[ericthered]

Originally Posted by Pursuivant

I created a Limited Extra Mouth Perk with several different variants. It might be useful in this case:
Limited Extra Mouth †‡ (Physical, Exotic)

That's some nice thought... it still doesn't deal with the fact that the second extra mouth is a great deal more useful than the tenth, or the 100th. At some point you reach the equivalent of "you can't disable my mouths without disabling me", and that's the actual value of the advantage. Which I suppose means that a limitation on "unbreakable bones" might be appropriate.

Originally Posted by SydneyFreedberg

A question about Striders: Is there any way to depict a large herbivore like this without buying up ST so high? I didn’t see another way to do it but it’s an odd use of points for a race whose role is really “highly social Lawful Good/neutral organizers and diplomats.”

This is a long and involved topic, and there are a fair number of suggested solutions, but none of them are really official or without their own problems.

Gurps ST tends to go down in effective value with TL. Or at least that's the side of the debate I fall on, and there is a debate.

1. Officially, ST is worth [10] all the way from animals at TL 0 to TL12^, and there are a fair number of people who stand by that claim.
2. Some people suggest that the value of ST drops with TL, but suggest different values for its value. Officially, Power-ups 9 has a table of ST adjusted by Tech Level, along with a discussion of when it is or isn't appropriate. Its a fairly recent book, so a lot of other schemes exist.
3. Some people say ST is worth 5/level at all TL's.
4. Some people say its not about TL, its about game style, and in some games you drop to some discounted value (5/level is not uncommon)
5. There is a pyramid article for logarithmic ST called "Know your own Strength", but its a touch fiddly and is really designed to make concepts that call for really high ST viable, not to make ST20 aliens cheaper.
6. In the past I've also advocated for treating high ST by giving the alien legal enforcement powers for wearing "power armor" that happens to be their body.
7. I've also had settings were I gave a massive discount on aspects of a racial template that technology renders "less relevant"

I've used 3,4, 6, and 7. None of them is perfect. 7 requires a fairly strong GM hand-waving, 6 requires a little handwaving and some care (found out in my last campaign it works great for battle-suit level stuff, but not for mecha-level, unless you insist they have a mecha-level frame instead of being superman), and of course 3 and 4 may be too little for the effect you want.


When leaning into "peaceful herbivore", there are a pair of tricks you can use to make their ST less expensive and act like you want it to.

• Buy lifting ST and HP rather than ST. This makes them big and strong without being able to hit things like a gorilla.
• If they have small and relatively delicate manipulators, buy their ST with temporary disadvantage "No Fine Manipulators" for -30%. This means they can only fire normal sized guns like everyone else instead of firing a machine-gun from their face. They can still CARRY the machine gun and all its ammo, but it reduces the cost.

As a final note, most large herbivores are not "peaceful". They tend to be aggressively territorial and are quite good at winning fights. People talk about the lion being king of the savannah, but under most circumstances the elephant beats the lions. As do the Hippos, the Rhinos, and even Cape Buffalo. All four of those species are considered "bad tempered", which is to say they attack humans rather than running away from them. Giraffes have a little better reputation, but its still wise to give them a wide berth. Big herbivores are mean.