The Crow

By Mike Knight (jaknig@globalnet.co.uk)

Author's Notes

I had a look at both of the versions of The Crow on B.J's site, and I didn't like either of them. James Gleason's was too short and not detailed enough, while Steve Bool's was too long and a bit overdone. So I took elements from both, combined and streamlined them (I think so) and made this hideous monster. Mail me back with any comments and ideas.

Death is only a Beginning

People once believed that when someone dies a crow carries their soul to the land of the dead. But sometimes, something so bad happens that a terrible sadness is taken with it an the soul can't rest. Then sometimes, just sometimes the crow can bring the soul back to put the wrong things right.
-- Sarah (The Crow 1993)

Character Creation

'I know it was you, even with the make-up. I remembered your song, you said, "It can't rain all the time", that is from your song right? Oh Eric, I know you're here, I miss you, and Shelley, it's so lonely here all by myself. . . the hell with you, I thought you cared. . .'

'Sarah, I do care. . .'

-- Sarah and Eric

This is seen as the first step in creating your own 'Crow.' Without a concept you have nothing to work towards, so I see it as the most important part. Most concepts will be the 'murdered-for-no-reason' type, because that is the most likely reason for your return: Vengeance! You must bear in mind that rarely does anyone but a bog-standard mortal get to return. Other supernaturals have had their chance, and it's time to let the mortals get their own back. You have to choose certain aspects of how you lived, and how you died, who caused your death and so on.

You need to define these facts in three short summaries: Life, Death and Regret. Your Life, Death and Regret are explained in Wraith: the Oblivion.

Characters are designed in a similar way to Vampires, Garou and Mages. Attributes are the 6/4/3 split that normal mortal characters get. Abilities scores are the 13/9/5 split that Vampires etc. get to enjoy. There are certain differences, however. Crows are fueled by the power of their pain and anger. This gives them certain 'extras': all Crows gain + 2 to all Physical Attributes and Wits, even if this takes them over 5. They also gain, in the way of Ability increases, the following: Alertness + 1, Athletics + 2, Awareness + 1, Brawl + 2, Dodge + 2, Intimidation + 2, Firearms + 3, Melee + 3, Stealth + 3, Investigation + 1 and Occult + 1. All Crows are also immune to mind controlling magical abilities, and cannot be affected in any way by Mind Magick.

Advantages

Willpower, as ever, is the same as other character types. The initial score 5, and can be increased with freebie points.

The second advantage is Manacles. This is to all intents and purposes the same as a Wraith's Fetters. Fetters are defined in 'Wraith: The Oblivion,' on page 32, as 'The ties that bind a Wraith to her old life and the living world.' The version we will be using though, has moved on from that to be 'the ties that bind her to the living world and also reminders of your past life.' The more Manacles you have, the more Flashbacks you can have and the better you can direct your Vengeance. You start with ten points of Manacles, which can be boosted with freebie points. Manacles will give the Crow flashbacks, such as the gold engagement ring in the film. These may be of happier times, but will always be painful for the Crow, as they remind him of what he has lost. A Manacle will have a rating indicating how important it is to him. The flashbacks will have a stronger effect the higher the Manacle rating is.

The third advantage is Rage. This describes how strong the character's pain and anger is. It allows him to use his special abilities. It is regained in much the same way as with Garou, although flashbacks from Manacles can fuel the crow's rage. Note: Crows can frenzy when pursuing their targets, although it is a tighter frenzy than that of Garou or Kindred; it generally only occurs when confronting the Crow's killers.

The final advantages are the Punishments, the active magical abilities of the Crow. They allow him to more freely pursue his agenda of vengeance. The Crow gets 10 to spend on these.

You start with 5 points in backgrounds. These can be split between the examples listed here. Most of them can be found in Vampire: The Masquerade.

Allies

Arcane

Crows are inherently unknowable and untraceable, but how well they can hide from mundane society is determined by this trait. They therefore gain a free, extra dot in Arcane.

Haven

This determines how many places you can go in order to rest, and heal your psychological wounds. Each dot represents a single place.

Contacts

People who can help you out with information and aid, etc.

Fame

How well known you were before you 'passed on.'

Influence

How many mortals you had influence over.

Resources

How much money you can come back to.

Freebie Points

A Crow is given 15 freebie points for boosting up her character's skills, this gives them just the same as any standard Vampire or Werewolf character. Put them into use following the chart below.

Trait	Freebie cost
Attributes	5 points per dot
Abilities	2 points per dot
Willpower	1 point per dot
Backgrounds	1 point per dot
Manacles	2 points per dot
Rage	1 point per dot.
Punishments	5 points per dot.

These are very important. To avenge yourself you must choose the targets of your wrath. These can be absolutely anyone, anywhere. A corrupt police chief, a major crimelord, or a gang of punks that killed you in a fouled up mugging. Whatever you choose, bear in mind that the Storyteller will actually create them.

Gaining targets during the chronicle

During the chronicle itself picking up a new target isn't easy. Not just anyone will incur the wrath of a Crow. Usually any new target will be connected to the original one(s) in any number of ways, e.g. if your targets are a group of joy riders who deliberately ran you down, and in the middle of exacting your revenge you find out that they were working for a local drugs baron who sanctioned your 'demise,' then he would instantly be added to your list of targets.

Spark of Life

It is entirely up to you whether or not you want to go for the face paint or for something totally different, but you are likely to be strange looking, for the reason that you want people on the wrong end of your wrath to know that something special is after them. You want them to know that not just any fool with a chip on his shoulder, but a real live Vengeance machine, is coming to deal with them, personally. One thing to remember is that until you 'died' you were completely human. Now, even you do not know what you are, and this important for how your character reacts to things.

These work in exactly the same way as they do in all other Storytelling games, and are one of the best ways to regain your Willpower during the game, so choose wisely. The most appropriate ones are found in Vampire: The Masquerade, although a very common one would be Fanatic.

Creating The Other Crow

The first major difference that you will notice about any type of Crow character is that he will be accompanied at all times by a large black bird. What she is in essence, is not just a mortal Crow. It is a spirit which has manifested itself in the real world, in much the same way as the Crow himself. She has the ability that means that the characters mortal form can see through her eyes and hear through her ears. That is your crow. The crow is essentially a focus for the character's anger. If the crow is killed, so is the character. If the crow is wounded, then the character will not be able to use so many of his powers. They will be your ears and eyes, but sometimes a bit more.

Your crow's creation is done in a different way to your normal character. Most of your crow is done for you.

STR 2	CHA 0	PER 4
DEX 3	MAN 2	INT 2
STA 3	APP 1	WIT 3

The next step is to share 20 'points' out between any other Abilities from this list (maximum in any talent is 4). Athletics, Alertness, Awareness, Animal Ken, Brawl, Dodge, Empathy, Flight, Stealth, Survival.

Note: Obviously, crows can fly anyway, but the flight stat is just used for any aerial manoeuvres that are not natural, i.e. a loop-the-loop and other aerial stunts

The crow gets 10 Freebie Points.

Base Willpower is 3, but you can 'buy' extra Willpower by using some of your Freebie points at a cost of 2 to 1.

One of the talents given by the crow, this is the ability to know where any person is at any time. The crow will just fly and lead the Crow to his targets.

You have 4 Health Levels: OK, -1, -1, -2, -5, Incapacitated.

Vengeance

And I'm here to remind you
of the mess you left when you went away,
it's not fair to deny me
of the cross I bear that you gave me,
you, you, you oughta know
-- Alanis Morissette "You Oughta Know"

"You're all going to die"
-- Eric Draven

These are the Crow's own supernatural powers (like Vampire Disciplines, Garou Gifts, Mage Spheres etc.) and are innate abilities. Vengeance is what the innate powers of the Crow are called. The name comes from the fact that the only reason you have to be here is to exact revenge. You are here to set things right, whether it is to destroy a whole coterie of Vampires, or to redirect some misguided mortals, it is still classed as a Vengeance.

The Punishments

These are the magical abilities of the Crow.

This confers the extra speed of the Crow, as fueled by his rage. The difficulties to all athletics rolls are at -2. You can leap almost double the distance that your normal athletics will allow. You also are now totally immune to any kind of fall from a height of less than 100ft, landing feet first perfectly with no loss of footing. Your sense of balance is now so finely honed that you will not fall on any kind of slippery surfaces e.g. ice, waxed floors etc. Confers the powers of Celerity 3. Roll Rage [difficulty of 10 - the level of Velocity] and a turn must be spent to start. Lasts for a number of turns equal to double the number of successes.

You can heal up to 7 health levels per turn. This is automatic, and makes you very hard to kill. There is one penalty though: as soon as you have taken more than 7 health levels of damage, you are KO'd for as long as your damage keeps you below mauled, taking your healing into account. Crows do not suffer from any such thing as Aggravated damage, as all damage heals at the same rate. Each level of Regeneration also gives an extra dice to all soak rolls. All Crows get one level free.

Crows, being dead already, do not have the usual penalties that afflict mortals. They also have some of the powers of wraiths. Their abilities in that sphere include the hiding ability known as Eclipse. Crows have the ability, when no one is looking directly at them, to fade in or out of the Shadowlands, by the expenditure of one Willpower point and by rolling Dexterity + Eclipse [difficulty of the local Shroud]. While there they are not affected by wraiths at all, nor by the real world. They are more correctly in between the worlds.

This is how well you can communicate with your crow. It is an important skill. Connection is possible with a roll of Manipulation + Connection [7]. Communication can only be of one or two syllable words i.e. 'Kill,' 'Fly,' 'Follow,' etc. The animal can send no verbal messages of any sort to you. Any sight gained from the beast will just be strange black and white images. Roll Perception + Occult, difficulty 6, to interpret.

This quite simple power is rarely used by Crows. It is the power to sense and remove lethal substances from someone's system, anything, from poisons to drugs (even caffeine and nicotine) can be removed, the reason crows have this power is so that they can help others restart their lives. The sense power is quite simply the ability to tell what 'foreign' substances are in someone's system. The Crow gets his Purge Toxins rating in automatic successes in an Intelligence + Medical roll against the difficulty of 6 with a certain number of successes required, both to tell and to heal.

At all times memories and flashbacks gained will be full of pain and bad feelings, so for every one received, a Willpower roll must be made to avoid acting out the actual memory received. For example, when Eric is receiving memories in his old apartment in the film, he puts his arms out and collapses as he vividly remembers the pain of being shot in the stomach by T-Bird. Also note that not all flashbacks are of nasty experiences, but if you remember something happy in your past life you are likely to feel mostly sorrow and anger for the happiness that was taken away at your death. Physical contact must be made for it to work. You can connect with the essence of an object and read its 'memories,' the connection can only last a couple of seconds. The memories received will always be connected with the Crow player character. The process is always very painful. This power requires the expenditure of a Willpower point. People become available to read for a few seconds. It can be performed on anyone you have ever met no matter how well you know them or any object you have seen no matter when that was, or any person connected with your death. The memories contained within Manacles can be redirected back to the subject as a method of mental attack, (physical contact and a Manipulation + Empathy roll with a difficulty of the opponent's Willpower score are required). Damage done (if desired, players choice) is one level per success, for every level above three your opponent collapses for an equivalent number of turns (a Willpower roll diff 8 can be made to resist this effect). If the Flashback given is a strong one (level 3+) a Willpower roll must also be made to avoid acting out the Flashback as above. If five successes or more are gained the subject gains a derangement for (11 - Willpower) minutes (Crows' or Storytellers choice).

The Price of Vengeance

'I thought you were, like, invincible. . .'
'I was . . . but now I'm not.'
-- Eric and Officer Albrecht

To be this powerful, there has got to be a catch. The more powerful you become, the more you will attract attention and therefore people are more likely to be able to learn your weaknesses.

The crow that rests on your shoulder is the main weakness that you have. There are two parts to this weakness. If the crow is damaged then you cannot heal the level of damage that it has suffered. For example, in the film, Grange shoots the bird with a sniper rifle for four levels of damage in the church, the bird soaks one, so takes three levels of damage. This means that Eric can't heal away the first three levels of damage he receives when he gets shot by Top Dollar. That is the reason why he was still able to fight on the roof.

People can also find the link between the Crow and the Familiar, and utilise this knowledge. The difficulty on a Wits + Occult roll to discover the link is 11 minus the Crow's Rage score. A total of 5 successes is required to work out the link, but both the Crow and the Familiar must be present at the time of any such roll. There must be ainimum of an hour between each roll. Do not forget that the Crow doesn't often know the secret either until it's almost too late, but only 3 successes are required by the Crow himself. Taking too many overly cautious measures to hide the link should be penalised harshly by Storytellers!

A Crow finds it difficult to rest, to do anything except to pursue his Vengeance. Indeed, the only places a Crow can find temporary respite from his Rage are in those places he knows from his Haven Background. Here, a Crow can rest and contemplate for a time before returning to his mission.

Crows don't gain much from experience; their lives are often too brief after they return for them to learn anything much.

'When someone's dead, they can't come back can they?'
'That's what I thought, you referring to anyone in particular?'
'You'll think I'm nuts.'
'Maybe they'll just have to lock us both up.'
'You've seen him too?'
'I saw . . . somebody.'
-- Sarah and Officer Albrecht

For an unawakened mortal, to see a bullet hole in an opponent's chest just close-up, almost as soon as it is put there, can be a harrowing experience, and different people react in different ways. That is where The Shadow Chart comes in, to simulate a feeling anywhere between complete disbelief and abject terror. This table is in no way an absolute reaction table and any penalties are at your discretion. The table works in a similar way to the 'Delirium' chart in Werewolf: The Apocalypse, using Willpower as a benchmark. Also included are examples of different people's reactions from the first film.




The World of Darkness


Vampires

Crows cannot be embraced due to the fact that they are already as dead as Vampires (and they cannot be made into ghouls either). Their blood is totally insubstantial to a Vampire, with absolutely no blood points gained at all from feeding on them. In fact, judging by how well these Crows can fight, if a Vampire tries to feed on one he would probably lose more blood than he stood to gain!


The Garou

Crows have a token essence of Gaia due to the fact that their return is due to the Rage. However, it is focused by their Familiar overhead, so most Garou would probably treat it with the respect another creature of Gaia deserves, but there would be some confusion towards the actual Crow form, since it has no obvious links to Gaia. Therefore, until the Crow explains herself, there may be some minor hostilities, but after that the Garou will just let her go about her business, although let's face it, a Garou could not stop a Crow from doing anything that he wanted to do.


Mages

Technocracy Mages: These groups will hunt down and (try to) kill any Crows on sight, purely on principal. Some parts of the Progenitors or New World Order might attempt to control a Crow in order to experiment on it.

Tradition Mages: In general, Tradition Mages would just hope that they are not the target, and if they aren't then most of them wouldn't care until they found out their Magick can't kill Crows.


Changelings

Most would be of no concern to the Crow and pose no danger. Most are not likely to be a threat to mortals, although some of the Redcaps or Unseelie trolls might be an exception.


Wraiths

Crows are part wraith, and part skinlander. Wraiths generally have mixed feelings, but most stay away simply because it's a good idea.

Willpower	Reaction Example
1	Catatonic Fear	'This dude's gonna kill my ass next!' - Skank
2	Panic	'What the fuck do you want from me? I ain't done nothing!' - Tin Tin
3 - 4	Disbelief	'This is the real world; there ain't no coming back!' - T-Bird
5 - 6	Terror	'Don't you ever fucking die?!' - Fun Boy
7 - 8	Curiosity	'Gabriel, I though you were dead . . . you're not dead, are you?' - Sarah
9	Annoyance/Indifference	'Are you some kind of a Ghost?' -- Albrecht
10	No Reaction/Blase	'He's already boring the shit our of me, kill him!' -- Top Dollar