Werewolves of Britain is the latest supplement for Liminal, the urban fantasy RPG set in a United Kingdom where the veil between the magic and mundane worlds is paper thin and cabals of wizards, vampire families, faerie dynasties and more battle for supremacy in the shadows. It’s a setting that will feel familiar to anyone who has read the likes of Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere or Ben Aaronovitch’s Rivers of London books and, coupled with its unfussy rules, has ensured that Liminal quickly established itself as a Wyrd Science favourite since its 2019 release.
Having taken us on a tour of the country’s capital with its first supplement, Pax Londinium, Liminal now invites us to stray off the path and get to know better the lycanthropic clans that haunt the highways and byways of Old Albion. Written by Becky Annison -game designer, werewolf expert, and one half of Black Armada Games- and evocatively illustrated by Jason Behnke, the book adds plenty of bloody meat to the setting and provides probably the most unique depiction of Sheffield yet committed to an RPG book to date.
Beginning life as a stretch goal to the original Liminal Kickstarter in 2018, the game's creator, Paul Mitchener, had tagged Annison in from the outset teasing Werewolves of Britain as a supplement covering ‘sexy werewolves’ whilst citing her award-winning games When the Dark is Gone and Lovecraftesque (the latter created alongside Josh Fox) and notably her then work in progress Bite Me!, a Powered by the Apocalypse game ‘of werewolf pack dynamics’ that was eventually released under the name Bite Marks. As we settle down to howl at the moon together, I ask Annison just how she came to be embroiled in the Liminal world.
‘When you compare UK gaming conventions to America and the thousands of people pouring through the halls at GenCon, we're a really small community, especially so in the indie RPG world,’ Annison explains. ‘I would say outside of London that Sheffield has the best roleplay conventions in the UK and they are all run by a team of interconnected friends and mostly at the Garrison Hotel. The connection with Paul came from those events and we had lots of mutual friends too. I was already writing Bite Marks and Paul had joined in my first ever play test of that. He knew early on that he wanted werewolves in Liminal and I received an email from him saying “I'm starting this game and I want you to join me!”’
