Ratkin

The Changing Breeds -- Ratkin of St. Louis

Ratkin are one of the Changing Breeds. Like most of the Breeds, Ratkin were given a mission by Gaia, and that mission was to control the human population by eating their food and spreading disease and pestilence. It worked until the Garou attempted to impose their dominance on the other Breeds in the so-called War of Rage, and nearly drove the Ratkin to extinction. In the aftermath of the War, the Ratkin were forced into the margins of human society; however, because of the rapid urban growth, they recovered and once again are in ascendance. Ratkin are feral and brutal creatures, mainly because they are Wyld-touched, which means that not only can they frenzy like other changing breeds, but also hallucinate in a state called Rapture.

Ratkin are still very distrustful of Garou even now, not least because one of their aspects was completely destroyed during the War of Rage - the Bards, equivalent of the Garou's Galliards. However, before the last Bards were slain, they foretold that in the final days the Ratkin would come back from their secret refuges.

The Ratkin are divided into 8 Aspects, much like the Garou's auspices. Four are considered the 'standard' Aspects, while the other four are the so-called 'Freak' Aspects.

The four original Aspects are:

• -- Knife Skulkers: Honored assassins of the Ratkin who work by contract only. They also act as judges and mediators, much like a Philodox.
• -- Shadow Seers: Shamans and spiritual guides, much like a Theurge.
• -- Tunnel Runners: Wandering scouts and spies, who link Ratkin Warrens around the world. Similar to Ragabash.
• -- Warriors: As the name implies, fighters and killers, the first line in combat, much like the Garou's Ahroun.

As mentioned above, the fifth Aspect, the Bards, were destroyed in the War of Rage.

The four Freak Aspects are products of the Ratkin's growing connection to the Umbra and the Wyld, freakish mutations with a deeper connection to the Wyld within than the rest of their kind. This comes at a cost: each Freak Aspect has its own particular brand of insanity.

• -- Engineers: Scientists, inventors and tinkerers, who love to deal with technology.
• --Munchmausen: Swashbuckler Ratkin, grandly deluded, one and all.
• --Plague Lords: Masters of disease and corruption.
• --Twitchers: Anarchists among anarchists, Twitchers are insane and unpredictable demolition men.

There are also nine great Ratkin Plagues, who claim a particular geographical territory as their own.

• --The Borrachon Wererats: Based in South America
• --De La Poer's Disciples: Based in Antarctica
• --The Gamine: Based in Europe
• --The Horde: Based in Eurasia
• --The Nezumi: Based in Japan
• --The Ratkin Ronin: Not based in any terrestrial region, instead associated with seafaring and the oceans.
• --The Rat Race: Based in North America
• --Rattus Typhus: Based in Africa
• --Thuggees: Based in East Asia

Ratkin Character Creation

Step One: Character Concept

Choose your character concept.

• When were you first Infected?

• How much time elapsed before your First Change?

• What part of the world are you from?

Optional: Describe the colony that raised you.

Optional : Choose your Nature and Demeanor from the Werewolf Players Guide.

Select your breed

• Homid: You began life as a human, not knowing you were the cursed offspring of a human and a wererat. Before you were infected, you were human Kinfolk.

Initial Gnosis: 1

Begging Gifts: Cooking, Eau de Rat, Persuasion

• Metis: You are the incestuous offspring of two Ratkin, raised in shame in a Ratkin colony. All metis have a deformity visible in all three forms.

Initial Gnosis: 3

Begging Gifts: Cloak of Shadows, Rat Mothers Touch, Sense Wyrm

• Rodens: You were born as a rodent and raised by rats. One of your parents was an ordinary rodent; the other was a slumming Ratkin. Before you were infected, you were rat Kinfolk. Rodens Ratkin have the same Ability restrictions as lupus Garou.

Initial Gnosis: 5

Begging Gifts: Absolute Balance, Leap of the Kangaroo Rat, Survival

Select your aspect

• Tunnel Runners: the mavericks, messengers, scouts and spies of Ratkin society

Initial Rage: 1

Bonus Rite: Rite of the Bolthole

Begging Gifts: Danger Sense, Scent of the True Form, Silent Running

• Shadow Seers: mystics devoted to studying the mysteries of the spirit world and the madness of human society

Initial Rage: 2

Bonus Rite: Dedication Rite

Begging Gifts: Rat Mothers Touch, Sense Weaver, Sense Wyrm

• Knife-Skulkers: enforcers and assassins who met out justice in all its forms

Initial Rage: 3

Bonus Rite: Contract Rite

Begging Gifts: Death Mark, Sticky Paws, Truth of Gaia

• Warriors: soldiers bred for the armies of the Apocalypse; the Blade Slaves

Initial Rage: 4

Bonus Rite: Rite of the Pain Dagger

If your Storyteller allows it, you may play a Freak aspect.

Begging Gifts: Resist Pain, Slicing Teeth, Sticky Paws

• Engineers: lab rats scrounging amidst the offal and wreckage of human cities (Must take Freak Aspect)

Initial Rage: 2

Bonus Rite: Rite of the Shopping Cart

Begging Gifts: Control Simple Machine, Open Seal, Scrounge

• Plague Lords: hideous metis skulkers who master the dark arts of disease, the mysteries of the underworld, and the rituals of plague (Must take Freak Aspect)

Initial Rage: 3

Bonus Rite: Rite of the Birthing Plague

Begging Gifts: Poison Food, Sniffle, Virulent Curse of Hatred

• Munchmausen: storytellers, Umbral adventurers and inveterate liars (Must take Freak Aspect)

Initial Rage: 4

Bonus Rite: Rite of Artifice Dedication

Begging Gifts: Persuassion, Spirit Speech, Tale Spinning

• Twitchers: conspirators, anarchists and revolutionaries who reflect the world's rage (Must take Freak Aspect)

Initial Rage: 5

Bonus Rite: Rite of the Cardboard Palace

Begging Gifts: Firebug, Sense Angst, Sense Weaver

Step Two: Choose Attributes

Divide 15 points between Physical, Social and Mental Attributes. Seven points are allocated within the primary category, 5 in the secondary, and 3 in the tertiary.

Step Three: Choose Gifts and Abilities

Choose three Level One Gifts: one breed Gift, one aspect Gift, and one Ratkin Gift. This may influence which Abilities you'll want to learn.

Ratkin Gifts: Cloak of Shadows, Darksight, Resist Toxin, Shadow Throw, Smell Poison, Stash Cache

Choose your Abilities

Divide 27 points between Talents, Skills and Knowledges. Thirteen points are allocated within the primary category, 9 in the secondary and 5 in the tertiary. You can't begin with an Ability over 3 without spending freebie points during the final step of character creation. Also note that all Ratkin must spend the appropriate points in Rituals in order to begin play with the bonus rite of their aspect.

Step Four: Choose Other Traits

Choose 5 points of Backgrounds.

• Colony: You're on good terms with the guardians of a Ratkin sacred site. The number of dots reflects the population of rats, Rat-spirits, Kinfolk and Ratkin living there.

Note: Metis must begin play with at least one point in the Colony Background.

• Contacts: Conspirators and contacts can provide you with information.

• Fetish: You possess an item1 containing a trapped spirit, one that can grant you magical or mystical abilities. You might have stolen this from another shapechanger.

• Freak Factor: a genetic abnormality, a rare aspect of Ratkin who doesn't quite fit into wererat society. If you're playing a "Freak aspect," you must purchase this Trait.

• Twitchers must pay for Freak Factor 3.

• Engineers and Plague Lords require Freak Factor 4.

• Munchmausen must purchase full Freak Factor 5

• Mentor: An older Ratkin has agreed to teach you as his apprentice. You owe him a massive debt for this.

• Plague: You've got allies in a local "rat family" who are willing to help you out; unfortunately, they keep demanding help in return.

• Resources: You've managed to scam some money and can collect it on a regular basis.

Note: Wererats cannot have more than two dots in this Background. Tunnel Runners Can't have any points in it

until they reach Rank/Three.

• Rites: You have been taught the rituals of a Ratkin aspect. A Ratkin begins play with one rite; each dot in this Background represents one level of additional rites. Each Ratkin starts off the game with one free rite depending on his aspect.

The Allies, Past Life, Totem and Pure Breed Backgrounds are not available. The Kinfolk Background has been replaced by the Colony and Plague Backgrounds.

Step Five: Finishing Touches Record Rage (determined by your aspect) and Gnosis (determined by your breed).

Start with 3 points of Willpower. Finish up with 15

Freebie points.

Spending freebie Points

Trait Cost

Attribute 5 per dot

Ability 2 per dot

Backgrounds 1 per dot

Rage 1 per dot

Gnosis 2 per dot

Willpower 1 per dot

Extra Gifts 7 per Gift (Level One only)

Traits

All Ratkin share a few elemental similarities. Whether their home is the violent West or the mystical Far East, a lost realm of the spirit world or a familiar urban environment, wererats retain a few simple blessings.

• Maze Memory: All wererats have a highly developed "tunnel sense," a feel for absolute direction that prevents a Ratkin from getting lost underground. Even bound, gagged and stunned, a wererat abandoned in the deepest of labyrinths can still crawl back home by the most direct route... or die trying.

• Acute Senses: When a Ratkin wears the form of a rat, he senses the world in an entirely different way. Hearing and smell become his two most acute senses. The sense of touch is most sensitive near their vibrissae, or whiskers, which are prominently displayed along their snout in both rodens and Crinos forms. When using their ears, noses or whiskers to sense the world around them, wererats get a -1 difficulty to their Perception rolls.

• Night Vision: Although sight is the weakest sense rats possess, wererats have exemplary night vision. A Ratkin can see in anything short of absolute darkness by focusing her concentration. In game terms, a Ratkin who burns a point of Gnosis can draw upon the dim illumination of the Penumbra to make out rough outlines in the night. Normally, this crude night vision lasts for the duration of one scene; with the Gift: Darksight, it can last for up to eight hours after the scene ends if need be.

• Immunity to Disease: Wererats have a reputation for surviving against impossible odds. All of them share a highly developed immunity to disease; they can even carry and transmit deadly infections without suffering their effects. This benefit is the result of the Birthing Plague, the infection that continually courses through a wererat's blood. If anyone managed to cure a Ratkin of its diseases, the beastie would lose its spiritual essence, reverting to a human or a normal rat. Metis wererats afflicted with such a punishment die.

• Reduced Delirium: The wererats were far more subtle than the Garou during the Impergium, relying on secrecy and stealth. Because of this, the effects of Delirium are lessened for them. When a human sees a wererat in Crinos form, check the same table (Werewolf, pg. 203) that Garou use. The human's reaction is still based on his Willpower, but add two dots for the table's purposes.

• Regeneration: Like virtually all shapechangers, wererats regenerate. As one would suspect aggravated damage such as silver, fire and the teeth and claws of supernatural creatures counteracts this. Healing a point of aggravated damage still requires a full day of rest and a Willpower roll. Ratkin may heal back from death's door just as Garou do, although Rat's blessing grants them a bonus of -5 to any rolls on the Battle Scars table.

• Silver Vulnerability: Silver adversely affects Ratkin just as it does Garou, reducing Gnosis and even causing unsoakable aggravated damage.

• Teeth and Claws: Ratkin in Crinos can bite and claw for aggravated damage. Their bite is decidedly nasty, inflicting Strength + 1 damage, but their claw attacks are a little less potent, inflicting only Strength damage.

• Stepping Sideways: A rat pack doesn't have to use the Rite of the Bolthole to enter the Umbra — they can "step sideways" into the spirit world, just as werewolves do. This still requires a shiny, reflective object, but any wererat can do it. Just roll Gnosis against the difficulty of the local Gauntlet. As usual, the number of successes still determines the length of time it takes to enter the spirit world: scoring one success means the leap takes five minutes; rolling two successes translates into thirty seconds (or three turns); with three successes, stepping sideways into the Umbra is instantaneous. Stepping sideways also requires privacy; if anyone other than a Ratkin or other shapechanger is present, the attempt won't work.

• Keening: Ratkin have the ability to silently warn each other of danger, as long as their packmates are within hearing range. Rats, when threatened, can emit a high-pitched sound that humans cannot hear. Wererats, when faced with an enemy, can emit an unnatural sound that only other Ratkin (or certain shapechangers with sense-sharpening Gifts active) can sense. If one Ratkin in a pack keens, it sets everyone's heart racing, pumps adrenaline, tenses nerves, and gets everyone ready for a fight. Ratkin can only keen when actually threatened; it's impossible to "cry wolf effectively unless you are experiencing the stress of great danger. Other shapechangers cannot emulate or imitate this sound.

• Speaks in Squeaks: All Ratkin share a rodent language that only they can understand. This can be used in any form. Ratkin in Rodens form can be quite verbose; wererats in Crinos form limit themselves to simple sentences of a few crude words. Ratkin in Homid form are very careful where they use this rodent language — it's most unnerving when a rat disguised as a human starts chittering, nattering, clicking and whuffling.

• Blessings of the Rat Incarna: Ratkin don't need to take the Totem Background during character creation. Instead, every wererat begins his or her life in service to the Rat Incama. Rat watches over her children from the first moment of Infection to the catharsis of the First Change. The wererat gains all of the benefits (and adheres to the ban) of the Rat Totem. Ratkin can change their totem each time they form a new "rat pack." They collectively decide which totem best fits their current goals in life; you'll find more details in the Totem section. Once wererats form a pack, they don't "pool" their Totem Background points, like werewolves do. Instead, a Shadow Seer must perform a Dedication Rite to bind the rat pack together and declare the quest they are trying to achieve. The final roll for this ritual determines the number of temporary background points the pack gets and influences which totem they can choose. Once the pack disbands, all of the wererats present resume their spiritual affiliation to the Rat Incarna... until the next pack is formed. You'll find more details on these practices in the Rites and Rituals section.

• Blood Memory: Most supernatural creatures know nothing of the Blood Memory possessed by Ratkin, an ability that allows them to share racial memories. Through this talent, a wererat may "remember" the name of another Ratkin he's never met, a place he's never been, or a deed performed by a member of his aspect generations ago. For more details, keep reading. For the record, Ratkin blood is also poisonous to those who feast on it. Each turn a vampire or other supernatural creature drinks the blood of a wererat, he receives one unsoakable health level of aggravated damage. In addition, the creature is also overwhelmed by disturbing and terrifying psychedelic images. Such experiences "reveal" nothing; they're just really bad trips.

Blood Memory Quiet, introspective rodents can have remarkable flashes of insight. For instance, a wererat who calmly listens to the sound of his own blood can remember the name of another Ratkin he's never met before. With enough effort, a Ratkin might even recall another wererat's aspect, what part of the world he hails from, or where he's been.

Knowledge of ancient labyrinths is also passed down from generation to generation. A Ratkin can't "remember" passages that have changed during the last ten years, but in any major city, there's a chance that she can find a secret path that's been long forgotten. If it doesn't exist in the physical world, it might exist in the spirit world. Tunnel Runners excel at this. A lone Ratkin, through introspection, can even attempt to channel memories of ancestors who served his aspect. Though this may sound similar to the Garou's Past Life Background, it has one important difference: It's limited to memories.A wererat cannot channel the heroes of Ratkin history to work through him. This feat is somewhat more difficult than the other applications of Blood Memory.

System: Calling upon Blood Memory is usually a simple Gnosis roll. "Remembering" the name of a Ratkin you've never met is difficulty 6. Finding your way in a place you've never been is difficulty 8 (or difficulty 6 if you're a Tunnel Runner). Recalling visions of the past is far more difficult: it requires the expenditure of a point of Gnosis and a roll of the remaining temporary Gnosis; the difficulty is 9. This last ability can only be used once per game session. Ancient revelations are always sensory experiences, and often relate to the situation the wererat is currently struggling with — they're usually panic-filled flashes of mad flight and desperate searching. True clarity is impossible, articularly when trying to regain facts having nothing to do with hiding places or fellow Ratkin's personal history. The amount of time you can reach back depends on the number of successes you obtain on the Gnosis roll. Memories more recent than ten years ago cannot be recalled. Infection plays hell with this talent, recalling memories of the Impergium that are as fresh as yesterday, and generally driving the Ratkin to the point of near-madness.

Visionary Revelations One success 10 to 50 years

Two successes 50 to 150 years

Three successes 150 to 500 years

Four successes 500 to 1000 years

Five successes 1000 to 2000 years

With more than six successes, a Ratkin will flash on memories from the War of Rage or the Impergium. Seeing back that far, of course, is extremely rare. Any characters wanting to remember back further or with actual clarity are advised to consult a Mokole; wererat Blood Memory can't compete with the Dragon Breed's Mnesis.

When a Ratkin goes into a meditative trance to seek a revelation from the past, the Storyteller has every right to tailor the nature of the information gained, making it succinct and clear or keeping it vague and mystical. The Storyteller should definitely try to dredge up something that would make a good plot thread. Just keep in mind that most Storytellers aren't eager to circumvent an entire story with a single die roll.