While reading the the upcoming books thread I had a few musing about the RQ race of ducks. I originally posted this there and then realized it was pulling the thread a little off topic.
Ducks have always been a bit of a curse to runequest in my circles due primarily to the artwork on the front covers (Duck Tower and later Apple Lane) . Any time I tried to get people to play runequest they always ask me if that’s the game where you play Daffy the Duck. Ouch!
On the other hand when I first started playing runequest I was an avid duck hunter and was a bit of a self proclaimed expert on the elusive creatures (only really elusive during season and when you have a shotgun in hand). I often spent long cold wet hours watching the behavior of these creatures as they frolicked just outside of range. Here are a few ideas that crossed my head while sitting in the blind.
One is that ducks should have high natural armor in the Chest and abdomen. They have layers of insulation and fat that work amazingly well as a bullet proof and possibly a sword-proof vest. They are way tougher than most people imagine and notoriously hard to kill. I would imagine high resilience rolls.
Species of ducks vary a lot in habitat, appearance, and personality, and perhaps Rq duck could too. For instance:
Mallards (green heads) : The traditional duck (at least in Michigan). Mallards are quite a bit smarter and craftier than other ducks. Females are brown but their wing patterns are the same as males. They usually travel in small flocks. They taste very nice. There is a sub-variety called a black duck that look like female mallards although slightly darker. Black mallard males do not have green heads.
Canvasbacks: They have a distinctive shaped head which has a reddish color. They are quite large and always seemed to be rare and have a noble bearing to them. Always seemed to be the aristocracy of duck-kind. To bag one of these was always a successful day.
Wood-duck: These beautiful ducks(favorite of taxidermists everywhere), as their name implies, take to the forested areas around beaver dams and creeks. They generally do not linger in the big open lakes. They are quite fast and always seemed like a bit of a dandy ranger type. The hens are small and somewhat dumpy looking.
Teal blue and green winged varieties: Although these were rare in my area, they were very small but seemed to be very very quick in the air.
Helldiver, Grebe: These diminutive ducks tended to travel alone. They were extremely good swimmers. I never really saw one fly, but they could dive incredibly fast. They were hard to shoot as they could dive before the pellets reached them and then would surface out of range. In Rq their ability to swim and hold their breath could far outshine the other Durulz.
Coots, chicken ducks: These could be really fun. Where the phrase “crazy as a coot” originated. These birds are nuts. They swim with a bit of a chicken strut (could walk that way to). They are very stupid and flit about a lot. Even their flying is somewhat ungraceful looking. They often would swim around in the decoys (I always wondered what they were thinking). Up close coots are equally as crazy looking. They are black with a small chicken-like beak. Their toes are kind of half webbed and they seem kind of like a mutant duck.
Side note: (Coots notoriously taste bad. A common duck hunter recipe for making coot palatable is to clean them, and place a small log of hickory in the chest cavity. With the log, place diced onions and apples and a cinnamon sauce. Broil the coot slowly at 200 degrees for two hours. When it is ready to eat take the log out of chest. Then you eat the hickory and throw the coot in the garbage).
There is a large variety of other ducks that could have their niches in Rq too. For instance: Redheads, shovelers, buffleheads, hooded mergansers, ring-necks and bluebills. For instance one of these could be particularly good at magic.
Anyway, I have gone on a little long. Hopefully some of these ideas will be of some use.
Ducks have always been a bit of a curse to runequest in my circles due primarily to the artwork on the front covers (Duck Tower and later Apple Lane) . Any time I tried to get people to play runequest they always ask me if that’s the game where you play Daffy the Duck. Ouch!
On the other hand when I first started playing runequest I was an avid duck hunter and was a bit of a self proclaimed expert on the elusive creatures (only really elusive during season and when you have a shotgun in hand). I often spent long cold wet hours watching the behavior of these creatures as they frolicked just outside of range. Here are a few ideas that crossed my head while sitting in the blind.
One is that ducks should have high natural armor in the Chest and abdomen. They have layers of insulation and fat that work amazingly well as a bullet proof and possibly a sword-proof vest. They are way tougher than most people imagine and notoriously hard to kill. I would imagine high resilience rolls.
Species of ducks vary a lot in habitat, appearance, and personality, and perhaps Rq duck could too. For instance:
Mallards (green heads) : The traditional duck (at least in Michigan). Mallards are quite a bit smarter and craftier than other ducks. Females are brown but their wing patterns are the same as males. They usually travel in small flocks. They taste very nice. There is a sub-variety called a black duck that look like female mallards although slightly darker. Black mallard males do not have green heads.
Canvasbacks: They have a distinctive shaped head which has a reddish color. They are quite large and always seemed to be rare and have a noble bearing to them. Always seemed to be the aristocracy of duck-kind. To bag one of these was always a successful day.
Wood-duck: These beautiful ducks(favorite of taxidermists everywhere), as their name implies, take to the forested areas around beaver dams and creeks. They generally do not linger in the big open lakes. They are quite fast and always seemed like a bit of a dandy ranger type. The hens are small and somewhat dumpy looking.
Teal blue and green winged varieties: Although these were rare in my area, they were very small but seemed to be very very quick in the air.
Helldiver, Grebe: These diminutive ducks tended to travel alone. They were extremely good swimmers. I never really saw one fly, but they could dive incredibly fast. They were hard to shoot as they could dive before the pellets reached them and then would surface out of range. In Rq their ability to swim and hold their breath could far outshine the other Durulz.
Coots, chicken ducks: These could be really fun. Where the phrase “crazy as a coot” originated. These birds are nuts. They swim with a bit of a chicken strut (could walk that way to). They are very stupid and flit about a lot. Even their flying is somewhat ungraceful looking. They often would swim around in the decoys (I always wondered what they were thinking). Up close coots are equally as crazy looking. They are black with a small chicken-like beak. Their toes are kind of half webbed and they seem kind of like a mutant duck.
Side note: (Coots notoriously taste bad. A common duck hunter recipe for making coot palatable is to clean them, and place a small log of hickory in the chest cavity. With the log, place diced onions and apples and a cinnamon sauce. Broil the coot slowly at 200 degrees for two hours. When it is ready to eat take the log out of chest. Then you eat the hickory and throw the coot in the garbage).
There is a large variety of other ducks that could have their niches in Rq too. For instance: Redheads, shovelers, buffleheads, hooded mergansers, ring-necks and bluebills. For instance one of these could be particularly good at magic.
Anyway, I have gone on a little long. Hopefully some of these ideas will be of some use.
Sorry if this looks like a plug, but it is a really good buy!
