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It never fails: somebody's going to want to play the bad guys. And even if you manage to have no players who want to struggle with inner conflicts, it still helps if you can flesh out the adversaries in your game with some stuff the PCs don't have access to. And in a Werewolf: the Forsaken game, the adversaries are the Pure.

Conveniently enough, the title of the book is also "The Pure", which makes it pretty easy to remember, and it's about just what it says, the whys and wherefores of the werewolves other werewolves are afraid of, their powers, motivations and internal organization.

What the book takes great pains to emphasize is that the Pure are, to a great extent, all the product of abuse. Whatever their human childhoods were like, once they Changed and were found by their elders, they were treated horrifically. It's the only way to save them from the corrupting influence of Luna, or at least so Pure philosophy teaches; these are folks who've born a grudge since literally before history, and they don't let go of it easily. This makes them far more interesting than adversaries who just want to tear down everything. And at the same time they're still werewolves, and still have the frailties and problems that go with that condition.

So, Chapter One is about the Pure as a whole, things like their version of the Father Wolf story and how they go about recruiting converts who had the bad luck to be Forsaken first. It goes into some detail about the Pure Tribes' culture of abuse, so those who are sensitive on such subjects may want to stay well clear. The second chapter goes into detail on each individual tribe, including the place it sees for itself within the Pure and how the other two tribes see it. As might be expected, none of the three tribes are what a sane person would call "nice", but the nature of their nastiness varies-Predator Kings like to kill stuff, Firetouched are all about fanaticism and philosophy, and as for the Ivory Claws, let's just say they'd have probably been right at home during the Nuremburg Rallies.

Next there are the powers of the Pure, such as the Gifts they can get from spirits that won't deign to notice the Forsaken and their pack totems-which tend to be both more powerful and more demanding than those of the Forsaken. There are even a bunch of fetishes, for those who are into the "magic item" thing.

The last chapter is how to deal with the Pure in stories; likely more helpful to Storytellers than to players, but worth the read anyway. You can probably make some hay out of this material if you want to play a character who started out Pure and decided it was the wrong way to go, for example.

Overall, "The Pure" is a solid volume, with a great deal of use to STs and players alike. The weakest chapter is probably the mechanics-heavy third, but those who prefer crunch to fluff may disagree. If you're planning on having the Pure be something besides cardboard villains, "The Pure" is a great place to start.

Learn more about this author, Carrie Schutrick.
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