WEREBEAR

[ryslighelpers]

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WEREBEAR

BASIC INFO Werebears are half-man, half-bear creatures who, in times of old, were influenced by the balance of day and night. Present day Werebears may shed their fur in the form of a pelt to mimic human beings. In bear form, they are one of the largest monsters in Ryslig, but when not transformed, they're as short as the average human being. MANDATORY CHANGES ● Skinchanger abilities. By using this ability, the Werebear can shift back to their human form for up to 12 hours. Their bear fur and hide will be left behind after the transformation, which they can either hide or wear like a fur coat. They will keep all of their Werebear strengths, defenses, and abilities in this form, but will be drastically weakened if the fur is damaged or destroyed. This ability can be used once per day. Once the 12 hours are over, the Werebear will revert back to their bear form, regardless of how far away they are from the pelt. ● Werebears must take on all the mandatory changes (plus whatever optional ones the player desires) when in bear form. They must spend 12 hours on end as a bear before they can use their ability to become human again, and this ability will not work during Fog days. ● Transformation fatigue. While Werebears are very energetic when they first enter their bear forms, they tend to have major fatigue as time goes on. The longer they spend as a bear, the more exhausted they become, and sleep will not truly remedy this. Either the presence of the Fog, or using the Skinchanger ability to become human, will recharge their batteries fully. ● Werebears retain most of their normal human appearance when using the Skinchanger ability. However, a few minor physical traits such as a tail, extra hairy arms or bear ears may still manifest even in this human form. ● Upper and lower canine teeth elongated into sharp fangs. ● Bear-like furred ears. ● Fur on the back, shoulders, and arms. ● Very large, clawed hands and feet with pads on the bottom. ● A larger size. Transformed Werebears will be roughly 1.5-2 times the size of their human selves. ● Increased strength. Werebears are much stronger than a normal human could ever be. ● Sharpened senses. Werebears have a keen sense of hearing, sight, and smell that combined make them very formidable hunters. ● Vulnerability to silver. Silver will burn the skin on contact and can cause severe injury or even death if the Werebear is shot or stabbed with something made of silver. ● The need to feed on human flesh. Werebears are omnivores and can eat pretty much anything, however, they'll need meat to keep their energy levels up. This need may be satiated by accepting it from others, but more often than not, the Werebear will be compelled to choose their own targets for a fresh kill. ● A strong hunting instinct. When Werebears are hungry, they will develop the urge to chase prey down. Werebears usually hunt by striking their prey with their huge claws to knock them down, then biting them in the neck to finish them off. [back to top] OPTIONAL CHANGES ● Any psychological changes are welcome! Feel free to pull from real world myths, canon creatures of this variety, or any other source! ● A fog form. This is an exaggerated version of their monster form that appears only during the fog and is a chance to make your monster more "horrifying" during the fog. ● Travel form: the ability to shift into a full bear form at any time, or any other animal the monster design is based on. In this form, the character will look like a normal bear and will be able to travel faster. However, they will also be more vulnerable. ● A Werebear may have bear-like features or markings while they're in their human form as long as there's a significant contrast between their human and bear forms. ● Fur on any other part of the body. ● Bright yellow eyes. Other eye colors may manifest in a Werebear on occasion, but yellow is most often seen. ● The rest of the teeth elongated into fangs. ● A bear tail. ● Longer arms for the ability to run fast on all fours. ● Any number of bear-like facial features, ranging from mild to fully ursine. ● Superhuman climbing ability, enabling them to scale trees and tall buildings. ● Increased awareness of their surroundings, including weather patterns, layout of nearby terrain (caves and underground structures included), as well as instinctive knowledge of which plants are edible and poisonous. ● While using Skinchanger, moments of high emotion can cause the Werebear to partially or fully transform back into their bear form before the 12 hour time limit is up, depending on the intensity of the emotion. ● A territorial instinct. The Werebear, in bear form, will feel a deep connection to the area they've selected as their territory, and may become enraged when others invade it without getting permission. [back to top] ALLOWED SPECIES Bears, Pandas, Red Pandas, Opossums, Tasmanian Devils, Wombats, Tree Kangaroos, Koalas, Wolverines, Badgers, Raccoons, Martens, Fishers and Skunks are allowed. Think in the subfamilies Melinae, Mellivorinae, Taxidiinae and Guloninae. Similar creatures from a character's homeworld are also allowed. [back to top] ARTWORK Artwork generously donated and submitted by players as an example of this monster in various forms. This can give you an idea of what you can do with this monster. Want to donate? Submit your own August Night form (slightly nsfw) by Avali Craig Boone Normal form by Rachel Normal form by Usagi Grace Nakimura Day and Night forms by Groove Juno Steel Night form by Luc Kain Highwind Normal form by Carbon Night form by Carbon Travel form (with additional wings from Mana) by Carbon Fog form (with additional wings from Mana) by Carbon Oliver Hampton Night form by Harry Night form by Luc Transformation and travel forms by Ash Trish Una Day form by Pinch Night form by Pinch [back to top]

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(frozen comment) FAQ

[ryslighelpers]

Have a very specific question in mind? Here's some questions that have been asked in the past!

FIRST OFF:

Something seems strange about Werebear. I seem to remember them working on a day/night schedule, like Werewolf.
Your memory's correct! As part of the big July 2023 Bestiary revamp, we chose to change the Werebear's transformation mechanic, to further differentiate them from Werewolves. Werebear players at the time were given the option to either accept the new mechanic, or keep the old one. Any Werebear accepted into the game from that point on, however, must follow the new Skinchanger mechanic.

This mechanic is kind of a lot. Can you explain how it works?
Of course! Using Skinchanger, the Werebear can spend up to 12 hours in a (mostly) human form. They can either end the ability early to turn back into a bear, or spend the full 12 hours and then turn back into a bear by force. It takes another 12 hours in bear form for Skinchanger to 'recharge' so it can be used again, so ideally, a Werebear would spend 12 hours as a human being and 12 hours as a bear for the full 24 hours a day, regardless of whether it's day or night.

So 'human form' and 'Skinchanger form' are the same thing now?
Correct. Using Skinchanger is the only way for a Werebear to become human from this point on.

Couldn't my monster just spend all their time in bear form, then?
Yes and no. The downside to bear form is the transformation fatigue. The longer they spend as a bear, the more exhausted they become. They can try to sleep in bear form, but it won't fix the fatigue, so they'd basically just end up in a kind of hibernation. There's two ways to be rid of the fatigue: Use Skinchanger to become human for as long as possible, or wait for the Fog to roll in. The Fog will lift the fatigue enough for the Werebear to become active again in bear form, but as you'd expect, this only lasts as long as the Fog days do.

Does it always take 12 hours in bear form to recharge the Skinchanger ability, even if it was used for less?
Correct. Even if your Werebear only spent 5 hours as a human using Skinchanger, it would still take 12 hours to recharge, so use your Skinchanger ability wisely!

I've been playing a Werebear since before July 2023 and chose not to accept the new mechanic. Do you still have the old page on file?
We sure do!


MONSTER ABILITIES:

Is the transformation into a bear very physical and painful, or is it more of a smooth, painless magical girl transformation?
Player's choice.

What happens to my character's clothes when they transform?
You can decide if they need to buy new clothes all the time (ie tearing every time they change) or if their clothes incorporates or disappears until they turn back.

Can I have some more information about the Skinchanger ability, and how destruction of the skin will affect the Werebear?
We interpret the Skinchanger ability clause to imply that the fur left behind is a literal fragment of the Werebear. If it were to be damaged or destroyed, their superhuman abilities would suffer, too. Think of it like a crippling injury. By dealing damage to the bear part of the monsters, an integral part of them would be hurt.

But what happens when the pelt is damaged/destroyed and the 12 hour time limit is up, causing the Werebear to forcibly turn back into a bear?
If the pelt is merely damaged, this damage would take the form of injuries in their bear form. Suffering heaviness and flu-like symptoms as a consequence would be a great way to play it too. The intensity of these symptoms depends on how intense the damage to the pelt is. If the pelt is outright destroyed, their bear half is 'absent' until the Fog heals them, leaving the Werebear with something close to a mortal injury when they turn back into their bear form. How exactly this would manifest is up to the player, so feel free to get creative, but essentially it would equate to being bed-ridden. If you'd like the pelt's destruction to be outright lethal, you're allowed to play it like that as well, but just be aware that other Werebears might survive this situation.

When it says the Skinchanger ability it only lasts for up to 12 hours, does that mean up to 12 hours of separation? Does this limit still apply if the Werebear continues to wear the pelt like a fur coat?
The timer begins to tick away the moment the Werebear uses this ability and takes on human form. From that point on, the proximity to the skin has no impact on the ability's duration.


MONSTER BODIES AND CHANGES:

Can Werebear players play around with the whole hibernation thing? Like being unusually groggy/short tempered until spring, tempted to den up for days on end and such?
Yes, you may.

Bears have good night vision, so what about Werebears?
They too can have good night vision, and this falls under a Werebear's sharpened senses. It wouldn't do a Werebear much good if they weren't able to hunt effectively using their senses at night, when they take on their monster forms!

If a Werebear is killed while using Skinchanger, will the corpse remain transformed even after the 12 hour limit, or will the corpse shift back to bear eventually?
When you die, your corpse remains as the form it was in right before death. So if a Werebear was killed in Skinchanger form, they would stay that way regardless of the ability's time limit. Please also keep in mind that a monster's body will disappear when it is resurrected.