Creatures and Support Dice

Getting Help From Creatures

Howdy all - one of the most revised elements of this system has been how creatures are handled. And based on player feedback, it has happened yet again. But I think the current system is a lot more intuitive.

Aspects of a Creature

Creates now consist of:

• A Food:Energy Ratio, showing how much food (paid in Basic Resources) is in a meal and how much energy said meal gives.
• A Max Energy, Showing the maximum amount of energy the creature can have
• A Support Die size
• And specific stats the tamer can use the support die with.

When the Tamer needs extra help, the Pet can pay a point of energy to roll their support die. The Tamer’s roll is improved by that amount.

So - Say Ulysses has a 13 in Might, and they roll a 15 on their check. Normally, this would be a failure. But they have a Crater Wolf who spends a point of Energy and rolls their support die, a d6. The d6 shows a 4. That lowers the 15 to 11, which is under 13! Thus, with the Wolf’s help, Ulysses can succeed.

It’s worth noting that creature assistance can represent both physical or psychological assistance - so you do not need to fret too much over whether a task requires opposable thumbs. Creatures can assist with checks outside of their favored staffs, if the GM deems that the type of creature in question would have some way of assisting. But creatures can always assist on checks done with their favored stats.

Going Golden

As Under a Hostile Sun is going to be at GenCon, any last edits to the rules will be made by May. We are approaching a definitive edition. I will be having another playtest this upcoming week.