>>86462670
>Laboring under the mistaken illusion most people who 'ply games' actually enjoy games

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>>86462670
>crow
thats a grackle you doublenigger

>>86462745
Tell us more about birds, oh avian-autist of the net

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>>86462779
The grackle's scientific name is "Oily Boi" due to the chromatic sheen their dark plumage takes in direct light.
And they are not corvids, like the jay crow and raven.
Despite Anglo scum calling them "crow-blackbirds" they are actually related to meadow larks.

>>86462817
Very nice facts about birds, thanks avian-autist anon!

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>>86462862
Cool Bird Fact: We are already inside your walls.

>>86462745
>>86462817
This is a bird thread now. Let avianon grace us with bird facts, preferably some that may be applied to RPG worldbuilding.

Based avian autist anon, tell me, are there any birds smart enough that a giant version could be trained as a mount? Or will they all just eat their riders and fuck off?

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>>86462910
Corvids Penguins and Psittaciformes (Parrots and Cockatoos) would be trainable realistically.
The thunderbirds of yore were actually thought to have been fuckhuge corvids and some of the hunted specimen photos support this.
Hawks and Falcons have to be bonded really young, because even life-bonded raptors raised by professionals can be surly.
Owls are surprisingly social, and easy to train, but would make finicky mounts.
Eagles would be straight up wyverns if giant, this is horrorfuel.

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>>86462910
Shoebill and Ostrich are also tamable to a degree, a swampelf tribe on giant shoebills would be metal as fuck.
>everybody gangster until the treeline starts banging and screaming
https://youtu.be/OwQwkFH1BW0

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>>86462962
They could have battledrums and warcries and ululations that mimic the shoebill's (which would be fucking deafening at mount-size).
Their spindly muscular getaway sticks help them move silently in the water and displace the least amount of water in motion, and their flight is surprisingly quiet due to their large primary feathers and the noise pollution of their environment.
They'd stir up the birds when springing ambush too, causing man and beast alike to panic.


Real psychos would have chickens though.
Chickens are cannibals, they are voracious and stupid and extremely durable.
So a primitive brutalist society would employ them.
Theyd maybe have some sort of drawn wagon hogan pulled by the roosters that housed their hens. They'd have infinite protein (strong) and graze the mad beasts all over, picking the land clean.
A rooster mount would have to be pragmatically trained as they could not truly be domesticated due to being dumb as fuck and cruel, so we are talking blinders and spurguards and a muzzle outside of raiding.
>Cockbandits raid farms and eat the cattle, one cockbandit is wounded and the pack turns on him like bluesharks in a frenzy.
Very good middling villain fodder.
Self-regulatory too.

>>86462817
Oily boi is precious

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>>86463042
And lastly, if you want a fearsome bird that would fit in with posh dandy knights and heraldric barding, look no further than the Cassowary.
Now these things are completely untrainable and as close to fuckin dinosaurs as we can get while retaining the bird facade, so they would be bred like horses are, and each house would have them bred in their heraldric colors.
They would be the source of a Cavaliers Pride and station, and a representation of the power they command both physically and metaphorically.
The actual Cassowary is already dangerous/lethal to humans caught without firearms, moreso than emus due to their more aggressive nature.
>territorial
>garish
>loud
Perfect for Knights
A man who could subjugate such a beast would be an imposing figure, as all of the fuckups are eaten by these "treasures of the house".
For flavor though, I'd mix in peacock features to really drive the "pageant knight" theme home.
They could be sought by landskencht-types of stature, to accentuate their ostentatious-but-deadly-as-fuck vibe.

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>>86462910
You could do a spin on the Mimidae or general Mockingbird, which steals the songs of other birds (and sometimes nests), where the bird can translate languages instead.
So they could be relayed in network to pass indecipherable messages like windtalkers, or simply have a rad pirate captain that has a Mimidae style bird that allows him to parrrrley with all types of victims on the coast.
This pirate captain you see, is looking for the lost island haven where the pirate-king is said to have scuppered his legendary ship and retired.
See on that island?
His birds flourished, and now the rosetta stone of a thousand dead tongues flits about the not-galapagos, voices of civilizations empires long extinguished echo from the trees.
And this here stack of treasure maps?
Written in a long forgotten tongues, so he kidnaps some eggheads and sets out to find the island in hopes of translating them.

>>86463123
Thankyou, avianon.
Im Australian, so I am rather familiar with cassowaries (and emus). The idea of riding one is frankly terrifying, Im gonna use this. The thought of stealthy shoebill swamp ambushers and cockriding barbarians is just as horrifying.

What giant flying (preferably coastal) bird would you say is the best choice for tribes of goblins to ride?

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>>86463192
The obvious answer would be the magnificent osprey, though their infamous divebombs would concuss most riders without fluidsacs, but goblins are born with cte.
They are brutally efficient predators, but perhaps "too radical".
The real hot-take is the seagull, they breed like rats, have INSANE hovering ability (they can float in place on even low coastal currents like VTOLS) and they are predatory with the low intelligence of the gull family.
They are ferocious too, people may laugh about this, but other birds don't, ask the doves the pop released that time.
They will even hunt alongside other animals, being the opportunistic skyrats that they are.
They also can carry heavy loads, truly the VTOLS of the bird world.
>I once saw a car at the grocery store have the alarm fire off when a 20 pound red drum dropped on it that a gull stole and dropped.
>When I took my wife to see my hometown I spidermanned her with crushed tatertots so she could see how they can hover in place and clean you.
Gulls are pack-hunters and brutalwith their specialized beak. Maybe have the big bosses on ospreys leading the gullboys.
Do not sleep on gulls.

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>>86463239
Forgot Video.
https://youtu.be/-YxMktfwh2A

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tg derails are best derails

>>86463258
OP Here, I actually enjoy the bird facts more than my own post.

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>>86463257
If you want an even more savage vibe, more hobgobliny, the coastal condors are imposing and huge.
They tend to be around mountainous seasides and make home in cliffs (so the gobs could have mesa verde style cliff cities)
The visual shorthand of the Cathartidae vulture-family features screams death, while the specialized beak (made for breaking bones and stripping meat) scream violence.
They are pretty intelligent, like most scavengers and actually can be socialized with relative ease compared to the other two.
The boundless hunger of their birds would handwave their nonstop raiding too.

>>86462937
>riding giant parrots
Holy shit, elaborate please. I love parrots.

Hi Bird Anon,

My party is currently in an african savannah expy with orcs acting as the indigenious people.

What would make a good attack/scout bird for them?

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>>86463315
The two most intelligent bird families are those of the Corvid and Psitticines. Crows straight up have language, and Parrots are so intelligent they go crazy without stimulation. Almost all parrots are herbivores or omnivores but some are carnivores actually hunt the burrownests of other birds. They literally camp out a target and watch the parents, waiting for them to leave so that they can annihilate the chicks.
They are also immune to most plant based poisons and many natural toxins, they have cast-iron stomachs and are not picky.
Their intelligence and flexibility of diet would make them prize birds for any long-distance traveler. Their specialized claws are as close to hands as birds can get which allows them several utilities that other mounts wouldnt afford as well as surprising terrestrial agility.
Let's scale up that beak made for crushing nuts and hardshells, you have the alligator snappingturtle of birds. The PSI on that is going to pop most anything it snaps up.
So as an adventurer, especially in an island-chain or vast continent setting, this is the bird you'd choose.
Food is rarely a worry, it doesnt give a shit about poison or toxin, it can carry away loot or people, or rig a line, it can pop a platemail nerd like a grape and it comes in a vast variety of flashy patterns.
Perhaps most importantly:
It's smart enough to teach commands and communicate with, and it demonstrates planning independently in the wild.

>>86463239
>coastal raiding gobbo tribe
>rain terror from the skies aloft giant seagulls
>their chief hovers above the chaos, waiting to pick of those who flee in panic with the lethal plummet of his giant osprey.
Holy fuck...

>>86463258
Absolutely agree...
https://archive.4plebs.org/tg/thread/82832773/

>>86462937
>>86463315
POLLY WANTS A NAPALM BOMB

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>>86463330
If you want to go full savannah, the Cuculidae family loves deserts and flatlands, several types of roadrunners that summer in asia and europe are actually from Africa.
They are excellent long distance flyers but also meme-fast on the ground.
Now in a grassy environment this would allow you to mimic the velociraptor kinoteque from JP2, as they could send some up in the high currents to scout, and direct the KENYANSPEED ones on the ground to close in hidden by the brush.
Scale them up to accommodate an orc's meaty frame and you have something I am glad does not exist. Perfect fast attack and scouting combo, a combined unit of features in a single bird.
They pairbond for life so make the females dimorphic and held at home, and they would never stray, they are also from the cuckoo family so thats kinda funny on the sly.
For heavier stuff you can always add the Iconic Vulture and Ostrich, but for the specific role you gave, the Roadrunner hits all the notes.
https://youtu.be/qRuNxHqwazs

>>86463123
In two hundred years of records cassowaries have killed a grand total of two people, a small child and an elderly.man. A giant road runner would be scarier.

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>>86463465
https://youtu.be/Cr1MvzAr26E
I should also add that they have two layers of camouflage.
They have different patterns from rocky to tall grass, that makes them hard to spot for their prey on the ground, but also have the shark-camo scheme where their top looks like the ground and their bottom looks like the sky to fool their own predators.
That and the family of birds sometimes hide their young in other birds nests.
They are borne of beguilement and STELF.
We are lucky that they are small and cute.
If they weren't we'd be sending Comanches to their nests full hammerdown protocol.

>>86463465
Thanks. This will work like a charm.

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>>86463497
It is dubbed the "worlds most dangerous bird", but not the "worlds most lethal".
Not all animal maulings are lethal it's just that Cass ones are most common and they tend to end in disfigurement, but I do agree on the sentiment that roadrunners upscaled are endgame shit.

>>86463519
One more Q.

How would a tribe with lions and a tribe with hyenas as their pack animals defend against these fuck off huge road runners?

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>>86463290
I dont believe it, an OP that isnt a complete faggot. good on you OP.

>>86462670
I fixed OP's meme for avianon.

Avian autist anon, what is your favourite fantasy bird?

>>86463559
Fire.
Fuck up the air currents since long distance flyers coast most of the time.
Brush fire would also produce choking smoke and keep them from blitzing from brush.
Grouping as well, Roadrunners are ambush predators, they hit and run and never fight fair.
If they have to charge into a mass of muscle and knifesocks to pick one off, they will suffer.
Even scaled up a hyena latching on is staying on.
Nets as well, generally excellent for dealing with big fast things, and would be something they would take advantage of anyways to attenuate targets for the packs.
Numbers nets and controlled fire, they exist in the same ecosystem and the roadrunners aren't dominating for a reason.
these could be
>numbers
>food requirements
>migratory nature fits with the tribe
Whereas hyenas and lions are territorial creatures with a pretty general taste in everything, while a pride or pack typically roams over time, it patrols and OWNS what it roams and will fight to the death to assert that.

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>>86463563
Thank you, saved!
The Forokururu from monster hunter, followed by the Aknosom...from...monster hunter.
BASTARD!s take on the cockatrice is great too.
>Pic not related, it's a bearded vulture.
>The IRL endboss of birds.

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>>86463563
And anything taking after a horned owl, I mean come on, that's free.

>>86463588
Got it thanks.

My players will have a 3 way tribal conflict they will run into.

>>86463644
That sounds dope as fuck.

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>>86462910

>>86463588
What race would be best to pair with some kind of giant shrike?

>>86463653
So the idea is four tribes total,

Air; your road runners
Fire; Lions
Earth; Hyeanas
Water; Hippos

Now reason why it will be a 3 way. Because who would want to take up souped up Hippos. And they control water, thing everyone needs.

But the other three regularly duke it out.

The players will have choices to side with a tribe(s), just try to pass through or just kill them all. Because lol orcs.

I love the creativity on /tg/

>>86463851
Oh man that's grim.
Well probably a culture that normally eats toxic/psychoactive prey and isn't at the top of their local foodchain, not even near it.
The Butcherbird larders would be out of reach of the apex predators and the toxins would denature over time up there, perhaps some of their prey has toxic blood and that serves to drain it like a packing plant's hang-room.
Perhaps they even leave some prey up there to make their weapons carry rot or poisons.
To me personally, I see a short-to-diminutive race of prey-creatures that can eat carrion and live in megalith treetops or petrified gigastumps like DQM or something.
Their environment is horrible and the naturally share lodgings with these things as they develop as a culture.
We could take them as crypto romanians that mercilessly maintain their borders to protect the tree, as treetop running amazons that live in complete sync with their environment, or as carrion eating dryads/skinwalkers with some spiritual significance to their "groves" and maybe they wear the cured skins to skulk about or as an intimidation factor. That last one also intimates that the runoff of the bodies fertilizes the land beneath, and maybe the tree and it's symbiotic secondary producers.
Lizard/toad/hedge-fae all jumped out at me right away as theyd use the birds to hunt and travel and trade while avoiding the mean shit below, but a strange dryad colony built on rot death and the macabre is fun too, it's just such a strange family of birds.

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>>86463958
oops image

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>>86463611
>The IRL endboss of birds.
Submitted for review.

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>>86464181
>How can this be? The Winged Omen, was said to have perished in its battle with the God of Giants!
>Aye, young one, but even death itself knows fear. So the two of them came to an accord.
>The Great Grey one would continue its hunt eternal, carrying away things that even the afterlife can not contain.
>Where do they go?
>Only those who have heard the Harpy's cry can answer that. Even gods shudder when it calls their name.
>W-why is it here????
>Witnessing its majesty is a dire portent, the balance of power in this world will shift tonight.
The chicks are cute too.

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>>86462670
This is the best thread I've seen on /tg/ for months. Thanks avian autist.

>>86463407
So you're basically saying, parrots are just scaled down griffins

>>86464680
Griffins that are smarter than your average goblin.

>>86462687
>being this terminally /tg/
Play games, kid. You'll change your tune.

>>86462670
Sounds like they want to play one of the 5E hacks like Altered Carbon or IdentECO.

>>86463186
>cryptography birds
yoinky sploinky
My spymaster just got even more insidious.

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>>86463042
>cockbandits

>>86462670
2020's skill list is full fucking retard and I bet you're just a bitter grog

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>>86462817
It's actually quisculus quiscula (who, who), or originally gracula quiscula (little croaker, who). The "who" comes from Linnaeus supposedly asking something along the lines of "who could paint such colors?"
If I recall correctly.

Personally, I have observed great-tailed grackles hunting bug bits off the grilles of cars in parking lots, which is great fun to watch. They have two modes - "I am a classy snooty boi with my beak in the air" and "fuck off, I found this juicy bug splatter first!"
I've also heard one mimicking a car that wouldn't start.

>>86462670
there are no other Cyberpunk games

birb thread unbelievably based

thanks anon, my players will hate it

>>86463958
You're describing ghouls/ghasts - so probably these giant shrike would also be some kind of undead.

>>86462670
>Mfw when "Homebrew rules" is just getting rid of all the skills the game has
I don't see the problem here? Especially considering that Cyberpunk 2020 has some shitty skill bloat with a huge number of skills that will never be used in your average campaign because they are highly specific and no one will bother getting them.

>>86476748
>I don't see the problem here?
Is that a question or a statement?

>>86476779
It's whatever you want it to be.

>>86476748
>>86476779
>>86476813
This is a bird thread, dipshits.

Avianon, what can you tell us about storks, cranes, and pelicans?

>>86462937
>The thunderbirds of yore were actually thought to have been fuckhuge corvids and some of the hunted specimen photos support this.
Is there anywhere I can find more information about this? I can't find anything to support it.

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>>86476813
It's you figuring out how to type with a lisp then.

>>86476840
Pelicans are a favorite of mine, social pack birds that often work together in formation to "herd" schools of fish.
They are also surprisingly large, I've met a few in person on Kure Beach and had the pleasure of throwing catches to them (which they seem to be used to, they will just sit there right by you peacefully) which they will trundle over and happily snap up.
They can inhabit a vast variety of habitats despite the comparatively small differences between them (aside from brown pelicans) able to thrive in ponds swamps lakes and the ocean.
Their iconic kirbo-pouches where the beak attaches to the throat are used as dipnets and don't actually store anything, but we can modify that.
The brown pelican is the outlier here, it is a DIVING BIRD, now what if such a bird used that pouch combined with a modified air bladder? So that you could have living submarines that breached the surface and spit marauders out onto merchant vessel decks?
I envision a tribe of not-maoris flying out to shipping routes of enemies before submerging to attack at point blank range without warning.
Leaving ghostships in their wake, spreading a legend of their island chain being cursed.
They could perhaps scupper some of the ships creating giant fabricated reef systems on the volcanic outcroppings that trap other ships and ward away unwelcome visitors, as well as providing nests and hunting grounds for their pelicans.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kwIkF6LFDc

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>>86476937
A few were supposedly hunted in the frontier, stories range from news articles to scant few collected specimens.

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>>86476840
Storks were touched on in the Shoebill post but some additional information:
>they are carnivores of anything they can bite
>they are so precise that they can feed on large insects midair
>they are colonybirds even though they migrate they will return to their grouped nests for years
>they are built to sneak in water, their goofy gait and long spindly legs displace little water so that they can snipe fish snakes and toads by getting right over them.
Cranes, man this is where we take those traits and go extreme.
Long-lived (up to 40 years!) omnivores with the same sort of legs as storks, but coupled with a cartoonishly long neck. They are wetlands birds that can survive in marshes swamps and even some semi-arid environments.
Catfish of the skies.
Immediately I picture two possible variants.
>one that doubles down on the legs, mossy spindles of coiled muscle look like thin mangrove or swamp pine stumps that elevate the ruddy brownish green body up around the foliage
>they snap up gators fish and boaters looking like trees in the swamp with their long necks tucked along the spine or under their half splayed wings (which would also serve to cool them)
or
>one that doubles down on the neck, it hides in trees and underwater using its shorter more muscular legs to grasp onto roots branches rocks and leads
>"peltast" cranes would use their long necks to pull large prey up into the tree with their pointed beaks like a cabled lance where they are isolated and helpless
>"murk" cranes would attach their feet to the rootbed and only their head would be on the surface, elevated by their loooong necks, just enough that they can see and breathe like gators or crocs do
>long bare quill feathers along the neck sense movement in the water
>when something passes within its range it harpoons it with its beak and pulls it under flapping its vestigal wings to kick up silt and ward away interlopers as it drowns the victim, it's airbladder replaced with an oxygen diffuser

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>>86477306
You could also give it a basal knob in the bill that has the nostrils like a brachiosaurus si that the only thing breaking the surface is that
and you could make that sort of look like a frog or turtle so that it is easy to overlook/draws prey

I went to one of those drive-thru safaris once. The pelicans were sleeping staggered along the side of the road, and I had to slalom my car to avoid them like it was a DMV test. Then a crane stuck its head into my window because it wanted snacks
Also grackles puff up before they call, and their call sounds like a car alarm or ringtone on a cheap early 2000s cell phone. Love the little guys

>>86477064
Jesus thats a bigass bird. Surely this is fake, like that one pic of a guy who shot a cricket the size of a dog, right? A bird that big could just swoop down and take a small child without much issue...

>>86462670
>Techincal stuff
They are playing the wrong fucking system and the skills are the easiest fucking part

>>86462908
W-we?

>>86482752
How many birds do you think exist, anon? Why would only one be in your walls?

>>86482818
Because there's only one bird, period. Duh. He's just very fast

>>86477057
Aren't pelicans kind of assholes?

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>>86482828
>Another omnipositional-bird-theory schizo.
An associate will be there shortly to shut it- put you to bed.