There are many ways to injure a character. Some of the more common ways are listed here.
Combat
Arguably the Garou's favorite pastime, combat is the source of most injuries in the game.
Falling
Gravity doesn't play favorites. Falling causes damage, even to creatures as hardy as werewolves. Falling damage is usually considered bashing, and may be soaked. A character takes one health level for every 10 feet he falls before hitting something solid (rounded down).
A character who falls more than 00 feet reaches terminal velocity. At that point, the character takes 10 health levels upon impact. This damage is considered letahl, so humans cannot soak it.
Fire
Fire is analogous to werewolves in many ways. It's primal, beautiful and dangerous when it's out of control. Damage from fire is always aggravated, so it can kill werewolves almost as easily as it can kill humans.
Werewolves can soak fire damage as usual. The difficulty varies, however, on the intesity of the fire, as does the number of health levels the blaze inflicts. The player rolls the character's Stamina. The Storyteller must decide how many health levels the blaze can potentially inflict (one to three). That number determines how many successes the player needs for her character to avoid injury.
Extreme heat (200+ degrees) causes damage in much the same way as fire. Use the system for fire damage, modified for the situation.
Disease
Werewolves are not immune to disease, but they recuperate much faster than humans do. A disease inflicts a number of health levels on the patient. With proper rest and care, the disease runs its course and health levels heal slowly.
A Garou;s healing abilities protect her from ever catching minor ailments such as the common cold or the flu. Even truly debilitating diseases can't do permanent harm (although the werewolf can still serve as a carrier). For a disease to have pronounced effect on a werewolf, it would have to be supernatural in origin.
Poison
Like disease, most poisons have little effect on the Garou. The same is true of most human drugs. Garou who wish to become intoxicated or to use drugs for recreational purposes have two choices: either do so in Homid form, where their regenerative systems aren't quite so effective, or awaken the spirit of the drug (see the Rite of Spirit Awakening), which increases its potency. Supernatural, particularly Wyrm-tainted, toxins have their full effect on Garou, and many are even considered to do aggravated damage.
Suffocation and Drowning
Werewolves, for all their supernatural might, do need to breathe. When immersed in water (or any nonbreathable medium) use the accompanying chart to determine how long a Garou can hold her breath. When the character has reached her limit, she may spend Willpower to continue holding her breath. Each point spend allows 30 seconds more (if the character's Stamina score is 3 or lower) or a minute more (if her Stamina score is 4 or more).
Note that the fiven times assume a full breath. It is therefore impossible to gain extra time by shifting to a form with a higher Stamina rating, as lung capacity changes but the amount of air in the lungs does not. Note, also, that these times refer to Garou only. Humans often have difficulty holding their breath for even a full minute, let alone four.
Holding one's breath during a stressful activity like combat, by the way, uses up oxygen much more quickly. Assume that a character can hold her breath for a number of turns equal to twice her Stamina score during combat.
Stamina
Time
1
30 Seconds
2
One Minute
3
Two Minutes
4
Four Minutes
5
Eight minutes
6
15 Minutes
7
20 Minutes
8
30 minutes
When a character can no longer hold her breath, she begins to drown. She takes on health level of lethal damage each turn. She cannot regenerate this damage, regardless of form, until she can breathe again. When she reaches Incapacitated she reverts to her breed form, and she will die in a number of turns equal to her Stamina.
Radiation and Toxic Waste
Many of the Wyrm's "holy sites" on Earth are located on or near irradiated landscapes. Also, some Wyrm servitors use radiation-based attacks. In general, such damage is resolved in the same way as fire and extreme heat, but it takes twice as long to heal.
Silver
Silver, the lunar metal, is a werewolf's great weakness. What's wrose, it is common knowledge, even among most humans, that a silver weapon will kill a werewolf. Of course, fashioning weapons -- especially bullets -- out of silver requires a skilled blacksmith or gunsmith, but it can be done.
Silver causes werewolves one level of aggravated damage per turn of contact, unless the werewolf is a homid or lupus who is in her breed form. For a homid in Homid form or lupus in Lupus form, silver causes no damage through casual contact, although a weapon made of silver will cause normal damage for that weapon. A successful attack on a Garou in any other form will always cause at least one level of damage, no matter how many successes one rolls. Garou cannot soak damage from silver weapons, except in their breed form. Metis Garou cannot soak silver damage at all, regardless of their form.
Some Garou carry silver, usually in the form of weaponry such as klaives. Doing so, however, comes with a price. The Garou's natural allergy to silver causes a reduction to his eddective Gnosis. This loss remains in effect in all forms, including Homid. If the Garou discards the silver object(s), the effect fades after a day.
For every five silver objects a pack carries, all its members suffer this reduction. In addition, carrying too many silver objects, especially bullets, may cause a loss of Honor or Wisdom for the pack (not to mention being rather difficult to obtain).
Object
Gnosis Loss
Silver bullets
1 point/5 bullets
Klaive
1 point
Grand Klaive
2 points
Battle Scars
Garou can heal most forms of damage without ill effect. Whil a human whose leg is savaged by a wolf will probably lose some muscular function in that leg (if not the entire leg istself), a werewolf can grow her muscle tissue back and walk again in mere days.
However, some injuries --particularly those caused by other Garou -- are severe enough to cause lasting damage. Such wounds occur whenever a character must channel her Rage to remain active, and they may also occur if the werewolf suffers a particularly brutal and/or localized attack.
&nbap;&nbap;&nbap;&nbap;&nbap;Example: Sings-with-Wind, a Child of Gaia Theurge, is capture by Black Spiral Dancers and tortured. Specifically, they slive open his arms with silver knives and sever the connecting tendons. Sings later escapes, and, although he was technically never taken below Wounded, the Storyteller rules that his arm has been maimed beyond use, granting him a Battle Scar.
Battle Scars can range in game effect from cosmetic damage to bran damage. Any Battle Scar grants a Renown award in the form of temporary Glory. Healing a Battle Scar causes a loss of one temporary Glory (although some tribes especially the Children of Gaia and the Glass Walkers, sometimes recognize the Wisdom in doing so).
A list of sample Battle Scars follows, along with the Glory bonus for each one. When assignng Battle Scars, the Storyteller should choose the one that makes the most sense. A character who suffers repeated blows to the head is not going to end up gelded, although he may suffer brain damage.
This list is by no means exhaustive, and the Storyteller should feel free to come up with her own interpretations of massive trauma. When assigning Glory awards for such injuries, remember that more visible scars tend to carry larger awards.
Superficial Scars: Large, ugly masses of scar tissue mar your character's body and remain hairless in all forms. These scars have no game effect, other than possibly reducing Appearance in some situations. (Some people find scars sexy, though.) 1 temporary Glory.
Deep Scar: Much the same as a superficial scar, except that muscles are affected as well, and the scar aches when the humidity changes. 1 temporary Glory.
Improper Bone Setting: One of your bones snapped and did not heal properly. This wound might result in a slight loss of muscle function, but the real problem occurs if that area of your body receives two or more health levels of damage at once in the future. If this occurs, the bone snaps again, causing an additional lethal wound. 1 temporary Glory.
Cosmetic Damage: A catchall term for readily visible injuries, such as a missing ear, a hare lip or an exposed part of the skull. None of it has any really debilitating effect, but it looks grotesque to humans and impressive to Garou. Reduce Appearance by one dot when dealing with humans, unless you cover or conceal the damage. 2 temporary Glory.
Broken Jaw: Similar to Improper Bone Setting, your jaw was shattered, and it is now out of alignment with your tongue. Add tow to any verbal communication difficulties when using human speech, and add one to bite-attack difficulties. Also, your speech is slurred (roleplay accordingly). 1 temporary Glory.
Missing Eye: Simply put, one of your eyes was gouged out. The difficulties on all rolls involving depth perception or to fire a missile weapon (including thrown weapons) increase by three. Any Perception roll based on sight take a +2 difficulty penalty. 2 temporary Glory.
Gelded: Your reproductive systems has been damaged. You are incapable of siring or bearing children, and ou cannot ever hope to see your own pups breed true. Males with this wound are not necessarily impotent, and may still be capable of seduction and using Animal Attraction, but the difficulties for both increase by two. 1 temporary Glory.
Collapsed Lung: One of your lungs was punctured during battle. You find it difficult to breathe and to exert yourself. You lose one die on any Stamina roll involving exertion. In addition, you may hold your breath for only half the time listed on the previous chart. 1 temporary Glory.
Missing Fingers: You have lost at least three fingers on one hand. Dexterity rolls involving that hand suffer a +3 difficulty penalty, and claw damage from that hand is halves (rounded down). 2 temporary Glory.
Maimed Limb: One of your limbs has been mauled and is now useless. You move at half speed in all forms (if a leg is damaged) or three-quaters speed in Hispo and Lupus (if your character lost an arm). You are not able to use the limb for any purpose. 3 temporary Glory.
Spinal Damage: Your spine was fractured, and you have trouble keeping your balance. Your Dexterity is reduced by one, you lose two points from your initiative rating, and you must spend Willpower on any roll involving balance, precision or remaining still. 2 temporary Glory.
Brain Damage: Severe damage to the head, or perhaps lack of oxygen for a long period of time, has reduced your mental faculties. You lose one dot from one Mental Attribute (Storytellers choice). Additionally, you must roll one die and subtract the result from Gnosis, Willpower or Knowledges (player's choice of where these points are lost). You are probably partially amnesiac as well. 2 temporary Glory.
Aging
Natural death is not terribly common among werewolves. A werewolf's regenerative powers can grant him some measure of added longevity -- a werewolf could conceivaly live to 120 or so before his body finally gives out entirely --but there are precious few examples of such elders. Most werewolves die in battle, and those that don't usually choose to die in accordance with the Litany rather than face the shame of old age and uselessness.
"Old age," of course, its relative. Some Garou continue to be useful members of their septs as advisors and ritemasters, even if they can no longer be warriors. Aging carries with it certain infirmities though. Among them are senility (decreas in Mental Attributes), frailty (decrease in Physical Attributes) and loss of Rage -- many old Garou lose the wolf permanently. The specifics are up to the Storyteller to devise, should it ever become necessary. But let's face it, it probably won't.
Some Garou choose to retire and live out their remaining years among humans or wolves. Some disappear into the Umbra to find their tribal homeland. Some simply wander off into the woods to die at peace with themselves and Gaia.
