Lycanthropy Idea

[Jack Mann]

The books mention the difficulty of playing a character with the lycanthrope class, given that they only have their abilities five days out of the month.  I was thinking about ways to help alleviate that somewhat, while still tying into the basic themes of the template.

My basic thinking on this is that when a lycanthrope changes, he loses a certain amount of control.  So, how about giving them a couple of stunts that they can only use when they're not able to access their strength or recovery?  With two extra stunts during the regular part of the month, they're still a little behind pure mortals, but still reasonably competent.  And since these go away when the full moon approaches, it doesn't increase their power when the change comes over them.

I'd suggest skills that represent the bonds of civilization, or their self control.  Calm Blue Ocean comes to mind (picture a zen-like man who becomes a berserker once a month).  The Social Graces.  Pretty much any Performance stunt.  It's hard to put your Best Foot Forward when it takes a huge amount of self control not to just tear someone's throat out.

Thoughts?

[Papa Gruff]

I wouldn't be too concerned about the lycanthrope being week for a lengthy period of time. Sure there are 25 days in witch he is not super strong and not able to regenerate but in the end it's not a great issue. You must never forget that whenever the character is not in possession of his powers and enters a physical encounter he can auto compel with saying "Oh, if I only had my powers!" ... So basically a lycanthrope is a fate point machine most times of the month.

The other thing is, that the template is comparably cheep where refresh is concerned. If you play a submerged game you'll have plenty of refresh left to spend on some stunts while still remaining a high base refresh. Thats huge! Don't underestimate fate points in this system. They can make an enormous difference and with them even a vanilla mortal might do things that a full blown wizard couldn't do.

If you don't like the time set of five days a month just think about some other type of -anthrope. For my game (witch I usually GM) I have created a NPC arkanthrope. It's basically a lycanthrope but instead of taking on wolf aspects he is orientated towards a bear theme (Arktos = Greek for bear). Instead of his powers being active fife days of the month he has active powers for several hours a day around dawn and dusk. You could come up with something similar.

As DeadManWalking said in an other thread: The templates are only guidelines anyways.

[CMEast]

Or a were-trapdoor spider. Your Were nature stays buried most of the time, leaving you constantly on edge and aware of those around you but otherwise human. However, when you come across vulnerable 'prey' or a serious threat the monster inside comes out with only the barest vestige of control and humanity.

Could be fun. The character would avoid any time alone with small children, the elderly, the sick, or household pets. If she gets mugged down an alleyway she 'comes to' next to a brutally broken husk, drained dry of it's juices. So she stumbles off, trying not to vomit but at the same time bitterly relieved that she can probably safely control the monster inside for awhile longer...

[JustinS]

If I was doing lycanthropes by scratch, I'd bump them up to inhuman level buffs all the time, and supernatural at the full moon. Or possibly inhuman all the time, and demonic co-pilot at the full moon.

[Mal_Luck]

I'm currently in the prep stages of playing a modified Viking Scion/Lycanthrope in KoffeyKid's Hawaii game.

We did a similar thing to what you talked about Jack, during the non-moon weeks my character gets +2 refresh that can either remain open for Fate Points or be used on social-ish stunts. With it I took Surfer of Conviction and Sex Appeal, he has Mediocre Presence so on full moon week he only has OO Social Stress rather than OOOO on a non-moon week. I may eventually buy off the Sex Appeal and move it to my normal stunts later, but Surfer of Conviction will always remain with my non-moon abilities to help with the reasoning that he has shorter fuse on those weeks.

We also came up with a once a session/story use of a "moonshine" potion, it's based on Harry capturing sunlight, except this is used to capture moonlight. He drinks it and for a scene and has access to all his Lycanthrope abilities. My character doesn't make it himself (who knows maybe he will one day), he's supplied by a potion making witch he does odd jobs for.

Also taking Gard's Berserker stunt in OW (for Fists rather than Weapons) also helps mitigate worries of not being able to keep up with pure mortals or supernaturals during non-moon weeks, same with Killer Blow or Lethal Weapons. We also added Inhuman Speed to his moon related powers.

EDIT: Upon looking at the Calm Blue Ocean stunt, that is perfect for my character. Thank you for mentioning it! I'll use that and Surfer of Conviction as my two stunts during non-moon weeks.