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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Darker Things That Stalk the Night..., January 5, 2007
This review is from: WoD Skinchangers (World of Darkness (White Wolf Hardcover)) (Hardcover)
Another great supplement for the new World of Darkness, this book focuses on humans who transform into animals (or sometimes the other way around...). Those familiar with Werewolf: the Forsaken will probably get the most kick out of this, but theres no need to include werewolves at all. It works perfectly fine with other World of Darkness games, whether your running vampires, mages or just plain mortals. These creatures are not werewolves, not like werewolves (beyond changing shape that is), or anything of the sort. They are people who change shape, the book does a great job showing how diverse and unique these shapechangers can be.
The opening fiction shows an encounter between werewolves and a skinchanger, highlighting the strangeness and unnatural essence of these beings. The introduction goes on to explain what shapechangers are (and aren't), how to make your own unqiue changers, and so forth. First, we are presented with skin-thieves, humans who wear animal skins to change shape, sacrificing part of their humanity in the process. There are character creation guidelines, and powers to construct your own unique skin thieves. Theres also a discussion of how they have a relationship with a totem animal, but not in the same way as werewolves with their totem spirits. There are also a number of sample skin thief templates, such as the black eyed toads (humans who put their eyes inside toads to spy on their surroundings), the invisible man (who becomes a swarm of ants), the coalbacks (an inbred New England family who wear raven skins), tusk runners (who sew themselves inside elephants to take control of their bodies), and the rather disturbing scavenger wolf (a spirit wolf who wears human skins....), amongst others.
The next chapter focuses on spirit-possessed changers, and as such works best for those using Werewolf: the Forsaken or Mage: the Awakening. We get all manner of things like serpent guardians, hyena changers, leopard men, and even a race of fox-shifters similar to the Kitsune from Japanese myth. Lots of good stuff to play with here, and still unique and interesting enough to keep players on their toes. But the next chapter is even more interesting, focusing on unique and unexplainable shape changers (which is one of the real beauties of the new World of Darkness). Things in this chapter don't neccessarily have a rational explanation, they simply exist, even if only to baffle players. Things in this chapter include a serpent woman who may be the devil's daughter, the cursed seventh son of the seventh son, and demonic familiars summoned from Hell. There are even some examples of science gone amok, with animals that have taken on human traits (and vice versa). Guidelines at the end give suggestions for adapting these ideas to just about any culture or location.
The book closes out with a very useful appendix that gives some examples of animal symbolism, listing off associations (and interesting natural facts) about a wide variety of mammals, birds, reptiles, fish and even insects and arachnids. Things like Hawai'ian myths of sharks changing into men, Chinese stories of foxes as cruel tricksters, cranes as symbols of death in Celtic myth and the Egyptian god of centipedes. All very useful not only for those wanting to create new shapechangers, but also those who want some ideas for unique spirits in Werewolf or Mage. Theres also a bar mentioning why Coyote isn't in the book, the answer being that he is too vast and unique as a trickster god to lower himselt to being a mere shapechanger.
All in all, a very cool book, and a great example of the sorts of strange things you can run in the new World of Darkness. As I said before, the book will probably appeal most to those running Werewolf: the Forsaken chronicles, but it works equally well with any of the other games. Indeed, those who want to run a different sort of werewolf game, perhaps one drawing more from European folklore or Hollywood movies, might find this book up their alley. Either way, it's quite an enjoyable resource, and I strongly recommend it.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An excellent supplement about traditional shapeshifters, September 17, 2006
This review is from: WoD Skinchangers (World of Darkness (White Wolf Hardcover)) (Hardcover)
This is a book that many people who were a fan of the Bastet, Kitsune, and other shapeshifter breeds in the old World of Darkness was looking forward to. And with good reason- it was touted as the new World of Darkness answer to shapeshifter breeds. It delivers admirably.
However, keep in mind that the shapeshifters in this book are meant to not have the same political structure that the werewolves in Werewolf the Forsaken have, and often are strange loners with no understanding of their powers.
This is especially true of the Skinthieves of Chapter One. These people, for whatever reason, are able to take the pelt of a killed animal (usually they have to kill it) and wear it, and can then become like the animal from which the skin came. So, for instance, there are Elk-men, Bear-men, Dog-men, and so forth. Unfortunately, this activity takes its toll on a person's morality, as hunting, stalking, killing, and sometimes torturing beasts will harm you mentally after a while (at least in the WoD system.)
The other two chapters deal more with creatures at home in a Werewolf story. It really shows that this was originally slated to be a Werewolf supplement, especially in the chapter about Ridden-like characters (Chapter 2), although the character creation rules are quite different and make for a more challenging antagonist than a standard Ridden or Host character.
The Third chapter is also great, and deals with Unique Skinchangers. Nobody knows where these things came from, or how to get rid of them, but one thing is certain- they are dangerous. Each one of them is great, and the chapter also has a small section about how to make these creatures more individualized.
The Appendix is also helpful- it lists some basic behaviors of major animal types, which can be helpful if you're not that into animals or just want a quick reference guide. Unfortunately the book gives no stats for the animals.... you need the WoD core book for that- although since you need the WoD core book to be playing anything in this book anyway, that works out fine.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
WoD: Skinchangers, January 12, 2007
This review is from: WoD Skinchangers (World of Darkness (White Wolf Hardcover)) (Hardcover)
An excellent resource for those wishing to incorporate different types of shapeshifters in their World of Darkness stories. It does have numerous references to ideas and setting material from Werewolf: the Forsaken, but should also be useful for those who don't own that book. The first chapter introduces a player option, the Skinthief, with character creation rules and a large selection of traits to use for customization. Ten sample varieties of skinthief are included, usable either as ready made NPCs or to help showcase the kind of variety available for these types of characters. The second chapter focuses on shapeshifters who are possessed by spirits, and seems to be mostly drawn from real world legends (Japanese fox spirits, vengeful ghost leopards, etc). As a note, Spirit rules are not included here, nor are there character creation guidelines. The third chapter is mostly a gathering place for npc and story ideas, focusing on wierd combinations of humans and animals as drawn from classical and modern horror stories (animals who have been genetically altered, people who have been cursed to transformed by a curse, that sort of thing). Finally, the Appendix has a brief overview of various animals describing how they have been used in myth and legend.
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