This may have been discussed before, but I can't find it in the T5 threads.
I'm confused by the Body Structure table (BeastMaker-02-A p582) and its interpretation. Assuming flux of 0 for all the rolls for a walker I end up with:
Bilateral HBS-T-LL-LN-N
Head with brain/sensors + Torso is clear enough. As is no tail.
The LL-LN means the creature has 2 sets of fore limbs (with manipulators) and one set of rear limbs (no manipulators). By the stances description, we should end up with a vertical (stands tall) creature with 6 limbs. If rolling randomly 45% of Beasts are in this mode. For Sophonts, this could be argued to make sense. For beasts, not so much.
Next, I'm trying to create a horse. Boring old Terran horse. Based upon this, I should have:
Bilateral HBS-T-NN-LL-T
Meaning no fore limbs (with manipulators). But the "NN" isn't a possibility for forelimbs on the table. I can put that in the form if I think it's appropriate, but I can never roll up a Horse (or pretty much any of the Terran terrestrial herbivores).
Next, I'd like to build a snake. Say a 10m anaconda. The body structure should be:
Bilateral HBS-T-NN-NN-M
The creature with no limbs is not possible to create, except by fiat. The table seems strongly tilted toward creating creatures with 3 limb groups, one or two is rare, and two rear only groups or none is impossible.
New problem: Octopus, which is a swimmer.
Radial N-TBS-AA-NN-N
The radial gets 4 limbs per group. It's implied, but not stated, that you roll once for the radial symmetry. So we have 8 arms/tentacles. But no NN for the rear limbs
Dolphin, the original form,
which is also a swimmer.
Bilateral HBS-T-NN-FF-N
How you determine the difference between HBS-T and N-TBS for a creature like a dolphin isn't clear. The dolphin has no manipulators, therefore no front limb groups. The dolphins "tail" counts for the beastmaker rules as the second set of flippers. Again a no-manipulator group for the front limbs.
I have several other creatures I'm looking at designing, but the body structure design for the beasts has me somewhat confused.
I'm confused by the Body Structure table (BeastMaker-02-A p582) and its interpretation. Assuming flux of 0 for all the rolls for a walker I end up with:
Bilateral HBS-T-LL-LN-N
Head with brain/sensors + Torso is clear enough. As is no tail.
The LL-LN means the creature has 2 sets of fore limbs (with manipulators) and one set of rear limbs (no manipulators). By the stances description, we should end up with a vertical (stands tall) creature with 6 limbs. If rolling randomly 45% of Beasts are in this mode. For Sophonts, this could be argued to make sense. For beasts, not so much.
Next, I'm trying to create a horse. Boring old Terran horse. Based upon this, I should have:
Bilateral HBS-T-NN-LL-T
Meaning no fore limbs (with manipulators). But the "NN" isn't a possibility for forelimbs on the table. I can put that in the form if I think it's appropriate, but I can never roll up a Horse (or pretty much any of the Terran terrestrial herbivores).
Next, I'd like to build a snake. Say a 10m anaconda. The body structure should be:
Bilateral HBS-T-NN-NN-M
The creature with no limbs is not possible to create, except by fiat. The table seems strongly tilted toward creating creatures with 3 limb groups, one or two is rare, and two rear only groups or none is impossible.
New problem: Octopus, which is a swimmer.
Radial N-TBS-AA-NN-N
The radial gets 4 limbs per group. It's implied, but not stated, that you roll once for the radial symmetry. So we have 8 arms/tentacles. But no NN for the rear limbs
Dolphin, the original form,
which is also a swimmer.
Bilateral HBS-T-NN-FF-N
How you determine the difference between HBS-T and N-TBS for a creature like a dolphin isn't clear. The dolphin has no manipulators, therefore no front limb groups. The dolphins "tail" counts for the beastmaker rules as the second set of flippers. Again a no-manipulator group for the front limbs.
I have several other creatures I'm looking at designing, but the body structure design for the beasts has me somewhat confused.
