Classic Traveller - Animal Encounters

TOC:

The table of contents for this review of the Classic Traveller Book is on the following page: CT Review Table of Contents

Animals

Animals in any ecological system interact with each other, forming food chains, obeying instincts, defending territory, and generally living out their lives. When people enter such an ecological system, they will encounter the animals of the system, prompting natural reactions, such as attack or flight.

Although the precise nature of animals may change, and they may prove quite alien to ordinary experience, most will conform t o the broad classifications given below. A referee may choose to establish his own ecological system on a specific world, ignoring the encounter system outlined here. This system, however, is intended to allow broad latitude in both animal types and attack/defense mechanisms, while remaining essentially logical and reasonable.

As we enter the next chapter, the header starts off with a setting of the stage - that animals in all of their variety (GM fiat aside for unique environments or flashes of inspiration) will basically slot in as Herbivores, Carnivores, Omnivores, and Scavengers. Each of these can have a varying degree of hunting or feeding habits, and offensive or defensive measures at hand (or claw).

First order of business - this is obviously a toolkit to create what would be the wilderness encounter table for ACKs or AD&D, unique to a particular world. The flip side is that you don’t have to do the work, unless players actually elect to go explore a world where wilderness encounters are relevant. As a lazy GM, who fully appreciates the tables included in ACKs that let me generate a dungeon on the fly, having the ability to create a custom ecosphere for a world is… neat, but a bit fiddly.

Fortunately, page 95 includes a typical “clear terrain” encounter table, both as an example and as fallback for improvisational need. For a campaign, it may be worth creating similar generic tables for oceans, rivers, arctic terrain, and so on.

Anyone who’s already dug into the rules and spent hours creating worlds and environments will pause at the following:

Initially, the referee must prepare a blank encounter column for each terrain type on the world. The terrain DMs chart indicates the general types of terrain which might be expected on the worlds to be visited. The referee should determine if the encounter table will use one die or two; two dice tables are more complex, and should be selected for terrain or worlds that will be frequently used, while one die tables are for worlds or terrain types which the referee does not feel merit detailed representation. The examples of blank encounter tables shown indicate the predetermined sequences of animal categories which should be used in most cases; these sequences may be varied by the referee to fit specific situations or world conditions.

I may create generic tables for a campaign, but unless there’s in depth exploration of a world or a safari expedition - no.

The animal table creation procedure is highly dependent on world creation, especially with more exotic environments - note that planetary size is factored in to animal size:

Animal Size: Animals range in size from small (massing about 1 kilogram) to giant (massing 6 tons or greater), and exhibit a variety of characteristics related to size. Throw two dice and consult the weight, hits, and wounds columns of the animal size and weaponry table (rolling only once for all three). DMs are imposed on this throw based on planetary size, the terrain DM chart (by specific terrain type) and as required by special attributes, if present.

For combat integration, how animal hit dice/points are factored in, including, again, an awareness of safari hunting for exotic animals (or “that ship class isn’t an accident”):

Animal Hits: The hits column indicates the number of hits an animal can take, expressed as a dice throw. When an animal has received wounds equalling or exceeding the first dice throw, the animal is considered to be unconscious. When it has received wounds equalling or exceeding its total hits, it is dead. If an animal receives wounds equal to twice its hits, it is destroyed and has lost any food or pelt value.

So damage taken by animals is similar as that for characters, keeping the system somewhat cohesive.

As to damage, the base amount for teeth, claws, etc., in the combat tables in the earlier chapter is modified for size. These are approximate and more descriptive of effects. The rules offer a ‘simpler” system to determine a flat damage value. For larger animals, this could be ridiculously lethal - everything and everyone else in Traveller and most RPGs roll dice for damage, an animal type doing a flat 12+ of damage instead of 2D6 or 3D6 is one way to kill off players quick with an unfair advantage.

I’m used to rolling damage for encounters in every other game, I’ll roll for the animals too.

After addressing armor, each animal has a predisposition to attack or flee, with a target number you have to match or beat. Finally, movement speed.

Referees Additions:

Here are a few notes on creating additions to the basic types, including different armors, weapons, or motivations above and beyond those already provided. It’s made explicitly clear that this is a foundational framework to be used as a baseline, fallback, or jumping off point to create things that will work within the greater game.

Other responses are possible beyond attack or flight. A carnivore may stalk a party…

There’s also a note that common sense prevails - forex, airless worlds will have little, if any

Using the tables

What good is an encounter table without times and places to have them? Also - it’s alluded earlier, but the wilderness encounters aren’t necessarily just with animals. Various natural events such as landslides, flash floods, tornadoes, earthquakes, and storms can take place. If you’re on a safari, having an expert guide can give a bonus to not only have an encounter, but to encounter a specific animal. Interestingly, Animals are usually (5+ on 2D6) edible in atmospheres 2-9, with a DM -3 if the atmosphere is tainted.

Animal Definitions

Starting on p.92, we get a very brief biology lesson on the different types of herbivores, carnivores, etc., such as filter feeders, intermittent feeders, gatherers, pouncers, hijackers, and so on, with typical behavior patterns of each general type. Your typical D&D slime/ooze would likely be classified here as a scavenger:reducer:

Reducers: Scavengers which act constantly on all avail- able food are termed reducers. They eat the remains of food after all other scavengers are finished with it, consuming bone and other leavings. Terran reducers are all microscopic, such as bacteria.

Events

After two pages of creation tables, we get into various animal related and natural events, such as rutting seasons, poisonous pests, stampedes, carnivorous plants, dense fogs, tornadoes, broken ground, solar storms, ATV tracks, and so on. Again, the GM is invited to elaborate on these as he sees fit, but there are a lot of options ready to be drawn upon at need.

Animal Creation

To get a taste of the creation procedure, we start with the terrain table, with a reasonably broad range of terrain types, how to think of it in terms of earth environments, and what impact that has on following rolls for types and the size of the creature.

You then start a template table - an example is given but can be adjusted, keeping in mind that there will likely be more herbivores than carnivores and omnivores:

For each slot you roll on the type table with the “type” dice modifier in the appropriate column for each of the four major classifications. This also tells you if it’s a solo or group/herd encounter/animal. Further roll on the attributes table for further size modifications and possible features such as whether or not it flies.

By the time you are done, you have a basic table of animals for the major ecological niches, how protected they are, how they move about, how likely they are to attack, and how effectively they do so.

While you’re at it:

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