Werewolf Senses

A werewolf's sight, hearing and olfactory senses all sharpen dramatically. Use of any activated sense causes a momentary flash of the Wolf's Eyes.

• Sharp Senses: May add Primal Urge rating to Perception checks of all kinds.
• Heartbeats: Werewolves can also hear the stutter of the heartbeat that comes when someone tells a lie or is afraid. This grants the werewolf 9-Agains on Empathy rolls to detect those traits in someone in their presence.
• Low Light Vision: Werewolves can see with perfect detail in low-light conditions.
• Hearing Sensitivity: In addition to being able to notice more, the ranges at which reasonable hearing-based Perception tests are strongly increased, by roughly a factor of ten. Unfortunately, this means that they are vulnerable to unexpected loud noises, particularly if they are actively listening to something beyond the range of normal hearing when it occurs.
• Scent: Werewolves have dramatically increased senses of smell, and are able to make normal perception checks to examine scent the way a human might examine something visual or auditory. This roll is at a -2 penalty while in human form, however.
• Tracking: A werewolf can even track using his sense of smell, using a Wits + Survival roll to do so (with the normal bonuses and penalties for such Perception rolls applied).

Olfactory Senses

Scent Familiarity

There are five degrees of Scent Familarity: Unknown, Encountered, Recognized, Familiar, and Intimate. The modifiers in parentheses are • Unknown: You have never encountered this person's scent before. It is entirely new to you. • Encountered: You have caught this scent a time or two before; while you may recognize it, you won't necessarily connect it with a person's identity. This is the level of familiarity if a werewolf has had occasion to get someone's scent by incident, or only a single time before deliberately. (Example: Someone encountered occasionally at coffeeshop or in a large class.) • Recognized: The scent is one you've scented before, and can connect it to a person. This is the level of familiarity if a werewolf has had several occasions to get someone's scent, whether by accident or intention. (Example: Someone worked with on a school project, or played sports against.) • Familiar: The scent is one that is very familiar to you, and you know it well. This is the level of familiarity if a werewolf has had multiple instances of more than casual encounters with the person's scent. (Example: A teammate you play sports with, or a housemate.) • Intimate: You are extremely familiar with this scent; chances are good that you often smell of it somewhat yourself. This is the level of familiarity if a werewolf is extremely intertwined with someone's life. (Example: Lover, family, packmate.)

Using a wolf's olfactory senses works in one of three ways: to detect the scent of an individual, to detect the scents in a location, or to track. These are always Wits + Survival + Primal Urge rolls, and are considered Perception tests for mechanics that affect them.

Scenting a Person

• Modifiers: Person is perspiring or bleeding (+2) • Cold environment (-1 - -3)

For each success on the roll, the werewolf may gain the answer to one of the following questions. Additionally, a werewolf may use one such success to upgrade their current Scent Familiarity with that person.

• What is their general health? (This will often reveal the presence of injuries, illnesses, and even reproductive status in women.)
• What is their most prevalent emotion?
• Who have they spent close contact with recently? (This will also reveal if the interaction was sexual or not.)
• What places have they been very recently? (This will reveal only places that the werewolf is familiar with.)

Scenting an Area

• By the same token, an olfactory investigation of an area can turn up information that might not crop up for others. This is made at a modifier based on the size of the area to be investigated.
• Modifiers: Small room size (+1), large room size (+0), small apartment (-1), house (-2), large shop (-3), warehouse (-4)

For each success on the roll, the werewolf may gain the answer to one of the following questions.

• Do I recognize any of the scents? (Only grants knowledge of Recognized, Familiar, and Intimate scents)
• How many people were here in the last hour/day?
• Did any violence occur here? (If there was bloodshed, answering this question usually leads to the bloodshed in question.)
• What were the most powerful emotions here?

Tracking

• See Tracking by Scent for mechanics on using heightened olfactory senses to track.