Kiarrcat art dump! (plus stats musings)
Jun. 22nd, 2015 09:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rustydragonflyIt's been so long since I posted any kiarrcat stuff, but I should rectify that. I still want to try and set this up as a sort of RP, if I can, but I'm still not sure about the logistics.
Anyway, art first!
The god-host for the Cave species. He's a quiet, solitary type who hangs out in his den full of odds and ends and makes stuff. Often that stuff explodes. Big boom.
A small Desert family stops off for a rest. I hadn't worked with coloured pencils in forever when I did this, and it probably shows, but... eh. It was fun. I did this sort of to show off how colours and patterns can run in the family. I'm leaving genetic mechanisms unexplained but you can kind of see how cubs will tend to have similar colours and patterns to their parents.
The Desert host and his mate, the coppery coloured Air. I don't really have names for these two but they're characters I've been noodling about with. The Air guy is a messenger for the god-hosts and associated kiarrcats. Airs are very common messengers because they can get about easily.
a Forest kiarrcat and... some kind of pet? Based a bit on a velvet worm because velvet worms are cool. (Did you know they have strict hierarchical pack structures? Ditch the crappy unrealistic alpha wolf bullshit and give me some damn pack leader velvet worms.) I think the kiarrcat world (I think it'll be called Ryll, still working on it) has a lot of big bug critters. Just because.
Couple of Savannahs bringing down a prey critter.
The Grassland host. Her name is Karill and she's mostly in the business of annoying the Cave host guy. Just because you have a god in your head doesn't mean you can't have fun.
A Mountain having a scratch... also showing off the grasping back paws typical to that species. (Only Mountains and Caves have grasping digits on the back limbs, for climbing purposes)
Paws! Trying to get that hand/paw look right.
Prelim design for the Rainforest host. I modded the Rainforests a bit, they have slight sabre teeth now. Something had to.
Might have posted this before, can't remember? It's the Savannah host. What a... pleasant... guy...
A Grassland/Cave hybrid. Hybrid have a mixture of the strengths and weaknesses of both parents. They're also sterile. I wanted to nip the superpowered hybrid issue in the bud right away, that seemed like the best solution short of barring them.
Silver tabby type Air.
Oh look, those guys again! Aren't cats cute when they do this?
A spirit. The spirits of dead kiarrcats will sometimes roam the world, but very few can see or communicate with them.
I admit I don't really know very much about how to work with stats. Last time I RPed, it was freeform only. I've never done tabletop stuff, nothing with any dice etc. I'm wanting to go that route with the kiarrcats because of how pure freeform dissolves easily into aimless mush, but I'm not sure how to go about it. Any help, please?
Nevertheless I did do some scribbles for the strengths and weaknesses of each species and the sort of temperature range they're comfortable in. I also did some notes on the type of magic they have. Kiarrcats have general magic that allows them to influence their habitat, making it easy to say, hunt food or create a den. They do not have set named spells, though, so I'm not sure how it'd work.
Notes:
Forest: 0 - 30C
+ climbing ability
- some level of agrophobia
magic: trees, plants
(note, Forests are general all rounder generic kiarrcats outside those limitations)
Polar: -40 - 10C
+ strength, stamina, swimming ability
- slow, clumsy (big paws)
magic: snow, ice
Mountain: -20 - 15C
+ climbing ability, strength, agility, low oxygen levels
- slow
magic: rock, snow
Grassland: -10 - 30C
+ speed
- strength
magic: grass, earth
Desert: 15 - 40C (day only, Deserts are dormant at night)
+ stamina, lower food/water requirements
- strength
magic: sand, rock
Savannah: 15 - 30C
+ strength
- speed
magic: grass, fire
Air: 5 - 20C
+ flight (long distance), speed, dexterity, eyesight
- strength, sense of smell, claustrophobia
magic: air, weather
Water: 0 - 25C
+ swimming (the best!)
- land speed, clumsy (webbed paws)
magic: water (of course)
Cave: -10 - 15C (it's cold down there!)
+ flight (short distance), sonar, hearing, touch, low light vision
- very light/sound sensitive (needs extensive habituation or special magic or equipment to come above ground)
magic: rock, gems, metal
Rainforest: 20 - 30C
+ swimming, climbing
- strength
magic: trees, plants (tropical, as opposed to Forests)
Hopefully they're balanced? I tried to make sure that the specialist ones like Caves had decent drawbacks to go with their oddities. I'm less sure about the magic, but that will come later. I also didn't want to have variations in things like intelligence because I wanted to avoid the idea that each species has its own personality.
Anyway any advice on how to translate that to actual stats would be well appreciated. This is all really new ground for me.
Anyway, art first!
The god-host for the Cave species. He's a quiet, solitary type who hangs out in his den full of odds and ends and makes stuff. Often that stuff explodes. Big boom.
A small Desert family stops off for a rest. I hadn't worked with coloured pencils in forever when I did this, and it probably shows, but... eh. It was fun. I did this sort of to show off how colours and patterns can run in the family. I'm leaving genetic mechanisms unexplained but you can kind of see how cubs will tend to have similar colours and patterns to their parents.
The Desert host and his mate, the coppery coloured Air. I don't really have names for these two but they're characters I've been noodling about with. The Air guy is a messenger for the god-hosts and associated kiarrcats. Airs are very common messengers because they can get about easily.
a Forest kiarrcat and... some kind of pet? Based a bit on a velvet worm because velvet worms are cool. (Did you know they have strict hierarchical pack structures? Ditch the crappy unrealistic alpha wolf bullshit and give me some damn pack leader velvet worms.) I think the kiarrcat world (I think it'll be called Ryll, still working on it) has a lot of big bug critters. Just because.
Couple of Savannahs bringing down a prey critter.
The Grassland host. Her name is Karill and she's mostly in the business of annoying the Cave host guy. Just because you have a god in your head doesn't mean you can't have fun.
A Mountain having a scratch... also showing off the grasping back paws typical to that species. (Only Mountains and Caves have grasping digits on the back limbs, for climbing purposes)
Paws! Trying to get that hand/paw look right.
Prelim design for the Rainforest host. I modded the Rainforests a bit, they have slight sabre teeth now. Something had to.
Might have posted this before, can't remember? It's the Savannah host. What a... pleasant... guy...
A Grassland/Cave hybrid. Hybrid have a mixture of the strengths and weaknesses of both parents. They're also sterile. I wanted to nip the superpowered hybrid issue in the bud right away, that seemed like the best solution short of barring them.
Silver tabby type Air.
Oh look, those guys again! Aren't cats cute when they do this?
A spirit. The spirits of dead kiarrcats will sometimes roam the world, but very few can see or communicate with them.
I admit I don't really know very much about how to work with stats. Last time I RPed, it was freeform only. I've never done tabletop stuff, nothing with any dice etc. I'm wanting to go that route with the kiarrcats because of how pure freeform dissolves easily into aimless mush, but I'm not sure how to go about it. Any help, please?
Nevertheless I did do some scribbles for the strengths and weaknesses of each species and the sort of temperature range they're comfortable in. I also did some notes on the type of magic they have. Kiarrcats have general magic that allows them to influence their habitat, making it easy to say, hunt food or create a den. They do not have set named spells, though, so I'm not sure how it'd work.
Notes:
Forest: 0 - 30C
+ climbing ability
- some level of agrophobia
magic: trees, plants
(note, Forests are general all rounder generic kiarrcats outside those limitations)
Polar: -40 - 10C
+ strength, stamina, swimming ability
- slow, clumsy (big paws)
magic: snow, ice
Mountain: -20 - 15C
+ climbing ability, strength, agility, low oxygen levels
- slow
magic: rock, snow
Grassland: -10 - 30C
+ speed
- strength
magic: grass, earth
Desert: 15 - 40C (day only, Deserts are dormant at night)
+ stamina, lower food/water requirements
- strength
magic: sand, rock
Savannah: 15 - 30C
+ strength
- speed
magic: grass, fire
Air: 5 - 20C
+ flight (long distance), speed, dexterity, eyesight
- strength, sense of smell, claustrophobia
magic: air, weather
Water: 0 - 25C
+ swimming (the best!)
- land speed, clumsy (webbed paws)
magic: water (of course)
Cave: -10 - 15C (it's cold down there!)
+ flight (short distance), sonar, hearing, touch, low light vision
- very light/sound sensitive (needs extensive habituation or special magic or equipment to come above ground)
magic: rock, gems, metal
Rainforest: 20 - 30C
+ swimming, climbing
- strength
magic: trees, plants (tropical, as opposed to Forests)
Hopefully they're balanced? I tried to make sure that the specialist ones like Caves had decent drawbacks to go with their oddities. I'm less sure about the magic, but that will come later. I also didn't want to have variations in things like intelligence because I wanted to avoid the idea that each species has its own personality.
Anyway any advice on how to translate that to actual stats would be well appreciated. This is all really new ground for me.