Thoughts on usage of trained animals in Heroic Campaign

[azato]

For the Traveller Hero campaign I am running one person wants a tree rat for a pet. I statted the thing out and lets say it comes to 100 points. If purchased using Follower, it would cost 20 points. But....it seems a bit silly to go this route since it doesn't have the same functionality as a human follower would have. The advantages of this this is it is smart, can be trained. can sense and distinguish emotions...but it has a number of disadvantages as well, namely a trouble maker. So while the pet has it bonuses is isn't a big game changer. I thought about just having the character buy the tree rat but it seems to me to be more than just a object. I thought about having her just pay partial points... thought of a some other things that are just silly.

 

What are your thoughts on this?

[Christopher]

Re: Thoughts on usage of trained animals in Heroic Campaign

 

It's a small intelligent pet. When anybody in the team has telephaty for rats, this could be a great danger for detective adventures. If not you should seek for way to lower the cp-price.

 

Some ideas:

What about legality? Is he allowed to take his pet-rat anywhere, especially on high law planets?

How healty is such a rat? Is there a chance it get's ill?

 

These and other considerations could be worth a limitation on the Follower.

 

For example:

My sidekick with his own life: 300 point Follower (60 Base Cost), Requires a Roll ("Sometiems he just doresn't answers the phone"; 12- Roll; -1/4), Time Limit ("Dude, I seriously have to do homework!"; Variable Duration: 1 Hour +1 Hour per point a 11- Roll is made by up to 6 hours; -3/4); 30 Real Cost

[Lucius]

Re: Thoughts on usage of trained animals in Heroic Campaign

 

Some thoughts:

 

Does the character have Animal Handler? If it's not a Follower I'd say he has to have that.

 

Consider pricing it as a Contact. "has it's bonuses it isn't a big game changer."

 

Or just make it a pet bought with money. It's not likely the character, or other characters, will then run out if they get enough money and buy a swarm of them, so putting a Character Point price on it to discourage overuse may not be necessary.

 

It could even be a Complication: DNPC or maybe Distinctive Features if the character always has a tree rat on his shoulder.

 

Lucius Alexander

 

can I define the palindromedary as all of the above?

[Kraven Kor]

Re: Thoughts on usage of trained animals in Heroic Campaign

 

You can (I think?) put limitations on followers... "Only for Certain Tasks" or "Only when at HQ" or whatever.

 

Summoning might be a better option as it has built in adders and modifiers for things like disposition or loyalty or how the creature arrives, etc...

[Escafarc]

Re: Thoughts on usage of trained animals in Heroic Campaign

 

You could use the Requires Skill Roll (Animal Handler) Limitation on the cost of the Follower(like others have said). Also if you use the Resource Point System from the APG1 the cost of Followers is halved.

[azato]

Re: Thoughts on usage of trained animals in Heroic Campaign

 

Thanks all, very good ideas. Not sure how I will execute this...but most likely a conglomeration.

 

I think a limited Animal Handling skill...and make it a social skill of sorts...and working against the Tree Rats Psycho disadvantages could produce the results I want.

 

The player wants to have some psycho disads for the Tree Rat..In that vein...Follower may not make sense.