Chamax in 2nd Ed (spoilers?)

[allanimal]

I'm running the classic Chamax Plague adventure in the Mongoose 2nd ed rules.

Between the original stats for the critters, the Chamax Hunter stats for 1st Ed in the Pirates of Drinax, and the new rules for creatures, I'm having a hard time figuring out how to handle them.

Basically, in both the classic rules and the 1st Ed PoD version, the creatures are quite resilient.
In one version, they don't die unless they take x damage in an attack, while the other states that only damage die that come up as 6 affect the creature.

The second one is great for randomness, but sometimes it's hard to see across the gaming table the individual damage die numbers.

The first one is difficult to find the right threshold.... They are either popping like crazy all the time, or they are virtually unpoppable.

Has anybody run the Chamax in 2nd ed? How did you handle their stats?

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

Which page? Which book?

 

[allanimal]

Which page? Which book?

I guess I phrased my question wrong.

I'm wondering if anyone has tried to adapt the Chamax to 2nd edition critter rules, and if so, how did it work? What were the stats used?

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

Did you add STR, DEX, END for hitpoint total that 2nd edition could use?

 

[allanimal]

Yes, that was the easy part.
It's the other stuff that affects their resilience, as I mentioned in the original post, that was causing the most problems.

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

You can always make up traits they may have if 2nd edition doesn't have that exact one for your animal.

 

[allanimal]

Shawn, I am well aware that I can make up anything I want.

I want to know if anyone has done it already, and how well it worked.

So if you or anyone else has attempted this, I'd like to hear what worked well and what didn't.

 

[dmccoy1693]

I haven't tried it yet, but to make life easy for me, I'd just give it a high armour, like 6-10. This way it still gives the effect of most weapons being useless while just allowing the players report the number to me.

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

I'm looking at the playtest Chamax for MgT 1st edition right now. It's designed to kill players. Plain and simple. It is not a pet. Nothing you'd want to campaign around with. Very cool.

 

[Rick]

It's basically the film 'Alien' or 'Aliens' monster adapted for Traveller. Use the 12+ damage/tough armour rule for individual Chamax attacks to emphasize how hard to kill they are (and to increase the tension), then go with what is easier and simpler (for you) if they mass attack. This should not be an easy walkover for any group and should really rack up the tension (the players should find out at some point that the Chamax are stalking them, not the other way round).

 

[alex_greene]

We just went around spraying the blessed things with sodium hydroxide. Burnt wood pulp was the raw material, and there was plenty of it. We had ten tons of industrial strength NaOH from that wood pulp, sitting in tanks in the cargo hold. Spec trading. Roll of the dice.

The NaOH neutralised the acids, defanged the critters, did a wonderful job of causing them to burn where they stood. Every single point of damage hurt them, not just the dice that rolled a 6.
We were even contemplating slinging lumps of potassium into their mouths encased in gelatine pellets. When they swallowed the pellets, they'd dissolve in their throats, and BOOM.
Fight acids with alkalis. Chemistry. Couldn't be simpler.

 

[Reynard]

You want to put real fear in players? "Quantity has it's own quality."

A variant of Chamax is a swarm. The individual critter has most iconic Chamax qualities but is not tough, even the warriors. They die easily and the usual happens when you kill them. What is important is always describing how they blanket corridors and pour from cracks and over walls. I did that when I ran a version of the Chamax adventure. Team was not happy but they discovered ways to save themselves and had their ship covered in Chamax chemically burning holes in the hull as the pilot tries to skillfully shake them off as they roar into space. Just remember the space ticks falling off the Cloverfield Monster.

 

[nats]

Yes I must admit I thought that Chamax could be killed with one hit and you ignore their hit points making submachines guns etc very useful.

 

[alex_greene]

Basically, it's the Replicator swarm from Stargate SG-1, but with a bit more bulk to them. There's not much adventure in fighting round after round of sustained autofire, basically the same round over and over again only with more critter body parts each successive round.

 

[Reynard]

A 'swarm' encounter should be a driver for a particular puzzle for players to solve. It can be as simple as sending in enough to blast one's way out. They can be an obstacle to herd characters cinematically to a goal such as discovering an alternate escape or a specific means to neutralize or confound them. A kobayashi maru TPK variant is not the best one. Less ye forget, the zombie genre is a swarm and look how many variants and means to overcome them exist.

 

[nats]

there would have to be a start a middle and an end to the adventure with a swarm. Obviously the start is how the characters meet them, the middle is fighting them against increasingly overwhelming odds or whatever, and the end would be getting saved or finding some way out of the situation.

 

[Rick]

there would have to be a start a middle and an end to the adventure with a swarm. Obviously the start is how the characters meet them, the middle is fighting them against increasingly overwhelming odds or whatever, and the end would be getting saved or finding some way out of the situation.

If you have access to the original Traveller adventure, it might give you what you need. It was a double adventure, 'Chamax Plague' and 'Horde'; 'Chamax Plague' being a sort of introduction to the Chamax where the numbers could be tightly controlled and 'Horde' was an out-of-control swarm type of adventure with the Chamax. Well worth trying to find.

 

[nats]

there would have to be a start a middle and an end to the adventure with a swarm. Obviously the start is how the characters meet them, the middle is fighting them against increasingly overwhelming odds or whatever, and the end would be getting saved or finding some way out of the situation.

If you have access to the original Traveller adventure, it might give you what you need. It was a double adventure, 'Chamax Plague' and 'Horde'; 'Chamax Plague' being a sort of introduction to the Chamax where the numbers could be tightly controlled and 'Horde' was an out-of-control swarm type of adventure with the Chamax. Well worth trying to find.

I do have it - its one of my favourite adventures for Traveller. But I haven't read it in a very long time! I might go over it tonight.

So do animals in version 2 still have missing size/weights and movement stats? Or have they got around to fixing those?

 

[alex_greene]

So do animals in version 2 still have missing size/weights and movement stats? Or have they got around to fixing those?

It was one of the few things we made a point of fixing, during playtests.

 

[Reynard]

We must have the Chamax brought in to 2nd Ed as the iconic Traveller space monster! Hey, if AL