DF: Pixies and food

[Bruno]

Pixies are about 1/8th scale, which normally would imply meal sizes of 1/8th to the power of 3, or about 1/512 as much as a human, 24x a day (Extending the table from Biotech). That's 3/64ths as much as a human, per day.

Pixies are freakishly dense however, making them require meal sizes of 1/150 to 1/75 as much as a human (I'll work with a midpoint of 1/100 for sanity's sake). Lets assume they still keep the 24x a day feeding requirement as a tiny token gesture towards realism.

So just from being SM -6, a hyper-dense pixie needs to consume about a quarter as much food a day as a human does. (24/100)

But Pixies also have Reduced Consumption 4, which mean they need 1/3 of "normal" daily consumption a MONTH (2/25ths of a human meal once a month).

That's 0.64 ounces of food, once a month, or if you want to be funny about it, 3 1/9th grains of food three times a day.

That's... like, crumbs from another adventurers rations.

[sjmdw45]

Originally Posted by Bruno

But Pixies also have Reduced Consumption 4, which mean they need 1/3 of "normal" daily consumption a MONTH (2/25ths of a human meal once a month).

Sounds like double-dipping to me. I think Reduce Consumption already expresses the "scaled-down" pixie consumption, which makes it 1 human meal a month.

-Max

[Captain-Captain]

Originally Posted by Bruno

Pixies are about 1/8th scale, which normally would imply meal sizes of 1/8th to the power of 3, or about 1/512 as much as a human, 24x a day (Extending the table from Biotech). That's 3/64ths as much as a human, per day.

Pixies are freakishly dense however, making them require meal sizes of 1/150 to 1/75 as much as a human (I'll work with a midpoint of 1/100 for sanity's sake). Lets assume they still keep the 24x a day feeding requirement as a tiny token gesture towards realism.

So just from being SM -6, a hyper-dense pixie needs to consume about a quarter as much food a day as a human does. (24/100)

But Pixies also have Reduced Consumption 4, which mean they need 1/3 of "normal" daily consumption a MONTH (2/25ths of a human meal once a month).

That's 0.64 ounces of food, once a month, or if you want to be funny about it, 3 1/9th grains of food three times a day.

That's... like, crumbs from another adventurers rations.

Use the rules from Faery Meat instead. They eat each other. ;)

[isthisfunforyou]

You can't compare animals of different sizes linearly. As an animal (or plant) gets smaller, the relative surface area increases. Energy is lost over surface area and very small warm blooded animals often have specialized heat generating systems (e.g. brown fat), thereby increasing their energy demands even more then their size would suggest.

To illustrate this point, let's look at an example:

A moderately activate 70 kg adult human male requires aprox. 2,000 dietary calories per day
A moderately activate 25 g adult male mouse at a temp of 65-70 F degrees requires 28.29 calories per day

The mouse requires 1/71.4th the energy requirement while he weighs 1/2800th of his human counterpart. Metabolic kilos (kg^.75) are commonly used to account for the surface area difference.

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by sjmdw45

Sounds like double-dipping to me. I think Reduce Consumption already expresses the "scaled-down" pixie consumption, which makes it 1 human meal a month.

-Max

Not what the rules in Biotech have to say, and it seems implied in basic set as well.

[sjmdw45]

Originally Posted by Bruno

Not what the rules in Biotech have to say, and it seems implied in basic set as well.

Hmmm, interesting. How does Basic imply this? Dwarfism/Gigantism don't mention anything about food consumption.

In my game I use GULLIVER rules for SZ and food consumption (metabolic activity scales as surface area), so it's built into point cost for SM and I dropped Reduced Consumption from the template.

-Max

[Kromm]

Pixies are meant to eat crumbs, yes. Don't attempt realistic scaling on them for anything -- including food. Their racial RC is meant to reflect that they eat so much less than humans that they can subsist on flower nectar, a single pea, etc.

[PK]

Bio-Tech makes it clear that reduced/increased SM automatically means you eat less/more, as a feature. Any Increased/Reduced Consumption on top of that would be cumulative.

Note specifically that IC/RC affects how often you eat, not the size of your meals. The latter is determined by your SM, using the rules in Bio-Tech.

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by sjmdw45

Hmmm, interesting. How does Basic imply this? Dwarfism/Gigantism don't mention anything about food consumption.

None of the racial templates include either increased or reduced consumption: notable especially, the dragon template does not have Increased Consumption despite being SM 6.

It's not on any of the animal trait lists, but I know those are incomplete so it's not definitive... but it IS suggestive.



Also: None of the dragons in the 4e appendix of GURPS Dragons has either trait.

None of the SM 1 racial templates in DF has IC, and neither do Halflings or Gnomes have RC, who are SM -2 and -1 respectively.

ONLY Fae races in DF have it, which suggests it's part of their magical faerie nature.

It also doesn't show up on any of the templates in GURPS Fantasy, and isn't part of the suggestions on making giant monsters or giant giants in Fantasy, either.

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by sjmdw45

Hmmm, interesting. How does Basic imply this? Dwarfism/Gigantism don't mention anything about food consumption.

In my game I use GULLIVER rules for SZ and food consumption (metabolic activity scales as surface area), so it's built into point cost for SM and I dropped Reduced Consumption from the template.

-Max

Don't forget that 2/3 power is an approximation and specific taxa vary. Most notably are cats which run a bit hot when compared to other mammals.