Quick Bio-tech question

[somecallmetim]

I was just hoping someone out there would confirm my reading for me. The table regarding giant human stats suggests that human strength scales with size exactly, so a roughly 18' tall human would have a strength of approximately 30 on average. Am I reading that right? It works well for my purposes, but I want to make sure I'm not making my giants too puny.

Thanks in advance for the help.

[Gef]

You are making them too puny unless they're intended for a low-G habitat. That's because ST does scale with height (which means BL scales with the square of height), but an 18' tall human who is not reinforced will have problems, because weight scales as the cube of height. Notice how stocky an elephant is, and that larger critters tend to be aquatic. -GEF

PS: Don't forget to give them DR so that they don't break from everyday stresses.

[somecallmetim]

Originally Posted by Gef

You are making them too puny unless they're intended for a low-G habitat. That's because ST does scale with height (which means BL scales with the square of height), but an 18' tall human who is not reinforced will have problems, because weight scales as the cube of height. Notice how stocky an elephant is, and that larger critters tend to be aquatic. -GEF

PS: Don't forget to give them DR so that they don't break from everyday stresses. Their center of gravity is at about 9', or 3 yards. Figure the collision damage for a fall from that height.

Okay, that was what I was thinking, I thought ST should go up on the square rather than a linear increase. Good point about the DR. This is for a fantasy setting, but I wanted their strength to be as tough as a real creature of that size, while seriously down playing all the cardio vascular and structural problems.

And thank you very much for the quick answer, sir!

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by somecallmetim

Okay, that was what I was thinking, I thought ST should go up on the square rather than a linear increase. Good point about the DR. This is for a fantasy setting, but I wanted their strength to be as tough as a real creature of that size, while seriously down playing all the cardio vascular and structural problems.

And thank you very much for the quick answer, sir!

Strength should not go up as the square of dimension. If it did, BL would go up as the 4th power of dimension while weight goes up as the cube, so a giant would be able to lift more in proportion to their weight than a smaller person.

If you want 'proportionate strength' ST should scale as the 3/2 power of dimension, so that BL scales with weight.

ST scaling directly with dimension relates to real geometry/physics constraints that fantastic giant creatures tend not to follow.

[gjc8]

Note that if you are scaling all dimensions up equally, having the same proportions as humans, strength will go up linearly (basic lift will scale with limb cross-sectional area). Because of the weight issue, it's not practical to scale too far that way, hence stocky elephants and ants that can lift 30x their own weight. This is an example of the square-cube law.

[Flyndaran]

Don't forget that Gurps Strength is not total real strength. It's what's left over after that which is used to maintain posture and movement is removed.
A strength 0 character can stand up and walk. He would just fall over if you dropped a feather on him.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by somecallmetim

I was just hoping someone out there would confirm my reading for me. The table regarding giant human stats suggests that human strength scales with size exactly, so a roughly 18' tall human would have a strength of approximately 30 on average. Am I reading that right? It works well for my purposes, but I want to make sure I'm not making my giants too puny.

The chart does indeed say that 3x scale is +20 ST at a minumum. However, in the paragraph right beneath it ti says that a realistic giant of that size would not be able to stand up in 1 G.

This is because an average racial ST of 30 makes it 9x as strong (Quadratic ST, look at BL) it is 27x as heavy for only 1/3rd the power to weight ratio. Becasue of the differences in mass and weight even in the 1/3rd G where it could stand up it wouldn't move "normally". It would generally be very slow in spite of its' long legs.

You need more ST mods to rnake it 27x as strong unless you lauhg at realism. That would be a little over 50. If you went all out you could give such a giant a ST of 60 (TL 11 equivalnt mods).

You can play with adding Lifting ST (and you shoudl add HP) alone but that would (again realistically) make the giant weak and slow in combat.

[Gef]

Well, for my fantasy campaign I have giants with human proportions, because it's fantasy! I still give 'em DR, though. And you can give 'em Dependency on mana to help reduce the cost: The damage they suffer is not from lack of mana directly, but from their own crushing weight, which is normally alleviated by an innate magic of their kind. Or saddle 'em with a mana limitation on ST and DR, and rule that they actually shrink to normal human size in a no-mana zone.