The $10 Million Dollar Mammoth

[roseembolism]

Woolly Mammoth.  A species not alive.  Gentlemen, we can regenerate them.  We have the Technology.  We have the capability to make the world's first cloned mammoth. 

Insert theme music here, and note that I WANT one.  Just a small one, for my very own.

Comments

[mithriltabby]

Bah! As long as we’re doing mad science, I want mimmoths!

[sakon76.livejournal.com]

Ditto! Mimmoths FTW! We could have whole herds in the space that a single mammoth takes up....

[roseembolism.livejournal.com]

Mimmoths honestly aren't good for much. But a pygmy mammoth could be the solution to my commuting needs!

[mithriltabby]

Because the horse you currently ride just doesn’t eat enough and is too fast?

[roseembolism.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure you can feed mammoths on paper waste products and ad inserts. they are also all-terrain, so I can save time by simply cutting through courtyards, going through backyard fences, and crashing through office parks. they also have right-of-way on airport runways.

They are sort of urban trailblazers, which is something I've always wanted.

[mithriltabby]

I think you need Mammoth Gundam for those features.

[roseembolism.livejournal.com]

Now I have visions of mammoth Gundam Z, Mammoth Gundam ZZ, Mammoth Model 100...

[sakon76.livejournal.com]

Cats aren't good for much either. Doesn't mean you and I don't still have 'em.

[roseembolism.livejournal.com]

Cats are excellent for many things. They are perfect for pest disposal, burgler and fire alerts, and are self-contained, solar-powered bed warmers.

[sakon76.livejournal.com]

...You've met at least one of my two cats. Neither of them fulfils any of these job skills. They are strictly ornamental and for the sake of having something that purrs when you pet it. Mimmoths, while likely not able to purr, would potentially have similar ornamental/amusement capabilities...

job description does not match actual duties

[racerxmachina.livejournal.com]

I do hope you're not holding our kitties to those standards. The closest they come to pest control is waving idy at flies, as if dismissing a particularly obstreperous valet.

Re: job description does not match actual duties

[roseembolism.livejournal.com]

I'm sure they frighten the flies somewhat. Also, you have to bear in mind the invaluable service they do in controlling the bedmice population.

Re: job description does not match actual duties

[yuusada.livejournal.com]

They must also be quite good at preventing bovine stampedes as evidenced by the zero incidents of your apartment having been ransacked by a herd of bison.

Re: job description does not match actual duties

[roseembolism.livejournal.com]

Well of course! they also frighten giraffes away as well!

[heron61.livejournal.com]

Definitely very cool, and pygmy mammoths would be even better. I'm now reminded of Clarke's Imperial Earth, with the intelligence enhanced (but still non-sentient) pygmy elephants. It's likely we're less than 20 years from being able to create something like that.

[roseembolism.livejournal.com]

And let's not forget Schlock Mercenary, with it's genegeneered, and highly irritable pigmy elephants.

OK, I'm going to have to put in sentient elephants that can talk into UTGM. I have NO idea how I'm going to balance them against other character races.

[heron61.livejournal.com]

Having played in two fantasy campaigns where someone else played a centaur, a small elephant, even one with a trunk that effectively ends in a hand (or perhaps even divides perhaps 2 feet above the end, to create two hands) is self-balancing.

Such a PC would be tough & strong (although elephants are not particularly strong for their size), but it's also bulky and drastically not human-shaped. If most things outside of elephant-controlled lands are designed for humanoid beings, then they're going to be significantly handicapped. No ladders, stairs will be very difficult, elevators will need to be large, vehicles will be difficult to enter and likely impossible to operate w/o modification... Also, they may have a very high dexterity, but no so much with the agility. Also, while they could swim better than a human, they can't jump or climb to any useful degree.

Also, even if you go with re-engineered sentient mammoths that are only the 1.4 m at the shoulder, weighing 700-800 kg is problematic in many situations.

With the centaur PCs we had, there was alot of either "why don't you wait outside" or "let's break out the rope harness and the pulley and lower the centaur down the hole"

[roseembolism.livejournal.com]

Your comments about small elephants reminds me of "Stinz", the series by Donna Barr about "halfhorses". They also had problems with stairs, and angled ladders, while necessary on a farm, were a major pain. In fact, Ms. Barr went a lot into Halfhorse physiology, and the problems (as well as advantages) it created.

Also it's a good point with the distinguishing between agility and dexterity. Most games don't distinguish between the two characteristics, so you have weird things where the lighting-fast Kzinti in the Ringworld game are also incredible acrobats. I'm not sure that I want to go to the effort to do separate characteristics for Dexterity and Agility, but it might be something to think about.

[heron61.livejournal.com]

Your comments about small elephants reminds me of "Stinz", the series by Donna Barr about "halfhorses".

Heh, that's not surprising, since one of the times that I played in a campaign where one of the PCs was a centaur was in Lace & Steel, which featured Donna Barr - Dreamery-derived halfhorses.

I'm not sure that I want to go to the effort to do separate characteristics for Dexterity and Agility, but it might be something to think about.

If you don't want two separate characteristics (which is crunchier than I like) the easy answer is to say that an agile but non-dexterous character like a ape or a dexterous but non-agile character like a halfhorse or elephant you halve their Dexterity when applying it to dexterity (in the first case) or agility (in the second). That way, the difference only affects characters where it makes a difference.

[roseembolism.livejournal.com]

I've always wanted to play in a Lace & Steel game, I love the artwork.


I'm thinking that would work very well- it could be a single stat or template that could be applied to creatures. It's something I'll have to work with, once I settle on the game system.

[heron61.livejournal.com]

I've always wanted to play in a Lace & Steel game, I love the artwork.

It's a whole lot of fun. Using the sorcery deck is also great fun. However, because we enjoyed Flashing Blades so much, we replaced card-based combat with a modified Flashing Blades system, which also worked quite well.

As for game system for UtGM, the two obvious choices seem to be GURPS (if you like rules-heavy systems) or Unisystem (if you don't) - of course, these days I tend to believe that Unisystem works for everything.

[roseembolism.livejournal.com]

Flashing Blades is another system I want to see, as long as it didn't involve giving money to FGU.

I'm divided as to what games system to use- though GURPS is right out. I want something where I can put on individual templates for the character's physical "clades" and cultures. Unisystem is one possibility, though frankly, I want to wait until "Beyond Human" comes out (if it ever does) before really looking at it. There's a number of other characteristics I want the system to have, but I think I'll wait until post my references/influences before I go into detail.