| From: | Mark Steedman <RSMS@******.EEE.RGU.AC.UK> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Re: DRAGONS AS NEXT NERPS? |
| Date: | Mon, 13 Mar 1995 18:42:09 GMT |
Louis Barrera <lbarrera@****.NASA.GOV>
writes
> This is in response to the hydrogen-dragon thoughts that have been cast
> about recently. The amount of H2 required to lift 2000 kilos is enormous.
> You don't see the Shuttle floating off its launch pad do you? Trying to
> rationalize dragons is artificial to me. They are a manifestation, maybe of
> Gaia.
Considering that scientific opinion tends to limit 'normal' flying
creatures to the nearly 3m wingspans of the very big eagles, and
ostriches cannot fly then i agree there must be some magic or
something in it. Handy as this gives a good reason for them to be out
and about only during the high part of the mana cycle when the magic
gives enough extra lift (in whatever way) for their wings to get them
airborne.
The closest to scintifically explained dragons i have seen are the
Pern ones, and the shadownrun variety tend to be rather fatter.
> As far as bazooka's being a recent development, how long ago
> have the chinese had rockets. And they've have a very old mythos
> concerning dragons.
>
easy solutions
1: keep out of range. - not so applicable now with missiles.
2: spell lock and a nice big armour spell - i'll put a few more rules
comment sat the bottom.
> Unfortunately, I have never seen a photograph of a dragon, getting ready
> to breathe or other, so I can't really say whether they need to "bloat up"
> first. If you consider that they can breathe every action they have, they
> would need to generate a drek load of hydrogen several times every
> FIVE SECONDS to accomplish this. That's unrealistic, the chemical
> reaction doesn't go that quick. Along with the fact that a hydrogen fire is
> very difficult to see. Which would make the "typical" representations of
> a conflagration coming from the creature's mouth overstated in the visual
> context, if nothing else. They would also need a hellacious cooling
> system in their mouths to keep from frying anything in the local.
>
> In the Shadowrun world/game/reference frame/whatever, magic is NOT
> ARTIFICIAL. Just as reptiles hibernate when the heliotropic energy is
> insufficient to stir their metabolisms, dragons behavior similarly with the
> magic energy level. The magic gene didn't express itself (except in a
> very few rare cases) until the magic cycle had developed /grown
> /increased to a certain extent. Read Ehran's speech for a refresher.
> And as magic is natural, why not use it to cover, at least in part, the
> dragon physiology.
as commented above necessary realistically.
but the fine acrobatics could easily be conventional flight
>
> As to why they don't all breathe fire, why don't they all look alike. Natural
> selection didn't do it, as the dragon is probably the top of this world's
> food chain. Human's may outnumber them, but so what. Wildebeast out
> number lions. The key lies in their reason for being, what makes who
> they are.
some of them breath gas, thats the other one FASA list for breath and
they don't say you cannot have them breath acid or something else
equally nasty.
>
> As far as FASA being wrong, they simply gave some outline stats. It's
> up to US to determine exactness and raison d'etre. They leave plenty of
> clues. I think we should try to stick somewhere in the ballpark.
>
As commented armour spells are rather a necessity
try ranger arms sm3 14S minus the 8 armour of your 'typical' lesser
dragon, yep thats a nice target 6 to resist and with firearms 6 and
smartgun (rather common combination) 6 - 10 sucesses (he's a PC and
shooting a dragon i think combat pool might get used) is likely and
the poor target only gets 20 odd dice plus maybe 6 threat rating oh
dear about 4 6's lets see 6 - 4 = 2 net so S stages to D and ex
dragon - now simple action number 2! - and we haven't even got beyomd
weapons in the main rules yet ( or spent any karma) - some of the
riggers or fields of fire stuff will do great dragons just as nicely.
so as Louis suggested go do some work and design your dragon properly
FASA state that the listed stats are for typical specimins and
considering that Dragons latin name includes 'Homo sapiens' i think
they might all be individuals. It will also keep any 'Big guns'
players who read the GM's sections of books completely in the dark as
to how hard the thing is, after all they could try talking to it, a
sight safer than finding out what IQ scores in the 200+ region (the
stat suggestion is well over 6! and 3 is supposed to be human norm
i.e. approx 100) do in the way of defenses you had not considered.
- ok just some comments
- This is a first posting, also the email lag to Britain can be
several hours so it may be somewhat behind.
Mark J. Steedman
rsms@******.eee.rgu.ac.uk
