Beast: The Primordial

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Beast: The Primordial
RPG published by White Wolf / Onyx Path
Rule System	Storytelling System
First Publication	2016

The newest game to come out for the New World of Darkness, and probably the one most scorned on /tg/. You are a Beast, a living embodiment of humanity's deepest and darkest fears, driven by an inescapable need to sate your Hunger, a manifestation of fear. You may be driven by the urge to Ruin or Dominate, but you cannot help but Feed. Of course, where a Beast lurks, Heroes inevitably arise, driven to slay the Thing lurking in the Dark...

Sounds awesome, right? A chance to both completely blow off the supernatural wangst that bedevils almost all of the other WoD lines (except Geist: The Sin-Eaters and maybe Demon: The Descent) and revel in being the darkly ambiguous villain protagonist: what could possibly wreck that idea?

Then the preview edition came out, and the problems began to show themselves.

For a start, you don't get any shapeshifting powers at all. That's right, you have a "Beast's soul", but not a Beast's body - even your Avatisms are completely invisible to freaking mundies, even when you're squeezing through a too-tight space, ripping them apart with claws or breathing fire (unless you kill your Hero and form become one with your legend incarnate, merge with your beast soul to become a living monster, or decided to drop your lair [the fancy domain thing that is tied to you] on top of their asses. Though, if that happens, subtlety has gone right out the window). This fact alone got /tg/ mocking the game as appealing to otherkin: one of the mercifully rare, but not non-existent, branches of the furry fandom that even other furries think are out of their minds. It would have been bad enough, but coming in the wake of Demon: The Descent, which gave excellent modular rules for building a demonic form, fans were expecting a similar level of cool shapeshifting powers in a game that was advertised as "be the beast that haunts humanity's soul".

Next, though the intended flavor of the game was "screw the Heroes, they're really nothing but nutjobs who think they're the Good Guys and insist you're the Bad Guys", the writing of it came off as so sneering and condescending that not only did hordes of people start defending the Heroes (no thanks to that screwy "if you Critical Fail on your Rampage check, you spawn a Hero" rule), but /tg/ began writing Beasts off as otherkin fodder. The "special people with the souls of mythical creatures, picked on and bullied by the normies who just don't understand": that's what /tg/ saw and derided, in a repeat of Changeling: The Dreaming.

But, in a surprising show of self-awareness, Onyx Path actually took the time to respond to the criticisms and began an immediate rewrite of the book to address them. While /tg/ is cautiously optimistic at most about how well they'll work to fix everything, early reports from people who got a hold of the rewrite suggest that it'll be a dramatic improvement over the current preview edition the final released product seems to have changed very little, and leaves Heroes in the same position of 'pointless bullyboys' they started in. For the moment, it's too early to tell whether the line will manage to carve a niche for itself or become a repeat of Changeling: the Dreaming.

Family

To condense down what each family group of beast "souls" are, there are 5 different families of monsters (which again are each an abstract conceptual basis to come up with your own style of monsters). Each beast is the nightmare manifested, a primal fear given shape, and the Beast is always the first inflicted upon by this nightmare, and are no longer troubled by it. This also shapes their respective "Heroes", who will act in direct mirror to the beast. A hero of the collector beast who hoards might become a rampant kleptomaniac. A tyrant beasts hero might become a great public speaker, trying to turn the community against the beast. These families are then mixed with 5 hungers to help build your own "monster", so to speak. Currently the 5 are:

Anakim: Giants, ogres, and the powerful primordials of an earthy disposition. The fear that makes up your soul is the fear of powerlessness. Something that you will likely never allow to happen to you again. These are not your BFG friends, because even the nicest ones feed on the fear of powerlessness and dominate their opponents. As for their powers, expect strength, presence and for a fight in their lairs to become a titanic struggle. Like Attack on Titan where you're the Titan and your enemy forgot their jet pack and cables.

Eshmaki: lurkers, dwellers in the dark places, and sometimes capable of breathing fire or shredding opponents. Eshmaki are the beasts of the fear of loneliness and destruction. Because they have conquered their fear, they never feel alone, though they might be. Did I mention you can be a dragon with this. Maybe one day you can use your incarnate powers to rule the world as force of change... Or make a really, really good thief and possible killer. After all, what's to stop a dragon except a knight. And Knights are just more tinned food.

Makara: For those wanting to say they be the Kraken, the Makara are the beasts of the fear of drowning. A simple idea, but can easily be extrapolated further into overwhelming knowledge or circumstance. They tend to have the more lethal kinds of lairs. Drop one into reality and watch the world face a natural disaster level threat.

Namtaru: Those that believe in beauty being skin deep might have been referring to these things. Probably before being horribly fossilised. Namtaru are the fear of revulsion, and have Gorgons, and various insectile terrors in their background. They can inflict a single condition once per scene, but they also are potentially some of the easiest people to hide evidence. After all, a statue can't expose you if you're simply a talented stone carver.

Ugallu: monsters of the air that represent everything from harpies to the majestic Phoenix. They are fear of exposure, and too few people ever look up. Flight is something that falls among the realms of ease for these creatures. What's terrifying is their birthright ability to breach through facades. That means no glamour or special obfuscation can escape these eyes. It only inflicts a condition, but sometimes that's all it takes.

Hunger

Your Beast's hunger is what defines the kind of dark monstrous things you need to do to keep your soul happy and full. There is always the feeding on flesh and blood but sometimes a beast can satisfy their craving in other ways. Feeding your Beast is what gives you power, and how full your beast is is the satiety stat. High satiety gives you a lot of power to fuel your awesome abilities like unleashing your dragon breath, or using your titanic strength to kick a vampire through a skyscraper. However, high satiety has risks attached. Your soul could become gluttonous or picky, refusing to feed on anything other than rare and high quality heists or stimulations. A collector might not be satisfied until you have Fort Knox gold, for example. Another possibility is the beast goes into a food coma, leaving the mortal body kind of helpless in the mortal world.

By contrast, not feeding your beast enough means your beast rampages through the dreamscape often. This leads to "Heroes" showing up and cause extreme problems, especially since you're probably not equipped to deal with the murderous glory hounds after the kill of their lives. Walking the middle road between keeping your beast from rampaging and not having it become a glutton is tricky, but manageable. Sure, you might have at least 1 or 2 heroes knocking about causing trouble, but you're still strong enough to take them without as many risks.

There are 5 hungers-each working best with a single family but that doesn't mean you have to have them fit that way. I mean, no 2 beasts are truly alike.