While Werewolf: The Apocalypse ended along with the original World of Darkness (or Classic depending on who you ask) line, the monsters wouldn’t be down for long as in 2004, White Wolf Games came back with a new, rebooted version of the World of Darkness.
Gone is the “Gothic-Punk atmosphere, settling with a world more closer to ours albeit with monsters lurking in the shadows. One of the biggest changes between gamelines is that all games share the same rules and mechanics. In the Old World of Darkness, every game had their own rules and style of playing. Not so in the New World of Darkness. All you need to play is the WoD corebook and whatever game (i.e. supernatural beings) you want to play as.
Overall, the gamelines so far are:
- The World of Darkness (This is the book you need to play the others)
- Vampire: The Requiem
- Werewolf: The Forsaken
- Mage: The Awakening
- Promethean: The Created
- Changeling: The Lost
- Hunter: The Vigil
- Geist: The Sin-Eaters
- Mummy: The Curse
- (An untitled Demon game has been announced)
Another key difference between the Old and New WoD is that humans are much more playable in the New. In the OWoD (except for Hunters who still have supernatural powers to combat monsters), humans were pretty much cannon fodder and wouldn’t have stood a chance against the other more powerful beings. The World of Darkness, however, lets you play as an average human who slowly discovers the mysterious world around him or her. The game also supplies ways to fight back such as magical objects for example.
As with all the gamelines, Werewolf: The Apocalypse was rebooted into Werewolf: The Forsaken. Here, you play as a werewolf called a Uratha, one of the half-human, half-wolf spirit offspring of Father Wolf, formerly the most powerful hunter spirit and Luna, Spirit of the Moon.
Their backstory was that the world was once Pangaea, when the Spirit World and the Mortal World were one and the same. Father Wolf was the spirit in charge of maintaining the peace between spirits and humans. After a time, the Uratha, seeing that Father Wolf was growing old and weak, attacked and killed their father. After his death, a barrier called the Gauntlet rose between the worlds, making it near impossible for humans to travel to the Spirit World and vise versa. In maddened anguish, Luna curse her children so her sacred metal, Silver, would kill them. Having fallen from grace, Father wolf’s killers were called by the denizens of the Spirit World “he Forsaken“. Ever since then, the Forsaken have taken their father’s place in protecting the mortal world from malevolent spirits that manage to break through the barrier.
While the Uratha don’t have much mortal oppostion, the Spirit World provides plenty of enemies out for the werewolves’ blood. One of the three major enemy groups is actually other werewolves. Of the eight first children of Father Wolf, only five actually rose up and killed him. Vowing vengeance against their father’s death, the other three and their descendents called themselves the Pure, plotting against and slaying any forsaken they come across.
Another group of rouge werewolves, neither with the Forsaken or the Pure, called the Bale Hounds also terrorize all in their way as they serve spirits of pure evil whose agenda is unknown other than to spread chaos and corruption.
While the Forsaken have to be on the watch for any spirit that breaches the Gauntlet (as they could possess an unassuming human similar to Werewolf: The Apocalypse’s fomori), there are two groups of spirits named the Hosts that are a particular pain in the ass.
Once they were two of Father Wolf’s foes, the Spinner-Hag and the Plague King. Rather than die at Father Wolf’s fangs, they both escaped by breaking down into thousands of pieces, embedding themselves into the bodies of spiders and rats in the Mortal World.
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| Artwork by Asanbonsam on Deviantart |
The Azlu, the spider pieces of Spinner-Hag and the Beshilu, the rat pieces of the Plauge King both grow bigger and stronger by devouring others of their kind. When they get big enough, they kill a human, skin them, and wear the skin like a suit so they can blend into human society kinda like Edgar in Men in Black.
However, despite their similar origins, the Azlu and Beshilu have very different goals. The Azlu spin webs near the Gauntlet, making it stronger and harder to get to the Spirit World. Meanwhile, the Beshilu gnaw away at the Gauntlet making it easier for spirits to slip through.
So as, you can see, the Forsaken have their work cut out for them. And that’s just their own enemies. There’s also all the other denizens of the World of Darkness to worry about.
As for the stars of the game, the Forsaken are very similar to the Garou of Werewolf: The Apocalypse. They still have the same five forms to transform to and the same auspice positions. The names are different though. Like the word “Uratha”, they’re in the First Tongue, the ancient language of Pangaea.
For reference, here’s the forms and auspices side by side:
Forms
W:tA W:tF
Homid Hishu
Glabro Dalu
Crinos Gauru
Hispo Urshul
Lupus Urhan
Auspices
W:tA W:tF
Ragabash Irraka
Theruge Ithaeur
Philodox Elodoth
Galliard Cahalith
Ahroun Rahu
There are differences though between the Garou and Uratha. Namely, their relationship with the Spirit World. While the Garou were friendly with most spirits (except Wyrm-spirits), the Uratha’s relationship, at best, would be called hostile. Due to killing Father Wolf, most spirits fear or outright hate the Forsaken. While they can still have powers from spirit-gifts, the Forsaken really have to cajole a spirit to teach him or her a gift.
Also, all Uratha start out as humans and there’s no longer any wolf-born werewolves or deformed Metis offspring. Taking the Metis’s place, though, is the Unihar or “Ghost-Child”. Because of their spiritual nature, when Uratha mate, they give birth to a spirit that retreats into the Spirit World. However, what makes them particularly scary is that none of the Uratha powers work on them.
Now, like the last post, we move onto my favorite part: the Tribes. The big difference between the Tribes in both games is the number. While Werewolf: The Apocalypse had 13 tribes, Werewolf: The Forsaken only has 5, plus one grouping of werewolves I’ll talk about in a bit. Another minor difference is that none of the Forsaken Tribes are of any ethnic group or nationality like the Garou tribes so you can find any tribe member anywhere in the world. Plus, you can join any tribe you please, no longer restricted by bloodline.
Rather than a random spirit as a totem, the Forsaken follow one of the Firstborn, Father Wolf’s first children before the Uratha and powerful Wolf Spirits in their own rights.
The Five tribes are:
- Blood Talons - The fierce warriors of the Uratha, they take pride in their combat skills and only accept the strongest and toughest werewolves amongst their ranks. Their totem is Destroyer Wolf, the most aggressive of the Firstborn and might have been the inspiration for Fenris, the giant wolf from Norse mythology.
- Bone Shadows - Mysterious and curious, the Bone Shadows dedicate themselves to finding out the secrets of both the Mortal World and the Spirit World, passing them on to their brothers and sisters. The Bone Shadows follow Death Wolf, the Firstborn that has been to the realm of the dead and returned with its secrets.
- Hunters in Darkness - In tune with nature, the Hunters in Darkness feel more comfortable in the wild with wolves. Most rejecting human society, these werewolves take upon themselves to stop humans from despoiling nature. Black Wolf is their totem, the most primal of the firstborn and protector of wolves.
- Iron Masters - Opposite of the Hunters in Darkness, the Iron Masters are more comfortable in the cities, blending in the hustle and bustle of the urban environment. They make sure to keep up with Man’s progress lest they fall prey to more and more advance technology. They follow Red Wolf, the Firstborn with the best adaptation skills, capable of blending in any environment or situation.
- Storm Lords - With the best leadership skills, the Storm Lords try their best to guide all Uratha. Restoring Pangaea is their ultimate goal as they feel that the Uratha need to return to their place as the apex predators they once were. The Storm Lords follow Winter Wolf, a harsh but strong Firstborn who despises weakness either in combat or politics.
If none of these Tribes appeal to you, there is one group of werewolves that don’t belong to any tribe, both Forsaken or Pure.
- Ghost Wolves - Kicked out of a Tribe, leaving a Tribe or not choosing to be with a Tribe at all, the Ghost Wolves are the true lone wolves of the Uratha. They follow no tribal totem as a result. That being said, the other Forsaken will gladly take them as allies, better they be with them rather than the Pure or Bale Hounds.
If the Tribes don’t seem diverse enough for you, there are always Lodges to join. Lodges are subgroups of the Forsaken Tribes, following a particular ideal or goal, whether it be preserving a local culture or studying a type of spirit. There are too many Lodges from the gameline to list here but you are free to create your own Lodge if you don‘t find one that interests you.
Now onto my thoughts in general about this game. I read the book for Werewolf: The Forsaken not long after I finished the book for Werewolf: The Apocalypse and the one thing I noticed right off the bat that really set these two apart was the tone. Gone was the environmental message and righteous fury of the old game and was replaced with a game that focused more on being a predator, more in tune with the wolf aspect of being a werewolf, rather than maintaining a balance between the two (although that’s still important). Rather, W:tF wants you to play as a wolf in human’s clothing rather than the other way around.
Another big difference between the games is that it’s not so black and white as W:tA. In W:tA, it’s clear that the Garou are the good guys (albeit violent ones) and the forces of the Wyrm are clearly evil. Here, the antagonists aren’t quite that bad. The Pure are acting out of revenge for Father Wolf’s death and are trying to restore the world back to Pangaea much like the Storm Lords. Hell, even the Hosts are acting more out of instinct rather than any real malevolent goal. Not the Bale Hounds, though. They’re just assholes.
Now that I think about it, you could sum up the relations between all these factions with this inspiring little speech from Team America: World Police with the Forsaken and Pure being dicks, Hosts and spirits being pussies and the Bale Hounds and evil spirits being assholes.
One thing I hadn’t mentioned is an aspect of the game, even the New World of Darkness in general I particularly enjoy: the customization. See all the info I just dumped on you about Werewolf: The Forsaken? You’re more encouraged to pick and alter any element of the game as you see fit. While in Werewolf: The Apocalypse, you can alter some rules but they wanted you to more or less to follow what was written down. But in this game? Feeling too surrounded and want to take an enemy group out of the game? You got it! Want to limit how and when the werewolves transform? Go ahead! Feeling really ambitious and want to change the origin of the Uratha? Go for it! That last one alone really blew my mind as even suggesting that the Garou might have a different creation story would have gotten you exiled, if not outright killed.
In conclusion, Both Werewolf: The Forsaken and Werewolf: The Apocalypse have been a source of inspiration and fun reading for me these past few years. Seeing my favorite monster getting the spotlight has been a great source of joy for me. If you feel like getting these books, especially since getting them outside of Gaming stores is quite hard as of late, you can get them all at DriveThruRPG.com in both PDF and physical copies. I’m also pleased to announced that White Wolf Games with help from Onyx Path have just released a special 20th anniversary edition of Werewolf: The Apocalypse. You can be sure I’ll be trying to get my hands on that. When I do, I’ll let you know what I think.
But enough from me, reading these two posts back to back, which Werewolf game do you prefer? Also, what type of werewolf would you be, with your choices of tribe, auspice and other selections?
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