GURPS Star Trekking - Help? Assistance?

[Infornific]

Originally Posted by Pursuivant

It's a good point. I thought about doing it that way given Klingons' high HT, but figured that Extended Lifespan was better for modeling a population with overall longevity.

High HT, Extended Lifespan, HTK, and the rest of the physical traits are my attempt to model Brak'lul, multiple organ redundancy.

If somebody can come up with a more accurate method of modeling a species which has two or more of just about every organ, I'd love to know about it!

If anything, my basic Klingon template is too stingy on the abilities, so that "redshirt" level Klingons die almost as fast as humans.

Individual Klingons could easily have increased ST, HT, HP, Per, and Will, Discriminatory Smell, and more levels of Acute Smell/Taste, HTK, HTS, and Resistant. Combat Reflexes is also so common that I almost included it as standard. A combat monster like Worf could easily start with a modified racial template cost of over 100 points.

I think you may be overdoing it on the racial template. Worf's abilities may have been attributed to him being Klingon but it's worth noting he's pretty exceptional by Klingon standards. He's not quite the Conan of Klingons but he never meets a Klingon who can clearly outfight him. Remember, the Klingons have something of a caste society. There's a warrior aristocracy that makes up most of the officers, a lower caste that makes up ordinary warriors and the bulk of the population below that. Klingons don't talk about those Klingons much for roughly the same reason the Illiad & the Odyssey don't talk much about peasant farmers. Klingons are also prone to bragging. Remember, General Martok had to spend 5 years working as a civilian laborer aboard a warship after being rejected as an officer candidate. Starfleet personnel seem to be able to fight Klingon warriors without being too outmatched - certainly not as much as a human hand to hand versus a Vulcan.

Your template has an ordinary Klingon getting +5 (HT, Fit, resistant) against poison and disease compared to a normal human. That seems a bit extreme. Even +1 is a pretty big bonus on a racial level. Likewise, I think you may be overthinking the brak'lul. The practical effect is that a Klingon is very hard to kill. Just Fit, HT+1 and Hard to Kill 1 gives a Klingon +2 on all HT resistance rolls and +3 on death checks, compared to humans. That plus a couple extra HPs seems sufficient.

So maybe +1 ST [10], +1 HT [10], +2 HP [4], Fit [5], DR (Tough Skin) 1 [3], Hard to Kill 1 [2], Sharp Teeth [1], Longevity [2], Bad Temper [-10], Odious Racial Habit [-5], Chauvinistic [-1], Proud [-1] Total Cost 20 after Disadvantages. Maybe Fearlessness & High Pain Threshold but again that could be part of warrior training.

Note: Longevity could be rationalized as a side effect of the brak'lul. I lean toward Klingons just being very long lived but rarely suffering natural deaths.


As for the smooth browed Klingons, I think they might loose some Disadvantages as well as Advantages. The TOS era Klingons are more unified as a society and seem to show better impulse control as individuals. If the virus victims were the majority of society, the original Klingons might have nominally been regarded as superior but informally regarded as too violent and undisciplined. Ironically, the virus may have made Klingons less effective as close combat fighters but more effective at waging war. Perhaps the cure was a Section 31 operation?

Also a while back I came up with an admittedly unserious martial arts system for Starfleet in the TOS/SNW/DSC era. For the curious.