Generic Space Opera Bestiary: Space Deer

 

Deer seem to be the generic “hunting prey.” If a story depicts a character hunting an animal that animal is probably a deer, especially if we expand our understanding of deer to include any swift, horned herbivores that tends to gather in groups (though not necessarily large herds). This might include gazelle or antelope, but it should be noted that these are a variation of goats with no real relationship to deer.

Pizard, thank god, has stats on all of these! I’ll be mostly using the mule deer, which is the deer in Disney’s Bambi, and thus what I think of when I think “deer” though it should be noted that Bambi was a roe deer.

 

Space Deer in GURPS Space

Deer (and gazelle and so on) are probably closer to browsers than grazers. They seem to congregate in Woodlands or scrublands with bushes that make it relatively easy for them to reach, and while not nearly as tall as, for example, giraffes, they can browse quite fine at the “mid-level,” so they’ll tend to be more common in Woodland, though some sorts of plains, the edges of jungle and even into arctic climes or more moorish swamplands should all work fine. We’re obviously walkers.

When it comes to size, deer are SM +0 with ST 11 or so. Deer can certainly be smaller than this or larger: Roe are SM -1 and ST 7, and Moose are SM+1 and ST 16, all of this according to Pizard. They remain “human scale” in all cases.

When it comes to their Body Plan, obviously we’re looking at a bilateral creature with two sets of limbs per side, no real tail worth mentioning, no manipulators and an internal skeleton. Theres no particular reason to diverge from any of these (no need for manipulators, nor are they especially likely to have an external skeleton, etc).

For Skin, we expect to see Fur. Thick fur is quite probable, especially in colder areas. Variations could include Hide (I would lean towards DR 1 Hide), Scaled (DR 1), feathers, or, if they had an exoskeleton, a light exoskeleton (DR 0). Given their preferred environment, warm-blooded is highly likely.

When it comes to Sex, normal deer have two sexes, live-bearing and a median to strong K-strategy. Egg Laying, as always, remains plausible, as does variation in R or K strategy.

When it comes to Senses, we would expect alien deer to have Colorblindness (like real dear), normal to acute hearing (though real deer have Parabolic hearing and Ultrahearing), and Discriminatory Smell. For Special Senses we expect Peripheral Vision.

When it comes to Alien Minds, we probably expect alien deer to be “Low Intelligence” which is to say, no smarter than most animals, but Pizard clocks them at a mammalian IQ 4, and that’s also plausible per Space. Temporary pair bonds seem accurate to the reality of dear, but permanent pair bonds are plausible. Pizard notes these deer do not engage in “harem” mating. For Social Organization, I tend to lean towards small groups, though deer can be either found in small groups or solitary.

This gives them a generic Psychological Profile of Chauvinism +1 (Racial Intolerance), Concentration +0, Curiosity +0, Egoism +1 (Proud), Empathy +0, Gregariousness -1 (Ucongenial; Shy?), Imagination +0 and Suspicion +1 (Fearfulness 1).

Generic Alien Deer Stats

This is a simplified version of Pizard’s Mule Deer

ST: 11	Basic Speed: 6.0	SM: 0
DX: 13	Basic Move: 8
IQ: 4	Perception: 12
HT: 11	Will: 10	DR: 1

Traits: Bad Sight; Cowardice (12); Discriminatory Smell; Enhanced Move 0.5 (Ground); Fur; Hooves; Nightvision 4; Peripheral Vision; Parabolic Hearing 2; Quadruped; Restricted Diet (Herbivore); Super Jump 1; Sure-footed (Uneven); Ultrahearing; Weak Bite; Wild Animal

Variations

His Majesty

This is a relatively straightforward change. We often see deer (stags, specifically) as somewhat kingly and “glorious,” perhaps due to their magnificent antlers. The standard deer are rather less impressive. The core change here is “How do we get Egoism +3?” This requires some somewhat arbitrary changes, but ultimately there are three factors that lead to a “kingly” deer: solitary, harem breeding profile, and Strong-K

It turns out that all three of these things are strongly interlinked. A Strong-K, Live Bearing species is more likely to be a Harem species, and this sort of makes sense, as a Harem is guarded by an exceptionally powerful male and the females often have plenty of time to watch their children. Of course, a Harem species of grazing herbivores averages a Small group or larger… but it’s possible to be solitary. This would indicate a species that gather into areas during mating season (called “Rut” with deer), and then the males dominate a particular group and chase away everyone else, and so it’s a winner-takes-all sort of breeding cycle, after which everyone goes their separate ways. We might imagine that these deer roam over an especially large region and while they spend little time too close to one another, they sort of see that wider region as a single, large piece of territory. It also suggests a sparser set of food, with the animals giving one another space so as not to overwhelm one particular area. This gives us Egoism +3 in males, and +2 in females.

What are the knock-on effects? It pushes them closer to higher intelligence, but the main change is in their psychological profile (which is the whole point of this exercise): Chauvinism -1 (Broad Minded), Concentration +0, Curiosity +0, Egoism +3 (Selfish 9), Empathy -1 (Oblivious), Gregariousness -2 (Loner 12), Imagination +0, and Suspicion +2 (Fearfulness 2).

Such animals would probably have high levels of appearance and/or charisma, but I leave that as an exercise for a GM to implement.

Lens (Royal Deer): Add +1 IQ, Selfish (9) and Loner (12).

 

Crested Deer

You may have noticed the deer don’t have horns. What’s up? Well, females might not have antlers (female reindeer do, apparently), but males might not have antlers either, depending on the season. They grow them and lose them. More importantly, they don’t fight with them, at least not in the sense of self-defense; that’s what their hooves are for. Then what is even the purpose of them? Well, it mostly seems to be to vie with other males and to signal their virility. But do you need horns for that? We could imagine other sorts of “alien deer” that have feathers, with the males having this magnificent plumage on their head like a peacock, only on the head; or scaled “deer” with long, crested heads, similar to the hadrosaur.

Statwise this is… just a crest. It’ll do what you want it to. It’s probably a mix of +1 to intimidation, Distinctive Feature, Obvious (Visual) and Classic Features (Antlered) depending on how you want to handle it.

Lens (Crested Deer): Crest [1]

 

Horny Deer

So deer may or may not have antlers. But what if our alien deer always had antlers? Or at least horns of some kind? Well, then they start to look less like deer and more like antelopes or gazelle, which is fine! For our “guild” of deer, antelopes qualify as light, quick grazing/browsing herbivores with horns. We might note that antelope are rather closely related to goats and that they might be good at navigating, or native to, mountains, but deer are already well adapted to slopes, so it seems unnecessary.

At our most basic, we’re probably talking a Striker that’s only able to attack forward. Realistically, it’s probably just crushing, but it could be impaling too. Natural Weapons in Pyramid #3/65 suggests we could improve the damage of natural weapons, and we might extend the same idea to strikers, if we really wanted, though it should be noted that the idea way to use these are, like with a bull, on a charge. We might also give the deer a reinforced skull, especially if it “duels” with its antlers.

Lens (Horny Deer): Iron Skull 2; Striker (Impaling; Limited Arc, Forward)

 

Vampire Deer

The reason stags grow antlers, as noted in the Crested Deer, is to face off against other males for the dominance of an area. What if instead of antlers we went with something crazy and off the wall like, I don’t know, wildly exaggerated canines like the tusks of a boar, only pointed down. Oh? That’s literally an animal in the real world? That’s just the Chinese or Korean water deer? Huh.

Lens (Vampire Deer): Fangs

 

Three-Faced Deer

Oh no, more alternate symmetries! Okay, I won’t even talk about how bad an idea this is.

So a creature with radial (let’s go trilateral this time) symmetry doesn’t make much sense as anything that isn’t sessile or in an aqautic environment. They’ll often have their mouth turned up or turned down, and it’s difficult for them to have legs that get them around. But that doesn’t mean it’s impossible. Deer are browsers, so they want to reach higher-up areas anyway, so we might imagine this creature like an upright column of flesh to bring its mouth (pointed up) towards the leaves it wants to eat. It might have an array of short tentacles to bring the food to its mouth; if we make these “branching,” they might superficially resemble antlers. And for locomotion, well, deer excel at jumping and “stotting,” so our three-faced deer will hop on its single “foot.”

Our Three-Faced Deer is effectively a new creature that looks something like this:

ST: 11	Basic Speed: 6	SM: 0
DX: 12	Basic Move: 1 (6 for jumping only)
IQ: 3	Perception: 12
HT: 12	Will: 10	DR: 1

Traits: 360° Vision, Acute Hearing +2; Bad Sight; Cowardice (12); Extra Arms (3; Flexible); High Manual Dexterity 2; Hooves; Nightvision 4; No Legs (Hops); Restricted Diet (Herbivore); Super Jump 1; Sure-footed (Uneven); Ultrahearing; Weak Bite; Wild Animal