FASERIP

ANIMAL ADVENTURERS

Animal Adventurers are animals who are intelligent and have the power of speech (usually). They also have at least some ability to function as though they have hands even if their paws, claws or tentacles are not humanoid hands.

The power of speech of an animal hero character can be Unacknowledged, Surprising, Limited or Telepathic. Telepathic animal speech is literally a voice in someone else's mind communicating. Some telepathic animal speech is not recognized as such and people unknowingly assume the animal is speaking physically. Unacknowledged animal speech means the animal speaks as if a "normal" character and no one notices or mentions it. Surprising animal speech means the animal speaks like a "normal" character but it is surprising to other characters when they first hear it. Limited animal speech has some form of defect or limitation - the animal can't speak properly or clearly.

Animals whose paws or tentacles are not physically suited to act as hands on a basic level suffer a permanent -1RS penalty on all rolls requiring manual dexterity, including operating controls and machines, making attachs with human designed melee and ranged weapons and opening human made door or window catches or handles.

The size of an Animal Adventurer should be agreed between the gamemaster and the player. Realistic sizes for Animal Adventurers will result in most of them having the benefits or penalties of Shrinking or Growth power to some extent. Otherwise, an Animal Adventurer can be treated as basically a human character for the purposes of size.

Roleplaying an animal should include reflecting the accepted type of personality, prejudices, likes and dislikes of an instinctive creature. For example a cat won't be friendly to canines, will be chasing mice and rats, and love sleeping and being safe and warm to an unprecedented degree. A herbivore animal will not eat meat under any circumstances. Egg laying animals will not under any circumstances eat the flesh of their own or related species or, of course, eggs of their own kind.