msprange said:
While we can appreciate the fun in generating animals, we looked hard at how they were actually used in games and created a system that puts things firmly in the hands of the ref to create any animal he likes without restriction - to the point where he can do it on the fly during a game.
I imagine we will return to animals at some point in the future and, indeed, we have a proposal at the moment for a book that covers not just animals but all kinds of hazard. Won't be for this year though.
Its a tough balance between rules for the sake of it and providing enough of a guideline for the referee to avoid saying 'just make it up'. Because of course referees can always make things up if they feel the need. I definitely feel that the old MgT was too rules heavy, so I do appreciate the lighter more flexible new version.
I'm not sure about giving the referee complete freedom though. Scavengers not having teeth as a weapon could be immersion breaking if a player asks how that scavenger eats his prey when he only has claws. I suppose the rules are only stating the animals main weapon though, so that wouldnt preclude the animal also having smaller teeth that arent used as a weapon I guess.
Interesting anyway - its definitely going to mean me learning to be a bit more flexible and open minded with the new Traveller rules after being used to generating everything in detail - and that isnt necessarily a bad thing. Certainly its bringing Traveller into the modern roleplaying age, and it will definitely enable animal generation on the fly, which is good. The animal tables for terrain never really worked very well.
More traits though definitely welcome - aquatic and chameleon are missing I think? And possibly also traits like reptilian, insectoid, burrower - that sort of thing would be good.
