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| reverenddak |
 Posted: Fri Apr 01, 2011 12:52 pm Post subject: |
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Joined: 03 Feb 2011
Posts: 2
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| reverenddak wrote: |
STIRGE
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I should have included more of the behind the scene work on my stirge. I talked about it on my D&D blog.
... but here's the jist of it:
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...I’ve been giving it some thought over the past few weeks so I first settled on a pelgrane from Jack Vance’s Dying Earth series. So I spent a couple hours working on it, grabbing a copy of the Dying Earth RPG and a copy of the Dying Earth omnibus. It became challenging when I realised I really didn’t know the AGE system very well. Something told me to look over the official rules, I then realised that the classic monster had to be public domain, which a pelgrane is not. It sucked because I’ve already written most of the monster description and was only stuck ironing out the numbers and powers...
I decided not to quit, so I grabbed my copy of S&W and thumbed through the monster section since I was confident that these monsters would be fair game. Since the Dragon Age RPG only covers levels 1-5 (so far) I decided against my first choice of a Dragon Turtle, and went with a Stirge! It was interesting enough (with its Attach & Blood Drain) and classic D&D enough to make the nostalgic in me smile. So back to square one.
I decided I needed more detail for DA than S&W provided, so I dug up my 3.5 Monster Manual and also took a peek at the 4e MM. I kept the description simple, and I pretty much copied the abilitie scores from 3.5. I had to guess the focuses, health and speed numbers. The powers proved to be the biggest problem. DA uses a stunt system to govern special powers. I had to convert the stirge’s powers to be usable with the stunt system. This forced me to get familiar with how things like grappling worked in the AGE system--which is a lot different than D&D, and something 0e doesn’t touch. The classic stirge attaches to its victim when it first hits, and proceeds to drain blood automatically for each following round. You can grab the stirge and try and remove it from its host. I decided to make a static number for grabbing it (essentially a dexterity attack) and a strength test to remove it. While comparing my numbers and powers with monsters from the GM’s book, I discovered the Blood Crows. I was pissed! Blood Crows were basically a rip-off of stirges! My numbers were very similar so it bummed me out. But I decided to continue anyway. I wanted them to be classic stirges! I feel like my stirge is true to the spirit of the classic D&D stirge... |
Yes, it's a shameless attempt to win people over to my classic version of the stirge! |
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| Daniel |
| Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2011 6:23 am Post subject: |
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Patron
Joined: 05 Jan 2008
Posts: 142
Location: Miami Beach, FL
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| Wolfgang |
| Posted: Wed Apr 13, 2011 1:08 pm Post subject: |
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Kobold Overlord
Joined: 30 Dec 2007
Posts: 4990
Location: The Mines
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Those kobolds were a shameless bit of pandering to my kobold-philic heart.
And I'm totally swiping them for a future game. How'd I Miss That One? is positively *inspired*.
_________________
Wolfgang Baur
Publisher, Kobold Press |
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| Daniel |
| Posted: Wed Apr 13, 2011 1:15 pm Post subject: |
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Patron
Joined: 05 Jan 2008
Posts: 142
Location: Miami Beach, FL
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