Please Help Create a Bird-Person Template
 

Hey, all!

Just a quick thank you to everyone that has answered to all of my past threads and will answer to present and future threads.

I'm trying to create a Bird-Person species.

Bird-Person
34 points
Attribute Modifiers: ST-2 [-20]; DX+1 [20].
Secondary Characteristic Modifiers: SM-1 [0]; Per+1 [5].
Advantages: Flight (Cardiac Stress, 30 minutes, -15%; Winged, -25%) [24]; Lifting ST 4 (Cardiac Stress, 30 minutes, -15%) [24]; Natural Weapons (Cutting; No Crushing, -5) [2].
Perks: Feathers [1].
Disadvantages: Skinny [-5]; Vulnerability (Crushing, *1.5) [-15].

Now, I added Cardiac Stress because I figure flying is going to be extremely exhausting for a humanoid avian species. Even with how lithe they are and the different skeletal structure and different muscles and whatever, it's still going to take a lot for them to get into the air on Earth, I figure. A bird's heightened senses is just represented as a small bonus to Perception here.

Contrary to the bird idea I want them to be like (this depiction of) Man-Bat. He has a few extra non-wing phalanges to use as fingers. I figure this might be a little clumsy, but, maybe if you fold your wings back, it wouldn't be so bad. So, is that a Clumsy Fine Manipulator? But what about the talons of a Bird-Person? Are those Fine Manipulators as well? I don't know what I should do about the case of Extra Arms. I imagine, like I said, that a Bird-Person would be able to hold things in his wing-hands, but not while flying. However, he would still be able to use his talons to manipulate things, but I'm not sure how well. I don't see them as flying around and wielding swords. So, then, are they just regular old legs for the sake of Manipulators? In that case, I can put Temporary Disadvantage, No Fine Manipulators, -30% on Flight.

Last but not least, what about this Lifting ST jazz? The only reason I have that on there is because an Bird-Person would theoretically need ST 12 to lift himself into the air (based on Winged Humans from GURPS Bio-Tech). Is that just Arm ST? A limitation on Lifting ST? Or should Bird-Person realistically have all of that Lifting ST? It's a little messier here because I'm using Knowing Your Own Strength from Pyramid #3/83: Alternate GURPS IV.

Bird-Person, Revised
32 points
Attribute Modifiers: ST-2 [-20]; DX+1 [20].
Secondary Characteristic Modifiers: SM-1 [0]; Per+1 [5].
Advantages: Ambidexterity [5]; Extended Lifespan 1 [1]; Flight (Temporary Disadvantage, No Fine Manipulators, -30%; Winged, -25%) [18]; Lifting ST 4 (Limited, Arms only, -50%) [14]; Natural Weapon (Cutting; Modified Crushing, -5) [2]; Natural Weapon (Piercing; Cannot Parry, -40%; Reduced Damage, -1/die, -30%) [2].
Perks: Feathers [1].
Disadvantages: Vulnerability (Crushing, *1.5) [-15].
Quirks: Thin Frame [-1].

Re: Please Help Create a Bird-Person Template
 

Cardiac Stress means your species will end up going extinct, due to a tendency to fall out of the sky at random. Go with Costs FP instead, to represent muscle strain. Cardiac Stress just to lift 29lbs means that any serious construction is impossible, armor can't be a thing, and my suspension of disbelief is shattered with such a race dying off all the time.

Giving their beak Piercing damage as a Striker or Natural Weapon would be fitting, if you're going with the bird-face thing.

Re: Please Help Create a Bird-Person Template
 

I'll go with Costs Fatigue, then! That makes sense. And I totally forgot about the bird-face thing. They actually have a beak nose and a human-ish mouth. So, I'll go ahead and add that.

Re: Please Help Create a Bird-Person Template
 

Lifting ST is significantly cheaper than that, and probably shouldn't have Costs FP if Flight does. I probably wouldn't use Costs FP on Flight either, unless you really want them on the ground the vast majority of the time. Winged Flight is pretty tiring as it is, about as bad as non-stop sprinting.

This is just a house rule, but I personally avoid using build traits like Skinny on racial templates. Skinny relative to what? What about a Bird Person who is Skinnier than other Bird People? I'd give them higher ST and low HP to represent the fragile build but ability to fly, and leave Skinny, Fat, etc to individual characters.

Re: Please Help Create a Bird-Person Template
 

Hey Raekai, I believe that the answer to your question about the talons lies in the Basic Set, under Extra Arms B53:
"In GURPS, a limb with which you can manipulate objects is an arm, regardless of where it grows or what it looks like."

So both your bird-man's wings and their feet count as arms in the GURPS system. Now, further down under special limitations you can find the 'Foot Manipulators' limitation, which is exactly what you would need to stat the talons. At a guess, they might look something like:
- Extra Arms 2 (Foot Manipulators, -30%) [14],
- Ham-Fisted 1 or 2 (Accessibility: Foot Manipulators Only, -20%) [-3 or -8],
and/ or Bad Grip with a similar limitation. I'm sure that there's a better way to model this, though.

I can't help you with the wings, unfortunately! I'm not familiar with flying creatures and I wouldn't want to feed you bad information accidentially. Best of luck in your GURPS'ing!

Re: Please Help Create a Bird-Person Template
 

Since I'm using those rules, Lifting ST is 7 points/level. And winged flight isn't too bad. You can pace yourself. The idea here is that a Bird-Person is not built perfectly to fly. Flying humanoids are pretty tough to make. I maybe should have mentioned that they are the result of a demigod's engineering. However, I will consider removing it or definitely allowing a Bird-Person to buy off that limitation.

As far as Skinny goes, I don't imagine that a Bird-Person could get that much skinnier, and I don't want to drop their HP for a reduction in mass. I thought about just doing a Thin Frame [0] as a Feature, but it didn't feel right. Normally, I wouldn't use Skinny on a Template, but it felt right in this instance. You don't really have a skinnier Bird-Person. You might have someone who is emaciated and underfed, but I don't imagine a lot of variance in their bone structure. But maybe that's not worth -5 points. Could it be a Quirk? Thin Frame [-1].

Thank you! Seeing it written out as such is helpful. In the end, I think I'm deciding for the talons not to be Fine Manipulators. An eagle might have dexterous talons, but chickens' feet don't seem quite as useful. Though, I've been kicked by a chicken before.