ostrich ?

I am so sorry to bother you guys with this. But if anyone is willing to help me build an ostrich I would be very happy. I am a bit unsure how to create it.

build an ostrich

Take a mummy ostrich and a daddy ostrich who love each other very much....

Bob

I thought the stork came with one, but unfortunately, i do not have stats for a stork?

Alright, I'm bored today anyway. Do you have a copy of HoH: MC?

Anyway, the first step, is to determine the animal's Type and Size. Unsurprisingly, Ostriches fall under the category of "Bird". As for Size, wikipedia indicates that Ostriches weigh approximately 255 lbs which would recommend a Size of +1 - except that HoH: MC recommends treating birds as being 1 Size bigger than their weight would otherwise indicate to account for their hollow bones so Size = +2. Honestly, I half feel that ostriches might be better represented by "hoofed=beast" but let's go with that for now. Remember that Size add +4 to Strength and -2 to Quickness for our sample creature in this case - it'll be important later.

The "Bird" category also determines the ostrich's Mental Characteristics which the book recommends ought to be: Cun -1, Per +2, Pre -1, and Com -2. These may be altered later when we start selecting Virtues, Flaws, and Qualities, however.

Next we determine physical characteristics (Str, Dex, Sta, and Qik). We do this by pretending the animal in question were human sized and comparing it to an average person (who would have 0 in all four stats). We get 7 points to distribute, but given the Size modifiers we'll be introducing later, I'd recommend reducing lowering Strength a bit and improving Quickness to at least +1 (birds do, generally., seem to possess very good reflexes). What are your suggestions?

Before I read "daddy ostrich" I had to picture something else when I read "mummy ostrich"... :open_mouth:

My ideas only... they are probably off by some measure I havent considered, but here goes.

Characteristics: Cun -2, Per +2, Pre 0, Com -4, Str +2, Sta +4, Dex +1, Qik +3
Size: +1
Virtues and Flaws: Improved Characteristic, Long Winded, Simple Minded, Fear (movement behind)
Qualities: Defensive Fighter, Fast Runner, Tireless
Personality Traits: Wary +3, Curious +3
Combat: Talons: Init +2, Attack +8, Defense +4, Damage +5
Soak: +4

Just a start.

Sub Rosa #9 has ostrich stats, cut from the drafts of The Cradle and the Crescent.
To subscribe or obtain issues: http://www.subrosamagazine.org/

I know this because I wrote them. :smiley:

Hopefully they'll make it into an official supplement sometime soon...

Lachie

Dont think i will buy a magazine just for the stats of a bird when some one else made a ostrich example in this thread

But it really is a great magazine. Honestly.

But a ostrich is in the Cradle and Crescent? I think I missed that entirely.

Distracted by mobeds I suspect

That's up to you and potentially your loss as it's a great issue even if you don't like ostriches.

I've built a lot of mundane creatures for the line and the method is basically as Portiantor says, but with a bit of extra research to work out appropriate Qualities and Virtues / Flaws to make the beasties more than just stat blocks and differentiate say a horse form a camel from an ostrich from a mule etc.

As to tCatC - ostriches were initially in the early draft (potentially as an exotic mount for jinn and/or sahir - some parts of Arabia today still have ostrich races) but were cut to save space so we decided to include them in SubRosa. As the rights revert to the author after 9 months, I'm free to do whatever I want with the material which includes submitting it for an official Atlas supplement down the line, so you never know...

Lachie