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03-15-2019, 10:32 AM | #1 |
Join Date: Jun 2013
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Increased Consumption Due to High ST
This is just a little something I've been playing around with as part of a new DF setting I've been working on, and wanted to see if the hivemind would like to weigh in. I'm wanting to have consumption scale with ST, which as I understand it would be realistic, but am not certain exactly how it should scale - and also, how this interacts with SM.
It seems like the ST bit should scale linearly with BL, but since you're not constantly using your muscles at near-full capacity, perhaps BL/2 would be more appropriate. It doesn't seem like a larger or smaller creature should expend any more or less energy than an SM+0 one to lift a certain weight, however, so I'm thinking this would be a constant +n kcal/day per +1 BL (which, using humans as a model and assuming 3000 kcal/day - what GURPS roughly does - works out to +75 kcal/day per +1 BL). Does that seem appropriate? For accounting for SM, I'm just using the relationship established in Biotech (consumption is the square of scale) to establish a base consumption for a given scale, then adjusting that for ST at +75 kcal/day per +1 BL. Does this sound ballpark accurate, or am I completely off? Yes, my version of pixies (who are ST 5, when by size they should be around ST 1.5) are going to be absolutely voracious eaters. There's a reason they are known for having done extensive research into extradimensional storage bags and the like.
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03-15-2019, 11:05 AM | #2 |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: Increased Consumption Due to High ST
In my current campaign, which has humanoid races with expected ST ranging from 5 to 14, I use the simplified model that daily food intake varies with Basic Lift. A ST 10 human needs 3 meals a day; a ST 7 nixie needs the equivalent of 1.5 meals; a ST 14 troll needs the equivalent of 6 meals. However, because their stomach volumes scale with weight, not BL, a nixie needs more small meals and a troll needs fewer big meals.
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Bill Stoddard I don't think we're in Oz any more. |
03-15-2019, 11:54 AM | #3 | |
Join Date: Jun 2006
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Re: Increased Consumption Due to High ST
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03-15-2019, 02:26 PM | #4 |
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Berkeley, CA
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Re: Increased Consumption Due to High ST
It's mostly a problem with small warm blooded things, not big; the rate for being warm blooded scales with temperature difference * surface area / thickness of insulation, and thus at constant proportions scales with the 1/3 power of mass, which is much slower than general metabolic scaling (which at constant proportions scales with the 2/3 power of mass). In practice, large animals need extra heat dissipation so the warm-blooded factor pretty much drops to zero when active, but there's a reason the smallest known mammal is about 30mm while the smallest known vertebrate is 8mm and the smallest insect is 0.14mm.
Last edited by Anthony; 03-15-2019 at 02:29 PM. |
03-15-2019, 02:46 PM | #5 |
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Oz
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Re: Increased Consumption Due to High ST
Be aware of Kleiber's Law. Mammals' base metabolic rate scales with the 3/4 power of mass.
(There is a very interesting phenomenon in newborns in which it takes quite some time after birth for their metabolic rate to rise from that expected of a part of their mother's body to that of an independent mammal their smaller size.)
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03-15-2019, 03:19 PM | #6 | |
Join Date: Jun 2013
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Re: Increased Consumption Due to High ST
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If we presume there is a creature who has strength well out of proportion to its mass, Because Magic, but that must still fuel that strength through mundane food consumption, do you feel it would be more appropriate to use the caloric needs of a larger creature with comparable strength, or some sort of average of this and what the magically-enhanced creature’s mass tells us? Note here we are assuming a rather active Pixie (as active as a human who needs 3000 kcal/day), so that enhanced strength is going to be seeing recular use.
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03-15-2019, 03:28 PM | #7 | |
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Berkeley, CA
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Re: Increased Consumption Due to High ST
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03-15-2019, 03:53 PM | #8 | |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: Increased Consumption Due to High ST
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Bill Stoddard I don't think we're in Oz any more. |
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03-15-2019, 07:50 PM | #9 | |
Join Date: Jun 2006
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Re: Increased Consumption Due to High ST
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Which suggests it might not hold for very small organisms that don't have such a thing, or those that are nearly two dimensional, or arranged as thin layers around thick tubes, but I don't know that anybody has proved that yet.
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03-15-2019, 03:51 PM | #10 | |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: Increased Consumption Due to High ST
Quote:
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Bill Stoddard I don't think we're in Oz any more. |
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Tags |
consumption, dungeon fantasy |
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