The Werewolf

picture is credit of www.retromud.org

General

Many people believe that being a Werewolf means you're cursed, but this is certainly not always true. There's a difference between a Werewolf and a Werewolf, although many can or will not see it. The Werewolves I describe here are a separate Race, just like Humans or Orks, the other kind are so called 'lycanthropes'; Namegivers cursed to erratically change from their normal form to an animal/humanoid hybrid. From no on, when I refer to Werewolf, I will mean the Race. Werewolves mature at the age of 10 and live about 75 years.

On being a Werewolf

A Werewolf has three actual forms; his normal form: the 'manwolf', a wolf form and a form that resembles a more 'common' Namegiver. Werewolves use their other forms to stay undetected in cities and other settlements, since many peasants still believe them to be lycanthropes or demons. Their wolf forms help them to hunt for prey or to track or spy on people or just to also be unnoticed. The life of a Werewolf is hard, only several cities acknowledge them as Namegivers and only in these cities can they walk in normal form, but in Thera they are respected, Therans believe them to be an example of great magic, thus the temptation to go to Thera is quite big. Barsaivian that acknowledge Werewolves are: Throal, Iopos, Travar, Urupa and of course the City of Thera and Vivane. 

On Religion and Behavior

The Werewolves are believed to have had a Religion in centuries before the Scourge, but there was a great persecution of them and since then they have tried to adapt and survive, so now practically all remnants of their religion remain. Since they adapt to us, they have also taken on our Passions and behavior, so it is hard to recognize a Werewolf from a 'common' Namegiver, it is not strange to find a Werewolf who knows 'our' believes, manners and behaviors better than we do. The Werewolves mostly reside in forests or plains, usually banding with in groups ranging from 20-100, they live like nomads, traveling from site to site, leaving no obvious marks to track them. They survive by hunting small animals in wolf form, or bigger animals in packs and/or Werewolf form.

On Werewolves and the Scourge

The Scourge was an unthinkable time for the Werewolves, the ones that couldn't get to kaers near cities as Throal and who couldn't get a Werewolf population big enough for a separate kaer had to enter a 'normal' kaer and needed to keep up their masquerade for as long as possible. Some of them were exposed and some of those were killed, while others were accepted. Reproduction in a kaer would not have been a big problem, whenever a Werewolf mates with a non-Werewolf there's 50% chance that the child will be a Werewolf too.

GAME INFORMATION:

Eyes: dog-like: yellow, blue, brown or green

Hair: fur, covering entire body: brown or black

Height: 7'

Weight: ~300 lbs

Hand Size: 3

Racial Modifiers:

Dex: +2

Str: +4

Tou: +1

Per: +2

Wil: -1

Cha:-2

Movement as Dex +1

Karma: 

Max: 20    Die: d4    Starting: 4    Cost: 10

Racial Abilities

Low-Light Vision

Bite Attack (Werewolf/Wolf form)

- Damage: Str+2, Attack: Dex or Unarmed Combat with the 'Bite' Knack (see Vipyr), inflicts a bleeding wound as Wrist Carvers.

Claws (Werewolf form)

- +3 Damage Steps when fighting unarmed.

"Regeneration"

- 1d4 added to all Recovery Tests

Masquerade

- counts as skill, extra Ranks may be bought as though it was a  First Circle Talent. Step: Rank + Willpower. This ability allows the Werewolf to take the form of a Namegiver he/she saw in the last 24 hours, the form will never be a perfect match and some traits can be copied to it. A Werewolf in Namegiver form will retain it's own eyes and a scar/wound is also copied, if the Namegiver has hair the copied form has a greater amount of it, also the Werewolf cannot change it's size this way, nor copy Racial abilities as flight. To use roll the dice,  the result is the number of hours the effect remains. To detect a changed Werewolf, a Good or better result against his Spell Defense must be achieved with an Astral Sensing test. The Werewolf retains all his senses and abilities in this form.

Wolf

- counts as skill, extra Ranks may be bought as though it was a First Circle Talent. Step: Rank + Willpower. This ability allows the Werewolf to take the form of a Wolf, the form is obviously bigger than the others of it's kind.  In this form the Werewolf can only use talents, skills and other abilities the Wolf is possible to perform, spellcasting for instance can be done, unless the character would need to hold something in his hands. The Werewolf retains all his senses in this form and can speak although slightly hindered. To use roll the dice,  the result is the number of hours the effect remains. To detect the Werewolf in Wolf form an Astral Sensing must be successfully made as above, also Scouts and Beastmasters can identify the Werewolf as 'not truly a wolf', Beastmasters need a Good Success on a Perception test against the Werewolf's Spell Defense, while the Scouts need an Excellent. Also talents as Animal Bond, or Borrow Sense do not work on the changed Werewolf.

Author's Note:

Although the Racial Abilities of the Werewolf are quite strong, one must realize that every day of their life is a struggle to survive, because many peasants still believe they are something different a caught Werewolf has a great chance of being killed or hunted. This great disadvantage should certainly be noted and made use of in a game. If there ever was a way to make a crowd hunt character, this is it.