An interesting view on Werewolf: the Apocalypse by Sami Koponen

Picture from nguma.com

Sami Koponen has appeared (at least) twice in my blog. First time when I interviewed him and second time as a "quest" writer.

The small background is, that he helped me. A lot. And I wanted to give him my copy of Werewolf: the Apocalypse 2nd edition. Sami's a great rpg friend and a good writer.

But anyways, this is what he wrote about the game:
http://efemeros.wordpress.com/2013/07/19/werewolf-the-hukkapeli/

(The first link is in Finnish. But no worries, the following is Google Translated. Disclaimer: Google Translate and English to Finnish suck like Hydra's kiss. Bad.)

Link to Google translated Efemeros article HERE!

I enjoyed the text a lot.

Creating a character for Werewolf: the Apocalypse

I have Werewolf: the Apocalypse 2nd Edition and never have created a character for it. Actually I haven't played it either. It's only few years I've owned it. Forsaken I played but decided to buy Apocalypse as old World of Darkness suits my taste better.

Anyways. This will be both easy and challenging. Easy because it uses same basic mechanics of Vampire: the Masquerade I have used a lot but challenging because I am not familiar with all the differences like Renown, Rage, Gnosis and Tribes, Gifts and so on. So I have to do a little bit reading to make decisions on what I want. But let's get started.

Step One: Character Concept

First I have to choose Breed, Auspice and Tribe. I have no idea what they are so I have to start this with some inspection. Let's see...

Breed means what my parents are. Garou (werewolf in setting) are only allowed to breed with human or wolf but not with each other. Options are homid (human), metis (Garou to Garou love) or lupus (wolf). It states that metis characters have deformities and checking out that they are basically forsaken. Yeah. My character is metis.


Auspice is under what phase of the moon my character was born. Auspice is like astrological sing giving a hint of personality and also affects initial rage and gifts. I choose Ahroun: Full Moon; Warrior the slayer, mad man-wolf, Rage incarnate. Suits with my deformed body but still also some more philosophical loner would be cool. But this is my first time Werewolf character and I want to rip some butt! my Initial Rage is 5 and beginning Gifts are Razor Claws, Inspiration, The Falling Touch.


Tribe I choose from simplified list describing them narrowly at this point. I have a little idea what different tribes are so I won't read all 13 (times two pages or something) now. Bone Gnawers (vagrants of the streets of the city, well informed but universally despised) or Get Of Fenris (savage and blood thirsty largely of Norse descent and proud of it. They dominate rural towns). I have had my share of urban modern campaigns with Vampire: the Masquerade so I will choose Get Of Fenris.
From Tribe I get Initial Willpower 3 and Gifts Razor Claws and Resist Pain. I cannot get these backgrounds: Contacts or Mentor.

Step Two: Choosing Attributes


This is easy from Vampire: the Masquerade. There are three Attribute categories Physical, Social and Mental each containing three Attributes. I divide 7/5/3 points in them all starting with one dot.
Primary is Physical: Strength 3, Dexterity 3, Stamina 4
Secondary is Mental: Perception 4, Intelligence 1, Wits 3
Third is Social: Charisma 1, Manipulation 4, Appearance 1

Step Three: Choosing Abilities


Abilities are skills divided in three categories each containing ten abilities. I got to spend 13/9/5 points for them each starting at zero.
Primary are Skills: Animal Ken 3, Firearms 2, Melee 4, Leadership 1, Stealth 1, Survival 2
Secondary are Talents: Alertness 2, Athletics 2, Brawl 2, Dodge 1, Intimidation 1, Primal-Urge 1
Third are Knowledges: Enigmas 1, Medicine 1, Rituals 3

Step Four: Advantages


I can choose Backgrounds with 5 dots and they are Fetish 2, Kinfolk 1 and Rites 2.
Gifts I get one each from Breed, Auspice and Tribe. My gifts are: Sense Wyrm, Razor Claws and Resist Pain.

Renown I start with three dots which I distribute as my auspice demands. Not sure if I do this right... But my Renown dots are: Glory 2, Honor 1, Wisdom 0 found in one chart. Good (or close) enough.

Step Five: Finishing Touches


Now I write down my Rage 5 from Auspice, Gnosis 3 from Breed, Willpower 3 from Tribe and my Rank 1 because it says so.

Last thing to do is spend freebie points. Each starting character has 15 of them I can distribute where ever I want but different things cost different amounts of them. I want more willpower, so my Willpower is now 8. I also want more Rage rising it to 8. Two remaining points I use to get Dodge to 2.

And because I am a metis I have to choose a deformity. Madness it is. I like the description and my character write up would be awesome!

Last thing I need to do is flesh up my character. Write background, motivations, determine my Fetish and Rites and other details. There are questions and answers to help this. Also the Pack can be determined with questions helping the job.

Whitewolfgasm

(Reply request in form of "poll" included).

Someone might know already, how I love White Wolf's World of Darkness products. There are many rpg's that are really cool and fun, but there's something about WoD. It is brilliant. It is pure gold. I love it. Especially old World of Darkness.

And now I feel extatic! I made the find of the century.

In finnish auction site called huuto.net in section of roleplaying-, strategy-, board- and card-games section I found the deal of my life! Werewolf: the Apocalypse 2nd edition pack! And I don't mean Garou pack, but game books pack.

It included:

• Werewolf: the Apocalypse 2nd edition (I already had this one)
• Werewolf: the Dark Ages
• Axis Mundi: The Book Of Spirits
• Litany Of The Tribes Volume 1
• Litany Of The Tribes Volume 2
• Litany Of The Tribes Volume 3
• Litany Of The Tribes Volume 4
• Pentex: Monkeywrench!
• Project Twilight
• Ways Of The Wolf
• Werewolf Chronicles Volume 1
• Werewolf Storytellers Handbook
• The Werewolf Players Guide

I cannot express how happy my roleplaying self is. This packet of 13 games was pure gold. And they cost me 26€ (~37 USD). All of them. That makes 2 Euros per book (2,85 USD).

I think, that this was one of the best roleplaying games deal of history. Ever.

But there is one problem, what makes me a bit depressed. 12 new books more to read... Dammit. But they look nice, feel nice, are nice to touch and...

Or did you get better deal? If you did, tell me by posting a reply!

Too much great rpg's

I have nice Vampire: the Masquerade chronicle running (blogging it in finnish), yet my game shelf is full of interesting products calling my name. Reading them is fun, but trying them out would be more fun. Unfortunately there is not enough time to learn them properly, and even less time to run them. As I have this V:tM chronicle going on, I wouldn't want to put it on pause to try something else. There is always a risk, that game gets stuck where it is last left for some time.

If I am so darn busy, how can I storytell Vampire then? Reason is simple, game is familiar, I know the rules and setting already. It is easy to just grab and start playing right away!

Games, what I own and I would really like to give a shot, are:

- All Flesh Must Be Eaten. I know I did plan running BBQ from hell, but it never quite worked out. Thanks to learning rules and writing a campaing. I just didn't have enough time for that at the time. AFMBE would be nice for one-two-shots though, as there is survival and if character dies, it is because of the genre. Usually I don't prefer characters dying in the middle of story, but in the case of AMFBE it wouldn't matter that much. Zombies won!

- Star Wars SAGA. D20 is not exactly my game, but still this game feels good. I have read it from here and there, skipping pages, but hey, it's Star Wars and it is asking to great adventures, drama and action. And somehow I got a feeling that D20 suits it quite well! Not sure does D20 win D6 system, but I'd give D20 a shot in this case. If I'd run SW Saga, character should be a jedi. What's the point running short adventure of SW if you play some pilot, or rebel scout? None! You can play those character archtypes in any scifi rpg out there, but playing a jedi? That is what SW Saga is for.

- Unknown Armies. I like horror, alot. Somehow though even if I love Kult's setting, the rules don't tickle me from right places. UA could be answer to that. I also have heard that it is a good game, with good rules, and setting is also grim and good. Haven't read it actually much, so cannot say much about it. Still I am curious towards it.

- Call of Cthulhu. Hey, everyone loves CoC, right? What would be better for horror-mystery game than CoC? Yes, I know, nothing. CoC is a legend in roleplaying games. It is old, but still kickin'. Agatha Christie meets monsters from the deep... priceless.

- Savage Worlds. This one I have heard alot of good also. I also got free download of demo rules (Test Drive version 6), and it seems cool game. Fast, simple rules, not much accounting. Flaw is that it runs better with miniatures what I don't prefer much. And this test drive rules is cool. It pretty well shows what game is about and it looks neat too. Unfortunately there is no setting or world to play with, but I've found nice Aliens versus Preadator stats for it, what would be cool to try out. I was thinking about gettind Deadlands Reloaded, but it is quite expensive for now.

- Werewolf: the Apocalypse. Yeah, started playing Werewolf: the Forsaken and it was cool. Unfortunately game basically died because of my lack of knowing rules and world properly. And there is something in nWoD I don't quite like. Not sure what it is. Even if I have heard that Forsaken is Better than Apocalypse, I think for me Apocalypse is more fun to read and run. I was fortunate to get Apocalypse by luck some time ago, but haven't had time to read it yet. But it would most definately be a game I would run immediately, if I knew it well enough. nWoD might be better than oWoD, but oWoD has magik!

- Violence RPG. I am not sure is it ment to be just a joke, or can you actually play it. It is fun to read, even if sometimes it just get's too harsh on text. Rules are fun to read, because writer gives the picture he is inventing rules same time he is writing the game. And the rules... pffft, they are a bit complicated. Still, I'd give it a shot, just for fun. Not sure though, will I ever.

- Fading Suns. Love the setting, rules are ok. Have so good memories of campaing what was a diamond. That is a great game. Still, not sure if I will play it any time soon. Too much things to do, and still, I have those good memories of it.

World of Darkness with miniatures and battlemap?

This is a thing I have thought sometimes, does any WoD/Storytelling player use miniatures or battle maps. I came to a conclusion, that no. Surely in some action based scenes and fights people certainly use some kind of game marks and maps to point positions, but playing it like miniature strategy, no.

Then I started to read Werewolf: the Apocalypse and found, that there is in rules actually lite rules for miniature fights with World of Darkness rules. They are basically the same you use with regular play, only with addition for grids, facing, movement etc. rules specifically used in miniatures.

I thought it a bit and was "yeah, why not". Actually, rules did not differ from regular Storytelling rules, there was just addition to move those little guys on grid, but I thought, as I love Storytelling rules in general above all, why wouldn't it be good for miniatures also?

They are enough simple so action will be fast. Also only imagination is a limit what characters can do thanks to that simple system. Also all manouvers used in minis are used, like aiming, hand-to-hand etc.

I started to think about it and realized, as I like WoD and have played miniature games in the past (mostly Necromunda) and enjoyed them back then, why cannot mix game I like the most with miniature battles.

To think about it, two teams, Vampires versus Werewolf for example. And werewolf characters in wolf or near-wolf form could be used from several fantasy miniatures, for human-form-werewolven and vampires you can use many modern or near future characters. There is lots of ready obstacles, but they are also quite easy to make yourself from household items and used packages.

Would be pretty cool, to have some fight with miniatures based on city or chronicle what you have been roleplayed in. Vampires vs. Werewolves, Sabbat vs. Camarilla.

Could be fun!

New games: Pendragon and Werewolf: the Apocalypse

I got today my new games and retrieved them from post office. Bought them via roolipelit.net forum.

For first I was intentend to buy only Werewolf: the Apocalypse, but also got Pendragon on the top of that. I am very pleased with the deal. Thanks to the seller.

I was very excited when coming home with the box and opening it. First I got Werewolf on my hands and it looked really cool. 2nd edition it is, with purple cover and that scratch on top you can see through in inner page.
Pendragon was a real surprise. I definately have had it on my hands, I must have had it I don't doubt it but also don't recon it, so it looked so thick... and big. When I started to check it out I was awed. So full of information, propably historically quite accurate also (according to bibliography). Several pages without rules just fluff for game, not so bad pictures (nor great either). Surprise was also that publisher of Pendragon is Chaosium what for me has a reputation of quality games (for example Call of Cthulhu). Second surprise was that cover art is made by a guy named Stephen King! I am not sure, is it the same King as my favourite horror author, or just a random guy with same name. But it is pretty cool still.

So, just got yet again two more games in my collection. Werewolf what I have been wanting for many many years and Pendragon, what was really a positive surprise.