Ten Tips for using Hauglosk in W5

W5 Chronicle Tips

1. Ten Tips to running the Cult of Fenris in W5
2. Why metaplot matters in the World of Darkness 
3. 101 Adventure Hooks for Werewolf: The Apocalypse 5th Edition
4. Ten Tips for using Hauglosk in W5
   

    One of the more controversial elements of Werewolf: The Apocalypse 5th Edition is the introduction of the condition of Hauglosk. Hauglosk is effectively the opposite of Harano. While a Garou suffering Harano is someone who sinks into all consuming despair and depression from the futility of their struggles with the Wyrm, a Garou suffering Hauglosk throws themselves into the jaws of the Wyrm in hopes of clawing their way out from their stomach. 

    A werewolf suffering from Hauglosk is someone who is infected by a form of fanatical zeal that effectively turns them into a Gaian fundamentalist terrorist. W:TA's corebook says it best (page 52): "In a desperate fight against an overwhelming enemy, the ends justify the means. Everything is on the table. Victory at any cost. This is Hauglosk, the conviction that your absolute moral certainty justifies everything you do.Hauglosk is a state of extreme righteousness. A Garou in a state of Hauglosk believes that the cause is all, that their way is the only way."

    Given Gaia is dying, Hauglosk seems less like an overreaction and more like the proper attitude to the imminent end of everything. At least to some Garou. Even some long-time players question its utility as it seems like a mechanization of a roleplaying condition. Here are some thoughts on how I'm incorporating Hauglosk into W5.

1. Hauglosk is a choice

    Hauglosk should not be treated as the Dark Side of the Force or the One Ring of Power. It's more insidious than that but more a series of compromises and choices that a Garou proceeds to make before they gradually destroy everything worthwhile in them as an honorable warrior of Gaia. It is supernatural and a reflection of the Garou's rage and drive combined with their human minds but not so much that it is not identifiable as having a specific cause then effect. 

    Storytellers attempting to use Hauglosk in their games shoudn't rely on the mechanics of it versus the storytelling beats of it. At what point does a Garou cease caring about the collateral damage in their quest to protect Gaia? At what point does culling humans seem right? What about those Garou who are traitors because they're not pulling their weight? Hauglosk is a state that comes in degrees but one that are all too easy to make rationalizations before.

2. Hauglosk is fundamentalist 

    Hauglosk is religious fundamentalism, authoritarian militarism, and "my way is only way" blind unthinking fanaticism. Garou suffering for it believe their way is the only salvation for the world and everyone who believes otherwise is either evil or stupid. It can also manifest itself in multiple ways from the Gaian warrior who will do anything to save her to the Litany zealot who thinks any Gaia who refuses to follow ancient outdated interpretations is a blasphemer to the racial purist who has belief that only certain Garou families should survive. 

3. Hauglosk is self-defeating

    A thing that STs dealing with Hauglosk should remember is the fact that it's a condition that will utimately provide easy answers but, ultimately, wrong ones. The Cult of Fenris turned against the entirety of the Garou Nation because no one would agree with their plan to launch a suicide attack on Malfeas. Now they are warring with their fellow Garou, which certainly is not helping the war against the Wyrm. A Hauglosk infected Silver Fang may decide the only way to save Gaia is to reaffirm their tribes' position of absolute leadership and force all the other tribes to acknowlege it. Another might think the Impergium needs a sequel despite how impossible and stupid said idea is. Hauglosk provides a sense of you having figured out THE SOLUTIONtm and everyone else is just too dumb to see it.

4. Hauglosk has always been there 

    One interpretation of Hauglosk is the fact that it is a Garou condition that has been afflicting them since the Impergium and War of Rage but one that's never been wildly addressed among the Children of Luna. Zeal is a virtue among the Garou after all and blind unthinking fanaticism is something that religious cults (of which the Garou could be described as) often extoll rather than condemn. Recognizing it is a problem is, if not something new, something that the Garou are only now coming to terms with in the Modern Nights. However, that means the Garou have to go up against centuries, if not millennia, of institutional inertia.

5. Hauglosk is (probably) everywhere in the Garou Nation

    The Get of Fenris falling to Hauglosk is something that has massively damaged the Garou's ability to fight as well as their unity as a whole. Blaming it on Hauglosk is almost a cop out because that let's all of the other tribes off the hook. Except, what if they aren't off the hook at all? What if Hauglosk is rampant throughout the entirety of the Garou Nation? What if it has already taken one or more of them (*cough* Red Talons *cough)? 

    What if the only reason anyone noticed the Cult suffering from it was because they chose to turn against their fellows? What if most sufferers of Hauglosk are just on a downward spiral that will end with their "heroic" deaths and becoming examples for others? The Stargazers left the Garou Nation for a reason. Maybe it was because they felt their fellows couldn't be helped.

6. Can Hauglosk be cured? 

    There's no system for recovery from Hauglosk but that doesn't necessarily mean that it is incurable in-universe (or maybe it is--ST's perogitive). However, if you are going to allow it to be cured then there's no easy fix. Cult deprogramming is a debunked practice for good reason. However, people do escape from fudnamentalist views and extremist ideologies. It is just a long and difficult process. Storyteller's should determine whether it's possible to cure Hauglosk with either rites, roleplaying, or cleansing by spirits. However, it should probably be done by convincing a Garou to try to fix themselves.

7. Hauglosk should be tempting

    Despite Hauglosk being best used as a metaphor for fanaticism and single-minded obsession, it should be something that the Storyteller willingly inserts as a temptation for player characters. Think of it as the voice of the Shadow in Wraith: The Oblivion or the Devil on the shoulder. The ST should not necessarily be overt about it but present opportunities to increase Hauglosk through single-minded obsessive zeal. The chance to win over a clan by gutting a Child of Gaia who advocates for a more peaceful solution or mentioning how disgusting a Kin who has abandoned the war for Gaia to live a "normal" life is.

8. The downward spiral is not necessarily to be avoided

    This is something that should be suggested to a player before a ST starts the idea but the roleplaying of a character succumbing to their worst impulses isn't necessarily a bad arc to explore at one's table. If a player is game, his character gradually becoming more radicalized and fanatical in the service of Gaia then it could be a very interesting plot arc. Do they pull out of their nosedive in time or abandon themselves wholly to madness?

9. Identifying Hauglosk should not be easy

    Hauglosk is insidious and powerful because it is something that is entirely in line with a strict reading of Garou values. Its users want to save Gaia, its users want to fight the Wyrm, and its users argue that the situation is desperate--which is all correct. They do not so much hide behind tradition as believe that it is the failure of the Garou to do ENOUGH that has caused them to lose the Apocalypse rather than the idea they have gone too far. Many Garou agree with this sentiment even if they are not in agreement over what "enough" would look like. What is the difference between a Red Talon who wants to cull ninety-percent of all humans and one who has been consumed by their inner rage? Is there? And is the Garou Nation turning a blind eye to how deep the rot is?

10. Purging Hauglosk may require extreme measures

    One of the greatest victories the Garou achieved of the 21st century was the purging of Sword of Heimdall. It was an act that eliminated some of the worst of their kind and was done by the Get to try to redeem themselves. Sadly, it did not work. The Garou have been reforming themselves for the past two decades but that reform did not come fast enough for the Get and may not come fast enough for the Garou Nation to be saved. Ironically, an extreme solution may be the only way to end the extremism that would have the Garou all commit collective suicide by embracing worthless acts of fanaticism over seeking more cunning solutions. Is the man who suggests they slay all the Red Talons' favoring genocide insane, Hauglosk ridden, or correct?

Ten Tips to running the Cult of Fenris in W5

W5 Chronicle Tips

1. Ten Tips to running the Cult of Fenris in W5
2. Why metaplot matters in the World of Darkness 
3. 101 Adventure Hooks for Werewolf: The Apocalypse 5th Edition
4. Ten Tips for using Hauglosk in W5

    One of the most controversial decisions of Werewolf: The Apocalypse Fifth Edition was the fall of the Get of Fenris to hauglosk and becoming the Cult of Fenris. In simple terms, this means they went from being playable PC faction to being a non-player antagonist faction. This was upsetting to many people due to the fact that they were a very popular tribe and "Viking werewolves" was never going to not be a common choice of PC.

    In Werewolf: The Apocalypse 5th Edition, the Get of Fenris attend a moot with the rest of the Garou Nation and state that the only way to stop the Apocalypse is for the entire Garou Nation to launch a Ragnarok-esque charge against the Wyrm's home fortress. Remembering the fate of the White Howlers, most Garou refuse and the Get of Fenris withdraw from the Garou Nation while swearing eternal enimity against their former siblings. When next encountered, they are the Cult of Fenris and engaging in horrific atrocities out of a misguided belief they are Gaia's last chance. 

    The reasoning for this has been widely discussed and it has supporters as well as detractors over it. However, this isn't about any of that. Instead, this is about offering suggestions for those Storytellers who are intrigued by the possibilities inherent to another tribe of the Garou falling to the Wyrm (or Hauglosk in this case).. It is there offer tips for making it a source of interesting stories as well as roleplaying plus potentially the center of Chronicles. It is not an attempt to persuade you whether or not the action was justified or fits with lore but merely offer perspective on a way to do it in the best way possible for Storytellers as well as players' enjoyment.

    I hope both will find this useful.

1. Make sure longtime players are comfortable with it

    The first thing to understand is whether or not your players are interested in making the transition to W5 at all as well as incorporating the Cult of Fenris' rebirth from the Get of Fenris. Some players may have no interest in the topic and would prefer to stick to a more metaplot agnostic or previous edition version of the game. This is fine and shouldn't be forced. While there is plenty of potential for this transition, ultimately what serves the enjoyment of the people at the table needs to be considered first.

2. Make it an event

    There's never a more dramatic period during a coup than when it's actually occurring. This is probably the case during the fall of the Get of Fenris. Imagine you your player characters are attending the faithful moot when the Get of Fenris make their insane ultimatum. The player characters may react with the belief that they have a point, they are being stupidly rash, or are outright treasonous.

    This offers the player characters a chance to debate the issue and possibly win some Get packs over to their side or other Garou that agree with them. You can then reveal the Get are already doomed with the slow revelation that they've stacked the deck ahead of time by eliminating those leaders who weren't onboard with their treason. You can end up going Order 66 on the Get loyalists and reveal their treachery was in the works for some time.

    Much like the Convention of Thorns in Vampire: The Masquerade, the Grand Moot of Fenris (or whatever you want to call it) can be an opportunity for the player characters to meet with famous NPCs as well as have a direct effect on how things shake down. Maybe they'll prevent the assassination of Albrecht or the Margrave. Maybe they'll be the ones to discover that attempts to save the Get are doomed because it is Wolf itself who has been corrupted. Maybe they will lead the Loyalist Get to break ties even if it means severing their bonds to their fellows. It might be best to even start the game as Get characters.

3. Don't simplify it

    The corebook takes an almost comically simplistic interpretation of the Cult of Fenris. There's a lot more tragedy in the view that the Get of Fenris had a point but have since gone completely off the rails in their pursuit of it. Gaia is dying and they need to do something now to save the Earth. It may be stupid to believe you can defeat the Wyrm in Malpheas or triumph where the White Howlers failed but the call to action should not be dismissed out of hand. The player characters should now friends, loved ones, mentors, and others who have gone over to the other side even if they disagree with the cruelty. Extreme times calling for extreme measures is a seductive call for many, particularly the Garou who were aware the Earth was dying before most humans.

    It is fine that the Cult of Fenris are awful. That they represent the worst of Garou ideology, violence, and disdain for humans as well as other shapechangers. But there should be a method to their madness that allows Garou to know how they got from Point A to Point Z even if Z isn't helping.

4. Hauglosk is a symptom not a cause 

    Hauglosk is a state of fanaticism and zealotry so extreme that Garou who fall to it are effectively lost. Consumed by the Dark SIde of the Force or One Ring of Power if you will. It is easy, even in-universe, for the Garou to dismiss the Cult of Fenris as having fallen to this state and being unable to saved. However, a more interesting take on this subject is that is the result of their beliefs and behaviors rather than simply the means that all of the Cutl have gone nuts. "Redeeming" a Cult of Fenris member, either a cub or former friend, shouldn't have Mechanics but be the result of a Session of players doing their best to reach them. Getting past the rage and sense of fear that they have failed Gaia while offering hope there is another way.

5. Define the spiritual nature of the crisis 

    Related to the above Hauglosk entry, addressing how the Cult of Fenris have affected the Spirit World of the Garou is certainly worth a Storyteller's time. The obvious question is whether or not Wolf has been corrupted by Hauglosk or fallen to the Wyrm itself. As the totem animal of the Garou as a whole, are they all being affected or it limited to the Cult? Is it possible to heal Wolf or replace it with one of its cubs as Totem of the Get/Cult? Must it be slain? Is it even Wolf at all or is it being impersonated by the Beast of War?

    What affects has the tribe's fall had on their fetishes, caerns, compacts, and other spiritual relations? In previous editions, the Garou might have taken a lengthy journey into the Umbra for these answers but now might have to seek powerful new magic to survive anything longer than a short journey. Perhaps Hauglosk is a new condition and less of an innate evil fo the Garou than a sign of Wolf's own corruption spreading to their children.

6. The Cult's evils as Garou evils not human evils 

    The corebook heavily implies that the Cult of Fenris has dealings with white supremacist ideology and past groups that were wiped out by the Get of Fenris from within their ranks. In my opinion, and fully aware this going against the "killing Nazis is fun" ethos of W5, I believe STs should ignore this element. There's plenty of villainous motivations with the dying of Gaia, Garou supremacy, denial of the failure of violence as a means to save Gaia, and so on. The Cult don't need to be racists against different kinds of humans to make them even more hate-able. It's not even just in poor taste but doesn't make sense. The Cult should have its own biases and not be a vessel for white supremacy.

7. Muddy the Cult's membership a bit 

    One of the loresheets in the corebook is Renunciate of Fenris (page 298), which in its simplest terms means the player character used to be a Get of Fenris but had to join another tribe because his own went mad with Hauglosk. You can't continue to be a Get of Fenris if Wolf (Fenris) is all on Team Fanatic. The numbers aren't clear about how many of the Get who stayed behind are but you could easily go with a tenth or even up to a third without violating the spirit of things. 

    It's possible to even have these ex-Get hoping to find a new Totem for their ex-tribemates or the PCs to want to help them. Perhaps, at the height of a campaign, the Children of Garm may emerge from Wolf's brother or the new Winter's Teeth.

    Equally as important is to make the Cult of Fenris not necessarily all ex-Get. Surely there are Red Talons, Gatestalkers, Silver Fangs, Shadow Lords, and others who found succor in a violent  but heroic death for Gaia. If but a small number of every tribe defected to the Cult of Fenris, you may explain why the Get fell but the Cult is too powerful for the Garou as a whole to face. A bit like the antitribu of the Sabbat but, presumably, lacking their former spiritual patronage. 

8. Using the Cult as Dark Mirrors 

    On a fundamental level, the Cult of Fenris is making things worse not better because they're fighting their fellow Garou instead of the Wyrm as much as anything else. However, you can use the Cult of Fenris as a way to show exactly where the Garou erred. For example, a Cult of Fenris pack may massacre a megamart full of patrons and the State Governor may declare a national order to kill all wild wolves in the state after claiming there was an outbreak of rabies. The Cult of Fenris may start a war with the local Leeches or shapechangers because even if they're trying to heal the land, this is doing SOMETHING. There is a seductive appeal in lashing out and stupidly rushing forward that young Garou (and even many old ones) may like. 

9. The Cult of Fenris as wildcards 

    If you remove the white supremacy angle and dial down the attempts by the corebook to let us REALLY KNOW the Cult are the bad guys (I think most of us can figure that out for ourselves), the Cult of Fenris becomes an interesting thing to throw into encounters that might otherwise be straightforward. The PCs may want to stop a human trafficking ring of corporate bigwigs wanting to kidnap poor migrants to experiment on. 

    The Cult of Fenris may show up to try to slaughter everyone, human victims included. Maybe the PCs want to take down a chemical plant illegally poisoning a town and the Cult offers to help (offering a temporary truce) but it will make things far wilder as well as more explosive. What if the Cult and PCs both find a Lost Kin girl but the Cult offers to just let them both explain their sides so she can choose for herself? 

10. Remember this is a tragedy

    The most important thing to remember when using the Cult of Fenris is to not dismiss their tragedy or fall. They were formerly warriors of Gaia and still consider themselves to be so. In living memory, they were the kind of people that would fight by our heroes' side and probably did. However, now they are consumed by hatred and easy answers. Their solution of simply trying what hasn't worked in the past and making it ten times more violent has no chance of working but seems better than just wringing ones claws. Now the Get kill as many Garou as the Black Spiral Dancers used to and weaken the Garou Nation's already slim chance of saving the world.

Werewolf: The Apocalypse Fifth Edition review

Warning - This review has a LONG intro that I couldn’t cut down.

    WEREWOLF: THE APOCALYPSE has always been about third or fourth in my favorite of the World of Darkness games. Which is not so much an insult or a question of its quality as the fact that I was an obsessive Vampire: The Masquerade and Mage: The Ascension player. Furthermore, I was brought into my fandom by Changeling: The Dreaming which was always the odd man out but a lot better game than most people ever did.

    The premise is that you are a, unsurprisingly, a werewolf and you are a warrior for Gaia the spirit of the Earth. Captain Planet jokes were being made even in the Nineties. The Earth is dying, and you have to stab or claw some folk to save her. Unfortunately, all Garou are good at is clawing or stabbing people, so they've unwittingly alienated or killed off all their fellow shifters as well as each other. One of the cooler elements of the premise is the Garou are a hammer that has been treating every problem as a nail for 20,000 years.

    Werewolf is a fantastic game and I'd argue that is probably the best written game after V:TM, even more so than Mage. However, like Mage, it suffered something of a problem with its own fandom. Without naming names, about 2000 or so, a developer told me the game had a white supremacy problem. A bunch of future Alt Right gamers were attracted to the game because of its themes despite the games' dogged (no pun intended) pro-indigenous rights and environmental themes. Clumsy writing, cultural appropriation, misuse of terms, and things like "Pure Breed" as a background meant the developers had way too many people taking the exact opposite of the message intended by the writers.

    If it feels like I'm digressing too much versus talking about the book, resolving a lot of those issues were major factors in the writing of Werewolf: The Apocalypse Revised and they've done even more overhauls to the Garou for 2023. Some of these changes have been ones that fans have been requesting for years, some of these make the game more like Werewolf: The Forsaken, and a few of these changes are just bad ideas.

    As usual, there's a bunch of behind-the-scenes drama that I won't get into, but I think is pretty much inevitable with competing artistic visions. Werewolf, like a proper World of Darkness game, says things and because of that someone is going to be offended. Sometimes rightly, in my opinion, so caveat emptor as the 5th Edition of the game is overall a mixed bag but not terrible from a lore or mechanics POV.

    Lore-wise the game takes the premise the Apocalypse is either happening or has happened with the Garou having lost the war. It takes the themes of the Garou screwing up saving Gaia to their natural conclusion and now most werewolves feel like the cause is hopeless. The Get of Fenris have become the Cult of Fenris and become fanatical zealots divorced from the rest of the Garou Nation. The fandom telephone game says the Cult have been taken over by Nazis and white supremacists but while you can read that into the text, they are only written as suffering the worst stereotypical behavior of old Garou being violent psychopaths who kill anything that they think is even vaguely Wyrm-y.

    Indeed, the mechanics have weaponized being an old school "kill em all and let Gaia sort em out" attitude of previous Werewolf editions and made it a condition like Harano (supernatural depression that I've always felt uncomfortable with as a neuroatypical person) called Hauglosk. The Get falling to evil is a very questionable thing as they were one of the more popular tribes and it seems strange to have them go full fanatic while the Red Talons remain part of the Garou Nation. Out of game, it seems this condition basically exists to clarify the Garou’s history of violence to solve all their problems was idiotic. Which I thought was clear from 1^st Edition.

    Other changes include getting rid of Crinosborn (my term for Garou-Garou children versus the one they used to use) and getting rid of the genetic component of the race. Like the Force, certain families have stronger chances of being Garou but it's not a 100% genetically inherited trait. Which admittedly does tone down the issues of Kinfolk from previous editions. Oddly, I'd say that is the much bigger retcon than anything related to the Get. Mind you, the game wants to have its cake and eat it too as some Garou clearly believe it’s still genetic but it's now clear that they're flat out wrong. Still, I wanted to know about how this affected Garou-Garou marriages, their relationships with mortal families, and more. Maybe next book.

    The tribes have been divorced of their historical cultural origins, which is a more questionable action as well despite understanding the logic thereof. The Fianna have become the Hart Wardens while the indigenous tribes have become Galestalkers and Ghost Council. I won't even use their original names because they turned out to have been highly insulting so, good call. Ditto my favorite tribe of Samuel Haight's tribe (which, again, was a no-no in its name). They're now called the Stolen Moons. Overall, I understand the decision-making process here and mostly think it was a good idea to re-examine the handling of indigenous culture among Garou.

    Without going into another digression, basically indigenous rights were always a major background theme of Werewolf and clumsily handled. If you wonder how clumsily handled, a pair of examples is the fact there used to be tribes called the Croatoan (descended from South Carolina Native Americans) and Bunyip (Aboriginal Werewolves) before they went extinct. The problem being the Croatoan are a real-life ethnic group that some people still claim ancestry of today and, well, I’ve talked to Australian gamers of said descent who would like to point out their ethnic group is still around so why can’t they be werewolves?

    Thus, these groups have been reduced to septs or “micro-tribes” with a page lamenting European colonization’s effects before moving on. Is it a good thing or a bad thing to reduce the role of native peoples in Werewolf when so much of the original game was about Western civilization encroaching on traditional peoples? I dunno. The original game took a heavy pro-First Peoples stance in a clumsy and ham-fisted way primarily written by well-meaning white dudes. I support the message even though it was badly framed. Strictly speaking, though, now you can just use the existing Garou tribes anywhere on Earth and give them local variants.

    After having spent a thousand words discussing the politics of a Nineties Gothic Punk game moved into the 2020s, how is the actual game? Well, it's fine. It's a bit less focused. Adding an existentialist element to the setting about the fact the war against the Wyrm is probably pointless opens more storytelling opportunities. Climate change activists may think now is the most important time to be fighting Pentex but the urgency is gone if you want to run a sept just about looking after your old neighborhood. The Garou aren’t going to save the world on their own so they might as well save their whatever we’re calling kinfolk now.

    Mechanically, the game is fine and will function for what the player wants it to as well as the Storytellers. I don't have any objection to the changes that feel comparatively tame versus Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition's. Gifts are tied to Willpower and Renown instead of Gnosis (which no longer exists). The addition of Loresheets is also welcome as I've always found those to be exceptionally useful. Speaking of similarities, the book also indicates the Second Inquisition knows about Garou and is hunting them as well. Just not in the numbers or with the same success as vampires (which makes sense given the Delerium). The biggest change really is Hauglosk and Harano (extremist rage versus depression really). These essentially functions as Humanity for werewolves but shouldn't be too much of a problem for PCs as long as they don't violate Chronicle tenets. Touchstones also indicate at least some werewolves will keep in touch with their human relations as before.

    In terms of mechanics, the game remains a game about being a murder machine that can transform between five different forms (man, wolf, manwolf, mostly man, mostly wolf). The vast difference in lore means that some of these changes make a few things feel redundant. Auspices and Breed are far less important since Garou have had most of the differences leveled out between them. Being a Lupus-born werewolf (i.e. born of wolves) used to be a fun chance to be an alien mindset but has been greatly de-emphasized because I suspect people kept asking about whether you were expected to boink other wolves. No, I'm not kidding. Forums are weird.

    The handling of Hauglosk and Harano alongside Touchstones is also not very well designed. In theory, I like the mechanical focus on personal horror. I feel like the struggles with being a werewolf and how it can destroy your personal life and drive you to existential depression or murderous evils was de-emphasized after First and Second Edition. However, the mechanics for both in this game are just bad. There doesn't seem to be a way listed to remove points in either of these stats and that means Garou are doomed for very short lives before becoming NPCs. Which is not how the game portrays running Chronicles and thus is probably just bad game design.

    The game also meanders about what exactly Garou are supposed to be doing with their time as furry killing machines. Previous games had the easiest to explain and most-well defined purpose of all the games: "You are a werewolf. You are to save the Mother Goddess from the Wyrm. Go kill evil spirits and the corporate bigwigs destroying the world." The book focuses overmuch on how the Garou have screwed up this task and how their "kill everything bad" attitude has not improved things. It gives mixed messages about what you're expected to do as a werewolf. The Renown System thus feels tacked up even though its central to acquiring Gifts.

    Another major change to the game is the fact the role of the Umbra has been massively de-emphasized. The Garou no longer can step sideways into the spirit world as long as there's a nearby reflective surface but have to use a rite called "The Rite of the Shadow Passage." Furthermore, Garou will take a point of Aggravated Damage for every scene they are in the Umbra unless they spend a point of willpower. Previous Chronicles could spend entire adventures in the Umbra, so this feels like crippling it in a way like the Avatar Storm of Mage: The Ascension Revised.

    I feel the systems are a lot faster and some of the overpowered nature of the Garou have been shed in the changes. Certainly, Werewolf: The Apocalypse Fifth Edition feels like it could be more easily ported over to other lines (in this case Vampire: The Masquerade and Hunter: The Reckoning). I'm not sure that is the best use of game designers' time, though, as they're still extremely different in scope as well as theme. Some of the obvious flaws of interaction are also not dealt with like the fact hunters are aid to react differently to the Delerium then it says some act exactly the same while giving no examples why they would.

    So, what’s my take? Eh, my take on Fifth Edition is that it is a deeply uneven revision. It’s got some good ideas and some bad ideas. I feel like the depth of the changes are somewhat exaggerated, though, and people have read into things that aren’t there. I disagree with some of the choices while am generally able to follow the logic of most decisions. 

Available here

Werewolf: The Apocalypse: Earthblood review

     WEREWOLF THE APOCALYSPE: EARTHBLOOD is a AA video game developed by Cyanide studios and published by Nacon. I mostly know them from 2018's CALL OF CTHULHU game that started very strong and then became really terrible. Still, I am a huge World of Darkness fan and am very happy to support the franchise. Still, I kept my expectations measured about the game and what it was good. So, is it any good?

    Eh, it's so so. I'm not going to lie that this game feels like it's a PS2 game let alone PS4 at times and it has a lot of repetitive gameplay as well as reused environments. Still, there's some good elements to it and might be worth a purchase once the price has gone down from its initial cost. If that sounds like a three star review versus something that is either very good or very bad. Well, you would be right.

The combat is okay.

    The premise of the game is you are a Fiana Garou named Cahal who is exiled from his caern after killing another werewolf during a frenzy. Returning after several years, he discovers that his daughter has disowned him and the caern is now home to a human environmental resistance group. The werewolves and humans are fighting against Endron Oil that is based on a combination of Enron and Exxon Oil. 

    Endron is actually more like Woflram and Hart than your typical evil corporation since it is devoted to destroying the environment for their evil spiritual masters. This is all complicated stuff from the tabletop roleplaying game and doesn't really get much explanation. Despite this, it's not really a hard concept to get. "Viking-like Fantasy Werewolves vs. Evil Corporate Soldiers! Save the Earth from the polluting evil doers and their mercenaries!"

    Cahal basically spends most of the game wandering around Endron facilities, sneaking past various group of guards and slaughtering large groups of mooks in battle arenas. It somewhat undermines the realism, as much as realism can be said to apply to the game, that literally hundreds of people can be killed by our protagonists in the "real world" without it being a national news story.

Enemy variety is underwhelming.

    I understand the game was limited by its budget but I think a better way to handle it would have had Cahal fighting Bane spirits like Scraglings or Formori rather than the endless parade of human mercenaries. Not just because it would have made the game more memorable but also because the Delerium doesn't appear to be a thing here. You occassionally fight the Power Loader from Alien and mooks empowered by the "biofuel" but the enemy variety is low.

    It's also interesting to note just how big of a role that stealth plays in the game. Werewolves are not particularly associated with stealth in my tabletop games, so it's interesting to see Cahal sneaking around guards and turning off security cameras for a large chunk of the game. It's fine, sort of discount Metal Gear Solid, but it does feel a little weird. There's no Gifts present in the game either, which I understand, but could have helped liven up the story a bit.

    The graphics are serviceable but, again, feel a bit dated. I think a more stylized version of the characters would have benefited. I can't help but think of HEART OF THE FOREST which took the exact opposite take with the game, de-emphaizing the violence. The latter is a visual novel but shows the benefit of focusing on the character and artistry of the setting versus the bloodshed.

I like how you can switch between each form.

    The ending also feels like it is incomplete. Given all the events that happen to Cahal, I think a more definitive ending to the character would have been better. I won't spoil but the game leaves things on a cliffhanger with nothing really resolved. I don't foresee a sequel being likely and the experience is soured as a result. There's a lot of potential good character development with Cahal and his daughter even if I feel like it's a little too traditional to go, "my wife was killed and now I am mad."

    In conclusion, this is definitely a decent game but I think they could have aimed a bit higher or wackier. If they weren't going to be able to do as much with the environments and characters, then they might have just set the entire thing inside an Endron facility and made it, "Escape from Endron" rather than try to break it up. Something more like Arkham Asylum than trying to do a pseudo-open world where Endron's mine is literally 200 feet away from the heart of the caern. 

6/10

Werewolf: The Apocalypse: Heart of the Forest review

    WEREWOLF: THE APOCALYPSE: HEART OF THE FOREST is the latest visual novel from the Paradox Interactive produced World of Darkness. It is based on the old White Wolf World of Darkness where vampires, werewolves, demons, and hunters all fight a covert war behind the scenes of our modern Earth. I was never a huge Werewolf: The Apocalypse fan like I was Vampire: The Masquerade or Changeling: The Dreaming but I did run a few campaigns of it. Honestly, I was always more of a Fera fan than the Garou Nation. You can guess this by the fact that I wrote I was a Teenage Weredeer.

    For those unfamiliar with W:TA, basically it has the idea that werewolves are the warriors of Gaia. The spirit of the Earth has granted them the power to shapeshift in order to stop those destroying the world. Garou history is a never-ending war against monsters created by the spirit of entropy, the Wyrm, and the spirit of order, called the Weaver. The Garou, unfortunately, failed in their duty by being a mixture of violent jerks as well as selfish marauders. It doesn't help that claws and teeth are not great weapons against Enron versus spreadsheets and journalism.

The art in this game is fantastic.

    The premise is that Maia is a Polish American college student who has decided to journey to the Białowieża Forest along the Belarus/Polish border in order to investigate her family heritage. It is one of the last remaining primeval forests in the world and a real life natural wonder. So, obviously, people want to cut it all down. Maia is having dreams of the forest speaking to her and these include many cryptic clues to the idea that more is going on than a controversial logging project. It's not much of a spoiler to reveal that, yes, Maia is a werewolf about to go through her first change.

    Honestly, Heart of the Forest is unlike any other werewolf game that I've played (tabletop or otherwise) as it goes out of its way to offer alternatives to violence. The opportunity for Maia to give into her rage and go on a killing spree is ever present but it felt wrong for her character. I was compelled to always try to seek peaceful solutions, defy my rage, and work toward mutual understanding. Understandably, I ended up becoming a Ragabash Child of Gaia but came within inches of being a Philodox instead. For those unfamiliar with W:TA that means that I'm a funny clever peaceful wolf rather than a grr-argh meanie wolf.

The Spirit World is beautifully described.

    For those unfamiliar with W:TA that means that I'm a funny clever peaceful wolf rather than a grr-argh meanie wolf. The game is still recognizably Werewolf: The Apocalypse but the violence is presented as far less justified and possibly counter-productive to the idea of saving the planet. There is no Pentex, or if it's there then it is far from the armies of Formori and Black Spiral Dancer-filled First Teams, and everyone around you is either a normal human being or a Garou. This makes the very interesting dichotomy of you being a terrifying barbarian warrior among ordinary people just trying to live their lives.

    Part of this may be the changing nature of the times. When W:TA first came out in 1992, environmental issues were certainly becoming pressing but the sense of urgency brought about by global warming wasn't the same level it is now. Also, protests being sabotaged by outside actors or slandered as violent wasn't quite as well known a tactic as today. When one of the werewolves thinks they should just kill every one of the loggers and sabotage their equipment, the mature modern player is likely to have a very different reaction today than perhaps when they were a teenage edgelord in the Nineties. Or maybe that's just me.

Exploration is simple but well-done.

    Indeed, the more nuanced approach to violence may put off some W:TA fans due to the fact that it gives a rather nasty portrayal of the Get of Fenris. Multiple Garou tribes are represented in the game but the Get of Fenris are dismissed as werewolf fascists. Much is made of the fact that they fought on the side of the Russians and Nazis during WW2 as well (albeit Maia's grandfather is a former Polish freedom fighter Get). You have no opportunity to join them and every werewolf you speak to talks about the Get with a mixture of contempt and disgust.

    This makes me wonder about the future of the Get because they've always been a group that has struggled against bad-faith actor fans. In 2003, I had a conversation with a developer of W:TA, who admitted that they had a Neo-Nazi problem in the fandom. Despite being a pro-indigenous, pro-racial harmony, punkish game, there were plenty of white supremacists who loved the game and almost purely played the hyper-masculine Viking-esque Get. It even led to the Swords of Heimdall, a in-universe villain faction, being executed because they were an explicitly white supremacist group.

    This is a tremendous game and I encourage everyone who enjoys the WOD to try out this visual novel. The story is a bit on the short side and I feel like we were only getting into Maia's story when it abruptly came to an end. I also feel like it perhaps worked a little hard on establishing its human characters since Anya and other normal characters felt more "real" than the actual werewolves. Still, I appreciated what seems to be a preview of W5 and if this is going to be the "new" W:TA then it seems like it is in good hands.

9/10

I WAS A TEENAGE WEREDEER wins Best Paranormal award

Hey folks,

I'm astounded to share the news that I won the 2019 HEARNOW FESTIVAL's Independent Audiobook Award for BEST PARANORMAL novel! Yes, I won with I WAS A TEENAGE WEREDEER and that is just an amazing feather in my kept.

It is an honor to have the judges choose it as the best example of its class for 2018.

https://www.audible.com/pd/I-Was-a-Teenage-Weredeer-Audiobook/B079Q644JN

Jane Doe is a weredeer, the least-threatening shapechanger species in the world. Blessed with the ability to turn furry at will and psychically read objects, Jane has done her best to live a normal life working as a waitress at the Deerlightful Diner. She has big dreams of escaping life in the supernatural-filled town of Bright Falls, Michigan, and her 18th birthday promises the beginning of her teenage dreams coming true.

Unfortunately, her birthday is ruined by the sudden murder of her best friend's sister in an apparent occult killing. Oh, and her brother is the primary suspect. Allying with an eccentric FBI agent, the local crime lord, and a snarky werecrow, Jane has her work cut out for her in turning her big day around.

Thankfully, she's game.

Set in the same world as Straight Outta Fangton.

Here's what the award looks like!

If you don't have a copy yet, I recommend picking one up!

If you want to see the actual award ceremony, it's available for streaming here (I'm at 42:00).