Character and World Creation

I think since I'm coming in as a newcomer, it would be easiest if Max didn't know anyone yet, that way I can ask questions IC without it feeling awkward and artificial. I like the idea of Max needing plastic surgery, we'll say she has a very noticeable scar on her torso from the bite and wants it concealed. After all, the wolf was trying to kill her, not turn her, and it's frankly a miracle she escaped intact.

That can make a lot of sense. We can do that. It does mean we need to find ways to introduce the characters, but your Territory can provide those meetings.

It still would be easy to have you know Benji, at least in passing, he is a supernatural figure in your area and has been there your whole life. You probably know he is 'a harmless vampire who plays the violin on Piccadilly Circus Station'. He also seems to have a bit of reputation for helping people, so going to him makes sense.

At a minimum you know who he is.
Yes, that can help. Though you can always ask the questions OOC if your character might know things the player does not. They live in the world while you do not.
OK. We can engineer a meeting with Emma when she is done with her appointment.

Do you think you meet in the waiting room, or are you outside, staking the place out? Waiting room has convenient elements, but makes you 'a patient'.

Emma is a bit of a celebrity, so you will recognise her when you see her.
Urgh!
One would assume so... :)

Do we have any idea why? As food? Were you a competitor, and they were just enforcing their Territory?
Yeah.... how did you escape? (Food for thought, we can work it out in play if you don't have ideas at this stage).

I am okay with her being familiar with Benji, maybe even being acquaintances. Does Benji like drugs? She can get him drugs.

The story is that she was doing a drug deal in Germany, it was supposed to be a smooth transaction, but someone got either greedy or paranoid, hard to say which and it no longer matters. Shots were fired, someone on the other side wolfed out and bit her, but then took a couple rounds himself, slowing him down enough for her to stagger to her car and hightail it out of there.

Might make things a little easier, but not at all required.

@oopsylon, do you have thoughts?
I doubt it, but he does have a penchant for helping other people with their own 'true hungers' which may well include drugs? See Keep Your Friends Close on his sheet [ref]

@oopsylon, what do you think?
OK...

As far as starting debts go...

Maybe Persephone will hire her to get her revenge, but Max will have to cut the job short due to a problem in her territory, thus owing her a Debt?

Maybe Benji's vampire lord intervened on her behalf when she crossed someone from another circle, and now she has to make good on her Debt and find him?

That's all I can think of so far, definitely open to suggestions.

I would prefer not to dictate future events in such a clear-cut way. If you help Persephone then we don't want to be forced to rip you out of that scene midway through.
Elliot, Benji's 'lord' has been gone for a few weeks now, so he probably would not be involved.
Your Debts to Elliot would not pass to Benji, Benji is still a Status-1 nobody... by his own choice. One of the other 'lords' competing for Elliot's territory (which was also your Territory) might come to collect from you in a case like this.
This whole mechanism is very clunky when bringing in new characters. We can note down roughly how many you 'should' start with and work to engineer your getting those as chances come up in play.

You could also flesh out your NPC street-level network with these Starting Debts. We can then work to get Debts with the PCs in play.

In truth, the whole Debts mechanic is languishing a bit in PbP, it is a bit slow and players tend to shy away from such 'cut-throat play'. :(

Similarly languishing are the 'Faction Moves'. We will find a way to bring your Comes With The Territory Move into play from time to time, even if we are not getting to proper Faction Turns (due to PbP pacing).

@Morphling: Looking at your sheet:

Are you happy that your surname might get confused with Emma Harper's? Harvey/Harper?

You get to add 1 to one of your Circle Ratings (not Status, people make that mistake all the time:). For instance: Maybe you know 'humans' fairly well and bump Mortalis up to +1, or maybe you have a good feel for the ('absent') Fae and increase Wild to +2? (Or anything else, those are just examples.)

I see you increased Spirit to +2. Just making sure you intended that. Most of your everyday Moves rely on Blood, but you have picked some Spirit using perks when Transformed. Bear in mind that you probably spend most of your time in human form and only 10% of your time in Wolf form, so make sure you are happy with only getting benefit from that some time. We can't easily skip to the next full moon to cater to your need to freely Transform, we want to try to keep everyone vaguely together in time.

Benji took the Bloodhound Move from the Wolf Playbook before you got here. Are you happy sharing that Move with him? I think they will play out quite differently due to the different characters of the characters[sic].

How do you envision your 'sometimes losing control' when Transformed? What do you think that will look like? I am not a fan of telling a player what their character did, so you will (mostly) get to control this and show us the aftereffects of your loss of control.

I don't think the surnames will be an issue? I can change it if you think there's a problem, don't really mind.

I bumped Mortalis up due to her having spent a lot more of her life as a human than a wolf.

I did intend to increase spirit, mainly because I'm intrigued by the 'let it out' move (which will incidentally let me 'unleash the beast' a bit more should it be needed).

I'm okay with sharing Bloodhound with Benji provided @oopsylon doesn't mind. It seemed like the most interesting of the Wolf moves.

I think sometimes losing control might mean giving into instinct, temporarily losing the ability to speak and instead just snarling and growling a bunch, and in general behaving more like an animal than a human until she can reign it in.

Oh I wasn't suggesting the debt would pass to Benji, I was just thinking that if Elliot disappeared, and Max owed him a Debt, she might try to find him so that if she got him out of trouble the Debt would be cleared. A proactive settling of the Debt.

No, BUT he was helping one of the previous PC’s (now gone) ‘get her fix’ by supplying her with weed and a place to relax so it’s possible he’s bought drugs from Max before, but not particularly often and not for himself.
Fine by me!

Also, all of my starting debts are ‘available’ due to PC loss so, if it helps, feel free to take any that fit for Max.

Ah. I don't think we should create Debts to characters that we know are not in play.
If you help him he would Owe you a Debt, so it amounts to much the same thing, but does not rely on predicting future events. This route also gives you another Debt to use (they play into Advancement, for instance).
:)

I don't want to lock us into having to deal with that if it does not happen organically. So far other things have gotten in the way... and not everyone is convinced they want to find Elliot.

Which is not a thing we factored in when making characters, way back then.
This sorta incentivises aiming more of the Starting Debts at NPCs... but there is no guarantee they will be more constant than the PCs... take Elliot, for instance. :)

Your Qualities only apply when you are Transformed into Wolf form, but your Weaknesses also affect you in Human form, so this interpretation of the Weakness is valid for if you lost control in Human form.

When in Wolf form I suspect it is meant to represent you 'acting like a wild wolf' (in media), so your +Sanctuary is a huge benefit as it gives you a place you can run wild and only end up with a few dead squirrels and rats (and deer if there are even any in Hyde Park anymore?).

The above presumes you 'lost control' while close enough to your Sanctuary and not, like, in a crowded tube carriage... during a 'time of stress' and Transformed and lost control... But, as I say, if this unspeakable thing happens, I expect you to speak of it and tell us what happened afterwards, I don't tell you what your character did.

In most cases you will have the opportunity to try Keep Your Cool [ref] to try avoid changing or losing control in the worst way, and you are particularly good at that Move when in Wolf form.

This has similar elements to The Vamp's Eternal Hunger, and I think that has only been 'triggered' twice in the year and a half that Benji has been with us. So don't think this will be a constant problem.

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• Do you need anything more before we start?

If something turns out to be 'wrong' (the player thinks it worked one way, only to find it does not do what they want, for instance), I always allow players to swap out choices later, provided the feature has not had a measurable impact on the story. You can also change thing through the fiction, the sheets are both prescriptive and descriptive, if something changes in the fiction we change it on your sheet, if something changes on the sheet (though an Advance, usually) we change/explain it in the fiction.

@Morphling: just to give you an idea of where we are situated:

• Benji operates from Piccadilly Circus Station [map]. He has a flat somewhere near there, but I don't think ever nailed down exactly where.
• Emma lives in Bridle Lane, a slightly run-down bit of an expensive part of London [streetview], this is near Piccadilly [map].
• Persephone has a 'provided' condo in Mayfair [map]. We never nailed down exactly where, just that it is within easy walking distance of Emma, maybe, for the symbolism, it is in Old Bond Street? [map] [streetview]

This overlay shows all their locations at once:
https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1zzUj3tVsAVzGmFELygRlxSYTAwVoxAM&usp=sharing

I don't know what your (Max's) financial situation is like, but you sell in a posh area, presumably posh drugs to posh people? Maybe this is why you don't have a place of your own?

We can define your Territory a bit fuzzily, maybe is spreads into parts of SOHO and Mayfair and includes Green Park [map] rather than Hyde Park, but those parks are linked so you may well view them as both being your Territory (with the edges being a bit contested)?

That works for me. Just so everyone knows, I tested positive for covid today, thus my participation here might be limited as a result.

That's a darn foolish thing to go and do! :)
Would you prefer to wait till you are feeling up to it and then start, or do you want to start now and see how you go?

Yeah I'd like to wait at minimum a few days to feel better. My creative energy is basically 0 right now.

No worries. Let us know when you feel up to starting and we can talk about how to bring Max into the story.

I think I'm ready now, feeling much improved.