Steve Jackson Games Forums - View Single Post - [Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: No Fine Manipulators

johndallman · 08-22-2019, 02:10 PM

No Fine Manipulators [-30] and No Manipulators [-50] are exotic physical disadvantages. You have no manipulators better than paws or hooves, or for the higher-priced version, no limbs at all. These disadvantage first appeared, along with a lot of other traits for non-humans, in GURPS Uplift for 3e.

At [-30], you can’t do anything for which a human would need to use hands. If you have a beak, tail, tongue, trunk, or anything else that is as useful as a hand, you don’t have this disadvantage, although you might have Bad Grip, Ham-Fisted, One Arm, or One Hand. At [-50], you have no limbs at all. You can push objects around with your head and/or body, and you can move by bouncing, rolling, slithering, etc., although you might choose to buy down your Move. Either disadvantage allows you to buy ST or DX with a -40% limitation, “No Fine Manipulators.” You can also apply this discount to Arm DX, Arm ST, and Striking ST, but not to Lifting ST. No Fine Manipulators is mutually exclusive with Bad Grip, and I suspect it should also be exclusive with Extra Arms (Foot Manipulators), High Manual Dexterity and Ham-Fisted.

Most animals have No Fine Manipulators, and it’s part of most of the non-human morphology meta-traits in Basic, while some elementals have No Manipulators. Goo, hostile plants, many robots, and many mythic creatures also have NFM or NM, although Bio-Tech can upgrade NFM to Bad Grip for most animals. Horror points out that animated objects usually have this disadvantage, and Magic has more elemental forms that share it. A lack of hands, or of limbs, isn’t helpful with Martial Arts attacks, although it removes a few vulnerable hit locations; Technical Grappling adds details. Powers: The Weird can upgrade NFM to Ham-Fisted, or even eliminate it. Template Toolkit 2: Races has the most complete set of morphology meta-traits, and rules on manipulation without limbs; Ultra-Tech has upgrade options.

Either level of this disadvantage will have a huge cultural impact, because it precludes writing, limiting any race with it to an oral culture, and making technological development doubly difficult. Space mentions the possibility of intelligent races with no ability to use tools, but doesn’t consider the lack of writing. Personally, I suspect that the ability to use tools increased the competitive value of intelligence, starting a snowball effect.

Not having played much GURPS with non-humanoid races, I’ve never seen these disadvantages used. Have they been significant in your games?

08-22-2019, 02:10 PM	#1
johndallman Night Watchman Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Cambridge, UK	[Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: No Fine Manipulators No Fine Manipulators [-30] and No Manipulators [-50] are exotic physical disadvantages. You have no manipulators better than paws or hooves, or for the higher-priced version, no limbs at all. These disadvantage first appeared, along with a lot of other traits for non-humans, in GURPS Uplift for 3e. At [-30], you can’t do anything for which a human would need to use hands. If you have a beak, tail, tongue, trunk, or anything else that is as useful as a hand, you don’t have this disadvantage, although you might have Bad Grip, Ham-Fisted, One Arm, or One Hand. At [-50], you have no limbs at all. You can push objects around with your head and/or body, and you can move by bouncing, rolling, slithering, etc., although you might choose to buy down your Move. Either disadvantage allows you to buy ST or DX with a -40% limitation, “No Fine Manipulators.” You can also apply this discount to Arm DX, Arm ST, and Striking ST, but not to Lifting ST. No Fine Manipulators is mutually exclusive with Bad Grip, and I suspect it should also be exclusive with Extra Arms (Foot Manipulators), High Manual Dexterity and Ham-Fisted. Most animals have No Fine Manipulators, and it’s part of most of the non-human morphology meta-traits in Basic, while some elementals have No Manipulators. Goo, hostile plants, many robots, and many mythic creatures also have NFM or NM, although *Bio-Tech* can upgrade NFM to Bad Grip for most animals. *Horror* points out that animated objects usually have this disadvantage, and *Magic* has more elemental forms that share it. A lack of hands, or of limbs, isn’t helpful with *Martial Arts* attacks, although it removes a few vulnerable hit locations; *Technical Grappling* adds details. *Powers: The Weird* can upgrade NFM to Ham-Fisted, or even eliminate it. *Template Toolkit 2: Races* has the most complete set of morphology meta-traits, and rules on manipulation without limbs; *Ultra-Tech* has upgrade options. Either level of this disadvantage will have a huge cultural impact, because it precludes writing, limiting any race with it to an oral culture, and making technological development doubly difficult. Space mentions the possibility of intelligent races with no ability to use tools, but doesn’t consider the lack of writing. Personally, I suspect that the ability to use tools increased the competitive value of intelligence, starting a snowball effect. Not having played much GURPS with non-humanoid races, I’ve never seen these disadvantages used. Have they been significant in your games? __________________ The Path of Cunning. Indexes: DFRPG Characters, Advantage of the Week, Disadvantage of the Week, Skill of the Week, Techniques.