Saturday, April 17, 2021

Let's Read: Traveller, 1977 Edition, Worlds & Adventures, page 27

Back for more, and we've got two previously-mentioned tables here: The Animal Types table and the Special Attributes table. But first, there's a brief note on specific encounters at specific locations, in which case random encounter tables are superfluous, so don't bother with them.

Okay, the Animal Types Table. There are four types, with several subtypes. Herbivores can be filters, grazers, or intermittent. I'm not sure what 'intermittent' means, but I'm sure we'll find out on another page. There are several die roll numbers on the table to indicate how many of the animal are encountered. Grazers can have as many as 5D encountered, which is the biggest amount on the table. I'm guessing that 'filters' would be animals that strain tiny bits of plant life, like some dinosaurs were said to do. Grazers are your basic deer and antelope, of course.

Next are Omnivores, which can be gatherers, eaters, and hunters. There aren't going to be as many of these as there are herbivores. Which makes sense; herbivores are going to be the most common of animals on any world. I'm not sure if bears would fit under gatherers or eaters; I'm leaning toward eaters, though. Gatherers would be...meat-eating squirrels? That's an interesting image.

Carnivores can be pouncers, sirens, killers, trappers, or chasers. Pouncers and chasers are straightforward enough; lions and cheetahs. Trappers would be like spiders. Ooh, gigantic spiders. That would freak people out. Because it's never been done before. Sirens...oh, a Venus fly-trap would qualify. My mind went to literal sirens from Greek mythology, but anything that lures prey in somehow would be a siren. Killers...I'm not sure about an example for those. It's a pretty generic category. A pack of chasers would be pretty terrifying, since they can have a 3D roll for number encountered. Fifteen cheetahs chasing a group of characters would be one hell of an encounter. For a few minutes, anyway.

Finally, there are Scavengers, which are carrion-eaters, reducers, hijackers, or intimidators. Carrion-eaters would be vultures; hyenas are in there somewhere, but I don't know enough to call them hijackers or intimidators. Reducers sound more like fungi that subsist on carrion but don't actually eat it.

This table is modified by the terrain DMs chart, from the previous page. So, if you're looking for a herbivore in the desert, you're not going to find any filtering ones; they're almost certainly going to be grazers. In the jungle, you get a -4 to the roll, so there won't be too many grazing critters, but quite a few filters. The other tables have their subtypes scattered around, so there's no real pattern to what you'll find in any particular terrain.

Next up is the Special Attributes table, which adds movement capability to various animals. The lower the roll, the more likely it's a water creature. But you'll only find triphibians on the beach, or in the sea; not on the riverbank or in a swamp. The attributes also include size modifiers, which will be cumulative with the ones from the terrain table. So, for example, a marsh encounter gets a +4 to the size roll, while an amphibian (a 3 or 4 on the Attributes table) gets a +1 or +2. Any amphibian in the marsh is going to be BIG. I'm not sure how big yet, since I haven't seen that table, but it's going to be pretty large. Swimmers in the marsh get a -6 to their roll, though, so it's a cumulative -2. So, the fish are going to be small, and the frogs are going to be friggin' massive.

And that's another page done. Moving along...

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