What do you think?
Rate this book
Predators
Hunt or be Hunted
The world of werewolves is fear made flesh. Pain, terror and hatred all take physical form, and all hunt for prey. The Forsaken are well aware of these horrific threats, and pit themselves against their enemies when the moon rises. But are werewolves the predators... or are they the prey?
Blood Flows Under a Full Moon
An antagonists supplement for The Forsaken, Predators contains a horde of threats to pit against the werewolves of your chronicle. Inside are details on spirit foes from beyond the Gauntlet, and the Ridden they possess. Also included is information on the mad Rat and Spider Hosts, and on monstrous foes from the darkest past. Whether you need foes for a short and brutal encounter or a long and harrowing hunt, nothing fits the bill like a book full of predators.
The world of werewolves is fear made flesh. Pain, terror and hatred all take physical form, and all hunt for prey. The Forsaken are well aware of these horrific threats, and pit themselves against their enemies when the moon rises. But are werewolves the predators... or are they the prey?
Blood Flows Under a Full Moon
An antagonists supplement for The Forsaken, Predators contains a horde of threats to pit against the werewolves of your chronicle. Inside are details on spirit foes from beyond the Gauntlet, and the Ridden they possess. Also included is information on the mad Rat and Spider Hosts, and on monstrous foes from the darkest past. Whether you need foes for a short and brutal encounter or a long and harrowing hunt, nothing fits the bill like a book full of predators.
188 pages, Hardcover
First published June 27, 2005
29 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
November 2, 2013
This was overall a pretty well done book, albeit with some obvious flaws and some weird facts.
I would go from ok to good, depending on which chapter, when it comes down to rating this. There are some grammatical errors in it, but they are few and far between and considered the size of the book that was to be expected.
Technically each chapter could be a small book in and on itself since they have no connection apart from the fact that they are threats the Uratha werewolves can face, or hunt. Sure the first three have the connection that each threat has its origin in the spirit world, but the fourth doesn't. Also the first deals mostly with spirit threats, while the other three are about beings acting mostly in the physical word. So I think it makes most sense to review the book chapter for chapter:
Prologue and Introduction
The prologue was a well written little piece of fiction. The most common threats are introduced and we get to see some elements of the Spirit world and even the society of the Uratha. The story shows emotional conflict, territorial disputes and the horrors that come with this life. It was a fitting start for the book and the Introduction does a decent job to make it clear why it is a bad idea to not have your characters react appropriately to big threats and why you should not play big threats down. I just wish some authors I know off would have kept that advice in mind.
Chapter 1 – The Spirits
I would say of all chapters, this was the weakest. The spirits presented are clearly tightly fitted to the USA and especially the animal spirits don't really come along like actual spiritual reflections of said animals. Also there is a flaw in the whole "the two worlds reflect each other" topic of this universe.
What is presented about how to deal with spirits, what stories they can provide and also how they organize is enough for an entire anthology and their organization actually is a reflection on how things are in the real world. What they also did better are all the conceptual spirits (spirits of emotions etc.) but they did best with the hybrid spirits called Magath, the ancestor spirits of the werewolves and especially their horrifying spirit children that are born out of the forbidden union of two werewolves.
All in all I would give this chapter an ok.
Chapter 2 – The Spirit-Ridden
The chapter started with a nice and gruesome short story and overall it was an improvement over the previous chapter. I think the rules and examples on the three different sorts of spirit ridden makes sense (e.g. how it starts, how it works, how it changes the ridden being) and make a nice set to built your own monster, complete with game traits and example powers.
However I do wonder why the Claimed beings were nearly exclusively human even when it often makes no sense, e.g. why should a cougar spirit claim a human if it wants to hunt in flesh? Claiming a cougar would make more sense. Also, as usual, when the book refers to actual animal behavior it sucks, it should really have stayed with completely made up stuff.
I would give this chapter a good.
Chapter 3 – The Hosts
This part of the book is where it is at its strongest. These "Hosts" are truly monstrous hybrids of the spiritual and the material, with their own disgusting and twisted powers and mindsets.
Basically what they did here is take five animals, take the stereotypes best suited for horror about them and use that to build their monsters.
Their origin stories and what they basically are, is something I have rarely seen so far, so it is a nice change. The book even suggests that the presented stories about them are simply the most prevalent and are basically there because the werewolves mostly deal with the Spider and Rat hosts and not with the three other (and optional) ones which suggest that other, lesser known stories might be true.
Since they are most prevalent of all Hosts, the chapter deals mostly with the rats and the spiders, starting with the most basic forms to their hideous hybrid forms. The powers they have are often horrifying and simply disgusting, making them all the more monstrous and twisted. There is basically only one problem I have with these two Hosts: While it makes sense that all Spider Hosts are female, why are the humans they chose as Hosts (btw. their way of "possessing" a human is on a horror level with the birth of a Ridley Scott Alien) or merge with nearly exclusively female and for the Rat Hosts all are male? That is a pretty weird choice if you ask me and smells a bit of sexism.
The other three Hosts get only a short introduction, which is a bit of a shame since I think they make equally good horror material (you should see how these Locusts "possess a human").
All in all I would say this book is excellent and very inspirational horror material, something I wish I would see on the big screen, and I give this chapter a very good.
Chapter 4 – Horrors of an Ancient Age
The last chapter is something I am divided over. It is still a better one than chapter one but I think it lacks in originality. The optional creatures presented here work but something is missing in most of them to make them feel truly this book's own monsters.
As the title suggests these are monsters from an ancient past, of unknown origin and possible unique. Now while they all make formidable antagonists I cannot help but feel that some of them are very familiar and this kind of ruins some of the fun you have with these monsters. The seemingly more original creations work much better and are more engaging I think. But still the optional stories about them and their powers are good starting material for horror stories, even if some are a bit cliché. So for this chapter I am somewhere between ok and good.
I would go from ok to good, depending on which chapter, when it comes down to rating this. There are some grammatical errors in it, but they are few and far between and considered the size of the book that was to be expected.
Technically each chapter could be a small book in and on itself since they have no connection apart from the fact that they are threats the Uratha werewolves can face, or hunt. Sure the first three have the connection that each threat has its origin in the spirit world, but the fourth doesn't. Also the first deals mostly with spirit threats, while the other three are about beings acting mostly in the physical word. So I think it makes most sense to review the book chapter for chapter:
Prologue and Introduction
The prologue was a well written little piece of fiction. The most common threats are introduced and we get to see some elements of the Spirit world and even the society of the Uratha. The story shows emotional conflict, territorial disputes and the horrors that come with this life. It was a fitting start for the book and the Introduction does a decent job to make it clear why it is a bad idea to not have your characters react appropriately to big threats and why you should not play big threats down. I just wish some authors I know off would have kept that advice in mind.
Chapter 1 – The Spirits
I would say of all chapters, this was the weakest. The spirits presented are clearly tightly fitted to the USA and especially the animal spirits don't really come along like actual spiritual reflections of said animals. Also there is a flaw in the whole "the two worlds reflect each other" topic of this universe.
What is presented about how to deal with spirits, what stories they can provide and also how they organize is enough for an entire anthology and their organization actually is a reflection on how things are in the real world. What they also did better are all the conceptual spirits (spirits of emotions etc.) but they did best with the hybrid spirits called Magath, the ancestor spirits of the werewolves and especially their horrifying spirit children that are born out of the forbidden union of two werewolves.
All in all I would give this chapter an ok.
Chapter 2 – The Spirit-Ridden
The chapter started with a nice and gruesome short story and overall it was an improvement over the previous chapter. I think the rules and examples on the three different sorts of spirit ridden makes sense (e.g. how it starts, how it works, how it changes the ridden being) and make a nice set to built your own monster, complete with game traits and example powers.
However I do wonder why the Claimed beings were nearly exclusively human even when it often makes no sense, e.g. why should a cougar spirit claim a human if it wants to hunt in flesh? Claiming a cougar would make more sense. Also, as usual, when the book refers to actual animal behavior it sucks, it should really have stayed with completely made up stuff.
I would give this chapter a good.
Chapter 3 – The Hosts
This part of the book is where it is at its strongest. These "Hosts" are truly monstrous hybrids of the spiritual and the material, with their own disgusting and twisted powers and mindsets.
Basically what they did here is take five animals, take the stereotypes best suited for horror about them and use that to build their monsters.
Their origin stories and what they basically are, is something I have rarely seen so far, so it is a nice change. The book even suggests that the presented stories about them are simply the most prevalent and are basically there because the werewolves mostly deal with the Spider and Rat hosts and not with the three other (and optional) ones which suggest that other, lesser known stories might be true.
Since they are most prevalent of all Hosts, the chapter deals mostly with the rats and the spiders, starting with the most basic forms to their hideous hybrid forms. The powers they have are often horrifying and simply disgusting, making them all the more monstrous and twisted. There is basically only one problem I have with these two Hosts: While it makes sense that all Spider Hosts are female, why are the humans they chose as Hosts (btw. their way of "possessing" a human is on a horror level with the birth of a Ridley Scott Alien) or merge with nearly exclusively female and for the Rat Hosts all are male? That is a pretty weird choice if you ask me and smells a bit of sexism.
The other three Hosts get only a short introduction, which is a bit of a shame since I think they make equally good horror material (you should see how these Locusts "possess a human").
All in all I would say this book is excellent and very inspirational horror material, something I wish I would see on the big screen, and I give this chapter a very good.
Chapter 4 – Horrors of an Ancient Age
The last chapter is something I am divided over. It is still a better one than chapter one but I think it lacks in originality. The optional creatures presented here work but something is missing in most of them to make them feel truly this book's own monsters.
As the title suggests these are monsters from an ancient past, of unknown origin and possible unique. Now while they all make formidable antagonists I cannot help but feel that some of them are very familiar and this kind of ruins some of the fun you have with these monsters. The seemingly more original creations work much better and are more engaging I think. But still the optional stories about them and their powers are good starting material for horror stories, even if some are a bit cliché. So for this chapter I am somewhere between ok and good.
Displaying 1 of 1 review