07-09-2019, 10:42 AM | #31 |
Join Date: Sep 2018
|
Re: K9 enemies...
We've got a couple of dogs in our current game and I've had dogs for my characters before a lot of the time either as familiars or as companions. But overall we don't have a lot of dog representation. In fact we've probably dealt with more felines that canines overall. From a my-table perspective we use dogs infrequently for two reasons.
They're ordinary. Wolves make a good encounter early on for an adventuring group, but become less exciting as players advance. You can make them bigger but ultimately there's little that can be done to make dogs a good enemy in most systems once players grow more heroic. Meanwhile most fantasy or post-apocalyptic games have a rich tapestry of exotic beasts you can deal with. And we don't tend to use them as allies in games because they're easily overlooked. They represent a lot of NPC management for the PCs to have them and they're again underwhelming threats a lot of the time for the NPCs to use, espeically since you could have another bandit or gunman for the same amount of record keeping. |
07-09-2019, 12:20 PM | #32 |
Join Date: Dec 2007
|
Re: K9 enemies...
My first thoughts on seeing this post was that the big bad of the campaign is a hyper-intelligent K9 manipulating things from behind the scenes or the PCs were in a Bunnies and Burrows kind of campaign and the big bad was just an ordinary K9.
__________________
Sapor similis pullo. |
07-09-2019, 06:33 PM | #33 |
Untagged
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Forest Grove, Beaverton, Oregon
|
Re: K9 enemies...
Movie shorthand is to show intelligence with the character playing chess.
To quickly establish a character's evil, one merely shows them kicking a dog.
__________________
Beware, poor communication skills. No offense intended. If offended, it just means that I failed my writing skill check. |
07-09-2019, 07:11 PM | #34 |
Hero of Democracy
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: far from the ocean
|
Re: K9 enemies...
Even those can come off as rather pitiful. The version I ran into into south america came off as very large rats. They cower in the shadows, are obviously in ill health, and are commonly driven off by boys with rocks. They're scary, but they're more of an environmental hazard than a foe. That niche is also taken in most RPG's by actual giant rats.
__________________
Be helpful, not pedantic Worlds Beyond Earth -- my blog Check out the PbP forum! If you don't see a game you'd like, ask me about making one! |
07-10-2019, 04:51 AM | #35 | |
Join Date: Jul 2006
|
Re: K9 enemies...
Quote:
For RPG purposes I've had a D&D party followed by ghouls … the ghouls never actually attacked them, they just ensured that when the party retraced their steps the enemy dead were gone. This and the dungeon where enemy dead got up and walked off were apparently quite disturbing. No-one left their wounded behind. |
|
|
|