Black Furies Tribebook

WW 3051 $10.00
Written by Phil Brucato
Art by Tony Harris

Review by Deird'Re Brooks in the FAQ

This gives us a closer view of the Black Furies and their view of the other Garou, Homids, and the Wyrm. They are among the most warlike of the tribes, but they also have other sides to their viewpoints. Read this one carefully, because it could be easy to fall into the stereotype.


Review by Timothy Toner (10 Mar 94)

Y'know, last night, right before I went to bed, I had a goofy notion. I think I finally understood what Werewolf: the Apocalypse, was about. The main charge levelled at the game is just how utterly pretentious it can get. "Earth first." "Technology is wrong." For many of us, tired of hearing it on the boob tube, enough was enough.

Then the goofy notion struck me. What if it was all a metaphor for something deeper, something within us, clawing its way out, but numbed to sleep by the comfort of life? What if the Garou embodied a weird sort of primal rage, a way of dealing with the problems we face today, that professed an actual solution, rather than a quick "justify it, and maybe it will go away."

I mean, we _all_ feel powerless in the face of megacorporations that don't have your best interests at heart. What if each tribe was engineered around a problem that we today face, but no longer have the strength, the courage to fight? The pairings seem obvious; Bone Gnawers, and the homeless. Black Furies, and woman's issues. What if we could step into these empowered roles, and rip the throats out of the problem. Would that grant us the catharsis to try it in the real world? Maybe.

You have to, in some degree, agree with me, to appreciate the Black Furies book. It's about anger, and it's about anger at men. And I'm a man. Still, there's a reason for this anger, a pain that courses though women. The foe in this book, the dragon they seek to bring down, is a figure known as the Patriarch. At first, the moment I saw that, I immediately wondered if they were going to bring Andrea Dworkin in to write a passage. Then, in a myth-y sort of way, it made sense. It wasn't about ME, per se, it was about primitivism, reducing the evils of the world from shades of grey, to black and white, and most effectively, judging which side, the black or the white, is better.

This view worked for me to no end. I finally became sympathetic not only with the Black Fury mindset, but with the whole Werewolf game. These were once noble creatures that had all the monsters in the world under their paw, and then one night, they all escaped. Hid. And now finding them, and rooting them out is the chore. More than it polarized, though, it looked at the evil in polarization itself, and yet the need to polarize to cope with the antipathy it creates.

Within the book, you'll find rich Greek detailing, a wonderful blending of feminist myth and Greco-Roman legend. There are a few new gifts, a few new rituals, merits, flaws, some average templates, but most importantly, there's insight.

And a pretty neat comic in the front.

If you can approach with an open mind, I highly reccomend this book. It really is well worth the price. If you think Rush Limbaugh is the second coming of Christ, and that every woman who asks for equality ought to be publicly flogged, you best take a good hard look at this in the bookstore before you buy.

All I have to say is that it's an auspicious beginning.


Review by Constantine Thomas (10 Mar 94)

Hi Y'all!!!!

Well, I haven't looked at this list for ages, so I don't know if this topic has already been covered but I'll do it anyway. I just got hold of the nwe(oops, I mean new) Black Furies Tribebook for Werewolf and thought I'd let you guys and gals know what I though of it. INCOMING!!!!

BLACK FURIES TRIBEBOOK Price: probably about 10$ in the US.(7.50 in UK)

Well, from the start this thing catches your eye. Its got a white cut-out cover (like the WW Rulebook) with the Black Fury Rune on it. Most Impressive...

The actual content of the book is (for a change....;-)) very well laid out and written. Its _ALL_ written from the viewpoint of a Fury elder, talking to a rather impertinent (and amusing..) Pup and telling her the ways of the Tribe. As a result, you get a very good idea of what these gals are about.

The main thrust of the Fury philosophy is to overthrow the yoke of Male domination in society, be it Homid or Garou. The focus of hatred among the Furies is for 'The Patriarch'. I assume this means the general 'Male- first' view that is prevalent in society, as opposed to a specific individual, but I may be wrong. That said, it gives Black Fury characters a good focal point when they're playing.

There's a few new 'circles' among the Furies (the Freebooters being one which is further defined in this book) which are fairly interesting, and a potted history of the race (including things like 'The Burning Times' (ie. the Inquisition against the Witches)) and the role of the Furies in America.

Game mechanics are included for a few new Gifts and there are also some nifty new Totems (like the Muses and the Gorgons (actually the first Furies)), and a few examples of Black Fury templates and notable Furies. Actually, IMHO, these Templates are the only weak points in the book - 5 are presented, but I think that only one (the Warsinger) actually REALLY sums up the Furies. You may disagree....

All in all, this is a VERY good book. It's certainly (IMHO) one of the best supplements that White Wolf have ever released and seems to have a certain 'sparkle' that things like the Vampire Clanbooks don't have. It's also much better that some of the Mage stuff that they've released, which I thought were diabolical (Progenitors: Exzqueeze me?! A Chihuah... Chihhiuhu...small annoying dog with retractable fangs and bat wings? A cat with a frog's tongue?! I'm sorry, but the credibility Quotient for the Technocracy has just plummetted thru the floor!! Who's the silly guy who threw those in anyway?!(:-))).

In short, go forth and buy this book with hasty abandon. You won't be disappointed. Also, its got a comic strip thing in the front which is interesting and readable (WW magazine got me worried, 'cos I though the comic in that was quite bad, and when they said they'd be doing one in the Tribebook I feared the worst....but the one in the Tribebook is much better.)

Hats of to WW on this one, let's see if we can keep this kind of quality going!