Lineage System
Generational Game
Ascension Sojourns is a generational game. This is a major component of Garou/Kinfolk theme, and it is illuded to in some Mage Tradition write-ups, such as the Verbena. As such, we have rules and rolls for having offspring.
When you decide your character is going to have a child, please open a +lineage job and make the appropriate rolls to the job. Staff will interrupt the results for you. We also need to know who the biological parents are.
A +lineage job can also be opened if you want to adopt a child. This is World of Darkness, most of those up for adoption will end up being regular mortal children, there is a chance to receive a kinfolk, lost cub (shifter before their first change), or a mortal with a predisposition toward awakening or wild magic.
If you want to PUT a child up for adoption, open a +lineage job. We will need to know who the biological parents are, and when the child will be born. Staff will handle the rest.
Failure to open a +lineage job for any child may result in bad things(tm) happening.
Sample Request
+lineage <parent1-parent2>
The above is all you need to submit. Staff will do the rolls for you. See Magickal Interventions to choose your option if you want any of them. Any "healer" or "assistant" with powers that might help a pregnancy and birth go smoothly will need to be identified. Their skills will be use to mitigate the rolls.
As we understand the topics below can be triggering to some, you are not required to roleplay any of it out on camera unless you want to. If you wish to avoid all rolls, you still need to submit the job, and also provide a log of getting "Blessed" by someone with the appropriate supernatural skills. This may be a blessing by your local priest, a 'checkup' by the local midwife,etc. Shifters mothers automatically avoid all complication and condition rolls due to their nature, unless they take a direct physical attack to their torso.
Base Rolls
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Roll 1D100 - Staff will roll for you and post to your job.
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House Rules
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Mage
Mage parent(s) will be required to take the WARD flaw as well. Families are a huge responsiblity, and sometimes a liability as well.
Mages may handle pregnancy and birth as it comes naturally with all the above rolls made. With appropriate spheres you may ensure your pregnancy and birth is uncomplicated.
Spark of Life (and similiar merits) if present during the birth, with automatically create an uncomplicated birth and perfect health in mother and baby.
If any mortal or mage has daily access (such as 10 minute massage) to Spark of Life (that is not themselves), the merit will prevent morning sickness entirely. If they are away from the Spark for over 24 hours, morning sickness will return.
Since even in RL we still can only guess at what triggers morning sickness, this is not something Life Sphere can mitigate entirely. You may balance your hormones and other magickal effects and lessen the intensity to almost non-existent, to little more than a nagging sensation, but it won't go away entirely till the end of the third month. There are some secrets the universe isn't willing to let go of yet.
Shifter Offspring and Pure Breed
- KPB = Kinfolk Pure Breed
Rolls on D100
| Parents' races | Parents' breeds (Garou, Bastet, etc.) |
Same tribe? | % chance of shifter baby | % chance kinfolk | %chance neither | References |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shifter, kinfolk | Same | Same | 10 + (5 * KPB) | 90-(5*KPB) | no chance | K:UH 13, 51 |
| Same | Different | 10 | 90 | 0 | PGG 203 | |
| Different | n/a | 10 | 90 | 0 | ||
| Two kinfolk | Same | Same | 1 + (sum of KPB) | 50 | 49 - (sum of KPB) | K:UH 13, 51 |
| Same | Different | 1 | 50 | 49 | PGG 203 | |
| Different | n/a | 1 | 50 | 49 | ||
| Two shifters | Same | Either | 100 (metis, Fera limited by breed) | 0 | 0 | |
| Different (mother homid) | n/a | 20 | 80 | 0 | WPG 2nd 190 | |
| Different (mother lupus/etc.) | n/a | 10 | 90 | 0 | WPG 2nd 190 |
- K:UH = Kinfolk: Unsung Heroes (2nd ed) *PPG = Players Guide to Garou (Revised) *WPG = Werewolf Players Guide (2nd ed)
Example Rolls:
Shifter/kin(PB5) same tribe: Roll D100: 1-35 shifter, anything above 35 kin
Shifter/kin(PB3) different tribe: Roll D100: 1-11 shifter, 12-100 kinfolk
Kin(PB3)/Kin(PB5) same tribe: Roll D100: 1-13 shifter, 14-57 kinfolk, 58-100 neither
Kin/Kin different tribe: Roll D100: 1 shifter, 2-52 kinfolk, 53-100 neither
A shifter baby's birth form (homid/lupus or Fera equivalent) matches their mother. Female werewolves who bear offspring always wear their breed form when giving birth. (WtA 30-31, 59, also identified as "breed" in these passages)
Baby's Pure Breed:
- Same breed (Garou, Bastet, etc.) and tribe: Baby's Pure Breed is at least as high as higher rating among parents.
- Different breed and/or tribe: Baby's Pure Breed (if any) matches mother, but is 1 lower. (Breed also matches mother, in case of different breeds.)
Exceptions:
- If both parents are shifters and the mother is homid, then flip a coin to choose a parent to see which parent the baby favors.
- A shifter/kinfolk of one breed doesn't count as a shifter or kinfolk of any other breed (WPG 2nd 190), regardless of ancestry.
- For breeds without tribes (e.g. Ratkin), if the parents are both of that breed, then they're also considered 'same tribe'.
- If either parent is neither shifter nor kinfolk, then the baby is neither shifter nor kinfolk. (This is a major reason why kinfolk are so important to the shifters.)
PGG 204 mentions occasional exceptions to some of these rules, but these are rare plot-device situations and limited at Gaia's (OOC: staff) discretion.
Biology
Per WW20 Changing Ways:
- Female garou still have a monthly cycle but rarely experience debilitating cramps, bloating, or other forms of discomfort, and even these mild symptoms vanish when taking any of the intermediary battle forms: Glabro, Crinos, or Hispo.
- Garou women, generally don’t experience menopause until their early 60s.
- A pregnant Garou almost always carries her fetus to term. Her body rejects chemical means of terminating the pregnancy and, while homids can undergo physical abortion due to their lack of regeneration in breed form, not shapeshifting in the face of such stress and pain is very difficult.
- Werewolf pregnancies follow the normal gestation period for the werewolf’s breed.
- no movement penalties until the third trimester, at which point they must contend with a mere -1 to strenuous physical activities.
- A werewolf’s womb is as durable as the rest of her body, providing excellent protection to her unborn child, and the placental barrier eradicates most of the toxins and adverse chemicals long before they’re passed on to the fetus.
- Miscarriages are rare, only a powerful direct attack to the torso can threaten a child carried by a werewolf. Gaia designed Her warriors to be fully battle-capable right up until the birthing bed, where the werewolf becomes locked into her breed form for the duration of her labor.
- She remains visibly pregnant in all forms save Crinos, where the womb draws deeper and higher into the form’s enormous torso, protected behind thick layers of muscle, such that only late in the third trimester is her pregnancy visible at a glance.
- The fetus remains present and unchanged by any transformations.
Metis Biology
Metis pregnancies are highly discouraged. There is a reason it was mentioned in the Litany.
- A werewolf carrying a Metis pregnancy is restricted to Crinos at the second trimester. Wearing any other form causes the fetus to die.
- Metis births are more prone to birth complications due to the arrangement of Crinos hips. This often results in a very traumatic birth experience for mother and baby.
- A Metis baby may frenzy during birth, and if it does, it rips its way out of the mother likely killing her.
- A C-section can not be performed.
- There is a high likelihood that a Metis baby will not be healthy enough to survive more than a few hours after birth.
