Hacking Werewolf Part Two: Getting to the Cool

Apologies for the long delay in Werewolf articles. I've been wrestling with the issue of what I'd do with Werewolf the Apocalypse. I've been talking to my old gaming group from the 90s and lurking on some Werewolf discussions online as I try to figure it out.

So -to answer the question I posed last time: what would I change about Werewolf the Apocalypse?

1) Lose gifts and rein in the spiritual abilities. The game is about werewolves - not mages. Let's not muddy the waters. Also -- No stepping sideways. The Umbra was a bad idea badly implemented. To do it well - it would probably need to be the entire focus of a game. And that game wouldn't be Werewolf. If you want to keep some kind of spirit communication, OK. But make it much more difficult and much more ambiguous. You shouldn't just be able to call your totem on the big spiritual telephone for a clue

2) Consider getting rid of tribes or lessening their importance.Werewolves aren't overly political creatures. Yeah - politics are an intrinsic part of personal and group relations. And Packs are indeed political structures. But back room, Machievellian manipulations? Leave that for vampires. In terms of tone -- Werewolf is a game of action.

If you keep tribes - add more tribal diversity. More varied and contradictory cosmology between tribes.

Libra, over at the Mutants and Masterminds forum had an interesting take on Werewolf social structure: focus on packs as the primary social unit.

- While humans speak of 'tribes', 'clans' and occasionally a 'Werewolf Nation', as far as most werewolves are concerned they only live in packs (Which admittedly differ in size and precise composition). It's fairly uncommon to find a lone werewolf - but the most dangerous lycanthropes tend to be these lone wolves.

3) Lose the eco-jihad. It's a little troubling when you look at it hard. (It's ok to slaughter because my god (errm - Gaia) tells me its necessary). Also Pentex and the Black Spiral Dancers a little mustache-twirling as villains go.
(Note - yeah - several, but not all, of these have been addressed in the new incarnation of Werewolf)


4) Lose the other shapechangers. It's called Werewolf. Keep the focus on lycanthropy. Leave were-cats, bats, snakes, sharks, bears, spiders and ravens for another game.

5) Lose the Veil and the Delirium. So - when humans see you in Crinos form, they fall over twitching like a herd of fainting goats? That doesn't say spatterpunk horror to me. That says slapstick comedy.

So -all this begs the questions: What's the basic core of what I would argue was the "cool" behind Werewolf: TA?

It comes down to two elements
1) You're a primal, violent anti-hero

2) You're in a world of supernatual mystery and darkness were many things need fixing. And by "things" we mean "EVIL:. And by fixing -- we mean "violent death"

(As a sidenote -- you can make a decent, if not 100 percent, convincing argument that Werewolf: TA was cashing in the ridiculous level of popularity that Wolverine was enjoying in the 90s. In Werewolf, you're pretty much playing a character who might as well be related to Marvel's most stabbity mutant.

Claws - Check!

Beserker rage? Check!

Attitude ranging from philosopher warrior to classic bad-ass to anti-heroic sociopath? Check!)

Admittedly, it sounds simple, even goofy. And this is one reason I've been wrestling with writing this post.

It sounds particularly simple in comparison to the weightier themes that were fronted by other OWOD games like Vampire, Mage and Changeling. But, if I'm being honest, that was the core of the fun I had with Werewolf.

(As an aside: I say "fronting:, because, well --- How often did Vampire games actually incorporate angst and wrestling with the Beast vs Humanity? Seems to me like a lot of that that got lost in the violence and fangy superhero vibes - which I suspect is why Danel is talking about rebuilding it.)

Put another way: WTA was Supernatural if Sam and Dean were lycanthropes. Or Kolchak the Night Stalker if Kolchak was a werewolf.

 And, it was fun if certainly not as deep and serious as other White Wolf game. (I still remember a friend of mine holding Changeling in his hands - as though it were a family heirloom - and declaring that he didn't know any gamers in his city who were worthy of it. )

Next Post: 
Campaign ideas for the new, stripped down Werewolf concept

Heavy Lifting part 2

Another professional writer weighs in with skepticism on the e-book market-space as a silver bullet for unknown writers

Money quote from Joe Konrath. Check out the whole post -- but this is the section where he dismantles the ebook market as a magical cure-all

Q: Now that Kindle is adopting the agency model with a 70% royalty, and Apple is opening an iBook store, shouldn't I get in on this now before the market is flooded with shit?

A: Maybe. If you have an out of print backlist. If you have an agent with books she hasn't been able to sell. If you're a published author with some shelf novels. Then yes, you should get on Kindle and iPad and Nook and Sony and everyplace else that comes up.

But if you're a newbie author who hasn't even finished your first novel yet and is already designing the cover art, perhaps you need to slow down a bit.

I'm not out to crush anyone's dreams here. But writing a good book is hard to do, and not everyone can do it. There's a learning curve. We're all eager to get read. We all want to get published. But before you let the hard-to-please masses read your work, you really have to make sure it's good enough. Readers don't care about you, or your dreams, or how hard you worked on a book. They want to be entertained. Period. If they buy your book and don't like it, they'll let you and others know.

You wouldn't buy your first saxaphone, practice for a month, then go audition for the Boston Pops. You'd spend a long time practicing and learning before you were good enough.

One one hand, authors being able to instantly reach readers without any gatekeepers is a fabulous thing.

On the other hand, too many authors may jump into this too quickly, without mastering their storytelling skills.

I know this for a fact. I've judged self-published book contests. It was awful.

If you really want my ebook sales, here's the only path I know to duplicate them.

1. Write 9 unpublished novels and get over 500 rejections.

2. Sign a six figure print deal.

3. Mail out 7000 letters to libraries, visit 1200 bookstores, and travel to 39 states speaking at writing conferences, conventions, and book fairs.

4. Write a blog that gets half a million hits per year.

5. Sign six more book deals.

6. Get one of your big print publishers to release an ebook for free.

7. Study the market so hard your spouse thinks you're crazy, then take your early rejected books, make sure they're perfect, and upload them to Kindle along with several short story collections and collaborations.

8. Cross your fingers.

That's the journey I took to get here. Your journey will be different. But no matter your path to success, I urge you not to cut corners. There is no shortcut to selling a lot of books, because books sell one at a time. Learn your craft, learn the business, work hard, try your best. That's the secret.