From: albert@chain.ssctr.bcm.tmc.edu (Rick Jones)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: Werewolf
Date: 10 Sep 1992 17:20:42 GMT
Organization: Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Tx

In article <65605@cup.portal.com> Patrick_Andrew_Barnes@cup.portal.com writes:
>to peruse.  My question is how differentiated are characters from each
>other?  One thing I liked about Vampire was that while all the characters
>were vampires, there were many differences in capability and power between
>different types of vampires.  Are there different types of werewolves?  Are
>there various abilities that characters can acquire to set them apart from
>the other werewolves or are characters only different in skills and stats?

	Yup, there are three traits that are used to differentiate a 
Garou.

	1> Breed: The Garou gene is "recessive", and most of them grew up
thinking they were normal wolves or people.
		- Lupine (or something close to that): the character was
born a wolf.
		- Homid: the character was born of humans
		- Metis: the character is the offspring of two Garou.
This is forbidden by Garou lore, but some go ahead and do it.  They've
got all sorts of nasty recessives (albinism, hairlip, hairless, etc).

	2> Aspect: the phase of the moon associated with the character.
I forget the neato WW names they came up with for most of them.  THis
influences the behavior of the Garou.
		- New Moon (Ragabash): the Trickster
		- Cresent Moon: spiritualists (I think)
		- Half-Moon: peacemakers.  They are the judges and such.
		- Gibbons Moon: (Galliard) "the Moon Dancers"
		- Full Moon: these are the most violent aspect.  They want
to take back the world from the Wyrm. 

	3> Tribe: I forget all the names, but here are a couple:
		- Glass Walkers: Urban Garou. They've adapted to modern society.
		- Children of Gaia: tree hugging, bark licking, hippies
		- Silver Fangs: the Ventrue/asristocracy of Garou. They 
are losing ground, however.
		- Bone Gnawers: they've adapted to the city, but if Silver 
Fangs are Ventrue, then Bone Gnawers are Nosferatu.  They live in the dregs
of society.
		- Red Talons: An all Lupine breed. They are the warriors.
		- Fiana: a Celtic bard-ish tribe
		- Silent Striders: I forget what their speciality is.
		- Black Furies: an all female tribe.  A sexist's worst 
nightmare. ;-)
		- Stargazers: spritualists
	There are a couple others, but I forget the names.

	The Breed determines how much Gnosis (a spiritual quality, used
in Garou magic) the character has at the begining.  The Aspect determines
initial Rage (used for shapechanging and other misc ways).  The Tribe
determines how many background points the PC has as well as how they
should be spent.  (Silver Fangs have a lot of points, but they have to
spend some on a "status" background, ferinstance.)
	Also, instead of Disciplines, there are "Gifts" for each Breed,
Aspect, and Tribe (though there is overlap).  A starting character gets
one from each. 

	One thing that Werewolf lacks, and I've bitched about it on
the Vampire mailing list  (It's really a Storyteller System list now, btw)
is an example of character creation and a good sample of play.  The 
sample play occurs before 99% of the rules, and is just three Garou 
sucking up to a tribal leader and futzing around in the forest at night.

	It's similar to Vampire generation, but different enough to get
a different feel.
-- 
Rick Jones				Systems Support Center
albert@bcm.tmc.edu			Baylor College of Medicine
Voice: 713-798-7352			standard disclaimers apply
"I'm the Chosen One.  And I choose to go shopping."-Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc,rec.games.frp.advocacy,rec.games.frp.dnd