 November 25, 2010 - 12:07am | To some extent I would expect that the environment will influence evolution. So looking at the humma what features will have been influenced by their environment? #1 almost has to be their poison immunity and lack of taste and smell ability so that very nearly anything, including dirt, is edible by them has to be figured into their environment- I'd expect it to be very toxic/poisonous and noxious to suggest a why for the presence of these racial abilities. #2 the spring charge/ ability to hop long distances suggests that they may have been dominate predators that used the spring charge to engage a large dangerous prey- could it the the famous krik from Zebs Guide? after all their home system is called Fokrik. The Spring charge allows them to jump into melee range and attack and not be attacked by (this doesn't seem to be possible under the AD combat rules as their is a side A and Side B move and attack- for that reason i would modify it to be they can jump x distance in a turn before and after their melee attack, thus they get to move in and attack and move out of range all in their move) #3 is it possible that something in their native environment influenced the development of the prehensible tail or is the evolutionary pressure that led to this simply part of the whole spring charge issue; in that they needed the the extra gripping power for that attack? Suggested terrain for the humma home world: A. Sludge swamps- noxious and nasty and hindering or dangerous to other races but not humma B. Plains- large open areas where the krik roam, the danger here is from the hot tempered krik that are prone to charge and stampede C. Toxic Tanglewood- forest or jungle like terrain that is dangerous for the abundance of toxins and natural poisons. plant sap is dangerous but a variety of small animals have toxins as well that are delivered through a variety of vectors. I take the Zebs listing for Fokrik system's 2nd planet called Hum to be the native world and its economy is primarily based on Resource gathering (mining? petroleum products?) those things suggest: D. Oil flats- pools of oil and petroleum E. Tar pits- similar to tar pits on earth I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
November 26, 2010 - 8:37pm | some of my initial thoughts on the poison immunity was that the environment of Hum should be very toxic in a number of ways so that humma get on fine but a human visitor would have to take great care while visiting there. Then it occurred to me that the poison immunity was for injested poison not contact poison. So I think the environment isn't toxic in and of itself but many things in the environment are particularly poisonous as a defense strategy to prevent bigger things from eating them with humma being the exception to that (why they became the dominant predator) plus a number of creatures can utilize their poison in a more proactive defense strategy. as much as I'd think toxic springs would be fun that part might need to be rethought I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 November 27, 2010 - 7:47pm | I'm in agreement. You don't want a world that would be inaccessible from the other races. I think it would cause too many problematic role-playing sessions. |
 November 27, 2010 - 10:04pm | #1 almost has to be their poison immunity and lack of taste and smell ability so that very nearly anything, including dirt, is edible by them has to be figured into their environment- I'd expect it to be very toxic/poisonous and noxious to suggest a why for the presence of these racial abilities. The lack of taste and smell and immunity to poison could suggest a universal digestion ability, brought about by a barren world whose ecosphere has few(possibly almost nil) prey species for them to subsist on(possibly through some global catastrophe occurring before the Humma evolved/achieved sentience). Maybe, originially, the Humma didn't have their poison immunity or lack of taste/smell abilities, sharply curtailing their ability to adapt to their new enviroment, while a mutant offshoot of this proto-Humma species developed both immunity to poison and the lack of taste/smell, allowing them to derive nutrition from virtually anything, even on animals/plants that would otherwise be toxic for them to eat. These mutants survived, while the remainder of the proto-Humma race, lacking these essential mutations became extinct...naturally helped along by the now-dominant subspecies of proto-Humma including their less fortunate bretheren on the menu. End result: The mutants became the Humma we are familiar with. (This could also explain their aggressiveness....) #3 is it possible that something in their native environment influenced the development of the prehensible tail or is the evolutionary pressure that led to this simply part of the whole spring charge issue; in that they needed the the extra gripping power for that attack? Many possibilities abound for the prehensile tail. It is highly likely, it could have started out as a vestige, a holdover from an earlier evolutionary stage, and some bright boy amongst the proto-Humma mutants mentioned above realized that tail came in really handy in tool use...and, when they started turning on their unmutated kin, in weapon use as well. As for the type of world they evolved in, a cross between the Australian Outback, the Martian landscape and the Great Plains is my general impression of its dominant landscape. " 'Beware the Beast, Man, for he is the Devil's pawn. Alone among God's primates, he kills for sport, for lust, for greed. Yea, he will murder his brother to possess his brother's land. Let him not breed in great numbers, for he will make a desert of his home and yours. Shun him; drive him back into his jungle lair, for he is the harbinger of death." |
 December 21, 2010 - 7:21pm | My vote is the toxic tanglewood. Matbe in a very rugged/mesa filled landscape Prehensile tails usualy evolve in tree dwellers. Thebe hopping ability could evolved from needing to kump from mesa to mesa. Reasonable men adapt to the world around them; unreasonable men make the world adapt to them. The world is changed by unreasonable men. Edwin Louis Cole |
 December 21, 2010 - 10:39pm | Perhaps their world is covered by jagged rocky outcroppings with large tar pits and pools of toxic sludge. The prehensile tail and hopping ability allowed the Humma to survive falling into pools of bubbling sludge by grabbing rocky outcropings with their strong tails and pulling themselves free of the sludge, where other creatures not so endowed would not be able to, or allowed them to jump across sludge pits. On this world food would be scarce, and primitive Humma might have been scavengers, able to eat carrion in order to survive. "Hey guys I wonder what this does"-Famous last words "Hey guys, I think it's friendly." -Famous last words "You go on ahead, I'll catch up." -Famous last words "Did you here that?" -Famous last words |
December 22, 2010 - 6:38am | Keep suggesting ideas guys as I plan to try to try to descibe the world with many varied landscapes- earth isn't all one environment and neither should be hum. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
December 22, 2010 - 12:44pm | I'm partial to the humma having evolved from scavengers, and carrion eaters, which would explain their hardy constitutions, and why they have diminished senses of smell, and taste, allowing them to stomach foods that might not be fresh. It might also explain why they do not procreate more. Perhaps they've evolved on a planet where food is scarce and hummas have to fight to survive. In fact perhaps during lean times Humma actual practiced canibalism, culling the herd so to speak by eating the weak among them. (Sorry if this might be too dark a concept for some of us, but it would make for an intersting take on the species). "Hey guys I wonder what this does"-Famous last words "Hey guys, I think it's friendly." -Famous last words "You go on ahead, I'll catch up." -Famous last words "Did you here that?" -Famous last words |
December 22, 2010 - 6:04pm | RE: Scavangers and carrion most scavangers on earth have extremely well developed sense of smell and can wiff carrion from miles in the case of the vulture- most successful humma would have been those with a rudimentary sense of smell the beat out the rest of the race, Though one wonders how much evolutionary pressures like success at getting food will trump a situation where each humma can only mate once. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
December 22, 2010 - 7:56pm | Perhaps their mating once is a direct result of the scarecity of food in the region, since too many Humma would use up the planets scarce edible fauna and flora faster then it could be replenished. I'm still imagining a group of humma using their spring charge to ritually tear apart the old and infirm in the distant past and eating the deceased to make the race stronger. As for their diminished sense of smell, perhaps as carnivorous hunter/scavengers, they are ambush killers, who usually have keen hearing and eyesight, and fast reflexes to successfully hunt. In the Humma's case they could hide and when they hear or spot their prey use their leaping ability to pounce on their prey and bludgeon it to death with their heavy tails. Prehistoric Humma might have hunted like veloceraptors. "Hey guys I wonder what this does"-Famous last words "Hey guys, I think it's friendly." -Famous last words "You go on ahead, I'll catch up." -Famous last words "Did you here that?" -Famous last words |
December 22, 2010 - 8:03pm | Perhaps their mating once is a direct result of the scarecity of food in the region, since too many Humma would use up the planets scarce edible fauna and flora faster then it could be replenished. I'm still imagining a group of humma using their spring charge to ritually tear apart the old and infirm in the distant past and eating the deceased to make the race stronger. that would play into their killing and eating off the Boon sheh who are exceedingly twitchy and prone to flight.As for their diminished sense of smell, perhaps as carnivorous hunter/scavengers, they are ambush killers, who usually have keen hearing and eyesight, and fast reflexes to successfully hunt. In the Humma's case they could hide and when they hear or spot their prey use their leaping ability to pounce on their prey and bludgeon it to death with their heavy tails. Prehistoric Humma might have hunted like veloceraptors. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
December 22, 2010 - 8:20pm | "Humma are not as civilized as you may have been led to believe. They are savages. Worse then even your Yazirian crewmate over there." Looks over his shoulder and shudders as if remembering some dark terror that is never far from the surface of his thoughts. "When a Humma invites you to dinner beware." -A Boon Sheh Elder talking to a group of Frontier surveyors. "Hey guys I wonder what this does"-Famous last words "Hey guys, I think it's friendly." -Famous last words "You go on ahead, I'll catch up." -Famous last words "Did you here that?" -Famous last words |
December 22, 2010 - 8:39pm | I was thinking about smell and it reminded me of when I worked in a nursing home and dragged a buddy who was studying for the ministry to visit it. (He needed his horizons broadened and the though of old people sort of wigged him out) I distinctly remember him covering his nose with his tie and asking if the place smelled like that all the time. He was about 4 feet from a laundry barrel that most likely had linen with feces in it. I couldn't smell a thing and I began to notice, because of that incident, that only the most funkiest of smells got through to me- I had been a nurses aid for like 6 years by that time. perhaps the atmosphere or environment of Hum is just foul so that they just never bothered with the sense. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
December 29, 2010 - 9:15pm | been fooling around with campaign cartographer (still behind the learning curve with this thing) but tried my hand at a system map:  I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
December 30, 2010 - 11:38pm | Not bad at all. " 'Beware the Beast, Man, for he is the Devil's pawn. Alone among God's primates, he kills for sport, for lust, for greed. Yea, he will murder his brother to possess his brother's land. Let him not breed in great numbers, for he will make a desert of his home and yours. Shun him; drive him back into his jungle lair, for he is the harbinger of death." |
 January 14, 2011 - 9:04am | been fooling around with campaign cartographer (still behind the learning curve with this thing) but tried my hand at a system map: Hey, can you do one of these with the Zeb's star map of the frontier? Color code the worlds human, Vrusk, mixed etc, show the 3-d relationships between the systems?\ That would be cool! FIAWOL
TANSTAAFL!! |
January 16, 2011 - 7:26am | @ Parriah: dont know the campaign cartographer specifically supports some game called Traveller? and is a bit quirky to use; I suspect that the learning curve is tough to get past- though there is nothing for it but to try- I spent about 8 hours doing the tutorial and trying to produce deck plans with very little to show for it (other than the one system map) after the fustration quotient exceeded my "give it the ol' college try" quotient I decided to see if I could find a new patch for the dundjini software and in 10 minutes I had the program finally working right and was producing a deck plan covering multiple decks in minutes. I'll give it a try but in the short run I have a lot to do right now I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
January 30, 2011 - 10:45pm | Consulting my copy of Readers Digest North American Wildlife to look as RW environments and tweak them for the humma homeworld I discovered 30 such "wildlife communities" for North America what grabbed me right off was 1. the Sphagnum Bog- in particular I liked the idea of acidic water that prevents fish and aquatic wildlife seems appropriate for humma (caustic nastiness) just have to tweek the plants. 2. arctic tundra 3. lakes and ponds- just becaus they'll have to be described 4. sage brush desert 5.Cypress swamp 6. slow rivers 7. Tall Grass Prairie Some I made up 8. sludge springs or sulfer springs or similar 9. Contaminated fields-humma just didn't care about the side effects of their industrial revolution. Then I figured I create creature templates for describing creatures in a particular category like mammel, reptile etc. the following will be used as a general template for describing several creatures in a category; at least one apex predator, at least one prey, and at least one omnivore Hum mammel analog: 2 powerful hind legs, 2 stunted fore legs, tail, fur, warm blooded, hermaphroditic viviparous Hum Amphibian: furless skin, powerful hindlegs, stunted for legs, cold blooded, often poisonous, hermaphroditic, viviparous, tail powerful and often used for leverage. Hum Fish analog: slimmy skin (no scales), the powerfull hind legs have morphed into powerful hind fins aiding propulsion or smaller fins aiding in steering, tail is still evident as the spine is long and sinuey, fore limbs have either atrophied to vestigial or are stunted fins for steering, hermaphroditic viviparous Hum flightless Avian: fur, strong powerful hind legs, stunted or atrophied fore limbs, prenhensile hairless tail heterosexual live birth Hum true avian: fur, heterosexual viviparous, shortened broader tail, smaller overall hind legs and powerful fore limbs with skin membrane for flight, Insectoids some with 7 appendages and one is a poison delivery system of some sort and some with 6 appenages 2 of which are wings Sting tails- a hum version of the scorpian but with wip like tail and 4 limbs Bombadier Bugs- wings, 4 limbs and juice squirting abdomen that ejects 2 chemicals that ignite in air. various analogs to gnats and flys that swarm; -10% to all activity if caught in a swarm for some reason, I dont know why I felt compelled to stay away from a lizard analog Sample Creature: Sting Tail Description: the Sting Tail comes in several varieties. There are 46 documented species. They have a tough external skeleton and six limbs that allow them to scurry very fast on (a survival trait as humma are immune to their poison and think them good eating). The seventh appendage is a whip like tail that only delivers 1 point of damage (hence the name Sting as they only cause a humma a little sting just before being eaten). They generally eat other insectoids using their sting tail as expert anti air weaponry against flying bugs. Typical Statistics
Lightning Sting Tail is jet black, nocturnal, numbers of 1d5, very fast movement, +8IM/75RS, Stamina is always 10, and the poison is a very serious S10/T7 toxin. The Aquatic Sting tail eats rotting carrion, has 60% concealment in aquatic environments, Speed of Slow, S8/T8 toxin. it will try to kill large creatures so that they fall into the water and become a feast for the sting tail. The Highest One Sting Tail, is small sized instead of tiny, STamina 25, number 1d5, Damage 1d10, looses the special defence.these are exceedingly rare (humma love to eat them) and only found in the most desolate locats of Hum. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
January 30, 2011 - 11:14pm | Very good ideas and post. :-) I love the idea of variants, we tend to think of single creatures. One question; Special Defense is evade what? Capture, attacks? |
January 30, 2011 - 11:37pm | Very good ideas and post. :-) I love the idea of variants, we tend to think of single creatures. One question; Special Defense is evade what? Capture, attacks? to evade being attacked I guess variants let you create new creatures with little extra work! everyone should do it particularly with predators- big ocean going predators will have smaller fresh water variant some things might have a domesticated smaller variant I like to suggest other species in the description allowing a GM to give vent to his ideas- take my post and create a slightly different variant with new coloring and a few changes in size or abilities PS: will be bringing the humma zoology to life soon I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
