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Old 04-19-2017, 11:50 AM   #1
Maz
 
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Default Human racial template in a setting where humans are the outsider

I have grown fond of the concept of Humans are Awesome. It's the fun idea of, "what if some of all the things we take for granted as humans are seen as extreme and impressive by an alien race". For example: "Humans can run for miles at a steady pace, they can run a prey to death! Can survive loosing a limb, and attach metal-appendixes to themselves instead. Burn out a virus by increasing their body temperature". And so on. (More examples under the cut, not written by me).

Spoiler:  


Anyway. The point is that if we take the standard GURPS default 10 in all stats, how the rules work and so on. But say "that is now the default for a weaker much more fragile race than humans". Then what would you give humans to showwcase their innate humanness?


I realize writing this, that it of course depends on what the default race is. If they are smaller and weaker, humans should ave SM +1 and bonus ST.


So, I am going to change my question to: What traits would you empathize in a human racial template? What would you think would be fun/interesting/fitting for humans to have, that some alien races would not have?
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Old 04-19-2017, 12:36 PM   #2
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Default Re: Human racial template in a setting where humans are the outsider

Give us a better HT than the others, for all the points you mention. That also gives us a higher FP, which helps us outlast the competition. We might end up with a Basic Speed penalty - as you said, we can't outrun you, but we don't need to.
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Old 04-19-2017, 12:42 PM   #3
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Default Re: Human racial template in a setting where humans are the outsider

Well, what, other than sapience, do we have that other known higher life forms tend to not? Musicality, innate language, stink, erect posture, ...?

Edit: We also seem well adapted for aquatic environments, relative to many other land-dwellers.

Last edited by Donny Brook; 04-19-2017 at 12:55 PM.
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Old 04-19-2017, 12:43 PM   #4
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Default Re: Human racial template in a setting where humans are the outsider

Realistically, I just make Very Fit taboo for most non-humans.

We can sweat like no other animal allowing us to survive hours of dry heat better than any other tetrapod on earth assuming we have access to water.

Our vision is better than any other mammal and only a very few birds beat us in full sunlight.

We also consume rather fewer calories than most other mammals making us rather efficient. Lazy zoo tigers need twice as much as a reasonably active human of equal mass; 5k to 2.5k a day for 225 pounders.

The fact that some super athletes can jog for hours means very little to me. Once you have to winnow down a group to 1 percent of 1 percent of a population, I don't think it counts as species norm.
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Old 04-19-2017, 12:50 PM   #5
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Default Re: Human racial template in a setting where humans are the outsider

How much of this ought to be making a new human template, and how much of this is just properly statting up the other alien races? I mean, if you are really using another race as a reference point, as opposed to just making them dominant or culturally point?

Sorry if I am out of step with everyone else. I read the thread title and was curious, but it seems like we ought to be suggesting traits like "One-Armed" to represent alien life that are still tool users, but only ever developed a single manipulator limb, and whom (for this setting) are more relevant than humanity.
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Old 04-19-2017, 12:51 PM   #6
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Default Re: Human racial template in a setting where humans are the outsider

By the standards of most animals, humans are *big*. This one gets overlooked a lot. So does they live a long time.

Humans are messy (many species put lots more effort into grooming or maintaining lairs or waste disposal than humans often bother with). They aren't fussy eaters (if it's alive, some humans will probably try to eat it), but *expect* to be the top of the food chain (reacting really, really poorly when they aren't - anything stupid enough to eat humans should expect to be hunted to extinction). They [like] horrible things (most species run from fires, and tend to avoid places others of their species have died, humans may very well erect a memorial flame on a battlefield and conduct tours). They are obsessive (humans will stick with stuff long after other species give up, probably comes with that pursuit hunter template), and really bad at surrendering (most species will back down from unwinnable fights, or ones that might injure them, or just threat displays - don't count on humans doing that).

One that may surprise some humans is they *aren't* particularly sex obsessed - sure they're interested all the time, but never to the exclusion of other considerations. Most species have limited breeding seasons but during them are much more focused on mating, or raising offspring. Humans *can* pass up on either, or abandon their families for something else.
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Old 04-19-2017, 12:52 PM   #7
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Default Re: Human racial template in a setting where humans are the outsider

lwcamp has a variety of Traits that might be useful here, albeit in a sort of reversed sense.

Panic: Alien races that have evolved from prey species may be required to have this, at least at Quirk level.
"Humans can feel fear, don't let anyone tell you different, even if they aren't as prone as the rest of us. Problem is, while most reasonable folk will flee, they won't. And if you don't kill 'em by the time they shake it off, well, it'll be time for you to take off."

Panic Reflexes: The above races might not even have the ability to get full-blown Combat Reflexes, and can only get this instead. Races without Panic in their racial template might not have access to either. Humans, of course, are under no such limits.
"Evolution has honed us into the best soldiers in the galaxy. We can focus our discomfort and fear into enhanced reflexes, giving us a step above the lesser races.
Well, except for those damn humans. Turns out, you let one fight long enough, he'll just up and learn all that himself, and the bastard still won't run when you're chucking bangers at him."

Bad Sight (Motion Sensitive): Primates and birds are sort of unique on Earth for our exceptional ability to perceive stationary objects. Aliens may well have several levels of this Disadvantage.
"So I figure I'll freeze, like a statue, right? I mean, it's pretty damn hard to see someone when they ain't moving. So, I'd freeze up, let those apes get past me, then unleash some hell on them from behind. First one in looks right at me, like I was doing some bleeding dance, then shoots me in the face with an electrolaser. I mean, what the hell man?"

Reduced Endurance: If you want to emphasize the Determinator/pursuit predator aspect of humans, give all the aliens one or two levels of this.
"Humans are slow, so you'd think, hey, should be easy to get away from. But they ain't. You run full out, 'til you're ready to collapse and gotta rest. No way a bunch of apes on foot are going to catch you, right? Wrong. They just... keep... coming. They don't get tired, man. You get to rest an hour, tops, before they're just... there. So you get up, run some more. You'll have caught your breath - if you're lucky - by the time they're back, then you're running again. I heard back on their planet, they used to just chase things until their prey literally died from exhaustion. Running don't work against humans, man - you either gotta kill 'em, and that ain't exactly a quick sprint, or you gotta be real good at hiding."

Soft: Not all creatures are going to have a decent striking surface. If most lack such, humans might get a reputation as living weapons, thanks to their fists and feet.
"So I slap 'em, big ole wallop, yeah? Makes 'em stumble back, gives 'em a little something to think about, like maybe I ain't the kinda squid 'e wants to mess with. 'E just shakes it off, then brings 'is leg - that's what they call the arms they walk on - brings it up and, I ink you not, felt like 'e was wearing steel caps on the thing, even though bastard's naked as the day 'e was hatched. The hell are humans made out of?"

If the campaign default includes some/all of the above for [0], then you just invert the prices and give them to humans as Advantages.
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Old 04-19-2017, 12:59 PM   #8
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Default Re: Human racial template in a setting where humans are the outsider

Quote:
Originally Posted by Donny Brook View Post
Well, what, other than sapience, do we have that other known higher life forms tend to not? Musicality, innate language, stink, erect posture, ...?
Some gibbons will carry on duets with mates sometimes joined by their offspring, so music isn't just human.
Primates in general reek, but we have the fewest active genes coding for sense of smell of any primate, so we may need our stink-volume set to high to notice.

Our bipedalism is not really unique if you count gibbons and spider monkeys when walking on the ground. It's really weird and awkward only when compared to proper cursorial predators like dogs and cats.

We don't have an innate language as some horrific child abuse cases prove. But we do have some innate linguistic preferences that show up in how infants learn language though.
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Old 04-19-2017, 01:08 PM   #9
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Default Re: Human racial template in a setting where humans are the outsider

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Originally Posted by malloyd View Post
...
One that may surprise some humans is they *aren't* particularly sex obsessed - sure they're interested all the time, but never to the exclusion of other considerations. Most species have limited breeding seasons but during them are much more focused on mating, or raising offspring. Humans *can* pass up on either, or abandon their families for something else.
I'm not so sure about that. Danger is an aphrodisiac to a lot of people. Humans are sex obsessed on a time spent thinking or behaving with it in mind compared to other mammals. Sure we don't ever enter estrus unless one counts their teen years. Ha.
But 100% obsessed for two weeks doesn't amount to more time than the near constant 10% year round of most adult humans. If that weren't true, "sex sells" would be a near nonsense statement.

As to raising offspring, we spend a good 18 or so years doing it out of our solid 60+ years of life. Nearly a third of our life is a bit much compared to other animals. I'm assuming low TL here, because once you start talking about modern times and possible future lifespans, things get wonky.

Healthy cats, for example, often live to around 15 years old but take only 1 or so to raise kittens.
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Old 04-19-2017, 01:16 PM   #10
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Default Re: Human racial template in a setting where humans are the outsider

While the talk about the advantages humans have over other real-life animals is interesting, I think the best way to go about this would be to first make a racial template for the race you want to be the reference point in your campaign, then invert it to get the human template.

If the reference race would have ST+2, HT+1 and IQ-1 when compared to a human, then humans would have ST-2, HT-1 and IQ+1 when compared to them, making us the "smart but frail" race in the setting.
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