The claw of the Aslan
- Thread starter PeterDebney
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MasterGwydion
Emperor Mongoose
Or simply give them a minus to their checks involving manual dexterity with things not designed for Aslan. Same way that you'd give Aslan males a penalty for trying to use the console of an Aslan female.
Mongoose has sort of moved in that direction already in regards to using the Athletics Skill. Athletics (Dex) is generally a better reflection of acrobatic ability than raw Dex, and isn't used for manipulation style Dex tasks.
However, they are LARGE creatures. Yes, "descended from pouncers", but neither are they housecats or leopards. Generally, bigger means less ability to change direction rapidly; Aslan do alright in that regards, but they seem to be designed for that rapid burst of straight line speed culminating in teeth and claws in prey. Melee (Natural) is the skill and STR is the stat.
The original stat division (one of a handful of things inherited from D&D) which is largely retained in Mongoose, is Strength for hitting, Dex for shooting. Mongoose does allow for Dex to be used for attacking in melee, but Aslan are in no way disadvantaged here. Quite the opposite.
If Aslan were arboreal pouncers, or much smaller, no Dex penalty would make more sense.
From a game balance point of view, it works. They're the bruiser aliens to the Vargr's finesse ones.
However, they are LARGE creatures. Yes, "descended from pouncers", but neither are they housecats or leopards. Generally, bigger means less ability to change direction rapidly; Aslan do alright in that regards, but they seem to be designed for that rapid burst of straight line speed culminating in teeth and claws in prey. Melee (Natural) is the skill and STR is the stat.
The original stat division (one of a handful of things inherited from D&D) which is largely retained in Mongoose, is Strength for hitting, Dex for shooting. Mongoose does allow for Dex to be used for attacking in melee, but Aslan are in no way disadvantaged here. Quite the opposite.
If Aslan were arboreal pouncers, or much smaller, no Dex penalty would make more sense.
From a game balance point of view, it works. They're the bruiser aliens to the Vargr's finesse ones.
Aslan in all written sources (not the art, though) are only slightly larger than humans. The given reason for the Dex penalty was the dewclaw, IIRC. There's already an additional penalty for using human designed equipment on top of that.
When the Dex penalty was assigned to Aslan, stats didn't have direct bonuses like they do now. What, if any, bonus you got to shooting from Dex depended on the weapon you were shooting. So it had a very different impact that it does today.
Also, there is ample evidence that Traveller is in no way attempting "game balance" in it's alien stat mods (hello, Bwaps!)
When the Dex penalty was assigned to Aslan, stats didn't have direct bonuses like they do now. What, if any, bonus you got to shooting from Dex depended on the weapon you were shooting. So it had a very different impact that it does today.
Also, there is ample evidence that Traveller is in no way attempting "game balance" in it's alien stat mods (hello, Bwaps!)
Yeah, I shouldn't have used "game balance". Game role is a better term for what I was thinking.
In regards to size... the classic description, retained by Mongoose, is that Aslan average 2m in height and 100kg in mass.
But we are also told that males are larger and that females outnumber males 3:1. Which suggests strongly that Aslan males may be well in excess of those average figures.
(Aslan claws ARE retractable, by the way.)
And this text covers the stat mods: "The presence of these claws and the general nature of their body structure make the Aslan somewhat clumsy by comparison with humans".
(Source: CT Alien Module 1: Aslan, 1984)
Reviewing this, I realised that in the original JTAS#7 article, the three W. H. Keith illustrations probably just show male Aslan (one is in a spacesuit, so who can tell...?). There's another picture of probably a male "Aslan Noble" in Library Data A-M... so the earliest picture of a female Aslan might be the David Deitrick cover to CT Alien Module 1. Which is artistically unconnected to the male shown... although the male is shown in contrast to a human - and would clearly be a couple of heads taller if both were standing upright.
For the record, the earliest description and picture published in CT is this, from Twilight's Peak (1980):
What happened to the pom pom on the tail??
In regards to size... the classic description, retained by Mongoose, is that Aslan average 2m in height and 100kg in mass.
But we are also told that males are larger and that females outnumber males 3:1. Which suggests strongly that Aslan males may be well in excess of those average figures.
(Aslan claws ARE retractable, by the way.)
And this text covers the stat mods: "The presence of these claws and the general nature of their body structure make the Aslan somewhat clumsy by comparison with humans".
(Source: CT Alien Module 1: Aslan, 1984)
Reviewing this, I realised that in the original JTAS#7 article, the three W. H. Keith illustrations probably just show male Aslan (one is in a spacesuit, so who can tell...?). There's another picture of probably a male "Aslan Noble" in Library Data A-M... so the earliest picture of a female Aslan might be the David Deitrick cover to CT Alien Module 1. Which is artistically unconnected to the male shown... although the male is shown in contrast to a human - and would clearly be a couple of heads taller if both were standing upright.
For the record, the earliest description and picture published in CT is this, from Twilight's Peak (1980):
What happened to the pom pom on the tail??
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Condottiere
Emperor Mongoose
This is true.
We can set up a poll to bring it back.What happened to the pom pom on the tail??
I don't actually have a problem with Aslan having lower Dex. They always have. I am more concerned about how the current rules make stats mods substantially more significant than they were when those values were originally chosen. This may not be a problem. But I wonder if anyone has actually thought about it.
A typical Aslan is 957 vs a typical human who is 777. In CT there are only a few melee weapons where a 9 Str is an advantage over a 7 Str. Dewclaw did get a bonus for STR 8+.
It is true that most default guns had a higher than 5 Dex minimum, so if not using a carbine or shotgun an Aslan was, in fact, less accurate than a human. So perhaps the default -1 to hit isn't significantly worse than the original version. On the other hand, the Aslan had the Khaifealate (a machine pistol), and the Takheal and Eakhyasear rifles that didn't suffer a penalty at Dex 5.
(This ignores the fact that CT Alien Book 1 Aslan said the Aslan were STR +1, Dex -1, End +1 vs the Mongoose CRBv2 +2 STR -2 DEX) 9 and 5 are actual modifiers while 8 and 6 aren't, so if the objective was to make the modifiers have a more visceral impact in the mechanics, it was certainly achieved. A 6 Dex rarely penalized compared to a 7 Dex, just like the 8 STR rarely advantaged the Aslan on die rolls in CT).
Grognardia
Emperor Mongoose
The -2 DEX penalty is mechanically brutal in Traveller.
In a 2d6 system, a -2 modifier is huge - it drops your success chance by roughly 28%. And the DEX DM gets used constantly for shooting, stealth, piloting, Athletics, and initiative, while STR mostly just affects melee damage and carrying capacity. So Aslan get +2 to a stat they rarely use and -2 to one of the most important stats in the game.
For agile pouncing predators, that just doesn't make sense. The dewclaw might justify penalties on fine manipulation tasks, but not on their general coordination and reflexes. It's a design choice that mechanically punishes them for what should be a natural strength.
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ottarrus
Emperor Mongoose
This is IMTU's version of it. Your TU will undoubtedly vary.
My version is a result of a discussion with a relative who aced Anatomy and Physiology and after I'd shown her the skeletal artwork the CT Aliens: Aslan. Okay at the time I showed her all the skeletal artwork and she really enjoyed it. She was most interested in the Hiver musculature system, followed closely by the Droyne hexagonal skeleton. What she presented to me was that the phrase 'like a jacknife' gave all of us the wrong impression. She thought that even with a predator's bone density if the aisai emerged from the tip of the thumb to a length of 8-10 cm [3 inches], that thumb would likely be broken in a fight against the large muscular prey that prehistoric Aslan hunted.
This is her proposed change based on her knowledge of evolution, the behavior of the Aslan, and the 'modern' uses of the aisai. I found it both logical and fully in keeping with evolutionary theory as applied to the Aslan skeletal and muscular systems AND logical within the framework of Traveller canon regarding Aslan behavior.
The thumb of the Aslan is centrally located at the base of the palm and the dewclaw is a bone spur that rests along the central middle metacarpal between the first knuckle and base of the palm, resting just shy of the wrist. When relaxed, the edge of the dewclaw faces upwards and the tip of the dewclaw points to the palm and wrist. When the Aslan flexes their hand to extend their claw, the claw forms a crescent shaped blade that is braced by the bones and musculature of the hand and wrist. The flexor motion to display the claw is simultaneously curling the fingers into a fist while shifting the thumb to the side to protect the digits in a fight. Just as a hot-tempered human subconsciously makes a fist when they're agitated, the Aslan bravo makes a similar fist, but this reveals their claw.
Addenda: The Aslan also have non-retractable fixed claws at their fingertips not unlike a Terran dog's. They use these for fine manipulation of small objects, spearing morsels of food, and other minor tasks. Some of the most renowned yoyeaokhatef [male Aslan epic poetry/calligraphy] artists have composed entire sagas using only their middle claw as a pen. Unlike the aisai these claws are keratin, not bone, and require maintenance rather like human finger nails. Male Aslan do polish and paint their finger-claws [mostly shades of red or matte black], but never paint their aisai. Males regard their aisai as weapons, with all the care that implies. Most clans have strong traditions on when and where one may display the aisai, but displaying the aisai is universally seen as a signal of dominance, challenge, or blood combat. Females tend to regard their aisai and finger claws as tools and don't decorate either very much, though they do buff their claws to a shine. They also regard display of the aisai as an invitation to combat and do so much less often than males.
My version is a result of a discussion with a relative who aced Anatomy and Physiology and after I'd shown her the skeletal artwork the CT Aliens: Aslan. Okay at the time I showed her all the skeletal artwork and she really enjoyed it. She was most interested in the Hiver musculature system, followed closely by the Droyne hexagonal skeleton. What she presented to me was that the phrase 'like a jacknife' gave all of us the wrong impression. She thought that even with a predator's bone density if the aisai emerged from the tip of the thumb to a length of 8-10 cm [3 inches], that thumb would likely be broken in a fight against the large muscular prey that prehistoric Aslan hunted.
This is her proposed change based on her knowledge of evolution, the behavior of the Aslan, and the 'modern' uses of the aisai. I found it both logical and fully in keeping with evolutionary theory as applied to the Aslan skeletal and muscular systems AND logical within the framework of Traveller canon regarding Aslan behavior.
The thumb of the Aslan is centrally located at the base of the palm and the dewclaw is a bone spur that rests along the central middle metacarpal between the first knuckle and base of the palm, resting just shy of the wrist. When relaxed, the edge of the dewclaw faces upwards and the tip of the dewclaw points to the palm and wrist. When the Aslan flexes their hand to extend their claw, the claw forms a crescent shaped blade that is braced by the bones and musculature of the hand and wrist. The flexor motion to display the claw is simultaneously curling the fingers into a fist while shifting the thumb to the side to protect the digits in a fight. Just as a hot-tempered human subconsciously makes a fist when they're agitated, the Aslan bravo makes a similar fist, but this reveals their claw.
Addenda: The Aslan also have non-retractable fixed claws at their fingertips not unlike a Terran dog's. They use these for fine manipulation of small objects, spearing morsels of food, and other minor tasks. Some of the most renowned yoyeaokhatef [male Aslan epic poetry/calligraphy] artists have composed entire sagas using only their middle claw as a pen. Unlike the aisai these claws are keratin, not bone, and require maintenance rather like human finger nails. Male Aslan do polish and paint their finger-claws [mostly shades of red or matte black], but never paint their aisai. Males regard their aisai as weapons, with all the care that implies. Most clans have strong traditions on when and where one may display the aisai, but displaying the aisai is universally seen as a signal of dominance, challenge, or blood combat. Females tend to regard their aisai and finger claws as tools and don't decorate either very much, though they do buff their claws to a shine. They also regard display of the aisai as an invitation to combat and do so much less often than males.
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It is nasty, but it is not quite that nasty. You almost never test Dex directly so the -2 to Dex is not the same as a -2 DRM. Traveller's stat bonuses are adjusted in increments of 3. It happens that an average stat changing from 7 to 5 is a -1. But changing an 8 to a 6 is no change to the DRM.
Dex is obviously one of the two best stats in Traveller (EDU being the other) for task checks so even the -1 is ugly. However, I'm not particularly concerned about balance directly, nor is Traveller in general. I am concerned about whether that effect is intended, however. It is not the way Aslan were originally portrayed. In CT, they are a little stronger and a little less agile than humans, but the game system worked differently and those differences did not usually result in significant impacts on their task success chances. Many skills affected by Dex in Mongoose were not affected by it in CT (Piloting being a big example) and, as I showed above, Classic Traveller's mechanics did not result in Aslan being worse shots than Humans assuming the Aslan were using weapons designed for the Aslan.
It's a modifier to the initially rolled stat, not the current Dex mod. Even the average starting Dex of 5 only gives a -1 Dex mod.
Having said that, I am a bit curious as to when it shifted from +1 STR/-1 DEX/+1 END to +2 STR/-2DEX.
I'll check the DGP alien book, as well as TNE.
This illustration from the DGP Megatraveller book is a pretty solid one for comparison between Aslan male, female and human:
The Michael Vilardi art depicting Aslan in this book is first rate!
Okay, the DGP sourcebook goes with +2 to STR, -1 to DEX and +2 to END. So it was NOT Mongoose that started playing around with those values (edit: unless this was actually a typo. The same paragraph says the characteristics range is 1 to 13... but that could itself be text blindly copied from CT Alien module 1...). I wasn't able to find the TNE rules for rolling up Aslan. GDW didn't get to publishing that sourcebook and the core rules just have discussions about NPC aliens.
For what it's worth, the Solomani part of the book gives 1.8m as average male height (75kg average male weight) and 1.7m as average female height (70kg average female weight) for Solomani. So that's nice.
The Michael Vilardi art depicting Aslan in this book is first rate!
Okay, the DGP sourcebook goes with +2 to STR, -1 to DEX and +2 to END. So it was NOT Mongoose that started playing around with those values (edit: unless this was actually a typo. The same paragraph says the characteristics range is 1 to 13... but that could itself be text blindly copied from CT Alien module 1...). I wasn't able to find the TNE rules for rolling up Aslan. GDW didn't get to publishing that sourcebook and the core rules just have discussions about NPC aliens.
For what it's worth, the Solomani part of the book gives 1.8m as average male height (75kg average male weight) and 1.7m as average female height (70kg average female weight) for Solomani. So that's nice.
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collins355
Cosmic Mongoose
Actually, GDW did publish TNE Aslan chargen suggestions - in Regency Sourcebook.
