[SG/DS] Help designing aliens

Well, perhaps a brief description. I am thinking of an alien force which is
not so alien in organization, uses railguns with explosive shells for weapons
but which benefits from a rather hulking size, massive
muscle-mass
and suffers from bad eye-site and a cautious nature

On Friday, February 28, 2003 12:04 PM, staremu
[SMTP:star_emu@hotmail.com]
wrote:
> I have unearthed my converted Tonk miniatures and have started
Combat psychology and chain-of-command.  Do they react as normal humans
in combat or go berserk as the Kra'vak do? Make sure not to unbalance it too
far in one direction to make them unplayable (either for or against).

> What should I avoid?
Uberweaponry on squad level troops. Equipment should be representative of
their robust level technology (ie: no portable laser cannons if their tech
requires a team of scientists to keep it running). It can be "alien" in nature
as long as it's consistant.

> Any short-cuts?

Cut and paste an existing human force with a name change.

On Friday, February 28, 2003 1:07 PM, staremu
[SMTP:star_emu@hotmail.com]
wrote:
> Well, perhaps a brief description. I am thinking of an alien force

Just a rough idea that might meet your needs.
*****

Psychology; Standard SG rules

Weaponry;
Gauss Rifle - FP:2, I: d12
Gauss Gatling SAW - FP: d10, I: d12
Gauss Railgun - FP: d6, I: d6x2*

Armour; Hardshell armour; d8 protection, 6" movement.

Special effects;
+2 CC die shift due to physique, +1 on confidence(?) checks to start
Close Assault.
+1 shift to all range bands due to poor eyesight (eg: d4 range die
becomes d6 range die).

Nasty in CC, but lacks confidence to start the assault and have trouble
hitting targets at range. The range band shift might be too much, but only
playtesting will show if they balance OK.

G'day,

> What are important things to address?

Command and control Morale Armour Direct fire Melee

and not necessarily in that order;)

> What should I avoid?

Being the absolute best (or worst) at all of the above.

> Any short-cuts?

Use the humans as a basis and then make modifications from there always
remembering for every up add a down. This can be an iterative process as
somethings that at face value are an up can turn around and play out to be a
substantial down!

Given the general outline you provided I think Brendan's suggestions are
pretty close to what I would've put forward too. You'll find that even such a
simple list of changes will modify how you play. Being forced to get so close
to fire effectively means you're probably more likely to end up charging into
HTH where you have a potential advantage anyway... which can
match the "rhinos have bad eyesight so attack/appear cranky" perception
etc.

Cheers

One thing I wanted to simulate was that the Tonk are not cold or unemotional,
but very even tempered, not given to severe emotion either way. I see this as
makign them more steady in combat, but also harder to motivate to rash action.
In additon, parto f the anatomy I developed was a heightened olfactory sense.
They have no nostrils but a large area of their face is permiated with
olfactory nerves. I see this as giving them an advantage to sopt hidden
troops, though on the other hand a battle field being full of strong odors
anyhow, might be masked enoug hfor this to be moot.

Thoughts?

Eli
[quoted original message omitted]

staremu schrieb:
> In additon, part of the anatomy I developed was a

Makes some sense. I have that fighters in Vietnam could smell enemy soldiers
(due to different food, hygiene etc.) Hmmm...Change the rules and modifiers
for searching and hidden units.

Some thoughts: Treat as better than basic sensors, but for a limited range
only.

Modifiers for wind direction, any sources of strong smells (e.g.special
vegetation, vehicles with engine running), more than one enemy in
range...

Possibly make two separate sensor rolls, one for smell, one for eyesight etc.
Smell has poor spatial resolution: instead of one hidden counter, the enemy
always places three (2 dummy, 1 real, or 3 dummies), fairly close together. If
the smell result is 'nothing there' remove all counters. If it is 'something
there', opponent says so, but leaves the counters in place. Only if the visual
roll gives a positive result is the specific counter revealed.

Greetings Karl Heinz

I looked over the list that Brendan presented and made a couple mods but used
them pretty much as is. Going to try and playtest them against my NSL over the
weekend.

One thing I did change is that the Tonk do not wear armor only light fatigues.
This is primarily do to the minaitures I used for them and wantingto match the
stats to the minsi so to speak. I am wondering if I would be remiss in giving
them some form of natural resistence to damage due to large size and general
physical toughness, though I doubt any organic material is going to have too
much of an effect on the trauma induced by gunfire.

Eli
[quoted original message omitted]

Just a quick side note. So you all can see what I am talkign about,
miniature-wise, I slapped some of my minis on a scanner to give yo ua
comparative view. Note that the green PA is leaning forward and is actually a
bittaller than is shown due to the flat scan.

got to:

http://staremu.mpgsonline.com/the_tonk.htm

to check it out.

Eli
[quoted original message omitted]

> wantingto match the stats to the minsi so to speak. I am wondering

Rhino, elephant or croc hide--won't stop a .50 cal but I'd think it
would help against small calibers and fragments. Technically kevlar is organic
but I think you mean "natural biological"

On Fri, 28 Feb 2003 10:32:10 -0600 "staremu" <star_emu@hotmail.com>
writes:
> I looked over the list that Brendan presented and made a couple mods

Maybe effect wounds/recovery of same?  1/6 chance 'kills' are wounds and
1/12 wounds are stunned kind of thing??

Gracias,

That's a good idea. I was thinkign about making their vision problem not so
much a problem of poor isight, jus tan issue of light sensativity. their
planet as I envision it, is a marchy, overcast and hazey world where vision
wouldn't be developed as the primary sense
[quoted original message omitted]

Thanks Beth,

> I like Karl's idea, but another option may be just that they auto spot

I like this. It's simple but effective. Is this overkill or is it one of those
things that comes up so little that it really won't be too great an advantage?

> The other option is to effect how hard it is to kill them in the first

I like this option. I don't see the Tonk as the sort of alien that just keep
getting up, just that they are tough and hard to kill.

Thanks again,

Eli

G'day,

> In additon, parto f the anatomy I developed was a

I like Karl's idea, but another option may be just that they auto spot
anything within range band 1 or 12" or something. Animals that use smell are
damn good at it;)

> I am wondering if I would be remiss in giving them

There's two main ways to reflect this. First up is to change wound recovery
rules - may be roll D6 and 1 = DEAD, 2-4 = STABILISED and 5-6 = OK.
Alternatively you could roll a D8 and have 1-2 = DEAD, 3-7 = STABILISED
and 8 = OK (so they get hurt but its not as lethal).

The other option is to effect how hard it is to kill them in the first
place. SO during fire/damage allocation if
IMP <= Armour then no damage suppressed only IMP > Armour then wounded IMP >
3x Armour then killed

This reflects that they get hurt and recover as easily as humans but its
tougher to outright kill them

Cheers

G'day,

> I like this. It's simple but effective. Is this overkill or

Probably only specific scenarios really.

> I like this option. I don't see the Tonk as the sort of

The good thing is in my experience it also doesn't unbalance things either as
you're still taking wounds which may kill at recovery check time, but it still
gives them a different feel to standard humans.

> Thanks again,

No worries