Steve Jackson Games - Site Navigation
Home General Info Follow Us Search Illuminator Store Forums What's New Other Games Ogre GURPS Munchkin Our Games: Home

Go Back   Steve Jackson Games Forums > Roleplaying > Roleplaying in General

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 07-09-2019, 10:42 AM   #31
Black Leviathan
 
Join Date: Sep 2018
Default 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.
Black Leviathan is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-09-2019, 12:20 PM   #32
woodchuck
 
Join Date: Dec 2007
Default 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.
woodchuck is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-09-2019, 06:33 PM   #33
Flyndaran
Untagged
 
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Forest Grove, Beaverton, Oregon
Default 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.
Flyndaran is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-09-2019, 07:11 PM   #34
ericthered
Hero of Democracy
 
ericthered's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: far from the ocean
Default Re: K9 enemies...

Quote:
Originally Posted by The Colonel View Post
Don't know about used to be - many Middle Eastern (and other under-developed area) cities are still plagued by packs of (generally suspiciously similar looking) yellowish brown dogs that scavenge for food...
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!
ericthered is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-10-2019, 04:51 AM   #35
The Colonel
 
The Colonel's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2006
Default Re: K9 enemies...

Quote:
Originally Posted by ericthered View Post
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.
Oh absolutely - they're no threat to any normal RPG character and people who've lived with them around tell me that they disperse even if you stoop and make a "picking up a stone" gesture. But they come back. Like big rats their main function is to make sure you don't leave your wounded unattended.

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.
The Colonel is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Fnords are Off
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -6. The time now is 11:38 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.9
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.