Hmm... Aliens?

[smurf]

Has any one found out that making an Alien race to look and behave a bit alien pts tend to rocket?

I created one that is a base of 175pts, add some psi to it and it will rocket to about 300+ pts

My mate did a 'space ogre', it is fairly alien in behaviour and ability but it came in at about 500pts.

Of course there are smaller pointed aliens but do they tend to be 'guys in suits'.

Any one had a go at some aliens?

[jeff_wilson]

Make aliens more alien with disads and squirrely modifications, like limited use and attribute penalties and follow up and other borderline playable builds, cause playability is judged by the expectation of human players and you want to jack with human expectations. Like have ESP but make it based on 360 deg hyperspectral vision cause they are sensing movement via indirect reflections and polarization phase.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by smurf

Has any one found out that making an Alien race to look and behave a bit alien pts tend to rocket?

Nope. I can't think of any reason why "alien" has to equate to "super powerful".

[ericthered]

I had an interesting experience when making "star fish" aliens. extra arms cost a lot of points. (these things had 5 arms, 5 legs, 360 degree vision).

However, I put them on a different time scale than humans (they're enchiderms, ok?) and found that you can get a lot of points with decreased time rate. There are other things you can do: mental disads, unusual biochemistry, ect.

However, I do find that its hard to make any race that turns up in a story with a negitive point value. elves: very expensive (though they should be). Orcs: depends on how you do it. What I thought was funny was when the 3e aliens went to 4e most of the aliens just under 0 went over.

[SCAR]

Originally Posted by ericthered

I had an interesting experience when making "star fish" aliens. extra arms cost a lot of points. (these things had 5 arms, 5 legs, 360 degree vision).

However, I put them on a different time scale than humans (they're enchiderms, ok?) and found that you can get a lot of points with decreased time rate. There are other things you can do: mental disads, unusual biochemistry, ect.

However, I do find that its hard to make any race that turns up in a story with a negitive point value. elves: very expensive (though they should be). Orcs: depends on how you do it. What I thought was funny was when the 3e aliens went to 4e most of the aliens just under 0 went over.

Extra Arms are [10] each so that's [30], 5 Legs is a flat [10] and 360° Vision is [25];which is [65] Total (which isn't that bad).
If the Extra Arms can't attack, just manipulators, thats -50%, which brings the total to [50].
You can squeeze the arms limitations down to -80% quite easily, and if the Legs can't Kick (also -50%) you're down to [11] total, for the Arms and Legs.

[Peter Knutsen]

Originally Posted by SCAR

Extra Arms are [10] each so that's [30], 5 Legs is a flat [10] and 360° Vision is [25];which is [65] Total (which isn't that bad).
If the Extra Arms can't attack, just manipulators, thats -50%, which brings the total to [50].
You can squeeze the arms limitations down to -80% quite easily, and if the Legs can't Kick (also -50%) you're down to [11] total, for the Arms and Legs.

It can still be argued that beyond a fairly low number of Extra Arms, there should be a cost reduction. But it won't make a large difference, so we're still presumably all puzzled by exactly what is on the species templates that smurf wrote up, that made them so expensive.

[SCAR]

Originally Posted by Peter Knutsen

It can still be argued that beyond a fairly low number of Extra Arms, there should be a cost reduction. But it won't make a large difference, so we're still presumably all puzzled by exactly what is on the species templates that smurf wrote up, that made them so expensive.

Fully functional extra arms are probably worth the [10] points each, although as you said, without Extra Attacks it might be questionable - then again, if you're buying Extra Arms without extra Attacks, use the No Physical Attack Limitation for -50%, and they're only [5] each. (Note that that limitation does not prevent those extra arms from using firearms or range weapons, so not that limiting in a Space setting where firearms are probably the primary weapon of choice.)
Add Short or Weak and you can get to [2] per Arm, which doesn't seem unreasonable.
If it's a playable race, players will figure out how to use 27 such arms to their advantage in some way, so they should pay a few points!

As to your second point, the discussion doesn't seem like it really has anywhere to go without a specific high point cost example alien racial template to discuss.

[Earther]

Originally Posted by Peter Knutsen

It can still be argued that beyond a fairly low number of Extra Arms, there should be a cost reduction.

Arms are added weight/bulk. So no volume discount. Centipede-Man is a rather leggy dude. He should pay for his stuff.

[sir_pudding]

Granted it's a pulp fantasy/new weird game, and therefore I wasn't really as concerned with realistic xenobiology as a was with weirdness but the races in Desolation Road all generally came out at 0-100 points.

[Flyndaran]

Well yeah, if you give your aliens super powers, of course they'll be much more expensive than boring real humans.

For realistic aliens, a lot of the differences may be on the scale of species traits and culture rather than gurps points for the individual.

Look at important human species traits.
When comfortable, we reproduce very slowly.
When in groups we are prone to emotional rioting and lynchings even if as individuals most would never act violently.
We allow the most aggressive of us to lead and rule rather than the most logical.
We will turn anything into alcohol.
Etc.
It's these kinds of things that make a creature seem real and alien rather than just humans with six tentacles, fur, and speaking in modulated flatulence.