Did you find WoD Shapeshifters' Animal Attraction ability annoying?

[vicky_molokh]

Greetings, all!

Just curious: those of you who played/GMed/'storytold' World of Darkness with various Changing Breeds - did you find the ability annoying? I've seen some groups report it was mostly a tool of distractions, others kinda ignored it (out of fear of the GM making NPCs targets 'serendipitously' have a hidden agenda conflicting with the PCs'), others had it low-key, yet others claimed to use it to gain Renown/Wisdom or some other. The Ananasi Breedbook seemed to imply that werespiders made more uses of it than Garou, but it's not clear.

What's your stance on all of it?
Thanks in advance!

[Gold & Appel Inc]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

Greetings, all!

Hey.

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

Just curious: those of you who played/GMed/'storytold' World of Darkness with various Changing Breeds - did you find the ability annoying?

Meh, kind of. Sexuality is a pervasive WoD theme, but it lead to a lot of rule-bickering despite the (IMHO) fairly straightforward RAW text the one time I GMd a WtA game in which it was in use.

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

I've seen some groups report it was mostly a tool of distractions, others kinda ignored it (out of fear of the GM making NPCs targets 'serendipitously' have a hidden agenda conflicting with the PCs'), others had it low-key, yet others claimed to use it to gain Renown/Wisdom or some other.

The one player who wanted it took his pursuit of the Renown bonus for breeding to such a squick-inducing degree that it bothered some of the others and had to be nerfed down to a one-time bonus for having 1+ offspring vs having 0 rather than a per-incident thing before he'd give it a rest, but privately I agree that it does fit the setting: The Garou are a dying breed, desperate to repopulate themselves the "natural" way in the face of opposition that can (with downsides) multiply explosively in minutes (vampires, some fomori). Individuals who are willing to use any means at their disposal to that end, up to and including varying degrees of rape, are most definitely a fertile (sorry) source of conflict, dark character-exploration, and other WoDliness for those who aren't trying to use WtA to play Furry Superheroes.

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

The Ananasi Breedbook seemed to imply that werespiders made more uses of it than Garou, but it's not unclear.

Haven't read that splatbook. Seems like a bit of a head-slapper, considering that the flavor text credits it to Rage, which Ananasi don't have...

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by Gold & Appel Inc

Haven't read that splatbook. Seems like a bit of a head-slapper, considering that the flavor text credits it to Rage, which Ananasi don't have...

The breedbook explicitly points out that that even without rage, the Ananasi are still sexy predators. Only apparently more so than the Garou.

[Gold & Appel Inc]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

The breedbook explicitly points out that that even without rage, the Ananasi are still sexy predators. Only apparently more so than the Garou.

Fair enough; I guess they need something for players who'd like to RP that they feed on blood regularly without being violent about it, and it's much more of a nitpick than my real problem with Ananasi (which is way off-topic).

There's a huge, sprawling debate with much fist-typing over at RPG.net, buried in a broader Werewolf-dislike topic, that I just had the misfortune to get sucked into reading due to a combination of masochism and fatigue, regarding whether or not using Animal Attraction to initiate a sexual encounter constitutes an act of rape, a question that seems better left IC* in my humble opinion. If somebody in a game I was running felt so strongly about the issue that it was a deal-breaker I would most certainly not consider it too vital to the setting to leave out, but I would have to ask them why they're playing a dark game about people who do horrible, horrible things.

*The sole PC-On-PC incident that I GMd involved explicit OOC pre-consent on all sides, of course, though one of the players ended up being extremely butthurt a short time later - Specifically, the guy with Animal Attraction, after the female Kinfolk he used it to seduce ratted him out to a higher-Rank Ahroun who fancied her and the Ahroun used violent means to, ah, ensure that it wouldn't happen again.

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by Gold & Appel Inc

Fair enough; I guess they need something for players who'd like to RP that they feed on blood regularly without being violent about it, and it's much more of a nitpick than my real problem with Ananasi (which is way off-topic).

OTOH, nowhere does it say that Ananasi have anesthetic bites. Ouch.

Originally Posted by Gold & Appel Inc

There's a huge, sprawling debate with much fist-typing over at RPG.net, buried in a broader Werewolf-dislike topic, that I just had the misfortune to get sucked into reading due to a combination of masochism and fatigue, regarding whether or not using Animal Attraction to initiate a sexual encounter constitutes an act of rape, a question that seems better left IC* in my humble opinion. If somebody in a game I was running felt so strongly about the issue that it was a deal-breaker I would most certainly not consider it too vital to the setting to leave out, but I would have to ask them why they're playing a dark game about people who do horrible, horrible things.

It's actually a quite interesting question, and I tend to answer 'No, unless seduction is rape too, and Body Language use is an invasion on freedom of thought and privacy'. Basically, it's just that WoD shapeshifters get another innate method of getting into bed.

Heck, it's not even that much better than straight seduction. Compare:

Animal Attraction:
something like Charisma+Primal_Urge, difficulty Willpower. It is an extended roll that requires an accumulation of Willpower successes, and a failure at any point makes the subject aware something is wrong and avoid the shapeshifter.

Seduction:
Appearance + Subterfuge, Difficulty Wits+3.
Successes + Wits + Subterfuge, difficulty Int+3.
Success + Charisma + Empathy, difficulty Per+3.

Yeah, Seduction takes three rolls, but adds successes from previous rolls to the next roll. Also, while Animal Attraction is used against a difficulty ranging 1-10, Seduction only encounters a difficulty range of 1-8. In case of seduction, difficulty above 6 is not very likely against mortals.