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hi all,
one of my players is fixated on having a dinosaur animal companion in our RORL campaign. they have just finished thistletop, and he wants to get an allosaurus before he arrives back in town. my guess is it makes a dramatic homecoming for all in town to see. my question is how have you ruled on your ranger/ druids finding specific animal companions. I told him that with a week of actively searching, you should be able to find what you are looking for. the player's view is that his character(ranger) is like snow white with animals flocking to him lol. I feel it's a cop-out to just say when you're walking the 3 miles on a coastal road, a dinosaur walks up to you and says" LOVE ME....CONTROL ME"
Obviously there are no rules for this.
Playing "by the book", the closest you could come to rules is to determine whether the area the PCs are in is typical dinosaur habitat. Where do allosaurs live, anyway? Jungle? Remote wastelands? Varisian countryside? Once you figure that out, you will know if there is even any chance to find allosaurs in the area where the PCs currently are.
For example, if you were in a desert and the PC wanted a polar bear, you probably would not have to think very hard about whether polar bears live in that desert. But if they were in the arctic and he wanted a polar bear, your answer would be very different.
Next, assuming you decide allosaurs do not live in the area, the character would probably know, or could make a Knowledge Nature check, where is the closest place to find allosaurs. Then he could travel there if he still wants to. Mwangi is not too far, with a good ship...
If you decide the PCs are in the right area for allosaurs (or they travel there), then it's entirely up to you to figure out how soon they find one. Are they everywhere, can't hardly spit without spitting on an allosaurus? Or are they extremely rare and it could take months to even find the tracks of an allosaurus? Something in between?
Maybe they can be smarter, like figuring out that allosaurs' favorite meal are hadrasaurs like parasauralophus, and those are easy to find, so they can follow a herd of them until an allosaur shows up for a meal. Then the chase is on...
Really, this is all up to you. How much verisimilitude do you want? You can put an allosaur on the path back to Sandpoint if you want to. No biggie. Happy player, but it might make everyone feel like the game is a bit rigged, or somewhat unrealistic. Or you can make it a long journey to get one which might seem very realistic but can detract from the AP.
So, how do you want to do it?
I'm pretty sure there are rules for purchasing animals, including unusual animals someplace in the myriad of rules. I can't find it right now, but I'm pretty certain it exist. Just have the ranger/druid travel into the closest "big" city and he will find a circus with just the critter he is after. He offers to buy the exotic creature after noticing how poorly it is treated at this circus and goes about his business with his new companion.
Obviously there are no rules for this.
Playing "by the book", the closest you could come to rules is to determine whether the area the PCs are in is typical dinosaur habitat. Where do allosaurs live, anyway? Jungle? Remote wastelands? Varisian countryside? Once you figure that out, you will know if there is even any chance to find allosaurs in the area where the PCs currently are.
For example, if you were in a desert and the PC wanted a polar bear, you probably would not have to think very hard about whether polar bears live in that desert. But if they were in the arctic and he wanted a polar bear, your answer would be very different.
Next, assuming you decide allosaurs do not live in the area, the character would probably know, or could make a Knowledge Nature check, where is the closest place to find allosaurs. Then he could travel there if he still wants to. Mwangi is not too far, with a good ship...
If you decide the PCs are in the right area for allosaurs (or they travel there), then it's entirely up to you to figure out how soon they find one. Are they everywhere, can't hardly spit without spitting on an allosaurus? Or are they extremely rare and it could take months to even find the tracks of an allosaurus? Something in between?
ty for post,
i'm leaning towards "not very likely". this player is our former gm and he made it difficult for another player to find a wolf after his wolf perished...lol if he really wants a dinosaur, I will have him make his nature rolls, knowledge rolls in town and out, tracking. he will also have to ask the rest of the party to come with him because it will probably take longer than the typical 1 week between stories. I hate to make it difficult, but I can't show the other pcs that whining and meta-gaming pays off. did I mention that his character is currently at -7hps and he's party leader still giving pcs orders on what they do next..(sigh) "bring me above 0 hps so I can get an allosaurus animal companion on the way back to town. I want to ride it down main street holding nualia's head!!!"Maybe they can be smarter, like figuring out that allosaurs' favorite meal are hadrasaurs like parasauralophus, and those are easy to find, so they can follow a herd of them until an allosaur shows up for a meal. Then the chase is on...
Really, this is all up to you. How much verisimilitude do you want? You can put an allosaur on the path back to Sandpoint if you want to. No biggie. Happy player, but it might make everyone feel like the game is a bit rigged, or somewhat unrealistic. Or you can make it a long journey to get one which might seem very realistic but can detract from the AP.
So, how do you want to do it?
I'm pretty sure there are rules for purchasing animals, including unusual animals someplace in the myriad of rules. I can't find it right now, but I'm pretty certain it exist. Just have the ranger/druid travel into the closest "big" city and he will find a circus with just the critter he is after. He offers to buy the exotic creature after noticing how poorly it is treated at this circus and goes about his business with his new companion.
circus idea very clever..... less hastle too