Nagah: Changing Breed Book 9
Nagah opens in the traditional White Wolf manner for a clanbook... with a comic book. Not particularly impressive (but not crappy, either), it does get across the basic points of Nagah... that the Nagah live in secret, and consider themselves the judge and jury of other were-races who abuse their powers. They are secretive assassins, who execute traitorous were-critters who would otherwise get away with their crimes.
The introduction answers the basic questions about what the Nagah are and a short "lexicon" of special terminology. They pretty much assume that you're already familiar with the other books, as not much effort is spent to explain terms from them... most of the other "Changing Breeds" are referred to by their "proper" name (ie- Garou, instead of Werewolf). If this is one of the few Changing Breed books you own, you may find some parts confusing, especially when the book discusses things like extinct races.
Chapter one is where they finally start in on the cosmology and Nagah history. It's pretty long. In the Ratkin book, there were 9 pages of Ratkin legends and history... the Nagah though, have long memories... and 19 pages of cultural background, ranging from the creation of the universe through the "Age of Kings", when the Nagah lived openly among humans in India. It discusses notable Nagah leaders... and traitors. The first and second Wars of Rage, the industrial revolution, etc, up to modern times. A few sections mention what I think are references to existing Werewolf adventures, but since I don't buy those I can't be sure. It's fairly well written, though it bogs down in a few places... I also find it unlikely that the India-oriented Nagah would really consider the Vietnam War to be one of the few modern wars worth mentioning. Anyway, this section does what it's supposed to- it gives you a good overview of how the Nagah see historical events and what their cosmology is like (their cosmic forces are Chaos, the Preserver, the Destroyer, the Trapper and the Corruptor).
Chapter two actually starts discussing the Nagah themselves, and how they differ from the other Changing Breeds. They follow the traditional setup- first, it matters whether the Nagah was born human, as a snake, or born to a pair of Nagah parents and raised in their half-human form. Next, it matters what time of year they were born- Nagahs are also divided up into four seasons: spring, summer, autumn and winter. They don't deal with ordinary spirits, but are instead followers of the Wani, or Dragon Kings... powerful spirits of venom and storm.
Their real "government" consists of the 9-member council known as the Sesha, who speak for the Wani in the material world. Under them are the triumvarates called Crowns... and under them are the "nests", which are basically like Werewolf packs. In order to guard against corruption in their ranks, Nagahs are pretty much forbidden to work alone, but always act in nests. It's one of the things that makes Nagahs quite inappropriate for a regular mixed-breed game... They are obsessed with secrecy and never act alone or openly with members of other races. A Nagah who chooses to live alone is called a Sannyasin, and is forbidden (on pain of death, of course) to actually use his powers. It's how elderly Nagah retire.
Nagahs follow seven "Sacred Laws" (basically rules laid down by the Sesha and followed by all Nagah). They are things like keeping their existence secret, punishing shapeshifters who betray their duty, honoring nature, fighting the Wyrm when it doesn't interfere with their duties, etc. All fairly straightforward, although I expect that serious Nagah players would eventually have them all memorized and be able to recite them word for word. A true Nagah certainly would.
The book often digresses to discuss the eastern Nagah... who are pretty much identical to their western cousins, but who can act much more openly because they actually have allies among the hengeyokai. I'm not as familiar with the eastern setting, but it's definitely interesting to see the differences between the two.
There's a story running through the first few chapters. It's three Nagah pleading a case before the Sesha on whether or not to execute or spare a Nuwisha who has discovered their secret (ie- Nagahs aren't extinct after all). Unfortunately, just as it gets interesting, the book discards it and never refers to the case again. I'm presuming that they wanted each GM to decide for themselves how the Sesha ruled on the case, but I found it kind of annoying that there wasn't much closure. In fact, the case is only referenced again in the adventure suggestions section, where it suggests using the same scenario for your PCs.
Chapter three gets into the actual rule changes necessary for a Nagah game. They cover things like their swimming ability, suggestions for adjusting their abilities according to the type of snake they are kin to (it's not just cobras- almost any venomous snake will do), their Rage and Gnosis, Rank and Renown, etc. The most interesting thing for munchkins, of course, is their venom. It's nasty. A successful bite attack that inflicts even 1 wound can inject venom... and the venom inflicts a flat 7 points of aggravated damage which they have to soak separately. Not 7 dice... 7 actual wound levels. Considering that each Nagah can inject venom up to three times per day, that's a hideous amount of damage that can be dealt out very, very rapidly. Nagahs are supposed to be able to quickly slay any shapeshifter that they can catch by surprise, and by golly... they can.
They have, of course, new combat maneuvers like Constrict and a fairly normal set of possible backgrounds. The most interesting background was the Ananta, which is sort of a portable hideaway in the Umbra. All members of the nest generally combine their Ananta ratings to determine how useful it is.
Then the gifts begin... It's the usual mix of "moderately useful", "interesting", and "no-way-I'm-ever-letting-my-players-learn-this-one!" High level gifts are supposed to be powerful, and some of these really are. There's a fifth level gift called Assassin's Well, which lets you bite and inject venom an unlimited number of times during a scene by spending 2 Gnosis. And that... is kind of underpowered for the fifth level gifts here. You want gross? How about the fifth level gift that lets the nest merge into one super-Nagah with as many heads and arms as they contributed and the sum of all of their stats and health levels (plus some extras)? Well, let's just say that the high level gifts will have most players drooling for the chance to acquire them, which honestly is probably the way it should be. Luckily gifts are awarded only by the Sesha, and are very difficult to acquire on your own.
The low level gifts seem fairly well balanced, and the entries for the most part are clear and succinct. Oh, I found a few typos... for example, there's a gift that lets you make yourself younger according to the description... but it would require you to get 13 successes by rolling Stamina Enigmas vs difficulty 7 in order to get any younger at all... and each attempt can only occur once per year and costs a permanent point of Gnosis. From the description, it sounds like it was supposed to "un-age" you a year per success (not a month), which would make it actually worth attempting, despite the permanent Gnosis loss.
There are some nifty snake-based gifts, like Snake's Skin (lets you shed your skin and instantly regenerate it to escape bonds or get rid of acid or poison), Cold Blood (your human form becomes cold-blooded, letting you adapt to temperatures better and pass for a vampire if you wish), and Death Rattle (where you unnerve nearby foes with the noise of your rattle).
There are some nifty but odd ones, like Throat Snake (lets you transform your tongue into a snake and send it to scout ahead), Long Strike (lets you stretch yourself out so that you can make a melee attack against a distant foe), or Bask (lets you recover willpower just by basking in the sun). Let's not forget Belly Ride, where you can slither down someone's throat and hide comfortably in their stomach until you care to emerge again.
Then there are the kind of worrisome, possibly overpowered ones... like Smothering Question (if you can beat the target in a contested Willpower roll, they have to immediately answer one question completely and truthfully to the best of their ability) or Summon the Accused (forces the target to enter a trance and seek you out, wherever you may be) or Prevent Adharma (forces the target to stop trying to fight their "true nature" and begin acting in accordance to it). All of these examples are level 3 gifts, though, so hopefully by the time characters are powerful enough to learn them, they'll be facing the sort of challenges where they'll need them.
The Rites are pretty straightforward. I particularly like the "Celebration of First Venom", which acts as both a rite of passage for a young Nagah, and a test of their ability to kill. Another nice one is "Shedding the Past", whereby a Nagah tries to discard their own failures and weaknesses along with their skin during their annual shed.
The Merits and Flaws are also pretty well done, and mostly just for Nagahs. They include things like Infrared Vision (only for kin of rattlesnakes and other serpents that can sense heat), Weak Venom, and Defanged. There's no mention as to whether or not Defanged is compatible with Weak Venom... it might be, since some gifts would still let you use your venom despite being defanged. Shouldn't be worth as many points, though, if you can take both.
The example Fetishes are mostly pretty high level, and some of them are rather unbalancing, and shouldn't be allowed into play lightly. Danbhalah's Drum, which can force anyone in the world to seek you out so long as you can keep beating it (and you can swap with friends if necessary) seems a bit too useful to me, while the Garland of Skulls seems almost like they created it just to justify using a particularly cool piece of artwork that they couldn't otherwise use. The Talens are well done, too, although I had qualms about "Snake Oil"; I just thought it was silly.
Chapter 4 is all about running Nagah games. It opens with a fairly pretentious couple of paragraphs about all stories being the same, but then goes on to present some actually useful suggestions. I particularly liked the "Other Tales", where they describe some possible very non-standard campaigns, like the PCs being members of the Sesha, Nagahs who abandon their cause, or "The Hunt in Passing", where the campaign focuses almost entirely on what the PCs do between hunts, rather than during them.
After that, they have an appendix, with some example Nagah characters, text descriptions of important NPCs (both living and legendary), and finally a small chapter on real-world snake biology. This seemed well written and informative to me, so I passed it off to my wife, who has some expertise on that subject. She said that it was fairly accurate and only had a few nitpicks ("live-birth" snakes, for example, do have eggshells, they just break during the birthing process inside the mother) with its facts. So it's pretty good for gamers, but I wouldn't use it as a resource when dealing with a real snake.
The character sheets at the end are fairly standard and serviceable, and that's pretty much it.
Overall, the book seems to be well made, and the art is neither fantastic nor horrid- it's up to White Wolf's usual standard, maybe even a little better than usual. Some of the artists are really good at drawing huge snake-creatures, even if their equipment sometimes seems awfully primitive (ie- bolas and spears).
I give it 4 for style and 4 for substance, but bear in mind that Nagahs just don't really work as PCs in a mixed-breed game. But it did make me actually think about trying to run a Nagah game, and that's a strong compliment from me these days.
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