A crossover chronicle set in the World of Darkness as seen through the lens of Werewolf: the Apocalypse and Mage: the Ascension.

The Awakening Chronicle began as a sort of "alternate universe" spin-off from/sequel to the defunct Project: Overwatch Chronicle (which was primarily a Mage: the Ascension Chronicle that incorporated a couple of characters from Werewolf). See here for that other Chronicle's wiki pages. A couple of the PCs from that game returned, but most of the group was new.

Themes

The End times are here. The Apocalypse is at the doors. The time has come for the Garou Nation, the Nine Mystic Traditions and indeed the other supernatural factions of the World of Darkness (and our player characters) to take a long look at themselves and ask themselves whether the hallowed traditions and laws of the Garou, the venerable praxes of the Traditions or even the modern adaptations and compromises that everybody has had to make are enough to carry them through the End of all Things. The Garou and the Traditions are losing (or may even have already lost) their respective wars. Is this because they have been beaten by the superior might of the Wyrm and the Weaver, or are they losing because of their own failures? Is it their own hubris, xenophobia, disunity, hidebound ways or even their willingness to compromise principle in the face of expediency that have brought them low? The time to find the answers to these and other critical questions may very well already have come and gone. Yet here we are, asking the hard questions, seeking the proper balance between tradition and innovation, self and other, man and wolf, Triat and Gaia. Should old enemies have been friends, and can they be reconciled? Can the sickness within the very soul of not only the Garou but their Kin, humanity and even the world itself be cured? Here we are, desperately hoping that there is still a little more time to find answers and rage against the dying of the light.

The Chronicle

See the chronicle's History page.

House Rules

We've got a page for house rules. Yay!

The House Rules page has some built-in text as well as links that might prove useful or interesting to folks. Perhaps not coincidentally, many of these links are to Hal's blog. Plug. We've also got a selection of things that may or may not be canon, but that are certainly germane to things that are likely to come up during the game at one point or another.

Character Creation

Characters are to be created according to standard character creation rules for their originating gameline with the following exceptions regarding Abilities since we are in process of switching over mostly to the W20/M20 rulesets rulesets:

Personality Archetypes: We do use this optional rule as a means of further defining our characters and helping them recover spent Willpower. Lists of Archetypes (Nature and Demeanor) can be found in W20, M20, Mage Revised, The Players Guide to Garou and many other sources.

Abilities

There a few changes to Abilities from both Revised and 20th editions for our troupe. This will apply for all characters, Werewolf or not, for consistency's sake. Below is our standard Ability list. Items with an italicized note are specific to characters of that type.

Talents: Alertness, Athletics, Awareness (Mage), Brawl, Empathy, Expression, Intimidation, Leadership, Primal-Urge (Garou), Streetwise, Subterfuge

Skills: Animal-Ken, Crafts, Drive, Etiquette, Firearms, Larceny, Meditation (Mage), Melee, Performance, Stealth, Survival, Technology (Mage)

Knowledges: Academics, Computer, Cosmology, Enigmas, Esoterica (Mages), Investigation, Law, Medicine, Occult, Politics, Rituals (Garou), Science, Technology (Garou)

Notes: Mage lists Technology as a Skill, while Werewolf sticks it under Knowledges - we'll leave each where it is for the relevant gameline.

Secondary Abilities

Hobby Talents, Professional Skills, Expert Knowledges and the like are available and can be bought with Freebie or Experience Points at a reduced cost versus core abilities: 1 Freebie point per dot or 2 XP for the first dot with New Rating x 1 for subsequent dots. Frankly, a lot of these are just as readily taken as a Specialty in an existing Ability.

Lores

A note about Lore-type Knowledges: Kinfolk characters are assumed to have one dot in either Knowledges: Garou Lore or their own Tribe's Lore free of charge. Garou are not required to take Garou Lore since that consists of "outsider knowledge." Garou's knowledge of themselves would well exceed what's given by one or two dots, and a deeper understanding of their society is provided by the Knowledge: Rituals. Lores are Secondary Abilities and therefore have a reduced cost in Freebie or Experience points. 

Backgrounds

A comprehensive list of Backgrounds and in most cases their book sources is available here. Note that in this Chronicle, the Totem Background's cost is not doubled for Mage. For its cost in Experience points, see the advancement page. Note that, because this Chronicle has been going on so long, we use the version in Spirit Ways rather than the very different one in M20.

Player Characters

Characters can be drawn from either the Werewolf: the Apocalypse or Mage: the Ascension game settings. Every character will be reviewed by and discussed with Hal, so there's little need to craft a list of acceptable or banned traits, Merits, Flaws et cetera to post here. Character concept, reasonable design and ability to function within the group and the collective story as a meaningful participant are the principal considerations. Specifics of permitted character types are detailed below:

Werewolf: the Apocalypse

• Garou (Theoretically any Gaian Tribe) At this point, Garou are the preferred character type for new players unless they are highly familiar with Mage.
• Kinfolk (Any tribe, but no Fera Kin)
• By default, No Possessed, Bunyip, White Howlers or Abominations. Requests to play a Skin-Dancer Ghoul Kinain Mage will be met with an ash-tray to the face. Fera, Hengeyokai and Possessed whose concept will fit in the chronicle are open to consideration (see also: Amrita). Not so much for either Sam or Abominations.

Player characters from Werewolf: the Apocalypse should be created with an eye to being able to interact meaningfully with Mages and other supernatural things. They don't have to be "care bears", but they need to be capable of working with the player group.

Gifts

Beginning Gifts, even those bought with freebie points, should be from within the character's Breed, Tribe and Auspice lists. Any outside these lists should be bought with experience points. Generally, Gifts from Werewolf: the Apocalypse Revised edition or W20 and their supplements are preferred. A list Hal has compiled and of nearly every Gift ever published can be found here. This list is organized by level, tribe, breed, auspice and even camp, and has notated with which version of each Gift is current, which have been renamed in later editions etc, and will be periodically updated for the sake of completeness.

Renown

Garou characters begin play with up to the amount of Permanent Renown that would be required for their character to have achieved the Athro rank (4). Kinfolk may begin with Renown only if they purchase the Background of the same name.

Mage: the Ascension

• Mages (Any Tradition, Convention or Craft, within reason.)
• Sorcerers (Most Societies or Traditions will be acceptable) 
• Requests to play a Nephandus, a Promethean, a HIT Mark V, a Marauder, a Lich, a Stoneman or a Skin-Dancer Ghoul Kinain Mage will be met with an introduction to a Japanese cartoon octopus.

Characters created using Mage: the Ascension should be created with an eye towards interacting heavily with Garou. 

Minimum Abilities

We are using the optional Minimum Abilities rule from M20, page 276 of m20. We will detail this more on our house rules page, but it's relevant to account creation so we're noting it here.

Experience Points

If desired, you may assign your character experience points for advancements at the time of character creation to bring them up to speed with the preexisting characters - you may use up to the lowest total belonging to an existing player character. Merits may be purchased (or Flaws bought off) at an Experience Point cost of 3 x the level of the Merit or Flaw. Dots of Totem (Garou only) may be bought for 2 XP each. Characters joining in mid-chronicle receive a number of experience points equal to the lowest XP total among the PCs and NPCs that are tracked on the Advancement page.