Lack of Newbie Werewolf Fans?

I recently look up every sourcebook for both Mage and Werewolf (Vampire Pending), and I found something rather distasteful that might put would-be newcomers off Werewolf.

Simply put, even with my connections (in terms of known RPG suppliers), I found The Pure and Rage: A Players Guide to the Forsaken completely unavailable (at least in a physical book form - PDF’s are naturally easily obtained). Now, given this is a tabletop RPG I find many prefer the physical books over PDFs - and thus, in these newbie werewolf fan cases, there’s a problem.

Therefore, perhaps the seasoned Werewolf fans (or simply others in the know) would be so kind as to tell us where on earth to find these two missing source books?

In the meantime, anyone else have any theories why Werewolf seemingly lacks the popularity of other games? Book recommendations to remedy such perceptions?

Vosoros:

In the meantime, anyone else have any theories why Werewolf seemingly lacks the popularity of other games?

There's a lot of anger that Forsaken is not Apocalypse, that it's hard to take the hybrid war form, that werewolf claws don't do aggravated damage, that all werewolves are human and none are born wolves or warform.  In short, it suffers a lot from comparison.

There's also the Harmony angle; werewolf Morality is substantially different from the Morality traits of all the other supernatural splats (except maybe for Changeling, I forget).  Putting oneself in an animal's mindset can be tough for someone.

Finally, I think some of it is self-perpetuating.  People see a lack of support and a lack of activity on the forums, and they assume the game must be bad, so its lack of popularity makes it less popular.

Though in the end, I don't quite get it why the game isn't more popular.  I like it, and if I like it, why shouldn't everyone else?  Clearly I have excellent taste.

I thought White Wolf was re-printing books, like the Pure.

However that might just have been a rumor from GenCon.

Darck Child:

I thought White Wolf was reprinting books, like the Pure.

Here is something to ponder: why would WW not re-print these books? It seems to me that there are more reasons why it would get re-printed than reasons they wont.

They lost me at "Claws do lethal damage" and "No metis, No Lupus".

But my love of Werewolves bring me back(and my hatred for VtM/VtR).

jburgos:

Here is something to ponder: why would WW not re-print these books?

It would be nice if Eddy gets some kind of new Print on Demand service set up.  I know it was mentioned in the past that he was looking into it.  At least then people could get physical copies of some of the harder to find WW books.

Since I got a netbook this summer I've added a few pdf's to my collection of WW books, it makes it MUCH easier to carry around stuff needed for a game.  Now I just have to get a new game going, maybe after the holidays I can get something going.

My local stores around here only carry the core books for WoD - which is fine, considering that I buy the other books as PDFs.   But, from the looks of it, the Werewolf core seems to sell as well as the Vamp, Mage, and 'ling ones.  I think that if we ignore the suppliments, it would appear that Werewolf has a lot of fans.   They just don't need anything beyond the core.

Agreed.  We had a group of new players wanting to try out Werewolf: The Forsaken with us.  I neglected to bring in what supplemants I had, but that didn't stop the newbies from enjoying it using the core book alone.

Darksider:

It would be nice if Eddy gets some kind of new Print on Demand service set up.  I know it was mentioned in the past that he was looking into it.  At least then people could get physical copies of some of the harder to find WW books.

I'm a great fan of Print on Demand products - everyone wins.  If this is the solution to the missing books at the moment you may consider myself a new die-hard Werewolf fan for life.  That passionate statement made, I'd appreciate if you gave Eddy another nudge on this matter Darksider - and perhaps a copy of this post.

As for the rest of the concerns - "soddin powergaming twinks" is all I think.  Could werewolf be the die-hard RPG game amongst World of Darkness games?

Vosoros:

In the meantime, anyone else have any theories why Werewolf seemingly lacks the popularity of other games? Book recommendations to remedy such perceptions?

IMO its not lacking in any popularity. I play it and so do a few of my group (in fact Im starting a new werewolf story soon). Low activity in the forums doesn't mean its lacking in play. I personally think that Rage and Pure will see reprints soon. WtF is a core game, not a limited game line.

I saw at least the Pure is getting reprinted. At Gen Con there was a flyer saying the book was coming out.

claire_miller:

I saw at least the Pure is getting reprinted. At Gen Con there was a flyer saying the book was coming out.

See, its confirmed. Im sure Rage will be out soon too. Its basically the Players handbook.

jburgos:

claire_miller:

I saw at least the Pure is getting reprinted. At Gen Con there was a flyer saying the book was coming out.

See, its confirmed. Im sure Rage will be out soon too. Its basically the Players handbook.

Well, thanks for that info folks (and I imagine a few newbies will be glad also).  You're quite right, the Werewolf line without Rage is madness - and The Pure too IMHO!  But I'm a person who prefers to "see" rather than "hear", as I'm sure you might be able to appreciate, and do I defer my absolute loyalty until I'm able to aquire all the lines books as actual printed books.    ;)

Vosoros:

You're quite right, the Werewolf line without Rage is madness - and The Pure too IMHO! 

I have both but I find that I hardly use either in practice. There is simply more than enough stuff happening in the game and adding even more elements would put too many threads in the mix. The Rage has plenty of extra goodness for the players, but I find that the corebook has plenty of options already anyway.

However, if I was to choose between the two, I'd say the Pure is probably the more useful for an ST to help portray one of the Forsaken's core foes. However, the book does such a good job explaining why the Pure are the way they are that it makes you want to run a playable Pure game. So it is not your typical "antagonist" book - Predators is a much better fit for that.