fredgiblet wrote: They had two different derived stats (fatigue and Hit Points) neither of which really belong attached to ST. My guess is that they felt they had to have at least one of the attached to ST to make things seem balanced or something like that. I disagree, I think that either Fatigue should have been separated or they both should have been attached to HT, which still wouldn't make it as valuable as ST. But it's easy enough to fix if it bothers you.
I don't disagree with moving fatigue to HT; one option makes as much or as little sense as the other. My argument is that also moving hit points to ST is both totally illogical and doesn't make sense from game balance; as you said, you could put both hit points and fatigue on HT and it would still be the least valuable stat.
Another option is to use calculated values like Move, which is (or was) DX + HT / 2.
This is a purely philosophical argument; I never had any intention of purchasing the new edition of GURPS, and it's very unlikely that I will ever sit down again with a group of in-the-flesh people to play a pen and paper RPG. (But if I did, I would probably be the GM, and so can make up whatever rules I like.)
Sprawl63 wrote:I would think that a lower body temperature would give them a harder time in warmer (tropical or desert) environments. A lower body temperature means that would have to shed heat more quickly, which means they might become exhausted or dehydrated more quickly then humans. Take Alex's experience for example. Assuming both environments are tailored for the crews, while he might be shivering a bit on a Loroi ship, a Loroi might be sweating a bit on a human ship.
It's a common misconception that "cold-blooded" organisms are less resistant to heat than "warm-blooded" ones, but just the opposite is true: reptiles are much more heat resistant than mammals, and can survive at a wider range of body temperatures.
A mammal has mechanisms to generate internal heat, so that it doesn't have to rely on external heat (like basking in the sun) to raise its body temperature up to optimal operating levels like a reptile does. But this is a double-edged sword, because when the external temperature rises above optimal body temperature, the internal heat can build up and cooling becomes an issue, and the temperature at which overheating starts to cause damage is only about 10 degrees F above optimal temperature. So humans and most mammals have a very narrow operating internal temperature range. A reptile isn't generating any internal heat, and so can survive hotter external temperatures than a mammal can.
But if your biochemistry is more efficient and operates at a lower temperature (and produces less waste heat), then the organism can still regulate its internal temperature like a mammal, but it will have a larger range of safe body temperature, because heat will still damage tissues at around the same temperature as a mammal, but the Soia-Liron organism is generating less internal heat and so is easier to keep cool. So the Soia-Liron organism is more resistant to both heat and cold.
discord wrote:although a 'reduced consumption' would nicely show the loroi 'improved metabolism', not sure about a good game term for the higher degree of temperature tolerance would be though, it should be around though.
GURPS does have Increased G-Tolerance, Decreased Life Support, and Temperature Tolerance advantages. You could also throw in Extended Lifespan if you wanted to be really accurate. GURPS also lets you buy fatigue separate from its base stat. I didn't include these because they're arbitrarily expensive -- 45 points for the lot -- and don't really offer any meaningful advantages to an individual character for that cost.