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This is the how to guide to playing and using Werewolves during a Long Night chronicle. The book does require the players to be familiar with the core rules for Werewolf: the Apocalypse because the book does not repeat anything from that book. I have figured out that Werewolf: the Wild West is good enough for a Dark Ages game, although it is nowhere near as perfect a translation one can attain using the Corebook.

The layout looks nice. The Artwork drifts from being functional to inspiring. The sections separated from the rest of the text looks incredible as well. They are east to ignore and come back to later, which is always a plus.

Chapter-by-Chapter synopsis:

Legends of the Garou: The Jewels of Bolesaw. In this story, a Shadow Lord is on a quest to retrieve his family’s jewels: The Royal Crown and Scepter of his kingdom. The plot is pretty linear and relatively easy to read. It emotes the feel of a Dark Ages game.

Introduction: Dawn and Twilight. This is like other introductory chapters: what to expect, how to use, why should you use this book, and where can you find other books that will help you. This chapter sets the historical and cultural limits of the setting. And for a twist, the book has a little section in the real dark ages and the technological improvements made at the time.

Chapter 1: the Dark Wilds. This is Dark Ages Europe from the perspective of the Garou. The chapter is a region by region overview of the world: which tribes are in control, what vampires are aware of them, what the future has in store for them, etc. Where appropriate, there are little highlights about important regional details, like the black forest, and the Isles of Tara. There is a tiny section on the other worlds and travel through the Umbra: the barriers between reality are not as solid as they are in the Modern Nights. The General feeling this book imparts about the Dark Ages is as follows: it is a dark and savage place, where stepping out of ones boundaries is a quick way towards death. There are also additional readings for the reader to get a better feel for the epoch.

Chapter 2: the Ten Tribes This chapter gives an overview of the ten tribes available for a Dark Ages game. Only the Bunyip, Croatan, Stargazers, Utenka, and Wendigo are not available for use in the Dark Ages. According to the book, they are firmly entrenched in isolationist positions. The descriptions for each tribe enforce the commonly held stereotype, which is a change from their Modern Nights portrayals.

Chapter 3: Warriors of the Long Night Character creation rules, actually all the rules, for a Dark Ages: Werewolf game. It has some neat gifts that will be out of place for a Modern Nights game, and vice versa. It has some new abilities for use, but not a lot of them: the rest are printed in the Vampire: the Dark Ages book.

Chapter 4: Sit Down by the Fire This chapter is Storyteller info. It is used to convey the mood and tone of a Long Night Chronicle. The section has suggestions on how to describe everything correctly. It also has the fundamental differences between the Dark Ages and the Modern nights

Chapter 5: Blood and Fury This is a conversion book of sorts. It allows the player use Vampires in a Werewolf game and vice versa. There are rules for using the various Vampire powers told through the perceptions of the Garou. The Garou tends to have a cleaner view of the world than a Vampire does.

Appendix: All the rules that make the game necessary but that did not fit anywhere else went into this section. There are rules for weapons, horses, and the optional tribal weakness rules.

Overall, I thought this book is great. There is enough information to have a mixed chronicle of Vampires and Werewolves. Although, according to some players, mixed games never work anyway. Also, there is enough real world information to have a solid game going without having to resort to doing some dreaded research.

Also, I want to give props to the editor of this book. Although several authors wrote it, the book does have a strange unity in voice missing from other books that books written by several authors don't have.

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