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Chaosium Digest Volume 06 Number 05
Chaosium Digest Volume 6, Number 5
Date: Sunday, April 17, 1994
Number: 1 of 1
Contents:
The Knight of Beasts (Eric Rowe) PENDRAGON
Traveller/BRP (Stefan Matthias Aust) BRP
--------------------
From: Eric Rowe <rowe@soda.berkeley.edu>
Subject: The Knight of Beasts
System: Pendragon
The Knight of Beasts: An Encounter in the Woods for Pendragon
Introduction
The idea behind this scenario is for the players have a chance
encounter in the woods with Sir Merin, Knight of the Beasts, and his
lovely wife, Collwen. Quirks in the characters of these two lead to
several moral dilemmas which must be resolved by the player knights.
The encounter begins when Sir Merin invites the knights to share the
hospitality of his pavillion.
Background
The animals which accompany Sir Merin on his adventures include an
owl, a half-wolf hound, a hawk and a serpent. Sir Merin's animals
each have their own story as to why they currently accompany him. Sir
Merin himself is an aging round table knight who exemplifies many
chivalrous virtues.
Merin's owl, Sapere, was sent by a Enchantress friend of Collwen.
During a time of trouble in his marriage, Merin strayed from his vows
in an attempt to have more children. The owl reports back to Collwen
and the Enchantress to keep Merin from straying again. Sapere is
Merin's best friend and sits on his left shoulder.
Neuri, the half-wolf hound, was a pup when Merin received him as a
wedding gift. Neuri was Merin's first pet, and so he coddled and
pampered him, never letting him near danger. When on adventure Sir
Merin has trained Neuri to hide wherever possible. To this day, Sir
Merin is overprotective of Neuri. When not in the mansion, Neuri is
forced to wear a suit of doggie leather armor.
Telan the hawk was a friendly gift from a fellow knight. The hawk
rides constantly upon Sir Merin's right shoulder, but is never hooded.
In fact, Merin is a poor falconer, and only lets loose Telan when
asked by other knights.
The serpent is Aeddan, one of two he and Collwen saved from Sir
Merin's vengeful friends. The other serpent, Arddur, is kept by
Collwen. Their litter mates were slain due to their close resemblance
to a great beast which had eaten a dear friend (they are in fact, its
offspring). Found at the small size of a foot in length, a steady
diet has increased the serpent's size to six yards in length in just
six years.
Collwen is the virtual opposite of Sir Merin. She is lazy, vain,
proud, suspicious, reckless, cowardly and a few more unpleasant
characteristics. However, she is pious, and that occasionally keeps
her honest. Collwen is the main foil for bringing about moral
dilemmas amongst the player knights. She knows many tricks and once
killed an assassin intent on Sir Merin's life.
Moral Dilemmas
There are three main dilemmas to be resolved, all in some way related
to Hospitality. The first dilemma concerns the meal that the players
share after they have accepted the hospitality of Sir Merin's
pavillion. Collwen will insist upon cooking it herself. However, she
is a terrible cook. There will be several foul tasting courses. Sir
Merin will eat without complaint, for he is very tolerant and used to
bad food. However, if any knights offend Collwen, she will demand
Merin's aid in avenging her honor. With a sigh Sir Merin has let out
many times, he will agree and half-heartedly joust the offender or
offenders. Honest/Deceitful and Hospitality rolls may be necessary
when Collwen asks how the players like her food.
The second dilemma revolves around Collwen's Pride and her slightly
fading appearance. She is still a beauty and teases and leads on any
knights she can interest. It is especially fun for her to set two
player knights against each other for her favor, which she has no real
intention of giving out. Lustful/Chaste rolls are appropriate here.
If all else fails, she takes offense at the lack of attention and
again requires the aid of her husband to avenge her honor on the field
of battle. He apologises as necessary for any disruption of
hospitality, but does his wife's bidding. His fear of her is slightly
greater than his love.
The last main dilemma comes in the morning, when one or more of the
players discovers their mount or mounts to have holes eaten through
them. The serpents were hungry last night. A quick examination of
the corpses will reveal the obvious truth. Sir Merin will loyally
defend his animals if necessary (if they are attacked), but would
prefer to replace the mounts of the players with his own. Depending
upon gamemaster need, the mounts can either be of more or less value
than the ones lost. Sir Merin at all times tries to be as fair as
possible, but there will be no completely fair solution. The players
should have to choose between taking better replacements or worse.
The gamemaster should also make sure that the players realize that
this probably happens often to poor Sir Merin. Just, Generous, and
Vengeful will play large roles here.
Conclusion
As this encounter takes place in the woods, it can be expanded into a
slightly larger adventure, with Sir Merin perhaps accompanying the
players on a hunt of some kind in the woods. Possibly, he is there
for some important reason and is in need of other knights to aid him.
Then again, it could just be a passing encounter leading into some
other adventure.
_________________________________________________________________________
Sir Merin
Sir Merin is a fairly rich banneret knight who was present at the
drawing of the sword in the stone by Arthur. A highly chivalrous
knight, he is constantly drawn into trouble due to the schemes of his
wayward wife. Sir Merin is reknowned for the strange collection of
animals that accompany him on his quests. He is Cymric and Christian.
His holdings are in Logres.
Glory 10,252
SIZ 18 Move 3 Major Wound 14
DEX 10 Damage 6d6 Unconsciousness 8
STR 15 Heal Rate 3 Knock Down 18
CON 12 Hits Points 32 Armor 12 + Shield + Chiv. Bonus
APP 9 Age 42
Attack: Sword 23, Lance 20
Significant Traits: Energetic 16, Generous 16, Deceitful 14, Just 17,
Merciful 18, Trusting 12, Valorous 16
Significant Passions: Hate(Saxons) 19, Loyalty (Arthur) 18, Loyalty
(Serpents) 14, Loyalty (Hawk) 14, Loyalty (Wolf) 18, Loyalty (Owl) 20
Significant Skills: Battle 21, Horsemanship 15, Awareness 16, Faerie
Lore 13
Horse: Destrier, 8d6 damage
_________________________________________________________________________
Collwen
Collwen is the rich, spoiled daughter of a banneret knight. She has
beauty and money, but a lousy personality. Sir Merin was the only
knight willing to marry her, and he did it for her looks and money.
Many are the nights that Sir Merin has regretted his decision.
Collwen cares only about herself. She obtains much of her enjoyment
by inflicting pain and suffering, especially emotional, on others.
Despite all her years with Sir Merin, none of his good traits have
rubbed off on Collwen.
Glory 4,103
SIZ 11 Move 3 Major Wound 11
DEX 12 Damage 4d6 Unconsciousness 6
STR 10 Heal Rate 2 Knock Down 11
CON 11 Hits Points 22 Armor 0
APP 17 Age 40
Attack: Dagger 20
Significant Traits: Lazy 14, Deceitful 15, Arbitrary 16, Cruel 15
Proud 16, Indulgent 14
Significant Passions: Nothing above 8
Significant Skills: Chirurgery 15, Courtesy 14, Faerie Lore 20, First
Aid 17, Industry 17, Stewardship 16
__________________________________________________________________________
Sapere
Sapere is a small brown owl made more intelligent by an Enchantress
friend of Collwen. When Collwen came to her friend for aid in
controlling Sir Merin, she returned with Sapere. Sapere reports any
wrongdoing to Collwen and the Enchantress, both of whom understand
him. Despite the fact that Sir Merin cannot speak with Sapere, they
have had many adventures and battles together and become best friends.
Sir Merin has been known to scour castle kitchens for live mice to
feed his friend. Sapere has been known to bring Sir Merin a chipmunk
or two when adventuring in the woods.
SIZ 1 Move 19 Major Wound 4
DEX 19 Damage 1d6 Unconsciousness 1
STR 4 Heal Rate 2 Knock Down 1
CON 4 Hits Points 5 Armor 0
Attack: Bite 5
__________________________________________________________________________
Neuri
Neuri is a half-wolf hound that accompanies his master Sir Merin
wherever he travels. Trained as a pup to stay away from danger, he
will cower beneath anything available if something threatens him.
Over the years, he has become highly skilled in dodging hooves of the
horses he hides under.
SIZ 4 Move 8 Major Wound 12
DEX 22 Damage 2d6 Unconciousness 4
STR 12 Heal Rate 2 Knock Down 4
CON 12 Hit Points 16 Armor 7 + 2 for leather
Avoidance 10
Attack: Bite 20
________________________________________________________________________
Telan
Telan the hawk is actually a goshawk, as is proper. He was
well-trained before being presented to Sir Merin. Now, Telan is older
and enjoys the simple pleasure of riding upon his master's shoulder.
Telan has as much affection for Sir Merin a a goshawk can have, and on
the rare times Sir Merin asks him to hunt, he does his very best.
SIZ 1 Move 20 Major Wound 5
DEX 20 Damage 1d6 Unconciousness 2
STR 5 Heal Rate 2 Knock Down 1
CON 5 Hit Points 6 Armor 0
Attack: Bite 8
_________________________________________________________________________
Aeddan
Aeddan is a beautiful three-colored serpent. He was raised from a
baby by Sir Merin. When he was small, he rode with Sir Merin, but now
that he is fully grown, Aeddan slithers alongside the horses during
adventures. Aeddan obeys Sir Merin and has but one great weakness,
the taste of horseflesh. Aeddan's loyalty to Sir Merin keeps him from
killing Sir Merin's mounts, but this does not stop him from eating
other's beasts. This is often a cause of problems for Sir Merin. If
enraged Aeddan can become a ferocious fighter.
SIZ 30 Move 9 Major Wound 30
DEX 30 Damage 10d6 Unconsciousness 15
STR 30 Heal Rate 6 Knock Down 30
CON 30 Hits Points 60 Armor 18
Modifier to Valor: -10
Glory to Kill: 150
Attack: Bite 20
Avoidance: 20
__________________________________________________________________________
Arddur
The twin of Aeddan, Arddur was raised upon Collwen's lap. It is
possible that Arddur is the only thing Collwen has truly loved, for it
is the only thing never to receive mistreatment at her hands. It
behaves much like Aeddan in all respects.
SIZ 30 Move 9 Major Wound 30
DEX 30 Damage 10d6 Unconsciousness 15
STR 30 Heal Rate 6 Knock Down 30
CON 30 Hits Points 60 Armor 18
Modifier to Valor: -10
Glory to Kill: 150
Attack: Bite 20
Avoidance: 20
--------------------
From: Stefan Matthias Aust <sma@informatik.uni-kiel.d400.de>
Subject: Traveller/BRP
System: BRP
The following article is my rough draft of a SF version of BRP. I
used mostly Call of Cthulhu (CoC), Elric!, RuneQuest (the playtest
draft of the fourth edition, RQ4) and Traveller (the New Era, TNE) as
sources for ideas for rules. I'm afraid that I used a lot of
abbreviations that you won't understand in this article without
knowledge of some of the above books.
For this SF BRP, I assume the background of Traveller. This is
comparable to the universes of Asimov (Foundation) or Anderson
(Dominic Flandry) and could be used in any similar background with
little problem.
The background centers around a more-or-less peaceful stellar empire
with client states, independent wilds and some non-human races. The
empire itself is ruled by beings calling themselves humans.
Technology is advanced, but not as sophisticated as you could think
of. There is faster-than-light travel (FTL) traveller, computers
(perhaps also AIs), robots, laser weapons and other classical
SF-stuff. However, there's no teleportation, antimatter power
sources, sun-destroying weapons, cyberware or other 'unbelievable
magic-like super technology'.
CHARACTER GENERATION
Characteristics
Use STR, CON, SIZ, INT, POW, EDU, DEX and APP.
These are the characteristics of CoC. STR, CON, INT, DEX and APP are
all 'classic'. SIZ is typical for BRP-like games and EDU is important
for SF games, maybe more than STR or CON (TNE for example uses STR,
CON, INT, AGL=DEX, EDU and CHR=APP). POW is useful because it allows
the concept of SAN, making a SF/Horror crossover conceivable. POW
could also be used for PSI-like magic.
Slightly different characteristic generation should be used for the
different races of the Traveller universe. In the templates below,
only those statistics which vary from the human norm are listed.
Humans:
Char. Roll Averages
STR 3D6 10-11
CON 3D6 10-11
SIZ 2D6+6 13
DEX 3D6 10-11
APP 3D6 10-11
INT 2D6+6 13
POW 3D6 10-11
EDU 2D6+6 13
Aslan:
STR 3D6+2 12-13
SIZ 2D6+8 15
Aslan are honorable lion-like creatures.
Droyne:
STR 2D6+3 10
CON 1D6+10 13-14
SIZ 2D6+3 10
POW 2D6+6 13
Droyne are lizard-like creatures.
Hivers:
STR 2D6 7
SIZ 2D6 7
INT 3D6+6 16-17
Hivers look like great sea stars.
Vargr:
STR 3D6+2 12-13
CON 3D6+2 12-13
Vargr resemble uplifted dogs.
Zhodani:
POW 2D6+6 13
Zhodani are human like, but most of them can use PSI.
Homeworld Modifiers
The homeworld of a character's birth can cause some slight variation
in characteristics. Some of the more common modifiers are listed
below. Note that no characteristic may be decreased to less than 3 or
raised to more than 21.
High Gravity +1 STR, -1 CON
Low Gravity -1 STR, -1 CON
Hostile Atmospheres -1D3 CON, +1D3 DEX*
High Population +1D3 APP
Low Population -1D3 APP
High Tech Level +1D3 or +1D6 EDU
Low Tech Level +1D3 CON, -1D6 EDU
* Only if environment suits were often worn
Derived Statistics
Characteristic rolls are calculated as usual: Idea = INTx5, Luck =
POWx5, Knowledge = EDUx5 and Charisma = APPx5. If you like, calculate
SAN = POWx5.
Calculate hit points as (CON+SIZ) / 2 (rounding up).
Calculate damage bonus as (STR+SIZ) / 5 - 5 (rounding up). Apply
normal damage bonus to all melee attacks except bites and other
attacks which don't use the full effects of the strength or size.
Apply half bonus to thrown weapons and no bonus to missile weapons.
If you're stronger, use a heavier missile weapon. Your size isn't
important at all.
Background
Determine the normal things like Name, Age, etc.
Occupations
An occupation defines a group of skills that players can distribute
development-points to. Decide if your character is trained, skilled
or expert. Distribute 200, 400 or 600 points to that skills. Your
character also gets additional EDUx5 points due to education. Each
character can also freely distribute an additional 100 + INTx5 point
for personal interests. I would suggest setting 80 as an upper limit
on any skill (without base chance).
(In CoC, the difference in skill points between EDU 10 and EDU 20,
both usual values, seems to be too unfair. You can be good in a lot
of skills without education.)
A character can try to increase his skills by using something I call
educational occupations. This could be a technical university, combat
training due to military service or war experience, or other special
education. It's possible that the character had to make some sort of
aptitude test. You gain about 50-100 points.
[Sample Occupation] Starship Pilot
Distribute points among Astrogation, Pilot, Communication, Computer,
Environment Suit, Survival, Ship Engineering, Zero-G-Env, Handweapon
and one skill as a personal interest.
GAME SYSTEM
Actions
All skills are percent values, use D% (D100) to make success rolls. A
roll less than or equal to a skill value is a success, a roll greater
than skill value is a failure. A roll of 00 is a fumble. 99 is a
fumble too, if skill value is less or equal to 50. A roll below 1/5
of skill value is a critical success, which gives you a better then
normal result (double damage in combat). Use resistance table as
normally in CoC or Elric!
Skills
TNE knows more than 100 skills, CoC has roughly the same number. Some
suggested examples from Traveller (with corresponding CoC skills):
Accounting* (10).
Archaeology* (00) - a science.
Art* (whatever) (05).
Acrobatics (05) - jump, balance, ... Can be used to dodge.
Act = Art (Acting).
Admin (05) - knowledge of governments...
Animal Handling (10) - "use and maintain" guarding and hunting beasts.
Astrogation (00) - finding your way through (hyper)space.
Bargain* (05).
Biology* (00) - a science.
Carpenter = Craft (Carpenter).
Chemistry* (00) - a science.
Climb* (40).
Combat Engineer (is this really needed?)
Communications - use and maintain communication devices.
Computer* (10).
Conceal* (15).
Construction - of permanent structures, like buildings, etc. (Craft?)
Craft (whatever) (10) - a handicraft, trade, occupation.
Dance = Art (Dancing).
Disguise (05).
Dodge* (DEXx2).
Drive* (any ground or grav vehicle) (20). Defaults to others at half skill.
Electronics*. (00)
Environment Suit (10) - use and maintain of all kind of suits like vac suits
and combat armor.
Farming = Craft (Farming).
Fast Talk* (05).
First Aid* (30).
Fleet Tactics (00) - command combat operations of space ships.
Forgery (00).
Forward Observer (is this really needed?)
Gambling (05) = Art (Gambling) ?
Genetics (00) - a science.
Geology* (00) - a science.
Gravitics (00) - a science.
Ground Tactics (00) - command ground combat operations.
Hide* (10).
History* (20) - a science (sort of).
Intrusion (00) = Locksmith (sort of).
Jeweler = Craft (Jeweler), Estimate.
Jump* (25).
Leadership (APPx2).
Liaison (10) - ability to understand and deal with other groups and cultures.
Listen* (25).
Machinist = Mechanics, a craft.
Map (05) = Make maps.
Marketing (05) - buy and sell and make money.
Martial Arts* (00).
Mason = Craft (Stones)
Mechanic (10).
Medical (05) = Medicine*.
Metallurgy (00) - a science.
Meteorology (00) - a science.
Music = Art (Music).
Navigation (10).
Observation (25) = Spot hidden.
Painting = Art (Painting, drawing)
Parachute (00) - ...
Persuasion* (15).
Physics* (00) - a science.
Pickpocket (05) - a skill I'm missing in CoC.
Pilot (any aircraft, vessel, spaceship) (00)
Research (15) = Library use (sort of!)
Riding (05) (any animal, perhaps a bike, too?)
RCV Operations (00) - control remotely commanded vehicles/weapons/robots
Robotics (00) - a science.
Sculpture = Art (Sculpture)
Sensors (00) - operate, diagnose and repair sensors.
Service (15) - ability to serve as personal servant/maid, steward.
Ship Tactics (00) - starship combat.
Ship Engineering (00) - operate and maintain ship's engines.
Sneak* (10).
Starship Architecture (00) - design of starships
Stealth (10) - move quietly, unnoticed. (Hide & Sneak)
Streetwise (05) - knowledge of "certain" subculture.
Survey (00) - explore territory
Survival (05).
Swimming (25).
Tracking (10).
Willpower (10) - sort of skill to resist psychological treatments.
Xeno-Biology (00) - a science.
Zero-G-Env (05) - no problems at gravityless places.
*=CoC skills
plus own language (EDUx5) and foreign languages (00).
plus a lot of weapon skills for all hand-to-hand, missile and heavy
weapons (such as grenade launchers for example). Handguns (20), SMGs
(15), Rifle (25), Shotgun (30), Heavy Weapons (no more than 10).
Pilot (thing) divides into quite a lot of subskills, so they should
default to each other at half skill, if both are the same class of
things, e.g. water vessels, submarines, space ships (no FTL travel),
jump ships (with FTL travel).
Experience
Use experience checks as usual. You can train and raise all
characteristics and skills as described in Elric!
Injury
A character becomes unconscious if his HP fall below 3. He's deadly
wounded if his HP falls below 0. He dies if HP fall below -HP.
(Another suggestion from RQ4, so characters live a little bit longer.)
[Optional] Use the following hit locations, which all have own HPs.
Humans, Aslan & Zhodani:
1D20 Hit location Hit points per location (HL)
1-3 right leg HP x 0.33
4-6 left leg HP x 0.33
7-10 abdomen HP x 0.33
11-12 chest HP x 0.40
13-15 right arm HP x 0.25
16-18 left arm HP x 0.25
19-20 head HP x 0.33
Droyne:
1-3 right leg HP x 0.33
4-6 left leg HP x 0.33
7-8 abdomen HP x 0.33
9-10 right wing HP x 0.25
11-12 left wing HP x 0.25
13-14 chest HP x 0.40
15-16 right arm HP x 0.25
17-18 left arm HP x 0.25
19-20 head HP x 0.33
Hiver:
1-3 First Limb HP x 0.33
4-6 Second Limb HP x 0.33
7-9 Third Limb HP x 0.33
10-12 Fourth Limb HP x 0.33
13-15 Fifth Limb HP x 0.33
16-18 Body HP x 0.50
19-20 Head Limb HP x 0.33
Vargr:
1-3 right leg HP x 0.33
4-6 left leg HP x 0.33
7-9 abdomen HP x 0.33
10 tail HP x 0.25
11-12 chest HP x 0.40
13-15 right arm HP x 0.25
16-18 left arm HP x 0.25
19-20 head HP x 0.33
A character dies if his head or body (chest or abdomen) loses HP or
more points at once.
Healing is as described in CoC. An immediately applied First Aid or
Medicine will restore 1D3 HP. Normal healing restores 1D3 per week,
plus 1D3 due to Medicine. Because of sophisticated med-tech, the
recovery rate may be even higher (another 1D3 per week). All rolls
are made per injury.
Acid, Drowning, Suffocating, Explosions, Falling, Fire and Poisoning
are as usual as in CoC.
COMBAT
Melee
I suggest a combat round length of about 3 or 4 seconds. Each round,
every character can make one action, mainly an attack roll.
(10 or 12 seconds is too long for firearm combat. Because I didn't
change the rate of fire, combat has been speeded up. Decide, whether
this is good or bad.)
DEX determines the order of attack. A tie is broken by INT or a D%
roll. Firearms go before hand-to-hand combat. Afterwards, firearms
with a rate of fire greater than one go again. If one character has a
DEX which is more than 10 points greater than the opponents DEX, he
can make hand-to-hand attacks before the opponents can react and fire.
You can dodge or parry (use the same skill as for hand-to-hand attack
or Brawl skill) as many attacks as you like, but with a cumulative
minus of 20% (if you parry) or 30% (if you dodge) for each attack.
You can go without defense and make an all out attack, attacking
twice. Or, you can defend twice before reducing the skill value and
go without an attack.
Missile
No special rules at the moment. Use normal rules as described in CoC.
Laser weapons have a low powered target beam that gives +10% to hit if
the user uses it.
Stunner are special non-lethal weapons which stun a target. A pistol
emits energy of 3D6 strength, a heavy rifle 4D8. The rolled total is
matched against the HP of the target. If the strength of the energy
overcomes the HP of the target, the target is stunned for strength x3
combat rounds. Standard range is 5m, up to 10m is damage is halved.
Special
You can make combat very complex. CoC or Elric! give good examples
for unusual events. But, I think combat isn't that important (despite
what GDW products may imply).
Tables
Weapons: This table describes some weapons as examples and gives
common damages ranges for these weapons. Feel free to flesh out this
table. I want to keep it short here.
Weapons Base% Damage AP
Unarmed 50 1D3+db -
Grapple 25 1D4+db -
Knife 25 1D3+db 3
Dagger 25 1D4+db 4
Parry dagger 20 1D4+db 6
1H-weapons 20 1D6-1D8 +db 6-8
2H-weapons 15 1D8-1D10+db 8
Shields
small 20 1D4 8*
medium 20 1D4 10*
large 20 1D4 12*
* this is wood or plastic; metal or other material have higher values
(e.g. +2)
Bow 5 1D6 / 1D8
Crossbow 30 1D8 / 1D10 / 2D6
Pistols 20 1D6 / 1D8 / 1D10 / 1D10+2 / 2D6 / 2D8
Rifles/SMGs 15 1D10+2 / 2D6 / 2D8 / 3D6 / 3D8
Shotguns 30 4D6* (reduced due range)
Lasers 25 2D4 / 2D6 / 2D8
Armor: Absorbs damage. For the snake of simplicity, there are no
special penetration rules for crossbows, lasers, etc. If hit
locations are used, different locations may be protected by different
armor. Some examples:
Leatherjacket 1
Kevlar vest 5
Metal(helmet) 6
Combat armor 10
BACKGROUND
[Has to be written]
History
Technology
Equipment
----------------------------------------
have a nice weekend,
bye.
--Stefan Matthias Aust
--------------------
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