 January 31, 2012 - 1:06pm | I didn't share my G+ post publicly so re-posting here. Question: How do you run large/huge/titan creatures in your SF games? --------------- Inspired by +Christopher Wood post "Marauders of Ig" I started crafting an article on titan creatures in Star Frontiers. Here's the rough draft, I'll probably submit it to the Star Frontiersman. ----- What happens on a world where the creatures are as large as vehicles and buildings? If you’re in a military vehicle it’s most likely equipped to handle the situation. But what happens when you’re on foot, or in a science explorer. This article addresses combat with titan creatures. The Right Tool Climbing gear is a must in situations with titans. This type of gear allows characters to scale creatures. Simply imagine the canyon wall is moving while you are trying to scale! Synthrope, hooks, picks, grapple guns, etc., all benefit the climber. Even some vehicles are equipped with grapples and winches. Causing Damage Blunt weapons are useless, weapons with edges cause half damage, piercing weapons such as spears cause full damage and can be thrust into soft areas between chitin. Ingenious characters can use such weapons to scale creatures. Stability When character scale creatures the GM may ask for a DEX. Failure may result in falling or losing height. Consider the following when titans are moving or shifting position: Asleep - make a DEX check just for fun. Critical failure results in waking the creature. Light - DEX check -10 or loose 1d10 meters in height. Medium - DEX check -20 or loose 2d10 meters in height. Heavy - DEX check -30 or fall taking 2d10 damage (interia screens halve damage). Out of Control - DEX check -40, fall taking 2d10 damage, second DEX check -20 to flee before being crushed by outraged titan! Stamina Creature stamina can be divided into sections. When an appendage is reduced to 0 STA it no longer functions and in some cases may be detached from the creature. When an appendage is detached a creature loses 5-20 STA each turn from bleeding depending on the severity. Each appendage has a number of STA equal to the following: Total STA / Number of appendages The creatures body STA is equal to the following Total STA - one appendage |
 January 31, 2012 - 3:11pm | Who in their right mind is going to scale Godzilla? Seriously? All he has to do is bend his head and bite you off his body like a dog biting at a flee. Why not just used the AD rules for giant creatures? They are the size of a building or vehicle. But nobody in their right mind though is going to scale Godzilla. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
January 31, 2012 - 3:37pm | The target size modifier of +10?  Uhm.... I didn't have godzilla in mind when writing this article. I was thinking of t-rex or a large herbivore that's shear size could kill. I can imagine my character attempting such a feat. "You are offered 100,000 credits to subdue and capture big-zilla." Maybe your characters aren't up to the task, that's OK, keep playing Port Loren Raiders. hehe. ;-) |
January 31, 2012 - 3:43pm | New poll: |
 January 31, 2012 - 3:43pm | Oh c'mon jed...didn't you see Starship Troopers? Who DOESN'T want to be Johnny Rico, leaping bravely upon the back of some gargantuan beastie --- blasting out a hole in its carcass with your rifle and chucking a thermal nuclear detonator within, thus sending it back to Hades? |
January 31, 2012 - 4:06pm | @w00t t-rex = gorilla
@ shadow: I knew a Johny Rico in college, cocky hot dog who never gave any thought to how his actions affected anyone else, always took years off my life to go rock climbing with him; I had to insist that I tied all the knots. No I 'm good with a support roll hanging back and manning support weapons you can have the privileged of jumping on t-rex's back.
I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
January 31, 2012 - 4:10pm | So Shadow, is he talking in-character or out-of-character?   |
January 31, 2012 - 7:24pm | Personally, I wouldn't do it. But in character, I'd probably go for it if I had some decent gear to do so. |
 February 1, 2012 - 5:36am | Doesn't the game open with a Hydra attacking the city? Now while this isn't that big if your challenge to characters is to fight dinosaurs than support the GM and give some advice. Originally I thought you were asking about the PCs attacking Mega-Maid so climbing might work. Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
February 1, 2012 - 5:58am | Doesn't the game open with a Hydra attacking the city? Now while this isn't that big if your challenge to characters is to fight dinosaurs than support the GM and give some advice. Originally I thought you were asking about the PCs attacking Mega-Maid so climbing might work.
Actually if you average out all the dinosaurs they've found you'd get something the size of a sheep. Its just the big ones that get the big museum exhibits. The tables in AD for average carnivore, herbivore and omnivore by size have giant as the largest but you could easily scale up a titanic size for a Godzilla on steroids- is that why Godzilla is so angry with Tokyo? He's got roid rage?I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
February 1, 2012 - 4:10pm | LOL, yeah ol' 'Zilla is on the come-down cycle and dry land only serves to fuel that rage. |
 February 1, 2012 - 7:47pm | In game, I would love to try and tackle something huge. In real life, I would find a nice safe place to take it down from. |
 February 2, 2012 - 4:15pm | A nice safe place, in orbit. Weapon of choice, nukes. Nuking it from orbit is the only way to be sure. And if its Godzilla, find another planet to explore because a whole fleet of ships will have a tough time taking him out. |
February 2, 2012 - 4:30pm | Yawn. I'm going to finish this article and play-test it on my minions. TPK, here I come! |
February 2, 2012 - 5:13pm | A nice safe place, in orbit. Weapon of choice, nukes. Nuking it from orbit is the only way to be sure. And if its Godzilla, find another planet to explore because a whole fleet of ships will have a tough time taking him out. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
February 2, 2012 - 9:03pm | A nice safe place, in orbit. Weapon of choice, nukes. Nuking it from orbit is the only way to be sure. Corporal Hicks?  |
February 2, 2012 - 9:06pm | Okay time to end this thread...the obvious answer is a call to Ultra Man!!!
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February 2, 2012 - 9:34pm | Memories..... now I have to find where to re-watch! |
 February 3, 2012 - 7:41pm | NM View my profile for a list of articles I have written, am writing, will write. "It's yo' mama!" —Wicket W. Warrick, Star Wars Ep. VI: Return of the Jedi "That guy's wise." —Logray, Star Wars Ep.VI: Return of the Jedi Do You Wanna Date My Avatar? - Felicia Day (The Guild) |
February 3, 2012 - 9:33pm | Extrapolating stats for titans based on AD tables
I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
February 4, 2012 - 4:54am | <opens the next can of worms> Wait...what about cybernetically enhanced titans? |
February 4, 2012 - 5:33am | <opens the next can of worms>
Wasn't the cybo dragon cybernetically enhanced? The above table is simply an expansion of the 3 tables in AD but special defenses and special attacks are not covered as each referee needs to decide on those and a cybernetic enhancement is really going to be either a special defense or attack or something in the creature description like IR imaging. This is another example of how the AD rules were clean, simple and flexible. Wait...what about cybernetically enhanced titans? I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
February 4, 2012 - 12:01pm | [Wasn't the cybo dragon cybernetically enhanced?
And that is pretty much where I was going with that. As in "what happens when the Sathar get a hold of some titans?" The cybodragon was hardly titan class, despite having the 500STA (to which I would postulate is a result of said enhancing more than the creature's size) it was still just a big lizard, not a towering giant. |
February 4, 2012 - 12:22pm | @Shadow: so do you think the STA I put up is too low? I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
February 4, 2012 - 3:51pm | Considering how little damage that canon AD weapons actually inflict during a combat turn? Not at all. |
February 4, 2012 - 7:27pm | Alright that said, I think the thing to do is to outfit explorers and dune buggies with heavy weapons from off the AD equipment list and have a demolition derby with a titan to play test. EDIT: oh yeah AD defined a giant creature as 1,500 kg and or 5 meters long. So how big should the titans be? I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
February 5, 2012 - 4:55am | Considering the max STA for creatures at 500STA, I'd say double to triple that. 45m is nearly 50 feet |
February 5, 2012 - 6:26am | Never to doubt anything you say Shadow BUT 45m equals 147 feet and 7.65 inches. Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
February 5, 2012 - 9:50am | IMO, titans should not be able to be brought down the AD character scale weapons and vehicle scale would take several shots. Part of the point of this discussion is for characters to think outside-the-box. |
February 5, 2012 - 6:12pm | If you are going to take down a Titan creature with standard vehical weapons, then it should take a small army to do this. Not just a group of PCs. They would have to think outside the box and come up with a very creative plan. It would depend also if the creature has any weakness' that could be exploited. If it couldn't swim, maybe finding a way to knock it into a large body of water or something like that? |
February 6, 2012 - 3:34am | Never to doubt anything you say Shadow BUT 45m equals 147 feet and 7.65 inches.
Yeah, the 1 didn't quite make it on there in my rush to get to bed... They would have to think outside the box and come up with a very creative plan. Already covered that: fight fire with fire --- Ultra Man ;) 
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