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This Book adds three things to the many creature design toys already in GURPS:
The below looks at options as grouped "subsystems" – frame, respiration, hide, legs, and so on. Choosing from these groups is more fun than going through alphabetical lists of unrelated traits.
Two big things that GURPS leaves untouched in its design rules are size and power-to-weight issues. These are covered thoroughly in Book 1 and Book 2. Book 3 notes where size and weight would affect the workings of other traits, but most of it can be used without the previous Books.
There's a lot more GULLIVER content that could have gone into Book 3: notes on creature design practices, a nifty list of "skill bonus traits" representing common talents, a flexible and precise Appendage Builder System, and a spiffy Life Span Meta-system. As this Book is already bursting at the seems, this content is placed in Book X.
Traits are advantages, disadvantages, and more – everything and anything that define a character. Some concepts used throughout GULLIVER:
Package Traits are those combining several other traits, such as Amorphous Body below. Cost is only that of the component traits you choose.
Many traits below come in levels, but too many levels of a disadvantage is abusive. (If three levels will get you killed, ten levels won't get you killed any deader.) A "Rule of -5" is applied to such traits: you can take a maximum of five levels, and sometimes that fifth level heaps all-new troubles onto the existing woes!
Many traits can take percentage limitations and enhancements, such as "-20%". Those are additive, not multiplicative, in GURPS – which isn't always a good thing, but that's the rule.
GULLIVER raises GURPS' -75% limit on limitations to -80%. That leaves a neat integer for the many traits whose base cost is divisible by 5, and meshes with several rules that use traits reduced to one-fifth cost.
Use the -80% limit when an advantage offers some net benefit despite its limitations. An arm that's weak and short is still an advantage if it happens to be a third arm.
Use a -100% limit when all benefit disappears from an advantage. For example, No Manual DX and No Grip are -50% limitations on the cost of your manipulators that do add up to -100%, or 0, cost. Combined, they completely remove the ability to manipulate.
Limitations in the form of "x3/4" instead of "-25%", and enhancements in the form of "x1.5", sometimes work better. They appear in spots (including in GURPS' modifiers for the cost of Reputation, Enemies, Weakness, psionic powers in older books, etc.).
Like limitations, disadvantages can add up to too much: it's possible to total up vision-related disadvantages that exceed the value of Blindness, or movement-related ones that exceed the value of Sessile.
A technical solution is to treat sight as a 50-point advantage, and decrease its value with multiplicative limitations like Bad Sight [x1/2], Color Blindness [x4/5], etc. But that's too big an overhaul of the rules.
The best fix is to disallow disadvantages that don't hamper the character, or whose effects are clearly covered by another trait. Use common sense and be strict.
When you do want multiple disadvantages to take effect, yet without overdone point values, here's GULLIVER's overlapping disadvantage rule:
Total disadvantage value is limited to -80% of the worse possible disadvantage if any ability remains, or -100% if all ability is removed.
Treat a leveled disadvantage as a single disadvantage.
Example: Combined nearsightedness [-25] and farsightedness [-25 x 1/2 = 12.5] is worth -37.5 points. Adding Colorblindness [-10 x 1/4 = 2.5] brings that to -40 points. Blindness [-50] is the worst vision you can have, so -40 points [-50 x 80% = -40] is the limit for lesser vision defects.
Example: One Leg [-30], 5 levels of Reduced Move [-25 x1/2] and the inability to run backward [-12 x1/4] total -45.5 points. However, Sessile [-50] represents a worst-case scenario, so limit the total value of the above lesser disadvantages to 80% of Sessile's value, or -40 points.
Example: Impulsiveness and Overconfidence overlap a lot; either one will get the PC into many of the same scrapes as the other. Reduce the combination to -15 points. (This may affect many existing PC designs!)
Fair, balanced point costs can be tricky; their details take up a lot of the space below. Fortunately, if you're not designing a PC race, points don't matter. Choose your design's traits and skip any discussion of points.
A non-PC may not even need a detailed listing of traits. A monster for gratuitous combat can do without non-combat traits. Non-threatening creatures may not need stats at all – they're just story elements that provide food or haul PCs' treasure.
On the other hand, designs for PCs and major NPCs should be detailed enough that capabilities are clear before play. But there will always be gray areas in a complex design. Don't worry much about getting every cost "correct"; if total points in question amount to 10% or less of the character total, you did well. Put down the pencil and play.
The "default" creature in most games is a human, or at least a creature with humanlike characteristics. A creature can be very un-humanlike yet still have no point cost, if its body has human capabilities!
Start with this default and modify as you go through the list below. Skip whatever you can't decide on or aren't interested in, returning later if you want.
If you know your design's role in the game, its environment, and whether or not it hews to reality, you'll breeze through the design process.
The most important decision you'll make is: What's your creature for? A PC or NPC race, a PC-eating menace, a beast of burden for the PCs, what? (There's a reason "PC" appeared so many times in that sentence: what's important is your design's role in relation to the player characters.)
Here are some buzzwords to spur imagination:
Creature Role options: PC race; NPC race; companion; work beast; food/prey; nuisance; local color; minor menace; major menace; extreme menace; menace if provoked; etc.
Related to role is reality level – does (or could) your creature exist on Earth? In a "hard" science fiction novel? Space opera or high fantasy only? What fantastic abilities will you allow?
Reality Level options: Earth-real; hard sci-fi/low fantasy; space opera/high fantasy.
Is your design a species, mutant, hybrid, or unique being?
Mutants and hybrids may have traits that a species would have never developed. Realistic ones might be weak – blind or sterile, even. A more fun mutant is one so powerful and prolific that it'd take over the world if it were a species. (Read: adventure plot!)
A unique being might sport any traits you can think of. (Hobbits can't see in the dark, but the ex-Hobbit Gollum could.) This can be a one-of-a-kind creature, or an individual member of a species (such as an individual dragon). Unique designs are fun for the GM to play and provide surprises for the PCs.
Uniqueness options: species; non-species (mutant, hybrid or unique).
Characters can hail from an infinite variety of environments, but for game purposes, three main Environments (capitalized!) are important: land, water, and air. (GULLIVER will use the word "habitat" to mean more specific surroundings.)
You can feel at home in more than just one Environment: Amphibious makes you equally comfortable in both land and water, and flight traits add air to the mix. Environments in which you can operate comfortably are your home Environments, whether those be one, two, or all three.
If you have more than one home Environment, pick one as your primary Environment. Choose the one you're most mobile in. If you're equally mobile in two or more, pick the one that will host the most game action (usually land).
Your primary Environment is the same as your primary mode of movement – land, water or air. (Other words to describe you based on this choice are terrestrial, aquatic, and aerial.)
Here's a point crock you may have noticed. In GURPS, a character with Amphibious [10] and four or five levels of Reduced Move (water) [-20 or -25] retains a better aquatic Move than landbound PCs, yet doesn't need to make Swimming rolls, and nabs a free 10 or 15 net points in the process!
The problem is that GURPS awards full points for environmentally-related disadvantages, whether the PC actually "belongs to" the environment in question or not. The fix: disadvantages that only affect you in a non-primary Environment should be worth little. (Make that nothing if they're completely irrelevant, like Reduced Move (air) for a non-flier.)
Adjust trait costs for Environment as follows:
Enhanced Move is an example. Buy the advantage separately for each Environment, at full cost.
Reduced Move is an example. You can take the trait separately for each Environment – but at full cost only for your primary one. Otherwise, cut disadvantage value to x1/5.
Negative encumbrance is an example: one purchase affects you in air, water, or on land.
Reduce cost to x1/2 if the advantage only affects you in one non-primary Environment (say, water if you're terrestrial), or to x2/3 for two non-primary ones.
If the advantage only affects you in your primary Environment, there's little point break: reduce the cost to x4/5.
Reduced Dodge is an example: one purchase affects you in all Environments. Cut the value to x1/5 if the disadvantage only affects you in a non-primary Environment, x2/5 for two. Cut it to x1/2 if it only affects you in your primary one (or x1/3 if you have two non-primary Environments to fall back on).
Example: You have Amphibious. With both land and water as choices, you pick land as your primary Environment. You're terrestrial, with added water mobility from Amphibious. If you're a slow swimmer, levels of Reduced Move (water) are worth only -5 x 1/5 = -1 point each – no point crock here!
Example: Again you build a PC at home in land and water, but label this one aquatic, with land mobility added by Amphibious.
If you're a slow swimmer, levels of Reduced Move (water) are worth a full -5 points each. If you're also slow on dry earth, add Reduced Move (land) – but those levels are going to be worth a measly -1 point each.
Example: Your aquatic PC's eyes are nearsighted on land. Bad Sight normally affects you everywhere for -25 points. But here it affects you only in on land, which isn't your primary Environment. It's worth one-fifth value, or -5 points.
Flight assumes a terrestrial (or rarely, aquatic) creature with the added mode of air, so air won't normally be your primary Environment. All air-only disadvantages, such as Reduced Move (air), will have one-fifth their value for you.
Allow two exceptions:
One: If you're a very competent flier, you can pretty much do anything a terrestrial creature can do – and more, all without touching the ground. You could take lots of points for disadvantages like Lame, Reduced Move (land), No Jump, etc., yet they'll rarely slow you down at all.
For that reason, a creature which is a very competent flier should make air its primary Environment, meaning non-air disadvantages will net it very few points. "Very competent" here is a GM call; 45 or more points in Flight, levitation powers, etc. might suffice.
Two: A "floater" at home nowhere but in its atmospheric environment is truly aerial. Buy powerful flight abilities and call air your primary Environment. (The Grapple Bird from Space Bestiary p. 7 seems to be a true aerial creature, with added water mobility from Amphibious but no land mobility.)
Below are the effects of each primary Environment in game terms. See Book 4 for actual calculation of Move, as well as Reduced Move below.
Your primary Environment is land, where you have normal physical capabilities. Water is a different story.
terrestrial
0 points
You have 5 levels of Reduced Move (water), worth only -5 points for a non-aquatic creature. That cuts your water Move to x1/10.
You also have a disadvantage that could be named Unadapted (water), also worth -5 points to you. Unlike a fish, you suffer physical action penalties in water and risk drowning. In general, take a -2 on active defenses and other abilities. You even need a special Physical/Easy skill just to get around: Swimming skill.
These disadvantages are the 0-point default condition for a landlubber. Buy them off with Amphibious. Or buy them off partially: first buy off Unadapted (water) for 5 points, and then levels of Reduced Move (water) a point at a time. (This is the same as first buying Amphibious and adding levels of Reduced Move (water)).
Your primary Environment is water, where you have normal physical capabilities. On dry land you're a fish out of water.
aquatic
0 points
You have 5 levels of Reduced Move (land), worth only -5 points for a non-terrestrial creature. That cuts your land Move to x1/10.
You also have a disadvantage that could be named Unadapted (land), also worth -5 points to you. You're not built for moving on the ground. Climbing, jumping, and so on are generally out of the question. Getting around is a difficult process requiring a special Physical/Easy skill, either Crawling or Flopping (see Book 4).
You also suffer penalties on combat and other physical actions on land. In general, take a -2 on active defenses and other abilities. Don't forget penalties for natural encumbrance! If you're too heavy on land to move at all, then no movement skills are going to help you – you're beached.
These disadvantages are your 0-point default condition. Buy them off with Amphibious. Or buy them off partially: first buy off Unadapted (land) for 5 points, and then levels of Reduced Move (land) a point at a time. (This is the same as buying Amphibious and adding levels of Reduced Move (land)).
Your primary mode of movement is air; you're a true "floater". Buy some form of gliding, powered flight, buoyancy, etc. at normal cost as your primary mode of movement. You gain the appropriate physical capabilities in the air.
aerial
-10 points + flight traits
The -10 point base covers the land haplessness of an aquatic creature and the water clumsiness of a terrestrial creature. Buy back water mobility with Amphibious [10], and buy back land mobility with an analogous ability that floaters might call "Landwalking" [10].
You'll want to get a little more specific than just "land" or "water". GURPS Bestiary offers a list of Earth habitats including Aquatic Fresh-Water, Aquatic Salt-Water, Arctic, Desert, Forest, Jungle, Mountain, Plains, Subterranean, and Swamp.
Here are a few more, Earthly and otherwise:
Multiple habitats are fine too; look at the ranges occupied by go-anywhere, eat-anything vermin like rats, roaches, and humans.
A combined habitat, on the other hand, is restricting: say, Jungle and Mountain, as opposed to Jungle or Mountain. Combined habitats often have a specific name. A taiga combines Arctic and Forest; a tundra combines features of Arctic and Plains with the precipitation of Desert.
There's a lot of variation to be found in each category above. "Aquatic, Salt-Water" could be deep sea, open sea, shallows, or coral reef. "Aquatic, Fresh-Water" covers rivers, lakes, and ponds – all of which in turn range from open water to stands of reeds. "Plains" can be hot or cold. "Parasitic Host" needs gory detail. And "Urban, Subterranean" doesn't tell the whole story of ghouls – "catacombs, tombs, and sewers" is better.
Most adult creatures should have the Survival skill at some level – say, the higher of IQ and 12. Let this be free. (For modern, moneyed humans, little actual "survival" is involved; our free skill is one of shopping, career advancement, and choosing the cheapest long-distance phone carrier.)
The more specialized you are for a specific habitat, the better you do when snug in those surroundings. But when surroundings change, the specialists fall behind the generalists. Subtract 1 from base Survival skill per +3 for specialization.
Example: You can have Survival (Forest) at IQ. Or make that Survival (Forest) at IQ-1 and Survival (Deciduous Rain Forest) at IQ +3. Or even consider Survival (Forest) at IQ-2, Survival (Deciduous Rain Forest) at IQ+3, and Survival (Deciduous Rain Forest, Upper Canopy) at IQ +6.
You shouldn't get points for the troubles you suffer when you choose to go to environments that are unsafe for you. Exceptions may apply if the PCs are expected to travel to certain surroundings as part of the game. Planetbound, Space Sickness, and Timesickness are examples.
Use and value are a GM call, depending on the restricted environments' number and their importance to the game. (If food in some environment is the problem, see Restricted Diet.)
Make up appropriate effects for exposure to the restricted environment. The above traits, as well as Weakness and Vulnerability, make good guidelines, but can offer very high disadvantage values. A new set of quickie rules might run like this:
You can not safely enter certain environments important to the game setting. Base cost is -5 to -15 points depending on the game importance of the environment, with a multiplier based on the interval between the loss of 1 HP: 1 second [x2], 10 seconds [x1.5], 1 minute [x1], 10 minutes [x3/4], 1 hour [x2/3], 6 hours [x1/2], 1 day [x1/3], 1 week [x1/4], 1 month [x1/5], 6 months [x1/10]. This damage does not heal while you're exposed to the environment!
Environmental Intolerance (new)
varies
Limitations: Halve value if HT rolls negate fresh damage. Halve value if damage is suffocation (which can kill you, but takes longer).
Halve value if you can acclimatize yourself to the new environment. Details are up to the GM, but with slow, careful conditioning (usually involving gradual exposure), you can remove or lessen the threat of further damage. However, you'll need to slowly acclimatize yourself back to your old environment!
Increase disadvantage value to add other effects (sickness, fatigue, etc.) to damage.
Example: Fish PCs might face intolerance to either fresh or salt water, worth a base -5 points, modified for frequency of damage. Some fish will have the ability to slowly acclimatize.
GURPS's Aquatic disadvantage is a special case of Environmental Intolerance: you're a water-dweller encased in a tank of liquid, presumably dragged around by your legged PC pals. Or possibly you're limited to cameo appearances in dockside encounters, with rare chances to shine in real aquatic adventures. The high point cost seems to reflect your being shut out of nearly all adventures.
Environment & Habitat options: Environment (land; water; air); general or specific habitat; Survival skill specializations; Environmental Intolerance; Aquatic.
Start with the appropriate default characteristics. Set ST, DX, HT, and HP at 10 and adjust as you go.
How are you laid out? Humans are bilaterally symmetrical (more or less, with asymmetrical innards). Creatures can also be asymmetrical (allowing weird shapes and odd limb arrangements), radially symmetrical (jellyfish, Lovecraftian monster, or starfish), or amorphous (amoeba).
Exotic body plans include dissociated floating globules, "swarm" beings, and that nonsense favorite, "non-Euclidean geometry". Details are up to you.
None of these necessarily affects the character sheet, except for appropriate additions of Monstrous Appearance, Reduced Move, or whatever sounds right. (Another exotic form, No Physical Body, does have specific effects; floating brains should check out CI p. 83.)
If body shape does make life difficult for you, use this disadvantage:
This is a catchall disadvantage for a physical form that hampers a PC, typically a body shape that is difficult to clothe or armor, cannot use tools easily, or has difficulty entering homes and vehicles.
Inconvenient Form (new)
varies
Most instances should be worth -5 to -15 points. A body that can't wear armor might be worth -10 points in a standard "adventurers" setting, more in a combat-heavy infantry campaign. A Kaa might be able to armor its torso, but not its snaky lower half, for a -5-point Inconvenient Form.
Some existing traits, like Hunchback or No Physical Body, already contain a dose of Inconvenient Form; don't add it separately.
A "hybrid" mixture of two (or more?) creatures is a special effect; build with appropriate traits. A Merman or Satyr combines the "upper" and "lower" halves of different creatures, but without any unusual treatment of size, ST, HP, etc.
But some creatures' "halves" are of very different sizes, such as the typical fantasy Centaur. The "upper" half usually bears the head and manipulators, while the "lower" half has legs and supports the creature's weight.
Cost of Size: If the two halves have different levels of the Size advantage, average the cost of the two Sizes.
Add Inconvenient Size (or Inconvenient Form) as appropriate. Sustenance needs will be appropriate for the bigger section, or somewhat greater.
In combat, the Size of individual targets (legs, head, etc.) will be appropriate for the Size of the appropriate half. To target the creature overall, as with a long-range missile, use the Size of the larger half. To target a specific half, use the appropriate Size, minus 1 – but a miss by only one hits the other half.
Cost of ST: If the two halves have different ST scores, adjust the ST of one half. See notes on adjusting arm, manipulator, striker, wing, leg, jaw, and other ST. For a man-horse Centaur, purchase the ST of the upper half normally, and the additional ST (both Combat ST and Load ST) of the lower half with a Legs Only limitation [-50%], which boosts only leg power and the carrying ability of the back. That's all you need to do; there's no need to average the costs of the two halves' ST.
Cost of HP: If the two halves have different HP, average the cost of the two. (See Book 6 to play this split HP score.) Average the cost of split DR or Toughness as well.
Other stuff: Figure natural encumbrance from total weight and the Load ST of the load-bearing half. Purchase normally.
Both halves have vital organs that can be targeted. Otherwise, buy No Vulnerability: Vitals for the whole creature [5] or one half [3].
Play other quirks of split attributes appropriately. Just be sure that limbs, functionality, and so forth are fairly split between the two halves (not concentrated in the "big half", with the "small half" nothing more than a point sink), and things will work. See Book 7 for a treatment of the fantasy Centaur using these guidelines.
The amorphous body is found in nanomorphs, amoebae, and house-swallowing globs of goo:
You're a blob. Compile the appropriate traits, mostly with those from flexibility traits, for a limited shapechanging ability. Also look at Invertebrate, Injury Tolerances, advantages from "Regeneration and Recovery", and fun stuff like Slime.
Amorphous Body (new)
varies (package)
For the ability to extrude limbs, tails, etc., pay for your full complement of extruded goods, and give them all Retraction (below).
Add the ability to replace arms with legs (and vice versa) with a new advantage, Limb Extrusion [5]. Pay for all limbs as arms (no cheap arms from Extra Legs and Limb Extrusion!). The change takes two minutes per limb; halve this time for each +1 point spent on the ability. Also halve time with a skill roll (see Squishy).
Anything more complex than this requires dedicated shapeshifting rules.
How do you orient your body, especially when moving? GURPS offers upright, Semi-Upright, and Horizontal, but GULLIVER reworks posture.
Define postures for creatures as appropriate, with as much detail as you like. A Tyrannosaur's posture is upright and leaning far forward. A fish's posture is... well, fishy.
Any posture, including upright, semi-upright or horizontal, is itself is no net advantage or disadvantage. Call posture an uncapitalized 0-point trait.
In general, upright creatures can see farther, but will fall farther when taking a tumble. Horizontal ones may miss the view from above, but can easily put a nose to the ground to track a scent. And so on.
Any trait value only comes from important add-ons, such as restrictions on limb use. A four-legged creature without arms isn't suffering any disadvantage from horizontal posture; it's just walking on all its legs, which is what legs are for. But a humanoid walking on hands and feet does suffer the loss of arm use while walking. The condition is easily handled as a reduction on the cost of the arms.
Example: GURPS builds a lion with Extra Legs, No Fine Manipulators, and Horizontal; GULLIVER uses Extra Legs, No Arms, and the 0-point effect horizontal. GURPS builds a chimp with two legs, two arms, and Semi-Upright; GULLIVER uses two legs, two arms with a limitation on arm use, and the 0-point effect semi-upright.
Stance: Posture refers to how you position your body; how you position your legs is called Stance.
Legless creatures: For legless creatures, an upright posture means you keep one-third or less of your length on the ground. A semi-upright posture means about one-half of your body length on the ground. A horizontal posture means most of your body length on the ground. Consider a level of Improved Balance for semi-upright posture, and two or more levels for horizontal.
Body Plan options: symmetrical; asymmetrical; radial; Centauroid or other "hybrid form"; Amorphous Body; Limb Extrusion; Inconvenient Form; exotic (No Physical Body; other); posture (horizontal; semi-upright; upright; other).
What's your design made from? Boring organic flesh holds a monopoly in the real world, but don't let that stop you from using something weirder.
"High-density" flesh is a comic-book favorite. Choose your density (D), stated as kilograms per liter. That's 1 for water or most flesh.
Modified Density: Replace GURPS' Increased Density with a Modified Density package trait; cost is that of component traits only.
To build the creature, multiply mass by density. ST, HP, and DR or Toughness will likely be affected; consider multiplying these by (D + 1) /2, or by D for more extreme stats. (Assume base DR or Toughness of at least 1 for flesh denser than human.) Consider the Fragile disadvantage for D less than 0.75 or so. Pay for all of these normally.
Your encumbrance level will change, especially in water (see Book 2 for details). Purchase normally. If you have density less than 1, you'll also float easily on water. This is generally very useful benefit: pay 1 point per +1 bonus on rolls to float.
If you're so light you float in air, that's Slow Fall or even Static Lift.
That covers the cost of Modified Density. Treat effects on knockback and slams as generic effects of mass, not effects of density itself. Other miscellaneous effects of weight are special effects.
Material and density: Rounded densities for some common substances: air 0; aluminum 2.6; antler 1.9; asphalt 0.7; bone 1.8; brass 8.5; brick 1.9; bronze 8.2; carbon, solid 2.15; concrete 2.4; coal 1.5; copper 8.7; cork 0.25; earth, dry 1.25; earth, wet 1.6; earth, dense 2.0; fat (human) 0.94; glass 2.6; gold 19.3; granite 2.7; ice 0.9; iron 7.2; lead 11.4; marble 2.5; mercury 13.5; muscle 1.05; petroleum oil 0.9; platinum 21.5; porcelain 2.4; quartz 2.6; salt 1.4; sea water 1.025; shell (mollusk) 2.7; silver 10.5; snow, loose 0.15; snow, compact 0.5; steel 7.9; tin 7.4; wood 0.4 to 0.95 (depending on type). You'll find lots more at this off-site link.
Variable Mass: If you can vary your density by varying mass (without varying volume), you have an exotic ability:
You can adjust your mass, which in turn affects density and buoyancy. Each level of increase lets you increase starting mass using the progression x1.1, x1.15, x1.2, x1.3, x1.5, x1.7, x2, x3, x5, x7, x10, x15, x20, x30... Each level of decrease lets you decrease mass, using the same progression as a divisor.
Variable Mass (new)
2 points/level
Pay the above leveled cost, and pay for the best level of encumbrance you can achieve, and for any other beneficial effects of density you're capable of achieving (such as flotation bonuses), as above.
Variable Volume: The exotic ability to vary your density by varying volume (without varying mass):
You can adjust your volume, which in turn affects density and buoyancy. Each level of increase lets you increase starting volume using the progression x1.1, x1.15, x1.2, x1.3, x1.5, x1.7, x2, x3, x5, x7, x10, x15, x20, x30... Each level of decrease lets you decrease volume, using the same progression as a divisor.
Variable Volume (new)
1 point/level
Pay the above leveled cost, and pay for the best level of encumbrance you can achieve, and for any other beneficial effects of density you're capable of achieving (such as flotation bonuses).
Example: A fish (D = 1) has a gas-filled swim bladder that lets it multiply volume by one level [1] (D becomes 1/1.1), or lets it divide volume by one level [1] (D becomes 1.1). Either adjustment adds encumbrance in water (sorry, no points; the added encumbrance is voluntary), but increasing volume confers a +5 to float [5]. Total cost is 7 points.
That's about the limit of density change for a real creature. You can have greater Variable Volume that doesn't affect density, like a puffer fish that can balloon up by sucking in water. This fish would pay the same 1 point per level of increase, but there'd be no other effects to pay for.
Gas bag: A big gas bag may help you float, but can rupture. Cutting or impaling damage of HP or less hurts you normally without piercing the bag. (DR protects the bag normally.) Damage above that causes a leak, with flotation leaking out in an hour at HP/10 damage, a minute at HP damage, and instantly at HP x2 damage. Extrapolate other damage levels appropriately.
A gas bag is a base -20% limitation on anything that would be lost through rupture. Increase limitation value for the following:
Your gas bag is weak. Reduce HP for purposes of springing a leak by the following: x2/3 [-5%], x1/2 [-10%], x1/3 [-15%], x1/5 [-20%], x1/10 [-25%].
Your gas bag leaks fast. Use the same damage multipliers and limitation values as above, reducing HP for purposes of how fast you lose buoyancy.
Your gas bag makes you big, adding to your target size. The bag can be targeted separately; shots aimed at the whole target will have a chance of hitting the bag. Add the gas bag's volume to yours and figure your Size-based TH modifier from the Scale Table. Each +1 TH added is a -5% limitation.
Example: You gain the benefits of Slow Fall (no fall) [20], Static Lift [10], and +6 to float in water [6] from a fixed-size, fragile hydrogen bag. Tying these goods to a gas bag confers a Limitation value of -20% on their cost. You now add -15% for a fragile x1/3 HP for rupture resistance, -10% for x1/2 HP for rupture speed, and -15% for adding 3 to your Size as a target (volume x30). That's a net -60% limitation on the goodies [36, -60% = 15].
If it's a freely inflatable gas bag, also take Variable Volume (14 levels for x30 volume), for another [14, -60% = 6] points.
You need to heal damage to a ruptured bag to restore lost abilities. Try Regeneration (Gas Bag Damage Only: -80%) for a self-patching system.
Nature uses no gas bag designs, despite proven technology for extracting hydrogen from water (photosynthesis). In any case, a gas bag is unlikely in a small design. The small lift of a small bag will mandate light, thin walls, and that raises problems with structural integrity and gas penetration.
Unusual Biochemistry, Restricted Diet, or Delicate Metabolism are likely in an inorganic composition, along with special life support requirements, Vulnerabilities and Weaknesses, and Modified Density. It's all speculation, so add whatever powers and weaknesses you like. The ever-popular "silicon-based life form", for example, might have as little difference from us as Delicate Metabolism and an extra 10% or so body weight – or tons of weight, massive ST, HP, and DR, and Body of Stone for that B-grade movie "rock creature" feel.
Composition options: organic; inorganic; density (Modified Density, Variable Weight, Variable Volume); exotic (Body of Ice; Body of Water; Body of Air; Body of Fire; Body of Earth; Body of Stone; Body of Metal; Insubstantiality; Astral Entity; Shadow Form).
How big is your creature? Use GURPS' Size and Speed/Range Table, or the Scale Table and copious suggestions from Book 1, to estimate your TH modifier from Size.
Size is power: it'll affect ST, HP, DR, and weight. You could set these values now, but it's easiest to build the creature as if it were normal-sized, and "scale" stats at the end.
Size also affects Move, Reach, and sustenance requirements. You can adjust these with existing GURPS rules, using appropriate levels of Extra Reach (purchase separately for each appendage), Reduced or Enhanced Move (purchase separately for all modes of movement), and Decreased or Increased Life Support.
GULLIVER instead wraps up adjustments to Move, Reach, sustenance requirements, combat effects (including TH modifier), and other effects into a one-shot purchase of Size itself as a trait. (Inconvenient Size remains a separate disadvantage.)
You're significantly bigger or smaller than the default size (usually human). Your level of Size is the same as your TH modifier for size: Size -1, Size +3, etc.
Size (new)
10 points/level or 0
Find your Size on the Book 1 Scale Table. Multiply default air, water, and food requirements by Area Scale. Multiply Reach for all appendages by Linear Scale.
Multiply Move by Linear Scale. This adjusts Move for any physical mode: running, swimming, flying, climbing, etc. It's a large adjustment, but Book 2 natural encumbrance rules bring Move back toward the center. (If you don't use those rules, the adjustment is too extreme; see a simple fix in Book 1.)
Size-related adjustments to ST, HP, and DR are purchased normally, and are not included in Size.
Cost of Size is 10 points per level above 0, and 0 points for any level below 0.
The Size trait replaces GURPS' rules for characters with Growth or Shrinking made permanent. Costs may differ, as the approaches are very different. GURPS rolls size and stats into one point cost for permanent Shrinking, while it keeps size costs and stat costs separate for permanent Growth. But GULLIVER keeps Size costs and stat costs consistently separate in both cases.
For the ability to shrink or grow at will, see Variable Size.
This is a variety of Inconvenient Form (above). Use a cost range of -5 to -15 points for either large or small creatures; see Book 1 for guidelines on setting cost. You can combine points for both odd size and odd shape, but total points for both should be limited to -15, or by the Overlapping Disadvantages rule, as the GM decides.
Inconvenient Size (new cost)
varies
Book 5 contains an option for targets that are particularly wide or narrow, affecting attackers' TH. Use these costs for Modified TH: 10 points for -1 on foes' TH, 20 points for -2 TH, and 5 points per -1 TH thereafter; or -10 points for +1on foes' TH, -20 points for +2 TH, and -5 points per +1 TH thereafter.
Use these costs to buy additional Modified TH beyond what Size includes. Halve value of Modified TH that affects only thrust/missile attacks or only swung attacks.
Example: You're Size -3, but +1 TH for squarish build (net -2 TH). You lose that third point of Modified TH built into Size, and gain back 5 points.
Example: You're 13 feet long and buy Size +2 for 20 points. The purchase includes -20 points of Modified TH.
But you're 7 inches wide (Size -6). Your net TH is +1 for swings, -4 for thrust/missile attacks. Starting over from TH 0, your +1 TH is worth -10 points, halved to -5 for swings only. The -4 TH is worth 30 points, halved to 15 for thrust only.
Your Modified TH is a net 10 point advantage, not a -20 point disadvantage. Pay 30 points to make up the difference; the net cost of your Size is 50 points.
Size options: Increased Size or Decreased Size (or Increased/reduced Reach; Enhanced/Reduced Move; Increased/Decreased Life Support); ST; HP; DR; Inconvenient Size; Modified TH for shape; weight.
You can house a hidden endoskeleton, flaunt an obvious exoskeleton, or get by with neither. Exoskeletons will often offer DR, the equivalent of a carapace or armor plates (CI p. 57), but the body may be less flexible (see Flexibility). Either skeleton can suffer broken "bones".
No land creature with an exoskeleton is large, possibly because the impact of walking is harsh on a shell over time. Other than that, scientists debate the relative merits of exoskeletons and endoskeletons; the differences aren't important in the game.
A creature's supporting structure might affect the sturdiness of a body; use the modifications from "Structural Soundness", especially the Fragile disadvantage.
A creature that has no skeleton is an Invertebrate (for game purposes). It supports itself through hydrostatic or other means. GURPS has Invertebrate (CI p.102), but GULLIVER uses this package:
You have no bones. Your appendages can be crippled normally, but you do not suffer broken bones. Take +2 on rolls to recover from crippling limb injuries (BS p. 129), +2 on Escape, and +2 on rolls to escape from or resist locks and holds.
Invertebrate (revised)
varies (package)
On the down side, you have no free skull DR, have only x2/3 HP for determining the amount of damage needed to amputate an appendage (see Book 6), and take -2 on HT rolls to prevent such amputation! The GM can also limit body armor to scales, fur, or Toughness only, as additional DR would imply an exoskeleton.
These effects balance out to 0 points. Now purchase a lower Load ST. This can be one-fourth starting Load ST, as GURPS suggests, or any other level.
Finally, add Double-Jointed, Flexibility, Extra Flexibility, Squishy, or even Stretching.
You have a cartilage-like supporting structure, with effects somewhere between Invertebrate and a skeleton. You can suffer broken "bones", though the injury heals twice as fast as skeletal breaks. Take +1 on rolls to recover from crippling limb injuries (BS p. 129), +1 on Escape, and +1 on rolls to escape from or resist locks and holds.
Cartilaginous (new)
varies (package)
On the down side, you have half normal free skull DR, have only x4/5 HP for determining the amount of damage needed to amputate an appendage (see Book 6), and take -1 on HT rolls to prevent such amputation.
These effects balance out to 0 points. Now set and purchase a lower Load ST, though not as low as you would for Invertebrate. Consider adding Double-Jointed, Flexibility, Extra Flexibility, or Squishy.
Thick blocky bones, multiple legs, or a loosely-defined superior load-bearing design, as in FF's Dwarves, will support more weight. Build this with Extra Encumbrance (CI p.54). The "None" to "Super-Heavy" levels of WSR become 17, 20, 25, 35, 45, and (presumably) 60.
GULLIVER reworks this into a leveled trait, each costing 5 points. For "None" or greater levels of encumbrance, one level takes the amount of WSR cutoff over 15 and mutiplies it by x1.5. Two levels multiplies it by x2, three levels by x3, five levels by x5, and so on.
Suggestions for buying levels:
See Book 2 for details.
Supporting Structure options: endoskeleton; exoskeleton; Invertebrate; Extra Encumbrance; Load ST; other options in Structural Soundness and Flexibility below.
Here's where you set your ST. It's easiest to first imagine a "base ST", or what ST would be if your design were human-sized. Use human guidelines: ST 7 for a scrawny build, ST 12 for a stout one, ST 14 and up for heavy muscles.
That takes care of base muscle quantity, but how about quality? Muscle strength is surprisingly uniform for most earth creatures, even insects, so you don't need to make any change here for animals. But modify base ST as you wish for unusual muscle composition – say, x1.5 for stereotypical "dense" alien tissue or x3 for "magically" strong flesh (wee folk races in games usually possess several times their apparent ST).
Set aside this base ST, and scale it for size later.
Type of muscle: Instead of normal high-output muscle ("light meat" in animals), you can specialize in sustained-output muscle ("dark meat"). Use a lower base ST, and add Extra Fatigue.
GULLIVER offers fixes for the problems addressed by the Natural ST limitation, making it unnecessary. Drop Natural ST from the game, and see Book 1 for much more on strength.
A single ST stat covers all of a creature's muscle groups, for simplificity. For detail, see later notes on arm, manipulator, striker, wing, leg, jaw, and other ST modifications to adjust power in specific parts.
Here's a real-world variant of muscle:
Like a shellfish's adductor muscle, your muscles have an efficient mechanism for "locking" into a contracted position. You can maintain a chin-up or support a weight at arm's length with no fatigue for short periods of time (use 1/10 normal fatigue if the time stretches into minutes or longer). Your muscles relax normally if you lose consciousness.
Locking Muscles (new)
5 points
Locking does not make you stronger; your locked grapple or bite can be overcome normally. (Increase ST if you want an "iron grip" or "jaws of death".) But a foe who fails to pry a diamond from your grip will suffer fatigue over repeated attempts; you won't. If you can resist those early attempts, you'll have the contest in the bag as he tires.
Locking does not lower fatigue from intitial muscle contraction, movement, or ongoing effort; there's no benefit for regular actions like running, lifting, crushing a beer can, or any application of Extra Effort. Apply half fatigue for borderline cases like climbing (the pulling and pushing is fatiguing to you, but maintaining grips and holds isn't).
On Earth, only certain mollusks have Locking Muscles; these also contract quite slowly, so add low DX or low Speed if you like. A bulldog's "locking" jaws rely on simple strength and stubbornness, not Locking Muscles, but apply the trait if it sounds fun. Also see Deathlock below.
Limitation: You can lock one set of muscles (such as jaws or one hand; -60%), two sets (such as two hands; -40%) or a larger subset of the body (such as all arms or all legs; -20%).
Deathlock: This is similar to but separate from Locking Muscles. Any strongly contracted muscle stays contracted even after unconsciousness or death! Fatigue will eventually loosen the "deathlock" normally for most creatures, although Locking Muscles might stay contracted for days. Deathlock is worth 1 point for any creature.
Musculature options: ST; fatigue options (Reduced/Extra Fatigue); unusual muscles (Locking Muscles; Deathlock). Further adjustments are available for individual body parts.
Use the Skinny disadvantage for little fat tissue, and Overweight, Fat, or Obese for a lot. (A character with high weight from big bones or natural armor may have encumbrance as a disadvantage, but that's not Fat.)
Encumbrance will vary greatly by individual, depending on the character's ST and final weight; in a very light character, Fat might only reduce the level of negative encumbrance, without adding any positive encumbrance. For that reason, GULLIVER bases the cost of Fat on final effects, including Book 2's costs for natural encumbrance:
Choose a level of Fat below. Weight additions are only guidelines; adjust as you like. See BS pp. 28-29 for details of the reaction penalty and other miscellaneous effects.
Fat (new cost)
varies
- Overweight: Add 30% to body weight. Reaction penalty is negligible. Cost: encumbrance cost only.
- Fat: Add 50% to body weight. Cost: encumbrance cost, plus additional -5 points for -1 reaction penalty.
- Obese: Add 100% to body weight. Cost: encumbrance cost, plus additional -10 points for -2 reaction penalty.
For simplicity, treat other characteristics of Fat as special effects. These include miscellaneous nuisances, different encumbrance levels in your non-primary Environment, bonuses to float in water, and benefits in close combat. (See Book 2 to compute encumbrance and floating bonuses in water.)
Example: A human who gains Heavy encumbrance on land from Obese has -40 points for encumbrance, and -10 for reaction penalties. Changed encumbrance level and floating ability in water, as well as problems with clothing, etc., are all no-cost effects.
Health effects: To represent strain on the heart and other organs, consider reducing HT by 1 for a character with Medium encumbrance from Fat, or 2 for Heavy or greater. Purchase normally.
Fat is stored energy. Consider a level of Reduced Fatigue for a Skinny character, and up to a level of Extra Fatigue for each level of Fat. Of course, fatigue penalties from the encumbrance (see Book 6) may use up that Extra Fatigue quickly!
Fat's even more important in surviving long-term food deprivation, including hibernation (see Book 6); call it a free special effect of your adipose.
Thick blubber is an effective insulator in cold weather (but possibly harmful in hot climes). Move your temperature "comfort zone" down a few degrees, and add additional Temperature Tolerance versus cold.
Body Fat options: Skinny; normal; Fat (Overweight; Fat; Obese); Reduced/Extra Fatigue; Temperature Tolerance (versus cold).
What humans call abnormalities or defects may be normal traits in other species. Game effect is what counts: your weak-spined alien PC gets full points for Bad Back, even if he's a flawless specimen of his own species.
The Dwarfism disadvantage deserves a closer look:
Build dwarves using overall small size, or unusually short limbs, or both. Cost is only that of included traits:
Dwarfism (revised)
varies (package)
- Small size: Reduce Size one level [0]. (This reduces Move and jumping ability; no further adjustments needed.) Lowered ST and HP are realistic. Add Inconvenient Size [-5 or so]. Limbs may be shortish, but not enough to further change your capabilities; you have fairly normal proportions. (Some would say you're a midget, not a dwarf.)
- Normal size, short limbs: Your body may be smallish, but not enough to lower Size. Full-size ST and HP are appropriate. Take a level of Short Arms and Short Legs, adding Reduced Move, Poor Kicker, Poor Jumper, and maybe Reduced Dodge.
- Small size, short limbs: Combine traits from the two dwarves above. You'll run very slowly, but in combat your arms, hands, legs and feet will be targeted at -2 in addition to the usual penalties for those targets.
Add appropriate traits for the character's status or reaction adjustments in the campaign.
Gigantism doesn't quite bring a character up to the next Size. The disadvantage cost comes mostly from reaction penalties, with a few extra points for minor Inconvenient Size effects. Weight should be high, so a giant might gain additional points from encumbrance.
Gigantism is often an unhealthy condition. Consider Reduced Move, low DX, or low HT, bought separately.
A suggested modifier to Bad Back's HT roll to avoid back trouble: add your Half modifier for encumbrance. Lots of weight isn't going to help those poor vertebrae!
Structural Abnormality options: none; Dwarfism; Gigantism; Bad Back; Hunchback. Related options are in Structural Soundness below.
You can breathe air or breathe water (i.e., extract oxygen from these); choose one by default, or both using Gills. (A water-breather uses oxygen-extracting membranes called gills, but for game purposes Gills is the name of an advantage allowing both air- and water-breathing.)
Respiratory medium is a 0-point default – with an exception. If you're strictly aquatic and breathe only air (no Amphibious or Gills), take Environmental Intolerance (need air) [-20]. This is a special Environmental Intolerance with its own effects. You need to hit the surface to breathe; getting trapped underwater will be fatal! Consider Oxygen Storage and Breath Holding to boost your default breath-holding ability (BS p. 122); also see Catsleep for the ability to surface on autopilot.
Dolphins and whales all have this disadvantage. (A hypothetical terrestrial-only creature that respires only in water would be in the same fix, needing to dunk its head periodically to breathe.)
Also consider Doesn't Breathe – which, by the GURPS description, is compatible with any form of breathing! The name is misleading: you do need to breathe, but do so through your skin, not with lungs.
Below is a reworked, renamed version, with cheap, skin-based breathing later:
This is a form of Decreased Life Support for air. Each level reduces your oxygen needs, using the progression x1/2, x1/5, x1/10, x1/20, x0.
Reduced Air Requirements (new)
5 points/level (max 5)
Two levels let you breathe in thin atmospheres, and four levels in trace. The fifth level is true Doesn't Breathe and removes all need for oxygen; you can be strangled but not suffocated.
Add +2 per level to rolls to resist respiratory poisons, with immunity at five levels.
Old and new options:
Filter Lungs: This helps you breathe in the good without the bad, and is useful for people or fish.
Passive Respiration: You don't have to have lungs. Passive Respiration [0] means you talk via some means other than by shaping forced air, and can't blow out birthday candles. On the good side, you probably won't have your "wind knocked out" by a gut punch, or suffer collapsed lungs from injury.
This trait is appropriate for insects that get along with a passive or convection-based network of tubes, which may or may not limit Size to about -6. On the other hand, recent research suggests active respiration via tiny balloon-like structures in some insects; if that's the excuse you needed for bus-sized bugs in your game, go for it.
Separate/Inaccessible Respiratory Intakes: Whatever the mechanism, consider the system's openings. A human has only one (actually two, nose and mouth, but they cross in the throat, and are close enough together to both be covered at the same time by an attacker). Same with a typical fish: squeezing the gills shut is like putting a hand over a human's nose and mouth. This is the 0-point default.
Separate Respiratory Intake [1] neatly separates breathing and eating intakes – no choking on food or on gags. This works for fish, alligators, etc.
Inaccessible Respiratory Intakes [2] means several separate intakes, or completely inaccessible ones. No one's going to kill you with duct tape or a pillow (well, maybe lots of tape, or a big pillow). If you have Gills, buy this separately for air and water.
Your internal intake tubes in your neck(s) are still vulnerable to crushing and so on, but see No Vulnerability: Neck.
No Respiratory Shutoff: You can't close off your intakes. No Respiratory Shutoff [-2] doesn't mean you automatically suck in water when swimming, but you can't hold breath. What's in your system is used up in one-fourth the time of held breath, after which you start suffocating. Rolls to avoid drowning might be at -2, and rolled every minute instead of 5 minutes. The GM can apply similar penalties around poison gases.
No Respiratory Shutoff goes well with Passive Respiration. A terrestrial insect combines these with Inaccessible Respiratory Intakes, for a net 0 cost.
No Breathing Shutoff: A stronger version of the above, No Breathing Shutoff [-5] means you have lungs and can't stop active breathing. You suck up poison gas with fervor and go back for more. Underwater you take in water immediately. This is obviously a lousy choice for aquatic air-breathers.
Storage traits: Incompatible with the above two disadvantages, Oxygen Storage (gives one-hour breath-holding time) and Breath Holding (each level doubles breath-holding time) let you go long without breathing. Let their effects be cumulative. Both are good choices for aquatic air-breathers.
Being able to breathe through your skin instead of the usual means is a 0-point effect: think of it as Inaccessible Respiratory Intakes [2] plus the problem that heavy clothing will hamper breathing [-2, details up to GM]. A fixed combination, such as always taking in half your air through lungs and half through skin, is also possible for no cost. Breathing through skin works in only air or water, not both, by default.
Being able to choose how you breathe is an advantage: a poison affecting one intake might not affect the other. For any one medium (air or water), call lungs or skin your norm, and add the ability to switch fully or partially to the other through Reduced Air Requirements at -80% cost.
Example: You breathe air normally through lungs [0], but can also do so through your skin. When you choose to breathe air through your skin, your lungs need only 1/5 the air [Reduced Air Requirements x2, -80% = 2]; your skin provides 4/5 requirements. (Total requirements are unchanged.)
If you add another medium to the mix, do the same but use a -60% limitation. The purchase is essentially cheap Gills:
Example: A frog breathes air through lungs [0]. Its skin doesn't help in air [0], but underwater the lungs need only provide 1/10 normal air (i.e., can hold breath 10 times as long) with the skin providing 9/10. Buy that with 3 levels of Reduced Air Requirements [15, -60% = 6].
Point accountants will note that normal lung breathing ability [0] plus full skin breathing ability in air [Reduced Air Requirements x5, -80% = 5] plus complete skin breathing in water [Reduced Air Requirements x5, -60% =10, essentially Gills] plus added lung breathing in water [Reduced Air Requirements x5, -80% = 5] gives you the same cost and effect as GURPS' Doesn't Breathe.
Default: Replace oxygen with another default requirement, as you like. This may count as a Dependency if you're off-world.
Additional Atmosphere: The ability to breathe more than one gas or atmosphere type is an advantage: Additional Atmosphere [10 per additional atmosphere type or a pure common gas (i.e., nitrogen)]. Halve cost for rare atmospheres or gases; see CII p. 136 for a bestiary of atmospheres.
Add Nuisance Effects if use of the secondary gas saddles you with problems. ("Let me clean you up, Captain; I should have told you pure carbon dioxide makes the troops hallucinatory and... uh, randy...")
Others: Anaerobic is simply a switch from oxygen to something else, with a Vulnerability to oxygen. That's a big disadvantage in human-occupied areas, but would be worth nothing in your native habitat.
A common Dependency is some substance that aids respiration. Many creatures require moist skins to efficiently absorb oxygen; a Dependency on moisture, osmotic breathing, and Slime go well together.
The effect of such a Dependency will be suffocation (first fatigue damage, then regular damage). Halve Dependency value.
Fatigue-related traits can model respiratory efficiency. (Be sure to price incremental Fatigue lower than incremental ST: cut cost to half that of incremental ST when the latter is worth 5 points or less.)
Respiration options: medium (air-breather; water-breather; Gills; Breathing Dependency (air); Breathing Dependency (water)); gas (oxygen; non-oxygen gas; Anaerobic; Additional Atmosphere); Reduced Air Requirements; intake (normal; Passive Respiration; Separate Respiratory Intake; Inaccessible Respiratory Intake; No Respiratory Shutoff; No Breathing Shutoff; osmotic breathing); breath holding (Oxygen Storage; Breath Holding); Filter Lungs; fitness options (Reduced Fatigue; Extra Fatigue; Fit; Very Fit; Unfit; Very Unfit); Dependency.
Herbivores eat plants, carnivores eat meat, omnivores eat both, and ergivores draw nutrients from the environment. Within those categories are terms to describe how you get that food, which in turn suggest appropriate behavior and traits:
Other words cover specializations: an insectivore is a bug-eating carnivore, but can be a chaser, pouncer, etc.
There's no free breakfast, lunch, or dinner in nature. Carnivores need to hunt things down. Herbivore fare is usually more plentiful and certainly more compliant, but the lower energy value means it takes a lot to make a meal. Omnivores have the luxury of choice, but usually need a balanced diet, not purely meat or greens. (A person eating only meat or only low-protein greens will have problems; get creative with nutritional disorders, or treat as very slow starvation.)
See Book 6 for basic food needs. Your base requirements are a 0-point effect.
Increased Life Support: Your food is hard to come by, or you need great quantities. Use one level of Increased Life Support per doubling of base food needs, at -10 points per level. But if you're smaller than the campaign norm, allow only -2 points per level of Increased Life Support, until food requirements reach normal levels. Even if your 1" PC eats four times what his size suggests, that's still a tiny smidgen; his big pals can stuff him to the gills with nothing more than crumbs!
Decreased Life Support: Your food is particularly plentiful, or you need very little. (Universal Digestion and Cast Iron Stomach also boost your food supply.) GURPS' 10-point cost is too expensive, the same as Doesn't Eat or Drink! Instead, let each level cost 2 points and reduce requirements using the progression x1/2, x1/5, x1/10, x1/20, x0. Five levels [10] becomes Doesn't Eat.
Restricted Diet: Here's a more tailored trait to cover unusual requirements:
This is a version of the Dependency or Increased Life Support disadvantages. You survive only on certain foods. Use the Dependency base costs (-5 points for Common foods, -10 for Occasional, etc.) but with no frequency modifier. Rather than damage as described for Dependencies, starvation rules apply when you miss meals.
Restricted Diet (new)
varies
Pandas and koalas are finicky examples that vex zookeepers. Restricted Diet is very likely in beings from another world (as is Unusual Biochemistry, but that gives you problem with local drugs, not food). Other food sources might serve in a pinch, but may be hard to obtain, hard to stomach, or low in nutritional value for you, with each "meal" counting as only a fraction of a real meal. (You can test borderline foods with the Unusual Biochemistry rules' die roll.)
For a more serious version of the disadvantage, use Delicate Metabolism.
Actual Dependencies – calcium, gold ore, fresh brains, Trix – add zest to a diet but are best suited to exotic designs.
Vampiric Dependency is a non-paranormal disorder that requires consumption of human blood (or the blood of the campaign default species); its high -50-point value stems from its Restricted Diet component, the need to murder, and the danger from torch-wielding peasants.
Diet and Digestion options: herbivore; carnivore; omnivore; ergivore; exotic (eats rocks, steel etc.); Parasite; required level of sustenance (Doesn't Eat or Drink; Decreased Life Support; Increased Life Support); diet requirements (Dependency; Delicate Metabolism; Restricted Diet; Vampiric Dependency; Universal Digestion; Cast Iron Stomach); Slow Eater; other mouth options.
Also related to your efficiency in metabolizing inputs are traits that range from the mundane (Alcohol Tolerance) to the fantastic (Altered Time Rate). Fitness modifications can stem from metabolism too (see earlier notes on high ST and the cost of Extra/Reduced Fatigue).
Other Metabolism options: normal; Slow Metabolism; Altered Time Rate; Hyper-Strength; Hyperactive; Metabolism Control; Sanitized Metabolism; Unusual Biochemistry; alcohol metabolism options (Alcohol Tolerance; Light Hangover; No Hangover; Alcohol-Related Quirks); poison metabolism options (Resistant to Poison; Immunity to Poison); fitness options (Reduced Fatigue; Extra Fatigue; Fit; Very Fit; Unfit; Very Unfit).
Our bodies are walking drug factories, churning out the chemicals that account for digestion- and metabolism-related traits. So if you've brewed up some particularly funky pharmaceuticals, why not get fangs and share with your neighbors?
Venom offers a variety of types and delivery methods (CI p. 71). A sprayed irritant venom is perfect for bombardier beetles.
If your venom doesn't affect yourself, let that be a +10% enhancement, or +20% if you also have the cloud of mist enhancement. If your venom is a racial trait and doesn't affect your own kind, that's a 0-point effect: you won't hurt yourself, but can't hurt foes within your race either.
Many poisonous creatures loudly advertise with "stay away from me" color.
Pheromones are friendlier than pesticides. Bio-Tech offers Charisma based on scent for a -20% limitation.
Many animals' flesh is poisonous. This is more payback than defense! Start with the -70% Sweated Venom limitation from CI p. 71, but rename it Passive Venom. You only deliver venom when handled excessively or bitten for damage. Add other enhancements as you like, for squirts or sprays to surprise manhandlers.
You can even build a passive contact agent: it only works when you're touched or grappled, not when you touch or grapple someone. Good luck explaining why.
Let a Passive Venom squirt attack have a range of twice your Linear Scale; the liquid hits on a 12 or less, and is Dodged at -2. Adjust as appropriate: a hand sticking a knife in you, or a biting mouth, is likely to get splashed automatically!
Variable Dose Passive Venom: Give as good as you get! With this variant of the Passive Venom limitation, the dose you deliver depends on how badly you get hurt.
You deliver a full dose of ingested venom when bit for half your HP in damage. One-quarter HP damage delivers half a dose, and less damage means no delivery. Full HP damage delivers two doses, and twice HP damage delivers four doses. A foe who actually eats you takes a quintuple dose of poison (also the max he can take from any amount of biting or contact).
Squirts and sprays work the same: the amount released is determined by the amount you're hurt. Let that be a variable dose, as above, or a fixed, full dose with a variable range/radius. Choose one at the time of design.
A contact agent delivers a full dose of venom when you're hit with a grapple; lesser touching delivers less damage, while a full-body naked grapple would deliver multiple doses.
This variant uses Passive Venom's -70% limitation value. But halve the value of additional venom enhancements. Contact venom becomes a +35% enhancement, squirted venom a +20% (rounded up), and sprayed venom a +50%. You'll get fun out of these enhancements only when you're getting killed, so a lower cost is fair. Revenge is cheap!
Example: Hard-shelled, carnivorous aliens have acid blood that splashes dangerously when they're injured (3 levels of corrosive venom). Take the -70% Variable Dose Passive Venom limitation and tack on a half-cost Squirt enhancement for +20%, leaving a net -50%. The harder you blast 'em, the worse they spew!
Here's a new advantage stemming from an internal chemical reaction:
You can emit flashes of light, useful for signaling or illumination. Decide which body part(s) shine, or whether your whole body does. For 5 points you have a "Size -10" glow, where Linear Scale for that Size is the distance at which the light allows reading. Each additional point adds 3 to this "Size", up to 10 points (Size +5).
Bioluminescence (new)
varies
Beyond 10 points, you're putting out blinding light. Each extra point in Bioluminescence increases the light's "Size" by only 1, not 3. Take your "reading light distance"; anyone within x1/50 that range will be hit by a blinding flash of light, those within x1/10 that range may be affected (GM call), and those within x1/5 that range are only affected slightly, and then only on a failed HT roll. See Flash attack (CI p.72) for effects. (Yes, 15 points of Bioluminescence is this Flash attack.)
To spot bioluminescent light at night, make a Vision roll, with modifiers for Range and the light's "Size". Reverse penalties for darkness, so that total darkness gives a +10! Add +6 for a flash, as the eye catches movement easily.
Round things out with limitations: a firefly has 5 or so points of Bioluminescence with Takes Recharge [-10%]. Take a -20% for Always On if you can't turn off your light; you're continually flashing or shining!
Enhancement: Your can choose to shine steadily. This is much more useful than a quick flash for reading or exploring! +20%.
Enhancement: You can reduce the power of your light output. This is useful for signaling a nearby friend without alerting faraway enemies, or lighting up a room without blinding everyone! +20%.
Enhancement: You can shine from any or all body parts, as you choose. +10%. This goes well with the above variable-output enhancement.
Enhancement: You can flash quickly enough to send Morse code, if you have the skill. As blinding flash attacks, these pulses still count as one attack per turn. +10%.
Enhancement: You can shape your light into a beam. This makes the light a DX-based attack to "hit" a target, but increases its "Size" by 3 in that direction only. +20%, or no enhancement if you can only make a beam.
Enhancement: You shine in some spectrum other than visible light, such as Infrared or ultraviolet. This is a 0-point effect. If you can shine in visible light and other spectrums, that's a +20% enhancement per additional spectrum. (If your spectrum adds powerful capabilities – like cooking foes with microwaves – that'll cost a lot more, as the GM decides.)
Enhancement: You can control your frequency within your spectrum(s). Within the visible light spectrum, you can shine with any color of the rainbow. +20%, or +30% for the ability to emit multiple frequencies at once (to make a shower of rainbow-colored light, for example).
Replace the Illuminate superpower with Bioluminescence if you like, and rename the whole thing Light for a simpler name.
Chemical Production options: normal; Drug Factory; Pheromone Control; Venom; Bad Smell; Bioluminescence; Charisma (scent-based: -20%).
You have a default "comfort zone" of about 55° and worth no points, even if you center the range on a bizarre temperature. Temperature Tolerance extends that zone in one direction by HT degrees per level.
Sea creatures may need to set their comfort zone low for cold waters, but have little need for Temperature Tolerance. Nowhere in the open ocean does water temperature vary by more than 15° throughout the year.
Intolerance: Temperature Intolerance is quite possible, due to low body fat on the cold end, and lack of a sweating or panting mechanism on the warm end. Shrink your comfort zone by 5° for every -2 points. For -20 points, you have an extremely narrow comfort zone of only 5°!
Temperature Intolerance is appropriate for many fish, who are easily harmed by temperature fluctuations. Migratory fish should maintain a fairly wide comfort zone, though.
Advanced rule: Book 6 offers a rule that treats heat loss in water more realistically. It triples any temperature difference between water temperature and a creature's optimal environmental temperature, for purposes of comparison with "comfort zone".
The rule gives swimmers a narrow effective comfort zone even without using Temperature Intolerance; Temperature Tolerance will be important for far-ranging fish! (Note: this rule makes no change in the "stiffen-up" temperature of Cold-Blooded creatures; that's based on absolute temperature.)
A creature either regulates its temperature internally (warm-blooded) or does not (Cold-Blooded). Mammals and birds are warm-blooded endotherms, while lower creatures are cold-blooded ectotherms – but don't feel too bound by that. A popular theory holds that dinosaurs were warm-blooded, and zoologists note that some large fish have heat exchange mechanisms so efficient they're effectively warm-blooded.
Cold-Blooded life: If cold-blooded, you eat less (x1/3 default levels for game purposes) and may be able to drop into "suspended animation" torpor to survive cold. As long as you don't freeze solid, the GM should let you ride out long freezes with little damage and even lower food, air, and water needs than usual. (Cold-based attacks affect you normally!)
Cold-blooded creatures can maintain a remarkably even body temperature by varying their behavior and using sun and shade. You can raise your internal temperature by sunning yourself or lazing on a hot rock – say, a 5° rise after (your MAR x 30) minutes of warming. Large wings, a sail, etc. will help you to catch the rays, lowering MAR.
Once you're warmed up, you may need to find shade to recover Fatigue after prolonged activity. Too much solar heating will harm you more than it will an endotherm, as you can't sweat it off (consider Temperature Intolerance on the warm end).
Technical notes: Temperature Tolerance to cold expands the bottom end of a Cold-Blooded design's comfort zone, but doesn't affect the "stiffen up" temperature below which it slows down.
Note that many fish make their homes in waters colder than this "stiffen-up" temperatures! Solve this oddity with a free tradeoff: trade up to 15° of high-end Temperature Intolerance for an equal reduction in Cold-Blooded's stiffen-up temperature. This lets the fish live normally in their natural cold environments.
Temperature Tolerance paired with Cold-Blooded is likely due to an internal effect, rather than the aid of fur, feathers, or blubber – these forms of insulation would hamper vital use of the environment to control body temperature.
Small creatures lose heat much more quickly than large ones do. They make up for this by burning proportionately more fuel, i.e., eating a lot. This is built into the Size trait; see other notes in Book 6.
Other heat- and energy-saving tricks used by small creatures include careful use of the environment (above), long periods of sleep or inactivity, fat stored on the surface (beef is marbled; chicken meat is lean with fatty skin), and feathers or thick fur.
These modifications don't necessarily add Temperature Tolerance; rather, they prevent Temperature Intolerance, Reduced Fatigue, etc.! Use them if you want to give a small design a realistic feel. But below the several-gram weight of a shrew or hummingbird, even these tricks aren't enough to maintain proper heat; there's no choice but to go cold-blooded.
Thermal Regulation options: warm-blooded; Cold-Blooded; comfort zone (location of zone; Temperature Tolerance; Temperature Intolerance).
Set HT as you like. Wild animals likely have HT above 10 in order to survive, but anything over 15 should be extremely unusual. Don't confuse HT with HP; you want HP to vary with size, but not necessarily HT.
Extra/Reduced Hit Points and DR (or Toughness) also represent structural soundness. DR is usually described as natural armor. Toughness is more of an "internal" damage resistance, and a better choice than DR for dense or "rubbery" flesh.
For now, just set the "base HP" and "base DR" your creature would have if it were human-sized (see Book 1 for details). Scale HP and DR for size later. (Let Toughness scale too: a Giant should be allowed an appropriately scaled level of Toughness.)
Cost: Book 1 suggested optional pricing for DR, Toughness, and Extra Hit Points to address players' complaints with the relative costs of these advantages. A recap:
Extra Hit Points cost 5 points for one level, 10 points for two levels, and 2 points per additional level.
Toughness and DR share an identical cost: 10 points for one level, 25 points for two levels, and 3 points per additional level.
See Book 1 for further notes, including costs under GURPS' "ST=HP" option. Also see more on DR below.
Injury tolerance traits like No Neck or No Brain are renamed in GULLIVER to "No Vulnerability: type". This is clarify their effect: the parts may or may not exist, but it's the indicated vulnerability that the trait removes.
For extra, non-human vulnerabilities, use Reduced Hit Points, Fragile, Vulnerability, Weakness, etc.
Here are yet more ways to hurt yourself:
Your internal vital organs are exceptionally delicate, or extend unusually far throughout your body.
Injury Intolerance (new)
varies
- Any head hit is treated as a vitals hit [-5]
- Any head hit is treated as a brain hit [-10]
- Any body hit is treated as a vitals hit [-15]
- Any body vitals hit is treated as a brain hit [-15]
- Any body hit is treated as a brain hit (ouch!) [-30]
- Appendage hits are treated as torso hits (does extra impaling/bullet damage; vitals can be targeted at -3 in addition to the appendage TH penalty) [-10]
- Appendage hits are treated as vitals hits [-15]
- Appendage hits are treated as brain hits [-20]
Halve the value of Injury Intolerance in appendages if only one set is affected (legs but not arms, for example).
Apply appropriate effects: a non-brain target treated as a brain hit uses brain-like damage multipliers and stun effects (although it gains no free skull DR).
The worst combination you can come up with is treating any hit as a brain hit: head [-10], body [-30], and appendages [-20]. That nets you a big -60 points, but your first pillow fight may be your last.
No Vulnerability: Vitals removes your vulnerability to groin, kidney, and "generic" vitals targets. That includes the heart, which is treated on CII p. 53. (Book 5 suggests minor changes in heart size stats.)
Weak heart: Here's a common human ailment:
You may not have HT over 13. You suffer -1 on all HT rolls for aging and to resist physical stress, including the effects of high gravity or acceleration, or unconsciousness or death from wounds. A critical failure on any such roll will trigger a heart attack in you, in addition to normal effects. Rolls to recover from serious internal injury (including heart attacks!) are also at -1.
Weak Heart (new)
-10/15 points
Also roll vs HT to avoid heart attack in any situation of extreme mental stress (GM call). Fright Checks would be the main culprit. Make a HT roll at +5 , subtracting one-half the amount by which the Fright Check was missed. Also check vs HT +5 when Fatigue is reduced to one-half or less from physical (or spellcasting!) strain; check HT again at +3 if reduced to one-third, and check straight HT if Fatigue is reduced to zero.
Finally, treat any damage to the heart as double for purposes of HT rolls to avoid heart attacks (see Book 6 and CI p. 53).
Weak Heart is worth -10 points. A -15-point Very Weak Heart works the same, but the above -1 on certain HT rolls becomes a -2, and the above HT rolls to avoid heart attacks take a -4.
Organ size: As special effect, any specific vital organ can be made smaller to decrease target size, while increasing vulnerability if it is hit. Larger size has opposite effects. See "Brain Size" below for notes.
Another bit of weirdness:
Impaling or bullet damage "blows through" your form easily, most likely because you're flat and thin. Each level cuts "blowthrough" HP for all locations, reducing the damage that affects you.
Reduced Blowthrough (new)
5 points/level
Level
1
2
3
4
5
6
Reduction
x2/3
x1/2
x1/3
x1/5
x1/7
x1/10
To vary blowthrough by location, cut the level cost to 3 points for the body (but not head!), and 2 points for all appendages. See "Appendage HP" to modify individual appendages.
Modifiers for body location, big bullets, etc. still apply before blowing through, and you take normal damage from cutting and crushing blows, flame, etc. (The No Impaling Bonus advantage doesn't negate Modified Blowthrough; arrows fly through you with lessened flesh damage, and that wound hurts you only like crushing damage.)
Limitation: Attacks from certain angles or to certain locations ignore your Reduced Blowthrough. Details are up to you, but generally foes can make those blows by taking a TH penalty. Limitation value is -80% for foes' -1 TH, -60% for a -2, -40% for -3, -20% for -4, and no limitation for -5 or worse.
Increased Blowthrough: For -1 point per level, your blowthrough damage level increases using the progression x1.5, x2, x3, x5. At -5 points, you have No Blowthrough: damage never blows through.
Structural Soundness options: HT; general bulk and soundness (Extra Hit Points; Reduced Hit Points); damage resistance (DR; Toughness); Extra Stun; Hard to Kill; Injury Tolerance (No Vulnerability: Blood; No Vulnerability: Brain; No Cutting/Impaling Bonus; No Vulnerability: Neck; No Vulnerability: Vitals); Modified Blowthrough (Reduced Blowthrough; Increased Blowthrough); weaknesses (Weak Heart; Injury Intolerance; Fragile; Vulnerability; Weakness).
High Pain Threshold is a popular GURPS advantage, very powerful for its cost. Below is a stricter reworking in which increased tolerance brings its own troubles. Nature gave us a sense of pain for a reason...
High Pain Threshold comes in three levels, all with the same point cost:
High Pain Threshold (revised)
10 points
High Pain Threshold: Halve the pain and shock from any injury (or alternately, subtract 3 points; pick one method and stick with it). Take a +3 on rolls to resist torture, stunning, or other pain effects. This is an appropriate advantage for tough people and tough animals like wild boars.
Very High Pain Threshold: You feel almost no pain! As above, but quarter pain and shock (or alternately, subtract 6), and take +6 on appropriate rolls. Wounds do not reduce Move and Dodge until HP are below zero, and rolls to avoid unconsciousness from injuries are at +2. Very High Pain Threshold sounds right for sharks and lower life forms.
The downside: the GM secretly tracks damage. Wounds may not even be noticed during battle, and diseases may go unnoticed until symptoms other than pain appear.
A check over and Diagnosis roll can determine current HP. You will not instinctively favor injured areas; take a -2 penalty to healing rolls and rolls to resist long-term crippling. Also take a -2 penalty to rolls to reflexively avoid pain (such as a DX roll to remove your hand from a hot stove before taking damage).
No Pain: You feel no pain and suffer no shock penalties or Move or DX loss from wounds. Take +4 on rolls to avoid unconsciousness from wounds (or do so automatically, at the GM's option). But you won't notice wounds other than by sight or from the feel of impact; even a Diagnosis roll will only give you a rough idea of your state. Disease may go unnoticed dangerously long. Healing and crippling rolls as described above are at -4. Rolls to reflexively avoid painful stiimuli are also at -4, or fail automatically.
No Pain is best suited to undead creatures. With the exception of temporary berserk states, this rare condition is deadly when it appears as a human defect!
The "macho chip" from Cyberpunk and Ultra-Tech confers No Pain, but could be built to offer a lesser version.
Pain Tolerance options: normal; high pain tolerance (High Pain Threshold; Very High Pain Threshold; No Pain); Low Pain Threshold.
Use the following to represent high or low immunity:
Immune System options: HT; Disease-Resistant; Immunity to Disease; Panimmunity; Weak Immune System; Cyber-Rejection; Vulnerability; Weakness; Dependency.
Many non-humans enjoy resistance to radiation (CII p. 148). PCs can purchase those benefits as follows:
You're hardened to the effects of radiation. Each level gives you a Protection Factor (PF), using the progression PF x2, x3, x5, x7, x10, x20, x30, x50, etc. Five levels give you PF 10, etc.
Radiation Tolerance (new)
1 point/level
Divide rads of exposure by PF, per CII p. 145; you can also divide time exposed to sunlight by PF for purposes of sunburn. (Or for minor hazards like sunburn, let the first 5 levels each add +1 to HT rolls to resist effects; 6 or more levels make you immune to such trivia.)
Radiation Intolerance: Multiply the effective rads of an exposure using the progression above, for -0.5 points per level (maximum 10 levels). The maximum -5 points multiplies exposures by 100.
Radiation Intolerance would also boost the effects of the low-level radiation we all receive every day. But rather than calculate daily rads, simulate these long-term effects with a lower HT. Save the actual rules for space trips and core meltdowns.
Radiation Tolerance options: none; Radiation Tolerance; Radiation Intolerance.
They say getting there is half the fun – but not when you're heaving over the side of the deck. Movement and gravity can really play with that inner ear.
GURPS' many intolerances to motion and travel can all be subsumed into a Weakness disadvantage. Cost ranges from -2 to -20 points, depending on severity; see Timesickness for a guide. Severe stunning, or an HT roll to avoid incapacitation and vomiting (and possibly choking) is worth -10 points (see Motion Sickness, Free Sick, and Space Sickness).
The value of Timesickness and immunity to it will change depending on default time travel effects set by the GM.
Using these guidelines, you can develop sicknesses stemming from other sources – hyperspace travel, strong magnetic fields, etc. A simple -3 HT penalty to avoid some normal bad effect might be worth only -2 points (though GURPS awards Acceleration Weakness -5 points, presumably for fighter jock campaigns).
GURPS offers Acceleration Tolerance and Immunity to Timesickness, but lacks counterparts for a couple other weaknesses. If you like, invent a Space Sickness Tolerance: 1 point per +1 on rolls to avoid sickness and choking, up to 10 points for absolute immunity. Free Sick Tolerance would work similarly.
And while typical vehicle rides cause no trouble for normal people, anyone may need to roll against HT to keep from summoning lunch while on camelback, a runaway roller coaster, or a storm-tossed ship. For stronger stomachs, build a Motion Sickness Tolerance as above but at half cost – sickness rolls for Earthbound PCs won't come as often as they do for spacers, and the sickness won't usually be as deadly.
Improved G-Tolerance and G-Intolerance deal with resisting the effects of unusual gravity.
Motion and Gravity Tolerance options: HT; acceleration options (Acceleration Tolerance; Acceleration Weakness); motion options (Motion Tolerance; Motion Sickness); gravity options (Improved G-Tolerance; G-Intolerance; Free Sick/Space Sickness Tolerance; Free Sick/Space Sickness); time travel options (Immunity to Timesickness; Timesickness).
Pressure's no fun, but a lack of it can hurt too! Effects of high pressure are detailed on CII p. 144, and vacuum on p. 149.
Choose your native pressure level; this is worth no points, no matter how extreme it is. For humans, native pressure is 1 atmosphere. Underwater, pressure increases by 1 atmosphere every 10 yards down (in Earth gravity).
Like Temperature Tolerance and the local temperature, Pressure Support extends your "native" pressure comfort range in either direction.
Pressure Support (revised)
1 point/level
Each level of Pressure Support in the high direction lets you handle additional pressure using the progression x2, x3, x5, x7, x10, x20, x30, x50, x70, x100, etc. 5 points lets you handle 10 times native pressure, 10 points 100 times, and so on.
Pressure Support in the low direction uses the above multipliers as divisors, but 5 levels beyond support for 1 atmosphere lets you handle any pressure down to vacuum, removing the dangers of explosive decompression in space. (The cold and lack of air are totally separate problems!)
Example: A spacefaring humanoid might have 5 levels of low Pressure Support, allowing safety in vacuum. A seafaring humanoid might have 5 or more levels in high Pressure Support for deep dives.
Example: A fish in the deepest part of the sea might have 1000(!) atmospheres as its native pressure. That's worth nothing, but if it can also travel to the surface without ill effects, that'd be worth 15 points. (Unfortunately, most deep-sea fishies seem to have invested their points elsewhere... pop!)
Respiration: Assume Pressure Support lets you inhale and exhale in atmospheres of the appropriate pressure, if there is anything to breathe. For a human, two levels in the high pressure direction allows breathing in dense atmospheres, four levels in very dense. Superdense atmospheres will require at least five levels.
Low Pressure Support is useful even on Earth for climbers or fliers. Let each level add 3000 feet to altitude ceiling (CII p. 132) and confer +2 on HT rolls to prevent altitude sickness. Two levels allow breathing in thin atmospheres, four levels in trace atmospheres. But even with five levels, Earth birds hit a ceiling above 30,000 feet where there's not atmosphere for breathing and flying. (For fliers, you might want to rename the trait Altitude Support.)
But in all cases, just because you can physically inhale and exhale normally doesn't mean an exotic atmosphere isn't poison to you, or that a thin one offers enough oxygen to keep you alive! See Reduced Air Requirements for help here.
Put together an appropriate package of traits to survive in vacuum; this replaces both the Vacuum Support and Vacuum Adaptation advantages in GURPS.
Vacuum Support (revised)
varies (package)
Unless you bring along external air or have long-lasting internal stores, true Doesn't Breathe [25] is a must. Pressure Support for vacuum is also essential [5 if you can handle Earth atmosphere as well, or 0 if you can only handle vacuum]. You don't really need high Pressure Support unless you plan to buzz dense atmospheres.
Take at least 10 levels of Temperature Tolerance against cold [10], or set your comfort zone way down toward the Kelvin zero region. Take lots of Radiation Tolerance – the more the better, but 10 levels is a good start [10].
Those are the basics, worth 50 points (55 with the additional Pressure Support). You'll probably want to add some sort of vacuum mobility, and maybe some DR to simulate a toughened hide.
Pressure and Altitude Tolerance options: normal; Pressure Support; Vacuum Support.
HT handles the basics nicely, while additional traits run the gamut from improved healing to out-and-out return from the dead!
A quick suggestion for Rapid Healing and Very Rapid Healing: let the former add +5 to healing rolls and the latter +10. Let success by 10+ points on the HT roll heal 2 points of damage, success by 20+ points heal 3 points, etc.
Regeneration and Recovery options: HT; Slow Healing; Rapid Healing; Very Rapid Healing; Recovery; Regeneration (Slow; Regular; Fast; Instant); Regrowth; Resurrection.
Sleep is included under Health and Resilience as it's a "recovery period" required by the body for... well, we're not exactly sure yet what it's for, but we like it all the same.
If you're diurnal you're active by day, and if nocturnal you're up and about by night. This is by preference or instinct. Either is a 0-point effect.
Nocturnal (capitalized) is a game trait that shuts down your body and mind by day! Feel free to invent a Diurnal counterpart.
Less Sleep and Extra Sleep affect how many hours of shuteye you need per night, and are appropriate for individual characters. Reduced Sleep and Doesn't Sleep are definitely nonhuman, and Sleepy is useful for creatures that sleep more than humans (like cats) or need to shut down for extended periods (like hibernating creatures).
Traits affecting quality of sleep are included here too. Deep Sleeper lets you wake up refreshed; Light Sleeper and Insomniac will make you red-eyed and grouchy. If you have Sleepwalker, don't sleep nude and don't camp by a cliff...