Building the Wraeththu RPG:
An Interview with Gabriel Strange
by Wendy Darling

RPG Links & Information: Sample Pages for Core Rule Book (PDF) Immanion Press Niberu.org (Bruce Wells) Related Interview: Bruce Wells, RPG artist

Many Wraeththu fans — whether gaming fans or not — have been eagerly following the development of the Wraeththu RPG, called From Enchantment to Fulfilment, to be published by Immanion Press.

News has been posted various newsgroups and forums, and the RPG's web site offers periodic updates.

However, for an in depth look at the soon-to-be-released game and the work that's gone behind it, I offer an interview with Gabriel Strange, the main driving director of the game project.

Gabriel offers insights on how the game came about, the challenges of creating it, and offers a sneak peak of what gamers and Wraeththu fans can expect.

General

When did you personally first encounter Wraeththu?

It would be about four to five years ago when Lydia told me about it, then by chance we had some time free when Storm was doing a book signing in Birmingham. There we met Storm and I mentioned about the RPG, and Storm seemed receptive to the idea.

There are two stages to this, firstly the rules were written over 10 years ago. While I was at college, I spent many nights thinking about how I could improve the whole role-playing experience. I used to role-play every weekend then, so I got the worst and the best of it at that time.
From the initial inception I did work on the rules and a mock setting for the next five years. Strangely enough the test setting was similar in nature to the whole Wraeththu Mythos.

Then three years ago we met Storm and I started slow to put things in to perspective. I reworked the rules to fit the world better. It took a little while to work out every aspect of what is needed and what is not going to be any use.

June of last year came around, then it was like we were all possessed, Storm, Lydia and myself, spent most of the month working on the background. 90 percent of the background was written that month. From then on it was the slow arduous journey of translating the notes and rules I had into readable understandable English. Now in the latter stages all of the written work is done, and it's just down to editing and clarity work. It's amazing to think in a little over a year we have written over 230,000 words for the game, as well as writing 50 percent of the next two books.

Not quite sure what you mean, if it's the game as whole, then this is what it means to me:

It's an epic journey of a civilization from the early days of enchantment and magic, to the progressive era of development for a stable future.

I think to many people it will mean different things, but overall it is a journey for a better future.

Our key staff:

Myself, I'm the graphic designer, writer, project coordinator, artist, web designer and a few other things.

Lydia, who does writing, reading and checks the Mythos. She also works on the web site when I'm busy.

Storm, who fills in the writing where we have missed bit. She also corrects the Mythos information if it needs it (thankfully we seem to work on a similar wavelength). Storm also has the interesting task of deciphering our English so it is clear and understandable by every one who reads it.

Wendy Darling, our ever-faithful editor, has to edit what we do, I believe in this kind of project having our editors as non-role-players means you can get a clarity not normally found in other role-playing games.

Our other staff includes the artists Bruce Wells, Aaron Henson, Olga Bosserdt, and Gillian Pearce. Bruce is the main Artist for the whole book. he is the one who sets the style and look of each tribe at the time the game is set. The other artists will then work on the look and style of the tribes they choose to do in the next stage of development.

Plus we have our many readers who look over the book and generally nod a lot. The main proof reader being Donna Scott, who like Wendy has a very good eye for English.

Finally we have our testers. We only have a few for this project, as it is a focused effort and we need testers who we can rely on to take our work and tell us the truth about it. Our key tester is Andy Peregrine, who worked as a writer on the 7th Sea RPG.

World-Building

As many of the fans will know, the setting from the books, what we have done is provide an insight in to the early days of the setting. The game is set at the breaking point of humanity, where the humans have finally realised they cannot win and will now fight to the death to protect what little future they have. The Wraeththu have also realised they are destined to be the new dominant race on Earth, but their road is not going to be an easy one.

The world itself has been hit by natural disaster after natural disaster. Disease, famine and the instability of society has brought humanity to its knees. What is known as America and Europe have now been taken by the Wraeththu and they are entrenched in every foothold they can get. The Eastern and Southern reaches of the globe have a lesser population of Wraeththu, and little is heard about from these areas. Few Wraeththu wander from their lands, for fear that the remnants of humanity still have a large enough force to do some serious damage to them.

I would say the most challenging is magic; translating what is purely a literary medium to something you can quantify and set rules for is quite hard.

With magic in the game, we are dealing with two unknowns, the first being the rules. Not everyone is a hardened role-player, so the rules have to be clear and understandable, as well as flexible. The second unknown is Magic itself. Many people will know magic as fireballs or wizards who magically conjure beasts and castles. Well, we're having none of that! The magic is more literal and is there to aid the story, not to make the character powerful so that can slay hordes of demons.

On the politics, we had to map out where each tribe resides, and how they got to such locations. Some were most tricky, as they are only mentioned one or twice in the books. Two of the tricky tribes were the Obliviata and the Smalt. Both are mentioned once. Then it was working out which tribes had bad relations and uneasy ones, with these we had to take factors of tribal ethics and ideals, as well as what happens in the future. It was by no means an easy task.

Another section we had fun with was the biology. We now have a clear idea of how things work, the inception process is described in detail (gruesome in some places), and we have worked out where they came from and where they are going. However, these won't be in the Core Rule Book, but are so we have a reference point to write about their evolution.

Basically it was quite hit and miss to start with, but we quickly got the right vibe.

Essentially what we are writing about is not widely known. We are filling in the gaps that will eventually lead to the setting in the first three books.

I write what I think is right based of the ethics and ideas of the tribes and the current world situation. Then I pass them to Storm, who will change or edit these as she see fit.

Generally we get things right. Sometimes I have had to explain my reasoning behind something. I would say 95 percent of the time we get it right. However, Lydia and I are fully aware it is not our world and if Storm is not happy with something, she can change it or remove it completely. Any wild ideas we have are usually discussed in person to see how they would work.

Interestingly, most of the time we find that Storm has not thought about the why and how things work in the world. So we all feel in some way like explorers and archeologists, unearthing the past and relating it to the present. I think for Lydia, Storm and myself it has been a learning curve, as there is so much to think about for a world beyond the scope of a novel. Lots of things will appear in the novel, but how did they come to be, what series of actions and politics made them happen?

Other things we think about may seem minor in comparison but are still important in creating a vibrant and realistic world. Fashion and decorations, social life and tribal beliefs, all play a part in shaping a world. The best way to look at this is where would we be today without art and expression? What seems unimportant to some people is vital in the construction and actions of society.

What has it been like knowing that future Wraeththu fiction, such as books, stories, etc., will possibly be impacted by the game, because of the "canon" it sets up?

It has been useful; knowing the future in such situation is advantageous, we have a line to follow and a place to be at a set time. I think this is what has made it possible for us to get the right vibe for the world, as we know where the setting will be in the future. It has stopped us from running wild with bad ideas and unfeasible descriptions. As I always say to people, we treat the description in the novel as only 5 percent (but the most important 5 percent) of the world, leaving another 95 percent to explore, not only by ourselves but by the fans and their stories.

Most of it. Storm is the first to admit she has no sense of direction, hence Cal also has no sense of direction in the novels. Mapping Megalithica was interesting, working of descriptions in the book, where everything was either north or south of somewhere, and some places were both. However, the end result is useful to us and to Storm.

With these tribes Lydia and I have had some free reign. However, we still need to make them functional in the context of the world. It is usually a case of reading what little description there is and extrapolating where they live and their reasons for being there.

The short story Storm wrote about the Obliviata was set in the future. The idea that the character felt trapped by their surroundings made me think that the tribe would be nomadic, and as they were trapped in Megalithica, far away form their home land, I decided that around the Arabian nations is a good place to have them come from. One you have a home land, everything else is pretty much common sense. At the end of the day every tribe wants to survive and each will put in place customs and beliefs that will ensure that survival, add a twist of lemon and you're done.

Inception and the biology is the best bit to me. It will answer many question fans have had. Also describing how magic works in the world is also cool, even though its hard to write.

They will add flavour to the game, and help those playing it get a clear picture of the world. Many of these contain plot ideas or possible hooks to get stories going; some are just a bit of fun. One thing we have tried to do is keep the voices of the characters real, as people rarely talk like they do in films or books. The way we did this is to listen to how we speak to each other and capture something of what a real person would say, and not someone who swallowed a thesaurus.

In role-playing it's always nice to have something that could in many ways be called an artifact, a story or letter form a character will give you more feeling for the world than just a description of it. You can read between the lines and see what the character is thinking. Also it can give us a chance to ad a personal spin to events. Even though in some cases this spin is wrong, it's what that character believes. At the end of the day, it just give the reader something that can give them a feeling of what the world is like.

My hope is that a lot of the fan fiction writers will find a group of friends to role-play with, and the end result is those adventures can also become fan fiction.

The game aspect offers a different way to tell stories. I always see role-playing as a more traditional form of storytelling. Where a group would sit around a campfire and one person would tell a story and the story would evolve based on the reaction of the listeners. Role-playing is giving the listeners direct control over the main characters of the story.

With this I hope the fan fiction and gaming fans will work together to produce some interesting and fun fan fiction.

The Game Itself

The main one is to bring new people in to the world of role-playing, and to give them a taste of something that is fun and exiting — and not just for a select few.

1) Managing time, 2) writers Block, 3) clarity of text.

I would say in many ways, the main ones being that the book is aimed at a wider audience. Unlike other game makers, we have explained everything, so most people can understand what role-playing is all about. I'm sure many people have picked up a RPG book and after the first chapter, wondered what it was going on about. This element of confusion is what we hope to remove by telling the reader what it is all about and relating it to movie making, which is more approachable.

Also our subject matter is rarely touched on in a serious light. The main part of role-play a Wraeththu is coming to terms with your newfound sexuality. This is not an easy process and can offer great potential for stories and good role-playing. One thing we hope to offer in future books is a greater insight in to what will go through the mind of a newly incepted hara. For this we will be talking to transsexuals and other groups who have gone through such events in their life. The greater depth an understanding the next two books will offer can bring a story to life.

Look at it this way: A Wraeththu was once human, all they have done is undergone a change. Their world view and psychology will eventually change to suit this new psyche. This is something we can realistically imagine as this kind of thing does happen.

Being an Elf that has lived for 1000 years, to me, is almost impossible to play. We don't know what effect living so long will have on the mind. In my opinion physiological disorders and apathy would come as part and parcel to such along life span. Yet in many games people just play Elves as humans with cool abilities.

The same goes for Dwarves. They are long-lived and have an obsession with rocks, which could be classified as a sexual perversion. Again, in my experience, Dwarves are played as humans will cool abilities.

At the end of the day, the Wraeththu psychology is closer to that of a human, because they live in a similar would and face similar situations. So certain key instincts and factors will still come in to account.

A lot of this comes down to common psychology and instinct. Your psychology will change the further you get in to the world of fantasy. Living underground and obsession over rocks, coming out only at night to drink blood and living for thousands of years, etc., will all have affects in psychology and behaviour, beyond what we could possibly understand.

Eeek, I could write a book on this…

OK, the short answer is: These elements are tools by which the Storyteller and player can promote good role-playing and enhance the story and playing experience.

Rather than just saying 'Oh you're a Wraeththu now,' it is better to act out the changes over time. This will also help the player get in to the feel and psychology of playing a har, as they can construct the new character psychology over time and bring in little things as throwbacks to human life.

I have seen many people playing humans who get turned in to vampires, and it's almost like a switch has been flicked and their character instantly become something different. To me this is bad role-playing. If such a massive change happens to you overnight, you at first would want to go back. You would miss your old ways and may even try to go back. Other outlets for such stress could be self-abuse or a complete change in the character's psychology. Such things are not easy transitions, and if these transitions are put on the character, it can enhance the enjoyment of the game greatly. They can also be useful for people who want to write fan fiction.

Like in the books, it is a literal means to an end.

Unlike other fantasy books, magic is not all fireballs and frogs. What the character does is try to manipulate the magical energies of the universe without it noticing what you're doing. Like with a pond, a small water strider skipping the surface would go unnoticed, a large rock thrown in would be noticed by all.

The idea is for the players to come up with a good literal description of what they are doing and make it so the effect is the kind that is powerful but small and inconsequential. The last thing you want is to have something snap back at you when you least expect it. This how the universe will smooth out those ripples a character makes. So the less ripple the less chance your character will get negative affects, at important events.

It is all down to the Storyteller how thing flow. Some players will get to grips with things quickly, other will make a few mistakes. These mistakes are what can make good and interesting storylines.

It's not a big deal at all.

At the end of the day, look at it this way: People have sex, it is an essential part of our survival, and the Wraeththu are in the same boat but for different reasons. Sex is as essential as food, and like in novels and games a character very rarely sit down and describe the intricacies of what you're eating and how the characters are going it. The same goes for sex. A simple line such as 'Were off to have Aruna,' is all that is needed.

At the end of the day, it is down to the individual group as to how they describe this, though it is an essential part of life. It is also a common one so will not need describing every time it happens.

The is an aid to anyone who has not role-played before. It will help them get the general feel of what it is all about and hopefully take out some of the mystery and much of the stigma associated with role-playing.

This is immensely difficult to do in such a short space of time. However...

The best way to put this is to say the group, led by the Storyteller, will be taken through a free form and open story where anything can happen. The Storyteller will open the story with a short reading with the main plot hooks for the charters. From here it is the Storyteller who has to give descriptions and literary tools for the players to describe their actions. The better the descriptions, the better the actions. It is a fine balance between to much description and not enough, so the Storyteller must juggle what is right.

As the game progresses, the character will wander around the world and the Storyteller will describe actions and the interaction of others around them. Occasionally the Storyteller will take on the role of a non-player character, for better interaction.

It's really like a carefully controlled discussion with rules to help gauge if the character is capable if such an action.

The Storyteller will fill in blanks and offer up tidbits of information if the players get stuck and mediate combat and make sure the rules are adhered to. Though the rules of combat may seem limiting, the aim is to make things realistic and give the players something to think about, as one bad die roll could mean death for a character. The rules are there to add a realism to certain actions, since as we all know, even the most skilled person can make a mistake, and this roll of a die offers that risk factor that we have in everyday life.

Artwork

Because he is good and adds a certain feel to the book, a feel that will help the game sell to a different audience. A lot of what makes a RPG sell is the artwork, and having vivid and striking artwork is important. Bruce fit that role perfectly, plus he is a big Wraeththu fan so already had a feel for the world.

Bruce is mainly doing characters and scenes to help illustrate the fashions and look of the tribes and their surroundings. Other artwork is being used, mostly done by myself and the other artists to help describe specific details such as weapons or items in the world.

Illustration of har
of the Unneah tribe
by Bruce Wells

I would say that Bruce's image of Wraeththu is a lot more brutal and industrial than others artists. I really like it myself, because it is different. How do you feel this image fits with the game? Also, what has been the reaction of people to this "different" type of image?

Many people like the artwork because it give things a harder edge, that edge which is needed to describe the current world state. Everything is not a bed of roses and it is still a fight for survival. Bruce's art reflects that edge of the world which is brutal and unforgiving.

For the tribes, I left everything in the hands of Bruce. As an artist myself I know what it can be like being told what to draw, so I just give Bruce an idea and let him roll with it. This helps with inspiration and the end result is you get a better images.

Related Projects

We have two other books are currently working on, the 'Players Guide' and the 'Storytellers Companion.' Both of these books will give more in-depth detail in the world, offering more information on psychology and things at are important to the world. Also we will use these books to bring in new tribes and areas of the world, as these books will describe events and have information about what has happened over the 4 years since the game setting started.

The main use of these books though it to help Storyteller and Players get more out of the game. It will give them insights in to how to build better characters and role-play them better. Also how to become a better Storyteller and going in depth about setting up stories and characters. Many of these sections will be written or at least approved by people in various professional fields, such as writers, actors, and people who have experienced such physical and sexual changes.

There is still the long-running plan the do a Tarot deck, as well as number of short novellas written by Storm. Also we have more fan fiction novels planned and are still looking for more good submissions, which I hope this game will help happen.

A few other projects such as the computer game and movie ideas have been planned but have been put on hold due to current events we cannot discuss at this time.

About the Interviewer:
Wendy Darling (nickname Wiebke Fesch) is a web designer, fanfic author, and editor of Inception. She lives in Atlanta, GA, where she is self-employed, operating her own web design business, Metro Girl. Wendy is co-author of a Wraeththu Mythos novel called Breeding Discontent, and is an editor with Immanion Press. You can reach Wendy at wdarling@abraxis.com.