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How to roleplay Woodie


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Woodie the Lumberjack

Spoiler

Woodie is one of my favourite characters, both by his playstyle and by it's mystery. Honestly, there's no much information about his personality except of he's likely to be from north part of Canada, has a  talkative axe Lucy and a were- curse. 
in Don't Starve game, the were-curse was some sort of a "terrible secret", activated either during trees chopping or during the foolmoon. 
In Don't Starve Together, however, Woodie was slightly remade and now his "terrible secret" is not a secret anymore. Woodie now transforms using idols or eating monster meat, and during the foolmoon.
Being honest, from his personality perspective, I prefer DS version of Woodie. His curse was more connected to Lucy, and it was less controlled and thus, scary. It also had only a Werebeaver form, which I feel like more related to his personality, rather than Moose/Goose.
From gameplay perspective, however, I like weregoose most of all because it's cool for investigations and it looks so funny. 3 forms also allow Woodie to be a jack-of-all-trades. So in order to make peace between his new gameplay and the fact that he now has 3 controlled forms, I found that it would be best treat Woodie as a severe man, who strives to solve his problems without bothering others, and who still hides his nature from people he doesn't know well. 


Woodie story
Walter's Compendium says: "While searching for a man who Walter believed would have answers to his questions about a mysterious creature rumored to live in the woods, he instead came upon an abandoned cabin. The owner seemed to have left hastily, leaving all their belongings behind... including an odd radio that miraculously still seemed to be working."
I follow the theory, that a man who Walter was looking for was a Woodie, and the monster from rumors was the Werebeaver (Walter's quote for the Werebeaver in DST: "The Werebeaver! It's Real!").
So that means that when living in Canada, Woodie was cursed and become transforming in Werebever - long before he appeared in Constant. I think this transformations caused problems to him, so he decided to move away from people to a forest. He became Lumberjack. Being lonely, he started to talk to his axe and named it Lucy. 
Perhaps Maxwell tricked him by saying that he would be able to do something with the curse, or the Werebeaver showed himself to the people and Maxwell proposed Woodie to hide in Constant - this thing is unknown. Anyway, the rumors about werebeawer appeared somehow on the Earth, and Woodie became one of the survivors.
After some time, when the Moon meteor fell on the Constant, Woodie curse progressed and became unpredictable. This hazard made Woodie to contact to other survivors more closely, especially Wickebottom, whom he told his terrible secret. By travelling to the moon island, and to the ancient library, and also with the Wicker help, he managed to find a way to make some idols.
He became more social, however he's still relying mostely on himself. Being thanksfull to survivors, he strives to help them, but still lives a lonely life, preferring harsh forests rather then comfortable oasis. When in need, he even uses his were-forms, but still tries to not show the others his animal nature.

 

Tips to roleplay Woodie

  • Track the moon cycle.

Woodie knows about his curse, and keeps an eye on the moon cycle (gameplay: 1st fool moon is day 11, then every 20 days: 31, 51, 71, etc.). Since wereform is unpredictable and the strongest during the full moon (he can't resist being transformed and the duration of weremeater is doubled), Woodie definetely doesn't want to be unprepared. Leave the group before the transformation will happen, and spend the day to collect food  to fill your belly after transofrmation.

  • Find a harsh place to live.

Woodie is very good in collecting resources and reseraching the map. Actually, he was a lumberjack in Canada, and lived in a lonely cabin in cold northern forest. So he defientely is okay with bad environment, and maybe even prefers such one.
Start game with searching for a place where others will not likely want to settle. Here is the list from the most roleplay suitable places to less:
- Spider forest. Evergreens will provide a lot of wood to chop, and the forest itself is pretty dense. Lack of resources other then wood and spider silk makes this place mostly  abandoned by other players. Spiders also frighten people. But for Woodie spiders is a way to collect monster meat. You can also find several pig houses in such forests. Woodie is friendly with pigs, and since they're also cursed, they make a good team (especially knowing that werepigs are not aggressive to were-Woodie, maybe because they smell alike). Hire some pigs and clear some area of wood (chopping, no fires!) and too close spider dens for your base. 
- Caves. This base should not lay deep undeground. It should be just near the entrance, so you can track day-night cycle by lights. In such areas you almost always have grass and sticks, but you will also need a lot of wood, so check that there's some forest or grow one by yourself. Also try to make sure that the entrance to the cave is dangerous: above part could lead, for example, to dragondly desert with hounds, or to a swamp, or to spiders (you can plant some spiders near the entrance, if not). Cave entrance should not be too close to others people basements (oasis/pig king/portal).
- Swamp. Not good for it's trees (plant evergreen), but a scary place with a lot of fightings around so there is a plenty of monster meat here. And you can find a tentacle spike weapon suitable for your wild style. Remember that actually players often come to swamp for the reeds, and Wurt also will likely live in the swamp, but since Wurt is a monster, you can share your secret to her.
- Dragonfly Desert (near hounds). It's very hot here (not like in cold north), however since we're looking for harsh environment, it's also okay. Woodie can make kind jokes about others survivng in kinderyard, while he's fighting against nature. Basing near hounds is good to fear others, and it's also a source of monster meat. Woodie can grow evergreen here, and gets access to lots of resources with tubleweeds, but be carefull near lavapools: dogs and tumpleweeds could start a fire.

  • Build a wooden house

Surviving in hursh  places doesn't mean you have to live a wild campfire-crockpot only life. Woodie tries to live as a human, and treats his were- abilities as a curse. So he strives to show that he's a human even more than others do.
Fortunately, tree trunks is a major resource which allows to build lots of things. Collect lots of wood and grass and learn how to build wooden walls. Make a house shaped building with single or several rooms and doors. Create a wooden floor inside. Leave some chests there and a wardrobe. 
You should minimize usage of stone, but it could be dissicult to maintain a base without lighting rod, so place it if you don't want risks. 
I prefer to place crockpot ant science machine outside the building and keep a minimalistic design of a base, just to show that it can be left easily. However, it's up to you to decide.
One of the building you could also make for the roleplay is a Disused Beefalo Pen Trap set piece, just to imitate a trap, but not in savanna.

  • Warn others

Craft a few signs and place it around the base, signing something like "Beware of the beast", "Keep away", etc. You could also place a sign pointing where safe team base is, so maybe travelers will go there. 

  • Tree guards

There's always a question on how to deal with treequards. SInce Woodie is more likely to confront nature, he seem to should kill them. However, making his forest a dangerous place where only a Woodie could say which tree is safe and which is not seems to be more interesting. So when tree guards appear, I prefer to lure them somewhere and pland a few cones so he will fall asleep.

When someone else will enter your forest one day, he might be really surprised  that there is an army of trees arised after a single swing of axe. However Woodie will save the situation calming them down with cones and telling ensuring that he'll better deal with a wood.

Also, i think it's important to plant evergreens, not birchnut trees. They look more in Woodie-style as for me.

  • Prepare several bases

Woodie's life means he's ready to leave the place anytime. But he is not careless: he is prepared for any situation. Someone may start a fire in a forest, or just become a regular guest on your base while you don't want him to know your secret. For these cases, Woodie sets several bases in different harsh places all over the world map. Goose form will help to travel between bases and maintain them.
Make sure each of the bases has some food (either stored or growing/wandering around, but easy accessible).

  • Don't create a farm.

Woodie never meant to be a farmer. He doesn't afraid of labour and respects other labour in farms, however growing vegies is a hard time consumable process if you want the work to be done well. So Woodie  will likely not do that by himself.

  • Don't tame beefalos / grow pets

Dame reasons as farms. Rely on yourself, not on your pets or garden.

  • Don't build pig houses

At least on early stage of the game. Better try to live in a forest near some pig huts. Woodie is not the person who will destroy pig houses to rebild or something like. If you feel that you need pigskin hard, you may roleplay the situations like this: hire pig with lots of monster meat so it has stranformet and ancontrolled thus has to be killed, or hired to help fight some tentacles/tree guards, merms and then killed. To pay your respect for dead pig, you could rebuilt the house for pig heir, but that should not be a pig farm - just a "random" house.
5) Wild sources of resources
Since you don't make farms, you might find other food sources. Wild nature provides lots of them in form of bushes and histile creatures. I rarely see Woodie as a hunter. He will hunt when in need, but mostly, he receives meat from his struggling against nature.
Too many spiders around camp, - he has to do something with it (and collect meat). Hounds attacking - protect yourself (and receive meat).
However when in moose form, he might be aggressive to mobs even when he has no need in food supplies.
There's also several notes on bee hives. Woodie's favorite food includes honey, so he will likely kill some wild bees in search of it. You could start a bee farm later - bees are agressive in spring so they make another protection line for your base, and bee mines could be crafted using bees. It's cool to roleplay it as a special anti-Walter protection, since this boy is very interested in you.

  • Team mating

Building bases in far away harsh places doen't mean Woodie has no need in communication. He is actually very kind and friendly (maybe a little humbleand country-style, but anyway he strives to be with community). He could joke about how bad are people in tree chopping, however, he will always help with labour. Even when not asked - he could bring some wood.
He would also take food from team farms, and will take part in it's building if needed. So mostly he leaves common base when the fullmoon comes.

  • Adventures

Woodie might be insterested in the ancient library and moon island in order to learn about hismself. Moon island is the easiest place to access as a Woodie: weregoose form allows to investigate water if used carefully. So without even having a boat, Woodie could travel to the island. He might even settle there and it's a nice choise, which solves sanity loss on trandformation problem. 
Why not to base there from the start of the game? Actually you can. But you'll lose a lot of interactions with teammates. I would advice to make some travels there, collect some stone-fruit bushes and put one-two trees near each of your base, bring others to your team. 

  • What if others ask me to turn into werebeaver and gnaw or into moose and fight? 

Well, your secret might be revealed to some persons, but you may always tell that you don't control the beast inside you completely and it's a risk. Sometimes you might take this risk and gnaw/fight for team, other times you could fake them as if you're uncontrolled (and gnaw something you shouldn't accidentally). 
Anyway try to make some mystery out of it.

  • What if they ask me about Lucy?

Tell them the story about a woman named Lucy who was murdered with thus axe by some kumberjack (you don't remember if that was you or not). Her spirit now talks to you through this axe.

  • Other Woodies on the server

In case there are several Woodies, you can make a team with them since you're all cursed anyway.  
 

The Maxwell roleplay guide is here. Please vote whos guide is expected to be next:

1. Warley 

2. Wendy

3. Webber

4. WX

5. Willow

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Great guide! I would definitely recommend spider forest as I killed 2 Treeguards and 3 spider queens simultaneously as moose, great place for him!

Treeguards also protect against giants, but do get into fights with pigs, so that's worth considering.

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