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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Nyeshet" data-source="post: 3426472" data-attributes="member: 18363">I had a DM once that played lycanthropes a similar way. The group would go so sleep, only to find that one (or more) of its members were not there in the morning. The players whose characters were missing would be told things like: "You wake up next to a tree. In the distance you can just see the edge of the village." or "You wake up in some bushes, a coppery taste in your mouth and what looks like spots of blood on your fingers and hands. You cannot see the village, but the sounds of it seem to be coming from the north."The character (and at first even the PC) usually did not know what was going on for a while. While they could eventually learn to force a change at times other than the full moon, they had little or no control over what happened during the change. Even if they managed to force the change, the best they could do then was to tell the DM what they wished to accomplish. Most of the time they had little control over their changed character - the DM either controlled it, set limits / requirements to its actions, &/or required Will saves for various types of actions, as the character's mind sought to control or at least influence the mind of their altered form. Also, the DM ruled that you either had the animal form or the hybrid form, but not both, and once changed you had as much trouble reverting to norm (before the next dawn) as you did forcing the change in the first place (if it was forced). Control was not made with a Control Shape skill; instead it used Will saves, and if you failed you were potentially a threat to those around you. Depending on the nature of the curse (he rolled a few times anyone became infected, determining metal weaknesses, nature of the curse, what (little) degree of control the PC had, and whether the PC remembered anything, etc), the N/PC might attack friends or might attack only non-friends. Some lycanthropic curses were worse than others, requiring the character to feed on fresh meat before they could regain their normal form or control. In the long run, I actually preferred this style. One thing I dislike about modern D&D is the lack of risk. Everything is made as easy for the characters as possible so that the players are just about always having fun. While I can admit that fun should be a significant part of the game, the game needs risks to overcome or outwit, problems that are not easily or readily solved - and that do not also grant a boon. The feel of triumph in overcoming an obstacle is greater if the risk / trouble needed to accomplish it is greater. Problems that are easily solved or grant such a boon that the player has no wish to solve them will never give any real sense of accomplishment or triumph. Problems that bedevil the player for several game sessions or perhaps even an entire campaign - only to be finally overcome at / near the end of it - those are the ones that the player will feel true triumph over and will recall months and even years later. Curses are often either easily broken or as much a boon as they are a curse. Lycanthropy should not be something that a character, once infected, wants to spread around to his friends so that they too can gain the benefits of it. It should be something horrific, something that weighs on the mind and burdens the soul, something that the character will seek any means of either removing or at least repressing. I understand that my view is not the typical view, but that is the way I feel on the matter.</blockquote>

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