How much does the morphus weigh?

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Bill
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How much does the morphus weigh?

Unread post by Bill »

A player rolled a excessive random combination that makes his morphus form huge, but didn't give him any guide for determining its weight. Before I arbitrarily decide to make it a multiple of the facade's weight, I wanted to make sure I hadn't missed some buried note about the morphus having a specific weight of any kind. Anybody aware of such a note?
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drewkitty ~..~
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Re: How much does the morphus weigh?

Unread post by drewkitty ~..~ »

How much you you expect a flesh and blood char of the same size weigh? is the 1st question that should come to mind. And then modify that answer to fit the specific morphus.

There are two placed I can think of that may give guidance within the published books. The first that came to me is in R20 NB tables, the giant ogre feature gives additional weight per foot gained. The there is the Giant super power that also gives additional weight per foot gained.
Last edited by drewkitty ~..~ on Wed Jun 22, 2016 1:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Shark_Force
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Re: How much does the morphus weigh?

Unread post by Shark_Force »

i would ignore anything that gives weight per foot gained.

for some reason, RPG designers seem to be *really* bad at understanding that weight (and mass) are largely a function of volume, and thus a creature of equal density but half the size in every dimension will only be 1/8 the volume and mass, and a creature of equal density but double the size in every dimension will be 8 times the volume and mass.

do your own math, you'll get a result that is a lot less silly. you won't have 3 foot tall people that weight half of what an adult human does, you won't get giants that would have to be so thin their skeleton couldn't support their own weight, etc.

i mean, it's ok when it's actually a supernatural effect doing that (if the form is just super tall and rail-thin by design, then fine, it's magic) but if it's just supposed to be regular big, do your own math.
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Bill
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Re: How much does the morphus weigh?

Unread post by Bill »

drewkitty ~..~ wrote:How much you you expect a flesh and blood char of the same size weigh?

That comes off a little condescending. It's also a simplistic way to look at the question. Is the morphus really flesh and blood and if it is, does its supernatural nature has an impact on its mass? Page nine of the core book indicates that if killed in morphus, a nightbane "will dissolve in shadows like a mirage, leaving no blood, dust or stain." This is reiterated on page 16 and page 30. So it's definitely not a being of flesh and blood in the conventional sense.

The Rifter 20 article would be more compelling if it were official rather than optional material. Several of the morphus tables in that issue specify a weight or modify the character's weight in some fashion, while the ones from the core book and Between the Shadows do not. In the absence of other information, I probably will go with the simple answer of bigger being heavier and estimate an appropriate weight but I'd like to find something more official and specific if it exists.
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drewkitty ~..~
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Re: How much does the morphus weigh?

Unread post by drewkitty ~..~ »

For all gameplay purposes yes they are flesh and blood while alive.
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Bill
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Re: How much does the morphus weigh?

Unread post by Bill »

As an opinion, that's fine. Please give me a canon source, if you're able to.
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Marcethus
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Re: How much does the morphus weigh?

Unread post by Marcethus »

I always just used common sense regarding the weight of a Nightbane in Morphus. I haven't run across this situation much, mainly as I am very restrictive as to whom I allow to play Nightbanes. Your solution sounds reasonable. Just have to factor in exact mass regarding if he is skinny, muscular and various other considerations.
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Rallan
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Re: How much does the morphus weigh?

Unread post by Rallan »

Bill wrote:As an opinion, that's fine. Please give me a canon source, if you're able to.



There are no canon sources on what Nightbane weigh, but the flavour text makes it pretty clear over and over again that Nightbane bleed and are presumably made of meat and skin and bone just like anyone else (except when they've got Morphus features that are explicitly mineral or vegetable). So start from that and use common sense to figure out a character's weight for yourself.

And "Use common sense to figure out a character's weight for yourself" is literally the best answer you're going to get because they never specify weights in the books, so there's no need to snarkily talk down to people for daring to suggest that you homebrew a solution to something with no canon answer.
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Axelmania
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Re: How much does the morphus weigh?

Unread post by Axelmania »

I imagine if you roll up Skeleton that you'd probably weigh less.
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