>>43967090
We got dogs from a very small population that was near the group that domesticated them. The fact we took a few nice ones wouldn't have had a long lasting effect on the entire species, especially since we probably would have had our nice wolves help us kill the mean bastards.

Neat idea. Could get a bit stale if they're all literally reskinned dragons and serve no greater purpose, but that's up to your worldbuilding skills. No need to worry about furries any more than scalies in normal games. Consider the implications for werewolves and kobolds, maybe use Japanese style dog kobolds.

>>43967090
>ancient humans befriended ancient canines and bred the most docile ones into dogs

Okay

>it was the most aggressive ones who were left to evolve into wolves, meaning modern wolves are much meaner bastards thanks they would naturally be.

What?

We "befriended" a very small subset of the wolf population and bred favorable traits that led to the dogs we have today, the rest of the wolf population evolved as the environmental stimulus dictated.

In fact what happened is the polar opposite of what you just described because we kept killing wild wolves for their aggression and predation on domesticated lifestock, the modern wolf is skittish, cautious of any human contact and more aloof then their ancestors.

>>43967090
Your premise is stupid, like >>43967139 said. But the idea is fucking great, at least the lone wolf part. I'm a sucker for Mononoke-style giant animals. Not so sure about the rest, you'll have to not stuff WOLFWOLFWOLF everywhere in everyone's faces.

You also fucked up the colours in your greentext

>>43967090
I like the idea. If I were running with it, I would base the setting on heavily on the Black Forest, Transylvania and the Brothers Grimm to give it all a gothic fairytale feeling.

>>43967204
What happened is we killed most of the wolves that weren't scared of getting close to humans, and we're only left with those that avoid us as much as possible.

>it was a wolf that raped Little Red Riding Hood

Since when did it do that, not counting porn? She just got eaten at worst in all the versions I read.

>>43967881
ohsweetsummerchildofmine.jpg
That's the original mythological version, which also bleeds heavily in the Perreau version iirc.

>it was the most aggressive ones who were left to evolve into wolves, meaning modern wolves are much meaner bastards thanks they would naturally be
Complete horseshit. We bred and raised dogs (the proper big ones anyway, not your yappie kiddie-pleasers and purse-balast) to be our hunting partners and guards. A feral wolf in the wild is only going to attack you when you're threatening it or when it's hungry (and even then only if there is absolutely nothing easier to eat around) All a dog needs to attack someone is a command, even an implicit one.

I'm sick of this "Masterwork Dragon" bullshit that's going on..."
Okay, joking aside, I think this is a freaking awesome idea with tons of potential. Have you thought of upscaling other animals, too?

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>>43968063
>That's the original mythological version, which also bleeds heavily in the Perreau version iirc.

>>43968146
not OP, but consider the following:
Cats as Illithids

>>43968155
Come on, the whole story is a absolutely obvious "Don't speak to men you don't know or BADTHINGS happen". With the protagonist being a young girl, which pretty much always translates to "just became not-prepubescent anymore" it's pretty clear what the BADTHINGS amount to.
Considering Perreau I said I wasn't sure.

>>43968226
There's a big difference between
>Red Riding Hood's fate in the original was a metaphor for rape
and
>Red Riding Hood was raped in the original

>>43967881
Have you read any of the originals before the Brothers Grimm censored them?

>>43968260
There isn't even a real original of any myth. And "heavily implied" is more than "a metaphor". Stories made up for teaching children stuff don't actually deal in metaphors a lot, since children don't get them.

>>43968260
The old Celtic version absolutely contained rape, anyhow.

>>43968359
>And "heavily implied" is more than "a metaphor".
She was explicitly eaten.

>>43967090
Your theory is hogwash. The dogs with an affinity to man, and natural allies when herding prey, were the ones that could understand humans.

The main trait of bred dogs is their evolutionary direction towards interpreting man and his communications. Dogs are much more capable when it comes to understanding humans than any other animal, including primates. They can pick up on intention by looking at human faces, they can interpret pointing hands, and they can interpret many different vocal calls. That paired with their natural pack mentality makes them ideal hunting companions and useful camp guards. The selection was never for aggression, but for communication.

But even if not, in order for the unfavored trait to then dominate in the remaining wild population you'd need much more pervasive human presence than you have in bronze age Europe. Asia and Russia are way beyond that even in population density.

>>43968388
Yeah, in the book version. Which is a at least twice redacted version made explicitly to be palatable to 18th–19th century European reading public.

>>43967090
Your reasoning is flawed but your idea is awesome.

I'd modify Lockjaw Wolves to needing high amounts of iron, which results in them consuming raw iron ore, not just swords and shields.

As a result though, their bones are extremely high in the metal and if the wolf is killed the skeleton can be partially melted down.

>>43968432
I'm not talking about the Grimm version, dipshit, I'm talking about the version Charles Perrault himself printed.

>>43968463
As I have mentioned already twice, I wasn't sure about Perrault (btw, thank you for the spelling correction. I grew up where the original spelling wasn't relevant). Sorry to having rustled your jimmies, even if they seem rather easily rustlable.

>>43967090
I like the idea and I'm stealing it. Elaborating on stuff while I'm at it.

White Wolves- Strange wolves with an affinity for winter and cold. They are invisible in the snow and their savage teeth are so cold they actually inflict Frostbite. They may be the origin of that term in fact.

>>43967090

I dig it op, I'd just shift away from "they evolved this way because..." and go more mystical with it.

>>43967090
I've been reading Spice and Wolf, so this sounds amazing to me to right now. It's a very good idea, although you should definitely do more unique world building for it instead of just outright swapping wolves for dragons. Using it as a base for a setting built from similar inspirations would be much better.

Stalker Wolves: Have a magical howl. Anyone who hears it is known to the wolf and its pack. That is, if you hear the howl, the wolf knows where you are at all times.

Hard mode: A stalker wolf can teleport to those that have heard its howl.

I have a setting, my players' favorite though I never use it anymore, that uses almost entirely variations of wolves as the enemies. Not just as the dragons, but as the orcs, the mind flayers, the cursed item, the troll, the goblin. Kennel Bosses mind-wiped humans with a stare, and made them think they were wolves in his pack, forever. The Hunger That Waits lunged from tree to tree on long, many-jointed arms, leaving impact craters where it killed but otherwise no footprints. Shit was so cash.

>>43967090
IRL, The most commonly reported hallucination that dying people have is a black dog or wolf. Hmm...
>the grim reaper in this world is a black wolf
>the black wolf is eternally hungry
>the wolf feeds on good deeds, courage under fear, valor in battle, kindness to the downtrodden, etc.
>if you bring the black wolf a good meal, he will shepherd you to the next life
>if your meal leaves the wolf still hungry, your very soul will next furnish his banquet
>"feeding the wolf" is a saying among warriors, meaning the performance of a heroic deed that will satisfy the black wolf upon your death

What about those furred kobolds being the servants of the red wolves, intelligent and malevolent tricksters that steal children, ruin harvests, use illusions, etc?

>>43969533
That doesn't seem mystical enough.

Maybe Stalker Wolves could be a wolf that only hunts people who are totally alone. Only their prey can hear their howl, which is how you know you're fucked. They don't teleport, they just follow their prey until they get the kill. If you manage to make it to the safety of a town, they are prepared to wait as long as it takes to get you alone again.

>>43967090
Just make the woods spooky and dangerous like they are supposed to be. Hell just to Princess Mononoke.

>Giant wolf in the swamps, combine it it Foo Dog myths to make pseudo Cerberus beast

>Giant Bear with skin like iron, nigh unkillable tank

>Thunderbird

>Turtle that carries a village on its back

>Great Ape/Sasquatch

>Giant Snake, consumes a town then sleeps it off

>>43967090
Remember, though, that aggressive wolves would probably have been slain by angry peasant farmers and noble lords looking for sweet pelts.

>>43969844
>>43969533
I fucking liked the idea of "you hear it, they know where you are". It is so fucking scary, and it subverts our natural instinct to always try to know where the enemy could be.

>>43969946
Wolves know where you are anyway though. They can smell you.

>>43969845
>>Great Ape/Sasquatch

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ec3PrhlxKmE

Ignore the shitty music but this scene always made me think it would be an awesome sidequest for a Monk

>>43969968
When they smell me kilometres away, where I have never been, it will be comparably scary. Especially if I was instantly notified that the hunt was opened.

>>43968444
They would make cool alternatives to rust monsters for a forest setting.

>>43969699
I love it.

>>43967090
I can't speak for it from a biological standpoint, but the concept of having Dire wolves being the biggest baddest things on the block is a rather interesting one.

It doesn't even need that much work to make it function. The size is easy enough to scale up, and from there you can just give them weird spirit powers, like a storm wolf that calls down lightning when it howls, and can run as fast as the wind.

It also has the benefit over Dragons in that it's easier to justify them showing up in large groups or having minions, thanks to pack behavior.

You don't have to worry about furries unless you have a race of wolfmen, a heavy focus on werewolves, or some ability for wildshaping into wolves.

>>43969533
I think the teleporting is a bit much. It's not very mystical.

But can they run on the wind, and reach you as fast? Now we're talking

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>>43968304
>>43968063
>>43968387
>>43968533

Back up your words and show us a link with the tale with rape.
I'm not talking about implied rape or metaphorical rape, I'm talking about -actual- rape.

>>43973046
Fuck, you are persistent, aren't you?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Red_Riding_Hood#Earliest_versions
> Furthermore, the wolf was also known to ask her to remove her clothing and toss it into the fire.[12] In some versions, the wolf eats the girl after she gets into bed with him, and the story ends there.[13]
This were fucking 3 minutes of a web search.
Also you may have heard that folk tales weren't exactly written down back then. I mean, read your Golden Bough, even if the book isn't the most current stand of science.

>>43973290
Look at the whole "getting in bed" part. You know how in the Bible they talk about "laying with someone"? Do you also assume it's about bunk sharing?

>>43973290
I'm not the same guy that asked before, and

> Furthermore, the wolf was also known to ask her to remove her clothing and toss it into the fire.[12] In some versions, the wolf eats the girl after she gets into bed with him, and the story ends there.[13]

Did you even read what I asked? I asked for a version with actual rape as you mention, not implied rape you fucking dickwad.

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>>43973290
>quoting wikipedia

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>>43973467
Not even op, but, damn you're a huge faggot.

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>>43973414
you're in the wrong neighborhood if you're actually looking for bestial rape.

Then again, why isn't the other faggot delivering?

>>43975206

Maybe he realized that he was talking shit?

>>43975756
Or maybe you realize you ask for a written down version of something from before this sort of shit was written down?
Even if the same Wiki article suggests that it was less about rape and more about sort of a Hero Journey.

And now stop fucking up the thread.

>>43975800
And how were so sure that the wolf raped the girl? Are you a time traveler and you heard the tale from a story teller from that time?
C'mon buddy, deliver the story. We also accept papers or researches as long as they're good and are well quoted.

Otherwise, you can just admit that you're full of shit and we'll be fine.

>>43975800
>accuses someone of fucking up the thread when he gets asked for source
>he was the one that started talking about rape

Are you a remnant from summer?

>>43969946
Thanks. I was going for the feel of "being hunted and knowing it."

>>43969533
>>43969844
>>43970035
>>43972239

Still, these guys have a point. Actual wolves can already smell you from ridiculously far away.

I still like the teleportation, and I'm not sure why teleportation would be less "mystical" than super speed. However, I agree it's still missing *something* that makes it special, so maybe I just wouldn't have used that word, or something--a split hairs argument. The original intent was to give the howl an aspect to make it scary besides "they know where you are" because, as we already know, they can smell you. Something to induce paranoia.

I thought about maybe a magical fear effect, but don't want to just go that route because while something like that *can* be used well, it's never a good sign when a monster has to rely on that alone to be scary. I want something that can get a player's adrenaline pumping if used right, and mental status effects may make an encounter harder, but from the player side I think that just makes the encounter more annoying. Like "oh great I have to deal with a status effect welp guess I'd better run away because I can't do anything else." I mean, in a more realistic setting artificial fear would be awesome, but from the player's perspective it's more troublesome than it's worth.

I've got other ideas, but there's something wrong with all of them:

When the wolf howls, all who hear it have their weaknesses revealed. They have a higher chance of being critically hit.

It's not bad, but it's still missing something.

Werewolves can propagate by howling. The one that hears that howl begins hearing howls that aren't there. They see wolves where there aren't any. As it progresses, they start seeing other people as wolves, and either flee into the woods and become food, or murder other people in a psychotic rage and are killed in defense. They never transform their bodies, but the term still applies.

>>43969699
Shit nigga, I'm stealing that so fucking hard.

>>43976298
What if hearing a specific wolf's howl 3 times killed you? If you heard one once, you'd be really spooked, and if you heard another howl some time after that, you'd be constantly paranoid as to whether it was the same wolf or not, and if the next time will be your last.

>>43976298
I, uh, I didn't say that I didn't like the idea that the wolves could detect you that far away. Honestly, the actual method by which they DO locate you is left obscured, which I like -- all you know is that if you can hear them howling, they know where you are, not how they know you're there.

>>43977164
I know. And I still like the idea. But it still feels like it's missing something. It felt like that after I posted it, but I couldn't put my finger on what. Still can't, actually.

Also, if they howl, they know, and you know they know, and they know you know they know. So if they howl and then you come at them, they may back off if they're of animal instinct. Or they may press the attack if they're bold. Animals interact like that all the time in the wild when fighting over things like territory and mates.

Ranger Favored Enemy tactic: run away, place traps, ambush ambushers.

>>43976720
This is a nice idea. Also a good quest hook: NPC hires adventurers to kill wolves because he's been howled at twice. Or a PC hears two, and you've gotta go on a hunt before they hear the third.

Other ideas:

It is not just those who hear the howl who are in danger. If you hear the howl, the wolf hears not only you, but also the voices of those you hold dear.

It wouldn't work with teleportation, though. That's just a free pass for the GM to go DEAD LOVED ONES LOL at you.

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>>43973414
I read a few articles, and I'm mostly seeing that it might have been sort of an allegory for rape, since the moral is "don't trust strangers", and the protagonist is indeed a female. I'm not getting any indication that the story originally featured sexual assault, though.

It seems clear to me that the story is a more generalized warning, as sexual abusers are not the only malign strangers a child might meet.

>>43976298
Wolves can smell you from 1.75 Miles away but can hear you from 6 Miles away.

But just because they can hear you doesn't mean they're going to come after you.

>>43977164
> You hear the howl first
> You notice a black shape masking the moon, on top of the hill.
> It notices you. Stares are you. Directly. Then jumps off the hill.
> You know - you will not see the sunrise again.

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How has this not been posted yet?

>>43969699
hnngggg.

>>43969699
I approve.

>>43978010
Play up the nature spirit a little bit? Dragons do tend to have a touch of it as well, whether from eastern myth bleedover or simple association (red dragon in a volcano, silver dragon in clouds, etc.)
>The quiet wolf that comes with the worst blizzards
>One person in the area can hear the wolf howling, and the blizzard will only end when they or the wolf dies
>Find a deadly predator in a blizzard or sacrifice X important personage

>The wolf that swallows despair
>It marks a target through some means, and everyone BUT that person immediately knows of the curse
>Telling them they're cursed means you'll be the next target
>Staying too near could also cost you your life
>At the same time, killing them gets you the same fate

>All-devouring wolves in a wildfire, who hibernate for years at a time until the day comes again that they wake
>Blistering and burning trees, men, houses, everything in their path, and greedily swallowing the hot coals

>>43969699
...How does the reaper wolf take it when he comes to collect and finds a wolf?

>Wolves that hunt and howl endlessly, albeit slowly
>Once they've caught your scent, you can always hear the impossibly low howling in the distance

>Wolves that eat shadows

>Play up the whole ancient stranger danger bit with wolves that devour someone from the inside out, find a new town, then lead young men and women out into the woods to eat their hearts

>Vengeful wolves that KNOW if you've ever killed a wolf before

>Wolves that swallow years, aging a target rapidly into senility

And of course, the obvious: All of the above (except maybe the grim reaper wolf) hunt in packs.

>>43968226
>cats as illithids
Fuck that.
Cats are the tricksy-dicksy assholes that whisper sweet words and promises in your ears and get their scent all over you before leaving you for >>43969699 in their place

Where do you think they GET the nine lives from?

The conniving, sweet talking demons as a counterbalance to the unstoppable force of the wolves.

I'm also interested in what happens with domesticated dogs in this setting. Are they weaksauce by association with humanity, or do you occasionally have a faithful hound that serves a town and happens to be the size of a cottage, introduced to new infants in a special ceremony, and attending each funeral with a mournful dirge for another charge lost?

>>43967090
I'd drop the breath weapon for the Ancient Lone Wolf.

Also if its coat repels mud, water, and light the wolf would be shiny and reflective.

>>43979462
How about the wolf is such a symbol of hunger that even its coat eats things?
>dead black, no light can escape other than a pair of shining green eyes and a set of gleaming yellow teeth
>arrows pierce it but slowly sink away into the surface
>swords and spears have bite marks in them after stabbing it
>"breath weapon" of forcefully sucked-in air, reflex save or get drawn in, potentially to a free bite attack
>Heedlessly running through the brush, leaving a gnawed trail of branches and leaves, trees with giant scraped patches
>howls silences, devouring all the sound in an area and fucking up spells being cast
The attributes of an Elder Starveling Wolf.

>>43976720
>>43978010
>Get wolf animal companion
>Deafen yourself
>Make wolf howl three times
>Loot everything within hearing distance

>>43979446
Cats are more of an enigmatic outsider than conniving demon. The main reason why people think cats are capricious is because cats have a completely different body language and their forms of communication can be very nuanced and contextual, or outright unable to be interpreted by humans.

I'd say they're closer to djinn or some of the more interactable fairies.

>>43969699
Shit son that's fantastic.

>>43979538
This anon gets it.

>>43979567
Well, sure. Some of the cats (I'm assuming BIG cats, lions and tigers here, to go with oh shit fuck dire wolves) are probably fine and dandy with worship and adoration, just like there's probably wolves that have a deal with the local villages for tender lambs now and again in exchange for not-getting-eaten.
The point is they're the big swinging dick movers and shakers that make everyone in the tavern shit their pants when a story gets told, and they interact with kings, wizards, and mighty heroes as a baseline.
There's stories about how a man nursed a wolf cub back to health in a hard winter, and found a deer on his doorstep every few weeks every winter thereafter for the rest of his life AND he was the only man in a hundred miles whose herds were never troubled by wolves. There's stories about the man who pulled a thorn from a tiger's paw after fearlessly approaching it, and nearly a year later he found twenty dead bandits outside his door.
The negative stories are there to remind you what happens when you piss these things off, as well as the fact that they're usually quite easy TO piss off.

>>43979521
I'm not saying shiny and reflective is a bad thing. Having a fuckhuge wolf rise from a swamp, shaking off mud, and blazing in the sun or glowing under the moon would look boss.

I'm still not entirely sold on breath weapons, seems a bit "not dragon but dragon." Maybe something like the Lockjaw Wolves vomiting up shards of metal and bile that do minor continuous damage as they work their way under armor and clothing.

Bloat Hounds
>Offspring of a diseased, cursed she-wolf
>Each hound is bound to their mother by thick, overgrown umbilical cords
>They capture and drag prey back to their den to be devoured by their mother, corpulent and diseased to the point of immobility
>It is said that any person devoured by a bloat hound is reborn as one of her cursed offspring

>>43979747
whynotbothbyturn.jpg
I am noticing a nice symmetry here, though.
Dragons and avarice, wolves and gluttony, cats and pride...
I could also see cats and luxuria, the old less sexy version of lust, so it doesn't quite scan perfectly, but eh.
If OP is still around, I'd nail that down as a setting fixture- Dragons are pretty much built around their avarice and lust for wealth. It's the fulcrum point on which 75% of dealings with dragons depend on (the other 25% being "It's eating our cows, make it stop) and only goes down to 50% if they're kidnapping princesses for reasons other than ransom.
Nail down what makes wolves as a species tick, and build from there.

>>43979796
Cats and pride/luxuria don't quite work.

As for what makes wolves tick thematically, they're the unstoppable force. They're the coming winter, the forest fire, the thing that goes bump in the night. They kill your livestock, eat your children, and are the reason why you never go into the forest alone. They're the harshness of nature in all its glory; the reminder that no matter how many fields you clear or houses you build you don't control nature, you just make yourself more comfortable before death.

Which I guess means that in this case wolves are decline and entropy.

>>43979898
>cats aren't prideful
What, wolves are getting the mystic treatment to be yawning chasms of eventual death and eternal hunger, but cats can't actually be offended and covering for it when they engage in stress grooming?
>endless nature, red in tooth and claw
One thing I will suggest, then, is having nice big natural areas. You have your niches of civilisation, some trade routes, and some wild frontiers, and then massive, massive sections of the map labeled "Forest", "Fuck if I know, no one's come back", "Wolves", "More Wolves", "Even More Wolves Except On Fire For Some Reason", etc.
You don't cut across those areas, because the wolves communicate and retaliate. Maybe even drop the tech level to bronze and sandal to make the mapping even scarier.

>>43980083
No, I'm saying that the pride thing doesn't really work for cats in the context of a thematic mystical animal, especially not when you consider how they interact with humans. Sticking with a generically European middle ages fantasy setting you'd mostly be dealing with smaller cats.

I say cats represent the encroachment and interjection of the supernatural and the difficulties in placating it. Cats will predict death, steal the breath of babies, curse you with bad luck, scare away evil spirits, detect buried treasure, spread gossip, detect vampires, cause storms, protect sailors from danger, grant wishes, and afflict injuries upon those who injure them.

>>43968359
>There isn't even a real original of any myth.
Technically there would be an original version of every myth.

Good fucking luck finding it, though, since for all intents and purposes, it's forever lost.

>>43980189
Well, if the wolves are motivated by hunger, it makes sense for the cats to be motivated by something. I'm thinking pride as a specific flavor of self-sufficiency here: Every cat is a single unit, whereas most of the nonlone wolves are numberless, teeming packs concerned with feeding the whole pack. Any single cat, by contrast, lives or dies based on their own merit and skill.
I'll definitely agree to a theming of curses, though. Since the wolves are very direct, you could add more contrast with little to no direct effects with the cats, only weird curses, fateful disasters, and strokes of luck.
A cat won't bite your sword in half, or howl up a thunderstorm, or run like a wildfire across the plains, it'll just scratch you and run away. Then you realise the scratch isn't healing. And no matter how many dressings and medicines you apply, nothing keeps the flies out. Eventually the limb gets gangrenous and has to come off.

Then the stump won't heal right...

That said, of course, leaving out fish and milk will ensure hail stays off your crops and an early frost doesn't take them either. Maybe.

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>Medieval accounts of cats
>"He is a full lecherous beast in youth, swift, pliant, and merry, and leapeth and reseth on everything that is to fore him: and is led by a straw, and playeth therewith: and is a right heavy beast in age and full sleepy, and lieth slyly in wait for mice: and is aware where they be more by smell than by sight, and hunteth and reseth on them in privy places: and when he taketh a mouse, he playeth therewith, and eateth him after the play. In time of love is hard fighting for wives, and one scratcheth and rendeth the other grievously with biting and with claws. And he maketh a ruthful noise and ghastful, when one proffereth to fight with another: and unneth is hurt when he is thrown down off an high place. And when he hath a fair skin, he is as it were proud thereof, and goeth fast about: and when his skin is burnt, then he bideth at home; and is oft for his fair skin taken of the skinner, and slain and flayed. "
I don't know if cats work as an antagonist in Western fantasy. The prevailing view of them seems to be "they're sleepy and like mice."

>>43980530
Got distracted while explaining.
Offending and placating cats should be a big thing. Therefore, they need some kind of big target to be offended and placated with. The grooming is easy enough to translate into vanity, the give no fucks attitude is easy enough to translate into assumed superiority, and the general laziness translates to self indulgence.
Instead of a pack for backup, they have a reputation on the line to get morale bonuses to protecting.

>>43980655
Oh, medieval bestiaries. Gotta include the one licking its own junk.
But this is a thread about wolves.
I am distinctly in favor of the concept, and the themings, and it also lets you pull some cool DM cheatery and get around the action economy divide a little.
Instead of having to manage one thing getting gangbanged by four adventurers, you can throw six or seven teamworking wolves with weird shit that came out of the woodwork. Fight going too well? OH HEY THE REST OF THE PACK JUST SHOWED UP.
You've got an easy marker for 'Be on your guard MAYBE' with random howling in the distance, you've got a variety of weird flavors to focus on (Running the party through all the howling wolves, all the specialised biting wolves, all the really really fast wolves, etc.), and you've got a constant stream of trouble that needs nasty men with pointy sticks thrown at it.
As a side suggestion, I'd say toss in some good side notes and superstitions to run shenanigans with, and figure out some notable bits of history with the wolves.
>super hardcore frontiersmen will actually wear wolf pelts, even though it seems to make them attack harder
>Decadent nobles away from the primeval woods also shell out for rare and pretty furs, since there's less wolves to object (which is not to say none)
>wolf bones and teeth retain their virtue of improbable tenacity, and make excellent talismans and medicines, the same from cats depending on whether or not it died happily
>Romulus and Remus were 100x more hardcore
>Xistan rules over Yistan after a conflict centuries ago where the Xistan king called in a favor and a horde of giant wolves devoured the entire Yistan army, so there's a lot of wolves on Xistan heraldry and Yistani are STILL grumbling about dark sorcery

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>All this little red riding rape
>Tfw no big bad loving wolf

>>43976187
It's summer in Australia, the kingdom of shitposting.

>>43967090
That's the dumbest, most bullshit theory I've ever heard about wolves. And that includes werewolves and otherkin

>>43968387
Citation needed.

>>43967090
dragons, for the most part, camp on their hoards, their lizardy methabolism lets them eat rarely and sleep a lot.
wolves are pack hunters, ravenous hot blooded predators, your humanoids should have a lot more contact with the wolves than it's usual with dragons in almost all other settings. which makes them all the more fun.

>>43967204
Some countries managed to exterminate their entire wolf populations when entering modern times.
Only to discover that it created a vaste increase in the need of extensive hunting to dear with wild life.

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>>43981203
>Not hunting deer and serving their meat
Is this the same humanity that hunted the Dodo to extinction for shits and giggles? I'm disappointed.

>>43982356
No. You see, deer hunting was always something nobles and other people of high rank enjoyed. If you would just butcher them, they would lose their favourite pastime. So they decided to stop anyone from wiping out the deer so they can continue to kill it.

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>>43982394
>So they decided to stop anyone from wiping out the deer so they can continue to kill it.
I love this planet.

>>43968155
>>43973046

It's very obvious to anyone who can read between the lines that the Perreault one is about warning girls about older men.

>>43979747
>Bloat Hounds
It's like something out of Dark Souls.

>All this talk about Little Red Riding Hood
>tfw I played a character named Wolfe and actually ended up hooking up with a much younger Red Headed girl who I called "Red"
>The GM and I literally didn't realize what we were doing until it had already happened.

>>43979747
I'm almost worried to ask, but what happens if someone cuts the umbilical?

I feel like this might work really well in a paleo- or neolithic setting where man has just mastered fire and still must fight to earn his dominion over the earth. Mother nature will not go quietly into the night, however, and ravenous wolves hound the scattered human tribes with a vengeance.

>>43983178
Yeah, I was going for the weird, horror fantasy feel.

>>43983731
The Hound dies eventually. That is after it frenzies with rage and pain and the severed umbilical spews copious quantities of diseased and poisonous ichor everywhere.

>>43983792
On this note, has anyone ever played in a caveman game? What were the quests like? Was there magic?

For the wolves, what about other stories of appeasement? Stories where man may win them over with a kindness or an action that may save a part of the pack's life? Could be useful to balance the setting out, and show how mankind was able to get to where it is currently IG. Also, what of other animals like bears, boars, and ravens? What of other canines, like the fox?

>>43969699
How would they react to children souls? Maybe age increases the distance he must travel, so best feed him well with all your days, as you never know when you'll meet the reaper?

>>43984366
>How would they react to children souls?
I guess children could tell him the stories they heard. That's why you must tell your child a story every night.
Also if you are a bard you could maybe, maybe get away with telling the story of your close friends. But only, if you are a very good storyteller.

>>43984366
The Cŵn Annwn stalks you from the day of your birth. The longer your life, the longer its hunt, and the hungrier it is when it finally takes you. Children need only offer it little virtues to feast upon, like obeying their parents and playing nice with others and doing their chores. Adults have to provide hardier fare.

>>43984680
Never fucking mind my naming sense, then: the Cŵn Annwn was bright white.

>>43984680
>Cŵn Annwn

How do you pronounce that?

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Sif

>>43984833
Welsh is not pronounced. It is deployed, as you would deploy a weapon, and it has much the same effect on its intended target.

>>43984864
The Welsh are all dovahkiin?

>>43984919
Very much like. By absorbing the souls of sheep, they can learn words of power which in the speaking cause great harm and dismay among the good peoples of the Earth.

>>43984833
Kewn Annwenn

But I'm just guessing since I'm English

>>43967090
>There's a theory that when ancient humans befriended ancient canines and bred the most docile ones into dogs, it was the most aggressive ones who were left to evolve into wolves
No, the ones who didn't breed there weren't just thrown out, there was no reason to
and if there would be they probably would have been killed and used as food/clothes/material/etc.

>>43967090
>>43970805
From a biological standpoint it sucks. Wolves aren't that big or nasty when it comes to living or extinct carnivorous mammals. The average wolf actually weighs only about 80 lbs (36 kg), maybe about half that of the average human. Dire wolves aren't much better, they're more robust but they still aren't that much bigger than modern wolves, being only about the size of an average person. Dire wolves are really only considered "megafauna" on a technicality, they're still a lot smaller than the majority of non-wolf megacarnivores (big cats, sabertooths, bears). A mountain lion on average weighs as much as a dire wolf.

What makes wolves scary to people is that they hunt in groups and they seem eerily human-like in their social behavior and relentlessness. That's it. Unlike bears or big cats, they don't have a lot of weight to throw around, and they don't even have useable claws to fight with (wolf claws are blunt nails and they cannot flex their wrists to swipe).

If you're using large, singular megawolves as your big monster, you're using them wrong. I'd go with bears instead. People had the exact same sort of fears regarding bears as they do wolves (or any large predator, really, look at places where there are still big cats), and the bear body plan works a lot better if you're trying to make them the biggest, baddest thing on the block. A wolf needs backup to be scary, a bear doesn't.

Bump

>>43986992
A bear the size of a house is less frightening than a pack of wolves the size of trucks.

>>43979158
>...How does the reaper wolf take it when he comes to collect and finds a wolf?
They follow him across the world and those humans whose deeds are horrifically vile are torn apart by this slavering flock.

>>43987732
It could work from a variation standpoint though. Bears could act as the Giants of a setting, if wolves are the Dragons and lesser monsters. Giant, plodding creatures who swat the tallest trees to the side, explaining things like earthquakes as their footfalls, lakes and ponds forming in their footprints when the rains come or the snows melt. Singular creatures that hibernate for long periods, and whose awakening is rare but disastrous, seems to fit into the setting. Although keeping it to wolves does have it's own appeal, admittedly.

>>43983792
Bump

>>43983731
The Mother Hound grows two more umbilical cords and Pups for each one you cut off. Or the recently severed Pup gives birth to Pups of its own and becomes a new Mother Hound.

Or both happen at the same time.

>>43983731
It's now free to run off and knock up/get knocked up with more horribly diseased wolves.

>>43989024
>>43988839
So best plan is to always kill it with copious amounts of fire.

>>43989116
Is this ever NOT the best plan?

>>43989420
When fighting a fire elemental.

>>43989486
Then you just switch to hellfire or dragon's fire
Same principle.

>>43989542
An elemental made of the concept of fire.

>>43989420
Dealing with ghosts and other intangibles, probably.

>>43967090

Yes, but you must also counter-balance them with a large number of magic dog breeds as well.

>>43980902
>Wolf girl's name is Mary, after Mary Had a Little Lamb
It's even more adorable than I thought!

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>>43986992
Why can't it be both?

>>43991655
What if the lone wolves are ones with some sort of divine rabies that drives them from nature? Possibly a corruption that makes them even worse to handle than a pack of lockjaw wolves, either by unpredictability or general chance of infection for it's blood touching you.

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Dogs are cute

>>43967090
>There's a theory that when ancient humans befriended ancient canines and bred the most docile ones into dogs, it was the most aggressive ones who were left to evolve into wolves, meaning modern wolves are much meaner bastards thanks they would naturally be.
I'm calling bullshit on both the premise and your claim that this is a real theory.

>>43993838
ok

>>43993838
We got done calling OP a retard most of the thread ago.

Read the fucking thread.

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God, so much potential wasted by people who know nothing of myth, legend or modern RPG wolves.

You want big wolves? Or weird wolves, or all kinds of cool interesting wolves?

A sampling of just wolves and some canine creatures stated for Pathfinder.

Adlet- humanoid wolf people from inuit myth. Have strong ties to cold and winter.
Abyssal Wolf- demonic wolves, quite literally.
Akhlut- Inuit wolf orca hybrid.
Blink Dog- a smart teleporting hound is always interesting.
Boreal Wolf- so attuned to the snow it doesnt leave tracks. Is also immune to cold.
Cayhound- mastiffs made by a god of freedom, have a bark with the force of thunder
Cerberi- lesser versions of Cerberus used by devils as guard dogs
Cerberus- its fucking Cerberus.
Cinder Wolf- This is what happens when you cross a wolf with fire. Its fucking terrifying.
Cooshee, Cu Sith- elven hound. Can run ridiculously fast on a charge. Also slightly green in color. Irish origin
Death Dog- Two headed, parasite riddled monstrosity.
Dire Wolf- a really fuck huge wolf, Princess Mononoke style
Eel Hound- Used by aquatic fey, like a cross between an eel and a wolf
Elusa Hound- Mage hunter dogs, can see magic
Hell Hound- canines from Hell, have fire breath
Jackalwere, wolfwere, dire wolfwere- canines that turn human to lure people away from the city to eat them
Raggoth- huge many limbed wolf with terrifying howl.
Retch Hound- diseased canine, with four eyes, that can projectile vomit you to death.
Simurgh- ancient persian rainbow sparkledog, also ridiculously powerful
Vulpinal Agathion- its a humanoid fox angel.
Wolf-Spider - its a giant spider with the head of a wolf
Winter Wolf- Frost breath weapon wielding, smart-as-a-human, fuck huge evil wolves of the north, they will fuck you up.

The Prince In Chains- the primal wolf spirit who has been tortured by his God of the notCenobites son until he went insane

You people need to do more research and also look up some cool stuff from RPGs once in awhile.

>>43967090
The first idea doesn't really make any sense, but I imagine it could fly past a group that isn't well-read on evolution. Perhaps try that with an order of "everything else is huge and nasty" with a sprinkle of divine intervention.

The end idea is rad as fuck. Carry on, you're doing God's work when you're having fun with rad ideas.

>>43967090
You'll want to look into the "beast of the gevaudan", mate.

>ctrl+F
>No Garmr
>No Skoll and Hati
>No Geri or Freki
>Not even pop-culture motherfucking Fenris

Maybe these runts be into Tolkien or shit
>No Angfauglir
>No Carcharoth

/tg/ I have no idea what's become of you. Tonnes of base material like >>43995901 said
and some of the biggest names in ancient and modern folklore, and we're only talking about it now.

>>43995901
Mah nigga.

Add Barghests to the list as well, those things are a subtle kind of terrifying.

>>43997928
>muh mythological namedrops
>kids don't know how cool these WOLVES are!

>>43967090
That theory is absolute bullshit, but I like the idea of magical power-wolves. After all, the wolf takes a huge place in the mythology of literally every culture that was familiar with them. It always seemed disappointing how they are barely a threat in nearly every system that uses them. And, of course, when the inevitable bond-with-nature moment comes, the party might appreciate having a power-wolf ally.

You might do the same for other critters that have big reputations, like lions and sharks.

>Would I have to worry about furries?
Could people just stop using this meme already? YOU are the one talking about furries, here. It's a selffulfilling prophecy, you gigantic faggot. If you're going to start seeing furries everywhere, yeah, you have to worry. Because you're an idiot who projects his own shit on everything.

You just literally asked if you have to worry about furries if you have wolves in your game. Fucking wolves. If you are THAT insecure about furries, better not play RPG's anymore. And don't use the internet. Definitely come to 4chan. Hell, just don't go out of the house anymore. You might run into a dog or cat that triggers your autism, for fuck's sake.

>>43997928
>being this much of a condescending douche
>still not talking about the shit he wants to talk about

Just fuck off back to /b/ or something.

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Bump

>>43969699
>>43984366
>>43984680
Innocence is a value in it's own right. The young are protected from the black wolf by their inexperience with the world, and the true sorrow of a youth's death is that their spirit has that innocence taken all at once, and in the afterlife they must see the world as it truly is.

Their elders, innocence long gone, must provide what remains of the innocence of a good man... the efforts undertaken to protect the innocence of others.

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http://www.d20srd.org/srd/epic/monsters/brachyurus.htm

A CR 23 primordial wolf has to count for something, right?

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>>43999750

And the much more competent (for its level) 4e version...

>>43991655
Because bear-dogs are more like lions, not wolves. Might work though.

http://www.bioone.org/doi/abs/10.5252/g2010n1a2

>>43999773
Yo, what's this from?

>>43973414
Guess all those people in Sodom really did just want to get to know the angels in disguise and have tea with them, right friendo?

>>43976298
Isn't there a creature called a Blinker Dog or something? A dog that just teleports around. That could probably tie in.

>>44000236

Blink Dog yo, Always Lawful Good.

That's cool but if your group is anything like mine they're going to laugh their asses off at "lone wolves" and mock you for it. I would suggest just calling them ancient wolves or something.

>>43997943
Barghests are psychic goblin werewolves.