BX Monsters A to Z: Antelope

 Next, we jump to the Expert Rules for the next creature listing in alphabetical order: Antelope (Herd Animal). It strikes me a bit odd that the author/editors chose to list it as "Antelope (Herd Animal) rather than "Animal, Herd" as Frank Mentzer did in BECMI, since the listing is essentially a catch-all for large grazing mammals living in herds. According to the description, it encompasses goats, deer, elk, wild oxen, moose, and caribou in addition to the titular antelopes. We might easily throw in such beasts as buffalo, bison, wildebeests, wild sheep, llamas, and alpacas as well. 

The entry gives variable Hit Dice, from 1 to 4 depending on size, and variable damage ranges from 1d4 to 1d8 to go with them. Only one in four of any group will be males, who defend the herd; the remainder are non-combatant females and young. Movement rate is a blazing 240'(80') for all types, as fast as a riding horse. That might make sense for the slimmer, nimbler antelopes such as gazelles, but I'm having trouble imagining an elk or ox sprinting to match a fast horse. Morale is only 5, which makes sense for nonaggressive herbivores who have literally nothing to gain by fighting when they could flee instead. 

Clearly these creatures are not intended to be major or even minor adversaries for adventuring parties. The smaller ones are barely a threat to any serious adventurers, though even a d4 of damage might be enough to knock off a fragile 1st level character if a party chooses to pick a fight. (Imagine the ignominy of having your PC killed by a random encounter with wild goats!) The larger ones could be moderately dangerous, and perhaps exciting foes in a hunting scenario for low-level parties. Their main purpose in the game is to serve as color in overland and wilderness adventures, and as game for parties to hunt for food while on such an expedition. (Something that's missing from the rules is how many days of rations can be gleaned from butchering such animals.)

If I were to change anything, it would probably be the movement rate, maybe to 180'(60') or so. Also, 4 HD seems a bit paltry for moose, but then again, it's not like PCs are going to be fighting a lot of moose, so it's not a huge deal. 

All in all, not a terribly exciting entry in the B/X bestiary, but a potentially useful one for any group doing any wilderness adventuring. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The good, the bad, and the ugly of B/X D&D

 With my B/X Monsters A to Z series ongoing, I've been focusing a lot on B/X D&D. Also, having mostly recovered from my heart attack and triple bypass surgery, we're hopefully going to reconvene our game group for the new year, and at some point I'll be taking my turn at DMing again, and I'm hankering for a good old fashioned sandbox campaign. So, I'm looking at sorting out my likes and dislikes (yes, there are a few) in good ol' B/X, in preparation for codifying some house rules and clarifications. I should make clear that I like far more than I dislike about the game, but as I ponder what changes I might wish to make, the dislikes are going to come to the fore. Like : Character generation. It's quick, easy, and there aren't an overwhelming amount of choices to be made. The most time-consuming part is buying equipment. Some players enjoy that part; for the rest, a small selection of pre-built equipment packages would be an easy fix. Like: The lack ...
Read more

Stuff you can do with an ascending AC and attack bonus-based combat paradigm

 Taking a break from the Monsters A to Z for some pondering on what you can do with some new old-school friendly combat mechanics. One of the strongest signs that Old School gaming is not simply about nostalgia is the extent to which old schoolers have embraced ascending Armor Class, in conjunction with class-based attack bonuses, over the old descending-AC-and-attack matrix or THAC0 system. It doesn't just streamline the math and eliminate a whole layer of fiddliness, though, as much as those effects are to be hailed. Within the ascending AC and attack bonus framework, you can do some pretty cool things that would have required some real mental gymnastics in the traditional system. The magic of this approach really lies in the use of an attack bonus stat rather than lines and columns in an attack matrix, which allows everyone to use the same target number for the same target.  To illustrate the point a bit more clearly, consider a 5th-level fighter and a 1st-level magic-user ...
Read more

What to do with treasure?

 In fantasy role-playing games, particularly those which link character advancement to recovery of treasure (of which practice, for the record, I am a fan and proponent), characters are going to accumulate a lot of silver, gold, and jewels over the course of an adventuring career. There is, unfortunately, a dearth of things on which to spend it in the rule books. At character creation and shortly thereafter, the focus is on the acquisition of basic adventuring gear. A newly-created PC may have to economize, especially on armor and weapons,but by second level, most of those concerns have been settled: a fighter who's accumulated enough treasure to gain his first level advancement has more than enough to purchase a suit of plate armor and his weapons of choice (if he hasn't already found magical versions) and probably a warhorse to boot. Mid-level characters may take interest in the "vehicles" section of the equipment roster, contemplating the purchase of ships or wagon...
Read more