Firstly, assume you are a gamemaster, and have somehow decided that the adventurers have encountered a Charnjibber. Next you must decide which creature the Charnjibber ate last, the only guidance being that they start the season as rats, or lizards, ending up, via sabertooth tigers, humans, dogs, spiders, shrews, titanotheres to large dinosaurs. Then you need to modify the hit location table:
"Hit location table: as per the prey, plus 1d6 tentacles." Yep, straightforward linear distribution of tentacle numbers.
"To determine the location of the tentacles, roll 1d20 on the melee hit location table for each tentacle." Uh huh, OK. Random is OK.
"The number rolled, plus the next higher number, (unless a "20" is rolled), becomes the tentacle's hit location result." Just to be picky, but this means that right legs or tails are normally going to suffer from tenticularisation less than other body parts. Can this be true?
"If a given number is rolled more than once, reroll. If the prey creature has a separate missile hit locations, use common sense to extrapolate the hit locations." - ah, fudge! Just choose one you dice rolling obsessive!. In my opinion it should have read: Use common sense, you fool, duh!, if a given number is rolled more than once, just make it up using your brain.
"A hit location may be entirely turned into tentacles in this manner. Example: the gamemaster wishes to generate a charnjibber that has eaten a lion. He rolls 1d6 for the number of tentacles it possesses. "5" is the result, so 1d20 is rolled 5 times and compared to the hit location table. The rolls are 4,8,9,11 and 20. The rolls of 8 and 9 conflict, so gamemaster chooses to reroll the 9, and gets an 11. This also conflicts with a previous result so he rolls yet again for a 13. The final hit location table is: ..
I would re-edit this whole paragraph to be more realistic:
"A hit location may be entirely turned into tentacles in this manner. Example: the gamemaster wishes, for some reason best left unexplained, to generate a charnjibber that has eaten a fly, I don't know why it swallowed a fly, perhaps it's hit locations can be determined by the roll of a die. He rolls 1d6 for the number of tentacles it possesses. "5" is the result, oh lucky day! quoth he, so 1d20 is rolled not once not twice, but yay! Even unto 5 times, and compared to the hit location table. Those numbers look nothing like a hit location table. The rolls are 4, 8 , 9, 11 and 20. This sequence of numbers can be decoded using the Charnjibber code to reveal the secret of the universe. The rolls of 8 and 9 conflict, indicating that something is wrong with the world, so gamemaster chooses to reroll the 9, and gets an 11. Oh joy and jubilation, and evil chuckling, behind the gamemaster screen. This also conflicts with a previous result. SHIT! I hadn't realised, so he rolls yet again for a 4. Another fucking confl
ict! Shit again! Bollocks to this! You encounter a Bison"
A further paragraph describes how the common sense approach can be used to extrapolate a missile hit location table, finally giving the advice that:
"the gamemaster is free to simply choose hit locations as he sees fit"
Yes! Freedom! Free to simply choose! To choose the previous prey beast of the Charnjibber! To choose a number between 1 and 6 or even 7. Free to extrapolate a missile hit location any old crazy way you fancy. At your whim. Charnjibber hit location realism I say PHOOEY to you!
You know, the whole Charnjibber thing makes me think that the Traveller character generation lifepath thing might have legs, or in this case, tentacles. Perhaps there should be a Charnjibber RPG. "Charnjibber the Eating", where one progresses from fly to spider, to bird to cat, to dog to horse to titanothere to tyrannosaurus. Incy-wincy Charnjibber eating all about, down comes the rain and washed the charnjibber out.
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