 November 24, 2011 - 7:15am | Discussion area to discuss animals we like and dont like from the Volturnus series. From Alpha Dawn: 1. Strangler Chutes- lighter then air floating jelly fish that eat trees and have accidental electric attack. This one I like and think the lighter than air feature should be explored in greater depth, possibly developing an explantion for "floating" biology on Volturnus and even a better explanation of the Air whale. Love the art work for this one. Jedion gives Thumbs Up! 2. Army Rats- more or less earth rats in swarms of 1000 individuals that carry disease. Not very original and neither is the art work. Jedion gives Thumbs Down. 3. Funnel Worm- a classic from right off the random encounter table! Good art work, and I have a painted miniature. The fact that you have this creature and the sand shark, and the burrower snake gives you a whole category of Volturnian fauna to discuss: burrowing animals. Jedion gives Thumbs Up. 4. Megasaurus- giant cat made into a dinosaur- has artwork and very very brief description. I'm ambivelent toward it. Jedion gives Thumbs Level but edging toward up. 5. Land Whale- weird giant 8 legged hippo. not sure about the plausibility. Has artwork. I feel about this one like I do the Megasaurus. Jedion gives Thumbs Level but edging toward down. 6. Slither (sathar attack Monster)- probably more properly discussed in the sathar project but after 900 years on Volturnus sathar creatures could be said to have established a niche in the ecology; this gives us a whole category of Volturnian fauna: the sathar introduced invasive species. so Jedion gives Thumbs Up. 7. Sand Shark- Another classic from right off the random encounter table. Great art work and miniature. Belongs to the burrowing fauna category. 8. Winged Ripper- There is a dinosaur theme to some areas of Voltunus' evolutionary track so Jedion gives Thumbs up. Some thought should be given to identifying this category of dino like evolution; the eorna and yernoids, lopers belong to it as well as several other obvious creatures. 9. Queequeg- more weirdness but looks related to the edestakai so Jedion gives Thumbs Up. 10. Tomar's Horses- art work in AD matches the animal's description but the artwork in the modules makes it look like an earth horse. Frankly I think this animal was not needed, you can simply replace it with a loper every place it appears; in fact it might make sense to do just that. Jedion gives Thumbs Down. From SF-0 Crash On Volturnus 1. Burrower snake- obviously belongs to the dino like evolutionary tree. Jedion gives Thumbs Up. 2. Droppers- great for messing with the player characters and looks like it is part of the same evolutionary tree as the strangler chutes. Jedion gives Thumbs Up. 3. Flitter- looks like something out of the D&D monster manual. With different artwork and description I would give it a Thumbs Up but for now Jedion gives Thumbs Down. 4. Jaw Fish- and why not a jaw fish? sharks are just plain fun to use. Looks to be in the dino and sand shark evolutionary tree. Jedion gives Thumbs up 5. Loper- ahh the venerable loper, love this creature. Jedion gives Thumbs UP! 6. Magma Monster- one of the weirdest presented in the series. I have never been a fan as i felt it stretched believability beyond the limit. I would entertain someone arguing differently, perhaps explaining how such a creature could be possible. Jedion gives Thumbs Down! 7. Not detailed but mentioned in the Ul-mor update file: Kwidges- some sort of domesticated herding animal raised by the ul-mor. Should be detailed and worked into the evolutionary tree. Jedion gives Thumbs Up 8. Not detailed but mentioned in the Ul-mor update file: Cactus whompers- some sort of domesticated herding animal raised by the ul-mor. Should be detailed and worked into the evolutionary tree. Jedion gives Thumbs Up. 9. Mutating Fungus- another weird one but usable. Jedion gives Thumbs Up. 10 Quick Death- of all the sathar monsters this one has become an important part of the ecology and culture of the native peoples, which is a shame as they really need to be killed off. Jedion gives Thumbs Up. 11. Rasties- How many times have GMs stated the names and Players launched into a rastifarian rant and goofed off for the a game stopping 7-10 minutes? The creature is acceptable and looks like its related to the volturnian cave bear. Jedion gives Thumbs Up. 12 Shovelmouth- part of the dino evolutionary tree Jedion gives Thumbs Up. 13. Volturnian Cave Bear- not such a fan but why not? Jedion gives Thumbs Up. From SF-1 Volturnus Planet of Mystery 1. Air Whale- I have a problem with this one but think it can be retooled- it should be distantly related to the strangler chutes and perhaps not emitting lasers but electrica discharges like the strangler chutes. Jedion gives Thumbs Down until its reworked. 2. Mordax- 10 cm long poisonous insect- Jedion gives Thumbs Up. 3. Volturnian baboon- part of the cave bear and rastie evolutionary tree, why not? Jedion gives Thumbs Up. 4. Korrvarr- another mammal like creature and a burrower- after threatening the PCs with the very dangerous burrowers a GM could use this one to spook the players by announcing its arrival with ground vibration. Jedion gives Thumbs Up. 5. Roller- or better known as toilet paper roll nose. Certainly my least favorite. I hate the concept of this creature but you cant just get rid of it as they are important to the kurabunga section of the module. Needs a rewrite, Jedion gives Thumbs DOWN! 6. Slave Bot- another sathar creature. Jedion gives Thumbs Up. 7. Cybo sluggs- another sathar creature. Jedion gives Thumbs Up. 8. Rogue Crystals- crystals are important on Volturnus and apart of the memory storage of the mechanon's brain. So I hate to trash this creature as unplausible. If you accept the magma monster than silcon base life is certainly possible. Jedion gives Thumbs Level- he doesn't know what he should feel toward this entry. 9. Scraak- flightless bird that dwels int he bachandra trees. Jedion gives Thumbs Up. 10. Spitter- a reptillian acid spitter that eats glass shards fromt he shard grass plant. I think this creature and the shard grass as well as the roller all should get some rethinking. though the spitter offends me less then the roller. Jedion gives Thumbs level but tending toward down. 11. Tangler vine- killer plants? a refreshing change. Jedion gives Thumbs Up. From SF-2 Star Spawn of Volturnus 1. Cybo dragon- as with all sathar introduce creatures this one gets a pass but they dont really run wild on the planet surface since they require maintenance and para battery changes. 2. Giant Eagle- not very original, would perfer that it get a rework. Jedion gives Thumbs Down. 3. Yernoids- obviously in the eorna evolutionary tree Jedion gives Thumbs Up. All told is 37 creatures described for Voltunus not counting the sapients. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
November 24, 2011 - 6:57pm | Routes that evolution took on volturnus are of course complicated by the fact that the eorna have tinkered with uplift to develop higher intelligence in no less then three species. Wonder if we should describe the chimpanzee version of the three primitive races? Or perhaps just one or two of them? As life on earth falls into mammal, reptile, etc. So life on Volturnus seems to fall into major categories like mammals and reptiles. I like the idea of using categories but think that we should specify what the details of that category are like reptiles on earth mostly lay eggs. Starting with the Volturnian mammal; the evolved from reptiles as seen in the eorna who display a distinct reptile heritage but have evolved hair. The Volturnian mammal has four limbs, is bilaterally symmetrical, has thick leathery hide that mostly appears hairless or sports thick patches of bristles like hair. Like the branch of the reptile tree they came from they all also lay eggs. Examples: Volturnian Cave Bear, Volturnian Baboon, KorrVaar, Rastie, Army Rats, Flitter, Tomar Horses,one could say that the eorna are close to the dividing line between mammal and reptile on the Volturnus evolutionary tree. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
November 24, 2011 - 7:02pm | Volturnian Reptile: Four limbs, bi-laterally symmetrical, scales, two major branches of evolution: 1 continues with egg laying, one does not. Examples: Eorna, Yernoids, shovelmouth, Spitter, loper, sand shark, megasaurus, winged ripper, burrower snake, Jaw Fish, Cactus whomper I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
November 24, 2011 - 7:08pm | Evolving from Volturnian Reptiles is the Volturnian Bird: Covered in feathers, four limbs (2 feet and two wings), egg layers. Examples: Giant Eagle, Scraak, Kwidges, I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
November 29, 2011 - 8:09am | Rework of the AIR WHALE: basicly I always thought the air whale was a silly creature as written and I suspect I'm not alone in the regard. So my idea is to make it similar to the strangler chutes. Where the chutes look like a floating sand dollar or jelly fish and float at roughly tree top level or lower the air whale will be a similar looking creature except shaped like a world war one observation blimp and it typically floats higher. In stead of crystals growing off its back that shoot laser beams it discharge electricity like the chutes, except it stores enough that it reach out with that discharge like a massive jolt of static electricity. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
November 29, 2011 - 8:06am | ARMY RATS: My big beef with these is the art looks like an Earth rat. Otherwise I'm good with this creature. You could completely drop this creature and replace it with a shovel nose stampede with no damage to the story in the volturnus series. You could tweak its description and delete the picture so that it is a swarming, disease ridden rodent like creature and leave off the TSR supplied picture. OR one of the artist in the community could redraw the picture (hint, hint, nudge, nudge). If its the tweak option and leave off the art I'd say make it a largely hairless tailless rodent like creature with a boney face which would give you something sufficiently different from an Earth rat. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
November 29, 2011 - 8:05am | LAND WHALE: another creature I just don't like, #1 it has 8 legs, which means it doesn't match any other creature that would be in its evolutionary tree. #2: once a PC is swallowed they take automatics damage till freed and that is just not a good idea in essentially a wandering monster- almost certain to kill a PC with this one wandering monster. So this one, like the army rats, could use a new description and art or deletion. Pluss, I'm not sure about the vertical hinging jaw. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
November 29, 2011 - 8:08am | The ROLLER: by far the dummest. A rolling nose? How does an animal grow a freely moving part? Let alone issues of blood supply to the moving part. Top it off it shoots glass shards out its butt that were ingested from the shard glass. It's meant to be a dangerous opponent for the hang glider hunt- if you land on the ground you get stampeded and the shoot the glass shards out their butt like anti air flack. Problem is this creature is important to the story so its hard to just drop him. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 November 29, 2011 - 6:36am | One thing many people forget is the subspecies necessary to support the advanced species. Such as the bacteria found in the intestines of humans without which humans would curl up and die. Also where would humans be without dogs or domesticated farm animals which differ greatly from their wild brethen. The Eorna would have known this and developed them which would explain some of the species on Volturnus. Some of the others like the Roller may just be failed experiments set free OR since many of the Eorna suffered mental conditions so of the species could be the result of mad science experiments. Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
November 29, 2011 - 8:08am | Good points rat traveller but is still just dont see how the Roller can grow and develop a toilet paper roll nose. One idea that did occur to me for a revamp is that they choose a rock (like a hermit crabe choosing a shell and push this round rock around with their nose to crush the shard glass and expose the juicy bits. However if the Roll is not organic to the creature but the effect of its rooting and and feeding basically the roll develops from shard grass juice and possibly glandular secretions of the Roller creature and dirt and plant fiber becoming compact over time- the older the creature the bigger the roll. They developed this tool and it stays with them for life and they use it for the stated purporse. So how do we feel about the abilitiy to shoot glass shards out of their butt? As an anti air defense. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
November 29, 2011 - 8:04am | Tomar's Horse: The art work paired with the creature discription is fine and even the animal description is fine, however, I've always questioned the use of tomar's horse as a mount for the PCs in the Great Game of SF-2. If the standard mount is a loper and the PCs are participating so why dont they use a loper? They have prior experience with lopers from travelling with the Ul-mor in SF-0 so why introduce a totally new animal that they will now have a learning curve with? Personally I always felt that the loper should be used. both creatures rate the same speed though the exact speed of the loper is not listed. Tomar's horse does do more damage with its attack (1d10 more) though the loper has more than double the stamina of the horse (120 vs 300). Also the loper's hide is thick enough to repell needler weapons where as Tomar's Horse does not have a special defense. Instead it does have a special stampede attack but I would only allow that for a wild herd not for the mounts in the Great Game. All in all I would take the loper over tomar's horse just for the greater stamina and since the lopers of the ul-mor are tamed they will adjust to the PCs far faster then the wild tomar's horse. That said there is no reason to delete Tomar's Horse from the beastiary I just would not use it in the Great Game encounter in SF-2. Plus I was always disappointed that the artwork in SF-2 reflected earth horses not an actual Tomar's horse as its described. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 December 2, 2011 - 1:56pm | I am about to do a full conversion of each of these creatures to True20, so I may be posting comments here. I may be changing things to make more sense as well. I have to agree about the Roller, for sure. *---------------------------------------------------------------------* Seawolf's Den - www.seawolfsden.net *---------------------------------------------------------------------* |
December 2, 2011 - 4:24pm | I am about to do a full conversion of each of these creatures to True20, so I may be posting comments here. I may be changing things to make more sense as well.
Which idea? That the roller is the dumbest thing going or maybe the roll could develop from secretion, dirt and crushed glass?I have to agree about the Roller, for sure. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 October 7, 2012 - 3:35pm | I have always had a serious problem with the Volturnian animals that were basically just copies of normal Earth animals. It's just sloppy creation on the part of the creators. Eagles, bears, rats and baboons. What's different about them? They have the word "Volturnian" in front of them - that makes them aliens! Sorry, but just badly done. I also dislike the Magma Monster. It feels too much like something from D&D. So does the Roller. How does a Roller's roll work? It shouldn't. I like the idea that maybe they pick up the roll, like hermit crabs. Are there naturally occuring cylindrical rocks in the area? Maybe Rollers were genetically engineered by insane Eorna, like rattraveller said - that makes more sense than them naturally evolving that way. Most of others I like. I have a complex story regarding Tomar's Horses, Tomarium, and the great explorer James Tomar. He was widely known before the First Sathar War, but died a tragic death. Several creatures lend themselves easily to further development, such as the Land Whale, Strangler Chutes and Rogue Crystals. I spent time giving each one these a much more complex story. For example, it says that Strangler Chutes communicate with each other by changing colors. That reminded me of creatures which do that in real life, such as cuttlefish or octopi. So maybe they are a sort of jellyfish-squid, with at least a rudimentary awareness - enough to communicate, anyway. I hadn't thought about the Air Whale being related to the Strangler Chutes - that's good. Maybe there is a whole class of floating Volturnian animals. |
December 27, 2012 - 7:47am | Looking at page 15 of the basic game book it has a table of 3 volturnus creatures and basic game stats under a random encounter table. for the winged ripper it list -20 to hit which i think is because of size and movement. I'd propose an actual flyby attack where it makes an attack while moving by the target to end a distance away. Nothing is so frustrating to a player when a creature that would otherwise be easy to kill keeps moving beyond effective striking range. In this situation you have shooting penalties for range, movement, and size. I would allow for players that declare their character to be on overwatch or planning to shoot as the creatures fly in a RS check to get the shot off as the ripper flies in. should one character go down unconscious I would then have all the remaining rippers swarm him with one or two menacing any character that tries to close on the body. This actually brings the rippers within close reach of the PCs and will bring the fight to dramatic and quick close. with most of the rippers flying off after a few of them are killed. With the above I suddenly think that the winged ripper becomes a more interesting encounter. As aftermath I would describe the remaining rippers sitting on the branches of a tree at extreme range watching the PCs. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
December 27, 2012 - 1:48pm | A simple Fudge-O-Matic system for winged ripper attacks The winged ripper stoops much like a hawk or falcon does. Thus they start at extreme range in hieght for the laser rifle. the flock makes a stoop and if an individual fails to hit in its attack it ends up at the range band below the one they started the attack at. If they hit they end up at the range band two below where they started. Thus the rippers will be progressively lower after each attack but a referee wont have to actually track distances so much just use the range bands. Naturally all weapons dont shoot the same range so you do have some tracking of ranges with the range band its just that the referee wont have to figure out the speed gained by the dive and the final result. The ripper's movement is not so much in horizontal distance as in vertical distance so that the counters are placed in a somewhat tight circle around the PCs and after the stoop the counter is simply moved to the other side of the circle. winged rippers might spend a turn or two at the referee's discretion regaining some height (move up higher one range band). Even if driven off they will or may remain at extreme range circling the PCs I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
April 24, 2014 - 9:31pm | I like this model for a re-imagining of the Tomar's Horse http://today.deviantart.com/art/Horse-427148146 I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
