Page 1 of 1

Harvester – giants & monsters a squirrel would fight

Posted: Mon Jul 31, 2017 1:39 am
by Lurker
Like I mentioned in the other thread a few weeks ago, I started my girls gaming with Harvesters.

My older daughter picked a ranger – which made me happy on soooo many levels – However, right out of the gait she came up with a question I wasn’t sure on. It came from the bonus for rangers to varmints and giants … I know the giant part comes from the standard ranger by the book. However, how to explain the bonus to a 10 year old without saying there was an edit error and something was copied from one book to another incorrectly.

I eventually said any animal/monster that will be over 2 – 3 x as tall as a wolverine (the tallest normal animal/monster she will face )

Was it a good call. Is there a better way to call it ?

Now for other monsters to throw at the little Rouell Girls … I had an idea while out in my yard smoking a good pig but – watching my neighbor’s animals in the pastor – A turkey hen with her chicks and the tom strutting around. I could picture them doing lots of damage to a squirrel or mouse town.

Of course there are there spiders hawks and such. However, what else …

In the other thread, I mentioned introducing Fey into the world early on so there are the ‘evil’ fay to throw at them. However, I don’t want to rely too much on evil fey behind every rock .

Also, in light that hopefully in 3 or so years I hope they still want to play and move on to D&D / C&C, I don’t want to use the classic D&D stock monsters and scenarios – evil cleric making lots of undead etc etc etc.

So, what should I plan for them in 3 or so levels

Re: Harvester – giants & monsters a squirrel would fight

Posted: Mon Jul 31, 2017 1:56 am
by Go0gleplex
Snakes, weasels/ferrets, crows/blue jays (vicious lil buggers), Owls, ticks (the mouse sized version of stirges! lol), chipmunks (the nasty lil nut thieves), bobcat, fox/coyote, bullfrog (it choked to death on it, but the stupid thing did try to eat a squirrel apparently.- 1980 in WA)

Re: Harvester – giants & monsters a squirrel would fight

Posted: Tue Aug 01, 2017 1:05 am
by Treebore
Yeah, when your the size of a squirrel, or the size of a mouse like we play in Mouseguard, pretty much everything and anything is much more of a threat to you. Crossing small strams is a major undertaking, snakes are dragons, hawks, eagles, owls are always a threat, etc...

Re: Harvester – giants & monsters a squirrel would fight

Posted: Thu Aug 03, 2017 3:01 am
by Lurker
Go0gleplex wrote:Snakes, weasels/ferrets, crows/blue jays (vicious lil buggers), Owls, ticks (the mouse sized version of stirges! lol), chipmunks (the nasty lil nut thieves), bobcat, fox/coyote, bullfrog (it choked to death on it, but the stupid thing did try to eat a squirrel apparently.- 1980 in WA)
I had already thought of some of them ( I guess I should have made my list more complete) However, I didn't think of ticks ... scorpions yes, centipedes yes ... but not ticks ... Yeah they are the perfect version stirges for a mouse squirrel player.

Chipmunks ... I like, They would be good 'mischievous' versions of the squirrels . As fast as them, as good at hiding, almost as good a climber, and not the obvious enemy like a rat or weasel. Plus I can play them as in between good and evil (mischievous) instead of evil varmints like the rats tend to be.

Sadly, I've already established bull frogs as possible friends (well possible unless my older daughter keeps rolling 1s 2s and 3s on her Cha checks when dealing with them ... It was great role playing of me talking in a frog voice showing that everything she did (when rolling soooo poorly) seemed to make them mad, but then her little sister rolled a 19, and helped keep a possible fight from breaking out. Plus one of my mom's favorite old songs when the girls were little tad poles themselves was "Frogie went a cortin" I even have a NPC frog 'swashbuckler' prepped for them to meet and work with in a few levels based off the song ...

However ... if frogs are possible good guys, what eats them ... bass, gar, pike ... hmmm fish ... I need to add them to the list too. Heck I'm a full grown man and some of the alleviator gar we have in the creeks and lakes here scare me ... just think about what it would do to a squirrel's moral
Treebore wrote:Yeah, when your the size of a squirrel, or the size of a mouse like we play in Mouseguard, pretty much everything and anything is much more of a threat to you. Crossing small strams is a major undertaking, snakes are dragons, hawks, eagles, owls are always a threat, etc...
Yeah, I had to catch myself on describing distances size etc and remember that sie is based off a foot ish tall furry hero, not a 6ish foot tall character. A 15 ft wide stream is actually a dangerous river to them ... unless they think through that the are expert tree climbers and can leap from tree to tree and not have to cross the 'creek/river' at water level. Thus far they haven't, but considering 2 of the 3 combats included them being in a tree and raining arrows down on the rats , it is only a matter of time

Re: Harvester – giants & monsters a squirrel would fight

Posted: Thu Aug 03, 2017 6:55 pm
by Treebore
Yeah, at foot tall that 15 foot wide steam is effectively 6 times bigger, so equivalent to being 90 feet across for us 6 foot humans. Plus the depth, instead of coming up to your knees or waste, is 2, 3, 4 times your height OVER your head. Plus as a squirrel, you don't have near the mass/strength of the human to resist its current. So much more of a challenge all the way around.

So you would absolutely hope you can cross via over head branches, etc... and not get snatched out of the air mid leap by a hungry hawk/owl/etc... as you leap from one branch to another.

Re: Harvester – giants & monsters a squirrel would fight

Posted: Fri Aug 04, 2017 7:52 pm
by serleran
Dogs.

At least my puppy chases and murders squirrels. She hates them. Because they cheat and jump up the trees.

Re: Harvester – giants & monsters a squirrel would fight

Posted: Sat Aug 05, 2017 3:12 pm
by Lurker
serleran wrote:Dogs.

At least my puppy chases and murders squirrels. She hates them. Because they cheat and jump up the trees.

Yeah, my mom's dog is murder on squirrels, and even taken expanded two possums and last week a coon. Still no luck or rabbits ... they are just too fast on the take off for him ...

However, I can't remember if 'dog' is a viable race in the redwall / mouse guard type setting . I was never a huge fan and only read a few of them and it has been years ago. I want to keep it fairly close to the setting so when the girls start reading them they will be more easily drawn in like I was to Tolkien.

That said, even if 'cats' aren't in the setting, I'm going to use bob cats in the deep woods and in the mountains .

Re: Harvester – giants & monsters a squirrel would fight

Posted: Thu Sep 14, 2017 9:31 pm
by serleran
Birds. Squirrels like bird feeders.

Re: Harvester – giants & monsters a squirrel would fight

Posted: Mon Sep 18, 2017 10:04 pm
by serleran
Thought of another one -- swimming pools. I mean, I just had to fish two chipmunks out because they got themselves drowned.

Re: Harvester – giants & monsters a squirrel would fight

Posted: Wed Sep 20, 2017 7:26 pm
by Penny-Whistle
Mechanical construct or golem aka 'car' or 'truck' The fun part would be describing it from a squirrel's point of view and watching as your players eventually twig in.

Even more scary: A seemingly endless dry-bed stream. Hot and sticky to the touch. Evil smelling. The geometry of the thing seems completely wrong. Impossibly fast, impossibly loud mechanical constructs are stampeding. (busy highway)

Re: Harvester – giants & monsters a squirrel would fight

Posted: Thu Nov 23, 2017 5:07 pm
by Gringnr
Might be worth having a look at some old Bunnies & Burrows stuff for inspiration...

Re: Harvester – giants & monsters a squirrel would fight

Posted: Thu Jan 18, 2018 12:13 am
by Go0gleplex
Saw this on one of my manga sites and thought you might find it amusing Lurker. lol Puglins!

Re: Harvester – giants & monsters a squirrel would fight

Posted: Sat Jan 19, 2019 11:49 pm
by Deogolf
Howdy, y'all!

Sorry, really late to this party. My bad.

Giants in my game are bears, some of the larger ungulates (i.e., deer, elk, moose, etc.). There should be a Creatures & Critters book available with the newest rendition of Harvesters when it comes out (I have no idea when that will be) that will have a bunch of new animals, monsters, etc.

To make things easier on myself, I always pictured the different animals with the humanoid equivalent (roughly): mice - halflings, rabbits/squirrels - elf, otters - human, etc. But as in all things with gaming, do what you feel is right. As long as everyone agrees, no problems. :)

Most animals are pretty good swimmers. The only time I've seen mice, chipmunks, etc. drown is when they get trapped in something that they can't climb out of because the edges were to high (i.e. pails of water, swimming pools, etc.).

If you have any other questions, feel free to ask and I'll do the best I can.