As I’m planning missions, it occurs to me that an animal’s intent has a huge impact on the danger level of an animal obstacle. A milk snake trying to drive mice away from its burrow seems much, much less dangerous than one looking for food.
Trying to drive a milk snake from its egg-filled lair, if its intent is just to drive the mice off) seems a reasonable obstacle - at worst the players will wind up Injured.
Meeting a hungry milk snake in a pile of leaves, on the other hand, seems like a cue to tap your Nature and escape the heck out of there - since losing almost certainly means death.
I’d have to agree that much heavily depends upon intent, which is why the GM should hash that out before the conflict. Then, the animal’s Goal becomes their intent.
I would think the milk snake would kill two mice with one bite: eat AND keep them out of its den. However, the intent clearly changes what the end results might be. “Driving them off” could easily turn to “Eat them” if the mice don’t take the hint.
How would someone stat a north american scorpion? I know there might not be any native to Michigan, but I love the idea of a scorpion as an animal threat.