 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 |
February 25, 2012 - 2:48pm | Anyone up to creating some titans? |
 February 25, 2012 - 10:23pm | Jedion I looked up my files and I believe I submitted four races for the zine, and each of the races in question did include a system brief the races were the Adrainians, Ghed'yan, Andorians (no relation to the Star Trek aliens) and the Belphans a race of psycho space bunnies. As for the topic of titan class creatures in Star Frontiers, are we thinking of titan creatures in the scale of the Rancor, or the space slug that the Milenium Falcon landed in? In either case I would recomend that personal weapons would either have no effect on the creature, or cause at most 1pt of damage/Seu used so that the Stamina points of the creature remain at controlable levels, or in the case of Space Slug type creatures Perhaps treat their Stamina points as hull points, and reduce damage accordingly. I personally like the hull points idea since a titan creature with 50 Stamina would have the same endurance as a destroyer. Battling a titan creature makes a great introduction for Mechs in the campaign in my opinion. "Hey guys I wonder what this does"-Famous last words "Hey guys, I think it's friendly." -Famous last words "You go on ahead, I'll catch up." -Famous last words "Did you here that?" -Famous last words |
 February 25, 2012 - 11:52pm | Yeah I actually have 5 character race submissions waiting to be published plus the extras that were part of submission under another topic heading. Focus of your submission is the race so it goes into character races. Anyhow I've slotted one character race submission per issue up through issue 23. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 February 26, 2012 - 6:04am | Well it seems we have races covered for the next few issues so what else is needed to get the issues well balanced? Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
 February 26, 2012 - 8:29pm | Anyone up to creating some titans?
I seem to recall an article, I think it was in Ares...Gamma World IIRC..."Rise of the AquaBot". Now that would make for a good titan encounter, if not for the mecha angle of it all. |
 February 26, 2012 - 10:04pm | An encounter with a giant robot, sound like classic sci-fi to me. Sathar love cybernetics, why not something like the "Day of the Juggernaut" article from Ares magazine. It was an automated spaceship. They could have invented some one shot robotic titan and send it in to crash on one of the planets like a comet. It could even have a cargo compartment full of cybots, quickdeaths or any other smaller units to cause havoc. Kind of like the creature from Cloverfield. That would give the PC's something to shoot at they could handle easier and then try and figure out a more creative way to take out the titan. |
February 27, 2012 - 7:45am | Broken record time: the klikk bolo sized tank from starmist had to have been built as a counter to some one else's weapon system or defense. And mecha are on a scale to require that Szechuan of a tank. Sathar are obvious candidates since the time the klikk visited starmist and the sathar visited Volturnus are only about 200 years apart. The big question would of course be why haven't sathar mecha been seen before? Perhaps its because they are expensive and it makes more sense to use lighter forces if that is all that's necessary. Or perhaps its that one sathar clan specialized in this and had risen to dominate the other clans and a coalition of clans had to take of down. Some of its mecha are still out there and a clan is working on duplicating the tech of the destroyed clan, using slaves taken from the frontier, engineers and scientist. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
February 27, 2012 - 10:48am | i was thinking that there is a way to deal with a titan's stats without resorting to numbers outside the 1-100 range. I was thinking that a titan's Strength score represents the number of tons it can lift/press and the amount of damage one of its attacks causes. and the Stamina score equals the amount of damage in a round it can absorb before it takes actual damage. Thus a Titan with a str/sta of 50/50 would be able to lift/press 50 tons, and it's attack causes a whopping 50 points of damage. The titan has 50 stamina points, but it absorbs the first 50 points of damage per round which makes it quite formidable an opponent. "Hey guys I wonder what this does"-Famous last words "Hey guys, I think it's friendly." -Famous last words "You go on ahead, I'll catch up." -Famous last words "Did you here that?" -Famous last words |
February 27, 2012 - 11:17am | i was thinking that there is a way to deal with a titan's stats without resorting to numbers outside the 1-100 range. I was thinking that a titan's Strength score represents the number of tons it can lift/press and the amount of damage one of its attacks causes. and the Stamina score equals the amount of damage in a round it can absorb before it takes actual damage.
I like this at least the damage reduction part. I could go with that. However in much the same way that
AD weapons are scaled currently from KH weapons and STA and hull points are scaled differently it would seem to me that a titan 's damage should be scaled differently or at least higher than 50. Thus a Titan with a str/sta of 50/50 would be able to lift/press 50 tons, and it's attack causes a whopping 50 points of damage. The titan has 50 stamina points, but it absorbs the first 50 points of damage per round which makes it quite formidable an opponent. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
February 27, 2012 - 12:45pm | We could go with it's Damage equaling 1d10 per 5 points of strength added to a base equal to its strength score, so the creature above (Str 50) would do 10d10 +50 points of damage (range of 60-150 points/hit). But doing that is like if it hits your character you might as well say good bye, or you could introduce the roll 1/2 stamina or instant death rule and if the character manages to survive the hit he will be drinking through a straw until they can fit his brain into a cybernetic body. "Hey guys I wonder what this does"-Famous last words "Hey guys, I think it's friendly." -Famous last words "You go on ahead, I'll catch up." -Famous last words "Did you here that?" -Famous last words |
February 27, 2012 - 1:40pm | Thats sort of what I was getting at; you get hit by something that size and you should be knocked into the middle of next week. However with damage at 50 pts if you are wearing a skien suit and inertia screen then most people will survive. but with damage at 60-150 points most people, excpet the Johnny Ringos, will opt for long range high damage weapons. IIRC I have some of those bugs miniatures including the big flamer titan bug- might be a good excuse to break them out and put them on the battle mat or perhaps finish painting and assembling them. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
February 27, 2012 - 8:09pm | I'm thinking titans are more story based. I wouldn't outright kill a character. They would fall off, near miss stomps, etc. causing 2-6d damage. I think damage reduction and output is important when there are titans used by the PC's to fight another titan or if large vehicles are involved. We should run a scenario or two online. Anyone up for that? |
February 27, 2012 - 8:10pm | There are large creatures in SF that could crush a character. Slither, hydra, cyberdragon, etc. Just thinking out loud. |
February 29, 2012 - 10:18am | Good point. Creatures this big are not wandering monsters that are wiped out and forgotten. They should be a key element of the story. destroying one should be the result of a long quest not just calling down some nukes from the ship in orbit after defeating the queen while wearing a loading rig. Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
February 29, 2012 - 8:23pm | But Nukes are the only way to be sure ;) good point a titan is a boss encounter that ought to just about wipe the party out and will with a frontal assualt and roll for initiative. GMs should reward inventiveness and creativeness. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 September 22, 2019 - 12:24pm | Hmm, a very, very old thread, but I see some potential here. Joe Cabadas |
September 22, 2019 - 3:38pm | Hmm, a very, very old thread, but I see some potential here. take a page from a Godzilla movie- lots of build up to the final encounter. They should be rare. Thus inclusion in a campaign should be well planned not: hey i need something for the players to fight they look a little bored right now, I know, I'll drop in a titan creature that just happened to show up. Roll initiative. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
September 22, 2019 - 3:38pm | Hmm, a very, very old thread, but I see some potential here. take a page from a Godzilla movie- lots of build up to the final encounter. They should be rare. Thus inclusion in a campaign should be well planned not: hey i need something for the players to fight they look a little bored right now, I know, I'll drop in a titan creature that just happened to show up. Roll initiative. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
September 22, 2019 - 3:41pm | So how much is too much? God save us if it should reach Knight Hawk scale!  NO! Its... Too... late...! Looking at this picture and i have to wonder what does clasping a hand over the guys mouth do? "Dont say a word, it might not hear us." ? I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
September 22, 2019 - 3:44pm | extra EXP for figuring out a non combat way to deal with a titan creature- PCs figure out that the creature eats radiation so they use the atomic quanex batteries to lead it away from the threatened out post. Or build an atomic powered bug light to draw it away from the atomic drive landing craft that they need to escape to space in. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
September 23, 2019 - 5:08pm | Looking at this picture and i have to wonder what does clasping a hand over the guys mouth do? "Dont say a word, it might not hear us." ?
Nope, he's about to get his neck snapped. The mulleted fellow is a bureaucrat who is onboard with a crew of five others. His company developed the mutant Leporidaen in secret and has been ordered to keep it a secret. Now that the entire crew knows about it, the only way for all six to keep the secret is if five of them are dead. Classic "Carter Burke" plot from Aliens.  |
September 24, 2019 - 8:15am | I noted that one of the earlier posters on this thread... which again is very old... mentions Ultra Man. I noted recently that a lot of the old episodes are available on YouTube. Joe Cabadas |
