Werewolf: The Apocalypse

Werewolf: The Apocalypse
Role-playing game published by White Wolf
Rule System	Storyteller System
Authors	Mark Rein•Hagen, Robert Hatch, Bill Bridges, Richard E. Dansky
First Publication	1992
Essential Books	Werewolf: The Apocalypse

Playing RPGs does this to you, according to Werewolf.

Generally commonly thought of as "Furry Captain Planet," Werewolf: The Apocalypse was one of the flagship games of the Old World of Darkness. It is also, alongside Mage: The Ascension, generally regarded as a good game with good ideas near-fatally hamstrung by its paradoxically-immature obsession with trying to be "mature," "gritty," and "punk."

Pretentious Metaplot

Once upon a time there was Gaia. She created servants to create the Universe. The Wyld was raw creation, the Weaver shaped creation into higher forms of being, and the Wyrm destroyed the leftover bits so the Wyld could keep creating. Only one day, the Weaver got tired of the Wyrm destroying, so it imprisoned the Wyrm. The Wyrm went insane.

So, Gaia creates lots of werecritters to keep the planet in balance: Werebears to heal, weredinos to remember, wereboars to clean up corruption, blahblah. Typical to early WW plot writing, you're first told that only the wolves, the Garou, are the warriors, and they got the idea to lord over everyone else because of that. Later you find out that they were born to be the teachers, and because "Daddy knows best", they tried to rule over everyone else. This went about as well as can be expected, especially when one of the shapechanger races is a dedicated assassin role. In any case, the fight between the shapchangers, the War of Rage, more or less destroyed the werecreatures in terms of their being a direct power over mankind. Though not before they'd already undergone the Impergium, a genocidal "mass culling" of humans so extensive that it instilled the fear of werecritters into mankind's collective memory, which is how they avoided being wiped out completely once they shattered their power fighting each other.

tl;dr: into the future. The Garou have been derping around, while a mix of mutant humans, evil werewoofs, and a giant captain-planetesque megacorp called Pentex have been destroying the world for the Wyrm. Gaia is dying. Are you a bad enough wolf to save her? The race of Garou is fading. Are you smart enough to stop it? Corruption is spreading everywhere. Are you quick enough to staunch the flow?

rtl;fi: It's WW's standard plot of "Your group is losing the war, so whatchu goin' tah do abou' it, bitch?" with otherkin.

Although it has its zealous defenders, Apocalypse is generally the game most commonly held up alongside Mage: The Ascension as one of the games that people actually liked and played that was most hobbled by the flaws of the Old World of Darkness. (Shit like Wraith and Mummy are disqualified by default because no one ever actually played them.) Ascension at least has the "defense" that its bad guys are fascinating and actually pretty playable, if not more so than the heroes, with an interesting underlying dynamic. Apocalypse attracts the not unwarranted complaint that, in trying to make everything as grimdark as possible, there's no real point in playing, as everyone are a bunch of dickheads perpetuating a vicious cycle in a world not worth saving. Later games tried to focus a little more on how things might be made better instead of ranting hatefully about how awful things are now, but it was too little too late, and the gameline eventually died. At least its Time of Judgement scenarios were universally pretty good, which isn't something every gameline in the OWOD can say. Those random aliens or equally random evil cabal of super-Nephandi in Mage anyone?

Characters

Each character can be described fairly quickly with their Breed, Auspice, and Tribe, with the latter two roughly equivalent to class and race. Each of these has their stereotypes, and even characters that deviate from the norms usually stay fairly similar to what you'd expect, though that's partly the fault of the players rather than the writers.

Werewolves have a Rank, shoehorning a character level system into Whitewolf's entirely point buy experience system. Rank has a lot of mechanical benefits, and can be used as a way to measure the relative strength of a werewolf in the same manner as the generation statistic of a vampire. Rank is a socially earned, in character statistic that comes with bunch of mechanical benefits. You gain reputation in werewolf society through your actions, measured mechanically as renown for Glory, Honor, and Wisdom. So now you have four types of exp to keep track of, just like a Legend of the Five Rings player.

Werewolves are, as you're probably aware, easy to hurt with silver weapons. They are also weak to radiation, which is a pain in the ass since balefire, a wyrm manifestation, causes it. They are, fortunately, pound for pound, able to tear apart nearly any other kind of character in the gameline in their wereform, with claws that deal Aggravated damage and a reservoir of Rage they can tap to wreck stuff with them, along with stat boosts and being really hard to hurt without their meager weaknesses. Practically the only threat to a garou is a mage with initiative and the right Spheres to either laser him to death with radiation or just transmute their skin to silver.

If a werewolf somehow gets Embraced by a vampire, they roll Gnosis. A success means instant clean, quick death. A failure means a long, painful, unavoidable death. A werewolf who botches the roll is "punished" by turning into a being known (ironically) as an abomination: a angst-ridden killing machine with all the powers of both races that comprise it, and the potential to be even more useful to the fight than before. Sure, there are some downsides, but holy shit. The 20th Anniversary edition made them much less-attractive as PC options by altering their rules. Instead of an an Ego score that worked like a vampire's Humanity, they just have Gnosis, which plays off a set of werewolf laws called the Litany. And part of the Litany is not eating human. It also ensured that their Gnosis would only go one way after the transformation: down, with a "zero" resulting in an unplayable character.

The Litany

While the laws and customs of the Garou are ancient and stretch back millenia, they are still observed to this day. The vast majority is for the Philodoxes to learn and interpret, but all Garou are required to know and observe the thirteen core tenents. Naturally, all of them have grey areas for the various factions to bicker over. These are:

• Garou Shall Not Mate With Garou. When two werewolves mate the result is a Metis, a sickly and/or insane Garou whose presence disrupts the sept. Such couples are more ocmmon between two Homid Garou; because of how they are raised they have a desire for romance and love. Unfortunately for them such pairings often result in tragedy. Back in the day Metis and their parents were killed, but in modern times more of them are spared (and more are born, too!), with many Garou seeing the hate against Metis to be unfounded prejudice. Note that this law does not forbid same-gender relationships, though they are mostly on a don't ask, don't tell basis. They are most common amongst the Black Furies and the Get of Fenris (because they are almost all the same gender, with the former being more open about it), the Shadow Lords (who do it in secret rituals) and the Fianna (who do it out in the open like the super-liberated party animals they are).

• Combat the Wyrm Wherever It Dwells and Whenever It Breeds. The Wyrm is the main reason the world's fucked. By fucking up the Wyrm, the Garou hope to unfuck the world. It seems like the easiest, most-obvious part of the Litany to follow in theory, but in practice it's a clusterfuck, which is why the Garou have been losing ground for millenia. What about possessed werewolves? What about the Weaver? Can you even kill a Wyrm-spirit? Is just charging in and ripping shit up a viable long-term solution, or just treating the symptoms instead of the problem? Is teaching humanity better ways to act required by this? All these questions are often intensely debated but there's never enough time to reach a consensus even when the world isn't on the verge of ending.

• Respect the Territory of Another. Before entering another Garou's territory, one should announce themselves first by howling their name, sept, totem, tribe and home sept (and sometimes lineage as well). In turn a Garou is required to mark their territory with scratchings or scent. In modern times younger Garou argue that it'd be better to run territory communally, but many elders won't have any of it. The more technologically-minded Garou (mainly Glass Walkers) have opted to use email, texting and phone calls to keep in contact and announce when entering another's territory. So yes, this can mean that Garou use WhatsApp. And, of course, tribes in the midst of bitch-fests with one another often scrape right up to the edges of this one, with notable flagrant violations being the destruction of the Bunyip, the devastation of North America's native tribes, and the Roman Garou fighting a civil war with the White Howlers. All three acts had horrific long-term consequences.

• Accept an Honorable Surrender. Werewolves frequently settle their differences with duels. These last until one party either dies or submits. When done so in a physical duel this is done by exposing the throat. If a warrior accepts such a surrender he gains honor for his mercy, and the loser suffers no loss. Some Garou however have a reputation to go for the throat the moment it's exposed, so some care is advised when doing this. The same goes for non-violent conflicts. And, of course, some of the more "Rah rah warrior spirit!" tribes have very narrow definitions of an "honorable" surrender.

• Submission to Those of Higher Station. Werewolves have a strict hierarchy in their society. All are expected to know their place within the sept and follow those of higher rank to a reasonable degree. Some Garou however exploit this and make unreasonable demands or act like petty tyrants just because they've got blue blood and/or grey hairs (or the Garou equivalents). Tribes like the Shadow Lords and Silver Fangs enforce this law with an iron fist, while the Bone Gnawers, Children of Gaia and Silent Striders would rather earn resect than demand it. In the middle are most of the other tribes, which struggle with the usual human organizational problems of a stagnant top full of grumpy traditionalists often failing to listen to and/or rein in the vibrant-but-inexperienced new blood in the base.

• The First Share of the Kill for the Greatest in Station. In short, the boss gets the first pick of the loot, whether it be powerful fetishes, valuable goods, or the first cut of the meat. This tends to be mostly followed, but a wise leader will know better than to hoard all the good stuff. And, of course, it interacts weirdly with some of the other rules further down.

• Ye Shall Not Eat the Flesh of Humans. Despite evidence that Gaia did not intend the Garou to cruelly dominate humanity, this law rose from practical issues rather than moral constraints. Eating humans would only draw attention from them, would make Garou complacent and not hunt the Wyrm-spirits they should and makes them more susceptible to corruption by the Wyrm. Oh, and because of the preservatives in our food our flesh has become unwholesome over the last few decades. Go Pentex!

• Respect Those Beneath Ye — All Are of Gaia. Aka the hippie law. Don't be a dick to other people, protect the weak, be good to your equals yadda yadda yadda. Lupus tend to have an easier time with this law because wolves aren't dicks to each other for the lulz like humans. Of course, well, every tribe's got it's list of people who "don't count."

• The Veil Shall Not Be Lifted. Vampires have their Masquerade, Mages have their Consensus and Garou have the Veil. Showing themselves to humans in their Crinos form will cause Delirium to kick in, driving people to paranoia, madness and violence. This would only aid the Wyrm or even cause the humans to try and hunt the Garou. They brought this one on themselves, really, with the whole War of Rage/Impergium thing.

• Do Not Suffer Thy People to Tend Thy Sickness. In the old days, a Garou that could no longer function due to age, injury or wounds would be killed so that they would not burden the sept. Nowadays an aged Garou is allowd to choose their own death, sometimes having them set out on one last journey and vanishing forever. Others return to human or wolf society and dying amongst their kin. The Children of Gaia despise this law and will care for their unfirm until their deaths, no matter how long it lasts or how many resources it diverts. There's also the unsavory whiff of actual real-world politics around this one: one of the books notoriously features a pro-eugenics rant about the "degradation of the human stock" thanks to modern medicine that really doesn't pass the smell test.

• The Leader May Be Challenged at Any Time During Peace. Packs are only as strong as their alphas. If one believes that they could run the pack better than the current alpha and there is no immediate threat to the pack a challenge can be issued. Sometimes alphas are too strong for any one Garou to beat, and as such will challenge them one by one until the old alpha is beaten. Some more tyrannical alphas declare a constant state of war so they can lord over their pack as they see fit, which, unfortunately, is all too easy given the whole "Wyrm preparing to destroy the planet" thing. It doesn't always have to be a physical contest, although this is highly variable with the tribe.

• The Leader May Not Be Challenged During Wartime. In battle the alpha's word is law. Breaking this law will have a Garou punished severely by pack or even sept. If a werewolf can prove however they were compelled to do so by magic, corruption, possession or that the alpha was extremely inept they can avoid punishment, but one who goes against the word of their alpha will never receive honor for it. See previous rules.

• Ye Shall Take No Action That Causes a Caern to Be Violated. Caerns are sacred to the Garou, being the wellsprings of the lifeblood of Gaia. Losing one would forever cause part of the Earth to die and diminish the power of the Garou. All Garou are in agreement that the violation of a Caern is one of the gravest sins imaginable and doing so will be punished severely, even when it was done unintentionally. Notably, the violation of all of Australia's Caerns was a huge black mark on Garou history.

Breeds

Breed refers to the natural state of a werewolf. Some Garou are 'normally' in human shape, and others not. Werewolves that are sleeping or unconscious always revert to their breed form. Their breed form is the shape they are born in, and are stuck in while they grow up.

Homid: The result of hot human-werewolf fucking. These are almost always the typical player choice. Homid werewolves grew up as regular members of humanity, because apparently the Garou can't keep track of all their kids, and even if they did, most of them don't turn out to be werewolves. Instead, they wait for the kids to go through their first change, inevitably slaughtering their schoolmates, high school sweetheart, best friends, family, or whomever they happen to be around at the time. Remember, this is White Wolf so letting humans know you exist is like, some huge fucking deal... Unless it's a bunch of ticking timebombs you've left scattered through the world because as a dying race it's your duty to not keep it in your pants.

Later on, they rewrote things so that they are mostly the descendants of Kinfolk families who try to ready them for the job ahead, an improvement so great that they went on to completely drop it for the sequel in the NWOD. Herp.

Metis: When two werewolves love each other very much... they end up pretty much fucked. Garou society forbids werewolves to breed with each other. In some tribes or groups the punishment is a harsh shunning, and in others it can be outright death, with bonus babymurder. The reason is, depending on who you ask, that Gaia wanted to ensure her soldiers had to stay connected to the human and wolf races and couldn't reproduce without them, or that werewolf genes are so powerful that these children are born horribly deformed and inbred because of too much concentrated greatness. These children are born in the half-man, half-wolf, half-knife-factory-inna-tornado warform known as Crinos. Fully grown werewolves in the Crinos shape stand up to ten feet tall, so a baby starts out pretty fucking big. On top of that, they almost always kill their mother as they flip shit and tear their way out of the womb. Lovely.

Metis make good warriors though, as long as the fight isn't in the streets of some human city. Even though they're supposed to be anathema, more and more are being produced as the world heads into the end times. There's even some groups of werewolves locked up in a constant baby-pumping orgy, trying to increase their numbers for the last battle of the apocalypse. Too bad all Metis are infertile mules. Being a metis gives a PC some raw hitting power, but it also gives them a boatload of social disadvantages and at least one physical or mental deformity. While they aren't really intrinsically evil, a whole lot metis get treated like shit so much that they end up falling to the Wyrm anyway, a vicious cycle that, hitting a major theme of the gameline, almost none of the Garou have learned anything from in thousands of fucking years.

Lupus: Werewolf fucks a regular wolf. It should be noted that the werewolf could easily be one of the Homid breeds, so you can enjoy the great role-playing opportunities present in a horrifyingly detailed bestiality scene. Thanks, White Wolf. Lupis are born as wolves, and live as such until they change. Even then, while they can take human shape and they aren't as dumb as a typical animal, they're still very wolf-like in thought. This breed is a furry's wet dream inside a game that's already a furry's wet dream. Hell, this is actually more than even most furries can take; Lupis basically appeal to "ferals", a tiny niche of furrydom that even other fucking furries think is messed up and wishes would crawl away and die somewhere. There are ways to make it less horrifying (Lupis mating with wolves often point out that, being natural wolves, they should be attracted to wolves rather than humans), but so many writers did so many stupid things with the idea in failed attempts to be "edgy" and "punk" that at least one later writer derisively called Apocalypse "The game of FUCK THIS WOLF OR GAIA WILL DIIIIIIIIIE!!!"

Kinfolk: Most werewolf-human couplings don't actually result in werewolf children, but their human kids are still kinfolk. Kinfolk are basically normal humans who are immune to the werewolves' "delirium" power that makes them hard to remember. Tribes keep them around because having kids with kinfolk is much more likely to produce werewolf children. The full implications of this have been milked for all they're worth across countless splats, but here's the gist of it: some kinfolk-garou couples are good matches between people who love each other, despite the tension between the garou lifestyle and living a normal life. Some garou are assholes about the whole deal, believing that sexing up any kinfolk they want whenever they want is their "right," and that kinfolk should be grateful to make babies all their lives. And most of them fall somewhere in-between, with garou family members who try to be good to their kinfolk but either patronize or fail to keep their Rage in check around the people they love, leading to tragedy all around. Mistreatment of kinfolk has led many to fall to the Wyrm, or to murder their Garou kin to become skinwalkers, Wyrm-tainted abominations with many werewolf powers and a terrible desire for revenge.

Playable kinfolk are basically the game in hardcore mode, since you're essentially a normal person fighting shit that can kill a garou in warform. There's a reason that a lot of Tribes are leery of cavalierly throwing kinfolk into the fray, since they know that many of them, maybe even most of them, will never return. Of course, there is potential for a non-combat campaign, but that lovely war-form would just be sitting around if you did that!

Rules for Lupis kinfolk exist, but fuck you if you want to play one. At least a human kinfolk can carry damn weapons, drive vehicles, and talk.

Auspice

The five phases of the moon that determines the duty of Garou. This is found on the night of birth and forges a role in their society.

Really, though, it's just your fucking starting rage value, additional starting gifts, and the expected duty that you function in the pack. There is a difference if they're born on the waning (past full and moving toward a new moon) or waxing (moving toward a full moon) phases of the moon. Waning cycles tend to be more aggressive while waxing are more laidback and chill.

Ragabash (The New Moon, The Trickster): The alternative name is more fitting since the position is really to troll your enemies and apparently your allies (sometimes). They don't have any strict duty to perform and are left to their own devices. Typical attitudes are questioning and going against the norms, playing devil's advocate and keeping things from going completely stagnant. Still, if you want to play them as the asshole who keeps asking "Why?" like a five-year-old, someone is going to kill you.

Theurge (The Crescent Moon, The Seer): The spiritual leaders of the Garou who probably like spending their time with Spirits rather than solid beings. They are the guide to consulting Spirits and keep the Garou in connection with them. Oh, and they start hearing/seeing Spirits from the Umbra in reality. Lupus have a better time with the Theurge auspice because they are born with a closer tie to Nature (they start with a Gnosis rating almost twice as high as a Metis and five times as high as a Homid. Pick Lupus or be prepared to spend exp points to upgrade Gnosis).

Philodox (The Half Moon, The Mediator): The counselor/mediators of Garou society and on average are the wisest members. They are leaders in "peacetime" (I guess this means the times when they aren't fighting the eternal decaying of the world, which is never), but will defer to Ahroun or Galliards for leadership in war (which is all the fucking time). Serving as judge and jury, knowledgeable about the Garou laws, they are highly respected.

Galliard (The Gibbous Moon, The Moon Dancer): The warlord choice of the bunch, leading more towards the leader and not the warrior part. They can cheer, fight, and tell stories. Passionate fighters to the point where they feel an intense range of emotions. Their duty is morale boosters and can move the pack through actions and words.

Ahroun (The Full Moon, The Warrior): The goddamn reason the Garou can kick ass. A young Ahroun can take on the leading members of other auspices without much trouble. The big problem with Ahrouns is that their lifespan isn't that long due to their killer instinct. They are the most willing to take on the biggest challenges, lean towards violent solutions, and least willing to back down from a fight. Ahroun Get of Fenris are terrifying to behold and are the strongest fighters of the Garou.

While Auspice could be viewed as the "class" choice of the game, it isn't really. You can still be a Theurge and kick down the door and murder everyone or be a Ahroun who is knowledgeable and converses with spirits, thanks to the way point buy works. It just affects where you start. It is possible to join an auspice that does not match one's birth by way of a ritual, but those Garou who do so are often seen with suspicion and have to be damn good at their new jobs to not be scorned.

Tribes

There are Thirteen Tribes of Garou, each with their own sort of culture and views of the world. There used to be more, but one got Wyrm'd, one sacrificed itself to keep everyone else from getting Wyrm'd, and one got ganked by the others for really petty reasons.

Black Furies: A tribe of all-women, save for their male Metis and Kinfolk. Think Amazon-style Matriarchy, add in the proud warrior culture of the Greeks, and dash in some modern feminism for spice. Later writers also threw in some neo-pagan stuff, because they were White Wolf writers and of course they did. Very attuned to the workings of the Wyld over civilization, but the North American camp helped bring about Seneca Falls and get women the vote, and plenty of them hang out in college campuses. Somewhat unfairly seen as a big ol' bunch of butch lesbians, even in their own tribebook. (Quote: "Shit, bitch, we're not all dykes.") One of the few tribes to have actually seen a little social progress in the last few centuries (I mean, they don't even ritualistically sacrifice their male kids anymore, mostly), but their primary weakness is still a tendency to go off half-cocked at men. The first in a long line of bad, stereotypical ideas to be mostly fixed as the new editions and revisions rolled on: their first draft were a bunch of violent, bitchy dykes on a sacred quest to castrate anything with testicles for the Moon Goddess. Hilariously, the Time of Judgement scenario where they fall to the Wyrm basically involves reverting to this initial characterization.

Bone Gnawers: The rats of the city. Homeless and destitute, this tribe fights the Wyrm down in the alleys, gutters, and slums. Notable for being excellent spies and assassins within the cities. Covers both extremes of impoverished urban dwellers, from the cool, wise, elderly homeless lady who dispenses sage advice to young runaways to the crazy man living in a box who won't stop stabbing cats while screaming at passerby about the mind-control chemicals Pentex puts into their soda. Survivors to the core, but, contrary to the sneers of half their kinsmen, they have their own traditions of hospitality and egalitarianism that actually make them one of the most socially-progressive tribes: after all, if the Get of Fenris have kicked you out for having internal genitalia, or the Black Furies for having external genitalia, or the Red Talons for not being as shithouse-rat crazy as they are, well, there's always the Bone Gnawers. Rat gives everyone a second chance. Combine with their tribal traditions of pragmatism and down-to-Earth, "work on the problem in front of you and leave the big stuff to big people" mindset, and they're honestly one of the smartest tribes in the setting.

Bunyip: The last of the three Lost Tribes to be wiped out, but alphabetically the first. These were the Garou who hailed from Austrailia, and mostly had were-Tasmanian-tiger forms rather than wolf ones. They were the most peaceful and bro-tier of all Tribes in their heyday, hence their withdrawal from the Nation during the most violent and dickish part of its history. Unfortunately, the were-spiders got the Aboriginies to hunt them until they didn't have a viable breeding pool left, before their cousins in the whiter tribes wiped them out in a mixture of racism and greed for their land, something everyone involved now deeply regrets. And not just because their vengeful spirits hunt down any werewolves and werespiders in the Australian spirit world like slasher-movie monsters. That said, they've gotten a little love later on. The Wild West spin-off practically made a tradition out of finding bizarre ways to have Bunyip characters end up in the American wilderness to adventure with the other tribes, and while no experiments have yet been successful, the more technologically-minded Tribes are trying to re-create them via cloning. It canonically goes tits-up during the Apocalypse, but who knows what your Storyteller wants to try?

Children of Gaia: The only Tribe to have been founded on an act of peace. Their goal is to unite the Garou Nation and prevent infighting, something which is both incredibly logical, given the oncoming end of the world and all, and damn near impossible given that practically all the other Tribes are run by squabbling Fifth Graders with attention span of fruit flies and the memory of a goldfish for anything but the thousand-year-old grudges they never forget or forgive. Though they do focus on peaceful resolution, they aren't all granola-munching peace-and-love hippies and weak fighters. Mechanically their stats support them being one of the hardest "non-warrior tribes" to kill in Anhous form, and they often act as bodyguards for great peacemakers like Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela. Since they were one of the only tribes to not need lots of stupid stereotypical shit cleaned up for the first big revision, they, naturally, actually get worse in their revised tribebook. Avoid it like the plague.

Croatan: Another of the three Lost Tribes of Garou, the Croatan were very much the middle ground between the Uktena and Wendigo ideologies. They were spiritual followers of the totem "Turtle" and were known to be a stalwart and enduring people with a good measure of wisdom and (like all Tribes) a warrior culture. Unfortunately, the titanic disease-fest that was the Columbian Exchange actually summoned Eater-of-Souls, part of the Triat Wyrm, into the physical world, and every single one of them, from the mightiest werewolf to the lowest kinfolk, selflessly sacrificed themselves, body and soul, to banish it back into the Umbra. This is the origin of the major rift between the Native American Tribes and the white ones, with their native brothers ignoring the fact that the Croatan (history lesson!) had interbred with white settlers in a bid for integration, and the great sacrifice at Roanoke, Virginia involved Europeans too! There might be one left, outside of time, but the tribe as a whole is just gone, souls and all.

Fianna: Very, very old-tyme Irish. A very proud tribe that celebrates their victories the most fervently, and mourns their losses the most keenly. Great storytellers and fighters alike, they also take a 'holier-than-thou' attitude when it comes to the other tribes. They are also the most stereotypical sort of drunken, racist, carousing Irishmen imaginable, to the point that their tribal weakness is having no self-control and being bad at getting Willpower back. Get along very well with the Fae, which is unfortunate given the hilarious tonal inconsistencies that spring to mind when imagining a Werewolf / Changeling crossover.

Get of Fenris: Essentially Germanic-Viking werewolves. Abhor weakness and glorify martial prowess above all else. Think Khorne-lite and you're in the right ballpark. The Get used to be incredibly, openly bigoted against women, minorities, and their metis because they believed them to be weak and useless, but they mostly sorted that out after the bloody purge of that group of renegade Get that are literally Nazis, and nowadays mostly stick to the kind of subtle, realistic, unconscious -isms regular people deal with. Much as you'd expect, most of the old bigoted attitudes were in early editions of White Wolf's books. Revised Edition works and forward into W20 have not kept much of the attitude of bigotry, and have down-played the camps that are powerful proponents of it such as the Swords of Heimdall. Because White Wolf isn't so dumb as to not eventually realize when they've been racist twits. Incidentally, that swastika on their logo? It did represent the superiority of one race over another, just in terms of wolf over man rather than one kind of man over another.

Glass Walkers: Where the Bone Gnawers take the lower parts of cities, the Glass Walkers take the high life. They have an affinity for technology and are the Garou Nation's most prominent force in the business world. All the more-Luddite factions think they're hopelessly corrupted by the Weaver but the Time of Judgement scenario where the Weaver takes center stage as the main villain outright denies it: quite apart from their being informed enough to be careful with that sort of thing, it'd be too obvious. The Tribes' number one source of wolf-gunfighters and warriors who travel to the spirit plane of the Internet to punch out computer viruses and malware. Easily the most optimistic tribe, since they actually believe that time is making them stronger, and they've mostly purged all the crazy transhumanists and stereotypical gangsters, but their powerful humanity is also something of a weakness. For example, they treat their metis well, but they have too many of them because they make very human romantic attachments to one another, and while their closeness to human society has ensured that they're really good with modern technology, they're also crippled outside cities, and their tribal weakness is an inability to regain Gnosis in the wilderness.

Red Talons: A tribe of almost-entirely wolf-born lupus Garou, as they aren't particularly fond of mankind and believe it is the cause of basically every Wyrm-related problem. Some of them eat people in flagrant disregard for the Litany, almost all of them want to exterminate us down to pre-Stone Age levels of population, and all of them are angry jerks about how much civilization sucks, so much so that their tribal weakness, mirroring the Glass Walkers, is an inability to recharge Gnosis inside of cities. So notoriously difficult to work with that they've become a common source of in-Tribe villains for Storytellers and are the most commonly-banned Tribe. Wanting to play one without a really good concept automatically makes you That Guy. It's telling that their Forsaken counterparts, the Predator Kings, actually are straight-up villains.

Shadow Lords: Political masterminds, masterful strategists, and general douche-bags extraordinaire. Their European branch is very Russian, and their Asian branch is very Japanese. Manipulative control freaks given to backstabbing the other tribes for their own ends, but surprisingly decent to their Kinfolk and generally okay guys once you get to know them, so long as screwing you over isn't a necessity of their grand long-term designs. While they chafe a little at the Silver Fangs' leadership, they have agreed to loyally serve them so long as they are fit to rule. It's a pity, then, that the last few of the Fangs' High Kings have been crazy, inbred, incompetent assholes, and the Shadow Lords were considering a coup for a while there. But now the current Silver Fang High King, Jonas Albrecht of House Wyrmfoe, son of Jacob Morningkill, who -was- one of those douchebags, has earned their respect, and only the Lords of the Summit splinter faction is still on about it.

Silent Striders: Travelers and tale-tellers, they were forced from their homelands in Egypt by an ancient and powerful vampire, who cursed them to never be able to truly rest or settle down with friends and loved ones until just before they're about to die. They have since become rootless wanderers, but they've learned every trick in the book when it comes to taking shortcuts through the spirit world and they're the recognized authority on Vamp killing. Very disorganized, but their nature makes them ideal messengers, and all that time in the spirit world makes them masters of communicating with ghosts and the dead.

Silver Fangs: The natural hereditary leaders of the Garou Nation, and tend to embody both the best and the worst aspects of that "Medieval noble" mindset at the same time. Unfortunately, many have been driven insane by the centuries of inbreeding to keep line "pure" and/or an ancient curse from a powerful demon, depending on your edition. Very proud and stringent followers of tradition, though as the metaplot progressed a new, non-crazy, energetic young king, the aforementioned Jonas Albrecht, started reforming the fuck out of them and bringing the Fangs around to actually do shit. Not a bad last gasp before the end.

Stargazers: Basically Buddhist monks, complete with their own shapeshifting martial art and calm mindset compared to their brethren. By far the most difficult tribe to roleplay, and so light on actual interesting stuff compared to the others that the new edition literally saw them leaving the Garou Nation to join the Beast Courts.

Uktena: Spirits and secrets are their game. One of the two remaining "Pure" Native American-based tribes, though they're (usually) much more reasonable about it than the Wendigo and have been incorporating traditional "indigenous" tribes from all over the world. They practice the ancient art of trapping wyrm-spirits for shits and giggles, something which is even more dangerous than it sounds. Wisdom and knowledge are the virtues they prize above all others, and they happily cooperate with any tribe that has something to teach them. Their biggest weakness is their mad-scientist-like willingness to tamper with shit that is really better off left alone.

Wendigo: Anger, ice, and a warrior culture, the Wendigo of the frozen north are the second surviving "Pure" Tribe, and are far less tolerant of the others than the Uktena. Tough, fierce, and masters of ambush tactics, but also given to cultural posturing and playing misery poker with the whiter Tribes, while studiously pretending no Native Americans ever did anything wrong before Columbus. (Originally, they were right, but see above regarding fixing racist shit.) Not quite as crazy as the Red Talons, but getting there. There's this one Time of Judgement scenario where they infiltrate an nuclear submarine through the Umbra and try to kill millions of whites over a cop shooting Native American protesters - before the Wyrm corrupts them!

White Howlers: The former proud ancestral Tribe of Scotland, last both alphabetically and because they are the Lost Tribe that isn't quite lost enough for comfort. During the height of the Garou's power and decadence, the White Howlers discovered the huge and appropriately-ominously-named Black Spiral Labyrinth right smack dab in the heart of their lands. Due to a combination of the Tribes' then-crazy state of competition and backstabbery and their own hubris, they decided to invade the place. Not the best idea in the world. They became the Black Spiral Dancers, evil parodies of Garou twisted and mutated into servants of the Wyrm, Chaos-style, and some of the modern Nation's deadliest adversaries. Responses to one guy wanting to play "the last of the White Howlers" were once met with beast-like shrieks of rage from the development team and in-book rants about its impossibility, but the 20th anniversary edition included an admission that they'd maybe been a little hard on the poor would-be special snowflakes and a little sidebar about how best to do it.

Ronin

With all this talk about tribes, Septs and packs, a couple of players immediately asked themselves: "Can I play a badass lone wolf who doesn't need anyone in their life?" The answer is kinda, because they're not badass and they do need other Garou.

For a few Garou, the life as a Chosen of Gaia is just not a good fit. They can never be truly at home within a sept or even a pack, seeing what they do as a tainted legacy. Some Ronin don't choose the life, but have it forced on them because they have committed a crime so heinous (either intentionally or by accident) that the only response can be exile, the punishment worse than death. Some just fundamentally disagree with Gaia's party line. (And, to be fair, there is much to be skeptical of from a human perspective.)

In these cases there is only one thing they can do: leave the Garou nation in self-imposed exile. This releases them from the yoke of responsibility, of political intrigue, the requirement to fight the Wyrm, and other such things. But in return, the Ronin will be alone. No humans they can connect to (even Homid Garou are inherently different from humans in some ways), no other Garou that truly understand them, no wolves to accept them. Both humans and wolves are pack animals, especially Garou. But without all this they will be forever apart from all societies. Even the spirits will mistrust them and not lend their powers or knowledge to a lone wolf.

Septs will occasionally employ Ronin as Hyenas. This makes them the bounty hunters and parole officers of the Garou Nation, either capturing an escaped Garou or bringing back their skin. They are greatly mistrusted by even those who employ them, paying them with supplies, tolerate them in the area, or rarely granting them low level Gifts, which is very tempting. They might also lend them fetishes in the hunt for a refugee, but the Ronin is required to return them. And failure is not tolerated.

Because they are alone, Ronin are vulnerable to outside forces. While Septs tend to be the primary targets of the servants of the Wyrm, a lone wolf is sometimes targeted for corruption or a budding hunter trying their luck against a Ronin before going after a pack. As such, Ronin will sometimes band together in groups called Shames, consisting of several Ronin. These groups act as mutual protection, support, and help seeking redemption. While this is laudable, there are two risks involved: that the Shame falls to the Wyrm and becomes corrupted, or the formation of a Ronin nation, with all the benefits of the Nation without the duty and sacrifice involved. This means that most Septs will have a "shoot on sight" policy regarding Shames.

Whatever the reason, Ronin will forever be mistrusted, but not quite given up. When a Ronin is created the tribe in question tends to keep a close eye on them by way of spirit, tattoo or other ways. This is done in the hope that they will one day attempt to redeem themselves to tribe and totem. Only very infrequently does a Ronin try to redeem themselves, and even less that try actually succeed. But in those very rare occurrences that they do so they will create a legend worthy of song.

Edition Shift

With the shift from the Old World of Darkness to the New World of Darkness, WtA went out and was replaced by Werewolf: The Forsaken.

Now, edition shifts in general catch a lot of flak, and the NWoD is notorious for the amount it initially took, but WtA fans are particularly belligerent about the creation of Forsaken. Why? In general, two reasons.

Firstly, the fluff. WtF abandoned the bloody-handed green-party morals of its predecessor, changing the fluff from "you are avenging angels of the tormented, dying spirit of the Earth" to "you are the bastard children of the mad goddess of the moon, working to atone for divine patricide by serving as the Border Patrol between Earth and Animistic Hell." Whether the new idea was good is immaterial, because it was so very different from what came before.

Secondly, the crunch - Uratha are a lot weaker than Garou. Partially this is due to the difference between editions, which nerfed all supernaturals in comparison to how they dominated humans before. However, whereas Garou were the meanest bitches on the block in the OWoD (assuming a mage didn't get the first shot in, because mages will pretty much pub-stomp any other super if they do). There are well-documented stories of lone Garou downing whole coteries of Kindred singlehanded, as the invincible boss in Bloodlines showed. Uratha are... well, not. They're deadly pack-hunters, but one on one, they're not the nastiest supernatural splats. Mummies and Prometheans are better at tanking damage than Forsaken are, just for starters. That said, they did get a major upgrade in combat beefiness in Forsaken 2e, but still, that initial presentation soured a lot of Apocalypse fans.

Revival

Werewolf: the Apocalypse has recently seen a revival of sorts, with Onyx Path publishing taking up the task of printing "Werewolf: 20th Anniversary Edition" or "W20," a re-revised edition of Werewolf that ties a lot of the otherwise spread-out information of the earlier editions into one core book. While it does have its supplements, it is far more capable of standing alone than the previous editions. Much of the contradictory nature has been removed from the rules, and minor changes have been made to the mechanics of the game for enhanced game-play. Plus, most of the worst problems of story and setting from old editions have been slowly and systemically excised as new books for it came out. Perhaps paradoxically, if one wants to get into Apocalypse, now might actually be a better time.

In addition, there has also been work done on a new version of the Apocalypse LARP (Formerly "Apocalypse" by Mind's Eye Theater, under the title "Laws of the Wild") This new version is being made by By Night Studios and Onyx Path Publishing publishing with consent from White Wolf, and in LARP "lingo" is usually referred to as "BNS Werewolf." Early play-testing has shown a dramatic shift away from the original stories of the Garou to a semi post-apocalyptic setting wherein many of the Tribes are far different from their original incarnations. ((Source: BNS Werewolf Alpha Slice: Bone Gnawers and Get of Fenris play test.))

In addition to a departure from the original stories, the world (so far) has seen a huge revision in the mechanics, such as an entire restructure of the Gift system (including all new gifts, and the removal of the formerly known ones,) and the Rage system (which as currently proposed, Rage no longer gives Garou the risk of going berserk from anything but direct, extended, unchecked combat... though they have options to take actions or use gifts to reduce their "current" rage, which is now based on a "sliding scale" rather than a permanent number granted to a Garou by their Auspice.) BNS Werewolf has found mixed reviews thus far, but it is expected it will find success, following in the trend set by White Wolf's earlier attempt at a conversion, BNS Masquerade.