GURPS Uplift

[Magehound]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

360 degree vision (Only to avoid being surprised from behind -40%)

Sorry, it didn't occur to me to mention some other body measurements. The player just went off on making these things (mind you, they make pretty good PCs) they're semi-upright, but fly (that was a headache rolling for, trust me) so they actually have no "behind" to watch, they can see down and behind themselves already. The spots had to do with their fallow ancestors who had a distinct tendency to attack from above.

After asking her, she said the spots are meant to be a visual equivalent of a fish's lateral line, they hook up directly to the spinal cord and so react by reflex based on the "darkness" of the shadow (the darker the shadow, the closer the attacking target and bright overhead light makes for the sharpest shadows) and at the speed of which two or more eyes are "tripped".

Any input the brain has is delayed anyway, because it would take them too long to look up and then decide where to move when they have something stooping down at them anyway. Hence, my slapping it as Danger Sense, as there was no cognition, just a reaction.

And actually, I only have the 2ed Uplift sourcebook available.

[Pragmatic]

Ah, Uplift. I hope someone takes the time, someday, to post a revision of the ur-species rules. (Hint hint hint... Someone who has more experience with GURPS than me, that is! :-)

It's nice to know that someone is actually playing Uplift. One of my favorite "daydreaming" campaign settings.

Have you seen the Alliance for Progress Encyclopedia and Grey Matters Campaign website?

http://www.geocities.com/allianceforprogress/

Very cool website. (I'll have to remember to "synch it up" again, so if it ever goes down permanently, I have it in my hard drive...)

[Anders]

Originally Posted by whswhs

Buy it as a Detect Light. It should have a very low point cost.

Bill Stoddard

By the books, it would be very expensive since light is quite common. Unless you're playing GURPS Bats.

[Magehound]

Originally Posted by Pragmatic

Ah, Uplift. I hope someone takes the time, someday, to post a revision of the ur-species rules. (Hint hint hint... Someone who has more experience with GURPS than me, that is! :-)

It's nice to know that someone is actually playing Uplift. One of my favorite "daydreaming" campaign settings.

Have you seen the Alliance for Progress Encyclopedia and Grey Matters Campaign website?

http://www.geocities.com/allianceforprogress/

Very cool website. (I'll have to remember to "synch it up" again, so if it ever goes down permanently, I have it in my hard drive...)

Ah yes, I considered doing that, it needs rules that cover creatures that are six-limbed and not radial in shape (I have a fun time coming up with uses for the middle limbs in 6-legged vertebrates). Incorporating some of the GURPS Space rules would be pretty helpful to, mainly in planet design, because even in the beginning of the species creation tables it says that "ideally" a lot more should be considered but no "See also:" references are given.

I keep A4P in my menu bar, it's one of my favorite websites, I haven't finished reading it all yet. I approached the owner last year or so about making a wiki out of it, just so there'd be more space for new entries, never got a reply though.

How do you play out of Uplift, Pragmatic? I mostly just use the ur-species generator and the tech specs.

[Pragmatic]

Originally Posted by Magehound

How do you play out of Uplift, Pragmatic? I mostly just use the ur-species generator and the tech specs.

I'm a "daydreamer"/collector. I've never played GURPS, but then, I've barely played ANY roleplaying game. When I moved, I had about 12 document boxes of RPGs, and that doesn't include all the PDFs I have on my hard drive.

For me, the ur-species system is great for generating aliens that have actually evolutionary reasons for their behavior. Aside from that, it's just fun to see the statistics for the species I read about in the GURPS series. (And have you read the two free Uplift short stories on Brin's website?)

It's great for "idea mining." I like to create ur-species, and combine that with GURPS Space's star system creation, and have different human colonies discover promising ur-species and show how they react to them.

[Pragmatic]

Originally Posted by Magehound

I keep A4P in my menu bar, it's one of my favorite websites, I haven't finished reading it all yet. I approached the owner last year or so about making a wiki out of it, just so there'd be more space for new entries, never got a reply though.

I don't think it's been updated for a few years. So I don't know if the author is still around or not. But if he hasn't responded back yet, I'll have to use some link-spider thingamajig to permanently save all the pages on my hard drive. I don't want to lose the site again!

[The Benj]

Originally Posted by Asta Kask

By the books, it would be very expensive since light is quite common. Unless you're playing GURPS Bats.

How did you know?!

[Magehound]

Originally Posted by Pragmatic

I'm a "daydreamer"/collector. I've never played GURPS, but then, I've barely played ANY roleplaying game. When I moved, I had about 12 document boxes of RPGs, and that doesn't include all the PDFs I have on my hard drive.

For me, the ur-species system is great for generating aliens that have actually evolutionary reasons for their behavior. Aside from that, it's just fun to see the statistics for the species I read about in the GURPS series. (And have you read the two free Uplift short stories on Brin's website?)

It's great for "idea mining." I like to create ur-species, and combine that with GURPS Space's star system creation, and have different human colonies discover promising ur-species and show how they react to them.

Heh, I'm almost as bad as you, outside of a bunch of GURPS books, I have tons of D&D source books (including the Dragon Magazine Archive on CD), and a few others from White Wolf. Despite that I live very far from anyone even remotely interested in table games. (And yes, I have, Brin's dolphins and Uplift themes had a heavy hand in how I regulate my dolphins in game-play, it makes for much more interesting writing, I'll tell you that, when the dolphins can just as easily drown sailors as save them.)

Ooh, cool. I like that, I use the ur-species system the same way. Lately, I've been applying it to an PbeM-RP wiki resource I have, based on a book series on an alien planet that never sufficiently fleshed out any of it's fauna to my taste (and when GURPS comes out with a PLANTS! sourcebook, I'm sure I'll find things to desire in the flora too). There were only about two or three "hard" rules about the animal life there, and basically none of it past that was ever described. I thought it a pity, because there was a lot of room for interaction with the local wildlife. The ur-species system is wonderful for filling up the niches, just yesterday I rolled out a mole-like, hive-minded, tropical jungle burrowing species. The fun part now, will be turning the numbers/results into "real" details.

[Magehound]

Originally Posted by Pragmatic

I don't think it's been updated for a few years. So I don't know if the author is still around or not. But if he hasn't responded back yet, I'll have to use some link-spider thingamajig to permanently save all the pages on my hard drive. I don't want to lose the site again!

I thought so... I'd say go for it, I haven't had any luck accessing the site's file "category tree". So even if I go through and try to track every link and copy it manually, chances are good I'll miss stuff. There's too much fine thought and writing (I loved the essay on Soro queens) on that site to let it get swallowed in a server accident.

[Pragmatic]

Originally Posted by Magehound

Heh, I'm almost as bad as you

Heh. Keep in mind, that's my REBUILT collection. I originally had something close to 30 boxes of stuff. To break my collection addiction, I had to hire someone to sell all that stuff privately and on eBay (and the blankety-blank walked off with about a third of it, grumble grumble...)

Back before WOTC stopped doing PDF scanning (and LONG before the Hasbro suits made them do "cease-and-desist" orders on all the sites selling their PDFs...), I rebuilt my D&D collection (Basic, AD&D 1E, AD&D 2E, and some other out-of-print TSR/WOTC items) with PDFs. And I bought some of the d20 stuff I liked. And picked up a few other gaming systems. I'm currently sorting through what made it up here on the move, deciding if I'm going to purge more. (I'll likely reduce by another three or four boxes. But they're NOT getting my GURPS or Forgotten Realms 3E stuff...)

(And yes, I have, Brin's dolphins and Uplift themes had a heavy hand in how I regulate my dolphins in game-play, it makes for much more interesting writing, I'll tell you that, when the dolphins can just as easily drown sailors as save them.)

I draw stuff from all over the place. GURPS Uplift (the issues of environmentalism, species preservation, the collection of knowledge, and the uplift of biological and digital species; not to mention I like imagining the ur-species of some of the aliens listed), GURPS Alpha Centauri (starting with the neo-ascetic movement, but also some of the faction ideologies), Battle Tech (I'm fond of the Taurian Concordat and the Diamond Sharks, as well as portions of another half-dozen factions), Star Drive (there are several factions that appeal to me, plus I like some of the aliens), and Transhuman Space (so much...). Plus various books I've read. Basically, if you pull from one source, you're a plagiarist. If you pull from MANY sources, it's "research." :-)

I have a "Mary Sue" mini-space empire society that is way too ideal. I'm in the process of fleshing them out, and in tossing in undesirable elements to make them a little more plausible...

Lately, I've been applying it to an PbeM-RP wiki resource I have, based on a book series on an alien planet that never sufficiently fleshed out any of it's fauna to my taste (and when GURPS comes out with a PLANTS! sourcebook, I'm sure I'll find things to desire in the flora too).

Do tell. What book series is that? And have you read Julie Czerneda's Species Imperative trilogy?

There were only about two or three "hard" rules about the animal life there, and basically none of it past that was ever described. I thought it a pity, because there was a lot of room for interaction with the local wildlife. The ur-species system is wonderful for filling up the niches, just yesterday I rolled out a mole-like, hive-minded, tropical jungle burrowing species. The fun part now, will be turning the numbers/results into "real" details.

Aside from having my "Mary Sue" society bringing in early-Uplift (slow-and-safe biotech) chimps and dolphins, I also have them bringing in gorillas, orangutans, and pygmy elephants (Borneo elephants).

Not to mention a veritable "Noah's ark" of remnant populations and DNA catalogs of various species. (Thus, they start from existing animals, but rebuild diversity by using their DNA catalogs and a little genespliced mutations.) On their several worlds, they've built various "domed biomes" of the various regions of Earth, recreating everything possible.

I also imagine them having ur-species of Gubru, Jophur, Kanten, and Tytlal to discover. (Interesting groups to Uplift and societies to craft...)

Then I toss in unusual and interesting creatures I've found. For instance, the Future Predator of the now-canceled Primeval series. It would be interesting to have a "bat sonar" form of "vision" creature, but having to reduce their natural aggression.