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Old 12-11-2014, 08:34 PM   #1
Propjock
 
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Default Stats for Animals & Monsters?

What's the best way to go about coming up with stats for both regular animals and exotic ones (e.g. a brontosaurus)?

The biggest problem for me is ST. For example, what makes a Heavy Warhorse have ST 24 (B460) and a pony ST 18? Is it just because research into how many times stronger than a person? Are there any guidelines or formulas?
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Old 12-11-2014, 09:18 PM   #2
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Default Re: Stats for Animals & Monsters?

A vague general guideline for mammal species average is twice the cube root of mass, so for 125 pounds you get its cube root equaling 5 times 2 for St 10.
Individuals vary of course.
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Old 12-12-2014, 02:49 PM   #3
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Default Re: Stats for Animals & Monsters?

Thanks. Any thoughts on HT? I have no idea where something like a cheetah would be relative to a human.

It'd be super useful to have some kind of table or chart where for each primary attribute you have an example (including some non-humans) along a continuum of say 1-30 (maybe 100 or 200 for ST). This would provide a good back of the envelope guide to building something without having to actually look up the weight of a brontosaurus (for example).
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Old 12-12-2014, 06:50 PM   #4
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Default Re: Stats for Animals & Monsters?

I highly recommend GURPS Animalia as a great resource for animal stats. It's not "everything" but it's a LOT and gives you a lot more points to compare against.

HT for wild animals will be in the 10-12 range, except those with particularly fierce reputations for fighting while wounded, or surviving in all manner of environments.

Wild boar and rats are usually your examples for HT 14ish.

Cheetahs are notoriously delicate animals, have fussy stomachs even for cats, and have poor stamina. They don't seem Fit either - they have a burst of explosive speed for less than a minute and then they have to go lie down and pant heavily. Nevertheless, they still survive in the wild (barring human habitat depletion and hunting), so I'd stick them with HT 10. They've just bought a good DX, then bought up Basic Move, and bought some Enhanced Move too.
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Old 12-12-2014, 07:35 PM   #5
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Default Re: Stats for Animals & Monsters?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Propjock View Post
Thanks. Any thoughts on HT? I have no idea where something like a cheetah would be relative to a human.
Most animals aren't really going have HT that much higher then humans and for the most part are going to have the same reletive scores (i.e. a really fit animal would have the same score a really fit human would have, a 11 or 12). Also realistically most animals are going to have inferior cardiovascular ablity relative to humans and should have less FP.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Propjock View Post
It'd be super useful to have some kind of table or chart where for each primary attribute you have an example (including some non-humans) along a continuum of say 1-30 (maybe 100 or 200 for ST). This would provide a good back of the envelope guide to building something without having to actually look up the weight of a brontosaurus (for example).
ST is only stat that's going to vary that much for real animals. Some animals do have higher ST for their weight then average but usually pay for the higher output by with lower efficiency. I would model this by giving them levels of the Enhanced Muscles meta-trait (see Bio-Tech pg.213) with the costs fatigue limitation.

For DX most animals are going to have the same DX range we do with a few nimble species going up a realistic racial average no higher then 13 or 14.

For IQ most animals are going to be under 6. Monkey and ape level intelligence is gonna be between 5 and 6. Cats, dogs and other fairly smart animals are going to be 3 or 4. Reptials and dumber mammals and birds are going to have a 2 and the near mindless is gonna be a 1.

HT I already discused above.

Here are two fansites that have a really good look into stating animals that should help you out:

Animalia in GURPS by the forums very own professor of high energy burnanation, LWCamp.
http://panoptesv.com/RPGs/animalia/animalia.html

While geared towards converting the TMNT RPG to GURPS, Chandley's site is still a really good resource. Special mention goes to the section that goes into detail on how to stat different kinds of limbs.
https://sites.google.com/site/chandl...rps/gurps-tmnt
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Old 12-14-2014, 06:46 AM   #6
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Default Re: Stats for Animals & Monsters?

I disagree with most sites' versions of animals.
I wonder why so many give apes DR 1, when their hair isn't that thick, and their skin is thinner than ours.
Many people's head hair is much thicker, and I never heard anyone suggest DR 1 for them.
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