 April 26, 2012 - 7:50am | Since postings have been slim this week thought I would post something that has always had me wondering. In The Dramune Run adventure we are introduced The Malthar who is described as: He is impossibly large for a Dralasite; the disgusting bulk of his flesh droops in globs over the arms of his chair. A tall glass of brown liquid rests on the table beside him. He reaches for the glass with fingers incongruously long and slender, sips from it, and belches like a huge bullfrog. Well besides the description being slightly wrong (how do Dralasites sip and why is he a he?) and ignoring the fact The Malthar is an obvious take on Jabba the Hutt (who was released on film the year before), how does a Dralasite get fat? We can assume Humans and Yazirians gain weight the way mammals on Earth do but Dralasites being a almost entirely liquid being should have a different fat storage system. Any guesses on what this would be like? Also pitch in comments on possible health problems and effects on stretching and limb creation. As a side note since Vrusk have an exoskeleton how would being overwieght effect them or if you think it is even possible. Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
 April 26, 2012 - 8:25am | I will need to think on this further... |
 April 26, 2012 - 9:07am | 1) dralasite have three sexes and can control their gender by drugs. Male, female and neuter so the Malthar can be a male. 2.) Undoubtably he does the dralasite version of sipping- what is a sip anyway but a small sampling of liquid. For a dralasite this is the same as a big drink, they can create a pocket and simply pour in a small amount thus a sip. I'm betting a dralasite could make a double chamber pocket with a small opening between the two and rapidly expand the inner most chamber creating a suction that would even provide a slurping sound and allow him or her or it to Mimic a human sip/slurp without even having to pour liquid directly in. In fact a dralasite who developed this technique would revel in doing it, perhaps even accompanying it with a smacking of lips sound effect which would be possible for them. 3) How do they get fat? Easy, the same way humans do thyroid, big boned, overeating. Except in the dralasite's case big boned is because of trying to eat big bones, which they can do except that they take along time to digest them and yet their body still craves fresh nutrients so they keep eating despite not having finished digesting the bones. A dralasite can develop quite a large pocket of bones that he is digesting and when this happens odd lumps and protrusions can be seen sticking out of their body. With their propensity for corney humor some dralasite refer to this as having a "boner" causing humans to roll their eyes and vrusk that fail their 15% comprehension roll to ask, "What's a boner?" Yazirians simply ask, "Why did we bring the dralasite along?" I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 April 26, 2012 - 8:35am | Simple answer: water retention. Ol' Maly is retaining a lot. As far as health issues/stretching/limb creation, the fact that he is on the 80s SciFi version of a Hoveround* speaks volumes about this. * with the main difference against today's version being that it actually does hover |
April 26, 2012 - 9:00am | Now you know more than you never wanted to know about a dralasite boner! :) I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
April 26, 2012 - 9:33am | I thought Dralasites used asexual reproduction so why would they need three sexes? Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
April 26, 2012 - 10:05am | I thought Dralasites used asexual reproduction so why would they need three sexes?
All dralasites go through three phases in their lives; male, female and neutral (these phases can be controlled with medicines). the official scientific classification is hermaphroditic budding. NOTE: not even the sathar are asexual but classed as hermaphrodicitc unknown.I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 April 26, 2012 - 6:55pm | If you look at earth insects as an example, I do not believe that a vrusk would be overwieght. The exoskeleton usually would create some limit on that. I know that in crustaceans their exoskeleton grows with them and some can get quite large. I have seen large insects, like the Madagascar Hissing Cockroach, but never a fat one. I think an insects metabolism would keep them from getting what we consider fat. |
April 28, 2012 - 8:27pm | Apparently overfed tarantulas will develop large abdomens that molt more often and cause them movement problems. Arthropods have a tissue known as the fat body through out the body that both stores and metabolizes fat and glycogen close to where it's needed owing to their poor circulatory systems. Vrusk almost certainly would have high quality circulatory systems so they might have central storage in their abdomens. If you want fat Vrusk, give them large abdomens with soft shells and molting problems. (Speaking of which, why do vrusk have exoskeletons? They have internal skeletons so it's not for support. In the Alpha dawn rules it's not protective. Maybe they evolved on a planet with a supercontinent that has a large dry interior where an exoskeleton would help with water retention.) |
April 29, 2012 - 6:05am | No scientific backing for this but what if the Vrusk and Dralasites are not just bigger bugs and amoeba but are evolutionary advanced forms of this life. Much like the old TV show V thought the Visitors were advanced lizards could our two races be similar. If they are then is it possible for them to have certain internal organs not found in lower life forms of the same type. Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
April 29, 2012 - 3:47pm | I'm not saying that arthropods have X, vrusk look like arthropods so vrusk have X. Given that they are described as being warm-blooded with internal skeletons, I doubt there are many similarities with earth insects. Still, it's not a bad place to start thinking. That is the largest part of their body and it seems most likely they'd store fat there. All my opinion of course. |
April 29, 2012 - 6:50pm | A vrusk's lungs are in the abdomen, and considering the propensity of high fructose corn syrup adding fat to major organs --- kidneys, heart, and lungs --- in addition to muscle tissue (versus cane sugar that only adds it to muscle tissue), a bigger abdomen makes sense. Unless of course the UPF has no corn subsidy  |
 April 29, 2012 - 6:50pm | We have discussed in the past (here or in the core four project) about the Vrusk molting as they grow. I would guess that fat stored within their exoskeleton is built up until it presses on the internal organs and triggers a molting to increase the available room. Potentially this is the natural use of the extra fat, to fuel the molting process. As a side note of relevance. I once caught a black widow and kept it in a jar all winter. During the preceding summer and fall I fed it plenty of flys and other bugs I caught. It molted twice in this time and became about twice as large as it was when I caught it. However, during the winter it had nothing to eat and shriveled up. I thought it was dead until one day I noticed that it had molted again and become smaller this time. Come spring I let it free in the desert again and it was pretty fast on it's feet to get away. Also, I'm not sure the correct term for an insect is molting. -iggy |
April 30, 2012 - 6:03am | What protection is the vrusk exoskeleton? They suffer from needlers same as everyone else. Explaining it as an evolutionary adaption to retain water is as good as anything otherwise its in the category of tits on a bull. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
April 30, 2012 - 12:11pm | Could be the Vrusk exoskeleton is more hide and less chitin. Then again with the internal skeleton the exoskeleton is not needed for support so does not need to be that thick. Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
April 30, 2012 - 1:51pm | If we were playing GURPS Star Frontiers you could opt for your yazirian to be so fat that he couldn't fly for more character build points. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
May 1, 2012 - 9:19am | If we were playing GURPS Star Frontiers you could opt for your yazirian to be so fat that he couldn't fly for more character build points.
I actually have one of those in one of my games, although not fat but muscular. Born on a high grav world and adapted as such during growth, think Mister Universe at 8' tall...he simply weighs too much for the dan (flaps) to be useful. |
May 3, 2012 - 4:05am | I played first edition GURPS back in the day and it was good that way- that you could tweek a character, codified in the rules were ways to gain more character build points. Although allowing for a player to choose five quirks meant every character had five quirks: won't eat shell fish, hates the color red, etc which were fairly benign each quirk giving you only one point. I never had the courage to take any of the serious disabilities like blind or missing limb though I considered a character missing a hand. Something about the system was a bit artificial but I did like the character generation process. I found it fun to see what sort of a character I could come up with who could still function in game despite having chosen some of the funky character choices. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 May 28, 2012 - 12:30am | Jabba The Hutt... this explains it all... but for the sake of further explanations... An inverted arm makes a pocket, a series of inverted fingers make "vacuum control tubes" and "vocalization bellows", and smelly "digestion chambers"... sipping is an odd, but not impossible behavior for a Dralasite, especially from an already noted to be eccentric and partially insane being, such as The Malthar. The use of a masculine pronoun does not immediately indicate any acknowledgement of a specific gender... the same description translated into most Vruskan languages, and back... would read: "She is impossibly large for a Dra*azait;" Being effectively a large single cell amoeba, one might think that they effectively are a single large fat cell... of a sort. The general appearance of Malthar may be exaggerated further by a personal unhealthy decadent floppiness, and by an aesthetic preference worn like an affectation, of this eccentric being. I do not think that the Human, or Mammalian, manner of being unhealthily overweight applies to Dralasite or Vrusk at all... Vrusk will snack on small high-energy meals 15 times a day, just like many birds, and have smaller and more effeceint fat storage areas. A Dralasite IS fat... literally... Large Sentient Semi-Amorphous Single-Cell Fat (as in Energy Storage) Amoeboids. Oh humans!!  We discover a galactic community filled with multiple species of aliens, and the first thing we think about is "how can we have sex with them?".~ anymoose, somewhere on the net... so... if you square a square it becomes a cube... if you square a cube does it become an octoid? |
May 27, 2012 - 11:40pm | Malthar is fat. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
May 28, 2012 - 12:19am | [...] impossibly large [...] and with... [subjectively] disgusting... [Dralasite] flesh... Oh humans!! We discover a galactic community filled with multiple species of aliens, and the first thing we think about is "how can we have sex with them?".~ anymoose, somewhere on the net... so... if you square a square it becomes a cube... if you square a cube does it become an octoid? |
May 28, 2012 - 7:15am | I do like the idea of vrusk constantly snacking (about 15 times a day) on high energy meals. And the secret to the frontier equivalent of the soviet olympic team requires a strict diet of vrusk power bars.  -iggy |
May 28, 2012 - 11:49am | Hmm, I bet we all can't wait to see the East Vruskan women's team. |
May 29, 2012 - 7:12pm | What would the Vrusk wieght lifting team look like, Super Vrusk? |
May 29, 2012 - 7:21pm | What would the Vrusk wieght lifting team look like, Super Vrusk? I'm not sure the vrusk would go in for lifting wts. or a lot of sports. But then do they have an inter corporate league that lets them compete in a less cut thorax arena and demonstrate the quality of its personell? I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
May 30, 2012 - 1:38am | Let's also not forget the possibility of a Vruskan swim team is about as bleak as a Jamaican bobsled team. Oh, wait...that last part happened already. |
June 6, 2012 - 6:10am | If they adapted themselves or used special capes could Dralasites and Humans take part in Yazarian Olympic sport of Gliding? Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
June 6, 2012 - 9:51am | If they adapted themselves or used special capes could Dralasites and Humans take part in Yazarian Olympic sport of Gliding?
Thicker atmosphere actually has greater impact on the ability for muscle powered flight then gravity. So on the right planet the answer is yes.I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
