1 Per three points to spend on Willpower, Rage, or Gnosis 1 Totem can speak to the pack without the benefit of the Gift: Spirit Speech. 1 Totem can always find the pack members. 2 Totem is nearly always with the pack members. 2 Totem is respected by other spirits. 2 Per charm possessed 3 Per extra pack member who can use the totem’s powers in the same turn 4 Totem is connected mystically to all pack mem­ bers, allowing communication among them even at great distances. 5 Totem is feared by agents of the Wyrm. Either minions of the Wyrm flee from the pack, or they do their best to kill the pack.

The listed cost is in Background points, which can be bought through experience (see Spending Experience Points, p. 244) at the rate of two experience points per Background point. (Therefore, three points of Rage would

PERSONAL TOTEMS

Some werewolves seek out a personal totem, pledging themselves to service of their totem above all others. This is certainly possible, though not common among the Garou — to take a personal totem indicates that a werewolf values his relationship with the spirit as greater than the relationship he could get with a pack.

An individual werewolf can have a personal totem by taking the Totem Background at a level enough to pay the cost of the totem. The character can have more than five dots in Totem at character creation (through spending freebie points) to achieve this. If she increases her Totem Background with experience points, her personal totem increases in power as noted above.

Taking a personal totem has downsides. If the character joins another pack, he doesn’t get any benefits of that pack’s totem unless he relinquishes his connection to his personal totem. Until then, he’s never really part of the pack in a way that the other members are: any Gifts or rites that affect the pack do not include the character, and he cannot be a part of any pack tactics. For many werewolves who take a personal totem, that doesn’t matter — whether eking out a solitary existence on the streets or teaming up with other denizens of the World of Darkness, a personal totem allows them to feel a little bit more like part of a pack.

cost two experience points.) The Storyteller should allow increases in totem powers only when it fits in to the story, such as when pack members gain a higher rank, a new member joins the pack, or when pack members gain new insight into the nature of their totem. When the totem is affiliated with a more powerful spirit, the greater spirit might grant the strengthening of its servant (pack totem) in return for a great service done it by the pack.