[Space/Thaumatology] Stargate: Fantasy - Worldbuilding thread

[Prince Charon]

Giantfolk Question I

Roughly how large should giant humanoid races (who are living sapients, as opposed to gods or spirits) be? I specify humanoid, since giants with different body-plans and preferred environments won't need magic to grow very large (dragons and such are another set of questions). The wiki has a helpful article on several types of giant in GURPS, and ones on ogres and trolls, who are on the low end of the 'giant races' scale, but still count. I didn't find an article for bigfoot/sasquatch/yeti, but there are versions of them who would count (the closest I could find was gigantopithecus, who don't quite qualify as sapient by that template, and probably weren't in reality, either).

Please give your response as the racial SM, meaning the average height at adulthood of members of that race who are not suffering from dwarfism or gigantism, e.g. 'SM +1' or 'SM +4' (choosing 'SM 0' just means that you want there to be no biological giant humanoids in the setting other than people with gigantism or the subjects of growth magic).

ALSO, if there are specific giant races that you want to see in this setting (as biological beings, rather than spirits), feel free to list them below your 'maximum SM' vote, with links if they aren't too commonly-known. This will inform a later vote, though I might add some that are not mentioned. If new templates are needed, I suggest Pizard's Apes in GURPS page, since that's what I'm likely to use (his site has a bunch of useful stuff for threads like this).

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Answer: One vote each for SM+1 and SM+4 humanoids, and two votes each for +2 and +3.

[ericthered]

SM+4. Elephant-sized is a nice upper limit.



Ogres and Trolls feel quite appropriate.

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Prince Charon

Giantfolk Question I

A lot of depictions of Goliath have straddling the upper end of SM +1 and lower end of SM +2 (6 cubits and a span is around 9'9", or 3.25 yards), although older texts put him clearly as just a human with gigantism (4 cubits and a span is around 6'9" or 2.25 yards). I think he's indicated to be of Nephilim descent, and those were indicated to be giants of some flavor. I'd put the more fantastic version of Goliath as needing to be possible, and considering he should be smaller than the Nephilim he is descended from, that's a bare minimum of SM+2. I'd say go with SM+3, creating a bit of a parallel with our SM-3 minimum; ~elephant-sized giants would be giants (of some flavor) with Gigantism.

For a suggested giant race, I'd go with the above Nephilim, purported to be the offspring of (fallen) angels and humans, with a native SM of +3. As the offspring of angels (maybe), they are typically Beautiful/Handsome. As they canonically do interbreed with humans, I'd say they are one of the races with limited shapeshifting - they have Shrinking 2 [10], allowing them to reduce their size down to SM+1.

[Kesendeja]

I'd say no more than +3 for humanoid creatures without very special circumstances, and even then the lower end of +3. Lifeforms with more support could probably go higher.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Prince Charon

Giantfolk Question I


Answer: .

The question depends on how big the regular Gates are. Having to bend your head to fit through a Gate strikes me as dangerous. :)

I did once as a GM have to rule o whether or not you could fit a Triceratops through a Gate but from multiple different angles of practicality I doubt anything humanoid over SM+1 would make for a reasonable PC.

So I say SM+1

[Prince Charon]

The poll will remain open for a while yet, but right now the vote is trending toward SM+3.

[TGLS]

The prop stargate in the show is 22 feet in diameter, so I'd be inclined to go with SM+2 (5 m/15 feet). SM+3 might be too close.

Originally Posted by ericthered

SM+4. Elephant-sized is a nice upper limit.

Hm. GURPS Animalia and Campaigns lists elephants at SM+3, and that's probably because of how boxy and long they are, not their height (4 m/12 ft for the savanna variety).

[adm]

I would go with SM +2 for humanoids, SM +4 for other body plans.

[Prince Charon]

Giantfolk Question II

The previous vote had half the vote be for +3 or +4, and half for +1 or +2; so perhaps there are some biological humanoid races in the +3 size-range, maybe tiny numbers at +4, but there's something unusual about them.

1. Only half-spirits and spirit-infused races are magical enough to be that big.

2. Only shapeshifters with an alternate form of a smaller size (or vice versa) naturally reach SM+3.

3. They exist, they're just very rare.

4. Something else (please specify).

Please remember to include the number(s) of your preferred option(s) when you vote.

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Answer: 3 gets two clear votes and one as secondary; the other options got one vote each.

[TGLS]

I choose option 3