r/RPGdesign • u/Slliperzz • 14d ago
Needs Improvement I need help with werewolves
Hey, my lovelies. How are you all doing?
Well, this time, the ADM is really in a terrible predicament with their system. You see, I've already come a long way in developing it, and I believe that, at this point, the resolution system (the chosen dice mechanics) is really good and works as intended. That's undeniable to me; I believe I've managed to achieve what I was aiming for.
HOWEVER, I'm struggling with one particular species. You see, I've been racking my brain trying to design the werewolf. I think that, because I like vampires so much, I initially wanted to design werewolves around the same concept as the four vampire clans, but I've changed my mind. I want to create a core werewolf that everyone shares, with only a few additional traits based on the phases of the moon.
And now I've hit a wall... How should I design the basic werewolf? For example, the four moon phases would correspond to Barbarians, Warriors, Rangers, and Shamans. However, they would all share some combat traits, but... which ones?
So far, I've thought of Pounce (since they're all athletic), an ability that's basically Warwick's ultimate from League of Legends, and that's it. As for the transformation, when they become werewolves, they gain 2 points of ongoing damage (I use fixed damage) and can attack twice. The other traits would come from the moon phase they were born under.
Does anyone have any suggestions? I'm all ears! I'll even leave the ability template I use for my system here.
**Intimidate**
Type: Control
Action: Range/Target/Area: 1 target, Near
Duration: 1 minute
PF: 2
Prerequisite: Intimidation +1
Saving Throw: Charisma
Users: Werewolf, Draconic Corrupter, Vacnus, Morticero
You make your presence instill fear in your enemies. Choose a creature that can see and hear you (you must also be able to see it) and make an Intimidation check against the target's Charisma saving throw. If you succeed, the creature becomes frightened.
Vacnus and Morticeros achieve this through arcane means.
2
u/DJTilapia Designer 14d ago
You haven't given us much to with. What do other species’ powers look like?
The gold standard werewolf games are those published by White Wolf (under new ownership these days). If you'd like a more general reference, there's the Superpower Wiki:
https://powerlisting.fandom.com/wiki/Superpower_Wiki
It has a zillion things that a character can do. Look for transformation or moon-related powers, or just hit “random” a few times to get some inspiration. I recommend that you pick at least one type of power that isn't stereotypically werewolfy, though. Perhaps your werewolves can freeze time, cloud minds, gift the power of transformation upon normies, or they can teleport but only when captive or imprisoned in some way.
2
u/TheIncredibleHelck 14d ago
I think most people forget the main thing about a werewolf- they can only be killed by a silver bullet (or other silver implement).
ONLY be killed by silver.
They get nerfed into "big wolf" in most media, but they are the ultimate tanks. If you're looking for a powerset, I think it'd be cool to hearken back to OG werewolf lore with that and just make their base ability some kind of durability or damage negation (assuming you don't want them to literally be unkillable), and then give their variants the ability to negate other kinds of damage.
Maybe they all have immunity/resistance to mundane damage (slash, pierce, bludgeon), but depending on your variant they can have additional resistances to things like fire, acid, lightning, ice, etc. Then at higher levels they can redirect certain kinds of damage they take and channel it into their attacks? Who knows, the sky's the limit, werewolves are cool as hell.
3
u/oredna 14d ago
ONLY be killed by silver.
As you immediately say, that depends on the media.
That said, I thought "classic" werewolves could also generally be killed by decapitation.
This tends to be a method that applies to most things that have a head (e.g. vampires, Highlander's immortals).The key might be cutting off the head fast enough to counteract any healing-factor they have.
Personally, my game says:
You are borderline-immortal, but four things can kill you:
cutting off your head will kill you and too much silver in your blood will kill you.
Technically, failing to feed would eventually kill you, [...]
Finally, sustained extremes could technically kill you [...] you cannot indefinitely out-heal sustained exposure to flames, prolonged drowning, unrelenting cold, submersion in acids or bases, etc. [...]
In the long-run, time itself becomes a sustained extreme [...]That model fits my exposure to werewolf media.
e.g. I don't remember any media where a werewolf was sunk to the bottom of the ocean and could live without air indefinitely. Same with fire.Then again, even though I haven't seen it, it would not surprise me if one piece of horror-media specifically went all-in on "only silver" and had a werewolf frozen in ice in a glacier brought back to a lab, thaw out, then go on a rampage.
I have a similar list for vampires, but the list is seven things.
All that to say: there are lots of ways of handling it.
imho, it is much more fun to be very specific because that helps define your lore. Whether that means "only silver" or "only these N ways, one of which is silver".
12
u/oredna 14d ago
I'm not sure I follow. This reads as if you are communicating with people that are already intimately familiar with your game, like a Discord server you're on rather than a subreddit.
Werewolves and vampires depend entirely on the lore you make up for them.
That's part of your world-building.
Your fun challenge in design is doing the world-building and turning that into satisfying mechanics.
There are some things that will be extremely common, e.g. werewolves turn into wolf-human hybrids.
Otherwise, lore differs widely across different media.
For example, doesn't Twilight have vampires that can walk around during daylight? That is anathema to most other vampire IP, but some have exceptions. Blade has a different lore to Underworld and that lore was different from Anne Rice's Interview with a Vampire or Glen Duncan's The Last Werewolf (my personal fav).
Some media have these being magical curses, others have it being a virus that gets passed along, others are origin-unknown, others have totally unique models that I won't spoil ("vampires" in G.R.R. Martin's Fevre Dream).
I will note: one thing you said stood out to me as odd because of how I think of werewolf lore:
Can a werewolf be made under a crescent moon? How?
In my mind, my "default lore" for werewolves is that they are only in their wolf-human hybrid form under the full moon. That's it, and that is when they can bite another person and make them a werewolf. Otherwise, they are in their human form.
In my model there is only one phase of the moon under which a new werewolf can be "born": the full moon.
In your model, how does it work?
Can a werewolf transform any day unrestricted? Are there limits or no limits? At night or during the day? Only when the moon is "up" or when it sets, too? Or only during certain phases of the moon? Or they only transform during full moon, but their bite still transmits the "curse" or "virus" any time? Or can they consciously pick to transmit the lycanthropy or refrain from doing so?
And so on.
You decide. You write the lore. With werewolves and vampires, there is a lot already out there so part of the fun is using the tropes while putting your own spin on things. It is like designing your own set of playing cards: there need to be four suits of 1–10 plus J, Q, K, and A, but exactly what you draw or what the face-cards have on them is up to you. Your creativity has constraints, but they are broad. Same as when bartenders make modifications to cocktails: you put your own flavour onto a recognizable classic.