| Brood Brother |
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Joined: Fri Jan 17, 2003 11:41 am
Posts: 1747
Location: Norton Canes, Cannock, Staffs, UK
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Hmmm, not quite the image I was trying to project. 
They do still possess tails, which they are able to utilise as well as an arm. So, it can carry weapons, tools etc. This would count in game terms (40K at least) as always being equipped with an additional HW. So pretty much every trooper would have 2 attacks. It wouldn't be too much of an advantage though, since I see them as weak creatures. So stats along these lines.
Basic Trooper
WS-BS--S--T--W--I--A--LD
-4---3--3--2---1--4--2--5
Hero's
WS-BS--S--T--W--I--A--LD
-5---3--3--3---2--5--3--6
Commanders
WS-BS--S--T--W--I--A--LD
-6---4--4--3---3--6--4--7
I maybe wouldn't even go for S3 on the commander. I would give them plenty of attacks at a high WS. I see them having very fast reactions (ever tried catching a rat?) so I see them able to land a flurry of blows. However, I only see the odd blow actually doing any damage.
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For naming I would stick with words that project images of darkness, shadow and backstabbing. Things like; Night Stalkers, Shadow Walkers etc. The WHFB Skaven do have some nice terms for champions though (fangleader).
Some people have wanted to keep the clan system Skaven use, but I think this would be a mistake. At most I would allow a few factions. Say three different warring houses, so bitter that they rarely work together. They would have their own traits. Some being mildly psychic, some slightly more technically advanced and the final faction being more warlike.
This would then be the point at where the Hrudd would have learnt their real trait - as traders. When the race became fractured into the three factions, despite the constant warring, they traded with each other. They would swap weapons for tools, psykers for food.
These would not be alliances, but small agreements between individual houses within the factions. A Warlike(faction) house would trade the weapons and/or warriors, for the aid of tools with which to build more warmachines. Or A Psyker house would lend a Warlock for the crops/food another house had raised.
As such the race built up an understanding of how to trade to make up for any short comings. Wheen they finally made space tavel a reality, their trading abilities were useful in getting the most out of the humans.
They found out that thier grasp of warp manipulation was unique, and very much sought after. And found that for a realitively small amount of weapons/tools/powerunits they could trade for vast quantities of food/clothing, items not readily available on their home planet.
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Their homeplanet is a dark, unforgiving world. With very few daylight hours (and those hours are a scorching affair) the planet has little food. What food their is, is pretty horrible. Only just providing the sustanance a creature needs.
This helps to govern the Hrudds numbers, for they reproduce at a great rate. Birth is the sole job of the queen of a house. She is fertilised by the strongest and most intelligent house members, and gives birth to that houses members. (so they are all literally a big family). They do not have the ties that a human family do. Once old enough to feed by themselves (as little as 7 days after birth) the young are left to their own devices.
With the lack of food on their planet, only the strongest will survive. The rest either starving to death, or eaten by other Hrudd.
When the trading routes opened with the Humans, their was suddenly a flood of food entering the Hrudd world. This led to an explosion of population, and hurried expansion to new worlds. Even worlds already colonised were taken as homes. As a Nocturnal race, the Hrudd had no need to live above ground. As such they could infiltrate the underworld, living almost undetected if they wished.
This meant that the world governers would not be aware of the threat below. The Hrudd would often outnumber the original habitants within 10 years in the right circumstances.
Okay, I'm gonna take a breather.
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) be technically advanced in some aspects, but backwards in others.
or too old and feeble to care... 
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