Renegade Game Studios Werewolf: The Apocalypse 5th Edition Core Rulebook - Hardcover RPG Book, Story of Environmental & Spiritual Horror Black

This is a great product. Good design .great artwork. My son loves this book. Plenty of RPGs out there. This book is quality.best artwork design for world of darkness books I have seen.

Came in excellent shape and am excited one day to try the system

Good Quality. Delivered on time. The art is amazing and I'just waiting for narrator screen.

The World of Darkness has always interested me, but some of the remnants of the edgy 90s/cultural stereotypes that had made it in turned me off. So having ditched that, this is well worth getting.And really, a game where you fight corporations, corrupt politicians and the like has always been pretty left-leaning, so I don't know what the people complaining expected.

I’ve played every version of WtA since 2nd. This 5th edition of the Werewolf: the Apocalypse line does a good job of reimagining the lore and giving a continuation from there. The disconnection of cultures from the tribes is a good thing as it doesn’t make the everything into some stereotypical trope (and it does remove problematic language most weren’t aware of). Instead the tribes are just bound by the patron spirit you pledge to after becoming a Garou. The shapeshifting is more in line with the forsaken line, meaning you take crinos only when you really need it, and generally for a more limited time. The general theme and feel is that of personal horror and what carnage you can wreak if you can’t manage your rage appropriately vs the supernatural super-being action of old apocalypse. My only real issue with the lore is that the Garou are a group that passes it’s history down through oral lore, but for some reason they’ve lost most of the important bits of the history and have no idea why some things are the way they are.The problem with the system, however, is their lack of editing, proofreading, and/or internal communication. While the organization of chapters and information is much better than Vampire 5e, the games rules are presented as only the basics you need to get going, and if you want more in depth rules you have to go to a website printed in the second paragraph of the rules section to get a free pdf. Only problem is that that pdf isn’t at the web page given, and isn’t mentioned anywhere on their website. Minor actions aren’t mentioned in the rules section (not are full or free, but I guess those are easily inferred), and are instead mentioned only in the gifts section despite being used for things other than gifts. The explanation for minor actions there also is incomplete compared to the version given in Vampire 5e, though I’m sure they are intended to work the same. Furthermore, there’s at least one gift that affects your movement. This particular gift gives you the ability to effectively teleport short distances so you don’t take a penalty to moving and attacking. The problem here is that there are no rules for movement anywhere in this book, so again, unless you own or have played Vampire 5e, you have no idea how this is intended to work.Overall I think it’s a good update, but Paradox needs to get it’s act together when it comes to making sure the essential mechanics systems are actually in the book and where they need to be.

My son loves the game and when I saw the book I bought it

Well, after more than 20 years, werewolf the apocalypse is back. Is the rich, vibrant narrative of before still present? Is the culture and history that played vital parts of the ongoing struggle between the werewolf tribes and the inevitable end brought on by the Wyrm still central or did Paradox/World of Darkness turn their backs on the intellectual property and forsake their long time fans in order to get validation from blue-haired social media?First let’s start with the art. The art ranges from good to amazing. The art is a great mix of paint strokes and trash polka which sets a nice tone for most of the book. They really found their look and feel for the new werewolf, and I think it serves them well. I will admit that some of the art design from the 90’s Werewolf is missed here but not to the new books detriment. They have also put some brakes on their “strong women” fetish which I think is a good thing and I hope this continues over into V5.The rules and mechanics are updated to the storyteller fifth edition system. Like vampire the masquerade and Hunter the reckoning, werewolf the apocalypse has shifted towards a more storyteller centric and action narrative system. At first glance, the rules seem to work well. If you like V5’s rule mechanics, you are probably going to like W5. With that said, there is a very good chance that you will not get the same dynamic action scenes you once had in the new system as you did with the old one.Many of the tribes have returned from the previous edition. However, they are virtually unrecognizable. Either their names have been changed or major cultural or unique aspects of them were removed. I will talk more about this but it’s important to note that a majority of them are here, however, there’re neutered.Now lets talk about the bad…and there is a lot of bad here. From the start, the authors knew that they were going to spurn the entire werewolf catalog and old fans so that they could make the book for “modern audience”; which is codeword for virtue signal at any coast. They even have a blurb at the beginning of the book stating the disregard for what came before. This was a huge mistake and one that they should have known better.For instance, if you were a fan of the Wendigo tribe, and you loved all the aspects of the tribe, including the name, its history, culture, etc. WoD says you really aren’t welcome at the table anymore. Bye! If you liked the Get of Fenris, and were a huge fan of this tribe, again, WoD says you’re not welcome and you’re a fascist. Take the same philosophy and apply it to many of the core concepts of werewolf the apocalypse second edition and you have the reoccurring theme of not being welcome in your own game. Werewolf was built around culture, history and interactions of the tribes throughout history in their endless war against the forces of evil. Now imagine all the culture, history, and tribe backgrounds being completely removed and gutted because a few people didn’t like something on twitter or discord. So brave.The Tribes see perhaps the biggest erasure. The Wendigo, the Get of Fenris and the Fianna were removed because of virtue signaling and “cultural appropriated outrage”. A lot of people don’t know this, but to my understand, the original writers of the Wendigo tribe got the blessing of the Native American council when writing the Wendigo tribe books. So keep that in mind. It tells you a lot about the fake outrage from both the current writers and also the social justice sycophants that are preaching rather racist erasure to names like the Wendigo and the Fianna and other cultural elements in the game. Let me be very clear, you are not a “good person” or “socially aware” by referring to the Wendigo as “second brothers” for sensitivity reasons. Doing so only highlights your culturally appropriated faux outrage. In perpetuating that lie, they are committed a form of racism by eradicating the cultures. Leave the names and the cultural heritages of the werewolf tribes alone. Not only did we lose Wendigo, we also lost the Get of Fenris (the Viking warriors). They were an awesome tribe for all things combat and created a tension among the tribes for their warrior spirit and gusto. Nope can’t have them. Why? Because WoD said so. Did you like the Fianna and their Celtic heritage, nope! Not allowed because someone on earth could be offended.Again, that’s the reoccurring theme throughout W5 and fifth edition WoD as a whole. Old players aren’t welcome and if you were anything to the right of Che Guevara, your problematic. The book takes a not-so-subtle liberties to vilifying capitalism, police and anything right of the extreme left and blatantly stating that it’s not the Wyrm that’s evil, its people and capitalism. This has to be some of the stupidest explanations/interpretations of Werewolf I have ever heard. Yeah, it’s not the giant black flesh eating Wyrm that is clawing its way through the umbra to devour all of humanity…it’s Elon Musk.On the mechanical front, you also have issues dealing with some of the werewolf forms. Going back to the mid-2000s, they released a book called Werewolf the Forsaken. In that, they made a horrible decision to have the werewolf war form cause the character to be uncontrollable due to frenzy. There was a lot of blowback to that terrible design. For some reason, they decided to do just that with this book. The werewolf war form is virtually unusable because of how it’s written and its requirements. You have to kill something every round or you go out of control. The writers clearly do not play this game, otherwise, they would have not made the same mistake.Though it has been toned down a lot from Hunter (H5), the appendix section continues with some of the really odd proselytizing that is all the craze with RPG’s now a days. We have a section on race/gender/sexuality and how not to be disrespectful…or really it’s the “play as something different from you as long as you incorporate identity politics into your game and follow intersectionality rules and regulations from women/queer theory studies/twitter”. What they have feels more like it's pushing a narrative. To be honest, it’s tiring. Then there is a half-page on fascism which says don’t be a Fascist (duh!). What I find interesting is that fascism is now an Internet codeword, which means, you have to be a socialist and push identity politics…otherwise you’re a fascist. I wish I was joking. Fascism should never be overused or a parody, yet WoD is making it into one by manifesting a “boogeyman” everywhere. My question is what about communism/socialism/Marxism ideology? Why do the writers of this book not speak out about the atrocities of leftist Marxism and socialism, which is prevalent in the gaming industry today? This radical ideology extinguished the lives of over 100 million people in the last century. Something to think about. After all, they make it very clear that capitalism (which defeated fascism and communism by the way) is not OK.They then continue into the obligatory lines and veils, and X-card section. I believe it is worth noting, I have never seen the X card or lines and veils, not mistreated, or used as a way of controlling storytellers and other players. Even at conventions, these are often abused RPG tools. X-cards and L&V are everywhere because they are perceived as hip. It doesn’t add to the book and in my opinion, they subtract from the product and teach bad gaming.Overall: The writing for all of the authors faults, is pretty easy to follow and succinct. The rules are straightforward and you have just about everything you need to run a werewolf game within a few hours. There are plenty of details about werewolf society, the umbra and conflict to get you started. Artwork is fantastic and really sets the tone for werewolf. If you’re looking for a book to get werewolves into your fifth edition world of darkness game, this is it. However, if you have any previous knowledge of editions, you are going to be incredibly disappointed. This book could have been amazing. Everything was already built for them in the previous edition. The tribes were fantastic, the storyline was rich and vibrant and all they had to do was convert the mechanics over. Rather than doing that, WoD was more interested in fairy-dusting* their IP and gaining favor with the blue-haired, cultural appropriating faux outraged twitter/discord petulant children. Unfortunately, when the sensitivity (fun police) consultants were done, there was nearly nothing left in this book. As a cautionary tale to other companies, if you continue to hire woke specialists, you’re going to end up having an empty husk of a product. Is that something you really want?I am removing one and a half stars for the gross disrespect to the Tribes and the removal of tribes, tribe names, breeds and history of the previous edition. I am also removing one star for the not so subtle woke ideology that is littered in this product. The authors need to keep their politics to themselves. I am rounding up to three stars because I can at least use some of the rules to convert 2nd edition to the V5 game.My final thoughts are this, this fake culturally appropriate outrage hurts all of us and especially the creative community. Removing tribes like the Get of Fenris, and removing the names and culture from the Wendigo, and the Fianna, is creative vandalism. The company cannot escape the reality, that the true measure of success lies, not in fleeting online validation, but in the genuine appreciation and loyalty of a dedicated Fanbase. It is high time for the publishers to reevaluate their choices, listen to their longtime fans and restore the integrity and create a vision that made werewolf, the apocalypse, a cherished and enduring game. Bring back the names, tribes and history.I await the core book revision or players guide that rectifies this brand erasure. Until then, shame on you.Fairy-Dusting* the act of taking an existing property and removing most of what gives the property its identity to make it safe. Fair-dusting is done generally, to appease the sensibilities and insecurities of modern audiences. It is the opposite of “Edgelord” Ex: “wow, D&D is complete fair-dusted” or “the new W5 has been fairy-dusted. It’s almost unrecognizable… pass.”

La edición es muy bonita, entre el diseño y los materiales. Mi referencia era la segunda edición. En comparación, la historia de este es más contemporánea pero el sistema de reglas un poco más complejo. 100% recomendable.

The book arrived damaged which is terrible for such a expensive book, but seller offered refund for a part of the money. (Review updated after refund)

The whole world of darkness collection are really good.