Have
you ever made a choice and wondered what would have happened if you made the
opposite choice? I have, but the choice I am going to talk about is one that I
had made that hadn’t affected me in any real way because it was made in the
realm of fantasy. It was a choice that I made for a character in a role-playing
game.
Role-playing
is a form of improvisational acting that incorporates dice rolls to simulate
actions and chance. The most widely know role-playing game is Dungeons and
Dragons. There are the players, who each have there own character, and the
Storyteller, who is the writer, director, every character that’s not a player,
and the one that runs the world itself. I was one of the players. This
particular game was an on-line game done in a chat room like setting. The game
that we were playing is Werewolf: the Apocalypse, where you take the part of
shapeshifters who are trying to save the world from impending doom and the
world is a dark sister of our own world. It is one of White Wolf Game Studio’s
World of Darkness series.
First
I must explain the setting better. The World of Darkness fits in to a sub-genre
of Gothic Horror, called Goth-punk. A Goth-punk setting is a modern setting
where the players take the role of supernatural beings that live in a dark,
angst filled world, which is a version of our own world. Imagine this world as
one where the cities are vast claustrophobic sprawls, the suburbs are hives of
monotony and hopelessness. It is an Earth that is dying. The environment is
deteriorating at a faster rate than it is here. The governments are more
corrupt and countless different masters pull their stings. The average income
is lower, the poor are poorer, and the rich fewer, yet even more rich. The
apocalypse isn’t coming it is already here. Humanity isn’t the lord of the
Earth; it is merely the pawns of others.
Add to that already horrid mix the fact that supernatural beings
and magic exist. Vampires stalk the cities’ nights. Wizards, AKA Mages, seek
enlightenment and war for the hearts and minds of humanity. Changelings, modern
day fairies, seek to bring wonder back into the world and adventure in their
own realm adjacent to the main world. Wraiths, having left the lands of the
dead, seek to reach Transcendence while fighting their own dark sides. Lastly,
there are the shape-shifters, also know as the Changing Breeds, each given by
the deific representation of the Earth, Gaia specific duties, but have fought
against themselves in the ancient past in a bloody civil war, called the War of
Rage and they still often fight today. Werewolf: the Apocalypse is where the
players take the role of the changing breeds, most specifically the werewolves,
who call themselves the Garou.
Directly under Gaia in power
is the Triat, the personifications of the forces of creation, order, and
destruction. The force of pure, chaotic creation is called the Wyld. The force
of static order and logic is called the Weaver. The force of destruction,
entropy, and corruption is called the Wyrm. Once before the three were in
balance, but now they are not. According to one legend of the Garou, the Weaver
went mad one day and trapped the Wyrm in her web. He struggled, but soon was
entrapped. This caused him the go insane and he, once the balancer, started to
destroy and corrupt seeking freedom from his prison. In doing so he plots the
corruption and destruction of Gaia. This is the primary foe the Garou fight,
for they are the Warriors of Gaia.
The Garou are not the moon
mad, ravaging beasts of human legend. They are not cursed and don’t spread
their condition with a bite. They are the protectors of the Earth; given by
Gaia the duty of her Warriors. They are born of humans, wolves, or other Garou.
There are three breeds, the Homids born of humans, the Lupus born of wolfs, and
Metis who are the deformed results of two Garou mating. The Metis are looked
down upon because they are conceived during a violation of one of the Garou’s
laws, all of which is called Litany. The Garou are divided into fourteen
tribes, twelve of which are nominally united, one who has retreated to lick its
wounds and one who has given itself to the Wyrm. Those who have fallen to the
Wyrm are called the Black Spiral Dancers. The Garou often divide themselves
into far smaller groups call packs, which can be composed of many tribes,
though the tribes often bicker and fight amongst themselves.
My character is a Metis
Garou named Leonidies. He is part of a pack that contains members of different
Changing Breeds and a Mage. He is a member of the Black Fury tribe, which is an
almost exclusively female tribe who are extreme feminist. In essence he is a
male Amazon and he was often badly treated when he was growing up. This also
molded him to be the person he is today. Now on to the story.
Well
during one particular session, I made a choice for my character that severely
effected events that happened later. Leonidies and his pack where in a castle
in German where they were searching for a powerful Gaian artifact and forming
relations with another of the Changing Breed, the Gurhal (Were-bears). He was
asked by his fiancée, a powerful female Mage, who was once a man, to use a form
of magic she taught him to temporarily transform himself into a woman. He
agreed because he was curious, which is due to the fact that all his life he
was put down for being male. He also agreed because at the time he was too
physically and mentally exhausted to resist a request from his true love.
Sylvia, Leonidies’s fiancée, also suggested things that played on Leonidies’s
curiosity and sense of duty. She told Leonidies that he would be able to
understand his ancestors better if he literally got in touch with his feminine
side. Leonidies, who has a spiritual connection with his ancestors, could
hardly resist such a request. So he complied. As it turned out, his feminine
form more resembled his father then his mother.
The
both then went down the stairs to the dining area when the rest of their group
was celebrating the Kitsune’s (Were-fox), Muriyato, achievement of the rank of
Elder. Sylvia went in first and introduced Leonidies as Leona. The Mokole
(Were-Reptile) diplomat, Martin, was surprised. The pack then settled down to
eat. Then a black cloud appeared which deposited ten Garou abominations call
Howling Shamblers. These disgusting creatures look like Garou in their Crinos
(wolf man) form and can only be killed by the complete destruction of their
bodies. Their howls cause those who hear them to freeze in terror. Leonidies,
having won the initiative, shifted to her Crinos form and attacked four of the
Shamblers with her highly magical spear. She missed all four horribly due to
the fact that she hadn’t adapted to the female body yet and one of her misses
hit the human kinfolk caretaker of the castle, Jack, through the heart with her
spear. The Shamblers laughed as Jack had fallen to the ground dying.
Fortunately, Sylvia acted
quickly and used her powers to both heal and teleport Jack away from the fight.
Unfortunately, the fight was going bad for the Good-guys. Half the pack was
wounded and two, including the non-player character (NPC) Garou name Rainer. It
was then that Rainer unleashed a powerful magical gift of his on the Shamblers.
The gift was a howl that cause damage to those that heard it. It hurt Muriyato
and her NPC love, the Nurwisha (were-coyote) Willis and dropped the Shamblers
long enough for the pack to destroy them utterly.
After using healing gifts
and Leonidies’s tearful apology to Jack, the pack tried to continue their
celebration. Sylvia and Jack when into the catacombs to check something out.
Soon after Jack came running back with fresh blood on his hands. It turns out
that they went down to a room where, legend has it, a vampire was kept in the
past. They found blood in the coffin and there was a secret passage that had
opened up.
The entire pack raced down
there and started following where the passage let. Sylvia went ahead in the
Astral. After a while a green radioactive fire started come forward from father
up the passage and stopped in front of the pack, blocking the passage. The pack
then received a telepathic message from Sylvia to get out of the castle as soon
as possible. As they ran around the castle gathering their gear and picking up
Jack, they got another message form Sylvia. This time it was a vision of an
entire horde of Black Spiral Dancers and Howling Shamblers being teleported by
magic to an unknown location. Sylvia contacted Valsu, her Archmage mentor, to
teleport the pack back to their home in Washington. The day hadn’t ended yet.
After everyone regained
their senses it was determined that the whole time the were at the castle, they
were over on of the largest Black Spiral Dancer hives in Europe. After speaking
with members of the other packs that shares their home, a coyote spirit, who is
the totem of the pack, showed up baring a note. The note said that there was to
be a huge gathering of the various Changing Breeds in Montreal, a truly
hazardous and unprecedented event, and it turned into a sign-up sheet. As of
yet, they didn’t have a name for their pack and haven’t had anyone proclaimed
to take any of the various positions. They are a free flowing democratic pack.
They started suggesting
names for the pack. Leonidies sarcastically suggested naming the pack, “The
Lucky Bastards.” The coyote spirit started laughing manically and entire pack
agree the name fit. So the name stuck. After the name session the pack tried to
decide who would be the leader. After several rounds of voting their was a
between Muriyato and Leonidies. They decided to share speaking responsibility
and sorted out which roles the pack members would have, with input and votes
from the others. The then filled out the sheet and went to get some sleep. It
had been a long day.
What would have happened if
I did chose to have Leonidies transform himself into a woman? Well, it is very
hard to tell because the Storyteller controls everything, but here is a chance
that events would have happened differently. Sylvia and Leonidies arrived at
the celebration as soon as Muriyato called them down from their room. They sat
down to eat and many jibes, jokes and puns were made about Muriyato being an
elder. They also shared some shocking sexual innuendo that would have surprised
the other members of the pack. A food fight broke out as Willis made a joke
about Sylvia. The black cloud arrived and stopped the festivities.
Fifteen Black Spiral dancers
appeared before the pack. Every one in the pack, with the exception of Sylvia
and Jack, shift in to their battle forms, which is the Crinos form for everyone
save Martin. Martin, after shifting to his Eastern Dragon Archid form gained
the initiative and uses a gift to turns his claws silver. With a fury of blows driven
by pure rage, he kills three of them.
Then Sylvia unleashes a
massive attack of pure magical energy and vaporizes another four. One of the
Spiral attack Muri with a vicious claw swipe, which she dodge effortlessly. Two
more Spirals pound at Martin and actually hits him, but due to Martins
resilience he takes minimal damage. Willis stabs the Spiral that attacked his
love, Muriyato, and wounds him on the leg. Leonidies them unleashes his rage
and attacks four of the Spirals killing them all with Lighting thrust of his
spear. Muriyato finishes of the one that Willis wounded and attacked another of
the Spirals, cutting of its head with her mystical katana.
The remaining three Spirals
attack Rainer and Leonidies. The first two bites and claws Leonidies. He dodges
the bite, but jumps into the path of the claws and is severely wounded. The
Spiral attacking Rainer bites at him and connects, but his fangs bounce off of
Rainer thick hide. Rainer then returns the bite with a savage flurry of claw
swipes, which rends the torso of the Spiral and punctured its lungs. The Spiral
slumps to the ground to drown in its own blood. Martin’s turn comes again and
he finishes off the two remaining Spirals with a brilliant display of marital
prowess reduced them to hamburger.
After the fight the pack
burns the bodies of the Black Spiral and heals their wounds. Suddenly, they
hear a shrike as a shell fall out of the sky and hit one of the castle walls
holing it. The packs looks toward the Black Forest and sees columns of Black Spiral
Dancers, vampires and Howling Shamblers come out of the woods advancing on the
Castle. More shells fall as the pack rushes to their rooms in the castle.
Sylvia sends a telepathic message to Valsu to get them out of there and they
find themselves back home.
Things start progressing
much like they did as if I made the choice, but the mood is much better. They
start talking about how the Black Spiral Dancers arrived and that it seems that
they wanted the castle as a new staging ground and there was a massive hive
near it. When the coyote spirit came around it was Willis who said they were
Lucky Bastards for surviving the castle and the coyote spirit laughed at that
and the name was accepted by the pack. When it came around to vote, Leonidies
won the sole right to be the speak and he chose Muriyato to be a adviser. Then
the positions were doled out. Everyone then went to bed after the long, yet
triumphant day.
As for what happens
afterward, I’ll have to see what happens next session to see what the full outcome
of making the choice in the first place before I think of how it would turn out
otherwise. In the first case, Leonidies has learned a new understand and
respect for women. A small choice in live can have a great effect on how things
turn out. This is reflected in role-playing games where a seemingly
insignificant choice and cause a domino effect and drastically alter the fate
of the world or of someone’s life. However, predicting the outcome of such
choices, both in real life and role-playing games, is nigh unpredictable. In
role-playing games the consequences of choice are more apparent and often a
seemingly trivial point could be a hook to the greater plot of the story. Such
is the beauty of role-playing games. You will never know what exactly the consequences
might be and it teaches you how to cope with them,