how do you build a caern for a werewolf the apocalypse game

[frost890]

So a little while back a few friends pestered me in to digging you my old world of darkness books. I never really had much chance to play and have a few questions. The setting is a small city near Reno. I have a few elders but how many others should be running around? I am going to introduce them to the Caern this weekend and realized I am not sure how big to make the thing.

[Bulhakov]

It's like a farm. The smallest you can make it is single family sized. The largest will have several dozen ranch hands.

[LibraryOgre]

It's like a farm. The smallest you can make it is single family sized. The largest will have several dozen ranch hands.

Not a bad analogy, but I'd start with the political.

How powerful is the caern? Who controls this caern? What's its totem spirit? Is control contested within the Garou community? Are there other, nearby, caerns and, if so, who controls them? Is control contested outside the Garou community?

For poplation, consider that you've likely got two populations to contend with... Garou population and Kinfolk population... there should be 5-10 times as many kinfolk as there are Garou, but most of them will be minor NPCs and possible love interests.

If you're in a city near Reno, you're likely looking at either Uktena or Glass Walker control... Uktena would lead to more traditionalist, First Nations centered caerns, while Glass Walkers would be ... not that. It might be interesting to have the upper ranks be a single pack, with a PC-like variety of Garou, but that can also lead to weird politics.

Incidentally, here is a website with some charts, that I found while typing the above.

[JeenLeen]

Some of the werewolf books have examples of caerns in them. Reading over those could give insight. I forget if it's the core rulebook or not, but I remember one having a write-up of a caern in New York's central park.

On the political, you might also think of how secretive the caern is. Do Wyrm forces know where it is but just can't penetrate its defenses? Do any other fera? I'd reckon that Reno probably has a ratkin population.
I'd recommend having the location be pretty secure, both in a mystical defenses way and in not being known to the non-garou supernatural world.

If you are drawing on other supernaturals as well, do vampires know that that area is werewolf territory and thus stay out of it? Do any mages (Traditions or Technocracy) know that something is up in the area? On the other hand, some Dreamspeaker mages make good allies for werewolves. And, though rare, Gangrel have sometimes earned camaraderie.
Though if you haven't played much oWoD, at least in a good while, probably easiest to leave other supernaturals mostly out of it except as possible focuses/tensions for a story arc. It could be troublesome to bog down a werewolf chronicle if they tick off the Prince (or Bishop--not sure what faction owns Reno) of the city.

One point of interest is how insular the society is. Garou tend to protect their kinfolk, sometimes in oppressive ways. It's up to you how much you want to play that up, but I could see a range of this being a strange family farm where nobody really sees the people except for occasional supply runs to the kinfolk mixing fairly regularly with the town.
Also, being in a small city doesn't mean the caern has to be small. Werewolves (besides Glass Walkers and the 'poor homeless' one (forget the game)) don't tend to like cities, so it's possible the more rural areas around Reno have a stronger garou population than Reno itself. Though still reasonable they go to Reno to help out the Glass Walker or Uktena when needed.

If you play up the vice aspect of Reno, it seems a good place for a lot of Wyrm corruption. Maybe Reno itself is dangerous for garou due to a lot of Black Spiral Dancers coupled with banes that feed on depravity and gambling.


EDIT: I somehow confused Reno with Las Vegas while writing that post. But if my limited knowledge about Reno is right, most of what I said is probably applicable.

[comicshorse]

One point of interest is how insular the society is. Garou tend to protect their kinfolk, sometimes in oppressive ways. It's up to you how much you want to play that up, but I could see a range of this being a strange family farm where nobody really sees the people except for occasional supply runs to the kinfolk mixing fairly regularly with the town.
Also, being in a small city doesn't mean the caern has to be small. Werewolves (besides Glass Walkers and the 'poor homeless' one (forget the game)) don't tend to like cities, so it's possible the more rural areas around Reno have a stronger garou population than Reno itself. Though still reasonable they go to Reno to help out the Glass Walker or Uktena when needed.

.

Bone Gnawers (Only played Werewolf twice but one character was a Bone Gnawer and Pack Leader )

Best advice I ever read for figuring out a Werewolf Caern was to work out how many Werewolves they need to properly defend and maintain the place and launch missions against the Wyrm. Then cut that number in half and give the Caern that many Werewolves

[2WheelsGood]

Have a location in mind? What kind of Caern is it?

Which tribe controls it?

How big is your manpower problem. .

My first WW adventure had the PCs come into their heritage immediately after a huge fight with a Wyrm creature wiped out all the caern werewolves but the Warder who was maimed.

He stuck around long enough to set the party on the road and then underwent the Rite of the Winter Wolf. His spirit could be summoned for further advice like ObiWan if they got stuck.