The claw of the Aslan
- Thread starter PeterDebney
- Start date
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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