Customer Reviews

*OP Ratkin (Werewolf: The Apocalypse)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Breedbook Ratkin is, I have to say, one of the best breedbooks to date. Along with a very much expanded history from the rat's point of view, it includes all those nifty gifts and fetishes that the ratkin use well and often(circular saw blade launcher, anyone?). It also includes the 4 auspices from the player's giude and 4 new types as well, some of which are plain wicked. For example, the twitchers, a new type of berserker-warrior, frenzy at difficulty 4. All the time!! That means you have chance of frenzying at something as trivial as dropping your coffee-spoon(extreme example, but you get the idea...). All in all, a must have book for Werewolf players and Ratkin fans alike.

The Ratkin have a purpose; when all the other werecreatures fail to keep humanity in line, it's the Ratkin's turn. They are purely of the Wyld, and though the Weaver has its place, it often gets out of line. That's where the Ratkin step in. The Ratkin seek to hasten the Apocalypse because it will provide for a new beginning, and the hordes and hordes of Ratkin are more than ready for this day. In this book, you'll find a lot of good stuff. The Ratkin are along the lines of the Bone Gnawers, just with more enthusiasm and take themselves even less seriously. As a result, there's a lot of neat stuff in here; since television shows (particularly cartoons) are often given a lot of attachment and watched a lot, they have a reflection in the Umbra, just like everything else. Tom and Jerry is a good example, and for the Ratkin Engineers, there's Pinky and the Brain. Anyway, aside from all that, the Ratkin book is well worth reading if you have a sense of humor about it; they're spastic, destructive, and at the same time, quite shrewd about what they do. Should another War of Rage erupt, you can bet the Ratkin would be messing any Garou that got in their way...

Wow! Raw, energetic, and untamed. Ratkin and the book itself. I suspected a few things about them, but it was nice to be justified and have something to point at when it came right down to it. I like the view on Ratkin and their world. The only thing I have problems with are possibly the 'Freak' aspects. They are fairly powerful and very disruptive, not to mention weird. Still the new gifts, different perspective on old ones, and new stats/abilities are new breath to old campaigns. Among all the shifting breeds it looks like the Ratkin are the most prepared for the end of it all. With the growing trend in WW toward the "Last Days" theme Ratkin will truely come into their own. If you want Ratkin characters, buy it. If you want a change of pace in the foes your Garou are fighting, buy it! I keep having this vision of the movie Aliens when the marines were being overrun as being what it would be like to stumble over a Ratkin nest.

I started down the path of WoD through Vampire: The Masquerade, but it lacked something for me. I glanced through Werewolf: The Apocolypse books, but never really had the "need" to buy them. When Ratkin (Changing Breeds book 5) I bought it IMMEDIATELY. And I was NOT dissappointed. The artwork, as always, is incredible, the writing is wonderful... and above all, the characters are exciting. Rats are social animals, but not necessarily heirarchial like so Wolves or whatever, and so much more Wyld (chaotic)!!!! Who wouldn't want to be able to shift from 7 and a half feet tall to a mere 6 inches? How about a prehensile tale? The philosophy developed in this book is incredible, the details of aspects and ways of life, the incredible varieties of characters allowed... just wonderful! Playing in my living room wasn't enough, so I started a White Wolf system play by email! Ratkin ROCKS!!!!

Like so many White Wolf expansion books, this one pulls the rug out from under the Storyteller by reversing many of the earlier sourcebooks' assumptions and by loading down player-characters with previously unavailable goodies. Nothing new so far, but this time the changed premises are really silly. Rattus norvegicus, the Norway rat (which the book keeps pointing out is THE rat we're talking about) is a parasite on Homo sapiens. It couldn't survive in anything like its present numbers without man and his works, such as apartment buildings and grain silos. So the Norway rat would necessarily be a great friend of the Weaver, no? NO! Also, remember that Rat is the Totem Spirit of the Bone Gnawer tribe. So Rat must be pretty confused, or pretty disgusted, by the Ratkins' determination to exterminate all Garou without regard to tribe. And then you have the ability of some Ratkin to enter a cartoon realm and/or use cartoon abilities just because rats often feature in Saturday morning cartoons (e.g. Pinky and the Brain). In sum, the Ratkins presented in this sourcebook are slavering cartoonified lunatics dedicated to bringing civilization crashing down around their own ears for - no reason in particular. If that sounds like fun to you, hey, knock yourself out.

This should have been a year of the Reckoning books. The book gives the perspectives of the Ratkin, psychotic were-rats who are trying to bring about the apocolypse. And yet they are not evil, not wyrm creatures, merely alien to us and to the Garou. The art is excellent, and I loved the opening story, particularly the Che inspired poster of the hero.

Okay, I've been waiting or this breed book to come out for years! Ever since I first read about the ratkin in the WWTA players handbook. Me and all my Fuzzy, squeaky kin agree that this is a book worth having. Freaky, freaky stuff!

i've read almost all of the material published for werewolf, and this ranks at the top of the list. the fiction, the elegance of the rules is all here. and the artwork, as usual is amazing. a must have

It is an ecetial piece in the werewolf series. I have spent many the hour batlling it out with my buddies with this addition to our war against the wyrm. Get this book if you want to bring your game to a new and higher level.

Now you too can be one of the rats. Included are the rules for playing as one of the freak aspects, ratkin aspects formed in the modern day which represent some of the most bizarre and awesome characters possible in your troupe. Enjoy this one!