Conversely, werewolves find themselves caught between two worlds, with the spirit world of the Umbra requiring just as much attention as the material world, and despite their differences the tribes all understand that they play a part in the greater balance of Gaia – a balance that has been thrown off-kilter in part because of the Garou’s mistakes in the past. The Sabbat’s main disagreement arises from what actions are necessary to survival, whilst the Anarchs’ beef is with how power is distributed, and some members of the factions dress things up in fancy Noddist myth, but at the end of the day vampire politics is bleakly materialistic in its concerns. Ultimately, the Camarilla exists for no higher purpose other than perpetuating the long-term survival of the Kindred and distributing power and prestige in the traditional manner. One of things which Werewolf is really good at and which is rather passed over in Vampire is ideology, and particularly spiritual ideology. Gaia, the world-spirit herself, is crying out in pain as the Wyrm, the cosmic principle of corruption and destruction, madly schemes to destroy the Earth through spiritual assault, the cultivation of monstrous Fomori, and through the machinations of the expansive Pentex corporation (who are literally Captain Planet bad guys who want to pollute the environment on purpose). The Garou are very much a people at war, and the writing here never misses an opportunity to remind you of the colossal stakes. The title promises you an Apocalypse and the book gives you one. Heck, the title of the game references a device used to maintain the status quo. One of the reasons V20 was able to effortlessly shrug off the heavy hand of the metaplot was that Vampire without Gehenna makes a lot of sense.
What’s the point of being immortal if we’ve only got fiiiiiiiiiive yeeeeeeears (what a surprise!)? Moreover, vampiric society seems locked in a steady state, with the pendulum swinging eternally back and forth between the Camarilla and Sabbat and the Anarchs occasionally carving something out for themselves in the middle.
Indeed, building in an end of the world to Vampire sabotages one of the more potent aspects of the vampire legend – namely, immortality at the cost of predating on humans. Though in principle the metaplot of Vampire: the Masquerade says that vampiric society is spiralling down into Gehenna, frankly neither the bulk of the fluff nor the action of your average Vampire game – whether homebrewed or running off a published adventure – will reflect that much. Part of it is that, to be blunt, Werewolf does a much better job of hitting an apocalyptic tone than Vampire does.
#Changing breeds 20th anniversary edition full#
(He wasn’t a main designer on Mage at all, whilst on Wraith and Changeling he shared top credit with a team.) As such, on the one hand you have his various idiosyncracies as a writer coming here at full blast, but on the other hand it’s kind of impressive just how different a tone Werewolf hits compared to Vampire. Camazotz werebats, and Grondr wereboars.In my Monday evening group we’ve started up our occasional Werewolf: the Apocalypse game again, so I thought the time had come for me to properly digest the tattered second-hand 1st Edition rulebook I picked up at the start of the game, as well as looking into the 20th Anniversary Edition of the game.įollowing on from Vampire: the Masquerade, this was actually the last major World of Darkness game which Mark Rein*Hagen was the sole lead designer on. New information on three Lost Breeds: the Apis wereaurochs, Camazotz werebats, and Grondr wereboars. Updated details on eleven Changing Breeds present in modern times: Ajaba, Ananasi, Bastet, Corax, Gurahl, Kitsune, Mokolé, Nagah, Nuwisha, Ratkin, and Rokea.Ĭharacter creation information for each Breed, including brand new Gifts, rites, fetishes, and more. Eleven extant Changing Breeds are described in detail, along with three long-extinct Lost Breeds. This book brings the Changing Breeds right up to date, giving both players and Storytellers all of the tools needed to integrate shapeshifters other than werewolves into the World of Darkness. The Changing Breeds have their own crucial parts to play in these End these End Times, and must work together or Gaia will surely fall. Shapeshifting spiders spin webs as deftly as they manipulate those around them. Bloody-handed serpents kill swiftly, and then vanish into shadow and myth. The Garou are not the only changing creatures to stalk the world. Other shapeshifters hunt in places where wolves do not tread, from sun-lost seas to the darkest jungles, or seek out hidden truths, using the secrets they uncover in the battle against the Wyrm.
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