Val CHA Cost Roll Notes 25 STR 15 14- Lift 800 kg; 5d6 HTH Damage [2] 15 DEX 15 12- OCV: 5/DCV: 5 20 CON 20 13- 15 BODY 10 12- 10 INT 0 11- PER Roll 13- 10 EGO 0 11- ECV: 3 13 PRE 3 12- PRE Attack: 2 1/2d6 10 COM 0 11- 6 PD 1 Total: 6 PD (1 rPD) 4 ED 0 Total: 4 ED (1 rED) 3 SPD 5 Phases: 4, 8, 12 9 REC 0 40 END 0 38 STUN 0 Total Characteristics Cost: 69 Movement: Running: 13"/26" Leaping: 5"/10" Swimming: 2"/4" Cost Powers & Skills 5 Bite: HKA 1 point (1/2d6 w/STR), END 1 10 Kick/Rear: HA +3d6; Hand-To-Hand Attack (-1/2), END 1 1 Tough Skin: Damage Resistance (1 PD/1 ED) 6 Heavy: Knockback Resistance -3" 14 Horse's Legs: Running +7" (13" total), END 1 6 Sharp-Eared And Keen-Nosed: +2 PER with All Sense Groups 10 "Subject To No Diseases": LS (Immunity: All terrestrial diseases and biowarfare agents) Skills 2 KS: Poetry 11- 2 SS: Astronomy 11- Total Powers & Skill Cost: 56 Total Cost: 125 75+ Disadvantages 5 Physical Limitation: Large (4m; -2 DCV, +2 to PER Rolls to perceive) Infrequently, Slightly Impairing 15 Physical Limitation: Unable To Comprehend The Concept Of Lies And Falsehoods (Infrequently, Fully Impairing) 20 Psychological Limitation: Consider Themselves The "Perfection Of Nature" (Common, Total) 10 Experience Points Total Disadvantage Points: 125
Designer's Notes: The Houyhnhnm live on a large island located somewhere in the Indian Ocean. They are race of intelligent horses, capable of using their forefeet in a manner similar to human hands, allowing them to raise homes, tend fields, create simple tools, and thread a needle. They live to be 70-75 years of age and seem to be immune to sickness and disease.
Houyhnhnm society is almost a utopia, based as it is on pure reason. Thus, almost everything they do centers around the benefits and cost of any action. For example, Houyhnhnm are supposed to produce one male and one female foal per family. If a couple produces two males (or two females), then one of the children are exchanged for one from another family inthe same situation to ensure balance. This detachment to their offspring extends to Houyhnhnm spouses as well, as the death of a spouse is treated with little fanfare, other than some consideration as to where the body should be buried. This also means that have little to no pity or sympathy for others.
This adherence to reason and rational thought makes an Houyhnhnm unable to conceive of telling lies. Their language is direct and to the point, with no word meaning “lie.” Instead, once the idea of lying is explained to them, the Houyhnhnm are forced to create the phase “to say a thing which is not.” To them, the concept of lies is further proof of the irrationality of man, who they view as just a step or two above the brutish and primitive Yahoos, with whom they share their island.
(Houyhnhnm created by Jonathan Swift, character sheet created by Michael Surbrook)
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