I was thinking of introducing a Traveller race, basically a genetically modified variant of humans, the main thing is that their organs, muscles, and skeletons are modified so that they can stand between 5 and 6 meters tall at full maturity. These humanoids (as they aren't quite human anymore) live in a cluster of planets in a society ranging from TL 11 to 15 in a single subsector. They have a manufacturing infrastructure that produces starships, vehicles and equipment as listed in the T20 handbook, but they are all scaled to their size. For instance a Giant Scout/Courier of their manufacture has a displacement of 2700 d-tons instead of 100 d-tons. The overall shape and floor plans are roguhly similar to Imperial designs, they accelerate at 2-g, and have a jump drive capable of jumping 2 parsecs. Now suppose a bit of hostility developed between this nation of giant humanoids and the Imperium How would the weapons of these giant-sized starships fair against the standard imperial models of the same type? Would a giant-sized Laser rifle do more damage in the hands of a giant? How many Imperial troops and ships would be needed to match the giant versions of said equipment and troop types?
Does size matter?
- Thread starter TKalbfus
- Start date
Triple the height of a 2 meter human (100 kg) to 6 meters (2700 kg). I look at the average weight in the animal size chart and the closest one is 3200 kg. That gives 11 stamina dice. Since humans are Omnivores that would be 11d6 Stamina + the staminal for character class. A first level Mercenary would roll 11d6 + 1d10 + constitution modifiers to determine his Stamina. This character would roll 4d6+2 for his constitution under the Animal Size Chart, Strength would be 4d8+2 and Dex would be 3d6-4. So he's a big clumsy oaf. This is basically a 12th level character. 11 levels of monster/Alien class + 1 level of Mercenary. Int, Wis, Cha, Soc, and Edu would be rolled as a human. Now this big lug has a slow reaction speed. Every dimension of his body is 3 times that of a normal human. By the way he would get a -2 to hit medium-size creatures as he is Huge. I think this guy would perceive time as 3 times slower than a human would. Every 3 seconds for a human would seem as 1 second for him. Such a race might prefer planets with slow periods of rotation, I kind of like a 60 hour day with 60 minutes in each hour and 60 seconds in each minute. About the same as 2.5 standard days. The planet this creature lives on has 1 standard Earth gravity, but with 27 times the mass of a human, the planets population capacity is somewhat limited.
I'd say the population rating of a planet inhabited by giants can be no greater than 8 or hundreds of millions of inhabitants.
Now lets equip this giant:
A normal laser rifle does 3d10 points of damage, has a range increment of 60 meters, and weighs 6 kg. Scale the laser rifle up to the giant's size and its range increment goes up to 180 meters, it weighs 162 kg, and it does 9d10 points of damage.
I'd say the population rating of a planet inhabited by giants can be no greater than 8 or hundreds of millions of inhabitants.
Now lets equip this giant:
A normal laser rifle does 3d10 points of damage, has a range increment of 60 meters, and weighs 6 kg. Scale the laser rifle up to the giant's size and its range increment goes up to 180 meters, it weighs 162 kg, and it does 9d10 points of damage.
Also worth remembering that these giant fleets/armies would be few in number, as they don't have n (27?) times the resources...just because giants are using them doesn't make rare elements any less rare after all.
So these ships are going to have to fight 'pound for pound' against normal sized ships.
I'd back a 3000dt escort against a 2700dt scout, even with extra-large guns on it.
Take it a step further..
The giant escort ship weighs in at 3000*27=81000dt
I'd back a meson gun armed ship ( hvy cruiser/battleship ) against that.
They would also have the disadvantage of not having scout sized craft for scout/courier duties, leading to a waste of resources.
So these ships are going to have to fight 'pound for pound' against normal sized ships.
I'd back a 3000dt escort against a 2700dt scout, even with extra-large guns on it.
Take it a step further..
The giant escort ship weighs in at 3000*27=81000dt
I'd back a meson gun armed ship ( hvy cruiser/battleship ) against that.
They would also have the disadvantage of not having scout sized craft for scout/courier duties, leading to a waste of resources.
Limited resources would tend to limit the population of giants as it would for smaller creatures. Giants are fewer because they are larger, they eat more food and cultivate more land per individual. A good homeworld for a race of Giants would be a Gas Giant with about 6 size-8 moons orbiting it. Each moon sustains life and has a maximum carrying capacity of 1 billion giants. Each moon would actually have about 500 million giants on average for a total population of 3 billion. The typical lifespan for a giant is 240 years, taking about 60 years to reach full maturity. The giant's home world would take 1095 standard days to orbit its sun or 438 of the Giant's standard days. The star sype I think would have to be class F, as the gas giant would have to orbit in a life zone that is far enough out for its orbital period to be 3 years long.
The escort would have a larger crew, while the scout/courier would have 1 to 4 crew members who are larger. The giant scout would have 1 giant double turret while the escort crew can fire on more targets than the scout can, the scouts weapons would do more damage than their normal sized equivalents.
The giants have the advantage in that they can produce 100 d-ton Jump torpedoes for communications and don't really need X-boats. For the giants, this is small.
On the other hand a race of 66 cm tall humanoids would have a problem with the minimum size jump drive requirements, their smallest ships will be escourts.
The Hinterworlds Rambler
SOC-14 5K
To what extent were they engineered?
Could they be made with a super efficient digestive system as well, enabling them to eat less and get more out of it?
How long ago were they engineered and by whom? How close do they follow human standards?
Do they have the same basic value system, or are they a kind Overlord/dominator?
Why Humanoids?
Is this like the Zentradei on Robotech almost?
Could they be made with a super efficient digestive system as well, enabling them to eat less and get more out of it?
How long ago were they engineered and by whom? How close do they follow human standards?
Do they have the same basic value system, or are they a kind Overlord/dominator?
Why Humanoids?
Is this like the Zentradei on Robotech almost?
I assume the giant people concept is for a more fanciful Universe. There are many problems with just upscaling an animal and keeping it the same. There are squared and cubed relationships all over the structural features of any animal, and these become different when you upscale.
There is a big problem making them slower. Under 1 G a fall of 6 metres will often kill. A fall of 6 metres will nearly always break something. With 27 times the mass, but only 9 times the crossectional area these people do not want to trip over, as they would be snapping bones and caving in skulls every time they were the slightest bit clumsy.
I have had to accept that I am likely to die younger and be much more likely to be in a wheelchair for the later end of my life, because I am slightly larger then human standard size. At 195cm I am hardly a behemoth, and the effect will be slight, but statistically it is there.
Or in other words a shrew and an elephant are the same creature, just upscaled.
As for fighting against imperial troops? I would say one for one. Batteldress, and grav tanks, are great equalisers. The fact that the Imperials can feild 27 effective equivalents for the same cost would be the final arbiter.
There is a big problem making them slower. Under 1 G a fall of 6 metres will often kill. A fall of 6 metres will nearly always break something. With 27 times the mass, but only 9 times the crossectional area these people do not want to trip over, as they would be snapping bones and caving in skulls every time they were the slightest bit clumsy.
I have had to accept that I am likely to die younger and be much more likely to be in a wheelchair for the later end of my life, because I am slightly larger then human standard size. At 195cm I am hardly a behemoth, and the effect will be slight, but statistically it is there.
Or in other words a shrew and an elephant are the same creature, just upscaled.
As for fighting against imperial troops? I would say one for one. Batteldress, and grav tanks, are great equalisers. The fact that the Imperials can feild 27 effective equivalents for the same cost would be the final arbiter.
But what if their bones were 27 times harder, or what if they were hollow like bamboo, retaining strength while shedding mass. There are plenty of materials that are harder than bone, it is simply a matter of getting nature to produce these materials. Also dinosaurs existed, so large creatures are certainly possible. It may be that their bones are simply thicker as are tyeir muscles. They are vaguely humanoid in that they have two legs, two arms, 5 fingers on each hand, 5 toes on each foot. Their feet and legs may be somewhat elephant-like to support their weight. They will tend to be barrel chested. Their heads will look roughly human. These aren't exactly humans scaled up. Proportions have to change to deal with the greater body mass, but other creatures of that size exist including T-Rex, so giant biped humanoids are certaily possible. There are alien as the Vargr.
Well first of all remember that the T-Rex had a tail for balance, extremely thick legs and practically useless arms.
Given that point I move on to say that I like this idea and am in no way trying to discourage it.
Addressing the issue of fleets, keep in mind that the giants would be able to build 100 d-ton jump capable star fighters. If they would focus their efforts on producing these, then they could have a fleet worthy of fear.
Given that point I move on to say that I like this idea and am in no way trying to discourage it.
Addressing the issue of fleets, keep in mind that the giants would be able to build 100 d-ton jump capable star fighters. If they would focus their efforts on producing these, then they could have a fleet worthy of fear.
Go the whole Hog. 1000dTon would be the rough equivalent of a 30dTon fighter.
It can have a 100dTon bay weapon installed. This would be a good match for the "extra large Turret mounts" mentioned in the progenitor post.
With a 3 gianti crew complement, a single stateroon (at 108 dtons you only want one) and jump drive makes it a quite capable jump fighter.
Physically you can make them humanoid. With massive legs and progressively smaller torso and shoulders. You might want to fuse the ankles and neck for extra structural support (especially for the massive brain these will need). This layout would accentuate their size, perspective would make them appear REALLY tall close up. From a distance they would look a little odd though. Someway to natural synthesise carbon nano-tubing for the tendons, some aeration for the bone mass and these giants are perfectly feasible.
The thing that they seem to lack is a purpose. Why did someone upscale humans? If anything I can see someone minimising humans (I think I might use the "hobbitti" as a humaniti offshoot), but what advantage does upscaling humans give that cannot be replaced by a good forklift.
It can have a 100dTon bay weapon installed. This would be a good match for the "extra large Turret mounts" mentioned in the progenitor post.
With a 3 gianti crew complement, a single stateroon (at 108 dtons you only want one) and jump drive makes it a quite capable jump fighter.
Physically you can make them humanoid. With massive legs and progressively smaller torso and shoulders. You might want to fuse the ankles and neck for extra structural support (especially for the massive brain these will need). This layout would accentuate their size, perspective would make them appear REALLY tall close up. From a distance they would look a little odd though. Someway to natural synthesise carbon nano-tubing for the tendons, some aeration for the bone mass and these giants are perfectly feasible.
The thing that they seem to lack is a purpose. Why did someone upscale humans? If anything I can see someone minimising humans (I think I might use the "hobbitti" as a humaniti offshoot), but what advantage does upscaling humans give that cannot be replaced by a good forklift.
Mostly to give the idea conceptual simplicity. I wanted to present something familiar and change one thing about it such as size. It is a humanoid because I don't want to spend paragraphs describing how many tentacles it has, its compound eyes etc. Basically its a creature like us except its 6 meters tall, some things about it has to change because of this, but I want its society to be relatively familiar.
They are mammals.
They come in two sexes.
They bear their young live.
etc.
Their size is fearsome enough. Imagine a whole squad of these creatures armed with what are essentially vehicle weapons. Blasting away at Imperial Marines. Imagine the Imperium is at war with these creature, landing on planets in their giant war machines. Giant troopers knocking down houses and blasting away with their hand laser cannons. One is more than a match for a single human, but humans outnumber these creatures, are more nimble and have quicker reflexes. The giants are slow; not as slow as they seem though as their long strides carry them further than a human stride, they can get up to speed but can't change direction of motion very easily due to their inertial. To them, humans seem wickedly fast and nimble and hard to catch, and hard to aim at, but they can crush one should the manage to grasp them. Shooting at a human with their firearms is like shooting a house cat or a raccoon, they come apart fairly easily, but unlike such a critter, they can fire back. Getting zapped by such little creatures can be surprisingly painful if the proper armor isn't worn. The Imperium could easily overwhelm the Giants with sheer numbers, but the giants aren't the Imperium's only problem and so PCs and local militia are left to deal with these incursions as best they can.
As to why someone would engineer them.
+ They make formidable soldiers for one.
- They reproduce very slowly.
- They consume alot more resources than humans
+ Resources however are not in short supply, and they aren't confined to one planet so who cares.
I think the most likely reason for their creation if genetically engineered was for sport. You know as Gladiators for instance. The ancient race that created them where very compedative sports enthusiasts and bigger athletes were generally stronger and capable of greater feats of strength. They raided a planet of primitive humans and "improved" upon their physical attributes. These Giants were not stupid however, they picked up technology from this ancient race and the ancient race was not cautious enough in keeping control of them. The giants rebelled and killed their masters taking control of their own destiny. When they gained independence, they already had space travel and inhabited the 6 giant moons of a gas giant orbiting a type F star. Movement between these moons was fairly routine and ordinary. An alien ship was then capture and reverse engineered so that the Giants could then produce jump drives. They have since spread outward and have so far filled a single subsector when they made contact with the Imperium. The Giants have an empire of their own, this empire is more centrally controlled than the Imperium since their territory is smaller, and unlike the Imperium, they make extensive use of slavery. Their society tends to be harsh and brutal and they value strength and strength of arms above all else; something they have learned from their former masters and apply the same philosophy to outsides. this tendency is not racial however, it is more an effect of the way their society is organized as they have no concept of democracy or "sentient rights" The Imperial form of government is the only one they know. There are upper and lower classes within their society, so far it hasn't occured to the lower classes that something better can exist. Rebellions do occur, but they usually result in a change of emperors and ruling classes with the end result essential the same as what they were rebelling against. Perhaps they can learn new ideas from other races, but so far their contact with others has been limited to warfare.
While a major concern for settlers on the frontier, the Giant Empire is so far only an annoyance to the Greater Imperium, and the Imperium has yet to dispatch a task force to deal with this threat, though the wheels are in motion, the Imperium has other concerns.
I like to vary the size of the aliens instead of having them all be medium-sized creatures. I prefer to think of thim as Huge aliens rather than modified humans. The only remarkable thing about them is their size, I think that's enough. I don't need tentacles, bug eyes and antennas. Size is enough of a descriptor, and assume everything else is roughly bipedal and humanoid more or less.
Similar threads
