[Runequest] Gorp Question

[David Cake]

At 10:23 AM +0200 22/5/08, Tomas Björklund wrote:
>This is just one man's opinion but ...
>
>a) Use the movement rate in the rule set you use 
>for your campaign. In water I would let them 
>either move attached to a surface in which case 
>the movement rate is the same as on land, or 
>float like a manowar or jellyfish.

	Some of the variant gorp mentioned in 
River of Cradles are fast swimmers. Normal gorp 
probably aren't really fast, but might well be as 
fast or faster than on land.

>
>b) I would say their sensory range should be a 
>yard or so away at the most. if you want to get 
>scientific about it (not always a good thing 
>when it comes to fantasy games) you can compare 
>to earth creatures. This is a creature with very 
>low speed, and no IQ, very much like a 
>jellyfish, amoeba of fungus it eats whatever it 
>encounters. Thus it has no need for any senses 
>at all really really, or if it has senses 
>wouldn't have a sensory range beyond what it can 
>reach immediately, i.e whatever it can reach 
>withing a few seconds.

	I've heard of some research on things 
like box jellyfish family (cubozoa, rather 
scyphozoa, any biologists that might know more 
than me) that say they basically have sensory 
organs that enable them to hunt, despite having 
no central nervous system - I think the idea is 
that their sensory organs are more or less 
directly hooked up to their nervous system, 
homing in on movement etc with no more 
sophisticated processing.
	This more or less matches my 
understanding of gorp - that they have some 
senses, but no brain, just home in on what they 
think is food, with no capability for learning or 
understanding. Different gorp might have 
different behaviours wired in, gorp are by no 
means uniform.

>  This presumes there is some kind of selection 
>involved in it's creation. If it is a created 
>being it can conceivably have any abilities, 
>like sense power items a kilometer away, but 
>even then if it there is a sensible creator at 
>work he/she/it wouldn't give it senses it has no 
>use for, i.e. again only let it sense things it 
>stands a reasonable chance to get to considering 
>it's total lack of intelligence.

	Of course, gorp are chaotic, and so need 
not make any sense at all in terms of natural 
selection if you don't want them too. Given the 
race as a whole is a very primal form of chaos, 
it makes sense for them to have some biological 
plausibillity, but individual gorp that have been 
corrupted by later forms of chaos need not make 
any sense at all.
	Regards
		David