Short post today, heavy audience participation with luck.

Werewolf‘s built on an interesting framework. It incorporates myth, zoology, ecology, and splatter horror into a combination that manages to work as a whole. It’s hard to imagine another game that could be prepped for by consuming Silent Spring, Egil’s Saga, The Mind of the Raven and C.H.U.D. But if you know Werewolf, then you know how each of those things could inform a chronicle. You also know that actual werewolf books and movies can sometimes be conditional — Van Helsing, for instance, has a pretty good CGI Crinos who uses Razor Claws, but not a whole lot else — while stuff without a werewolf in sight can be dead-on target (those The 13th Warrior aficionados know what I’m talking about). I can put together a list of sources I think are useful, but I imagine everyone’s is different.

So today’s question is:

What sort of sources do you think make optimal viewing, reading or other inspiration for Werewolf: The Apocalypse?

Right now I’m deeply involved with Chapter Nine: The Enemy. I understand this is something that will have a lot of you particularly interested, what with Black Spiral Dancers, a number of fomori powers rapidly approaching that of the original Freak Legion itself, Banes and other spirits, other supernaturals, and a treatment of Pentex — with a couple of new subsidiaries that carry on the Balefire-soaked parody of our own real-world horrible corporations, no less. Several points of interest here:

Big Ol’ Essence Pools. Drawing from the Book of the Wyrm, we see Dream Makers running around with Rage 10, Gnosis 10, Willpower 10, and Essence 300. This also indicated the possibility of bringing up the Nexus Crawler to match. Is a Nexus Crawler with 100 Essence far too much of a leap? Is it more of a necessary thing to get the critter up to a proper threat level?

Massive Amounts of Fomori Powers. There’s a bit of a Freak Legion vibe going on in the back of the book. Yes, there will be completely work-safe powers like “Chameleon Coloration” and “Claws and Fangs.” But there will also be powers like “Dentata Orifice,” “Fiery Discharge” and “Fungal Udder.” Powers like the latter are not actually explicitly sexualized or scatological — a “dentata orifice” might just basically be a mouth in the palm of the fomor’s hand or in his belly — but they can be taken as such. If that strikes you as highly problematic, I’d like to hear about that.

Black Spiral Dancers. Yeah… I know you’re all probably kind of interested in how they’ll turn out. Well, go forth, excerpt!

The Black Spiral Dancers are the only werewolf tribe to have wholly turned to the Wyrm. Some show signs of degeneracy from an early age, acting out through displays of violence and madness. Like some Garou, many have survived childhoods troubled by suffering or abuse. The tribe’s inherited madness and psychopathic tendencies inevitably increase after the trauma of a Black Spiral’s First Change. Once they’ve rejoined their brothers and sisters, most react poorly to the abuse they receive from their Kinfolk and others in the tribe. Their new extended family includes werewolves who (for whatever reason) have abandoned their former tribes, accepting this one. Recruits then corrupt their souls through a blasphemous ritual known as the Rite of the Black Spiral: an initiation ceremony that intensifies and fully subjects them to the Wyrm’s corruption. Occulted in darkness, the Black Spiral tribe has remained hidden for millennia, passing on powerful Gifts empowered by the Wyrm and a never-ending hatred for Gaia and other Garou.

Millennia ago, this tribe was known as the White Howlers. These white-furred werewolves were cousins of the Fianna, roaming the lands we now know as Britain and Eastern Europe. In the highlands of Scotland in the first century A.D., they lived among Picts north of Hadrian’s Wall, isolated from the rest of Western civilization. White Howler Kinfolk were known for their unrestrained fury and brutality, as tales of their heathen rituals became the stuff of legend. White Howler cubs proved their worth not only by defeating physical foes, but by going on spiritual journeys into the depths of the underworld. With typical Garou arrogance, they believed they could face the most horrific creatures of the spirit world and return unscathed.

Their greatest arena was a realm known as the Spiral Labyrinth, visited through a perilous journey they referred to as “walking the spiral.” The deeper they descended, the more imperiled their souls became, as they ventured further into the infernal realms of the Wyrm than any other tribe in existence. Spiritual corruption was like a cancer spreading throughout the tribe, as more and more of them abandoned their original tribal totem, the Lion. In the modern age, the tribal totem has long been abandoned, as the White Howlers’ legacy was ultimately corrupted by the Wyrm. Before the fall of the Roman Empire, the last White Howlers were dragged down into the Spiral Labyrinth after a valiant last stand at the infamous Sept of the Mile-Deep Loch.

Today, the tribe’s name comes from the labyrinth that ultimately destroyed the now-extinct White Howler tribe, replacing them with fanatics known as the Black Spiral Dancers. Rituals of “walking the Black Spiral” are still used to initiate cubs and wayward Garou into the tribe. Degenerating into this downward spiral is a soul-scarring journey, as it is still hidden in the depths of the Wyrm realm called Malfeas.  Each petitioner must betray the associates of his former life, forsake his former spiritual beliefs, and most importantly, descend into madness.

Black Spirals possess a wide array of mental disorders, ranging from insidious hidden delusions and phobias to overt and disturbing outbursts of mental illness. Even if a Black Spiral cub is separated from its own kind, the werewolf’s downward spiral into insanity is inevitable. This doesn’t mean Dancers are completely dysfunctional, however; Garou seem to think so because the most self-destructive Black Spirals are used as shock troops against Gaian packs and septs. At their best, relatively functional Spirals are cold and calculating psychopaths capable of infiltrating and subverting human society. The most obvious manifestation of the tribe’s psychosis is an enduring hatred of all Garou, an obsession that defies all reason.

Like Garou, Black Spiral Dancers run in packs and gather in numbers. Just as the Garou have caerns, Black Spiral Dancers thrive in Hives, whether they’re toxic hellholes no one would dare approach or subterranean tunnels hidden from vigilant enemies. The tribe has its own camps, rituals, and moots, many of which are dedicated to the three hydra heads of the Triatic Wyrm and its many subservient Urges. Public ordeals of victimization and orgiastic rites are common. Despite this, a Black Spiral pack can choose to remain isolated from the rest of the tribe almost anywhere, as long as they faithfully obey the whispered commands of the Wyrm.

Metis Garou are common in Black Spiral packs. Some are recruited from those who resent their second-class status in the Garou Nation; others are born into a tribe that willingly breeds metis to bolster their numbers. Black Spiral reproductive rights allow absolute freedom. The tribe’s orgiastic practices are perverse and frequent: outbreeding enemies is a biological imperative. The Black Spirals easily outnumber any of the Thirteen Tribes of the Garou Nation. Metis deformities, like other deformities, are proudly displayed.

Appearance: Modern Black Spirals are a mockery of modern werewolves. Most possess minor mutations and other forms of disfigurement that hint at their corruption. This might due to pollution, corruption, or radioactivity near their place of birth. In Crinos form, Black Spirals are frequently afflicted in some way: their skulls may be malformed or their jaws might slaver. A Dancer’s eyes typically burn an unnatural shade of red or green. Their fur is filthy, gnarled, or patchy; the most common shades are dirty black or sickly greenish brown pelts. Garou recruited from other tribes appear as corrupted versions of their former brothers and sisters. Many Spirals are deformed in some way, since nearly half the tribe is metis. A few exceptionally rare and exotic Black Spirals have the pure white fur of their White Howler ancestors.

Kinfolk & Territory: Black Spiral Kinfolk aren’t the most stable individuals. Sanity isn’t their strong suit, and emotional stability is a struggle. Most are used to conditions of financial adversity and questionable hygiene, supporting themselves through marginal jobs and living in squalor. For reasons they never fully understand, they are inexorably drawn to the Wyrm’s corruption. This may result in a lifestyle “improved” by a variety of spiritually harmful products created by Pentex and its many subsidiaries. To keep an eye on these relations, some Black Spirals manage to secure work for them in those same corrupt companies. There’s certainly no guarantee of employment, however. Some Kinfolk stray into what may seem like perfectly ordinary homes and lifestyles; that makes the moment when their dysfunctional tendencies finally manifest far more shocking than they would normally appear.

Black Spiral Dancers have relatively few lupus for a tribe their size; they rely more on breeding metis. Their wolf Kin live miserable lives in captivity, kept in small preserves at best and in the depths of Hives at worst.

Tribal Totem: Most Black Spiral Dancers serve the tribal totem of Whipporwill, a spirit of ill luck and ruin. In addition to their eerie wolf calls, Black Spirals can emulate the bird of the same name.

Initial Willpower: 3

Background Restrictions: Almost any Garou Background is allowed, although they tend to manifest in more sinister ways.  However, no Black Spiral can take the Pure Breed Background unless he takes all five dots, representing a throwback to the original White Howler bloodline.

Derangement: The Black Spiral breaks the minds of those who dance it. Each Black Spiral Dancer has at least one overt or covert form of insanity. (One optional way to represent this is by choosing a Derangement from another White Wolf sourcebook.)

Beginning Gifts: Bane Protector, Resist Pain, Resist Toxin, Sense Wyrm, Shroud

Quote: You’ll understand. Once you pass through the gates, your senses will be opened. You’ll smell the reek of the rotting wounds, hear the voices under the skin of the earth. You’ll see the truth about the world when the illusion is torn away. Come and dance with us. You’ll understand.

And the winner, with a grand total of two people suggesting their names: the Glass Walkers! Which is an interesting group either way you look at it, because also they’re one of the few tribes that gets a bonus camp Gift list (now with corrected spelling. I hope).

Glass Walkers

Many Glass Walker Gifts involve Weaver-spirits of one type or another. This association grants the Glass Walkers great versatility and an unparalleled rapport with modern technology; hopefully, it’s enough to make up for the lack of respect with which other tribes view their pacts.

• Control Simple Machine (Level One) — The Garou may command the spirits of the simplest machines, causing levers to flip, doors to unbolt, pulleys to roll and so on. Any technological spirit can teach this Gift.

System: The player spends a Willpower point and rolls Manipulation + Crafts (difficulty 7). The Garou’s control lasts until the end of the scene.

• Diagnostics (Level One) — The Glass Walker can tell what is wrong with a machine at a glance. He can then enlist the aid of the machine’s spirit in repairing it. Any technological spirit can teach this Gift.

System: The character automatically succeeds at all attempts to diagnose the problem with broken technological devices. The player spends one point of Gnosis as the Garou mentally convinces the spirit of a broken device to aid her in fixing it. The time required to fix the device is halved, as are the number of successes needed to repair it.

• Persuasion (Level One) — As the homid Gift.

• Plug and Play (Level One) — All of the Weaver’s works are connected through the same web, the same song. The Glass Walkers exploit this truth to draw more power from the modern profusion of technology, making their devices compatible with almost everything. A Net Spider teaches this Gift.

System: The player spends one Willpower point. For the next day, any computer the Glass Walker uses — no matter how simple — becomes fully compatible with any other digital device, regardless of obstacles such as different operating systems, lack of physically compatible access ports, or even the complete absence of any means of receiving or interpreting a wireless signal. Generally, Glass Walkers use this Gift to turn their smart phones into omni-compatible access keys to computer networks, security feeds, and even car GPS systems.

• Trick Shot (Level One) — This Gift allows the Garou to execute brilliant feats of sharpshooting, such as shooting a weapon from an opponent’s hand or firing down the barrel of an enemy’s gun. The Garou cannot use this Gift to harm an opponent directly, however, and can use Trick Shot only with rifles or pistols. Air-spirits teach this Gift.

System: As a permanent enhancement, the player adds his character’s permanent Glory rating to his dice pool when performing a really outlandish shooting trick. Again, the Gift does not allow direct damage to targets (“I’ll shoot the armored fomor through the eye!”), but can be used to injure opponents indirectly (“I’ll shoot out the blacked-out window behind the vampire so the sunlight hits him!”).

• Cybersenses (Level Two) — The Garou may exchange his natural senses for those of machines, witnessing the world in ways more traditional werewolves could never imagine. He might exchange normal hearing for radar, or ordinary sight for infrared or UV vision. Any technological spirit can teach this Gift.

System: The player spends one Gnosis point per sense affected. This Gift lasts for one scene.

• Hands Full of Thunder (Level Two) — Many Glass Walkers regard the gun as the ultimate sign of the power of the modern age, and make pacts with the spirits to assure that their firearms do not become useless, primitive clubs in the midst of battle. A technological spirit or war-spirit teaches this Gift.

System: The player spends a point of Gnosis. For the rest of the scene, any gun the Glass Walker fires won’t run out of ammunition, so long as it has ammo to begin with. Fire discipline is still recommended with automatic weapons to keep the gun from overheating and jamming.

• Jam Technology (Level Two) — As the homid Gift.

• Power Surge (Level Two) — By speaking with electricity spirits, the Garou causes a blackout over a widespread area. An electricity elemental teaches this Gift.

System: The player spends one Gnosis point and rolls Wits + Science (difficulty 7). The number of successes determines how large of an area is blacked out. One success would black out a single room, while five would cut the power to a whole neighborhood.

• Steel Fur (Level Two) — Focusing on his own being, the Glass Walker wraps himself in spiritual steel, turning his fur into hardened metal. Metal or earth elementals teach this Gift.

System: The player spends one Willpower point and rolls Stamina + Science (difficulty 7). Each success adds one die to the Garou’s soak pool for the rest of the scene. While this Gift is active, the Garou suffers +1 difficulty to all Dexterity rolls, and any Social rolls not involving other Glass Walkers. This Gift only functions in Crinos, Hispo or Lupus forms.

• Control Complex Machine (Level Three) — Similar to Control Simple Machine, the Glass Walker may now converse with and command the spirits of electronic devices such as computers, smart phones, and cars. A net-spider teaches this Gift.

System: The player spends one Willpower point and rolls Manipulation + Science or Computer. The Storyteller sets the difficulty based on how complex the machine is (8 for a standard laptop). The Garou’s control lasts for one scene.

• Intrusion (Level Three) — It’s impossible to keep a cockroach out of a house, and equally impossible to keep out a Glass Walker with this Gift. Once activated, this Gift allows the Glass Walker to open any barrier presented to her: doors unlock at her approach, padlocks fall open with no explanation. A cockroach-spirit teaches this Gift.

System: The player spends one point of Gnosis and rolls Gnosis (difficulty 7). For exactly one minute afterward, all forms of locks and barriers allow her passage, from computerized vault locks to barricades of 2x4s nailed up across doors. Mystically sealed barriers still require a roll to bypass, but every success on the initial Gnosis roll adds one automatic success to such attempts. Barriers disabled by this Gift do not automatically re-seal themselves.

• Electroshock (Level Three) — The Glass Walkers are the tribe of glass, steel and electricity. This last element can be used to directly damage opponents that the Glass Walker can either touch, or who are touching a conductive material such as metal or water. An electricity-spirit teaches this Gift.

System: The player spends a number of Rage points. Each point of Rage spent inflicts two levels of aggravated wounds on the Glass Walker’s opponents. These levels of damage may be divided among as many opponents as the number of Rage points invested in this Gift. As usual, the character cannot spend more Rage than half of his permanent rating in one turn.

• Elemental Favor (Level Three) — By begging, threatening or cajoling an urban elemental, a werewolf can convince the spirit to do her a favor by manipulating or even destroying its earthly shell. Thus, a glass sheet might explode at the Garou’s foes; a door might refuse to open, even if unlocked; or a car’s brakes might fail. An urban elemental teaches this Gift.

System: The player rolls Charisma + Subterfuge (difficulty 7). The Storyteller determines the precise effects.

• Attunement (Level Four) — As the Bone Gnawer Gift, but taught by a cockroach-spirit.

• Doppelganger (Level Four) — The Garou may take the exact likeness of any other human, wolf or Garou. A chameleon-spirit teaches this Gift.

System: The player spends one Gnosis point and rolls Charisma + Performance (difficulty 8). Traits aren’t duplicated, but everything else, including voice, posture and scent, are identical. The effects last for one day per success (though the Garou may end them at will).

• Signal Rider (Level Four) — From the telegraph to the cell phone, the Glass Walkers have always kept up good relations with spirits of cutting-edge communication. This Gift allows the Garou to open a moon bridge which rides the back of a telephone signal, transporting her instantly to the location of whoever is on the other end of the line. A Pattern Spider teaches this Gift.

System: The player spends one Willpower and one Gnosis to open the moon bridge. The Garou must have a connection between a telephone at her location and one at the target destination to use this Gift, although it doesn’t discriminate between landlines or cell phones — some werewolves have even reported success in riding the back of online conferencing software, although doing so successfully requires a Wits + Computers roll (difficulty 7). Signal Rider can take the character no more than (Gnosis x 5) miles—if the other end of the line isn’t within that range, the Gift fails.

• Tech Speak (Level Four) — This Gift allows the Glass Walker to contact others through any technological device. The Garou speaks to a Pattern Spider in or near a technological device and tells them the message to be delivered and whom it should be delivered to. The Pattern Spider then finds the receiver and uses any communications technology near them to deliver the message; phones yell it out (without picking up the handset or needing to be turned on), electronic billboards display it, computer printers print it out as text. If no communications technology is present, any other technology will activate, though no message will be imparted. If no technology whatsoever is present near the receiver, the Gift fails. A Pattern Spider teaches this Gift.

System: The player spends a Gnosis point and rolls Charisma + Science. The difficulty depends on the distance the message needs to be sent: The next room is difficulty 4, the same building 5, one block away 6, one mile away 7, a time-zone away 8. Beyond that is difficulty 9. The more successes achieved, the longer the message can be. A single success will only allow one word to be sent, five would allow unlimited length.

• Chaos Mechanics (Level Five) — Werewolves pulse with the Wyld’s energy, but all creatures with form and nature have something of the Weaver in them as well. Upon learning this Gift, the Glass Walker reconciles these aspects of his being, enabling him to summon primal energy and mystical form at the same time. Luna, who balances mercurial chaos into an orderly cycle of phases, sends the most powerful of her Lunes to teach this Gift.

System: A werewolf with this Gift may use Rage and Gnosis in the same turn with no penalty. This Gift’s effects are permanent.

• Summon Net-Spider (Level Five) — The Garou carries a great technological blessing, granting him an intuitive understanding of the ways of computers; additionally, he can summon a Net-Spider, a Weaver spirit that gives its summoner near-absolute control over any computer system. The Spider can disrupt, erase or destroy whatever system it is sent into (the exact effects are left to the Storyteller, but are typically destructive). An avatar of Cockroach teaches this Gift.

System: The player spends one Gnosis point and rolls Charisma + Computer (difficulty 8). If successful, the Net-Spider appears and heeds the Garou’s commands. In addition to the destructive power of the summoned spirit, this Gift allows the Garou to permanently halve the difficulty of all rolls to use, build, or hack computers.

[BEGIN BOXED TEXT]

Boli Zousizhe Gifts

A Chinese offshoot of the Glass Walkers, the Boli Zousizhe are somewhat more traditional than their ever-changing Western cousins, and employ several ancient Gifts rarely seen among other branches of the tribe.

• Sheng-Nong’s Eyes (Level One) — The Boli Zousizhe can see from the perspective of his tools and draw on their concentration for the task at hand, allowing him to perform multiple actions with ease. While this was originally used to wield two swords with equal dexterity, any tools can be used; even the werewolf’s own hands count as a “tool.” Either a monkey-spirit or a spirit of war teaches this Gift.

System: The player spends one Gnosis point to receive an extra action. For the rest of the scene, the Garou need not be able to see his opponents in order to attack them. No visibility modifiers or off-hand penalties affect his actions while this Gift is in effect.

• Fu Xi’s Honor (Level Two) — When confronted with a threat to a helpless member of the werewolf’s family or pack, the Boli Zousizhe can rise above her normal limits to defend them. The spirit of any animal that mates for life may teach this Gift.

System: The Storyteller must agree that the member of the Garou’s family or pack is indeed helpless and unable to defend himself. (With rare exception, any human facing a werewolf should be considered helpless.) The player may then spend one Rage and add one die to all her character’s Physical Attributes for every point of permanent Honor the character possesses for the duration of the scene.

• Yao’s Commands (Level Three) — As the Glass Walker Gift: Elemental Favor. When this Gift is taken, the Boli Zousizhe must choose to be able to command Eastern elementals (water, wood, fire, earth and metal) or urban elementals. The character may never command elementals of the other group.

• Yu’s Endurance (Level Four) — Yu was given the tremendous task of protecting Ancient China against the Yellow River flooding, so exhausting a task that none but he could do it. This Gift is identical to the Get of Fenris Gift: Heart of the Mountain.

• Huang Di’s Sacrifice (Level Five) — Whilst Huang Di was known for his inventions, he was also the Yellow Lord and a great leader. Normally used by the pack’s alpha, this Gift allows a leader to revitalize his followers in moments of darkness. This Gift is taught by only one spirit, who lives at the foot of Bull Mountain and cries eternally. It resembles nothing, and only teaches the Gift at sunrise.

System: The Boli Zousizhe spends two points of Gnosis and rolls Stamina + Leadership (difficulty 8). Each success allows one packmate to heal a number of health levels (even aggravated) equal to the number of successes rolled.

 [END BOXED TEXT]