Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!: A Dresdenverse Bestiary

[Jeckel]

The PDF from Ravangames is now uploaded and linked from the animals page.

Looking at the page, under armor and Consequences, you might want to note that the extra consequences are Physical, just to avoid confusion.

Dang, I thought I had fixed all those, I'll go through the files and make sure I get them all corrected today.

EDIT: Also, a giant sea turtle would be very cool.

[Ravangames]

Thanks.  I'll try to keep the sucker updated.

[Deadmanwalking]

Here are three of the six, the other three are still to come:

High Concept: Ostrich
Other:
Fast As Hell
Deadly Kick
Not As Stupid As People Think

Skills:

Great: Athletics,
Good: Alertness, Endurance, Fists,
Fair: Intimidate, Rapport, Stealth, Survival,
Average: Conviction, Discipline, Empathy, Presence,

Powers:

Claws [-1]
Inhumann Strength [-2]
Inhuman Speed [-2]
Echoes of the Beast [-1]

Total Refresh: -6

Stress:

Mental: OOO
Physical: OOOO
Social: OOO
Armor: 0.

Note: Scary kick and very dodgy, but can be taken out by lions and such fairly easily if needed.



High Concept: Nine-Banded Armadillo
Other:
Tough Little Bastard
Surprising Skills

Skills:

Great: Endurance,
Good: Athletics, Survival,
Fair: Alertness, Burglary, Fists, Might, Stealth,
Average: Conviction, Discipline, Empathy, Presence, Rapport,

Stunts:

Tough Shell (May use Endurance to defend against melee attacks smaller than about car sized.)

Powers:

Diminutive Size [-1]
Echoes of the Beast [-1]
Inhuman Toughness [-2]

Total Refresh: -5

Stress:

Mental: OOO
Physical: OO(OO)
Social: OOO
Armor: 1.

Note: Other Armadillos will vary wildly. They're really half a dozen different species and subspecies with varying capabilities.


High Concept: Seal
Other:
Social Creature
Awkward On Land

Skills:

Great: Athletics, Fists,
Good: Alertness, Endurance,
Fair: Rapport, Stealth, Survival,
Average: Conviction, Discipline, Empathy, Intimidation, Presence,

Powers:

Aquatic [-1]
Claws [-1]
Echoes of the Beast [-1]
Arctic (Seals take no penalties of any sort from cold, and ignore barrier values based on snow and ice.) [-1]

Total Refresh: -4

Stress:

Mental: OOO
Physical: OOOO
Social: OOO
Armor: 0.

[Deadmanwalking]

Looking back on my Elk, I broke my own rules: Those things really shouldn't have Inhuman Toughness. So I've edited them, dropping it for No Pain, No Gain.

Here's the revised version:

High Concept: Elk
Other:
Weak Against Disease
Very Adaptable

Skills:

Great: Athletics, Fists, Survival,
Good: Endurance, Intimidation, Might,
Fair: Alertness, Rapport, Stealth,
Average: Discipline, Empathy, Presence,

Stunts:

No Pain, No Gain (Endurance)

Powers:

Echoes of the Beast [-1]
Inhuman Strength [-2]
Inhuman Speed [-2]
Herd Instincts [-1]

Total Refresh: -7

Stress:

Mental: OO
Physical: OOOO (+1 Mild Consequence)
Social: OOO
Armor: 0.

Note: Like deer, male elk sometimes have Claws as well as the listed powers due to having antlers.

I'll be noting any Edits I make after the first few minutes like this from now on, since people are putting things up on websites and such.

[Ravangames]

updated pdf and sent to Jekel

[Jeckel]

Found a typo, you've got School of Piranha spelled 'Pirranha'.

Thanks for the notice on sheet changes, that will make things so much easier. I followed suit and added a line to the bottom of each sheet telling what date its data was last modified on the web-site. Also, I added the last modified date after the link to Ravangames's PDF. Now people will know if your updates have been propagated to the other formats yet.

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Doing the locusts swarm as an environmental hazarded mixed with a few "Person sized swarms" worked out really well. My players planned ahead very well and managed to save 2 of their 6 fields. I finally got to throw a Grizzly Bear at them when they were driving their cattle to the auction house in the next territory. The wizard (who is a Coward With a Heart of Gold) lost his intimidation defense and was ran away "screaming like a little girl". Long story short, one of the NPC cattle herders was injured pretty bad, but no cattle were lost and the sale was made.

They had so much fun with the locusts and the bear that we paused before returning to the farm. Next session I'll get to break the Shetland Pony twist to the rest of the group. These have been some of the funnest sessions I've had since college.

[Deadmanwalking]

Awesome! 

I'm very glad my list is actually useful to someone, it honestly brings a warm glow.


And the remaining four critters in the queue will be up some time today or tomorrow-ish.

[Deadmanwalking]

Sorry for the delay, my last few days have been hectic. Otter and Giant Sea Turtle still to come.

High Concept: Red Kangaroo
Other:
Marsupial
Deadly Kick

Skills:

Great: Alertness, Athletics,
Good: Endurance, Fists,
Fair: Intimidate, Rapport, Survival,
Average: Conviction, Discipline, Empathy, Presence, Stealth,

Powers:

Inhumann Strength [-2]
Inhuman Speed [-2]
Echoes of the Beast [-1]

Total Refresh: -5

Stress:

Mental: OOO
Physical: OOOO
Social: OOO
Armor: 0.




High Concept: Koala
Other:
Marsupial
Cute, But Tempermental

Skills:

Great: Alertness,
Good: Rapport, Survival,
Fair: Athletics, Fists, Stealth,
Average: Empathy, Discipline, Endurance, Presence,

Stunts:

'Human' Spider (Athletics)

Powers:

Echoes of the Beast [-1]

Total Refresh: -2

Stress:

Mental: OO
Physical: OOO
Social: OOO
Armor: 0

Note: Some smaller Koalas will possess Diminutive Size. They drop Stealth to Average, and buy Might at the same level.

[Nomad]

I know this is more of a nitpick but some exceptional animals like Dolphins, Elephants, Ravens, Crows, Whales (as a species compared to individuals like domesticated cats and dogs) seem to have something between Scholarship (Language) and Lore

Maybe you could give them Lore and say Echoes of the Beast allows them to use the skill for
trying to decipher human language and other intelligence/sapience based uses?

Or maybe create a totally new, animal only, skill like "Ancestral Pack (Pod, Herd, whatever their group is called) Lore" and use that instead of scholarship?

[Deadmanwalking]

Lore is knowledge of the supernatural, which is just...really wrong for mundane animals.

And as others have pointed out, most humans lack Scholarship and/or Lore at above Medocre, I'd just assume that such creatures have a base of Mediocre, the same as a human would, for anything within their sphere of knowledge.

[Nomad]

Sorry i meant lore as it's dictionary meaning not in game
seem to be making such mistakes a lot lately...

[Deadmanwalking]

My Koala was...off. I've revised it a bit.

Otter and Giant Sea Turtle still to come.

[Jeckel]

Saw this was about to fall onto page three, so thought I would give it a much deserved bump.

Timing of RP has been sporadic lately, but got a couple hours with the group a few days ago and did the big reveal of the Shetland Ponies and it was a huge hit. While describing the ponies I mentioned the farm up the street from me and the performances they put on for kids' birthday parties. Sure enough, within a few minutes they were organizing a little "wild west" show. The shaman sung a beautiful song, the wizard did some magic tricks, our gun fighter shot coins and fruit out of the air, my wild-man-of-the-desert character "fought" two wolves, and the farm owner made the costumes, did a martial arts demonstration, and did some acrobatic tricks on the wagon while it was being raced around by the ponies (she doesn't make most sessions, so we let her take the front seat for most of it). Both the opening, closing, and half-time acts were centered around the ponies running in different formations and doing various tricks (taught to them by the gun fighter/horse trainer character), as well as pulling a fancy wagon (designed by the group and build with help from an NPC) which was given extra flair and effects (like it being "consumed by flames" during the closing act) by the wizard/stage magician character.

We had so much fun that it seems the focus is going to center around the show for a while, so I'm going to have an NPC approach them for a real show in Australia. That should give me a chance to work in the kangaroo and I know that as soon as I mention Australia the farm owner is going to want to get her character a Koala, "there just so darn cute" I'm guessing will be the justification. :p Might try to work in a great white and some seals, and/or a komodo, if the opportunity presents itself.

I'm still using the crap out of these animals and I can tell you that at least two other GMs I know, who don't do the forum thing, are using them in there games and wish to give you major props.

[ironchicken]

I was concerned at your cat having claws right at the front.

May I suggest you go "claws like razors" as an aspect and lose the power. This is mainly because the damage bonus counts and stacks with the size limitation. This means a cat with claws will do 2 damage with each hit not just 1 due to size. In addition the aspect "9 lives" springs to mind.

[Deadmanwalking]

Actually, since Claws are a +2 it maxes out at three stress a hit. Which is appropriate. Your average house cat is NOT going to ever attempt to kill a human, using Maneuvers and such to get away instead...but if they did (perhaps guided by some malign intellect), their odds wouldn't actually be that bad. A cat can rip your throat out pretty effectively if it's suddenly granted human intelligence.