Werewolf the Forsaken: The Bitches of Brewery Park

***The Bitches of Brewery Par*k** is a game series ran by Dork Tales. The series' first season began on February 16, 2020 and ran on a roughly bi-weekly schedule until it concluded on May 31, 2020.

A second season began on July 5, 2020 and, after an adjusted release schedule to keep up with summer vacations and work schedules, concluded on April 11, 2021.

## Premise

***The Bitches of Brewery Park*** follows four young werewolves in Vancouver, BC, Canada, who attempt to hold their territory and live their lives in the wake of their Alpha's mysterious death. As the pack works to solidify their place in the city among older werewolf packs and even scarier monsters, they slowly begin to realize that there is much more to their pack's history than they ever expected.

## Cast and characters

#### **Player Characters**

* Amy Godfrey as Kate Powers, a lesbian retail clerk with a powerful sense of community that is both her greatest strength and weakness (Elodoth Iron Master)
* Caitlan Vinkle as Claire Iwatani, a Japanese-Canadian office worker who moved to Canada to learn about her mother's homeland (Rahu Iron Master)
* Christine Rattray as Meghan Butler, a recently established physical therapist who is thrust into the role of new Alpha (Irraka Iron Master)
* Jen Peters as Brighton Lee, a teenage runaway from Alberta with a sordid past she's trying to escape (Cahalith Storm Lord)

#### **NPC Packmates**

* Val Sparks-the-Iron, the pack's deceased Alpha, who was responsible for recruiting them and for single-handedly minding the territory for almost two decades (Ithaeur Iron Master). Val appears in flashbacks and pre-game fiction.

* Oobatu ("Black Dog"), the pack's totem spirit who was created by an act of selfless loyalty at a dogfighting arena

**Wolf Blooded**

* Niklaus Andreas, the younger brother of the pack's deceased Alpha and a trained biologist and researcher who provides support to the pack
* Daniel Butler, Meghan's older brother
* Lawrence Emerson, an elderly tow-truck driver and mechanic with a sharp tongue and gruff demeanor
* Norma Emerson, Lawrence's lively 10-year old great-niece who went to live with him after a terrible tragedy
* Gina Mitchell, Claire's oversexed office co-worker and best friend who specializes in legal review

**Human**

* Marissa Wong, Kate's gorgeous co-worker who is living a slacker lifestyle while collecting material for her screenplay. Presently dating Greg Coleman, a computer engineer seven years her junior.
* Lincoln "Link" Reid, Brighton's best friend and roommate who deals drugs while trying to overcome his own addictions
* Ross Phillips, a 1st Class Police Constable with the Vancouver Police Department who harbors romantic feelings for Claire
* Christopher "Kit" Roscoe, a sarcastic but lovable EMT
* Cory Frances, a non-binary computer programmer who performs in drag under the name *Frieda Anaconda*
* Carly Grant, Kate's cousin and a third year microbiology student at the University of British Columbia

**Spirits**

* Igigi (Black Headed Watcher), a spirit of safety and watching that appears as a metallic crow with the head of a domed security camera
* Minerva, Lawrence Emerson's possessed tow-truck
* Kiladabu (Excavating Bear), a raccoon spirit with a lust for acquisition

**Recurring NPCs**

* The Packs of Vancouver
* Christopher Price, star of the CW's new superhero show who is in a sexual relationship with Meghan
* Phillip Sullivan, a loser who lost his brother and his skin at the end of season one
* Captain Mark Sullivan, a captain in the VCPD with a connection to Val and the pack who was killed in season one
* Greg Coleman, a 21-year old computer engineer who is dating Marissa
* Brad DiMarco, a dickhead executive at Claire's office
* Jason Miyata, Kate's coworker at Black Dog Video who is obsessed with looking like Toshiro Mifune and fancies Brighton
* The Murder Queen, a *magath*, a hybrid spirit of electricity and corvids who barters help with the pack
* Addison "Addie" Hunter, Kate's former fiancee who has horrible taste in women and movies
* Brian Lai, a junior executive at Claire's office who is text-flirting with Gina
* Aubrey Bo, Brighton's sarcastic, mid 30s goth roommate
* Captain Mister Sausage, a white, fuffy cat that Link stole and named while very, very high

**Minor NPCs**

* Jaxon, one of Link's clients who detoxes in their house regularly
* Leo, manager of the restaurant Brighton Lee works at
* Charlie Mcginnis, the young receptionist at Meghan's clinic
* Frank Baron
* Constable Floyd L. Humbert
* Raymond Lang, Phil Sullivan's former roommate
* Derrick Hu, a gang strongman who beat up Link for bad service
* Laurie Yearwood
* Lynn Tharp, someone with four cats
* Marie Cohen and Paul Daniels, two cops that were killed by the pack with Mark Sullivan
* Estella, one of Brighton's co-workers
* Martin Bulinski, a private accountant who was Claimed by a spirit of hunger and killed by the pack
* Sleeping Thunder, a storm spirit that the pack killed as part of a deal with the Murder Queen

## Episodes

### Season 1 (2020)

Season 1's episodes do not have individual titles. The Storyteller has gone on record stating that this season is more of a prologue to the main narrative, and was testing new ground. He's considered pulling a *A New Hope* and renaming them after the fact, but he also doesn't see much of a point.

## Production

### **Development**

Kelly Clark had been wanting to run another Chronicles of Darkness game since before the ending season one of Hunter the Vigil, but wasn't sure which would be best for the actual play format. He was concerned that the amount of First Tongue dialect and multiple physical forms might be confusing for viewers. He was encouraged by several friends who would later join the cast, and reconsidered the prospect in mid-2019, focusing on the idea of an all-female pack. This pack would have to struggle with the difficulties of being young werewolves in the metropolis of Vancouver with the added issues that arise from being women in an aggressive, cutthroat society.

The idea was named "Bitch Patrol", because Kelly is mentally twelve years old. The rest of the cast thought it was cute.

This original idea was designed to follow a pack of five, each representing one of the five Auspices and forming a "perfect pack". Due to scheduling issues one of the intended pack members, Christa, who played Abby on Hunter the Vigil, left the game during it's development. Rather than replace her, the story was rewritten to focus on a pack mourning the loss of an important member, which became a cornerstone of the game's overarching narrative.

The series was renamed *The Bitches of Brewery Park* before it began to refocus on the Vancouver location and to add a bit more weight to the concept.

The Twitch frame layout was designed by Michael Ilott, who plays Xan "the Plan" in Curse of Strahd. The color scheme focused on using purple shades, as purple is the least common color found in nature. An intentional choice to give a sense that 'something is not natural here'.

Sound effects and ambient audio for the game is provided by Tabletop Audio.

The series theme, "The Wolf" by Josh Armistead is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

### **Casting**

The initial casting prospects included the final cast, as well Christa from Hunter the Vigil and Starfinder. Her presence is missed.

### **Filming**

The first two episodes of season one were filmed in the Dork Tales normal location, nicknamed Living Room Studios.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, episodes 3-8 were recorded remotely over teleconferencing software. Due to hardware and internet limitations, video recording for all players was not possible. It was decided that the player voices would be used over static photos to represent the characters while Kelly would be broadcast through video in order to present a more engaging visual than still images.

As season two is set to begin during the ongoing pandemic, alternative solutions are being looked into.

The series broadcasts on a rough bi-weekly schedule, with flexibility to allow for player lives and schedules, some of which involve rotating shift work.

Season two is set to begin broadcasting on July 5, 2020. It was originally slated for June 28th, but was pushed back when the Storyteller, Kelly Clark, injured his wrist and chose to postpone a week. The filming began on July 5th, and once again included video feeds of the players thanks to lessened network loads and the channel saving up to afford additional cameras.