Re: Describing dragon newt magic?

From: hcarteau_at_UxLE19VGhlSWdKsliJ-8kRN0O81lYioJ2djBEVbTy6cEhjKhjHkbPTejhGN8SHUU3Jp
Date: Thu, 12 Jul 2012 18:08:02 +0200 (CEST)

Dragonewts are absolutely unfathomable. So, to make players REALLY worry about them any time they are met, and if they are not a planned part of my scenario, I just roll a D20 before all players. 1 = dragonewt super-friendly/positive to PCs, 20 = immediate, ferocious attack to kill and devour. And that happens EVERY TIME they attempt to interact with it / them : when they say hi, when they touch it, when they attempt to leave its presence - every time.

It does the players very edgy when around Dragonewts, which simulates nicely the worriness of humans around these reptilian freaks.

Finally, I sometime use for inspiration a random table published in french 'zine "LES ERUDITS DE L'AMBIGU", way back, which offers 20 possible behaviors for newts, from "standing on one leg and spinning" to "starting to discuss the PC's most intimate secrets in a loud voice", including "beginning to sink in the earth", "drowning in air", etc etc.

The weirder, the better.

De: "bryan_thx" <bethexton_at_XMdNx4ApDVuYHaKT4bEyyenzRanlY3EvdTMuGQ2g0IFK65hOnvKVftf-2j5FkFn3gooe1R3keFUJfhhAjA.yahoo.invalid> Objet: Describing dragon newt magic?

Any suggestions for narrating dragon newt magic?

Heroquest does a nice job of making the mechanics moot, it is really decide what I want them to be able to do, and with what score. But I want facing dragon newts to cause some of that sense of awe and worry about the unknown. Hence looking at how to describe it better.

Anyone have references from existing books to point me at, or their own ideas of what works well for this?