For Gaia's sakes don't waste a hundred bucks on Amazon for "PAST LIVES" like I did! It's a wonderful supplement to the old "Werewolf: The Apocalypse" RPG that I love so much but it's not as vital a part of the line as I thought it was. I was expecting the book to elaborate extensively on the "past lives" background (later renamed/retooled as the "Ancestors" background) and it did indeed explore the metaphysics of the trait and explain how to role-play it in greater depth but the authors didn't add much extra to the concept that you couldent already extrapolate on the subject from the core books. There where no new Merits or Flaws or the like. I was mistakenly under the impression that the book would contain a number of fleshed-out Garou characters from historic places and times for the players and Storyteller to use as ancestors for their own characters and stories. Not exactly. At least not as many as I hoped. "PAST LIVES" is very well written and conceived but It's not what I interpreted the content to cover.
The playable story line was very interesting to me and I appreciated the extra bit of insight the author gave into the lost Garou tribes and extinct Changing Breeds. Gifts up to the Elder rank where given for the White Howlers, Croatan, and Bunyip tribes. Gifts up to the third rank are explained for the extinct Were-bats, Were-boars, and Were-cattle. Silly as they sound, the brief descriptions given of those breeds makes a "Werewolf: The Apocalypse" fan lament their genocide. Those of us who like to view and play the Garou as righteous superheroes (even when they're anti-heroes) have to think twice about their honor and wisdom regarding "The War of Rage" when this book offers a glimpse into why Gaia created these fallen Bête.
Please don't mistake me, I'm pleased to own this supplement. It's just that a diehard fan doesn't need this book at the cost of a hundred bucks. If you can find a dog-eared copy in a used bookstore for ten dollars then you have my congratulations. What the Amazon sellers are presently asking for "PAST LIVES" is nuts, no matter what the conditon of this long out of print book is valued as.