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Gnome · 12-17-2020, 05:33 AM

DF 5 has stats for larger than life animals that can be a genuine threat to humans.
In addition, Combat Writ Large from Pyramid #3/77 can make size more of a threat, so that a stampeding elephant or a charging boar has the potential to knock a human to the ground almost automatically.

In DF games, animals can be threats by themselves (a pack of timber wolves can be a fun fight if they attack in the middle of the night while the party is camped), or as pets of those wood elf druids you angered by entering their sacred grove. And DF has plenty of dire beasts that can be a threat all by themselves, like the Triger (three-headed tiger), giant apes, etc.

Finally, one of the main things that makes animals less threatening to humans armed with melee weapons in GURPS is the rule for Parrying Unarmed Attacks (B376). I have never thought this rule was fun or realistic as written, so I've modified it in various ways over the years, making it harder to deal damage with a parry than to merely parry (by analogy with the Aggressive Parry technique), or reducing the damage dealt (since it seems crazy that you can deal full damage while parrying), or making it simply impossible against certain attack types.

12-17-2020, 05:33 AM	#9
Gnome Join Date: Feb 2011 Location: Cambridge, MA	Re: Make Animals Threatening [Basic] DF 5 has stats for larger than life animals that can be a genuine threat to humans. In addition, Combat Writ Large from Pyramid #3/77 can make size more of a threat, so that a stampeding elephant or a charging boar has the potential to knock a human to the ground almost automatically. In DF games, animals can be threats by themselves (a pack of timber wolves can be a fun fight if they attack in the middle of the night while the party is camped), or as pets of those wood elf druids you angered by entering their sacred grove. And DF has plenty of dire beasts that can be a threat all by themselves, like the Triger (three-headed tiger), giant apes, etc. Finally, one of the main things that makes animals less threatening to humans armed with melee weapons in GURPS is the rule for Parrying Unarmed Attacks (B376). I have never thought this rule was fun or realistic as written, so I've modified it in various ways over the years, making it harder to deal damage with a parry than to merely parry (by analogy with the Aggressive Parry technique), or reducing the damage dealt (since it seems crazy that you can deal full damage while parrying), or making it simply impossible against certain attack types.