War Dogs...

[Targan]

General Pain, those are some incredible photos. I am amazed.

[General Pain]

Originally Posted by Targan

General Pain, those are some incredible photos. I am amazed.

Praise Google

[General Pain]

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http://www.scamorama.com/hyena.html

[pmulcahy11b]

Originally Posted by General Pain

Praise Google

I have noticed over the past two months or so, you have achieved your black belt in Google-fu.

[General Pain]

Originally Posted by pmulcahy11b

I have noticed over the past two months or so, you have achieved your black belt in Google-fu.

takes years of googling....

[MajorPo]

Ah the martial arts contest... I remember it well. I also remember how everything turned sour in the end and we had a mass riot on our hands. As is often the way in our campaign we try and do something nice for everyone and it all somehow goes wrong. I think Targan gains a little perverse pleasure from putting clouds around any silver linings that may ever so briefly sparkle

As to the dog for Martinez I actually can't remember my original reason for denying the request. More recently though Po has been having trouble with animals. I'm not entirely sure whether it relates to some kind of curse or possibly due to his high levels of 'bad karma' (part of our eclectic religion rules) but for some time now no animals will come within about 50m of Po and when forced to they become overwhelmed with panic or aggression. This actually has worked quite well in the ruins of New York as it keeps the rats away. It could prove socially akward in the future though so I'll have to try and work out how to fix it sometime soon

[kato13]

Originally Posted by MajorPo

As to the dog for Martinez I actually can't remember my original reason for denying the request. More recently though Po has been having trouble with animals. I'm not entirely sure whether it relates to some kind of curse or possibly due to his high levels of 'bad karma' (part of our eclectic religion rules) but for some time now no animals will come within about 50m of Po and when forced to they become overwhelmed with panic or aggression. This actually has worked quite well in the ruins of New York as it keeps the rats away. It could prove socially akward in the future though so I'll have to try and work out how to fix it sometime soon

Thanks for the explanation. I kinda thought the blanket might scare dogs but Po's bad karma makes just as much sense.

[Targan]

Originally Posted by MajorPo

I think Targan gains a little perverse pleasure from putting clouds around any silver linings that may ever so briefly sparkle

I learned from the master.

Originally Posted by MajorPo

More recently though Po has been having trouble with animals. I'm not entirely sure whether it relates to some kind of curse or possibly due to his high levels of 'bad karma' (part of our eclectic religion rules) but for some time now no animals will come within about 50m of Po and when forced to they become overwhelmed with panic or aggression. This actually has worked quite well in the ruins of New York as it keeps the rats away.

Oh yeah, I'd forgotten about that.

We use a modified version of Harnmaster's religion rules for those characters that have a faith or belief system. Po is a Buddhist so he has a Karma score instead of the usual Piety score. Some of the Catholic PCs and NPCs have used the religion rules to attempt to call for divine intervention in the past.

The funniest thing for me about Po being a Buddhist is that he knows he isn't a very good one.

I will neither confirm or deny whether Po's animal fear effect is due to his negative karma level or a curse but I suspect he knows which it is.

[Mohoender]

I agree with Targ General. Moroever, your pictures can give us some great ideas about unusual animals. I agree with what you say about dogs and masters (owners). Nevertheless, some dogs can be nuts while every dog is not well suited for every tasks.

Coming back on the French shorthair shepperds: They were great as guard (attacking in silence, refusing outside food) and for rescue (even untrained). Someone, fall from his motorbike in my place and the dogs came to his rescue, moving the bike away. I also used to go with both dogs (a 116lb oversize male and a much smaller 85lb female) for long night walks and that was a lot of fun as the female was helping me walking when it was becoming too dark. On the other hand, they killed a few dozen sheeps, decapitated another dog...

Another downside with these dogs is that you can't train them to wound people (when they move against someone, it's always for the kill). Moreover, when they attack, you can't stop them before they kill their target unless you want to end up as dead meat. In addition, you need to have a female and a male (two males or two females will kill eachother). Then, my dogs had a very intersting tactics when attacking (it happened once with gipsies who barely escaped by jumping of the wall): the male was attacking from the front while the female was attacking (simultaneously and silently) from the back.

This is, of course, an exemple but you'll find different things for every dog. In my opinion, when allowing dogs, a GM should do some reasearch (limited ones) in order to add some reality.

I don't know if that story is true as I just found it on wiki (I ask the californians??): "In southern California in 2009, three chihuahuas protected their master, a three year old girl, from a 100 pound mountain lion".

I can believe it as (before the beauceron) I had a dachshund (15 cm long body) that finished its life hunting wild boars.

[Rainbow Six]

In the UK Survivor's Guide I'm working on I have a marauder group based in Colchester, Essex, who are the former inmates of the British Military Prison that is located there. Their leader is a former paratrooper who had been convicted of some very unpleasant things and was pending transfer to a civilian prison when the nukes started flying.

He is accompanied everywhere by a pit bull terrier and the local population are almost as scared of the dog as they are of him.

[natehale1971]

During WWII and Vietnam the War Dogs where trained to look for boobytraps and other kinds of nasty 'gifts' the enemy was leaving us... The use of ceramic landmines during WWII was something that made the Marines LOVE War Dogs, but they say the biggest reason the Marines loved them was because the War Dogs would stand guard duty with their handlers while at Camp Pendleton. And the War Dogs detected the US Army Paratroopers sneaking into the Camp to 'Borrow' supplies or set up practical jokes!

[weswood]

When I first started playing RPGs, I played Dungeons & Dragons. My character was a pretty weak fighter who was several levles lower than the rest of the group, so he bought a war dog. The dog was named Rauol (odd how I remember this over 25 years later) who was a bad, bad puppy. He had one less hit point than the character (Homer the elven fighter). Every time Homer would go up a level, the DM let me add his hit points to the dog. I think when the dog finally died he had 23 hit points.

[weswood]

Those hyenas are huge, I never realized they were so big. I guess I've never seen them next to a person before to give a size reference. I'm definately going to have to add a pack of zoo escapees to my list of random encounters!

[General Pain]

Originally Posted by weswood

Those hyenas are huge, I never realized they were so big. I guess I've never seen them next to a person before to give a size reference. I'm definately going to have to add a pack of zoo escapees to my list of random encounters!

now that's what I call a plan... hehe