Of Alignments, Cannibalism, and Diet Carnivore.

[The Oh So Amazing Nate]

So for a few weeks now I've been playing my first ATB2 char. A Mountain Lion that was raised on the frontier. Full Hands, Speech, Biped, No looks. 2 d6 Climbing Claws, Feline Leaping, Adv Hearing, Adv Smell, Ex PP, Ex Spd, and Diet Carnivore. SL 8 All in all, I'd say a pretty respectable predator.

With his background I chose the skills I thought would be useful to play him as a wandering trader/merchant and handyman.

When you put those two together you come up with the problem I am running into. How to be a legit business lion but still make sure I have plenty of meat to eat in the rough and tumble hardscrabble world that is ATB2? I like the description of unprincipled as far as the businessman aspect goes, but disagree with the "feelings on cannibalism" part.

As far as his actions against combatants go, he offers them the chance to avoid fighting with the warning that if they decide to continue to fight/harass him he will kill them and eat them. This I definitely think falls under miscreant.

Speaking of cannibalism, do they consider cannibalism eating another mountain lion or eating another cat or is it so broad as to include eating ANY other sentient animal?

The way i've been playing him (in regards to eating things), I won't kill another being for the purpose of food. However, once they are already dead (as a result of going through with their choice to fight/harass me) I'm not going to let the meat go to waste.

So in short, I try to be a stand up business person and always give my customers a fair deal or do a good job for the work they hire me for, give combatants/harassers a chance/choice not to fight and leave me alone, and only eat other "people" after they are already dead. But I won't kill them in order to eat them.

Thoughts on an appropriate alignment or should I just ignore the whole thing and play him as I have been without worrying about a label?


An example of how the above situations played out. I was pulling my cart of goods along the road to trade in the next town when I was ambushed by a group of 10 SL 3 chipmunk bandits. The demanded that I surrender all my goods. I laughed at them and told them this was the worst idea they had had in awhile and that if they wanted to continue the fight that I would kill them, eat them, then track down their friends and families and eat them too. This didn't phase them enough to discourage their course of action. So we fought, and I won and then threw them in my cook pot. Using my Adv. Smell I tracked back to their village and finding no one there, burnt it down instead. I would have killed and eaten them if they had been home, I am a cougar of my word after all.

[auyl]

I think it's a fine line your PC walks and as a result you'd have to be careful just to take what you need from already dead sources of food.

But then again a lion needs to eat, if there are no other sources of food I wouldn't hinder your character from killing those who wouldn't stand down for consumption.

[CyCo]

It would depend on how the world is set up.

Are all animals mutants? Then that is indeed a dangerous line you walk. Trade for meat potatoes.

Or, how I tend to run AtB, not all animals are mutants. So in my world, you'd have both mutant, sentient mountain lions, and normal, mundane mountain lions. And the occasional, mutant, non sentient mountain lion. This goes for all animals, insects included. So then, strictly speaking, eating a fellow sentient mountain lion would be cannibalism, but no so a sentient horse. But eating a fellow sentient animal of any sort is lumped into the same category as cannibalism.

[The Oh So Amazing Nate]

Let me state again, My Pc doesn't kill sentient creatures for the purpose of eating them. He only eats them because they are already dead. The fact that I caused their death is merely a technicality.

I think it's a fine line your PC walks and as a result you'd have to be careful just to take what you need from already dead sources of food.

I have been playing him as just a taaaaaaad crazy. Not any serious mental disorder or anything, but more like that one friend we all had in high school; the guy who was fun to hang out with because you never knew what crazy thing he was going to do next, but that you were also slightly scared of..for the same reasons. Other than being just a few degree's off center, he's a pretty decent guy.

But then again a lion needs to eat, if there are no other sources of food I wouldn't hinder your character from killing those who wouldn't stand down for consumption.

No no no. I don't kill them for consumption. I kill them because they wouldn't stand down. Eating them is more of an after thought. Think of it like this. I'm not going to kill you so I can loot your corpse. But since you're already dead, well now I'm going to loot you.

It would depend on how the world is set up.

Are all animals mutants? Then that is indeed a dangerous line you walk. Trade for meat potatoes.

GM says NO, not all animals are mutants (sentient). So far only 1 meat potato plant has been encountered. We fought a nest of giant beetles in order to get it. No one else has had any "meat" for trade.

Or, how I tend to run AtB, not all animals are mutants. So in my world, you'd have both mutant, sentient mountain lions, and normal, mundane mountain lions. And the occasional, mutant, non sentient mountain lion. This goes for all animals, insects included. So then, strictly speaking, eating a fellow sentient mountain lion would be cannibalism, but no so a sentient horse. But eating a fellow sentient animal of any sort is lumped into the same category as cannibalism.

I don't think that my PC would eat another carnivore, sentient or not, as I have read somewhere that carnivore meat tastes bad. I don't know if this is true or not, but I'm sticking with it. However, if it is dead (by my hand or other causes) I feel it's fair game.