Running An All-Lycanthrope Campagin (Idea)

[Leliel]

As you may know already (Perhaps from reading the earlier version of this thread), one of my ambitions as a soon-to-be DM is to run a non-evil afflicted lycanthrope campaign. Because I have run out of potential ideas from the proto-thread, and have frankly forgotten a few of them...

How would you, the forumites, create the finer points of a non-evil werebeast game? How would the PCs discover that they are infected? What would be some good (i.e sympathetic) villains of such a campaign? What about other lycans? How exactly should one remember which phase of the moon it is?

A few guidelines:

1) Yes, I know about White Wolf. This is for D&D.

2) The way the PCs get infected in the first place is through the machinations of Erebus Pullusia, a werejackal wizard who was formerly Lucian Aduro the Knightmage, and general all around fallen hero. The trouble is, I am not sure what traumatic event to put in his backstory that made him turn to evil (i.e wanting to use the MacGuffins (Flowers called Moon Lilies, whose extract, when in the blood, causes that person to develop lycanthropy of the strain of that person's totem animal (An excuse as to why the PCs get to chose their character's animal form)) to turn the entire world lycanthropic), nor am I sure what powers he should have (other then his Moon Lily-induced power to inflict lycanthropy upon willing-or-not individuals).

3) As you might have guessed by the phrase "non-evil", the only corrupting influence lycanthropy has on a person's psyche is the corrupting influence of any power on the human psyche, which is far from unique. I am also doing away with the wisdom save to discover your condition (your human mind is still fully functioning the first night you transform (Thus the hearing of the words "No! NOOOOOO!" on the full moon (usually followed by sobbing) is a good indication that a new (very unwilling) werebeast is on the block:smalltongue: )).

4) That said, I am also making it possible for an afflicted lycan to trans"fur" his condition (Taking your relation with the Princess to the next step, Pallie? Prepare for a moral dilemma when she is critically wounded and only a werecreature's Regeneration ability can save her...but will she still love you when she discovers she has a muzzle?), and incurable (You have to love the imagined look on "Cursed with Awesome" Calvin's face when he realizes the only way to control the inner beast is to embrace it). I am also toying around with the idea of a "instinct meter" which if you don't fur fill the beast will go berserk in an attempt to (No, one of the instincts is not "eat people", thigh it's quite possible that the beast will if it rages-Its not afraid of people, given that some of it is a person).

5) No Vampires. Too cliché for my tastes.

Your savage instincts are telling you to respond...Your human instincts that is, given that they haven't evolved since the time you were savage.

[Vva70]

Well, one idea for a potential sympathetic villain, when the normal cures are nonexistant, is someone who is desperately trying to find a cure. Only he (or she) is so continually frustrated by lack of success that he begins to slip more and more into drastic measures. Things like taking and infecting unwilling test subjects, experimental treatments that have a very high mortality rate, etc. A way to make it a bit more tragic might be if the villain is not infected, but has a friend/sibling/spouse who is.

[dyslexicfaser]

You can get some good mileage out of a villain who's willing to do anything to any number of people for a loved one. Wins him sympathy points, no matter how much of a monster he is.

And unfortunately, I dunno anything on D&D lycanthropy, so there's not much I can offer.

[Username]

I've always wanted to see a were-human human, on full moons they get *doubly human*, they're more human than any other human in the world. It'd, uh, double humanities' natural advantages of adaptability and intellect?

And as for something a bit more on subject, you ought to make natural lycanthropy an option too, they tend to have better control and more power. But they're also higher ECL.

[smart thog]

How about having tainted silver cause the disease. Anyone who has touched the silver becomes a lycan at the new moon. This could get very deadly when it turns out that the tainted stuff can transform anything that is not pure silver into tainted silver. If you put even a little bit of this stuff in a bank vault, you could turn cities into lycans.

[UserClone]

What about a creature (a wolf, for example) that gets afflicted and becomes a were-human? He could be a creation of earlier mentioned psycho guy.

[Leliel]

What about a creature (a wolf, for example) that gets afflicted and becomes a were-human? He could be a creation of earlier mentioned psycho guy.

Yes, an excellent tragic villian. Trying desperately to deal with his newfound sentience, in a world that hates the very thing that made him that way...There's potential (also for a Heel Face Turn) in that.

[Dalboz of Gurth]

How about a group of true werebeasts who have been hunted to near extinction, and one of them becomes a high level wizard, who creates magical items:

Boots
Belts
Hats
Tunics

And seeds them around the world. Basically when they are donned a poison trap that acts as "permanent polymorph other" is activated, turning the subjective person into a true werebeast.

This is his misguided attempt to rebuild werebeasts of the world.

Unfortunately, because the players are unaware of this, they do not have control. All true werebeasts (according to Van Richten) more or less have to learn how to control their transformations and are taught by their parents.

This wizard doesn't quite realize this (or maybe he does and this is his way of weeding out the weak minded).

No matter how much they eat, the players will remain hungry and starving, unless they eat raw meat.

Should they fall into blood lust, and eat a sentient being, they will begin to lose alignment.

Van Richten's Guide to werebeasts gives all the major details on true-werebeasts.


Also, true werebeasts aren't considered cursed, so "curing" the affliction would be a very difficult task. Maybe one that some of the players choose to forget.

PS: Alignment for werebeasts really hinges around how the society works, so a true werebeast, werewolf, or werepanther, can literally be of any alignment providing they don't wind up killing and eating a sentient being (even if it is during bloodlust).

[Leliel]

To Dalboz: That would be fine, except Erebus was originally a good guy, and a hero. Although "last of his kind" has potential, Pullusia is of the "fallen hero" archetype, and the reason I put him in the OP is beacuse I am not sure what event I should put in his backstory that caused his start of darkness. Besides, I've already decided on the method he uses to turn people intro werebeasts (The Moon Lilies). Good ideas though.