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.

[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.

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by 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.

When I first read the Gulliver rules, I created the most alien creature I could imagine.
A four eyed, reddish, hydrogen gas floater with small gliding wings and water holding ballast organ, auto/heterotrophic, two thin tentacled, species with an aggressive aquatic juvenile form.

The human's racist term for them was "poppers" as when they get hit by lightning it creates a very big boom.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

I created the most alien creature I could imagine.

Point total? Otherwise relevance?

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

Point total? Otherwise relevance?

I vaguely remember it being rather close to 0, so it can be done.

[Peter Knutsen]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

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

Because GURPS' Disadvantages tend to never give more than 15 or 20 CP each, while desirable traits can often be very expensive?

I think that may be part of the explanation, but I still suspect there's something odd on the OP's thinking, on top of that. And anyway, most disads don't need to give more compensatory point that they curretly do.