WoD Changing Breeds (The World of Darkness)

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Editorial Reviews:

Product Description
"A character rulebook, including traits and templates for dozens of animal shapechangers. Useable as a standalone or a crossover book for all the World of Darkness product lines."

Customer Reviews:

4 out of 5 stars

good addition to nwod January 7, 2008
5 out of 5 found this review helpful

Overall I was pleased with this book. The content is well organized and it was interesting to see what white wolf did with the various changing breeds and integrating them into the nwod.

I was pleased with the new format for creating the changing breeds and the inclusion of so many of the breeds in one book. I had honestly expected there to be less breeds in the book but I was pleased that there were a fair amount contained within.

You'll find good writeups on the bastet, gurahl, ananasi, nuwishi, and others. The weretigers have better stats now than the werelions, but that's just a problem because I prefer playing werelions. However, I will say that I think this book is a definite improvement on stats and mechanics from the previous edtion.

I do have a pet peeve with white wolf over the lack of a character sheet in the book. This isn't so much of an issue for me right now because I'm creating npcs to interact with the characters and it's easy enough to use the npc stat block for that purpose. It is however annoying when the gm is dealing with a group of players who are new to the nwod and wod in general. It's just nice to have that character sheet there to help them through the learning process.

As of this writing I was told by white wolf customer service that the basic nwod character sheet will have to do. Hopefully the exclusion of character sheets in their products is not a trend being set, as I think this is a bad decision.

To me, a character sheet is a basic element that should be included in a book where characters can and probably will want to create characters.

3 out of 5 stars

Worth a Look April 21, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful

I'll confess, I was fully prepared to dislike the bejeezus out of this book. I'm not a big fan of the expanded archetypes concept (though I do think Werewolf: the Forsaken is a brilliant game on its own merits), but given the sheer importance of the idea, or at least the potential importance, I decided to give its presentation a chance.

And... I didn't hate it. *gasp!*

Don't get me wrong; I didn't come off reading this book a changed man in the core regard. I still don't like the expanded archetype model (especially not for the new Werewolf, as a setting), but if it was going to be done -- and let's face facts, it was *going* to get done -- then this was a noble effort at doing it well, or at least fixing some of the mistakes of the version produced for Revised.

If you're thinking of running a changing breeds game, give it a look. If you're not, you should probably take a pass, as there's nothing in here for you. If you're all but settled on the idea that you *are* running this material, then (and only then) is this potentially worth the buy. But at least I can say that there is a situation where it's worth buying. And I'm always happy to relate that fact loudly whenever I can.

5 out of 5 stars

Nature Red in Tooth and Claw July 12, 2008
Were-wolves, were-boars, were-eagles... African witches who take the shape of hyenas and leopards, clever tricksters like Coyote, men who swim with sharks and crocodiles, the centaur and satyrs of Greek myth. This book takes the nigh universal concept of shapeshifters of every stripe and runs wild with it (pun intended). It is most assuredly not a supplement for Werewolf: the Forsaken, but it does share some thematic elements with that game. Of course, you could just as easily use it to come up with ALTERNATIVE werewolves. Or even RIVALS to the Uratha if you desire. What sets it apart from other books, like 'Skinchangers' or the material from the end of 'War Against the Pure' is that it has rules for entire societies of creatures that aren't Werewolves, and indeed may even interact with each other.

The book gives some basic rules for running Changing Breeds, basically presenting them as humans who were... changed by feeling the pulsing, primal heart of nature awaken within their soul. The book gives some broad overviews of how Changing Breeds interact with each other, animals of their species, mortals and even other supernaturals. There is a very strong theme of man vs. nature, with some strong environmentalist and New Age elements thrown in, so if that sort of thing annoys you, you might want to ignore this book (or skip over the culture sections). But really, the material in the book is broad enough and full of alternative possibilities that you can use it to run anything from remote jungle jaguar tribes in the Amazon basin to gangs of urban street dogs in the inner city to even foxes and cat girls within the 'furry' subculture. And yes, I DO find the latter example silly, and probably wouldn't involve it in my games. But thats just me; whatever floats your boat I guess.

Mechanically, the Ferals are all more or less designed along the same base. Much like Werewolves (and spirits) they have Harmony as their 'morality stat,' along with Essence (spiritual power), Feral Heart (their 'power stat' which limits how they can use Essence), shapeshifting which triggers the Delusion and gives physical benefits, and even vulnerability to silver. They also have a form of status called Respect, which is similar to Werewolf's Renown. And furthermore, they also have Accords... sort of castes like the Sun-Chaser (tricksters), Wind-Runner (shaman) and Heart-Ripper (warrior). Again, this is similar to Werewolf's Auspices, but a little more broad. A Heart-Ripper can be anything from a savage man-eater to a passionate seductress, for example. But what sets Ferals apart is that they have a whole bunch of animal themed powers and tricks, as well as some new Merits, designed so that you can create any sort of animal-man hybrid that you could ever want. Want your creature to have venom, or breath underwater? Sure. There are even special surprises for 'trickster' themed creatures in the spirit of Reynard the Fox, Br'er Rabbit, Anansi or Raven.

The remainder of the book is really dedicated to a bunch of pre-written Breeds, societies of shapeshifters that have developed around a particular species or type of animal, along with some guidelines for creating your own Breeds. Most are regionally or culturally specific, in no small part because some draw on local folklore, but also because it wouldn't make sense to have them run around all over the place being too common. Leopard men are spooky in the heart of the Congo, less so in downtown New York. The great part is, you'll certainly get some usage out of these, whether you allow them as selections for players in your game, decide to involve them as NPCs, or simply use them as inspiration for creating a Changing Breed more appropriate to your game. Its a pretty good bestiary.

So... what sort of critters can you expect to find here? Some will be familiar to fans of the old changing breeds of Werewolf: the Apocalypse, re-imagined for the new World of Darkness (and often made much cooler). Others are brand spanking new. They have the Bastet, or were-cats, which include the Rajanya were-tigers of India, Balam jaguar gods of Central America and the clever Qual'ma Ni lynx shaman. The Royal Apes include the Hanuman Brahmins of India, Sun Wukong martial artists of China and witch apes of West Africa. There are were-hyenas, were-dogs and even the vargr (an alternate take on werewolves) who run with the Pack, elk men and centaurs (yes, centaurs!), were-bears and the web-spinning were-spiders. There are also Land Titans, the were-elephants and were-rhinos of Africa, India and Southeast Asia. And the ever Gothic were-ravens, Aztec hummingbirds, were-bats, warrior eagles and occult Strigoi owls. My personal favorites were the Laughing Strangers... tricksters who take the shape of foxes, raccoons, hares, possums and the like. The last few pages even mentioning obscure 'shadow breeds' like the Satanic goat-folk, dolphin changers, were-crocodiles and even shapeshifters who become swarms of insects!

Theres more than enough material here for any game that details shapeshifters, whether the exotic beasts of non-western legend or even alternate takes on werewolves. While it certainly can stand up on it's own merits, this book works VERY well when used in conjunction with the material published in 'Skinchangers,' already a diverse exploration of shape-shifters, in addition to the stuff from the back of 'War Against the Pure.' Still, either way, its well worth the buy in my opinion. I also greatly appreciated the fact that the authors mentioned artists like Azam Ali, Dead Can Dance and Emilie Autumn under 'Recommended Listening' in the intro... Its almost like they looked at my iPod or something. Very ironic, but cool. :-D

4 out of 5 stars

Exellent Options Here July 30, 2008
I was really surprised with this as its actually very good. Gives lots of interesting character shape changer options. It worked for me, anyway.

4 out of 5 stars

Weres Without Endless Splats September 1, 2008
New World of Darkness pulled me in again where the Old World of Darkness couldn't. In combining that old splats for alternate were creatures into a single volume and giving rules for creating your own, White Wolf eliminates the need to own about ten or so books to run whatever were you like.

As with Changeling: the Lost, there are typos, and I can mostly make it what is intended. The single star lost is for those typos where I can't figure out what the authors intended and for the inexplicable changes in font size in the middle of a description. Well, that and presenting organizations as breeds. I'm all for having organizations, but they should be entities unto themselves.

This book really makes me want to play or run a were adventure.

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