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Animalism Remastered
Publisher: White Wolf by DSC T. G. C. _. [Verified Purchaser]	Date Added: 08/15/2024 09:58:40

The material is an entire rework of the Discipline of Animalism. As such, we are going to be doing comparisons to the official material, and commenting on the application and balance of the powers as necessary. There are a number of rules that don't play well with the core material such as the Discipline Bonus and Discipline Bane. They are mentioned in the information as being optional, and so can be left on the cutting floor. That said, if you do use them, remember that they're going to provide bigger bonuses (such as the Discipline bonus for Animalism being bonus dice to Frenzy tests) than things the core book math is built around. The book in general feels like it's definitely geared towards a more 'high powered' game, as there are powers that are the same as existing powers, or slightly tweaked versions, but at a lower level. Many of the powers are 'upgrades' to proir powers, not unprecedented in the official books (such as Ghost in the Machine) but something to keep in mind. The way the Discipline works is also weird, as most of the powers have a target # of successes needed to activate (this is clearly denoted in the rules), but then also have a resistance roll (which must meet or beat the roll on activation), and normally official powers either just activate on the successful Rouse Check or activate and then have the resisted roll. It's a weird design choice that adds more factors to play with the power simply failing to work on a bad roll.

The intro fiction is very nice. Short but also quite something a Gangrel, tired of the world, would say.
There are sidebars and design note sections throughout the book, explaining optional rules or new mechanics. The first is about limiting powers by BP that doesn't line up with the base game, as BP0 characters (Thin-Bloods) don't have Disciplines as normal. Not sure if this is an oversight or part of this whole series to allow TBs to have Level 1 powers. The second creates Wild Resonance for animals, which also mentions Resonance Negatives that are explained in a later section (Resonance Negatives are, as it says on the tin, bad things that come from having certain Resonances in your system).
Level 1 powers. Sense the Beast is pretty straightforward, you can identify if something is supernatural or not. Shepherd's Innocence is offsetting the 'animal aversion to Kindred' which is mentioned in the Animal Ken description. Bond Famulus is basically a rework of the core, though it adds a weird 'animals can't get its masters' powers' limiter (the core book animal ghouls can, as they're just a ghoul). Feral Speech is basically Feral Whispers but at Level 1. Animal Succulence is reworked to allow animals to be fed on up to BP4, and also lowered from Level 3 to Level 1.
Level 2 powers. Pact With Animals grants dice bonuses to rolls involving the highest Attribute of an animal that was fed upon. This is only a +1 die bonus (written as 1 dice in the text) but can compound to quite powerful at high BP due to how the Discipline Power Bonus works. Feral Whispers is reworked, and is basically telepathic Feral Speech on animals within your line of sight. Atavism forces fear frenzy in prey animals and anger frenzy in predatory animals within visual range and 100 meters (probably needs clarification, if a house is in visual range and in 100 meters and has a dog will it go wild?). Wild Summons summons all of a specific animal type within 1 kilometre/half-mile. Eye of the Swarm allows use of Animalism on insects with some exceptions.
Level 3 powers. Song of Serenity is a reworked core Quell the Beast to end Frenzy or modify its length. Quell the Beast is there but rewritten to debuff Disciplines by halving(!) all activation dice pools. Crimson Fury makes those who drink their blood frenzy and possibly stunned for a round. Tainted Oasis puts blood in an animal's water supply to bond them. Twist the Feral Will is Dominate but for animals.
Level 4 powers. Subsume Spirit is a reworked version of the base power, with more explanation about how it interacts with the Upgrades in the book. Conquer the Beast is self-induced frenzy. Drawing out the Predator induces Frenzy in another target, though it doesn't specify which kind of Frenzy (the fluff implies anger frenzy, though).
Level 5 powers. Animal Dominion lets you use Animalism powers, with two exceptions, on multiple animals at once. Unchained Fury puts a character into frenzy and then... forces them to attack themselves for one round of combat (so basically whatever they use to damage they just take it on the chin), then the Frenzy becomes normal. This is a very odd effect.
There are animal companions with attribtues/skills/special abilities. At least the cat here can't kill a starting character. There are also some weird design choices here, such as a lion's attacks being Unhalved Superficial damage against Kindred (We assume it's because of the size/trauma of the lion, but at the same time being cut to ribbons with a sword does get halved, so it's an odd design choice).
Wild Resonance is a bit odd. So it was mentioned earlier that you get a bonus and negative. It also allows you to buy powers from existing Disciplines at a reduced XP cost of 1 per level. The bonuses are more like Dyscrasia bonuses that last in the system, rather tha simple dice bonuses to Disciplines. For example, Feline Resonance gives a +1 dice to any Dexterity-based roll while the negative is that you take a -2 dice penalty to Intelligence rolls when they require patience or concentration. It's way more fiddly than the core resonance system and, like many things in here, doesn't play well without the other Remastereds.

Overall we would give Animalism Remastered a 3/5. We feel like it's decently written and flavorful, but definitely not designed for use in a chronicle where the majority of characters are using mostly official powers. The way these powers are written, and their effect on balance or issues due to underlying math, make them not great unless you're really using the rest of the Remastered series in your game. That said, if you want a more powerful Discipline for Animalism or are willing to work on the math to bring stuff in-line with the core material, then it can probably add a few decent new tricks to your game.

Rating:

[3 of 5 Stars!]