Help understanding Pixies.

[tanksoldier]

Originally Posted by Anthony

A 6" tall humanoid that weighs 1 lb is ludicrously heavy (equivalent to a 6' human weighing 1728 lb), and ST 5 is also ridiculously high, so we're talking the equivalent of a solid metal statue, which really won't be all that flimsy.

Plot twist: pixies are like ants and have enormous strength and durability for their size...

[Flyndaran]

Ants are as strong as you'd expect for animals that size. If anything, humans that size would be stronger. We don't "waste" mass with exoskeletons and have much beefier limbs.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by tanksoldier

Plot twist: pixies are like ants and have enormous strength and durability for their size...

That's built into the standard GURPS rules, actually.

Treating a human as a typical SM 0 creature, we have ST 10 and 10 HP. Body weight is the cube of HP/2, or 5^3, or 125 lbs. Basic Lift is ST^2/5, or 100/5, or 20 lbs.

An SM -6 creature is 5"-7" tall, and has ST 1 and 1 HP. That gives weight equal to the cube of 0.5, or 0.125 lb., or 2 ounces, which is 1/1000 of human weight. But Basic Lift is the square of ST 1, divided by 5, or 0.2 lb., or 3.2 ounces, which is 1/100 of human weight. So this lifeform can lift ten times as much in proportion to its body weight. And that's not even putting in any special tweaks like giving it ST 5 and 1 HP!

[GodBeastX]

I always imagine the movie "Hook" when I think about these pixies. Tinkerbell was flipping people and beating them up with a 1cm dagger to parry and do other stuff.

No way a 6 inch creature can do all that, but that's what made it a fun scene =)

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

Ants are as strong as you'd expect for animals that size.

If you want disproportionately strong bugs[1], you want beetles, the armored tanks and heavy construction equipment of the bugs.

[1] By which I mean the laymans definition of "bug", which includes insects, arachnids, and various other creepy crawlies that aren't related to each other at all.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Bruno

By which I mean the laymans definition of "bug", which includes insects, arachnids, and various other creepy crawlies that aren't related to each other at all.

Spiders are about as closely related to beetles as frogs are to people, I think.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by whswhs

Spiders are about as closely related to beetles as frogs are to people, I think.

And neither frogs nor spiders nor people nor beetles are technically bugs, but whenever I say this people get upset for some reason.

And I would go with fleas actually for strongest relative to body size. A fleas legs are fairly unique in nature for the amount of energy they can store and release during a jump.

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by whswhs

Spiders are about as closely related to beetles as frogs are to people, I think.

They're slightly less related than tuna and humans, but probably about as related as hagfish and humans. How's THAT for close relations?

For clarity, I (and beetles and spiders) are all related to the bacteria in my cheese, so yes, spiders and beetles are related. But only for certain values of "related".

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by whswhs

Spiders are about as closely related to beetles as frogs are to people, I think.

Bit further it looks like; insects seem to have split off from arthropods somewhere a bit over 400MYr back, while the separation between amphibians and amniotes is only a bit over 300MYr. It looks like sharks are a good candidate for a comparable separation.

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

And neither frogs nor spiders nor people nor beetles are technically bugs, but whenever I say this people get upset for some reason.

Bruno was gesturing in the direction of that fact, of course.