White Wolf's Werewolf titles repulse me due to their odious political message and terrible mechanics. Are there any other games that focus, exclusively or primarily, on playing werewolves? Do they do anything new with the concept? Hunting werewolves or playing serial killers (unwitting or otherwise) is old hat at this point.

If not, I was considering making something up myself. I would want to devise something like a toolkit since I find werewolf fiction pretty bland and unimaginative to begin with.

I'm unaware of any generic werewolf games.

Back in the 1980s and 1990s Runequest included two approaches. First it included stats for werewolfs in the basic rules with a simple mechanic for what changes when they change. (Typically INT drops while STR and possibly other attribues increase.) Other shape changers were described in supplementary materials. It also included a second approach of Divine Magic for several of the primitive Hunshen peoples. Those included spells for transforming into the totem animal of that particular clan, e.g. wolf, bear, elk, etc. The spells followed a generic template e.g. transform head, limbs, etc. That isn't a generic take since it is from the Gloranthan setting, but it is completely lacking in modern political messages and is quite different mechanically.

Also if you are looking for a different view on weres you might look for Operation Chaos by Poul Anderson. It's an book made from a collection of 3 or 4 novellas and gives a very different and again non-political take on weres compared to that of White Wolf.

GURPS does werewolves.

Off course it does.

On TBP someone would have suggested a FATE version of werewolves by now.

Quote from: DavetheLost;992461On TBP someone would have suggested a FATE version of werewolves by now.

Of course they would have.

For what it's worth, the political junk is not nearly so prevalent in Werewolf: the Forsaken. It's a far better setting, IMO, and I had a lot of fun with the 1st edition of that game.

But beyond that, there isn't many games that specifically focus on werewolves. At most, you'll see werewolves being offered as options (sort of like the World of Darkness). Here's a few that I've had personal experience with in one form or another:

Accursed - Savage Worlds setting. Werewolves (called Vargr) are one of the Witchbreeds, types of playable "races" that were marked by these evil witches that invaded the land and tried to conquer everyone. They transform into a bestial, predatory wolfman form. I like the setting, but unfortunately the game balance is godawful. Some Witchbreeds are absurdly powerful and others (including the Vargr, sadly) are pretty pathetic. It's not hard to fix if you know Savage Worlds very well, though.

Monte Cook's World of Darkness - This was Monte Cook's d20 take on a World of Darkness game. Again, balance is an issue (mages rule, followed by vampires) but it's easy enough to fix by not letting mages/vampires replenish their spellcasting power/Vitae effortlessly. As far as setting goes, Cthulhu and Pals (not their real names) tried to invade the Earth but failed, and as part of their plans they unleashed these alien, predatory spirits that ended up binding to people and forming werewolves. They have a number of the same powers as WoD werewolves but only have 3 forms: human, wolf, and the hybrid warform.

human(ish) - I can't say a lot about this game as I've never found a chance to run it, but it's a FASERIP urban fantasy game with a lot of the usual suspects including werewolves. I backed the Kickstarter mostly out of curiosity and it looks interesting, though I don't know how well it plays as I've never actually used FASERIP.

Dresden Files/Dresden Files Accelerated - Here's the requisite Fate suggestion. The focus may be on wizards, but The Dresden Files actually includes multiple types of werewolves throughout the books including people who just think they turn into wolves when the moon is full. The PC type, though, is simply a person who is able to turn into a wolf at will. They retain their own intelligence but gain the wolf's abilities and can develop certain other features, like the ability to have their clothes meld with their new bodies rather than being shredded. If I ever do revisit DF or try DFA, I might very well do it as the adventures of a local wolf pack protecting their city from invaders or other dangers.

Finally, the "Tooth & Claw" supplement for Shadow of the Demon Lord opens up Skinchangers (including werewolves) as player options. Like some other games, they have 3 forms - human, animal, and hybrid - and they start out struggling to control their transformations. As they get more experienced, though, they learn to control their abilities and get more powerful.

Color me curious, Box: what would you do as a PC in a "werewolf RPG"? Are you the werewolves? If so, do you lose player agency when your character turns into a wolf? Do you just skip the next scene and the ref says, "You wake up naked in the bushes covered in scrapes and bruises and someone else's blood. What do you do?" Or what? Making silver bullets and killing Larry Talbot? Or do you see some other option?

Edit: NAKED not "named." Friggin' autocorrect.

Quote from: DavetheLost;992461On TBP someone would have suggested a FATE version of werewolves by now.

Yeah, but then they were permanently banned for a microaggression.

Quote from: BoxCrayonTales;992442White Wolf's Werewolf titles repulse me due to their odious political message and terrible mechanics. Are there any other games that focus, exclusively or primarily, on playing werewolves? Do they do anything new with the concept? Hunting werewolves or playing serial killers (unwitting or otherwise) is old hat at this point.

If not, I was considering making something up myself. I would want to devise something like a toolkit since I find werewolf fiction pretty bland and unimaginative to begin with.

Get over yourself and play Werewolf: The Forsaken.

Ignore anything post-NWOD/1st. Don't bother with Werewolf: The Apocolypse, it's not focused enough on what it is to be a Werewolf. Forsaken is werewolves done right -- keep to Tier One level games and ignore the Forsaken/Pure war until you're ready to branch out. Keep spirit/Gauntlet shit to a minimum and maybe don't bother too much about the Totem until you're in a few sessions. Brutality of the game is brutal and the violence is lethal, even for werewolves and especially when involving rival packs (the only super that can take werewolves mano-a-mano are Prometheans and a not-inexperienced one can take a small pack by themselves and just about make it out alive).

And again, get over yourself.

Quote from: Brand55;992478For what it's worth, the political junk is not nearly so prevalent in Werewolf: the Forsaken. It's a far better setting, IMO, and I had a lot of fun with the 1st edition of that game.

But beyond that, there isn't many games that specifically focus on werewolves. At most, you'll see werewolves being offered as options (sort of like the World of Darkness). Here's a few that I've had personal experience with in one form or another:

Accursed - Savage Worlds setting. Werewolves (called Vargr) are one of the Witchbreeds, types of playable "races" that were marked by these evil witches that invaded the land and tried to conquer everyone. They transform into a bestial, predatory wolfman form. I like the setting, but unfortunately the game balance is godawful. Some Witchbreeds are absurdly powerful and others (including the Vargr, sadly) are pretty pathetic. It's not hard to fix if you know Savage Worlds very well, though.

Monte Cook's World of Darkness - This was Monte Cook's d20 take on a World of Darkness game. Again, balance is an issue (mages rule, followed by vampires) but it's easy enough to fix by not letting mages/vampires replenish their spellcasting power/Vitae effortlessly. As far as setting goes, Cthulhu and Pals (not their real names) tried to invade the Earth but failed, and as part of their plans they unleashed these alien, predatory spirits that ended up binding to people and forming werewolves. They have a number of the same powers as WoD werewolves but only have 3 forms: human, wolf, and the hybrid warform.

human(ish) - I can't say a lot about this game as I've never found a chance to run it, but it's a FASERIP urban fantasy game with a lot of the usual suspects including werewolves. I backed the Kickstarter mostly out of curiosity and it looks interesting, though I don't know how well it plays as I've never actually used FASERIP.

Dresden Files/Dresden Files Accelerated - Here's the requisite Fate suggestion. The focus may be on wizards, but The Dresden Files actually includes multiple types of werewolves throughout the books including people who just think they turn into wolves when the moon is full. The PC type, though, is simply a person who is able to turn into a wolf at will. They retain their own intelligence but gain the wolf's abilities and can develop certain other features, like the ability to have their clothes meld with their new bodies rather than being shredded. If I ever do revisit DF or try DFA, I might very well do it as the adventures of a local wolf pack protecting their city from invaders or other dangers.

Finally, the "Tooth & Claw" supplement for Shadow of the Demon Lord opens up Skinchangers (including werewolves) as player options. Like some other games, they have 3 forms - human, animal, and hybrid - and they start out struggling to control their transformations. As they get more experienced, though, they learn to control their abilities and get more powerful.

MCWOD sucks. Don't mention that heresy. Not even on the fan shit-- it genuinely is crap.

Savage Worlds is shit for doing stuff like werewolves that aren't gonzo, RIFTS-like power-fantasies. Bad mention (but credit to you for digging that up). I'd also pop-in Solomon Kane SW w/ houserules instead and even that...

Dres I need to play but could be shit, could be good. They make a non-FATE version, I'm down.

SOTDL is a BEAST!!!. Defo play this. Screw the werewolf aspect for the first game, just play it as is. Fuckin' masterpiece. Stands on the godamm mantle, next to NWOD.

Not generic but I dug the BECMI supplement Night Howlers.

Cryptworld and the Monsters Macbre supplement offer rules for playing Things including werewolves. They are more traditional werewolves, not whatever it was that White Wolf and the WoD tried to make them into.

Yes, Werewolf: The Forsaken is like Werewolf: The Apocalypse but with the political and cultural references removed.

And I like the political aspects of Werewolf: The Apocalypse.

Playing as a werewolf is a pretty specific thing to want to play. I can't imagine that the overall RPG market would support multiple games specifically for that. So, yeah, if you're not clear why being a werewolf requires you being a spirit-warrior (as others have mentioned, Forsaken doesn't have the eco-warrior subplot), and would rather focus on a more traditional fairytale werewolf, using a generic like GURPS/HERO/FATE would probably be your best bet.

PC 4: Night Howlers for BECMI D&D.