A Slew of Shifters

[tantric]

This is my first draft of a PDF detailing some of the shapeshifter/furry races in my campaign. It covers most of the carnivorous and omnivorous mammals of N. America. Putting this together is really tedious because GCA doesn't work well under Linux, so I end up running two computers and cutting and pasting between three programs - thus, lots of errors creep in. Much thanks to GURPS Animalia. I based most of my builds off this, rather than the builds for animals found in official GURPS, particularly DF 5 Allies because Animalia is much more detailed. I decided to omit Vibration Sense and limit Terrain Adaptation to one type per species in an effort to keep the point costs under control.

I appreciate any input, especially in the arena of animal senses. I had to make a lot of arbitrary decisions. I'm sure I messed up basic zoology any number of times. I have all the builds in GCA format and Word/Open Office.

Known Issues:

1)I'm having some problems with GCA in two areas. One, the discounts for size and NFM on ST and DX. Two, it doesn't like to include Perks when it totals the point costs.
2)I need a lesser version of skunk spray for the other mustelids
3)I need to define Possum fainting
4)I don't like the bat build at all.
5)I need a better line between semi-upright and quadruped

Shifters PDF (Had some technical difficulties, should be working now, sorry!)

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by tantric

1)I'm having some problems with GCA in two areas. One, the discounts for size and NFM on ST and DX. Two, it doesn't like to include Perks when it totals the point costs.

I haven't had any problem with perks. I can give you some help with the NFM discount. Come over to the GCA forum and we'll see if the GCA collective can't get things fixed :)

[tantric]

I think I'm going to separate Gorging and Cast Iron Stomach from Reduced Consumption. Gorging means you can eat one days worth of food in one sitting for 1 pt, two days worth for 2 pts. Not sure how much CIS should cost, guessing one point perk for simplicity, or maybe one point per level. Or roll it into Universal Digestion.

I wish there were finer levels of Amphibious. Minks are clearly not *as* Amphibious as Otters. Perhaps they should have a Swimming Talent.

Also, what do whiskers do?

I having real trouble seeing the evolutionary benefits of Possums fainting. They exude green goo from their anal glands and stink like a corpse, thus, supposedly, they become unappetizing to animals that like live prey - but how many animals would reject such an easy meal? Mechanically, I'm thinking they pass out for 1dx30min when they fail a Fear check.

[chandley]

Granting an accessory perk that gives an animal swim fins (webbed feet) without going all the way up to full amphibious is a roughly half step between unaugmented human swimming and seals. So I do that for a lot of good swimmer but not THAT good a swimmer animals.

Canonically, I think you are allowed to vary how often you need to have a meal as a feature, so long as food requirements average out the same as a human (or a creature of your SM, if you use the BIOTECH rules for meal size/frequency).

Whiskers often get stated up as a very limited, short range vibration sense (from Scanning Sense). That is somewhat cinematic though. A perk that lets you touch without being touched (but still at "touch" range) might do for a more realistic treatment. As I've been stating somewhat cinematic versions, I went with vibration sense where I considered the whiskers important enough to include at all.

As for possums... all I can say is that it seems to work for a lot of the animals that would normally try to eat them, and fails miserably for things like certain dogs I know. They are QUITE gross when doing it, I certainly wouldnt eat them. But against the wider array of predators they face now, its kind of an appendix like reaction. Needs to be on its way out. I went with Metabolism Control 2 (Hibernation, only for a few hours, triggered by threats -70%; Temp Disad (Bad Smell) -10%) [2].

[tantric]

Geez, wish I'd found your page before I started on this. Bestiary can't come soon enough, IMO.

[chandley]

Heh, thanks. On the flip side, I like a lot of what you did here. Its a good PC race collection. Plus, pictures!