statting rod limb creature

~~combatmedic~~ · 09-23-2014, 02:28 AM

I'm working on a creature that rolls/crawls/carries/climbs/manipulates by extending lots of slender, telescoping rod limbs.
It can use tools with pretty much the same ability as a human.

How would you model this sort of body type/movement and manipulation ability?

rough draft (may change quite a lot):

Blindness [-50]
Rod limbs [?]
Injury tolerance: no neck [5]
Stretching 1 (limbs only -20 %) [5]-- This might not be needed, depending how the rod limbs are modelled.
Acute Touch 2 [4]
Vibration sense (air) [10]
Sensitive touch [10]

I'm working on a drawing. Looks like a fuzzy barrel with a gazillion wee telescoping graphite rods that move in and out of the barrel sides, angled as needed. Mouth on one end of the barrel, cloaca on the other.

Probably SM 0.
Maybe SM -1. Haven't decided.

Gold & Appel Inc · 09-23-2014, 04:20 AM

This sounds about equivalent to No Legs (Rolling) [0] to me, if there's no change to Speed, Move, etc. Maybe a big penalty to Climbing ladders and sheer surfaces (or just make it a taboo), but with Stretching they can just roll over smaller obstacles. If they can pop a rod out rapidly enough, it could count as a Piercing Striker, and if they're pointy enough they could be Switchable Long Spines.

ETA: How does their manipulation look? Like lots and lots of chopsticks grasping something? A level or two of Bad Grip and/or Weak Arms might be appropriate if so, while retaining human-level Manual DX. No need to add Extra Arms if they can functionally only do what a two-handed being can with their multitude of rods, but it's certainly something that should be on the table, with possible in-species variance if some individuals are capable of finer control than others using the same number of rods overall. They should probably be Ambidextrous if they're radially-symmetrical.

I'd change Acute Touch to Acute Vibration. They already get a big bonus from Sensitive Touch, and a default Vibe of 12 would make them much less vulnerable.

~~combatmedic~~ · 09-23-2014, 08:04 AM

Thanks, G&A

I tried to keep it simple, but this particular alien body type and sensory suite requires numerous traits:

35 points

Bad Grip 1 [-5]
Blindness [-50]
Subsonic speech (as usual, includes subsonic hearing) [0]
Absolute Direction [5]
Ambidexterity [5]
Damage Resistance 3 (cannot wear armor -40%) [9]
Injury tolerance: no neck [5]
Stretching 1 (rods only -20 %) [5]
Vibration Sense (air) [10]
Acute Vibration 4 [8]
Sensitive touch [10]
Protected Sense (vibration) [5]
No Legs (Rolling on extensible carpet of rods) [0]
Long spines (switchable) [3]
Striker (piercing) [5]
Regrowth (rods only -50%) [20]

It's already a very complex template, so I don't want to add much more. I'd like to add in one Mental Disadvantage (or Quirk) to show the alien psychology.
Depending on campaign specifics, Low TL may be appropriate.

I'm thinking of these guys mainly in the context of a GURPS Space game.

Default Vibe of 14 is pretty good, no?

whswhs · 09-23-2014, 08:07 AM

Are their limbs jointed, or are they just rigid rods? Do they have any kind of branching at the end, or are they uniramous, like insect legs and mouth parts? Does the body in general have a sense of touch, or are they chitinous and numb?

Bill Stoddard

~~combatmedic~~ · 09-23-2014, 08:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by whswhs

Are their limbs jointed, or are they just rigid rods? Do they have any kind of branching at the end, or are they uniramous, like insect legs and mouth parts? Does the body in general have a sense of touch, or are they chitinous and numb?

Bill Stoddard

STRUCTURE

I'm envisioning many rigid telescoping rods. Lots and lots of them, slender but strong, all around the barrel body. Each rod housing has its own muscle bundles and can orient in different directions as well as pull in or push out.

I'm thinking the ends of the rods are probably uniramous. That would seem most fitting for the telescoping feature. What do you think?

TOUCH:

The rods transmit vibration and the most of the body surface between the rod holes/bumps is covered in cilia. So , yes, the body in general does have a sense of touch.

As G&D put it, grabbing stuff is like a lot of chopsticks working in unison.

LOCOMOTION:

It's got a barrel shaped body with rod housing all round the barrel, and it crawls/rolls by extending and retreating rods.
Bad grip gives a modest penalty to climbing, but Stretching helps maneuver over obstacles.

MANIPULATION:

As G&D put it, grabbing and manipulating stuff looks like a lot of chopsticks working in unison.

ATTACK AND DEFENSE

The density and number of the rods provides overall body protection about like a pangolin's scales. When retracted the rods are like jacket of studs, and when extended are like a sheet of hard quills.

The creature can orient rods into defensive quill configuration or thrust a tightly bunched cluster out with extra force as an attack (harder/sharper than a push/punch with rod-mass in configuration or an ''arm")

COMMUNICATION

Vibrates and /or taps rods to speak (maybe, I'm not sure)

ENVIRO NOTES:

This thing should probably live in a dark environment, underground seems likely. I have started from the body type before doing any planetology.

OTHER THOUGHTS-

At the risk of overpowering this race, I'm thinking of adding Perfect Balance to represent a gyroscopic sense. If it rolls/crawls the way I imagine it, then maybe it never gets dizzy?

I'm not sure anybody will ever play one of these guys, so keeping point value very low isn't necessarily a concern,
I don't want it to be uber for the sake of uberness, though.

I'm once the fence about adding Weak Arms. It would save 5 points, and it could model the creature being less able to apply leverage (than a human being).
Weak Arms shouldn't impair its ability to shove/roll/bump things using its body mass, right? Just lifting, yanking, swinging, hanging out at arm's length, etc.?

ericthered · 09-23-2014, 03:00 PM

I like this idea: a good starfish alien anatomy is always intriguing. I also like to analyse the tar out of such things so here we go:

Yes, the arms are telescoping, but unless the rods are longer than I think they are, I'm not seeing an SM of increase. Right now I'm imagining a cylinder 1.5 times its diameter in length and rods that can go from just under the diameter in length to set tightly against the creature's body. If I'm wrong, and they have rods substantially longer than their body is thick, then yes, stretching should apply.

The abilities granted as side effects of their locomotion are not necessary. Absolute direction is not an automatic consequence of travelling in a perpetual spinning motion: you can have a brain and balance system wired to roll without always knowing north or remembering exactly where you've been in the past. I would also forgo perfect balance. You will want immunity to motion sickness and dizziness [5] though-- that is a requirement for such locomotion. You can also include an instinctive north without the perfect directions (-60%?) -- its one way to build such a system, or include absolute direction just because.

Perfect balance does make sense: with that many feet, I can see them being quite sure footed-- but I can see just as many arguments against it.

Weak arms -- It effects "lifting, grappling, and striking". I can certainly striking. I think lifting is appropriate as well (when using the whole body it won't apply). grappling is odd: I see these things as being unholy terrors when grappling, but I wonder if that isn't covered by their spines and strikers.

Is there a reason for protective sense other than protecting their primary means of detection? I'd have though it would be more vulnerable than a humans, if anything.

Ambidexterity is, quite honestly, a combat trait, and is priced as such, but I'm seeing that its necessary either. I'm imagining these creatures fighting (with either spines, hand held weapons, or ray guns) and I'm seeing a single point of manipulation. Yes, they're radial and you never know what part of the body is going to be on top. Humans are bilateral and we never know which side we'll have closer to something -- yet we tend to pour all of our resources into one hand rather than the other. This is a pattern across the animal kingdom: fine manipulation tends to be focused rather than spread out. I would guess rod-things will follow the pattern and orient themselves rather than being truly omni-directional.

The armouring bugs me, but I can live with it, though I'd certainly tinker with it more if I used them in my own campaign: different damage types react differently, some damage is passed some of the time, the rods would have a different DR, and amour would be flexible only rather than illegal (though not on the rods)-- or are the rods more densely packed than I am imagining? Anyway, I know such things are a hobby of mine, so I'll leave it alone.

You are spending lots of points on regrowth. regrowth is sadly over-priced in my ever so humble opinion. the myGurps site has a wonderful alternative to the 40 point monster, treating regrowth as a modified form of Injury tolerance: unbreakable bones [10], no eyes [5], no vitals [5] at -50% for "takes damage and looses organ but always gets it back". PK (the author) has stated he's not sure how fair each of these are individually, but its not a bad deal. That said, unbreakable bones unmodified may be close to what you want: double damage to cripple limbs, and even then they grow back (the fluff differs from official fluff, but fluff is fluff). I'd go with unbreakable bones.

So the recomended changes are as follows:

No stretching [-5]
No Absolute direction [-5]
immunity to Motion sickness [5]
No ambidexterity [-5]
No Protected Vibration [-5]
No Regrowth [-20]
Injury tolerance (unbreakable bones*) [10]
*refluffed as regrowing

which would bring the point total to [10], rather than that high number of [-35].

Gold & Appel Inc · 09-23-2014, 05:14 PM