For Use With Mongoose Traveller: Has Mongoose thought about...?
- Thread starter Spinward Scout
- Start date
mike wightman
SOC-14 10K
Take the CT animal encounters table, add a name generator, add a lifeform generator (there are a lot to choose from).
I like the animal encounters format in CT because it strips everuthing down to the bit most systems don/t bother with at all. The fluff is easier to come by.
I like the animal encounters format in CT because it strips everuthing down to the bit most systems don/t bother with at all. The fluff is easier to come by.
kilemall
SOC-14 5K
I think it’s genius, animal behavior and environmental effects.
Commander Truestar
SOC-13
One issue ran into with the GURPS JTAS was that at least one writer I spoke to Loren Wiseman about was not even looking at the Traveller Universe, except to pull planet names.
So, that writer created and attributed avian creatures on worlds with no atmosphere!
It got bad enough that Loren contacted the writer and eventually got him to agree to let me edit his work.
So, *if* such an application considers "where" a created creature would be found, the planetary information has to consider the universe.
Reversing that, the application could suggest biomes in which that creature might be found.
That would let the game master choose which creatures their PC's might encounter.
Even better, an "At time of need" application could let the GM specify the biome they need a creature for?
kilemall
SOC-14 5K
BiomeMaker?
Commander Truestar
SOC-13
I'm unsure if you are trying to refer to the ID of the former GURPS writer or the application BiomeMaker?
If the former, no, and I will not ID the writer at this point since it would make no sense.
As for an app named "BiomeMaker", I am not familiar with it if it exists.
That said, I'm guessing it would suffer the reverse issue.
Where a creature maker would not consider the target world or target biospheres in which it could evolve or be transplanted, I am guessing any "BiomeMaker" that creates biospheres does not consider what creatures might evolve there except in the most general cases.
Timerover51
SOC-14 5K
Agorski developed an app for IOS called Beastmaker. You can find it here.
I have played a bit with it, and it works well at times. You might look at it.
kilemall
SOC-14 5K
The idea would be to plug in the biomes as in Animal Encounters predicated on the UWPs, generate the encounter table, and give them names maybe even species with source world being the lead taxonomic field.
Perhaps a bit of flora too.
mike wightman
SOC-14 10K
LBB:3
"Animals in any ecological system interact with each other, forming food chains, obeying instincts, defending territory, and generally living out their lives. When people enter such an ecological system, they will encounter the animals of the system, prompting natural reactions, such as attack or flight. Although the precise nature of animals may change, and they may prove quite alien to ordinary experience, most will conform to the broad classifications given below. A referee may choose to establish his own ecological system on a specific world, ignoring the encounter system outlined here. This system, however, is intended to allow broad latitude in both animal types and attack/defense mechanisms, while remaining essentially logical and reasonable."
"Common Sense: Airless worlds will almost never have life of any consequence on them; if they do, animal life will still tend to follow the same broad outlines given above. Still, flyers and liquid breathers will be almost non-existent.
The referee should always be prepared to alter or restrain prescribed procedures if it is felt that they contravene logic or reason."
"Animals in any ecological system interact with each other, forming food chains, obeying instincts, defending territory, and generally living out their lives. When people enter such an ecological system, they will encounter the animals of the system, prompting natural reactions, such as attack or flight. Although the precise nature of animals may change, and they may prove quite alien to ordinary experience, most will conform to the broad classifications given below. A referee may choose to establish his own ecological system on a specific world, ignoring the encounter system outlined here. This system, however, is intended to allow broad latitude in both animal types and attack/defense mechanisms, while remaining essentially logical and reasonable."
"Common Sense: Airless worlds will almost never have life of any consequence on them; if they do, animal life will still tend to follow the same broad outlines given above. Still, flyers and liquid breathers will be almost non-existent.
The referee should always be prepared to alter or restrain prescribed procedures if it is felt that they contravene logic or reason."
Timerover51
SOC-14 5K
One of my problems with the tables in Supplement 2: Animal Encounters is the size of some of the predators. A pack of one hundred kilogram chasers I can see as long as you have some pretty big herbivores to chase. A pack of 4 four hundred kilogram chasers, roughly 900 pounds to my English units brain, it a bit more of a stretch, unless you are talking reptiles akin to dinosaurs. A reptile predator will eat its own body weight in prey a year, while a mammal predator will eat about 10 times its body weight in prey a year. Large predators are going to need a lot of large prey to support themselves.
mike wightman
SOC-14 10K
Megafauna era... ?
Timerover51
SOC-14 5K
Megafauna would work, but you have to allow for a smaller number of large animals.
The game is trying to keep the ecosystem consistent. Nothing wrong with 400kg predators, much less packs of them (unless they're, you know, knocking on my door). Just need an ecosystem to support them.
Grizzly bears are that big, and, while not cooperatively, they do hunt in "packs" (witness those salmon filled rivers). Obviously a target rich environment. It also helps that bear of omnivores, so they'll happily consume fruit and other things.
The trick with a large predator is that there needs to be a reason for them to pack up. As mentioned, large beasts to be downed in cooperation.
Lions hunt in packs, but tigers don't. But, lions take on larger game than tigers.
Hard for an RNG system to account for things like that, so the referee needs to put on their biology/zoology toques on, a little.
Commander Truestar
SOC-13
As I said, this is why Loren had me edit the writer who was creating Avian creatures for the Bestiary entries in the SJG "JTAS" electronic publication.
Commander Truestar
SOC-13
I will admit, there are anomalies like the blue whales, humpback whales, minke whales, fin whales, and sei whales primarily feed on krill, they have to eat by the thousands at a time. Still, this is an example of megafauna micro-fauna.
So, the rule does not hold up even in modern day experience.
What does need to line up are a massive reproductive rate of the prey where the given micro-fauna are a significant part of the diet of megafauna.
If you engineer the specific biome correctly, the size issues can fade away
It should be noted that a Blue Whale would be considered a "Filter", although since its after krill, it could be a carnivorous filter (B3 only has herbivores as filters). Whale sharks are also Filters.
Timerover51
SOC-14 5K
The Basking Shark should also be considered a Filter, as it also feeds on plankton. It is interesting that the largest whales and the two largest sharks are all filter feeders.
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