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Old 12-19-2020, 01:40 PM   #61
AlexanderHowl
 
Join Date: Feb 2016
Default Re: Make Animals Threatening [Basic]

Horses are capable of eating small amounts of deboned fish, and elephants will occasionally eat people who annoy them (it is not good for them, but it has occurred from time to time with circus elephants).
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Old 12-19-2020, 02:37 PM   #62
Fred Brackin
 
Join Date: Aug 2007
Default Re: Make Animals Threatening [Basic]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Anders View Post
A hippopotamus would have ST 29 and fangs doing impaling damage. That's 3d impaling, which is pretty terrifying.
You're probably underestimating or at least calculating from a small end figure. Wikipedia says that male hippos can go up to 9920 lbs. Going by the formula is the back of campaigns that'd be ST42 and something like 4D+2 Imp.

There was a story in the gun mags early this year about a fellow who went to Africa with a wildcat .475 lever action. It was loaded to at least 8DP+ in Gurps terms.

The local tribe told him they were about to have a major festival and they were very fond of hippo meat. So he shot a large bull hippo for them and they got 6000lbs of meat off it. He'd had to shoot it 3 times. One of the skinning team (yes, this is a team sport) brought him a recoverd round and told him that they'd found it 3 meters from its' entry point.
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Old 12-19-2020, 07:31 PM   #63
dcarson
 
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Default Re: Make Animals Threatening [Basic]

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Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl View Post
Horses are capable of eating small amounts of deboned fish, and elephants will occasionally eat people who annoy them (it is not good for them, but it has occurred from time to time with circus elephants).
Horses will eat hamburgers. I was visiting my sister and my niece and we went to see her horse. I had picked up a burger at a drivethru and sat the burger unwrapped on the top of a post. The horse ate it.
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Old 12-19-2020, 07:58 PM   #64
AlexanderHowl
 
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Default Re: Make Animals Threatening [Basic]

I have seen horses eat the foam off a steering wheel, they are attracted to the salt, but it is not good for them. In the case of cooked hamburger though, it has been broken down chemically and mechanically, so it would likely not cause them any major issues. I would personally not allow any horse to make a habit of snacking on hamburgers though, as it might cause them to colic if they ate too much of it too frequently.
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Old 12-19-2020, 11:38 PM   #65
Jefepato
 
Join Date: Apr 2017
Default Re: Make Animals Threatening [Basic]

Does an animal's threat level go up substantially if the animal is unrealistically intelligent?

How might a competent team of PCs fare in the woods against a pack of wolves who are as smart as they are?
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Old 12-20-2020, 01:16 AM   #66
Anthony
 
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Default Re: Make Animals Threatening [Basic]

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Originally Posted by Jefepato View Post
Does an animal's threat level go up substantially if the animal is unrealistically intelligent?
A smarter animal will be better at ambushes, traps, and the like, but it won't help for winning head to head fights.
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Old 12-20-2020, 01:20 AM   #67
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Default Re: Make Animals Threatening [Basic]

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Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl View Post
ISo, how do you make animals terrifying in your games?
I haven't done this, but it occurred to me one could use the rules in GURPS Zombies. There's lots of guidance on biting, and worrying a wound from a bite that could be directly applied to certain types of horror movie animal bites. The zombie horde rules could easily be used for multi-hex "swarms" of B-move wolves, rabbits, etc. Likewise, GURPS Action 5: Dictionary of Danger would be a useful resource, especially Z is for ZOO. It's a great book for helping develop the context of a fight scene, even if the focus, and the tone, is most appropriate for Action.
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Old 12-20-2020, 10:28 AM   #68
Inky
 
Join Date: Sep 2019
Location: UK
Default Re: Make Animals Threatening [Basic]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jefepato
Does an animal's threat level go up substantially if the animal is unrealistically intelligent?

How might a competent team of PCs fare in the woods against a pack of wolves who are as smart as they are?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Anthony View Post
A smarter animal will be better at ambushes, traps, and the like, but it won't help for winning head to head fights.
Don't underestimate the power of tactics. Jefepato mentioned a pack of wolves, and a highly intelligent pack of wolves could use (even) better pack tactics than ordinary wolves. This may be more about what the GM does than about mechanics. Anyone familiar with the D&D story of the Nightmare Kobolds?

Of course, if they do something like realise that the weapons are the problem and try to sneak up and take them away, which a human might, they stop looking believably like natural animals, if that's important.

For that matter, animals with human IQ could use the skills Strategy and Tactics. Strategy could represent some horror-movie monsters' uncanny ability to guess exactly what the PCs will do next and be three steps ahead of them.
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Old 12-20-2020, 11:01 AM   #69
Ulzgoroth
 
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Default Re: Make Animals Threatening [Basic]

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Originally Posted by Inky View Post
Don't underestimate the power of tactics. Jefepato mentioned a pack of wolves, and a highly intelligent pack of wolves could use (even) better pack tactics than ordinary wolves. This may be more about what the GM does than about mechanics. Anyone familiar with the D&D story of the Nightmare Kobolds?
Every time I've seen Tucker's Kobolds described, it in fact revolved entirely around ambushes and traps...

What tactics would you reserve for an unnaturally smart animal? Sneaking up and stealing people's weapons probably isn't beyond a clever animal, but it's not a very good tactic for a homicidal animal - once you're close enough to steal someone's weapon why not go for the throat instead? (It does work if you've got an unnatural coalition of animals, where small and offensively weak animals prepare targets for attack by more powerful but less stealthy types.)

Most tactics I can think of that I couldn't see animals using wouldn't work for them anyway, because they're dependent on particular tools that don't fit animal anatomy. A phalanx of wolves makes no sense because wolves can't use spears.
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Old 12-20-2020, 11:10 AM   #70
martinl
 
Join Date: Jan 2006
Default Re: Make Animals Threatening [Basic]

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Originally Posted by safisher View Post
I haven't done this, but it occurred to me one could use the rules in GURPS Zombies.
I used Romero-Zombie Hippos in my GURPS - Hungry Hungry Hippos one shot and it was a huge success. The PCs abandoned the tramp freighter they were on rather than face them.
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