Werewolf: The Apocalypse vs When the Moon Hangs Low
Compare Werewolf: The Apocalypse and When the Moon Hangs Low side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.
| Werewolf: The Apocalypse | When the Moon Hangs Low | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Horror, Modern, Fantasy | Horror, Fantasy |
| Tags | Atmospheric, Base-Building, Character Building, Character-Driven, Corruption, Drama, Lore-Heavy, Strong GM Support, Superpowers, Urban Fantasy | Fear & Stress Mechanics, Dark Fantasy, Corruption, Investigation, Faction Play, Tactical, Solo-Friendly, Mission-Based |
| Core Mechanic | Build a d10 dice pool, usually from an Attribute plus a Skill. Each 6 or higher is a success, and meeting the Storyteller-set Difficulty wins. Each pair of 10s counts as four successes. Rage dice replace regular dice up to current Rage and can cause Brutal outcomes. | Roll a pool of d6 equal to the stat tied to the skill and count successes, with each die succeeding on 5–6 when Untrained, 4–6 when Trained, and 3–6 when Mastered. The number of successes must meet or beat a Difficulty Value set by the Gamemaster. Bonus and penalty dice adjust the pool. A penalty die that rolls 5–6 cancels a success. Opposed checks compare success counts instead of a fixed Difficulty Value. |
| Dice | d10 dice pool | d6 dice pool |
| Complexity | High | High |
| Accessibility | Medium | Medium |
| Runnability | Very High | Low |
| License | All Rights Reserved | Proprietary |
| Third-Party Publishing | Commercial publishing allowed — Storytellers Vault | Not yet researched |
| Summary only, not legal advice. Check current terms before publishing. | ||
| Cost | $$ | $$ |
| Publisher | Renegade Game Studios | Isolation Games |
| Year | 2023 | 2023 |
| Languages | English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Polish, Portuguese | English |
| Best For | Groups who want long-form modern horror about shapeshifter packs defending communities from ecological and spiritual threats, with violent power constrained by moral and social consequences. | Groups who want gothic-horror monster-hunting and investigation on a contract-driven mission structure, where characters carry a permanent curse that escalates as they lean on their powers. Also supports solo or GM-less play through the built-in Lone Hunter rules. |
| Highlights | Brutal outcomes can force destructive failures or add four successes to actions the Storyteller judges can benefit from Rage. Choosing a Garou form changes a character's capabilities, creating tactical and narrative options. Caerns give the pack an improvable spiritual home whose traits connect campaign advancement to territory and community. | Each of the twelve Marks grants a supernatural Boon paired with a Curse that advances a stage every time the hunter runs out of Resolve, so power comes bundled with an escalating personal cost. Influence earned by bluffing, charming, or intimidating a faction accumulates as a spendable resource that buys concrete favors from four rival powers, turning social play into a persistent currency. A full Lone Hunter mode replaces the Gamemaster's difficulties with a success-tier table and twist tables, letting the same character and dice run solo without a separate ruleset. |
| Considerations | A Crinos-form Garou who did not kill in the previous turn must spend Willpower at the start of the next turn or enter frenzy, making the war form difficult to sustain outside violent scenes. Harano and Hauglosk can remove a Garou from play when despair or absolutism fills either track, making moral decline a campaign-level consequence. The game centers mature environmental and spiritual horror, including graphic violence and themes of exploitation and extremism that require deliberate table boundaries. | A hunter's Mark is chosen at creation and can never be changed, locking in both its Boon and the eventual monstrous transformation the character is fated toward. The setting leaves its central mysteries, including the nature of the Bitter Sacrament and the buried ympir, deliberately unanswered for each Gamemaster to resolve or not. Most antagonists are Minions that never roll to Parry, Dodge, or Counterattack, so rank-and-file fights reduce to attackers rolling against a fixed number instead of opposed checks. |