Coming Soon: The Pack an Ares Game

Cobalt

In a world where the existence of Vampires and Werecreatures was exposed in the early 2010s with the advent of smart phones and social media (and then opportunistic individuals going public on national and global television).

To the Windy Plains Pack, home, hearth, and family are the most important priorities. That’s why they accept any shapeshifter willing to abide by their rules as family. Pack-- Family --comes first. Everyone has a job. And no one starts any trouble that could harm the Pack.

Set on the outskirts of Cheyenne, Wyoming, The Windy Plains ranch is home to the local shifter Pack. On just over 300,000 acres of land, the Windy Plains has been home to the Brunson family for seven or eight generations. Unfortunately, the local vampire Circle has decided they want that land. The city has been pushing closer and closer to the edge of shifter territory and now the Windy Plains is prime real estate for new, lucrative development.

Warfare comes in many forms.

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WHAT: The Pack is a game focused on a gigantic multi-animal shifter pack, located on a generational family ranch on the outside of Cheyenne, Wyoming. The Pack would be happy to continue running their ranch with little outside intervention. However, the Cheyenne City Circle of Vampires has decided to invest in urbanizing more of the land outside of Cheyenne… and they want the Pack’s land. Roleplay is meant to be family, ranch, and pack oriented. This is a game of Family vs Enemies (shapeshifters vs vampires), urbanization encroaching on relatively untamed landscapes, and small town struggles against big city money. All with supernatural adventures and mysteries.

PCs will be allowed to play shapeshifters of almost any RL predatory animal (something that would bite a human being). Or human beings associated with the pack.
WHERE:
Website: https://thepack.aresmush.com/
Game: thepack.aresmush.com port 2022
WHEN: I’m putting on the finishing touches of grid and some theme webpages, then will be working on pregenned characters and npcs. I’m aiming for a soft open to alpha sometime within December. People are welcome to log in before hand and chat. But we don’t encourage starting chargen just yet.

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Hello! I have been slowly working on this game for a while now. I’m getting to a point where I may be able to open to alpha! I have to finish the grid (which isn’t as much of a thing on Ares games, thank god), add a little bit of info to the theme pages (oh my god I need more than just stat blocks for the monsters), and finish up NPCs and roster characters.

I’m not really sure where to advertise these days, so here I am! Whoo! Hi! Also, I’d very much be happy if anyone wanted to leave me feedback on anything that is confusing or doesn’t make sense. I apologize for any typos or grammar errors on the wiki (I normally have someone else proof read my stuff because my brain doesn’t accept grammar and glosses right over typos).

Anyway, I’ve been chipping away at this and I’m getting excited. I just wanted to share with people.

Some interesting pages you might like:

Oh, I’ve also just recently changed my mind about allowing human PCs as well as shapeshifter ones, so if you see any references on the website to humans not being allowed… disregard I’m going to go through and make sure all the pages are consistent before I open for apps.

Duke Whisky

One bit of feedback is that I really struggle to read white text off of a background image. It might just be this background image, the typeface or the size but I really struggled to read parts.

Cobalt

@Whisky Sorry for the late reply, I’m only now getting back to my computer today. I will mention it to Ren who does the wiki work for me, and see if maybe there is a better typeface for the visually impaired.

ETA: Ren has updated it to adjust the contrast, please let us know if that is better.

Wuff

Will there be any info on what it would feel like to be a shifter or a vampire, from either the perspective of someone that’s always been one, or the newly turned/infected? How does it feel, what is shifting like for someone, what does it look like to someone watching? How does undeath feel compared to being human?

Cobalt

@Wuff Oh! Excellent questions. I’ll add some info to the physiology page about what it is like to be a shifter. For the vampire there won’t be (for now), just because vampires are NPCs only atm.

Cobalt

@Wuff said in Coming Soon: The Pack an Ares Game:

Will there be any info on what it would feel like to be a shifter or a vampire, from either the perspective of someone that’s always been one, or the newly turned/infected? How does it feel, what is shifting like for someone, what does it look like to someone watching? How does undeath feel compared to being human?

https://thepack.aresmush.com/wiki/physiology#being-a-shapeshifter

Please let me know if anything you want/need to know is missing from there. Ty~~

Wuff

@Cobalt said in Coming Soon: The Pack an Ares Game:

@Wuff said in Coming Soon: The Pack an Ares Game:

Will there be any info on what it would feel like to be a shifter or a vampire, from either the perspective of someone that’s always been one, or the newly turned/infected? How does it feel, what is shifting like for someone, what does it look like to someone watching? How does undeath feel compared to being human?

https://thepack.aresmush.com/wiki/physiology#being-a-shapeshifter

Please let me know if anything you want/need to know is missing from there. Ty~~

Body Horror! Awesome!

How about mentally, you’ve scratched surface on the before, but after?

When shifted, is there anything left of the human mind or does it get subsumed in all that instinct of the beast coming through, the sense of releif palpable but after that I imagine it’s like tearing off a bandaid on the hair of your arm, it stings or hurts, but there’s a rush?

How much of the human’s shaped brain’s instincts remain, things like a sense of loyalty, love? Do they remember any of it. How does the mind handle shifting back? I expect the return to a human shape will be similar in feel to going beast physically. I

But with more wet fur.

Is shifting easier to deal with with age? Kids needing to be pinned down till they calm. Older shifters shake it off like wet fur but can feel the physical change more, the way someone might feel arthritis on a cold day?

There’s probably a whole lot to unpack in there for a pack member.

Duke Whisky

@Cobalt - That’s okay and thanks for passing it on! It seems to be better in some parts, but I’m not sure that all of the pages changed. I think it could just be a thing on my end with a personal struggle to read off of background images.

cirim13

@Cobalt said in Coming Soon: The Pack an Ares Game:

Or human beings associated with the pack.

As someone who generally loves playing in-over-their-heads human, is there anything to note about the place of humans in shifter society? Not really the views, since I figure everybody’s going to have their own opinion, but like…

Are the humans ever considered Pack, or is it always ‘associated with’? Are humans sort of kept away from certain things?

In my head I’m imagining it’s sort of like being a military spouse with its own weird dynamics, but I figured it couldn’t hurt to ask in case it’s much more integrated!

Cobalt

@cirim13 They are considered Pack because Pack is Family and Family is Pack. That assumes you are adopted, married, or born into the Brunson family (or one of it’s off shoots).

If you’re not… Well then it might be a little bit weirder, a little bit harder to integrate into the family. But it could be an interesting character to play-- someone with a specialty that was needed so they employed someone outside of the family/pack, and now everyone is like ‘how much do we trust’ sort of thing.

Cobalt

@Wuff said in Coming Soon: The Pack an Ares Game:

Body Horror! Awesome!

How about mentally, you’ve scratched surface on the before, but after?

When shifted, is there anything left of the human mind or does it get subsumed in all that instinct of the beast coming through, the sense of releif palpable but after that I imagine it’s like tearing off a bandaid on the hair of your arm, it stings or hurts, but there’s a rush?

It looks like it should hurt, right? Because you are messily changing from human to animal, but it doesn’t hurt at all. Because at that point the beast/animal inside has taken over and it is getting free. So the human body no longer registers. It is more like breaking free of a paper mache mould than tearing off a bandaid.

How much of the human’s shaped brain’s instincts remain, things like a sense of loyalty, love? Do they remember any of it. How does the mind handle shifting back? I expect the return to a human shape will be similar in feel to going beast physically.

I think the younger the shapeshifter or the newer the less human they are. They train and learn and become more human like in their thinking in animal form (though still not completely human). Growing up a shapeshifter comes with all sorts of issues due to hormone changes and stuff. But if you’re bitten and you work at it within a year you’d remember everything you do when you shift and would have reasonable ability to use and apply logic.

Unless, of course, you take the Primal advantage. At which point you’re probably a little feral (maybe I should change the name from Primal to Feral).

Is shifting easier to deal with with age? Kids needing to be pinned down till they calm. Older shifters shake it off like wet fur but can feel the physical change more, the way someone might feel arthritis on a cold day?

Yes, the older you get the easier it is to control and deal with. There is no pain for the shapeshifter when they shift (unless there is something wrong with them, which is an option if someone wants).

Cobalt

Game will be permanently closed as of 3/30/2023.

Gasboy

@Cobalt That’s a bummer? What happened?

Pavel

@Gasboy said in Coming Soon: The Pack an Ares Game:

@Cobalt That’s a bummer? What happened?

Creepers making it untenable.

Artemis

@Cobalt Shit, I’m sorry to hear that. Was conceptualizing a char on there.

Cobalt

@Artemis I’m sorry about that! I know a lot of really good people are going to be let down by this.

I’d be happy to add you on discord so I can message you if/when (lets be honest it is going to be when) I decide to make something new. Or if you don’t use discord I can PM you on here.

Artemis

@Cobalt lol I already have you on discord! Messaged you there, but yeah would love to hear about anything you do in the future.

Jennkryst

Tentatively following along, too, never made it out of chargen. NEXT TIME!

Cobalt

FYI,

If anyone still needs to grab descs or finish anything up, I’ve been sick with some unnamed ear/nose/throat/chest cold for like ever now so have not bothered to take the game down.

So lets just give it until the end of April.