The Draka Supersoldiers in GURPS

[Tzeentch]

Originally Posted by Keiko

The altered humans. I found the third edition sheet for them with a little poking around.

These stats are ridiculous and do not fit Gwendolen Ingolfsson's capabilities in the book.

Homo Drakensis
Base ST: 30
DX +5
IQ +7 (IQ 8 for invention and intuition)

She's strong and fast, and cunning, but she exploits her pheromone control and memorized knowledge to do most of the heavy lifting.

I would use the Herakles (GURPS Bio-Tech, p. 70) as a far more reasonable starting point.

[jbalsle]

Originally Posted by Tzeentch

These stats are ridiculous and do not fit Gwendolen Ingolfsson's capabilities in the book.


She's strong and fast, and cunning, but she exploits her pheromone control and memorized knowledge to do most of the heavy lifting.

I would use the Herakles (GURPS Bio-Tech, p. 70) as a far more reasonable starting point.

Yeah, I looked at that template, and thought it was highly ridiculous. Unless this woman could lift a man one-handed without any effort and had defaults in the 9 to 11 range for all skills (to say nothing about actual trained skills), I'd say the conversion was a bit over the top. >.>

[tshiggins]

Originally Posted by jbalsle

Yeah, I looked at that template, and thought it was highly ridiculous. Unless this woman could lift a man one-handed without any effort and had defaults in the 9 to 11 range for all skills (to say nothing about actual trained skills), I'd say the conversion was a bit over the top. >.>

Yeah, this is bogus. She's stronger, faster and more agile than normal humans, and her pheromone control makes her even more attractive than she seems, physically. However, I got the impression that puts her at the level of an Olympic athlete trained as a special operator, from a technologically superior civilization, and not someone who is actually super-human.

As I recall, the only non-Draka who shift to "slave-mentality" in her presence are Draka serfs, who've been genetically-engineered and socially-acculturated to do so. Also, the surrogate mother of her daughter seems to lose most of her higher brain functions, but that's because Draka fetuses alter the body-chemistry of their host mothers. Regular human beings had no problems trying to kill her -- the problem was succeeding.

But then, again, most regular humans would have trouble killing a U.S. special operator, too -- especially if he was ready for them to try, which Gwendolen was, constantly.

[jeff_wilson]

Originally Posted by jbalsle

Yeah, I looked at that template, and thought it was highly ridiculous. Unless this woman could lift a man one-handed without any effort and had defaults in the 9 to 11 range for all skills (to say nothing about actual trained skills), I'd say the conversion was a bit over the top. >.>

During composition of the novel, I was a hanger-on at Steve Stirling's GEnie topic and some playtesting-type questions he asked suggest that Gwen has at least the strength of 3 men.

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by jeff_wilson

During composition of the novel, I was a hanger-on at Steve Stirling's GEnie topic and some playtesting-type questions he asked suggest that Gwen has at least the strength of 3 men.

which means what? that she can lift 3 times as much as an average man can? thats a BL of 18, able to lift 65 lbs to their 20 each. If we want to make these strong men we can say they have ST 12 or BL of 29 lbs, and that gives a ST of 21. If we want really strong men we pick 14 each, and her ST is still around 24. If ST 30 is the strength of 10 men, these are ST 17 men: outclassing your "average" person as badly as she outclasses them.

Also, that doesn't address the crazy increase in IQ. I didn't think the super soldiers had been that extremely bred for intelligence...

[Keiko]

Thanks to whoever fixed my stupid typo in the thread title.

[jeff_wilson]

Originally Posted by ericthered

which means what? that she can lift 3 times as much as an average man can? thats a BL of 18, able to lift 65 lbs to their 20 each.

This is about right. If she was much stronger she could have reduced the body into flushable pieces instead of settling for disarticulation.

Originally Posted by ericthered

Also, that doesn't address the crazy increase in IQ. I didn't think the super soldiers had been that extremely bred for intelligence...

The OP was mistaken. Gwen is very smart, but that's from selection by her careers as astronaut and research director. Homo drakensis are not expected to serve as soldiers; they have Homo servus and ghouloon troopers (baboon uplifts with unbreakable bones and wired reflexes) for that. Draka are not generally born smarter, but can have upgrades that allow them to learn faster and the culture of intrigue can eliminate the less mentally agile. Plus the best get better, being first in line for full-organism regrowth as well as inorganic aids like the dermal armor.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by Tzeentch

These stats are ridiculous and do not fit Gwendolen Ingolfsson's capabilities in the book.


She's strong and fast, and cunning, but she exploits her pheromone control and memorized knowledge to do most of the heavy lifting.

She killed 22 armed drug dealers armed with only a sword on arrival so her abilities have to be pretty super.

As a Draka she should probably have Racial Destiny 15 points "The Author Is On Your Side" since the Draka always win.

[jbalsle]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

As a Draka she should probably have Racial Destiny 15 points "The Author Is On Your Side" since the Draka always win.

This. This is the thing that irritates me the most about these guys. Bad guys with author fiat behind them? Yeah....no like.

Makes me want to sic Ripped Shirt Kirk on her. First he'll make hot augment whoopie with her, then tie her up with unbreakable chains until his love-child is born, then dispose of her in a suitable fashion, and then rule the universe with the product of that unholy (or is it holy?) union. :D

That or the universe will end when the Draka Destiny meets up with Ripped Shirt Kirk....immovable object meets irresistible force and vice versa. ;)

[cptbutton]

Originally Posted by jbalsle

This. This is the thing that irritates me the most about these guys. Bad guys with author fiat behind them? Yeah....no like.

Makes me want to sic Ripped Shirt Kirk on her. First he'll make hot augment whoopie with her, then tie her up with unbreakable chains until his love-child is born, then dispose of her in a suitable fashion, and then rule the universe with the product of that unholy (or is it holy?) union. :D

That or the universe will end when the Draka Destiny meets up with Ripped Shirt Kirk....immovable object meets irresistible force and vice versa. ;)

I vaguely recall a plot summary for such a hypothetical ST-Drakon crossover being posted on USENET or maybe old Pyramid back when.