P&P v2 [Was: Re: Idea bounce]

[Choinski, Burt]

Wout Broere [SMTP:w.broere at CT.TUDELFT.NL]
|| In P&P I always wonder about the mixture of creatures available. We
have
|| dwarfs from Norse mythology, faerries from Irish myths, Elves from
middle to
     .
     .
|| myth and a fine mix as such. Someone not only compiled a list of
faerry atle
|| creatures, but studied different mythologies and created a very
diversified
|| list.

It IS quite a hodgepodge.  And frankly, we still need more :)
Seriously, I have at times taken the encounter rolled and tweaked it a
little (I once took a Great Ape encounter and described them as big evil
bears.  I think I tweaked the stats a little, and modified the behavior
a tad, but it worked okay)

|| So giving the playable races recognizable names will help players
imagine
|| how they look and behave, using known myths and tales and not having
to
|| resort to the rule books for a description. On the other hand,
changing the
|| creatures names will make them instantly unrecognizable and keep the
world
|| exciting and new. And the names given are good choices for that. It
is my
|| opinion that both names should be used in a basic system, with the
generic
|| names to help new players and game masters get a feeling for the
world and
|| the characters.

I could cope with the "mutating" of existing creatures in Book 3 to
eliminate the "obvious" commonly known creatures (i.e. Change the
"Unicorn" into a deer-like form, change the description a bit, tweak the
stats, alter the motivation a tad, give it a new name (probably elder
based).  The exotic and the unknown are much more interesting (IMHO)
than the heavily overused generic creatures.  We can still have some
creature in the "dragon" niche, just call it something else (Perhaps
drawing more on different languages for the names -- use more Celtic
names for the Fey, perhaps more Persian names for the djin, etc.  Even
to the point of taking Latin or greek and corrupting the spelling.  So a
"Dragon" type creature might be a "Dracomaar" (quick example OTTOMH)
perhaps less "lizard like" and more Birdlike.  I dunno. I did like this
facet while going through the RuneQuest books.  Some of the Gloranthan
creatures are just plain wacky, but others are interesting becuase they
are different.
    -- Burton
---------------------------------------------------------
Burton Choinski, Peritus Software Services Inc.
bchoinski at peritus.com



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