History TabletopGame / BeastThePrimordial

* FurryFandom: It hasn't gone unnoticed that the background of at least the draft version is very similar to the philosophies of a small subsect of furries called "Otherkin", who believe they are the souls of mythical beings that have been trapped in human bodies. A particularly vehement VocalMinority has used the term derisively when referring to the game.

* ProtagonistCenteredMorality: Part of what makes Heroes the true villains as opposed to Beasts is that they not only think that ''they'' are the protagonists, but also that this trope applies. One developer playtest describes a Hero sneaking into a PC's law firm and murdering one of her employees, instinctively writing them off as being "her evil minion", when there's no evidence they even know the PC is a Beast.

* TomatoInTheMirror: Most Beasts experience a series of nightmares wherein they're pursued by some great monster stalking them through the darkness. A key part of their Homecoming, the process of becoming a Beast, is accepting that this monster is them.

* VoluntaryShapeshifting: The Atavism powers allow Beasts to transform themselves in various ways, akin to [[TabletopGame/VampireTheRequiem the Protean discipline]] or even the [[TabletopGame/WerewolfTheForsaken Uratha]] ability to shapeshift. However, a Beast cannot physically transform completely into their monstrous soul-self unless they are inside of their Lair. Thus preventing the obvious problem of "how the hell does TheMasquerade [[ExtraStrengthMasquerade still exist at all]] if the unholy combination of Smaug and Cthulhu can go waltzing around Times Square?" However, two of the three methods of "ascension" -- the "Golconda equivalent" for Beasts -- allow this. Firstly, there's the Merger, where a Beast allows their Soul to consume their body and reshape them permanently into a more accurate version of their true self, and then there's the Apex, where a Beast has assimilated their Legend to the point that their "story" becomes about them and thus they can shapeshift at will.

One of the most notable features in this game is how {{Crossover}}-friendly it is: all previous entries in the ''New World of Darkness'' were built with the possibility of being compatible, but ''Beast'' is the first explicitly designed to encourage it, giving the Begotten an entire set of powers known as "kinship" specifically designed to make them interact with other supernatural templates and dedicating an entire section of the book to explaining how they would interact with the protagonists of the other gamelines.

* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Though it depends on how evil a Beast is in practice, one thing that most Beasts prioritize is the concept of Family, be it other Beasts, their supernatural cousins, or even the normal human family they are a part of. One way of royally ''pissing'' a Beast off is to deliberately harm them, which is a tactic some Heroes indulge in whether or not said family member is a Beast.

** The Insatiable are less Anthropomorphic Personifications of primordial elements; Fire (Molten Earth), Ice (Frozen Hell), Earth (Clashing Faults), Water (Primordial Sea) and Space (Void).

The 99% complete public preview can be [[https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7FqViticwNuOGZvcHh3V19rSms/view found here]]. It was released as part of [[https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/200664283/beast-the-primordial-prestige-edition the Kickstarter for a deluxe edition]], which was fully funded in under a day.

** Heroes explicitly have an integrity score of 4 or lower, which means that they are both morally degraded or insane. The game does not address what happens if someone who has average human integrity (6 to 7) or higher (up to 10) receives the call, but presumably such a person would be DangerouslyGenreSavvy instead... aka a Hunter.

** The Insatiable are less Anthropomorphic Personifications of primordial elements; Fire (Burning Earth), Ice (Frozen Hell), Earth (Clashing Faults), Water (Primordial Sea) and Space (Void).

* AnthropomorphicPersonification: Beasts are embodiments of primal human nightmares, descended from the very first primal nightmares. This creates an odd connection to ''TabletopGame/ChangelingTheDreaming'', whose main characters are embodiments of primal human dreams. The specific ''kind'' of fear determines a Beast's primary splat, their Family -- the corebook Families are Anakim (Powerlessness), Eshmaki (Destruction), Makara (Depths), Namtaru (Revulsion) and Ugallu (Skies).

* CreateYourOwnVillain: This is literally how Heroes function. If a Beast allows their Satiety to drop too low (3 or lower, but dropping to 0 dramatically speeds up the process) and doesn't feed quickly enough, their Horror will go rampaging through the local dreamscape, causing indiscriminate nightmares in an attempt to feed itself. If this "auto-feeding" roll is a Critical Failure or Success, and the Horror happens to target a sufficiently weak-willed soul, that stirs something in the victim and creates a Hero, who will be driven to hunt down and kill any Beast they can find.

** A Beast whose Satiety reaches 0 sees her Horror falling asleep, causing her to lose all her abilities and become functionally human. The process is reversable by awakening the Horror again, though.

** Finally, the Apex requires mastering a Beast's "Story", turning it from a mere Legend about how a Beast terrorizes humanity until slain by a Hero into a Myth about a true monster. Only the strongest of Beasts, those who can effortlessly slay Heroes and reduce them to mere footnotes in ''their'' Myth, can become an Incarnate; though divorced from their former humanity to the point of losing their Life trait, they otherwise retain all of their human knowledge and self, becoming a true fusion of mortal essence and monstrous Soul.

** A Beast whose Satiety reaches 0 sees her Soul falling asleep, causing her to lose all her abilities and become functionally human. The process is reversable by awakening the Soul again, though.
** Beasts with the Apex Inheritance get the ability to turn Heroes back into regular mortals.

* CreateYourOwnVillain: This is literally how Heroes function. If a Beast allows their Satiety to drop too low (3 or lower, but dropping to 0 dramatically speeds up the process) and doesn't feed quickly enough, their Soul will go rampaging through the local dreamscape, causing indiscriminate nightmares in an attempt to feed itself. If this "auto-feeding" roll is a Critical Failure or Success, and the Soul happens to target a sufficiently weak-willed soul, that stirs something in the victim and creates a Hero, who will be driven to hunt down and kill any Beast they can find.

** Beasts need to feed their monstrous souls with a steady diet of nightmares, with their particular Hunger being what they focus on.

''Beast: the Primordial'' is the tenth game line in the TabletopGame/NewWorldOfDarkness, and the first to be released since it changed its name to TabletopGame/ChroniclesOfDarkness. You play a Beast, sometimes also known as the ''Children'' or ''Begotten''. An embodiment of humanity's primal nightmares, your soul has been replaced by a primordial nightmare monster known as a Horror possessed of a deep-seated hunger. However, your hunger needn't manifest as direct hunger - it can be something like hoarding, or making someone understand they're prey. You must manage your hunger with care, choosing whether to satiate yourself and become more focused, or go hungry and become more dangerous. However, if you don't fulfill your hunger, your Horror will rampage through the collective dreamscape, disrupting people's lives and inducing intense nightmares, which will cause Heroes to awaken, hunt you down, and try to kill you.

One of the most notable features in this game is how {{Crossover}}-friendly it is: all previous entries in the ''New World of Darkness'' were built with the possibility of being compatible, but ''Beast'' is the first explicitly designed to encourage it, giving the Begotten an entire set of powers known as "Kinship" specifically designed to make them interact with other supernatural templates and dedicating an entire section of the book to explaining how they would interact with the protagonists of the other gamelines.

Beast: the Primordial is the tenth game line in the TabletopGame/NewWorldOfDarkness, and the first to be released since it changed its name to TabletopGame/ChroniclesOfDarkness. You play a Beast, sometimes also known as the ''Children'' or ''Begotten''. An embodiment of humanity's primal nightmares, your soul has been replaced by a primordial nightmare monster known as a Horror possessed of a deep-seated hunger. However, your hunger needn't manifest as direct hunger - it can be something like hoarding, or making someone understand they're prey. You must manage your hunger with care, choosing whether to satiate yourself and become more focused, or go hungry and become more dangerous. However, if you don't fulfill your hunger, your Horror will rampage through the collective dreamscape, disrupting people's lives and inducing intense nightmares, which will cause Heroes to awaken, hunt you down, and try to kill you.

* BlueAndOrangeMorality: Beasts are made to view seeding fear and apprehension as a ''good thing'', so that humanity can rise above it. One outsider view from a vampire talks about how the relationship between two Beasts seems to go from flirtation to engagement to one killing the other's sister over the course of the month, and they still seem to be relatively cordial.

** Beast who manage to reach the Apex Inheritance get the ability to turn Heroes back into regular mortals.

* FallenHero: The post-revision version of ''Beast'' posits that, in the modern day, ''all'' Heroes have "fallen" from the original ideal. Where once they were brave and wise individuals going into the dark places and finding the wisdom lurking behind the shadow of the unknown, now they've become vainglorious broken individuals who believe that ''they'', not the wisdom they bring, are what society truly needs.

* BrokenAesop: The main book's explicit assertion that the Begotten are not evil is supported by the assertion that they (at least, those who take up any justification for it) terrorize and hurt people [[ForYourOwnGood for their own good]], and/or because their behavior was [[TemptingFate asking for it]]. UnfortunateImplications is putting it lightly.

This game contains examples of:

* AnthropomorphicPersonification: Beasts are embodiments of primal human nightmares, descended from the very first primal nightmares. This creates an odd connection to ''TabletopGame/ChangelingTheDreaming'', whose main characters are embodiments of primal human dreams.
** The specific ''kind'' of fear determines a Beast's primary splat, their Family -- the corebook Families are Anakim (Powerlessness), Eshmaki (Destruction), Makara (Depths), Namtaru (Revulsion) and Ugallu (Skies).

* BeautyEqualsGoodness: The inversion of this -- ugliness equals evil -- is invoked with the Namtaru. The Gorgons are defined by their ability to inspire revulsion, their presence inducing others to recoil in instinctive fear.
** It's also subverted, in that Gorgons still have free will and can choose their actions; the example character is a dedicated nurse who does the job nobody else wants and stays by the side of people who look to be DyingAlone otherwise (she doesn't hurt them herself). And regularly kicking the snot out of a different monster that preys on the elderly where she works.

* DarkIsNotEvil: Played with. On the one hand, it ''is'' evil, because Children need nightmares and violence to remain sane...and by feeding those Hungers, most are trying to pose ''less'' of a danger to their human friends, and they're actually quite ambivalent about their roles as the villains of the story.
** Indeed, some fifteen game lines later based on being the "creature," White Wolf has arguably come back around to the concept that started it all: "[[TabletopGame/VampireTheMasquerade Monsters we are, lest monsters we become.]]"

* EldritchLocation: Beasts are intimately tied to places called Lairs, locations within their nightmare soul where their monstrous self can rest and hunt. A Lair is a physical place Beasts can visit, and multiple Beasts can share the same Lair. They are built around a Heart for the center, further defined by Aspects, and potentially house places of significance called Chambers. However, a Lair is also a Beast's ''power stat''; the more developed a Lair is, the stronger a Beast is.
** Lairs actually exist outside of the physical world, but can symbolically be connected to the physical world and can be entered anywhere with a strong enough physical connection. One example was using a pool to enter a Lair that appears as a dark ocean beating against a beach of black sand.
* EmotionEater: Beasts need to feed their monstrous souls with a steady diet of nightmares, with their particular Hunger being what they focus on. Not feeding the monster soul enough leads to...
** EnemyWithin: Played with. The monster part of your soul doesn't hate you, and reconciling with it allows a Beast to finally be comfortable in their own skin, but if it starts to starve in the real world it will start to ravage the dream one to stay alive. This attracts Heroes.

* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Though it depends on how evil a Beast is in practice, one thing that most Beasts prioritize is the concept of Family, be it other Beasts, their supernatural cousins, or even the normal human family they are a part of. One way of royally ''pissing'' a Beast off is to deliberately harm them, which is a tactic some Heroes indulge in whether or not said family member is a Beast.

** Heroes, naturally, attract all of a Beast's hate and scorn. It's partly because, like Beasts, Heroes are forced into the role that "the Story" says they should fit, but unlike Beasts, Heroes get the "good role" and never ''ever'' question it. It's mostly because Heroes are obsessive, violent maniacs who relentlessly seek Beasts to kill them; that doesn't tend to engender very positive feelings, after all.
*** The revised version has softened this up - Heroes receive a measure of scorn from Beasts, but they also receive a measure of pity. They've both been called into a transcendent human narrative of fear and enlightenment, but the Heroes have lost the plot and made it all about being the shiniest light in the darkness.

* HaveYouTriedNotBeingAMonster: At least in the backer draft, the game heavily plays up the connection between Beasts and various real-world marginalized groups; the unfortunate implications that come with this trope (especially given the nature of Beasts) have led the developers to revise this for the final edition. YourMileageMayVary on how that turned out.

* ItsAllAboutMe: The driving force behind a Hero, and why they are ''not'' "the good guys" the way that Hunters technically are, is because the very foundation of their reason to hunt is because they have [[WrongGenreSavvy fallen into the delusion that the world is a story in which they are the protagonist]]. Subsequently, they are virtually incapable of working together with their own kind; their sheer ego leads to constant squabbling and jockeying over bruised pride, the right to claim the glory of the kill, etc. Furthermore, they look down on normal humans and consider them fundamentally unimportant - if the Hero is TheHero, than everyone else around them is some kind of SpearCarrier. This particularly sours Hero/Hunter relationships, since Heroes literally see hunters as nothing more than CannonFodder and too prone to getting caught in "minor sidequests".
** In fact, a good comparison to the Hero mentality is Lex Luthor and his "justifications" for fighting Franchise/{{Superman}} -- the real reason Luthor fights Superman isn't because Supes is "selfish" or "ruins humanity" (as Luthor claims), but a combination of projection of Luthor's self-hatred & delusions of powerlessness mixed with sheer ego. Heroes hate Beasts not so much because Beasts are "evil" as because, when they saw the Beast's Soul, they saw -- and rejected -- the reflection it cast of the Hero's own soul.
* LightIsNotGood: An example of the [[DesignatedHero "Heroes"]] who hunt Beasts brought up in the Gen Con 2014 panel is...[[Disney/BeautyAndTheBeast Gaston.]] In the corebook, it's explicitly stated that those who become Heroes are broken, degraded individuals; the kind of weak-souled person whose self-image is so frail that they psychologically ''need'' to attribute all their failings to some great enemy rather than accept their own faults, a need that leads to them latching obsessively onto the Beast as a convenient target for this purpose.
** In fact, mechanically, to ''become'' a Hero, you need to have an [[SanityMeter Integrity]] score of ''4 or less'' (the human average is 7), emphasizing how only the clearly unstable become Heroes.

* NotSoDifferent: Beasts and Heroes are both living archetypes from the Primeval Dream that have manifested in the mortal world. Also, to humans, both are pretty monstrous; Beasts ''have'' to Feed, and this does hurt people, but Heroes are capable of any atrocity in the name of "the greater good".
** Furthermore, Heroes have personality...quirks... directly relating to the Hunger of the Beast that created them. Heroes born to oppose Tyrants become natural leaders who [[NeverMyFault blame any and all failure on the efforts of the underlings that flock to them]]. Heroes born to oppose Collectors become insatiable kleptomaniacs, obsessed with collecting things -- their hatred is born of the fact they ''want'' what the Beast has. Heroes born to oppose Predators become wild, frenzied fighters, easily misled into attacking innocent bystanders. Heroes born from the actions of a Nemesis become convinced of their own purity and disdainful towards their "sinful lessers". And a Hero created by a Ravager is a totally detached utilitarian; everything and every''one'' else is disposable to them.

* OurGiantsAreBigger[=/=]OurOgresAreHungrier[=/=]OurTrollsAreDifferent: The Anakim Family is associated most strongly with the mythology of giants, ogres and Nordic trolls -- great, big, ugly brutish behemoths that overpower everything in their wake. The Anakim nickname is thusly "the Giants".

* ProtagonistCenteredMorality: Part of what makes Heroes the true villains as opposed to Beasts is that they not only think that ''they'' are the protagonists, but also that this trope applies.
** One developer playtest describes a Hero sneaking into a PC's law firm and murdering one of her employees, instinctively writing them off as being "her evil minion", when there's no evidence they even know the PC is a Beast.

* VoluntaryShapeshifting: The Atavism powers allow Beasts to transform themselves in various ways, akin to [[TabletopGame/VampireTheRequiem the Protean discipline]] or even the [[TabletopGame/WerewolfTheForsaken Uratha]] ability to shapeshift. However, a Beast cannot physically transform completely into their monstrous soul-self unless they are inside of their Lair. Thus preventing the obvious problem of "how the hell does TheMasquerade [[ExtraStrengthMasquerade still exist at all]] if the unholy combination of Smaug and Cthulhu can go waltzing around Times Square?"
** However, two of the three methods of "ascension" -- the "Golconda equivalent" for Beasts -- allow this. Firstly, there's the Merger, where a Beast allows their Soul to consume their body and reshape them permanently into a more accurate version of their true self, and then there's the Apex, where a Beast has assimilated their Legend to the point that their "story" becomes about them and thus they can shapeshift at will.
* WrongGenreSavvy: InUniverse, Heroes believe that the world is a classic "hero slays a monster" narrative story writ large. And that ''they'' are the protagonists of said story. They're technically right about the former, but it's the unshakable conviction in the latter idea (combined with their attendant belief in ProtagonistCenteredMorality) that makes them little better than Slashers.
** The revised edition expands on this. The Heroes are correct, in that they are ''meant'' to be the Heroes of traditional monster-slaying narratives - the individuals who go into the darkness, defeat the fear that the Beast represents, and brings knowledge back to the people about what it all means. The problem is, due to certain shifts in the global narrative surrounding "heroes," they've come to believe that killing Beasts is ''all there is'', and make it the only thing they really focus on.

* EvilIsOneBigHappyFamily: Zigzagged: Probably not precisely "evil", but Beasts regard both themselves and ''the protagonists of other gamelines'' as an extended clan, to the point where Beasts have some powers actively meant for interaction with other supernaturals (with some exceptions), held under the general line of "Kinship". However, just ''because'' someone's family doesn't mean you'll get along. In fact, this is how Beasts do with their "cousins":

** [[TabletopGame/HunterTheVigil Hunters]]: Hunters stride too closely to Heroes for Beasts to like them much, and are usually too human to form Kinships, though it isn't impossible, particularly for Hunters whose Endowments are drawn from their bloodline, such as the Lucifuge. Hunters don't typically like Beasts either, but can still pull an EnemyMine against a greater threat. Disturbingly, Slashers ''do not'' have the aforementioned limitations on forming Kinships.

** [[TabletopGame/MummyTheCurse Mummies]]: Similarly to Sin-Eaters, Beasts wonder at how close the link is between themselves and the Arisen, suspecting that the Arisen may actually be a lost Family that has been artificially enslaved since the dawn of humanity. Their relatively similar dichotomy between their souls and bodies can also form the basis of strong relations, even if the Arisen are generally and wilfully ignorant of other supernaturals.
** [[TabletopGame/DemonTheDescent Demons]]: The exception. Unchained do not trigger Kinship, which really freaks the Beasts out, and Demons are disturbed by how pacts automatically fail with the Children. Both parties are able to sense each other through whatever disguises they have, and though a Demon may see a Beast as a more-trustworthy-than-average asset, these relationships never last. Demons are ''not'' kin.
* EvilVsEvil: Heroes vs. Beasts. Yes, Beasts are living nightmares who are well aware that they're monsters -- even a Beast often instinctively thinks of herself as pure evil by nature, however much he tries to minimize the harm he causes. However, Heroes are just as dangerous; the phrase "gibbering, gore-spattered maniacs whose obsessive quest to destroy the Beast twists their minds and makes them dangerous to everyone around them" is used to describe the worst of them. In fact, Beasts are actually the [[ALighterShadeOfBlack morally superior side]] in most cases, because to them, it isn't personal; Heroes are attempting to stop a self-admitted monster from spreading nightmares across everywhere.

** Beasts do ''not'' like [[TabletopGame/HunterTheVigil Hunters]], since there is no difference between a "hunter" and a "hero" in the minds of the Begotten (when, in fact, a Hero is the person a hunter [[HeWhoFightsMonsters is afraid of becoming]]).
** They're also not fond of [[TabletopGame/DemonTheDescent the Unchained]], seeing them as "pod people" who ''look'' like them, but aren't. It doesn't help the two are utterly incompatible in kinship or pacts, nor that a Beast or Demon identifying the other puts Frightened Conditions on at least one of them, leading to meetings between Beasts and Demons that are often violent.

** Meanwhile, Hunters and Heroes don't like each other much. Heroes think of Hunters as getting their priorities wrong at best, and as being just disposable CannonFodder at worst. In return, Hunters think that Heroes are grandstanding, arrogant idiots, and so zealous that they should never be trusted.
** Averted in that Heroes are willing to work with any of the other supernatural races if they can. That doesn't stop them from trying the other supernaturals as target practice though.
*** However, most other supernaturals don't return the sentiment. In particular, werewolves find Heroes insufferable and Mummies, although eagerly courted for their help, are pretty much united behind the idea that Heroes are the very '''last''' people they would ever want to see being able to use their magic. ''Especially'' the Rite of Return.

** Beasts can heal themselves at an accelerated rate if they can retreat to their Lair and are willing to spend Satiety points to do so. They get quite a deal; one point of Satiety can completely heal every last point of Bashing damage they have, or a single dot of Aggravated damage -- no other Splat can heal Aggravated damage so easily.

* HaveYouTriedNotBeingAMonster: At least in the backer draft, the game heavily plays up the connection between Beasts and various real-world marginalized groups; the unfortunate implications that come with this trope (especially given the nature of Beasts) have led the developers to say that they'll revise it before the final version.