Animal Partners

[Rali]

National Geographic published an article online about pictures of animals riding other animals: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015 ... tos-videos

I also found a couple other related articles:
* Raccoon rides alligator
* Frog riding beetle/ (my favorite)

What are some of your in game pair-ups?

[Mathew]

You could go with something ironic, like a prey animal riding the animal that hunts it. Rabbit riding a giant wolf, etc.

This does bring up the concept of animal mounts in the After the Bomb settings. You have to assume that NOT every mutated animal becomes both intelligent and humanoid. Some might just mutate to a larger size, but still be animal-like and useable as mounts.

I wonder if maybe some Rifter could make a table for animal mounts that is based on the same rules used to make player characters. Make the mount just like a player character, but with 1D4+2 INT, and a minimum size level of 2-3 larger than the person who rides it. Give make a table for generating animal based skills. Assume biped - none, looks - none, speech - none.

[glitterboy2098]

you don't actually have to assume, since the ATB main book establishes that only a small fraction of animals mutated. plenty of non-mutant versions around.

thread where the issue came up before: viewtopic.php?f=12&t=94938#p1849595

2nd Edition AtB, pg 164:

Some animals were affected as well. About 25% of all primates, and 10% of mammals, as well as 2% of other creatures...Of those animals affected, most died, but about a third seemed to mutate as they recovered, gaining human traits.

At first it seemed that most of the surviving animals were unaffected. It wasn't until the next generation was born, that the extent of the plague was completely realized. The manufactured disease...was also infecting the offspring of many mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians, as well as a few fish, crustaceans and insects.

which means 75% of primates, 90% of all other mammals, and 98% of all other creatures were left uneffected.

and of those infected, 2/3rds just died.

so thats:
8.25% of primates mutated
3.33 of other mammals mutated
0.66% of non-mammals mutated
16.75% of primates died
6.667% of other mammals died
1.334% of non-mammals died
75% of primates were uneffected
90% of other mammals were uneffected
98% of non-mammals were uneffected

this is the toll for the mutagen plague. the nuclear war would screw up these numbers. nukes are an indiscriminate killer, but because they were targeted at cities, bases, ect, would not really have a major impact on the unurbanized regions. and nature tends to reassert it's influence on places with vigor, so any losses in the unaltered animals would generally be replaced pretty quick.
so the world of ATB is one we would recognize, with birds in the trees, insects on the ground, cattle herds roaming the fields.....we'd never know we had left our world until we find a city ruin, or run into an anthropomorphic animal...

[Mathew]

Yes but those were the stats among those exposed to the plague. Among the children of those seemingly unaffected more mutants were born. Also, my supposition was that not every mutated animal was human level intelligent. Some could be mutated, but still animal intelligence. Perhaps a gopher or frog could mutate larger and become as smart as a pack animal, and now be suitable as a mount.

[glitterboy2098]

you misunderstand what those numbers mean. they were 3rd person omniscient writing in the book. it describes the virus not the mutations. those percentages are the numbers that caught the virus, whether they showed signs of it or not. most died from it, but those that didn't went on to produce mutated offspring.

so there are no mutants coming out of the uninfected population, and while there may have been those infected that didn't show signs prior to their offspring, there are no such not already included in the book's percentages.

as for mutant animals without human level intelligence.. ATB does include those, but they are a low probability result on the encounter tables, suggesting that they are not terribly common. (roughly as common appears to be intelligent mutant animals with totally non-mutant looks)
if you mean regular animals with just weird features, the game does not include those a written.

[Mathew]

Honestly the numbers do not matter. My point I that some of the mutated animals may not be mutated into intelligent human-like beings. Some might be mutated into pack animals, by simply having high animal intelligence and large size.

[G]

Letmesee:

-I think there are some pictures in the books with small intelligent animals riding larger ones with big guns mounted on them.
-Clem rides a giant insect in the Clem's big adventure scenario in the books.
-A Terror bear (psionic) with the psi power control bears...it would appear to a mother and her cub Except the cub is a powerful psychic and the mother is the braun. ...or a family of braun.
-I had a pleasure bunny with control insects (& pheromones), this combo worked like an insect hive queen which was used to control a giant flying ant mount.
-I posted a vulture scavenger once on these boards...using other vultures too do whatever you like...as long as you are in a crowd, no one will know which vulture to attack.
-You could get some good use out of control animals and animal speech as long as you are one. Dogs, cats, mice, birds, monkeys... You don't need to spend BioE on some animal abilities, when you can control others with them. You could be a wolf, lion, or bull alpha in charge of a pack/flock/herd & harem You have the option of looking like a normal animal or person, or anywhere in the middle. I think hunting/pack animals work best.

...or go my empire of domesticated animal route (see post) and have humans control a variety of domesticated animals, so there is no chance of rebellion.

Here is the vulture from the other thread:
Bioe=65+10(dis)+15(feral)=90, -15(sl)-45(powers)-30(psi)
SL7 ~5'4"
Features: Full biped, No hands, speech or looks
Powers: Soaring flight, advanced vision, extra PE
Psionics: Advanced ectoplasmic hands, telepathic speech, animal speech & animal control
Disadvantages: Carnivore
Background: Feral

This character appears to be a larger than normal vulture, leading a flock (or kettle, whatever) of vultures. Hmmm, I wonder what weapons this character would use, it would be useful if they could be dropped from 15,000 feet. I'm actually sort of tempted to leave them normal vulture size...so they can't be picked out of the flock as easily...then taking something like telepathic listening or suggestion. Which also turns this NPC into a good spy.

Remember that mutant animals aren't humans in animal suits, they think differently. For example, a vulture isn't going to fight over land...they can easily take wing and be 15,000 or (20,000 according to the internet) feet in the air in moments...and are able to travel 120mph for 3 days straight with little effort! Thats 8,640 miles. New York to LA is 2444, which is a day trip. So you make a great courier and treasure hunter. Why do it yourself when there is so much pre-death stuff around? Just about the only thing you need on you is a radiation detector. Everything else can be left in stashes..15 minutes away by flight is 30 miles.