[Space] [Racial Templates] Really Alien Aliens

[SydneyFreedberg]

Here be... well, not dragons, but some really weird things for your game. These alien races are written with a specific background in mind (it emerges through the "description" text) but should fit in any space-operatic background and even some relatively realistic ones. I've avoided magic and psychic powers for that reason. I'd love suggestions on how to improve these designs!

I've played around making aliens in GURPS since the original Aliens book came out, and one thing I've always tried to do -- and which GURPS 4e is especially good for -- is have them make biological and evolutionary sense in a genuinely alien way. Have I succeeded? How can I do better? I'd love feedback on that too.

I'll be posting more as I go, but first up are the first species to achieve Faster-Than-Light travel (in my setting; in another setting, they might have simply carved out a local empire and first-contacted a bunch of pre-FTL races): the Trinocs.

Details are in spoiler tags to prevent Wall Of Text.

Trinocs
Skittish but brilliant, they once conquered the galaxy in a fit of panic.

Description:

Spoiler:  

A prey species on their home planet, the Trinocs invented the first faster-than-light drive in galactic history — and then, terrified to discover a galaxy full of meat-eaters, tried to preemptively conquer as much of it as possible. The Trinoc Empire maintained a near-monopoly on FTL for centuries but eventually crumbled as its subject races reverse-engineered the secret. Today, Trinocs are widely scattered in small communities across the galaxy, sometimes revered and sometimes resented for their imperial past.
Trinocs are spindly centauroid creatures, about five feet tall and five feet long, with four thin legs, two arms, and a triangular head with an eye on each side, giving them 360-degree vision to watch for predators. They evolved as grazing herbivores similar to Earth gazelles or deer, living in small herds of closely related individuals and hunted by much more powerful animals they could escape only through headlong flight.
Once caught, a Trinoc had no chance of personal survival — but, if it delayed the predators, it could buy the rest of its herd-family time to escape. As a result, they evolved a kind of species-wide split personality: normally nervous and quick to flee, they became suicidal berserkers once injured.
Further, as Trinocs evolved intelligence — largely under pressure from clever predators — they evolved a third psychological mode, one of hyperfocused attention to a particular problem.
One of the first “technologies” Trinocs developed was the brewing of plant-based potions to control their sudden shifts from coward to berserker to savant. Trinoc rulers learned how to enforce an artificial calm upon themselves while keeping most of their populations passive and drugging others into kamikaze shock troops. As their technology improved, the Trinocs exterminated most of their predators — with disastrous ecological consequences — and developed a global government called the Narcotic Council. The Council ruled by systematically drugging the population, first through the water supply and later through towering pheromone factories that pumped the requisite chemicals into the atmosphere.
But with typical Trinoc paranoia, the Narcotic Council feared their planet would be destroyed by a solar flare or rogue asteroid, so they invested massively in space flight — leading to the invention of FTL. Elements of the Trinoc space fleet used the new technology to escape the Council’s control, fleeing to new planets with undrugged air and water, and ultimately returned to liberate their home world.
But the new Trinoc government, the Admiralty, also discovered alien worlds where predatory animals had evolved intelligence and civilization— a terrifying prospect. The initial response was to commit genocide from orbit. As the Admiralty encountered more carnivore and omnivore civilizations, however, it decided that mass extermination was wasteful and that it should try to subjugate alien species instead. Since Trinocs feared to land ground forces on hostile planets, they preferred to rule from orbit, letting client races run their own worlds — and even colonize new ones — as long as all space travel and interplanetary trade remained under Trinoc control.
In the long run, of course, it was impossible to keep faster-than-light technology a secret forever. Some species were too clever and persistent, and some local Trinoc governors were too lenient or corrupt. What’s more, the Empire became increasingly reliant on its thrall species as ground soldiers, technicians, and even bureaucrats, making the leakage of technology all the greater.
Eventually, enough subject races built FTL spaceships and rebelled that the Trinoc Empire collapsed. Some former vassals massacred their overthrown overlords, while others enslaved them for their scientific talents. The Trinocs who survived formed insular communities that kept their heads down and made themselves useful to more powerful neighbors.
Today, the Trinocs are dispersed widely across the galaxy they once ruled. Most live in small enclaves on other races’ worlds, acting as insular castes of scientists and technicians, sometimes respected but all too often as second-class citizens. Others spend their entire lives aboard starships, living as merchant clans. A few have fled to distant worlds to live on their own, far from predators. And there are always rumors of Trinoc factions plotting to somehow resurrect their long-lost empire, although this is often just a pretext for other races to oppress them. Indeed, many Trinocs believe their own experience shows that imperialism is ultimately bad for everyone, even the overlords.
Living in fear of other species, many Trinoc communities have returned to the ancient techniques of the Narcotic Council, believing that survival requires drugging their populations into compliance. But most Trinocs despise this kind of pharmaceutical tyranny and jealously guard their mental self-determination. The motto of this majority : “Neither masters nor slaves, but finally free.”

[EDIT: I've extensively revised the racial template to reflect some very helpful feedback from this thread -- click here for the final version of the Trinocs.]

Racial Template: Trinoc (18 points)

Spoiler:  

Attribute Modifiers:
ST -2 [-20]
ST+3 (only when berserk, -40%) [18]
IQ 12 [40]
HT -1 [-10]

Secondary Characteristic Modifiers:
Basic Move +2 [+10]
Hit Points -1 [-2]

Advantages:
360 vision [+25]
Acute Taste & Smell x3 [6]
Extra Legs: 4-legged [+5]
Single-Minded [+5]
Versatile [+5]

Disadvantages:
Berserk (9) [-15]
Chummy [-5]
Cowardice (9) [-15]
Fearfulness 4 [-8]
Intolerance: meat-eaters [-5]
No depth perception [-15]
Reputation: former galactic overlords (-2 with almost everyone; +3 with species that did well under the Trinoc Empire, a large group) [0]
Quirk: Personality Change (coward to berserker to single-minded savant) [-1]


Common but optional traits:
These traits are NOT part of the racial template but are included as suggestions for individual characters
Gadgeteer [+25 or +50 points]
Talent: Artificer [+10/level] or Mathematical [+10/level]
Phobia: meat-eaters [-15]
Reprogrammable (for ordinary Trinocs living under a Narcotic Council) [-10] or Code of Honor: oppose all forms of brainwashing & mind control (for Trinocs living free of a Narcotic Council) [-5]
Social stigma: Second-class citizen [-5] or Minority [-10] or Valuable Property (-10) or Subjugated (-20)
“The Trinoc Empire should be restored” or “No species should ever have dominion over another”: either can be anything from a Quirk [-1] to Fanaticism [-15]

[SydneyFreedberg]

And to continue, here are the races that dominate my setting in the "present," the Quartet -- four species with one intertwined history & society, and five different templates because one species has marked sexual dimorphism (and it takes two posts because the description is long):

The Quartet
Four closely allied species that live & work together: exuberant Triphibians, meditative Sessiles, stealthy Armstrongs, and above all the towering Striders.

Description

Spoiler:  

The four species known as the Quartet collectively dominate the galactic economy. A loose alliance rather than an empire, the Quartet protects and promotes peaceful trade. A web of interstellar treaties governs everything from the protection of intellectual property to the suppression of piracy, from contract law to first contact protocols. Many other species have signed on to these accords over the centuries, creating what is often called the Galactic Common Market. But the core of the system remains the Quartet races, which are widely respected, albeit often resented for their influence:
the Triphibians, small manta ray-like creatures that can swim, fly, and climb trees;
the Sessiles, huge soft-bodied sea-dwellers resembling an upside-down jellyfish;
the Armstrongs, lion-sized stealth predators with fluffy grey bodies; and
the Striders, tall armless bipeds with beaks and prehensile tongues.

Striders
A highly sociable species with a strong instinct for cooperation, the Striders founded the Quartet and remain its institutional backbone to this day. They are herd animals, evolved from tree-browsing herbivores with an ecological niche similar to Earth elephants. An adult female Strider stands nine feet tall — most of it leg — and weighs over a thousand pounds, with thick, hairless skin in various shades of pale red and orange; males are noticeably smaller and brighter. The head and torso form a single unit, with two eyes and a sharp beak at the front. The two pillar-like legs attach to the head/torso at a neck/hip joint directly behind the jaw. Striders have no arms, but they evolved long, prehensile tongues to grab leafy branches and pull them into their beaked mouths.
Striders never wear clothes for modesty and rarely need them for environmental protection — their hides are highly protective — but body art is common, especially tattoos but also piercings and body paint in some subcultures. Females generally wear tattoos signifying their herd and status, while males’ tattoos signify the herds and other groups they have frequent dealings with.
Females form 95 percent of the population and typically spend their whole life in the same herd, forging tight social bonds that make Strider society highly stable. The smaller and scarcer males move frequently from herd to herd, acting as ambassadors to ensure genetic and cultural mixing. Males are natural diplomats and rarely fight except when cornered; females are more combative but only resort to lethal force against creatures they see as dangerous to the herd — which they then stamp out with a grim thoroughness that can degenerate into genocide.
Both genders have evolved to be highly social and collaborative, in part because they have only one manipulative limb, so tasks that a two-armed creature can do easily alone require two Striders working closely together. The Striders’ greatest strength is that this instinct for cooperation extends beyond their own species. Males can make themselves welcome in a wide variety of cultures, while females often adopt intelligent aliens as part of their herd. The most commonly incorporated races are the other three members of the Quartet, but other species are not uncommon.
The Striders had invented steam engines and were vigorously industrializing when they first encountered alien life. Warships appeared in the sky, dropped shuttles full of troops, and told the baffled Striders they were now thralls of the Trinoc Empire. But the Empire was already in decay, having lost its monopoly on faster-than-light travel and grown dependent on thrall races. In particular, most of the ground force deployed to conquer the Striders were Armstrongs, a species conquered by the Trinocs just a few decades before.

Armstrongs
The Armstrongs are ambush predators who operate in packs, relying not on speed — they actually run slower than humans — but on stealth tactics, clever traps, and the extensible arms that give them their name. The average Armstrong is an inconspicuous grey-furred lump about a yard in diameter, rather like a living puffball, with eight eyes and a mouth on the front. They have four short legs and two arms: one human-sized, the other a massively muscled, multi-jointed affair capable of suddenly extending to snatch prey ten feet away.
Armstrongs are shy with strangers, even strangers from their own species, but they are brave, cunning fighters and fiercely loyal to their hunting pack. Like canines on Earth, they proved capable of extending this pack loyalty beyond their own species — first to the conquering Trinocs, who used them as slave soldiers, and then to the Striders, who treated them much better. The Striders, for their part, were initially leery of these alien carnivores but, once convinced the Armstrongs had no appetite for Strider flesh, soon adopted them into their herds.
The Armstrongs quietly helped the Striders steal Trinoc technology. The Striders helped the Armstrongs organize an underground liberation movement. 80 years after the conquest of the Striders, the Trinoc Empire erupted in one of its final civil wars, and the two races took the opportunity to ride together in revolt. They swiftly liberated the Strider homeworld and drove the Trinoc remnants from the surrounding stars, then launched a decade-long campaign to free the Armstrongs. Soon after, they explored beyond imperial space and discovered the planet shared by the Sessiles and Triphibians.

Sessiles
The Sessiles are a race of aquatic invertebrates that drift with the current as juveniles but attach to the sea-floor as adults. Adults are radially symmetrical. The main body is a soft disc about three yards in diameter with eight eyes, eight manipulative tentacles, and eight mouths evenly spaced around the rim. Tiny “roots” extend from the underside to ingest minerals from the sea-floor. Extending upwards from the body are dozens of bouyant tendrils, which sift the water to feed on plankton. (Their appearance has been likened to an upside-down jellyfish).
It is unusual for an underwater species to develop a technological civilization, and rarer still for a sessile species to evolve intelligence in the first place. But the Sessiles’ ancestors formed symbiotic relationships with a wide array of smaller, more mobile creatures, excreting a nutritious “milk” in return for protection from predators and parasites. Effectively, they began taming and selectively breeding other animals before they developed speech. These interactions stimulated the evolution of intelligence — not only in the Sessiles but in one of their symbiotes, the Triphibians.

Triphibians
The smartest creatures that swam around the ancestral Sessiles were the Triphibians. This race roughly resembles Earth manta rays, with a wingspan of 4-5’ feet, a long thin tail, and a cluster of protruding mandibles that act as manipulators. Triphibians are actually air-breathers, nesting on land, but they are capable of flying well out to sea and diving deep underwater in pursuit of prey, somewhat like an Earth pelican. A naturally sociable and curious species, they prefer to live in large colonies but are willing to explore great distances on their own in pursuit of new resources, living space, and trade partners.
Over time, the Triphibians came to rely on the Sessiles’ milk as a major source of nutrients not otherwise abundant in their diets and learned to protect this food source from threats, guarding juvenile Sessiles as they drifted, guiding them to choice settlement sites, and even transplanting mature rooted adults to better locations. In turn, the Sessiles rewarded the most helpful Triphibians with extra milk and grooming. The two species were both intelligent enough to, in effect, domesticate each other, stimulating each other to develop ever-greater intelligence and the ability to communicate.
The two species co-evolved into a Stone Age civilization, with the mobile Triphibians bringing stones, bones, and coral to the more dexterous Sessiles, who made them into tools for both races to use. Triphibian communities adopted Sessiles and treated them with religious reverence as a source of technology, nutrition, and wisdom, while the the Sessiles relied on the adventurous Triphibians to explore the wider world for them and bring word back.
It was at this stage in their development that the two races were discovered by the newborn Strider-Armstrong alliance. Already enthusiastic about inter-species cooperation, the Striders and Armstrongs saw the unique potential of this symbiotic relationship, made contact with the Sessile-Triphibian society, and began teaching them advanced technology.
[continued in next post]

[SydneyFreedberg]

The Quartet Today

Spoiler:  

[continued from previous post]
The four species soon gravitated towards specialities in their combined civilization. Triphibians, with their exploratory urges and innate sense of three-dimensional space, proved excellent space pilots and explorers. Sessiles, with their patience and fine motor skills, tended to become technicians and engineers. Armstrongs, with their natural combat skills, provided ground soldiers, frontier scouts, and first-in colonists. Female Striders policed, administered, and led their new multi-species herds, while male Striders acted as natural ambassadors binding the whole civilization together. These tendencies are far from absolute: There are Armstrong mechanics, Strider soldiers, Sessile bureaucrats, and Triphibian politicians, for example. And all four species contributed, in different ways, to science, commerce, and the arts.
Together, the Quartet races carved out a territory amidst the chaos of the Trinoc Empire’s final collapse. They had the good fortune to be located on the frontier of Trinoc space, far from the fierce fighting over the former imperial core and with plenty of room for peaceful expansion. The Quartet launched no wars of aggression but proved savagely capable of self-defense, so rival civilizations largely learned to leave it alone — or better yet, trade with it instead of fighting. Over the centuries, as Quartet colonies and influence grew, interstellar trade agreements and defense pacts evolved into a galaxy-spanning common market.
Today, a typical Quartet herd consists of five to 100 individuals of all four species. However, a significant minority of herds comprise only two species — typically only Striders and Armstrongs or only Sessiles and Triphibians — and a few herds are single-species. Most herds are involved in some sort of “family business,” their members working together on anything from a farming colony to a starship crew to a military unit. A traditionalist herd is led by the eldest female Strider, the Herd Matriarch. Some herds select their leaders by majority vote, albeit with older individuals typically granted extra votes.
Multiple Herds — anywhere from a handful to hundreds — join together in Meta-Herds, which likewise use a variety of matriarchal, elective, and mixed systems of governance. Meta-Herds federate into even larger entities, and so on up to the galaxy-spanning alliance that is the Quartet itself. It is a loose and sometimes shambling system, often slow to respond to crisis and inconsistent in its daily policies, but its flexibility and diversity has made it the greatest power in the galaxy — for now.

Racial Templates

[EDIT: I've revised these templates in response to the great feedback in this thread -- click here for the final versions.]

Female Strider (133 points)

Spoiler:  

Attribute modifiers:
ST +10 [90]
DX -1 [-20]
IQ +2 [40]
HT +2 [20]

Secondary Attribute Modifiers:
Size Modifier: +1
Basic Move +3 [+15]
Will +1 [+5]

Advantages
Charisma +1 [+5]
DR 3 (tough skin, -40%) [+9]
Sharp Beak (can’t use when holding things in tongue, -50%; Armor Divisor 2, +50%) [+1]
Subsonic speech [+10]
Reputation: most powerful species in the galaxy (+3 with almost everyone, -4 with enemies of the Quartet, a large group) [0]

Disadvantages
Bloodlust [-10]
Chummy (-5)
One Arm: Prehensile tongue {flexible +50%, weak -25%) [-17]
Sense of Duty: herd [-5]
Pacifism: aggressive self-defense* [-5]

* You only fight to defend yourself and your people, but you have a broad definition of “self-defense.” You may preemptively attack any individual, group, or (in some cases) even species that has used deadly force against you and your people in the past, and you may use maximum force to end this perceived threat.


Common optional traits:
These traits are NOT part of the racial template but are included as suggestions for individual characters
Ally Group & Duty: Herd [variable]
Fanaticism: Herd [-15]
High Pain Threshold [+10]
Honesty [-10]
Selfless [-5]
Truthfulness [-5]

Male Strider (137 points)

Spoiler:  

Attribute Modifiers
ST +6 [54]
IQ +2 [40]
HT +1 [10]

Secondary Attribute Modifiers:
Size Modifier: +1
Basic Move +3 [+15]
Will +1 [+5]

Advantages:
Charisma +3 [+15]
DR 3 (tough skin, -40%) [+9]
Sharp Beak (can’t use when holding things in tongue, -50%; Armor Divisor 2, +50%) [+1]
Subsonic speech [+10]
Talent: Smooth Operator +1 [+15\
Reputation: most powerful species in the galaxy (+3 with almost everyone, -4 with enemies of the Quartet, a large group) [0]

Disadvantages:
Chummy [-5]
One Arm: Prehensile tongue (flexible +50%, weak -25%) [-17]
Pacifism: self-defense only [-15]


Common optional traits:
These traits are NOT part of the racial template but are included as suggestions for individual characters
Patron & Duty: friendly herd [variable]
Code of Honor: professional diplomat (-5)
Cultural adaptability: xeno-adaptability (+20)
Empathy [5 or 15]
Language Talent [10]
Social chameleon [+5]
Curious [-5]
Xenophilia [-10]

Armstrong (62 points)

Spoiler:  

Attribute Modifiers: none

Secondary Attribute Modifiers:
Basic Speed +0.75 [15]
Basic Move -2 [-10]

Advantages:
Perception +2 [10]
Combat Reflexes [15]
Extra Legs: four-legged [+5]
Fearless +2 [+4]
Injury Tolerance: No neck [+5]
Sharp Claws [+5]
Silence +1 [+5]
Fur [+1]
Extensible ambush arm: Arm Strength +3 (one arm) [+8]; Long x3 [+30]
Reputation: Quartet members (+2, almost everyone; -3 with Quartet enemies, a large group) [0]

Disadvantages:
Cannot kick (all four legs) [-7]
Sense of Duty: pack [-5]
Sleepy (1/2 the time): [-8]
Shyness (mild) [-5]
Truthfulness [-5]
Quirk: Catnap anywhere, anytime (-1)


Common optional traits:
These traits are NOT part of the racial template but are included as suggestions for individual characters
Ally Group & Duty: Herd [variable]
Acute Senses [+2/level/sense] or Perception [5/level]
Danger Sense (+15)
Additional Fearlessness [+2/level]
Additional Arm Strength [+4/level]
Stubborn [-5]

Sessile (26 points)

Spoiler:  

Attribute Modifiers:
ST -3 [-30]
IQ +2 [40]

Secondary Attribute Modifiers:
Size Modifier +1 [+0]
Hit Points +5 [+10]

Advantages:
360 vision [+25]
Does Not Breathe: gills only [0]
Extra Arms x6 (flexible +50%, short -50%, only 3 can grapple any given target, -25%) [45]
Extra Mouths x7 [+35]
Enhanced Tracking x1 [+5]
High Manual Dexterity +1 [+5]
Injury Tolerance: no head or neck [+12]
Pressure Support 1 [+5]
Single-minded [+5]
Reputation: Quartet members (+2, almost everyone; -3 with Quartet enemies, a large group) [0]

Disadvantages:
Bad Sight: nearsighted [-25]
Increased Consumption 1 : 6 meals a day [-10]
Increased Life Support: aquatic [-10]
Invertebrate [-20]
Sessile [-50]
Weak Bite x8 [-16]


Common optional traits:
These traits are NOT part of the racial template but are included as suggestions for individual characters
Ally Group & Duty: Herd [variable]
Compartmentalized Mind (+50/level)
Gadgeteer (+25 or +50 points)
Versatile (+5)
Combat Paralysis (-15)
Low Pain Threshold (-10)
Shyness (variable)

Triphibian (26 points)

Spoiler:  

Attribute Modifiers
Strength -4 [-40]

[b]Secondary Attribute Modifiers[/I]
Size modifier -1 (4.5’) [0]
Perception +2 [10]

Advantages:
Absolute Direction: 3D [10]
Amphibious [10]
Doesn’t Breathe (oxygen storage x25) [10]
Enhanced Move 1: water [20]
Nictating Membrane 1 [1]
Winged Flight [30]
Pressure Support 1 [5]
Speak underwater [5]

Disadvantages:
Chummy [-5]
Curious [-5]
Ham-Fisted [-5]
Impulsiveness [-10]
No Legs: undulates along ground on wings [0]
Short Arms [-10]


Common optional traits:
These traits are NOT part of the racial template but are included as suggestions for individual characters
Ally Group & Duty: Herd [variable]
Additional Perception (+5/level) or Acute Vision (+2/level/sense)
Daredevil (+15)
Versatile (+5)
Overconfidence (-5)
Short Attention Span (-10)

[ericthered]

comments on the races I find the most interesting first:

On Sessiles:

• +2 IQ is a pretty big deal, based on just how broad Gurps IQ is. It benefits social skills, academic skills, and crafting skills like fishing. It also effects will. I find racial templates are generally better if the broad bonus is traded in for a more specific one, and if they really call for additional IQ, +1 is usually enough.
• The extra arms of the sessiles could use some work. In Gurps we buy the effect, not the description. I find most tentacled Aliens shouldn't have an arm for each tentacle: the exception is if they really are that good at grappling. The sessiles are obviously not: you came up with a custom limitation to indicate they can't grapple with all of their arms at once. This would also indicate that they don't really have flexible. so They might just have extra arms 2 (short -50%) [10], arms (short -50%) [-10].
• Which brings up a build issue: you need to modify the existing arms as well as the extra ones.
• The seven extra mouths is an interesting case: the creature has them, and while they don't breathe, they do all bit and speak... though it seems they bite poorly. I feel like this should have a solution, but I'm not sure what it is. I certainly wouldn't want to pay 21 points for the ability to speak in 8 different voices if I somehow acquire that many copies of compartmentalized mind.
• Invertebrate is a weird combination with Sessile. Sessile kind of makes invertebrate irrelevant.

On Triphibians:

• Is absolute direction a necessary part of the build? I can see it as a fun little add on, but the sort of thing that fades when you live in a civilization. Changing it to something that is common but not required would be nice.
• Shouldn't Triphibians have one arm, if they're just picking things up in their mouths?
• They're very mobile. You've refference waterfowl, but they can run faster, swim faster, dive deeper, and fly just as well. You could remove pressure support and enhanced move (water), and buy down their ground move by 1 (I usually do that or more for creatures that crawl) and you'd still have a very capable mover.
• Giving the whole race curious and impulsive is very strong and potentially crippling. I'm drop that to quirks, and stick the full version in "common traits". Same for Chummy.

[Pursuivant]

Originally Posted by ericthered

[*]The seven extra mouths is an interesting case: the creature has them, and while they don't breathe, they do all bit and speak... though it seems they bite poorly. I feel like this should have a solution, but I'm not sure what it is.

I created a Limited Extra Mouth Perk with several different variants. It might be useful in this case:

Limited Extra Mouth †‡ (Physical, Exotic)

	
You have one or more orifices or other body parts which can perform one function that a fully functional mouth can, even if the main mouth is blocked or damaged. You may take multiple levels of this perk to represent multiple orifices. You must specify the location of the extra body part(s) when you take this perk. Options include:

Biter: You have a tooth-lined mouth-like organ which you can use to make a Bite attacks, just as if it was your regular mouth. You can’t swallow things you bite off, however, meaning that your biter can be blocked if you can’t spit them out. Unless your biting part is located in a head or limb, or you take this perk with the Born Biter feature, you have an extra -2 penalty to hit.

Extra Digestive Intake: You can consume soft food and liquids through this orifice, but can’t bite or taste using it. It can suffer the effects of Retching and can ingest Digestive poisons and similar damaging items, just like your regular mouth.

Extra Respiratory Intake: You can breathe through this orifice. It can be attacked with Choke or Strangle attacks just like a normal mouth or throat, however and can suffer from Coughing and Sneezing, as well as respiratory poisons and hazards.

Extra Tasting Organ: You have a tongue-like organ you can use to taste with. It can be affected normally by materials which blind or overwhelm your sense of taste. Since it is separate from your digestive intake(s) however, you can’t be poisoned by digestive toxins you taste.

Extra Vocal Processor: You can speak using this orifice just as if it were a normal mouth and throat. It can be affected by attacks and hazards which limit your ability to speak, but isn’t affected by hazards which just affect the respiratory system. This is similar to Accessory (Speaker or Voder).

Multi-Function Orifices: If you can combine multiple functions into a single orifice by buying multiple versions of this perk. For example, an orifice which you can only use to bite, taste, and ingest food and drink with would be worth 3 points. In effect, each “missing” function is a -20% limitation on the cost of Extra Mouth.

Cost for these perks depends on effect, rather than actual number. For example, if you have 8 vocal processors, but you must use them in sets of four to properly speak, you just have one level of the Extra Vocal Processor Perk.

Alternately, apply each missing mouth function as a -20% limitation to Extra Mouth.

Apply Weak Bite as an overall disadvantage, regardless of how many mouths are affected. If it applies to only half of your mouths or less, buy it with a -50% limitation.

[SydneyFreedberg]

Very helpful comments — thanks to you both. Sessiles definitely gave me the most trouble , and I’ll rewrite them with a less literal application of “extra mouths,” “extra arms,” and “invertebrate.” I’ll ponder Triphibians too; though I quite like them all having Absolute direction, I can see the mental disadvantages might be overdone.

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.”

[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.

[Pursuivant]

Are the Sessiles truly rooted in place or otherwise mobile only with major surgery or engineering?

If they can be moved relatively easily, just not under their own power, Sessile might turn into No Legs (Portable) worth -30 points. (This disad is from GURPS 3E Transhuman Space and possibly more recent supplements.)

If they can be moved with considerable effort, they might be "semi-portable." This can be treated as a -20% limitation to Sessile or its own version of No Legs.

Here's my House Rules version:

Semi-Portable (-40 points)

This is similar to Sessile, except that you can be moved with effort, and can move about using a large, heavy portable platform. You have Basic Move 0 in all environments and get no extra points for this; furthermore, you can’t have traits that imply movement-related body parts such as legs, wheels, tracks, fins, wings, or jets.

You aren’t anchored in place, however, you can be picked up and moved with considerable effort (at least 500 lbs. mass, or otherwise difficult enough to move that at least two people, or special equipment, are required to lift you). Your shape and size let you be ride on or in a vehicle, although you’ll count as encumbrance, unless you’re carried in Payload. You might even be able to pilot the vehicle yourself

If you have manipulators, you have no penalty on fine work, but you get -6 DX on tasks that require the stability provided by legs, unless you’re anchored to an object with at least 10 times your mass. This includes combat, with the sole exception of firing vehicle-mounted weapons.

If they're filter feeders that must constantly pump water through their bodies like a sponge in order to feed, they might have the Slow Eater disadvantage and possibly Susceptible (Ingested Poisons).

Their "milk" production might count as a Perk if it provides enough nourishment to count as a meal for a Triphibian. (Essentially, Accessory (Rations) with one level based on the number of meals they can produce, perhaps 1, 3, 9, etc.).

Edit: It's cheaper to buy the Create advantage (from GURPS Powers) if you're going to produce food in bulk.

They might require Increased Life Support (Pressurized) if they can only survive in deeper waters.

As the founders of the Quartet, and primary administrators, they might have optional disadvantages like Code of Honor (Professional Ethics or similar), Intolerance (Non-Quartet Species), Overconfident, Sense of Duty (Quartet, Herd, etc.)

Finally, how do they communicate? If they're sessile and aquatic, they might have the Penetrating Voice quirk, some version of Telecommunication, or Vibration Sense. Alternately, chemical signaling might be a form of Detect or its own advantage.

[SydneyFreedberg]

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:

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?

[SydneyFreedberg]

PS: I just realized — if the Sessiles are filter feeders, and they feed through their tendrils (the upside down jellyfish part), why did I give them mouths? Oops! Well, that simplifies part of the template….