Beasts of Unusual Size [Biotech]

[AlexanderHowl]

One of the possibilities with Biotech is the ability to change the size of animal species by +/-5 SM. How often do you use beasts of unusual size in your campaigns? Do you have SM-8 rabbits hoping around like fleas or SM+8 elephants leveling cities? Is there a notable experience with such creatures that you would be willing to share?

[TGLS]

The only rules for size modification I can find in Bio-tech are specifically for Humans. I think it's a bit of a mistake to assume that the limits that apply to humans would be identical for every animal. For example, it would be silly to assume you could make ¼ kilometer Blue Whales, or 0.3 mm Pharaoh ants. On the other hand, it could be plausible that you could scale up to far larger or smaller than the limits presented, depending on the animal. Whether they bear more than superficial resemblance to the base animal is an exercise for the setting designer.

[whswhs]

I haven't done this sort of thing. But I think an SM-2 elephant might make an appealing pet.

[dcarson]

Originally Posted by whswhs

I haven't done this sort of thing. But I think an SM-2 elephant might make an appealing pet.

There were a number of species of dwarf elephant on islands that went extinct several thousand years BC. The Cyprus species was around 200 kilos. So SM 0 not -2 but still 2% or regular elephants in weight.

In Girl Genius which we will hopefully have a GURPS book for soonish the Hoomhoffer is a large arachnid that is about elephant size. They have air pumps installed so they can breath. They were supposedly made from dust mites by a spark so that they were big enough to study without a microscope.

[evileeyore]

Originally Posted by dcarson

In Girl Genius which we will hopefully have a GURPS book for soonish the Hoomhoffer is a large arachnid that is about elephant size. They have air pumps installed so they can breath. They were supposedly made from dust mites by a spark so that they were big enough to study without a microscope.

Likewise GG has the Mimmoth, a mouse sized mammoth, which is implied in the novelization to have been miniaturized in an attempt to create a bred of personal mounts, but the Spark went "too far".