{pulp/star hero world building} Birds and spiders

[JmOz]

For my flash gordon like world

 

I want help with two races I want to create

 

The first is a avian race based on pigeons, I am thinking that they should have some kind of "Find home" ability, probably some kind of bonus to navigation or something

 

The second is a race of spider like insects

 

Thought, comments, ideas, all will be stolen shamelessly

[Captain Obvious]

Re: {pulp/star hero world building} Birds and spiders

 

The beautiful thing, for GMs, about this genre is that you can throw together a basic race, and it's totally genre-appropriate to just throw in a previously unrevealed power at an opportune moment.

 

With that in mind, I'd go with the animal-men from the sci-fi section of the Bestiary, and add powers as needed.

[SCUBA Hero]

Re: {pulp/star hero world building} Birds and spiders

 

Bump Of Direction, Only To Find Home (or alternately, Only To Find Places Previously Visited).

[Midas]

Re: {pulp/star hero world building} Birds and spiders

 

For the Spider People: high strength, clinging, entangle generation, a psy limit: Guilt Trip...

 

OK, levity out of the way, what are you looking for?

 

Drider type creatures? Something more like an animal Doc Ock?

Humanoid except for faceted eyes? Do the females eat the males -before, during, or after?

 

 

Would they have web casting or just web building (or none of the above?). Are entangles limited to out of combat, in other words.

Touch at range, limited to the web.

360 degree vision.

Extra limbs.

Prolly a social limitation (ugly and scary by human standards).

architechure as an inherent "every spidey" skill?

 

Re the pigeon people: (OK, Real World Intrusion ) How big are they? Can they fly? Human size, and wingspan of say six feet? Morphology-are they built like pigeons, or more human like?

 

Just throwing out things to consider,

Midas

[JmOz]

Re: {pulp/star hero world building} Birds and spiders

 

For the Spider People: high strength, clinging, entangle generation, a psy limit: Guilt Trip...

 

OK, levity out of the way, what are you looking for?

 

Drider type creatures? Something more like an animal Doc Ock?

Humanoid except for faceted eyes? Do the females eat the males -before, during, or after?

 

 

Would they have web casting or just web building (or none of the above?). Are entangles limited to out of combat, in other words.

Touch at range, limited to the web.

360 degree vision.

Extra limbs.

Prolly a social limitation (ugly and scary by human standards).

architechure as an inherent "every spidey" skill?

 

Re the pigeon people: (OK, Real World Intrusion ) How big are they? Can they fly? Human size, and wingspan of say six feet? Morphology-are they built like pigeons, or more human like?

 

Just throwing out things to consider,

Midas

 

WOW, great questions, well I posted the pidgeon PC tonight, so take a look, yes about a 6-8' wing span, looks like a Thangarian from the DCU, with more feathers, I figure they are slightly smaller than humans (About 4'10" to 5'6" being a good range)

 

Not familiar with the Drider refrence, but I ma thinking that they will look something akin to a spider/centar type thing, basicaly spider body with a humanoid torso, thinking 4 legs & 4 arms, 2 with Snapper claws, as for web spinning thinking of for the most part giveing them a tech weapon for it, I do see them eating other races...

[Hermit]

Re: {pulp/star hero world building} Birds and spiders

 

Culture wise, I think it might be kind of cool/creepy to have the spider race consider themselves ultra civilized, ever so concerned with manners, propriety, and so forth. Being Spiderlike, and therefore by nature solitary, their society has been forced to adapt certain mores and means of interacting with each other as delicate and complex as the webs spiders weave. An invited guest might be perfectly safe (Despite Aesop fable warnings to the contrary) while an intruder? Well, such rude gatecrashers get what is coming to them. They are the sort of people that might rationalize dining on sentients with a variety of seemingly well reasoned excuses.

[Zindil]

Re: {pulp/star hero world building} Birds and spiders

 

I would consider making the spider people more anthropomorphic to maintain that pulpy feel to the setting. Maybe make them human looking with black furry bodies, red eyes, and spider-like fangs. The reason why I say this is that it seems to me that most pulp sci-fi settings do not have aliens that are too different from humans physiologically speaking. You make them feel alien by their weird culture and maybe make them feed on other sentient races.

[JmOz]

Re: {pulp/star hero world building} Birds and spiders

 

this is what I have for the spider guards

 

Spider Guard

 

Player:

 

Val Char Cost

15 STR 5

12 DEX 6

13 CON 6

10 BODY 0

8 INT -2

8 EGO -4

10 PRE 0

10 COM 0

 

5/7 PD 2

5/7 ED 2

3 SPD 8

6 REC 0

26 END 0

25 STUN 0

 

6" RUN 0

2" SWIM 0

3" LEAP 0

Characteristics Cost: 23

 

Cost Power

5 Damage Resistance (5 PD/5 ED)

10 Clinging (normal STR)

5 Increased Arc Of Perception (360 Degrees) with Normal Sight

5 Extra Limbs (4)

8 HKA 1/2d6 (1d6+1 w/STR) (vs. PD), Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1/2) (15 Active Points); Restrainable (-1/2), Reduced Penetration (-1/4)

Powers Cost: 33

 

 

Cost Skill

3 +1 With Spider guard Weapons

4 WF: Common Melee Weapons, Small Arms

Skills Cost: 7

 

 

 

Cost Equipment (Equipment costs do not actually figure in Total Cost. They are included here for reference only.)

PPD: (Total: 14 Active Cost, 9 Real Cost) Armor (2 PD/2 ED) (6 Active Points); OIF (-1/2) (Real Cost: 4) plus LS (Extended Breathing: 1 END per Turn; Safe in High Pressure; Safe in Intense Cold; Safe in Intense Heat; Safe in Low Pressure/Vacuum) (8 Active Points); OIF (-1/2) (Real Cost: 5)

Spider-Pike: (Total: 37 Active Cost, 25 Real Cost) HKA 1 1/2d6 (2d6 w/STR) (vs. PD), Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1/2) (37 Active Points); STR Minimum 10 (-1/2) (Real Cost: 25)

Laser Pistol: RKA 2d6 (vs. ED) (30 Active Points); OAF (-1), 12 Charges (-1/4), Beam (-1/4)

Web Gun: Entangle 2d6, 4 DEF (30 Active Points); OAF (-1), 8 Charges (-1/2), Beam (-1/4)

Total Character Cost: 63

 

Pts. Disadvantage

25 Psych. Lim.: Loyal to the Spiderqueen (Very Common, Total)

Disadvantage Points: 25

Base Points: 75

Experience Required: 0

Total Experience Available: 0

Experience Unspent: 0

[Steel Legs]

Re: {pulp/star hero world building} Birds and spiders

 

About the pigeon-people; do you want fictional "homing pigeons" or realistic ones?

 

Fictional: Bump of Direction with the SFX it points to "home" not "north".

 

Realistic: Limited Eidetic Memory. Most folx don't know this, but a homing pigeon memorizes landmarks. So it has to see everything as it's taken wherever, and it has to fly low enough to see them on the way back. That's why that stopped being used in war. From the US Civil War on semiauto rifles got common enough soldiers had a good chance to shoot down homing pigeons. From WW I on automatic firearms just about guaranteed it.

 

The fictional model would be easier to play, IMHO.

[Midas]

Re: {pulp/star hero world building} Birds and spiders

 

A drider is a high level DnD monster, a spider centaur. Elf from the waist up, eight legged spider body below.

 

Back at ya: "Thangarians"? "DCU"?

 

The write up looks ok, I'd suggest one minor change. Swim = 0, buy it back with the armor/LS suit. However, it might be more fun to have them be "water spiders" and have air a somewhat hostile environment. Or are there various subspecies?

 

Oh, and PRE & COM unchanged? With no social DV (while they may be "normal" to other spider people, presumably they will be interacting with humans). Even if they don't get a looks DV, should they have a rep to live up or down to?

 

Also, these seem a bit...orcish. High phys stats, low mental ones, slavish loyalty to hive mother (as the local avatar of all things evil?), they seem ready made as cannon fodder NPCs. I'd suggest some guidance on how they might be played. Give a mildly interested player some reason to play one.

 

Midas

[Midas]

Re: {pulp/star hero world building} Birds and spiders

 

As for the homing pigeonoids, definately go with the pulp "mystical awareness" rather than the more prosaic choice. Esp if the homing ability works over interstellar distances. (BTW, did you post the race somewhere? I haven't seen it). If it works over light years, then either it is a mystical ability, or the race can detect minute changes in constellations, and intuitively compute ...can't think of the word (and dictionary/thesaurus is no help ) something similar to parallax: The ability to determine an object's location from comparing its location and direction from "here" as opposed to "there." Come to think of it, having that as an intuitive ability would be pretty cool.

 

I'm not sure I'm getting the idea across, here's an example. Suppose our pigeonoid stood on earth, and memorized Ursa Minor. He then travelled ten light years directly toward Polaris. He would notice the tiny lengthening of the Little Bear's tail, and intuitively know how far he'd travelled, and in what direction, from Earth; by the differences in the angles between the stars of the Little Bear where he was, as opposed to from Earth.

 

Midas

[JmOz]

Re: {pulp/star hero world building} Birds and spiders

 

A drider is a high level DnD monster, a spider centaur. Elf from the waist up, eight legged spider body below.

 

Back at ya: "Thangarians"? "DCU"?

 

The write up looks ok, I'd suggest one minor change. Swim = 0, buy it back with the armor/LS suit. However, it might be more fun to have them be "water spiders" and have air a somewhat hostile environment. Or are there various subspecies?

 

Oh, and PRE & COM unchanged? With no social DV (while they may be "normal" to other spider people, presumably they will be interacting with humans). Even if they don't get a looks DV, should they have a rep to live up or down to?

 

Also, these seem a bit...orcish. High phys stats, low mental ones, slavish loyalty to hive mother (as the local avatar of all things evil?), they seem ready made as cannon fodder NPCs. I'd suggest some guidance on how they might be played. Give a mildly interested player some reason to play one.

 

Midas

 

ohh sorry, should have said something earlier,

 

The spiders are primarily going to be cannon fodder, at least to star with

[JmOz]

Re: {pulp/star hero world building} Birds and spiders

 

As for the homing pigeonoids, definately go with the pulp "mystical awareness" rather than the more prosaic choice. Esp if the homing ability works over interstellar distances. (BTW, did you post the race somewhere? I haven't seen it). If it works over light years, then either it is a mystical ability, or the race can detect minute changes in constellations, and intuitively compute ...can't think of the word (and dictionary/thesaurus is no help ) something similar to parallax: The ability to determine an object's location from comparing its location and direction from "here" as opposed to "there." Come to think of it, having that as an intuitive ability would be pretty cool.

 

I'm not sure I'm getting the idea across, here's an example. Suppose our pigeonoid stood on earth, and memorized Ursa Minor. He then travelled ten light years directly toward Polaris. He would notice the tiny lengthening of the Little Bear's tail, and intuitively know how far he'd travelled, and in what direction, from Earth; by the differences in the angles between the stars of the Little Bear where he was, as opposed to from Earth.

 

Midas

 

no but I did post a member of it, pidge

 

basicaly it was

+5 dex

+ 1 speed

-2 con

-2 str

-1 body

 

A 12 Ap MP with flight and gliding, with restrainable

240 degree vision

+2 Sight Per

+4 Sight Telescopic

Bump of direction

and 9 points in Navigation

[JmOz]

Re: {pulp/star hero world building} Birds and spiders

 

A drider is a high level DnD monster, a spider centaur. Elf from the waist up, eight legged spider body below.

 

Back at ya: "Thangarians"? "DCU"?

 

The write up looks ok, I'd suggest one minor change. Swim = 0, buy it back with the armor/LS suit. However, it might be more fun to have them be "water spiders" and have air a somewhat hostile environment. Or are there various subspecies?

 

Oh, and PRE & COM unchanged? With no social DV (while they may be "normal" to other spider people, presumably they will be interacting with humans). Even if they don't get a looks DV, should they have a rep to live up or down to?

 

Also, these seem a bit...orcish. High phys stats, low mental ones, slavish loyalty to hive mother (as the local avatar of all things evil?), they seem ready made as cannon fodder NPCs. I'd suggest some guidance on how they might be played. Give a mildly interested player some reason to play one.

 

Midas

 

 

RE: thangarians and DCU

 

DCU means DC Universe, or the universe existing in the comics produced by DC comics

 

Thanagarian is a world in the DCU, best known for Hawkman and Hawkgirl. It should be noted that in the comics the wings are like jetpacks, but for the bird race here it is part of them

[Midas]

Re: {pulp/star hero world building} Birds and spiders

 

DCU: Dark Champions Unlimited?

 

Damage Classes Ultimate?

 

RE: thangarians and DCU

 

DCU means DC Universe, or the universe existing in the comics produced by DC comics

 

Thanagarian is a world in the DCU, best known for Hawkman and Hawkgirl. It should be noted that in the comics the wings are like jetpacks, but for the bird race here it is part of them

 

 

Shoulda known that. Oddly enough, only since the Warner animations have I had much interest in DC universe. To make it even more ":doi:," Hawkgirl was my favorite from JL (Always preferred the "No problem too big for a bigger hammer" outlook ). Biggest "Hmnn, interesting, but...hmnnn" was making Wondie the New Kid.

 

Re the Pidgeonoids, does the homing/nav skill work only on planetside or can it be used for interstellar nav, as mentioned above?

 

Midas

[JmOz]

Re: {pulp/star hero world building} Birds and spiders

 

DCU: Dark Champions Unlimited?

 

Damage Classes Ultimate?

 

 

 

 

Shoulda known that. Oddly enough, only since the Warner animations have I had much interest in DC universe. To make it even more ":doi:," Hawkgirl was my favorite from JL (Always preferred the "No problem too big for a bigger hammer" outlook ). Biggest "Hmnn, interesting, but...hmnnn" was making Wondie the New Kid.

 

Re the Pidgeonoids, does the homing/nav skill work only on planetside or can it be used for interstellar nav, as mentioned above?

 

Midas

 

we are using the sidekick skill system, so navigation works for land, air, see, and space (and even interdimensional with how I am running FTL), does it make scientific sense, umm no, but then this is very pulpish setting