So..let's create our own Werewolf RPG!

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Silverlion

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What the title says, I'd like to make a playable Werewolf game (maybe not official publication or anything) but just for us. However some caveats: Can we do it and make it work with actual folklore? Can we do it and make it playable for a group of PCs all being werewolves and make them interesting?
 
well, there's ALoooooooT of folklore, from the wolf-headed men of the Andaman Isle in Greek mythological travelogues to the Medieval witches who would meet the Devil at a crossroads and he would give them a salve to rub over their bodies to take the form of a wolf to certain Eastern European folklore creatures where werewolves and vampires are kinda the same thing.

Or would you rather stick with modern early Hollywood-influenced folklore where anyone bitten by a werewolf is cursed to turn into a werewolf themselves on nights with a full moon, and are vulnerable to silver and sometimes wolfbane (and definitely have nards)?
 
Regarding that last one, I've always thought of doing a game where, taking a page from Wraith: The Oblivion, werewolf players play as their normal cursed humans most of the time, but lose control when they transform and another player plays their werewolf form, running amok, and it's mostly about having to deal with the consequences of doing horrible things you can't control and have no memory of. But that concept might be a bit highbrow for a crowdproduced RPG
 
What I've always tried to play up is the line between man and beast. WW sort of covered that with Rage but I think Dan Bayne did it better with 'The Leash' in "Werewolves Bite".
In a nutshell, the more 'wolfy' you want to be - be that tapping into higher senses, drawing on bestial strength etc. means slipping the leash and letting the wolf have more control. Of course the risk is that you drop the leash and Wolf is free to do what it wants.
So rather than a rage pool or set stat increases, your changes boil down to how much you're willing to risk losing control.
 
Regarding that last one, I've always thought of doing a game where, taking a page from Wraith: The Oblivion, werewolf players play as their normal cursed humans most of the time, but lose control when they transform and another player plays their werewolf form, running amok, and it's mostly about having to deal with the consequences of doing horrible things you can't control and have no memory of. But that concept might be a bit highbrow for a crowdproduced RPG
There are several non-Hollywood elements: People who are cursed to turn into wolves, who sleep under the moon or drink water from a wolf's pawprint. People who use magic usually a belt or other device fashioned from a wolf pelt, and People who were attacked. The last one is covered a lot, but what about the other two? I don't think if we used "bites" it should be common. Instead at best a possible but not high chance. Or everyone would be werewolves. Modern interpretations add inherited werewolf abilities that make come from any of the but.

What I've always tried to play up is the line between man and beast. WW sort of covered that with Rage but I think Dan Bayne did it better with 'The Leash' in "Werewolves Bite".
In a nutshell, the more 'wolfy' you want to be - be that tapping into higher senses, drawing on bestial strength etc. means slipping the leash and letting the wolf have more control. Of course the risk is that you drop the leash and Wolf is free to do what it wants.
So rather than a rage pool or set stat increases, your changes boil down to how much you're willing to risk losing control.

I like this combine a bit with TristramEvans TristramEvans idea above. Not sure I'd want to give control to another player entirely, but perhaps some form of game driven loss of control tied to the Leash-esque thing? What do you think Stumpydave Stumpydave


In Witchcraft the curse, infection, and descended from werewolves all count as werewolves, but the magic are tied to "Skinchangers" (not sure I want to use that highly specific term taken from Native Myth myself.) Though something similar is possible. Witchcraft comes close to what I want, but lacks some of the interesting elements WW: tA has with tribes. I want to avoid too much of the latter but still give a group of werewolves more variation than Witchcraft does (I don't recall if the game allows them to buy other supernatural powers, it might. I'll take look later today.)


I do recall the Dresden Files book (one of the few I read) where they had several types, demon-tainted/cursed, wolf-belt, and more traditional werewolves (I think the latter only became wolves no hybrid form)

Also what of other were-creatures. I know bears are known, as are lions, tigers, and jaguars/leopards. Do we include them or stick to werewolves?
 
I might start with Werewolves and take a wait and see approach to widening the scope. I do like the idea of focusing on the push and pull of man versus beast though. It's pretty core to the idea IMO. I like how the Werewolf in handled in The Between, which is worth a look generally if you like Victorian gothic. One place I'd look to do some design work is to tie XP triggers to player actions and decisions that index the core conflict of man v beast.
 
People who use magic usually a belt or other device fashioned from a wolf pelt

The old Norse idea of donning a wolf-pelt to transform into a wolf could be an interesting way to handle the idea in the modern day.

Granted, that means you essentially have furries donning their fursuits to activate their fursona, but still...
 
The old Norse idea of donning a wolf-pelt to transform into a wolf could be an interesting way to handle the idea in the modern day.

Granted, that means you essentially have furries donning their fursuits to activate their fursona, but still...

Now I want to make an alternate version of the original WOD with their internet subculture equivalents...

Emos: The Philliping
Furries: The Yiffing
Tumblrchicks: The OMFGing
Anon: The Shitposting
Otherkin: The Fanfictioning
 
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Do we need to differentiate the different types of werewolf or do we say the cause is irrelevant, the fact you turn into a hairy clawed and fanged killing machine is what matters?
So maybe you were bitten, maybe you rubbed a salve of belladonna and wolfsbane into your skin, maybe you dress in the skin of a wolf killed at full moon.
The reasons why might cause conflict between different packs/tribes/clans etc but the rules for being a werewolf are universal?
 
Do we need to differentiate the different types of werewolf or do we say the cause is irrelevant, the fact you turn into a hairy clawed and fanged killing machine is what matters?
So maybe you were bitten, maybe you rubbed a salve of belladonna and wolfsbane into your skin, maybe you dress in the skin of a wolf killed at full moon.
The reasons why might cause conflict between different packs/tribes/clans etc but the rules for being a werewolf are universal?

I think it matters insofar as character motivation/degree of control over transforations.

Moreover, establishing what they actually turn into seems important - a big wolf, a huge bipedal wolf-man, or just a furry guy like Laurence Talbot
 
I think it matters insofar as character motivation/degree of control over transforations.

Moreover, establishing what they actually turn into seems important - a big wolf, a huge bipedal wolf-man, or just a furry guy like Laurence Talbot
I think we should aim for one consistent representation, I lean to "big wolf" over the bipedal, but some very old art does the bipedal, so its not just a Hollywood-ism, while the last one is (I got Werewolves bite) maybe it is tied to how much you give into the bestial side?

However do we have a greater conflict?
 
I figure in a crowdsourced book there's room to have multiple possible origins for the source of the Werewolf. I guess the conflict comes in whether they're bestial or thinking. Someone might get bitten and be cursed with it, another might willingly take the pelt from the Devil at a crossroads and enjoy the murder and mayhem...and then there's all the rest.

My preference is that there is Mythology but there's definitely cause. The werewolf is bestial but not unthinking. That the beast must kill but the more you accept it, the less fury there is. Successful lycanthropes definitely do chain themselves up with a goat.

A mechanism similar to Rage / Humanity and even The Shadow in TOR...it should feel like the Werewolf is under threat when denying their impulses.


Now how to turn this into a non-murderhobo game....
 
Like Werewolves vs Mummies?
I don't know. I'm up for more serious contenders. I don't want it to be "easy" like Werewolves as ecoterrorists, or Werewolves Vs Vampires.

A superhero book of all things had pseudo-WW werewolves and the werewolf hero Titus Whispering (family/clan name) was told his kind were shepherd on the hill. I like the spiritual aspects of Old White Wolf Werewolves but think its underplayed, and I like Levi Kornelson's "Skinchangers" (currently unavailable, hopefully it will be re-released so i can link it.)

Maybe we should tie it into an order that girds our world from spirits of some kind (Earthdawn esque Horrors? Horror Movie things like Cenobites?) They're shepherds guarding us as flock? Not ALL werewolves of course, but for the game it assumed PC's have a goal or tie to do so? Or we can go with something like letting the PC's choose a common goal? The real problem is I think is how to make a group of them playable in more than a social game, but like a bit more action driven one (like I enjoy.)
 
Granted, that means you essentially have furries donning their fursuits to activate their fursona, but still...
So it's a werewolf/magical girl crossover, and all your characters have to sit somewhere--uncomfortably-- on the werewolf-to-princess spectrum.

Didn't most of the bane spirits in the original Werewolf have tentacles anyway?
 
The more I think on this I like the idea of "The Chains of the Beast" it's really a misnomer. Wolves aren't inherently monsters, neither are Werewolves but the terminology stuck? Maybe. A werewolf can be "chained" fully human, they can "loose" the chain to gain various boosts but still look human--enhanced senses, slightly increased strength, recovery (not like pick up car, more like stronger than they were.) They can "slip" the chain and be a wolf, unless we want to have more monstrous form. While the older art does show anthro-ish wolves, I think that may be more metaphorical representation than literal. Some stories say they didn't have tales but I'm rejecting that by fiat as I think it be TOO obvious a tell in modern society. (If that's when this game is set)

What weaknesses do they have? Silver is considered common but it doesn't appear in all myths of folklore, blessed bullets were used in one story I recall (I don't know if they were silver or not in that one but I want to say they weren't, just had a cross pressed into them.)
 
I like the thought of Werewolves having three forms - Human, Wolfman (a la Lon Chaney, Teenwolf etc) and a wolf form similar to American Werewolf in London. The wolf form should be when you've pretty much lost control.

In terms of conflict I'm a sucker (lol) for Werewolves vs Vampires. Doesn't matter if its Underworld or the Ghostbusters cartoon. But I'd keep it parochial, something similar to Being Human in that Vampires are the top dogs (on account of their ability to charm and beguile humans) and they persecute a progrom of discrimination against the werewolves. However, the reason they do this is that a werewolf is one of the few things that can go toe to toe with them and werewolf blood is like sunlight to vampires (maybe its too strong, too vital and too full of life) for them. So rather than take the risk of accidentally chowing down on something that will, in all likliehood, kill you, they do all they can to keep wereolves on the margins and well away from their seats of power.
 
Perhaps various werewolf powers come along with various aspects of wolf form. The danger then becomes that the closer to the true wolf you get all at once the harder it is to maintain control. So something minor like improved hearing or smell might only necessitate a minor shift and represent very little danger, but the high-end physical stuff like massive strength or healing factor means a much more significant transformation and comes with greater risk, and combining aspects is even more dangerous because they stack (in whatever mechanical way is meaningful).
 
Perhaps various werewolf powers come along with various aspects of wolf form. The danger then becomes that the closer to the true wolf you get all at once the harder it is to maintain control. So something minor like improved hearing or smell might only necessitate a minor shift and represent very little danger, but the high-end physical stuff like massive strength or healing factor means a much more significant transformation and comes with greater risk, and combining aspects is even more dangerous because they stack (in whatever mechanical way is meaningful).
Exactly this. Still using the Leash metaphor, what if it tracked on a scale of 10, points 1-3 are minor and can easily be controlled. Points 4-6 require a physical transformation (to Wolfman) and carry a slight risk losing control whereas points 7-9 require that phsyical change to Wolfman (if you're not already in that phase) and massively increases the risk of losing control. Losing control or using all 10 is just giving in to the beast and turning into a primal shadow of claws and fangs and rage.

Maybe being in Wolfman form reduces what social pools/stats and willpower you have (except for intimidation) but adds it to strength or senses?
 
Depending on the system, if the transformation adds to one stat or whatever it could directly reduce others, or there could be a set list of penalties for each tier of transformation (like you outline above). Maintaining control could be a set TN that increasing transformation applies penalties to, perhaps with a set list of actions or situations that trigger a control roll.
 
So I've been perusing Netflix and ran into the Order, pelt transformed werewolves against black magicians. I like that. Then again I like the idea of them shepherding humanity standing between us and the "long night" of dark creatures than like to feed on us, or use us as tools.
 
I think the idea of Werewolves standing as the hidden guardians of humanity has a lot of juice, on way or the other.
 
For those of you who read French, I've written LA GENT ("the Breed"), not a werewolf but a werecat / were-panther RPG inspired by the movie Cat People (the original, B&W one but I guess the 1980s remake can also work as a reference) and other sources (a short story by Algernon Blackwood, another by Seabury Quinn, the Bastet in WW Werewpmf etc.) - an experiment in game design to see if it was possible to create a viable Wod-esque game in only a few pages...


(Sorry for the slightly off-topic digression)
 
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For those of you who read French, I've written LA GENT ("the Breed"), not a werewolf but a werecat / were-panther RPG inspired by the movie Cat People (the original, B&W one but I guess the 1980s remake can also work as a reference) and other sources (a short story by Algernon Blackwood, another by Seabury Quinn, the Bastet in WW Werewpmf etc.) - an experiment in game design to see if it was possible to create a viable Wod-esque game in only a few pages...


(Sorry for the slightly off-topic digression)
I wish I could read French, I'm a huge fan of Algernon Blackwood.
 
I assembled a few resources during one of my attempts:

Academic:



https://thepack.network/thepackboard/viewtopic.php?t=2132
Fictional:
https://dresdenfiles.fandom.com/wiki/Lupine_theriomorph
https://www.dmsguild.com/product/17501/RR7-Van-Richtens-Guide-to-Werebeasts-2e
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/233821/GURPS-Classic-Shapeshifters
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/2557/Complete-Guide-to-Werewolves
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/25702/The-War-Against-the-Pure
https://pelgranepress.com/2018/02/01/the-plain-people-of-gaming-houndhounds-of-bucharest/
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/172236/Werewolves-A-Hunters-Guide
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/296461/Bite-Marks
https://dorisvsutherland.com/2022/04/16/19345/


I originally wanted to rework the rules from Kris Newton’s Feed to handle werewolf duality, but I haven’t worked on it in years. Also, I learned Bite Marks exists and that’s close enough I guess.

As for the original question: you can do that pretty easily by using Werewolves: A Hunter’s Guide for the setting. It posits that multiple strains of lycanthropy with wildly different traits co-exist, but it’s written from a hunter’s POV so it doesn’t go into detail on playing as werewolves or how their cultures would organize.

I’ve been working on some settings for prose and such. I started with a template based on WitchCraft’s ferals and went from there. There’s quite frankly countless directions you could take werewolves and other shifters in using public domain resources. I’ve written a number of ideas for secret societies of shifters that worship various real deities to provide guides to their lives: benandanti werewolves that believe God has given them power to fight devils and punish the wicked, Roman luperci werewolves that claim descent from Romulus or Remus, Mesoamerican werejaguars that have adopted neo-pagan veneration of Tezcatlipoca, etc. I just need to write fiction showing these ideas in context
 
To add to the discussion: something I feel is important to the werewolf pov is making the transformation meaningfully dualistic and not falling into the trap of the transforming superhero and part-time furry in which the werewolf is just the same character but with a furry mask. Not simply a human who assumes the form of a wolf, but a human who shares their body with the soul of a primal magical beast.

The traditional loss of control to the vicious spirit of primal rage is an easy way to show the dualism, but it's also very limiting on what sorts of stories you can tell with it. Unless you're satisfied with only ever retelling Werewolf or She-Wolf of London and stringing us along until the hero/ine eventually loses control completely and has to be put down, at some point you need to give them conscious control of their actions while transformed like Oz in Buffy after his stint in Tibet.

In my own world building, I adopted the alpha/beta/omega distinction to name a karate belt style of measuring the werewolf's skill at controlling the "wolf" as I call it. Omegas have no control and cannot initiate a transformation, but will transform involuntarily at auspicious times and places and the wolf won't hesitate to harm their loved ones. Betas have established a rapport with the wolf and can now transform at will, but remain subject to involuntary transformation and can now transform whenever their wolf becomes agitated by the human side's stress; however, the wolf will recognize their loved ones and won't consider them food/rivals anymore. Alphas have mastered their emotions and normally don't need to worry about transforming involuntarily, but when they do transform then all bets are off.

A mechanic that I considered was a stress meter that accrued when the character didn't properly balance their human and wolf sides. If they spent too long human, then the wolf would become agitated and try to force a transformation so that it could run and hunt. If they spent too long as a wolf, then the human would become depressed and wistful for civilization. (This was inspired by watching that one tv adaptation of Women of the Otherworld.)
 
In my own world building, I adopted the alpha/beta/omega distinction to name a karate belt style of measuring the werewolf's skill at controlling the "wolf" as I call it. Omegas have no control and cannot initiate a transformation, but will transform involuntarily at auspicious times and places and the wolf won't hesitate to harm their loved ones. Betas have established a rapport with the wolf and can now transform at will, but remain subject to involuntary transformation and can now transform whenever their wolf becomes agitated by the human side's stress; however, the wolf will recognize their loved ones and won't consider them food/rivals anymore. Alphas have mastered their emotions and normally don't need to worry about transforming involuntarily, but when they do transform then all bets are off.

A mechanic that I considered was a stress meter that accrued when the character didn't properly balance their human and wolf sides. If they spent too long human, then the wolf would become agitated and try to force a transformation so that it could run and hunt. If they spent too long as a wolf, then the human would become depressed and wistful for civilization. (This was inspired by watching that one tv adaptation of Women of the Otherworld.)


I'm so not using Alpha crap. Sorry. It's based on an author who discredited his own work as being wrong and people still use it.
I think what I'll go with here is the Chain--how much of the human do you let have wolf abilities, because a wolf maybe a predator but its not in and of itself a monster.

For the most part they kill to eat, not for pleasure. They may fight--yes, but that is about control of society so to speak like humans but give a human the "wolf's power" their teeth, any strength they're allegedly supposed to have in myth, the heightened sense? That can either be someone in control--chaining the human enough to stay wolf/empathetic human. Or cut loose the chain and let all of human frustrations, fears, ego and rage run off with that wolf side and that's where you get monsters. Of course some humans are monsters to begin with and getting a dose of wolf gifts isn't likely to make it better.
 
I'm so not using Alpha crap. Sorry. It's based on an author who discredited his own work as being wrong and people still use it.
I’m aware. I’m not using it in that sense. I’m just using it as a measurement of control.
 
I’m aware. I’m not using it in that sense. I’m just using it as a measurement of control.
Ah no worries then. I know that Patricia Briggs werewolves use it slightly differently, but I like your idea better.
 
Ah no worries then. I know that Patricia Briggs werewolves use it slightly differently, but I like your idea better.
It's a placeholder that roughly approximates the major tropes for werewolf control that I've read. So it feels intuitive, while at the same time you can't actually remember any particular werewolf story that used these rules exactly.

The Greek letters form a perpendicular axis to the born vs bitten origin for werewolfism: upon their wolf awakening born werewolves skew towards betas while bitten skew towards omegas.

Werewolfism is normally very difficult to transmit. I'm using WitchCraft rules for the basics:
  • Surviving virtually fatal trauma from a werewolf attack. This explains why it didn't spread like a plague during prehistory, as it was only within the last century that such victims were likely to survive the attacks due to modern trauma care.
  • Possession by the ghost of a werewolf you killed. This is a reference to Robert E. Howard's "Wolfshead".
  • Magical curse or blessing. This covers everything else in folklore, such as plucking lycanthropic flowers, bathing in cursed springs, drinking water from a wolf's pawprint, being born the bastard child of a priest on Christmas Day under a New Moon, etc. Unless you're a gifted magician or the stars are right, you could spent your entire life trying various methods without effect.

A pack of betas can work together to cast the spell and an alpha can easily do it by themselves, without any mauling required. It's a common tradition to bite the new recruit (following the magical laws of sympathy and contagion), but the ritual can actually take any form appropriate to the particular craft (magical tradition, e.g. druidism, hermetic wizardry, wiccan witchcraft) being used.
 
Right now the rules I'm using are: Must be an extreme emotional event, love/passion, hate/rage, and there must be a way for fluids to enter the body from actions of the emotional event. So werewolf hating someone and biting them (And them surviving) or really passionate love (and sex, though this is FAR rarer and may take longer to trigger the change.) The change is NOT a disease which can be detected by medicine. The sources of the power are: An animal spirit from A) an animal attack B) another theriomorph attack or love affair with a non-therio, or a magical spell. Though the spell involves evoking the animal spirit.

Werecreatures are all mammals and size is a factor. Though mass does matter a bit, because of the spirit's power in the theriomorph a werelion changing is more noticable than a wolf because E=MC squared. A two hundred pound man CAN become a large werelion but there will be environmental notes (it grows colder around the were, fogs appear, ice and rain sometimes, and in cities, brownout and even blackouts--and the fact is that's just the energy needed to DRAW more power into this universe to make the mass work. Werewolves are well known because humans can change with less noticeable effects, and so hunting them is harder. Not that anyone /knows this/ it's just "spooky stuff then monsters" werecreature going back to human raise the temperature a bit too. Because of the reverse exchange. The most common are wolves, ancient dog giant/large dog breeds, leopards, and the like. No know fully seagoing mammals change (wereseals/sealions exist but are rare) were-orca? None known.

Were-reptiles may be true. Still thinking on it. Though I'm not doing white-wolf's "oh they're dinosaurs!" mess. No they're just gator's or crocs, maybe komodo dragons.


The first two come with varying levels of the Chain. An attack/tragedy has less control of the chain at first than one from a love affair, one that is spell cast, has less than even the tragedy because you don't call spirits that have had time to live in bodies long enough to deal with the world so to speak, but are raw and primal. The spells are often tied to an item (wolfskin belt, set of fangs implanted into silver, etc.)

Plus the whole full moon thing is actually tied to first change. A werewolf won't change immediately upon the spell/event/whatever, but change on the first full moon afterwards. Hence the legends of them only changing by the moon. Rumors of ancient people changing by drinking water from a wolf's paw, or sleeping with the moonlight on their face probably have similar ties to some event that stuck in people's minds but again wouldn't be something that happens 99 percent of the time.


The largest social unit of Weres is a wolfpack, no clans, no real big organizations other than a secret beneficial society for helping them hide when needed.
Most solitairy animals create solitary weres, at best a mate pair. (Werelion prides may or may not exist, I don't want to do harem comedies with it :grin:)
 
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