History TabletopGame / WerewolfTheApocalypse

* EverythingIsEvenWorseWithSharks: The Rokea are weresharks, and they're ''very very'' dangerous. They stop aging after their first change, eat everything in sight, and have nothing resembling human morality. And they can turn into giant sharks or 12-foot tall hulking shark men with CLAWS AND RAZOR-SHARP SKIN. They're one of the few Changing Breeds not affected by the Garou's genocidal past, because werewolves in the water are out of their element while weresharks function quite well on land. Luckily, they usually stick to oceans.

* EverythingsBetterWithDinosaurs: The Mokole can transform into dinosaurs. Or rather, ''dinosaur-themed'' MixAndMatchCritters which might combine the size of a sauropod with the tail of an ankylosaur and the teeth of a tyrannosaur. And pretty feathers. And gills.

*** As nicely, if [[HighOctaneNightmareFuel disturbingly]], illustrated in ''VampireTheMasqueradeBloodlines''.

->''[[{{Trainspotting}} Choose]] no life. Choose no career. Choose to live at the Caern. Choose a totem. Choose a [[{{BFS}} fucking big klaive]], choose breeder banes the size of washing machines, Black Spiral Dancers, weaver spiders and corrupted naturae spirits. Choose no sleep, high rage and mental instability. Choose between dedicating jeans or boots. Choose no friends. Choose challenging a Sept elder for your fucking right to exist. Choose the Umbra and wondering why the fuck you are slogging through arse deep Wyrm toxins on a sunny morning. Choose walking through a Scab looking at brain dead, spirit-stunted homids, fisting fucking junk food into their mouths. Choose being butchered to pieces at the end of it all, giving your last in some miserable Wyrmhole, nothing more than a legend to the selfish, fucked-up, weaver-ridden spawn replacing the beloved defenders of Gaia. Choose your future. Choose to Rage.''
-->-- '''Anonymous'''

The second tabletop roleplaying game in the TabletopGame/OldWorldOfDarkness line and the second or third most popular. Initially was supposed to exist in the same universe as its precedessor, ''TabletopGame/VampireTheMasquerade'', but their vastly incompatible cosmologies, histories and themes were among major factors that forced authors to make crossovers between the TabletopGame/OldWorldOfDarkness games entirely optional. In the morally-grey area that was the TabletopGame/OldWorldOfDarkness, ''Werewolf's'' protagonist faction (the Garou Nation) was one of the more outright heroic (after all, fighting to save the world from the corrupted personification of entropy is difficult to put a negative spin on). Even so, they are far from perfect.

** The '''Boli Zouhisze''' are an Asian offshoot (or, depending on who you believe, the Western tribe is an offshoot of ''them''), who often find themselves having to play go-between for the Western Garou and the Eastern Beast Courts.

* AllThereInTheManual: Curious example, as the series ''is'' mostly books. Do you want to play a Black Spiral Dancer? Do you wish to know their culture? Well, don't look at either tabletop Book of the Wyrm for it, instead, search for a [[{{LARP}} Mind's Eye Theatre]] Book of the Wyrm. For some reason, it has more text and information on the tribe than both of the tabletop books combined.
* ApocalypseHow: Class 2 is the most likely outcome if werewolves ''win'' the Apocalypse. Class X-2 (the entire Universe is destroyed/turned into Hell) is the price of losing.

* BigBadassWolf: Every Garou, without exception.
* BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy: The Croatan, a Native American tribe that disappeared without a trace along with a British colony in the Americas, was a Garou tribe who sacrificed themselves to defeat an aspect of the Wyrm.

* BlackAndGreyMorality: Imagine this game as ''{{Warhammer 40000}}'' with werecreatures, instead of SpaceMarines, and you won't be ''too'' far off. While minions of the Wyrm are absolutely vile and the grand goal of their master is utter destruction of the entire Universe ''at best'', werewolves themselves are very very far from politically correct heroes by the modern definition. Some of them never were humans, and like humans only as food (while remaining on your side). Other werewolves have faithfully preserved as much of the mentality of tribal warriors or medieval knights as they were able to. Most think that beating the crap out of each other is a perfectly valid way of settling arguments. All are forced to fight a constant, vicious war against an enemy that is really good at corruption and infiltration, which tends to make them quite ruthless and encourage KnightTemplar tendencies even in the least aggressive tribes. Almost every tribe believes that their way of life is the best, which (with the help of mundane greed) had caused a whole lot of bloody conflicts between werewolves in the past. Tribes that lost these conflicts still lovingly nurse their grudges. Tribal elders uphold harsh, millennia-old customs with an iron fist. And this is all likely the right thing to do. To put it short, Garou match heroes of ancient epics not only in their prowess and courage, but also in their savagery and love of violence (it is "the game of savage horror", after all).

* CrashIntoHello: The first meeting of signature characters Jonas Albrecht and Evan Heals-the-Past, sans the MeetCute part.

* EverythingIsWorseWithBears: Double subverted by the Gurahl werebears, who are known for their healing powers and generally retiring ways. Until you piss them off, that is, then you'd better run.
* EverythingIsEvenWorseWithSharks: The Rokea are weresharks, and they're ''very very'' dangerous. They stop aging after their first change, eat everything in sight, and have nothing resembling human morality. And they can turn into giant sharks or 12-foot tall hulking shark men with CLAWS AND RAZOR-SHARP SKIN. They're one of the few Changing Breeds not affected by the Garou's genocidal past, because werewolves in the water are out of their element while weresharks function quite well on land. Luckily, they usually stick to oceans.
** One was a bonus boss in the ''TabletopGame/VampireTheMasquerade'' video game. Seeing the little man transform into a 12-foot tall werehammerhead shark would be enough to make anyone wet themselves, but it's an EscortMission, too. This was probably very confusing to people who had no idea the TabletopGame/OldWorldOfDarkness had fucking weresharks in it.

* FantasticRacism: The werewolves against most of the other werepeople, such as the spiders, hyenas, aurochs, cats, bats, boars, bears, snakes, crocodile/dinosaur/dragon hybrids, coyotes, and rats. Only the ravens, sharks, and foxes were unaffected. Several of the others were totally wiped out by werewolf genocide and as a result, there is much mutual distrust to be had. It's one of the reasons why the Apocalypse is approaching in the first place, because the various shapeshifters are supposed to be working ''together.''

** Even those non-wolf shifters who aren't pretty much automatically hostile to all or almost all outsiders still are often portrayed as [[JerkAss major dicks]], particularly towards werewolves.

* FictionalDocument: ''Chronicles of the Black Labyrinth.'' Like many other White Wolf examples, this was eventually [[{{Defictionalization}} defictionalised]].

** TheHero: Philodox.
** TheLancer: Ragabash.
** TheBigGuy: Ahroun.
** TheSmartGuy: Theurge.
** TheChick: Galliard.

** Retconned for werewolves in Revised. The "Past Life" background was changed to "Ancestors," and seems to involve more direct communication with literal ancestor spirits (which better explains the Bone Gnawers, Glass Walkers, and Silent Striders lacking access to the background; the former two are too modernist to care, the latter are cursed).

* HoYay: According to the writeups in the tribebooks and sourcebooks, there is quite a bit (albeit of the "don't ask don't tell" variety) among the Get of Fenris. (Also some among the Fianna, who are known for, [[BottleFairy having had a few (by Garou standards)]], being [[AnythingThatMoves indiscriminate with their choice of sexual partners]].)
** Also, read the Galliard chapter of ''Book of Auspices.'' The debate between Samir the Jackal and Malcolm Night-Smile is thick with HoYay.
** They still don't hold a candle to the Nuwisha, who have a high level gift called "Teasing Mate", which their Tribe book specifically says is for attracting lovers of the ''same'' gender. That's right, they have an actual Gift for getting some gay lovin'.

* HumansAreBastards: And the werewolves are bastards too. As well as almost everyone else. At least the approaching Apocalypse forced most werepeople to seriously rethink their behavior.
* ImAHumanitarian: There's a rule in the Litany (the werewolf code of laws) specifically forbidding Garou from eating people. However, [[SuperpoweredEvilSide falling too deep into frenzy]] may (if you're playing a human-born werewolf) result in your character [[NightmareFuel sampling the long pig in the throes of your frenzy]].

** Both the Bone Gnawers and Silent Striders include outlaw secret societies of cannibals. And some other Changing-Breeds, such as the Mokole and Ananasi, have never batted an eye at eating people.

** This is outright said to be one of the main reasons that [[VampireTheMasquerade Vampires]] stick to the cities: They're less likely to run into the Werewolves, who are both more powerful then Vampires, and have some serious objections with their very existence. The few survivors of Werewolf attacks on vampire Coiteries report that they ripped through the group like a hot knife through butter.
** This mentality is [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] in the Core Rulebook, which pointed out a man with Wyrmtaint may just be a hapless schlub working for Pentex or even a subsidiary, so mauling the poor bastard won't really accomplish anything.

* MagicKnight: The Uktena Garou and some Bastet are known for practicing sorcery. Their magic isn't as strong as [[TabletopGame/VampireTheMasquerade the Tremere's]] BloodMagic or [[TabletopGame/MageTheAscension Mages']] True Magick, but they still have all the physical advantages of werecreatures.

* MindRape: The Black Spiral Labyrinth of the Wyrm is MindRape Central.

** It was kind of "Damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation. If they kept slaughtering the humans, the Wyrm would get absurdly strong, feeding on the human's misery and deaths. If they didn't, the Weaver would get absurdly strong, as the humans forcefully imposed Order on the formerly Wyld world. That's not even getting into the ethical implications, which is how the Children of Gaia, Black Furies, Glass Walkers, Stargazers and Bone Gnawers managed to shame the rest of the tribes into stopping the mass murders.

* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: A rather mild example is a wealthy Silver Fang Kinfolk family called the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rothschild_family Rothchilds]].
* NoDelaysForTheWicked: One sourcebook claimed the Black Spiral Dancers invariably track down and kidnap those incredibly rare White Howler throwbacks born outside the tribe, using corrupted guardian spirits called Kin-Fetches who've stuck around for centuries just waiting to squelch SpecialSnowflakeSyndrome. Meanwhile everyone else's uncorrupted Kin-Fetches, which are ''specifically assigned'' to each infant cub, are known to have trouble sticking around just for the years until the kid hits puberty.

* {{Oireland}}: You ''did'' see the tribal description for the Fianna, right?
* OneStatToRuleThemAll: As is traditional for pre-nWoD White Wolf games, Dexterity is better than any two other Attributes combined.
* OurDragonsAreDifferent: One of the other groups of shapeshifters are Mokole werelizards, whose warforms combine traits of [[DinosaursAreDragons dragons and dinosaurs]], with Asian Mokole being more draconic while the Western and Australian varieties are more saurian. Pound for pound, they are more powerful than the Garou but always lacked the pack mentality, hence their downfall.
* OurWerebeastsAreDifferent: In addition to the titular werewolves, has 11 other breeds of shapeshifters, described in their own Splat books. Some examples include the Corax (were-ravens), Gurahl (were-bears) and Bastet (were-cats), Rokea (were-sharks), Simba (were-lions), Ajaba (were-hyenas), Mokole (were-lizards), Kitsune (were-foxes), and Ananasi (were-spiders).

** Werewolves and other werebeasts are pound for pound some of the most formidable creatures in the setting. This was also for balance, since [[TheVirus vampires can reproduce by biting someone]] and mages are [[{{Reincarnation}} reincarnated]] - but werewolves have to multiply by slow, old, boring sexual reproduction to shore up their numbers. When a werewolf is nearby, [[OhCrap vampires under a century old better flee.]]
*** As nicely, if [[HighOctaneNightmareFuel disturbingly]], illustrated in ''[[VampireTheMasqueradeBloodlines Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines]]''.

* SpecialSnowflakeSyndrome: Modern-day White Howlers, anyone? However, what's worse is when a player wants to be a Bunyip in the WildWest setting since they were still alive back then, and gives a convoluted story of how an Indigenous Australian wound up in Texas in 1850. And then there are players wanting to play a werewolf who's also a [[TabletopGame/VampireTheMasquerade ghoul]], [[TabletopGame/MageTheAscension sorcerer]], [[WraithTheOblivion medium]], and/or [[ChangelingTheDreaming fae-blooded.]]

* SpiritWorld: The Umbra. Besides a reflection of the material world, it features many, many fantastic (and often dangerous - the Wyrm and his chief servants reside in the Umbra) Umbral Realms, each with its own different set of laws, as well as strange, Lovecraftian deep regions.

* TrueCompanions: Werewolf packs have a tighter bond than the parties in any other TabletopGame/OldWorldOfDarkness game. Whether or not they see each other as true friends or simply coworkers depends on the pack in question, but their tactics and totemic bond gives them an edge that others can't beat.

* ValuesDissonance: The source of many, many InUniverse conflicts. Some tribes are pretty much opposite to each other in every way, except for their general goal to protect Gaia, for example Glass Walkers/Red Talons or Silver Fangs/Bone Gnawers. Also can happen with players, as some tribes have pretty radical or even literally inhuman worldviews.

* {{Wendigo}}: One of the tribes follows Wendigo as their totem, and named themselves after it. The Wendigo are not evil, in fact they're staunch advocates for Native American rights and culture, but they're warlike and isolationist in the extreme and the Apocalypse scenario where they're subverted by the Wyrm (there's one for every tribe) is disturbingly easy to imagine.

* WorldHalfEmpty: This ''is'' the TabletopGame/OldWorldOfDarkness, but the setting got increasingly depressing with each new edition. Then again, the Apocalypse book that finished the game line confirms that victory is possible.

** And naturally silver bullets come up a lot, though not usually for PCs.

* {{Yakuza}}: Asian Glass Walkers are sometimes members, but in the Revisited edition found the Yakuza to be unchanging and very different from the Italian mafia.

* WorldHalfEmpty: This ''is'' the TabletopGame/OldWorldOfDarkness, but the setting got increasingly depressing with each new edition. Then again, the Apocalypse book that finished the game line confirms, that the victory is possible.

** This is explained in, of all places, a MET book of the Wyrm, where there is a rite to find out the White Howler blooded garou.

* LightIsNotGood: The Wyld opposes the Wyrm and the Weaver. That does ''not'' make it safer to stick your nose in the Wyld than into a vat of acid. Werewolves that make this mistake seldom get a chance to make it twice. Even spending too much time near the Wyld is enough to permantly change you into a completely different person.

* ExtraStrengthMasquerade: The amount of supernatural weirdness ordinary people [[WeirdnessCensor are able to ignore]] gets a little extreme. Of course, the Delerium inflicting amnesia on humans helps out.

* GeneticMemory: Expressed through the Garou's Past Life trait (whether it's {{Reincarnation}} or ancestral memories varies by edition), the Mokole werelizards' Mnesis (much more powerful ancestral memories), and--due to shapeshifters' past cullings of humans--{{Muggles}}' delerious reaction upon seeing werecreatures' war forms, often compared to baby mice running from a hawk's silhouette. They often forget what they see afterwards. Werecreatures call this effect the Delirium, and consider it very helpful in maintaining the [[{{Masquerade}} Veil]].

** Other werecreatures are so rare they'll probably never come up, much less become a member of the party, but if it does happen you can bet tensions will be inevitable, given the werewolves almost universally bad relations with their cousins.

* EldritchAbomination: The Wyrm, the spirit of destruction whose unchecked actions are destroying the world. Its peers in the Triad of the greatest spirits are just about as alien and uncaring, although much less immediately hostile. Unfortunately, all of them are absolutely integral for very existence of the universe. Yes, this game is set in a WorldHalfEmpty.

* BlackAndGreyMorality: Imagine this game as ''{{Warhammer 40000}}'' with werecreatures, instead of SpaceMarines, and you won't be ''too'' far off. While minions of the Wyrm are absolutely vile and the grand goal of their master is utter destruction of the entire Universe ''at best'', werewolves themselves are very very far from politically correct heroes in modern definition of the word. Some of them never were humans and like humans only as food (while remaining on your side). Other werewolves have faithfully preserved as much of the mentality of tribal warriors or medieval knights as they were able to. Most think that beating crap out of each other is a perfectly valid way of settling arguments. All are forced to fight the constant, vicious war against an enemy that is really good at corruption and infiltration, and this tends to make them quite ruthless, and encourage KnightTemplar tendencies even in the least aggressive tribes. Almost every tribe believes, that their way of life is the best, and this (with help of mundane greed) had caused a whole lot of bloody conficts between werewolves in the past. Tribes that lost these conflicts still lovingly nurse their grudges. Tribal elders uphold harsh, millenia-old customs with iron fist. And this is, likely, the right thing to do. To put it short, Garou match heroes of ancient epics not only in their prowess and courage, but also in their savagery and love of violence (it is "the game of savage horror", after all).

* BlackAndGreyMorality: Imagine this game as ''{{Warhammer 40000}}'' with werecreatures, instead of SpaceMarines, and you won't be ''too'' far off. While minions of the Wyrm are absolutely vile and the grand goal of their master is utter destruction of the entire Universe ''at best''; werewolves themselves are very, very far from politically correct heroes in modern definition of the word. Some of them never were humans and like humans only as food (while remaining on your side). Other werevolves have faithfully preserved as much of the mentality of tribal warriors or medieval knights as they were able to. Most think that beating crap out of each other is a perfectly valid way of settling arguments. All are forced to fight the constant, vicious war against an enemy that is really good at corruption and infiltration, and this tends to make them quite ruthless, and encourage KnightTemplar tendencies even in the least aggressive tribes. Almost every tribe believes, that their way of life is the best, and this (with help of mundane greed) had caused a whole lot of bloody conficts between werewolves in the past. Tribes that lost these conflicts still lovingly nurse their grudges. Tribal elders uphold harsh, millenia-old customs with iron fist. And this is, likely, the right thing to do. To put it short, Garou match heroes of ancient epics not only in their prowess and courage, but also in their savagery and love of violence (it is "the game of savage horror", after all).

* AllThereInTheManual: Curious example as the series is mostly books. Do you want to play a Black Spiral Dancer? Do you wish to know their culture? Well, don't look at either Book of the wyrm for it, instead, search a MET book of the Wyrm. For some reason, it has more text and information on the tribe than either of the Tapletop books combined.

* '''Get of Fenris:''' Nordic {{Proud Warrior Race Guy}}s. How the Garou see the Get tends to be how other supernaturals see the Garou: Loud and beligerent, but not to be crossed. Weakness: Intolerance against a specific type of person or concept.

The second tabletop roleplaying game in TheWorldOfDarkness line and the second or third most popular. Initially was supposed to exist in the same universe as its precedessor, ''TabletopGame/VampireTheMasquerade'', but their vastly incompatible cosmologies, histories and themes were among major factors that forced authors to make crossovers between TheWorldOfDarkness games entirely optional. In the morally-grey area that was old-[[WorldOfDarkness WOD]], ''Werewolf's'' protagonist faction (the Garou Nation) was one of the more outright heroic (after all, fighting to save the world from the corrupted personification of entropy is difficult to put a negative spin on).

** One was a bonus boss in the ''TabletopGame/VampireTheMasquerade'' video game. Seeing the little man transform into a 12-foot tall werehammerhead shark would be enough to make anyone wet themselves, but it's an EscortMission, too. This was probably very confusing to people who had no idea the WorldOfDarkness had fucking weresharks in it.

* TrueCompanions: Werewolf packs have a tighter bond than the parties in any other WorldOfDarkness game. Whether or not they see each other as true friends or simply coworkers depends on the pack in question, but their tactics and totemic bond gives them an edge that others can't beat.

* WorldHalfEmpty: This ''is'' the WorldOfDarkness, but the setting got increasingly depressing with each new edition. Then again, the Apocalypse book that finished the game line confirms, that the victory is possible.

** Although in [[MageTheAcsension Mage]] there's a machine planetoid on the other side of the Sun to us and other astronomical oddities, so it may be that the World Of Darkness solar system is just different.

* EverythingsCreepierWithCockroaches: The Cockroach is the totem of the urban-dwelling Glass Walkers. A discussion between the Glass Walker leadership on the spiritual powers of the cockroach devolves into discussing ways to keep cockroaches away without offending the tribe totem.

* MagicKnight: The Uktena Garou and some Bastet are known for practicing sorcery. Their magic isn't as strong as [[TabletopGame/VampireTheMasquerade the Tremere's]] BloodMagic or [[MageTheAscension Mages']] True Magick, but they still have all the physical advantages of werecreatures.

* There are also three extinct changing breeds: the '''Apis''' (werebulls; patrons of agriculture), the '''Camazotz''' (werebats; the Corax's counterparts in the sourthern hemisphere), and the '''Grondr''' (wereboars; destroyers of old growth). All three were devastated by the Garou in ancient times, though the Camazotz survived into the 1600s.

* FantasticRacism: The werewolves against most of the other werepeople, such as the spiders, hyenas, bulls, cats, bats, boars, bears, snakes, lizard/dinosaur/dragon hybrids, coyotes, and rats. Only the ravens, sharks, and foxes were unaffected. Several of the others were totally wiped out by werewolf genocide and as a result, there is much mutual distrust to be had. It's one of the reasons why the Apocalypse is approaching in the first place, because the various shapeshifters are supposed to be working ''together.''

* TheMissingFaction: There are Apis [werebulls], Camazotz [werebats] and Grondr [wereboars] who were wiped out by the Garou [werewolves] during the War of Rage. Likewise, the Gurahl [werebears] were believed extinct since then, but resurfaced in modern times. Also, among the Garou themselves are the extinct Bunyip and Croatan tribes, as well as the Black Spiral Dancers who fell to the [[TheDarkSide Wyrm]].

* DemonicPossession: All types of spirits can merge with material beings (usually humans), but Wyrm-spirits do it most often, transforming their victims into deformed, deranged horrors called fomori, which serve as cannon fodder of the Wyrm in the material world. Sometimes the possession results from MoreThanMindControl, sometimes it happens simply because many things in this world MayContainEvil (thanks to Pentex). And, tragically, there is very hard to tell whether a fomor you face is a murderous sociopath that attracted a spirit, associated with his particular brand of evil, or a hapless victim who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

* DinosaursAreDragons: The Mokole were-reptiles are the keepers of racial memory all the way back to the time of Dinosaurs, and when their first change comes they tap into this racial memory and dream of their battle-form. Mechanically speaking, this is represented by pulling a certain amount of traits off a menu. When doing so, it's ''very'' easy to come back with something ''distinctly'' draconic, rather than dinosaur-ish.

* ExtraStrengthMasquerade: The amount of supernatural weirdness ordinary people [[WeirdnessCensor are able to ignore]] gets a little extreme.

** Other werepeople fully subscribe to this trope as well. Most of them have no shortage of arrogance and extreme xenophobia. For instance, some tribes of Bastet (werecats) were happily genociding each other until very recently; Ratkin (wererats) want to exterminate most of humanity, werewolves and everyone who objects; and for Ananasi werespiders and Nagah weresnakes "Better Than You" is not only their motto, but their way of life. Such sentiments exist, it's just that the shifters lack the power to really act on them.
*** Even those non-wolf shifters who aren't pretty much automatically hostile to all or almost all outsiders still are often portrayed as [[JerkAss major dicks]], particularly towards werewolves.

* GaiasVengeance: That's your characters (and werepeople in general). Bonus points since the chief spirit of the Earth (or the Universe, depending on interpretation) is actually named Gaia. The Black Furies in particular think of themselves as Gaia's Vengeance.
** Red Talons, too. Perhaps even more so. Their primary suggestion for defending the world is "kill and eat all of those fucking Earth-murdering idiot humans".

* TheGrotesque: Garou are forbidden from mating with each other. Whether that means any romantic involvement or just making babies depends on the tribe, but the products of such unions are known as Metis and are sterile and deformed that usually rip through their mother's womb upon birth. The deformity doesn't necessarily affect their appearance, but Metis also have the 9-foot-tall Hybrid form as their default state, making interactions with mortal society a challenge. Whether they're reviled outcasts or pitied victims of circumstance also depends on tribe, but there's still plenty of {{Wangst}} to be had should a player decide to create such a character.

*** And of course, they proceed to [[InsaneTrollLogic blame the humans for this]].

* OurWerebeastsAreDifferent: In addition to the titular werewolves, has 11 other breeds of shapeshifters, described in their own Splat books. Some examples include the Corax (were-ravens), Gurahl (were-bears) and Bastet (were-cats), Rokea (were-sharks), Simba (were-lions), Ajaba (were-hyenas), Mokole (were-lizards), Kitsune {were-foxes}, and Ananasi {were-spiders}.
** OurWerewolvesAreDifferent: Characters can shift at will into ''any'' form attributed to werewolves: hairy and slouching wolfman, 9-foot-tall lupine-headed wall of death, dire wolf, and normal wolf. Plus, their spiritual nature gives them a plethora of magical abilities, including Gifts (quickly-cast abilities), Rites (rituals that take some preparation), fetishes & charms (items empowered by spirits, respectively permanent or temporary), and physically stepping into the SpiritWorld. For the sake of balance, Werewolves gain more powerful Gifts much more slowly than other supernaturals.

** Werewolves also don't automatically react to the full moon. The moon phase they were born under determines their auspice, as described in the opening.
* PartialTransformation

* AchillesHeel: Every tribe has one, though they're generally neither combat-related, nor mechanically codified (unless the GM uses optional flaws) and more of a roleplaying challenge, such as the Uktena's curiosity and the Black Furies' intolerance of men.

* TheSocialDarwinist: Shadow Lords and Get of Fenris sometimes fall into this, due to liking their AsskickingEqualsAuthority ways a bit too much. Black Spiral Dancers and other Wyrm-servants don't particularly bother with justifications like this.
** The Silver Fangs who don't allow anyone with low breeding into their tribe.