| Paperback
- 72 Pages
Q: How many Wendigo does it take to change
a burned out light bulb?
A: What's a light bulb?
Q: How many Red Talons does it take to change
a burned out light bulb?
A: WEAVER THING! DESTROY!
Q: How many Nuwisha does it take to change
a burned out light bulb?
A: Only one, he changes the house around the
light bulb.
(Copied from somewhere in the web. No authorship
denied nor copyright questioned)
The first thing that can be said about this
book is that it’s skinny. Skinny like
a clan-book, or a tribe-book. All of the other
Changing Breed books (except maybe Corax)
double Nuwishas page count easily. Why is
this book is so skinny? I have know idea,
but in my opinion it could’ve used some
more pages, and not just for nice artwork.
So, what are Nuwisha? This is the second
of the Changing Breed books, the first was
BASTET. Click on the link to read more about
the War of Rage and other stuff already mentioned.
Nuwisha are, basically, were-coyotes. How
is a coyote different from a wolf? Don’t
ask me for details, I’m not a zoologist.
But, these guys are a completely different
species, they don’t even have Rage.
Nuwisha believe themselves to be the children
of the creator of all, Coyote. Yes, that’s
right. These folks believe their totem created
everything else, and he did it out of boredom.
After the customary comic that appears at
the beginning of the book (this is a very
good one, and features Laughing Manyskins,
a signature character of the Werewolf: the
Apocalypse setting) we get this new (?) cosmology,
a very confusing one, where Coyote seems to
be the most important, outranking even Gaia
(maybe).
The Nuwisha do embrace some of the same concepts
used by other shape-changers to describe the
universe however. Gaia is only a world. The
Triat is most important. Werewolves perceive
Gaia as the whole of Creation. By the way,
it seems that Coyote offended Luna in some
way, so now his children sing to her, trying
to atone for his wrongdoings.
Nuwisha don’t have tribes, or auspices.
But they do embrace one aspect of the trickster
totem (basically Coyote). Coyote has a lot
of different aspects, and for each of them,
some Nuwisha may become its agents. So, while
some just enjoy wild pranks, other try to
nurture those who suffer, and others try to
teach. Yes, the pranks’ reason is to
enlighten their “victims”.
The were-coyotes, perceived by others as
the tricksters of Gaia, are in fact a sort
of teacher… teachers through nasty examples.
They also try to learn from what they see,
so they know more about other species than
the average other Fera does, they even know
the secret existence of the Nagah, or were-serpents
(This is disproved in the Nagah book, where
it seems that only Manyskins knows this mystery.)
They also have the ability to go to wherever
they want to go in the Umbra, as opposed to
most Shape-changers, who can only go to certain
parts of the Umbra. They even claim to have
taught this skill to the Garou.
After the cosmology section, and a brief
description on their views of other groups
and themselves, this book hasn’t much
left to offer. There are some gifts and rites,
and some additional information but that’s
about it. It’s an important book for
a Werewolf Storyteller, but is disappointingly
short. The only bright side of its size is
that you can read it riding the train to college
or your work. All in all, I feel that there
could be some additional information on them.
Like I said, it’s essential, because
these guys have an important role to play
in the big scheme of things, or so it seems,
and they seem very funny, as PCs or as NPCs.
Pray that your character doesn’t become
the victim of one of the Nuwisha’s pranks…
Also… The character sheet has a weird
recording space dubbed “Pants?”
Weird sheet-designer humour, I guess. Talking
about weird RPG humour…
Q: Why did a Marauder cross the road?
A: Dunno, but it used to be a straight road
Reviewed by Matías Timm |
