Beast Master // Hunter

[Kibko]

New to using the Basic Roleplaying system and one of my players(hunter) wants to have a beast companion. Theres the sheet for a follower but I can't seem to find mechanics, skills, or guidelines that would help. (Also posted this question on discord servers)

[Ian Absentia]

The "follower" sheets at the back of the book are basically auxiliary NPCs to the main one at the head of the sheet.  A primary and their underlings.

But if you want something formal for player characters, have a look at the Sidekick power on p.103.  It's different from a typical NPC in that the player is explicitly in control.

!i!

Edited December 7, 2023 by Ian Absentia

[Jason D]

Ian's answered it as succinctly as I would. 

You can simply handle it as a follower, assigning the creature to the player character and letting them handle it as a controlled NPC (maybe asking for suitable Commication skills to persuade it to act). 

Another option is to create an Animal Handling skill (Communication, base 05%) to let the character guide their companion. 

As Ian noted, the Sidekick superpower gives you the ability to point-buy the creature and it is assumed to be an extension of the character, controllable as them as if it were themselves. 

I'd generally err on the side of letting the player handle the creature without repetitive skill rolls, letting it do most normal things automatically and requiring a resistance roll to convince it to do something complicated (INT vs INT), dangerous (POW vs POW), or outside its normal field of activity (CHA vs POW). 

Tell the player from the get-go that you're just figuring it out, and if it becomes too powerful or breaks the constraints you're wanting to impose, then start requiring more difficult skill rolls to cajole the creature into doing the character's bidding. 

 

[g33k]

13 hours ago, Kibko said:

New to using the Basic Roleplaying system and ...

Welcome!

[Jason D]

Another thought would be to use personality traits to represent the animal companion's rating between Wild and Trained as opposed values equaling 100%. If they get a command that might require a test, make it using the personality test rules. If "Wild" wins, they balk. If "Trained" wins, they do as commanded.

As this is a nonplayer character, essentially, the GM should be the ultimate arbiter of how the critter behaves. 

 

[Ian Absentia]

In that case, you might even treat it like a dragonewt per Wyrm's Footnotes No.14.  You have wild instincts on either end of the spectrum, but a "trained" range in the middle that expresses both mastery over the beast and its willingness to work with and for the trainer.

That's a bit of a deep cut, though, and not readily supported in the current BRP rules.

!i!

Edited December 9, 2023 by Ian Absentia

[Atgxtg]

2 hours ago, Ian Absentia said:

In that case, you might even treat it like a dragonewt per Wyrm's Footnotes No.14.  You have wild instincts on either end of the spectrum, but a "trained" range in the middle that expresses both mastery over the beast and its willingness to work with and for the trainer.

That's a bit of a deep cut, though, and not readily supported in the current BRP rules.

!i!

But is is similar to the old personality traits in Thieves' World.

Personally I think player skill/attribute rolls would be better than giving the animal a trained trait though, since traits can go up or down over time, and I don't see a trained animal becoming less trained over time. I could see the level of trained applying a modifier of some to Animal Handling rolls. It should be easier to train a dog than a wolf.

 

[Mugen]

ElfQuest comes to my mind. In this game, every PC is a member of a Wolf Riders tribe of elves, and has a unique bond with one wolf.

However, I don't remember if there's any mechanism to build this bond, as both the wolf and his rider have been raised together since they were born, and the narural telepathic ability of those elves helps a lot...