This is a site for discussing roleplaying games. Have fun doing so, but there is one major rule: do not discuss political issues that aren't directly and uniquely related to the subject of the thread and about gaming. While this site is dedicated to free speech, the following will not be tolerated: devolving a thread into unrelated political discussion, sockpuppeting (using multiple and/or bogus accounts), disrupting topics without contributing to them, and posting images that could get someone fired in the workplace (an external link is OK, but clearly mark it as Not Safe For Work, or NSFW). If you receive a warning, please take it seriously and either move on to another topic or steer the discussion back to its original RPG-related theme.

Author Topic: Wolves (or werewolves) in your campaigns?  (Read 1131 times)

Spinachcat

  • Toxic SocioCat
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • S
  • Posts: 14805
Wolves (or werewolves) in your campaigns?
« on: May 21, 2021, 02:26:58 AM »
The band Powerwolf just launched its new song The Beast of Gevaudan and it's about this historical incident in 18th century France where people may or may not have been eaten by a supernatural wolf monster.

Victims were often killed by having their throats torn out. The Kingdom of France used a considerable amount of money and manpower to hunt the animals responsible, including the resources of several nobles, soldiers, royal huntsmen, and civilians.[1] The number of victims differs according to the source. A 1987 study estimated there had been 610 attacks, resulting in 500 deaths and 49 injuries; 98 of the victims killed were partly eaten.[1] Other sources claim the animal or animals killed between 60 and 100 adults and children and injured more than 30.[1] The beast was reported killed several times before the attacks finally stopped.

Here's the Wikipedia about the incident
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beast_of_G%C3%A9vaudan
Here's the song
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=po-u-V6GiEk

Anyone do something unusual with wolves or werewolves in your fantasy games?

Steven Mitchell

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • S
  • Posts: 3770
Re: Wolves (or werewolves) in your campaigns?
« Reply #1 on: May 21, 2021, 09:09:29 AM »
I don't know about unusual, but it was different:  I did a campaign where werewolves had kind of an "underground network" similar to the real world "hobo" network of the early train eras.  Hidden signs, codes, messages about safe areas, etc.  The idea was that werewolves were constantly moving around to keep from drawing too much attention to themselves.  They also had a werewolf code they followed (mostly) with the werewolves policing their own.  Of course, the code was more about how to make things safe for werewolves than anything else.

I've done similar things with wererats--which frankly makes more sense to me.  In that campaign, I just really wanted werewolves to fill that role and not use any of the other lycanthropes.

bat

  • A bottle in front of me..
  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 212
    • Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets
Re: Wolves (or werewolves) in your campaigns?
« Reply #2 on: May 21, 2021, 11:17:11 AM »
I have a warg king that keeps a pack of wargs and wolves in a ruined old wizard's tower. Years of exposure to magic have made the warg king more intelligent and cunning. He uses goblins and other humanoids as pawns when harassing the settlements of humans and the like and sends members of his pack out to spy on the edges of the forest and see what is happening.
Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets

Sans la colère. Sans la haine. Et sans la pitié.

Jag är inte en människa. Det här är bara en dröm, och snart vaknar jag.


Running: Barbarians of Lemuria, Black Sword Hack
Playing: AD&D 1st Edition.

Trond

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2743
Re: Wolves (or werewolves) in your campaigns?
« Reply #3 on: May 21, 2021, 11:44:56 AM »
The band Powerwolf just launched its new song The Beast of Gevaudan and it's about this historical incident in 18th century France where people may or may not have been eaten by a supernatural wolf monster.

Victims were often killed by having their throats torn out. The Kingdom of France used a considerable amount of money and manpower to hunt the animals responsible, including the resources of several nobles, soldiers, royal huntsmen, and civilians.[1] The number of victims differs according to the source. A 1987 study estimated there had been 610 attacks, resulting in 500 deaths and 49 injuries; 98 of the victims killed were partly eaten.[1] Other sources claim the animal or animals killed between 60 and 100 adults and children and injured more than 30.[1] The beast was reported killed several times before the attacks finally stopped.

Here's the Wikipedia about the incident
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beast_of_G%C3%A9vaudan
Here's the song
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=po-u-V6GiEk

Anyone do something unusual with wolves or werewolves in your fantasy games?

I like the distinction between wolves (normal animals) and wargs (potentially evil and magical wolf-like beasts).

Having said that, that's a very interesting case. In real life, the only animals I know of that wreak that kind of havoc on humans are the big cats. Tigers hold the record, with one individual being on record killing more than 400 people in Nepal and northern India.

Jam The MF

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1102
Re: Wolves (or werewolves) in your campaigns?
« Reply #4 on: May 21, 2021, 01:09:02 PM »
Yes, I often use wolves.  They are a classic common beast, plus they can run in packs.

Werewolves take it up a few notches.  They can hide amongst the populace.  Therefore they instill a much greater terror, into the hearts of men.
Let the Dice, Decide the Outcome.  Accept the Results.

Pat
BANNED

  • BANNED
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • ?
  • Posts: 5252
  • Rats do 0 damage
Re: Wolves (or werewolves) in your campaigns?
« Reply #5 on: May 21, 2021, 02:05:05 PM »
Having said that, that's a very interesting case. In real life, the only animals I know of that wreak that kind of havoc on humans are the big cats. Tigers hold the record, with one individual being on record killing more than 400 people in Nepal and northern India.
The Beast of Gevaudan is a real life incident. Other major incidents include the wolves of Paris, Périgord, Kirov, and Ashta. They were often exceptional circumstances, like extremely long winters or wars when all the men were away, but it happened enough that no other animal in Europe has such a legendary aura of terror, exemplified in all the werewolf legends. The top kill counts tend to be a bit behind the tigers, but that's probably more due to population density than anything else.

Hyenas deserve an honorary mention. They're notorious for running into camps and "taste-testing" (biting) people, then running away, and there have been a couple incidents of where they've persistently hunted humans, like the Malawi hyena. There's a reason they're associated with witches in many African traditions.

Crocodiles and hippos are also major killers, though neither tends to go far from aquatic environments, and the hippo doesn't do it for food.

Bren

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 7638
    • http://honorandintrigue.blogspot.com/
Re: Wolves (or werewolves) in your campaigns?
« Reply #6 on: May 21, 2021, 04:45:09 PM »
I ran a couple of werewolf scenarios for Honor & Intrigue. Since the campaign was set in a mostly historical 1620s France, I did a fair bit of internet research prior to running the adventures which included the Beast of Gevaudan. I had multiple blog posts about the adventures, their setup, and background historical information.

The first one was a "werewolf" who was actually just a
wild man
or madman. I blogged about the adventure here:
The Werewolf of Blackwood
.

Much later they encountered a real werewolf leading a pack of normal wolves. I posted an
Adventure Seed
based on the second adventure.

I had a lot of information to cover stories the PCs might hear and research they might do, which I posted as
Werewolf Legends
.

And, as luck would have it, a PC was bit by a werewolf: The Werewolf Bit You, Now What?
Currently running: Runequest in Glorantha + Call of Cthulhu   Currently playing: D&D 5E + RQ
My Blog: For Honor...and Intrigue
I have a gold medal from Ravenswing and Gronan owes me bee

Blankman

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 157
Re: Wolves (or werewolves) in your campaigns?
« Reply #7 on: May 22, 2021, 07:16:25 AM »
Wolves killed a lot of people in Europe before they were almost wiped out in the 19th century. But people covers a large group. Norway, Sweden and Finland had a number of wolf attacks recorded in the 18th and 19th centuries. The number of dead was 78-91 children, 2 adult women and one unspecified adult. Wolves mostly killed children, because adult humans, especially adult men, are bigger and stronger than a wolf, and even a simple knife is a more dangerous weapon than the wolves claws and teeth. Even the beast of Gevaudan was mostly a danger to children. But what about the fear caused by wolves? Yeah, most people tend to overestimate things that are dangerous to their kids, and you get a lot of stories about things that seldom happen in reality (like serial killers. They happen, but if we were going by cop shows and Hollywood movies there would be serial killers everywhere all the time).
« Last Edit: May 22, 2021, 07:18:29 AM by Blankman »

Dave 2

  • Gamer
  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • D
  • Posts: 266
Re: Wolves (or werewolves) in your campaigns?
« Reply #8 on: May 22, 2021, 02:04:07 PM »
Quote from: https://throneofsalt.blogspot.com
The Champawat Tiger killed, as far as anyone was able to record, 436 human beings in her lifetime. Mostly they were women and children, gone out into the forest to collect firewood or livestock fodder. She killed strategically, never hitting the same location twice and constantly staying on the move.

By any stretch of the imagination that is more than enough to call her a monster. It's a perfectly fair assessment, and the leap of faith to ascribe it supernatural power would be quite small, given the circumstances. It's as close to a true monster as you're liable to get.

When the tiger finally died at the hands of Jim Corbett, the body revealed a different story: The two canine teeth on the right side of her jaw had been broken by a hunter's bullet some 8 years before.

The Champawat Tiger was starving.

The damage to her teeth meant that she was unable to hunt her normal prey...

I used to have a player who thought wolves were overused as a combat encounter in D&D. "Attacks on humans are actually quite rare!" And in fairness, wolf pack vs PC party probably is overused, but there's no reason at all not to use a wolf or tiger as a monster.

Bren

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 7638
    • http://honorandintrigue.blogspot.com/
Re: Wolves (or werewolves) in your campaigns?
« Reply #9 on: May 23, 2021, 03:31:46 AM »
I used to have a player who thought wolves were overused as a combat encounter in D&D. "Attacks on humans are actually quite rare!" And in fairness, wolf pack vs PC party probably is overused, but there's no reason at all not to use a wolf or tiger as a monster.
What often is overused is treating an animal like a PC killing monster, i.e. it wolves attack a heavily armed party of humans instead of following them and waiting until night to try to spook their horses once the party makes camp.
Currently running: Runequest in Glorantha + Call of Cthulhu   Currently playing: D&D 5E + RQ
My Blog: For Honor...and Intrigue
I have a gold medal from Ravenswing and Gronan owes me bee

Renegade_Productions

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Posts: 86
    • http://www.werewolftale.info
Re: Wolves (or werewolves) in your campaigns?
« Reply #10 on: May 23, 2021, 10:34:14 PM »
Haven't used any werewolves in D&D before. Would like to though, so long as we're talking Gygax's AD&D rules for them, and them as Chaotic Neutral creatures instead of Chaotic Evil.

In general, though: I'd set them up as a loosely organized group of NPCs that mix up the duties of getting food and supplies and caring for others/the young, as well as finding places where everyone can safely live out their full moons. (Anyone who lives as one long enough to earn the ability to shift at will earns status among the group and can easily become the leader.)
« Last Edit: May 23, 2021, 10:37:38 PM by Renegade_Productions »

hedgehobbit

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1287
Re: Wolves (or werewolves) in your campaigns?
« Reply #11 on: May 24, 2021, 01:21:22 PM »
The Beast of Gevaudan is a real life incident. Other major incidents include the wolves of Paris, Périgord, Kirov, and Ashta. They were often exceptional circumstances, like extremely long winters or wars when all the men were away, but it happened enough that no other animal in Europe has such a legendary aura of terror, exemplified in all the werewolf legends.

This is one of the things that always bothered me. In a world with Dragons, Giants, and Chimeras roaming around, would those people be scared of a wolves? Or just treat them as a nuisance. (same goes for lions and other animal associated with nobility).

BoxCrayonTales

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • B
  • Posts: 3313
Re: Wolves (or werewolves) in your campaigns?
« Reply #12 on: May 24, 2021, 01:56:15 PM »
I was quite enamored with Eberron's take on lycanthropes.

In my own worldbuilding, I decided to focus on the spiritual aspect of lycanthropy. Rather than a disease, I treat it as a form of spiritual possession: a bond with a totem of wolves and primal rage.

Ratman_tf

  • Alt-Reich Shitlord
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 8330
Re: Wolves (or werewolves) in your campaigns?
« Reply #13 on: May 24, 2021, 02:17:19 PM »
The Beast of Gevaudan is a real life incident. Other major incidents include the wolves of Paris, Périgord, Kirov, and Ashta. They were often exceptional circumstances, like extremely long winters or wars when all the men were away, but it happened enough that no other animal in Europe has such a legendary aura of terror, exemplified in all the werewolf legends.

This is one of the things that always bothered me. In a world with Dragons, Giants, and Chimeras roaming around, would those people be scared of a wolves? Or just treat them as a nuisance. (same goes for lions and other animal associated with nobility).

I imagine fantastical beasts would be pretty rare. Wolves would be a more common threat. And there are worgs/dire wolves, to add some 'beefy' wolf menaces.
The notion of an exclusionary and hostile RPG community is a fever dream of zealots who view all social dynamics through a narrow keyhole of structural oppression.
-Haffrung

Ratman_tf

  • Alt-Reich Shitlord
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 8330
Re: Wolves (or werewolves) in your campaigns?
« Reply #14 on: May 24, 2021, 02:19:20 PM »
And obligatory video.

The notion of an exclusionary and hostile RPG community is a fever dream of zealots who view all social dynamics through a narrow keyhole of structural oppression.
-Haffrung