Grimmans

A race of short but powerfully-built humanoids. Height is usually four and a half to five feet, but they're stronger than the human average and very tough. Skin, eyes, and hair are varying shades of gray. Aside from this they are very human-looking. Males resemble Olympic weightlifters in build; females are built like gymnasts or ballerinas.

Their homeworld Grimmath is similar to Earth but is geologically and climatically very unstable. Most lifeforms (even the plants) are omnivorous and very dangerous. The climate is somewhat warmer and wetter than Earth's. The atmosphere is a little thicker and has a higher proportion of oxygen.

Advantages and Disadvantages

Total Attributes: 180 points

Racial Advantages: +10 HP (20 points), Absolute Direction (5 points), Acute Taste and Smell 4 (8 points), Ambidexterity (5 points), Catfall (10 points), Claim to Hospitality (clan or spouse's clan, 10 points), Combat Reflexes (15 points), Damage Resistance 12 (Flexible, -20%, 48 points), Detect (electric and magnetic fields, 20 points), Empathy (15 points), Extra Life (Copy, Requires Body, -40%, 15 points)¹, Extended Lifespan 1 (2 points), Very Fit (15 points), High Pain Threshold (10 points), Hyperspectral Vision (Extended Low-Band, Extended High-Band, +60%, 40 points), Immunity to Disease (10 points), Language (Grimman Standard, Native, 6 points)², Longevity (2 points), Mind Reading (Sensory, Universal, Telepathic, +60%, 48 points), Racial Memory (40 points)³, Regrowth (40 points), Resistant to Electricity (+8, 1/2, 5 points), Resistant to Poison (+8, 1/2, 8 points), Resistant to Radiation (+8, 1/2, 8 points), Sanitized Metabolism (1 point), Subsonic Hearing (5 points), Telecommunication (Telesend, Broadcast, Video, Racial⁴, Telepathic, +70%⁴, 57 points), Temperature Tolerance 3 (3 points), Unfazeable (15 points), Universal Digestion (5 points)

Total Racial Advantages: 491 points

Racial Disadvantages: Code of Honor (Soldier's, "All Grimmans are comrades in the war against Entropy, blood must be avenged by blood," -10 points), Increased Consumption 1 (-10 points), Odious Racial Habit (Do not respect borders or boundaries, -1, -5 points), Reputation ("Do not play well with others", -1, almost everyone, all the time, -5 points), Truthfulness (-5 points), Unusual Biochemistry (-5 points)

Total Racial Disadvantages: -40 points

Racial Quirks: Dislike enclosed spaces, especially underground (-1 point)

Total Racial Quirks: -1 point

Features: Taboo Traits (Genetic Defects, Irrationality)

Total Racial Package: 630 points

Notes:

¹ This is considered to be a "mind child," not the original person. "Mind children" usually don't take bodies, but live and work on the data net as Ghosts.

² Learned as a second language in addition to native dialect.

³ Memories are transferred telepathically, so they're not necessarily from the Grimman's genetic ancestors.

⁴ Actually, it is Vague with non-Grimmans, and non-Grimmans can't "hear" a broadcast. Thus, I only took off 10% for Racial.

Names

Adult Grimmans have four names: a given name, a marriage name, a paternal name, and a clan name. The given name is a short word in Grimman Standard thought to reflect the individual's character. When a pair of Grimmans are bonded, they select a married name shared by both. This is usually one of several thousand traditional marriage names. The paternal name is the parents' marriage name with the suffix -ik, "child of." The clan name is inherited from the father by boys, and from the mother by girls. There are two types of clans, natal clans, which one is born into, and adoptive clans, into which one may be adopted as an adult, usually for business reasons. Natal clan names start with e'-, contraction of ehl, "of/from," and adoptive clan names start with m'-, contraction of med, "with." Children of adults who have joined an adoptive clan take the parents' natal clan names, not the adoptive clan name.

Psychology

Grimmans know the universe is out to get them, but that's okay, because they're out to get the universe right back. Little surprises them. They literally expect the sky to fall on their heads, or the ground to open up beneath their feet, at any moment. On their home planet, such things happen regularly. A popular pastime is debating whether the sun will come up tomorrow. Consensus is that it probably will, but you never know.

Grimmans are polite, conscientious, and hard-working. Grimman engineering work is renowned for its quality and durability (and expense, but you do get what you pay for). So it's really quite unfortunate that they have this bad habit of building spaceports, cities, and military bases on worlds owned by other societies without asking permission first.

Notes

Units of Measurement

Disclaimer -- Steve Jackson Games

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Copyright © 2006 by Richard C. McCluney, III