WORK IN PROGRESS
On this page, we discuss how Rage, Gnosis and Willpower works for a Garou as well as how they may work with or against each other. Please note that White Wolf contradicted themselves several times in one PAGE, let alone one book. These rules were detailed out to avoid any confusion when we rule on something regarding the use of Rage, Gnosis or Willpower (or all three at the same time). EVEN THEN, please also remember The Golden Rule. The ST reserves the right to call a ruling that may or may not match the ones listed in the books or on this page if it fits the story for storytelling purposes.
That said, if you feel that the ST has made a mistake and would like to say something to remind them, please do so in DMs. We really don't bite.
Rage
What is Rage to a Garou? It is what gives them the ability to fight against evil. It is what keeps them standing, keeps them going, keeps them alive. That said, it is also a curse. You can't have one and not the other. With Rage comes social difficulties. Keep this in mind when you create and play a Werewolf.
We will be listing here both book rules and house rules in regards to how Rage will work mechanically.
When To Roll Rage?
Whenever you think your character is feeling emotional, you should be rolling Rage. All Garou are emotional. There are no Garou who is stoic and uncaring. We're not playing Vampire with Humanity. That said, any ST can and will call for Rage rolls. Here are some examples for when to roll:
- Embarrassment or Humiliation (e.g. botching an important roll)
- Any strong emotion (lust, rage, envy)
- Extreme hunger
- Confinement
- Helplessness
- Being taunted by a superior enemy
- Large quantities of silver in the area
- Being wounded
- Seeing a packmate wounded
- When a bane uses certain gifts on the werewolves that trigger rage
How To Roll Rage?
You roll the highest of either your Permanent or Temporary Rage rating. For example:
- You have default Rage of 5 for an Ahroun. This is your Permanent rating. This is what you roll when you are full on natural Rage.
- You got angry at a sparring match, you roll 5 dice, with the difficulty modifiers listed below.
- If you succeed in the roll, you gain 1 extra Temporary Rage. This will raise your Rage to 6 Temporary points.
- The next time you roll Rage, you will roll 6 dice.
- Now let us say that you used your Rage and now you have 3 Temporary Rage out of 5 Permanent.
- When you next roll Rage, you still roll 5 dice because it is the highest of the two.
Rage Difficulty Modifiers
| Moon Phase | Difficulty |
|---|---|
| New Moon | 8 |
| Crescent Moon | 7 |
| Half Moon | 6 |
| Gibbous Moon | 5 |
| Full Moon | 4 |
| Conditions | Modifiers |
| If the Character's Auspice matches the phase of the moon… | -1 |
| When in Crinos… (not cumulative with above) | -1 |
What Can I Use Rage For?
NOTE: You can only spend Rage in times of stress.
| Action | Description | |
|---|---|---|
| Take Extra Actions | For each point of Rage spent, the character can take one extra action that turn. The player must declare that she's spending Rage for extra actions at the beginning of that turn. Once she decides to spend those Rage points, they're officially spent, and cannot be used for anything else that turn. Other limits apply, too - see below. | |
| Extra Action Limitations | ||
| Rage Score | Within a single turn, a player can spend up to half his character's permanent Rage score in Rage points (rounded up) when getting extra actions. A Garou with Rage 5, for example, can spend three Rage for three extra actions that turn. The player could spend more Rage in order to ignore stunning or pain, but cannot get more than three extra actions that turn. | |
| Timing | Rage spent for extra actions must be declared at the beginning of the turn. Other Rage expenditures can be declared at any point within that turn. | |
| Speed | In a single turn, a character can take only as many “normal” extra actions as she has dots in either her Dexterity or Wits, whichever is lower. A Dexterity 4/Wits 3 Garou, for instances, could take only three extra actions without incurring a penalty. If her player chooses to exceed that limit, she suffers a +3 penalty to all difficulties that turn. Essentially, the werewolf is trying to go too fast for her body (Dexterity) or mind (Wits) to process. If she happens to be in frenzy, however, her Rage actions are limited only by her Dexterity, as she’s pretty much “beyond her wits” to start with. | |
| Change Forms | At any point in the turn, a player can decide to spend a point of Rage, immediately shifting his werewolf into any one of the five Garou forms. | |
| Ignore Stunning | Under normal circumstances, a character who takes a lot of damage is stunned, and cannot act for the remainder of that turn. A werewolf, however, can spend a Rage point that turn and keep moving normally. | |
| Ignore Pain | In a similar fashion, a werewolf player can spend a point of Rage to let her character ignore the dice penalty for one health level worth of damage. This option does not heal the damage, it lasts for only one turn, and it alleviates only one health level's penalty for each point of Rage spent this way. After that turn, the pain penalties kick in again. | |
| Remaining Active | If a character falls below the Incapacitated health level, a player can use Rage to keep her character going. Doing so requires a Rage roll (difficulty 8). Each success heals a health level, regardless of the type of wound. A player may attempt this roll only once per scene. If this roll fails, the character doesn’t recover. However, this last-ditch survival effort has its price. Like all Rage rolls, the character is still subject to frenzy. The wound will also remain on the Garou’s body as an appropriate Battle Scar. | |
Acquiring More Temporary Rage
These methods of regaining Rage are usually given outright, not rolled. If however, the ST feels that it would be best to roll, they may call for rolls. If so, follow the guidelines above.
| Trigger | Description | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Moon | This is a HOUSE RULE modification. Due to the setting of the game being a real-time play-by-post, we are ruling it that upon seeing the moon for the first time at night, your werewolf will regain ONE (1) Rage point unless the moon phase corresponds with your Auspice. In that case, your werewolf regains FULL Rage. As Garou generally live outdoors, you may just assume that your werewolf will automatically regain 1 Rage per night until your bar is full. | |||||||||||
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| Botching | If the Storyteller approves, a werewolf might receive a Rage point after a botched roll. Rage comes from stressful situations, and seeing the action you were attempting blow up in your face, sometimes literally, can be a very stressful situation. | |||||||||||
| Humiliation | Rage will also come rushing back if anything a Garou does proves particularly humiliating. The Storyteller decides whether a situation is embarrassing enough to warrant a Rage point. Garou tend to be very proud, and they don’t take being laughed at well. | |||||||||||
| Confrontation | Again at the Storyteller’s approval, a character could receive a Rage point at the beginning of a tense situation, in the moments right before combat starts. This gain accounts for the anticipation and hackle-raising that happens just as tempers start to flare. |
The Curse Of The Beast Within
This is where the Curse of Luna comes in. Social difficulties WILL happen when you play a werewolf. This is unavoidable. For the Garou to be good at being warriors, Luna gifted them with Rage and unfortunately, Rage doesn't play well with those who don't have it. People, animals, even other Garou, can sense that killer aura and don't want anything to do with it. They shy away from Rage and rightly so. No one wants to be friends with what feels like a serial killer!
*Note
City tribes (Bone Gnawers & Glass Walkers) have a different reaction to rage amongst mortals as it takes longer for it to set in due to their interactions with humanity at large.
This is not a Golden Ticket to not RP the curse. It still takes effect but at a much longer rate amongst humans. They can, and will, still scream at you if you hang around them too long.
For every point of Rage that a character has above her Willpower rating, she loses one die on all social interaction rolls. The difficulty of social rolls may also increase, at ST discretion.
Even outside of mechanics, please ensure that you are roleplaying accordingly. We don't care how charismatic you make your character seem. If they don't have the matching Charisma rating after Rage penalties, they cannot charm people.
Losing The Wolf
White Wolf contradicted themselves here, so we are going to House Rule this. We will be taking out the Willpower trigger for this to happen. When your character loses all of their Rage points. The player makes a rage roll to their max rage, dc equal to the phase of the moon, the can't frenzy from it but only gain 1 rage if successful, consecutive times of losing wolf in the same scene increase the dc by 1 each time. If they fail, they will "lose the wolf" and immediately revert back to their breed form. They will also become docile and listless. This condition will be resolved the moment the character has regained ONE (1) Rage point. Keep in mind that a listless character isn't keen on getting emotional, so at ST discretion, we may refuse to allow you to roll for Rage. You next best bet would be to wait until the next moon rise.
Depression is a good way to think about this, though it is NOT depression. ONLY at player request, the Harano-prone flaw could be gained after “losing the wolf” several times. It is recommended to think about this thoroughly as Harano is no joke. We will not prevent players from wanting to have fun with a potentially devastating and dark path though.
FRENZY!
Berserker Frenzy
In this state, your anger and rage consume you and you automatically shift to crinos. If your permanent rage is equal to or less than your permanent gnosis, you can distinguish who your packmates are and wont attack them, everything else is fair game (even kinfolk and other garou there). If your permanent rage is greater than your permanent gnosis, you attack anyone that moves. Your target is usually the person that has caused you to frenzy, however it is st’s decisions on who you attack.
Fox frenzy
In this state of fear or desperation or shock or sadness, your instinct to run takes over. You automatically shift to lupus. The only time you attack is when something gets in his way, and only for long enough to get past your opponent. The character runs until you can find a safe hiding place, where you will remain until the frenzy passes.
Wyrm thrall
If you get 6 or more success on a rage check, the taint of the wyrm infects your rage and you enter a state where you will kill all there. Your target is completely up to St’s discretion. As well, when you enter thrall, depending on your breed form, its association with the one of the triatic Wyrm causes you to do terrible things. Homid: “Eater-of-Souls holds humans as its special children. This twisted favor extends to homid-breed Garou. This Wyrm drives its minions to eat humans, wolves, and even other Garou. A werewolf in this Thrall must roll Wits (difficulty 7) whenever she kills or incapacitates an opponent. If the roll is a botch, she must stop for a turn and eat her kill.”
Lupus: “Beast-of-War lays claim to the savage lupus Garou. It forces them to tear into their victims until nothing is left but bloody chunks of meat and bone. The Garou loses all sense of mercy and exists only to destroy. When a lupus werewolf kills or incapacitates a foe when in the Thrall, her player must roll Wits (difficulty 7). If the roll botches, the werewolf savages his opponent’s corpse until it is torn limb from limb.
Metis: Due to the description of this triatic wyrm being the defiler wyrm, and it is going further then we allow, we have changed this. Instead, you roll 1 dice. If you get an Odd, you will succumb to the eater of souls, if you get even, you will succumb to the Beast of war.
Willpower and Frenzy In classic white wolf fashion, the book contradicts itself on willpower and frenzy. After much debate, this is what we have decided on. First, you cannot use will power to get out of thrall. Second, during a frenzy, if you are in a situation where its low risk (like not in combat or in a high stress out place or in a dangerous area) if you have only packmates there, you can spend a willpower to stop the frenzy from happening. However, if you are in combat or somewhere dangerous (which is st discretion) or in a place you do not have a packmate, you will frenzy, you can spend a wp to select a different victim, however you still must choose one.
Escaping frenzy: There are a few ways to escape frenzy. If your triggering event is over, you can make a wp roll dc equal to your current rage. If you succeed you come out, physically exhausted. If you fail, you can try again on your next turn. If it is a botch, depending on the botch will determine the consequences. You can always knock the frenzying Garou out (ill-advised but an option). Gifts, unless specified otherwise, cannot directly end a frenzy, however, creative use of a gift, can allow the Gerou frenzying a chance to end their frenzy via a willpower roll. Wyrm thrall can ends if all targets have either died or escaped, unless a gift or power specified otherwise, nothing can help them get out. You can attempt to Knock out a Wyrm Thrall Garou but that’s ill-advised
Gaining rage: You gain 1 rage per night and get 5 rage at the height of the full moon up to your max rage. You cant go above from this and you don’t gain more if you are above your maximum
Gnosis
Much as Rage fuels battle and the physical world, uses of Gnosis tend toward affecting insight and the spirit world.
• Rage and Gnosis: A player cannot use both Rage and Gnosis in the same turn, whether spending points or rolling the Trait. The only exceptions are certain Gifts that demand both to function. These two forces are very powerful, and the Garou’s body is not strong enough to pull power from these two natures simultaneously. For example, a werewolf cannot spend Rage for multiple actions and activate a fetish in the same turn.
• Carrying Silver: For every object made of or containing silver that a character is carrying, she loses one effective point from her Gnosis rating. More potent objects will cause the character to lose more. Luckily, this effect is only temporary, and it lasts only a day after the silver is discarded. More information on the effects of silver is on p. 256.
• Using Gifts: Many of the Gifts the spirits have bestowed upon faithful Garou call for Gnosis expenditures and/or rolls.
• Fetishes: Gnosis is used to attune or activate fetishes. See p. 221 for more information on fetishes
• Umbra: You make a gnosis roll equal to the dc of the guanlet. It uses your current Gnosis. To cross the umbra you do need a mirror or another reflective surface (st discretion on if surface is reflective and how it impacts dc).
Gaining and Regaining Gnosis:
Characters can regain their Gnosis in several ways.
• Meditation: When a character takes time to center himself and with the Sacred Mother on a level, can sometimes regain. The character must spend at least an hour in one place, focusing on his deeply spiritual side. The player rolls Wits + Enigmas (difficulty 8). For each success, the character regains one Gnosis point, up to a maximum of one point per hour of meditation; additional successes are lost. A Garou can only meditate to regain Gnosis once per day. The difficulty increases by one for each extra day a character attempts it in a week, to a maximum difficulty of 10. The spirits are gracious, but not always generous.
• Sacred Hunt: The Sacred Hunt is one of the most frequently performed activities at Garou moots. The chosen prey — an Engling — is summoned and then hunted down. This activity can be done in either the Umbra or on Earth. After the prey been caught and “killed,” werewolves who have taken part in the hunt give thanks to the spirit for the gift of its life. All who participate in the hunt replenish their Gnosis pools completely. See p. 371 for more information on Englings.
• Bargaining with Spirits: Ritual hunts are not the only way to get Gnosis out of a spirit; the soft sell can work just as well. A werewolf can simply ask a spirit to share some of its Gnosis. The character must be able to speak in the spirit language through the use of a Gift or similar. The spirit may ask the character to perform some tasks before it shares its life force with the Garou. Once the bargain is completed, the spirit spends an amount of Essence, and the werewolf gains that many points of Gnosis.
Losing your spirit
If you lose all your gnosis, your spiritual side disconnects from you. When this happens, you cannot use any gifts (unless they are always active or spend rage). As well you cannot enter or leave the umbra. Because your spirit and gnosis are not protecting you, you become much more vulnerable to spirits trying to effect and control you as well as taint effecting you. The number of days you lose your spirit is 3 times your permanent gnosis. This can be reduced by making a Stamina + occult roll dc 8. It is reduced by the number of success times 2 however it will not go below the day’s equal to your gnosis (i.e., if you have 5 gnosis, you cannot lower it below 5). This can only be done once until you have regained gnosis.
Losing True self
If you lose all your gnosis and rage, you disconnect from your spiritual and wolf sides. You are locked in your breed form, you cannot regenerate, you cannot use any gift, you cannot enter or leave the umbra, for all intense and purposes you are a mundane human. You are vulnerable by spirts as they see you as a week target, as well as enemies of the nation as easy pickings for their cause. The longer you remain disconnected from your true self, the more risk you have of you entering Harano as well. You cannot regain rage until you have regained your gnosis. The number of days is 4*permanent gnosis for gnosis and 4*permanent rage for rage. You can make the same rolls as above for 3*number of success but cannot go number of days equal to your permanent rage and permanent gnosis.
Willpower
Almost every creature in the World of Darkness possesses Willpower. It is the strength hidden in each individual to overcome his base urges and occasionally push himself to greatness. Much like Gnosis and Rage, Willpower is recorded in two forms. The permanent Willpower rating is illustrated on the character sheet by dots; the temporary Willpower pool is measured in the squares below the Willpower rating. A character’s Willpower pool can never be larger than his Willpower rating. As with Rage and Gnosis, spending a
Willpower point is recorded on the Willpower pool squares, and not on the permanent rating dots. As a character spends Willpower, he finds his reserves becoming depleted. With no Willpower left, characters are exhausted and unable to summon the inner strength to perform their duties. They will not care what happens to them, since they have no Willpower to go on.
•Spineless ••Weak •••Unassertive ••••Diffident •••••Certain ••••• •Confident ••••• ••Determined ••••• •••Controlled ••••• ••••Iron-willed ••••• •••••Unshakable
Using Willpower Of all the Traits werewolves possess, Willpower is one of the most frequently rolled and spent because of the many ways it can be utilized. • Automatic Successes: Spending a Willpower point on an action gives the player one extra success on any roll. Only one point can be spent this way each turn, but the success is guaranteed. Spending Willpower in this way completely negates the effects of a botch. Some do not allow a character to spend Willpower, including damage rolls or any roll to activate Gifts. • Uncontrollable Urges: Garou are instinctual creatures and can find the Beast within to stimuli without conscious thought. The Storyteller may inform you that your character has done something from a primal urge, like getting away from fire or attacking a creature of the Wyrm. A Willpower point can be spent to negate this gut reaction and keep the Garou right where he is. On rare occasions, the player must keep spending Willpower points until the character removes himself from the situation or runs out of Willpower.
• Fighting On: When a werewolf is injured, her wounds can make it hard for her to concentrate, represented by wound penalties to her actions. By spending a point of Willpower, she can ignore the wound penalties on a single roll.
Recovering Willpower:
Characters must be able to rest in order to regain Willpower. Between their ongoing battles against the Wyrm and its minions, the daily rituals and duties of the human side of their lives, Garou often do not have time to take a breath.
• Characters who achieve a personal victory in the framework of the larger story can regain some amount of Willpower. These victories should relate directly to the character, such as confronting a personal enemy or overcoming a vice. The Storyteller rules whether a character has regained some or all of his self-confidence by this action.
• If a character performed his auspice duties particularly well, she might regain one to three Willpower points. This method is subject to the Storyteller’s approval, and it relies largely on the roleplaying skills of the player. In addition to these methods, characters regain one point of Willpower when they wake up each day. While not as involved or satisfying as the above methods, it does allow werewolves to keep moving even when all hope seems lost
• Every Day where the pc has had a complete and full rest, the character regains 1 WP up to their maximum.
Losing all your willpower
• If you lose all your willpower, you do not have the will to do anything. You fall into a catatonic state immediately and can’t take any actions until you have regained a willpower. If no powers are used to allow you to regain Wp, you can regain Wp similar to above sections
