The Derangements unique to this line are so terrible that I'm just going to copy and paste every single one and comment on them all.
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Cage Shock (mild): Similar to a caged beast, your feral grows distressed. Pacing back and forth, he whines or snarls. Enclosed spaces feel constricting; clothes feel too tight. Anything less than open sky seems like a cage, and if forced to remain indoors, clothed, or otherwise confined, your beast gets restless.
Effect: On a failed Resolve + Composure roll, your character acts out and complains loudly about his "imprisonment." He may strip or bang around his "cage." For the rest of that scene, all that character’s Social rolls suffer a –3 penalty from his extremely annoying behavior.
It's a bad sign when even the game acknowledges something will cause "extremely annoying behavior." Also,stripping naked, screaming about being confined, and otherwise being a lunatic only removes an average of a success from my rolls? Good to know, I'll just head to work naked and beat anybody who tells me to wear THE INSTRUMENTS OF CORPORATE OPPRESSION and they'll only be slightly less inclined to like me!
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Feral Frenzy (severe): It's all a trap. The beast must be free. Tearing at any barrier between himself and freedom, this werebeast acts...well, feral. Pissing and shitting, he abandons human speech and restraint. Anyone who sees him will assume he's insane, and they’re not really wrong.
Effect: On a failed Resolve + Composure roll, your werebeast goes utterly wild. Until he escapes "confinement," he’ll act like a trapped and wounded animal. You can spend a point of Willpower to bring him out of it, but until then he's dangerous to himself and anyone who comes too close.
So, being literally, vaguely, or metaphorically constrained in any sort of fashion has a good chance of sending me into a FATAL-esque frenzy of expelling body waste, fucking things, and murder. I bet Byron Hall's spirit animal is one of those goats that collapse in a paralyzed heap when even remotely startled.
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Neoprimitivism (mild): The modern age is bullshit to your character. She affects tribal fashions, sports tattoos, goes barefoot everywhere and yammers about “the Pure Ones” — ancient people who supposedly lived in perfect harmony with Nature.
Effect: This feral misses no opportunity to criticize everything about the modern world and people in general. Unless she stays cool (a Resolve + Composure roll), objections to her attitude may drive her to say the wrong thing to the wrong person, inciting a loud and potentially violent confrontation.
There is literally a derangement that makes you a stereotypical filthy hippie. The way this is written, I honestly can't tell if it's taking the piss or not.
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Feral Antics (severe): Like a wild animal, your feral bites, scratches, shits on the floor and generally behaves in counter-civilized fashion. She sheds as much clothing as her companions will tolerate, and speaks as little human speech as possible.
Effect: Isn’t it obvious? Unless she controls herself (the usual roll), this character will be utterly unable to deal with most people.
First, fuck you game, for being patronizingly
about this. Second, this pretty much Feral Frenzy only always on,
and it evolves from the Filthy Hippie derangement. Also, "animalistic"
and "counter-civilized" does not mean "completely retarded."quote:
One with the Bears (mild): He’s not half-animal — he’s all animal. Trouble is, this feral's view of animals is extremely idealistic. He talks with them as if they're fellow humans, yet holds real humans in contempt. He might be a furry or therian with elaborate garb and mythic history; or he’s renounced the human world and lives sort of a New Age dream in the deep wilderness. Either way, he's disconnected from the truth of his situation.
Effect: Aside from neurotic and often unsociable behavior, this feral can function in Man's world. He hates Man's world, though, and prefers to spend time in the wild...where he may or may not know what he's doing. In bad situations, the player might need to make a Composure+Survival roll; failure means he's in over his head and may not be able to get back out without help.
Despite license to play a literal therian, it's this derangement that convinces me that somebody on the writing staff knew precisely what they were writing and was dedicated to subtly making it a farce. Really, all the derangements give me that feeling to some extent, but some of them...it's really hard to tell.
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Hate of Man (severe): People suck. All of 'em. Overwhelmed by the stench and disregard of modern Man, the feral avoids people as much as possible. When forced to confront human company, he shivers with hate, spews insults and might even attack for little or no apparent reason.
Effect: In human company (including, perhaps, his friends), this feral trembles with loathing. He trusts no one who’s not a beast at heart. His Social rolls suffer a –3 penalty from his undisguised hatred, and he could get violent if provoked. A spent Willpower point might keep him in check, but his disgust for humanity is clear. Unless circumstances demand, he remains in Primal form. Odds are good that he’ll soon lose the ability to change back...ever.
I find it funny that all three of these different types of animalistic derangement all end up with Fishmalk levels of intolerable player actions, just with slightly different focuses.
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Beast Fears (mild): This person’s afraid of animals, including the one in the mirror. Around beasts or fellow shapechangers, he seems agitated; if one confronts him, he may panic. This derangement is common among "little animal" ferals such as foxes or hares. It’s workable, but highly inconvenient.
Effect: Essentially, this is a phobia of animals — see the World of Darkness Rulebook, p. 97. Without a reflexive Resolve + Composure roll, the character trembles fearfully around other beasts, even sometimes himself.
Y'know, if I found out I was able to turn into a rabbit, my reaction wouldn't be "OH GOD RABBITS ARE TERRIFYING," it would be "Goddamnit, why couldn't I turn into, like, a bear? Or maybe an armadillo or something."
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Obsessive Humanity (severe): Conflicted about his own nature, this werebeast dresses expensively, uses big words and refuses to look in the mirror except to groom his perfect hair. It’d be funny if he wasn’t so obsessed about his humanity. Even the slightest challenge to it makes him sick with nerves.
Effect: Your character is obsessive compulsive (see the World of Darkness Rulebook, p. 98), "managing" his conflicted nature by controlling his environment as much as he can and freaking out when he cannot.
"HAVE I REMINDED YOU THAT I AM A HUMAN TODAY?" All this makes me think is playing a gimmick Changing Breed who acts like this.
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Filthy Brutes! (mild): Your character doesn’t fear animals — she hates 'em. Lashing out subconsciously at the beast within herself, she teases and torments animals whenever possible. Flicking cigarettes at zoo beasts, kicking dogs and throwing water at kitties is normal fun for her. Naturally, this slides her further down the scale of sins.
Effect: Unless the player makes a Resolve + Composure roll when given an opportunity to abuse a helpless animal, she’ll inflict some probably non-fatal punishment on it. Even though she’ll often be excused because "they’re just dumb animals," the fallout from this sort of thing can get really messy...
Oh, you thought I was kidding about that "Wearing clothing made of 100% clubbed baby seal" didn't you? Oh no my friends, it gets worse.
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Hunter King (severe): The worst hunter of all is the one who’s killing her own reflection. This shapechanger murders animals with extreme cruelty. Only rarely does she assume beast-form to do it. Proud of her bloodlust, she becomes a warped reflection of Man the Conqueror. She kills because she can, and may be highly acclaimed among humans who don’t know her true nature.
Effect: This character is a serial killer of animals. Given a chance, she’ll hunt, torture and murder as many animals as she can manage. She’ll often take a career that requires her to kill often and messily — a seal-clubber, vivisectionist or big-game hunter whose appetites astonish even her human companions. Yes Storyteller, this type makes an excellent villain for a Changing Breeds chronicle.
Yep. There's a derangement that makes you an unholy fusion of Cruella DeVille, a Captain Planet villain, and a Pentex CEO. Really, my friend put it much better than I ever could: "So, this is 'A Rational Person Discovering They're Living In A Changing Breeds Chronicle's Disease', right?"
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I'm No Animal (mild): In a constant state of denial, this shapechanger refuses to...well, change shape. Unless extremely stressed, he won’t assume an animal form — and if he does, he immediately regrets it. In human form, he does everything he can to distance himself from his true nature. All traces of his double life are hidden with obsessive zeal.
Effect: In addition to compulsive behavior with regard to his animal self, your character resists all but the most extreme motivations to change shape. To force himself to assume that hated form, he must make a Resolve + Composure roll; failure means he’ll face his death like a man.
See, this one I actually kind of like. It actually seems like a real psychological defense mechanism that would happen if someone suddenly discovered they could turn into a swarm of bees. If they didn't just run around screaming "THE PAAAAAAAAAAAIN!"
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Banish the Beast (severe): He won't Change. At all. Obsessive to the point of insanity about his role as a man, goddammit, your shapechanger utterly forsakes his true nature. Suggestions that he embrace his wild self make him violent; he smashes or withdraws from every trace of his feral life, including the people he once held dear.
Effect: This character won’t change unless forced to do so; even then, he must make the usual roll and spend a Willpower point to assume beast-form. Anyone who tries to remind him of what he is will probably be attacked — first non-fatally, possibly with lethal intent if that doesn’t shut them up.
Again, I kinda like this one, even if it does kind of neutralize a lot of what makes a shifter a shifter. Oh wait, this is Changing Breeds, that's exactly why I like it.
And now, for the Hall of Shame when it comes to this chapter's art.
This is for the Favor that gives you razor skin like a shark. Now, not only are the faces goofy looking, look carefully at this and you'll see all sorts of perspective fuckups. What's with the dude's punching arm? Where's the bro's entire right arm? Why does the bro appear to have a boner? What is up with the suited man's torso?
Apparently, goat-men have needle teeth, are more man than goat, and are hermaphroditic satanists.
You think I'm joking about that last part, don't you.
And now, we get to the picture chosen to demonstrate the Warform, awesome power of Nature, the hellish vengeance of Earth given form, the raw power of all that is Good:
Good night, everybody.
Next time: The Breeds.
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