Product Review

Of all the games that White Wolf has made, Werewolf is one of my favourite. I like it for many reasons, the first being the general idea. In the game you play a Werewolf. That’s right you get to be the standard puny human you play in most systems only now you have the option of changing into a ten foot snarling beast. Secondly, I like the way the way Werewolf deals with the World of Darkness setting.

For those of you who have never encountered the World of Darkness setting before I’ll explain a little about it. It’s a world much like our own but everything’s that little bit worse... that little bit darker. The other major difference lies with the supernatural, Werewolves, Vampires, Wraiths, etc. all exist. Depending which game you decide to play will then decide which slant you’re given on this setting. The fact that the setting is so similar to our own is one of the main reasons White Wolf’s games are so easy to get into, the fact that there brilliantly written probably has something to do with it as well.

The first chapter in the Werewolf book is about the World of Darkness. It tells you about Werewolf society and how it works. You will learn that the Werewolves are locked in a desperate fight to try and hold back the darkness, which is creeping over their world. This darkness is made up of many things but they all usually boil down to the Wyrm. This has many different meanings, but is basically the bad in the world; it’s the corruption, the pain, the suffering… the evil. The main Wyrm driven enemy that the Werewolves will encounter are the Black Spiral Dancers. This is a tribe of Werewolves gone bad and whenever the Garou (good werewolves) encounter them a fight is usually on the cards.

Chapter two is the part where you get to learn more about Werewolves. It gives you a breakdown of the 3 breed types, Homid (human), Metis (from Werewolf interbreeding) and Lupus (wolf). It then tells you about the different (moon) auspices that you can pick from. The moon you were born under and will affect everything from your personality traits to your pack duties. There are five to choose form ranging from “the trickster” to “the warrior”. This chapter is good as it helps to show you what each tribe wants and it shows you what they think of the other groups.

Chapter three is about character generation. The system used is very similar to the one White Wolf uses in all it’s games and is based on allocating points to particular areas to decide what your good at. You will have to pick your breed from the three I mentioned earlier and I wouldn’t recommend a first time character taking a Metis Werewolf. They all have to take a disfigurement of some sort due to the interbreeding (that’ll teach them), all of which are a bit extreme. You will then have to pick your Auspice. The last thing you have to choose is your tribe. Overall your character will be working as part of a pack, but each choice you make is important, as it will decide how your character thinks and where their true loyalties lie.

Chapter four is where the Gifts and Rites are explained. Gifts are powers that Werewolves can use to perform various special abilities. This includes things like “Jam Technology” which allows a player to stop a simple device from working, or “Hare’s Leap” which allows a player to leap further (not just a clever name). The Gifts you may choose from will vary depending on your breed, auspice and tribe.

The best way to describe Rites is long-winded spells. Now, I’m sure some people really like using Rites but I can safely say they don’t usually crop up in my games. I tend to find them a bit long winded and although they can benefit your game, I usually just let the players work round them rather than through them.

Chapter five is where you’ll learn the rules. I won’t go into these very much as I think it will be sufficient to say that White Wolf have kept up their usual high standard and the system is simple enough for you to pick up in a few minutes. You will only need D10’s and tests are made using your attributes on there own or combined with relevant skills to decide how many dice you roll, each dice that comes up with a result equal to or higher than the difficulty number set by the GM is a success and the more successes the better.

Chapter six is called systems and drama. It tells you how your character can increase or decrease their standing in Garou society. Renown is the main way for a Werewolf to achieve a higher status and is effectively a measure of how famous and well respected a Werewolf is. This chapter also gives you the more advanced game mechanics such as changing form and combat. It’s all still pretty simple though and it leads you through without any major problems. There is also a really good, long, example of play on the end of this chapter, which helps to show you the system in action. This is very useful and if you’ve never roleplayed before you may want to go through this with your group so you can all get a feel for things.

Chapter seven is about the Umbra. The Umbra is the Werewolf name for the spirit world. This is a place that only a few human shamans and mystics have ever glimpsed, and even then they never truly understand it. The best way to describe the Umbra is as another dimension that exists alongside our world and anything that has a strong spirit in the real world will be represented in the Umbra. A Werewolf has the power to “step sideways” into this other dimension, where they can travel to other places in the real world. The idea can be a little hard to get your head round to begin with but after a while you’ll begin to understand how things work.

Chapter eight is about storytelling. This is the GM’s chapter and helps give the person running the game a helping hand. It tells them how to design and develop a story that the players will really want to play and it helps the GM understand how the different aspects of a game can be used to move a story along. It also gives you some information on running chronicles, which are connected adventures.

The final chapter is about the bad guys of the game. There is information on the Werewolves main enemy, the Black Spiral Dancers and it gives you a few of their background and gifts. Fomori are another of the Werewolves enemies. They are humans who have been warped by the Wyrm to the point where they have gained powers and become twisted beyond recognition. The other more familiar Werewolf enemies are also handled in this section, with information on Vampires, Mages, Wraiths and Faeries.

The Appendix at the back of the book contains something veterans of the game will be interested in, the Stargazers. The Stargazers used to be one of tribes you could choose to come from during character generation but they have now been removed for the purpose of storyline. At first this seemed like a bit of a kick in the teeth for me as I have been using my Stargazer in our games for a while now and it’s one of my favourite characters. But, fear not my fellow tribe chum’s as all is not lost. You can choose to stay with your pack and not wonder off with the rest of your tribe if you want.

Overall this is a great game for people who are just starting out or for roleplay veterans of old. It is well written and has a good simple system, which gets you started nice and quick. The setting is what I feel keeps people coming back to this game over and over again though. It’s wide enough to allow you to run anything from a murder mystery to an all out war and it’s also been designed to give the GM a world they can explore with their players on many different levels. This would be a good first time buy and if you’ve been around for a while and you still don’t own it I’d be interested to know why?

The Apocalypse may be upon us and your only chance could very well be the animal within.

Reviewed By Jon Simpson