Participatory lycanthropy
Participatory lycanthropy
female werewolves in Werewolf: The Apocalypse
This chapter examines the table-top roleplaying game, Werewolf: The Apocalypse (World of Darkness), and explores the ways in which gender is constructed and used in story and gameplay. The chapter begins with an analysis of ‘narrative’ in RPGs, identifying the complex interplay of corebook ‘story’ and the mechanics of gameplay. This analysis informs an examination of the specifics of Apocalypse, and the chapter’s central argument that ‘female’ (or feminised) werewolves can be read in a ‘narrative’ that need not contain any female characters. Comparison is made with a later World of Darkness game, Werewolf: The Forsaken to reveal the mechanisms of gendering at work in Apocalypse; the chapter also situates this particular RPG within a history of constructing the female werewolf, identifying key tropes and traditions that are significant to the game’s particular narrative strategy.
Keywords: Game, RPGs, World of Darkness, Narrative, Feminisation, Werewolves
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