What's new
  • If you were supposed to get an email from the forum but didn't (e.g. to verify your account for registration), email Wes at [email protected] or talk to me on Discord for help. Sometimes the server hits our limit of emails we can send per hour.
  • Get in our Discord chat! Discord.gg/stararmy
  • 📅 May and June 2024 are YE 46.4 in the RP.

NEW RACE: The Gahls

S

Scott

Inactive Member
Physical:

The Gahls closely resemble human children; oversized heads, potbellies, pudgy limbs and extremities. Most Gahl stand about 1.22 meters (4 ft.) in height. Thin layers of fat cover nearly all portions of the body. They are indeed childish in appearance, but are actually dexterous and coordinated. Lithe digits move with the skill of a jeweler. Small facial features are usually associated with the Gahl. The eyes are generally much larger than an average Caucasian human male. Ocular muscles are toned to allow a zoom function.

Having being evolved from organisms classified as prey, the Gahls have lingering traits of such organisms. The eyes have already been described above. Other traits include: enhanced hearing and olfactory senses, biochromatic skin pigment (changeable camouflage much like an octopus or chameleon), an elongated tibia/fibula to allow for greater running speeds, and flat teeth as they are herbivores (water organisms are often consumed).

The Gahls craniums are enlarged. The larger brains allow for an increase in memory and intelligence. Decorative patterns are often tattooed onto the cranium, while pictures are generally shunned. The necks are shorter to allow for more support of the cranium.

Psychology:

Gahls fear pain and death to a much higher extent than humans. While they do not spend their entire lives cowering under the blankets, Gahls avoid pain and death at nearly all costs. On Gahlic worlds, knives are few and furniture is built with no edges or corners to bump shins on. Wars are often fought by "lowerâ€
 
It's a refreshing concept.

The complete lack of any military presence makes sense, as they are very adverse to violence.

What concerns me is that this, combined with their inherent dislike of pain, would make them very easy targets for any outside force to come swoop in and conquer them.

How'd they avoid this?
 
That is true, and I've been thinking a lot about it. Truth is, I have no idea. The fears would explain why they would not have explored much themselves, but not why other peoples haven't found them.


Ideas anyone??
 
It would be easy to assume that, in the vast depths of space, they simply have not been come across by other races.

This does look like a good start, one of the more original races. I like it all except for the teliportation, you'd be better off just dropping that part alltogether and focusing on developing background infromation about your race rather than how the teliport works, how they get the power to bend space and time without cooking themselves, and the effects that would have on their tech and society.
 
The species concept doesn't revolve around the idea of teleportation and I think it added a little more to the originality of the race. It could go, but I would like it to stay. Without it, they would be quite bland. Other races have insane combat abilities. What does this race have? Would advanced gadgets be allowed to give them all atleast a little playabilty? Maybe, maybe not. Even with teleportation, I don't think the would be that interesing in a roleplay situation as they are.
 
Well the races that are actually races don't have anything that gives them a real edge in combat, the nekos and serphs are weapons built for war so its natural that they are hard to kill in combat.

A lot of the newer player created races have thigns that give them unfair advantages in combat that really should have been cut out. Teliportation could stay if you could provide a good reason and background tech for why they have it but as it is I say remove it, it dosen't add anything to your race.
 
You are right. It doesnt add anything to my race. So what should I add instead. I think they could be a good addition to the RP, but are still boring nonetheless. I think that advanced technology would be nice. After all, these fellas are supposed to be quite intelligent.
 
Well just don't say advanced technology, just design the tech and put it in the proper forum.

Just remove it, don't add anything in its place.
 
Well just don't say advanced technology, just design the tech and put it in the proper forum.
Click to expand...

Well, yeah. I know that.

Teleportation doesn't take away from anything of the race. If you can think of a couple of reasons why is does, tell me and I'll remove it.
 
Scott said:
The species concept doesn't revolve around the idea of teleportation and I think it added a little more to the originality of the race. It could go, but I would like it to stay. Without it, they would be quite bland. Other races have insane combat abilities. What does this race have? Would advanced gadgets be allowed to give them all atleast a little playabilty? Maybe, maybe not. Even with teleportation, I don't think the would be that interesing in a roleplay situation as they are.
Click to expand...

Scott, don't worry about anyone else's "insane combat abilities". Anything more powerful than the Nekos is going to be considered over-the-top. As it stands currently, almost none of the species currently in the RP can stand up to a fully trained Neko, yet most PCs are Geshrin or Nepleslian, I believe, so combat power obviously does not equal playability.

Before I continue, I'd like to say that I haven't had the time to read everyone's species data yet. I'll try to do so as soon as possible, so I could actually offer something constructive... Everything that I say today should not be taken personally by anyone.

Just in general though, I believe the key is versatility. The current species that have PCs (Geshrin, Nepleslian, Yamataian, Neko, Elysian, Fenyaro) all have this quality. Sure, there are things that set them apart, but for almost any character that you can make, you can justify the character belonging to any of those species. The species that you end up choosing will act as scaffolding that helps develop that character, and will most certainly affect RP events. But if all the characters of a species end up looking like the same person, then the realism is gone, and things have gone wrong.
 
When I was talking about the combat abilities I was trying to point out that these races would be worthwhile to play in a combative situation, while this race would not participate in normally.

I understand perfectly what you are saying, but fighting "power" has nothing to do with this species.

This race would give me and whoever else wants to RP as them the chance to roleplay as more a pacifist, but with more of a twist. I just want to add something new and creative to the field.

I want this species to be as streamlined as possible so that the ideals of this race will be as fun to play as they could possibly be.
 
Well, you need to get how the teliportation occurs approved in the tech thread first. Its a complicated thing that really wouldn't occur naturaly. I could understand if this race was engneered like the NH series weapons but because they are a natural race its unlikely that they will have unatural abilities.
 
Is the point then to develop a race that's non-combatant by nature, but edges out scientists from the YSE in weapons development? Or one up's their scientists? I can't help but get that feeling for some reason
Click to expand...

Very close to that, but not only weapons developement, because that wouldn't make much sense for a pacifistic(?) race.


And for Uso, there are many things that are commonly used in sci-fi games/novels/etc. that no body can describe how they work. I've already talked to Wes about this, just so you all know. I will describe how the teleportation will work, but I want to note that an exact explanation shouldn't be required and isn't possible. Teleportation is commonly used in the sci-fi genre. I do realize that those systems are not natural. This is why I proposed this race having to need triplets to do so. And since the race is generally pacifistic, it wont give them huge advantages over anything else.
 
Still, this still screams out a red flaxon warning to me, just for the record. You can't give theoretical explanation for it, but it just sort of works? Furthermore, they seem to be non-nessesary at the moment, and I feel they'd complicate things in a direction they do not need to be.
 
I think I posted something about the FCP a while back. Rob said "Can't we just say this works?" after some people (Derran and Zack, probably) disproved the theory. You can't. Until now, this RP has been grounded in fact, or at least theory. You're stretching the suspension of disbelief. Of course Wes has the last word, but you should judge for yourself whether to include it or not after the several replies in this thread, and not just go with it because Wes approves.
 
Ok, give me a theoretical explanation for faster-than-light speed or a hyperdrive system. I demand- show me those numbers! Just kidding, but see what I'm getting at?

Like I told Wes, I knew I would have to go through all this and I'm GLAD that I have to. I know that this prevents unwanted shit from leaking into the site.
 
FTL I could give you the numbers on if I sat down with my TI-83 long enough, but in this case we are talking about an organic creature channeling energies that bend the fabric of space and time and that normally require rather massive generators and exotic materials to acomplish.

Where is the energy for the teliport comming from?
How are they generating the effect?
How does their teliporter function?

This kind of stuff does not fall under suspention of disbelief, you NEED to provide a power source for your teliportation, you NEED to explain just what is going on with the teliport and you NEED to explain how it functions just like any other tech on this site with the exeption of Magic which apparently does not need any basis in reality at all in order to be used on this site.

For example, Where does the energy for this come from? (For the love of god don't say either) I really can't tell you how a small creature could generate the power of a Starship but if it could why wouldn't other races use your race as a power source?

How is the effect generated? Is this a wormhole? A star trek like teliport? What?

How does it function? Are you bending space? Expanding a wormhole with exotic matter? What? If someone posted a teliported with the discription you have right now as a tech rather than a racial feature it would be shot down so fast you wouldn't know what hit you because you might as well be consealing infromation about the tech so that people can't counter it which is an incredibly newbie tactic.



(BTW, FTL travel is not based on actually moving faster than light but instead bypassing conventional limits on speed by using some form of scaled space to bring the destination and starting point closer together. To the outside observer the ship seems to be moving faster than physics should allow however to an observer inside of the ship speeds remain safely below C. You can even work out the numbers for this if you want by calculating mass, time, speed, how much space is scaled, and the like on your calculator. You can't hide behind suspention of disbelief for your teliport system and you can't say 'oh because this is high tech' as an excuse not to have to explain your stuff.

Ok, give me a theoretical explanation for faster-than-light speed or a hyperdrive system. I demand- show me those numbers! Just kidding, but see what I'm getting at?
Click to expand...

Your point here is invalid because the numbers can be found out, there IS a theoretical explaination for it and if you look at the ship specs on the site there are discriptions of FTL systems that could work with our current understand of physics.)
 
First of all, I want to make sure you've read my little explanation of how it will work.

Second, I will get onto this thing right away.
 
Scott, it looks like you're gonna spend a lot of energy getting this one ability approved (by the rest of the players, even if Wes says it's okay). I don't think it's worth the effort. Re-focus on fleshing out the species data, like what's their homeworld like, what kind of government they have, etc.

I'm not saying it's a battle you can't win, but you should pick your battles. I don't think this one is worth fighting for. I mean, I don't see why teleportation would ever be used in this RP. The Empire already has teleportation tech, I believe. It's never been used in the RP because you can't use it on Nekos. (Zack is objecting to your version because it is organically-based.)

If you insist on getting this ability approved, save yourself some grief and try to come up with a sensible explaination for it. Ask for help if you have to. "Can't we just say that it works" is NOT the path of least resistance. :)
 
RPG-D RPGfix
Back
Top