Disney's Gargoyles in GURPS

[Akahige]

Originally Posted by LoneWolf23k

... the amount of force needed to smash their sleeping forms is more or less equal to that which would kill them in flesh form. So the fact they turn into statues during the day is just a cosmetic effect of Nocturnal, with the Fragile Disadvantage added.

I heartily disagree. Nocturnal alone would make limp, comatose gargoyles. Even with Fragile or Body of Stone, it'd still be bendable. A gargoyle in stone form is nothing but a regenerating statue; no breathing, no dreaming, nothing. I think Weisman's "Gargoyles bible" attests to that.

As for them being just as easy to break in stone form, I don't think that's accurate either. It has been stated that a gargoyle's entire body turns to stone, and that before the advent of metal weapons, it offered superior protection from even human attacks. I think that implies the stone is significantly more durable than ordinary gargoyle flesh.

[UncreativeNameMaker]

Originally Posted by LoneWolf23k

While I can see the argument for Stone Form, I think it would be overcomplicating things a bit. The gargoyles don't move around in Stone Form, and the amount of force needed to smash their sleeping forms is more or less equal to that which would kill them in flesh form. So the fact they turn into statues during the day is just a cosmetic effect of Nocturnal, with the Fragile Disadvantage added.

The stone form definitely makes them less vulnerable than if they were simply comatose. Smashing sleeping gargoyles generally involved hitting them with large metal objects. A knife wouldn't do the trick (DR and Homogeneous). Neither would choking, drowning, or poison (Doesn't Breath and Immunity to Metabolic Hazards). If you broke off a sleeping gargoyle's arm, he would wake up missing an arm, but he wouldn't bleed to death (No Blood). Not to mention that a sleeping gargoyle can hide in plain site in the city, and won't get eaten by scavengers in the wilderness.

[Akahige]

By the way, does anyone have theories or explanations as to why Goliath is able to fly, despite weighing over 300 pounds? I know we're dealing with a cinematic cartoon here, but I was hoping there might be a semi-believable way to pull this stunt off.

[nerdvana]

Originally Posted by Akahige

By the way, does anyone have theories or explanations as to why Goliath is able to fly, despite weighing over 300 pounds? I know we're dealing with a cinematic cartoon here, but I was hoping there might be a semi-believable way to pull this stunt off.

Technically they aren't flying but riding thermals. I know that they broke this often, but it is stated that they cannot fly while the Mutates can (the reason for including electrical eels was go give them enough energy to actually fly I believe...)

[Blood Legend]

They Glide...fat people can glide. Large gargoyles can :D

[Vaevictis Asmadi]

Hope it's OK to bring up an old thread... I've been working on a gargoyles template for a while now.

Originally Posted by Akahige

I heartily disagree. Nocturnal alone would make limp, comatose gargoyles. Even with Fragile or Body of Stone, it'd still be bendable. A gargoyle in stone form is nothing but a regenerating statue; no breathing, no dreaming, nothing. I think Weisman's "Gargoyles bible" attests to that.

On the contrary, Greg Weisman has stated several times that they continue to breathe while asleep, and they dream as well (which is demonstrated in the beginning of "Long Way to Morning"). The "stone" form is not actually stone, it is a biological transformation that looks like stone. I know that it doesn't make much sense biologically, and that in the cartoon the broken gargoyles never bled, but Disney would never have let them show all that blood. Whether or not it was depicted in the cartoon, they still need blood flow to dream, heal injuries, etc., since according to Greg Weisman gargoyles are 100% non-magical.

Nocturnal with the difference that they freeze while standing up should not change the cost as a limitation or enhancement, because it doesn't really have any particularly important effects. The effects I added are Fragile: Brittle, DR +2, and Vulnerability to crushing, though the last might be redundant with Fragile. I gave them Very Rapid Healing which works on 24-hour intervals, so it already takes sleeping into account. I don't know if VRH is enough to account for their healing ability. They can't heal all their HP if they are injured badly enough, but they do heal quite a lot. I might change it to Regeneration (Slow) instead.


What I have so far is this:

Gargoyle [133]
ST +6 [60]
DX +2 [40]
HT +3 [30]
Perception +1 [5]
Flight (Winged, Controlled Gliding, Temporary Disadvantage: cannot use wing strikers while gliding) [11]
Strikers (2 wings, cutting claws) [14]
Sharp Teeth [1]
Sharp Claws [5]
Extra Arm (Extra-Flexibile, 60% ST, -4 manual DX, Bad Grip) [2]
Super Climbing 2 [6]
Climbing Skill Bonus +2 [4]
DR 1 (Tough Skin) [3]
Tough Feet (no penalties from walking barefoot) [1]
Acute Smell Only 3 [3]
Night Vision 9 [9]
Feature: sense magnetic north [0]
Temperature Tolerance 2 [2]
Reduced Consumption 1 (Food Only) [1]
Very Rapid Healing [15]
Resistant to Disease (not metabolic illness) +8 [5]
Extended Lifespan 1 [2]
Gargate Fertility Cycles (During each breeding season, -3 to resist sex appeal if unmated, Lecherousness (9 or less) if mated. At any other time +1 to resist sex appeal if unmated or sex appeal by your mate if mated, +3 to resist sex appeal from anyone else if mated.) [1]
Feature: limited fertility (fertile only in breeding years, 1 egg every 20 yrs) [0]
DR 3 (only at day) [9] (cost difference from DR 1 tough skin)
Nocturnal [-20]
Vulnerability crx3 (stone, metal, bullets only, only at day) [-8]
Fragile: Brittle (only at day) [-3]
Restricted Diet: food plus at least 6 hrs heat/sunlight per day (very common) [-10]
Unusual Biochemistry [-5]
Missing Finger x2 (one finger from each hand, compared to humans) [-4]
Inept: Running (long-distance running is an adaptation specific to humans) [-1]
Glowing Eyes (visible in twilight to darkness, only when angry, -1 to stealth) [-1]
Tapetum (-1 to all vision sense rolls for faraway objects (racial average). eyes reflect light in darkness and are visible) [-2] (A tapetum (or huge eyes) is necessary for night vision, but makes vision slightly fuzzy)
Partial Colorblindness (-3 to rolls to distinguish non-pure colors) [-1]
Sensitive to Bright Lights (-2 to vision sense rolls in light as bright as day (not twilight)) [-2]
Protective (includes protective behavior, plus quirk-level guilt complex) [-1]
Broad-Minded [-1] (racial average)
Congenial [-1] (racial average)
Humble [-1] (racial average)
Social Stigma (Monster) [-15]
Appearance: Monstrous (only to humans) [-20] ("only to humans" costs the same as "only to your race." Gargoyle PCs with a negative personal appearance take their personal appearance at -75% points.)
Feature: spell of humility (magical enchantment on the whole species that allows them to wear clothes during sleep, and wake up without destroying them) [0]
Feature: dying race [0]

I added a lot of little things for racial mental traits and the way I think vision would work for a species that is awake only during the night.

I followed the suggestions of several folks on the forum here and priced the "only at day" disads as Disad + No Disad (only at night, -20%).

There'd also be clan lenses with stuff like enemies, allies, dependents, secrets, and so on. That's where a Sense of Duty would go, though I'd make the clan itself a group of NPC Allies (for warriors) and Dependents (for children).

[mjj1976]

I've heard that Gargoyles has be revived in the form of a new comic. If that's the case, then I'm not sure how much faith we can put in the original "Gargoyles bible" -- like Star Wars, it's probably being revised on-the-fly by its creator.

[Vaevictis Asmadi]

There is indeed a new comic book series. I have all the current issues (except Bad Guys 4), and it changes nothing from the first 2 seasons of the TV show. Seasons 1 and 2 are canon and the comic books will not contradict them as long as Greg Weisman is writing them. He is ignoring Season 3, though.

As for the Series Bible... it was already obsolete before the end of Season 1, because parts of it were changed during production.

Anything that Greg has recently revealed online to fans is subject to future change, but I can't help that. I'm going by what information has been revealed, in addition to what is in the TV episodes of Seasons 1-2 and the comic book issues. I really don't think he's going to change something like his fundamental concept of gargoyles as non-magical, for example.




For the gargoyle beast species, I wrote up an animal template:

Gargoyle Beast
ST +5; DX +3; HT +3; Basic Move +4
IQ 4; Will 10; Per 11
Acute Smell 4; Domestic Animal; DR 1 (Tough Skin); Extended Lifespan 1; Glowing Eyes (visible in twilight to darkness, only when angry, -1 to stealth); Humble; Innumerate, Night Vision 9; Nocturnal; Non-Iconographic, Partial Colorblindness (-3 to rolls to distinguish non-pure colors); Quadruped; Reduced Consumption 1 (Food Only); Resistance to Disease (not metabolic illness) +8; Restricted Diet (food plus at least 6 hrs heat/sunlight per day); Sense of Duty (clan and protectorate); Sensitive to Bright Lights (-2 to vision rolls in light as bright as day (not twilight)); Sharp Claws; Sharp Teeth; Super Climbing 1; Tapetum (-1 to all vision sense rolls for faraway objects, eyes reflect light in darkness and are visible); Temperature Tolerance 2; Very Rapid Healing
DR 3 (only while asleep); Fragile: Brittle (only while asleep); Vulnerability cr x3 (stone, metal, bullets only, only while asleep)
Features: Dying Race; Early Maturation; Limited Fertility (one egg every 20 yrs); Tail
Skills: Brawling-15; Climbing-13; Swimming-13; Tracking-12

[Zorian]

Just some comments on the base Gargoyle template.

1. Regen ect while in Stone form/Day. In the series unless it was some sort of weirdness the Gargoyle was completely (or almost completely) fixed of damage/disease/poison and VRH would only get 3 HP per day. Though not Regrowth. I also think they should be ,while in stone form homogeneous and not specially vulnerable to types of damage. Brittle should cover that.

2. On the same point they should not have the Very Rapid Healing and Disease Resistance +8 because of above.

3. On DR, just my opinion, but I think they should have more like 3-6 for racial average. Goliath is admittedly really tough but he did catch a broadsword in his hand being swung by a strong guy and took 1 HP of damage and they had the rep of being supernaturally tough (see first ep). The comments about the gunfire have already been made. Also, if you have DR tough skin do you really need the Perk Tough feet (don't have penalties for not wearing shoes)?

4. Personally, should Congenial and Broadminded be racial traits? Though it seemed to me that Gargoyles from every Clan had rigid personalities and not very creative. With the exception of certain examples I would say most were Hidebound and Quirk level of Chummy. Maybe others.

5. Would the claws on the wings really be Strikers in the GURPS meaning? Maybe on certain individuals but not across the board. I also agree with earlier comments that their claws should have at least one level of AP.

6. I think they shouldn't have the Missing Finger disad but a Quirk level instead. They should have the Dex penalties most of the time because their hand is designed to have 3 fingers.

7. Lower the Dex at least on level maybe even to human normal. They never struck me, as a race, more Dex than human at least not a whole 2 levels. Another idea lower the base Movement but buy back several (only when on all fours). Play with that keeping in mind the flight.

[LoneWolf23k]

Nice to see this thread back.

Is there a variant of Bad Grip for poor manual dexterity? I think that would cover the matter of Gargoyle hands...