Rage & Shifting Update 1.5

The Five Forms

All Garou, regardless of breed, may assume all five traditional forms:

Homid • Glabro • Crinos • Hispo • Lupus

Breed no longer determines access to Crinos or Hispo, and the Metamorph Merit is no longer required to access additional forms. Metamorph instead reverts to its normal book benefit.

The normal W20 Attribute modifiers and other characteristics of each form apply unless specifically modified below.

Form Bonuses

The following bonuses supplement the normal characteristics of Garou forms.

Primal Senses

In all forms, Garou add their Primal-Urge to mundane sensory rolls where their supernatural predatory instincts would reasonably assist them.

Examples include:

• Detecting an ambush
• Tracking prey
• Identifying or following scents
• Hunting
• Other appropriate mundane sensory tasks

This does not ordinarily apply to Gift activation rolls.

Movement speeds and enhanced jumping distances remain as currently established for all forms.

Savage Instinct

Even while wearing forms close to humanity, a Garou can call upon the supernatural predator beneath the surface.

Savage Instinct functions differently in Homid and Glabro. The intent is to create a meaningful choice between Homid’s precision and athletic prowess and Glabro’s durability and brute force.

Homid — Precision & Instinct

By spending 1 Rage for the round, the Garou may:

• Add Primal-Urge to appropriate physical combat dice pools.
• Double their jumping distance.

The Garou’s predatory instincts allow them to react and act with a fluidity and snap accuracy beyond ordinary human capability.

This bonus does not stack with another effect that adds Primal-Urge to the same dice pool.

Glabro — Durability & Brutality

By spending 1 Rage for the round, the Garou may add their Primal-Urge as additional soak against non-silver physical damage.

While Savage Instinct is active in Glabro:

• Unarmed or improvised attacks that would normally inflict Bashing damage instead inflict Lethal damage.
• If an unarmed or improvised attack would already inflict Lethal damage, add Primal-Urge to the damage pool.

Glabro otherwise uses its normal W20 form modifiers.

Crinos & Hispo

Crinos and Hispo retain their normal W20 combat abilities and form modifiers.

• Crinos: Reduce the difficulty of Perception rolls by 1.
• Hispo: Reduce the difficulty of Perception rolls by 1.

Lupus

• Reduce the difficulty of Perception rolls by 2.
• A Garou in Lupus may jog for a number of hours equal to Stamina without requiring rest.

Otherwise, use the normal W20 rules for Lupus.

Shapeshifting

Use the normal W20 shapeshifting rules.

A Garou may shift normally by rolling:

The number of successes required depends upon how many forms the Garou must pass through to reach the desired form.

Alternatively, the Garou may spend 1 Rage to immediately and reflexively assume any form without making a roll.

• Returning immediately to one’s breed form requires neither a roll nor Rage.
• Shapeshifting to a non-war form does not automatically grant Rage or require a Frenzy check.
• Shifting into Hispo or Crinos grants 1 Rage and requires a Frenzy check.

Regeneration

Garou regenerate one level of Bashing or Lethal damage each turn in all forms.

Regenerating a level or two of damage is not necessarily an automatic Veil breach. With appropriate social skills or obfuscation, minor regeneration can often be passed off as an injury simply not having been as bad as it first appeared.

During combat or similarly stressful activity, reflexively roll:

• Success: Regenerate normally that turn.
• Failure: No regeneration occurs that turn.
• Botch: Regeneration stops until the Garou has had an opportunity to rest.

Garou heal Aggravated damage at the normal W20 rate.

Remaining Active

Use the normal W20 rule for Remaining Active.

Once per scene, when a Garou reaches Incapacitated, the player may roll the character’s:

Each success heals one health level, regardless of damage type.

• Success: The Garou heals the appropriate number of health levels and immediately enters Berserk Frenzy.
• Failure: The Garou does not recover.

This is still a Rage roll and therefore remains capable of producing the normal consequences of a Rage roll.

Gaining Rage

Rage should remain a meaningful and volatile resource, but players and Storytellers should not need to maintain a round-by-round checklist of mandatory Rage triggers.

This system therefore returns substantially to the W20 approach: Rage may be gained when circumstances provoke the Beast, at Storyteller discretion.

Common Rage Triggers

Examples include:

• Humiliation or severe embarrassment.
• Intense anger or another overwhelming emotion.
• Confrontation with a hated or dangerous enemy.
• Helplessness or confinement.
• Exposure to significant amounts of silver.
• Being seriously wounded.
• Seeing a packmate or loved one seriously wounded or killed.
• Other circumstances that reasonably provoke the Garou’s supernatural fury.

Rage Above Permanent Rating

Temporary Rage may exceed permanent Rage when circumstances justify it.

Generally, a character cannot gain more than 1 Rage per turn from each broad category:

• Social Trigger
• Combat / Threat Trigger
• Mystical Trigger

Gaining Rage does not automatically require a Frenzy roll unless the character’s temporary Rage exceeds their permanent Rage.

Frenzy

Use the normal W20 approach to determining when a Rage roll is appropriate.

A Rage roll represents the Garou’s Beast being directly provoked. The Storyteller may call for one when circumstances create a meaningful danger that the Garou will lose control.

Frenzy Difficulty

The difficulty of the Rage roll is determined by the current phase of the moon:

Reduce the difficulty by 1 when the moon matches the Garou’s auspice.

Being in Crinos also reduces the difficulty by 1, but these two modifiers do not stack.

Normal Rank modifiers to Frenzy apply.

Yes, this means werewolves with Rage 3 or higher should probably be cautious about interacting with mortal society during a full moon.

Frenzy Check Results

0–3 Successes: Control

The Garou retains control.

4–5 Successes: Frenzy

The Garou enters Frenzy. The circumstances and nature of the triggering event determine whether this manifests as Berserk Frenzy or Fox Frenzy.

Fox Frenzy is not automatically caused by botching a Rage roll. The Storyteller in a scene, or staff if a Frenzy occurs during ordinary RP, may determine appropriate consequences for a botch according to the normal Storyteller guidelines.

A player may attempt to suppress an ordinary Frenzy by spending 1 Willpower per turn per success rolled on the Frenzy check.

While suppressing the Frenzy:

• The character may continue taking actions.
• If the character runs out of Willpower or stops resisting, the Frenzy takes hold.
• The character cannot spend Willpower for any other purpose while suppressing the Frenzy, including activating Gifts or fetishes, purchasing automatic successes, or other Willpower expenditures.

6+ Successes: Thrall of the Wyrm

The Garou enters the Thrall of the Wyrm.

This is a Berserk Frenzy and cannot normally be suppressed through ordinary Willpower expenditure.

At Storyteller discretion, if the circumstances warrant it, the player may spend 1 permanent dot of Willpower to resist the Thrall.

Spending Rage

Garou may spend Rage normally as described in W20.

Common Rage Expenditures

• Instant Shifting: Spend 1 Rage to immediately assume another form without rolling.
• Extra Actions: Spend Rage for additional actions, up to the normal limit of half permanent Rage per turn.
• Recover from Stun: Spend 1 Rage to ignore being stunned.

Spending Rage does not, by itself, provoke a Frenzy check.

Gifts & Rage

Gifts that specifically require Rage expenditure function normally.

A Gift’s required expenditure should not become unusable merely because another rule ordinarily limits optional Rage expenditures. Where the two clearly conflict, specific Gift text takes precedence.

Remember that a Garou normally cannot spend Rage and Gnosis in the same round.

TL;DR Design Summary

Several elements of this page are book-standard rules repeated here for player convenience. These rules return several former Liberation house rules closer to W20 while retaining the elements that give the game’s Garou system its distinct mechanical character.

• All Garou have access to all five forms.
• Normal shapeshifting uses Stamina + Primal-Urge, with Rage providing instant transformation.
• Gaining or spending Rage does not automatically generate Frenzy checks.
• Botching a Rage roll does not automatically cause Fox Frenzy. The Storyteller may instead impose Fox Frenzy or another appropriate consequence based upon the IC circumstances.
• Remaining Active uses substantially the simpler W20 procedure.
• The extensive round-by-round Rage-trigger checklist is replaced by player and Storyteller flexibility under the book’s general guidelines.
• Savage Instinct is divided between Homid and Glabro, giving each form a distinct mechanical niche.

Why Keep the Liberation Additions?

The principal Liberation additions retained are Primal Senses, Savage Instinct, and selected form bonuses. These provide mechanical reasons to use different forms and make Primal-Urge a more relevant trait without fundamentally changing how Garou shapeshifting works.

• Homid emphasizes the dangerous predator concealed beneath a human appearance, with precision, athleticism, and instinctive combat ability.
• Glabro combines its normal W20 physical bonuses with greater durability and brutal unarmed attacks.
• Crinos and Hispo remain the true war forms rather than requiring Glabro to compete directly with them.
• Lupus remains the premier form for pursuit, endurance, and sensory awareness.

Rules Questions

Questions about the interpretation or application of these rules may be submitted through +jobs, @mail, or directed to Kraken/Channel.