Characters: Were-Form
Were-creatures abound in the Dresdenverse, and many of them make for viable player characters. Our conceit is that the Dresden Files RPG is being written by Billy, Georgia, and the other Alphas — so in this installment, we’ll get a little bit of Billy injecting himself into the text. Check it out.
Were-Form
The Dresdenverse is rife with shapeshifters of all stripes, with very few of them human in origin. But there are those humans who have learned (or were simply born with the capability) to take on the form of a beast-when that beast is a wolf, we call them werewolves, but there are many other were-forms out there, I’m told. The animal in question isn’t supercharged or innately magical (other than the fact that it has a human intellect kicking around in its noggin), but with some practice, the shapeshifter can use it as easily as his or her human form, within the limits of what that animal can do. Unlike a few other types of beast-changers (lycanthropes and loup garou in particular), most were-form shifters are entirely in control of their change. There’s no full moon business going on with us.
The supernatural mechanism whereby a were-form shapeshifter takes on the shape of an animal varies. Harry Dresden looks at the thing my friends and I do when we turn into wolves as the casting of a specialized single spell, but honestly I think that’s more a case of everything looking like spellcasting to a spellcaster. I’ve watched Harry do magic, and it just doesn’t feel the same to me, not really.
For me, these days, it’s like a switch in the back of my brain. When I flip it, my human body gets optimized. My mind is still there — I still know who I am and all that — but the priorities flip around a bit. My senses and body align for the hunt, and the same goes for my friends. That’s why (and how) we’re taking back our corner of Chicago from the night.
Musts: Were-form shapeshifters must take a high concept aspect indicating that they are a shapeshifter-whether hereditarily or by choice-able to take on a single animal form (e.g., CRIME-FIGHTING WEREWOLF or WEREGOAT WISEASS). The type of animal must be specified at the time the character is created.
In addition, the following supernatural abilities must be taken:
- Beast Change
- Echoes of the Beast
- Mundane Form (Voluntary)
- At least two refresh points worth of abilities from the options list below.
The Beast Change ability allows the player to restructure his skills when in animal form. This second skill configuration should be worked out before play begins.
Options: The character may take up to two Inhuman abilities (Inhuman Strength, Speed, Toughess, and Recovery), so long as those abilities are in sync with the animal form he assumes. Similarly, abilities may be taken from the Creature Feature category or the Minor Talent category if they can be shown to be a part of the creature’s natural advantages.
Thus, a werewolf would have:
- Inhuman Speed
- Inhuman Strength
- Claws
- Pack Instincts (though not always!)
While a wereraven (were there such a thing) might have:
- Inhuman Speed
- Wings
Player and GM should work together to determine what advantages the chosen animal form has. Note, some advantages will be expressed already due to the Beast Change reshuffling of skills, so if an animal is more resilient or deadly, that might simply be reflected by boosting the character’s Endurance or Fists skill as a part of the Beast Change rather than going to the full extent of Inhuman Toughness, etc.
Toward the end of May, we’ll begin our journey into the White Court.
not bad, not bad at all… so you can turn into any one creature… what about fake creatures like dragons/unicorns/bigfoot… i mean they exist in the dresdenverse so could there be a weredragon? oh and if your a wereshark for instance could you survive out of water because your not really a “shark” your in a shark form as you see it (as stated in one of the books probably fool moon)… other than that i really like it looks very simple to use.
That’d be up to your GM. If I was the GM, I’d say no, since this is more about turning into something natural, not something unnatural.
For some reason the refresh cost seems a little high to me. I mean a Knight of the Cross has to take fewer stunts than these guys! Or am I just misreading something.
I’m just wondering, but does conservation of mass apply to this change? I seem to remember Bob saying that the animal will always have the same mass as the original human, and the Alphas are usually described as slightly larger than the average wolf.
@Skyler
I think the high refresh cost makes sense given the fact the shapeshifting allows you to rearrange your skills. A were-character could excel at social conflicts in human form, and excel at combat in beast form, so the class seems rather versatile.
@Skyler, you don’t have the actual numbers, refresh cost wise, on any of these abilities. Knights of the Cross’ abilities, especially the swords, don’t come cheap.
@Jack, We’re not heavily enforcing the concept of conservation of mass. While it’s very HARD*, Jim has pretty much outlined the ways mass discrepancies can be handled: if you shift into something smaller, you’re storing part of your intellect and mass in the Nevernever, so you can retrieve it when you change back (which puts all sorts of story ideas in my head); if you shift into something bigger, you can get the extra mass by way of ectoplasm. We figured it’d be more fun if we just allowed folks to go for bigger/smaller forms if they could find the points for it.
* Hard, yes, but it’s more fun from a game perspective to allow this ability, so my take on it is “hard, but characters who’ve bought the package are good enough at this one trick that they can do it”.
So, weretardigrades, eh?
Inhuman toughness
Supernatural toughness
Mythic toughness
Diminutive size
Wait, you mean that “storage” in the Nevernever is possible?! I’ve been toying around with some character ideas for a while, but I didn’t think the canon supported them. But anyway, wouldn’t the mass stored in the Nevernever be vulnerable? If you pissed off a Faerie Queen, could she “steal” your original body when you transformed? I don’t think that they like the Alphas so much, but they seem fine…
@Jack, it’s possible, it’s just hard, and as you note, full of risks. The alphas get by by turning into wolves with pretty much the same mass as humans.
So can you choose the size of the animal you morph into? Like have a 250 lb raccoon? That would be pretty cool.
No idea if anyone’s even gonna look here this long after it was posted, bit I got werewolves on the brain at the moment (My girlfriend got me started on the Mercy Thompson books), so I came back here to remind myself how they worked in DF terms. I noticed that there’s no explanation of what “echoes of the beast” does. It’s also listed in the lycanthrope template, but isn’t explained there either. I can guess everything else, but that one’s a noodle-scratcher. Any chance of a hint?
Also, while I’m here… Any thoughts from anyone on how well were-form and lycanthrope would combine in one character? Say, someone born a lycanthrope who then learns how to turn into a wolf like Billy and the Alphas. If I was writing a game about werewolves from scratch, that’s pretty dang close to how I’d do them (except for it being two separate packages, I mean).
@CLAVDIVS — Echoes of the Beast is essentially the “wolfness” skill and sensory package. It’s the reason that Billy can smell things about people that normal humans can’t even when he’s still walking around human.
Those two concepts could probably be mashed together reasonably well. Might increase costs by a refresh point or two, but there’s so much overlap I don’t think it’d be more than that.
@fred
Wicked.
Keep up the good work, guys, and best of luck hitting that target. I’ll try to pass the time somehow, maybe head down to Trader Vic’s and get a pina colada.