07-10-2020, 01:00 PM | #21 |
Join Date: May 2020
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Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Unusual Biochemistry
But in a Space campaign where some species are common and some rare, the rare ones could be justified to have this.
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07-10-2020, 01:29 PM | #22 | |
Join Date: Jul 2008
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Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Unusual Biochemistry
Quote:
Having amplified or idiosyncratic side effects is clearly not so rare. And there are fairly well-known examples of having basically the reverse of the desired reaction to pharmaceuticals (mostly psychopharmaceuticals, that I've heard of). Which incidentally isn't an option with RAW Unusual Biochemistry, where you are guaranteed to get no effect if you don't receive the normal effect. One might say that real humans are weirder than Unusual Biochemistry supports, depending on your metric for weirdness.
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07-10-2020, 04:40 PM | #23 |
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: South Dakota, USA
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Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Unusual Biochemistry
Ulzgoroth, I do not disagree with most of what you said, but I may have come to a different conclusion. I believe you just explained why the RAW version of Unusual Biochemistry needs revision. With what I expect would make the trait more balanced, as well as better at describing both real-world medical conditions and the expected problems of alien life, engineered life, etc. living in a world they almost-but-not-quite fit into in terms of their biochemical needs.
I understand someone not liking Unusual Biochemistry at all, and replacing it with something else (official or homebrew). I understand someone being fine with this level of resolution for both the needs of an alien who walks among us extending that to humans with certain (real or fictional) medical conditions. Being okay with it for "exotic" life but drawing the line with it being used to represent real-world conditions... well, I guess I do understand that, but only because it limits Unusual Biochemistry as a potential point crock to characters with a particular origin.
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My GURPS Fourth Edition library consists of Basic Set: Characters, Basic Set: Campaigns, Martial Arts, Powers, Powers: Enhanced Senses, Power-Ups 1: Imbuements, Power-Ups 2: Perks, Power-Ups 3: Talents, Power-Ups 4: Enhancements, Power-Ups 6: Quirks, Power-Ups 8: Limitations, Powers, Social Engineering, Supers, Template Toolkit 1: Characters, Template Toolkit 2: Races, one issue of Pyramid (3/83) a.k.a. Alternate GURPS IV, GURPS Classic Rogues, and GURPS Classic Warriors. Most of which was provided through the generosity of others. Thanks! :) Last edited by Otaku; 07-10-2020 at 04:44 PM. |
07-10-2020, 05:47 PM | #24 | |
Join Date: Jul 2008
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Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Unusual Biochemistry
Quote:
Rubber forehead aliens might fall into any of the following categories at the whim of the setting designer. Alien aliens don't need Unusual Biochemistry, they're presumptively incompatible with human drugs altogether. It might have effects on them, but much the same as if you dosed a human with synthetic chemicals completely at random. Unusual Biochemistry as it is might make sense for bioroids, or close enough for usability. Sometimes they flat out don't have the biochemistry the drug works on and it does nothing. Otherwise, they do have it so it can do for them what it does for 'normal' humans, but sometimes it also has unintended interactions with their way-off-human biochemical bits. If I were designing it and had more that 1d resolution to work with I'd probably add a 'side effects only' possibility somewhere though. And then for humans, there's both highly consistent atypical reactions (like the situation with ADHD and certain stimulants, so consistent it's the basis of most treatments) and the more chaotic situation you described where the atypical reactions can vary significantly from one dosing to another depending on potentially obscure circumstance. You could put all three of those as sub-types or major modifiers of Unusual Biochemistry, but I think all three of them call for different (if similar) mechanics.
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07-10-2020, 06:26 PM | #25 |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Unusual Biochemistry
Template Toolkit 2 in fact spells out something very iike that.
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07-10-2020, 06:36 PM | #26 |
Join Date: Jul 2008
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Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Unusual Biochemistry
Indeed. Though I was surprised to revisit it and find it only seems to spell that out for "Non-water-based life forms". While it certainly applies there, I'd say that much the same would hold for water-based life forms of non-terrestrial origin unless the setting posits a quite extreme level of convergent evolution.
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07-11-2020, 05:39 AM | #27 | |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Unusual Biochemistry
Quote:
And not having encountered any alien life, we really don't know how convergent its evolution would be. Maybe all viable biotas has essentially the same genetic material and the same enzymes and so on.
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07-11-2020, 06:55 AM | #28 |
Join Date: Jul 2007
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Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Unusual Biochemistry
It turns up three times in GURPS Traveller.
Alien Races 1 p130: Interpreters These Human/facilitator hybrids (described on p. 127) are simply mouth-pieces of the squid mothers. [...] Unusual Biochemistry (neither Human nor Sheol, require special nutrients). Alien Races 4 p131: VALKYRIE RACIAL TEMPLATE -15 OR -50 POINTS [...] If not optimized, add Unusual Biochemistry [-5]; Weak Immune System [-30]. A Valkyrie host has its original racial template modified by the advantages and disadvantages shown above. Cost is -15 points if the possessing larva was optimized to the host’s race. If not, the Valkyrie damaged the host’s immune system while taking it over; use the -50 point cost. Humnaiti, p123-124: OTRAI RACIAL TEMPLATE -28 POINTS [...] Unusual Biochemistry [-5]. [...] Otrai biochemistry has diverged from the Human norm due to the need to deal with the poisons found in their natural environment. They do not react as expected to most drugs.
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07-11-2020, 02:08 PM | #29 | |
Join Date: Jul 2008
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Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Unusual Biochemistry
Quote:
Same genetic material? Maybe. Same enzyme roles? Not impossible though I wouldn't bet on it unless you abstract 'role' pretty far. Same actual enzymes? As close to disproven as the question can get. Terrestrial lineages are substantially more divergent than that!
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07-11-2020, 02:20 PM | #30 | |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Unusual Biochemistry
Quote:
As for drugs rather than food, it's true that drugs are addressed in the rules by Unusual Biochemistry and food by Restricted Diet. But that's a question of game mechanics. In terms of real world causality, having different biochemistry would tend to be reflected in both. And in portraying Martians as able to drink human blood, Wells seems to be assuming an incredibly high level of convergent evolution. His Martians seemingly use iron-based respiratory pigments, for example, and there are no proteins in human blood that are toxic or allergenic to them. That may not be biologically realistic (though we won't know how much evolution actually converges until we have studied the biospheres of a few other planets; before then it's all theory, which both Aristotle and Doyle warn against relying on too much)—but it's a venerable precedent in science fiction.
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