In the D&D campaign of
the Mt. Doom gaming group, there is a small, rural town on the outkirts
of civilization called Birch. Unknown to most of the outside world, the
pupolation of this town is comprised largely of werewolves. The
"official" D&D version of
werewolves and other lycanthropes did not sit well with me, so I
modified it somewhat (my D&D
house rules for
lycanthropy can be found here).
Then someone was the idea of adapting the rules for Dark Ages: Werewolf
to play a game focused on Birch, rather than just laying D&D with a
party of lycanthrope PC's. This document was written for that purpose.
Additionally, these variations can be used, in whole or in part, to run
a game of either Dark Ages: Werewolf or Werewolf: the Apocalypse using
more a more traditional kind of werewolf (or other lycanthrope) that
more closly matches some of the folklore.
Certain aspects of Dark Ages:
Werewolf are somewhat unique to that
game's version of werewolves and other lycanthropes, and are not used
in this campaign.
The Umbra: Lycanthropes
cannot
travel to the umbra, but can still deal with spirits via Gifts and
rites. Packs can still have totems, spirits can be bound into fetishes,
and so on. However, these things are not necessarily universal. Some
"septs" may use a caern, but others might not. A group of werewolves
can call themselves a "pack" without seeking a totem's blessing. Some
ignorant lycanthropes (usually infected ones) may teach Gifts to each
other without understanding the spirituality behind them, particularly
the ones that aren't overtly supernatural. Their ability to deal with
spirits is not inherent to their nature, but rather natural
lycanthropes have a cultural preference for a shamanic style of magic
over the spellcasting traditions favored by most humanoids.
The Delirium: Lycanthropes
do
not cause the Delirium or anything similar. Any fear a human
experiences upon seeing a werewolf is entirely rational.
Gaia: Specific lycanthropes
communities may worship an earth deity (whether they use the name
"Gaia" or
not), but they are not "Gaia's chosen warriors" as they are in the
World of Darkness. Some clans may believe this, but that does not
necessarily make it true.
The Wyrm:
Lycanthropes as a race do not have a mandate to fight any cosmic
evil. However, Wyrm spirits and creatures can be used as antagonists
without the official cosmology.
Breed, auspice and tribe do not determine starting values for the
tempers (Rage, Gnosis, and Willpower), and do not even mean the same
thing. There are "homid" and "lupus" lycanthropes, commonly referred to
as
"werewolves" and "wolfweres", respectively; the latter are very rare.
Metis do not
exist; werewolves can breed amongst themselves, but know that extensive
inbreeding is dangerous. Werewolves do not have an auspice derived from
their birth moon, but the social role they fill determines the gifts
most readily available (should they ever learn any). There are "clans"
and "tribes" among the werewolves, but mostly these are family lines or
close-knit communities, rather than broad ethnic or philosophical
factions.
Characters begin with one dot in each temper, and have seven
additional dots to distribute among them however they wish (up to a
total of five dots in any single temper).
Pure Breed, in part, determines your status in
your own clan or tribe: generally, the higher your Pure Breed, the
closer you are to the center of the family tree, and are thus closer
kin to the most influental members. Among other clans, this can gain
you a small measure of respect if the clan is friendly to yours, or get
you in serious trouble if they're not.
The purity of your blood alone won't earn you automatic respect; a
pure-bred cad is still a cad. Storytellers may use this variant rule to
reflect this: When making social rolls against other
werewolves, roll only the normal dice first; if you get any successes,
you may then roll your Pure Breed dice, but may only add as many
successes from those dice as you earned on the initial roll. A botch on
this roll means you tried to bring up your heritage but did so in the
wrong way: maybe you came across as overly proud, or you mentioned an
ancestor that had wronged the other werewolf's family. The number of
ones you rolled subtract from your initial successes, but will not turn
a success into a botch.
Werewolves characters receive the standard three Gifts at creation.
The Gifts available are
based on breed, the auspice equivalent to the role he is being trained
in, and the tribe that the GM rules is closest to the culture of the
particular community. Some Gifts may deal with concepts that
are not used (see above), and are thus unavailable. Experience costs
for Gifts are unchanged.
The majority of rites are unchanged, and available to any werewolf
with the Rituals Ability. Rituals that apply to concepts not used in
this campaign (see above) are not available. This only applies to the
function of the rite, not the name or the in-character description if
they can be easily changed. For example, Gaia's Vengeful Teeth could
still be used as a method of execution; the name refers to Gaia, but
the effects of the rite do not depend on her existence as a campaign
element.
Changing forms is essentially unchanged, although the number of
forms available is reduced. Deliberately changing forms is handled with
the same Stamina + Primal Urge roll, however with less forms to change
through less successes are usually needed.
All three of these forms are available to any natural werewolf, and
shifting into any of them is difficult 6. Infected werewolves start
with access to humanoid and either hybrid or wolf form, whichever was
used to infected them. They can gain access to their missing form with
Experience.
This is identical to homid form. Werewolves in humanoid form do not
benefit from regeneration, but so not suffer any special harm from
silver; it hurts them only as much as it does any other member of their
humanoid race (generally human, but lycanthropes of other races do
exist).
The hybrid form is similar in appearance to crinos, but usually no
larger than the humanoid form. It uses the same attribute modifiers as
glabro, but can use claw and bite attacks (which do aggravated damage
against lycanthropes in any form), as well as hand-held weapons and any
combat techniques available to them as humanoids. Werewolves in hybrid
form can regenerate quickly, but suffer aggravated damage from silver
weapons.
This is identical to lupus form. Werewolves in this form can use
bite and claw attacks, although their claws only do lethal damage to
lycanthropes instead of aggravated; they cannot use hand-held weapons
or any combat techniques specific to a humanoid body. They regenerate
quickly, and suffer aggravated damage from silver. Wolfweres, however, only regenerate at
the full rate while conscious; even though wolf is their natural form
which they automatically revert to, an unconscious wolfwere in wolf
form heals no faster than an unconscious werewolf in humanoid form.
These forms are not normally available to werewolves, either natural
or infected. However, they can be learned, similar to an infected
werewolf learning whichever standard form he lacked. There are rumors,
however, of were-dire wolves: werewolves who naturally assume these
forms instead of those above. Changing into a dire form is difficulty 7.
This form is identical to crinos. Like the regular hybrid, a
werewolf in this form can use any attack or maneuver available to his
humanoid or wolf forms, can regenerate rapidly, and suffers aggravated
damage from silver.
This form is identical to hispo. The werewolf's claws can inflict
aggravated damage on lycanthropes, unlike those of the standard wolf
form. In this form, a werewolf can still only fight as a wolf. He also
regenerates rapidly and takes aggravated damage from silver. A dire
wolfwere in this form is under the same restriction on healing as a
wolfwere in wolf form.
The chart below shows the paths that connect the different forms.
When determining the number of successes needed, follow the shortest
path to the desired form.
| Dire Hybrid |
--- |
Dire Wolf |
||
| | |
| |
|||
| Humanoid |
--- |
Hybrid |
--- |
Wolf |