I remember reading that cockatrice are awakened chickens, one of the reasons that giant poultry farms went out of vouge back in the day. Trying to restat them for 4th and its hard with the new critter powers. I keep ending up with a very smart spell casting chicken. But I guess it works.

Cockatrice
Attributes:
Body: 3
Agility: 5
Reaction: 5
Strength: 4
Charisma: 1
Intuition: 3
Logic: 2
Willpower: 3
Edge: 2
Init: 8
MAGIC:3 (Edit to use innate spell)

Movement: 15/50
Skills: Climbing 3, Dodge 4, Infiltration 3, Perception 2, Sorcery Group 3, Unarmed Combat 3, Flight 1
Powers: Dual Natured, Innate Spell [Petrify (Physical)], Natural Weapon (Bite: DV2P, AP 0)
Weaknesses: None

Notes: Cockatrice are 3m from tip of beak to end of tail and weight 40Kg. They can fly, but are awkward and generally run.

"Tell Sanders to fire up the BIG pot o' oil. We gonna eat good tonight."

Them's troll sized chickens!!!

Seriously I got the phrase "Chicken Run" stuck in my head and was going to go genemoded dinochickens (think small velocorapters) when I remembered that there really are awakened chickens. And they are nothing to laugh at either.

So, are their feathers useful for foci when it comes to the petrify spell?

Also, I wonder if they taste any good? KFC&C?

I was planning on treating them as a raw animal regent for enchanting.

And of course they taste good, they taste like chicken!

You did forget to give them a magic stat and make them dual-natured, though.

Colonel Kane was not quite as popular with the masses as Sanders, but a string of violent incidents has long since shut down their competitors.

They aren't dualed natured (at least not in earlier additions). I guess that is automatic when you have a magic ability.

I'll give them a magic of 3. I'm trying to keep them in line with hellhounds. I used hellhounds and devil rats as the guidelines for converting the stats over from the 3rd Ed. rules.

I hate that I have to give them that spell ability though. I'd rather not homebrew a critter power for them though. Maybe I'll create a touch only version of the spell and call it "Touch of the Cockatrice".

Might make for a fun little spell.

Weren't they?
Hmm - I'd thought dual-natured was standard for para-critters.
(A quick check in the BBB has all but devil-rats and wendigos!? as dual-natured. I rather suspect those are omissions.)

But they definitely needed a magic rating to use their power.

according to the free SR3 critters PDF, cockatrice *are* dual natured, and only have a paralyzing touch.

the closest i can see to getting that to work without making a new power is to give them the compulsion power at range touch, with the compelled action being "pretend you're paralyzed".

Not sure what version of Critters I'm using; but its the FASA version. Need to grab the free download of 3rd ed. Not sure if I like having most critters being dual natured.

As for paralyzing vs petrify, I think its just a matter of taste as long as its not permement. As far as I can remember cockatrices turned people to stone in folklore.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cockatrice

And just for fun I made a new spell to go with thier innate ability:

Touch of the Cockatrice
Manipulation
Type: Physical
Range: Touch
Duration: S
DV: (F/2)-1

Effects per Petrify (Physical)

That spell is built per Street Magic spell building rules.

I can just see it: "Would you like Regular, Extra Crispy or Non-Petrifying?"

The entries in the 3rd ed Critters book rarely come out and say whether the creature in question is dual-natured or not. They generally just put a 'z' next to the thing's essence stat (probably to save space). It's easy to overlook.

Y'know, if you really look at it, the re-emergence of the cockatrice in the 6th world is a pretty unlikely thing to have happened. By SR reckoning, the modern chicken wasn't domesticated until after the end of the 4th World mana-cycle. Which means that the humans who managed to survive emerged from their caers, found a wild bird that looked a whole lot like the cockatrice, and decided to domesticate it for food, rather than wiping it out as a precautionary measure. Admittedly, protein sources were probably pretty scarce after the Horrors were done with things, but it still seems kinda reckless. But, then, they did re-domesticate cows, too - which, probably ranks higher on the stupidity meter.

But on top of all that, the genetics that breeders selected for over the centuries were apparently also exactly the ones needed to propagate the metagenes that primed the chicken to re-express so thoroughly once the mana returned, that poultry farming has essentially ended. Of course, other domesticated animals did spawn some Awakened varieties (blackberry cats and hellcows, f'instance), but nowhere near the level of the humble gallus domesticus. Kinda weird, I think.

Hell... cows?

Hellcows were pretty nasty creatures. The fluff used to say that a big part of why everyone had to eat soy was the simple fact that industrial farming was ripped apart after the Awakening. Think of 1% of all domestic animals becoming paracreatures. I think in 4th ed they have streamlined the process and placed proper safeguards in place. I'm sure they turn a tidy profit selling those paracritters and paracritter parts too. I guess that's how you can have Wuxing doing industrial enchanting.

But just for completeness here are some other awakened farmed animals:

Chickens = Cockatrice(Critters)
Cows = Hellcows... Not sure which book. They are similar to the Rowe from DnD.
Pigs = Golden Boar (Critters)
Alligator = Behemoth (Critters) Pity the alligator farmers.
Lobster = Abrams lobster (Critters)

Things that I can't think of:
Rabbits
Sheep
Not sure. Might be a good opportunity to make something.

I think domestication happened several hundred years after the start of the 5th world. By that time no one alive would have been able to seperate fact from fiction.

A hellcow outbreak in India was mentioned as one of the 'Top 10 Paranormal Incidents' in SOTA '64. There were no stats given for the thing there, though it might have been in one of the setting books of Paranormal Animals of North America. On Ancient History's list of possible Earthdawn connections, it was suggested they may be the same as (or the current version of) a 4th World critter called the Genhis. Thanks to Google Books, you can read all about them here, along with a managerie of fun things to transcribe over. Though you may have to squint.

Why do people insist on calling it by the incorrect name? It's not a "cockatrice" it's called a "DEATH CHICKEN!"

Get with the program, people!

In Nethack, if you eat the flesh of a cockatrice, you petrify. Or even if you touch one with bare hands. The Nethack version is extra-special deadly, but I'd be inclined to make them Not Safe for Non-Golem Consumption.

Nope.

Also just like all the humans didn't become orcs or trolls and all the babies of humans were not elves or dwarves, not all the chickens would have started producing Cockatrices.

Likely all that would have happened is that only chickens that didn't produce Cockatrices would have been used for breeding and they would have been a little more thorough in checking the eggs before sending them to the store.

Are cockatrice eggs delicious? I should hope so...

However I think that paracritters follow the same random chance that metahumanity has of having metagenes being expressed. So while the odds are much higher that two cockatrice will have more cockatrice, but will still have some normal chickens. And of course more and more chickens will have cockatrices as the mana levels rise. The problem being that they might not express those traits until they are at their "adolescent" stage. Industry would learn to adapt to that once they get over the "Crap chickens that turn people to stone." They probably just keep an eye out for the early symptoms of changing and separate them from the rest of the chickens.

I'm honestly not sure how big they would be... probably taste just like a regular chicken egg.

Fwwwt! That's no fun at all!

However that'd make for a fairly funny scene where runners are trapped somewhere and forced to eat cockatrice eggs.

"Omae? What's it taste like."
"Uh... well you know... like chicken?"

Just because I like you. (And stuff like this is going into my netbook in the marketplace section)

Cockatrice Eggs aka Trog Eggs 75
Cockatrice eggs are 3 times the size of normal chicken eggs and slate gray in color. They are an excellent source of both protein and calcium and one egg can provide enough nutrition for a standard human for a day. They taste exactly like chicken eggs and are used medicinally as an antacid by herbologists. However consumption of raw eggs will cause bony deposits to erupt from the body similar to those of a troll and can cause severe and incapacitating nausea.

Rules: Raw cockatrice eggs will give the eater dermal armor similar to that of a troll (all rules and exception apply) for 10-Body hours. However the unsightly deposits reduce charisma (-2) and when eaten a toxins check must be made and if failed the eater will be at -1 to all actions for the next 24 hours do to nausea and gastrointestinal discomfort.

The deposits should fall out after a period of time and be very unsightly when they do so.

Not sure how to handle that mechanically(rules) wise, but that could work fluff wise.

I miss typed that:

"The deposits should fall out OVER a period of time..."

Basically it falls out after your 10-Body hours but the deposits don't just... pop out of the skin. The big parts soften and fall off at that time but it still leaves the person with chunks of... whatever working their way out of the skin. It's pure fluff, although I'd say it takes a day or so (or some dedicated work with a pair of pliers) to get it all out.

So something like -1 Charisma for the next Charisma/2 hours?

Hehe... man you really want some stats here don't you?

I'd say -1 Charisma for 6d6-Body hours. The pliers should still be an option though.

When doing netbook stuff you ALWAYs want stats

6d6-Body hours sounds a bit much considering it is the equivalent of putting on a helmet. Also trying to keep the rules as simple as possible. To much complexity is a guaranty people won't use them.

I'll let it stand as is until I get some playtest in on them.