Two years ago, White Wolf studios brought out Changeling the last in the range of the very popular Storyteller system. It seemed that the end was in sight and after almost six glorious years and five excellent systems the legacy was over. Then just as fans were about to give up hope of the continuation of the Storyteller system White Wolf announced that it was planning a set of spin off games taking the same themes but placing them in a different context or timeline.

The first of the Elsewhere games for want of a better word, was Vampire the Dark Ages. Released last summer to great approval VTDA took the ideas of Marc Rhien * Hagen a step back in time to Europe of the dark ages, a time when superstition and fear of the unknown ran free. Now the next in this range of alternate settings as just been released.

Werewolf the Wild West, takes the very popular and combat orientated Werewolf the Apocalypse and as the title suggest throws it back in time to a period in time when men where real men, women where real women, and werewolves were, well I guess that you get the picture.

The rules and background of the two systems are very similar to one another and there is very little difference to the two systems at first glance. However if you delve a little deeper into the books lavishly illustrated interior then you will find that WWTWW is all in all a very good game.

Set at a time of expansion, the game puts the players in the usual situation of packs of Garou from the thirteen tribes of the moon(Were’s name for themselves, also French for wolf ) and their plight against the minion’s of the Wyrm, the evil entity that’s hell bent on corrupting the world to its own selfish ends. The time line of the game can vary according to the games master, but would probably work best if set just prior too or after the Civil war (c 1861-1865) or even during that period. The west was a very harsh and wild place to live in and this is explained in the rules in the form of short interludes between a Garou and his mate. The war between the encroaching European Garou and their Native American cousins, makes up the main theme of the book and other supernatural entities such as vampires and mages, tend to take a back seat, (at least in the main rules, no doubt that expansions will exploit this matter) and as I stated before the Civil war is a excellent setting especially when you take the Garou war into consideration.

It’s all more or less covered in the rules. Everything from the gold rush to the battle of Wounded Knee in 1890. One of the things that come across from the initial reading is the treatment of the Native Americans at the ends of the Europeans. The war between the tribes can be read as a cry out at the way that technologically advanced white man pushed the Natives out of their homelands and onto reservations. This was a very sad time in the history of the Americas and the book doesn't hide the fact that this period was very harsh and brutal, and the dedication at the front of the book I feel says it all by stating " The West was never won, it was Lost".

The mechanics are exactly the same as the rest of the White Wolf Storyteller systems and uses the well tried and tested formula of multiple D10 rolls, with 10 being a critical success and 1 being a botch. Apart from a few minor changes the skills are more or less the same, with only the more technological skills such as computers being absent to fit in with the time line. One thing that players used to the original game will find is that the tribe of Glasswalkers seems to be missing. Well its not. The Glasswalkers used to be the Iron Riders and came to great odds against the two Native tribes of the Wendigo and the Uktena, there name only changing in the past hundred years or so.

One thing that the game really cries out for is high drama. Gunfights at noon, shootouts at the O.K. Coral and other such cinematic treats. Imagine a Black Furie character as an Annie Oakley, and an Iron Rider blazing the trail across the west with the coming of the Iron Horse. The limitations are endless and the fun is just waiting to begin.

Werewolf the Wild West, will no doubt be compared to the equally excellent cowboy game Deadlands, at it is inevitable that cries of rip off will be slated against this new comer. Having played Deadlands on a great many occasions and loving every minute of it, I can say hand on heart that both systems only share one thing the word Wild West. If you own Deadlands then WWTW could be an excellent source of information for you and vice versa.

The book is in hard back and weighs in at 287 pages, all printed on a faded yellow stock to give the game a little more of an authenticity. There are illustrations all the way through the game and they help to set the mood, and are some of the best to grace a White Wolf product in many a year. A full color map of the United States is on the inside front and back covers and looks as if it wouldn’t be out of place on an episode of ‘Bonanza’. Also for some strange reason in the lower left-hand corner of the book is a very neat hole that runs all the way through it. I think that this is surpossed to be a bullet hole, but I’m not to sure. Anyway it makes a great pencil holder!

The next release in the series will be a new setting for Mage the Ascension will be Mage the Sorcerers Crusade. Set in Europe once again but this time at the age of the birth of the Inquisition. I for one look forward to it.

All images © White Wolf 1997.