I like werewolves. I have to admit they're not as sexy as vampires. It's hard to make something appealing about turning into a blood thirsty killing machine under a full moon. Drinking blood and luring young virgins into depravity is practically heroic in comparison.
Ben Templesmith is the mind behind Wormwood. It is a twisted and dark place. Somewhat like 30 Days of Night (of which Templesmith was the artist), it puts werewolves in a confined space and lets them loose. It also pairs them with the worst that humanity has to offer. If Templesmith were a better writer it might have been a story of which monsters to call the heroes; but he's not so it's mostly about gore and violence. Lots of both.
I didn't really like the characterisation of the werewolves in Hoxford. In my opinion he chose to ignore what can lead to interest in werewolves: pack mentality, the curse and the dichotomy between the human and the animal. Instead they were a pack of mindless killers of the same caliber as the serial murders and the rapists that populated Hoxford. I was hoping for more.
Showing posts with label werewolf. Show all posts
Showing posts with label werewolf. Show all posts
Monday, December 21, 2009
Friday, March 20, 2009
The Rage: Forsaken Player's Guide
I loved Werewolf the Apocalypse when White Wolf decided to change the World of Darkness and reboot things I hesitated. I still have trouble wrapping my mind around what's expected of characters as Forsaken rather than Garou but reading The Rage, I finally stopped trying to fit Forsaken into what I knew about the Apocalypse but actually read them as Forsaken.
The book is divided into three sections, Tribes, Rules and Setting. The setting was interesting, not sure if it's something I'd incorporate into a game but maybe taking portions of the ideas presented to add colour to NPCs would be fun. The rules sections suffers the problems of all attempts to add merits, flaws and gifts to the main rules. Some of them are too powerful and some try to take the place of something that already works. New Gifts I tend to just toss and new merits and flaws often need pretty good reasoning from my players to make their way into the campaign. The first section was the most useful.
The tribal section did a really good job of not only expanding the information on the tribes but of also filling out the roles of werewolves within the tribes. I could come up with ideas for every tribe and auspice available in the game. Before I was having trouble coming up with one character idea as none of the tribes were very appealing to me. If I were starting a new campaign I'd have my players read this section to just help them come up with ideas.
Unfortunately this book didn't answer some basic questions I had about the world. How does a werewolf choose a tribe? Are the tribes represented fairly equally in any given area? Do the tribes come together for grand conferences when a new werewolf is newly changed. Is a werewolf a Ghost Wolf automatically for a time before choosing a tribe or is there a "grace period" while he or she is initiated into the culture?
The book gave me better ideas on how the world worked, but it didn't give me quite what I expected so I'll give it a 3.
The book is divided into three sections, Tribes, Rules and Setting. The setting was interesting, not sure if it's something I'd incorporate into a game but maybe taking portions of the ideas presented to add colour to NPCs would be fun. The rules sections suffers the problems of all attempts to add merits, flaws and gifts to the main rules. Some of them are too powerful and some try to take the place of something that already works. New Gifts I tend to just toss and new merits and flaws often need pretty good reasoning from my players to make their way into the campaign. The first section was the most useful.
The tribal section did a really good job of not only expanding the information on the tribes but of also filling out the roles of werewolves within the tribes. I could come up with ideas for every tribe and auspice available in the game. Before I was having trouble coming up with one character idea as none of the tribes were very appealing to me. If I were starting a new campaign I'd have my players read this section to just help them come up with ideas.
Unfortunately this book didn't answer some basic questions I had about the world. How does a werewolf choose a tribe? Are the tribes represented fairly equally in any given area? Do the tribes come together for grand conferences when a new werewolf is newly changed. Is a werewolf a Ghost Wolf automatically for a time before choosing a tribe or is there a "grace period" while he or she is initiated into the culture?
The book gave me better ideas on how the world worked, but it didn't give me quite what I expected so I'll give it a 3.
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.
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.
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