How do Lunars aproach new Lunars?

[Kyeudo]

I've got a Lunar character in my game who has finally been tracked down by the Silver Pact and I'm sort of stuck on what I should have them say to my player that would convince the Lunar to go along with it. "Hi, you totally haven't noticed this, but you'll mutate horribly and go mad if we don't tatoo silver swirls all over your body in the most painful way possible" doesn't quite seem like what would work.

 

[Captain Hesperus]

The Casteless is fleeing in fear from the Wyld Hunt when he stumbles and falls. He can hear the crashing and shouting as the Dragon-Blooded and their mortal harriers draw closer around his position. Then, as hope starts to fade from him, a burly, black leather-clad Gorilla totem Lunar steps out of the shadows, extends a hand to him and says, "Come with me if you want to live."


Captain Hesperus

 

[Thanqol]

Normally, this is why a Changing Moon comes on these recruitment missions. They can tell them the secrets of their power, demonstrate what it is to be a Lunar, teach them the history of their kind and spam New Friend Aroma. Against a serious social combatant who's actually helping them, seems similar to them, giving them gifts and telling them secrets most Lunars agree to go with for a while. Take 'em to a gathering where there's an Elder or two.


Now the Elders start arguing. The designated asshole says that this pup 'isn't worthy' of being tattooed and acts like an enormous jerk. The others insist that he *at least* be allowed to go through the trials. Cue sequence of trials, wherin the designated asshole finally grudgingly agrees to tattoo the new Lunar. The rush of victory at showing up asshole is enough for most newly Exalted Lunars to agree to being tattooed. If they start flinching when the tattooing hurts, asshole smirks and makes a snide comment about how "Knew they wouldn't be able to take it", which makes most grit their teeth and bear it rather than asshole having something over them.


Tweak to PC's primary virtues, of course.

 

[Kyeudo]

Well, the situation doesn't leave my Lunar player with the time availible to go all the way to the Wyld - he's currently got a few time sensitive plans going on in Nexus at the moment. If the extraction team insists on him going all the way to the Wyld, the character will turn it down but the player wants to get his character's Caste fixed and will probably be somewhat disapointed.

 

[Thanqol]

Well, the situation doesn't leave my Lunar player with the time availible to go all the way to the Wyld - he's currently got a few time sensitive plans going on in Nexus at the moment. If the extraction team insists on him going all the way to the Wyld, the character will turn it down but the player wants to get his character's Caste fixed and will probably be somewhat disapointed.

Realistically, the Lunars probably respond to "Soz I'm busy" with either mind control or violence. Killing chimeras / tattooing casteless is like one of the big things they do, and a bunch of them getting together and swinging by Nexus is a non trivial expenditure of their time. Alternately you can handwave it and have a bunch of Elders show up and do the same thing except here.

 

[Inverse]

uh..........You could always fudge a way of postponing the onset of mutation and/or the Silver Pact being able to take your player away from the location. Say, the other lunars finds something more important they have to do, or can't leave the area for somereasonorother, and apply somekindorarbitrary bandaid anti-mutation thingamajig.


Just ideas crawling out of the dark of nothatcouldn'tpossiblywork into the light of whatthehellamIthinking? ops:

 

[Plague of Hats]

Unless you specifically want it in your game, I would encourage you to just completely ignore the "spirited away to a Wyld zone" and most of the other mystical savage drum-circle crap pervading the Silver Pact.

 

[Kyeudo]

From what I understand from the Lunar book, a retrieval team usually has someone who knows Form-Fixing Method, so all they need is a Wyld Zone and they can perform the first stage of the tatooing, which seems to set their caste but they still have a chance to shift it later, after the trials. Nexus has a nice Wyld zone in the middle of Firewander handy and I did include a No Moon with Form-Fixing Method in the retrieval team I statted up, so I've got the means to have my player's Lunar tatooed.


My problem is not having someone tatoo him. My problem is roleplaying out the first meeting between him and the retrieval team. How do you get a new Lunar to believe that he needs to get tatooed when he has so far experienced no madness and no mutations? Especially when you are being told this by three people who just ambushed you in an alley?

 

[Plague of Hats]

If it hasn't already happened, I'd suggest they don't start attempts to convince anyone of anything with an ambush.


If the earnest conversation doesn't work for them, either because they're bad at it or the target is too skeptical, challenge the target with provable trustworthiness. Get hold of a truth-detecting god, demon or elemental; find a fellow, trusted Exalt with lie-detecting Charms. Or an artifact. Offer to perform some deed to represent their dedication to the target, or to carry out some favor. Find and capture/kill a mighty chimera as a demonstration.


Arrange for others to play-act as bad guys, or find some real bad guys, whose apparent goals rely on getting hold of an un-tattooed Lunar. Litter a nearby library of ancient lore with information about chimerism, or find a library that actually does have that anyway, and direct the target there. Masquerade as Luna and tell them to do it. Get the target to actually pray to Luna and intercept or bribe the functionary to convey the response you want, or maybe Luna responds personally and favors the tattooing.

 

[Thanqol]

Unless you specifically want it in your game' date=' I would encourage you to just completely ignore the "spirited away to a Wyld zone" and most of the other mystical savage drum-circle crap pervading the Silver Pact.[/quote']
This was actually how I handled the tattooing of the Lunar in my own Nexus game. Turns out the tattoos came with the Exaltation, who knew?

 

[DasDom]

In my game, I decided that the firewander district is actually the base of a Lunar...and the trials were set out in a way that the Lunar could use all his ressources, including his friends. The elder basically hired the Lunar to do the trials without him realising that he was tested...then, one night, the Elder appearered and let the Lunar away to ´tattoo and initiate him in the silverpact. (My Silverpact works more along the lines of a conspiracy/secret brotherhood than a actual society...300 Superhumans stretcht across creation don't make a society in my eyes.)

 

[Virjigorm]

You could have the Pact approach him and offer the tattoos, then see how he reacts. If he turns them down, they warn him of chimerism, then threaten to kill him when that eventually happens. If he says "yes, but not right now," they could leave a Full Moon with him to see that he eventually gets to the Elders safely (and also to kill him if he goes insane in the mean time).


Alternately, he could be brought into the hunt for a chimera in the area by a Lunar pack that's a few men short (possibly due to an earlier encounter with said chimera). If he goes along with it, it becomes one of his trials and a good motivator to get inked. If not, the party gets killed off and the chimera starts to be a real nuisance to everyone in the area, including the casteless PC, leading to an eventual encounter and an equally good motivation to get inked.


If the player already wants the character to get a caste, something like this should go fairly smoothly.


Hope the ideas help.

 

[Persell]

"Hey you, get in the fucking car, time to get some ink."

 

[Cryoseraph]

well, if your Lunar PC never saw the need for the tattoos, does he run into the shapeshifting problems of being Casteless? building up Limit? Using taboos? If none of these affect him, then he really don't have a reason for getting tatooed. Maybe sell him on a Tattoo Artifact if he's the more 'I like shinies' types in or out of character. Or there is the social pressure of the Silver Pact. Join or die (if its a nice negotiator, it's die eventually/later) is a big deal. Granted, its more likely to make enemies than allies, so you may end up with the PC staying Casteless and being Public Chimaera #1 on the Silver Pact hit list. If he sees the danger as too big, he may begrudgingly agree, and then avoid them completely afterwards. And that's okay too. It's up to the pros vs. cons you give him.

 

[Persell]

Speaking of social pressure, a pack of Lunars plus an elder sure might give a young Lunar all the impetus he needs. Perhaps they might even force him through his trials and force him against his will to get tattooed.

 

[Kyeudo]

So far the character hasn't experienced any mutations or madness, he's got only a little Limit so far, but the character's player wants his character tatooed. He wants the Caste Attributes and the No Moon anima power on more than 3 days of the month. I just don't want to have the player go out of character to get his Lunar tatooed.


There really should some general script for how the extraction team is supposed to aproach a new Lunar, at least a "best-case" scenario aproach.

 

[Captain Hesperus]

One evening, he's stalking the mean streets and then a rat wanders up and says, "Hi, I knew you'd be passing here, cos my pack's No Moon saw it happen in a vision. Wanna know more?"


Captain Hesperus

 

[XinonHyena]

In the Lunar Game I have been running the players are urchins that actually lived in the neighbourhood from Seven Devil Clever prior to Exalting, (she also found them fairly quickly after Exalting), she then procceeded by racking up favors by taking them in and giving them free food, clothes. She also made a show and used her natural charm to convince them tattoo's are really the best way to go. Trials are to come later when the No-Moon arrives.


In another scenario, I think it wouldn't be far fetched for a retrieval pack to have the most skilled negotiator they could recruit.

Now the Elders start arguing. The designated asshole says that this pup 'isn't worthy' of being tattooed and acts like an enormous jerk. The others insist that he *at least* be allowed to go through the trials. Cue sequence of trials, wherin the designated asshole finally grudgingly agrees to tattoo the new Lunar. The rush of victory at showing up asshole is enough for most newly Exalted Lunars to agree to being tattooed. If they start flinching when the tattooing hurts, asshole smirks and makes a snide comment about how "Knew they wouldn't be able to take it", which makes most grit their teeth and bear it rather than asshole having something over them.

I like this idea a lot too, a nice and devious play of reverse-psychology.

 

[Lord Raziere]

"Hey kid, did some kind of strange person come along who had a bow or was pregnant even if he was a man came to you and after that you started shapeshifting, feeling a whole new connection to the natural world and just generally feeling stronger and glowing silver sometimes, while all your friends and family have exiled you for being Anathema? if so we can help with that and teach you how to wield your power and get things done even though you are an outcast because we have the same powers, but first you need to go through a test than have these cool tattoos that show our thanks to the person who gave us these powers, gotta respect her donchaknow?"


"what if I don't accept?"


"We won't be able to teach you your awesome powers, you'll have to stumble along without us which would leave you vulnerable for much longer, and you won't have our protection when the Wyld Hunt comes along and kills you."


"....touche."


The Chimera thing should be informed of after the tattoos are on then you can go "too late, your safe now! Sorry for preventing you from going insane and becoming a monster of the Wyld!"

 

[Virjigorm]

What if the new Lunar "coincidentally" found some obscure or ancient-looking reference to the awesome might and power of some anathema wearing crazy magic tattoos? Some elder or another could have their most inventive Changing Moon create an elaborate trail of investigation that would lead the young Lunar to pursue the "lost magic" of ritual tattoos among the Exalted and the character would be led to seek out these "secrets" on his own. It would serve as a set of trials in disguise and only after the tattooing was complete would the character find out that all the cool kids have them.

 

[wordman]

How do Lunars aproach new Lunars?

Nose first, sniffing.


More seriously, one thing about the Silver Pact that gets glossed over a lot is the Thouand Streams River and the various factions within the Pact.


If you assume the existence of such things, then it seems like an obvious direction to go when an "made" lunar approaches a "new" lunar is for the "made" lunar to have a very clear idea of exactly how he can use this "new" lunar to further his agenda.


If the made lunar, for example, has a particular approach to the Thouand Streams River, he may be trying to draft the new lunar into that approach. If the made lunar is a tricksy fuck (and what lunar isn't), he may try to manipulate the new lunar into actions that dovetail with the approach long before the new lunar even knows the made lunar is there. Then, once the new lunar gives a damn about the goal, the made lunar shows up and says "I can help you with that goal", which conveniently matches the goal of the made lunar.


And so on. The point, I guess is this: think about the goals of the made lunar in approaching the new lunar -- what he wants out of it -- and how to handle the approach will be a lot more obvious.