Time to Let the Beast Loose? Werewolf The Apocalypse Review
Ok, here we go: time for another World of Darkness core book, this time it's Werewolf: The Apocalypse 5th Edition (W5). Once again, I feel like before I go anywhere with this review, I just want to remind everyone that I have no history with World of Darkness (WoD) prior to Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition (V5). If you've played Werewolf in the past, this probably isn't the review for you.
Next to Vampire: The Masquerade, I feel like Werewolf: The Apocalypse is the next most well known of the World of Darkness properties. There have been a bunch of different types of media that have used this property over its many years of existence. As an outsider looking in, I myself had heard about Werewolf many times, yet other than knowing that the werewolves were called "Garou", I didn't know anything about the game. I had assumed that it was very similar to Vampire in that players had to struggle with the "monster" within and juggle that among all the other wrenches thrown at the players.
Renegades of Fur
Turns out, I was sort of right, but only in the tiniest way possible. In Werewolf, there is a spiritual world called the "Umbra" that exists alongside our physical world. Things that happen in the physical world echo in the umbra and vice versa. Gaia, the spirit of the Earth is dying thanks to some of the darker forces that exist within the Umbra. The players are Gaia's last hope at fighting this losing battle. They have the power and strength to accomplish this - if they could all agree on how to do it.
A big overall theme of Werewolf that exists in the background of every campaign (or "Chronicle") is that players are stuck between many types of worlds, never belonging to any of them. The Garou have human forms, but now the beast within will keep them from fully being able to mingle with "normal" humans. Garou also have the ability to sense the spiritual world around them, but since they are mortal they will always find that the spirits resist their presence. Even amongst other Garou, infighting amongst different tribes and differing philosophies on how to help Gaia are a constant source of conflict.
Testify
Based on what I could see online, a lot of these tenets are things that have existed in Werewolf through most of its history. Where W5 seems to veers off the path is by driving home the environmental disaster part of this. By using the backdrop of all the climate change/environmental discussions that are always in the news, W5 makes the struggle of Gaia real and potentially more immersive to players. Personally, I actually like the connections with climate change, as it immediately made sense to me and made the setting more believable. Why doesn't anyone fight against the polluting soul crushing mega-corporation? Oh, because there is something literally crushing the souls of the employees and making them do their bidding.
However, I imagine these connections to be a limiting factor in getting people to play this new version of Werewolf. People that enjoyed Werewolf for a more abstract battle against dark spirits might find W5 too "political" for their tastes. In fact, I feel that the development team knew this was going to be a factor, as unlike other WoD books, this core rulebook states upfront that it is not intended to be a continuance of the other Werewolf books. It is designed to be a reimagining of the game. Considering the backlash that other WoD books have gotten from older fans, it does feel nice to see it explicitly stated early in the book, as opposed to hearing it from developers after the fact.
Bulls on Parade
Outside of some of the theme changes that the 5th edition WoD books have done, one of the most common complaints from fans is the structure of the books. Honestly, I felt like W5 was probably the worst example of this. The game talks a lot about the Umbra and all of the various spirits as they are driving forces behind your games. However, the section detailing the Umbra isn’t until the very end of the book in the section for Game Masters Storytellers to read. I brought this up in my Hunter The Reckoning 5th Edition (H5) review, but honestly I liked how the first 50 pages of the Vampire The Masquerade 5th Edition book were just in universe notes/messages/etc. It gave players a good quick immersion into the world. This made the remainder of the book make more sense (to me, at least).
Going along with the format, this game has a lot of complexity to it, and there were several parts of this book that I had to reread several times and I'm still not sure I fully understand the intent. For example, when a Garou is in its "Crinos" form, the most unstable of its forms, it has to worry about entering a "Frenzy". However, the consequences of falling into a frenzy start with saying a player enters Crinos form. I *think* the idea is that there are narrative reasons that might force a Garou into a Frenzy outside of Crinos form, but the book doesn't say that. Instead, it just reads as two statements that contradict each other, confusing the player.
Guerilla Radio
(Editors note: I’m going to use “classes” a lot in the next section - in W5 they are called “Auspices”, but since I’m going to be comparing them to V5/H5, I’m just going to use general terms)
Okay, enough complaining - let’s get to the things I like about the game. One of the first things I noticed is that this is the first WoD core rulebook where it makes narrative sense why the players are different classes. In both V5 & H5 I always felt like the setting played more into the party of characters being the same class. Obviously, differences between the players can lead into conflict points that Storytellers can use to add more flavor to their games. However, if you just think about the game in a broad sense, it always just feels off. In W5, your characters can be part of a “tribe” together that shares common ideology but each Werewolf can be unique in the gifts/abilities that they have.
Something else that stuck out to me reading the book is that, while most “versions” of werewolves are people that can turn into a wolf form, not all Garou begin their lives as humans. In the world of Werewolf, there are also wolves that become Garou and gain the ability to turn into a human form. The uniqueness of that idea fascinated me, and immediately I began thinking of how that can be used in a story. Considering that a newly-transformed Garou that was a wolf first would have no idea how to speak English/other languages, how would the party work through that? I think of things like “Animorphs” or other books/movies where there are hijinx caused by the alien/animal/etc that is in the group with the other main characters.
Lastly, the one thing that all WoD editions have on each other: the meta-plot. Older fans may not enjoy how 5th edition’s metaplot has deviated from the other editions, but at least the tone of V5/H5/W5 have remained constant between all three books. Given how often we see “Vampire vs. Werewolf” tropes in different media, a part of me assumed that W5 would have a lot more references to vampires. That turned out not to be the case, but it feels appropriate. The smaller, more subtle ties to the other books that W5 has fit the narrative that the game is trying to tell. But those bits are what intrigues me the most about the lore. Specifically the Special Affairs Division. Granted, this might be because of how much I enjoy the Vampire Rivals card game, but in W5 there is a reference to “Project Twilight”. Apparently, it is a section of S.A.D. that was for hunting down werewolves but was shut down for mysterious reasons. I really hope that future sourcebooks follow up this bit and provide more information for Storytellers about this even-more-secret Top Secret organization.
Conclusions
Werewolf: The Apocalypse 5th Edition has a pretty steep learning curve to it, between the formatting issues with the book and understanding the type of games that it wants to tell. It’s definitely not going to be everyone’s cup of tea, but that’s kind of the point of the varying World of Darkness books.
Reading through the book, I kept getting a lot of Native American vibes. Does that track with other editions?
Really? One of the example vampire NPCs is “Count Fucking Orlok”???
Notes/Disclaimers: This review is based on the product itself, I have not had the chance to play this adventure. Also, I generally assume I know nothing. So if I've missed something, let me know in the comments. Or let me know on Facebook. If you like these types of posts, consider subscribing to our patreon. Lastly, thanks to Renegade Game Studios for providing a review copy of the book.