Designer’s Notes: The Gryndel Menace

Pyramid080-rvw6_1000

Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night with complete rule sets in my head. I’m talking down to the last perk. Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night screaming because my eyes were just eaten by a monster and now I need to write it up in GURPS or describe it for later. It then heads to the to the Nightmare file to be used later. The gryndel never made it that far. I dreamed about it for nearly a week. I was not feeling well at the time and even with the headache I had I got up, wrote the article, and then had a good night’s sleep for the first time in a month. When I woke up I began to polish it some, but put it away. A few months later I dragged it out and made it shiny and chrome before sending it off to my reviewers. Overall, it took maybe 7 hours to write, 45 hours to edit, and about 50 hours to revise. There was a bit more revision after it had been accepted, but that was negligible.

One thing I left out that I had wanted to include, but neither had room nor time was the gryndel as a alien race for GURPS Monster Hunters 5: Applied Xenology. For GURPS Monster Hunters, add Injury Tolerance (Unliving) to adults and juveniles. 20 or more spawnlings per champion is probably a fair fight, while five to seven juveniles per champion is fair. Two to three adults per champion is a fair fight. If the GM allows, the following Gryndel Hybrid template can be available for inhumans.

Gryndel-Hybrid

200 points

You’re a gryndel-hybrid. You might have been (or still are!) obsessed with gryndel flesh and blood or maybe you were changed against your will. While you may still look human (or not!), you’re radically altered and are something…more. Faster, stronger, tougher, you can take on any of the Enemy toe to toe.

Attribute Modifiers: ST+4 [40]; DX+2 [40]; HT+2 [20].
Secondary Characteristic Modifiers: Basic Speed +1.00 [20]; Basic Move +1 [5]; Per+1 [5].
Advantages: Acute Hearing 2 [4]; Acute Smell 2 [4]; Combat Reflexes; Damage Resistance 3 (Limited, Acidic Attacks, -80%) [3]; Damage Resistance 1 [5]; High Pain Threshold [10]; Resistant to Metabolic Hazards (+3) [10]; Injury Tolerance (Unbreakable  Bones) [10]; Parabolic Hearing 1 [4]; Regeneration (Slow) [10]. • 50 points worth of advantages listed on p. 9 of Pyramid #3/80: Horrific Threats or the Gryndel meta-trait (Pyramid #3/80: Horrific Threats, p. 7).

Disadvantages: Increased Consumption 1 [-10]; Overconfidence (12) [-5]. • -35 points worth of the disadvantages listed on p. 9 of Pyramid #3/80: Horrific Threats as well as reduced Appearance, Odious Personal Habits, Social Stigma (Monster), or any disadvantages listed in the Gryndel meta-trait (Pyramid #3/80: Horrific Threats, p. 7).
Features: Can purchase other gryndel traits with character points in play; Sterile.
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