Traveller Bestiary

Alan Hume

Mongoose
I was reading 'Project Steel' last night and the 'Highland Terror' (very cool) got me to thinking, do Mongoose plan to release a 'Monster Manual' for Traveller?

A bestiary of creatures would be very useful (and look cool)
there is certainly a whole lot of creatures in the OTU that could be used
(and I think it would be great if you accepted submissions from fans too :D )

any chance?
 
Even stats for common animals (dogs, horses ...) would be a very useful
addition, I think - for example as an article in Signs & Portents.
 
rust said:
Even stats for common animals (dogs, horses ...) would be a very useful
addition, I think - for example as an article in Signs & Portents.

Central Supply Catalogue covers animals a little.
 
Heh,heh
I like your shameless plug 8)

I will have to remember to check that out

I still think a Mongoose compendium would be good (possibly even essential) though

it would need to cover the 'Groat' though 8) 8) 8)
 
For normal terrestrial animals, you should be able to come up with the stats pretty quickly. Using the animal design section of the TMB (pages 69-73), I came up with the stats for the Wolf pretty quickly.

The biggest thing is to properly classify the animal and determine the average weight of the creature. Wikipedia or any decent encyclopedia will work for this.

Wolf: Carnivore Chaser
Pack Size: 2d6
Weight: 50kg
Weapons: Teeth (3d6)
Armor: 2
Strength: 7 (2d6)
Dexterity: 18 (4d6+4)
Endurance: 9 (2d6)
Intelligence: 1
Instinct: 12 (2d6+2)
Pack: 8 (2d6+2)
Skills: Athletics (Endurance) 1, Melee (Teeth) 1, Recon 2, Survival 1

If you know just a bit about the animal and how much it weighs, you can use the tables to figure out everything else pretty quickly.

People could argue whether the wolf has both Teeth and Claws and exactly how many armor points the hide should have, but these numbers are certainly reasonable. Individual members will have their own variations, but I included the numbers that I rolled for one individual.

The TMB actually classifies many different types of animals for you (Vulture, Wolf, Army Ant, Earthworm, Raccoon, Chimpanzee, Antelope, Baboon, Lion, Coyote, Shark, Elephant, Cat, Vermin, Venus Fly-Trap, Spider) so it is pretty easy to figure out what other animals should be.

If you want to do Dogs for example.

Poodle would be 1-3 kg
German Shepherd would be 25-50 kg
St. Bernard would be 50-100 kg.

All would be Carnivore Chasers with Teeth as their primary weapon.

Elephants would have Horns (tusks) or possibly Thrashers depending on how vicious you want them to be.

Thrashers are nasty weapons, but they could be teeth, claws or spiked tails, whatever fits. I would argue that Sharks have Thrasher level teeth for example.
 
Rikki Tikki Traveller said:
...Using the animal design section of the TMB (pages 69-73), ...

Whoa - thanks Rikki Tikki Traveller! Somehow in flipping through my already well worn copy of the TMB I completely missed these pages!

(And good analysis BTW!)
 
Rikki Tikki Traveller said:
For normal terrestrial animals, you should be able to come up with the stats pretty quickly.
You are of course right, it is more a case of me being lazy and my players
(well, one of them, a biology freak ...) being prone to criticism - being able
to show him some official source of animal stats would stop him, while any
such stats written by me are an invitation for a debate ... :roll:
 
rust said:
...while any such stats written by me are an invitation for a debate ... :roll:
Time for a pen name :)

Who are these people? Friends of yours? Now this really pisses me of to no end! -Lo Pan
 
lastbesthope said:
Time for a blunt instrument with rusty nails in I say :lol:
You know, such instruments are immensily useful, but they have to be
handled with great care - it is awfully difficult to replace a player ... :wink:
 
rust said:
lastbesthope said:
Time for a blunt instrument with rusty nails in I say :lol:
You know, such instruments are immensily useful, but they have to be
handled with great care - it is awfully difficult to replace a player ... :wink:

Well if you're careful administering the blunt force trauma, then the most they'll need is a tetanus shot :twisted:

LBH
 
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