Save or Die Podcast # 9: All things were!
Join DM Vince this week with a special adventure #9… Vince gathers up some new voices for this show, as Mike and Liz have to go out of town last minute, but still wanted a show for all the listeners. Give a warm welcome to Guest DM Glen and Chrispy, as they talk about ways of giving out experience points, and then talk about various types of were-creatures!
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I tend to throw in extra XP for role-playing in addition to Gold and Monster XP.
I’ve never taken XP away from anyone.
I prefer to give or take away XP for in-game, PC-related activity. XP is a game mechanic and I feel experience should depend upon in-game actions. After all, I don’t give the players treasure or require them to pay for things outside of the game.
If a player (as opposed to a PC) is disruptive or counter-productive to the group, then this should be dealt with outside of the game. Players do not receive XP, their characters do. Still, I confess that I am prone to award small, rare XP bonuses to a player, as DM Chrispy mentioned, for player-induced moments of glory or amusement.
I don’t recall taking XP from anyone. A disruptive player should be dealt with as a person – not a character. In my opinion.
Weres:
As for the werebear, I always assumed the creature design was influenced by Beorn from The Hobbit – which is why it comes off as less evil than the others. The wereboar strikes me as a Celtic myth-inspired thing. As with so many other monsters, the individual lycanthropes were taken from fantasy literature and folklore. Even the wererat can be found in Leiber’s Lankhmar stories where they were used very effectively. The werejaguar from Mesoamerican legend is also a perfectly acceptable lycanthrope. Having a variety of weres allows the DM to use a specific type in a suitable setting – like the weretiger for a jungle setting where another animal type might not be as interesting or appropriate.
I will end this ramble by mentioning the rakshasa is not a were of any type, but a shapeshifting demonic creature from Indian myth.