Customer Reviews

Werewolf: The Forsaken

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The book is very well-written. The art is excellent. And the game? Well. I'm going to reluctantly admit: It may just be an improvement on its predecessor, Werewolf: the Apocalypse.

I completely blew off the new World of Darkness at first. I finally bought this book 6 months ago (long after its release)), skimmed it once, then threw it aside. I had my game of choice already, and this wouldn't replace it.

Was I wrong? I think so. Here's why:

- Streamlined tribe system makes characters of every Forsaken tribe (the main ones for players) playable together, which wasn't the case under the original.

- Game systems are superior. Renown, caerns vs. loci, Gifts (and their systems), etc. -- they're just designed better, a clear example of learning from the mistakes of W:tA.

- Auspices are better delineated, particularly the gibbous and new moons.
- The creation legend is better.
- The antagonists are less cartoon caricatures. The "bad guy" werewolves are huge improvements upon the W:tA version.
- The personal horror that is a werewolf has been better infused into this game.
- The system of Lodges gives limitless opportunity to expand upon the tribes in much the same way that W:tA's myriad of tribes did from the outset.

What's it missing?

The sense of purpose for the Werewolf. Probably other things too, that I'll find in the course of playing this.

But that said, I'm excited to try it, whereas before I wouldn't even give it a chance. It's a superior effort from White Wolf. The major drawback is WW didn't promote it right, and most experienced players, like me, were predisposed against it from the get-go.

As a veteren Vampire: The Masquerade and Werewolf: The Apocalypse player and storyteller, I was very distraught when I heard that White Wolf was bringing the much feared End of Days to the World Of Darkness. When I heard they were replacing the World of Darkness with a new, streamlined version I was more distressed. This seemed justified as I read Vampire: The Requiem and failed to be inspired by its lack of conflict and the feeling of eternal ennui it seemed to provoke. I held out hope that Werewolf: The Foresaken would be different.

While I appreciate White Wolf's attempt to create a more unified and coherent set of rules for the World Of Darkness, I find that they have left the setting for the games released so far unfinished. I find no fault with the new backstory, which has the five tribes of Werewolves exiled from the Spirit World for the "justified" murder of their progenitor Father Wolf. It just lacks something viceral that the original had. Something that inspired me to sit down with my friends and play these monsters who so desperately wanted to save the world and their Goddess from the destructive, sentient, metaphysical forces that had gone mad, and could never really see eye to eye on how to do that.

Gone is this conflict that was as central to the original incarnation of this game as was the premise that your character had to live in two worlds, but could never really be a part of either. Not fully human, not quite a spirit. But something inbetween and sometimes just as feral as the wolves whom the Garou shared part of their blood with.

Granted, Werewolf: The Forsaken does capture the essence of its predecessor. You are still a spirit made flesh, able to change forms between your human birth form and a wolf. When the need arises, you are able to assume another hybrid form that you may use for brief periods to vex and defeat your adversaries, or turn your prey into convenient bite-size morsels. The feral nature of werewolves and their inability to fully participate in the world of mortals or the Spirit World (also called the Shadow Realm, not the Umbra) is maintained.

The Wyrm and the Weaver, the terminally obsessive and psychopathic metaphysical entities that served as the Garou's archnemesises are, in Werewolf the Forsaken, still present - if you know where to look for them. But they aren't on a suicide mission to ruin Gaia's Creation anymore. They just seem hellbent on turning humanity and the material world into toys they can play with however they want. The Uratha - which is what the werewolves of Forsaken call themselves - constantly hunt the servants of these powerful spirits. That is, when they aren't busy keeping other spirits from straying across the Gauntlet that separates Spirit and Matter, some of these spirits also like to possess mortals and use them to sate whatever desires the spirit imbodies - kinda like fomori.

And then there's the matter of the other tribes, who didn't participate in the murder of Father Wolf, and continue to harbor a big grudge against the five tribes of the Uratha and would like nothing more than to make shish-kabobs out of the lot of them.

For conflict, this is decent but there really isn't much for the Uratha to lose either way. If they fail at their job of being Spiritual Border Patrol the world doesn't come to an end. Sure it won't be a pleasant place for mere mortals, but it won't change anything for the Uratha. They'll keep on being reviled by the spirits for their crime and hunted by their cousins. There's really nothing to fight for in Forsaken, just a job to do and a bunch of people angry at you for doing it.

Meanwhile, the rules are really something else. I applaud the designers for really tweaking and finally fixing many of the things that were broken in the previous set of rules. Primal-Urge clearly has a use now, which it really didn't have before. Where it once was simply used to determine how fast your character could shift between forms, now it measures your character's level of power in a way similiar to Blood Potency in Vampire the Requiem. While it feels a little artificial, you have to remember it is a rules mechanic and not meant to actually imply anything plotwise. However gifts feel less organic now. Previously grouped by breed, tribe, and auspice they are now grouped into paths, similiar to vampiric disciplines, which certain tribes and auspices have access to. You needn't take them in order necessarily, unlike disciplines, but some gifts require that you possess another gift earlier in the path or a sufficiently high rating in a combination of traits in order to learn the gift. And forget getting gifts from paths you do not have access to.

Breeds are gone. All werewolves are born from the union of a werewolf with a mortal. You select one of the five tribes, very losely organized extended families of Uratha who share similiar outlooks on life and not necessarily blood. Then you choose an auspice; which does not represent what phase of Mother Luna you were born under, but the phase under which your First Change - that life altering event that revealed your character for what he truly is - occured, and generally says what role you will be performing in your pack. You may choose a lodge to join as well. These are similiar to sects in Vampire the Requiem, as they are groups of werewolves who share similiar interests and ideaologies across tribal lines.

Rites remain, as does renown. Rage is gone but gnosis remains. It is now known as essence, but it's there and it does the same thing - powers gifts, used to move through the Gauntlet, etc. Primal Urge, along with providing a game mechanic for rating you character against other creatures and characters in-game, also determines how long your character can stay in the wolf-man Gauru (previously crinos) war-form. This is important because it isn't a natural form for Uratha. And you are also in a frenzied state for the duration.

The developers believe that all the new games require a morality scale, so werewolves have Harmony. This trait basically measures how "good" the character is. Do your job, keep spirits and humans from being too much of a nuisance to each other, and your Harmony stays a nice, healthy high number. Do something bad, like killing humans and wolves and making snacks out of their corpses, and your Harmony goes down. This makes you more feral, more prone to scaring humans just be being around them in your human skin, and generally makes you unpopular with almost everyone. In a really bad, Jeffery Dahmer kind of way.

Generally speaking, it's not a bad game for those who've never played one of White Wolf's World Of Darkness games. It's also great for those who were bored with the old games and who'd like something else to do with it. There's plenty of places to go in and really do something different with the game if you've had your fill of the Wyrm and the Apocalypse. The rules are solid and easily learned, something the Storyteller System is famous for. They are also an improvement for the most part.

But for those of us who still love the original, or who are looking for something close, you will do well not to play this game. While there are similarites the themes, conflicts, and personality of the line is different and while not totally alienating, doesn't encourage a long time fan to convert rapidly.

This is NOT W:tA. This is even better in so many ways. First, it is a game set IN the World of Darkness, so it is about horror and similar themes, not furry power rangers. There is a focus on personal themes, such as what happens to ME when I become a werewolf, not inter-global werewolf politics. The emphasis of the game is on figuring out your place in the new savage and very brutal world of werewolfs and your place in the pack. Overall, this game is strongly personal, not all the challenges that you'll face (unlike the old game) will be physical, many will be psychological.
Second, the game finally becomes playable in other settings, such as Vampire or Mage. No longer are werewolf powers incompatible or disruptive when your character meets a vampire or sorceror. This makes it a game that is VERY crossover friendly and the mechanics within the World of Darkness Corebook support this. I dont know why all the criticism that you now have to buy two books (the WoD Corebook + the Werewolf book) to play. In Dungeon's and Drangons you need 3 books to run a game. Furthermore, amazon.com offers really great discounts so buying both books will cost you slightly less than full price for the main setting book. Now Im dying to see what the new Mage book will look like!
Enjoy!

Some years ago, I had the pleasure of playing Werewolf the Apocalypse alongside the other World of Darkness games and found it interesting and fun but difficult to implement and with little consistency in the rules.

Enter the new World of Darkness with its unified rules for the characters. Werewolf the Forsaken is the first game I've run for this new system, but already I've noticed two things from the players. One, they thoroughly enjoy the consistency of the rules, prefering it to the previous World of Darkness. Two, they actually like playing werewolves now! What a difference a little consistency to rules makes.

Werewolf the Forsaken has stripped much of Werewolf the Apocalypse away. You still have the five auspices based on the phases of the moon and you have tribes (only five Forsaken tribes and three Pure tribes, but that's more than enough, really). All werewolves, now called Uratha, are born human with at least one human parent and at some point in their lives undergo the First Change. There's the five forms of the werewolf, just like in the first Werewolf game, but now you truly understand why the third form, the classic half-wolf/half-man form is called the battle form and why too much Rage is dangerous.

Most characters will be Forsaken, werewolves descended from those first werewolves forced to enact the laws of the wild to commit a terrible action and forever change the world after. The Pure are their enemies, those who hunt the hunters. There's no connection to Gaia or Wyrm to fight. You're savage and primal, trying to balance instinct over reason, and you're both predator and prey. The game just feels different than the old Werewolf. Spirits can be friend or foe, and they make some of the deadliest of foes in this Werewolf.

In the end, it was a friend who said it best, "I never thought I'd say this, but I think I like this new World of Darkness better." Easier to play, easier to run. Less metaplot, and the new Werewolf really digs into the heart of what it is to be a werewolf.

The previous reviewers have all be right, at least is some respects. This edition of Werewolf does try to be more streamlined, although the way they did Gifts (which reminded me of D&D/d20 domains) was overly complicated. The revision will definitely help those veteran Vampire and Mage players who wanted a sourcebook for Werewolves.

However, this book is not for those who played Werewolf: the Apocalypse. For starters, there are only 5 tribes instead of 13. Unlike the new Vampire, where they tried to keep old Vampire tribe names, they did not bother with this. They simply renamed Get of Fenris (Blood Talons), Uktena (Bone Shadows), and Glasswalkers (Iron Masters). The other two tribes for PCs are a Red Talon/Bone Gnawer cross (Hunters in Darkness) and a Shadow Lord/Silver Fang cross (Storm Lords). The only bright spot is that they gave werewolves their own Hollow Ones (Ghost Wolves). The Gifts are far rigider than they needed to be; the Apocalypse Gifts were right on. The enemies ("Pure" Werewolves and spirits) are lacking the depth that the Wyrm and Pentex gave. Apocalypse had an overreaching goal; Forsaken simply tells the Werewolf player to either hunt bad werewolves and spirits or be hunted by them). The only real addition for veteran Werewolf players is the ability to create custom totems.

To put it bluntly, for those WoD players who haven't played Werewolves before, the book is a 4-5. For veteran Werewlf players, it's a 1-2. Averaging it out makes it a 3.

Some of you may have read my review of Requiem. If not, then allow me to retread some of it in order to preface this review.

When the Original World of Darkness ended, White Wolf promised something new to those who had been longtime fans and players of its games. They released Requiem first, but it wasn't until Forsaken hit the shelves that the promise was really fulfilled.

Werewolf: The Apocalypse was about a dying race's futile fight. Geopolitics and ecological concerns injected themes that were off topic for the subject matter.

Forsaken lacks these flaws.

The mechanics, though sometimes convoluted, are strong. They serve the themes of the game in unique and interesting ways.

The presentation is complete, and conveys the primal nature of the werewolf. The mythology feels old, as if told from the beginning of time. The individual psychologies of the various factions are understandable, compelling, and complex.

The setting itself focuses on a much more tightly constrained level than its predecessor. Instead of a large region, the pack is intended to take charge of a small territory, dealing with the brutal threats of other packs, while at the same time hunting in the spirit world... both because it is their nature, and because it is their responsibility.

Nothing save a few minor terms from Apocalypse are reused, although some concepts see resurgence (the spectrum of forms is nearly the same, and the five auspices are similar to their old counterparts.... though care was taken to make the new renditions distinct from the older versions). There are small nods to the old game, but generally speaking the themes, cosmology, and setting are all new.

Though the Breeds of Apocalypse have been Excised (all werewolves descend from human lineages), the society and psychology of the Forsaken are remarkably lupine, and the game takes care to emphasize that fact. A legal code is counterpointed with a morality trait (a first for a Werewolf game) that allows the characters to find an animal ethic in acts that would be monsterous to a normal human. Make no mistake, Werewolves are savage beasts, not shape shifting world savers.

As with Requiem, this game lacks a metaplot. The world is for the storyteller to develop... but discussion of past events, and history goes far to make the setting feel as though it were genuinely alive.

I daresay there's more wolf in the core rulebook of Forsaken than there was in the entire revised edition of Apocalypse... and in a game called 'Werewolf', that's a good thing.

Let's begin by dispelling the idea that this is or should be seen as an update of the older Werewolf: the Apocalypse. Most other reviews of this product begin with the premise that it should be compared to its predecessor, and review this product from there. What follows, then, is a biased description that starts and ends with the other game.

This is not Apocalypse. This is a new game. Some elements carry over, some do not. But the themes and stories one tells using it are drastically different and the game deserves to be reviewed on its own flaws and merits and not whether it changes your favorite concept from an earlier game.

And from that perspective this game does very well. It mixes many traditional Werewolf concepts with a new spiritual slant. Its "dark animism" themes are entirely appropriate to the horror setting presented in White-Wolf's World of Darkness. Its concepts of pack and the local, territorial focus create a strong set up for a role playing group. It somehow mixes bestial fury and violence with elegant symbolism and mysticism, and presents the whole package through a dark lens that sets up exceptional stories for players to create.

Do not be taken in by those who would compare Forsaken to Apocalypse. I've played both. People who prefer the later are looking for something different than what you'll find in this game. That's fine, but do not let them convince you that apples are bad because they prefer oranges.

With Werewolf: the Forsaken, White Wolf has revamped (pun intended) the Werewolf system. It is now a game that will appeal to a much wider audience. Honestly, until I read this book, Werewolf was the one White Wolf game I refused to play. The previous rules were *terrible*. The new rules of course build off of the World of Darkness core rules, and are in some ways similar to the rules for Vampire: the Requiem. One advantage of this similarity is that when vampires and werewolves meet, there might not be so much frantic searching for the rules that govern a contest of Gifts versus Disciplines. If you were in any way interested in the previous Werewolf system, this update will be a revelation. If you're new to White Wolf, while Vampire is their flag-ship, Werewolf is a relatively simple and direct game with an incredible amount of potential.

I got this along with World of Darkness, Mage and Vampire. My group has decided to "graduate" from Dungeons and Dragons to World of Darkness because its much more sophisticated. In this game you play modern day werewolves who hunt evil spirits and keep a balance with nature. It mixes well with all the other 3 core games and you can easily do crossovers. This game is about modern day horror, not furry power rangers.

The illustrations are incredible, White Wolf really produces amazing work. I cannot rate this game high enough. If you are bored with D&D or other munchkin games like Magic the gathering or even substandard imitations like WitchCraft from Eden Studios, then THIS game is for YOU.

As far as the soft parts of the book go, this is a vast improvement over the previous Werewolf: The Apocalypse. Mood and background are set nicely, and the story has been integrated into the rest of the World of Darkness more cleanly. The artwork and appearance of the volume are top-rate, and the flavor text, descriptions of tribes & auspices, and motivations of werewolf protagonists are all nicely presented.

There are only two aspects where the book falls short of top standards: First, the Table of Contents and Index are too brief, making it tough to find important rules on-the-fly. Second, there are a few editting issues in some of the mechanics sections - words or phrases are occasionally missing, or an example seems to contradict the explicit rules. Such problems are rare, but do appear.

Overall, it's a good buy, but the players must be willing to go with ad hoc Storyteller decisions on the mechanics.