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Ananasi is the latest of the Werewolf: The Apocalypse Changing Breed sourcebooks. It is the perfect investment for the World of Darkness fan who has always wanted to play a character who is both a vampire and a werewolf…

Appearance and Layout:

Ananasi is a 122 page, perfect bound soft cover book. It has a rough table of contents and no index.

Its interior art follows the White Wolf norm: It contains some very blurry and uninteresting pieces coupled with nicely done and appropriate ink and pencil drawings.

The first section in Ananasi is a comic entitled Prom Queen. It's well-drawn, but has a telegraphed, lackluster ending and is not useful to players or Storytellerss. Prom Queen is the story of a high school girl's transformation into an Ananasi or werespider.

The next section, In a Madly Sacred Place, begins the standard White Wolf narrative about the source material and contains the requisite lexicon of terms endemic to the Ananasi. It also contains a list of recommended materials.

First Threads is next. It is sixteen pages of the history of the werespiders, the role they have played in the World of Darkness, and their views about the cosmology particular to that setting. Although the material could well be useful in planning and in play, it makes for a long and at times uninteresting read.

According to First Threads, the Ananasi are the children of Ananasa, which is a great, spider-shaped spirit created by the Weaver before she went insane. Ananasa courted the favor of the other two members of the Triat, the Wyrm and the Wyld, and so the spider spirit and her skin changing progeny believe themselves to represent a kind of balance in the now lopsided Triat.

Ananasa is still around, but has been trapped on the Umbral realm of Malfeas by the corrupted Wyrm. One of her children was able to crack the gigantic opal the spider spirit is held in and now she can communicate on a limited basis with her children. Ananasa is quite active in this regard and often directs the Ananasi to perform unfathomable tasks.

The next section is entitled The Web and briefly describes the socio-political groups the Ananasi have broken themselves into - even though they're very much unlike the other Changing Breeds, the werespiders are still subject(ed) to White Wolf's factionalism. These factions are called Aspects. It also contains information about where the Ananasi set up their Sylie, or nests, and what they look like; the enemies and friends of the werespiders; how the Ananasi view the other Changing Breeds and supernatural creatures of the World of Darkness; the Laws of Ananasa, which are similar to the Garou's Litany and Kindred's Traditions; and, finally, information about Rank.

Anchor Lines is next. It provides an overview of geographic information about the Ananasi and their involvement in specific places. Most importantly, it finally provides the reader with the details of the forms the werespiders change into.

The Ananasi have four forms. The first is the Homid form, which appears to be human on the outside but is not quite. For example, even in this form werespiders have pedipalps. The next form is Lilian. Although the specifics vary from individual to individual, it combines arachnid features with human ones. An Ananasi player decides just what his or her character is like in this form. Next is the Pithus form, which is that of a man-sized spider. The most interesting form is that of Crawlerling. While in it, the werespider is broken down into thousands of normal-sized spiders. Some of these spiders are leaders and carry the character's essence, memories, and the like. The rest are drones. Drones can be killed with little lasting effect, but each time a leader is destroyed, the character loses memories, skill, etc..

The Metamorphosis section has all the mechanical details about the Ananasi, including information about how they travel into the Umbra (by breaking into Crawlerling form and just, well, crawling into it), about their venom, and about their webs. This section discusses Aspects in greater detail. Also, Merits (such as Venomous and Hive Mind) and Flaws (which include Emotional Attachment and No Fangs) nest here. Finally, we get the goodies: the Gifts. They include deliciously arachnid ones such as Jump, Many Eyes, Web Haven, and Bug Lord and more pedestrian ones like Burrow, Iron Web, and Preserve.

Werespiders drink blood. Like the Kindred, they use it to power various special abilities and feats. These include changing from one form to another, gaining an extra action, and spinning webs. Unlike the Kindred, the werespiders do not need blood to survive and can easily subsist on, and make use of, animal vitae.

Werespiders also collect and use Gnosis like their Garou cousins. Gnosis is collected in an Ananasi's Sylie, or nest, and is used, sometimes along with blood, to power certain Gifts.

The Ananasi sourcebook has two appendices. The first is A Thousand Fangs. This section provides the expected player character templates and a few werespiders of note (one of which is the Biblical Jericho).

The second appendix, Loose Threads, contains interesting real world information about spiders - their anatomy, eating and hunting habits, etc. - and, for some reason, Storyteller information that separates the fact from the fancy supplied in previous, narrative chapters.

And, finally, there is an Ananasi-specific character record sheet.

General Commentary:

The Ananasi make an interesting, but flawed addition to the World of Darkness. Some of the ideas presented in the book, such as Crawlerling form, are quite rich. Others are merely cookie cutter concepts from other World of Darkness materials which have been repainted; Ananasi, with its Aspects and mild angst, is definitely a White Wolf product.

The biggest flaw in the book is the length of the section about the history of the Ananasi. The biggest flaws in the concept of werespiders is that they are the product of kitchen sink thinking, that they're niche-less, and inappropriate for the product line they appear in.

The World of Darkness suffers from kitchen sink thinking. That is, everything, including the kitchen sink, has been thrown into the setting - whether or not it is appropriate and of an acceptable power level. Instead of building very slowly on the core ideas presented in the five basic World of Darkness rulebooks, instead of detailing the setting, new, more powerful, and sometimes poorly thought out elements are being added to the game. Mage: The Ascension now has hedge magicians and the like. Werewolf: The Apocalypse has the Changing Breed series. And so on. Not only do these elements serve to boost and obscure the power level of a campaign, but the draw the focus away from the vampires, werewolves, wizards, faeries, and ghosts.

And the Ananasi are niche-less. The two settings in which they're most likely to be used (in which they're best used), Vampire: The Masquerade and Werewolf: The Apocalypse, have no place for them. Werespiders ought to be at odds with the manipulative Kindred and hunted down by the Garou for their ties to the Wyrm.

Werespiders trash the spirit of the basic Werewolf: The Apocalypse setting, however, especially if used as a player characters. They are, in a word, antiheroes - antiheroes in a setting where the characters struggle to make a difference in their dying world.

There are two reasons why Ananasi make inappropriate Werewolf: The Apocalypse characters. The first is their emotionless state. Emotional attachments are bred out of them. Deep feelings are not in their nature. But Werewolf is all about passionate activism.

Secondly, the Ananasi have ties to the Wyrm. In fact, one of their Aspects, the Hatar, work with that being under the direction of the spider spirit Ananasa. The Garou have no reason to trust werespiders given their (perceived) role in the cosmos. Running a werespider with a werewolf ought to be like trying to get a D&D paladin to buddy up with a chaotic neutral thief. While it can be done, this kind of thing tends to doom a campaign via intra-party conflict.

That said, the Ananasi would make very interesting non-player characters for a Storyteller who doesn't mind editing the known history of the World of Darkness to include werespiders.

In this area, the Ananasi's ties and nature help to confound the player characters. What are Kindred characters to think when they run across a fellow blood-sucker who also changes form - into a bunch of little spiders, no less? Or what should the Garou do with a shape changer who not only sucks the life out of other beings but claims that working with the Wyrm is okay? Think of tangled clues a werespider would leave behind after feeding. There's a rich opportunity for exploration here.

Yet in the final analysis, decision as to whether or not to pick up Ananasi rests in the player's or Storyteller's preference for the World of Darkness setting as presented in the rulebooks or a version in which all sorts of oddities threaten to steal the spotlight.

Style: 3 (Average)
Substance: 3 (Average)

Ananasi
Author: Brett Brooks and James A. Moore Category: game Company/Publisher: White Wolf Game Studio Line: Werewolf: The Apocalypse Cost: $17.95 Page count: 122 ISBN: 1-56504-359-6 SKU: WW3082 Capsule Review by John "Seanchai" Grose on 07/09/00. Genre tags: Horror Vampire Gothic	Ananasi is the latest of the Werewolf: The Apocalypse Changing Breed sourcebooks. It is the perfect investment for the World of Darkness fan who has always wanted to play a character who is both a vampire and a werewolf… Appearance and Layout: Ananasi is a 122 page, perfect bound soft cover book. It has a rough table of contents and no index. Its interior art follows the White Wolf norm: It contains some very blurry and uninteresting pieces coupled with nicely done and appropriate ink and pencil drawings. The first section in Ananasi is a comic entitled Prom Queen. It's well-drawn, but has a telegraphed, lackluster ending and is not useful to players or Storytellerss. Prom Queen is the story of a high school girl's transformation into an Ananasi or werespider. The next section, In a Madly Sacred Place, begins the standard White Wolf narrative about the source material and contains the requisite lexicon of terms endemic to the Ananasi. It also contains a list of recommended materials. First Threads is next. It is sixteen pages of the history of the werespiders, the role they have played in the World of Darkness, and their views about the cosmology particular to that setting. Although the material could well be useful in planning and in play, it makes for a long and at times uninteresting read. According to First Threads, the Ananasi are the children of Ananasa, which is a great, spider-shaped spirit created by the Weaver before she went insane. Ananasa courted the favor of the other two members of the Triat, the Wyrm and the Wyld, and so the spider spirit and her skin changing progeny believe themselves to represent a kind of balance in the now lopsided Triat. Ananasa is still around, but has been trapped on the Umbral realm of Malfeas by the corrupted Wyrm. One of her children was able to crack the gigantic opal the spider spirit is held in and now she can communicate on a limited basis with her children. Ananasa is quite active in this regard and often directs the Ananasi to perform unfathomable tasks. The next section is entitled The Web and briefly describes the socio-political groups the Ananasi have broken themselves into - even though they're very much unlike the other Changing Breeds, the werespiders are still subject(ed) to White Wolf's factionalism. These factions are called Aspects. It also contains information about where the Ananasi set up their Sylie, or nests, and what they look like; the enemies and friends of the werespiders; how the Ananasi view the other Changing Breeds and supernatural creatures of the World of Darkness; the Laws of Ananasa, which are similar to the Garou's Litany and Kindred's Traditions; and, finally, information about Rank. Anchor Lines is next. It provides an overview of geographic information about the Ananasi and their involvement in specific places. Most importantly, it finally provides the reader with the details of the forms the werespiders change into. The Ananasi have four forms. The first is the Homid form, which appears to be human on the outside but is not quite. For example, even in this form werespiders have pedipalps. The next form is Lilian. Although the specifics vary from individual to individual, it combines arachnid features with human ones. An Ananasi player decides just what his or her character is like in this form. Next is the Pithus form, which is that of a man-sized spider. The most interesting form is that of Crawlerling. While in it, the werespider is broken down into thousands of normal-sized spiders. Some of these spiders are leaders and carry the character's essence, memories, and the like. The rest are drones. Drones can be killed with little lasting effect, but each time a leader is destroyed, the character loses memories, skill, etc.. The Metamorphosis section has all the mechanical details about the Ananasi, including information about how they travel into the Umbra (by breaking into Crawlerling form and just, well, crawling into it), about their venom, and about their webs. This section discusses Aspects in greater detail. Also, Merits (such as Venomous and Hive Mind) and Flaws (which include Emotional Attachment and No Fangs) nest here. Finally, we get the goodies: the Gifts. They include deliciously arachnid ones such as Jump, Many Eyes, Web Haven, and Bug Lord and more pedestrian ones like Burrow, Iron Web, and Preserve. Werespiders drink blood. Like the Kindred, they use it to power various special abilities and feats. These include changing from one form to another, gaining an extra action, and spinning webs. Unlike the Kindred, the werespiders do not need blood to survive and can easily subsist on, and make use of, animal vitae. Werespiders also collect and use Gnosis like their Garou cousins. Gnosis is collected in an Ananasi's Sylie, or nest, and is used, sometimes along with blood, to power certain Gifts. The Ananasi sourcebook has two appendices. The first is A Thousand Fangs. This section provides the expected player character templates and a few werespiders of note (one of which is the Biblical Jericho). The second appendix, Loose Threads, contains interesting real world information about spiders - their anatomy, eating and hunting habits, etc. - and, for some reason, Storyteller information that separates the fact from the fancy supplied in previous, narrative chapters. And, finally, there is an Ananasi-specific character record sheet. General Commentary: The Ananasi make an interesting, but flawed addition to the World of Darkness. Some of the ideas presented in the book, such as Crawlerling form, are quite rich. Others are merely cookie cutter concepts from other World of Darkness materials which have been repainted; Ananasi, with its Aspects and mild angst, is definitely a White Wolf product. The biggest flaw in the book is the length of the section about the history of the Ananasi. The biggest flaws in the concept of werespiders is that they are the product of kitchen sink thinking, that they're niche-less, and inappropriate for the product line they appear in. The World of Darkness suffers from kitchen sink thinking. That is, everything, including the kitchen sink, has been thrown into the setting - whether or not it is appropriate and of an acceptable power level. Instead of building very slowly on the core ideas presented in the five basic World of Darkness rulebooks, instead of detailing the setting, new, more powerful, and sometimes poorly thought out elements are being added to the game. Mage: The Ascension now has hedge magicians and the like. Werewolf: The Apocalypse has the Changing Breed series. And so on. Not only do these elements serve to boost and obscure the power level of a campaign, but the draw the focus away from the vampires, werewolves, wizards, faeries, and ghosts. And the Ananasi are niche-less. The two settings in which they're most likely to be used (in which they're best used), Vampire: The Masquerade and Werewolf: The Apocalypse, have no place for them. Werespiders ought to be at odds with the manipulative Kindred and hunted down by the Garou for their ties to the Wyrm. Werespiders trash the spirit of the basic Werewolf: The Apocalypse setting, however, especially if used as a player characters. They are, in a word, antiheroes - antiheroes in a setting where the characters struggle to make a difference in their dying world. There are two reasons why Ananasi make inappropriate Werewolf: The Apocalypse characters. The first is their emotionless state. Emotional attachments are bred out of them. Deep feelings are not in their nature. But Werewolf is all about passionate activism. Secondly, the Ananasi have ties to the Wyrm. In fact, one of their Aspects, the Hatar, work with that being under the direction of the spider spirit Ananasa. The Garou have no reason to trust werespiders given their (perceived) role in the cosmos. Running a werespider with a werewolf ought to be like trying to get a D&D paladin to buddy up with a chaotic neutral thief. While it can be done, this kind of thing tends to doom a campaign via intra-party conflict. That said, the Ananasi would make very interesting non-player characters for a Storyteller who doesn't mind editing the known history of the World of Darkness to include werespiders. In this area, the Ananasi's ties and nature help to confound the player characters. What are Kindred characters to think when they run across a fellow blood-sucker who also changes form - into a bunch of little spiders, no less? Or what should the Garou do with a shape changer who not only sucks the life out of other beings but claims that working with the Wyrm is okay? Think of tangled clues a werespider would leave behind after feeding. There's a rich opportunity for exploration here. Yet in the final analysis, decision as to whether or not to pick up Ananasi rests in the player's or Storyteller's preference for the World of Darkness setting as presented in the rulebooks or a version in which all sorts of oddities threaten to steal the spotlight. Style: 3 (Average) Substance: 3 (Average)