Val CHA Cost Roll Notes 40 STR 30 17- Lift 6400 kg; 8d6 HTH Damage [4] 13 DEX 9 12- OCV: 4/DCV: 4 25 CON 30 14- 20 BODY 20 13- 8 INT -2 11- PER Roll 11- 8 EGO -4 11- ECV: 3 25 PRE 15 14- PRE Attack: 5d6 8 COM -1 11- 10 PD 2 Total: 10 PD (1 rPD) 8 ED 3 Total: 8 ED (1 rED) 3 SPD 7 Phases: 4, 8, 12 13 REC 0 50 END 0 53 STUN 0 Total Characteristics Cost: 109 Movement: Running: 9"/18" Leaping: 4"/8" Swimming: 4"/8" Cost Powers & Skills 10 Tireless: Reduced Endurance (1/2 END; +1/4) for up to 40 Active Points of STR 20 Arm Sweep: Area Of Effect (up to One Hex; +1/2) for up to 40 Active Points of STR, END 2 1 Thick Skin: Damage Resistance (1 PD/1 ED) 6 Heavy: Knockback Resistance -3" 6 Long Legs: Running +3" (9" total) 1 2 Powerful Swimmer: Swimming +2" (4" total), END 1 4 Reach: Stretching 1", Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1/2); Always Direct (-1/4), No Noncombat Stretching (-1/4), No Velocity Damage (-1/4) Skills 5 +1 with HTH Combat 3 Climbing 12- 3 Concealment 11- 3 Stealth 12- 3 Tracking 11- 2 WF: Clubs, Javelins and Thrown Spears, Polearms and Spears Total Powers & Skill Cost: 68 Total Cost: 177 75+ Disadvantages 5 Physical Limitation: Large (3m tall, -2 DCV, +2 to PER Rolls) (Infrequently, Slightly Impairing) 5 Physical Limitation: Reduced Leap, can only leap half as far as STR indicates (Infrequently, Slightly Impairing) 92 Experience Points Total Disadvantage Points: 177
Ecology: In general, giants are solitary, and live far from man in the thick wilderness. The unexplored wilds of India, Africa, and Patagonia are said to be home to whole tribes of giants, some of who are reputed to be cannibals. Most giants seem to be gatherers, living off of whatever they can find, although a few resort to theft, and will pilfer a farm of its livestock, grain, and crops. Some giants, such as the giants of Patagonia, are hunters and fishers and eating mainly meat and fish.
Giants are known as Cyclops, Gargantua, Goliaths, and Titans.
Personality/Motivation: Giants are usually motivated by the need to survive. There is a tendency among giants, especially those that live in England and France, to become greedy robbers, preying on passerby, and stealing from them all items of value (and sometimes eating their victims).
Powers/Tactics: A giant is usually armed with a great club, which has been fashioned from a length of uprooted tree. Other will have long spears. In Patagonia, the giants are known to carry great bows, with which they are highly accurate. If unarmed, a giant will fight with his bare hands, or hurl great rocks.
Some giants are thought to be great magic users. Others are reputed to possess magical items of great power, or to hold great storehouses of knowledge.
Appearance: Giants are humans of great size and stature. Their exact appearance is as variable as that of man himself, although most giants are noted as being more than ten feet tall and thickly bearded. Giants dress in whatever the local climate allows for, from a simple loincloth to thick furs.
Designer's Notes: The medieval belief in giants can be traced to several sources. One of the more prevalent sources was the Bible, within which one could find a number of references to giants. The most famous -- and well known -- was David's fight with Goliath. The first book of the Bible, Genesis, stated: "There were giants in the earth in those days," while Numbers was far more specific: "And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come to the giants: and we were in our own eyes grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight."
Folklore is full of giants and gigantic men, many of whom seem to have been based off of stories of fairly tall native peoples. The giants of Patagonia were witnessed by Ferdinand Magellan and Charles Darwin, although no one else has seen them since. Celtic and early European mythology mentions numerous giants, and the island of Briton was once thought to be thickly inhabited by a whole race of giants, who were driven out by the Roman warrior Brutus. Many ancient structures, -- such as Stonehenge in England -- as well as some natural rock formations -- such as the aptly-named Giant's Causeway in Ireland -- were thought to be the work of giants.
The discovery of the fossil bones of elephants and other animals was often used as evidence of giants. The cyclops may have been inspired by the finding of an elephant's skull. The central nasal passage may have been mistaken for an eye socket, which led to the cyclops' one-eyed nature.
The more famous giants of myth and folklore include the Greek cyclops, the Irish Fomorians, and Gogmagog, the great giant of ancient Briton.