Werewolf:FAQ

This is the page where all basic questions regarding playing a Werewolf are explained. There are a lot of things that are up to the Storyteller in how to handle things, so this page is primarily for clarifying those things that aren't immediately clear, or are handled differently from what it says in the books. If anything is still unclear to you after reading this page, please consult a storyteller.

Question 1: Where do I learn gifts? Gifts are taught only by Spirits. They cannot be taught by other supernaturals, not even Uratha, though they can still be taught by Totem Spirits or Claimed. If your character wishes to learn a Gift, he/she will have to somehow coerce a spirit to teach them. The exact method is up to you, but a Storyteller has to handle the spirit, if only for the sake of accurately representing the Hisil. You can also earn a free gift by earning renown, though only from your affinity gift lists.

Question 2: What gifts can my character learn? First, your character has a certain number of Affinity Gifts, determined by his/her Auspice and Tribe. Also, make sure to check the Houserules page here, additional Affinity Gifts are listed there. In addition, your character can learn non-affinity gift lists. Beyond lists that are tied to specific Tribes or Auspices (ask a Storyteller for details) your character is free to learn any Gift list. The only rule is that you find a spirit of the appropriate nature to teach you these gifts. If you're not sure it, this is a topic best talked over with a Storyteller, due to the sheer possibilities for different types of spirits, or even gifts!

Question 3: Do I have to learn the lower ranks of a certain gift lists to purchase the higher ranked gifts of that list? Yes and no. Werewolves have the benefit of being able to learn higher ranked gifts in a gift list without learning the lower ranked gifts in that list first. If they earn a free gift by earning renown, they can pick a higher ranked gift, even from an affinity list they have no gifts in yet, without penalty. However, if they need to learn such a gift from scratch, they get an xp penalty for purchasing that gift.

Question 4: Where do I learn rites? Rites are the invocation of pacts made between werewolves and the spirit world. As such, spirits don't understand how rites work, just how to respond when a rite is invoked. As such, while Gifts can only be taught by spirits, Rites can only be taught by other Uratha.

Question 5: What are the limits on starting a new Werewolf character? All the supernaturals (in the physical world anyway) in North Georgia are dead. Ergo, as players will be starting as fresh werewolves, there will be no one to guide them. Therefore, all players who start out as natives in North Georgia will start as Ghost Wolves, follow the creation rules for a Ghost Wolf (see the WTF corebook) and will not be able to join a tribe until a more experienced Uratha finds them and asks them to join. This limits players somewhat, as a newly changed werewolf thus won't even have instructors to teach him/her the ways of the Forsaken, but consider that a trial by fire. Werewolves who are not natives in Georgia can start out play in a tribe and with full knowledge of the Forsaken, but the cost is that their contacts in North Georgia will be limited. After all, they're not from around there, so you're unlikely to know "that shady guy who also has some firearms for sale."

Question 6: Can we start as Pure or Bale Hounds? Yes, but be aware of the consequences of picking either one of these factions is that you become an antagonist (arguably so for the Pure, but let's be frank here) for the Forsaken players. The Storytellers are not responsible for your protection if your Bale Hound is caught by a pack of Forsaken and about to be torn to pieces; You're very much on your own with any allies you manage to ensnare for your cause.

Question 7: How do we earn renown? There are only two ways to earn renown. Either find a ritemaster with the Rite of the Spirit Brand and have him/her perform it for you (or learn it and perform it yourself), or go into the spirit wilds and find a Lune. In both cases, a Werewolf has to do something significant to earn renown. This can differ a lot (the WTF corebook is best consulted for examples) in type and nature, and if you feel you have earned some renown through your actions, contact a Storyteller about it before you run after the Lunes. The Lunes tend to be insulted if you demand renown without having worked for it. Also, be aware that renown becomes increasingly hard to earn. What impressed the Lunes at renown 2 does not impress them at renown 4.

Question 8: I can get fetishes at character creation in exchange for merit dots, how do I get them later in the story? Fetishes can be gained through roleplaying. Steal them off other Uratha (or even other spirit-creatures), find them in Georgia (if possible! I'm not giving any spoilers) or craft them yourself. Just like with gifts, if you're crafting a fetish you'll have to convince an appropriate spirit to enter the fetish first (see the Fetish description for the type of spirit needed. If you want a custom fetish, contact a Storyteller). However, they can no longer be bought with experience.

Question 9: How to craft fetishes? A fetish can be an object that was either pre-crafted or that you made yourself. You then use the level 4 "Create Fetish" rite to bind a spirit into the fetish. Different levels of fetish require different ranks of spirit. The spirit's nature must thematically suit the effect the fetish is meant to produce.

Question 10: What's the difference between a talen, a fetish and a klaive? A talen is essentially a rank zero fetish. It's the weakest of the different types of fetishes, and has a single consumable effect. It's crafted by binding spirit motes to an object. Talens are the easiest fetishes to craft, and can be crafted with either the Create Fetish rite, or the level 2 Create Talen rite. Klaives are fetish weapons specifically designed for use by werewolves. They're crafted like any other fetish, but they must be a hand-to-hand weapon. The benefit the status a klaive confers is that a werewolf can activate it reflexively, rather than as an instant action.

Question 11: Is the use of non-silver aggravated weaponry or gifts against other werewolves a sin? Yes.

Question 12: What about really lethal weaponry? If you mean machineguns, sniper rifles, hand granades. Weapons that are undenyably meant to kill, no, using these against your kin isn't a sin, unless you are actually killing the werewolf with it.

Question 13: What happens if I renounce my tribe? Once you renounce your tribe, there's no going back, technically speaking. You aren't allowed back into your tribe once you've renounced membership, so choose carefully. If you renounced tribes for all five Forsaken tribes, your only two choices are to stay a ghost wolf forever... Or join the Pure.

Question 14: How much silver can I carry before it becomes a sin? Not much at all. In fact, even a small amount would be a sin.

Question 15: What are spirit-compulsions? Starting at harmony 5, werewolves start becoming more spirit-like, but in a bad way. They develop a compulsion, an OCD-esque action that they keep repeating as their sanity deteriorates. Starting at harmony 5, give your werewolf an appropriate spirit-compulsion. This spirit-compulsion becomes worse every time your werewolf drops in harmony, as well as becoming increasingly hard to resist. You can spend a point of Willpower to surpress your spirit-compulsion for a scene. Once your harmony rises beyond 5, your spirit-compulsion vanishes. If you are having trouble coming up with a proper compulsion, consult a Storyteller.

Question 16: Are the auspice-related aspects from the Signs of the Moon book allowed? Yes! And they're completely free of charge! However, remember that if you're unhappy with your chosen aspect, the only way to remove it is by sacrificing a dot of primal urge as well as a dot of their auspice's primary renown, permanently. After that, the werewolf can never pick another aspect again.

Question 17: Can we earn Milestone gifts? Yes, but purely at the discretion of a storyteller. These cannot be bought with exp or obtained in any other way.

Question 18: What if I want to play another type of shapeshifter? For those we use the rules listed in the War Against the Pure book. These allow you to create your own shapeshifter races, so yeah, be prepared to do a bit of work if you have plans to play a different race of shapeshifters.

Question 19: Do other shapeshifters get alternative morality systems? No. They get a slightly modified version of Harmony.

Question 20: Do other shapeshifters have the ability to use a locus or fetishes? Yes. However, not all shapeshifters can move into the Hisil.

Question 21: If I, as a werewolf, eat another shapeshifter, does this count as a sin? Since you are not the same species, no, it does not! Similarly, other shapeshifters can also eat werewolves. As all shapeshifters have the delicious property that their meat restores essence, this can be quite an interresting way to recover essence... Provided you can take down another shifter.

Question 22: Can we play Spirits, Spirit-Ridden or Hosts? Unfortunately, no. We have thought about making these races playable, but the problem is that Spirits and Hosts aren't bound by exp when they want to grow stronger, but rather, by the number of their own kind they manage to devour. This, combined with the fact that neither race has a Morality system, can cause them to quickly spiral out of control. In short, they are limited to Storyteller controlled characters. You can get em as allies, enemies, and everything in between, but you cannot play one.

Question 23: If all Spirits share the ban "They cannot speak of what happened to the supernaturals in Georgia," can we use this against them? No. The ban literally prevents them from mentioning anything about it, no free will involved. There is no way to remove this ban from Spirits (though their normal ban may still be vulnerable to supernatural tampering) and you cannot force a spirit to break this ban. If, miraculously, you do force a Spirit to reveal something about the night in Georgia all supernaturals died, the results will most likely be catastrophic for the spirit in question, as well as for the werewolf.

Question 24: How do we determine what lunar phase it is in a thread? To determine the phase of the moon for a particular scene, follow these steps:

Note the date of the first post of the thread. Go figure out the percentage illumination of the moon disk. This will be present as a percentage or a decimal. For the current moon phase presented as a percentage, go here. For a past moon phase, go here and select the appropriate date. There will be a decimal number. Move the decimal to the right 2 numbers to get the percentage.

Question 25: Why all the houserules for Werewolf: The Forsaken? Werewolf: The Forsaken, while infinitely better balanced than it's Old World of Darkness counterpart, suffers from what I like to call "pack-mentality-syndrome." Essentially, the developers seem to have intentionally made a lof of werewolf powers weaker in order to balance out the fact that werewolves are practically forced to join together in packs. This is, of course, a bad idea, as there's nothing stopping other splats from joining together in groups. Result: werewolves have a lot of powers that are poorly balanced, and a bunch of powers that are absolutely awesome. I'm not even exagerating, the power levels for gifts on nearly all levels are all over the place. Through houserules, I do my best to salvage something from the mess and keep things balanced for everyone. Including non-werewolves.

Question 26: Do I need merits to speak the First Tongue? No, spirits and half-spirit creatures (like Uratha) automatically have the ability to understand and speak the first tongue. However, note that in the human form (hishu) and the wolf form (urhan) the werewolf has very little ability to properly vocalise the First Tongue. A phrase or two is usually all they can manage. In the Urshul (half-wolf) and Dalu (half-human) the werewolf is capable of speaking the First Tongue, but not perfectly, and spirits are all too keen to point that out. In the Gauru, they are perfectly fluent in the First Tongue, but naturally, the rage makes it impossible for them to speak properly, unless they are willing to risk deathrage.

Question 27: Can I learn the First Tongue as a non-spirit creature template? You can, but there are two major hurdles (and I do mean major!). First, you need to find a teacher, and you're not going to find one outside of spirit creatures. Even if you found another human that can understand the First Tongue, you cannot learn it from them, because, and here's the second major hurdle, humans cannot speak the First Tongue. This goes for pretty much all non-spirit creature templates in that human vocal cords just aren't capable of properly forming every syllable in the First Tongue. As a result, even if your character, by some miracle, has managed to learn to understand the First Tongue, they can't actually speak it regardless of their mastery of the language.