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Old 11-20-2019, 02:04 PM   #1
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Default Building a “Universal Digestion, Matter/Brain Eater” ability.

Hello!

Several years ago, I stumbled on a graphic novel (of sorts) called EATMAN. The protagonist had the ability to eat virtually anything, and then produce from his body (at will) whatever object he has consumed.

I am trying to create a similar ability for a "mundane" humanoid alien race, “mundane” because I would like to avoid cosmic/magic modifiers as much as possible.

The intended ability has the following elements:

A. Super bite. I don’t know how to make this in GURPS. I know how to make a bite-attack, but I don’t know how to justify said bite reduces adamantium to dust (1)…
1. Could it be with armor divisor?

B. Payload/Pocket Dimension: Besides the normal food intake capacity (humanoid), the creature should be capable of eating at least 6 times its weight (roughly 1,200 lbs. which I call “the buffer”) w/o deforming, increasing its mass, or exploding (1). It should be capable of regenerating faster by spending part of the buffer (2); the buffer doesn’t rots and it doesn’t depletes unless employed.
1. I do believe I can achieve the first part trough “payload”, but maybe a theoretical “pocket dimension” within the creature is the solution to avoid mass increase.
2. “Regeneration” grants the ability to regenerate… the amount of buffer you consume, enhances the speed of the regeneration (the amount of HP you gain per second). So, how would you design the ability to work as intended? I am thinking of regeneration as an alternative ability of sorts, with a price reduction based on the buffer “Regeneration, requires buffer (–X%)”.

C. Super HT: Avoiding intoxication from consuming radioactive or poisonous metals, black powder etc.
1. I think this can be achieved directly through “matter eater”, “radiation tolerance” and “resistant”. My problem here is radiation, the alien should be capable of (for example) effortlessly eating the cobalt-60 contained in the medical radiotherapy machines. I don’t know the amount of damage this could represent in GURPS in order to pick the right tolerance level.
2. Also, the creature must be sort of germ-free. If it eats radioactive stuff, it should clean itself to completely remove radioactive fallout, or bacteria, etc. from whatever it consumes. I think “sanitized metabolism” covers the internal aspects, but what about the external aspects? Could it be a “shtick”?

D. Brain eating/Psionic consumption: Sucking the brain of the victim and gaining its knowledge. This covers 3 things:
1. The ability to suck the brain. (no Idea of how to model this)
2. Learning everything the other creature knew after consuming the brain. (I think mind reading achieves this, with –X% modifiers… how much?)
3. Eating 100 sentient beings’ brains grants 1 permanent IQ. No Idea how to do this.

I am looking forward to your comments,
Thanks!
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Old 11-20-2019, 02:55 PM   #2
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Default Re: Building a “Universal Digestion, Matter/Brain Eater” ability.

Corrosion for the bite should work.
Sanitized Metabolism with a level of Cosmic, say +50%.
Mind Reading is the way to go and I think brain eating has already been written up.
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Old 11-21-2019, 07:23 PM   #3
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Default Re: Building a “Universal Digestion, Matter/Brain Eater” ability.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Refplace View Post
Corrosion for the bite should work.
Sanitized Metabolism with a level of Cosmic, say +50%.
Mind Reading is the way to go and I think brain eating has already been written up.
Hey there, thanks for your ideas. I got a few questions:

Is corrosion really going to help to crush diamond with teeth?

Is not buying a corrosion attack more expensive than armor divisor? (at least when it comes to destroying very high DR materials or resistant items such as diamonds).

Are you sure about modifying a perk with cosmic? I thought perks could not be enhanced this way.

I actually found this; it looks acceptable but it is too expensive. I also found this one, but it seems somewhat incomplete... I don't understand the logic behind using a constriction attack to consume a brain. Were you talking about any of these?
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Old 11-21-2019, 08:35 PM   #4
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Default Re: Building a “Universal Digestion, Matter/Brain Eater” ability.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Hide View Post
Is corrosion really going to help to crush diamond with teeth?

Is not buying a corrosion attack more expensive than armor divisor? (at least when it comes to destroying very high DR materials or resistant items such as diamonds).

Are you sure about modifying a perk with cosmic? I thought perks could not be enhanced this way.

I actually found this; it looks acceptable but it is too expensive. I also found this one, but it seems somewhat incomplete... I don't understand the logic behind using a constriction attack to consume a brain. Were you talking about any of these?
The effectiveness varies based on the damage of the attack, levels of Armor Piercing and levels of Hardened (if any). An AP attack can do more damage in a shot but if it does not get through the reduced DR there is no damage. A corrosion attack however lowers the DR by 1 per 5 points of damage and thus simulates slowly eating through things, even high DR items.

And yes we have examples of Perks with Cosmic and other modifiers in Pyramid and probably elsewhere. One article I can think of was Blessed Be.

No on the Mind Flayer writeups, thats just a modified attack and wont get you the memories of the devoured brain. For that you need Mind Reading or Mind Probe with various modifiers.
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My GURPS publications GURPS Powers: Totem and Nature Spirits; GURPS Template Toolkit 4: Spirits; Pyramid articles. Buying them lets us know you want more!
My GURPS fan contribution and blog:
REFPLace GURPS Landing Page
My List of GURPS You Tube videos (plus a few other useful items)
My GURPS Wiki entries
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