Skinwalkers?

[EnlightenedVagabond]

I have a friend/roomate who expressed interest in playing in our Rifts campaign that her husband is running currently (We switch off GMing when a particular arc is over). She would like to play a "Skin Walker(sp)?" I am breifly familiar with them, according to her they have the ability to assume shapes, she hasnt been overly clear, but if anyone KNOWS of a Skinwalker RCC that exists be it official source material or online netbook stuff, could point me in the direction of it.

Or barring that, if it doesnt exist would you experts mind helping me hammer out a balanced R.C.C. that could work to her purposes?

I am in the process of trying to glean what powers and abilities she wants the 'Skinwalker" to have

[Giant2005]

I have a friend/roomate who expressed interest in playing in our Rifts campaign that her husband is running currently (We switch off GMing when a particular arc is over). She would like to play a "Skin Walker(sp)?" I am breifly familiar with them, according to her they have the ability to assume shapes, she hasnt been overly clear, but if anyone KNOWS of a Skinwalker RCC that exists be it official source material or online netbook stuff, could point me in the direction of it.

Or barring that, if it doesnt exist would you experts mind helping me hammer out a balanced R.C.C. that could work to her purposes?

I am in the process of trying to glean what powers and abilities she wants the 'Skinwalker" to have

Just have her play as a Changeling, that sounds like what she is after.
I always thought Skinwalkers were Were-Beasts...

[EnlightenedVagabond]

I have a friend/roomate who expressed interest in playing in our Rifts campaign that her husband is running currently (We switch off GMing when a particular arc is over). She would like to play a "Skin Walker(sp)?" I am breifly familiar with them, according to her they have the ability to assume shapes, she hasnt been overly clear, but if anyone KNOWS of a Skinwalker RCC that exists be it official source material or online netbook stuff, could point me in the direction of it.

Or barring that, if it doesnt exist would you experts mind helping me hammer out a balanced R.C.C. that could work to her purposes?

I am in the process of trying to glean what powers and abilities she wants the 'Skinwalker" to have

Just have her play as a Changeling, that sounds like what she is after.
I always thought Skinwalkers were Were-Beasts...

Thats what I thought too, but I think shes looking for something that doesnt have necessarily a hybrid form, but more towards a straight animal form. I think?

[Giant2005]

I have a friend/roomate who expressed interest in playing in our Rifts campaign that her husband is running currently (We switch off GMing when a particular arc is over). She would like to play a "Skin Walker(sp)?" I am breifly familiar with them, according to her they have the ability to assume shapes, she hasnt been overly clear, but if anyone KNOWS of a Skinwalker RCC that exists be it official source material or online netbook stuff, could point me in the direction of it.

Or barring that, if it doesnt exist would you experts mind helping me hammer out a balanced R.C.C. that could work to her purposes?

I am in the process of trying to glean what powers and abilities she wants the 'Skinwalker" to have

Just have her play as a Changeling, that sounds like what she is after.
I always thought Skinwalkers were Were-Beasts...

Thats what I thought too, but I think shes looking for something that doesnt have necessarily a hybrid form, but more towards a straight animal form. I think?

One of the Native American OCCs can turn into their totem animal.

[FreelancerMar]

If one goes by that movie of the same title Than Skinwalker is synominous with Lycanthrope. Which generally means were creature.

other than that I do not know.

[glitterboy2098]

a skinwalker is a native american 'witch', best known from south western tribes like the navajo.
they are individuals who have a variety of magic powers, including the ability to change into the form of certain types of animals, usually wolves/coyotes, snakes, owls, or similar predators. they use these animal forms, which are identacal to regular animals aside from 'dull eyes', to sneak around to places where they can use their other powers. these usually involve curses of various forms, usually in the form of illness (the severity of which depends on how wronged the skinwalker feels the person made them) though in more recent times mechanical, mental, and even sexual problems have been attributed. (and do mean modern. this belief is still very prevelent in the southwestern tribes..*)

how skinwalkers do their magic varies depending on the region and subculture. some just chant, others use various items of power. like corpse powder made from ground up dried dead bodies (a pinch dropped down a smoke hole is said to cause sickness, also can be sprinkled on people or food for same effect), or bone beads made from human bone, which are fired via a blowgun into people to make them sick. (according to the folklore, if you dig out the bead and shoot it into the skinwalker, you'll be cured and the skinwalker will become ill..), and cloaks of animal skin for changing shape.

generally you become a skinwalker after doing something that puts you out of 'harmony'. 'harmony' being the tribal worldview, and being extremely complex to explain. it's more about taboo and such. examples of acts that could create a skinwalker are things like murder, rape, etc. nasty things that you are afterwards unrepentant for and don't seek out the proper rituals of cleansing for. if you fall into this catagory you can become a skinwalker. basically another skinwalker seeks you out and teaches you the secrets of the special powers.
by our standards a skinwalker is an evil person, though most of the south western tribes didn't have the same kind of tradition of good vs. evil as we do**, and in some of their folklore you have people with skinwalker powers who use said power to punish people who bring harm to the community. said individualsare still feared and reviled by the community for waht they did to get their power, but the beneficial effect it had wasn't considered evil by connection.

* i lived on the Nvajo reservation for 2 years, and talked to a number of people there, the belief really is that widespread. i also read as much as i could get my hands on about their culture and folklore/mythology. learned more about that from the friends and coworkers i had there than i did the books, actually..

**our defintion of good vs evil tends to be on a personal level. do this and you good. do this other, and your evil. at least in the south western tribes, it tends to be more group oriented. stuff that reinforces the group is 'good', stuff that is detrimental is 'bad'. at least on the most abstract level. there are a lot of taboos and mysticism involved that as an outsider i can't fully understand. basically the idea seems to be that both individually and as a group 'good' involves making the fewest problems, be they personal, social, or enviromental. it's pretty complex, and i only know what amounts to trivia about it..


from an OCC perspective, if none of the WB15 onesfit close to the above, you could probably use the Witch OCC and just tailor the magic spells. some of the variant witches from Mystic russia might be a good place to look.

wikipedia has an article on them, it's decent.. it seperates out the 'witches', when in the culture there is a lot of overlap between the different 'ways'..

[Kovoston]

Good job Glitterboy! I hope this is what she was talking about ( I usually just ask them AGAIN what they mean, and if I don't get an answer then I sit them down and have then explain, as I run character gen)...

[glitterboy2098]

as i said, i lived on the rez for 2 years. well, closer to 1 1/2. i'd known about some of the basics before we moved there (tony hillerman novels are family favorites, and most of his mysteries are set in the region), so i knew what to ask about and what not to ask about. it helped that the people i knew were fairly open minded about this stuff, so if i did tread on a taboo topic they didn't get upset, just pointed out the taboo.

[EnlightenedVagabond]

as i said, i lived on the rez for 2 years. well, closer to 1 1/2. i'd known about some of the basics before we moved there (tony hillerman novels are family favorites, and most of his mysteries are set in the region), so i knew what to ask about and what not to ask about. it helped that the people i knew were fairly open minded about this stuff, so if i did tread on a taboo topic they didn't get upset, just pointed out the taboo.

Fair enough, I know shes part Cherokee, so I think it does have something to do with her RL heritage, according to her husband, the character shes interested in making can wear the skin. the text message goes "Like a werewolf but you can shape change as long as you wear the skin of the animal, people can be done too but its taboo?"

[glitterboy2098]

yeah, most native american groups have something similar, though the exact role in the society tends to vary. some are helpful, others harmful, some neutral. in general they are 'magic users' with special powers, including shapeshifting. i'm just more familiar with the navajo version.

you can duplicate most of the versions, AFAICT, with invocation magic.
the level 7 invocation "metamorphosis animal" will let you shift into animal form, and the level 8 "metamorphosis human"will let you do people. while not normally available at the start, as GM you could allow it, especially if it's tied to a ritual revolving around donning the animal's skin..

i'd suggest asking what other powers the version she's thinking of are supposed to have, that would let you decide which class to suggest.

[Akashic Soldier]

I put this together because of events that occurred in my Rifts game involving a group of Skinwalkers outside Paradise City in Madhaven. It will allow the character to take on many of the properties of a skinwalker without sacrificing his O.C.C.

Enjoy.

[EnlightenedVagabond]

I put this together because of events that occurred in my Rifts game involving a group of Skinwalkers outside Paradise City in Madhaven. It will allow the character to take on many of the properties of a skinwalker without sacrificing his O.C.C.

Enjoy.

Okay that is amazing, I think Ill run this by her and see what she thinks

[Prince Artemis]

Either that or she's been reading game of thrones.

[Razzinold]

Or watching old episodes of Supernatural, if the player wanted to assume the guise of other people

[Mercdog]

I know that it isn't the same thing, but when I think of skinwalkers I tend to have the image of the Diablero from the 'Bad Medicine' episode of Kolchak: The Nightstalker.

[Daniel Stoker]

Or been reading the Faith Hunter series.


Daniel Stoker

[Akashic Soldier]

I put this together because of events that occurred in my Rifts game involving a group of Skinwalkers outside Paradise City in Madhaven. It will allow the character to take on many of the properties of a skinwalker without sacrificing his O.C.C.

Enjoy.

Okay that is amazing, I think Ill run this by her and see what she thinks

I'm glad you like it.

[Razzinold]

Theres' even a Nightbane Spell that lets you literally Wear the skin of slain opponents and assume their power, memories and form

So what you put the skin on like a coat and then you transform into them? (may sound like a dumb question but I've never read that power so not familiar with how it works in Nightbane) Also cool that you get their powers and memories even though they are dead. In the episode of Supernatural the skinwalker had all of Dean's memories, but had to keep him alive to maintain a psychic link with him while he absorbed them.

[Ravenwing]

Any chance she means the Skinwalkers from the Patricia Briggs novels?

If she does, they're Were-Coyote's. The Were-Coyotes have the ability to assume the shape of any animal, or person as long as they have a little bit of skin. Also, they can only be women. My wife reads that series andwanted to play one, we just used a Werewolf as the base creature, and gave her the ability to shapeshift into any animal or person(As per the spells) as a ritual, and cut some of the Werewolves combat bonuses.

[Razzinold]

it's a flesh sculpter/normal sorcery spell: pg 61.
(although, it doesn't shape shift, that can be done through simple metamorphosis: Human: Spell.

Spoiler:

Mictlantecutli's Command
Range: Touch
Duration: Until the skin is destroyed.
Saving Throw: None.
P.P.E.: 150
Note: This magic will not be used by characters of a good or unprincipled
alignment.
This ritual, originating amongst the Aztecs, provides an extreme
method of gaining command over another's magics.The sorcerer must capture the magician whose magics he intends to
control, and in an hour long ritual beneath the mid-day sun, flay the skin from the still living victim. The skin must be taken largely intact,
and it is in this skin that the enchantment is laid. Its original owner's death (flaying will kill him) provides some or all of the P.P.E. for the
enchantment (doubled at the moment of death). The skin may then be worn as an over-skin by another magician, and
it will not naturally rot or decay. Hair still grows on its scalp, and it still sweats in the sunlight. Magically disguised by this skin, all spell knowledge
known by the deceased sorcerer is now available to the magician wearing his or her flesh. This will also work to control any ongoing
magic or magical servants which serve and obey the deceased mage. So, zombies will obey the commands of the person wearing their creator's
skin as if that person were their creator; familiars, too, will obey the new skin's wearer; etc. Of course, magics which have their own I.Q.s
may notice the strange orders being given to them by their master(?), and react accordingly.


And then you have this one : Embodiment (Ritual) (pg 70)
Range: Touch
Duration: One day per level of experience.
Saving Throw: Standard even if unconscious or comatose; psychics
and Fleshsculptors are +4 to save against this lethal attack.
P.P.E.: 200
Note: Characters of a good or unprincipled alignment will not use
this spell.
In this ritual, the Fleshsculptor climbs into the flesh of another living creature or person, hiding his or her own body within this new shell.
The spell caster thereafter wears the body of the host, but does not gain any mental abilities, skills, memories, or mannerisms. The "host" flesh
must be the same size or larger than the caster, must be incapacitated (unconscious or in a coma) for the duration of the ritual, and inevitably
dies as a result of the spell being cast. The caster may shed this new skin at any time (taking one full melee, in which no other actions may
be performed, to rip his or her way out of this new flesh), and at the end of the spell's duration, the new body falls away to reveal the caster
beneath.

Combining these spells to any spell caster will allow you to do any and all sorts of horrible things to people.

Cool, thanks for the info, like I said no familiar with those spells. I agree with a little bit of creativity someone could do some very nasty things to people, and to their friends/loved ones once they assume their form. Nothing would be more terrifying for someone when their friend/husband/wife of many years all of a sudden comes home, ties you to a chair and starts cutting on you

[Bood Samel]

I'm glad to see people tapping regional folklore for rifts ideas, it fits the setting better.