As with Rage and Gnosis, spending a Willpower point is recorded on the Willpower pool squares, and not on the permanent rating dots.
As a character spends Willpower, he finds his reserves becoming depleted. With no Willpower left, characters are exhausted and unable to summon the inner strength to perform their duties. They will not care what happens to them, since they have no Willpower to go on.
| Dots | Status |
|---|---|
| 1 | Spineless |
| 2 | Weak |
| 3 | Unassertive |
| 4 | Diffident |
| 5 | Certain |
| 6 | Confident |
| 7 | Determined |
| 8 | Controlled |
| 9 | Iron-willed |
| 10 | Unshakable |
Using Willpower
- Automatic Actions: Spending a Willpower point on an action gives the player one extra success on any roll. Only one point can be spent this way each turn, but the success is guaranteed. Spending Willpower in this way completely negates the effects of a botch. Some rolls do not allow a character to spend Willpower, including damage rolls or any roll to activate Gifts.
- Uncontrollable Urges: Garou are instinctual creatures, and can find the Beast within reacting to stimuli without conscious thought. The Storyteller may inform you that your character has done something from a primal urge, like getting away from fire or attacking a creature of the Wyrm. A Willpower point can be spent to negate this gut reaction and keep the Garou right where he is. On rare occasions, the player must keep spending Willpower points until the character removes himself from the situation or runs out of Willpower.
- Halting Frenzies As mentioned previously, a character flies into a frenzy whenever her player rolls more than four successes on a Rage roll. This situation can be averted if the player spends a Willpower point to remain in control. More information on frenzies can be found on p. 261.
- Fighting On: When a werewolf is injured, her wounds can make it hard for her to concentrate, represented by wound penalties to her actions. By spending a point of Willpower, she can ignore the wound penalties on a single roll.
Recovering Willpower
Characters must be able to rest in order to regain Willpower. Between their ongoing battles against the Wyrm and its minions, the daily rituals and duties of the human side of their lives, Garou often do not have time to take a breath. This section presents three different ways characters can regain their Willpower; it’s up to the Storyteller which of these methods she uses.
- When a story completes: When a story is complete, characters can regain all their Willpower. This act should be reserved for story endings, not necessarily the end of each session. The Storyteller may allow the characters to regain only as much Willpower as she feels they deserve for the goal they accomplished.
- Personal Victories: Characters who achieve a personal victory in the framework of the larger story can regain some amount of Willpower. These victories should relate directly to the character, such as confronting a personal enemy or overcoming a vice. The Storyteller rules whether a character has regained some or all of his self-confidence by this action.
- Auspice: If a character performed his auspice duties particularly well, she might regain one to three Willpower points. This method is subject to the Storyteller’s approval, and it relies largely on the roleplaying skills of the player.
Note
In addition to these methods, characters regain one point of Willpower when they wake up each day. While not as involved or satisfying as the above methods, it does allow werewolves to keep moving even when all hope seems lost.