Dungeon Fantasy 5 - Allies -Bear Questions

[jackcelso]

Hi

In gurps basic- campains all bears - have no fine manipulators -30.

Dungeon Fantasy 5 - Allies, shows that bears are able to manipulate.

which is right?

[Kelly Pedersen]

Bear (pun not intended) in mind that the animals in DF 5 are all deliberately "cinematic" versions, designed to be a bit more capable than realistic ones, since they're intended for allies or forms for PCs to turn into. So bears, which we do tend to think of as being able to pick things up, are given perhaps slightly-unrealistic ability to do so, there, meaning they have Ham-Fisted 2 but not No Fine Manipulators. Whereas the Basic Set bear is a more realistic interpretation and thus has full-on NFM.

[Refplace]

Animal companions (especially magical ones) tend to be smarter than typical 'wild' ones and that extra brain power and exposure lets them use thier paws in ways not normally seen.

[jackcelso]

thanks for the help !!

[ericbsmith]

I agree with the others - both are correct, for different types of Bear intended for different campaigns.

Something to keep in mind about GURPS 4e is that there is no single "Bear" or "Elf" or "Dragon" template that encompasses all examples you'll ever find in any campaign ever. Each campaign book or series can have different racial templates which can be similar or completely different from the ones in other sourcebooks.

[Rolando]

And with training some bears can manipulate (carry at least) big objects.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wojtek_(bear)

[dcarson]

There was a Mythbusters episode where they showed a bear could open a minivan door and get the cooler out that was sitting inside. There was a recent story on the news where a bear opened a car and accidentally locked itself in. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/bear-br...cks-itself-in/

So a bear companion that is the Lassie of bears can do a lot.

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by dcarson

There was a Mythbusters episode where they showed a bear could open a minivan door and get the cooler out that was sitting inside. There was a recent story on the news where a bear opened a car and accidentally locked itself in. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/bear-br...cks-itself-in/

So a bear companion that is the Lassie of bears can do a lot.

When I volunteered at Yosemite it was well known that bears could get into cars and do a lot of unexpected things. One had to be careful with storing food in the park.
Thank you for the memories.

[dcarson]

Originally Posted by Refplace

When I volunteered at Yosemite it was well known that bears could get into cars and do a lot of unexpected things. One had to be careful with storing food in the park.
Thank you for the memories.

A park ranger told a friend of mine that the problem with bear proof trash cans was the overlap between smart bears and dumb tourists. Also to think of bears as mother natures way of keeping down the backpacker population.

[evileeyore]

Originally Posted by dcarson

A park ranger told a friend of mine that the problem with bear proof trash cans was the overlap between smart bears and dumb tourists.

Add in trash pandas and you make it "the overlap between smart people and properly motivated* raccoons"...



* I once watched a heist of raccoons work together to defeat the lock on an ice cooler that had cut water melon in it (they ended up chewing through the plastic hinges to flip it open backwards). When they started stealing the other food from the cooler I decided to interfere (they were not allowed to steal my milk for my coffee and brekkie).

I did leave the entire water melon out where they could get it. I mean, after all that, they deserved it.