D&D Game Ideas -- Kzinti

About the Kzinti

By Bruce Heard

The Kzinti are a race of very tall leonine bipeds originally created by Larry Niven (Ringworld). An article about them had been written years ago for Dragon Magazine, which I include at the end of this story for reference. I had wanted to use the Kzinti in Mystara for a long time, but never got around to it. Since I'm planning an adventure centered around these charming fellows, now is as good a time as any to give them a Mystaran adaptation.

A related rakasta race, the Simbasta, dwell in faraway Davania. The Kzinti evolved as a monster race (i.e. unavailable to players). In a purely Mystaran context, the Kzinti are ogrish-Simbasta hybrids. Simbasta are NPC's with character classes, experience levels, and corresponding attributes. Despite many similarities with the Simbasta, Kzinti are meant to be monsters with HD. In style, they come off as as a cross between Star Trek Klingons, Predators (as in Predators vs. Aliens), and overgrown rakastas with an attitude. (. . .)

Click HERE for the remainder of the article.

This treatment of the Kzinti uses Swahili words. Since I'm not familiar with Swahili, any help or suggestions from a native speaker would be greatly welcome. Naturally, since this article is new, playtest and feedback about the Kzinti adaptation to Mystara would be appreciated.