Sunday, October 26, 2008

Lore of the Forsaken

I was a big fan of Werewolf: the Apocalypse but now that's changed to Werewolf: the Forsaken I'm having a harder time figuring out what would make a good character or a good story. I picked up Lore of the Forsaken because it promised to delve into what it means to be a werewolf by focusing on their spirituality.

Werewolf has always been a game about spirits but what Lore tries to do is to take the nature of spirits and turn it into a kind of religion. There are four chapters detailing totems, auspices, gifts and rites and loci and fetishes. I think the first two chapters were the strongest. I especially enjoyed reading about the roles auspices play in what is expected of the werewolf. Too often it's easy to simply skim the surface of the auspice traits and create a character that is a caricature. The last two chapters had some helpful suggestions but devolved into a list of "items" you could give a character, some of which struck me as game breaking.

I judge a rules supplement on whether it gives me ideas. This one started off idea rich but fizzled out about halfway through. I'm giving it a 3.