has fully healed.
If a second garou with MT attempts to use the gift on someone that has
already had MT performed on them (even if it was a failure or botch),
the attempt automatically fails.
The following table gives a breakdown of how many levels of damage a
garou can heal with MT--based upon the gift-user's Intelligence score
and the wounded garou's rage.
|
Wounded Garou's Rage
|
MT
user's Intelligence
|
1
|
2
|
3
|
4
|
5
|
6
|
7
|
8
|
9
|
10
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
0-1
|
0-1
|
0-1 |
0 |
0
|
0
|
0
|
2
|
2
|
2
|
2
|
1-2
|
1-2
|
1-2
|
1
|
0-1
|
0-1
|
0
|
3
|
3
|
2-3
|
2-3
|
2
|
2
|
1-2
|
1-2
|
1
|
0-1
|
0
|
4
|
4
|
3-4
|
3
|
2-3
|
2
|
2
|
1-2
|
1-2
|
1
|
0
|
5
|
4-5
|
4
|
3-4
|
3
|
3
|
2-3
|
2
|
1-2
|
1-2
|
0-1
|
An extra level of damage
can be
healed if the MT-user expends a point of Willpower, but the maximum
number of levels healed can never exceed the user's Intelligence score.
Humans and kin are difficult to heal with MT, having an difficulty
equivalent to a Rage 6 garou (because of their lack of spiritual
affinity).
Each use of Mother's Touch requires the expenditure of one point of
gnosis.
A battle scar may be healed if MT is used on it immediately after
combat is over.
Healing a normal battlescar requires two gnosis points (and two combat
rounds), but healing an oh-my-god battlescar requires 3 points (and
three combat rounds).
It will be obvious to anyone watching--and the Garou that MT is
being performed on--what is happening. Garou who are healed of a
battlescar lose permanent renown greater than what they earned in the
battle fought. Garou who are regularly getting battlescars healed after
fights will never gain renown (or rank) as they are essentially erasing
their badges of honor and glory.
Open Seal
If you plan to do go through any locked doors, either
bring a ragabash
or bring a battering ram.
Take a couple hair pins and paper clips, lock yourself out of your own
house, and attempt to pick the lock. Feel free to give up after 4-8
hours. Lockpicking is hard, even when using the right tools, and takes
a great deal of training and skill to accomplish. Even a skilled
lockpick is going to need 5-30 minutes to open a door. Thus, Open Seal
is a fabulously useful gift.
The probability of this gift's success depends upon the local gauntlet
rating and the ragabash's gnosis score.
A Garou with a gnosis of 3-4 has about a 50-50 chance of popping open a
lock (or whatever) in an average part of the city.
Unfortunately, this gift has a very high failure rate if used "straight
up," so most ragabash spend a point of willpower when attempting to use
this gift. (A locked door in a high-tech facility or lab basically
requires a WP expenditure to open. A padlock on a bike left in a park?
Not a problem!)
If the gift fails, the ragabash cannot try a second time with the same
lock/seal. However, a second ragabash can give it a go--and then make
fun of the first for failing afterwards.
Persuasion
What persuasion is not: "When I snap my fingers, you will
do what I
say."
Persuasion gives a Garou a slight edge when attempting to talk a person
into doing something they might not normally be inclined to do for the
garou.
A bouncer, after chatting for a few minutes, might be inclined to let a
Garou into a nightclub when he normally wouldn't--and was reasonably
sure he wouldn't catch flak for it later.
A tight-lipped person might be inclined to let a tidbit of information
slip, but isn't going to spill their guts either.
A cop could be talked out of giving your Garou a speeding or parking
ticket, or let you off with a warning.
But no matter how much talking you do, a cop is not going to be talked
into handing his gun over to let you see it, a ghouled bouncer for a
vampires-only nightclub isn't going to let you in even if you claim to
be the caterer and just left your card at home, and no one is going to
change their mind from something that goes completely against what
they're inclined to do--or not do.
Persuasion gives a garou an edge to potentially nudge people that are
thinking "You know, I probably shouldn't do that" towards "Eh... maybe
this one time for you." Persuasion does not turn a hard "No" into an
"Okay."
Persuasion is not an instant effect gift. It takes some verbal
finangling--which also plays a big factor in the outcome of the
attempt. If your persuasive argument isn't persuasive in the first
place, the gift won't work. This can make for some interesting RPed
scenes.
Resist Pain
Once a PC invokes Resist Pain, they feel less pain than
usual--but are
not immune to pain. (It still makes you go "ow!") They are simply
better able to resist it. A garou with Resist Pain active (costs 1
point of WP to activate) can act as if they are two health levels above
what they currently at--until they hit Incapacitated at seven levels of
damage. Wounds that would normally cripple a garou (6 levels) affect
Garou with Resist Pain active as if they were merely wounded (4 levels
of damage).
Scent of Sweet
Honey
This gift creates a minor nuisance (at best) in a combat
situation and
is typically far more effective/damaging/embarrasing in social
situations.
Scent of the
True Form
Detects Garou with about 95% accuracy, but doesn't tell
tribe
Detects Bete and Other Shifters about 95% of the time, but does not
inform the gift user as to what they are beyond "Like a Garou, but
not"--unless the garou has used the gift successfully on a specific
kind of Bete or Other Shifter before. (Basically, if you haven't
"scented" it before, you don't know what it is you're smelling other
than "similar but different.")
Detects vampires and fae about 30-40% of the time, which register as
"Not Garou" and cannot be classified as vampire or fae unless the Garou
has successfully detected them with this gift before.
Detects mages about 20-30% of the time, which register as "Not
Garou" and cannot be classified as being a mage unless the Garou has
successfully detected them with this gift before.
One use checks one individual. This gift can not be used to detect
kinfolk.
If a Garou is expecting the target to be something supernatural, it is
commonplace to expend a point of willpower in order to greatly enhance
the odds of success.
Sense Magic
Detects magic (talens/rituals/fetishes/gift-use) in about
a 10-30'
range depending on how potent the magic is. Subtle magic is harder to
detect at greater distances whereas powerful magic is easier to detect
and can be detected further away.
If magic is detected, the Garou can sometimes distinguish the type of
magic (Garou, Vampire, Mage, Spirit, Demonic, Fae, Talen, Fetish,
etc.)--though it generally requires the expenditure of a point of WP in
order to get that information.
Sense
Wyrm/Wyld/Weaver
What this gift is not: "That guy over there is all Wyrmy!"
What this gift is: "This place feels.... Wyrmier than it
appears/Wyrmier than it normally does."
This gift gives no indication of direction or distance the source is
coming from.
There's always a degree of background Wyrm/Wyld/Weaver around. For
instance, it's very difficult to figure out the source of Wyrm in the
city--there's just so much "noise" that it's all but impossible to
single out one thing as being the big source. (Is it that bum in the
alleyway, the man passing by in the car, the person in the apartment
next door, the shopkeep in the cafe, something nasty in the dumpster,
or something vile beneath the ground in the sewer drain?)
However, in the deep wilderness or on the bawn near the caern, if it's
just one Garou in a spot he's familiar with, another werewolf strolls
up, and a quick use of Sense Wyrm indicates there's significantly more
Wyrm in the vicinity than earlier that day--it doesn't take a rocket
scientist to put two and two together. Thus, Sense Wyrm is very
valuable in familiar areas that are Wyld in nature and quite useful for
screening newcomers to the caern/bawn/sept. But it is not very useful
in areas that have high concetrations of Wyrm where the garou is
unfamiliar with the spiritual resonance.
Sense Weaver and Sense Wyld work in basically the same way as Sense
Wyrm.
Shroud
A 10' sphere of blackness that no one can see into. And
guess what? You
and your friends can't see out of it! Of very limited offensive use,
but great for defensive use, particularly against foes with ranged
weapons.
Smell of Man
When activated, wild animals will do their best to avoid
you--regardless of whether you are in homid form or not, they'll treat
you as being human. This gift also makes it slightly easier for the
garou to befriend domesticated animals (but not tamed wild
animals)--acting much like Persuasion does on people.
Speed of Thought
You move twice as fast as you normally do. You do not get
twice the
number of actions, nor does this confer the ability to dart in and out
to attack without being touched at all, nor does this provide
additional dodge bonuses or difficulty to hit unless circumstances
truly warrant it.
Spirit Speech
Like the Garou's Mother Tongue, Spirits have Spirit
Speech. To speak
the language of spirits, a garou must have the Spirit Speech gift.
Just as some Garou have Spirit Speech, the occasional spirit can also
speak with garou--but might not advertise that fact.
Note that Beast Speech, another Rank 1 gift, will not work in
communicating with the spirits of animals.
Unlike the Mother Tongue used by the Garou, Spirits do not have their
own language that can be learned. Spirit Speech is more akin to an
empathic universal translator. A Garou using Spirit Speech speaks as he
normally would, using English or the mother tongue or whatever language
they understand--it doesn't matter, so long as it's a language. Other
Garou, if they speak this language, can understand what is being said
by the Spirit Speaking Garou. The spirit's responses, however, cannot
be understood by the bystanders.
The Falling Touch
This gift unbalances the target and causes them to fall.
It doesn't throw the target across the room into a wall to cause tons
of additional damage. It just unbalances them, which causes the target
to fall if successful.
This gift has a pretty good chance of working, too--about an 80-90%
success rate. Fallen opponents can, of course, still attack from the
ground that same turn--but fighting from the ground is usually not very
advantageous.
Truth of Gaia
The following table gives a rough probability of success
for a philodox
to determine if the person being questioned is telling the truth or
lying.
|
Target's Manipulation
|
ToG-user's
Perception
|
1
|
2
|
3
|
4
|
5
|
1
|
50%
|
33%
|
25%
|
20%
|
14%
|
2
|
67%
|
50%
|
33%
|
25%
|
20%
|
3
|
75%
|
67%
|
50%
|
33%
|
25%
|
4
|
80%
|
75%
|
67%
|
50%
|
33%
|
5
|
86%
|
80%
|
75%
|
67%
|
50%
|
If the roll is successful
(the
philodox rolls under the appropriate number listed in the table), then
the garou using ToG *knows* beyond any doubt whatsoever that the
response given was truthful or a lie.
Lengthy responses can contain a mix of truths and lies, which can give
an unclear response. Experienced philodoxes are very careful to phrase
their questions so as to be pointed and with no wiggle room. Some even
restrict garou to answering "yes" or "no" to their questions. Typically
the Garou that respond evasively are assumed to be hiding something or
not telling the truth--or are simply outraged that they have had their
honor assaulted and are intentionally being difficult in order to
infuriate the garou that has challenged them as well as make their
attempt to use the gift a very frustrating endeavor.
A "truth" is classified as such according to the belief of the
questioned person. For example, if Bob Garou saw someone that looked
like Joe Garou pee in the campfire, and Bob was asked who did it and he
said Joe, that'd ring as being true: it's what Bob truly believes to be
the truth. Now if Joe was actually Phillip disguised as Joe, that's
something that doesn't come out. The truth is always subjective.
Intentional lying, however, is not. Heaven help the Garou that gets
caught intentionally lying to a philodox.
ToG should never be used lightly, particularly in public. Use of this
gift publicly without grounds for doing so is considered a tremendous
faux pas in garou culture--it is basically stating that the garou using
ToG believes the target garou is a liar, which is certainly a direct
challenge to that garou's honor. The garou being challenged can opt to
enter a formal challenge with the ToG-using Garou. A philodox that
makes a false accusation and ToG fails to prove them correct loses a
substantial amount of honor.
Nothing prevents a Garou with ToG from using the gift, knowing that the
response given was truthful, and then claiming that the response was
actually false. Rumor has it that some particularly dishonorable
philodoxes (often Shadow Lords for some odd reason) have falsely
accused garou in the past and gotten away with it--for whatever
nefarious reasons. As such, if available, a third party is often
brought in to mediate in these instances--but even a third party can be
bribed or swayed.
|
