And a few more for the rest of the Galaxy.

[2.4.5] Kzintis
o Disadvantages: Recommend adding; Carnivons to the list Intollerance.
The Carnivon value needs added. After they leave the stage in Y1XX they aren't as noted but no point change will be needed.


[2.4.6] Gorns
o Advantages: Recommend adding; Teeth (sharp) [5]. On screen evidence establishes.


[2.4.7] Tholians (will need split point cost adjusted for year in play due to Seltorians)
o Advantages: Recommend adding; Body of Stone 4 [32].
Established in original PD Race write up.

o Disadvantages: Recommend adding; Unusual Bio Chemistry [-5], Hidebound [-5], Enemy (Seltorians) [-40] (fairly often (12 or less) after Y182}.
Unusual Biochemistry is expected with body of Stone. Hidebound reflects the technological stagnation of the original Tholians that arrived in the Milky Way Galaxy. Note that Hidebound does note create a *total* stagnation condition, just an inhibiting effect, thus reflecting the absence of engeenerial thinking. Enemy is established various places in SFB.


[2.4.8] Orions

[2.4.8.1] Males
o Disadvantages: Recommend adding; Reputation (pirates) –1 [-5].
After the Cartels got started, everyone heard the rumours & stories.

[2.4.8.2] Females
o Disadvantages: Recommend adding; Reputation: (chattel) –2 [-10].
Chattel is the most PC way I can find to say ‘slave sex kitten’. Remember, reputations don’t have to be true, just propagated.

o Recommend adding; Skill; Erotic Art IQ+3 [8].


[2.4.9] Hydrans
o Disadvantages: Recommend adding; Reduced Move –1 [-5], Unusual Biochemestry [–5].
SFB R section establishes small size, mod is same as used for Dwarves in GURPS Fantasy Folk. Breathing & eating methane pretty much nails down the non-human requirement for UB.


[2.4.10] Andromedans
Recommend not including any Andromedan stats until Android rules are available.


[2.4.11] Lyrans
o Disadvantages: Recommend adding; Intolerance (Carnivon) to the list of offenders.


[2.4.13.3] Pronhoulites
o Disadvantages: Recommend removing; Cold-blooded (65 degrees F) [-10] as modern research has shown that Dinosaurs were most likely warm blooded.


[2.4.13.4] Rovillians
o Advantages: Recommend adding; Toughness 1 [10].
Original PD Write up establishes vestigial plating.

o Disadvantages: Recommend changing; No Fine Manipulators [-30] to Reduced Manual Dexterity 4 [-12]. Recommend adding; Reduced move (land) [-10].
These changes are more in line with the original PD race write up.


[2.4.15] SELTORIANS
Recommend adding to all; Enemy – Tholians [-40] Fairly Often (appears on 12 or less), Patron (Klingon Empire) [30] Appears rarely [–50%] (6 or less).
Enemy is established (for all time periods) in the SFB R section. Patron reflects the irregular support given by the Klingons.


[2.4.16] Jindarians
o Recommend adding; Skill: Freefall DX+2 [4].
This should be a natural skill for a person that lives in very low G.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Sunday, March 03, 2002 - 07:33 pm: Edit

Myneinei should NOT have "cannot climb". Simply a dead wrong interpretation of the data. They can climb just fine.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Sunday, March 03, 2002 - 07:35 pm: Edit

A note on Robert H's "recommendations"....

Gary will review them and if he agrees will send them to me in an Email to incorporate if I agree.

These RTs have been out there for months and it's getting pretty late in the day to be tossing in odds and ends that should have been (and may well have been) mentioned, tried, and tested earlier.

By Gary Plana (Garyplana) on Sunday, March 03, 2002 - 09:02 pm: Edit

"Cannot Climb", in this instance, means that they can climb slopes up to 45 degrees but nothing steeper. How they could climb a ladder, for example? Besides, the scrubbing bubbles always go down the drain.

Robert, most everything you mention got discussed in early playtest and rejected. For example, Unusual Biochemistry. The biochemistry of a Vulcan is not unusual to ANOTHER Vulcan; Spock is an exception as he was half-human. If we gave UB to anyone we would logically have to give it to EVERY race except humans, and we decided we would not do that.

By Nick Blank (Nickb) on Sunday, March 03, 2002 - 10:35 pm: Edit

Tholians would not be technologically stagnant. They lost access to lots of information, true, but they came up with plenty of new stuff to make up for what was lost. Stole disrupters and made them work with their own ships. Came up with lots of new ship designs based on putting 2 or 3 small ships together. Fighters. PFs. Web tech efficiency was advanced. Etc...

By Robert Herneson (Herneson) on Sunday, March 03, 2002 - 11:02 pm: Edit

Gary, ok, sorry, I didn't read any of that.
On the matter of Unusual Biochemistry, I suggested it because I thought we were using humans as the baseline norm. If we are comparing like to like, than quite a few of the factors listed for a lot of the races are not relevant.
Respectfully, and yes, I know it's late in the day, please reconsider, as the system is written with the idea of humans as the norm. Things that vary from that standard should be accounted for.

Nick, yes, that is correct, and Hidebound reflects what you said and what I tried to say (but typed 'note' instead of 'not').
Hidebound does not create a *total* stagnation condition, just an inhibiting effect, thus reflecting the absence of engeenerial thinking.

It represents a challenge in their way of thinking, exhibited by their continued use of modifying the PC hull and so on. It does allow for the advances you listed, just with more effort.

Robert

By Ken Humpherys (Pmthecat) on Monday, March 04, 2002 - 10:28 am: Edit

Robert: IIRC the Tholians were limited to PC hulls not because of thinking but because of the lack of the ability/logistics to build a true shipyard. Thus they were limited to building frigates. As the Tholian PC is in reality a Frigate, that is all they could build. I think that it was a show of great ingenuity to figure out how to weld 3 frigates together well enough to withstand warp stress to make a Cruiser WITHOUT a shipyard.

By Alex Chobot (Alendrel) on Monday, March 04, 2002 - 02:01 pm: Edit

Humans are pretty much the base-line.

Unusual Biochemistry covers a race whose biochemistry is very close to human baseline, such that human drugs will affect them, but in a random manner. A race whose biochem is a bit more idfferent may still be able to subsit on human food, but is different enough that human drugs have a stable set of interactions with them.

By Gary Plana (Garyplana) on Monday, March 04, 2002 - 03:13 pm: Edit

If we were to give Unusual Biochemistry to Vulcans, then by the same logic it would be appropriate to give it to all non-human races.

If (for example) Vulcans had UB, then any medic attempting to treat a Vulcan would incur a negative modifier -- any medic! This would include a Vulcan medic treating a Vulcan, a Klingon doctor treating another Klingon, etc.

This is clearly unacceptable and we are not going to do it.

There are existing rules to cover negative modifiers for doctors treating a being with unknown physiology; these will have to suffice.

And as I've said before, it would be appropriate for Spock to have UB as he is a half-breed.

By Troy J. Latta (Saaur) on Monday, March 04, 2002 - 07:42 pm: Edit

So Tholians have UB, right?

By Alex Chobot (Alendrel) on Monday, March 04, 2002 - 08:04 pm: Edit

Troy> No. Here's how human drugs interact with Tholians: they don't. Or may act as some level of poison.

By Gary Plana (Garyplana) on Monday, March 04, 2002 - 08:35 pm: Edit

NO ONE has Unusual Biochemistry except Veltressai Quads, as mind-altering drugs given to one quad can affect the others.

Tholians have Anaerobic, ILS (high temps) and Body of Stone, among other things.

Section 2.4, the Racial Templates, have been frozen -- all done. Section 2.5, the Academy Templates, have been emailed to a small (ie select) number of playtesters. Check your emails!

By David Kass (Dkass) on Monday, March 04, 2002 - 09:17 pm: Edit

Isn't there an SFB rule that Tholians cannot have Legendary Engineers? (I don't have my rule set available and won't have time to look things up for at least a week). If so, should it be reflected in the LO rules (or in the Tholian writeup)?

Hidebound sounds good for the Tholians. I could even see this affecting Tholian Home Galaxy Tholians as well (they seem to have somewhat stagnated after conquoring it). Should it also affect Seltorians (see their R section writeup)?

By Alex Chobot (Alendrel) on Monday, March 04, 2002 - 09:48 pm: Edit

David> I can see a reminder being put in....but if you're using these rules, it's because you're using (G22.0) and using SFB in your GPD game, so the rule in (G22.0) barring Tholians from LegEn status would apply.

By Robert Herneson (Herneson) on Tuesday, March 05, 2002 - 12:52 am: Edit

Yes, Alex, however, early in the project, SVC clarified that PD will answer to and reflect SFB, not stand independant of.

By Alex Chobot (Alendrel) on Tuesday, March 05, 2002 - 01:19 am: Edit

I fail to follow. The entire point of this rule is to define a means by which, if a group is using SFB for ship-to-ship combat in GPD, that characters can claim (G22.0) and (J3.6) benefits. If tehy're using (G22.0) then they are using the whole rule (or so one would assume), the prohibition against Tholian engineers would apply.

If a group is using GURPS Space combat or the like, this rule is entirely superfelous (sp), as high skills will provide their beenfit directly. We can't really say "Well, Tholian characters from the Holdfast can't have X, Y and Z skills at better than N". They just don't have the background and technical acumen to produce someone of the appropiate caliber to be a Legendary Enginner (or, more likely, an individual who shows such capability would likely get yanked off the front lines and put to trying to come up with ways to improve ship designs for the Holdfast).

By Gary Plana (Garyplana) on Tuesday, March 05, 2002 - 01:41 am: Edit

"... or, more likely, an individual who shows such capability would likely get yanked off the front lines and put to trying to come up with ways to improve ship designs for the Holdfast."

I like that -- remind me about that when we do the Tholian sourcebook.

By Robert Herneson (Herneson) on Tuesday, March 05, 2002 - 02:24 am: Edit

I was making no comment about the LO rules, but comment about my suggestion of the application of Hidebound to Tholians.
Sorry for the misunderstanding.

Robert

By Alex Chobot (Alendrel) on Tuesday, March 05, 2002 - 03:05 am: Edit

Ah, my bad
But it did help us touch on an interesting facet to explore when we do the Tholian sourcebook, so it's all good.

By David Kass (Dkass) on Tuesday, March 05, 2002 - 07:36 pm: Edit

RE: (G22.0)

I think a reminder/clarification would be in order so that players don't have the expectation that they can automatically use G:PD to overrride the SFB restriction. The GM could always let them do so if desired, but it would clearly be a GM perrogative, not a player expectation...

By Gary Plana (Garyplana) on Wednesday, March 06, 2002 - 05:08 pm: Edit

Oh, don't worry about that!

By Kenneth Peters (Tzeentch) on Wednesday, March 06, 2002 - 05:18 pm: Edit

Hmm. I think removing Unusual Biochemistry from most of the alien templates was a VERY good idea. In Trek (all versions) the aliens and humans don't seem to ever have a problem with food. In Enterprise, Vulcans are shown eating chicken and human vegetables without problems - clearly they don't have UB! Classic Trek never had any problems either. Next Generation had humans eating live Klingon food. So it seems that any trek canon (Star Fleet Battles or the TV series) is pretty clear on this.

By Gary Plana (Garyplana) on Saturday, March 09, 2002 - 09:19 pm: Edit

The first draft of the updated, heavily revised Psionics rules have been sent out to selected playtesters.

If you didn't get it, but really really want to see what I'm about to inflict on you and can report on them within a few days, email me.

By michael john campbell (Michaelcampbell) on Sunday, March 10, 2002 - 06:28 pm: Edit

---

Quote:

Hmm. I think removing Unusual Biochemistry from most of the alien templates was a VERY good idea. In Trek (all versions) the aliens and humans don't seem to ever have a problem with food. In Enterprise, Vulcans are shown eating chicken and human vegetables without problems - clearly they don't have UB! Classic Trek never had any problems either. Next Generation had humans eating live Klingon food. So it seems that any trek canon (Star Fleet Battles or the TV series) is pretty clear on this.

---

By Kenneth Peters (Tzeentch) on Monday, March 11, 2002 - 03:43 pm: Edit

* Heh. Very true. Does the GPD book have a note on "crossbreeds" like Spock?