Since writing this post, I have been thinking about how one might go about running an OSR version of Werewolf: the Apocalypse.
Lots of RPGs allow character customisation to take place through intersections between two sets of variables. Hence in WotC-era D&D your PC has a race (elf, dwarf, human, dragonkin, bat man, woodlouse woman, and so on) and a class (warrior, thief, wizard, warlock) and the two combine to create lots of different variants (dragonkin thief is different to dragonkin warrior; dwarf warlock is different to woodlouse woman warlock, etc.). So if you have, say, 6 races and 6 classes, you get, well...*consults calculator*...lots of different possibilities.
In Werewolf's case, if I remember rightly, there were in fact not two but three such axes. Your werewolf was from one of twelve clans, but also was one of three breeds and five auspices, so that there were effectively twelve 'races', five 'classes', and three additional variables on top. This allowed a lot of customisation - even setting aside the additional mechanical and personality-based attributes that the rules contained. (All of the oWoD games were like this.)
This is, I think, too much, not least because the twelve clans were all dreadfully corny (even including the obligatory-for-its-time 'this one entirely comprises sexy ladies' clan). But I always liked the idea of the breeds and auspices, which seemed to me to be enough variation to keep things manageable, but which also, crucially, had an authentic 'werewolfishness' in that they concerned, respectively, the lycanthrope infection and the phases of the moon.
So in my putative Apocalypse Wolves, you would have the five auspices as, essentially, classes - the full moon auspice being roughly akin to a fighter, the gibbous moon akin to a cleric, the half moon akin to a fighter/mage or classic D&D elf, the crescent moon akin to a thief, and the new moon akin to a wizard. And the breeds would be a bit like races - the 'homid' being someone originally human who had been infected with lycanthropy, the 'lupus' being someone originally a wolf, and the 'metis' being somebody fathered/mothered by a werewolf and non-werewolf. The PCs would advance in levels along the auspice metric, and retain various features in accordance with their breed.
The original Werewolf allowed five different levels of transformation, but I could never see the point in the one that was man-but-a-bit-like-a-wolf or the wolf-that-was-a-bit-bigger-than-a-wolf, so I would just have the basic three: a werewolf can turn into a a human, a wolf, or a wolf-man. As a wolf-man, you get souped-up class features, so somebody with a full-moon auspice gets more strength and HD, but somebody with a new-moon auspice can use magic (or whatever).
More tricky questions concern the methods for gaining XP and the handling of immunity from non-silver-based attacks. More on this over the weekend, perhaps.
Sensitivity reader alert! This comment isn't necessarily for publication, but you might get some pushback about "metis". It refers to a specific indigenous group in Canada (ref https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%A9tis).
ReplyDeleteYou could just call it ‘Born’ or something, because noisms seems to be going away from the WtA ‘deformed offspring of forbidden love’ thing (probably for the best).
Deleteseconding Anonymous's concern here, metis is a name of a specific marginalized ethnic group already.
Delete'Metis' is what they were called in the original rules. That's the only reason I was using the word.
DeleteThat's what I figured. WoD v1 is extremely of it's time, but I doubt most people outside of Canada today would have even heard the word.
DeleteThis may sound stupid, but I feel like a true OSR werewolf game should maintain one of the unique aspects of the original game. That's right - miniatures combat rules.
ReplyDeleteI’d be very happy to see this project. You’re damn right about the tribes being corny. Surely Galliard auspice maps more onto Bard though?
ReplyDeleteYes, that did occur to me, but there is no bard in BECMI, which is always my go-to. No reason why it couldn't exist though.
DeleteOne way to do the silver thing would be to say that normal weapons still do damage, but only silver can kill you. A sort of "death flag" thing. (Mechanically, if you're "killed" by a non-silver source of damage, your half-shredded body can't take actions except fleeing.)
ReplyDeleteThe trouble with the breeds was always that very few people want to, or should, be non-humans. But that's an issue old-school mechanics are well suited to solving.
Good idea! I like that one.
DeleteHave you seen Ann Dupuis's Night Howlers in the BECMI Creature Crucible series? Has character classes for werewolves, werebears, werefoxes, wereboars, wererats, as well as ... errmm ... werebats, wereseals, weresharks, weretigers, and "devil swine." Might be worth a butcher's?
ReplyDeleteIt does the thing (established in Orcs of Thar, IIRC) where low level monster-class PCs start off with negative XP, until they hit the standard HD for that monster/ creature. Adds new special abilities with higher levels.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/17403/PC4-Night-Howlers-Basic
Cool, thanks for that. I have got the Orcs of Thar and one of the other ones - Tall Tales of the Wee Folk, I think. Had never heard of Night Howlers before.
Delete@David Haraldson "Night Howlers", of course! Well played ;-) useful reference because Werewolf the Apocalypse's expansion sourcebooks also had rules and setting information for other werecreatures - out of the blue, i can remember were-felines of all sorts, plus wererats and werefoxes, which are also covered by that Creature Crucible volume. Just goes to show how much material you can reuse from classic BECMI.
DeleteA question for @noisms: If this hypothetical OSR version WTA was to move forward, would you include other were-creatures, or just focus on Garou (I'm thinking about your stance on White Wolf's tendency to run too many ideas at once)
(And this is my first time posting here for a VERY long time, so I'm hoping my link to Night Crawlers is just in an approval queue and has not just disappeared into the aether. Sheepish best wishes, etc.)
ReplyDeleteYeah, I vet comments these days, just because of a few idiots.
DeleteFair.
DeleteI agree with removing "clan" as a class type; probably each party should be their own "clan." If you do the whole "gifts of Gaia" thing (I believe that was WW's version of Vampire's disciplines/superpowers) have the group choose one or two shared gifts that help define their clan.
ReplyDeleteCleric/bard/holy man type is good...you can mash that up. I like tying the classes to the moon aspects: the bigger the moon, the better the hit points (d10-d8-d10/d4-d6-d4)...nice parallel there.
Breed taking the place of race is fine; pretty much a 1:1 model anyway. Original WW had lupine (garou?) as a distinct species upholding a sworn duty, rather than a magical curse (i.e. lycanthropy). If you still plan on keeping that paradigm (fighting the techno/wyrm folks) then you might consider retaining the original "lore" (PCs descended from wolf-stock, human-stock, or inbreeding) and not having it be an infection. Mechanically, it would just come down to a simple bonus and/or penalty on ability scores depending on breed type with a couple bennies based on background.
The transformation bit was always a crappy mechanic...always felt it was Rein-Hagen trying to do his own spin on TMNT's varying levels of "Bio-E" mutation (with accompanying illustrations). Consider the gameplay aspect: what are the advantages/disadvantages of each form? When are they likely to be used by the players? Etc. If crinoid ("wolf-man") form is the best for combat, and human form is the best for stealth/masquerade, when will the character ever use wolf form? What's the benefit? In a modern setting, there's generally no advantage to running on four legs and only having a bite attack.
Probably, you just want two forms: one human, the other bestial.
Anyway. Nice work so far.
Good comment. But I do think you could find benefits to being in 'wolf mode' even in a modern urban setting. You're fast, maybe you can also talk to animals, you have heightened senses, etc.
DeleteAlso bear in mind that as eco-terrorists the PCs might not be spending all that much time in urban settings. If they're trying to e.g. frighten off or kill loggers, then being able to turn into a wolf might have even greater benefits.