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Werewolf FAQ

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Werewolf: The Apocalypse Revised FAQ


I have a LARP question... Hold it. Stop right there. I may know Werewolf okay, but I don't LARP, nor am I awfully conversant with the rules for doing so. I can answer questions involving Garou society or Werewolf rules, but don't ask me to explain any tabletop/LARP rules conversions or clarify LARP rules. Direct such inquiries either to qna@white-wolf.com or chalice@white-wolf.com; I just forward such questions to them, anyway. Thanks. I have a webpage/character sheets question... Again, hold it. Developing Werewolf is a full-time job, and apart from compiling this FAQ and one or two more things, I don't work on the webpage. Even the Werewolf parts. You should direct such inquiries to chrism@white-wolf.com or conrad@white-wolf.com. You can tell them I sent you if you like. Do klaives and grand klaives really do the same damage? Whoops! No, they don't. The weapons chart (pg. 210) has the correct rules for a grand klaive. Will we be seeing Revised Tribebooks? We'll wait and see whether there's demand for them or not, just like we did with the Revised Edition (and yes, Werewolf Revised was demanded). How about Revised Changing Breed Books? These are a much lower priority, though I'd really like to revise Nuwisha to make it a stand-alone. For what it's worth, Rokea and Nagah will be fully Revised. Spirit combat seems pretty rough. A Scrag with a Rage of 10 is difficulty 10 to injure and rolls 10 dice to soak damage! How are you supposed to kill one of these guys? Yeah, that is harsh. We recommend you adopt the rule that a spirit has a soak pool of Willpower -2 (no minimum; a spirit with Willpower 2 had better have Armor if it wants to soak damage), and that the difficulty to injure one is Rage -2 (minimum of 3). And go ahead and drop the Scrag's Rage to 6. The footsoldiers of the Wyrm shouldn't be that tough. Does the soak pool granted by Armor replace the Willpower soak pool (if any) or add to it?

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Werewolf FAQ

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Adds to it. Earth elementals are still pretty hard to take down if they use their Charm. On the subject of spirit combat, do werewolves still roll Gnosis to soak damage in the Umbra? Nope. They roll Stamina. You're welcome to keep the old rule if you like, though. Where are the Merits & Flaws? Merits and Flaws are optional rules. There wasn't room for anything but the not-so-optional, "you need these to play" rules in the main rules (you know, like the Umbra), so Merits and Flaws were left out. Until we do a revised version of the list, feel free to keep using the ones listed in the Werewolf Players Guide, 2nd edition. What about Natures and Demeanors? Like Merits & Flaws, these are wholly optional rules. Natures and Demeanors are particularly optional because werewolves regain Willpower according to their auspice, not their nature. I have a supplement that gives first-edition Renown awards. How do I convert these to second or Revised edition Renown? There's no hard and fast rule, much as some would like. An old-form Glory Renown of 500 doesn't neatly convert to one temporary dot of second-edition Glory. You have to compare the relative scale of the Renown award and adjust accordingly. The Werewolf Storytellers Companion has a set of guidelines for this. If a werewolf is born under a lunar eclipse, what auspice is he? Despite what you may think, the lunar eclipse isn't the mysterious "sixth auspice." Lunar eclipses occur only during the full moon; hence, werewolves born under an eclipse are going to be Ahroun. Can werewolves be Embraced? Where do I find rules for vampire werewolves? Yes, they can, but a werewolf has to botch a Gnosis roll (difficulty 9) at the time of the Embrace. If the roll is successful, the Garou dies painlessly, instead. If the roll fails, the werewolf lingers on in agony and eventually dies. If the roll botches, the werewolf becomes vampiric: an Abomination. From this point on, his unlife is pure hell. Check out the Werewolf Players Guide, 2nd edition; the rules there aren't likely to be subject to change. What about the other Changing Breeds? Can they become vampires? Depends on the shapeshifter in question. Some, yes, although the rules vary. (Bastet Abominations, for instance, lose one permanent Gnosis point per month, and can no longer increase or replace their Gnosis with experience points. Once the Gnosis is all gone, the Bastet Abomination can no longer use any Gifts or Rites, although she may still step sideways and shift forms.) Others, no. (Nuwisha, for

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Werewolf FAQ

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instance, cannot be Embraced at all; they consider this protection a blessing from Trickster.) Basically, this should be resolved on a case-by-case basis by your Storyteller. Can werewolves be Awakened or use Sphere magic? Garou are already considered Awakened creatures. Their communal "Avatars" are already set in Gaia's service, and grant them the use of spiritual powers (considered static magick). So no, shapeshifters can't use Sphere magic. Can a dead shapeshifter become a wraith? Not usually. Some with high Wyrm-taint can linger on, but generally speaking, any shapeshifter who has served Gaia well (or the Wyrm, for Black Spiral Dancers) passes on to the Umbra upon death, usually to become an Ancestorspirit. Since werecreatures are largely spirit as well as flesh, their spirit portions have to be dead or atrophied (via Wyrm-taint or the like) before they can linger on in the Dark Umbra. Those that do become wraiths (usually Ronin) retain none of their Garou abilities, such as Gifts, rites or shapechanging. They're limited to using Arcanoi, just like other wraiths (although some might find a decent affinity for Moliate, given their once-shapeshifting natures). Can a werewolf be a changeling? No. Changelings are fae souls born into human bodies. Shapeshifters are shapeshifter souls born into shapeshifter bodies. The two are incompatible. Can a Kinfolk become Imbued? Nope. The powers that imbue hunters do not choose mortals who are somehow attached to monsters; they want people who are more objective. Can members of two different Changing Breeds have a shapeshifter cub with the abilities of both races? No. The cub must be born with the spirit of one or the other; there are no Garou/Bastet hybrid spirits, for instance. The cub of a Nuwisha/Garou pairing, for example, will either be a Nuwisha who's technically Kinfolk to Garou, a Garou who's Kinfolk to the Nuwisha, or Kin to both groups (most likely). In any event, the child born will be the breed of the mother (human, or homid to a homid mother, for instance). Where can I find official stats for the White Howlers? There aren't any. This is the tribe that's been dead for the longest time; there's really no chance of running into one of these folks, even in the time frame of Werewolf: The Dark Ages. But when a Black Spiral Dancer is born with enough Pure Breed, isn't he a White Howler? Nope, not any more than a non-metis male Garou born to a Black Fury is a Black Fury. Your tribe is more than simple genetics; you have to be adopted into a tribe to become a full-fledged member of said tribe. Even if a Red Talon had

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Werewolf FAQ

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a homid cub, Griffin and the Talons wouldn't take that cub into their ranks. The "pure bred" BSD wouldn't be a White Howler, since there isn't a tribe to adopt him. If he escaped, he would be Ronin, unless another tribe (such as the Fianna or Children of Gaia) took him in. What about the Bunyip? Some general Gifts and totems of the Bunyip are presented in Rage Across Australia (reprinted in Rage Across the World, Volume 2). And the Croatan? See Croatan Song for details on what the tribe was like in the time they were still around. Modern-day stats for them don't exist, for all the obvious reasons. A lot of older supplements talk about a Background called Past Life. What is that? The Background: Ancestors, which was poorly named. The name was changed to "Ancestors" to reflect what the Background actually did; it wasn't about remembering past lives, it was about contacting ancestor-spirits, hence the change for clarity. What are the "hengeyokai"? Hengeyokai is a generic name for the native shapeshifters of Asia, including the Kitsune, as well as certain Asiacentric groups such as the Hakken Shadow Lords and certain Bastet. Generally speaking, the hengeyokai have a slightly different outlook on the war for Gaia, and their differing cosmology makes them strange and alien to Western shapeshifters. When will we see stats for the Camazotz/Apis/Grondr? When we get around to doing historical supplements in which they're still alive. It's pointless to detail a historical Changing Breed without detailing the culture they lived in. This isn't a high priority, though, so if you want to make up your own stats, feel free. Nuwisha and Ananasi don't get any Rage. Is that possible? How do they shapeshift? Sure it's possible. Not all werecreatures are meant to be warriors. Nuwisha are rumored to take their form-shifting powers from the shapeshifting blood of the Trickster; they don't "lose the coyote," because the coyote's response is always to laugh rather than fight. Similarly, Ananasi are the exception to many rules, the least of which is the devotion to the Wyld, and their purpose is rather more arcane than the warrior's path Naturally, the absence of Rage is sort of a drawback, but the lack of any allergies to silver makes up for it. However, Nuwisha and Ananasi still don't do well in human society; although they may not be berserkers, their priorities are quite different than those of the people around them. Nuwisha are considered Ragabash; shouldn't they get a starting Rage of 1 like all other New Moons?

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Werewolf FAQ

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Nope. Nuwisha can't have any Rage short of using a special Gift. How much Rage and Willpower does an Ajaba start with? Oops. 4 Rage, 3 Willpower. Are there any plans for introducing were(insert favorite animal)s? No. We're done. The only other "new" Changing Breeds we might mention are those that died in the War of Rage. There are plenty of net supplements and unofficial shapeshifter writeups; if you find one you like, by all means use it. However, if we were to publish all the wereeagles, weredogs, werebats, wereapes, werescorpions, werecattle, wereboars, werestags, weredolphins, weresloths, wererhinoceri, werewhales, weremoose and weresquirrels that have been requested, there wouldn't be any standing room in the World of Darkness for the normal people and animals, let alone werewolves, mages and the like. Can vampires or mages use Garou rites? Absolutely not. They can learn the Rituals Knowledge, which grants them an understanding of what to do, but the spirits won't acknowledge their efforts as valid and won't charge their rites with any power. Mages can mimic Garou rites (or even use them as foci in some rare instances, such as a Kinfolk Dreamspeaker can), but must use Sphere magick to get results. And yes, this includes the Rite of Sacred Rebirth, so not even Kinfolk vampires nor mages can become Skin Dancers. What about fetishes? To use a Garou fetish or talen, one must either (a) possess Gnosis or (b) have the ability to convince the spirit inside to cooperate some other way. Some mages can do this; most can't. A few Kin-specific fetishes based on Willpower exist, and Kin mages can use these as normal. Vampires can't use fetishes no matter what; they're dead, and spirits don't listen to dead people. Of course, a vampire can still stab a werewolf with a fang dagger or the like; the fetish is just treated like an ordinary weapon (in other words, it doesn't do aggravated damage) of whatever material it's made of (a klaive is just a big, poorly balanced silver knife in the hands of a non-Garou). In the Players Guide, the Kailindo moves chart and text don't match in all cases. The number of actions for several moves is different. Which is correct? The text; the chart has typos. What's a "silver sword"? That's the old name for the Grand Klaive. Will the Stargazers ever rejoin the Garou Nation? If they feel it's in their best interests, and if the other tribes feel they're trustworthy enough to be let back in, yes. But this isn't the sort of thing you do lightly.

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Werewolf FAQ

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