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25 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Nice For Newbies and the Disgruntled WoD Gamer, Bad For Fans of the Original, August 12, 2005
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.
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16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
It took me a while, but I'm ready to accept this for what it is, July 18, 2006
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.
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38 of 47 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Not Apocalypse but something BETTER, July 6, 2005
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!
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