Need some help with an alien race
 

I'm working on building things out for a game I'm planning on running, and I'm having some issues figuring out some things for one of my alien races. They look like eight-legged otters with broad tails and prehensile toes on all their paws. I want them to be quick while scurrying on all, or most of their limbs, but slower while walking on just their rearmost limbs.

I was thinking that they'd have semi-upright and extra-arms, but I'm not sure how to do the arms. Do I have the foot manipulators on the rearmost set of arms/legs, or do I have it for all eight sets. Also, what other traits would logically be included?

Re: Need some help with an alien race
 

They move faster if they use all their limbs, as a limitation that's a Feature or -1 Quirk IMO.

You decide how many extra Legs and how many extra Arms they have.

Re: Need some help with an alien race
 

From the most read article of my blog:

Let their capabilities guide the stats. Can they play the piano while drinking coffee and waving hello? How good are they are grappling?

I would guess all of the limbs have foot manipulators. They're also likely to be short limbs as well. But they probably do actually have a lot of "arms". At least four in total, and perhaps more ... but I don't think I'd do all eight.

for moving faster or slower, remember temporary disadvantage, and remember negated advantages as well.

Re: Need some help with an alien race
 

I think I'd buy Extra Legs up to however many they can never use as manipulators (if that's none, then they need foot manipulators for their default pair of legs too), and the rest as Extra Arms. Then buy whatever extra Move they have with limitations (temporary disadvantage: No Extra Arms and eventually No Fine Manipulators) in levels as you use more and more of your limbs. I suppose technically you should also take Extra Legs with the same temporary disadvantages.

Re: Need some help with an alien race
 

They sound like creatures who would hunt or forage near shores close to the surface of the water.

They would likely have a sense of how to manipulate water currents. I remember watching Blue Planet how dolphin packs corral shoals of fish by swishing the water upon them.

Re: Need some help with an alien race
 

They are supposed to be short, like maybe the length of someone's upper arm. They can play the piano, drink a cup of coffee, and wave hello while fixing something with the other four limbs, assuming that they have the piece memorized and it doesn't require a lot of concentration, and that the piano is made for children.

Maybe it might help if I gave a drawing in comparison to a human? Maybe this one's too ambitious for a relatively new player to do? I dunno, that's why I was asking for help.

So, this was my first idea.

Short Arms [-5]
Extra Arms 4 (Short) [20]
Prehensile Toes [4]
Semi-Upright [-5]

Which works out to 14 points for the physical build, but the last sentence in Semi-Upright makes me think that this isn't right. They can carry stuff, it's just that they can't move fast.

Okay, so let' go with malloyd's suggestion.

While walking upright, they are on two short legs. So let's say that they have Basic Move 2 [-15].

They can get +1 to Basic Move per pair of limbs they now walk on.

+2 Basic Move (Temporary Disadvantage: No Extra Arms, -20%) [+8]
+1 Basic Move (Temporary Disadvantage: No Fine Manipulators, -30%) [+3]

So now things look like:

Short Arms [-5]
Extra Arms 4 (Short) [20]
Prehensile Toes [4]
Basic Move 2 [-15]
+2 Basic Move (Temporary Disadvantage: No Extra Arms, -20%) [+8]
+1 Basic Move (Temporary Disadvantage: No Fine Manipulators, -30%) [+3]

So the build is now 15 points, which makes the ability to walk and carry stuff a perk apparently. :P

Given that I'm shooting to be 50 points or less with the racial templates, this is fine with me. If anyone's curious, Prehensile Toes are the same thing as Foot Manipulators. Bio-Tech uses the Prehensile Toes and I just happen to prefer that to Foot Manipulators.

I pictured them as pretty good climbers, so in their stone ages they probably mostly hunted by ambushing prey from above when not fishing or diving for clams and other shellfish. I'm thinking Catfall might not be a bad idea for these guys either.

Hmm, just reread the description I wrote for them and they are supposed to be astonishingly fast when on all eight legs. Looks like I need one last edit.

Short Arms [-5]
Extra Arms 4 (Short) [20]
Prehensile Toes [4]
Basic Move 2 [-15]
+4 Basic Move (Temporary Disadvantage: No Extra Arms, -20%) [+16]
+4 Basic Move (Temporary Disadvantage: No Fine Manipulators, -30%) [+12]

So, they get a pretty speedy Basic Speed 10 when going "full eights" and it bumps the cost for this up to 31 points. Not too bad for a four foot tall otter. :)

Thanks for all your help. I think I would have been in Analysis Paralysis without your input.

Now, I just have to figure out if making snarky comments about stupid policies is a Quirk or an Odious Racial Habit.

Re: Need some help with an alien race
 

You might consider giving them Enhanced Move (Water) too, if they're of aquatic origin.

Re: Need some help with an alien race
 

Part of the plan. I was just stumped on how to stat out the arms.

Re: Need some help with an alien race
 

If both of the default arms are short, short arms is worth [-10], not [-5]. Its [-5] per arm.

I don't think you need the full eight arms to do them justice: extra arm does a lot. But if you really want to buy all of them, I suppose you can.

snarky comments are almost certainly a quirk.

Re: Need some help with an alien race
 

D'oh! Thanks for pointing that out.

I may not, but considering that there's going to be other disadvantages and quirks, I think that the cost isn't too unreasonable.

Re: Need some help with an alien race
 

Hi Awarnok.

First a tangential point: A cheetah with 8 legs wouldn't be faster; it might be slower. Extra legs help with broken or soft ground. Sounds like these critters have it for mud. Big feet would help just as much though, with lower metabolic cost. Are these critters genetically engineered?

Your best build uses Alternate Advantages.

One set, 8 Legs (Horizontal -10%, No Fine Manipulators -40%, 7½) and MV +2 (Horiz/NFM; 5), Terrain Adaptation: Mud (Horiz/NFM; 2½). These is the cheaper set, so at 1/5 normal cost, that's 3.

The other set gets expensive, but you can reduce it, something like this:

Quad Extra Arms [Short -50%, Missing Digits 4 Thumbs -20%; 24].

That's net 27. As a GM, you can choose to phase in the extra move and terrain adaptation depending on how many limbs are on the ground. Also, you can change the details; the point is that AA is the technique.

Now here's a quirk of the system: It's not canonical to use Alternate Metatraits, so any disads bundled into a conformation have to be treated as temporary disads. However, GURPS is a Rule Zero game, which means you can figure out what the different conformations are, estimate their utility, and spitball the price.

Re: Need some help with an alien race
 

They aren't genetically engineered, they're an alien species. They don't live in swamps and seeing as they are supposed to be pretty good engineers and mechanics they'd have an aversion to mud if only because it's a pain in the butt to clean out once it's gotten into something.

As for the moving faster, it's more about their gait than the number of legs. They can book it faster than an average human because they can take longer strides. I imagine seeing them running would be like watching a caterpillar on speed.