07-27-2018, 06:24 AM | #11 |
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Oz
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Re: Pak Protecters in GURPS
Should there be a bunch of taboo traits such as "Lecherous", reflecting protectors' fundamental change of motivations?
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07-27-2018, 06:40 AM | #12 | |
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Canada
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Re: Pak Protecters in GURPS
Quote:
(Human) Protectors might all get their IQ fixed at 20. I actually like this interpretation as it means that particularly smart breeders can approach the genius of protectors, even those protectors based on exceptional breeders. But if you prefer individual protectors to have variations in IQ, rather than interpreting it as they all get upgraded to homonid maximum, I don't see anything in the rules to forbid it.
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07-27-2018, 07:06 AM | #13 |
Hero of Democracy
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: far from the ocean
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Re: Pak Protecters in GURPS
I think pak are one of those cases where IQ 20 actually makes sense. They're very very good at manipulating humans, genius inventors, can pick up and understand complex tasks without study... All of the insane things that we complain about in IQ 20 actually makes sense for them.
Yes, protectors are very very ridiculous and broken. Single individuals are capable of changing the fates of worlds.
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07-28-2018, 01:13 AM | #14 | ||||
Join Date: Nov 2004
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Re: Pak Protecters in GURPS
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ETA: And the IQ boost needs to take a subject from 'clever chimp' to 'supergenius' Quote:
Sexless should cover that pretty well. Last edited by Dalillama; 07-28-2018 at 02:38 AM. |
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08-06-2018, 12:38 AM | #15 | |
Join Date: Feb 2007
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Re: Pak Protecters in GURPS
Quote:
Of course, that's not as impressive as the magic drive the original Pak used to come to the Solar System in the first place...
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08-06-2018, 05:03 AM | #16 | |
Computer Scientist
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Dallas, Texas
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Re: Pak Protecters in GURPS
Quote:
I have to take issue with Rupert, the enlarged finger joints can improve dexterity as well as strength if the muscle attachment is reversed so that it is like the larger fine adjustment knob on an instrument. There can still be a tradeoff for speed, but we have to think of the setting's fiat that people become more graceful and visibly less clumsy after a century or two under boosterspice; Pak presumably are the end result of the process where they always move right the first time with the best possible precision. |
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08-06-2018, 05:05 AM | #17 | |
Computer Scientist
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Dallas, Texas
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Re: Pak Protecters in GURPS
Quote:
EDIT TO ADD: That is in Re Agamegos, a sexless protector might still be interested in pursuing suitable mates for its breeder troop. Last edited by jeff_wilson; 08-06-2018 at 08:54 AM. |
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08-06-2018, 10:36 AM | #18 | |
Join Date: Aug 2007
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Re: Pak Protecters in GURPS
Quote:
Anyway, my memory of the story is that the Kzinti were using a "gravity polarizer" (which they may have stolen from the Kdatlyno). There ship was able to maneuver to rendevous in deep space with the Human STL ship.
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08-06-2018, 12:35 PM | #19 |
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Canada
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Re: Pak Protecters in GURPS
Kzinti STL flight was the gravity polarizer, which they were given by the 5-armed herbivores the Jotok. The Jotok made the deep tactical error of hiring stone age Kzinti to be their mercenary warriors in exchange for technological uplift. They promptly exterminated the mainstream Kzinti culture, which had at least achieved powered flight.
The Kzinti warriors turned on their employers when they discovered they were leaf eaters. Jotok imprint like ducklings, and the Kzinti domesticated them as engineers and food animals. There's a reason why Kzinti technology doesn't advance quickly - they're not very creative, and they tend to eat other races. Anyways, this is why the Kzinti didn't recognize the Torch drive - they literally went from spears to the gravity polarizer, and then stagnated there. As much as the Kzinti are poster children for hidebound and impulsive, they aren't totally stupid. Possibly a little stupid though.
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08-06-2018, 12:46 PM | #20 | ||
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Saskatoon, SK, Canada
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Re: Pak Protecters in GURPS
Quote:
To judge Pthssspok's overall IQ, you also have to look at where, and how, he failed. And Pthssspok makes a couple notable errors in IQ-based skills that suggest, to me, that their IQ can't be absurdly high. First, of course, is the fact that they clearly rolled more poorly than Brennan did on Psychology, to work out the probable human reaction to Tree of Life, allowing Brennan to get the drop on Pthssspok. In fact, Brennan speculated that Pthssspok still thought Brennan was just behaving like a "normal" Protector, killing a competitor to ensure his own bloodline's monopoly on the transformation. Second, though, and much more hugely, is Pthssspok's flub of a roll in the first place, putting Brennan into his cargo hold with inadequately secured Tree of Life. Pthssspok looked at Brennan and, knowing what an untransformed breeder looked like, decided that Brennan wasn't related, to the point where they were surprised that Brennan had eaten the root and undergone the change. That, to me, is a major failure, if not a critical failure, on Biology, or Physiology, or something. I doubt very much that anyone trained in even TL 8 levels of those skills, when presented with an example of Homo sapiens next to one of Homo habilis, wouldn't instantly conclude they were closely related. Pthssspok doesn't even have the excuse of living in a universe where "parallel evolution" turns up humanoids on every world, because Niven was always pretty careful about having aliens be alien in Known Space, with very clearly different body plans. So, my feeling is that Pthssspok must have been rolling their Biology or Physiology at default there, and must have had an effective skill level lower than 10, and probably notably lower, for that kind of failure to be probable. In any case, I'm not arguing that Protectors in general don't have higher IQ than baseline humans. They clearly do. However, I'm arguing that you don't really need to give them IQs at the stratospheric levels that the +10 the template has suggests. Much of their intelligence is better portrayed by giving them other "smart" traits, such as the list I suggested, and assuming that they frequently have a lot of points sunk into skills as well. That's enormously greater than human intelligence. Quote:
Last edited by Kelly Pedersen; 08-06-2018 at 01:16 PM. |
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