I'm not sure if you guys are still interested at all but I've recently started attempting to convert the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Other Strangeness again. I've started with size. TMNTOS had 20+ size categories and that seems a bit much to me, so I figured Pathfinder's sizes would work best for simplicity's sake. For those of you unfamiliar with the Ninja Turtle RPG, each animal you get to play as has a certain number of "bio-e" points (I'll call them "mutation points") that you get to spend on things like bipedal posture, speech, human-like appearance, and even psionics. The larger a creature is, the less points it has but player's who want to play as, let's say, an elephant, can get points back by changing to a smaller size. Since an elephant would be size category Huge, it could change to Large size to gain 5 points in the old game or, if the player wanted to make it man-sized, it could become Medium and gain 10. Now, since Pathfinder doesn't have as many sizes, I'm not sure if it should still cost 5 points to change size or if it should cost less. Also, changing size affects certain stats, your AC, certain skills and Combat Maneuvers. Most of it can just be found in the universal monster rules in the Bestiary, but I added what I thought the stat bonuses should be per size. Here's what I was thinking so far:
Fine: Str -8, Dex +8, Con -6, AC/Attack +8, CMB/CMD -8, Fly Skill +8, Stealth Skill +16
Diminutive: Str -6, Dex +6, Con -4, AC/Attack +4, CMB/CMD -4, Fly Skill +6, Stealth Skill +12
Tiny: Str -4, Dex +4, Con -2, AC/Attack +2, CMB/CMD -2, Fly Skill +4, Stealth Skill +8
Small: Str -2, Dex +2, Con +0, AC/Attack +1, CMB/CMD -1, Fly Skill +2, Stealth Skill +4
Medium: Str +0, Dex +0, Con +0, AC/Attack +0, CMB/CMD +0, Fly Skill +0, Stealth Skill +0
Large: Str +4, Dex-2, Con +2, AC/Attack -1, CMB/CMD +1, Fly Skill -2, Stealth Skill -4
Huge: Str +6, Dex -4, Con +4, AC/Attack -2, CMB/CMD +2, Fly Skill -4, Stealth Skill -8
Gargantuan: Str +8, Dex -6, Con +6, AC/Attack -4, CMB/CMD +4, Fly Skill -6, Stealth Skill -12
Colossal: Str +10, Dex -8, Con +8, AC/Attack -8, CMB/CMD +8, Fly Skill -8, Stealth -16
As far as Human Attributes are concerned, here's what I've got:
Hands
None: A basic paw, hoof, or wing. The character cannot pick up or grab objects with the appendage and suffers a -20 to all Craft, Disable Device, and Sleight of Hand skill checks (as well as any other checks left up to the GM's discretion). Average Mutation Point Cost: 0
Partial: The paw/hoof/wing grows digits and a non-opposable thumb. The animal can now grasp and carry objects. Manual dexterity is rough but possible, incurring a -4 penalty to Craft, Disable Device, and Sleight of Hand checks and a -4 penalty to attack rolls made with weapons other than the animal's natural weapons. Average Mutation Point Cost: 2
Full: A hand with a fully opposable thumb. The animal suffers no penalties to skills or attack rolls. Average Mutation Point Cost: 4
Speech
None: The animal has no vocal cords capable of speech and can only communicate with other animals of its kind by making growls, squeaks, clucks, etc. Although the animal can't speak, it still may understand the languages of other creatures if it has an Intelligence score of 3 or higher. Average Mutation Point Cost: 0
Partial: Vocal cords are equivalent to that of a parrot. While everything said can be understood by friends, strangers may have difficulty and must succeed a DC 15 Intelligence check to understand the animal. The voice will be growly, grated and animal-like and the animal can only speak one language, despite how many languages it may understand. Average Mutation Point Cost: 2
Full: Sophisticated vocal cords equal to that of most humans. The animal can speak any language it can understand. Average Mutation Point Cost: 4
Upright Stance
None: The animal can't stand up without support. If the animal is a quadruped, it gains a +4 bonus to CMD to resist Trip attempts and animals with extra legs (such as insects, arachnids, cephalopods, etc.) gain an additional +2 to CMD for each additional leg they may have. Some animals (like eels and snakes) can't be tripped. In addition, quadrupeds can carry heavier loads than bipeds can. Multiply the values corresponding to the creature's Strength score from Table: Carrying Capacity in the Pathfinder Core Rulebook by the appropriate modifier, as follows: Fine ×1/4, Diminutive ×1/2, Tiny ×3/4, Small ×1, Medium ×1-1/2, Large ×3, Huge ×6, Gargantuan ×12, Colossal ×24. Average Mutation Point Cost: 0
Partial: Like a bear, the animal can stand on its hindlegs to fight.
While standing in this way, the animal can only move half its base speed and suffers a -4 penalty to Acrobatics checks. The animal must fall to all fours in order to run. Average Mutation Point Cost: 2
Full: The animal can stand fully upright like a human and has the same range of movement. It loses any bonuses it may have had to CMD for having extra legs, as well as any increased carrying capacity. Average Mutation Point Cost: 4
Appearance
None: Character still looks pretty much like an animal. In other
words, a wolf character with hands and bipedal stance would still
have a wolf-shaped head, black nose, snout, fur, and pointed ears
at the top of the head. Nobody will mistake this creature for human, as Disguise checks made to do so automatically fail. The character receives a -4 penalty to Diplomacy checks when dealing with unfamiliar humans, but gains a +4 bonus to Intimidate checks. Average Mutation Point Cost: 0
Partial: The character looks vaguely human and can pass for human
in a bad light. Extreme features like heavy fur, long snouts and
pointed ears are all reduced. At night, the character can pass for human if disguised in clothes that cover up the animal features (-4 penalty to Disguise checks). The character receives a -2 penalty to Diplomacy checks when dealing with unfamiliar humans, but gains a +2 bonus to Intimidate checks. Average Mutation Point Cost: 2
Full: This fully transforms the character into something that can easily pass for human, though not exactly normal. Hair will
appear in normal human amounts. The body will take on a completely
human structure, and the features like eyes and teeth will look
more or less normal. Animal characters will never look completely
human but, with this option, they won't be immediately suspect. For example, a badger character would still have a badger-like face, badger-like streaks in the hair and a stocky build. People will tend
to say "that ugly guy looks like a badger", not "that badger looks
like a human". Average Mutation Point Cost: 4
Okay. That's all I've got so far. Holla back.
Hey.
Thanks. ;)
Modern take. Probably something along the lines of D20 Modern. I need quite a bit of help fleshing it out though.
You do know that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were originally inspired by Japanese kappa don't you?
No doubt, this won't help, but Rite Publishing has In the Company of Kappa, designed for use with the Kaidan (Japanese horror) campaign setting for PFRPG. One of the folklore beliefs of kappa, is that they were skilled at 'breaking bones' using their own brand of martial arts.
The mentioned supplement includes a racial paragon class for kappa, called the 'Bone-Breaker'. Getting a nice sunder ability, combined with bone-breaking maneuvers feature that get more powerful as he levels up. Activating the power and doing combat damage leads to Dex damage and -5 to movement to base speed based on actual damage taken (to simulate sprains and broken limbs), Str damage to emulate broken arms, and Con damage applying to broken ribs, with a 'skull breaker' that kills - capstone power.
I know, not anything like a TMNT conversion, so it's unhelpful. But at least the above build is based on actual folklore beliefs of kappa fighting ability.
Production Assistant
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For relative values for different racial abilities, you can check out the race-building guidelines in the back of the Advanced Race Guide, so you know how valuable, say, moving faster is versus scent or nightvision.
Also, you may want to review your bonuses and penalties for sizes, or at least revise the cost. In TMNTAOS, there were solid bonuses for being large: You became stronger and tougher and more resistant to damage without taking any penalties. In d20, becoming larger increases your ability to dish out damage (large weapons, higher strength), but also makes you easier to hit (penalty to AC). Similarly, being smaller may reduce your damage, but it increases your AC, bonuses to hit, and Stealth skill. Also, you won't find many animals larger than huge unless you start digging out dinosaurs (and we all should), so are even fewer size levels that you thought.
For sizes, maybe you give each mutant a starting size of Medium (for human-sized and larger creatures) or Small (for anything smaller than a human), with the option to buy Tiny size or Large size with some of your mutation points. Other natural, animal abilities are purchased with those points, after all, why not size?
So a mutant sparrow would start out small, but you could buy it down to tiny for, say, 2 mutation points. You could also increase it's size up to Medium for 1 mutation point (to use human gear easily). Likewise, a mutant buffalo would start out medium, but you could spent 2 mutation points to make it Large or 1 to make him small (very stealthy water buffalo around these parts).
For relative values for different racial abilities, you can check out the race-building guidelines in the back of the Advanced Race Guide, so you know how valuable, say, moving faster is versus scent or nightvision.
Also, you may want to review your bonuses and penalties for sizes, or at least revise the cost. In TMNTAOS, there were solid bonuses for being large: You became stronger and tougher and more resistant to damage without taking any penalties. In d20, becoming larger increases your ability to dish out damage (large weapons, higher strength), but also makes you easier to hit (penalty to AC). Similarly, being smaller may reduce your damage, but it increases your AC, bonuses to hit, and Stealth skill. Also, you won't find many animals larger than huge unless you start digging out dinosaurs (and we all should), so are even fewer size levels that you thought.
For sizes, maybe you give each mutant a starting size of Medium (for human-sized and larger creatures) or Small (for anything smaller than a human), with the option to buy Tiny size or Large size with some of your mutation points. Other natural, animal abilities are purchased with those points, after all, why not size?
So a mutant sparrow would start out small, but you could buy it down to tiny for, say, 2 mutation points. You could also increase it's size up to Medium for 1 mutation point (to use human gear easily). Likewise, a mutant buffalo would start out medium, but you could spent 2 mutation points to make it Large or 1 to make him small (very stealthy water buffalo around these parts).
Those are some great ideas. Also, should a creature like an elephant or a whale be Medium too or should they be Large at first? Similar question about animals smaller than Tiny starting as Small or not. And I most definitely plan on including dinosaurs.
So, for Small size there shouldn't be a penalty to Strength and Large shouldn't get a penalty to Dex? Should the penalties only apply for Tiny (or smaller) and Huge (or larger)? Or are you suggesting that increases and decreases in size should incur no penalties to ability scores at all? Forgive me. My brain is a bit fried today.
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Production Assistant
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I think you'd still use the listings you already have for stat adjustments. It makes sense that small characters wouldn't be as strong as larger ones. But I'd limit player characters to Tiny (at the smallest) and Large (at their biggest). Diminutive and Huge start to break down the balance curve in terms of damage output or AC (imagine how stealthy and unhittable a Diminutive wizard would be; they'd be at a huge advantage defensively with the same damage output).
And I think mutant elephants and the like would start out Medium, yes. Just like you'd buy their trunk or tusks or other advantages with mutation points, you'd also buy their advantageous size with mutation points.
I think you'd still use the listings you already have for stat adjustments. It makes sense that small characters wouldn't be as strong as larger ones. But I'd limit player characters to Tiny (at the smallest) and Large (at their biggest). Diminutive and Huge start to break down the balance curve in terms of damage output or AC (imagine how stealthy and unhittable a Diminutive wizard would be; they'd be at a huge advantage defensively with the same damage output).
And I think mutant elephants and the like would start out Medium, yes. Just like you'd buy their trunk or tusks or other advantages with mutation points, you'd also buy their advantageous size with mutation points.
Good ideas!
I'm also going to create some new starting occupations for characters that will be very much in the same spirit as the wild animal educations from TMNTOS. I am having some trouble figuring how many points each animal should get, though.|
Production Specialist
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To balance them against existing player races, you probably want to give them enough mutation points to gain full hand, stance, and speech, plus enough to buy 2 or 3 special animal abilities. That'll put them on par with humans if they want mostly humanoid abilities, or they can gain penalties to pick up additional special abilities.
Cool. Okay, here's my first shot at an animal. I'd appreciate any constructive criticism.
Mutant Animal: Hamster
Starting Size: Small
Base Land Speed: 20 ft.
Ability Modifiers: -2 Str, +2 Dex, +2 Wis: Hamsters are small and weak but are surprisingly agile and alert.
Mutation Points:
Humanoid Features
Hands: 2 MP for Partial
4 MP for Full
Speech: 2 MP for Partial
4 MP for Full
Upright Stance: 2 MP for Partial
4 MP for Full
Appearance: None; Muzzled head with pointed nose, widely spaced eyes, round ears on top of head, long incisors, thick fur, stubby tail, thick body with short limbs ending in clawed paws.
2 MP for Partial; Slightly muzzled head, ears on top of head, thick neck and body.
4 MP for Full; Sharp nose and protruding ears, fat cheeks, thick hair, round body.
Natural Weapons: 1 MP for Bite (1d4), 2 MP for Claws (1d4)
Powers: 2 MP for Gnawing Teeth; As a full round action, a hamster can use its sharp incisors to chew through and ignore the first 2 points of hardness of an object that isn't made of metal or hard plastic.
3 MP for Burrowing; The hamster gains a burrow speed equal to 1/2 its base land speed. It can burrow through sand, dirt, clay, gravel, or similar materials, but not solid stone. Burrowing does not leave a hole behind, nor is the passage marked on the surface.
4 MP for Scent; A hamster can use its sense of smell to detect opponents, generally within 30 feet. If the opponent is upwind, the range is 60 feet. If it is downwind, the range is 15 feet. Strong scents, such as smoke or rotting garbage, can be detected at twice the ranges noted above. Overpowering scents, such as skunk musk, can be detected at three times these ranges. The hamster detects another creature’s presence but not its specific location. Noting the direction of the scent is a move action. If the hamster moves within 5 feet (1 square) of the scent’s source, the hamster can pinpoint that source.
2 MP for Advanced Hearing; A hamster's keen hearing grants it a +4 bonus to sound-based Perception checks.
1 MP for Cheek Pouches; The cheeks of a hamster contain pouches used for storing food. The hamster can hold up to half of its carrying capacity worth of food (or similarly sized items) in its cheeks in this way, but doing so prohibits the hamster from speaking or making bite attacks. The hamster can keep items stored in its pouches indefinitely. Emptying its pouches is a minor action.
Drawbacks: +4 MP for Prey Mentality; Like most rodents, hamsters can be skittish and easily startled when confronted with danger. After Initiative is rolled but before the hamster has taken its first action, it must make a Will save (DC 15). If it fails the saving throw, its shaken until the end of the encounter, taking a -2 penalty on attack rolls, saving throws, and skill checks. If the save succeeds, the hamster overcomes its fear and suffers no ill effects.
+2 MP for Poor Vision; Hamsters have bad eyesight. They take a -2 penalty to vision-based Perception checks and take a -4 penalty on ranged attacks for each range increment (instead of the normal -2 penalty).
I was originally going to give them color blindness as a drawback too, but I wasn't sure how that would work in the game.
Oops!
*Mutation Points: 22