How Large is Large?

[Geesuv]

So I'm coming up with a whole bunch of aliens for my Traveller setting but I hit a bump with one species.
They're bigger on average than humans (about 8ft tall) but still humanoid. I wasn't sure if that qualified them for the Large trait.
So my question is that, how big does an alien have to be before they are Large? Or even Huge?

 

[rust]

Hmmm... with the Strength and Endurance of 3d6 or 4d6 an animal would
be in the 100 kg to 800 kg range, so I would probably choose 100+ kg to
800 kg as "Large" and everything above 800 kg as "Huge" ?

The actual height of the alien or creature should probably not be impor-
tant, an intelligent giant snake with a height of 1 meter, but a weight of
500 kg, would almost certainly still be "Large".

 

[mattman]

I thought this was interesting from the perspective of an upper limit. There are detailed formulas which could be broken out to include force of gravity:

"
The model indicates that the largest animals would be of a scale such that lumbering about as fast as they can they can just barely find enough to eat to satisfy their metabolic needs.

At the other end of the scale spectrum the thermal requirement is thought to dominate. However with the thermal needs being proportional to the second power of scale but the maximum foraging yield depending upon the 3/2 power of scale there is no way the curves can properly define a minimum scale. If the thermal need is greater than the foraging yield for very small scales this will prevail at all scales because of the size of the exponents. The foraging yield curve and the thermal need curve can cross but only such as to define a maximum scale size not a minimum one. The diagrams below illustrates this.
"
http://www.applet-magic.com/scalelimits.htm

 

[DFW]

"There are smaller fish and insects but this seems to be a lower limit for land creatures made of flesh and blood."

Insects...

 

[Mongoose Pete]

Hmmm... with the Strength and Endurance of 3d6 or 4d6 an animal would
be in the 100 kg to 800 kg range, so I would probably choose 100+ kg to
800 kg as "Large" and everything above 800 kg as "Huge" ?

The actual height of the alien or creature should probably not be impor-
tant, an intelligent giant snake with a height of 1 meter, but a weight of
500 kg, would almost certainly still be "Large".

I'd bump up the mass limit a little. I weigh 105kg and am fairly muscular, but not excessively so. My dietary requirements are no greater than any other average male, and my air and water consumption are standard human... although if I take my wife as an example, her shower and bath excesses might push her into the Large bracket... :wink:

 

[DFW]

I'd bump up the mass limit a little. I weigh 105kg and am fairly muscular, but not excessively so.

Yes, it should start ~150kg. Too many human men are in the 100kg range.

 

[rinku]

IMHO "Large" would start more around the 200kg mark at least. K'Kree are stated to average 550kg (per original Alien Module 2). A moderately strong (or fat) Aslan would easily reach 150kg (they average 100kg, compared with a Human's 75kg or so).

At the moment the only example we have are the K'Kree, and they are way more than 150kg.

 

[rust]

IMHO "Large" would start more around the 200kg mark at least.

True, this would make more sense than 100+ kg.

 

[rinku]

... although if I take my wife as an example, her shower and bath excesses might push her into the Large bracket... :wink:

JEEZUS, mate! You'd better pray she doesn't read these forums...

(No smiley will protect you from effectively calling a woman fat...)

 

[Charakan]

... although if I take my wife as an example, her shower and bath excesses might push her into the Large bracket... :wink:

JEEZUS, mate! You'd better pray she doesn't read these forums...

(No smiley will protect you from effectively calling a woman fat...)

I think he meant her life support costs in terms of water consumption push her into the large category.

 

[Geesuv]

Heh, Still. A fine line you're treading there, dude :wink:

 

[Nathan Brazil]

What about the other sizes? When referring to the Aliens section in the core rules, there are the other size categories with associated characteristics for Strength, Desterity, Endurance

Tiny 1d6, 3d6, 1d6, -1 to be hit
Small 1d6, 3d6, 1d6
Large 3d6 (or 4d6), 1d6, 3d6 (or 4d6)
Huge 3d6 (or 4d6), 1d6, 3d6 (or 4d6), +1 to be hit

What would the mass ranges be for the sizes in relation to the animals size and characteristic tables?

 

[rust]

What would the mass ranges be for the sizes in relation to the animals size and characteristic tables?

As a first attempt at it:

Tiny = below 10 kg
Small = 10 kg to 50 kg
Large = 200 kg to 800 kg
Huge = above 800 kg

 

[BP]

Given the mechanics - different physical traits and To Hit DMs - mass doesn't really seem to be the driving factor. The definitions seem to refer to dimensional size.

A low overall mass creature can definitely still have traits of greater strength - and, even more believably - endurance.

In the OP's 8 foot tall example - might not call that 'considerably larger than the average' sophont. (Larger, yes, maybe ~ 30% - so that is a judgement call on what 'considerable' means - to me its > 50%.)

As size can have more than one dimension - an 8 foot wide sophont would definitely qualify as 'Large' in my book

K'kree are large, yet they are shorter than 8 foot - however, they are definitely, considerably 'longer' than the average sophont (assuming that is humans). They do mass more as well, though that can be a function of density (and overall density does not have to equate to greater strength and can definitely equate to greater endurance - as per the definition of Large).

Keeping in mind these an 'non-inclusive' alien traits - one might prefer your Large sophont to also have a larger range of Dexterity (vs. Large's 1d6) - noting that a 'Notable' trait could apply if one just wants them to always have a potentially higher Dex...