Core Rules: Movement rates for creatures.

[Tom Kalbfus]

I've asked this question in Triplanetary, but since no one's answered it, I'll ask it here. In Triplanetary, I'm converting D&D stats for dinosaurs into Traveller stats, I've noticed their is no stat for movement rate. I've read earlier in the core rules that a character can move 6 meters in a combat round, and that other creatures may move at different rates, but when I look at the creature stat blocks, I see no stat for movement. So I asked a simple question, say a party of characters is walking through the jungle and they encounter a carnivorous dinosaurs, such as this deinonichus

Type Deinonychus; Habitat Forest: Walker; Strength 13, Dexterity 10, Endurance 13, Intelligence 1, Instinct 8, Pack 7.
Chaser (Carnivore); Stealth 5, Athletics 17, Recon 7, Survival 7.
Talons (1d6+5), foreclaws (1d6-1), Bite (1d6+1), Scales (3); Number Encountered 2d6.

A deinonychus is bright green along its back and flanks, with a much lighter shade of the same color on its underside. The body has darker spots or stripes. Its tail extends straight out behind itself, held aloft by an intricate structure of bony supports, thus allowing its weight to be carried entirely by the back legs. It weighs about 272.2 kilograms.
Combat
A deinonychus uses a combination of speed, grasping forearms, large teeth, and hind legs with ripping talons. It hunts by running at prey, leaping, and ripping with its rear talons as it claws and bites. The talons count as one attack. A deinonychus has a relatively large brain for a dinosaur, and its pack hunts with cunning tactics.

How can I determine whether the deinonychuses catch up with the characters if I don't have movement rates for these dinosaurs. Now granted I could simply use their D&D movement rate, but the point is, if I had another Traveller creature that was not converted from a D&D source, say I rolled it up randomly, I would not know whether this creature could overtake the humans or not. I cannot assume the players will always fight and never flee. The movement rate is obviously not part of these stats, is it derived from strength, dexterity, and endurance? What calculation must I perform to determine the creatures movement rate, as D&D has a movement state and Traveller apparently does not?

 

[Rick]

It isn't in the Animal Encounters Supplement and is a serious oversight in said book. You are not the only one to have discovered this: http://forum.mongoosepublishing.com/viewtopic.php?f=89&t=72554&hilit=animal+encounters

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

Just use common sense.

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

Just use common sense.

Well it says the human movement rate is 6 meters per round, perhaps they meant 6 squares per round, as their round is the same as a D&D round, which is 6 seconds. Each square is 1.5 meters, so 6 of those should equal the D&D movement rate. So I'll just insert the D&D movement rate for each dinosaur within the stats.

 

[Old timer]

Human movement is 6 metres per minor action, not per round in Traveller. As you can have 3 minor actions in a round (if you dont take a significant action) that could be a move of up to 18m per combat round, so i would suggest you base you move rates for creatures on that. A simple method from some older versions is that a creatures is either as fast as a human, or x1.5, x2 or x3 times faster.

 

[Jeraa]

If you wanted, you could base your movement speed on the creatures speed in D&D. I will assume 3.0 or 3.5 D&D here.

AS Old Timer said, in Traveller you get 3 minor actions in a round, if you do nothing else, so a human can move 18 meters (roughly 60 feet). Conveniently, a human in D&D also moves 60 feet per round if he spends both his standard action and move action moving.

So to convert 3.X D&D creature movement speed to Traveller, first find out how far the creature can move if he spent 2 move actions doing so. Divide that by 3.3 (to convert to meters), then by 3 again to find his movement speed per Traveller minor action. (Or, for simplicity, just divide his normal movement speed per move action by 5.)

20 ft/move action = 4 meters/minor action
30 ft/move action = 6 meters/minor action
40 ft/move action = 8 meters/minor action
50 ft/move action = 10 meters/minor action
60 ft/move action = 12 meters/minor action

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

Thank you Jeraa, for that helpful suggestion. To do truly alien creatures, the lack of movement rates needs to be addressed. Maybe their are rules in the Monster Manuals for determining movement rates for custom made creatures, and I'll just translate that to Traveller.

I think the flying reptiles I'm also adding fly a little slow, if converted from D&D, as seen below. My entire list of animals is on the Triplanetary thread if you want to look at them. I think a creature that flies at 18 km/hour can barely stay in the air, the larger creatures would have to move faster to avoid stalling

Human movement is 6 metres per minor action, not per round in Traveller. As you can have 3 minor actions in a round (if you dont take a significant action) that could be a move of up to 18m per combat round, so i would suggest you base you move rates for creatures on that. A simple method from some older versions is that a creatures is either as fast as a human, or x1.5, x2 or x3 times faster.

How fast would this fly?

Type Quetzalcoatlus; Habitat Forest, Hills, Mountain: Flyer; Strength 17, Dexterity 9, Endurance 13, Intelligence 1, Instinct 11, Pack 7.
Hunter (Omnivore); Recon 11; Bite (3d6+1), 2 wings (1d6+3); Skin (5); Number Encounteres 2d6.

Technically not a dinosaur, quetzalcoatlus is a massive flying reptile. This fearsome predator glides through the skies searching for meals. Although not adverse to eating carrion, it prefers fresh meat or fish. Quetzalcoatlus has a long neck and head, and a relatively large brain. Its “wings” are flaps of skil extended and controlled by its forelimbs and specifically evolved fingers.
Combat
Whet hunting over water, it flies low and scoops fish and aquatic reptiles from just below the water’s surface. It also attacks small land creatures when it can find them. Vulnerable to other predators while on the ground, quetzalcoatlus prefers to swoop down, snatch its prey in its jaws, and then struggle to regain altitude while swallowing its catch.

D&D has it walking at 4 squares, which is 6 meters per round or flying at 20 squares or 30 meters per round. which is 18 kilometers per hour This is 11.25 miles per hour! Does this seem a little slow to you?

 

[sideranautae]

How can I determine whether the deinonychuses catch up with the characters if I don't have movement rates for these dinosaurs.

Very simple. Creatures in MgT are static per RAW. No need to determine.

 

[GypsyComet]

Eh. Only if you run fights like Final Fantasy.

The section on movement under Combat mentions that some aliens will have rules that change their movement rates, but those rules never actually appear in the CRB.

Since you are already converting from D20 critters, and the default in MGT is 6m per minor action, just divide the source creature's D&D move rate by 5. That gives a lot of creatures a move rate between 4 and 8, with a few faster.

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

Eh. Only if you run fights like Final Fantasy.

The section on movement under Combat mentions that some aliens will have rules that change their movement rates, but those rules never actually appear in the CRB.

Since you are already converting from D20 critters, and the default in MGT is 6m per minor action, just divide the source creature's D&D move rate by 5. That gives a lot of creatures a move rate between 4 and 8, with a few faster.

That's what I'm doing. Converted a Megaraptor and will work on a triceratops and a tyrannosaurus rex next. the thing about populating Venus, is I don't have to adhere strictly to a particular era in Earth's past, for example I can have Tyrannosaurs and Allosaurus on the same planet.

 

[alex_greene]

1 km/h translates to 1.66 recurring metres per movement round.

On average, the preferred human walking speed is 5 km/h. This is 5000 metres / hour, a walking rate of 1.4 metres / second, or about 8.33 metres per movement round. 6 implies cautious movement on the humans' part, or maybe that half-hunched movement rate at which humans move with their weapons drawn in combat.

Humans can move up to double this - up to just shy of 17 metres per combat round (assume a successful Athletics roll needs to be made to run at a flat sprint).

So the following movement rates for some Terran creatures should give you ideas as to how quickly some kinds of animals can move.

African Bush Elephant (Huge Grazer) top speed 40 km/h
Cheetah (Chaser) top speed 120 km/h
Black Mamba (Small Killer) top speed 32.2 km/h
Domestic cat (Small Pouncer) top speed 48 km/h
Elk (Large Grazer) top speed 72.4 km/h
Greyhound (Small Chaser) top speed 63.6 km/h
Grizzly Bear (Large Hunter) top speed 56 km/h
Emperor Penguin (land) (Small Intermittent Chaser) top speed 6-9 km/h

California Condor (Huge Scavenger) top speed 90 km/h
Peregrine Falcon (Tiny Chaser) top speed 320 km/h, making it the fastest naturally moving species on Earth
Frigatebird (Small Pouncer) top speed 153 km/h
Gannet (Small Pouncer) top speed 100 km/h

Gentoo Penguin (water) (Tiny Intermittent Chaser) top speed 35 km/h
Barracuda (Hunter) top speed 44 km/h
Great White Shark (Killer) top speed 40 km/h
Humpback Whale (Huge Filter Feeder) top speed 27 km/h
Blue Whale (Huge Filter Feeder) top speed 50 km/h
Orca (Huge Hunter) top speed 48.3 km/h
Sperm Whale (Huge Hunter) top speed 10 km/h
Bottlenose Dolphin (Chaser) top speed 35 km/h

Hope these help you get some sort of sense of scale.

It looks as if Ornithomimids were the fastest; Gallimimus could have been capable of speeds of some 30-40 km/h. Deinonychus would have been comparable - say 30 km/h? and even T Rex could maybe have managed 20 km/h, but stumbling would have been problematical for TRex and similar theropods, with only their short, stubby arms to protect them if they should trip and fall while running at a dead sprint after a Jeep carrying a terrified chaotician with a broken leg sitting in the back.

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

I really want to thank everyone for their input on this thread, figuring out what to give my creatures for a Speed has been very difficult.

I am redoing the Creature Encounter tables trying to expand them a bit and take advantage of other things brought up in MGT and SPEED has been one of the last hurdles that I have had.

REALLY GOOD INFO HERE. Thank You.