Werewolf Mysteries (D&D Monster Tactics)

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This was a pretty fun video to make, and is a good outline for how you can write your very own werewolf DnD one-shot adventure! Good ol Halloween themes are fun when slapped on top of a little mystery.
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[@Thiccremoch162]

I’ve always liked the idea of a clan of Kenku who purposeful inflict themselves with lycanthropy from a wereraven(from COS and Van Richten’s) to get their flight back since there’s a minimal change to their appearance

[@camblycreeper7999]

Imagine a a guy turns into a harpy to fly, he still looks relatively the same, like he still appears human but now he has wings

[@kmfdmman]

I have an NPC kenku druid group that did that very thing.

[@kingskelett6265]

that sounds very dope, like I can imagine them being badass assassins or something

[@johntheherbalistg8756]

Can't wereravens speak in their hybrid form? 🤯

[@fishyfishyfishy500akabs8]

@@camblycreeper7999ah yes, howl’s moving castle

[@Nirakolov]

Had a story where a bloodied hunter walked into a bar shout mumbling "Vermouth!!! Vermouth!!" and the bartender gave him a drink... ... but he kept shouting. Then a Weremoose breaks through the door and starts stomping on him

[@gabrielrussell5531]

*Rolls Intelligence (Nature)* "We should cut everyone with an iron dagger. A werewolf won't cut."

[@finderfinder4290]

Time for the werewolf to make a constitution (deception) check. Also i like the idea of werewolves getting cut from steel weapons but not dying because the image of a werewolf reknitting itself from decapitation is very metal

[@Spartakill198]

Some day im going to play a game of Werewolf or Town of Salem or something with my friends, writing everything down, and then turn that into a dnd arc with all the same characters and see if they remember everything that happened

[@jacobcorturillo6537]

Same

[@nonya1366]

"Why did 12 of the villagers all get doused in liquid, then an entire day passed before they were lit on fire?" "magic reasons."

[@Spartakill198]

@@nonya1366 The artificer had to cast Grease on all the buildings, and by the time he was ready, he was put of spell slots

[@LegendStormcrow]

Wait a year or 2, and play games in-between

[@ToonedMinecraft]

I once had a game of werewolves end with the only one alive to be the jester, so no one won. It'd be fun to turn that into a mystery for the players to solve

[@tabithachastain6999]

I was once in a Sweeney Todd-esque campaign where the chef of the local tavern was a werewolf. He had pretty good control over his beast due to him constantly eating the flesh of intelligent creatures. The leftovers were fed to the townsfolk in the taverns famous stew. He was found out when our lizard folk druid had the stew. B'ara knew the subtle taste of human, and the stew tasted familiar.

[@LoarvicLoarvic]

"Now, isn't this great that we all can trust eachother, aren't we?" he said to his party members. "Yes!" said werewolf, succubus, doppelganger, sea hag, oni, ancient dragon, changeling and carrionette-possessed body.

[@nonya1366]

The most suspicious party in existence. Because getting 10 people together is suspicious in itself. Maybe 11 depending on a co-gm or so.

[@camblycreeper7999]

@@nonya1366 Au contraire; The Carrionette is possessing an Oni, The Sea Hag is posing as a party member who was a Lycanthrope changeling but got replaced by a Doppelganger, The Ancient Dragon knows about everyone else but is keeping it close to the chest So; The party all up is one Sea Hag pretending to be an exposed werewolf changeling (Who, once again, got replaced), A carrionette possessing an Oni, a Dragon, a Succubus, and Regular Man

[@Limrasson]

@@nonya1366 No, all of this is just an Elder Oblex having fun.

[@middox239]

i once ran a campaign setting with a werewolf mystery set in a remote lumber village, turns out that every single villager was a werewolf and the party barely managed to get out before nightfall and alert the kingdoms army

[@MonkeyJedi99]

Werewolf Vicki must be protected! . And don't look behind the curtain at the rift that is moaning in pain.

[@hannahdigioia692]

@@MonkeyJedi99 fools gold!

[@aaroncunningham8307]

I'd love to see a Kraken video. D&D Krakens are great because their not normally portrayed as intelligent creatures in most media, so it's a nice surprise for unfamiliar players. And unlike most egomaniac monsters, they don't see themselves as perfect, and will constantly expirament on themselves, so you can justify weird variations.

[@eliburry-schnepp6012]

I like to get wild with my werebeasts. I’m thinking a werearmadillo whose curse also transmits leprosy or a wereanaconda who needs to disappear for a few days after eating their victims because they start brumating in order to digest them. Or what about a herbivore like a werebrontosaurus who isn’t directly hurting anyone but when she transforms she destroys the crops and threatens the whole town with starvation

[@Evergreen_Wizard]

As a zoologist I find this kind of approach really fun and creative!

[@ohmygoditisspider7953]

you're a lot of fun. I hope you're rolling dice often.

[@kingskelett6265]

A Werefox or Wereskunk who after being infected slowly start to have the beast's smell (aka stink).

[@0wolfmoon]

Dwarf fortress moment

[@elhornio5408]

A wereowl who leaves behind pellets made from their victims

[@Sgt-Wolf]

I guess the info in this video will make us all become *AWARE* Wolves... I'll let myself out.

[@marcusblacknell-andrews1783]

This could tie into an idea I once came up with: A Werewolf Necromancer is creating an army of reborn wererats to spread undeath as rat-like lycanthropy!

[@colinbamsey5262]

a nice meta way to mess with the players: Invite a guest player for the night, but don't have them be the werewolf the players will assume you brought them in to be the werewolf, because why else would you randomly invite a guest

[@some_rando_w_internet]

I remember running with a small low level group running through a desert, and ended up fighting, full force, a wereboar. Now I was an enchantment/illusionist wizard, paired with a fighter and a ranger. The wereboar was blinded, laughter’d and otherwise stunlocked whilst my party beat him to a paste. We were level 2. Good times.

[@METALGEARMATRIX]

My favorite werewolf story comes from the pages of Savage Sword of Conan. The issue number is lost to me but this is what I remember; The story opens up with Conan being hunted by a huge pack of wolves, they're wittling him down and hunting him nonstop for days. Finally, he comes to a fortified village and takes shelter there, barely escaping the jaws of the beasts and when he looks out over the pack gathered around the walls, one stands up and walks like a man into the trees. The artwork for it is superbly creepy. The rest of the issue is him working out that the wolfman is among the proto-viking inhabitants of the village and it ends after the gate is opened, the village overrun and Conan dueling with the manwolf one on one. I'm going to adapt it to a game one day

[@heyhellyco]

Ooohhh, this would definitely make for a really fun Halloween oneshot! Will be running this by a buddy DM for sure.

[@textoffender3410]

I ran a one shot for Halloween where a bunch of pirates called the party to a town to help hunt a monster. They were all werewolves and tried to kill the party

[@Theology.101]

I read the book series Wereworld as a child so I’ve always had some fun playing with Lycanthropy They got a lot of unique abilities that can do a lot of cool shit if you’re creative

[@Metal_Maoist]

Something cool that I haven't really seen before: Eberron almost had a full-blown werewolf apocalypse in their recent history.

[@Nemo12417]

In a surprising plot twist, werebeasts in the Eberron setting who travel to the plane of Lammania have their curse..... altered. The primal aspects of the curse become even harder to resist on Lammania, but the darker, murdery impulses cease altogether, and they can't spread the curse to any but their children. There are Silver Flame worshipping werewolves in the forests of Lammania, descended from templars who wished to save their own souls from corruption. In general, lycanthropy in Eberron is tied more to a specific strain than a shape. You might have one pack of werewolves who act like typical D&D werewolves, and another pack who are lawful good and are supernaturally drawn to the more noble behaviors you might associate with their beast shape, like loyalty. And anyone who is bitten will be drawn to the disposition of the specific strain of the pack their curse came from. Of course, it is still a curse, and even "good" werebeasts will find it nearly impossible to maintain their sanity while holding down a 9-5 job in civilization. And then you have that one time when every werebeast was suddenly drawn to the most extreme form of chaotic evil behavior for a few years, and nobody in universe knows why that happened. Well, the Chamber and Lords of Dust probably know, but good luck getting asking them without getting flayed alive.

[@pzalterias5154]

A good inspiration for this is the short story "Reflections for the Winter of My Soul" by Karl Edward Wagner. Like a lot of his short stories, it's a perfect one shot scenario. It's dated on a few facets, but great for inspiration, atmosphere, etc.

[@BradleyHonsinger]

Omg thank you for this! I'm running the werewolf den in curse of strahd and I've been super stressed about it because I feel like the encounter is so dull.

[@Nemo12417]

I'd suggest looking at the updated wereraven statblock in Van Richten, which 5.5e will probably apply to all werebeasts. They regain health at the start of their turn unless you hit them with a silver weapon or magic.

[@eliburry-schnepp6012]

I love that

[@Nemo12417]

The loup garou has a similar mechanic, but only silver weapons will negate the healing. If I ever run something with werebeasts, I will get rid of magic negating the healing, but I'll allow a critical hit to have the same effect as silver. That way, it is still possible to take out a werebeast by hitting it while it is down. Doable by a seasoned adventurer, scarily hard by townsfolk.

[@haze0028]

Freaking sweet lois

[@roger7097]

Peter, the lycans ready

[@realhyrulesoverlord]

Booooo

[@Jedibigfoot]

know you did basically doppelgangers before but would love to see you do a mystery adventure about a shapeshifters that disguise themselves as others whether its a doppleganger, an Oni, a rakshasa or any other

[@Deathven1482]

Just wanna say, the board game has been really fun. Been a beta playtester for it over the past year and highly recommend it!

[@lbrett7054]

Doing stuff with werewolves is always fun in dnd because of all the possibilities. I think making a character like Fenrir Greyback from the Harry Potter series would be interesting, where he enjoys his transformation so much that he prefers his wolf form than his human form, cursing as much people as he can; especially people or the families of people who have wronged him or hate lycanthropes. One of my friends once did a quest where we were protecting a settlement from a white werewolf, the whole white werewolf thing kinda backfired because the blame ended up on some local albino guy; which I thought was a bit much.

[@nonya1366]

Giff: "OH NO, I'LL TRANSFORM INTO A WEREWOLF >Gets lower strength >gets less health [but y'know reisstances and such] >get less con and dex. >Somehow get lower charisma. I would like to put forward that when the giant hipo transforms into a werewolf, it should act as a multiplier of their physical abilities. Because they should be terrifying.

[@thecakecraft7724]

Can I just say that I appreciate you crediting the artists when you use their art? It’s almost nothing, and it should just be basic courtesy, but you’d be surprised how often it gets ignored (or worse, how often it gets replaced by lazy creators turning to AI generated images so they can loophole the responsibility of not crediting people who work hard for their creative passion) So good job, thumbs up, thanks much

[@samuelrodriguez9801]

What if the werewolf is a priestess of Selune and embraces it in a goodway?

[@nonya1366]

Cleric Werewolf? This is just how we get powerwolf.

[@joshuahadams]

@@nonya1366 you *have* to multiclass into Bard at that point.

[@nonya1366]

@@joshuahadams Powerwolf is Fighter-Cleric-Bard yeah.

[@joshuahadams]

@@nonya1366 you could simplify that to Paladin-Bard so you only need Charisma for your spells.

[@adambartholomew6575]

I think I'm going to use this to start a short adventure set in Eberron during the time of the Silver Crusade

[@Kimoman18]

I ran a one-shot once based on the film "The Warriors". It was a reverse chase through a city where all of the cities gangs were lycanthropic (Were-bears, boar, hyenas, orcas, etc.). The party was framed for the murder of the city's largest gang leader in front of the entire criminal underworld. They then had to return to their base by morning, while every gang in the city was searching for them. It was called "The Were-iors." Loved that game.

[@tynorem9694]

One idea I've had is a cult of werewolves who protect an area from what they perceive to be trespassers. During the day, they appear to be normal villagers with no real connection to each other, but all the while they collect information which they share with their brothers and aisters at night.

[@fortytwogallonsofforestgre8085]

Always good to see another runesmith video

[@Mightymajin]

The best thing about the Giff being the werewolf is that they can be a werewolf with a GUN!

[@mr-laroque9604]

My favorite Werewolf mystery in DnD was when my ranger went bunker survivalist and found a cave to hunker in no one knew about. Least I thought no one knew. The halfing rogue snuck behind me during one of my supply runs. Ratted to the others thinking I was the killer Werewolf. One of whom being the mage went to cage and killed me displacing my body and going Werewolf running out of my cave. So everyone spent days looking for me not knowing I was already dead and the real killer was behind them.

[@prestonknudsen3111]

1:28 you thought we wouldn’t notice the Bolson Construction Company working noises, but we did.

[@unironicallylikesranger7122]

The loup garou is an interesting variant on the werewolf in that Homey would be able to put up a much bigger fight after being caught. I’m interested how you think that’d change his strategy with the regeneration and stronger infectious abilities

[@SirArtanis7]

How about other where creatures, like wheresharks?

[@tenlosol]

The only werewolf story I have for DND was a campaign my friend ran where he gave me to well past the point of it being helpful. Also once I had it enemies suddenly have silver weapons or magic to hit me after he found out about the nonnagic damage thing. I didn't even get to control it because my gf because the new werewolf lord (home brew) so when she shifted I had to shift so she never wanted to use her ability either.

[@Delmworks]

My favorite murder mystery run has two musketeers who hate eachother, want opposite things for the local heir, and opposite measures-but also have no idea the other was scheming. One was Tesso, a former monk and current were-rat, who summons rat swarms to devour his victims, and the other was Fujimoto(no relation), a monk/noble courtier who screwed Tesso out of his spot and uses poisoned tea to dispose of victims. So ideally they get rid of one-and then realize people are still dropping…

[@joshlordofillogic]

I once ran a witch/monster hunter campaign where I set up a werewolf attack on a large village, The first murder was in a stone tower of a dwarven palace where bestial tears and bloodstains pointed clearly to a werewolf. The fun part is that it wasn't a werewolf. It was a sorceress with summon monster. She summoned wolves in the room from line of sight through a windowsill out in the courtyard. The lack of wolf like footprints form the outside to the murder site was the key to not wasting a bunch of the party's limited budget on silver weaponry. Good times.

[@tomisabum]

You briefly covered Oblexes in your ooze video, but a unique encounter setup with them would be fun to see! Motives, how they'd settle in somewhere, what sort of pastries are in their bakery, etc.

[@irlbirdman1409]

Funny npc to run into, a Lionin or tabaxi commoner who is always sneezing and has a swollen bloodshot eyes has trouble dealing with his licanthropy because they are allergic to dogs. Even after changing, they will be an allergic mess.

[@pinballwizard2587]

Once ran a campaign where one of my players was a were-rat that ran away from her nest. Everytime she stole something I’d roll a constituent check and if she failed it her curse would advance a little more. By the time it ended she had a tail, animal ears, buck teeth, and whiskers that she had to shave off every morning or be clocked by the city folk. Also it was canon that the need to steal was just baked into all ratfolk as a natural compulsion so the better the opportunity and the more valuable it was the harder it would be to resist ( we decided that she specifically didn’t care about value just how shiny/ cute it was)

[@aFallenWolf]

God I LOVE the names you give these characters!

[@philurbaniak1811]

Justice for Street Sharks!

[@giladpellaeon1691]

Love Donner Dinner Party! Especially if you're a cannibal 'Ole Tasty', you can't lose!

[@mcbadrobotvoice8155]

The warewolf among us. Sounds like a fun oneshot idea

[@tylergehle9939]

I once played a Barbarian that had a werewolf curse. Everytime I reached half HP I had to make a CON save to stay human. While transformed I had to make WIS saves every turn or lose control until I passed a check

[@madmachanicest9955]

There's an old folklore legend from Louisiana that's basically a werewolf but only the head to turns into a wolf. The cool part is it's a demonic spirit that will possess someone else when the original is killed. This body hooping ghost werewolf would make an interesting villain for a game or too because you have to fight it as a werewolf but also as like a ghost. In the fork lore the spirit is trapped in an object or the person transformed is trapped

[@madmachanicest9955]

I like this kinds of videos where you create a little story and show the viewer how to run it so make more like this one

[@RemarkableMarky]

Love the drawing at the end

[@hollowknight4630]

Adding this most definitely cause my next campaign is themed around the moon

[@scionicog]

ooooo some fresh Runesmith, my favorite

[@freakymoejoe2]

I feel like a giant hippo with a gun is more scary, and just as monstrous, as a wolf man?

[@nickte2609]

Ok now i have to rewatch it and keep notes and remake somewhat the characters for a future session😊

[@cannabussoldier]

Yo my top favorite videos are the ones where you show monster tactics. Special tactics and lairs would help dm’s. The gobo and kobold ones are so great, all of them are great! Ty buddy. Oh and aberration looks sweet too.

[@fhrdgr]

I once had a pirate campaign where one of the party was a whale shark man who was later turned weresquirrel

[@TheUglyGoblin]

Great video! My friend is actually planning a werewolf mystery game very soon! Haha I'll be playing the old gossip of the town :3

[@Lokmen_BH]

I didn't expect you to know how to draw !! that's cool !

[@nilszwinkels3341]

The Dungeon Dudes did something similar in their campaign, though it was more ‘The Thing’ inspired than anything else.

[@connorgillespie7996]

Thanks for coming back from vacation! Fingers crossed for basically Leonin soon

[@scoots291]

I love the thought in that case the boliwug became a were ww nobody expecting it to be a medium creature

[@Huy-G-Le]

The Hippo is a werewolf? Literally no one except it!

[@Some_Really_Random_Dude.]

I personally think werewolves or any were-creature for that matter, make better "unwilling monster" stories than they do murder mystery perpetrators. They can still do it of course, but I personally prefer the note of tragedy, that it was not really them that did it, it was the beast. Lycanthropy as disease of both body and mind, as opposed to a buff. Though that is just me.

[@jareddebeast]

This would be really cool if you previously had an encounter with another werewolf that unknowingly infected either a party member or an npc that the party keeps around so the party has to find out that it was in fact one of them that had been going around killing civilians and none of them was aware

[@lord_kuma4439]

All right, I got an idea of a band of bandits wich are all werewolves, the leader is a Loup Garou. All of them has embraced their beast side and now the overtook the lord's manor of the region. How would you go about with that idea? What kind of tactics, how would they deal with anyone trying to beat them?

[@nonya1366]

As a gut reaction, probably just bandit tactics, both scare and stacking the deck in their favor. While also being willing to 'recruit' since 'hey your a werewolf now forever :) Wanna join our gang?" Probably works. This is a problem that can expand pretty fast as the werewolfs are far more capable of surviving in the wilderness.

[@deltarno7502]

Love the video. If you need inspiration for more videos, the monster tactics have been fun, and you could branch this out into how monster x infiltrates and controls slash murders an area.

[@LCCWPresents]

Sweet I love these

[@___i3ambi126]

Praise Malar, the Beastlord, patron of wild beasts like us.

[@selensewar]

I played a murder mystery once, with me being a werewolf and investigator being a vampire. The twist was - there were two werewolves in the settlement...

[@PumaPants248]

“Potato Chips is the werewolf I swear to god I saw him vent”

[@dxjxc91]

I thought I remembered you making an oblex video but didn't see it in a playlist. So how about an oblex encounter. Perfect video for spooky month too.

[@tsukiraaquarius8746]

You're a really good Paint artist, my dude!

[@willmunoz800]

Stating up and running a poor farmer that ends up being the bbeg (the unassuming plot). I've played and run this, so I'd love your take

[@MultiZernez]

this sounds like such a fun idea

[@Groovebot3k]

Picture, if you will, a werewolf murder in a warehouse... and the only people there besides the party are warforged. As far as all the warforged know (or are at least saying), they don't even know what lycanthropy is... and lots of people have no idea if it can even affect warforged, either.

[@kaitar0]

Oh! I ran one of these as a space filler between games. It was a lumber town and I had a little timetable for what the townsfolk would try if left to their own devices and I rationed out several stashes of silver (bags of coins at some of the shops, a silver carving knife/dagger at the owner's home, etc) then the party failed a lot of saves versus lycanthropy and the intent sort of flipped.

[@Jarulf4477]

The vineyard group all had really rick and morty style names tbh.

[@grayrook8637]

Clip-Clop and Jubjib? Ya know one day Runesmith ought to do a video on making npc names. He is a virtuoso of dumb dnd names.

[@OhMercyMe]

unreasonably attached to Potato Chips the grung

[@mileslugo6430]

This reminds me of one of my favorite manga Beastars

[@TheMariosack]

Wurd is the the greatest detective to ever live

[@zipperdawn8960]

XDD I have to say, your character would fit in 100% with the party I'm part of for my bro's current game. We might also be fans of fire as a solution to problems. XD

[@lazrustosadow5880]

A Dwarven prince gets bitten by a were-Pomeranian

[@konatelassina5301]

This was great! I have been searching for material like this. For my werewolf adventure, I endeavor to have 1. a mystery and 2. have the werewolf harry the PC’s in the forest. Haven’t been able to come up with a method to induce the panic I intend. PC’s can be pretty stolid.

[@quagsiremcgee1647]

If you burn everything. It removes all your problems, and only gives you one in return. And fire is a much simpler problem to solve

[@devonthurgood9381]

I also look forward to seeing Orc tribe tactics someday

[@fateric007]

I'm stealing this idea for a one shot.

[@takeyouforgranite7850]

Weird request, but I'd love to see your take on an Alien Encounter in D&D! You know, party gets abducted by a flying saucer and shit while they're out camping, that kind of thing. It's an odd request, I know, but there's a surprising amount of precedence for it, given one of the first big modules for D&D that gave us the Wolf-In-Sheeps-Clothing and the Froghemoth was explicitly about the party stumbling on a crashed alien spaceship. I'm certain you'd be able to give it a fun spin!

[@voidmystic00]

Draconic Shard is good monster to do an adventure around.

[@silversugar2140]

I love Potato Chips. What a cutie. RIP

[@dragonkingofthestars]

Oh my god you made the only one that has a gun the werewolf!

[@iceryu66]

I think the one time the party thought it was going to be a werewolf attack, it turned out to be a shambling mound that had been pruned

[@georgeuferov1497]

7:13 - maybe a comparison of fiendish tactics?

[@Invaric]

I'd personally love to see your take on: Aartuk Aurumvorax Bariaur False Hydra Leucrotta Nereid Thought Eater Tsochar Wingless Wonder Xixchil

[@gubus2494]

this was awesome

[@feartimetrioofficial3019]

You should to a monster tactics video on the Tarrasque, that’d be fun :)

[@RealSaintB]

I have an already established lumber camp in my campaign that I could do this with

[@TheDragonOfWhi]

I had werebats in a temple to Pelor at the top of a mountain. And have long wanted to run the town secratly ran by Wererats that was in the Al Qadim setting.

[@Limrasson]

It's really fun for a werewolf to spread their curse to create scapegoats but how does that happen? They have to bite someone and then wait for the full moon for them to turn for the first time, right? So the timing has to be right and they have to be knocked out or they wake up while being bitten and they have to go around without noticing the bite.

[@Lexie-nc2vl]

I have a cool idea. A fusion of this video and the vampire video. A werewolf and vampire in the same town or city just going ham. That would be awesome!!!!