07-02-2012, 04:11 PM | #21 |
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: Yukon, OK
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Re: Bestiary 4e
I think realistic animals based on biome. Then you just have to pull out the book for the right area.
Non real creatures could go in specific setting books as they do now or be organized along whatever theme seems appropriate to the author. Something like Creatures of the Night, by category like bugs, genre or maybe even mix. Especially genre.
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07-02-2012, 04:14 PM | #22 |
Computer Scientist
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Dallas, Texas
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Re: Bestiary 4e
What's arbitrary and hard to find about it?
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07-02-2012, 04:21 PM | #23 |
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Minneapolis, MN, USA
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Re: Bestiary 4e
Remembering the biome before the animal isn't how we think. What about animals in more than one clime? What if i think something is in the wrong climate? Having a list by climate in the back is best, but keep the animals in alphabetical order. By biome causes problems while solving none.
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07-02-2012, 04:26 PM | #24 | ||
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: The ASS of the world, mainly Valencia, Spain (Europe)
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Re: Bestiary 4e
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That gets my vote too. That way, you can have a mix of interesting animals, and animals you need to have there but are not interesting enough to make a book out of them. |
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07-02-2012, 04:36 PM | #25 |
Dog of Lysdexics
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Melbourne FL, Formerly Wellington NZ
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Re: Bestiary 4e
Except the DF5 is stated for the reality of DF. what's good for DF is often not good for any other genre
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07-02-2012, 04:55 PM | #26 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: The ASS of the world, mainly Valencia, Spain (Europe)
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Re: Bestiary 4e
Then again most shapeshifters I have in my games are from the DF reality...
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07-02-2012, 05:13 PM | #27 | |
Computer Scientist
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Dallas, Texas
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Re: Bestiary 4e
I think, "The party has to travel across the Alps/the subarctic desert/the plane of Torment. What sort of animals are to be found there?"
Quote:
The index already has the animals in alphabetical order, arranging them in alphabetical order again is redundant unless the index is not correctly set up to click through. Last edited by jeff_wilson; 07-02-2012 at 05:22 PM. |
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07-02-2012, 05:19 PM | #28 |
Join Date: Apr 2011
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Re: Bestiary 4e
Sure I can develop stats for all the creatures my players might encounter. Realistically? I won't. I'd rather be spending that time developing NPCs and building out the plot.
It's a glaring omission from the list of must-have hardback supplements. The way I'd do it would be to group animals by their general category (I'll resist saying genera, order or family, since it varies). So the land predators chapter would include a section for felines, for example. This gives you the animal's typical behavior, especially when stressed or frightened, where it's found, how it lives, etc. Then you get the general big cat template, with lenses for different species like cheetahs, lions and cougars. Plus fantasy and sci fi variations like riding cats. It keeps things simple and quickly searchable, is concise, and lends itself to developing your own templates for new animals. Chapters are easily searchable and you can whip up a unique animal very quickly or play out off the shelf. The main bottleneck for this is finding the right writer, and the huge editing resources required to get the stats, game play and verisimilitude right. My understanding is that this is the main obstacle to getting it released. For guns we have Douglas Cole, for social sciences we have Bill Stoddard, Peter dell'Orto is the MA guy, etc etc. To my knowledge, we don't have a "zoology guy" who combines real-world science, game design skill, and is a great RPG writer to boot. |
07-02-2012, 05:19 PM | #29 |
"Gimme 18 minutes . . ."
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Albuquerque, NM
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Re: Bestiary 4e
Yeah. It's "ease of use in play", IMO.
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07-02-2012, 05:25 PM | #30 | ||
Banned
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Europe
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Re: Bestiary 4e
Quote:
What's needed isn't combat stat for fighty stuff. Because there's a limited number of ways in which you can combine, ST, DX, HT, HP, DR and SM. And a -1 here or a +2 there doesn't make that much of a difference. If a GM wants worthy foes for a badass crew of PCs, he's better off designing a counter-party of humanoids, than going for cavebears or dinosaurs, or a pride of lions. That which makes animals interesting is all the special things they can. Sensory capabilities, as you mention, but also mobility-related abilities. Various flight charactiristics. Stealthy movement, on land or in the air. Their ability to visit exotic places, such as underwater. Quote:
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bestiary, gurps |
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