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-   -   Housecat-sized octopus vs. SCUBA-equipped commoner (https://forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?t=113201)

ULFGARD 07-12-2013 12:56 PM

Re: Housecat-sized octopus vs. SCUBA-equipped commoner
 
Thanks for helping my MH game! Poisonous intelligent houscat sized octopi attacking the SCUBA-clad infiltrators! Awesome!!!

ericthered 07-12-2013 12:59 PM

Re: Housecat-sized octopus vs. SCUBA-equipped commoner
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh (Post 1611446)
Well, there's strangulation, which is serious business given the modifiers. Not IWinButton serious, but not something to be ignored.

Once again, if the octopus knows what a human is and how to kill it.

Jovus 07-12-2013 01:30 PM

Re: Housecat-sized octopus vs. SCUBA-equipped commoner
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by ericthered (Post 1611459)
Once again, if the octopus knows what a human is and how to kill it.

And this is the real reason people fear Cthulhu. He doesn't so much have eldritch powers from before time and inscrutable irrational aims as he's a malevolent SM + 3 intelligent octopus with Physiology (Human)/12 - 17

quarkstomper 07-12-2013 01:41 PM

Re: Housecat-sized octopus vs. SCUBA-equipped commoner
 
Funny. Just the other day on another site I was for completely different reasons referencing a sequence from an old POGO comic strip in which Albert the Aligator somehow wound up with an octopus on his head. Dang thing wouldn't let go. People started mistaking Albert for a girl. And his friends couldn't decide whether the correct gammatical construction would be "An Octopots gots Albert" or "An Octopiggle done gots Albert." Or if it should be "A Rhinocklewurst done went and gots Albert". After a while they lost track of exactly what kind of creature it was.

Eventually Albert got used to having a Octoctopoodle attached to his headbone. At which point it let go on its own.

He missed it.

vicky_molokh 07-12-2013 02:25 PM

Re: Housecat-sized octopus vs. SCUBA-equipped commoner
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by ericthered (Post 1611459)
Once again, if the octopus knows what a human is and how to kill it.

Well, it's probably IQ 5 or maybe 4 if you're pessimistic*. I suppose it should have at least basic understanding.

* == Smart enough to use tools and understand a limited set of symbols, smart enough to imitate other animals' mannerisms, and smart enough that TL10 surgery alone can bring them up to IQ6.

Flyndaran 07-12-2013 02:43 PM

Re: Housecat-sized octopus vs. SCUBA-equipped commoner
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh (Post 1611564)
Well, it's probably IQ 5 or maybe 4 if you're pessimistic*. I suppose it should have at least basic understanding.

* == Smart enough to use tools and understand a limited set of symbols, smart enough to imitate other animals' mannerisms, and smart enough that TL10 surgery alone can bring them up to IQ6.

This isn't the THS forum. You made me look to make sure. Intelligence isn't one number or thing. So being almost human level at a small set of problems doesn't say much about any other set. Gurps has IQ 6 being everything that a young human child is mentally, which is profoundly different from any super intelligent cephalopod.

vicky_molokh 07-12-2013 03:05 PM

Re: Housecat-sized octopus vs. SCUBA-equipped commoner
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by Flyndaran (Post 1611574)
This isn't the THS forum. You made me look to make sure. Intelligence isn't one number or thing. So being almost human level at a small set of problems doesn't say much about any other set. Gurps has IQ 6 being everything that a young human child is mentally, which is profoundly different from any super intelligent cephalopod.

Used the numbers from Bio-Tech (4e), not Under Pressure, whose Octosap is modified only in having its IQ boosted (to IQ6). But I've heard of octopodes deliberately plugging their opponents' breathing orifices when fighting, so I don't think strangling an opponent is that out of whack.

Flyndaran 07-12-2013 03:12 PM

Re: Housecat-sized octopus vs. SCUBA-equipped commoner
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh (Post 1611596)
Used the numbers from Bio-Tech (4e), not Under Pressure, whose Octosap is modified only in having its IQ boosted (to IQ6). But I've heard of octopodes deliberately plugging their opponents' breathing orifices when fighting, so I don't think strangling an opponent is that out of whack.

Not impossible for an unusually smart octopus, I agree. I just don't like how it's in vogue now to grossly overestimate their "human-ness" the way they used to for elephants.

vicky_molokh 07-12-2013 03:39 PM

Re: Housecat-sized octopus vs. SCUBA-equipped commoner
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by Flyndaran (Post 1611602)
Not impossible for an unusually smart octopus, I agree. I just don't like how it's in vogue now to grossly overestimate their "human-ness" the way they used to for elephants.

Human-ness? Seriously? They're probably the prime candidate for the description of a very inhuman intelligence.

Flyndaran 07-12-2013 03:42 PM

Re: Housecat-sized octopus vs. SCUBA-equipped commoner
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh (Post 1611615)
Human-ness? Seriously? They're probably the prime candidate for the description of a very inhuman intelligence.

Human level and type of sapience I mean. Too often inhuman is just code for irrational monster.


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