Arc: Be right back, gotta go get my "Destruction of the World" cake. -=wanders off=- Long: Soup's on! Techie: LOG ON!!!! Aus: Sanity off! Long: Whoa.....freaky.....//O.o\\ Laura: I'd like to welcome evryone to the 6th Forum class . This weeks class is on "Creature Creation" and our host is the one and only Tim the Techie. Long: ::Claps slowly:: yay....... Laura: So without further ado ( I won't say it, because the joke is getting old!), take it away, Techster.Arc: -=from the kitchen=- We got a fresh serving of ado, but it's for emergencies only! Aus: -=applauds=- And the crowd goes wild! ... yay... -=shushes=- Techie: ::steps up to the mike:: Thank you all for coming this evening Shidi: They're muns, where else would they go? Techie: As Laura said, the topic of tonight's class is creating beasties for the eventual dismemberment of said creatures by your characters here in ARC or MoRE. Long: ::Takes notes with a pencil because he ran outta ink on his fountain pen:: Laura: PhnxHawk: This will be a short class, cause all I can really do is get the ideas started, not really tell you what to create. Techie: The first step in character creation is the idea. You suddenly realize that there is something you would like to see here and want it to happen. The idea can come from several sources. One obvious source is other role-playing games, which usually have their own large collections of monsters to slay, meet and fool. Another source is from books. There is a large number of fantasy and sci-fi novels chock full of monsters and species that could somehow find their way into our little forum. Television and movies are another source, and there is nothing wrong with something that flies, walks, crawls or slithers its way out of the deep expanse that is your imagination. Long: Heh... ::Got some stuff fitting that description:: Techie: Next, you want to plan out how to make your creature work in the rules of our forum. In almost every case, you are going to have to make some modifications to what you have in front of you. Techie: Contrary to the order on the creature creation sheet developed by Laura, the first thing you want to do in this phase is write out the concept, or background of your creature. Describe its appearance, its general attitude to life and others in general, something that makes it more than a few words in the story line. Long: ::Erks, because he forgot to write soem descriptions and history of the monsters he created:: //o.o\\() Techie: The next step is to then give it its dice. The number of dice you give depends on a few things: the nature of the creature, how tough it is, how extraordinary the creature is. You should follow the general guidelines given for characters in the ARC Charter: 1d for animals, 2d for humanoids of medium size, 3d for monsters larger than the average human, and so on. Aus: ! <-- le raised hand symbol Laura: Techie: Then decide how many sides to give it. Yes Aus? Choungster: Shouldn't the raised hand symbol be this: ? Aus: 3d would apply to creatures that are (though perhaps not bigger than a human) significantly more aggressive, too. Think "pit bull". Okay, I shaddap now. Lady SHlDl: Wolverines! Choungster: Bleh...who's counting? ::Retires:: Techie: ::nods:: Okay, back to sides. The amount of sides should relate to just how strong the creature is in combat, spell use, combat skill, etc. Laura: Techie: Yes Laura? Laura: I have a question about 5 d. What gets 5d, other then a greater god out of trueform? And how do you know to give something 5 or 6 d, as opposed to just 4? Long: Heh...Grenden when he gets really pumped...bleh Techie: The creature has to be something that would be unique and something possible of massive destruction. Think the Tarrasque from AD&D, a 50' tall monster that is almost indestructable for an example Aus: Greater immortals, demon overlords, and other cute things. Long: Or Grenden later on in the Zodiac Quest Techie: That about cover it L? Laura: Yeppers, thank you. Techie: Okay after you have dished out the number of dice and size, move on to filling out any special attacks or defenses it has, or any attacks that it is weak against. Special attacks would be anything like spells, breath weapon, mental attacks. Defenses could be regeneration, magical effects or anything else that comes to mind. Aus: ! Techie: Yes Aus? And I thought @ was the question symbol? Aus: Oh, heh... okay... Laura: @ for attention. =) Aus: Well, a creature cannot be weak and immune, or very weak and absorbing, or whatever, to the same attack style. Please, for the Bestiary maintainers' sanity, don't do this, asit's hard to tell the original intent you had in mind if it's very weak, weak, resistant, immune, and absorbing to the same thing. -=shuts up=- Techie: Yes, use some common sense when doing that. Techie: ::continues where he left off:: Then write down what the creature is weak to (like silver or lightning) and what the creature is very strong against (bladed weapons or fire) and what it is just strong against (you get the idea). Techie: Now, take what you have written down and look it over. Does it make sense? Is it something that would work easily in the forum rules? If the answer is no, it needs more work. If the answer is yes, its time to figure out the beastie's experience points. Both the beastiary and the creature creation sheet have the formula for figuring out XPs. Long: ::Erks, doesn't know how to exactly do that:: Techie: Multiply dice by sides and add on any bonuses from special abilities. Also, some weaknesses might cause to creature to lose XP value, so think about it before you make it weak to just about everything on the planet. Techie: When all this is done, its time to fill out the creature creation sheet and send it to the Ausman or Laura. One note from those two: When filling out the form and there are areas that you have to leave blank, usually in the weaknesses and strengths department, please use N/A and nothing else to make it easier when the edit and post them. Techie: Oops, forgot something. DR, or damage reduction, or just how tough is the skin/armor of the creature. Decide on how much damage the creature can absorb through its hide or natural armor before it starts to bleed. This is a number that you want to be really careful on selecting, since it is the one thing that can really ruin a player's day when they are confronted by a horde of beasties that they cannot even scratch. Techie: Any questions? Aus: @ There, happy? -=chuckles=- Techie: Yes Aus? Aus: Creatures also have the option of being able to dodge or block. Techie: Which is on the creation form, which will also figure into their XP value Aus: If they have the ability to dodge, and have sides close to that of the party members, they are more difficult to take down. If they can block as well, it raises the difficulty even more.-=shuts up=- Techie: Any other questions? If not, I will take you through a quick creature creation Laura: @ Techie: Laura? Laura: I just want to point out that we are illustrating the beastiary, so if you have a picture of your beastie, or some of the beasties we don't have pictures for, send 'em in. Techie: anyone else? Aus: One last note. Techie: Yes Aus Aus: Heh, then I shut up with no more comments or questions - you can also set the creature to have HP different from the norm; this modifies the XP value of the thing as well. Don't forget to note this if that's yer intent. -=out of questions/comments=- Techie: Okay, lets go through a quick creation then ::digs out a file:: My latest creation was an ogre, modified from the AD&D version of the same creature. I gave him 3 sides, due to size, strength and toughness. He got 50 sides, a relatively high number if facing new characters, but something that the average character or even better than average would have a tough fight with.He gets 42 HPs due to his dice and sides. There was nothing special in attacks or defenses that I could think of, so those categories were given a N/A For DR, I gathered that ogres would have a really thick hide, so I gave them a 3, but gave the option of changing it per armor if worn. Since they are somewhat intelligent and know to avoid pain, I give them the ability to both dodge and block if GM chooses to. Finally I totaled the XP and sent it in. Techie: And that's how you create a critter for ARC. Final questions or comments? Arc: -=peeks his head back in=- I have a comment... anyone want a slice of cake? Laura: Ooh, cake! Laura: Send lots of beasties! Techie: Heh, I hereby declare this class session closed ::pokes the log button to off::