I was deeply inspired by the Mothership adventure Interloper to include an ecology section for an adventure idea I had. Part of that ended up unravelling the unstated rules behind the food web in the module as the prelude for using it elsewhere.
- There are 4 trophic levels,
Primary Producers (usually plants) -> Primary Consumers -> Secondary Consumers -> Tertiary Consumers
- Each Secondary Consumers species needs to feed on 2 prey species,
- Each Tertiary Consumers species needs to feed on 3 prey species,
- A Primary Consumers species can be prey for 3 other species if obligatory herbivores (like deer) or 2 if occasionally omnivores (like pigs).
- Species with different diets/niches to stages in their lifecycle can occupy different trophic levels across their lifecycle.
I couldn't quite define this as a rule but it appeared that each species should have a different feeding strategy.
Extras
I arbitrarily require 1 grass/ground-level, one-bush/short and one-tree/tall plant species for Primary Producers, as the only other ecology minigame I know is Spore.
There should probably be just as many insect/small animal species as big animals.,
One big animal and insect species must be a scavenger/detritivore. This is bourne out of nothing but the sample food web had a Primary Consumers detritivore, several slightly different scavening species and in general something should be breaking down biological matter.
Fantasy Violence might be an alternative to the standad Violence in the Street rules for my pair of Violence hacks.
https://pressthebeast.bearblog.dev/fantasy-violence/
Would have to readjust the Reach and Lethality for all natural weapons again.
Reach starts a 0 for claws, gos to 1 for antlers and projecting defences and 2 for tusks.
Optional - And then -/+1 for every final 4 Growth stages they are from 8-12 according to the growth rules.
Damage dice start at Lethality 0 for 1d4 nd go up by +1 until 2D6 = 4.
Cardinal System
Thre have been a few iteration of this system. Which fits uneasily into that category post-D&D go where they have skills and dangerous combat, but no fromwork of proceedures for what to do as the players cross the campaign space except roll dice whenever the "Narrator" feels justified. It's a dice pool system a bit like Savage Worldssauguine press
.
2010 Ironclaw 2E
6 traits BODY SPEED MIND WILL SPECIES CAREER
Species 3 Skills
Species 3 Gifts
Career 3 Gifts
Career 3 Skills
Personality + Local Knowledge 2 Gifts
13 Skill Marks
3 Gifts
TOTAL
6 Skills + 13 marks
11 Gifts (9+2)
2011 Noggle Stones
6 traits BODY SPEED MIND WILL NATURE(Species) NURTURE(Career)
Species 3 Skills
Species 2 Gifts
Career 3 Skills
Career 2 Gifts
Personality + Combat Save 2 Gifts
9 Skill Marks
3 Gifts
TOTAL
6 skills + 9 marks
9 Gifts
2013 Myriad Songs
6 traits BODY SPEED MIND WILL LEGACY(Species) CAREER
Species 3 Skills
Species 2 Gifts
Upbringing 2 Gifts
Career 3 Skills
Career 2 Gifts
Personality + Combat Save 2 Gifts
9 Skill Marks
3 Gifts
TOTAL
6 skills + 9 marks
11 Gifts
2016 Urban Jungle
7 traits BODY SPEED MIND WILL SPECIES CAREER TYPE
Species 3 Skills
Type 3 Skills
Career 3 Skills
Species 2 Gifts
Career 2 Gifts
Type 0/1 Gifts
Type 1/2 Soaks
Personality 1 Gifts
TOTAL
9 Skills
5/6 Gifts
1 to 2 automatic soaks
There has definitely been a series of reduction, if not
refinement in how games from the Cardinal system work. Noggle Stone was explicitly
dubbed "lean" but the writers. But even then, they have been reducing
the number of Gifts a playable character gets and can spend and reducing skills
as well. But Skills are consistent here, finding a good number and moving the
burden onto automatic Gifts like Area Knowledge to provide basic-level rolls.
Urban Jungle is interesting as its inclusion of a 7th characteristic; Type does
three things. Besides being a refinement of Upbringing from Myriad Song. It
provides another automatic dice for a bevy of skills and so compensates for the
smaller number characters get in that game, it generally coms with an automatic
Soak (defence) and so educes the main thing Gifts were being spent on and it
allows for a standardisation of what the species and career dice apply to
compared to Ironclaw.
Ironclaw Standard Fantasy Races
Back in the early 2000s, Ironclaw 1E had the option of playing a selection of non-animal fantasy races. This was never updated to 2E offically. But I think I found someone else's draft and added Tieflings and Dragonborn from 4E, as that's when I stumbled onto Ironclaw 2E around 2012/2013?
I don't remeber where I got this from or even if I was the one to make the conversion of someone elses Ironclaw 1E write-ups. The 1E write-ups had 2 more human types for Tolkien-style things and didn't have Warforged.
Those last two are probably the iffiest of them all. As one is missing an inherent magical nature and the other has one in defiance of how the rest of Ironclaw species/races are written up.
>Human
Habitat: Choose One
Cycle: Day
Senses: None
Natural Weapons: None
Include Racial Dice with: Academics, Tactics, choice of
Social or Culture skill
Racial Gifts: Geography, Increased Trait: Wits, Diplomacy
>Dwarves
Habitat: Mountains
Cycle: Night
Senses: None
Natural Weapons: None
Include Racial Dice with: Climbing, Digging, Endurance
Racial Gifts: Night Vision, Sure-footed, Spelunking
>Wood Elves
Habitat: Forest
Cycle: Choose
Senses: Hearing
Natural Weapon: None
Include Racial Dice with: Observation, Stealth, Weathersense
Racial Gifts: Acrobat, Keen Ears, Fast Climber
>High Elves
Habitat: Coastal
Cycle: Choose
Senses: Hearing
Natural Weapon: None
Include Racial Dice with: Observation, Academics,
Supernatural
Racial Gifts: Acrobat, Keen Ears, Increased Trait: Mind
>Plain Orcs
Habitat: Plains
Cycle: Day
Senses: Smell
Natural Weapon: Tusks
Include Racial Dice with: Endurance, Presence, Tactics
Racial Gifts: Frenzy, Hiking, Animal Handling
>War Orcs
Habitat: Plains
Cycle: Night
Senses: Smell
Natural Weapon: Tusks
Include Racial Dice with: Endurance, Presence, Melee Combat
Racial Gifts: Frenzy, Hiking, Increased Trait: Body
>Ogres
Habitat: Choose (Plains, Forest, Mountain)
Cycle: Day
Senses: None
Natural Weapon: Wrestle
Include Racial Dice with: Brawling, Endurance, Supernatural
Racial Gifts: Increased Trait: Body, Charging Strike, Choice
of (Coward, Frenzy)
>Troll
Habitat: Mountain
Cycle: Twilight
Senses: Listen, Smell
Natural Weapon: Claws, Teeth, Wrestle
Include Racial Dice with: Brawling, Endurance, Choice of
(Stealth, Presence)
Racial Gifts: Increased Trait: Body, Charging Strike,
Natural Armour
>Tiefling
Habitat: Choose (Plains, Forest, Mountain)
Cycle: Night
Senses: None
Natural Weapon: Horns, Hooves
Include Racial Dice with: Deceit, Stealth, Supernatural
Racial Gifts: Fast Jumper, Sure-footed, Unshakeable Fighter
>Warforged
Habitat: None
Cycle: None (or, As Group Majority)
Senses: None
Natural Weapon: Wrestle
Include Racial Dice with: Endurance, Brawling, Melee Combat,
Ranged Combat
Racial Gifts: Sure-footed, Clear-headed, Unshakeable Fighter
>Dragonborn
Habitat: Choose
Cycle: Day
Senses: Listen, Smell, Spot
Natural Weapon: Claw, Teeth, Torch (Torch@ Close d8, d4-
Damage + 1 Weak, On Fire)
Include Racial Dice with: Endurance, Supernatural, Presence,
Tactics
Racial Gifts: Increased trait: Body, Mystic (Elementalism), Natural Weapon: Torch
Genesys/Edge of the Empire
I played a bit of Star Wars Edge of the Empire and Genesys, it's rfinement tended to build it's character archtypes/species/races on a smaller budget. So when I found Adventures in Azeroth, the Warcraft hack. I was idlely curious about how they would differ from the original EotE set. According to one writer on the long-gone FFG forums, he built Star Wars species to a 120 to 130 XP budget. And not going too hard onhigh stats or reduced Starting Experience. So, I tried calculating and rebuilding the Warcraft races/species to the same totals and trends.
Most Genesys material including Adventures in Azeroth, says Wounds and Strain are 5 XP for a change of 2/1 Wounds/Strain and 15 XP for 3/2. But the writer comment on the old forums said he used 5 XP for each, with an addition 5XP if the core was 1 or 3 as that was compounding. SOmtimes it worked out the same either way.
Night Elves +5 XP
High Elves +10 XP
Blood Elves +0 XP
IronForge Dwarves Fine
Wildhammer Dwarves -5 XP
Fine as is for 120 XP total +10 XP if using 130 XP total
Gnomes Fine
Orcs Fine
Darkspear Tribe Fine but very unbalanced, I would give them a choice of either skill but not both and add 10 XP to Starting Experience
Revantusk Tribe -10 XP or make the two skills a choice between but not both
Zandalari Trolls -10 XP or make the two skills a choice between but not both
Tauren I would deduct 1 from Brawn and add 20 XP
Ogres Fine but very unbalanced
Goblin +5 XP but again, very imbalanced
Draenei (Eredar) fine but still two 3 values is not normal flor Edge of the Empire
Draenei (Broken) +10 XP
Forsaken Fine
Worgen Fine
Furbolgs Fine but tempting to give them +5 XP
Pandaren Fine but too unbalanced
Naga +10 XP, the divergent Biology thing makes the difference too large
Mok'Nathal +20 XP, Silhouette 2 already accounts for increased Encumberance Threshold and isn't worth as much as it's been costed.
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