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Chapter Six:

Systems
Crossovers Trade Secrets
Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. The Changing Breeds have many tales about how one
— John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton, Lord Acton Breed taught another this Gift or that rite, or how this group
It seems odd to some people that with all the power at a of shapeshifters stole that trick from its neighbors. It is
werewolf’s fingertips, players might want to add even further indeed theoretically possible for a Garou to learn an exclu-
to their characters’ abilities by looking outside the Garou’s sively Rokea Gift or rite, for example — but only under a few
given sphere. Garou can tear apart trucks with their bare paws, conditions.
run through the spirit world, track wild animals by scent and First, the Gift in question cannot rely on the unique
call on forces greater than themselves to smite their foes — capabilities of its parent Changing Breed. A Garou could no
and their duty keeps them plenty busy doing all of the above. more learn the Ananasi Gift of Spinnerets (which requires
However, the World of Darkness is a big place and literal spinnerets) than could an Ananasi learn Song of the
sooner or later, some vampire may well try to Embrace a Dire (which requires a Hispo form capable of howling).
werewolf, or an ambitious Uktena might see if he could Common sense is the first guideline.
learn the tricks of True Magick. There’s also the question of Second, if the Gift is something that both species (or
a dead packmate watching out for you from beyond the tribes) can use at varying ranks, the student can learn it only
grave — and what about all that alleged Fianna/fae cross- at the level he could normally acquire it. A werewolf must
breeding, anyway? After all, there’s nothing wrong with learn Catfeet at Level Three, whether he has a Bastet
enjoying two or more World of Darkness games, and the teacher or not. The varying levels of some commonly shared
obvious next step for many groups is to bleed them together. Gifts represent a Changing Breed’s innate knack for some
However, Garou don’t always work well as characters tricks — and this knack can’t be taught. Nuwisha will always
when a player tries to add the abilities and traits of another be better than Bastet or Mokolé at Umbral travel, and that
supernatural entity to the werewolf repertoire. The follow- is that.
ing rules are basically guidelines to keep in mind when the Third, the Gift in question must be no higher than
subject of “crossover characters” comes up. The Storyteller Level Three. Level Four and Five Gifts are the exclusive
has a perfect right to alter these rules to suit her chronicle, property of their Changing Breed. Similarly, any rites
of course, but what’s printed here attempts to answer some that strike the Storyteller as completely exclusive to one
of the common questions that result when one game meets type of shapeshifter — such as the Rite of the Birthing
another head-on. Plague — are off-limits.

Chapter Six: Systems 189

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