The Perils of Pentex

 Welcome back to the blog, or if you're new, hello! 

I blog about creativity, world-building, roleplaying games, and take occasional forays into the worlds of mental health, neurodiversity, politics, and just talking about my life. The pieces I publish on Sundays are about roleplaying games - in particular White Wolf's Werewolf: the Apocalypse (last year I tried posting Dungeons and Dragons and Scion pieces and ran into issues, partly because they aren't games I love, whereas Werewolf is on the "prise the books from my cold, dead, hands" list of games I own). I love this game and the way it holds up a mirror to our world, even if at times I worry that the distinction between the real world and the World of Darkness is lessening. 

As an example, let's look at Pentex. The big corporation that dominates the Werewolf version of the World of Darkness, with an implication that it may, in fact, be the only corporation. This ties into ideas around things like the Paradise and Panama Papers, and the way that a lot of powerful groups only exist in name - probably without an office or permanent staff. The fact White Wolf hasn't ever created competitors for Pentex certainly suggests that's the case, but I don't think the company has ever confirmed that there is only Pentex, either. Perhaps White Wolf never saw a need to develop a rival, simply not seeing a point of doing it. 

What Makes Pentex Different? 

What makes the corporation interesting as a foe is the fact that it hits the Garou in a blind spot. While Wisdom is part of their culture and could suggest that at times taking the indirect route is the best course, werewolves are generally straightforward beings. They are warriors and run the risk of falling into the trap of treating every problem as a nail because a hammer is their most relied on tool. In fact, among many of the Tribes the idea of fighting sneakily is almost verboten, war is about Honour and Glory not the craven tactic of ambush or assassination. It's possible that other Changing Breeds would be more suitable for fighting the corporation, but the Garou's War of Rage made that almost impossible because the werecats, bears, ravens and so on view them with suspicion. As a result, the werewolves find themselves fighting a battle against a foe they don't really understand and who they're ill suited to fighting. The Tribes most suited to this sort of campaign are the Bone Gnawers and the Glass Walkers, which have adapted to the city better than the others, but they're still hampered by their Rage and the desire for things to be straightforward. 

While Pentex does deploy First Teams of Formori (humans possessed by Bane or Wyrm spirits), many of its tactics are more subtle than obvious. Befitting it's theme of corruption, the corporation has its fingers in many pies, from video gaming and brewing to oil drilling and medicine. 20th Anniversary Edition Werewolf: The Apocalypse - the edition I'm using to write these blog pieces - expands the company quite dramatically, though I feel it probably still doesn't accurately reflect the influence and reach of a modern multinational corporation. Referring to the 20th Anniversary Edition of Book of the Wyrm: Chapter Two: Pawns and Puppets gives us a deep dive into the corporation and it's machinations, albeit one focused on the primary industries that make up the "Hydra's" heart. It also gives an overview of the Board of Directors, which I'm not entirely sure is necessary because a) I would struggle to envisage a game where taking out the Board seriously became an objective, and b) because leaving that as something mysterious and unknowable feels like it would add to the sense of fear and paranoia around the company. Pentex Subsidiaries develops six new areas for Player Characters to investigate and uncover, and you can also find more information about the additions within 20th Anniversary Edition on the White Wolf Wiki. 

Using Pentex to Craft Stories and Chronicles

As a Storyteller, the corporation allows you to bring your Garou into the modern world and to illustrate the toxic nature of the society humans have built in the World of Darkness (but also in our own world). It allows us to highlight social issues like addiction, domestic violence, homelessness, and other things, in a world where there's little to no support for victims of these conditions. It allows us to build stories and chronicles focusing on these issues, challenging the Garou to fight their impulses to simply destroy problems with their claws. As a player of mine pointed out recently, you can't just tear human society to the ground and expect the problems facing the werewolves to go away. If anything, that strategy will make things worse. It's important to emphasise the culture clash between the way Garou do things, which is rooted in a warrior tradition that focuses heavily on personal honour and glory, and the way the modern corporate world works, where the only things that matter are results and cost (I would love to say that's only true in the World of Darkness, but I honestly think it's also true in our world). This culture clash creates a disadvantage for the Garou, because there are lines they just won't cross, which isn't a problem Pentex has. Playing up their ruthless streak makes the corporation as dangerous as Black Spiral Dancer pack, and arguably far more devious. 

While this is a left field suggestion, I would recommend looking at the Church of Scientology's "Fair Game" doctrine as an example of the sorts of tactics Pentex might use against a pack or sept of werewolves, to gather information, harass them, and try to drive the Garou or Kinfolk they're targeting to a point where they make a mistake. Don't forget that the corporation has deep pockets, a ruthless streak, and devastatingly good PR. It can do things that will drive the Garou to distraction and back again, while keeping its image intact.

Admittedly you can treat Pentex as you would any other large organisation - especially as Werewolf has strong Cyberpunk elements. Pentex could simply be another set of bad guys to defeat, and you could let them fight on "dumb mode" by throwing First Teams at the PCs every five minutes. Personally, I feel that would be a waste and would only make the corporation less interesting. If you choose to use the corporation this way, it will feel less personal (which may be your intent), but will enhance the feeling that the Board isn't particularly invested in the real world, seeing Gaia through concepts like profit, loss, and other capitalist ideas. You could argue that they aren't particularly attached to reality (or perhaps attached to a different reality) which is why they're happy to damage the physical world quite so readily. 

Two Sample Ideas

A Scene From Batteries Not Included

One of the best ways to use the company is to build up to their reveal slowly, highlighting a social problem you want to focus on and establishing threats. Perhaps Pentex has an area marked for redevelopment or gentrification, but that involves making sure they can buy up the buildings for demolition as cheaply as possible. As a consequence, the company (having watched Batteries Not Included too many times) hires or corrupts a gang to create problems in the area, driving down property values and prompting families to start moving out. Unfortunately, this affects a family of Kinfolk and word trickles back to the local Sept and the PCs are sent to put a stop to the problem. The gang members aren't even Fomori, but they do have some suspiciously good weapons, drink King Distilleries beer and eat at O'Tolley's (for the uninitiated, both Pentex subsidiaries). In fact, outside of the Banes attracted to the area, the pack may not encounter a supernatural foe until they face the gang leader, who's been corrupted into being a powerful Fomor, but who's not an insurmountable foe. If you want to be cruel, you can let the players, and their characters, think that they've won the day, only to reveal that it was just a battle in an ongoing war, one Pentex means to win so it can build its business park or, especially cruelly, it's "ethical business" offices on the site. Slowly ramping up the threat level, and allowing the pack to be a thorn in the corporation's local management, you can eventually reveal who they're dealing with and the amount of power and influence Pentex has. 

Alternatively, you could employ a different strategy entirely, one which might work better if you have seasoned Werewolf players. It's very easy to get jaded with reveals like the one I've suggested above, especially after a few chronicles of a game. There's a moment of "what, again" in any media when it's revealed that the power in the shadows is, in fact, a foe you've defeated many times before. Taking inspiration from both the Panama and Paradise Papers, you could create The Pentex Papers, a leaked dossier of corporate wrongdoings which a group of Glass Walker Cyber Dogs manage to work out often refers to Pentex. The game then becomes about the pack working to investigate and discover new ways the corporation is corrupting Gaia, travelling through the World of Darkness by Moon Bridge to have adventures all over the globe. In practice, I think the best way to present this idea would be similar to Shadowrun's Last Will and Testament of Dunklezahn, which is to say as a large selection of plot seeds either written in less than obvious language or corporate jargon. This would allow your player characters to have an extra challenge, deciphering what the snippets the hackers have found actually mean.

As a Storyteller, this would give you an opportunity to potentially focus your chronicle on the Global South, explore the way that the media has hidden what's happening in Africa, Asia, and South America from European and North American eyes, and to explore Garou relations with other shapechangers. Let's say the pack Moon Bridges to Kenya, intent on investigating the electronics "recycling" plant outside of Nairobi, it's almost inevitable that they'll be seen as interlopers by locals and have to convince the Bagheera (wereleopards), Simba (werelions) and Swara (werecheetahs) of their good intentions, to say nothing of the Mokole (werelizards) and others. 

It also allows you to explore new elements of Pentex, and if you're not adverse to the idea, use the game to explore how capitalism and consumerism impact on the Global South. If, like me, you're interested in your fiction exploring reality and the challenges we face, this can be a powerful tool.   

What's your favourite aspect of the company? Do you have a favourite subsidiary? Have you had a Pentex-driven story go off the rails in an interesting way? Tell me about it in the comments!