Bar-Ba-Loot: The Frisking

By The Geek in the Hat (alex@m10.maclay.pvt.k12.fl.us), based on The Lorax by Dr. Seuss

Introduction

So, what is a Bar-ba-loot, you may ask? Well, they look, to the uninitiated eye, to be small, happy, fuzzy, cute bear/monkey-like animals that enjoy playing about in the wild (especially in Truffula forests) and generally having a good old time. What you decide that they really are is, of course, completely up to you. Could they be a strange offshoot of the Gurahl? Forest-spirits? Faeries of some sort? Simply rare mundane animals? (yeah, right . . . that'd be way to easy for the WoD) Or something entirely else? More importantly, what sort of strange powers will I throw together for you power-gamers to use to dominate your game and make everyone cower before the near-omnipotence of the Bar-ba-loot? Well, I'm getting to that sort of stuff.

What a Bar-ba-loot is

For this bit of text that I'm writing, I've decided that Bar-ba-loots are a race all their own, completely separate from the other denziens of the WoD. They're sentient creatures, and apparently came into existence in much the same way as most other animals did, (i.e., there weren't always Bar-ba-loots, but then eventually some vaguely Bar-ba-loot-like creatures came to occupy the environmental niche and adapted to it, becoming the fuzzy little dudes that we know today. This is also known as "evolution") although it's also speculated that they could very well be prodigals, possibly an offshoot of the pooka. They're known to exhibit odd powers at times, and the most likely source of their talents is the inherently magical Truffula fruit that they eat. Check out The Lorax. :)

Bar-ba-loot Roleplaying

These little guys are notoriously peaceful and content with their lot in life. They tend to just hang around in a Truffula forest and play in the shade while eating Truffula fruits. They don't have a Huge War (i.e., Ascension War/Apocalypse/Ragnarok/Jyhad/Autumn), that they're involved in, and if somebody comes and messes with them, Bar-ba-loots tend to get a bit discouraged and sad, and then they move along and try to find a new forest to play in. Yes, there are separate sexes for Bar-ba-loots, but only they can tell the difference . . . .

Bar-ba-loot Communication

They have their own language, a soundless tongue of body language and ear-wiggling. It's very hard for non-Bar-ba-loots to understand Bar-ba-loot communication, let alone speak it themselves. Bar-ba-loots have similar difficulty in learning verbal languages, mainly because the whole idea of words is foreign to them and their vocal apparatus is built mainly for squeaking and making purring-ish noises. Players of Bar-ba-loot characters shouldn't attempt to use this language, as they're quite likely to inadvertantly insult the ST's haircut and order pizza with extra PS/2 ports on it.

Power! Give me power!

If you decide to play as a Bar-ba-loot (let your ST know about this first, okay?) then you're going to hafta deal with a whole different set of special Advantages. Bar-ba-loots don't have Rage, Arete, or any of that stuff. What they do have, however, is...

Truffula Pool: The Truffula Pool is a reflection of how many Truffula Fruits the character has eaten recently. Not only do Bar-ba-loots eat these things for sustenance; they're rather tasty and provide a good bit of magical energy. Truffula Pool points are gained on a 1 point/1 fruit ratio, up to a maximum of 10 points in the pool. The reason, in case you were wondering, why these little furry guys eat the fruits while playing, is so that they can go however wild they like, jumping out of trees, playfully tripping their buddies, and other potentially dangerous activities. Whenever a Bar-ba-loot takes damage, it can spend a Truffula Point to soak a health level automatically. Hence, they can get smashed up pretty well with near-impunity while playing in a Truffula Forest. Bar-ba-loots bounce.

Friskiness: Friskiness is another important trait to a Bar-ba-loot. Points from the Friskiness pool aren't spent, they're rolled (sorta like Arete). Whenever faced with some nigh-impossible, odd, and most importantly, Frisky feat, a Bar-ba-loot rolls Friskiness with a difficulty of the trick in question and then gets to subtract the number of successes on the Friskiness roll from the difficulty of the test. When using Friskiness, Bar-ba-loots are noticably calm, collected, and cheerful.

Example: "Je'grafnin" the Bar-ba-loot is attempting to do a one-handed handstand on top of his friend "Glampka"'s upraised foot. Je'grafnin rolls his Friskiness (3) against a difficulty of 8 (the difficulty of the feat in the first place) and gets 1 success. Now, on his Dexterity+Athletics roll, he's got a target number of 7. (it was 8, but he got a Friskiness success) He'll most probably pull this off with a casual flair and a big, contented grin on his face.

Willpower: A Bar-ba-loot has Willpower points just like any other WoD denzien.... The rules for them should work about the same.

Gifts: Bar-ba-loots have a rather powerful connection to Gaia, similar to that of the Bete and their kinfolk. However, only the wisest and most learned Bar-ba-loots know gifts, and they can't be acquired during character creation. Bar-ba-loots often learn simple gifts from forest spirits, but this should be role-played out. Similarly, Bar-ba-loots start with no Gnosis (but can acquire it later if they feel like it, with role-playing and some experience points) and cannot Step Sideways without a good bit of practice.

True Magick, Blood Pool, Arcanoi, and Rage: Simply jesting, I am. :*)

Character Creation

The character creation rules work pretty much the same for a Bar-ba-loot as for any other sort of WoD character. Friskiness should start out at three for beginning Bar-ba-loots, and can be raised with 3 freebie points or the current rating*5 in experience points. Willpower starts at 4, and can be raised with a freebie point or the current rating in experience points. As with a vampiric blood pool (you were waiting for a connection between Cainites and Bar-ba-loots, huh?) the Truffula Pool starts out at 1d10.

Relationships and Crossover Rules

The Changing Breeds: Bar-ba-loots, despite their being furry, aren't particularly closely related to any of Gaia's Chosen. Many of the bete know of the existence of the Truly Frisky and wish to protect them from human expansion, as they are part of Gaia's order. The Bar-ba-loots really don't get too involved with the wereanimals, though, except for those rare ones that are born with Changing Blood.... (Be afraid; be very afraid.) They don't suffer Delirium, but do get instinctively concerned when a 9' tall wolf-man death machine starts ripping stuff to shreds.

The Undead: At least 95% of the vampires have absolutely no idea about the Bar-ba-loots. The only exception would be the Gangrel, but they tend to keep quiet about it. Bar-ba-loots know that the leeches exist, but that's about it, because they don't live in cities very often. By the way, if a vampire ever decides to drink from a Bar-ba-loot, he's gonna have a wee small problem with horrific Truffula-induced hallucinations while getting smacked down by a party of Bar-ba-loots. Attempting the Embrace brings flaming, explosive results similar to the Kitsune's.

The Awakened: Only the mages intimately familiar with the forests (Dreamspeakers and Verbena for the most part have the slightest inkling that the Bar-ba-loots exist. The SoE and Technocracy would probably like to study the little guys if they knew that the Frisky were around, but they don't. Bar-ba-loots don't make much of a distinction between Mages and regular humans; they just accept the odd happenings around an Awakened as normal.

Faeries: Bar-ba-loots are pooka magnets, and vice-versa! Bar-ba-loots have such freakishly low levels of Banality that they can see into the Dreaming with little to no trouble, and Glamour comes gushin' out all over the place when the Eaters-of-Truffula-Fruit come out to play.

The Dead: Sometimes, the older and wiser Bar-ba-loots shamans are visited by the Dead. Both parties seem to get absolutely nowhere with this sort of meeting, so it rarely happens anymore. Bar-ba-loots tend to go to the Summer Country or Arcadia or Heaven (pretty much the same thing with different names) or some place like that when they pass on, so almost never do you have a Bar-ba-loot Wraith.

Obligatory Archetypal Quote

*indecipherable ear wiggling, hopping around, and ever-changing body posture*