-THE-
HOUNDS OF HELL
BREED GIFTS
The inhabitants of the spirit world share their secrets with werewolves and other
shapechangers. In accordance with pacts struck long ago, the spirits teach Gifts,
magical abilities of many sorts, to the Garou. Tribe, breed and auspice all influence a
spirit’s willingness to teach a particular Gift to a Garou; every community within the
Garou Nation has its own secrets and connections.
There’s a story behind each Gift: A spirit bound itself to a pact to teach that Gift
to Garou who meet a particular qualification. Storytellers and players should keep this
in mind when characters use Gifts in play. See “Systems,” below, for ways the vital
history of Gifts can matter in the course of a game.
Gifts do not come automatically or mechanically. Living spirits teach them, and
when a Garou fails particularly impressively in his fundamental duties, the spirits can
revoke their Gifts. The Gifts come to allow Garou to accomplish their assigned roles
and tasks more thoroughly, not to do whatever seems like fun.
Gifts are divided into three levels. Basic Gifts are available to cubs from the
moment of their First Change, while Advanced Gifts are granted to those Garou who
have done great deeds. A new Garou begins with one Basic Gift each from the lists for
her breed, auspice and tribe. The player can spend freebie points to acquire more
starting Gifts during character creation and can buy others after play begins with
experience points.
Master of Fire:
Taming fire helped separate humanity from beasts. This Gift lets you call on the ancient pact with fire-spirits, persuading them to withhold their hunger when you touch them. Spend one Gnosis Trait. Fire damage now heals as if it were bashing damage. The effect lasts for the rest of the scene, or for one hour.
HOMID BASICS:
Jam Technology:
This Gift allows you to disable technological devices.
“Technology” in this case extends to all tools, though it’s harder to break simple tools. Spend one Gnosis Trait and make a Static Social Challenge, the number of Traits depending on the nature of the device.
Traits Complexity of Device
- 4 Computers, complex electronics
- 6 Telephones, simple electronics
- 8 Cars, complex menchanical devices
- 9 Guns, straightforward machines
- 10 Knives, levers, simple tools
If the challenge succeeds, all devices of the target complexity and higher within50 feet cease to work for one turn, plus an additional turn for each Mental Trait the Garou spends. Affected devices remain unchanged but inert, and resume working when the jamming wears off.
Sense Wyrm:
You can perceive nearbv manifestations of the Wvrm. The Gift acts directly on your consciousness through a mystical sense, but Garou using it often describe it in terms of other senses, like “This place stinks of the Wyrm.” Garou must remember that the Wyrm’s taint often clings to innocent victims, such as those who eat tainted food or work in Wyrm-controlled factories. Make a Mental Challenge with a difficulty depending on the concentration and strength of the Wyrm’s influence. Test against six Traits to sense a fomor in the next room, but detecting the lingering residue of a Bane that left an hour ago requires testing against eight Traits. Vampires with three or fewer Humanity Traits always smell of the Wyrm; vampires on a Path of Enlightenment stink of the Wyrm no matter what their rating.
Mental Speech:
You can speak directly into another person’s mind, even at a great distance. You must know the target personally (though you do not have to like the target) or have something that belongs to the target, such as a lock of hair. Spend one Willpower Trait and make a Social Challenge. If successful, you can communicate with a target at a distance of up to 10 miles per current Gnosis Trait the Mental Speech user possesses. Mental Speech does not allow for mind reading, but you can use social Abilities such as Intimidation. The Gift remains active for one scene.
Persuasion:
Your words carry unusual meaning and credibility in whatever way reaches each listener. Make a Static Social Challenge against six Traits (retest with Subterfuge). If the challenge succeeds, you gain one bonus Trait on all Social Challenges for the rest of the scene, or for one hour. You may gain additional bonus Traits at the cost ofone point of Gnosis each, spent at the time of the initial challenge. In addition to the game-mechanical effect, your words are more influential than usual on the roleplaying level, and Storytellers should work with players to make the use of Persuasion clear in play.
Smell of Man:
Wild creatures know that death follows the smell of humanity. This Gift lets you strengthen that smell, making wild animals fearful and domestic animals submissive. This Gift requires no Gnosis or challenge, only the decision to turn the Gift on or off. When it's active, all wild animals (other than supernatural creatures in animal form) suffer a one-Trait penalty to all challenges while within 20 feet of you and flee when possible. Domesticated animals refuse to harm you, regardless of commands to the contrary unless you actually harm them in some way.
Staredown:
Your eyes gain a subtle but powerful quality that makes humans and animals flee and freezes other werewolves where they stand. Make a Social Challenge against the target. If it succeeds, a human or animal target flees for one turn, plus one additional turn per Mental Trait you spend. (The target may spend a Willpower Trait to avoid flight for one tum.) Garou targets do not flee, but cannot attack while you continue to stare them down. If you are attacked, Garou targets regain heir freedom of movement. If the target is attacked, the effects of the Gift are dispelled. You can use this Gift on one target per turn.
HOMID
Intermediate:
Cocoon:
With this Gift, you can draw a magical cocoon out of thin air, a thick, opaque, sarcophaguslike layer that immobilizes you but protects you from fire, Starvation, gas, high pressure, cold and other environmental hazards. Spend one Gnosis to create the cocoon. This takes one turn. Once inside it, you ignore all attacks which fail to inflict levels of bashing or lethal damage equal to your Stamina-related Physical Traits. The first attack to inflict this much damage dissolves the cocoon. Otherwise it lasts for one scene or for one hour. You can spend one Gnosis Trait to renew the cocoon for another scene or hour, and can spend this Trait at any time before the cocoon dissolves.
Disquiet:
This Gift allows you to perturb the target's soul, creating inexplicable depression and an urge to withdraw. The subject cannot draw effectively on active emotions or maintain concentration. Make a Social Challenge against the target. If the challenge succeeds, your target cannot regain Rage for the duration of the scene (or for one hour) and suffers a one-Trait penalty on any extended challenge.
Spirit Ward:
You can create an invisible pictogram to shield againstspirits. The
resulting symbol unnerves spirits other than pack totems and caem spirits and travels with you. Send one Gnosis and make a Static Social Challenge against seven Traits. On success, spirits within 100 feet of you (other than pack totems and caem spirits) suffer a one-Trait penalty to all challenges, plus an additional one-Trait penalty for each Social Trait you spend. The Spirit Ward lasts for one scene or one hour.
Reshape Object:
You can transform once-living material (but not the substance of undead beings) into objects: trees into shelter, antlers into spears, animal hides into armor, flowers into perfume and so on. The resulting items resemble their sources: the spear shaft is made of antler, the armor retains skin textures, etc. Spend one Gnosis and make a Static Social Challenge (retest with Repair). The difficulty depends on the degree of transformation: making a broken tree branch into a spear requires a test against five Traits, while making a single plank into a raft that can carry three Garou requires a test against eight Traits, and making a blade ofgrass into a lean to that can resist hurricane winds requires a test against 10 Traits or even more. Spend a second Gnosis Trait to allow a created weapon to inflict aggravated damage. Objects stay reshaped for only five minutes. Spend one Mental Trait to increase this to 10 minutes, two Mental Traits to increase it to one hour, three Mental Traits to increase it to the rest of the session or four Mental Traits to make it permanent.
HOMID
Advanced:
Assimilation:
You can blend smoothly into any culture, no matter how strange or unfamiliar it seems. Assimilation doesn’t hide racial differences, but allows you to act and speak like a native and understand the local language. Make a Static Social Challenge. The difficulty varies based on how alien the culture is: infiltrating another sept requires only five Traits, while passing as a member of a Black Spiral Hive on another continent requires nine Traits. If the challenge succeeds, you suffer no social penalties while interacting with members of the target culture. Assimilation lasts for one scene, plus one day per Willpower Trait spent when activating the Gift.
Part the Veil:
This Gift lets you protect a human being from the effects of the Delirium. The human can then interact with Garou without suddenly breaking into flight or denial. If the target suffers the Delirium at a later date, much of what happened while Part the Veil was in effect will become lost, just like other Delirium-obscured memories. Spend one Gnosis and make a Social Challenge (retest with Empathy). If you win, the target is protected from the Delirium for one scene or one hour.
METIS
Basics:
Burrow:
With this Gift, you can burrow through the earth, creating a tunnel just large enough for you to go through. Others can follow, if they’re small enough to
fit into the hole. You must be in Crinos, Hispo or Lupus form to use this Gift, since it requires digging claws. (Metis without claws or fragile claws can still use this Gift, relying on their extra-strong fingers.) The tunnel isn’t structurally sound and crumbles over time. Make a Physical Challenge against a difficult depending on the substance to be burrowed through: four Traits for loose mud, up to nine Traits for solid rock.
Strong metals and reinforced structures don’t yield at all. You can burrow at one yard per turn, plus one yard per turn per Physical Trait spent, and need not make another challenge unless the composition of the material to burrow through changes.
Create Element:
You can create asmall amount offire, air, earth or water. (One Gift covers all four elements.) You cannot create specialized forms, like precious metals or lethal gases, but can replenish the air in a sealed room, make a rock to throw at someone, light afire without matches or fill a bathtub without faucet or pipes Spend one Gnosis and make a Gnosis Challenge. If successful, you create up to 10 pounds of the desired element per current Gnosis Trait, up to a maximum weight of 100 pounds. The element can appear anywhere you can see within 60 feet and remains until used up. Flames created with this Gift inflict one level of lethal damage per Gnosis Trait, up to a maximum of three health levels.
Curse of Hatred:
Metis are expected to endure all sorts of abuse for the privilege of existing, and this can breed resentment and bitterness. With this Gift, you vent the hatred in your heart, demoralizing your opponents. Spend one Gnosis and make a Social Challenge. If successful, your opponent loses two Willpower Traits and two Rage Traits. This Gift can be used on any particular opponent once per scene.
Primal Anger:
You have learned to focus the anger metis suffer and use it to increase your Rage. Metis rarely teach this Gift to non-metis, as few ever experience enough shame and suffering. For each health level you sacrifice, you gain two Rage Traits, even if this takes you above your permanent Rage score. Such anger eats at its user, though- the damage heals as if it were aggravated. Primal Anger can be used once per scene.
Eyes of the Cat:
Your eyes grow lambent green and can see clearly even in complete darkness. This Gift requires no Gnosis or challenges to use; simply declare when it’s active. When Eyes of the Cat is ineffect, you suffer no penalties from darkness.
METIS
Intermediate:
Gift of the Porcupine:
With this Gift, your fur becomes long, bristly and sharp, like porcupine quills. You must be in Crinos, Hispo or Lupus form to use this Gift. Spend one Gnosis; your fur immediately sharpens. Anyone you tackle, grapple or immobilize suffers a level of aggravated damage. Anyone who strikes you with bare flesh suffers damage as if he’d struck himself. The Gift lasts for one scene, or until you will your fur to return to normal.
Wither Limb:
You direct your hostility at a target’s arm or leg and make it twist, desiccate and wither. Only creatures with regenerative powers can escape permanent
harm from this Gift. Spend one Gnosis and make a Static Willpower Challenge
against a total of your target’s Physical Traits. If you succeed, the victim suffers a two Trait penalty to all Dexterity-related challenges; if her leg was targeted, she can move at only half normal speed. Regenerative powers take effect after one scene; otherwise this Gift creates permanent effects.
METIS
Advanced:
Madness:
This Gift imposes the madness against which all metis struggle onto others. Its effects vary from one target to the next: Madness finds whatever weaknesses lurk within and draws them out. Spend one Gnosis and make an Social Challenge. The target suffers debilitating insanity for one day. You can change the intensity of the madness at any time, granting moments of lucidity and then yanking them away with fresh psychosis. The victim always suffers at least a one-Trait penalty to tasks requiring concentration, and, at the Storyteller’s discretion, can simply lose the ability to sustain a chain of thought for more than one turn at all. The memories and psychological trauma of the madness remain in effect even after the Gift expires.
Totem Gift:
You draw on your unusually strong ties within Garou society to plead directly with your tribal totem and gain some of its power. The results depend on the totem. Rat might send swarms of rats to attack an enemy, while Grandfather
Thunder might defend you with thunder and lightning. Miraculous anifestations are common, and the only real limit is the totem’s inclinations. Spend one Gnosis and make a Static Social Challenge against sevenTraits. Further expenditures increase the effects, from a minor manifestation to a veritable tide of elemental fury.
LUPUS
Basic:
Heightened Senses:
Your senses all become preternaturally sharp. In Homid or Glabro form, you can see, hear and smell as acutely as a wild wolf, while in wolf related forms you’re all but precognitively alert. Note that this Gift doesn’t allow for selective intensification: Routine city noises can overload and cripple a wolf-form Garou withHeightened Senses. Spend one Gnosis. In Homid and Glabro form, you gain a two-Trait bonus to all perception-related challenges, and you may make Mental Challenges to perform feats normally impossible to human beings, like tracking by scent. In Crinos, Hispo and Lupus forms, you gain a three-Trait bonus to perception related challenges and one-Trait bonus in Priml-Urge challenges. Heightened Senses lasts for the rest of the scene or for one hour. A sudden surge of sensory information (a discharging skunk, car alarm, flashbulb, etc.) overloads the sense in question, leaving you stunned for two rounds and possibly losing the overloaded sense for an hour (at Storyteller discretion).
Hare’s Leap:
You can leap incredible distances. The Bunyip knew it as Leap of the Kangaroo; reconcilation-minded Garou call this Gift by that name in honor of their fallen cousins.This Gift requires no Gnosis. Make a Physical Challenge. If successful, you double your normal jumping distance for your next leap.
Scent of Sight:
You can completely compensate for visual impairment through scent, including navigation in total darkness and making attacks against invisible creatures. Make a Static Mental Challenge (retest with Primal-Urge) to trace a scent. Weird and unpleasant scents require five to seven Traits, while subtle and faint ones require up to 10 Traits. A blood-soaked invisible monster requires only five Traits; finding your way through clean steel corridors in darkness requires at least nine Traits. Make fresh challenges only when the scent changes or events might become distracting, like following it through water or into a fight in a reeking alley.
Sense Prey:
This Gift lets you find enough prey to feed a pack. Traditionally it came into use most often during hard winters. In urban environments, it generally guides Garou to parks, sewers, animal shelters and zoos. Sense Prey identifies large numbers of prey within 50 miles when you’re in the wild, or within the limits of a city and its suburbs. Human beings do not register as prey, though rumor credits the Red Talons with a variation on Sense Prey which does identify humans. Make a Static Mental Challenge (retest with Primal-Urge) against seven Traits in wilderness, nine Traits in urban environments. Success reveals the location of enough prey to feed a large pack. If multiple concentrations of prey would all serve, the Gift points to the nearest gathering (not necessarily the easiest or safest).
Sense the Unnatural:
You can detect unnatural presences and their general strengths and types. Sense the Unnatural reveals magic, spirits, the Wyrm, wraiths, vampires and other creatures, but doesn’t distinguish between something unnatural and someone merely touched by it (a haunting, a ghoul). Make a Mental Challenge
(retest with Enigmas). Success provides a vague impression susceptible to various interpretations. That smell of old blood might be a vampire, or a cannibalistic spirit or something else. Spend one additional Mental Trait for a clear but general impression-”something long dead but still moving on this side of the Gauntlet” or two Mental Traits for a specific signature impression. Once you know that a vampire smells this particular way, for instance, spending two Mental Traits on future uses of Sense ofthe Unnatural will always make it clear that some new peril is another vampire.The Storyteller may require a second Static Mental Challenge (retest with Occult), against six Traits, to interpret an unfamiliar impression.
LUPUS
Intermediate:
Beast Life:
You can communicate with wild animals and give them orders. Domesticated animals will speak with you, but must be persuaded rather than ordered
since they’re now part of the human order. Spend one Gnosis and make a Social Challenge (retest with Animal Ken). If successful, you can speak with all animals. You can also call animals of a single type within 10 miles, and those who can reach you without too much trouble or delay will do so. Spend an additional Mental Trait for each increase in 10 miles of the calling radius. Wild animals become friendly to you, willing to follow all reasonable requests and many unreasonable ones. (Ordering an animal tosacrifice itselfmust be followed with homage to itsspirit, or you risk angering Gaia.) The Gift lasts for one scene, plus an additional scene for each Gnosis Trait you choose to spend.
Catfeet:
You gain catlike agility, including immunity to damage from falls of less than a hundred feet (you always land just right) and perfect balance on all slopes. This Gift is innate and always active. The Garou gain a two-Trait bonus to all challenges involving body slams and efforts at grappling, and to challenges involving balance and equilibrium.
Gnaw:
Your jaws become strong enough to chew through just about anything, given time. Spend one Willpower and make a Static Physical Challenge, difficulty based on the toughness of the target material. Wood is only three Traits’ worth of difficulty while steel cables require testing against six Traits and titanium doors require nine Traits or even more. In addition, you inflict an additional level of lethal damage when biting in combat. The Gift lasts for the rest of the scene or for one hour.
LUPUS
Advanced:
Elemental Gift:
You can call upon elemental forces - not just the natural world brought to animation, but primal spirits of tremendous power. Spend one Gnosis and make a Social Challenge. Ifsuccessful, you call an elemental capable ofcommanding one of the four elements in any of their forms, occupying a space about 20 feet on a side, plus another 20 feet for each Social Trait you spend. The elemental remains for one scene or until it’s destroyed or dismissed. What happens once the elemental is called is another matter.
Song of the Great Beast:
You may only use this Gift in deep wilderness, howling the Song ofthe Great Beast to summon one of the creatures of long ago to your aid. Great Beasts include the willawau (giant owl), Yeti, sabertooth tiger, Megalodon shark and mammoth. You can attempt to call any Great Beast you can imagine, and
rumors persist of dinosaurs in remote jungles and other equally exotic creatures elsewhere in the world’s secret places. The Great Beast will listen to you but is not obligated to cooperate, and giving orders to such creatures is very unwise. Spend one Gnosis and make a Social Challenge (retest with Primal-Urge). If successful, the Great Beast comes out of the Umbra; spending more Social Traits increases the odds of its answering a request favorably. The Storyteller can set the Great Beast’s Traits to suit the situation, but they should be impressive - this is a creature of legend after all.