Draft expanded renown

So you want to build a Fetish!

It only looks complicated at first, but it gets easier the more you do it, just like riding a bike! We're going to take this step by step, first using an existing fetish found in a book as an example. Other examples will get progressively more complicated, so just start up here at the top, take it one step at a time, and you'll be just fine!

We're using the Fetish Creation Chart found here on the Wiki, and breaking it down step by step. To make a fetish, you will roll Wits + Rituals vs 10, so the goal of the creation process is to lower that difficulty as much as possible with some other rolls first and give you the best chance of success when you make that final roll. We're going to go through all the steps and options first so that you understand what you're getting yourself into, and then we'll show you how to set up your +request and complete your job.

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These are the tools you're going to need for a basic fetish creation:

Rite of Summoning (Required; Your fetish needs a spirit, so you need to be able to summon it)

Rite of the Fetish (Required; Obviously you're gonna need this rite)

Leadership/Expression/Performance (Optional but highly recommended that you have at least one of those Abilities)

Call to Duty (Rank 2 Gift, optional but recommended)

Rite of Cleansing (Optional but highly recommended)

A Simple Fetish

Step 1: What are you making?

We're going to make an Eternal Waterskin, from the book Hammer and Klaive, page 62. Here's the fetish as it's written in the book: xxxxxEternal Waterskin xxxxxLevel 1, Gnosis 6 xxxxxThe Eternal Waterskin most likely began as a Silent Strider fetish going back to their earliest days of travel. At present, though, it's a general fetish. It simply proved too useful for other tribes not to create their own versions. Tribes like the Bone Gnawers, Glass Walkers, Silver Fangs, and Uktena all have or once had desert-faring members; while the Fianna and Get of Fenris possessed sea-faring cultures that likewise found it useful. xxxxxThe fetish is a waterskin decorated with various glyphs and then bound with a water spirit. When activated, the water spirit fills the waterskin once more. Garou with one of these fetishes can thus cross great distances without needing to find a water source for weeks. Here we have all the information we need. It's a container for holding water, and it's bound with a Water spirit. ICly speaking, this can be some fun RP! You gotta find or make the container, dress it up and make it nice for the spirit, go on a nice walk to find a summoning spot. This is what staff wants to see in the body of your +request. Name, Level and Gnosis rating, a description of what it is/what it does, and what spirit you're sticking in there. We need to understand you're trying to accomplish, basically.

Step 2: Starting your fetish

We're on Step 2 of the Fetish Creation Chart. You'll see it lists the Rite of Cleansing and Research there on the table. These are options to help lower the difficulty of the final Wits + Rituals roll. You can choose to do one of them, both of them, or none of them, it's entirely up to you. One option is costly in time, the other option depends on the fetish's level being low enough, but you should at least attempt the Rite of Cleansing. xxxxxResearch (rolling Mentor or Kinfolk vs 8, or Allies or Contacts vs 9) is a thing that takes time. Look at the dots you have in the stat, and you can CHOOSE how many of those dice you want to use. Each die you choose to use for this roll is 1 real-life week's worth of time spent asking around, looking through books, searching out historical tales or whatever else you can think of for actually researching the item. Each success you score is -1 difficulty to your final roll. If you aren't TOO scared of the final roll, then just skip the Research and go for broke! xxxxx(Example: You have Kinfolk 4. You roll all 4 dice vs 8, thus spending 4 RL weeks having your kinfolk doing research for you.) xxxxx(Example: You have Kinfolk 4. You choose to roll only 2 of those dice, only spending two RL weeks having half your kinfolk researching for you.) xxxxxRite of Cleansing is a common Level 1 Rite with a simple roll. This is just preparing the item for a spirit; think of it like cleaning an apartment really well before you rent it out to a prospective co-worker you really want to partner with. It's not mandatory but it's really nice of you to do and can make the spirit very happy. If you have this rite, then you should definitely do this roll, it's simple, quick unlike Research (the rite takes 10 minutes to perform ICly), and it can net you a large drop in difficulty on your ending roll. The roll is Charisma + Rituals vs 7 (6 if performed at dawn), and you need to get at least one success more than the level of the fetish you're trying to make. In this case, the Eternal Waterskin is Level 1, so we need at least 2 success. Every success OVER the level of the item is a -1 difficulty to the to the final roll. (Note: When you're making your fetish request, you're pretty much always going to do it "at dawn" (or dusk, for the Wyrmies) and roll at diff 6. The only reason why it might be the 'usual' diff 7 is if you have no ability to dictate the time of day, (such as having to do this during a plot) which will most likely never happen) (Example: You perform the Rite of Cleansing at dawn, and roll 2 successes. This fetish's Level is 1, so you receive -1 difficulty to your final roll) (Example: You perform the Rite of Cleansing at dawn, and roll 5 successes. This fetish's Level is 1, so you receive -4 difficulty to your final roll)

Step 3: Calling the Spirit

The waterskin has presumably been prepared either through Research, the Rite of Cleansing, or both. Now it's time to summon our spirit and call it to us. This covers steps 3 and 4 of the Fetish Creation Chart. We know what spirit we want for this: a water spirit. Keep it simple, and go with a Water Elemental. If you click this handy link to the Spirits By Type page, and do a quick word search for 'Water Elemental', you'll find it's located in the core Werewolf: the Apocalypse Revised book on page 300, so have a look there real quick. All we need to know is its Willpower. (The Wiki will eventually have that information for you.) xxxxxThe Water Elemental has Willpower 4xxxxx Having to pierce the Gauntlet and all the usual rigamarol with the Rite of Summoning is handwaved, so don't worry about it. We also assume that you're taking your time to make sure you do this rite, and making a day of it. The assumed hours mean that you just roll your Gnosis vs 3 and this step is done! If you get LESS than 3 successes, this mean the spirit isn't happy about the summoning, and raises your final roll's difficulty by 1. We don't want that! The goal is to LOWER that difficulty, so if you have any doubts at all about your ability to get 3 or more successes on this roll, then you're going to want to spend a willpower.

Step 4: Spirit Negotiation

Now we're looking at Step 5 on the Fetish Creation Chart. There's a lot of options on here, you can choose any of them, and you can choose more than one of them, it's up to you as to what makes sense. We'll detail them out as to what they do and whether or not they're worth a try. This is essentially your interactions with the spirit after you've summoned it. You're negotiating with it, showing off the cool vessel you've made, you're making promises to act a certain way or making sacrifices to get the spirit to agree to possess the item and make it a fetish. ALL of the things listed in this section are meant to entice and cajole the spirit (or threaten it!) into bonding with the vessel and becoming a fetish. You pick and choose from this list what you want to try, hoping for the best. xxxxxCall to Duty (Gift): Charisma + Leadership vs spirit's Willpower, and costs 2 Gnosis. If successful, you get a -1 difficulty to the final fetish making roll. In this case, our spirit's Willpower is 4, so our difficulty to this roll would be 4. If you have the Gift and the Leadership skill, you should definitely try it! All you have you do is succeed and you get the bonus. xxxxxClever Persuasion: Charisma + Expression/Performance/Leadership vs spirit's Willpower, and you have to get at least as many successes as the level of the fetish you're trying to make. For this fetish, our difficulty is 4 and we only need to score 1 success to gain that -1 difficulty to the final roll. xxxxxSpend permanent Gnosis: If you spend a permanent Gnosis, you will get -2 to the difficulty of the final roll. If you only have 1 or 2 Gnosis as it is, then it's not an option that's off the table. If you do NOT want to have to buy back your Gnosis at 2x current rating in cost, then do not use this option. xxxxxTaboo: There's no roll required, and you can get -1, -2, or -3 difficulty to your final roll. A taboo is something that you must or must not do in order to use the fetish. A simple thing is a -1, but something that's very time consuming and cant be done just anywhere would be a -3 taboo. xxxxx(Example for a -1 Taboo: Sean can only illuminate his light fetish if he says something nice, out loud, about the Black Fury tribe while activating it. If he does not, or mumbles, the fetish will not work.) xxxxx(Example for a -3 Taboo: Hamish can only use his Pipes of the Otherworld if he paints himself in woad and wears correct and regimental tartan for his family wreath by way of a traditional kilt. Can only be done in private and safe places and never 'on the fly', and is time consuming by 20 to 30 minutes.) xxxxxDirect Threat: No roll required, produces up to -4 difficulty to your final roll OR an automatic failure. This is not an option you're going to want to use save in the most specific of circumstances, such as making a Bane Skin maybe. If you're a Gaian and you say "get in the container or I'll beat your face in", the friendly water spirit is going to instantly be put off and pike off. If you have your pack or something there to force the issue and keep the spirit from leaving as well as the clout to beat it into submission and follow up on the threat, you can get that -4 difficulty but at the cost of a Cursed Fetish. There's no way that water elemental is going to serve you kindly or faithfully after what you did. This also applies to Wyrmies! It seems like the way to do it, but it's not, and will come up with the same result even when you're working with Banes. Most likely, you'll always skip this option. xxxxxIndirect Threat: Charisma or Manipulation + Intimidation vs spirit's Willpower, all you need to do is succeed and you get -1 to your final roll's difficulty. This is another option you will probably always want to skip unless you are a Wyrmie, and for much the same reason as given in Direct Threat. You wont get a Cursed Fetish from this, but you and your fetish still wont exactly be friends; it only works because it's afraid of you, and the moment you're not scary any more it will abandon you if possible. For Wyrm shifters, this is an acceptable route to pick, but you can do EITHER Indirect Threat or Clever Persuasion, not both, so go with your strengths there and choose wisely. xxxxxActivated using Willpower instead of Gnosis: This ADDS 2 difficulty to the final roll of the project! The only reason to do this is if the fetish is for someone that does not have Gnosis, such as for a Kinfolk, a Mage or a Sorc that's in the know and hush hush about it, or whatever. It makes it harder to create the fetish because you're basically asking it to work in ways it normally would not, so it takes some getting used to for the spirit. The affect of using this would be that our Eternal Waterskin becomes Level 1, Willpower 6, and requires you to roll Willpower at difficulty 6 to activate it, so that no Gnosis having Kinfolk wont dehydrate in the desert. xxxxxAssistants above minimum: You get -1 difficulty to your final roll for every 5 assistants you have above whatever minimum is stated by the roll. In this case, you as the caster are the minimum number of shifters required to do this rite, but other rites require three or even more to perform. All of your assistants must be PC characters who are active, not in the freezer, in-town, and otherwise actually able to assist you (off-camera, at least). To assist with a rite, you have to have as many dots in Rituals as the level of the rite. The Rite of the Fetish is a Level 3 Rite, therefore all your PC buddies that agree to help must have at least 3 dots in Rituals. xxxxxWhat your assistants are doing is helping you to chant and drum, they're helping to showcase and show off the fetish vessel you've made, they're showing respect and reverence, handing you things that you need without being told, they're *part* of the ritual. Basically they're making a good impression and buttering up the spirit to get it to agree.

When you do the rolls from these steps and tally up your points, you'll find out how low you get to drop the difficulty of the final roll. If you've invested your XP wisely, if you've spent a willpower here and there when you doubted yourself, then you've probably dropped the roll from difficulty 10 to something MUCH more manageable.

Now you just do that last roll, fingers crossed, and you're done!

Writing the +request

Now that you understand what all those steps in the Fetish Creation Chart are and how the whole thing sort of works, let's try and put it into some practice.

Do yourself a favor, open a wordpad and save it as "Fetish Formulas" or something similar. Do all the work in this file first where you can see what the hell you're doing and not accidentally bork up your request. Also, if you want to make another of something you made in the past, it's a hell of a lot easier to C&P than it is to start from scratch!

Writing up your +request to make a fetish incorporates everything we talked about in the previous section, so let's take it step by step. You're going to write all this stuff out in your wordpad while going down the Fetish Creation Chart so that you can submit the entire thing, chosen steps and all, all in one fell swoop. It's a lot of work at first, but you're setting up your own order of operations. It needs to be understandable to staff, yes, but doing it this way is largely for YOUR benefit. Once you submit the request, you'll do all of the rolls in the same order as in the job on your screen. Do that, and you will not get lost or miss anything, it really does take the stress out of things.

Step 1: Starting your +request

Start off with a Hello, cause why not? We're people too! This is just like Step 1 from the Simple Fetish section above. We need to know what you're making and how it works. For this fetish, we'll just copy and paste it right out of the book. Hello! I'd like to make an Eternal Waterskin, from H&K page 62. I'm going to use a Water Elemental from WW:tA Revised page 300. Here's the details: Eternal Waterskin (H&K pg62) Level 1, Gnosis 6 The Eternal Waterskin most likely began as a Silent Strider fetish going back to their earliest days of travel. At present, though, it's a general fetish. It simply proved too useful for other tribes not to create their own versions. Tribes like the Bone Gnawers, Glass Walkers, Silver Fangs, and Uktena all have or once had desert-faring members; while the Fianna and Get of Fenris possessed sea-faring cultures that likewise found it useful. The fetish is a waterskin decorated with various glyphs and then bound with a water spirit. When activated, the water spirit fills the waterskin once more. Garou with one of these fetishes can thus cross great distances without needing to find a water source for weeks. {{{1}}} Don't submit that request yet, we've still got a lot more to go!

Step 2: Getting your rolls organized

We're starting out at Step 2 of the Fetish Creation Chart. For example's sake, I'm going to pick and choose as we go along as if I was a young Cliath Garou trying to make this fetish. As you move down the chart, just list each step and roll you have to make. This keeps you and staff both on track. Jot them down like this: * Rite of Cleansing - At dawn - Charisma + Rituals vs 6 - (Spending 1 Willpower) (-1 diff to Fetish rite per success over fetish's level) Pierce the Gauntlet - Handwaved Rite of Summoning - Gnosis vs 3 Water Elemental - WP 4 - WW:tA Revised pg300 Clever Persuasion - Charisma + Leadership vs 4 (Spirit's WP)(Spending 1 WP) -1 Taboo: Must pray in praise to the Water Gods out loud while activating or the Eternal Waterskin will not fill. 5 PC Assistants - Eric, Kenny, Kyle, Towlie, and Chef have all agreed to help with this, and all have Rituals 3 Rite of the Fetish - Wits + Rituals vs 10 -? As a Cliath, I cant do Call to Duty, and as a Gaian I've decided that friendliness is the way to go. I wasn't feeling too good about my chances even with my pack agreeing to help, so I added a minor Taboo to help give me an edge. See how there's nothing left out? I know what I'm rolling, in what order I'm rolling it, and I even know if I was going to spend Willpower on something to help my chances Everything we just typed up there should be going under what you already wrote for Step 1, so formatted, it should look like this: %R* Rite of Cleansing - At dawn - Charisma + Rituals vs 6 - (Spending 1 Willpower) (-1 diff to Fetish rite per success over fetish's level)%R* Pierce the Gauntlet - Handwaved%R* Rite of Summoning - Gnosis vs 3%R%R**Water Elemental - WP 4 - WW:tA Revised pg300%R* Clever Persuasion - Charisma + Leadership vs 4 (Spirit's WP)(Spending 1 WP)%R* -1 Taboo: Must pray in praise to the Water Gods out loud while activating or the Eternal Waterskin will not fill.%R* 5 PC Assistants - Eric, Kenny, Kyle, Towlie, and Chef have all agreed to help with this, and all have Rituals 3%R%R*Rite of the Fetish - Wits + Rituals vs 10 -?%R

Step 3: Proof your work

This is important. Now that you've said what you're making, how it works, and you've written out all of your rolls that you need to make in the right order, you need to make sure you're not forgetting anything or didn't write something down wrong! Let's look at the entire request: Hello! I'd like to make an Eternal Waterskin, from H&K page 62. I'm going to use a Water Elemental from WW:tA Revised page 300. Here's the details: Eternal Waterskin (H&K pg62) Level 1, Gnosis 6 The Eternal Waterskin most likely began as a Silent Strider fetish going back to their earliest days of travel. At present, though, it's a general fetish. It simply proved too useful for other tribes not to create their own versions. Tribes like the Bone Gnawers, Glass Walkers, Silver Fangs, and Uktena all have or once had desert-faring members; while the Fianna and Get of Fenris possessed sea-faring cultures that likewise found it useful. The fetish is a waterskin decorated with various glyphs and then bound with a water spirit. When activated, the water spirit fills the waterskin once more. Garou with one of these fetishes can thus cross great distances without needing to find a water source for weeks. Rite of Cleansing - At dawn - Charisma + Rituals vs 6 - (Spending 1 Willpower) (-1 diff to Fetish rite per success over fetish's level) Pierce the Gauntlet - Handwaved Rite of Summoning - Gnosis vs 3 Water Elemental - WP 4 - WW:tA Revised pg300 Clever Persuasion - Charisma + Leadership vs 4 (Spirit's WP)(Spending 1 WP) -1 Taboo: Must pray in praise to the Water Gods out loud while activating or the Eternal Waterskin will not fill. 5 PC Assistants - Eric, Kenny, Kyle, Towlie, and Chef have all agreed to help with this, and all have Rituals 3 Rite of the Fetish - Wits + Rituals vs 10 -? This is where you'd take a minute to check +pack/totem. Do you have any bonuses there that you forgot to list beside some rolls? Check your +sheet. Did you list Leadership when Performance is your higher Ability? Change it real quick! Once you're fully satisfied, format this beauty and sumbit it! {{{1}}}

Step 4: Completing your fetish

Now your request is in, and it's time to do the rolls that you set up in there! Open up the job from your +myjobs and let's take a look! All neatly laid out for you is what you need to do and in the order you need to do it. All you have to do is not lose your place while reading! Start at the top, work your way down, one roll after another. Stop right before that very last roll! Let's say our Cliath has rolled thusly: Cliath rolled 4 successes on the Rite of Cleansing, and spent 1 Willpower Cliath rolled 3 successes on the Rite of Summoning Cliath rolled 2 successes on Clever Persuasion and spent 1 Willpower The rolls are done! Now let's tally up what we have for our final result, once again starting from the top. The fetish level is 1, and we got a total of 5 successes on the Rite of Cleansing. This gives us -4 difficulty to the Rite of the Fetish! The summoning went fine and didn't raise the difficulty! The fetish level is 1 and we got 2 successes on Clever Persuasion! This gives us -1 difficulty to the Rite of the Fetish! We also added that Taboo, so that's another -1 diff And we have our 5 PC assistants, so that's another -1 diff All together, we're at -7 to the Rite of the Fetish's difficulty! Let's add this information to the job so that everyone's on the same page: {{{1}}} {{{1}}} We hit enter to add that to the job, and roll it up! Our Cliath scores 1 success on her roll of Wits + Rituals vs 3, and has successfully created her Fetish! All that's left now is to wait for staff to create the object and process the job!

That wasn't too painful, was it? When you're looking at the bare-bones Fetish Creation Chart, when you're new to the process, or your character isn't mystically beefy yet stat-wise, this whole thing can be intimidating and anxiety making. Now that you know what you're doing, what the options you have mean and why you'd choose which options, it makes things much easier and less taxing.

Do fetishes the same way every single time you make them, make sure to work in your wordpad and save your creations, and you'll do well! Include book sources and page numbers for your spirits or your pre-made fetishes, both for yourself as well as staff. Most importantly, relax and take your time. Nothing is so urgent you cant work on it during your down time.

So, let's get into some more complicated fetishes!