Aristotle Jones, a character for GURPS Uplift (tm)

Table of Contents

Concept

[The GM gave us 175 points to spend] The idea was to make a very smart Neo-Chimpanzee.  I had two general ideas in mind when I started to make this character:

1) Happy-go-lucky adventurous scholar - Indian JonesT meets Caesar (of Planet of the ApesT)
2) Somewhat bitter underclass member that happens to be very able - Scotty (of Star TrekT) meets Chewbacca (of Star WarsT) with a touch of Martin Luther King

I tried the first one in a short, initial one-hour intro session and disliked it horribly, so I am going to go with the second concept.

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Physical Description

Aristotle is remarkably tall for a Chim - 5'6".  His muscles are proportional to his body size, making him stronger than the average Chim.  His eyes sparkle with intellect and awareness.  He has a Scottish accent.  He likes to drink Scotch Whiskey, which he claims is necessary to fuel his accent.  He keeps himself well-groomed.

His attitude is usually one of calm confidence.  He tends to be fraternal or paternal towards his companions and is noticeably more courteous to Terragens than other clan members.

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Background

For now, a skeleton will have to suffice:

Adopted by parents in Scotland that fell on hard times.
He grew up in a working class neighborhood, where he keenly felt patron-client inequality.
Once school started, he excelled and did very well.
He was freakishly smart and had a great memory, he learned everything he could get his hands on.
He was encouraged into Probability Physics as much for his credentials as political reasons.  A Chim Probability Physicist makes for good press.
Worked at a lab.
?
Hooked up with Gecko and started gallavanting about the galaxy.

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Building Aristotle

We were given 175 points to build our characters, and they had to be from the Terragens clan.

As for how he would fit into the game, I suggested that he had left whatever lab he was working on to adventure with another player's character, a pilot with a starship.  To accommodate this and my original concepts was easy, as it was very difficult to be good at Probability Physics, the Uplift skill that represents the science behind their stardrives.  This required a very high Mathematics, Nuclear Physics, and Physics.  So just being barely competent at that was a big step towards the smart Chim idea.

I decided I wanted him to have had a very broad technical education, but mostly in ripping apart and building devices.  In spite of his 'burly engineer' demeanor, I wanted him to be something of a renaissance Chim, having a lot of little skills in various fields.  Because of his training, he would probably have some knowledge of other lifeforms, so some Xenology and Languages were in order.  Uplift requires some points spent in a specific list of skills to represent normal education, so that burned some stuff.  I wanted him to be good at most of these as well.  To make him freakishly competent in spite of the -1 IQ Chims suffer, I chose to buy Eidetic Memory level 2 as well.

To account for a tough but nice guy demeanor, I bought him Cannot Harm Innocents, Sense of Duty to Close Companions, and Compulsive Generosity.  For the activist flavor, I threw in a Minor Vow to advocate Patron-Client equality.  Basically, this was to reflect that he would tend to not agree with the Galactic norm of Client submissiveness and sometimes feel compelled to speak out against it (hence the *Minor* Vow).  I do not want him to end up being a full time activist, it's just meant to be a facet of his personality.

Because of his other feelings, I decided that Chauvanism was appropriate.  He would definitely stay keenly aware of racial differences of those around him.  Also, I decided that the Pilans were a good target for intolerance on his part.  In his eyes, they are the exemplars of what is wrong with "the system" (on the Galactic scale).  They are old, abusive of their power, and try to keep the Terragens down by holding back knowledge.  Proud just simply makes sense at this point.  I chose Easy to Read intentionally.  Although it might be a serious disadvantage at times when working with a smuggler (the pilot character, Gecko), I see it as his personal manifestation of the lingering beast inside.  Because of his views and his current company, I felt that Reproduction status would be stepped down a bit for him in spite of his gifts.  If he cleaned up his act and learned some manners, he would be on the fast track for white card status.

Just for the heck of it, I decided he liked cats.  Keeping a pet probably makes him feel like less of an animal while giving him the comraderie of an animal at the same time.  Profound.  Besides he's Congenial, so having something around to keep him company would make him happier.

Rationales

Finally, he ended up with:
 
Stats
ST: 15
DX: 14
IQ: 14
HT: 10

Advantages
Acute Taste & Smell
Brachiator
Dolphin Friend
Eidetic Memory 2
Fur
High Pain Threshold
Racial DX +1
Racial ST +3

Disadvantages
Attentive
Cannot Harm Innocents
Chauvinistic
Compulsive Generosity
Easy to Read
Intolerance(Racial - Pilans)
Proud
Restricted Reproduction: Grey Card
Sense of Duty: Close companions
Vow(Minor - advocate Client-Patron equality)

Racial Disadvantages: Neo-Chimpanzee
Congenial
Racial IQ -1
Racial Reputation: "Wolflings", -2 from everyone on 10 or less
Racial Reputation: Noncomformists, -2 from conservative clans all the time
Racial Status 2
Stress Atavism

Quirks
Dislikes client status
Habit: stroking neck fur
Likes pets
Likes scotch whiskey
Scottish accent

Points
20
30
60
0
 

2
5
10
60
4
10
10
30
 

-1
-10
-1
-5
-10
-5
-1
-7
-5
-5
 

-1
-10
-10
-10
-10
-8
 

-1
-1
-1
-1
-1

Skills
Agronomy
Anthropology
Archaeology
Area Knowledge (Galaxy)
Astrogation
Astronomy
Autohypnosis
Body Language
Brawling
Broadsword
Chemistry
Ecology
Electronics(Communications)
Electronics(Computers)
Electronics(Medical)
Electronics(Probability)
Electronics(Psi Devices)
Electronics(Security Systems)
Electronics(Sensors)
Electronics(Starship Energy Weapons)
Engineer(Electrical Work)
First Aid
Free Fall
Geology
Guns(Gyroc)
History(Milky Way Galaxy)
Hyperspace Physics
Language(Anglic)
Language(Galactic One)
Language(Galactic Seven)
Language(Galactic Ten)
Language(Galactic Two)
Language(Primal)
Language(Trinary)
Mathematics
Mechanic(Starship Drives)
Naturalist
Nuclear Physics
Physician
Physics
Probability Physics
Psionics
Psychology
Research
Scuba
Sign Language
Swimming
Xenobiology(Gas Giants)
Xenobiology(Hostile Terrestial)
Xenobiology(Terrestial)
Xenology
Points
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
2.0
0.5
0.5
0.5
1.0
2.5
0.5
3.0
0.5
0.5
1.0
0.5
0.5
def
1.0
0.5
0.5
0.5
1.0
0
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
1.5
0.5
0.5
3.0
1.0
1.5
1.0
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5 
Level
14
13
13
13
14
13
13
13
15
12
13
13
14
17
13
18
13
13
14
13
13
14
13
13
17
13
13
14
13
15
13
15
12
13
15
14
13
15
14
15
13
12
13
14
14
14
13
14
14
14
13

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Character Progression


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