Lycanthropy Articles?

[austinjimm]

A player in my game last Saturday was nearly killed by a werebear.

I've read through what there is on Lycanthropy in the DMG/MM/Monsters&Treasure. The AD&D take is more restrictive and complicated than I like. The OD&D cure is possibly too easy for interesting play. I'll probably house-rule it, but...

Are there any alternative (maybe pre-AD&D) sources for rules/ideas on handling Lycanthropy in-game?

[austinjimm]

Just read through the info in Blackmoor & Dragon #24. The article in Dragon has a number of interesting takes that could be simplified in to a single house-rule.

EDIT: Also just read the Werebear as character class article in White Wolf 17. Anything else from that era I might have missed?

[grodog]

Are there any alternative (maybe pre-AD&D) sources for rules/ideas on handling Lycanthropy in-game?

DragonDex:

Lycanthropes:
Additional types "Other Were? Right Here!, The" Roger E. Moore 40(32) D&D1
Feats "Animal Ancestry" Dean Poisso 313(30) D&D3
Giant "Dragon's Bestiary: Giant Lycanthropes" Brian P. Hudson 266(76) D&D2
Monster classes "Animal Ancestry" Dean Poisso 313(22) D&D3
Player characters "Pin Back Their Ears!" James B. Couch 198(10) D&D2
Spells "Arcane Lore: Unleash the Beast Within: Weremagic" Brian P. Hudson 266(66) D&D2
Way of the Shackled Beast: EBERRON "Way of the Shackled Beast" Nicolas Logue 355(74) D&D3
Wererat:
Ecology of "Infestation" Kristin J. Johnson 251(82) D&D2
RAVENLOFT: Cult of Simon Audaire "Van Richten's Legacy: The Cult of Simon Audaire" James Wyatt 264(52) D&D2

Lycanthropy:
Progress of "Lycanthropy: The Progress of the Disease" Gregory Rihn 14(29) OD&D
Variants "Another Look at Lycanthropy" Jon Mattson 24(10) OD&D

Of those, I definitely recommend Gregory Rihn's piece in TD#24 if you've not read it yet (ah, you have ).

Just read through the info in Blackmoor & Dragon #24. The article in Dragon has a number of interesting takes that could be simplified in to a single house-rule.

EDIT: Also just read the Werebear as character class article in White Wolf 17. Anything else from that era I might have missed?

Zach just re-mentioned that Holmes mentioned werebears in his original draft of the Holmes Basic rules, and that Beornings were a class allowed via the Manual of Aurania rules. Some detail @ https://www.acaeum.com/forum/viewtopic. ... =13632&c=1

The only other third party articles/supplement on lycanthropes that immediately leaps to mind is the 1980 Skinwalkers & Shapeshifts @ https://www.ebay.com/itm/362383122176 (also reviewed in Pegasus #2 per https://www.acaeum.com/jg/Item0610.html) but it's rather pricey.

I'm sure there's quite a bit of info in the WW Werewolf game you could leverage for inspriation if nothing else, too.

Allan.

[austinjimm]

Thanks, Allan! I had overlooked the article in Dragon 10. About to read it now. The XP table could be right along the lines of what I'm thinking about.

Many of the other articles seem like they might fall outside the OSR perspective I'm looking for.

[austinjimm]

Reading through all this (thanks again, grodog!); As I distill my lycanthropy rules down to the simplest mechanics possible (within established A/OD&D norms), there are more "moving parts" than I anticipated. When I get something close I'll post it down-board, either in the OD&D or JG sections.

New question: Has anyone ever dealt with this in-game significantly?

[Ricks]

PC4 - Night Howlers includes an entire system for playing and interacting with Lycanthropes.

The biggest delta across systems is what happens when non-humans are infected. Here's all my lycan notes:
140311
Humans who avoid silver and wolfsbane, or are disliked by dogs and horses. Horses reach with fear. Dogs bark. Cats may hiss and arch their backs (or be affectionate in the case of weretigers)

Cause
Wounded (bite/claw)> 50% is 100% likely to cause lycanthropy. Death from lycanthrope and raised 100% chance of lycanthropy unless appropriate restorative measures are taken first. It may be months before the character turns. Withdrawn and edgy before full moon.

DRMG 138 - only bites.

PC4 Night Howlers
Demihumans learn from an early age that lycanthropy means death to them. Lycanthropy acts as a poison to elves, dwarves, halflings, and most humanoids (sve cs. poison or be infected). A demihuman infected with lycanthropy immediately feels feverish and weak, suffering -2 on all rolls to hit and saving throws. He can survive for d6 days, during which the condition will worsen. A stricken character unable to find a cleric of 11th level or grerater to cure the diseaase within that span will die.

PC4: Losing more than half hitpoints becomes a lycanthrope in 2d12 days, or with the full moon (whichever comes first). Signs of lycanthropy appear in half that time.

Monstrous Manual:
Contracting lycanthropy: Although the forms of attack vary with each species, all true lycanthropes can transmit their dreadful affliction. Any humanoid creature injured by a lycanthrope but not actually killed (and presumably eaten) has a chance to contract lycanthropy. This chance equals 1% per point of damage caused by the lycanthrope. Some lycanthropes transmit their affliction only through their bite, others through any natural attack, and some even through the weapons they use. For ease of bookkeeping, if a character suffers 24 points of damage (from all attacks) from a true werewolf, the character has a 24% chance to become an infected werewolf.

Ingesting holy water will slow the onset of lycanthropy by d4 turns for each vial of holy water consumed.

Cure
Only infected lycanthropes can be cured. To a true lycanthrope, lycanthropy is as natural as breathing, and the condition cannot be altered. True lycanthropes have complete control over their physical states; they are not affected by darkness, phases of the moon, or any of the other situations which traditionally affect infected lycanthropes.

If the character eats belladonna within an hour of the attack, there is a 25% chance this will cure the affliction; it definitely incapacitates the character for 1d4 days. Note that only a sprig of belladonna need be eaten, and it must be reasonably fresh (picked within the last week). If too much is eaten, the character may still be cured, but is incapacitated for 2d4 days.

If not cured within the hour, a 12th level cleric must cast cure disease within 3 days. After 3 days, the only other way to lift the affliction is to have a 12th level cleric cast a remove curse on the character, on the night of a full moon when the character is in wereform, and the were will fight violently to put as much distance as it can between itself and the patriarch performing the spell. After remove curse is cast, if the character makes a successful saving throw vs. polymorph, the curse is broken. Otherwise the changes take place and the spell has no effect. Other healing spells and abilities have no effect against lycanthropy.

The only other way to lift the affliction is to cast a remove curse on the character, on the night of a full moon, or the night immediately preceding or following the full moon. After remove curse is cast, if the character makes a successful saving throw vs. polymorph, the curse is broken. Otherwise the changes take place and the spell has no effect. Cure disease and other healing spells and abilities have no effect against lycanthropy.

If all else fails, the character can go on a monastic retreat with holy water, belladonna and wolfsbane for 1+ months (depending on advancement of the disease). The clerics will charge for the cost of the herbs and the holy/unholy water as well as for the services rendered. The DM may also wish to include the level of the priest as well as the adventurer into the cost of this treatment. (100 g.p. + 51½ g.p./day + 100 g.p./level of priest minister)

PC4: 11th level cleric with Cure Disease, before they first transform.

Change
Any creature, regardless of shapechanging or polymorphing abilities, retains the same hit points and saving throws in all forms.
Lycanthropes cannot transform in Astral Space. Loss of more that 1/3 hps in battle (body) can 50% cause to convert to were with 1-2 rounds of disorientation. Monster Summoning, Conjure Animals, Animal Summoning, and other similar spells can also cause converting to a were. Change will destroy armor, and cause 1-2 points of damage. Those affected this way will revert back to normal form in d6 turns after they are no longer in the stress of combat.

There is a scroll of potions that, if found, allow Magic-Users & my NPC Alchemist to use Wolvesbane in compounding a potion that will stop a Lycanthrope from shape-changing during the period of the Full Moon.

After the change will awake tired and ill. On nights before the full moon, the character will be irritable and edgy.

PC4: At sunrise, lycanthropes revert to their natural form. A lycanthrope can try to resist an involuntary change. This requires a saving throw vs. spells. the saving throw is at -4 if there's a full moon, and -2 on the night before or after the full moon. Weretypes of less thna monster status cannot resist the change at sunrise.

PC4: A vuluntary change requires a Con check. A lyncanthrope at monster level or less can try to change once per hour. At first level and above, they can try to change once per turn. The change takes 15 rounds - 1 round per level above cub (minimum 1 round).

PC4: The transformation into beast form causes them to forget all spells as though they've been cast.
Combat
All lycanthropes will fight and do damage as described in the MONSTER MANUAL regardless of how long the character has been a lycanthrope.

A werebeast in beast form can be hurt by normal weapons and animals in addition to magical weapons, but never killed by non-magical weapons. It regenerates such wounds and all severed limbs (unless magically caused) at the rate of 3 hp per round (severed limbs cannot be reattached but are considered regrown when all damage has been healed). In human form, it also heals normal-weapon damage rapidly, at the rate of 1d8 hp per day. If reduced to zero hit points by normal weapons in either form, a lycanthrope goes into a coma that, to all appearances, passes for death. After the lycanthrope regenerates one-third of its total hit points, it comes out of the coma and can continue as if nothing happened.

Damage from creatures of 4+1 HD or more are considered magical.

Lycanthropes are stil vulnerable to poison and paralyzation.

Defense
Any lycanthrope struck by wolfsbane must make a Saving Throw vs. Poison or flee in fear. The wolfsbane can be used as a melee weapon or thrown at opponents. Lycanthropes driven away by wolfsbane will stay away unless pursued and attacked, or until the next moonrise.

PC4: The touch of wolfsbane is the same as the cause fear spell and lasts for two turns. Werereatures must save vs. poison to avoid fleeing in fear.

PC4: Silver weapons do normal damage. A lycanthrope touching poison for more than one turn must make a saving throw vs. poison to avoid breaking out in a painful rash.

Belladonna sprig - 4sp, wolvesbane, sprig, 10 sp.

Timeline in Mystara: http://pandius.com/timelyc.html

Notes:
-------------
Only humans can by Lycanthropes (1st ed), or it kills demi-humans (OD&D/Mystara), any humanoid (MM), too small (immune), any warm blooded being (DRMG 24)

DMG 23 - chart for full moon.
Onset 7-14/2d12 days
Dragon 198 article.
PC4 - Night howlers

[Ricks]

Reading through all this (thanks again, grodog!); As I distill my lycanthropy rules down to the simplest mechanics possible (within established A/OD&D norms), there are more "moving parts" than I anticipated. When I get something close I'll post it down-board, either in the OD&D or JG sections.

New question: Has anyone ever dealt with this in-game significantly?

Yes, a few times. The longest was a PC Henchman that was a halfling in Mystara. Instead of it being instant death, I ran a cycle of story around it. Before the next full moon, the halfling was wounded badly enough to transform in front of the party (also conveniently avoiding the entire trope of finding out by waking in a field, and then theoretically but of course absolutely knowing what happened).

The halfling kept transforming, each time getting worse and worse as he came closer to death. The party eventually left him at a clerical sanctuary andp icked him up much later, theoretically cured. Then again, he hasn't been badly wounded since then ...

[austinjimm]

Cool! Thanks, Ricks. I'll add your notes to my growing folder on the topic.