Howling At The Moon: Reflections on Werewolf the Apocalypse
I first encountered Werewolf: the Apocalypse in 1994 after playing its sister game, Vampire: the Masquerade . As a keen tree hugger and cynic about the modern world (who'd already toyed with the absurdity of humanity by scribbling notes for something where green politics were rejected because implementing them meant the toilet paper wasn't soft enough) the game caught my imagination, though sadly I haven't played it as much as Vampire. I loved the Tribes and Gifts, and the way that the werewolves (known as Garou in the game) interacted with the world around them. The sense that they were outsiders in the modern world which with how I saw myself seemed fascinating and like it could build into something really powerful. The world building in the line transformed the werewolves from "cool antiheroes" to something far more problematic. Books like Book of the Wyrm and Umbra: the Velvet Shadow , suggested that the Garou were more like a cult than a nation, relying on
