Ganders - What's the difference?

Scott DeWar · May 14, 2011

coming in on the tail of this thread, with naught to crow about. That may be a cardinal sin but not as bad as the not so grandma friendly thought that i almost posted about swallows

Olgar Shiverstone said:
African swallows, or European swallows?

I really shouldn't be raven on but the puns getting fowl as they are I could not resist. If this is bad, then call your L'eagle department and sue me. as it is mourning-dove soap is calling to me befor I canbe robin the rich and giving to me.

ba da ba da ba da bats all folks!

El Mahdi · May 14, 2011

This thread Rocs!

tuxgeo · May 14, 2011

TarionzCousin said:
Ok, I know that this is a sensitive subject, but... In RPGs, should there be difference between birds?

This concept must be totally alien to younger gamers, but old school enworld birders still remember the 70's. We had a game called "AD&D 1st Birdition (or 1B for short)". It was a massive game back in the day.

Baby ducklings had the lowest STR-cap, but if you made a male baby duckling, the cap was higher. All ganders had difference in weight, height, flying speed and STR-cap.

I also vaguely remember the same from Runequest, but the "physical frailness" of sparrows was only applied to NPCs. No benefit was given to crow NPCs, only some sort of penalty because they were so obnoxious.

< . . . >
So what's your opinion?

Overall, I think that a difference between birds is inevitable. When they are lined up on an overhead telephone wire, they maintain a constant difference between themselves, and they drive away any who settle too close. Since the birds do that themselves, I don't expect that difference to go away any time soon.

Baby ducklings may have had the lowest STR-cap, but Ugly ducklings had the lowest CHA-cap, didn't they?

The differences among ganders are also fairly inevitable; but less well known is the effect that the observer's eyesight can have -- when you "take a gander" at something, the information you gather depends on how proficient you are at observation.

I missed the Runequest version. Was there a "physical quailness" factor to go along with the "physical frailness" factor?

Theo R Cwithin · May 14, 2011

Apologies, but...
[RANT]
I always found 1st Birdition to be rife with confusing and highly counter-intuitive rules. I'm away from my rulebook atm, but here are just a few off the top of my head:

* The fact that crows (well, male crows, anyway) in the game wielded that bizarre polearm... what was it? "nez de personne", I think it was called. Really, how many polearms does a game need?

* Don't get me started on the +5 Cloaca of Resistance. Ugh!

* And most seabirds were restricted from heavy armor- but not penguins, of course (stuck up stuffed shirts)! So much for my hopes of playing a breast-plate wearing blue-footed booby paladin.

* And QUAC0 was counted backwards?? Seriously, wtf?

It's a wonder I continued playing RPGs at all after that travesty of a game.
YMMV, of course.
[/RANT]

Dannyalcatraz · May 15, 2011

Man, I don't think its ostritch to say you're all sticking your heads in the sand on this issue. I'm not one for puffin up new products, but the latest edition takes care of all these problems, courtesy of page 42.

Next thing I know, this will all dovetail into a thread about Dragonborn http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/:):):)_(bird)

Edit: Apparently, ENWorld's profanity filter is even affecting my link to a particular kind of bird spelled with two "T"s and an "i" in the middle.

Relique du Madde · May 15, 2011

You know what I wonder, why aren't there fire breathing chickens? You would think that there would be some because of how many avian species can trace their lineage back to dinosaurs. So can anyone tell me why dragons only evolve into dragon born and not fire breathing chickens?

Theo R Cwithin · May 15, 2011

I'm guessing it's beakause Mother Nature considers self-barbequing food to be an evolutionary dead-end.

Scott DeWar · May 15, 2011

what I want and what i get are two different things

I was looking for a hot gamer chick and all I got was this.

Dannyalcatraz · May 15, 2011

And we haven't even discussed the birds of prey...Condors: what's the difference.

Keefe the Thief · May 15, 2011

Meh, birds were always more realistically modelled in Runequest. In this regard, D&D jumped the lark even before 1st edition.

Ganders - What's the difference?

Scott DeWar

Prof. Emeritus-Supernatural Events/Countermeasure

El Mahdi

Muad'Dib of the Anauroch

tuxgeo

Adventurer

Theo R Cwithin

I cast "Baconstorm!"

Dannyalcatraz

Schmoderator

Relique du Madde

Adventurer

Theo R Cwithin

I cast "Baconstorm!"

Scott DeWar

Prof. Emeritus-Supernatural Events/Countermeasure

Attachments

Dannyalcatraz

Schmoderator

Keefe the Thief

Hero

Similar Threads