Some really great suggestions here for Striders and, even more so, Sessiles.
I envision the Sessiles as “speaking” fairly normally underwater, by making sounds. I love statting up their “milk” and filter-feeding, and the idea of making them “semi-portable” fits beautifully with how I imagine them interacting with other species: They don’t go jogging or anything, but they get carted around in big water tanks to be “installed” in office buildings and spaceships for various jobs. Seeing as they’re SM 2 (blob-shaped, so roughly 6’ by 6’ by 6’?), that’s a major undertaking.
As for Striders:
Quote:
Originally Posted by ericthered
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. |
Good thoughts. Striders ecology and psychology are modeled on real-world elephants , so while they’re less ornery than “peaceful” herbivores like the Cape Buffalo or hippopotamus (who will kill you for getting too close), if Striders decide you’re a threat to the herd, especially their young, they WILL stomp you flat.
And the current build — ST20 for the average female — does let them do that. Plus it gives them enough hit points a single hit from a blaster pistol won’t drop them. So ST20 means they are less likely to get mugged in bad neighborhoods outside the spaceport, a non-negligible advantage for a spacefaring race.
The current build also gives them human-normal “arm” strength (ST10 average female, ST8 average male) because their prehensile tongue has the “weak” limitation. So no wielding .50 cals or zweihanders.
Now, EricTheRed’s idea of buying up ST with a “no fine manipulators” limitation would save a lot more points than putting “weak” on a single limb. But since they do have ONE fine manipulator, I’m not sure it’s legal…unless I’m misunderstanding how that works as a
temporary disadvantage?