Rules for man's best friend? - Dog and handler rules

[Raellus]

I'm not a numbers guy, but I suppose one could build a canine companion PC without too much tinkering- at least in v2.2. Most of the abilities for humans could be applied to dogs (e.g. Charisma = how sociable the dog is) so one could distribute Attribute points as per human char-gen. Then, determine a reasonable number of Skill points based on the dog's age and then distribute them to skills a military working dog would probably have, like observation, tracking, swimming, climbing, stealth, and UMA (or AMA since one could consider teeth to be a weapon) and voila!

Excavation = digging
Interrogation = intimidation of subject being interrogated by human handler
Scrounging = sniffing out foodstuffs, explosives, or contraband
Medical (Diagnosis) = I've read that some dogs have been trained to detect cancerous tumors.

A simpler solution would be for a handler's K9 companion to just lower difficult levels for their handlers' applicable skill checks (e.g. observation, tracking, scrounging, etc.).

The more I think about this, the more I want to play a character with a canine companion.

[Targan]

Originally Posted by Raellus

The more I think about this, the more I want to play a character with a canine companion.

Major Po's unit in my last campaign had a US Army MP dog handler, but she arrived without a dog and Major Po wouldn't let her have one, so I never bothered working out stats and skills.

[Raellus]

Originally Posted by Targan

Major Po's unit in my last campaign had a US Army MP dog handler, but she arrived without a dog and Major Po wouldn't let her have one, so I never bothered working out stats and skills.

Just when I thought Major Po couldn't be any more bastardly...

[StainlessSteelCynic]

As a player, I would not have lasted long in any game with Major Po or his player because Major Po is exactly the kind of character that would cause me to plot the murder of a fellow PC. So many of his actions were worthy of a bullet to the back of his head that I would have no hesitation or guilt feelings about killing him.

[Targan]

Originally Posted by Raellus

Just when I thought Major Po couldn't be any more bastardly...

Originally Posted by StainlessSteelCynic

As a player, I would not have lasted long in any game with Major Po or his player because Major Po is exactly the kind of character that would cause me to plot the murder of a fellow PC. So many of his actions were worthy of a bullet to the back of his head that I would have no hesitation or guilt feelings about killing him.

I can't disagree with any of that

[therantingsavant]

Originally Posted by Raellus

I'm not a numbers guy, but I suppose one could build a canine companion PC without too much tinkering- at least in v2.2. Most of the abilities for humans could be applied to dogs (e.g. Charisma = how sociable the dog is) so one could distribute Attribute points as per human char-gen. Then, determine a reasonable number of Skill points based on the dog's age and then distribute them to skills a military working dog would probably have, like observation, tracking, swimming, climbing, stealth, and UMA (or AMA since one could consider teeth to be a weapon) and voila!

An interesting approach, there's something to this I think...

[swaghauler]

Originally Posted by Raellus

I'm not a numbers guy, but I suppose one could build a canine companion PC without too much tinkering- at least in v2.2. Most of the abilities for humans could be applied to dogs (e.g. Charisma = how sociable the dog is) so one could distribute Attribute points as per human char-gen. Then, determine a reasonable number of Skill points based on the dog's age and then distribute them to skills a military working dog would probably have, like observation, tracking, swimming, climbing, stealth, and UMA (or AMA since one could consider teeth to be a weapon) and voila!

Excavation = digging
Interrogation = intimidation of subject being interrogated by a human handler
Scrounging = sniffing out foodstuffs, explosives, or contraband
Medical (Diagnosis) = I've read that some dogs have been trained to detect cancerous tumors.

A simpler solution would be for a handler's K9 companion to just lower difficulty levels for their handlers' applicable skill checks (e.g. observation, tracking, scrounging, etc.).

The more I think about this, the more I want to play a character with a canine companion.

In addition to Skills, I'd give them stats too.

A dog can detect a threat by sound at roughly 10 Times the range a human can detect it. Thus the reason the "Hushpuppy" was invented.

They can track by smell if you have something the person you want to be tracked has handled or worn.

They are good at intimidation

They can follow some fairly complex field (or OJT) training or adapt to fairly complex commands on the fly. I take the Dog's INT and add the Handler's Animal Handling Skill to achieve a target number that the Handler must roll under to get the dog to do something they weren't trained to do initially.

[Targan]

Harnmaster has good dog training and command rules (and stat blocks for a variety of breeds) that are easily converted to T2K, particularly 1st ed T2K as they're both percentile systems.

The Columbia Games Dogs article is available for purchase as a stand-alone on their website, or through DriveThruRPG. Five bucks.

[Vespers War]

Originally Posted by Targan

Harnmaster has good dog training and command rules (and stat blocks for a variety of breeds) that are easily converted to T2K, particularly 1st ed T2K as they're both percentile systems.

The Columbia Games Dogs article is available for purchase as a stand-alone on their website, or through DriveThruRPG. Five bucks.

Columbia Games also has PDF previews of Dogs and their Bestiary.