A minor race inside the unexplored territories that is migrating form their homeworld of Visconsion because of the nearly planet-wide snow drifts due to global warming green house gases. The Alpha Cow (Happy) has set out with her rag-tag herd of ships in search of that fabled star system kalyfornia.

Interested?

By Mike Strain (Evilmike) on Friday, November 23, 2007 - 03:38 am: Edit

????

Did you mean for this to be in the Humor topic?

By Bill Stec (Billstec2) on Friday, November 23, 2007 - 08:24 am: Edit

Are these the same race that parks their transportation vehicles in orbit around the fabled planet of Walmartia at 3AM on Black Friday just to spend money on some silly racial holiday? And once they're done, they have interstellar credit card payments for the next 6 cycles/months?

By Patrick H. Dillman (Patrick) on Friday, November 23, 2007 - 10:50 am: Edit

Man, I'm surprised I typed that well after the 1, 2, 3 pints of Guniess.

If everyone thinks it sucks, its humor.

PHD

{Stupid hangover, had to correct the formatting twice...}

By Patrick H. Dillman (Patrick) on Friday, November 23, 2007 - 03:18 pm: Edit

Okay, now that the hangover's gone...

This may be just from a mass consumption of Happy Cow vids, but the SFU has several feline based races, a canine based, reptillian and rocks, why not a bovine one?

By Mike Strain (Evilmike) on Friday, November 23, 2007 - 06:59 pm: Edit

You have a point.

By Jason E. Schaff (Jschaff297061) on Friday, November 23, 2007 - 07:18 pm: Edit

Sounds to me like an udderly cheesy idea!

(runs away at top speed, while weaving in a serpentine fashion!)

By George Duffy (Sentinal) on Saturday, November 24, 2007 - 06:05 pm: Edit

Too late.... Nuclear tipped cruise has you targeted and locked in.

(Courtesy from the man in the moon... His name is Cheddar.) ;-)

By George M. Ebersole (George) on Friday, April 11, 2008 - 12:23 pm: Edit

---

Quote:

By Mike Strain (Evilmike) on Friday, November 23, 2007 - 06:59 pm: Edit


You have a point.

---

By Stacy Brian Bartley (Bartley) on Friday, April 11, 2008 - 03:38 pm: Edit

Hey Patrick is entitled to his ideas so don't have a cow man!
regards
Stacy

By Jeffrey George Anderson (Jeff) on Thursday, March 29, 2018 - 02:06 pm: Edit

When I saw this topic, I had visions of something akin to the space sheep from "Jason and the Dilithium Fleece" crossed with fighter shuttles serving as cowboys (possibly from the mini-campaign in module J).

Mind you, I'm not disappointed by what I DID see, I was just expecting something different.

That having been said, what about the idea of a relative of the aforementioned space sheep, but without the aggressive rams?

Here's what I'm thinking...

Imagine a herd of, say, twenty to thirty beasts being shepherded by a squadron of local defense fighters that gets set upon by rustlers (Orion CVL, perhaps?). The Space Cattle are inclined to move as a herd, but occasionally one gets skittish and unpredictable.

(Mind you, I'm pulling new ideas basically out of my keester while typing, so EVERYTHING can be regarded as eminently changeable...)

As a herd, the beasts will continue to fly in one direction (Direction 'A' for example) at a set speed (Speed 4?) without complaint. On occasion, one may get a bit of unpredictability (say, roll two dice for each beast once per turn and if the roll comes up snake-eyes, there's a problem) although if there's an unpredictable element nearby (such as a fellow herd mate panicking for whatever reason or active, full strength weapons fire nearby) the odds go up substantially (dice rolls of 2 or 3 for most cattle, 2,3,or 4 if the beast in question suffers a direct, damaging hit?)

Most of the time, a beast in a fit of unpredictability will just freeze or turn in an unwanted direction. However, it may bolt. Single die rolls of 1-3 indicate freezing, 4&5 indicate turning in a random direction, and 6 indicates bolting in random direction at... Speed 12?

Bolting beasts will trigger the increased likelihood of nearby cattle suffering from a case of unpredictability.

The fighter shuttles can prod the cattle by using their phasers on a special, low power setting. This takes the place of their normal fire for the turn and can occur as often as once per DFR phase, does NO damage, but will prod the beast to move in the direction opposite the prod direction at normal speed (4?) OR, in the case of Bolting beasts, may cause them to either freeze or change course (die roll of 1-4 to freeze, turn one hex side to the right on a 5, and turn one hex side to the left on a 6?).

Phasers set to do damage in a normal dogfight, as well as all other weapons, will trigger a beast to bolt as well as do damage.

Bolting beasts may also, once per DFR, either freeze or turn on their own. Die roll of 1 or 2, continue on as it had been, die roll of 3-5, roll for a new facing, and die roll of 6 to freeze?

Beasts are killed at... I don't know... 20 points of damage?

At any rate, these are just some off-the-cuff thoughts based on the subject name. I'm sure that any further discussion on the subject will come up with something FAR better.

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Thursday, March 29, 2018 - 05:34 pm: Edit

I think at this point you would be starting from "Rustling a Cattle Drive," (OS22.0) in the Omega Octant. Scenario is probably in Module Omega #4 as it involves a Branthodon Dragonship (Branthodon as an empire were introduced in Module Omega #4) attempting to rustle from a herd of Wild Alunda being shepherded by an Alunda (Alunda as an empire were introduced in Module Omega #1) ship. The rules for "Wild Alunda" (OS22.45) would be the starting point (or a building block) for the herd rules (how the animals react to attack/threat).

By Jeffrey George Anderson (Jeff) on Friday, March 30, 2018 - 10:52 am: Edit

Like I said, "... any further discussion on the subject will come up with something FAR better."

As much as I love the concepts of the Alunda and Branthodon, I've always seen "Rustling a Cattle Drive" as something from "Whale Wars" (although I suspect that's because the Alunda were first described as "Space Whales"), and as something as far away from TexMex space as the Southern Ocean is from Panhandle Country.

Shall we chalk this one as well up to my exuberance? It is with some regret that I must admit that it's quite unlikely to change; I still have it even after over three decades of having Captain's Chairs shot out from under me...

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Friday, March 30, 2018 - 01:48 pm: Edit

Jeffrey George Anderson:

I am not saying that you cannot do a "space cattle monster," just that in developing the rules for how it would operate you might refer to what was done in "Rustling a Cattle Drive." You might look at other monster rules (such as the Space Sheep as you noted yourself), to include the rules on Space Boars. It is a big game as has been noted, and a little research can help from keep one from "reinventing the wheel" by using rules someone else developed as a guide for your own proposal. A lot of people when trying to develop something get "too narrow a focus" and forget to ask themselves questions like "what if the space cows are near a black hole, how does a black hole affect them?"

Heck, from that standpoint you might look at the various "Monster Articles" that have appeared in Captain's Log that attempt to integrate older monsters into the larger game for ideas on how the space cows might react to different things and addressing their vulnerability to various effects.

By Jeffrey George Anderson (Jeff) on Friday, March 30, 2018 - 07:58 pm: Edit

Okay, SPP, I'll do that.

If any of you out there want to sink your teeth into this steak, please feel free to do so!

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Monday, July 22, 2019 - 03:40 am: Edit

Somebody needs to do something with this idea or I need to delete it as a waste of space.