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In Short

Werewolf: The Forsaken is a rules set and setting which expands upon the World of Darkness corebook. The premise is that you play a Werewolf, a fierce guardian who protects this world from the encroaching spirit world. That's just your day job, however, as threats appear from every corner. You must protect your turf, your mate, and your status if you hope to live the good life.

The Physical Thing

Werewolf: The Forsaken is a shiny 317 page hardcover retailing for $34.99. The paper stock is slightly above average, and the many pieces of highly evocative art range from Good to Great in quality. Border trim, formatting, and high contrast black ink on white paper make this book easy to read and pretty to look at. A well put together character sheet and index make this a high quality product.

Major themes in this game involve dark things that go bump in the night, animism (that everything has a spirit self), the horror of losing self control, and how to live in a violent society so different from what we're used to.

The Ideas

You're a werewolf, one of The People or Uratha. But how did this happen? It turns out some people have wolf blood in them and at a young age shift and change into werewolves. The popular idea of the change being brought on by bites isn't quite true, as werewolves are particularly good at tracking people whose blood they've tasted. When they meet a person they think might turn out to be one of them, they bite them and keep an eye on them in case they change later.

After the change the young werewolf is brought into Uratha society. When possible they're assigned to a pack, a group of werewolves that work together. Packs typically stake a claim to some territory and defend it against all comers.

There are two major groups of werewolves in the setting, The Forsaken and The Pure. The Forsaken tribes, it is believed, belong to a lineage that dates back to Pangaea. Father Wolf, a great spirit, was the guardian of the everyday world and the spirit world. Using cunning and fang he killed or threw back spirits that encroached upon the real world. Over time Father Wolf got too old to do his job well, so many of the werewolves rose up and slew him in order to take his place.

This product assumes your character is a member of one of these Forsaken tribes which works to keep the spirit and mundane worlds separate. Along the way they also have to fight the Pure, werewolves that hate them for their ancient betrayal and seek to harm them at every opportunity. Other packs of Forsaken, miscellaneous mundane and supernatural adversaries such as the police or vampires, and a pack's own internal conflicts highlight the many dangers the modern day werewolf faces.

Under the Cover

Introduction 8 pages.

The introduction provides a general overview of what W:tF is about. It gives a run down of common werewolf myths and how true they are in this setting. It also provides a handy lexicon of terminology which is found throughout the book.

Chapter 1 The World of the Forsaken 38 pages.

This chapter lays out the setting in a very orderly manner. It explains exactly what werewolves are, how they came to be, what their role in the world is, and what sorts of adversaries they have learned to fight.

The material here is interesting and was the biggest page flipper in the book for me. From the more mundane things such as how packs work and what makes the five major tribes of werewolves unique to interesting adversaries that stimulate the imagination, it's a whirlwind of information.

An example of one of the interesting things the chapter introduces is the Hosts, groups of vermin spirits that seem to work in concert to alter the local environment in a way Werewolves find harmful. What makes them creepy is their tendency to wear human skins to hide and penchant for large scale organization. Nothing says you're in trouble like hundreds of spiders pouring out of the security guard's mouth.

Chapter 2 Character 108 pages.

To create a character for this game you must first create a character using the World of Darkness corebook. Then you apply the Werewolf template, which gives the character a few goodies in addition to the ability to shapeshift into different forms including Werewolf and Wolf.

For their new werewolf players choose an Auspice, which reflects the state of the moon at the time they became a werewolf. The five Auspices each give access to skill specialties and special lists of gifts the characters may select later in character creation. Auspice also determines part of a character's starting Renown.

Players then choose a Tribe for their character. There are five tribes provided as well as the Ghost Wolves, werewolves without a tribe. Like Auspices, Tribe also determines what Gifts and which Renown a character has access to.

Primary renown is then determined based on the character's Auspice and Tribe. Renown represents what a character is known for among other werewolves and is a limit on how powerful a character's gifts may be.

Example: A character could have an Auspice of Irraka (New Moon) which indicates the character may be curious or independent. Irraka gives the starting renown of Cunning. A character could then belong to the Tribe of Blood Talons, who are known for being powerful combatants. Their starting, or Primary, renown is Glory. A character would then have one point left to spend, and could increase Cunning, Glory, or any of the other three Renown.

So a starting Irraka Blood Talon might have a Cunning of 2 and Glory of one. This will allow her to have up to level 2 Gifts because the maximum level of a gift that a werewolf may have is limited by their renown. This bit here in character creation is probably the most complicated portion of the game, and is easy to work with.

Character creation is greatly aided by a full page reference chart is provided, making it easy to create a character.

Gifts, special powers taught to werewolves by spirits, are purchased from lists. Primal Urge, how in tune a werewolf is with the spirit world, begins at 1. Harmony, the werewolf equivalent of Morality from the World of Darkness corebook, begins at 7 but can be reduced to five for bonus experience. Werewolves also use a substance called essence to power some of their abilities, and it starts out equal to their harmony.

Merit points are spent last, and can be used to improve any of a werewolf's qualities. Two uses in particular deserve mention. First, the only new merit available to humans is called Wolf-Blooded and gives them some small advantages for carrying the blood of The People in their veins. Secondly, players can pool their freebie points to improve the pack's totem spirit.

Each pack has it's own spirit patron, which has a variety of abilities all it's own. During character creation, players may spend some of their points to give their friend a power boost.

The best part of this chapter is the full write ups presented for the five tribes. Each of the tribes is interesting and unique, and the write ups alone will give readers a variety of ideas for characters.

Gifts take up the majority of this chapter. Gifts are special powers taught to characters by spirits. Each Gift has five ranks and each rank is a different power, all grouped together thematically. Weather gifts include a rank one power which lets a character call wind and a rank five power that lets a character call lightning.

A player does not have to buy Gifts in sequential order after play begins. So if a player wanted call lightning, a rank 5 gift, they don't have to buy rank 4 or 3. Instead they'll just spend xp and get what they want.

Gifts are much lower powered in this game than players might be used to from past White Wolf games. Most of the lower levels involve minor effects that are only very situationally useful. After reading through the Gifts it also seems like some Gifts are significantly more useful than others, bringing up questions of potential game balance.

There are a lot of Gifts, and people who don't like having to keep track of a variety of special powers probably wont like how the Gift system works.

In addition to gifts there are Rites, arcane rituals that wise werewolves may perform for a variety of effects. They're a little easier to acquire than Gifts, but more specific in focus. Rites are often used in social rituals, and play a prominent role in dealing with spirits.

Chapter 3 Special Rules and Systems 44 pages.

Rules for Shapeshifting, Tracking, Renown, Silver, Totems, and Lodges can be found here as well as other rules specific to Werewolf: The Forsaken. There's a lot of material here, but most of it is situational and easy to reference when necessary.

Lodges are neat. Some people may feel that the five Tribes are a little too bland and undefined. Lodges add atmosphere, detail, and an incredible amount of cool factor.

Lodges are subgroups within the Tribes that have more specialized roles. Players familiar with the idea of Prestige Classes from the d20 game system will immediately identify with them. They require certain statistics in order to be a member, in addition to roleplaying considerations and various duties assigned to the Lodges. In return the character gains a small to moderate benefit for being a member.

Example Fetishes are also presented here. Fetishes can be purchased with Merit dots and created with Rites. They're mundane objects that have had spirits imbued in them, giving them special powers.

Chapter 4 Storytelling and Antagonists 38 pages.

The Storytelling part of this chapter includes discussion of packs, werewolf howls, auspices, spirituality, and other aspects of the setting. A long discussion of what werewolves fear and how the game should feel is provided, and on the whole is a good read.

Example story suggestions are presented as well as a discussion of how werewolves of different power levels might be suited to different types of tales. Fully stated example NPCs are also presented, allowing a Storyteller to quickly produce an NPC with background and everything or quickly borrow stats from a similar NPC when they need them on the fly.

Appendix 1 The Spirit World 38 pages.

A detailed description of everything spirit is presented here, and is a very important part of the book. Rules for spirit creation, their abilities, and a discussion of various kinds of spirits is incredibly useful to any Storyteller.

A discussion of what the spirit world looks like is very useful to many folk. Knowing that there is a spirit world is one thing, but actually working out what it would be like is something else entirely. Special parts of the spirit world, such as Locuses and Glades are discussed as well.

A good description of the metaphysics of the Werewolf setting is also included, explaining things like the Gauntlet (the barrier between the mundane and spirit worlds) and how the spirit world is changed through actions in the mundane.

Appendix 2 The Rockies 25 pages.

More example NPCs are provided, there is a nifty map of the area around Denver, and enough information is presented to start a game in the Denver area. The NPCs could still be lifted right out for Storytellers uninterested in running a game in the provided setting.

My Take

This product isn't for everyone. Folk who love Werewolf: The Apocalypse may be disappointed in how strongly this product deviates from the earlier game. Folk who dislike many nitty gritty abilities probably wont care for this product either, as the Gifts and Rites provide for many abilities to keep track of before spirit powers and such are considered. Finally, this is a lower powered smaller scale game. It's more about subtle horror than dark super heros.

However, this is an incredibly high quality product. Physically it's beautiful and well put together. The game has a unique flavor frequently reinforced with art and mechanics. The themes the game strives for are well realized, but there is plenty of room to tinker with the game and setting to get a storyteller specific feel.

Fans of previous World of Darkness products will likely enjoy this excellent addition to the series.

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