[Mage 2: The Dethroned Queen] - Youkai (A Special Kind of Changing Breed)

(Out of Character (OOC):

Chronicle: Mage 2: The Dethroned Queen

Venue: Mage: The Awakening

Chronicle Storyteller: Jerad Sayler))

So Alanna is playing Ikiyouyou again, bringing the Shadowfang and our mage characters together in Los Angeles.  However, there still are no real rules for A Dog-Demon, so this was the best option when she was last played in 2009.  Welcome back, no more retirement for Iky and since its been so long and we missed this character, here are some better rules for Youkai using the nWoD v1.0 Changing Breeds ruleset.

Youkai (Variant on Changing Breeds)
What are Youkai? (http://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Youkai)

Youki = Feral Heart = youkai energy/power

Youki and Essence Use

Youki	Attribute/Skill Max	Max Essence/per Turn	Social Penalty*	Essence Bleed
1	5	10/1	0/-1	-
2	5	11/1	-1	-
3	6	12/1	-1/-2	-
4	6	13/2	-2	-
5	7	14/2	-2/-3	-
6	7	15/3	-3	1/day
7	8	20/5	-3/-4	1/12 hours
8	8	30/7	-4	1/10 hours
9	9	50/10	-4/-5	1/8 hours
10	10	100/15	-5	1/4 hours

* Second number is for predatory breeds.

·   Youkai Aura:          
        
Description:

Makes enemies either focus on you as a threat to eliminate, or flee if they are weak.  A youkai can turn this on when desired, but to turn off requires an appropriate roll - roll a number of dice equal to Humanity level.  At Youki 3+, each level adds a +1 to supernatural perception of other youkai-like creatures to detect the general presence of the player (not location), regardless of whether the aura is on or not.  Spirits get a +1 every other level of Youki 3+ due to the distant relationship to youkai.  

The aura also gives bonus to intimidate rolls - when aura is on, the player seems more threatening, more predatory - each level adds + 1 to intimidation rolls, if the aura is on.

Further, a youkai can voluntarily intensify their predatory aura and direct it against opponents to elicit a reaction. Against other Youkai, this escalates the encounter, forcing fight or flight instincts. Lashing out with the aura takes an instant action, against Youkai costs a point of Willpower; it’s free to bring against a mortal creatures.

The Demonic Aura: This represents the raw, uncontrolled youkai instinct to destroy.  Its every instinct is to rip asunder. The demonic aura inspires a witness to fight or flee. It evokes the most primitive survival instincts in its victims, and causes the Bestial Condition.

The Challenging Aura: This is the Youkai-As-Alpha. It needs to come out on top, to command, to control. It inspires power plays and dominance games. It evokes the need for a rigid hierarchy and causes the Competitive Condition.

Mechanics:

Turn on: reflexive
Turn off: Roll Humanity
Bonus to intimidate rolls: + 1 per Youki level to intimidation rolls
Disadvantage: +1 per Youki level 3+ to supernatural percention rolls of youkai-like creatures to detect general presence of player; +1 every other level 3+ for Spirits to get the same roll

Lashing Out:  Youki + Power Attribute

Demonic Aura: Youki + Strength
Challenging Aura: Youki + Presence

Youkai Aura Modifiers
On your territory: +3
Hungry: +1
Starving: +2

The defender has two choices: fight or flight.

Fight: This represents a counter-challenge. One aura flares and the response is to meet with equal aggression. If the defender’s Youki is less than the aggressor’s, he must spend a point of Willpower to fight.

Roll an appropriate Power Attribute + Youki to contest. This does not have to be the same aspect of the Aura.  If the aggressor scores more successes, the victim gains the Condition associated with the aggressor’s Aura. As well, the aggressor gains +2 on any rolls to pursue her aspect’s interests for the remainder of the scene.

If the opposition scores more successes, they turn the confrontation on the aggressor. The aggressor gains the Condition associated with his opposition’s aura, and the opposition gains +2 in any rolls to pursue the aura’s compulsions for the remainder of the scene.

Mortals can fight the aura, but they cannot turn a Condition on the youkai. They do gain the +2 bonus to attack, flee, or otherwise neutralize the risk.

Flight: This represents a stark withdrawal. It costs nothing, and allows for a reasonable out from the challenge. This usually means a convenient escape or excuse to pull away. The aggressor may pursue. The victim gains the Condition associated with the youkai’s aspect of the aura.

Conditions

Bestial

Your character acts on primal, physical impulses. Frightening things make him run. He meets aggressive threats with violence and anger. Take -2 to all rolls to resist frenzy or physical impulse. As well, take -2 to Defense due to impulsive action. Any rolls to compel your character to impulsive, aggressive action or escape achieve exceptional success on three successes instead of five.

Possible Sources: A monstrous predatory aura conflict

Resolution: Cause damage in someone’s last three health boxes

Beat: n/a

Competitive

Your character must assert dominance and superiority. Either she gives it her all, or she falters. Any time she’s in direct competition with another character, she suffers -2 on any rolls where she doesn’t spend Willpower. This includes contested and extended rolls. As well, any rolls to tempt or coerce her into competition achieve exceptional success on three successes instead of five.

Possible Sources: A challenging predatory aura conflict

Resolution: Win or lose a competition where someone reaches a breaking point

Beat: n/a

Others and the Youkai Aura

Other denizens of the World of Darkness may have similar auras. Other creatures in the World of Darkness may exhibit predatory auras, with Storyteller discretion. The rules work the same way: lashing out, choosing fight or flight, and applying Conditions.

Appearance

A Youkai Aura, to those that can see it, appears as a strange form of heavy mist, smoke, or miasma that wafts from the Youkai.  Sometimes settling near the floor, like smoke from a fire, sometimes filling a whole room like a fog, the exact characteristics of the Aura varies depending on the type of Youkai.  An Aura can permeate an entire area, helping to keep intruders out and mark territory, getting stronger as the distance to its source decreases.

A Youkai’s Aura is invisible to normal humans, but they can sure feel the effects of it.  A certain stench may accompany some Youkai’s aura, especially those typically associated with evil.

With the right perception or sights, other supernatural creatures, whether they be vampires, werewolves, mages, hunters, etc, will be able to see the Aura.  Mages need active Spirit or Prime sights to see the Aura.  Unless the Youkai has an association with Death, Death sights will not perceive the Aura.

·   True Form:         

       

Description:

All youkai have a true form - in this case, a dog.  Only powerful or skilled youkai can hide their true form by assuming another form, such as a human – think of the legends of kitsune or tanuki.  True form size increases as the youkai gains in power, with every Youki level.  The player can transform to a normal dog size if desired (size 4).

Mechanics:

The default (true form) size increases every Youki level as:

(Normal dog is + 8 to speed)

Level 1: size 6, Str +1, Dex + 2, Sta + 2, Health + 3, Speed + 10, Bite + 3L, Claws +0, Jump + 1

Level 2: size 7, Str +2, Dex + 2, Sta + 3, Health + 5, Speed + 11, Bite + 3L, Claws +1, Jump + 2

Level 3: size 8, Str +3, Dex + 3, Sta + 4, Health + 7, Speed + 12, Bite + 4L, Claws +1, Jump + 3

Level 4: size 9, Str +4, Dex + 3, Sta + 5, Health + 9, Speed + 13, Bite + 4L, Claws +2, Jump + 4

Level 5: size 10, Str +5, Dex + 4, Sta + 6, Health + 11, Speed + 14, Bite + 5L, Claws +2, Jump + 5

Level 6: size 11, Str +6, Dex + 4, Sta + 7, Health + 13, Speed + 15, Bite + 5L, Claws +3, Jump + 6

Etc.

Other than in normal dog size, when transformed, Youkai aura automatically manifests.  Youkai aura can be hidden with willpower expenditure while in true form.

Player can transform from true form to normal dog size by taking a turn and rolling.  Once true form size, youkai instincts are stronger - a willpower must be spent to reflexively transform back to human form.  Otherwise, transformation is free and must take a turn - cannot attack during this turn, but does get defense and movement.

Speed, jumping distance, jaw strength, etc increase with size, but only in true form.

·   Demon Taint: (Similar to Werewolf Lunacy)        

       

Description:

Much like Lunacy, sensing the Youkai’s energy stirs something deep down, ancestral fear of the wolf at the door. When a person sees a youkai in True Form up close, or witnesses a youkai shapeshifting or regenerating damage, she suffers a breaking point. The roll doesn’t necessarily come immediately; it comes at the dramatically appropriate moment when the witness would otherwise take a rational breath and come to her senses.

The witness’s roll takes a penalty from the youkai’s Youki, and is further modified by the youkai’s form. True Form inflicts a –2 penalty. A youkai’s prey is less likely to respond to the Demon Taint than an average bystander. If the Youkai has caused lethal damage to the witness, she gains a +1 bonus to the roll. If the victim is suffering a wound penalty, add that penalty as well (instead of subtracting it).  After all, wounded animals show alarming clarity.

If the character succeeds in the breaking point, she gains a Condition: Shadow Paranoia, Shaken, or Spooked. She acts with a –2 penalty on all actions for the scene, as the Demon Taint pushes at the back of her mind. She’s likely to reinvent events in her mind in order to better understand what happened, in keeping with her understanding of the world. 

Other Supernatural creatures not used to the Changing Breeds may only ever take one breaking point from witnessing its power.  When they Fail a breaking point because of this they may gain the conditions Cowed, Demoralized, Guilty and any of the above.

With exceptional success, the witness does not gain a Condition or suffer a penalty to her actions. She also regains all her spent Willpower, to redouble her efforts against the monster before her. She remembers the scene with perfect clarity. 

If the witness fails, she loses a dot of Integrity, and also gains a Lunacy Condition — Atavism, Awestruck, Delusion, Madness, or Reception, dependent on the circumstances. She will either flee or panic, and after the events she will rationalize what she’s seen, building a story to fill in the blanks and keep her world intact. If the Lunacy Condition persists for a number of days equal to the Youkai’s Youki dots without resolution, it fades without offering a Beat. 

On a dramatic failure, she becomes Youkai Tainted. 

When groups of witnesses work together, they suffer lessened Demon Taint. When two characters are focused on the same task together, each receives a +1 bonus to his breaking point rolls. When a small group (usually around five or less) works together, they each receive +2. Large groups (ten or fewer) gain +3. Any larger mob receives +4. 

Youkai Tainted do not suffer Demon Taint, nor do creatures that do not use Integrity. This includes vampires, spirits, other Youkai, and stranger creatures besides.

Mechanics:

Roll: Resolve + Composure -2(True Form) – Lunacy Penalty (table below) + Wound Penalties + 1(if lethal dmg) + Bonuses(prey, etc)

Youki     Lunacy Penalty

1              0

2              0

3              0

4              -2

5              -2

6              -2

7              -2

8              -3

9              -4

10            -5

Success: -2 on all actions for scene and 1 Condition:

SHADOW PARANOIA

Your character has been afflicted with a supernatural panic; she is jumpy and on edge, afraid that every shadow might contain sharp teeth and sudden death. She suffers a –2 penalty to all Perception rolls. Any failure on a Perception roll becomes a dramatic failure as she thinks she sees an attacker or threat out of the corner of her eye, and she will react with panic; if she’s carrying a firearm she will likely start firing at shadows. Thinking rationally is difficult in the face of such fear and she suffers a –2 penalty on all Intelligence- and Wits based dice pools.

Possible Sources: Some Gifts.

Resolution: The character reaches a place of safety. The character achieves an exceptional success on a Perception roll.

Beat: n/a

SHAKEN

Something has severely frightened your character. Any time your character is taking an action where that fear might hinder her, you may opt to fail the roll and resolve this Condition. This Condition can be imposed by undergoing a breaking point roll.

Possible Sources: Facing a breaking point.

Resolution: The character gives into her fear and fails a roll as described above.

Beat: n/a

SPOOKED

Your character has seen something supernatural — not overt enough to terrify her, but unmistakably otherworldly.  How your character responds to this is up to you, but it captivates her and dominates her focus.

Possible Sources: Facing a breaking point, encountering the supernatural.

Resolution: This Condition is resolved when your character’s fear and fascination causes her to do something that hinders the group or complicates things (she goes off alone to investigate a strange noise, stays up all night researching, runs away instead of holding her ground, etc.).

Beat: n/a

Exceptional Success: No Conditions; regain all Willpower

Failure: loses a dot of Integrity, flees or panics, and also gains a Lunacy Condition:

ATAVISM

You suffer ancient, ancestral memories that rouse anger and violent urges; the cause of these memories must be destroyed.  When facing the source of the Atavism, your character must make all-out attacks each turn (see p. 168), or spend Willpower points to avoid attacking. When in danger or heavy stress, she lashes out violently. She must spend Willpower points to take nonviolent actions in response to threats or stressors.

Possible Sources: Succumbing to Lunacy.

Resolution: Your character achieves an exceptional success against the source of her rage, or the source of her rage achieves an exceptional success against her. Alternatively, she can suffer a breaking point for harming an innocent person.

Beat: n/a

AWESTRUCK (PERSISTENT )

Your character sees before her a glorious and terrifying figure, and something in her brain kicks her to kneel and grovel.  She suffers a –2 penalty to attack rolls against the source of the Condition. She also suffers a –3 penalty to contested rolls against social actions from the source of the Condition, and a –3 penalty to her Composure and Resolve against actions and powers that the source of the Condition uses on her. 

Possible Sources: Compulsion from supernatural powers.

Resolution: The source of the Condition leaves your character’s presence, or stops inflicting Lunacy.

Beat: Your character takes an action that serves the demands of the Condition’s source.

DELUSION

Your character cannot make sense of the world she perceives, and because of this, she avoids that which would make her question. When facing the supernatural, or something she suspects to be the source of this Condition, she flees. If she cannot flee, she shuts down. Every action she takes that is not fleeing requires a Willpower point.

Possible Sources: Succumbing to Lunacy.

Resolution: Your character reaffirms her sense of reality by expending Willpower and learning something new, something deeply secret about the source of the Condition.

Beat: n/a

MADNESS (PERSISTENT )

Your character saw or did something that jarred her loose from reality. This isn’t a mental illness born of brain chemistry — that, at least, might be treatable. This madness is the product of supernatural tampering or witnessing  something that humanity was never meant to comprehend. The Storyteller has a pool of dice equal to 10 – (character’s Integrity). Once per chapter, the Storyteller can apply those dice as a negative modifier to any Mental or Social roll made for the character.

Possible Sources: Supernatural visions, losing a dot of Integrity.

Resolution: Regain a dot of Integrity, lose another dot of Integrity, or achieve an exceptional success on a breaking point.

Beat: The character fails a roll because of this Condition

RECEPTION

Your character has opened to the spirit/youkai world, as result of her experience with Lunacy. She cannot resist possession by ghosts, spirits, or youkai(see p. 190), and she bleeds Essence. Every day, she generates Essence equal to her Resolve score. Spirits can consume the Essence by touching her, but youkai must eat her flesh — gaining the Essence in addition to the amount normally given by eating human meat. If she dramatically fails an action, she may slip into the Hisil(Shadow Realm) instead of suffering the normal dramatic failure for the action.

Possible Sources: Succumbing to Lunacy.

Resolution: Your character experiences grave danger as result of her experience with the Hisil.

Beat: n/a

Dramatic Failure: Youkai Tainted

SPONTANEOUS YOUKAI-TAINTED:

Sometimes, just sometimes, Youkai Tainted arise from the taint of Lunacy and the exposure to a Youkai’s Aura, not from genetics. Any time a human suffers a dramatic failure on the Lunacy breaking point roll, she becomes Youkai Tainted. This doesn’t take instantly. It occurs at a seemingly random moon phase over the course of the next lunar month.  As the change slowly overtakes her, she becomes Youkai Tainted, with a Tell and other random defining traits of youkai. She also becomes eligible to purchase certain Wolf-Blooded Merits. See Appendix One for rules on

Wolf-Blooded characters.

A Youkai Tainted character is essentially in the first stages of permanent transformation into a youkai.  How long this transformation takes is variable – several months is usually standard, giving the human community enough time to realize something is very strange about the character.  Different cultures will react in different ways, according to any myths or religion that might affect their actions – could be anything from a shrug (meh, she’s always been weird) to outright ostracizing or death.

A Youkai-Tainted character doesn’t necessarily transform into the same Youkai that caused the taint – in fact, more often than not, the transformation is affected by the individual’s unique reaction to the Youkai’s Aura, the sighting of the Youkai, her personality, and the surrounding circumstances.  Unless the character’s will is particularly strong, she almost never transforms into, say, the noble dog Youkai that caused the Taint in the first place, although a corrupted version of a canine youkai is possible.

A Youkai-Tainted is essentially a bastardized Youkai, accepted by neither human-kind nor Youkai-kind.  This does not necessarily mean that the Youkai-Tainted is weak – after the permanent transformation occurs, if the new Youkai survives long enough (aka, doesn’t take her own life and isn’t killed by anything else) her powers will start to grow over time.

A Youkai-Tainted can be purified, but only during the initial stages of transformation.  Once she transforms into a full Youkai, the process cannot be reversed, and purification rituals will only cause harm or death.  Any given religion’s purification rituals may be able to completely purify the Tainted.  It is also possible to halt transformation but not reverse it, resulting in a permanent, but not escalating, Taint.  Subsequent purification is necessary to fully reverse the Taint.

TELL

All Youkai Tainted bear the mark of the Youkai in the form one or more Tells, a supernatural effect that marks them out from normal humans. Youkai Tainted characters never fall victim to Lunacy. 

A Youkai-Tainted character does not necessarily have to exhibit Tells related to the Youkai that caused the Taint. 

Tells will always grow stronger and more frequent until transformation is complete, unless transformation has been halted in some manner.

Tell:

Spontaneous unnatural shadow

Spontaneous slitted eyes that come and go

Strange behavior

The beginnings of a Youkai Aura

A tail (think kitsune) or other strange physical feature (fox feet)

·   Youkai Resilience:
Description:

While not immune to attacks, powerful youkai have been known to stand up to attacks that would otherwise cripple a human.

Mechanics:

With each Youki of 3+, ignore 1 health box of damage penalties (up to the 3) in any form.  This reflects the natural toughness of youkai.

·   Spirit/Ghost Perception:
Description:

Dogs are known to have the ability to detect supernatural entities – ghosts and spirits.  Additionally, spirits are distantly related to youkai, enabling a limited ability to interact with them.

Mechanics:

Roll:  Wits + Composure + Bonuses to smell ghosts

Roll:  Wits + Composure + Bonuses to see/smell/hear spirits.  Spend a willpower to temporarily physically interact with a single spirit (several turns).