To the Garou, Rage is both a blessing and a curse. Many think that Luna gave Rage to the Garou through her moon-signs that determine how much Rage a Garou begins his life with after the First Change. Others contend that Rage is a spark of the Wyrm within each Garou, the force of primal destruction corrupting the children of the creator. The most vocal say that it is Gaia herself who would have her children use her Rage as their greatest weapon.
Much of a Garou’s struggle comes from a never-ending battle with the Rage each werewolf feels. The Beast is never far from their thoughts — even the most pacifistic Ragabash or the most serene of the Children of Gaia looks at a normal human and must repress the urge to rend and tear and bite until all that’s left is blood and meat. Ahroun have it far worse, fighting to see friends, family, and loved ones as little more than prey animals or targets for attack.
Rage is recorded in two forms on the character sheet. The dots indicate the character’s Rage rating — her permanent Rage. The second is the Rage pool, shown by the squares underneath. These squares show how much Rage you have left to spend. When you spend a point of Rage, remove it from one of the squares. Don’t take it from the dots of the permanent rating. A werewolf’s permanent Rage stays constant, while the pool will drop during the course of the story. At certain times, a werewolf’s Rage can even go higher than his permanent rating, but only if the situation is sufficiently infuriating.
Using Rage
Rage points are spent at the beginning of a turn, in the declaration stage. You can spend Rage only in times of stress.
A Garou can use Rage in the following ways:
- Frenzy: Frenzy is the violent outburst, the untamed savagery, the animal instinct for blood and brutality that lurks in the heart of every werewolf. Whenever a player gets four or more successes on a Rage roll, the character enters a frenzy.
- Extra Actions: A player can spend Rage to give her character extra actions in a single turn. However, a Garou cannot spend more Rage points for actions in a turn than half of her permanent Rage rating (rounded up).
- Changing Forms: A Player may spend a Rage point for his character to change instantly to any form he desires, without having to roll Stamina + Primal-Urge.
- Recovering from Stun: If a character loses more health levels in one turn than his Stamina rating, he is stunned and unable to act in the next turn. By spending a Rage point, the werewolf can ignore the effect and function normally.
- Ignore Pain: In similar fashion, a werewolf player can spend a point of Rage to let her character ignore the dice penalty for one health level worth of damage. This option does not heal the damage, it lasts for only one turn, and it alleviates only one heath level’s penalty for each point of Rage spent this way. After that turn, the pain-penalties kick in again. (p. 288)
- Remaining Active (Rage Healing): If a character falls below the Incapacitated health level, a player can use Rage to keep her character going. Doing so requires a Rage roll (difficulty 8). Each success heals a health level, regardless of the type of wound. A player may attempt this roll only once per scene. If this roll fails, the character doesn’t recover. However, this last-ditch survival effort has its price. Like all Rage rolls, the character is still subject to frenzy. The wound will also remain on the Garou’s body as an appropriate Battle Scar.
- Beast Within: Occasionally, a Garou is more a snarling monster than man or beast, and she must pay the price for it. For every point of Rage a character has above her Willpower rating, she loses one die on all social-interaction rolls. People, even other werewolves, can sense the killer hiding just under her skin, and they don’t want to be anywhere near it.
- Losing the Wolf: If a character has lost or spent all his Rage and Willpower points, he has “lost the wolf,” and he cannot regain Rage. The Garou cannot shift to anything except his breed form until his Rage returns. The character must regain at least one Willpower point before he can recover any Rage.
The Rage pool fluctuates from session to session and from turn to turn. Rage replenishes itself in several ways.
- The Moon: The first time a werewolf sees the moon at night, the Beast inside stirs, and Rage floods back into her. Under a new moon, the character gets one point; under a waning moon, two points; under a half or waxing moon, three points; and under a full moon, four points. If the moon phase corresponds with the character’s auspice, she regains all of her Rage. This phenomenon only occurs when the character first sees the moon each night.
- Botch: If the Storyteller approves, a werewolf might receive a Rage point after a botched a roll. Rage comes from stressful situations, and seeing the action you were attempting blow up in your face, sometimes literally, can be a very stressful situation.
- Humiliation: Rage will also come rushing back if anything a Garou does proves particularly humiliating. The Storyteller decides whether a situation is embarrassing enough to warrant a Rage point. Garou tend to be very proud, and they don’t take being laughed at well.
- Confrontation: Again at the Storyteller’s approval, a character could receive a Rage point at the beginning of a tense situation, in the moments right before combat starts. This gain accounts for the anticipation and hackle-raising that happens just as tempers start to flare.
