Of Beasts and Men

[contracycle]

Wolves, bears.  Good stock critters. I've sometimes found it hard to get into the hunting techniques they employ, or hard to represent those mechanically.  So I would appreciate, frex, a discussion on how the mechanics can be employed to represnt a hit-n-run series of wolf pack attacks.  Simliarly, just giving bears stats is only of limited use; some idea of how they attack, how they move, that sort of thing, would help a GM realising them.  Lastly, "retreat conditions", I feel, can do with an explicit discussion for lethal systems like this.

[Brian Leybourne]

Wolves, bears.  Good stock critters. I've sometimes found it hard to get into the hunting techniques they employ, or hard to represent those mechanically.  So I would appreciate, frex, a discussion on how the mechanics can be employed to represnt a hit-n-run series of wolf pack attacks.  Simliarly, just giving bears stats is only of limited use; some idea of how they attack, how they move, that sort of thing, would help a GM realising them.  Lastly, "retreat conditions", I feel, can do with an explicit discussion for lethal systems like this.

I wrote up an entire "beasts" chapter for the bestiary that covers everything you have mentioned (and more). Fingers crossed Jake will use it, of course :-)

[Lance D. Allen]

Wow, I thought I was doing well. I've contributed two interesting (IMNSHO, at least) critters, and you've contributed a chapter, already. Probably complete with information on barding, and hit charts for quadrupedal beasties, no doubt.

btw Jake, would you prefer we post our critters here, or e-mail them to Norwood@theriddleofsteel.com? Both of mine are currently posted here, but...

[Jake Norwood]

If you're submitting them for the book, email them to me.

Jake

[Psychopompous]

Wolves, bears.  Good stock critters. I've sometimes found it hard to get into the hunting techniques they employ, or hard to represent those mechanically.  So I would appreciate, frex, a discussion on how the mechanics can be employed to represnt a hit-n-run series of wolf pack attacks.  Simliarly, just giving bears stats is only of limited use; some idea of how they attack, how they move, that sort of thing, would help a GM realising them.  Lastly, "retreat conditions", I feel, can do with an explicit discussion for lethal systems like this.

From what I know about bears (which is a decent amount, but not horribly impressive) it depends on the type of bear and the time of year. Most bears fish for most of the meat in their diet, and eat substantially more roots and berries than anything else. When bears do hunt for meat on land they usually follow a herd of something (deer, elk, etc.) and just kill stragglers (which they don't really need much strategy for since a healthy bear has no trouble running down and killing an old or sick herd animal).

As far as Wolf packs go, just have them run in, deliver an attack and then full evade out. The blood loss and pain from repeated wounds should reflect the damage the wolves use to weaken their prey up until it's so badly wounded that it can't put up a real defense and they just kill it. Wolves have little trouble finding prey, but will very rarely go after anything around their size (attacking humans is an act of despiration for a wolf, it's either VERY hungry or feels threatened), since the entire pack spreads over a large area and any individual that finds prey sends a howl that can carry for miles (literally), and they don't attack until the entire pack is gathered and ready.

I could do a detailed write-up on the hunting strategies of many predators, but see little reason to. Such information can be found in many places, from the library to the internet, or television (assuming you bother to watch nature documentaries)...

[Jaif]

Animals do not have doctors, and play the game of life with that in mind.  It's a rare animal that would charge a pack of humans (most likely a sick or desperate animal).  Animals try not to get wounded, and tend to play TRoS combat better than most first-time players. :-) The key with animal encounters is to stage them convincingly: it's not a matter of the pack attacking the party on the road, it's an ambush on a character who's out of position.

So, next time your party is setting up camp, and one person says "I'm fishing", another says "I'm hunting", a third goes to gather wood, and the others stay in camp, target one of the first 3 players with a sudden animal attack.  It should start off with animal guise (reversed) type rolls; in fact, it could/should start off earlier with your hunter/tracker types noticing large footprints in the area.

The attack, when it occurs, should be extremely violent.  The creature may try to knock the person down first, or it may just go straight for the throat.  Either way, you'll be wrestling an animal possibly many times your size.  Your average tiger weights around 500 pounds; a Grizzly averages less but I bet a large grizzly can top 800; I know that the Kodiak bears routinely top 1000 pounds, and can grow much bigger than that. (At this time, please take a fresh look at wrestling, especially weight difference.  You can't wrestle a bear or tiger, and that's right.)

If you want more information, I'd suggest reading up on Tigers: every year man-eating tigers kill tens of people in India, if memory serves.  You'll have trouble wading through all the pansy "tigers are beautiful creatures" crap, but you can find some solid info if you work at it.

-Jeff

P.S. Animals don't have supermarkets either, and carnivores, especially, work so hard for their meals that they will be apt to defend them even at some risk of injury.  Injury for no visible gain is one thing, but food present is another.  Note that an overmatched animal will still probably run, but if its close they may stay or even rush (as a way to drive people off).

P.P.S. Read up on Hyenas, too.  They're fun, and will try to drive female lions from their kills (you don't drive a male from their kills.

P.P.P.S. There are always exceptions in life: a shark, for example, will kill anything that gets in front of it without hesitation.  They do take "test bites", though, so if they taste metal and not flesh, they'd be prone to move on.  Sharks are machines, really, and not thinking animals.

[contracycle]

Hey, a random thought.  Can/do animals have SA's?  It occurred to me that an animals behaviouor might be controlled by SA's - one for "pounce attack" for example.  Then these would contribute to their pool only when this was clearly relevant.

[Lyrax]

Drive - survive.

Yeah, that's about it.

[Brian Leybourne]

Hey, a random thought.  Can/do animals have SA's?  It occurred to me that an animals behaviouor might be controlled by SA's - one for "pounce attack" for example.  Then these would contribute to their pool only when this was clearly relevant.

I wrote the animals section for Beasts & Men. I didn't cover SA's for animals (although there's no reason you couldn't add it if you like) but there is a set of special maneuvers for animals covering what you're talking about.

Brian.