Minotaur for Peer Review

[Thor]

Thanks to some sweet art over in this thread (http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=187036&page=1&pp=10) at RPG.net, I decided I had to burn up a Minotaur for Burning Wheel.

This Minotaur isn't a race or anything like that. It's the monster of the maze. Let me know what you think!

Concept: Terrifying, bull-headed maneater.

Beliefs:
1. They must worship me, for I am the son of a god.
2. They are all my meat.
3. I shall escape from this labyrinth and wreak my vengeance!

Instincts:
1. Always Charge when cornered.
2. Always keep a rock for throwing.
3. Always mark new corridors.

Stats: Will B3, Perception B5 (6), Agility B4, Speed B5, Power B7, Forte B7

Attributes: Steel B7, Health B6, Reflexes B5, Mortal Wound B13

PTGS: Superficial B4, Light B8, Midi B10, Severe B11, Traumatic B12, Mortal B13

Skills: Brawling B5, Axe (labrys) B4, Maze-wise B5, Foraging B3, Tracking B4, Intimidation B5, Throwing B4, Sacrifice-wise B3

Traits: Bull Head (cos), Bull Tail (cos), Massive Stature, Horned (Dt), Omnivore, Bull's Snout (as Wolf's Snout), Large Ears (Dt), Berzerker (Dt), Brute (Dt)

Equipment: Labrys (as Footman's Axe), leather armor, loin cloth, chalk

[TimP]

Looks really good (and useful) to me, Thor. One question: why the trait Large Ears?

My favorite depiction of the Minotaur is from the movie "Time Bandits".

Tim

[Thor]

Looks really good (and useful) to me, Thor. One question: why the trait Large Ears?

Thanks Tim! I gave him Large Ears for two reasons. First, this picture (http://www.picture-newsletter.com/stierenmarkt/bull-picture.jpg) and this picture (http://www.vet.ed.ac.uk/images/clinical-rotations-services/prize-bull.jpg). Also, the fact that cattle have better hearing than human beings, and can hear much higher frequencies. That's the same reason I went for Bull's Snout, since cattle can apparently smell odors six miles away.

[luke]

good stats.



No Hooves?

-L

[Manicrack]

really nice and I am going to blatantly steal this from you once I get my highschool firends into a campaign.:D

Just one thought:

I think it would be cooler if he didn;t need chalk to orient himself. If he could use smell and orienteering alone.
Would be a whole lot scarier too, once players are in that maze. They don't know where they are, but the Minotaur knows both, where they are, and where he is relativ to them.

Just a thought

[Thor]

No Hooves?

I was going to! But all of the actual Greek art I found depicting the Minotaur, like this one (http://www.utexas.edu/courses/larrymyth/images/theseus/IF-Theseus-Minotaur-1.jpg) or this one (http://www.odysseyadventures.ca/articles/knossos/minotaur.jpg) show the Minotaur with human feet.

[Thor]

Just one thought:

I think it would be cooler if he didn;t need chalk to orient himself. If he could use smell and orienteering alone.
Would be a whole lot scarier too, once players are in that maze. They don't know where they are, but the Minotaur knows both, where they are, and where he is relativ to them.

Sure! I can totally understand that. I decided to give him that because Minos had the Labyrinth constructed as a prison to house the Minotaur. Its real function was to prevent him from getting out. So I figured that he chalked off corridors -- not to orient himself, but to mark areas that he had already traveled in his never-ending quest to escape it.

I don't think it hurts the concept at all to change that Belief and Instinct though.

[Enlil]

I like it! Very cool, and I love that it is getting back to the core of the myth.

Shouldn't the light tolerance be B8, though (4 + half forte rounded up (4))?

Christian

[Thor]

I like it! Very cool, and I love that it is getting back to the core of the myth.

Shouldn't the light tolerance be B8, though (4 + half forte rounded up (4))?

Thanks Christian!

No. Only the Superficial coordinate is half forte rounded up. The rest of the steps can be no greater than half forte rounded down. So the light tolerance is 4 (for the Supie tolerance) + 3 (half Forte rounded down) = B7.

[TickTockMan]

Awesome. I was working on the same things due to the same thread, and you did a great job. He is mightier than a man, butless mighty than a troll, which is right where I picture him.

Another cool thing about taurus/bovine ears is that they can be swiveled independently. Unless they are asleep, it is very tpugh to sneak up on a cow or a bull. Maybe the large ears can be a call-on? Just a thought.

[Thor]

Another cool thing about taurus/bovine ears is that they can be swiveled independently. Unless they are asleep, it is very tpugh to sneak up on a cow or a bull. Maybe the large ears can be a call-on? Just a thought.

Thanks! The Large Ears Trait is actually taken directly from the Monster Burner. It's a die trait that grants +1D to Perception rolls. So he'll actually roll 7D for Perception tests (Bull's Snout also grants +1D to Perception for assesses as well as Tracking and Hunting skill tests, and the bonus is added to Perception for determining Reflexes).

[trial]

Sorry for complaining, but there is no minotaur in the monster burner?
Its like a classic for any rpg game...
Well I am sure that there a lot of other quality monsters in the monster burner.

[Thor]

Sorry for complaining, but there is no minotaur in the monster burner?
Its like a classic for any rpg game...
Well I am sure that there a lot of other quality monsters in the monster burner.

There are quite a few cool monsters in the Monster Burner, but no minotaur. The Monster Burner is not really a bestiary like most other "Monster Manuals." Don't get me wrong -- it has about 75 burned monsters for your use (as well as whole sets of lifepaths for Roden, Trolls, Great Spiders and Great Wolves), but its real purpose is to show you how to make your own monsters (and your own lifepaths, traits, skills, and magical abilities).

[TickTockMan]

I fogot about that one, in the Monster Burner. There are so many cool traits in there. It looks the perception bonus already figures in the ear Swiveling.

Nicely done!

[trial]

I think the real value of a monsters in the monster burner are not necessarly the statistics but rather the details descriptions about the monster. Such as what exactly the monster's skin is made of, what kind of society the monster race live at. These kind of things I understood there are in the monster burner.
While I can create my own monster with the guidlines of the monster burner, I would prefer to just pay for more monsters instead of doing all the time consuming research and thinking to create new quality monsters.
So I think there is a place for making monster burner 2?

[Thor]

Hi trial,

There is a chapter for monsters to center scenarios around already in the Monster Burner, as well as the Creature Codex chapter that gives shorter form versions of lots of monsters.

I very much doubt that we will do a Monster Burner 2. There will be plenty of Monsters posted right here on these forums, and I'm sure we'll put up some free PDFs for download with monsters on this site. So you'll definitely be getting more monsters.

Also, it is ridiculously easy to take monster books from other games and use the Monster Burner to create Burning Wheel versions. You can generally whip up a Burning Wheel monster faster than you can a Burning Wheel character, so long as you have a good concept to start with.

[Enlil]

I know I'm being a bit of a pedant here, but I just read the stuff on figuring tolerances for my players yesterday, so - :oops:

On page 29 of the BWR Character Burner, it says
Superficial wound tolerance is equal to half forte rounded down plus one.

for Light, Midi, etc.
"They may be set apart by up to half the forte exponent (rounded up)."

(I really got this drilled into my head when I was working on my little BW combat simulator - BW classic didn't say whether Forte was rounded up or not, so I really looked for it in revised).

Christian

[Thor]

huh. My bad Christian. You're right. That'll teach me to consult the rules when I think I know something. :lol:

I've edited the post to correct it. Basically the only thing that changes is the Light tolerance is now B8 instead of B7.

[Pheel]

Just saw your minotaur; love the beliefs and instincts! I would suggest the following...

I would think, giving the minotaur's superior senses, that he would mark the labyrinth in a more, er, traditional way than chalk. Say, urine, or a glandular secretion from the gland of your choice. Which can be funkier and scarier than finding chalk marks in a maze.

Hooves. Defnitely hooves.

My favorite D&D character of recent years (last time I played that system was back in '00) was a gentle minotaur named Skullfuck Nosecutter, a dedicated if simple bodyguard with a wicked addiction to kobolds (the local kobold tribe ended up building shrines to appease him, thinking he was a manifestation of the Devourer god. The shrines were very pretty and did not work).

[kaomera]

Awesome! Worshiped by Meat! :D :D :D , :lol: :lol: :lol:

[Evil Dr Ganymede]

Also, it is ridiculously easy to take monster books from other games and use the Monster Burner to create Burning Wheel versions.

BW Beholders. Now there's a scary thought (one that would require me getting my head around the magic rules in BW too. And MonBu of course, which I haven't even started yet ;))