Survey: What kind of were-creature would you play?

[Daniel Solis]

I'm starting to work on the lycanthropunk section of PUNK. The problem is that there are a lot of animals on earth and I don't want to write up a bunch of space-wasting descriptions. I figure I'll just do writeups on animals people would actually be interested in playing. So, without bothering going into the details of setting or anything...

What kind of werecreature would you play and why?

[buddha]

Hmmm...

I'd have to say, going with the Punk idea, you'd wanna play unusual, on-the-fringe were-types.  Man, I gotta say the first thing that sprang to mind was... Oy... the were-platypus.  Seriously.  

But I loved the idea of a "were-amoeba", and personally, I dunno, maybe just a were-dog or a were-gator or, oooh, yeah, a gorilla!

Hmm, if you’ve got ‘em, the old Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles sourcebooks have a lot of critter stats and ability ideas, as well as some very unusual critters.

Buddha

P.S.- I also loved the Godpunk idea.

[Bob McNamee]

Flamingos

[Lxndr]

I like snakes and spiders (though I hate what white wolf did with snakes).

Beyond that, scruffy mangy dogs and cats feel "punkish"... and I too imagined the platypus.

[Daniel Solis]

Thanks for the tip, Buddha. :)

Great stuff, everyone. Keep it coming, I thnk maybe 30-40 animals would cover enough of a variety for most people's taste or provide a template for augmentation.

Speaking of which, part of the setting is that the second generation of lycanthropes are technically were-chimera, possessing some traits of both parents.

Subquestion: If you could play a were-creature combining two different types of animals, what would you play and why?

[xiombarg]

Ferrets. There's a punk animal for you. ;-D

[Mike Holmes]

Seems to me that letting the player decide on his animal is somewhat like a personal totem. I'd be for some system that let the player create his own animal stats. Otherwise I'm sure someone's favorite will not be on the list.

For example, I can tell you right now that Jared will be disapointed if he can't play a were-sloth. :-)

Me, I like the were-lemur idea. Spiders would be creepy. One I really like, but might not be Punky enough would be the were-shark.

Mike

[Jack Aidley]

Gotta agree with Mike. Any list will be defficent, so if you're going to provide more than a small set of choices you need to provide rules for all of them. Me, I want to play a were-ocelot...

[xiombarg]

Yeah, you're best off with a short list of "punkish" examples, that that players can use as a springboard.

[Lxndr]

Porcupines.

What is punk if not prickly?

[Little_Rat]

Rats. I love rats and they are perfect for any *punk setting. But don't make them to "ebil"- rats might be mangy sewer dwellers but they also thrive in human enviroments, are very very intelligent and resourcefull.

White Wolf did so-so with the Ratkin as do most gaming books but resist the "conniving son of a rat backstaber terrorist destroy everything" stereotype, it doesn't make playing one flexible or allowing for a variety of concepts.

Also, neat shifters could be owls, bats, ravens- face it, who wouldn't love to fly?

p.s. cats are ok, but don't make them into sexy hornballs ala WW's Bastet. Cats are wild and unpredictable. Make them cute one mintue and ripping out your throat the next.

[Jason Lee]

As far as personal interest goes, I lean towards dogs, cats and bears.  Hmmm...for some reason elk is appealing - must be the big frickin' antlers.

Chiming in with the build yer own werecritter.  Kinda depends on how much detail you want and what mythos for werecritters you're going with (turn into a wolf on the full moon, WW-ish I can turn into a half-man-half-beast thingy, possession by an animal spirit, etc).  But, it could be as simple as:

Distribute X points among stat bonuses, movement modifiers (wings, amphibious), weapons (claws, teeth, quills), armor (carapace, regeneration, specific immunities), and functionality (serpentine, extra limbs, tail).

[M. J. Young]

Mike said it first: you really should have a way to custom design your own were animal. I'm thinking some sort of menu system is probably viable, in which the player and the referee create a basic template for the wererace and then build the individual within it.

I think the presence of other were creatures in the book is more a shortcut for the referee to populate those corners of the world than anything else. Give the player flexibility in this area.

--M. J. Young

[Simon W]

A were-puffin. Or a were-toad. But the important question is what do these were-creatures do? And how do they get to be the were-creatures that they are. Is this a humorous thing or a serious thing? I can only see it being humorous, I'm afraid (given the choice of were-creature on here so far).

[Daniel Solis]

Thanks for the help, everyone! Keep it coming :)

Jared will be disapointed if he can't play a were-sloth. :-)

Among the many were-creatures in the setting, some will in fact be prehistoric animals like dinosaurs and, yes, giant sloths. Just for Jared. :D

Distribute X points among stat bonuses, movement modifiers (wings, amphibious), weapons (claws, teeth, quills), armor (carapace, regeneration, specific immunities), and functionality (serpentine, extra limbs, tail).

The format I'm working with is something like this. I have a list of abstracted abilities like "claw," "striker," or "bite." As well as a variety of funky things like camoflage, speed and so forth. I'm trying to be as general as possible without missing fun little abilities like "high-impact spit," "venom," or "webs."

Further, the lycanthropes in this setting have more exaggerated versions of the abilities possessed by their natural animal counterparts, so I took some artistic license with the description and effectiveness of some powers. I actually recommend to players that they check out some of the nature documentaries on the Discovery Channel like "Top Ten Weirdest Animals of the World!" for some ideas for new powers. (I'm guessing this is how Jared found out the coolness of giant sloths.)

Yeah, you're best off with a short list of "punkish" examples, that that players can use as a springboard.

Doing this too. Every animal writeup will have a short list of the abilities available to lycanthropes of that type. Out of those abilities, every character will only have enough creation points to get a few. So essentially it's "here's a big list of sample powers" then "here's some example animals and what powers they might have. Pick which ones you want. You can get more with experience, but none outside of that animal template."

For example, I want to play a were-hermit crab. They've got pincers and armor, but it's special armor that can be removed when necessary. So, when writing up the "Hermit Crab" template, I include "claw" (for the pincers) and "Armor" plus the enhancement "removable." I could do some more research on hermit crabs to find out what other interesting things they do that I could spin into possible powers.

This component-based creation was essential since there's really no way to make a universally satisfactory list. Also, part of the setting is second-generation "chimera" who share traits of both lycanthropic parents. That last bit alone just begs for component-based creation system.

Again, thanks for the cool ideas everyone, I'd love to hear more! :)