In the animal section, though there are guidelines to create creatures there is no guide on how to determine their speed, even though all the example creatures have been given a speed rate. It is also not clear what the number in brackets in the trait column (page 81) is for.
Creature movement
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ShawnDriscoll
Cosmic Mongoose
Small/Large? Those are DMs added to your ranged attack skill checks. LARGE (+X) is mentioned above. Maybe a SMALL (-X) is needed.
Rockymountainnavy
Mongoose
None of the example animals on pages 82-83 have the apparent size Trait listed.
Trait "Small (-X)" appears top left of p.84.
Trait "Small (-X)" appears top left of p.84.
ShawnDriscoll
Cosmic Mongoose
I see, said the blind man.Rockymountainnavy said:
Let's see here... Thunderer has Large (+2) as a trait. Living Net has Large (+1). Skitterer has Small (-1). Raptor Lizard has Small (-1).
At least in my copy. Maybe having no size trait just means it's not much of a factor (not small or big enough to count for a DM)?
"A referee need not be bound by the suggestions here and can vary Hits as he sees fit."
That's why The Sirene Geest Worm has a hit of 12 instead of 14, for example.
Rockymountainnavy
Mongoose
OK. I missed that some have it and others don't. Sorry, was drinking a beer at the time. 
ShawnDriscoll
Cosmic Mongoose
Also, the Sirene Geest Worm might not have exact details because no one has lived after encountering one to make a complete/accurate stat record for it. That's something that Travellers should maybe look into doing. Find out where they come from, etc. An easter egg is on YouTube for it.
TrippyHippy
Emperor Mongoose
Some of the movement scores for the animals seem a bit slow compared to humans. The Raptor is listed as having a movement of 4m for example, whereas humanoids are 6m?
Is this right?
Is this right?
ShawnDriscoll
Cosmic Mongoose
How fast is a chicken?TrippyHippy said:
ShawnDriscoll
Cosmic Mongoose
Running humans slow down when they crouch to grab a chicken (or a raptor lizard). Both are hard to catch. Plus they have that DEX thing going for them.
TrippyHippy
Emperor Mongoose
A chicken....or a raptor....moving 4 metres in 6 seconds seems a little slow to me....
ShawnDriscoll
Cosmic Mongoose
I don't see a speed for humans in this version of the PDF. 6m was the speed for humans in 1 second (don't remember if that was walk and run speed, I guess run). Maybe speed is getting a re-calibration, and these animals were left behind? Where do you see 6 seconds mentioned?TrippyHippy said:
ADDED:
Ok. Combat rounds. Will have to look that up. A round is not filled with running by those animals. Their memory resets before a round is up. Combat round means you're playing chess. So everything is slowed down to turn-based. I'm a real-time player. So I can't influence these speed numbers at all. The combat round playtesters will probably make everything even slower, knowing them.
-Daniel-
Emperor Mongoose
On a serious note, maybe a new trait could be something like "Speed Burst" where they get an increase in speed for a short time/distance. Sort of like the Cheetah. The Cheetah can hit quite high speeds but only for very short distances then they need to slow down and rest. Maybe then you could have the Raptor at 4m for its normal speed but if it uses its limited burst it goes 8m for example. Just thinking.
ShawnDriscoll
Cosmic Mongoose
I hate saying this. But the Traveller Companion has all kinds of traits for that. And the beauty of traits is that new ones get added to the game when new aliens, animals, weapons, ships, vehicles, planets, arrive.
So if humans running 6m in 6 seconds is still the case, they got some minor actions involved as well. Because that running speed seems slow to me.
So if humans running 6m in 6 seconds is still the case, they got some minor actions involved as well. Because that running speed seems slow to me.
ShawnDriscoll
Cosmic Mongoose
Good question, that might be kind of neat if there was a Classic Traveller something or other section in the Companion book. Rule-wise, I think Matthew would be using just MgT 2nd edition mechanics for all the core books. If you design animals using Classic Traveller, you still need to convert them to MgT 2nd edition descriptions, right?mlooney said:
Do you think MgT 2nd edition's method for creating animals needs to be ruled out better? Basically all a referee does is take an idea for an animal to use and assign hits, speed, skills, attacks, traits, and behaviors to it.
ShawnDriscoll said:
It's a style thing, like free jump 2 scouts. Traveller has that weird ecological niche based "monster" generator. It's one of the things that makes Traveller Traveller.
Because the whole thing is OGL in MgT1, making a converted one isn't a problem, as it happens.
Rikki Tikki Traveller
Cosmic Mongoose
I think there needs to be some more guidance in the core booka bout how to decide how fast a creature/monster/animal is (personally, I like the term Creature) similar to the Size/Hits table.
CT had a Speed 1 through 4 I think, where humans were 1 (6m per combat turn).
OR, just give us some good examples: A horse, a dog, a rat, a falcon, an eel, a Shark, so that we have something to base our speed "guesses" on.
CT had a Speed 1 through 4 I think, where humans were 1 (6m per combat turn).
OR, just give us some good examples: A horse, a dog, a rat, a falcon, an eel, a Shark, so that we have something to base our speed "guesses" on.
