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I write this review as one coming from the old White Wolf: World of Darkness games and books, so some of this review touches on differences between this and Werewolf the Apocalypse.
I won't go into exhausting detail but these are my general observations regarding this book. First, I must state that I HIGHLY recommend picking up the Chronicles of Darkness (also known as the revised New World of Darkness) rulebook and becoming at least functionally familiar with the basic rules of the game from that book as this book claims to be a complete, stand-alone game, but it falls short of that goal. This book is built on the framework of the Chronicles of Darkness rules, but do to bad editing, it frequently leaves out bits and pieces of the core rules (such as fire damage, gaining willpower for each night of rest, etc.) This book is meant to be a template of sorts applied to the core rules of Chronicles of Darkness to facilitate playing a werewolf, and it does that, but in a somewhat sloppy manner.
That said, a short list of observations:
1) It is a fresh take on the Werewolf setting, and a flavorful one. It changes the scope of the narrative from being an apocalyptic, furry war machine in its predecessor to focusing on being a pack creature and an apex predator, a born hunter. You guard the world against intruding spirits and other monstrosities, but the focus of your personal story as a character is on your pack and maintaining the delicate balance between your wolf nature and your human nature (and all the supernatural implications of that in the book's world). This, to me, is a refreshing change, and has more narrative drama baked into it.
2) The werewolf specific rules, gifts, rites, auspices, merits, forms, and various other supernatural abilities all work well together to reinforce the pack hunter themes, world building, and baggage that comes with being a dual-natured monster always trying to keep itself on a leash lest it lose control and go on a rampage (also known as Kuruth or the Death Rage). They aren't always balanced, and can be a bit clunky (tracking and perception interacting in unclear ways because the perception pool is not even mentioned outside of the character sheet) and even nonsensical at times (looking at YOU high-stress or low-Harmony mandatory shapeshifting) in my opinion, but they get the themes across, and ultimately that's what matters in an RPG. Just be prepared to house-rule, hand-wave, or refer to the Chronicles of Darkness book for more clarity where this book falls short. Some of the replacement rules like blood and bone instead of virtues and vices (in CoD) are a bit redundant, but they reinforce the themes, so I give them a pass.
3) The wold building is lovely, if a bit shallow in some places (mostly where they could have added more details or examples), and does a sufficient job of getting you into the gist of where and how the werewolves fit into the story and cosmology of the setting. I particularly like the new antagonists (hosts, spirit-ridden, the idigam). What are the idigam? Think conceptual being meets Lovecraftian horror, and you're well on your way to playing with these abominations, and the sample write-ups for them are great (if a tad redundant a couple of times). I could do with more samples of the other critters, but between this book and the core Chronicles of Darkness rulebook, there's plenty of monsters to start you and, importantly, rules for making monsters to keep players and GMs busy.
4) The core rules founded on the Chronicles of Darkness work fine and are generally a good step towards simplifying the mechanics compared to their predecessors, though they can get lost in fiddly details and modifiers at times, and aren't always well explained (I blame the shoddy editing as I mentioned in my preface). They really could have used more gameplay examples (there hardly are any), and far tighter editing and review for consistency and completeness. That said, fixed target numbers, graded success and failure results, and modifiers adjusting dice pools do a pretty good job of making the system flow well.
5) I tend to think it favors gunplay over melee in offensive combat because of how defenses work (guns ignore defense ratings, melee doesn't), but that has to be qualified with the fact that werewolves are damn hard to kill (unless you've got silver) and get to use their defense rating against firearms in many of their body forms (where many other creatures simply don't). It just seems that their teeth and claws serve them less than simply firing a shotgun in many situations, but as they are meant to hunt spirits much of the time and their bite (though not their claws, oddly) hurts supernatural things without assistance, it's not completely imbalanced. It's just a bit...odd feeling for a game about being a furry man-beast of death.
6) On the point of forms, like its predecessor I love that each form has its uses (even more so in this edition which is a plus) and that the gauru form (big wolf-man vis a vi The Howling) is a short-term killing form that's prone to going into rage if held too long or provoked. Think furry Incredible Hulk. You don't want to make them angry, you (and they) wouldn't like them when they're angry. Mechanically, I feel as if it's a tad weak offensively for its purpose (again melee just seems a bit hamstrung), but it is damn near indestructible, soooo...and the other forms are fun, so it pretty much works (I favor urshul - dire wolf myself).
7) Overall, it's a fine thing for $20, but I can't stress enough to pick up Chronicles of Darkness first to familiarize yourself with the core rules and THEN see how this game tweaks them for the werewolves. You'll save yourself some headaches and page flipping. The editing and rule writing is simply BAD and/or lacking in some places. It's not the worst I've seen by a country mile, but the incompleteness of parts, the sparse examples, the odd inconsistencies and grey areas where rules (such as success levels for specific tasks as opposed to success levels for general tasks) overlap, etc. make it a game where, if you're like me, you'll find yourself house-ruling or simply ignoring parts of it entirely. When the general function of the dice pool rolling can get so much basic work done, some of the subsystems are superfluous or needlessly convoluted (e.g. why does tracking have its own dice pools when you already have a perception rating modified by your werewolf form that can do the job?). It's supposed to be a narrative, flexible system, but it seems like they get lost in their own woods more often than they should (ironic), overcomplicating the simple with needless details (pointless dice pools for things already handled by other pools) or sloppy inconsistencies and missing rules (fire...really?). It's very much a game where I think the spirit of the rules will serve you more than the letter of the rules. Fitting, perhaps, for a bunch of spirit hunting werewolves.
I could go on and on about my love and hate of aspects of this book, but this is long enough already.
That said, if you're willing to buy another book to get a basic feel for how the systems work and then apply the parts of this book that make werewolves tick, it’s generally a fine and serviceable game with fun world-building and delicious themes. Just expect to tweak it some because its incomplete and sometimes needlessly convoluted. Do as the werewolves do, and follow the spirit. ; )
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