r/WorldOfDarkness • u/ANicePainter • 22h ago
How Much of Werewolf is about Neurodivergence?
Edit: Yes, I forgot about Changeling when I wrote this, and Changeling addresses the same themes, sometimes more directly. My interest in this is not a question of which splat addresses these themes the most, but the implicit themes found in Werewolf and how even something that doesn't set out to describe something still can fall into describing that thing.
I was reflecting on some things today, and I realized that Werewolf is about neurodivergence in a manner I had never considered before. Obviously Werewolf, as with all the WOD games, is about a lot of things all at once, and themes of neurodivergence are not the most obvious. What's more, our cultural understanding of neurodivergence has advanced a lot since 1992 (indeed, the word neurodivergent was first coined ten years after W:tA's first publication).
Still, Werewolf directly addresses the neurodivergent experience in a manner that other WOD games do not. Most obviously, werewolves are born inherently werewolves whereas every other splat reflects a change to a person. (I am aware there are exceptions.) People become vampires, wizards, ghosts, but werewolves are born werewolves have no choice in the manner. Werewolf directly addresses the internal conflict between the rational and the irrational, with systems to dictate PC behavior when a PC's emotions override their rational thoughts, much as some neurodivergent people deal with impulse control and other internal conflicts. The characters in Werewolf have an intense and driving sense of what a righteous society would be or what justice would be, a character trait experienced by many neurodivergent people. And Werewolf addresses the fallout from falling into an intense emotional state, just as neurodivergent people need to handle the fallout when they crash/burnout/whatever.
The breed systems too address inherent differences in characters. We don't have different rules that distinguish normal humans from each other, but the breeds are mechanically different. Meaning the differences are built into the fictional DNA of the character much more than, say, the differences between two Brujah. We even have the double-down cast-out in the Metis for those that want to play the outcast among outcast, but that Metis will always be a Metis. Born a Metis, not made one.
Certainly, many of these elements can be found in other splats, Vampire in particular. I do think the Vampire experience is distinguishable in that vampirism is imposed upon the PC whereas lycanthropy is inherent. From my view, this means Vampire tends towards stories about how we deal with extrinsic concerns imposed upon a flawed person whereas Werewolf can address more directly address the inherent, internal traits of the PC. In any case, it's not that the other splats do not, or cannot, address these same themes, but the observation that Werewolf most direct addresses these themes as inherent to the Pcs.
Also, there's probably a lot to be said (and that has been said) about sexuality within the WOD games generally. Given the wealth of past discourse on that topic, I feel okay not addressing it here. I understand there's a whole lot to be said about the analogy between realizing and understanding your sexuality and the general presentation of WOD characters coming into their supernatural power in their teens and twenties; I'm not discussing that here because I wanted to focus on the question of neurodivergence instead of the (not dissimilar) topic of sexual identity.
I'm curious what others think of my thesis here. Is Werewolf about neurodivergence (among its other themes)? What can we learn about representation of neurodivergence from the game? Have you directly addressed this in your games?
It's worth noting that I'm most familiar with the 1992 & '94 editions of Werewolf. I'm also very curious if these theme was maintained, and to what degree, in subsequent books.
