3 comments about Werewolf Storytellers Companion.

1. The Werewolf Storyteller's Companion is all the extra items that just wouldn't fit in the main Werewolf: the Apocalypse rulebook. This slim volume contains 60 pages of extra information that you can use to enhance your game and provide new opportunities for your players to enjoy.

   It is divided into four chapters: 'The Beast Blooded', detailing the recently seperated tribe of werewolves (the Stargazers), a brief summary on other shapshifters and some optional rules for tribal weaknesses; 'Caerns and Septs', briefly overviewing these two fundamental parts of werewolf life; 'Rivals and Enemies', providing new antagonists to torment your players with; 'Odds and Ends', which has rules for underwater combat, new weapons, a timeline of history and expanded Renown rules, as well as a 4-page spread of character sheets.

   Also included is a fold-out 5 page Storyteller's Screen, which provides many of the charts and rules you need all in one place, as well as providing a shield for making secret rolls or just hiding your notes from potentially nosey players.

   The information in these chapters is very helpful, and this should be considered extra material that would have been in the main rules if not for lack of space. If you are new to Werewolf, this book is a great addition to the main rules. However, if you have the full Storyteller's Handbook, this may simply be repetition of things you already knew. While some of the rules provided here are newer than those in the Handbook, most of the 'flavor' is the same.

   For the price, the Storyteller's Companion is a great deal, and useful to anyone playing Werewolf: the Apocalypse, even if you have the older Handbook. These extra pages that belong in the main book, so pick up a copy and complete your Werewolf experience!




2. On my first glance, I was extremely annoyed at this book. Very little of it was original, most of the information simply glossing over what's to be found in other books. But as I read through it, I softened up a bit. True, those of us who have been with Werewolf since first edition (remember page XX?) can safely pass this volume by. But for newcomers, especially those who's first taste of the game is from the Revised edition, this is a useful source.

   There is information on the newly departed Stargazers which is good reading if you are following White Wolf's metaplot, otherwise just refer to 2nd edition or tribebook. Enough information is given on the other werecreatures (Nuwisha, Bastet, etc.) to come up with a one-shot NPC, similar to the information the core rulebook gives on Vampires, Mages, Changelings, etc. If you want the troupe to become more entangled with the other Fera, you'd be better off getting the Players Guide or the various Changing Breed books.

   The information given on caerns, septs and moots is a must read if you don't already have the Players Guide. This is stuff that really should have made it into the core rulebook as it is the basis for much of Garou society.

   Also included are stats for animals ranging from foxes to anacondas, more suggestions for what acts garner what Renown, and how much the Garou know (and how they view) the other supernatural denizens of the World of Darkness. These are useful tools for those already familiar with Werewolf.

   I have a hard time buying that there wasn't enough room in the core rules for this information (especially the eight or so pages of caern info), but in the end deciding whether to purchase this depends on your familiarity with the game. Old hands should probably save their money for another sourcebook. Novice storytellers who are already running successful campaigns might pick up some interesting ideas. True newcomers would probably benefit since the gaming screen provides the most needed charts and the book helps flesh out the background and provides ideas for interesting NPC's.




3. I know that you don't forcefully need this book, and that you might be able to handle a chronicle without the companion, but admitt that to get the animals, the stargazers and other things included in this little book, as well as the weapons table on the screen and the full explanation on the littany and reknown you will either need to work on the net for a month or get your head spinning with different sourcebooks and table creations, sure the book is not forceful, but it sure gets some weigh of a storytellers back, besides, the screen is quite cool.

No comments about Possessed: A Player's Guide for Werewolf: The Apocalypse.

3 comments about *OP Werewolf Storytellers Handbook (Werewolf).

1. This book is an excellent companion to the main book. It should definitely be bought to add to your werewolf collection. It is also excellent to buy if you are just beginning to learn about Werewolf.



2. The Werewolf Storyteller's Handbook is a must-have for any WW:TA Chronicle. It will revolutionize the game and flesh out complete stories to drive the pack. The expansion of fetish rules was a nice touch. The only flaw (and its a 1 pt. flaw) in the book was the bogging down of text at times, making some of it difficult to chew on all at once. The lack of systems will throw off many people, until they come to the realization that it is all about the concepts of the game, and not dice-rolling or gift-slinging. All in all, a complete guide for the member of the gaming group stuck with all the work. :)



3. The Werewolf Storyteller's Handbook is a must-have for anyWW:TA Chronicle. It will revolutionize the game and flesh out completestories to drive the pack. The expansion of fetish rules was a nice touch. The only flaw (and its a 1 pt. flaw) in the book was the bogging down of text at times, making some of it difficult to chew on all at once. The lack of systems will throw off many people, until they come to the realization that it is all about the concepts of the game, and not dice-rolling or gift-slinging. All in all, a complete guide for the member of the gaming group stuck with all the work. :)

No comments about *OP Rage Across the World 3 (Werewolf, the Apocalypse , Vol 3).

1 comments about *OP Werewolf Chronicle 1 (Werewolf - the Apocalypse , Vol 1).

1. Rite of Passage is a great book for starting out a character and a pack. It give you info on how to get started and then an adventure to carry you through. Valkenburg Foundation is interesting if only for the nefarious skin-dancer Samuel Haight. An interesting read and it seems to have the makings of a classic adventure.

No comments about *OP Ghost Towns (Werewolf: The Apocalypse).

1 comments about Hunting Ground: The Rockies (Werewolf: The Forsaken).

1. This book is the signature setting book for the Werewolf the Forsaken role playing game and as such, it offers a wealth of information to this excellent game.
   
   Essentially, Hunting Grounds takes the various abstract concepts introduced in the corebook and puts them into an actual context. You ever wondered what the spiritual struggle for a city looks like? Denver is undergoing exactly that kind of struggle. You ever wondered what an extended family of werewolves looks like? Bingo. You want to see how the various werewolf packs play off each other in terms of politics? It's in here. You want to see exactly how werewolves act like spiritual police to the spirits that they've been assigned to corral? Hunting Grounds explains it all.
   
   Consequently, there is a ton of ideas that weren't mentioned in the core rulebook. For example, even after all of this time, there's still dinosaur spirits hanging around the spiritual wilds of Denver, although they've survived for so long that they're more a collection of sharp teeth and claws than an actual spirit representative of Denver. There's warped parodies of werewolves left over from a confrontation from a Great Old One-like spirit that was destroyed some time ago. There's too much interesting stuff to list, really. It's the kind of thing where you just have to buy the book.
   
   The opening fiction details the Black Moon Extreme pack as they hunt vampires - and they do about as well as you'd expect a pack with the word "extreme" in their names to do. The fiction seems honestly out of place - more tuned to the cartoon rock and roll of Werewolf: The Apocalypse, rather than the subtle, understated horror of the new World of Darkness. I mention this specifically because there's a fight between a werewolf on a motorcycle and an all-black Hummer on a crowded road, which seems somewhat contrary to the spirit of the game. The chapters breaks do an excellent job of portraying this kind of thing - both the traditional horror roots of werewolves, as in an excerpt from the 18th century man being chased by werewolves, and in the modern day, as in a description of the aftermath of a hunt.
   
   Much of the book is taken up with the various packs that occupy the Denver area. The structure of this book borrows a page out of Vampire the Requiem game line, by detailing the local power structure and then offering new werewolf packs ample space to move in and interact with them. And since werewolves don't infight nearly as often as vampires do, there's options provided for each pack that allows the storyteller (GM) to use them as adversaries or as allies, complete with a story hook for each possibility, which is really nicely done.
   
   The local sample packs themselves range from the interesting to the average. For instance, there's a group of survivalist werewolves - the Red Knives - who have their own compound up in the Rockies, and whose members have names like "Phantom" and "Ranger" and "Snap". They're fairly undifferentiated, but they've got a small cult of humans back at their compound who are fully aware of the existence of werewolves - a fascinating idea that seems to merit more explanation than it actually gets. As a werewolf pack, they're kind of uninspired, but imagine the fun that you could have throwing ordinary humans up against them. The Scar Angels are a werewolf biker gang, but with the sole exception of Smoke, the group's "face man" and travelling salesmen, they pretty much look like the picture that you get in your head when you hear the words werewolf bike gang.
   
   A major NPC pack is the Pickering family - a family of Bone Shadow werewolves who seem to embody the ancestral curse aspect of lycanthropy - two sons have already died before seeing their 21st birthdays, and the third is only six months away and terrified. The rest of the family have their own agendas, but all of them wind up in the family crypt, the site of the pack's locus. The Shadow of Smoke and Fire lost one of its members to an attack by the Pure, and is walking wounded until somebody - either the Pure or the PC's - intervene. Black Moon Extreme is a rock band whose members are vampire-hunting werewolves, but the book makes them work. (Part of that is that a lot of the other werewolf packs think that they're kinda goofy too.)
   
   There are also a lot of packs dedicated to one of the central plot points of the book - Max Roman's attempt to create a true werewolf nation, as opposed to scattered packs with no central organization. Gurdilag provided a major incentive for werewolves to cooperate, and allowed Max to wield a lot of political power, but now that the central threat is gone, many of the werewolves who joined Max - including a legendary werewolf - see Max's vision as contrary to the basic idea of what werewolves are supposed to be like. Some of the multi-tribal packs are beginning to fragment as they question if Roman's plan is going anywhere at all. At the same time, the Pure werewolves somehow figured out how to coordinate a major attack on Denver in the past, so the choice of whether the werewolves will act as a nation or as separate packs may not be as academic as it sounds. The PCs, if they play their cards right, could be the founders of the Forsaken werewolf nation.
   
   The next chapter describes Denver and its environs, and it's here that we really get the good stuff. Denver's recently been freed from the spiritual domination of Gurdilag, but the resulting power vacuum and absence of hierarchy has basically laid everything to waste. Spirits who would otherwise fill specific needs have been forced to find new ways to survive, merging with their fellow spirits for protection and creating monstrosities in the bargain. The spiritual dogfight that's occurring in Denver is spelled out in remarkably clear terms:
   
   "...spirits up and down the hierarchy are jostling for position and influence over their neighbors, making alliances and consuming those weaker than themselves. Spirits of buildings fight one another over who will become the spirit of the block, the winner then vies with other blocks to become the spirit of the neighborhood - at which point new building-spirits fight over who will fill the vacant position of spirit of the block."
   
   The core book may have given general examples of how spirits interact with each other, but this makes it nice and specific - providing an actual illustration of how it clicks together.
   
   The next chapter develops information on the Pure tribes who reside in the local area. We find out more about what the Pure are like - motivations, plans, goals. We get two sample packs - Howl to Mock the Dead, which ripped up the Shadows of Smoke and Fire, and the Guardians of Mountain Pass, responsible for guarding the mountain pass that winds through the Rocky Mountains. We also get the Bale Hounds described, but not as fully as I'd like. Their black and white morality seem rather radically out of joint in comparison to the much grayer world around them, and the suggested activities for Bale Hounds - using a human sex club for worship of the dark Lust spirit. Great stuff.
   
   The Su'ur are werewolves who were radically warped by Gurdilag, usually resulting from when Gurdilag took a spirit and mashed it up against the werewolf without really thinking the result through. The resulting tragic hybrids make much better rivals for Werewolf: The Forsaken than the Bale Hounds do, as they're not entirely at fault for their condition - but they have to be killed. (Not that their new powers make that easy.) There's even a guy who's able to borrow the skills and powers of the werewolves that he eats, which shades into the Skin Changers of the early years of Werewolf: The Apocalypse. While the spirit responsible for creating the Su'ur in the Denver area has been - supposedly - destroyed, it's easy enough to say that all of the idigam who are returning to Earth from their long sleep are starting to pull the same trick.
   
   The book closes with storytelling tips, including a recap of the various roles that the various werewolf tribes play within the Denver area and a general fleshing out of the main themes of the book. There's also a short adventure whose new totem is actually a corrupted spirit masquerading as a catamount - a mountain lion - which is slowly corrupting them. The story involves them investigating the weird afflictions affecting regional loci, then meet up with a dying Pureborn werewolf who fingers the affected pack as the ones responsible.
   
   The artwork in the book really varies. The packs are all illustrated by the same artist, which offers continuity throughout the book.
   
   Overall Hunting Grounds basically follows through on the promise made by the original game, expanding and explaining what the game's actually supposed to be about, predators who hunt. This setting book is a must-buy for anybody who's got Werewolf: The Forsaken.

1 comments about *OP Tribebook: Bone Gnawers Revised (Werewolf: The Apocalypse).

1. At first, I was hesitant to buy this book. After all, I already had the original edition, would there really be much of a difference? Absolutely! The history is deeper, their views on breeds and auspices as well as the other tribes is more thought out, and it is made abundantly clear that these are not just the down-and-out cousins of the Glass Walkers.

   The Bone Gnawers are looked down upon by the rest of the Garou Nation, and it's easy for players to turn their noses up at them as well. But after reading this new look at the tribe, it's easy to see that they as a family of outcasts, they have created a new way to insure their survival. They can also use the new totems, rites and gifts that didn't show up in the first edition (there are also rules for using the gifts and rites in a live action game). As for Storytellers, Bone Gnawers are more numerous than their Glass Walker counterparts and would therefore be more prevelant as NPC's in an urban setting. Additionally, after reading this, you'll have a better understanding of how to make cities more dark, foreboding and dangerous. The artwork is great, though some artists tend to make these Garou almost as hideous as Nosferatu. And be aware that, since these Garou tend to live rough lives, they use rough language (in case you are easily offended).

   Easily surpasses it's initial edition.

1 comments about Tribebook: Glass Walkers.

1. The Glasswalkers have the most interesting history among the tribes, and this tribebook brings it out perfectly. From all the various names the tribe has had, the book not only covers them, but lists the gifts that each version would have. if you are the least bit interested in the "Weaver tribe", then get this book.

3 comments about *OP WoD: Midnight Circus (World of Darkness).

1. While the book had a good premise (a new threat to the world of darkness) it really fell short in the area of game-play. The type of story that is required is for a cross-over campaign and for the Storyteller to have almost every book published by White Wolf. It does not supply any new rules. and the majority of opposition are very tough customers.



2. I second the comments of the other reviewers. As someone who turns to supplements like this for inspiration more than for a game-session-in-a-book, I found this one of the best sources I have ever seen.



3. Midnight Circus is a very strange supplement, as supplements go. Part setting book, part adventure, all kreepy circus coolness; it is a crossover book for all the major lines of the original World of Darkness (the book is from '96 I think, so that means 2nd ed. Vampire, Werewolf, Mage, Changeling and Wraith) that deals with an infernal circus and the supernatural creatures that inhabit and run it.
   
   Anastagios Olde Time Lunar Carnival And Midnight Circus (a traveling carnival, circus and freak show ala P.T. Barnum) roams the World of Darkness, ensnaring gullible souls and luring unsuspecting people both supernatural and mundane in. Some leave. Most come back for more..
   
   As a setting, it is a dark fantasy of circus horror. Scary clowns, freaks on display, haunting ghosts and an evil circus conductor from hell all contribute to a delightful aura of spokyness that screams out for being played while listening to Nick Caves' The Carney!
   
   The downside to this book is that it is a total crossover thing.. Which isn't everyones cup of boiled leaves. But I loved it, and I've heard others saying they did too.
   
   Overal, I give this bok five stars, because it hit all the right spots for me. Wonderfully written, great art, and a chilling story. I didn't really care much for the actual adventure provided in the book, but the setting material and the NPC's were brilliant, and I am definately going to use Midnight Circus in the future!