Zelbinian and Verrain: Great Wolf game brainstorming

[Verrain]

The pitch so far:

So, I am trying to picture this mash-up in my mind. You want a wooded wilderness with human settlers trying to tame it, you want some of the focus to be on the interaction between wolf and man, and over this is some kind of apocalypse where the enemy is man and/or wolf turned against their fellows. Is that about right?

Sounds about right. Other things I was thinking of:

That first scene in 28 Days Later? I want that so hard. I figure I ran off for a while to go find myself and now I've come back... and things are not the same. What that means depends on the background we've decided on. Am I a captured circus animal for man's entertainment? Maybe I broke out, or maybe I refused to play along anymore and they beat me and left me for dead somewhere. Is there family drama? Maybe I've run away to find myself. Either way, I figure now I'm returning... and things are not the same. Empty encampments. Non-specific signs of struggle. Maybe a dead friend of two. Humans and/or other wolves being part of the problem - to complete the White Fang connection - is necessary. But it'd be nifty if they weren't the entire problem. Part of what I like about this is the character's struggle to see the forest for the trees; the struggle to see that scapegoating some men or some wolves isn't going to solve the problem because the problem is bigger than that.

OK so naturally I'm thinking a Yukon like setting. Snowy mountains, spruce forests, lots of lakes and rivers. I'm thinking a gold rush style boomtown on a lake and river leading out to the civilized world, a bunch of isolated camps out in the wilderness, the rest is still wild lands where the wolves hunt and roam free. Or at least that's how it was when you left. :D

So, some questions to consider:

What pack claimed him? What friends or enemies did he leave behind? Where did he hunt?
What were the humans to your wolf? Prey, curiosities, fearsome things not to be meddled with?
Why did he leave and why did he come back?
What magical setting did you want on this world? Do you want the mystical spirit world wolf stuff to be a part of this story? Can the wolves speak in the tongue of man?

[Zelbinian]

Yeah, definitely love the setting ideas.


What pack claimed him? What friends or enemies did he leave behind? Where did he hunt?
What were the humans to your wolf? Prey, curiosities, fearsome things not to be meddled with?
Why did he leave and why did he come back?
What magical setting did you want on this world? Do you want the mystical spirit world wolf stuff to be a part of this story? Can the wolves speak in the tongue of man?

I think I can answer these all together: Building on the White Fang references, I figure that capturing and using Great Wolves for entertainment and commerce has been a black market affair for some time - and might even happen in more places than just this settlement - but in this place its on the level of, say, marijuana. It's technically illegal, but it's treated like minor contraband. People know it's wrong but... hey, wolves aren't people right? Besides, watching them fight in the arena is awesome (and profitable).

Here are the implications of that prose:

My Wolf was captured as a "puppy" and managed to escape just before he grew old enough for them to put him in the fighting circuit, and this was fully intentional: to get out before becoming part of that madness.
He found another Wolf - first one he saw outside of captivity - and just didn't know how to behave. A fight, a chase... he got lost in and injured and was fairly out of it for a few days. Now he wakes up and... I dunno? He's certainly got questions that need answering and that's what's driving him now. Maybe he wakes up alone, lost, and confused and he's trying to find his way back to the city because it's familiar and he keeps coming across unsettling things. Maybe pitch me some more refined initial situations?
Wolves can understand the speech of man most of the time, but not perfectly.
Men cannot generally understand Wolves. Maybe a few can. Who knows.
Either Great Wolf packs are really far away and there are long hunting expeditions to go get young ones to tame, or there is some sort of magical protection the settlement has to prevent retribution. Either way, magic use is probably necessary to make black market Great Wolf trading at all viable.

[Verrain]

OK, beginning at the end, I don't think we need magic to explain the wolf trade. Its just like the Legion, capture them small and beat them until they are broken. I am picturing that the wolves are small in number compared to the humans and are composed of family groups of 2-5 more than giant packs. No doubt the wolves pick off lone humans or even ravage small camps but they are not strong enough to shift the town nor kill enough to keep the humans from heading back into the woods looking for riches.

As for your wolf, I want to make sure we've got enough meat in his background to give him reasons to travel through the wilderness beyond curiosity. I want there to be a human and a wolf that your character would care enough about to seek out. These can be positive or negative reasons as you see fit.

As for an opening how about this: Your owner, wanting to try his luck in the fighting rings elsewhere, locks his wolves up in a wagon cage pulled by a mule and heads off from the town to one of the bigger camps. But you never get there. There is some kind of commotion and then the wagon is spilling end over end down a steep ravine. Your wolf is knocked out and we'll start play with his waking.

The rest sounds good to me.

[Zelbinian]

Hmm. I like that. Gimme some time to think about the man/wolf/motivations thing.

[Zelbinian]

Ok, let's try these Beliefs and Instincts on for size and see how they fit.

Beliefs

Iron-in-His-Eyes is dead. I must bring news of his demise to his family, though I know not where they are.
I have never had to fend for myself. I need to find a nearby village for food and sustinence.
Men are Monsters. The world would be better off if their numbers were thinned.

Instincts

Never abide a Man.
Avoid narrow passages and closed-in spaces.
Raise my hackles and growl (Intimidate) when in danger or when nervous.


I have a feeling one of those instincts might change after I allocate skills and such, but how does this sound in general?

[Verrain]

I love the first belief. Very grabby and hints at some heavy stuff in captivity.
The second belief is a nice solid short term goal. That will work nicely.
The third belief is a little broad but I think that is fine. We'll find specific manhunts as the game rolls along.

The instincts need some clearing up though.

How do you not abide a man? Attack on sight? Flee? Challenge?
As for the narrow passages, I think the character trait Claustrophobic would fit that better than an instinct.
The third one is good but let's see if you have that skill before we decide on the details.

Why don't you go ahead and burn your wolf up? I know you said a 3LP Wolf but I would be fine with 4LP if it helps you fit the concept.

[Zelbinian]

Good call on the Instincts - I wasn't totally sold on 'em myself, but I liked where they were going.

Yeah, the third Belief is a bit general, but I liked it that way. I didn't want this guy to be about all rendering asunder the human flesh right away, but I also didn't want him being naive and running to his masters for protection, either, so I decided to walk the line and let the game decide which way he'd go. He's ok if the occasional human meets a bitter end, but he's not yet sure if he wants it to be by his hand. (Or paw, as the case may be.)

I'll try to find some time to burn up the character this weekend. Once we dial him in I'll start up a Tumblr for us.

[Zelbinian]

K, here he is (http://www.burningwheel.org/forum/showthread.php?11416-Sits-in-Shadow-Show-Dog-Gone-Wild).

The 2nd Instinct is built to trigger Manhunter in case that's not clear. Is the 3rd Instinct doing too much? If so I'll trim it back. Oh, and for the title of the adventure, I was thinking "Fur and Fortune." Any good?