creature and robot hit dice

Anonymous's picture
Anonymous
March 22, 2012 - 10:15pm
What If creature STA and robot body types used "hit dice". Would referees enjoy rolling these stats?
Comments:

iggy's picture
iggy
March 22, 2012 - 10:23pm
It would give variety to the creatures so that not every one was the same STA.  I can live with robots being identical however.

Likely I'd favor something like Base STA +nd10.
-iggy

rattraveller's picture
rattraveller
March 23, 2012 - 5:37am
STA and HD are both just abstract ways of determing the relative strength of an opponent. How detailed you go into your NPCs is always a GM option. Sometimes you need the level of detail and other times you just need something to bash. Whether it is the guard at the door or the mukluc random encounter sometimes even just abstractly saying your one laser pistol shot took it down can work.
Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go?

Anonymous's picture
w00t (not verified)
March 23, 2012 - 10:39am
At lunch the son unit and I created stats for lion/serpent creature on pg 35 in the Alpha Dawn book. I created a table for rolling STA, which I'll share later. We rolled 2d10x10 using the easy math method. A more realistic version would be 12d10 (20+120)/2 = n. n/5.5 = number of dice.

We give you the Dwartzert!
A favored pet of some of the wealthiest Thesians. Dwartzert can be found in zoo around the Frontier. 

NAME: Dwartzert
TYPE: Medium carnivore
NUMBER: 5-20
MOVE: Fast
IM/RS: 7/65
Dwartzert
STAMINA:80
ATTACK
  • claw 55% 2d10, 
  • bite 85% 3d10
ENVIRONMENT: Near desert edges and open plains
NATIVE WORLD: Theseus
DESCRIPTION: With manes of brights red to bright yellow and boides of golden-brown to golden-orange these creatures are majestic to watch in motion. They appear as a blur floating above the ground moving at almost 80m/turn. Males have star shaped patches while females have blotches, coloring is from black to dark brown. They have excellent eyesight, however their hearing is not as keen. 

Adventure
"Have I got an easy job for you!" says the deep voice of a taller than average dralasite from Outer Reach. "Pick up a small herd of dwartzerts from Gola Zoo via shuttle and transport them on your ship to Scree Fron. Why Scree Fron? Hrm... message says deliver to Basiloph Church, One Way Street, Hoovaugh, Scree Fron. Some priest needs them for a worship festival."



Anonymous's picture
w00t (not verified)
March 26, 2012 - 10:05am
THE HYDRA DWARTZERT: The dwartzert is native to Thesesus. It looks like a cross between a lion and a serpent. Periodically it goes through a molting period where it sheds skin from its tail region.

Earlier in the day, an older dwartzert fought with a young cub, the zoo handler tried to move the cub to a new pen using a sonic prod to keep the elder at bay. This enraged the beast; it gave an ear-splitting call causing the pride to stampede. The handler was taken to the hospital to receive care of a broken arm. 

You are four agents of on loan from Pan-Galactic Corporation relaxing at the Trivid Gaming Hall after a dangerous mission. Suddenly there is a blaring alarm from your chronocom followed an emergency public broadcast. "Alien creatures have broken out of the Zoological Park! They are terrorizing the city, stay inside, PLMPD has been notified but a major accident on the Spaceport Expresway is occupying most of the patrols!" What do you do? 

Setup: Roll 2d10, this is the number of dwartzert on the loose. If there are more than 8 they will travel in pairs, splitting up to blanket the city in chaos! They will enter libraries, hotels, shops and restaurants running around and breaking things. Assume the characters can travel to the zoo straight away. They will be issued a sonic stunner, needler pistols or rifle (players choice). Note that needlers have sleep darts causing 1d10 +sleep for d100 turns.      

jedion357's picture
jedion357
March 26, 2012 - 11:37am
iggy wrote:
It would give variety to the creatures so that not every one was the same STA.  I can live with robots being identical however.

Likely I'd favor something like Base STA +nd10.


I like iggy's thinking on this. STA + #d10
Don't like the term Hit Dice as it leads to confussion with D20 and older school D&D.

I'm totally ok with listing STA: 80-100 but that could easily be 80 + 2d10 as well.
I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers!

Anonymous's picture
w00t (not verified)
March 26, 2012 - 1:34pm
I like the average roll mechanic.
2d10 averages at 11, so in your example Tom, your creature will have 91 STA.
2d10 x 10 averages 110 STA and has more variance. 



iggy's picture
iggy
March 26, 2012 - 10:07pm
But 2d10 x 10 or #d10 x 10, gives the whole spread.  This would be min 20, max 200.

STA + #d10 gives a base to start with.  Thus a creature that is meant to be at least a certain toughness is at least STA + 1.  And, this way your could spec:

Child: 10 + 1d10
Juvenile: 20 + 2d10
Adult: 30 + 3d10
Aged: 30 + 2d10
Enfeebled: 30 + 1d10

Cool
-iggy

jedion357's picture
jedion357
March 27, 2012 - 5:00am
Its all space sauce to me because I don't roll for this sort of thing; if I'm the GM I simply choose these numbers during game prep. Still I like to see a range as that can influence my choice if I'm looking for a random encounter to mix things up or I need a boss encounter to kick the PC's butts a little.
I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers!