Johannes replied to me: > I know way too little about RL dinosaurs, to guess if any of them could be > used in such a fashion. I also don't know, with which it would be feasable > to enhance their natrual armour with metal one.
Barding would count against encumbrance, which reduces move but not ST, right? Not exactly my usual topic. > Propably you can write background neutral vehicles, with some > requirements, what draft animals need to be there. "This vehicle assumes a draft animal with ST 200 and 15 hexes size, like the Tricaterops (BE43, D51)." > > The Hussite Wagenburg, but it used some firearms. The historical > > precedent is a problem -- I'd feel cheating if I didn't research > > it to adopt or reject individual parts for in-setting reasons. > > You could officially make it a vehicle based on the popular percenption of > the Hussite Wagenburg and describe it as such in the introducation. Even if I don't mention the precedent by name, I want to be aware of it. I don't want to say oops when somebody asks "why didn't you...?" about some well-known historical vehicle. Say you have a human tribe which lives on a world with a gate. There is a low-tech mine and the henchmen of the Evil Overlords come every couple of months to collect the refined ore. Why not more efficient modern technology? Because then the Overlords would have to two bad choices -- allow the tribe modern technology, and risk an effective revolt, or base henchmen there permanently, make sure they don't get seduced by the locals. The Overlords don't care what happens as long as the ore quota is filled and the tribe doesn't develop dangerous technology. The ore quota would go up if the tribe grows, so extra population tries to fade into the hinterlands. But they won't break all ties with the community at the gate, where one can get medicines if the Overlord is merciful, or stainless metal tools, or glass pearls. A regular caravan route develops, using technology which doesn't get the henchmen bothered. Nothing which comes even remotely close to a threat against the TL12 Grav Gunship, which means no gunpowder. But there are bandits, so the caravan must not be too meek and harmless, either. Also nothing which is easy to track from orbit, or henchmen swoop in, count the people, and raise the quota of the tribe. Of course the primitives won't know exactly what that is, but centuries of experience become ingrained taboos. What are the vehicles like? Wood, very little metal, no steam or internal combustion ... Regards, Onno _______________________________________________ GurpsNet-L mailing list <[email protected]> http://mail.sjgames.com/mailman/listinfo/gurpsnet-l
