Werewolf

Were you looking for the RPG by White Wolf Games?

Or perhaps the us versus them party game?

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Werewolves are people that change their shape into something lupine. It used to be turning into a for-real wolf, but modern people don't find wolves so scary anymore, so we've come up with transforming into half-man half-wolf monstrosities, or turning into fucking HUGE wolves.

Transform and roll out

Sometimes werewolves are the way they are because of a curse, or a transmitted disease, or just because they're fucking evil. Or they're aliens. or furfaggots that made a wish. Werewolves of the cursed variety will transform against their will and have no control while in their monstrous shape, and get all emo and shit when they turn back into a person. Many stories say that the cursed types will transform during the three days of a full moon; some make them transform when they experience intense emotions such as lust or anger (q.v. HULK SMASH!)

Common weaknesses include weapons made from silver (a "pure" metal), and a plant called "wolfsbane" that seems to have no other purpose than to show up in equipment lists for fantasy games.

There are other monsters that are people-turning-into-animals, but werewolves (or Selkies but were splitting hairs there) were here first. The others are called were-(animal), such as were-rats, were-bears, were-bats (not to be confused with vampires), and even were-birds, were-dolphins, were-whales and were-snails. An inversion is an animal that turns into a person, jokingly called were-humans, but that's pretty lame because of course one of their shapes is a human but we need to know what the animal is.

Also, never piss off a Werewolf. Despite the furry jokes we make they can typically kick your ass six ways from sundown. Like the "Hulk Smash" joke above, Werewolves tend to have incredible strength and/or speed. They're killing machines to be respected, despite the furry crap.

Werewolves in games

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Give her the D.

Dungeons & Dragons

Werewolves started out as just the "lycanthrope" monster type, but issues of Dragon Magazine and later editions allowed players to add werewolf-ism as a feature of their character, or to take lycanthrope as a race like "elf" or "dwarf." Werewolves are always the disease type, with voluntary transformations. They are immune to damage unless you're using magic or silver weapons. There were also "wolf-weres," who have a huge hate-on for their opposite numbers. Both kinds were pretty common in Ravenloft setting. the 3.5 Edition setting "Eberron" adds the player race "Shifter" which has very minor werewolf traits.

Old World of Darkness

Werewolves are genetic, the product of having a werewolf ancestor. You could be born a wolf that turns into a human, or a human that turns into a wolf. Werewolves are considered heroes fighting for hippy-dippy nature causes, do some special nature magic, and are always in danger of flipping out and killing everyone they can reach. They are in control of their transformations, they have a half-way state that is fuckawesome, and they can regenerate from any wounds unless it was caused by silver or fire or other werewolves.

New World of Darkness

Werewolves are genetic, the product of having a werewolf ancestor. You're born human, but transform into a werewolf "when the time is right", probably killing everything in sight in the process. Werewolves are the descendants of two mighty spirits (Mother Luna and Father Wolf), are charged with policing the spirit world, can do magic, and are always in danger of flipping out and killing everyone they can reach. They are in control of their transformations, they have a half-way state that is fuckawesome, and they can regenerate from any wounds unless it was caused by silver.

Shadowrun

Werewolves are people infected with a disease were they transform under a full moon. Instead of becoming animals, they de-evolve into monstrous forms of their own species, making humans "were-neanderthals." True werewolves are animals who are altered in birth with the same magic that turns human babies spontaneously into elves, orcs or trolls, but these animals are born with the ability to shift into human shape.

Warhammer 40,000

A special order of Space Marines dubbed "Space Wolves" are infused with wolf-beast traits in their genetics during training. Part of the process of earning their place among the Adeptus Astartes is to learn to suppress their bestial urges. Those that fail become Wulfen, those that succeed keep their intelligence and loyalty to the Emperor of Mankind, and gain resistance to the corrupting effects of Chaos and The Warp. The bestial traits still grow slowly. Under extreme conditions (Like the nightmare hellhole that is the Eye of Terror), many Space Wolves have shown increased wolf-like traits, to the point where they more or less become Space Marine Werewolves (a.k.a. Wulfen). With these Wulfen, the outnumbered Space Wolves 13th company has been kicking Chaos ass since M30.

Ars Magica

Werewolves are cursed, either by magic or by faeries, but some player-controlled companions or grogs can be werewolves who can control the transformation.

Rifts

Modern humans are actually were-apes that lost the ability to change back. There is also a species called Loup-Garou that are Nazi Furries that must be killed twice, once in each shape, to stay dead.

Iron Kingdoms

The Iron Kingdoms houses a faction called the Circle of Oroboros, a conclave of druids trying to protect the balance of Order and Chaos, nature and civilization. They worship the Devourer Wurm, the aspect of nature, and he grants them all kinds of awesome, if kinda furry powers - There among the Warpwolf, humans warped into wolflike forms, used by the druids to kill and maim in the Wurms name and to defend nature from those who harm it. No one really know if that human can change around to human again.

Deadlands

The DuPont family are inbred black magicians cursed with being werewolves.

Werewolves in video games

World of Warcraft

With the launch of Cataclysm, Worgen are a playable race. They possess racial bonuses granting Shadow and Nature resistance, as well as a +1% Critical Strike bonus. They also /sniff and /roar. Horde can't wait to learn how to skin em in the next patch. They're also angry English people, led by a badass old man called Genn MOTHERFUCKING Greymane. And a drunken Irishman called Darius Crowley. An obvious reference to the song of Ozzy Osbourne, but not the Occultist.

Elder Scrolls 3 Morrowind

Bloodmoon expansion allows for a player character to become a werewolf. The player can choose to keep the curse or have it removed. Basically, the Werewolf version of the player character is a rape-tastic machine of outright slaughter. This can be a handy tool for clearing out tougher dungeons. Just don't let yourself be spotted transforming, or you're screwed. Any and all town guards will try to kill you. As to be expected they are vulnerable to silver and there is no short supply of silver weapons available in Bloodmoon.

Elder Scrolls V Skyrim

Werewolves make a return- the Circle of The Companions are all Werewolves, and are opposed by the Silver Hand, a band of werewolf-hunters who all employ silver weapons. Transforming against a group of them is tantamount to suicide. You can become a werewolf yourself, and when transformed you are forced into third person, must consume corpses to stay transformed and heal, and get an absolute rape claw attack. While not transformed, you gain immunity to disease, and lose the ability to gain rested bonuses. It should also be noted that PC werewolves can only transform once every 24 hours without the help of Hircine and are one of the fastest creatures in the game, easily outpacing even the best horses. The aforementioned 'help' from Hircine is a ring that lets you transform whenever you want, but until its quest is finished will transform you at random. Unless you're not a werewolf, allowing you to get the purified ring without having to deal with the curse, something Hircine apparently never thought of.