Rage
All werewolves have Rage, a blessing and a curse from Luna, the moon. Rage channels Gaia's pain into the ferocity Garou use to destroy their enemies, but it also threatens their self-control and makes them dangerous to their own kin and packmates.
The Curse
When normal humans interacts with a werewolf, they often instinctively sense the werewolf's simmering Rage, causing them to fear or avoid the werewolf. This effect is known to Garou as the Curse. Garou blame the Curse for their difficulty interacting with the mundane human world. For purposes of interacting with mortals Garou are considered down a number of Social Traits equal to their current rage except for Intimidation. Garou can burn off some Rage to lessen these effects (see below), but can never truly remove the Curse.
Burning Rage Off
Garou can burn off their current rage to a lower value, but they can only ever burn it down to one. Burning rage requires some violent outburst against an object or person. Examples would be destroying a Tree with your bare hands or smashing all the barrels in your shop, some aggressive act that is cathartic in nature.
Using Rage
You may not spend Rage during any turn during which you use Gnosis. You may spend up to five Rage per combat turn, two of which can be for extra actions.
Rage Traits can accomplish the following:
- Shapeshifting: Spend one Rage Trait to hasten your transformation into another form.
- Extra Actions: Spend one Rage to gain an extra round of actions; one standard and one simple - this may be done up to twice in a single turn.
- Gifts: Many Gifts require you to spend Rage to activate them.
- Rage-Healing: Once per scene, when you fall to the Incapacitated Health Level or worse, you may choose to "Rage-Heal," which keeps you conscious and in the fight. Spend one Rage to heal [your Stamina Rating +3] in Health Levels and enter Berserk Frenzy. You will gain a Battle Scar of your choosing, provided it's relevant to damage taken over the course of the fight.
Regaining Rage
These events make you gain Rage Traits:
- Entering Combat: When you enter combat, gain a Rage Trait.
- Taking Damage: The first time per night you take damage, gain a Rage Trait.
- Gazing on the Moon: The first time you gaze upon the moon at night, the Beast inside stirs and Rage floods back into you. Under a new moon, you get back one Trait; under a crescent moon, two Traits; under a half moon, three Traits; under a gibbous moon, four Traits; and under a full moon you gain five Traits. If the moon is in your Auspice, you instead regain all your spend Rage Traits, no matter the number. Unlike some other methods of gaining Rage, Traits gained from viewing the moon will not take you over your permanent Rage rating.
- Stress and Humiliation: The Storyteller may award you a Rage Trait when you suffer a particularly humiliating or stressful encounter -- although they will often call for a Frenzy test while they're at it.
When You Run Out of Rage
If you run out of both Rage Traits and Willpower, you "lose the wolf" -- you revert to your Breed Form and cannot shapeshift until you regain some Rage or Willpower.
