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06-04-2019, 08:23 PM | #1 |
Join Date: Feb 2016
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Sexually Dimorphic Races [Fantasy]
I am curious how many people use sexually dimorphic races in fantasy campaigns. If you do, do you keep the same point values between the sexes or do you have different point values for the sexes? Do your players like the added variety or do they find the idea of sexual dimorphism distracting?
An example of sexual dimorphism from one of my setting are the High Trolls. The Hugh Trolls are the remnants of an ancient civilization that survived the devolution of their species through retreating to the mountains of the world. When humans evolved, they were capable of driving the Low Trolls into the swamps of the world, but they found an opponent that they could not defeat in the High Trolls. Female High Troll [200] Attribute Modifiers: ST+10 (SM+1, -10%) [90]; HT+4 [40] Advantages: Appearance (Attractive) [4]; Less Sleep 4 [8]; Magery 3 (Troll Magic; Based on HT, +20%) [42]; Regeneration (Regular) [25]; Reproductive Control [1]; Unaging [15]. Disadvantages: Berserk (12-) [-10]; Lecherousness (12-) [-15] Males High Trolls [200] Attributes: As above Advantages: Fit [5]; Regeneration (Regular) [25]; Unkillable 1 [50]; Unaging [15]. Disadvantages: Berserk (12-) [-10]; Phobia (Sun; 12-) [-15] |
06-04-2019, 11:19 PM | #2 | |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: Sexually Dimorphic Races [Fantasy]
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Of the six players, one of the men played a male ghoul and one a trollwife; the women played a female ghoul, a male nixie, a male nixie, and a female selkie disguised as male. They seem to enjoy the variety of gender options.
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06-05-2019, 12:30 AM | #3 | ||
Join Date: May 2015
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Re: Sexually Dimorphic Races [Fantasy]
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Well, and also generally do do to at least a small degree with most races and species (including humans), because real species tend to have at least some physical differences between sexes. Quote:
And the stats and traits of everything in the game, are to me tools to represent what is there in the game world and situation. The reason for them being what they are would never be to make the points come out in tidy numbers. It would seem entirely backwards to me to let some desire for equal points determine what the description of a type of character were, or to force the points to be equal between descriptions of two sexes of the same species because of some meta notion of the rectitude of them being equal in GURPS points. My players tend to like that the game system are used as tools to represent the game situation, so they can immerse in it. They like that the characters tend to get stats that make sense for what they're supposed to be. They like that the GM has creatively detailed things in interesting ways, including the differences between the sexes of various people. It's just one of the many details though and I don't remember people seeming distracted by it, but only in a few odd cases have PCs needed to be chosen from particularly inhuman races. |
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06-05-2019, 08:12 AM | #4 |
Join Date: Jun 2013
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Re: Sexually Dimorphic Races [Fantasy]
The templates haven’t been built yet - largely because I still need to decide if each race will have some sort of unique ability - but I’m playing around a bit with sexual dimorphism in my Oubliette setting. The nornu (giants) and malofae (catfolk) have roughly-Terran levels of sexual dimorphism (so both genders use the same template, but males are more likely to have above-average ST). Pixies have a slightly greater degree of sexual dimorphism (albeit probably not enough to result in separate templates), but halflings have a strong degree of it (males are brawny with ST 7, females are shapely and have ST 5, and the Extreme Sexual Dimorphism trait isn’t off the table). Dwarves are somewhat androgynous, leaning toward masculine (dwarf women can grow beards, although following contact with the other races they typically opt not to), while elves are highly androgynous, leaning toward feminine.
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06-05-2019, 08:43 AM | #5 |
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: On the road again...
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Re: Sexually Dimorphic Races [Fantasy]
In my settings, sexual dimorphism or lack thereof is generally a 0-point feature. The physical differences between males and females of various races are generally not worth points, and sometimes it's not always easy to tell males and females apart (lizardfolk are like this, but sometimes so are Dwarves*).
The only time I've played with that kind of sexual dimorphism is in my Star Wars conversion, with Devaronians and Twi'leks**. Most of the time, it's not worth it. If I came up with a race where, for example, men had horns, sharp teeth, and claws, and women didn't, then I'd probably just give a gender lens for the differences rather than two completely different templates. * It's the beards. :) ** Originally Devaronian women had white fur and no horns, but more recent sources removed the fur; and have you ever seen an overweight unattractive Twi'lek woman?
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"Life ... is an Oreo cookie." - J'onn J'onzz, 1991 "But mom, I don't wanna go back in the dungeon!" The GURPS Marvel Universe Reboot Project A-G, H-R, and S-Z, and its not-a-wiki-really web adaptation. Ranoc, a Muskets-and-Magery Renaissance Fantasy Setting Last edited by Phantasm; 08-09-2019 at 04:10 PM. |
06-05-2019, 09:04 AM | #6 |
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Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Southeast NC
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Re: Sexually Dimorphic Races [Fantasy]
In my one fantasy setting with non-human sapients, one (the felinoids) have distinct gender roles but sexual dimorphism is milder than humans. The other (reptilians) has significant sexual dimorphism, with females being larger and being highly prone to aggression during nesting season.
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RyanW - Actually one normal sized guy in three tiny trenchcoats. |
06-05-2019, 09:09 AM | #7 |
Join Date: Sep 2011
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Re: Sexually Dimorphic Races [Fantasy]
I don't usually make races with extreme sexual dimorphism but I have occasionally used them in games where they came as part of the setting. One was RuneQuest where Aldyrami are Elves if male and Dryads if female. If I were to convert them to GURPS they would be of different point values. Similarly I have used the unnamed race from Thomas Burnett Swann's Day of the Minotaur/Forest of Forever where the males are all minotaurs and the females all dryads. Again, if I were ever to do them using GURPS, they would have different point values. Given that the sexual dimorphism is so extreme as to be virtually different species, my players didn't find it distracting, just "a god did it" weirdness.
From a science fiction view, I haven't used GURPS War Against the Chtorr yet, but it has a race with extreme sexual dimorphism to the point of looking like different species as well. If I recall, it's the unintelligent pink bunnies (female) and one of the more intelligent invaders. They also would be of differing point values. |
06-05-2019, 09:19 AM | #8 |
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Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Southeast NC
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Re: Sexually Dimorphic Races [Fantasy]
In a science fiction setting, I've considered generational dimorphism. When a mommy alien and a daddy alien love each other very much, they make a potted plant together. Then it drops seeds that turn into babies.
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RyanW - Actually one normal sized guy in three tiny trenchcoats. |
06-07-2019, 04:45 PM | #9 | |
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Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Sumter, SC
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Re: Sexually Dimorphic Races [Fantasy]
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One such example (and how I got there) can be found at D&D Lich in GURPS So you stat the race normally (ignoring the differences) and then do the male and female as Lenses. Last edited by maximara; 06-07-2019 at 05:05 PM. |
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06-08-2019, 06:34 AM | #10 |
Join Date: Jun 2013
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Re: Sexually Dimorphic Races [Fantasy]
I'm not fond of a template that requires a lens to be usable, so I'd be more inclined to determine which gender the PC's are more likely to be, have that as a template, then have the other gender as a lens. As male adventurers outnumber females - and particularly as this disparity is even more pronounced for halflings (due to males being much more suited for adventuring, as well as sociological reasons why female halflings would be less inclined to become adventurers than females of other races) - I'll likely have the default halfling template be for males, with a lens for females.
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