[Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Horizontal and Semi-Upright

[johndallman]

Horizontal [-10] and Semi-Upright [-5] are both exotic physical disadvantages, which normal humans can’t take. They normally come from a racial template, rather than being traits of an individual. They both appeared during the 3e period, in GURPS Uplift.

Horizontal means that your normal posture is horizontal, like that of a quadruped. If you have No Limbs (Aquatic, or Avian), you can’t take this disadvantage, because you live in a three-dimensional environment, where posture doesn’t matter very much. If you’re human-sized, you are a two-hex creature. If you have hands, you can hold something in one of them while moving at half speed, but to use a hand fully, you must stop and stand on your other limbs. If you sit on your haunches, and aren’t moving, you can use both hands. You can stand on your hind legs for short periods, but this is very uncomfortable. Your kicking damage is reduced by -1/die unless you have the Claws advantage (Hooves don’t help with this). Having Extra Limbs that you can use as arms seems to make you ineligible for this disadvantage: the iconic character C31R07 (p. B307-9) only has Horizontal in his no-arms form.

Semi-Upright means that you tend to switch postures between biped and quadruped. You can stand upright reasonably comfortably and use your hands, but your movement in this posture is only 60% of your full Move. You need to be in quadruped posture for full Move, but if your DX is 12+, you can carry one or two small objects in that posture.

The most important use of these disadvantages is Horizontal’s inclusion in the Quadruped meta-trait, which is used for a great many animals and monsters. They’re very rare on character templates, but show up on racial templates for dragons, sphinxes and the like. Bio-Tech can engineer them into, or out of a species, and Martial Arts has additional rules for fighters who are Horizontal. Powers: The Weird has more bioengineering, and Space describes how to have these disadvantages naturally.

I’ve never used these disadvantages, as player or GM. There are genres where they’d be important, but I’ve never played them. How have they been significant in your games?

[SilvercatMoonpaw]

Originally Posted by johndallman

I’ve never used these disadvantages, as player or GM. There are genres where they’d be important, but I’ve never played them. How have they been significant in your games?

A while ago I designed template for My Little Pony and got intimately familiar with Horizontal and the fact that it didn't preclude the complete use of hands.

I will probably be using it a lot going forward as I love four-footed characters.

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by johndallman

Having Extra Limbs that you can use as arms seems to make you ineligible for this disadvantage: the iconic character C31R07 (p. B307-9) only has Horizontal in his no-arms form.

That's probably specific to the character. Elephants have an arm and the disad (both in Bio-Tech and in Basic Set), as do dragons and sphinxes (though with Bad Grip). Conversely, centaurs with their torsos being positioned as high as a rider, lack the Horizontal trait.

[khorboth]

I've actually used semi-upright once. I had a super-villian character who was a werewolf and had it on his alternate form. Other than that... Horizontal shows up on animal allies periodically.

[Bruno]

I've actually used Semi-Upright a few times for characters who can drop to all fours and run at a higher speed. I ended up buying up Basic Move to 10-ish and slapping on Semi-Upright; that gives a character with a human normal Move when wandering around like a human, but they get a significant (+2/3rds) boost when they drop to all fours, and no faffing around with trying to limit Move in some contorted way.
Werewolves, rat-ogres, trolls, those sorts of things.

[SilvercatMoonpaw]

Originally Posted by Bruno

I've actually used Semi-Upright a few times for characters who can drop to all fours and run at a higher speed. I ended up buying up Basic Move to 10-ish and slapping on Semi-Upright; that gives a character with a human normal Move when wandering around like a human, but they get a significant (+2/3rds) boost when they drop to all fours, and no faffing around with trying to limit Move in some contorted way.
Werewolves, rat-ogres, trolls, those sorts of things.

GENIUS! Consider this stolen.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by SilvercatMoonpaw

GENIUS! Consider this stolen.

Florence in Freefall has something very like this trait. It's potentially suitable for aliens and furries.

[SilvercatMoonpaw]

Originally Posted by whswhs

Florence in Freefall has something very like this trait. It's potentially suitable for aliens and furries.

The animals of Zootopia might also have this, but as a Potential that the majority of them never unlock.

[Not]

Originally Posted by Bruno

I've actually used Semi-Upright a few times for characters who can drop to all fours and run at a higher speed. I ended up buying up Basic Move to 10-ish and slapping on Semi-Upright; that gives a character with a human normal Move when wandering around like a human, but they get a significant (+2/3rds) boost when they drop to all fours, and no faffing around with trying to limit Move in some contorted way.
Werewolves, rat-ogres, trolls, those sorts of things.

I considered that for a troll, but instead bought enhanced move with the horizontal limitation (price about the same). Have you tried both? How do they compare?

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by Not

I considered that for a troll, but instead bought enhanced move with the horizontal limitation (price about the same). Have you tried both? How do they compare?

That's how I was doing it before. The Enhanced Move gives poor acceleration and turning, where the characters I was envisioning were more agile on all fours, not less - the "power limbs" being the forelimbs on things like trolls, it seemed backwards for those kinds of statistics to be made worse when all fours.

EDIT: But if you want something that goes really fast on all fours, I'd do a combination of both.