so an ugly race

[mehrkat]

Hi.

After seeing the why is SM + just a feature I thought I would start a similar thread just to have a friendly discussion.

Why is ugly not an allowable racial trait. If you have a diverse culture of humanoids, why wouldn't a race of humanoid ants qualify as ugly to the vast majority of the other races in the world and therefore make a valid racial trait

Social stigma doesn't really work for me because that seems better suited to something like woman in 1890's England. Where ugly is visceral.

In my games I have allowed ugly as a racial trait but only if it is ugly to the overwhelming majority of people they will meet. I consider that they aren't ugly to one another to be a zero point feature and just not significant enough to matter

Ditto for beautiful or very beautiful.

thoughts.

[Bruno]

... Ugly is an allowable racial trait.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Bruno

... Ugly is an allowable racial trait.

There's an explicit discussion of personal appearance and racial appearance in GURPS Social Engineering. But it's mostly justly spelling out what the Basic Set implies.

Bill Stoddard

[ericbsmith]

There's nothing in the rules that I'm aware of that prevents a race from having Ugly or Beautiful appearance. In fact, Iotha's Elf template in Basic has Attractive, and several of the races in Fantasy and Banestorm have varying levels of appearance. The main thing is that this apperance is in respect to the campaign norm, which is normally with respect to Humans. So while an Ogre may be Ugly by human standards he can still be Attractive by Ogre standards.

[mehrkat]

golly I feel like a dork.

You are right I'm not sure where I read because now I can't find it. Thanks for setting me straight.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by mehrkat

Hi.

After seeing the why is SM + just a feature I thought I would start a similar thread just to have a friendly discussion.

Why is ugly not an allowable racial trait.

Where did you get the idea that ugly is not an allowable trait (although obviously it would have to be ugly to the reference society, and not to the race itself.)

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

Where did you get the idea that ugly is not an allowable trait (although obviously it would have to be ugly to the reference society, and not to the race itself.)

I could have sworn I read it somewhere too.
I wouldn't allow it unless the vast majority of interactions involved other species.

[jason taylor]

Do you mean ugly from the human point of view or ugly to each other? If they are ugly to each other you have to make allowances for that in reproductive methods as aesthetic attraction between males and females is an obvious factor.

Or are members of the same sex ugly to each other? If their method of reproduction involves violent competition that will be handy.

[Anthony]

In general, I would want a racial 'ugly' to be 'ugly: other races only' or some such, unless members of that race find others of their own race ugly (which is possible but is evolutionarily weird).

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by Anthony

In general, I would want a racial 'ugly' to be 'ugly: other races only' or some such, unless members of that race find others of their own race ugly (which is possible but is evolutionarily weird).

I've suggested that as an explanation for why Orcs are so cranky, and always seem to be lead by a human/demon/whatever evil overlord.