The Werewolf developer Ethan Skemp keeps dropping these tasty little hints about the forthcoming Werewolf Revised. Like I wasn't going to buy it the instant it hits the shelves as it is...

Date: Tue, 17 Oct 2000 12:24:15 -0400
From: Ethan Skemp (alphaethan@WHITE-WOLF.COM)
To: Discussion of White Wolf's World of Darkness (WEREWOLF-L@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM)
Subject: Re: What's new in WW Rev?
      
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    >From: Chris Roach (frobugg@BELLSOUTH.NET)
    >To: WEREWOLF-L@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM
    >Subject: What's new in WW Rev?
    >Date: Mon, Oct 16, 2000, 7:35 PM
    >

    > Like most of us, I'm starting to get a little impatient for WW Rev. I know
    > it's right over the horizon, but I get more and more anxious about it every
    > day.
    >
    > So, to help pass the time before it arrives, I was wondering if I could
    > start some nice healthy speculation on what we're gonna see in it. Ethan,
    > feel free to jump in and give us any tidbits you want. ;)

    Sure.

    > The first change for the better is the tribal info. My mouth waters every
    > time I look at the SF snippet in the preview. I /love/ the big Ron Spencer
    > art, and I particularly like the way it's integrated into the text rather
    > then just a block of its own. Thank you, Aileen. ;)

    The Albrecht piece isn't even my absolute favorite of the Spencer tribal
    pics. (Of course, I'm not sure I have one. Aileen would probably argue that
    it's the sexy Glass Walker, but I'm not so sure. I think the females are
    well-represented, though, being sexy and powerful without being a
    cheesecake-o-rama.)

    > Judging from just that, most of the system stuff looks about the same.
    > We've still got the background restrictions, we still determine willpower
    > the same way, we still pick from a selection of gifts. Speaking of gifts,
    > where'd Falcon's Grasp come from? I haven't got the SF TB, so it could be
    > from there. But if it's a new gift, and there's plenty more like it, I'm
    > gonna consider sending Ethan some nice Christmas presents.

    New Gifts that you can look forward to: Falcon's Grasp, Master of Fire,
    Tagalong, Primal Anger, Breath of the Wyld, Mercy, Visage of Fenris, Chaos
    Mechanics, Seizing the Edge, Bloody Feast and several other ones that I'm
    forgetting. One of the advantages of Gift lists being much easier to muck
    with than Disciplines, Spheres or the like; beginning characters can now
    expect to choose from *three* Level One tribal Gifts and so on, as I like
    beginning characters to have more options and diversity.

    > We know that the combat is changed just a little to match Vamp and Mage
    > Revised, but what about other systems? Does anyone think that there might
    > be drastic changes in Umbral stuff (maybe in the way spirits are handled)?
    > Totems, shifting, frenzy... All of these things leave room for changes to
    > be made. Come on, people, I wanna know what you think.

    And we've made some changes; stepping sideways and healing (including breed
    form healing) are two that spring immediately to mind. Spirits are handled
    differently now, with no more Power cost for Charms (leading to better
    bookkeeping). Some of the elements of the Revised combat system make
    previously strange Gifts work better (Spirit of the Fray, for instance, now
    adds a flat number to your initiative -- a *very high* number, ensuring that
    you probably *will* go first, but it's much easier to track.)

    > Metaplot stuff like the Stargazers is definitely interesting, but it's the
    > system things that we deal with on a regular basis.

    And I think that you'll find that the systems run a little smoother but
    haven't been completely rebuilt. Ease of use + faithfulness to Werewolf
    concepts = design goals. Hopefully, we succeeded.

    --
    Ethan Skemp
    WWGS

Date: Tue, 17 Oct 2000 16:07:18 -0400
From: Ethan Skemp (alphaethan@WHITE-WOLF.COM)
To: Discussion of White Wolf's World of Darkness (WEREWOLF-L@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM)
Subject: Re: What's new in WW Rev?
            
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    >From: Uffe (kees.markV@VAMPIRETHEMASQUERADE.COM)
    >To: WEREWOLF-L@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM
    >Subject: Re: What's new in WW Rev?
    >Date: Tue, Oct 17, 2000, 3:48 PM
    >

    > Ohhh plplplease tell me more!
    > I'll probably have to wait to springtime for Rev:ed if that lazy danish
    > distrubuter hasn't shaped up lately.
    > ( I do try to support the local game shops ).
    >
    > Is there any reason at all to hope for some improved/changed Tribal
    > descriptions ( especially Fianna but also Fenrir)?

    They're longer. ;) "Better" will probably be in the eye of the beholder.
    For
    example, I know people who don't like the thought that the Fenrir venerate
    Fenris, revile Tyr, and generally don't worship the "good" Norse gods.
    (rolls eyes) Hello? People probably prayed to Odin/Wotan to protect them
    from, you know, *Garou*.

    So they won't be happy with the take on Fenrir. (shrug) Oh well. There's
    generally less emphasis on a tribe being an Ethnic Group and more on being a
    Social Unit With Certain Preferred Breeding Pools, so that's a change for
    the better, says me.

    > Better Rage rules , so that even Ragabash can get in to a flying Frenzy now
    > and then?

    Your temporary Rage *can* exceed your permanent Rage now, and you roll
    whichever rating is *higher* for Rage rolls like frenzy checks.

    ----------
    >From: B Armor (BArmor9292@AOL.COM)
    >To: WEREWOLF-L@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM
    >Subject: Re: What's new in WW Rev?
    >Date: Tue, Oct 17, 2000, 3:47 PM

    > Any chance that the Fianna will not be wearing a kilt?

    *You* ask this, Bryan? I would have thought you'd have known that Southern
    Redneck is the new Fianna cultural lift of choice. ;)

    --
    Ethan Skemp
    WWGS

         
Date: Wed, 18 Oct 2000 11:30:52 -0400
From: Ethan Skemp (alphaethan@WHITE-WOLF.COM)
To: Discussion of White Wolf's World of Darkness (WEREWOLF-L@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM)
Subject: Re: What's new in WW Rev?
      
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    >From: Doug winstead (mrscarlet@YAHOO.COM)
    >To: WEREWOLF-L@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM
    >Subject: Re: What's new in WW Rev?
    >Date: Wed, Oct 18, 2000, 3:50 AM
    >

    > --- Ethan Skemp (alphaethan@WHITE-WOLF.COM) wrote:

    >>There's
    >> generally less emphasis on a tribe being an Ethnic
    >> Group and more on being a
    >> Social Unit With Certain Preferred Breeding Pools,
    >> so that's a change for
    >> the better, says me.
    >
    >    [abruptly, Bob's ears prick up as he suddenly
    > realizes that a point of conversation has flown in his
    > direction]
    >     hmmm? uhhh...Oh, hi, Ethan.  Looking forward to
    > seeing how you made out on that one.  You've no idea
    > how hard I'm rootin' for ya on that one...
    >     ...then, again, I'm pretty sure you do.

    I promise that if it isn't quite clear enough from the main rules, the
    (planned) revised tribebooks will do much, much better; two pages isn't near
    as much space as I'd like to talk about a tribe! ;) Now, I don't want to
    ignore the cultural design elements commonly associated with the tribe's
    main territories -- for instance, I think Black Furies would suffer if there
    wasn't some cool Grecian statuary or urns in the art -- but I'd like to add
    to and contrast those with other stuff.

    Julisha of the Thousand Masks? One of my favorite character concepts; she's
    never really been fully fleshed out, but I like how the sub-Saharan design
    motifs mesh really well with the concept of an African Ragabash Fury who
    does her job in more than the usual slash/rend style. Doing Julisha well
    would be a good example of how I hope to integrate other cultures into the
    tribes without actually trying to overshadow the cool motifs that make those
    tribes so visually arresting in the first place.

    --
    Ethan Skemp
    WWGS