Which Werewolf PDF to buy

[ZakRulz]

Drivethru RPG is doing their Wolfenoot sale for a few more days. I own the 20th Anniversary Core, Axis Mundi, Project Twilight, and WoD Outcast. Which Werewolf book do you recommend I get a pdf for and why?

[Erinys]

I've been trying to ask the same question about Shattered Dreams.

[Damian May]

Book of the Wyrm 20th.

[No One of Consequence]

It depends on your interests. The WW20 version of Umbra or the Changing Ways book, maybe, just for utility value? (I can't recall what all was done for WW20.)

Unfortunately, I can't say anything about Shattered Dreams as I have never read it.

[Eldagusto]

Umbra Revised, Book of Auspices, Book of the City, Hammer and Klaive, Revised Players Guide to the Garou, and Revised Storytellers Guide are Brilliant. And Changing Breeds 20 is usefully condensed. Hengeyokai is also really useful and condensed.

[Damian May]

If you can find a way to get your hands on the original manuscript for Changing Ways 20th, grab that. Avoid the published one the Paradox butchered.

[Erinys]

The usefulness of CB20 depends somewhat on what Breeds you want to use, because some of it is copy-paste from Player's Guide to the Changing Breeds. There is a lot of new material, however, for the Ajaba, Ahadi, Apis, Camazotz, Grondr, Ratkin Bards, and Mokole turtle-people. However some of the book, particularly Mokole and the extinct Breeds, is badly written. The Ahadi are depicted somewhat differently from PGttCB, which is just a matter of taste. Art ranges from good to some of the worst Werewolf art I've ever seen, no exaggeration. I deeply dislike this book, personally.

Of the other Werewolf books available, I can describe the ones I have read:
Player's Guide to the Changing-Breeds has some great chapters and some not-great chapters. The Mokole are drastically different from their Breedbook portrayal, almost pure evil, and full of so many typos that you should refer exclusively to their breedbook for mechanics. The Bastet chapter has a lot of copy-paste from the Breedbook, but leaves out the Ceilican. The other chapters are more valuable condensations of breedbook material, except the Ajaba and Ahadi chapters which are all-new. The artwork is mostly good to decent, with wonderful chapter-headers by Steve Prescott.

If you want to use/sample the Fera, either PGttCB or CB20 would certainly be cheaper than buying all the Breedbooks and probably enough for non-recurring NPCs.

Croatan Song is good, IMO. It's the closest thing we'll ever have to an official Croatan Tribebook, although it's really a mini setting-guide for all Three Brothers, including snapshots of several historical periods and supernatural events. One of the nice things in this book is an ethnographic overview of the many different cultures in North America before the European invasion, and the willingness to include various bizarre creatures like rolling heads, sour ground, and cannibals without worrying about how they fit into the existing WoD framework. The art ranges from okay to good to bizarre RKF dream-images. The Three Brothers each get relatively brief material, but they're fleshed out and 3D, with good points and flaws like any other werewolves.

Past Lives is a time-travel campaign with detailed scenes depicting the fall of the White Howlers (pre-W20 version), Croatan, and Bunyip. By time-travel I mean virtual/umbral/recreation of the past, not an opportunity to literally rewrite history, but with an interesting twist on how characters can still influence the present time through interaction with the "past". The appendix has Gifts for White Howlers, Croatan, Bunyip, Camazotz, Apis, and Grondr. Some of these Gifts likely have been reprinted in CB20, the White Howlers Tribebook, and maybe W20 by now.

Obviously, you'd get the most out of Past Lives by playing the campaign, and from Croatan Song by playing in pre-Columbian North America. But both are great looks at important historical events that shaped the modern WoD, and material to mine for ancestor spirits and epic poems - particularly Croatan Song. I purchased Past Lives just to glean info about the Camazotz, and then couldn't stop myself from reading/spoiling the campaign.

I like the Rokea breedbook, but haven't read Nagah or Ananasi yet. All three Breeds would be difficult to play with other shapeshifters, although Rokea and Nagah participate in the Beast Courts and Rokea betweeners can potentially show up in any coastal campaign. Ananasi and Rokea, like Mokole, have thoroughly fascinating descriptions of what the WoD was like in the hundreds of millions of years before humanity. Don't expect the three Breeds to entirely agree about those times, however.

Guardians of the Caerns gives a look at life in caerns: types of caerns, locations in a caern, sept positions, umbral atmosphere, defenses, the Rite of Caern Building, and a few fetishes/talens. There's a description of how each Garou tribe and Changing-Breed approaches sept life. It does not include any caern write ups, which are in some other book. There's also a chapter dedicated to what it's like to be M*tis, written in-character by such a person, with lots of disabilities/deformities and a legend of the first M*tis. The artwork is pretty decent. I don't know how much of this was replaced or repeated in W20.

Umbra Revised is probably irrelevant if you have Umbra W20, but has totally different content from Axis Mundi. It's a look at all regions of the Umbra that shapeshifters visit with a focus on the "main" Near Realms (it doesn't look much at the High or Deep umbras, and leaves out the Tapestry realms from hengeyokai). Unlike the previous edition, it includes Malfeas. It's a utilitarian book with great art, and revised rules for the Realms, anchorheads, a few Gifts and fetishes, etc.

[ZakRulz]

If you can find a way to get your hands on the original manuscript for Changing Ways 20th, grab that. Avoid the published one the Paradox butchered.

That would imply multiple versions are available on Drivethru RPG.

[Damian May]

That would imply multiple versions are available on Drivethru RPG.

No. The one on Drivethru is the one Paradox butchered, I'm not even sure if the other one ever made it into the wild, unfortunately.

[Black Fox]

If I had to pick the best books because I could only have so many, here would be my choice of top five:

The corebook of your favorite edition
Player's Guide to Werewolf, 2nd edition
Storyteller's Handbook, 1st edition
Axis Mundi
Umbra: the Velvet Shadow

If I could expand it more, I'd add
Ways of the Wolf
W20 Book of the Wyrm
Caerns: Places of Power
Rage Across New York
Rage Across Appalachia

The Player's Guides have information essential to any Werewolf chronicle, and I think the second edition is superior to both the first and revised editions. The second edition has more material than revised. Revised expanded sections for the areas it did cover, but I don't think its superior information or presentation compared to second edition. Revised also has a problem with omitting established canon either because they forgot it or changed it.

I think the first edition Storyteller's Handbook is much superior to the revised one. It has many things simply not mentioned elsewhere including example creatures of various types to serve as inspiration, the only discussion of Imperial Moots I can remember, examples of additional seasonal rites which could inspire some STs, covering Kinfolk and Kami, and providing some good, but short essays on roleplaying and chronicle design.

Ways of the Wolf only does a so-so job explaining lupus behavior and is probably out of date with real wolf behavior science, but it also has many things I believe are critical to the game that aren't mentioned elsewhere. It has the stats of the Great Beasts mentioned in the Gift that summons them, more fetishes and talens appropriate for lupus, some interesting foes, examples of sanctified plants, and more. Much of the important information doesn't get repeated elsewhere.

I would pick W20 Book of the Wyrm over its antecedents only because it is much more comprehensive than the others. It has its flaws like the others, but you'll get a bigger bang for your buck to go with it.

There are many things I don't like about Caerns: Places of Power, but since it provides so many different caerns, it is very good to be able to compare them and see what they have in common and what changes. I'd use it less as canon than inspiration. It is also the only place that includes the Rite of Luna's Spear which creates a moon bridge that can be used to attack another caern. I don't understand why this rite is not included in subsequent materials.

Werewolf doesn't have any regional sourcebooks that approach the gold standard of Chicago By Night or Montreal By Night, which no matter their flaws are extremely useful as a model for STs to create their own chronicle setting. However, there are two Rage books I consider far superior to the others, and if read in detail can provide some good guidance. Those are Rage Across New York and Rage Across Appalachia. But have pronounced flaws, but they come closest to hitting the right spot.

In general, I am not a fan of the Revised edition materials. They look great, but metaplot considerations eliminates a lot of the sharper edges that made earlier Werewolf setting much more interesting.

[Erinys]

Has anybody read this? https://www.drivethrufiction.com/pro...ales-Anthology

It's not on sale but I'm thinking of getting it. So far it hasn't been reviewed or even rated.

[heinrich]

Haven't read it.
But there once was a Deadlands/Werewolf Wild West Crossover. Officially licensed by Pinnacle, who, iirc, did Deadlands back then. It was a fun read and contained conversion rules for both game systems.

[Erinys]

So it's actually a Translation Guide + a novel? Cool.
Edit: Huh, it's a trilogy. Which novel had the rules, #1?

[No One of Consequence]

So it's actually a Translation Guide + a novel? Cool.
Edit: Huh, it's a trilogy. Which novel had the rules, #1?

All three IIRC. I'm not even sure if I still have my copies or not, but I think one chapter had how to convert Werewolf to Deadlands and the next chapter was vice versa (I can't recall what was in chapter three; I think rules conversion for their Rail Wars miniatures game).

There was also a Call of Cthulhu/Deadlands cross over novel/adventure, so if you have ever wanted to convert CoC Mythos creatures to Werewolf/WoD, you can two step it.

[heinrich]

#1 Strange Bedfellows (Adventure + WW:WW => Deadlands)
#2 Savage Passage (Deadlands => WW:WW)
#3 Ground Zero (Scenario for Great Rail Wars)

Links to DriveThruRPG included