pugh@cornell.UUCP (William Pugh) (09/28/83)
is a very different thing than fighting a person. When fighting
a person, you generally stand or walk around at short range while
trading blows. Most (real-world) animals will stay outside of
combat range, looking for an openning, and when they get it,
they lunge in, hopefully to make a fatal attack. Also, people
parry, dodge, block, and repost (is that the way it's spelled?), while
animals generally lack such subtlety.
This may not make much difference in D&D, where combat is very
abstract and there is no skill system. However, in games which
have a more detailed combat system and a skill system, this will
make a differnce. For example, a person may be an excellent fighter
against other people, but only an average fighter against animals (or
vice versa). The combat system should be somewhat different also. The
following is some ideas on animal combat:
* The major effective defense against an animal is some sort of
polearm, such as a spear. With a spear, you can hopefully impale
the creature before it gets to you, and keep it from getting to you.
-- NOTE: these comments are ment to apply to fighting medium to
large size animals only. Fighting against a (real-world) snake is
many a matter a dodging out of the way of it's strike a hitting with
something.
* If an animal leaps on you, and you don't hit it on the way in, you
are in BIG trouble. Conan aside, if a bear manages to grapple with
you, you are dead unless you have some incredible armor.
* Animals should rarely attack healthy people. A animal can not
profit by any money you have, only by your food value. Most animals
hunt every several days, and if they are seriously wounded, they
will not be able to hunt and will likely die. So an animal must be
able to win 99+% of it's battles without being hurt. Preditors
rarely attack prime examples of any creature which can put up a fight.
Instead, they attack the young, old, and the sick. In practice,
an animal who is considering attacking a person is likely to come
up to them, growl, and make a few tentitive strikes, with the
intention of not taking a chance of being hurt. If the person
puts up a show of resistence, the animal is likely to wander off.
For example, a torch or a branch from a thorn bush will likely
keep a lion away (real world examples). In addition, some people
studying wolves scared a pack of wolves away from their kill
simply by running up to them, shouting and waving their hands.
Some of the effects of these assumptions/facts is that animal
combat becomes rarer/less fun, which I approve of. I really don't
see why GM's need to keep coming up with new monsters, when NPC's are
much more intersting opponent's. You can talk with an NPC, bargin
with them, and attempt to outwit them. It's as easy to come up with
an interesting NPC as it is to come up with an interesting monster.
Also, if you lose to a NPC, you may live through it; the NPC may
decide just to rob you, ransom you, or sell you into slavery (none
of which may be fun, but all of which are more interesting than being
eaten). Also, this way, players tend to be more scared when their
opponent is an unknown, unnatural monster, rather thn just a person (
their normal type of opponent).
Bill Pugh