My Oldest Nemesis #RPGaDay2017

17. Which RPG have you owned the longest but not played?

Oh, it's like that, huh? This month-long conversation just got a little too real.

I own an awful lot of games, and I have enjoyed them all (even if a number of them I've only read). I was happy to realize, after staring at my shelves for a while, that the vast majority of books I've got as a hard copy I've played at least once over the years. I had to compare copyright dates to see which of the contenders was published first.

I think it's WEREWOLF: THE FORSAKEN.

Somehow, over the years I've purchased a number of (New) WORLD OF DARKNESS books but not actually played them very much. I got the core book when it came out, then WEREWOLF, then CHANGELING, and I have most of the first edition EXALTED line on my shelf. Since I've actually played in an EXALTED game, I'm counting that as "played", even if I didn't run it myself and even if it was actually adapted to another rule system.

Looking back on it, I'm not sure how it is that I've managed to not play WEREWOLF for so long. It's probably because I found that the WoD system is a bit patchwork, with an elegant (if vanilla) core rule system that has all these extra parts spot-welded on top of it. There's also the fact that the werewolf lore is pretty deep, and without players who are really into learning it, it's a lot of info to "dump" during sessions. I wrote up a draft of a werewolf hack of CTHULHU DARK called FURY (in search of something that was a little less heavy lifting, rules-wise) that was pretty sweet, but I've never played that either.

I don't know. Maybe it's just that my players were never into werewolves as much as I was. I love everything about the concept, I love that they're monstrous but still heroic (as opposed to vampires, who don't appeal to me at all), I love that they have a developed and interesting society that still has enough macho posturing that it would appeal to a lot of players (who, it must be said, often prefer politicking with a side of punching people in the face). I can very clearly imagine any number of tasty werewolf campaign set-ups that would work well, from a Sons of Anarchy style crime drama to a WWII commando unit of (Allied) Uratha, to a tense Southern Gothic in a town full of werewolves.

Still on the bucket list.