Optional Metatype: Wendigo v2.0

Author's Note: I'm basing a lot of this on two sources. The secrets of Power Trilogy (Though it's been a couple years since I read those) where Sam Verner's sister turns from an ork to a Wendigo. I'm also basing this (And writing this for) my current campaign, as my Ork Decker Bull has contracted HMHVV and is turning into a wendigo. I'd like to thank the ShadowRN mailing list, as well as my GM Steven Tinner for their contributions to this particular piece.

The rules allow you to create Wendigo characters, either as a starting character, or to turn your current favorite Ork PC into a Wendigo.

Ork HMHVV (Contracting Wendigoism)

Unlike Humans, who contract HMHVV only through the loss of all essence from another Vampire, a Wendigo can contract HMHVV by something as simple as a scratch infected with the Ork Strain of HMHVV. Also unlike the Human version of HMHVV, the Ork does not actually die before he is transformed, and it is a longer, slower, and much more painful transformation than Vampirism.

Once the disease is contracted, it may take anywhere from several days to a month for the first signs of the disease to show, and often these are dismissed at first as nothing more than an odd craving or gray hairs.

The first signs are often some or all of the following: An increased appetite for meat (Often with odd cravings to bite friends or people who are close by), increased hair growth, growth of hair all over the body, and hair turning white. Also, often the infected Ork will lose his appetite for any food other than meat, and will prefer the meat raw or cooked very rare. This stage will last anywhere from a couple days to a couple weeks. The length various from case to case. If the infected Ork gives in to his urge to consume the flesh of a sentient being, he will manifest any symptoms not seen yet and skip directly to Stage 3 of the disease.

The second Stage of the disease will include any of the above "symptoms" that didn't appear during the first stage, as well as a growing distaste for any type of non-meat product, especially vegetables, or well cooked meat. Also, the character will start to have almost irresistible urges to bite anyone who stands close to him for any length of time. The character will now be covered in fur, most of it a light gray or white, have sharper and more elongated teeth, and look like a full wendigo. He will also begin to grow again, growing an additional foot or 2. This stage lasts until the character succumbs to his hunger and he eats (meta)human flesh to essence drain, or until the Wendigo dies from essence loss.

During Stage 2, some, if not all of the Wendigo's powers begin to activate, and sometime before he starts to lose essence from hunger his body will naturally regenerate itself as it reaches it's new state. All non-natural parts of the new wendigo's body, including all bioware and cyberware, will be forced from the Wendigo's body. This is a painful period for the Former Ork, as his body is twisted into a new form.

Stage 3 happens when the Wendigo consumes flesh and drains essence through this act for the first time. At this point, it is believed that whatever (meta)humanity the Wendigo retained is lost, and that the process of transformation is complete, and irreversible. Whether or not the transformation is reversible is a point of speculation among scientists and parabiologists. However, the wendigo does not lose it's memories of it's previous life.

There is currently no known cure the Ork Strain of HMHVV. If an infected Ork is killed before he becomes a Wendigo (Stage 2 of the virus), then he does not rise as a Wendigo, as the Vampire does.

Rules

The Wendigo works similar to the way a Phys-Ad works, so that playing something like a wendigo is somewhat feasible (but still very susceptible to munchkinizing. Sorry, but there's no way to make a Wendigo that isn't a munchkin, at least deep down inside.)

If the character is a new character, you pick your priorities. Race must be taken at Priority (A). Non-Spellcasting Wendigo's must take Magic at Priority (D). Spellcasting Wends take Magic at (B), and Adept Wendigo's or Aspected Magician Wendigo's take Magic at (C).

If you are using the SR Companion rules, You must spend 35 points on Race for the Wendigo. Magic is chosen as normal.

Other than that, apply the following modifiers to the character. +3 body, +2 Strength, -1 Intelligence. Note that these are exactly the same as the Ork Character, except that the Wendigo does not suffer the -1 Charisma that Orks do.

The last thing you do is pick your wendigo powers, which are detailed below.

If the character is a current PC getting transformed do to contracting HMHVV, his natural, unmodified stats are used as the base for the Wendigo. Any bioware or cyberware is lost during the transformation, so the characters stats drop accordingly. He also gets to choose his starting wendigo powers, though alternatively the GM can choose what powers he starts off with. New wendigo's also get a +1 to their Charisma (Offsetting the original -1 that Orks have).

Also, Wendigo Shamans can still cast spells. However, note that his Magic Rating will fluctuate as his Essence does. This is the reason that there are no Wendigo Phys-Ads. With the constant shifting of the Magic Rating, skills would be lost and gained constantly, and this makes the being to unstable.

Wendigos are almost always magically inclined, and are almost always Shamans, usually of a predatory totem such as Shark or Wolf.

Should a Wendigo Shaman cast a spell of a higher force than his current magic rating, he will take double stun drain from the spell, rather than physical drain. (i.e. a 3M drain spell would become a 6D). This prevents the character from constantly chucking high level spells and simply regenerating the drain every time.

Wendigo Adepts (An addition to the 2.0 version of these rules) can be difficult to play, as their fluxuating Essence affects their Magic rating as well. Even more than the Wendigo itself, Wendigo Adepts should be played with the GM's permission only, as the GM will have to do some work as well.

When you create a Wendigo Adept, choose 12 points worth of Adept powers to start with.

If you are playing an Adept that has been transformed into a Wendigo, you get additional points for powers equal to your 12-(your original essance). These additional powers can be learned for no karma cost, and take 2 full days of study per power point. Study Times are per Power, not per point, and may be learned seperatley. Thus, a power costing .5 Points may be learned in a single day, but a power costing 3 points would take 6 full days. Interupted training times must be started anew. Nothing else can be done during these days, except sleeping and eating.

The GM then makes a prioritized list of the powers. The Wendigo has access to all his powers when fully fed (12 essence), but loses powers as his essence falls, according to the GM's priorities from first to last.

Example: Mime the Adept has the following powers, prioritized by his GM: 1) Killing Hands (4 pts), 2) Astral Perception (2 pts), 3) Combat Sense (1 pts), 4) Distance Strike (2 pts), and 5) Quick Strike (3 points).

Mime goes one week without feeding, and his essence drops to 11. He loses Killing hands until he feeds again. However, since he now only has 8 points of powers "active", Mime will not "lose" any more powers until his essence drops below 7, at which time he would lose Astral Perception.

Optional Rule: At the GM's discretion, powers that have levels, such as Increased Attribute and Killing Hands, may simply drop in levels rather than the whole power.

Example: Mime drops a point of power as his essence drops to 11. Killing Hands (Deadly) costs 4 points, and Killing Hands (Serious) costs 2. Mime's Killing Hands drops from Deadly to Serious. 2 weeks later, Mime still hasn't fed, and his essence drops to 9. Killing Hands (Moderate) only costs 1 point, so the powere drops once more.

Wendigo Power Points

The Wendigo gets three "Power Points", which is what he uses to buy his Wendigo powers. All wendigo characters are new wendigo's, freshly infected with HMHVV, thus they haven't fully developed most of there powers.

Also, Wendigos have a large amount of weaknesses. These vary from wendigo to wendigo, and some even have few, if any, weaknesses. You can buy Weaknesses, which will then give you more Power Points to spend on Powers. This is similar to the Edges and Flaws from the Companion. Weaknesses can only be bought at character creation, and the bonus Power Points given by them must be spent at that time. Any points not spent at this time are lost. You may not "save" points or partial point until the next "grade", or Wendigo Level.

Powers	Point Cost	.	Weaknesses	Point Return
Enhanced Strength	2	.	Allergy to Sunlight, Mild	*
Enhanced Hearing	.25	.	Allergy to Sunlight, Moderate	.5
Enhanced Smell	.25	.	Allergy to Sunlight, Severe	1
Enhanced Vision, low light	.25	.	Vulnerability to Iron	.25/level
Enhanced Vision, distance	.25	.	Unable to use Cyberware or Bioware	*
Essence Drain	*	.	Essence Loss	*
Immunity to Aging	.25	.	.	.
Immunity to Poison	.25	.	.	.
Immunity to Pathogens	.25	.	.	.
Infection	1	.	.	.
Regeneration	1/lvl	.	.	.
Natural Claws	.5	.	.	.
Heightened Body	2	.	.	.
Heightened QUickness	2	.	.	.
Heightened Speed	1	.	.	.
Influence	1.5	.	.	.
Fear	1	.	.	.

Powers or Weaknesses marked with '*' are automatically gained. They cannot be bought off, nor do they give any bonus.

Regeneration: Player Character Regeneration rules are slightly different from the base rules in the main book. Having a 2+ regen on a d6 gets vulgar, so it was balanced out a bit. Each level improves the roll by 1 number. the chart below calculates it. Notice at level one, you do not have a roll. This is simply a basic regen. If you are hit for a Deadly wound, you are dying. You do not get to regenerate. However, If you are at below a deadly wound, then you auto regen like normal. The cost is deliberately high so that all but the most powerful wendigos instantly regenerate everything. Also, note that stun damage does not regen. However, as this was much discussed just rcently on the list feel free to make this rule optional (you will anyways, so I might as well give permission.)

Regeneration Chart
Level 1	Basic Regen, no roll for deadly wound.
Level 2	Roll of 6 to regen
Level 3	Roll of 5 to regen
Level 4	Roll of 4 to regen
Level 5	Roll of 3 to regen
Level 6	Roll of 2 to regen
Level 7	Roll of 1 to regen
Level 8	Doesn't Exist

Vulnerability to Iron: You can take it at 4 levels, nuisance, moderate, Serious, and deadly. This buys that allergy at that level, as well as affects the damage code of any weapon made of Iron or steel. Each level automatically stages the damage from such a weapon up one notch (or 2 automatic successes, depending on how you calculate it).

Example: An iron pipe that does 6L damage normally, will do 6S damage instead to someone with a level two allergy.

A wendigo is unable to use cyberware or bioware, as it messes up his essence and if he had the regeneration ability, it would automatically kick the intruding piece out and replace it with a regenerated original.

Essence Drain/Essence Loss: Wendigo's lose Essence at a rate of 1 point every 7 days. Also, Wendigo's only gain a point of essence for each FULL point of Essence drained. Thus, if a Wendigo drained a Sammy with .2 essence, he would gain nothing.

Each week, when a Wendigo loses a point of essence, he must make a Willpower test with a target number of 8-(current essence) to avoid going into a "Blood Rage" and feeding on the first available victim. The Wendigo has no control over this Blood Rage.

Note: Essence does not recover, and is permantly lost when a Wendigo drains them. Also, a Wendigo must consume at least 1 pound of flesh from a living, sentient being to drain a point of Essence.

Claws: These are similar to cyber spurs and will do Str M physical damage.

Heightened Speed: Gives the wendigo +1d6 to initiative.

Wendigo Grades

Wendigo characters have levels, or Grades similar to Initiate Levels for Spell-Casters and Adepts. A Wendigo can increase his Wendigo Grade in the same way an Adept Initiates, either through Self Initiation, or through Group Initiation with a group of Wendigo's. Follow the same rules for Initiation and creating Magical groups as found in Magic In The Shadows.