Werewolf: The Apocalypse

Werewolf: The Apocalypse

Werewolf: The Apocalypse (Revised edition) cover
Designer(s) Mark Rein·Hagen
Publisher(s) White Wolf (1992 to 2004)
Onyx Path Publishing (since 2012)
Publication date 1992 (1st edition)
1994 (2nd edition)
2000 (Revised edition)
2013 (20th Anniversary E.)[1]
Genre(s) Savage Horror
System(s) Storyteller System

Werewolf: The Apocalypse is a role-playing game from the Classic World of Darkness line by White Wolf Publishing. Other related products include the Collectible card games named Rage[2] and several novels (including one series). In the game, players take the role of werewolves known as Garou (from the French 'loup garou'). These Garou are usually warriors who are locked in a two-front war against both the spiritual desolation of urban civilization and supernatural forces of corruption that seek to bring about the Apocalypse. Game supplements detail other shapeshifters.

Along with the other titles in the World of Darkness, Werewolf was discontinued in 2004. Its successor title within the New World of Darkness, Werewolf: The Forsaken, was released on March 14, 2005.

In 2011 new publications for the Classic World of Darkness were announced, including a 20th Anniversary Edition of Werewolf: The Apocalypse.[3] The Werewolf Translation Guide is the first new publication, being available in April 2012.[4] Also older Classic World of Darkness books are made gradually available as Print on Demand-Versions, through DriveThruRPG.[5]

As revealed at GenCon in August 2012, Werewolf: The Apocalypse is among the White Wolf properties licensed to be developed by Onyx Path Publishing.[6]

Premise

The basic premise of the game is that the player characters are Garou. Specifically player characters usually are supposed to have undergone some training as Garou and succeeded in an initiation rite known as the Rite of Passage. After this, they are considered of Cliath rank (see Rank). Usually the player characters form a pack and work together to gain renown among the other Garou, so that they can advance in rank.

A Storyteller has a detailed setting to come up with all kinds of stories for the players to live through. On the most basic level the game world is equal to our world, a fictional planet Earth. However, it is only a dark reflection, filled with corruption, apathy, violence and hopelessness. The setting is also described as Gothic-Punk.

For the most part, the Garou battle to maintain this world before all the negativity leads to a total collapse, the titular Apocalypse. They do so hidden from the public eye and live in secret from humanity in general. In their war the Garou often hunt down and kill humans or supernatural creatures that either actively pursue the Apocalypse or unwittingly contribute to it, due to their parasitic nature. This includes fallen Garou, vampires, evil spirits, mages/sorcerers, and humans (and other creatures) possessed by demons or evil spirits. In doing so, the Garou regard themselves as the immune system of the planet, after a fashion.

Other themes of the game include the inability of the Garou to live as/among humans, although they were born in human form due to The Curse, interaction with spirits that today are separated from the physical world in a realm the Garou can enter.

In general, all story archetypes can be incorporated into a Werewolf game. Love stories or Indiana Jones-style treasure hunts are just as possible as detective stories or basic fantasy tropes such as escort missions or 'Capture the Flag'-scenarios.

Fictional history

According to Garou oral history, it has always been their duty to maintain the balance of nature on behalf of Gaia. They have done so by culling overgrown populations, hunting too powerful predators that would otherwise rampage unchecked and fending off otherwordly spirits that overstepped their stance. In addition they believe in the existence of the Triat, a trio of deities that define how the world works: the Weaver is the deity of order and scientific advancement, the Wyld is the deity of creation and chaos, while the Wyrm is the deity of entropy and charged with keeping the balance between order and chaos. At some point, the Weaver went mad by trying to bring the entirety of the Wyld's chaos into order and in doing so, trapped the Wyrm in her Pattern Web, injuring it while also driving it to madness and making it seek out the destruction of the world of Gaia's creation.

The formation of nations and cities was the first radical change wrought on the Garou by humanity. The Garou prevented it by declaring a limited war upon humanity, a period known as the Impergium. During this time, Garou are credited with destroying large human cities, retarding the technological and scientific progress of the human race, and even imposing population caps upon the humans of any given area, killing and sometimes eating humans when they grew too numerous. Though the Impergium dates back to the Mythic Age before recorded history (occurring over a period of approximately 3,000 years between 13,000 and 10,000 years ago), humanity has retained an inborn fear of the Garou. Humans seeing Garou in their hybrid (Crinos) form are usually struck with a condition known as Delirium, a state of panic and denial that has been largely responsible for modern humanity's disbelief of the existence of the Garou. Most humans who have suffered from Delirium either have very little memory of the incident that caused it or they rationalize it and remember an animal attack or the work of a psychopathic human. Subconsciously, however, the human may experience an aversion to wolves and other canids in general or to the particular Garou they witnessed. The memory loss or rationalization of events as well as the fact that the general public is unaware of werewolf existence is called The Veil (not to be confused with the mystical barrier between material and spiritual world called The Gauntlet).

Following the end of the Impergium, the Garou maintained an active but subtle role in the direction of humanity through the Industrial Revolution and to the present. During such time the Garou waged war with the other Fera, dramatically reducing the numbers of the other shifters as well as completely destroying at least 2 Fera breeds (the Apis were-bulls and Grondr were-boars); this time is known as the War of Rage. The War of Rage lasted approximately another 3,000 years after the end of the Impergium, and the Garou claim that it was started when the Gurahl were-bears refused their duty to teach the Garou a powerful rite.

During the period of the "taming of the West" in America in the 1700-1800s, the Garou engaged in a second War of Rage against not just the Fera of the New World, but against their own brethren, the Native American tribes of Garou (who call themselves the Pure Ones); in this war, the Garou exterminated the Camazotz were-bats and drove their totem, Bat, to madness and the service of the Wyrm. The careless progress of the European Garou (called Wyrmcomers by the Pure Ones) also severed the mystical bonds restraining a powerful bane (a spirit servitor of the Wyrm). This bane captured and devoured a powerful servant of the Weaver, combining their essences and becoming the Storm-Eater. The Storm-Eater whipped the umbra of the West into a terrible frenzy resembling an earthly storm, gaining it the nickname "Storm Umbra," and further threatened to bring on an early Apocalypse. The Storm-Eater was eventually re-bound by the sacrifice of 13 Elder Garou and the execution of the Rite of Still Skies (discovered by the Two-Moons pack, led by the Silver Fang Theurge Isaiah Morningkill of House Wyrmfoe).

The overwhelming societal transformation of the Industrial Revolution weakened Gaia and pushed the Umbra away from terrestrial reality, giving it less influence over the world. This period was marked by the withdrawal and extinction of many spirit varieties, but also heralded the birth of new "urban" spirits (such as glass and electricity elementals). These changes were visible in the Umbral landscape, as sites associated with Gaia became fewer and weaker, while the Pattern Web of the Weaver and the corrupt influence of the Wyrm became more prominent.

As the defense of Gaia becomes more difficult, the Garou have found their tasks increasingly harder to perform. Once able to act as silent warriors and guides, many have been reduced to guerrilla tactics and monkeywrenching. These ill omens have led to a general consensus that an Apocalypse is nigh, in which a final desperate battle will be waged by all sides. In addition to discrete threats such as the Wyrm and its minions, Garou find themselves opposed to the faceless foe of general disinterest in Gaia. Environmental disasters and modern warfare have done considerable damage to Gaia in recent decades. This callousness is sometimes spread by the Wyrm itself (as best exemplified by the Pentex corporation, a global conglomerate dedicated to spreading the Wyrm's influence). The Garou themselves are a self-acknowledged dying race; the largest Gaian tribes number 750-1,250 Garou worldwide, with the smaller tribes numbering less than 500. The wyrm-serving Black Spiral Dancers comprise fully one-tenth of the total Garou population and are the largest single tribe.

Player character creation of the Garou

Players are given the opportunity to create Garou, the werewolves of the setting, or their allies or rivals. Lycanthropy in the World of Darkness setting is an inherited trait, and thus players are born with their abilities, although they only manifest in what the game calls the "First Change," an event generally during puberty that triggers the character's latent Garou powers to surface. Players are given the opportunity to have their character inherently know that the Garou exist, or be an effective "orphan" from Garou society and require other Garou to find him/her. It is after this point that they join Garou society and cut off their ties to their previous worlds except to make sure their blood relatives remain safe.

There are three archetypes that the player can use that define how their character was born, referred to as a Breed in the games. A Garou's parents are generally Garou and a non-Garou human or wolf with strong Garou heritage referred to as Kinfolk.[7] Garou with human parentage (Kinfolk or not) are Homid and Garou of wolf parentage are Lupus. There is also the option to play as a Metis, a Garou born from the union of two Garou parents; Metis are born already transformed, are infertile and deformed, and usually results in the death of the mother. Such unions are forbidden in Garou society, but Metis are still born even as the Apocalypse approaches. Each Breed has its own benefits and disadvantages. Homid Garou can blend in better with human society but are not as intune with the spiritual side of themselves, Metis are more attuned to Garou society and spirituality and can recover health in all of their forms but are pariahs, while Lupus are more attuned to the spiritual world but cannot integrate into human society. The choice of Breed also determines the player's starting Gnosis statistic, or how well they are spiritually aware.

Garou manifest their latent powers in an event called the "First Change", a traumatic event where their Garou form becomes necessary. It is after this point that they are found by their Garou relatives and integrate themselves into Garou society, only making sure that their Kinfolk are safe from time to time. It is also possible to have a Garou born of two Kinfolk who are cut off from Garou society, resulting in what is a "Lost Cub".

Garou have the inherent ability to shapeshift into one of five distinct forms. Aside from the human form, each changes the characters' inherent Attributes such as Strength, Dexterity, or Appearance:

In the game mechanics, Garou can transform to their Breed form with ease, but it is more difficult to transform into the other forms across the spectrum from Homid to Lupus.

In addition to these, players also choose the character's archetype known as an Auspice. This is defined as the lunar phase that the player's character was born under. Each defines the player character's general role in the game, as well as the player's Rage status, or violent predatory instinct.

By performing acts that fit their Auspice, player characters advance in Rank and Renown. It is possible in the game to change Auspice, but it is seen within the fiction as a grave act and only performed if the character's destiny does not seem to fit their assigned role.

Garou society has since been divided into several Tribes that define the character's ancestral or racial background. Within the fiction of the game, there were 16 Tribes that served Gaia, but three have since become extinct. Tribe determines the Willpower stat of player characters.

The extinct Tribes of Garou are as follows:

In addition to these groups, other groups of Garou exist but are not part of the greater Garou Nation aside from the evil Black Spiral Dancers.

Breed, Auspice, and Tribe all affect the various other stats, such as Abilities and Backgrounds a player can choose, as well as the Gifts, or special (often magical) skills the player's character can perform.

Changing Breeds

In addition to the Garou, several other groups of shapeshifters known as the "Changing Breeds" were also developed for the Werewolf: The Apocalypse games. Most despise the Garou for having decimated their numbers during the prehistoric War of Rage, which also claimed some Changing Breeds, or Fera to the Garou, to extinction.

Three groups of Changing Breeds have since been made extinct through the War of Rage.

List of books

Print on Demand

Werewolf: The Apocalypse books are, like all Classic World of Darkness books, still available as PDF download through White Wolf Publishing's exclusive marketing partner DriveThruRPG . DriveThru also makes them gradually available as Print on Demand books under the label "Now in Print". Such books are usually identical to the original versions in content. However, DriveThru's printing partners do not offer full bleed in Black&White books, so "Now in Print"-books have a white border and are therefore printed on slightly larger pages. Also, some previously hard covered books are now available as both hard and soft covered versions.

Tie-ins and adaptations

References

  1. PDF became available to backers 2013/03/06 as shown on Kickstarter Update Page
  2. Rage article states, that two games by that name exist.
  3. White Wolf Release Schedule 2011-2012
  4. Werewolf-Translation-Guide Werewolf Translation Guide on DriveThru (retrieved April 17th, 2012)
  5. DriveThru RPG White Wolf "Now in Print" Products (retrieved January 20th, 2012)
  6. What is the Onyx Path? Panel from GenCon on YouTube
  7. Brian Campbell, et al. Werewolf: The Apocalypse Revised Edition (White Wolf Publishing, 2000, ISBN 1-56504-365-0) - Page 30
  8. "Next Wave". Electronic Gaming Monthly (Ziff Davis) (75): 88. October 1995.

External links

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