Combining Extended Lifespan with Self-Destruct [Basic]

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Rupert

Now check age 120 at TL3. k.

I know EL Guy starts to decline rapidly at this point partly because he's losing HT. It's why most average humans without useful Traits probably don't make it to 60 at TL3.

However, Mr. Longevity rolled 20 HT rolls for each attribute betweeen 50 and 70, 40 between 70 and 90 and then 120 between 90 and 120. He's lost between 3 and 4 Attribute pts from each Attribute and when flu season comes if he's rolling at -2 against a HT of 6 he critically fails on a 14 or higher and succeeds on only a 3 or 4.

My rule of thumb for Longevity is that it will probably get an otherwise average human beyond 100 but isn't really likely to break known human longevity records. Cinematically healthy humans are another matter.

[dcarson]

Originally Posted by Varyon

Only dwarves who manage to survive to 800 turn into statues - those who die from mining accidents, fighting (monsters, elves, humans, other dwarves, etc), alcohol poisoning, disease, starvation, cave-ins, asphyxiation, suicide, stupid dares, etc would just decay normally.

Read an article that figured that if we always had the risk per year of pre teen girls (lowest odds of dying) the average age of death would be mid 200s. Dwarfs have to have worse odds than that, mining and working with hot metal are not that safe.

[Michael Cule]

For some reason the phrase 'self destruct' suggests something more violent to me. I know that the idea doesn't always mean that but...

How about a spore based life-form? You live just so long and then at the last moment you go 'foom' and your cells explode outwards. Good for people who can tell the signs and make preparations: they will be able to get to the top of windy mountains and spread their spores far and wide. Those who are currently prisoners of uncomprehending aliens will be less lucky.

"I dunno what happened, Sarge. I opened his cell and all this crap came tumbling out. There's no sign of him though he left his prison uniform behind. The other Ricondires are a bit surly this morning though."

[Pragmatic]

Originally Posted by Gold & Appel Inc

...a motive?

When I used that for a hypothetical genemod, the reasoning I used was that while the lifespan could be extended, eventually the cascade of failures would win.

[Rupert]

Originally Posted by dcarson

Read an article that figured that if we always had the risk per year of pre teen girls (lowest odds of dying) the average age of death would be mid 200s. Dwarfs have to have worse odds than that, mining and working with hot metal are not that safe.

I worked it out once using life insurance tables (and as I recall they had teens dying least, despite their general foolishness), and got a figure in the 160-170 range as the life expectancy of people who didn't age. I was trying to work out how old elves were likely to be. However, there's no easy way to tell how much general competence at not dying is gained over time, and how much the early deaths of most of those who simply aren't good at not dying would change the death rate. Old Dwarves and Elves are probably very good at that not dying thing.

[Aldric]

Originally Posted by Michael Cule

For some reason the phrase 'self destruct' suggests something more violent to me. I know that the idea doesn't always mean that but...

How about a spore based life-form? You live just so long and then at the last moment you go 'foom' and your cells explode outwards. Good for people who can tell the signs and make preparations: they will be able to get to the top of windy mountains and spread their spores far and wide. Those who are currently prisoners of uncomprehending aliens will be less lucky.

"I dunno what happened, Sarge. I opened his cell and all this crap came tumbling out. There's no sign of him though he left his prison uniform behind. The other Ricondires are a bit surly this morning though."

I think such an ability, even if it is obviously a once in a lifetime effect (and quite uncontrollable, even if predictable) would end up costing points.

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Aldric

I think such an ability, even if it is obviously a once in a lifetime effect (and quite uncontrollable, even if predictable) would end up costing points.

By its nature, it's One Use Only, for x1/5. "Upon Death" is arguably worth around -40% (this is the value used for Unkillable Only for Regeneration), although PK suggested actually using -300% (as for Heart Attack) here, which leaves a lot of room for Enhancements (Area Effect is likely). As discussed in that article, you may be able to get a further discount by setting it as an Alternate Ability to something else. Note the above is for something that triggers upon death, regardless of how you die - something that only triggers if you die of old age (thanks to Self-Destruct) should get a more sizable discount.

For a cloud of cordyceps spores, something like Dominance with Area Effect, Emanation, and Respiratory Agents is likely appropriate - although you could probably call for a special Limitation due to the fact you have no control over the infected.

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by Rupert

I worked it out once using life insurance tables (and as I recall they had teens dying least, despite their general foolishness), and got a figure in the 160-170 range as the life expectancy of people who didn't age.

That's rather low. Annual teen death rates are in the 50 to 100 per 100,000 range, so a result on the order of a thousand. To get a half life of 170, you'd need an annual rate of 406 per 100,000. Which is about that around age 50, so maybe you took it at the aging roll threshold?

[Rupert]

Originally Posted by malloyd

That's rather low. Annual teen death rates are in the 50 to 100 per 100,000 range, so a result on the order of a thousand. To get a half life of 170, you'd need an annual rate of 406 per 100,000. Which is about that around age 50, so maybe you took it at the aging roll threshold?

I didn't, because I was doing this to look at demographics in a D&D game. My number might have been life expectancy at age 5 with a relatively high death rate from 5-15 or so (because historically getting to adulthood has been the trick). I also may have been using fairly old data - it's been a while since I did the study.

[Michael Cule]

In biological terms having lots of spore-children after you are dead is a clear Advantage.

In individual terms, not so much though perhaps the spore people don't see it that way.

GURPS is written to favour the individual over the race so I'd see it as a minor Perk at best unless one or more of the offspring continued the parent's mind or had access to their memory.

(If the other spore person inmates discover that the guards are dumping their dead patriarch's spore in the trash and washing down the cell with disinfectant there's going to be a riot...)