he pack includes Wolf-Blooded and a few humans who know the truth about werewolves. They act as lieutenants for the werewolves. The Wolf-Blooded can provide useful assistance, especially those who can open themselves to spirits, or act as loci. These packmates look after the pack’s territory, deal with spirits, and perform the pack’s duties while the werewolves engage in the siskur-dah. Those normal humans at this level carry enough of the totem’s blessing that they are no longer part of the herd, and thus the Oath of the Moon’s requirement that The Herd Must Not Know does not apply to them. The totem is properly part of the pack, binding to the werewolves is synthesis rather than servitude. As a result, the totem operates under different rules to other spirits in the eyes of the Uratha, and joins the siskur-dah in the Shadow.

A small number of packs elevate Wolf-Blooded to their inner circle, allowing her to join the siskur-dah, either because the pack doesn’t have enough werewolves to go around, or because they have to split their members. Though this brings the Wolf-Blooded closer to the werewolves, neither Father Luna nor Mother Wolf ever intended the Wolf-Blooded to hunt. It’s not their role in the universe, and those who do hunt open themselves to grave danger that they’re ill-equipped to handle.

So, what do I think of new packs? Well, to be fair, the basic premise of this was presented last week, so it's not a new concept. But that said...

FUCK YEAH, WEREWOLVES ARE NOW OCCULTIC FIGURES! Werewolves, more so than any other supernatural template(save Promethean), have missed out on the sense of being the center of mystical attention, as keystones of a cult, normally because of that entire "Herd Must Not Know" thing. This has steadily started becoming a real downer since with the release of Mummy, human involvement in monstrous affairs has been a growing matter, even if 'Cult' isn't a Blood and Smoke merit directly, But now it's changed-the Uratha can play as anything from the wolf-headed demigods they were in Bau to fellows in a mass of sharp toothed individuals. I said it last week, and I say it again-I love cult/gangs, and I particularly love the earlier mentioned affair of werewolves holding 'mass' in a church, paying chiminage to the totem.(It doesn't hurt that I caught up on Gunnerkrigg Court and found Coyote's true form very Forsaken)

I'm having a thought towards Kyoko Sakura from Madoka Magica, but that's neither here nor there.

We didn't talk about the mechanics of packs, but I'm assuming that totem's will be cleaned up from a proto-krewe mechanic to a post-krewe refinement(yes, talking about GtSE here), which will be much appreciated-I never actually liked the base totem rules. My only question is if humans in a pack receive benefits-I imagine they will, but confirmation is a nice thing.

WEREWOLVES HAVE TOUCHSTONES! WEREWOLVES HAVE TOUCHSTONES! FUCK YES!

I really like the Touchstone mechanic, both as a mechanic and as a necessary character narrative element. I really despise the idea that a character is alone and associates with no one and in particular has no ties to their own lives. Touchstones were a smart way of counteracting that train of thought and make WoD games more a game of relationships through mechanical benefits. I was hoping they'd be a thing from Vampire on, and it looks like they are. The fact that werewolves can have them both ways is also really neat.