A flood of new research on Martian geological history... (That was a water-on-Mars joke.)

I found it sort of interesting that two of the new research papers whose publication I happened to catch over the last few days were studies on Martian geology and reminders that the Red Planet once had conditions that may well have enabled Barsoomian warfare.  That's probably overstating it a little bit, but I do marvel sometimes at how, when I was a kid, I was under the impression that the idea of life on Mars was an outdated and overly fanciful notion, and the longer I've lived, the more we've seen real evidence that liquid water (indicating conditions suitable for life) existed on the surface of Mars in the past and...who knows...maybe it's still there somewhere (probably a stretch, but see the thesis of this sentence).

The first paper came out on Monday in the highly regarded PNAS and covered radar imaging from China's Zhurong Rover, which indicated a history of plenty of surface water and lots of space for living things to grow.  You can read about it at Penn State's website here; here's the quote of the article, from the university's Benjamin Cardenas: "We’re finding places on Mars that used to look like ancient beaches and ancient river deltas.  We found evidence for wind, waves, no shortage of sand -- a proper, vacation-style beach."

Then on Tuesday, Nature Communications published a paper that gives a nontraditional view of why the planet is red, and which indicates that its current chemical structure reinforces a history of "ancient cold and wet conditions on Mars."  You can read more about that at the Discover Magazine website here; the image below is yoinked from that article.

Again, not my image; it came from here

These papers remind me how much fun is still left in speculating on the life history of one of our closest cosmic neighbors.  Mars has played into so many works that influenced my views of science fiction and of the world in general; it's easy to dismiss "Mars stories" as old-fashioned, but sometimes old-fashioned stories still have a lot of life left in them...

In continuing with that little reminder, don't forget this table from OD&D book 3, The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures:

There's a "last straw" joke here...

I generally try to avoid making this a political blog.  I think most people who know me know how I stand on political actions that systematize the harm, belittlement, or marginalization of other people (Americans or otherwise), especially those who are most vulnerable.  It's simply(?) not what we should be doing as humans, and we have the resources in the United States to behave in a way that considers both the implied purpose of the government (to act in the interests of Americans) and affirm the humanity in all others.  And that's why I'm so depressed about political stuff at the moment.

That is to say...I do recognize that there are bigger concerns at play right now.  However, this thing I'm gonna point out today is just a good old WTF phenomenon.  For those outside the States, or those within that understandably haven't caught everything in the whirlwind of actions and orders we've seen over the past few weeks, this is currently a page at the White House website:

It is admittedly a cliché, but I actually had to double-check to make sure this wasn't satire.  You can read the full fact sheet for the executive order here.  And another cliché...yeah, it is hard to believe this is the timeline we live in.

It isn't clear yet how sweeping this declaration will prove to be (although it sure sounds pretty sweeping), so I can't really comment on that.  And overall, I'm not looking to get a bunch of comments that are either pro- or anti-Donald (not that I have a tendency to get a bunch of comments on anything🤣).  I certainly have people very close to me who support pretty much every decision this guy makes, and they probably have an argument for why this was necessary.  I mean...hey, maybe Joe did go too far in his persecution of plastic straws.  But this is a real government document...😅

I'm sure there's a productive discussion to be had about the best approach to our straw use and its environmental implications.  I don't think this is it.

Anyway, I made this item so the characters in your games never have to deal with the indignities we've faced drinking fast food soda here in the US:

+1 Paper Straw of Drinking

This item appears to be a typical paper straw made of thin cardboard.  However, it is enchanted such that its user gets a +1 bonus to all drinking checks (even better than plastic!).  In addition, it won't dissolve or get soggy in liquids intended for drinking (not even hot ones) no matter how long it soaks.

If lost or discarded, it will decompose naturally in 6d6 days.  (For comparison in your game, plastic straws take 15d20 years for similar decomposition.)

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Ugh.  I feel dirty writing about anything this "political," even something so...silly.  Who knows if I'll even keep it up here on the blog...?  I don't know, but surely there are others out there who will similarly appreciate the absurdity here...

2025 Pseudoscientific Blog Post #1 - Some history of interplanar rift detection

Oh man, it's 2025!  I guess I'd better get to blogging.  I hope the new year has been kind to all of you!

I have some reasonably concrete goals for the year regarding stuff I want to publish.  (And by publish, of course I mean put on the web so others can feed my vanity by downloading them.)  I want to finally nail down my my own fantasy heartbreaker (the Monstrous Heartbreaker).  I have a slash-and-dash fantasy racing game I'd like to solidify some rules for (playtest image below).  There's even a D&D-rules-adjacent baseball game that I might be able to present to the world.

Fr. Josh apologetically making a move.

And, of course, I want to continue the Monstrous Matters campaign, finalize a number of the rules, and bulk up the lore.  So that's what the rest of this post is...

I've previously written a little about the detection of interplanar portals and the etherealite and fissure glow often associated with them.  So...what are the some of the historical events that led to our current understanding?  Here's a (very) quick primer...

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It all comes back to quantum physics…which is obviously a statement that’s much easier to write than it is to understand.  The elucidation of quantum mechanics not only revolutionized the field of physics; it also gave rise to ideas outside of mainstream science that now allow the Monstrous Matters team to do their work.

In the 20th century, our understanding of interconnected planes, and the technologies associated with these connections, grew exponentially alongside research related to quantum theory.  Originating with Einstein and Schrödinger’s description of spukhafte Fernwirkung (“spooky action at a distance”) in 1927, attempts to resolve the seemingly counterintuitive implications of quantum entanglement (summarized in the famed EPR Paradox, proposed in 1935) motivated many great thinkers throughout the rest of the century.

While attention was drawn away from quantum theory to focus on the practical needs of World War II, many scientists continued to explore these ideas on the fringe of the physics establishment.  And just beyond that fringe, other physicists took on questions that they knew were unacceptable to the mainstream.  Among these groups, a series of very clever efforts to maintain entanglement with annihilated particles allowed a small set of researchers to recognize physical planes existing alongside our own.  For obvious reasons, these experiments have not been publicized.

While the history of recorded interplanar portals is quite extensive (and necessarily requires quite a few footnotes and qualifiers due to the disputed nature of many events), some of the most widely agreed upon breaches in the barrier between our world and others are noted here:

1904 - A series of atmospheric anomalies in and around Bloomsbury, in London’s West End, began to attract the attention of paranormal investigators. Many observers noted similarities to disturbances recorded around Oxford, England, in the 1860s. It wouldn’t be until 1991, however, that these were finally connected to etherealite and fissure glow (see below).

1930s - At the same time that quantum entanglement was gaining acceptance as a real phenomenon (although it wouldn’t be until the 1970s that the data supporting it would become unassailable through experiments on Bell’s inequality), paranormal researchers recorded a variety of environmental data in a rural area of Kansas, United States, where anomalies similar to those in the UK accompanied an extreme weather event.

1940s - Similar phenomena were observed in the English countryside, not far from London. Attempts to connect these events to previous observations in the UK, and the more recent occurrence in Kansas, were hampered by a hasty but unfounded determination that they were indications of Nazi efforts in physics or the occult (depending upon who you asked).

1985 - Radiation later determined to likely be fissure glow was detected in Brooklyn, NYC. Officials were limited in their ability to investigate due to the distraction of a rash of plumbing emergencies that occurred around the radiation's appearance.

At about the same time, mysterious events in Battersea, London, involving strangely dressed travelers in search of “The Mace of St. Cuthbert” were correlated with glow detected in the region. This occurrence begins the time period many refer to as the Golden Age of Interplanar Exploration.

1991 - Further observations in London, nearly identically matching those from early in the century, prompted portal researchers to put recent discoveries regarding the nature of etherealite and fissure glow to the test. Many of those involved would claim this to be the first case of interplanar connection to be confirmed soon after its occurrence. The success of paraphysical theories developed over the previous decade would hook many fringe researchers who had held out skepticism up until this point.

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As always...hopefully more to come...!

The Real Monstrous Matters: Microbial contamination or killer space ooze?

Fortunately for humanity...and unfortunately for those of us just wasting time until the day we make contact...it's probably just microbial contamination.

A paper came out on November 13 detailing the examination of rock samples brought back from the asteroid Ryugu during the Hayabusa2 mission of Japan's space agency JAXA...

Photo of Ryugu's surface; from the mission website

They got some rocks from the asteroid's surface?  COOL!

They succeeded in a number of microscopic analyses of these samples?  VERY COOL!

There appear to be bacteria there?!?  HELLA COOL!!

The bugs on the asteroid; from the paper

Oh.  The reasonable conclusion is that it's just contamination?  BOOOOOOOO!!

Yeah, so despite being processed at pretty much the abso-tippy-top level of contamination protocol stringency, one of the samples ended up with some microbes growing on it.  The authors suspect Bacillus, but who knows.  Unfortunately, they were unable to look at the bug's genome to see what it was (and it has since been polished off of the rock and hasn't regrown).  Considering that Bacillus includes bacteria that can cause anthrax, food poisoning, and probably a host of other maladies, it's at least cool to imagine that it might have been some killer space bug that came close to unleashing a Michael Crichton-style pandemic upon humanity.

Probably for the better that it didn't, though.

(You can find a nice summary of the paper at Phys.org.)

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Now, what's cooler than a killer space bug?  A killer space ooze!  Can I get some cheers from the Blob Mob?!

Space Ooze

Image from Pixabay

Scale: --

Handling Difficulty: -- (uncontrollable)

25 HP, 9 Defense

Strength 5

Dexterity 1

Knowledge --

Presence 1

Skills: Detect (chemical) +3

Attacks: Pseudopod (+4, 1d6 bludgeoning damage + 1d6 acid damage)

The space ooze can move 10 feet per round, including up surfaces.  It is capable of moving through openings with a diameter of less than 1/10 of an inch, although its speed is slowed by as much as 99% while doing so.  The space ooze is capable of dissolving metal at a rate of up to 1 inch per round; this is often performed to overcome obstacles but will also impact any metal weapons used on it.

When reduced to 0 HP, the space ooze simply spends 1 round regrouping, then continues with the same task that was interrupted when it was "destroyed."

The Real Monstrous Matters: Japanese scientists get us one step closer to Greenskins...or maybe just solar-powered humans...

This is one that was covered by a lot of mainstream news outlets, so you might have already seen it (you MSM zombie, you)...in a cool little biological trick that I'm honestly surprised hasn't been achieved before, researchers anchored by a group at the University of Tokyo have gotten chloroplasts to carry out photosynthesis in hamster cells.  Mammalian cells making food from light...pretty cool if you ask me.  You can check out the paper (from the Proceedings of the Japan Academy, Series B) at this link, and the university's press release can be found here.

Fluorescence microscopy image from the press release.  The chloroplasts are magenta, while cell nuclei are light blue.

This is one of those things that really gets the imagination firing, and most of us who are drawn to science fiction and/or fantasy have probably already thought about this possibility at some point.  And obviously, it brings to mind the green-skinned characters of fantasy lore, like Warhammer's...er, Greenskins...

It's also a fairly well-known "rule" of biology that mammals aren't green.  When those who craft fantasy fiction feel the need to justify green pigmentation in a humanoid species, the likely explanations are reptilian ancestry or some sort of photosynthetic machinery.  In Warhammer, for example, I believe the lore is that Greenskins, already an assemblage of fungal species, also have a symbiotic relationship with algae.  It's unclear, as far as I know, exactly what the mechanics of this symbiosis may be, but I don't think there's ever been an implication that the algae are inside the creature's cells (but please do correct me if I'm wrong!).

This new paper takes things a step further, with chloroplasts (the site of photosynthesis in plants and algae) being isolated from red algae and incorporated directly into the animal cells, where they kept on working away like all those other organelles you remember from high school biology...the mitochondria and Golgi apparatuses and all.  It's a very different result from the researchers' expectation that the little algae bits would be digested by the hamster cells.  Which, y'know, when in doubt, is probably a good idea for an animal cell to do when it finds it has taken up a random foreign organelle that resembles bacteria.

Also kind of fun: It appears that these hybrid creations are often referred to as "planimal" cells.  It sounds like a failed '80s toyline.

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As far as fantasy species go, orcs and goblins are probably the most commonly green characters, but elves occasionally get this treatment as well.  In Magic: The Gathering, for example, the well-known elf Glissa Sunseeker has been portrayed with green skin.

Image from here

I also think it's interesting to look back at the green elves in the group of MTG sets known as the Onslaught Block.  Over the course of those sets, various creatures were mutated to become purer expressions of the color of mana they represented.  The blue wizards, for example, basically turned into water.  Elves, meanwhile, came to resemble plants more and more.  In the second set, Legions, we see some green (or at least greenish) elves...

Card images from Scryfall

(This included at least one creature that arguably looks, to an outsider, more goblin than elf...)

And then by the third set, Scourge, the elves were even more plant-like:

Something tells me there are chloroplasts in those elves' cells.

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Now, a species for gaming...

Emeraldkin

Attribute Points: 12

Min/Max:

Strength 1-5
Dexterity 1-6
Knowledge 1-5
Presence 1-5

Skill Distribution: 3/2/1

Special Skills: Can use Nature Magic without allocating any skill points to it; if this skill isn't chosen, it is treated as +0, and Nature Magic skill rolls use the character's Knowledge value.

Abilities: Able to see in low-light conditions; resistant to hunger

Emeraldkin are found in many realms among the multiverse.  They appear very similar to Humans but are identified by their pointed ears and the greenish hue of their skin (due to the chloroplasts found in their skin cells).  On some worlds, they are referred to as Elves, while residents of others will call them Orcs or even Goblins.  They identify with none of these terms, however, and refer to themselves as Unliavel, broadly translated as Emeraldkin.  It is thus far unknown what species they are closest to genetically; in general, though, they will associate with all other groups who maintain a similar connection to nature.

The photosynthetic skin cells of Emeraldkin allow them to go much longer than other humanoid species without food.  While they cannot wholly abandon eating, in conditions of sufficient light and water, they can easily go up to 10 days in between meals.  This is rarely necessary; Emeraldkin are usually very knowledgeable about the natural environment and are capable of obtaining food in almost any situation, although the vast majority rely on vegetarian sustenance only.  Overall, their connection to the natural world and low need for resources make them ideal adventuring companions.

The Real Monstrous Matters: A Saber-Toothed Kitten in Siberia

I mean, poor kitty...but man is this cool.  A formal description and analysis has just been published for the frozen mummy of a saber-toothed cat cub that was found in Siberia in 2020.  The paper appeared in Scientific Reports on November 14 (open access, so it's free to check out!); the Science homepage also ran a nice summary article here.

Compared to a modern lion cub; from the paper

Radiocarbon dating places it at about 35,000 years old.  The fact that scientists are actually able to write, with experience, on the softness of the fur of an animal that lived that long ago is mind-blowing.

The coolest discovery?  Actually, no, I bet there are cooler ones here; this one just really struck me as something very basic and neat that can only be seen when you have soft tissue preserved like this.  This specific saber-toothed cat is missing a carpal pad (that fifth "toe bean" on your cat's front paws).

See there at the top?  It's missing a toe bean (#2 at the bottom)!  Although I do love that the authors describe the ancient cat's metacarpal pad as "bean-shaped"...so maybe it isn't missing one...?  Anyway...from the paper.

The authors chalk this up (along with the wide paws and the shape of their pads) to adaptation to walking on snow...which makes a ton of sense considering the cat's home, both geographically and temporally.

In case you're wondering, this isn't the famous Smilodon, the icon widely known as a "saber-toothed tiger."  This little tyke is actually from the genus Homotherium, which are more specifically designated "scimitar-toothed cats" (vs. the "dirk-toothed cats" of Smilodon).  Still freaking cool and I dare you to argue otherwise!

Anyway, here's a saber-toothed cat for Monstrous6.  I'm gonna try to convert directly from a 5e critter and see if it makes sense, as one goal with the system is to be able to do that pretty easily.  So here goes.  (Also, I find it a little odd that D&D hasn't changed to calling the Saber-Toothed Tiger a Saber-Toothed Cat...although I think it might have been called a Smilodon in 2e...?  At any rate, I'm going to take that liberty...)

From Pixabay

Saber-toothed Cat

Scale: --

Handling Difficulty: 14

35 HP, 12 Defense

Strength 5

Dexterity 4

Knowledge 1

Presence 2

Skills: Detect (smell) +3

Attacks: Bite (+6, 1d6+6 piercing damage) or Claw (+6, 2d6+5 slashing damage)

Special: If a saber-toothed cat hits with a claw attack after moving at least 20 feet straight in the direction of the target, the target must save [STR (Balance) 14] or fall prone.  If the target falls, the cat may immediately take a free bite.

The Real Monstrous Matters: Oliphaunts in India

So this is pretty cool.  A pair of papers recently dropped giving a detailed analysis of a huge elephant skull that was found in India way back in 2000 (alongside a bunch of human tools).  And no, it isn't an Oliphaunt (or Mûmak)...but it is pretty darn big.

One of the papers focuses on the morphology and phylogeny of the skull (and thus the animal), placing it in the genus Palaeoloxodon, which has some of the largest elephants that ever walked the planet.  (There's a really good summary of this paper over at Discover Wildlife.)  It appears that this individual is a second example of a species previously named Palaeoloxodon turkmenicus, which in the range of 4 meters/13 feet at the shoulder (and around 10 tons) was certainly...well, mammoth:

P. turkmenicus and a human silhouette.  Image by Chen Yu; swiped from Discover Wildlife.

It's worth mentioning, though, that there's another species in the genus, Palaeoloxodon namadicus, that some estimates would place as the largest land animal ever at over 5 meters/17 feet, and up to 22 tons in weight!  Here's a nice little video on that one:

(The other paper, meanwhile, has more information on human interaction with the elephant, based upon marks on the bones and tools found nearby.  Both articles point to an age in the range of 300,000 to 400,000 years, which will never stop blowing my mind.)

Of course, even a 22-ton behemoth doesn't measure up to what we saw in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings films:

From here

I'm not familiar enough with Tolkien's original works to know if that's the size we should expect based upon the books themselves, but man are they fantastic animals.  (What is it Sam tells Frodo?  "No one at home will believe this...")  They've got to be at least...what, 40 feet tall?  So if we assume, at the high end of Palaeoloxodon, a beast that's 17 feet tall and 22 tons...something roughly the same shape but about 2.35 times the height would probably give us an animal weighing about 13 times as much.  So...around 286 tons?  Did I do that right?  Impressive!  (The Mûmak, not my work...)

And the coolest part is that they're using them as war machines.  I'm sure there have been plenty of takes on Oliphaunts in RPGs over the years, but I think I'll just stat one out for Monstrous Matters purposes on the premise that it's a REALLY big elephant.  It looks like the flagship proboscidean has about 8 or 9 hit dice in a typical d20-based system.  Do I really want to make a Mûmak a monster with like 80 HD, or as I would play it in Monstrous Matters gaming, a Strength value of around 80?  (Rhetorical question...)

Considering the D6-based system I've been playing with, it probably makes the most sense to pull ideas from Mini Six (which includes elephant stats and some nice, simple scaling rules) and WEG's Star Wars Miniatures Battles (which has a nice way of handling creatures by not worrying so much about what humans consider intelligence, and instead giving them an Orneriness Code that's used to test how difficult they are to work with).

From here

Oliphaunt

Scale: +4

Handling Difficulty (trained): 7

20 HP, 11 Defense

Strength 4

Dexterity 1

Knowledge 1

Presence 1

Attacks: 2x Tusk (1D6+4 damage) or Trample (2D6+4 damage plus target is knocked prone)

EDIT:  And I realized I posted this without mentioning the most basic of courtesies...a Happy Halloween to everyone!

A Goblinoid Family Tree

(Or really a phylogenetic tree.  I just liked the sound of family tree more in the title.)

So, in reading a post by James over at Grognardia, about Dragon articles on fantasy languages, I started to wonder if sometimes I just don't fly my geek flag high enough.  As in...maybe I'm not appropriately minmaxing the fun I could get out of the RPG hobby by not allowing myself to just go nuts like I want to as a nerdy scientist who also loves games about elves and goblins.

James posted a tree of language families, originally appearing in Dragon #66, that shows the development of the Middle Elfin tongue into a variety of fae languages.  And it's awesome.  I love that sort of stuff, so why don't I do more of it?  I wonder sometimes if I remain so focused on having an "anything goes" attitude about the world(s) I game in (like the setting for the Monstrous Matters campaign) that I miss out on creating things that would genuinely make me smile, even if I don't completely buy into all of the specifics.

With that in mind, I'm going to consider this a worthwhile way to spend a few minutes.  Here's a phylogenetic tree of a few goblinoid species, along with a few creatures from that galaxy far, far away that I suspect might be closely related.  (If you have access to genetic data, please let me know; this is just based on physical characteristics.)

Images from the Forgotten Realms Wiki, Wookieepedia, and Scryfall

I feel like this just opens up a whole world of stories for how these species became distributed as they are.  Maybe I'll follow up there.  (If you'd like to see some of my related ramblings, please check out the stuff I've written about the Fantaspora Hypothesis and #WookieesAreBugbears.)

Thanks for looking!  Now, for a character (cribbed from RPGGamer.org):

Image from Wookieepedia

Wicket

Full name:  Wicket Wystri Warrick

Species: Ewok

Home: Endor

15 HP, 12 Defense (small size)

Strength 3
Dexterity 3
Knowledge 2
Presence 4

Skills: Survival +4, Thrown Weapons +3, Languages +2, Climb +1

Goals: Helping and protecting his friends

Quote: "Goodbye.  Good-bye."

Terminator Tuesday (T2zday?): "I'm a cybernetic organism, living tissue over a metal endoskeleton."

This is cool.  Also disturbing.

Image and video are both from the original article HERE and are (I believe) covered by a CC BY-ND license (with attribution to Takeuchi et al.)...but if I'm wrong about that, please feel free to let me know!

I'm actually not sure if I was drawn to this story because of my recent fascination with the Terminator franchise...or if seeing this story tipped me into an Arnie-focused frenzy...but either way it's interesting to see where researchers at the University of Tokyo are in the quest to effectively attach skin to artificial subcutaneous structures.  Like...y'know, a metal endoskeleton.  They put skin onto a 3D facial mold.  And onto a 2D "facial robot."  And they made the robot smile.

I'm not even sure this is all in the realm of the uncanny valley yet, but the article is an interesting look at what seems to be a very trial-and-error-based development process that may one day give rise to the T-800.  If you're so inclined, you can find the original paper HERE and find quite a few mentions around the web (like NPR's summary HERE).

(And whaddaya know...Ross even referenced the Terminator in talking about today's team-up over at Super-Team Family: The Lost Issues!)

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And for extra fun, here's very quickly statted John Connor from T2 using the Big 4 stats I wrote about a couple weeks ago.  (He's built to about a Ghostbusters power level; I realize he's the savior of humanity, but he's probably a little more normal when he's still...what, 11 years old?)

From HERE

John Connor (ca. 1995...one version, at least)

Species: Human

Strength 2D
Dexterity 3D
Knowledge 3D
Perception 4D

Skills (+2): Hacking, Driving (motorcycle), Streetsmart, Command

Goal: Stay alive long enough to save humankind.

On the moral capacity of artificially intelligent beings

How about some more Science!?  This one comes courtesy of the research news out of my alma mater Georgia State University.  Psychology prof Eyal Aharoni and his students conducted a study in which folks compared the moral "reasoning" of other people with that of the AI language model GPT-4 (without knowing there was an AI behind those ideas).  And y'know what?  GPT-4 performed better than humans!

The authors hypothesized that this would be the case.  I'll admit that I was initially a little surprised by it...I guess I must have some human-centric bias leading me to believe that figuring out right vs. wrong is aided by a true human perspective.  I suppose I should have realized that, ultimately, it's just logic (just ask Mr. Spock!), and computers don't have all these silly emotions getting in the way of thinking through it.  (Yet.)  And indeed...it does appear that the rationality of the moral decision-making is what put GPT-4's ideas at the top.

Interestingly, once they were told that a computer came up with one of the responses from each pair, participants were pretty darn good at figuring out which one it was.  Maybe the dystopian cyberpunk future where we're all at the mercy of a supercomputer's ethical calculations won't be so bad after all?

At any rate, if you'd enjoy seeing what this study is all about, you can find the summary at GSU's website HERE and the full, open access article HERE.

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As for machines and decision-making...although I've never played one (except as an NPC while running a game), I've always enjoyed the idea of droid characters in Star Wars roleplaying.  It seems like a given that some people would want to play one, but I remember being unsure if it would be allowed when I first started exploring SW gaming...and pleased to see that they are character options in the major games I've looked at that are set in a galaxy far, far away.

The star of this blog post, GPT-4 itself, created this droid for me to use in WEG/D6 Star Wars (only edited a little...and adjusted to fit the four-attribute stats I'm making a habit of here):

From HERE

XR-7T

Species: Droid

Strength 2D
Dexterity 3D
Knowledge 5D
Perception 4D

Abilities: Multispectral Sensors (+2D to Perception for environmental awareness), Tactical Assessment (grants +1D to tactics-related rolls), Adaptive Combat Systems (proficient in various combat techniques)

XR-7T is a formidable droid standing at 1.5 meters tall, with a polished gunmetal gray alloy casing and piercing blue photoreceptors. Equipped with advanced multispectral sensors, rapid data processing capabilities, and tactical algorithms, XR-7T excels in reconnaissance, combat analysis, and strategic planning. Its arsenal includes retractable blasters, energy blades, and stealth systems, making it equally adept at covert operations and frontline combat.

I really don't want to use "Counting Crows" as the title of this post, but man it's hard to ignore...

While at some point I might return to This Day in Anthro History posts highlighting examples of fictional animals walking and talking like people, I wanted to take a moment today just to point out something fascinating in the realm of nonhuman animals' demonstrating arguably human capabilities.  (I think I might be especially keyed into this topic as I follow Pun at Halls of the Nephilim in his creation of a TMNT-inspired RPG...!)

Last Thursday, an article dropped from the journal Science (one of the most reputable out there, so this is a reasonably notable study) in which researchers demonstrate that carrion crows - apparently already known to be able to count to 30 - can accurately vocalize counts up to four.  As in...these crows can see an Arabic numeral on a screen, or hear a sound that corresponds to a numeral, and caw the right number of times.

Four seems to be about the limit for this specific task.  According to the summary on Science.org:

But they did make mistakes, usually after performing numerous trials and when the target number was three or four. “They loved the number one and really disliked four,” [lead author Diana A.] Liao says. Sometimes, the crows displayed their dislike of four by refusing to utter a sound; instead, they simply pecked at the screen to end the trial.

While it's easy to think, "You just told me they can count to 30...why is it interesting that they're counting to 4?"...the accurate vocalization in a "one, two, three" manner is what is really catching people's attention.  It's hard not to see a similarity to the way humans often learn to count.  And one of the neatest details here is that researchers were ultimately able to predict a crow's final "answer" according to the first caw alone...an indication that the crow knows (before speaking) exactly what it plans to say.

If I can add an assumption that the crows are happy to find themselves in this situation, I absolutely love this research.  If it sounds like your style, you can check out the Science summary HERE, a summary from noted bird apologists the National Audubon Society HERE, and the original paper HERE.

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To celebrate this, here's an anthro crow character built using the online character generator for the Awfully Cheerful Engine (ACE)...an RPG from EN World's Morrus (Russ Morrissey) that acts as a huge tribute to the old Ghostbusters RPG and already includes some options for animal traits.  ACE is in the family of GB-inspired games I'm currently obsessed with statting stuff for...!

From HERE

Crowbar (seems a bit like a silly TMNT-villain-style name)

Trait/Role: Unlucky Crow

Health 4, Defense 9

Brawn 2 (Tough)
Moves 3 (Piloting)
Smarts 5 (Physics)
Style 2 (Public Speaking)

Ability: Flight

More evidence that Orcs revel in physical pain

NOTE:  This post is related to my exploration of the Fantaspora Hypothesis, a proposed explanation for the existence of similar humanoid species in countless fantasy settings.  The Fantaspora Hypothesis is a proposal that fantasy humanoids originated on our Earth as hominins that coexisted during the Paleolithic Era.  Because the description of humanoid species has been a much-debated point of potential racism in roleplaying games (indeed, they are often called races), and because many (perhaps most) modern humans have DNA indicating a hereditary relationship with actual archaic hominins, I'm afraid there could be stuff that comes across as offensive to some without my even realizing it.  If this is the case, I ask that you please don't assume ill intent, that you let me know, and that you give me a chance to think about it and make corrections as needed.  Thank you!

A Paleolithic Orc family unit

Background:  SCN9A is a gene that has been investigated for its impact on pain sensitivity in humans.  SCN9A encodes a sodium channel, which points to a potential (no pun intended) role in the transmission of nerve impulses.

A few years ago, an Orc variant of the gene (with three specific differences in sequence) was associated with higher pain sensitivity in data from hundreds of thousands of modern humans of British ancestry.

In other words, those of us who have this Orc gene feel more pain.

Find the full paper HERE.

What's new:  Researchers have experimentally connected the presence of the Orc sequence variants with a specific type of pain sensitivity in a set of Latin American Human subjects.  After sensitization with mustard oil, those with the Orc gene had a lower threshold for mechanical pain.

What it all means:  There are a few interesting takeaways from all of this.  One is that, while Orcs apparently evolved in Eurasia, these specific changes in DNA have been maintained most strongly in Humans with Native American ancestry.  Why is this?  Well, the jury's still out.  It does, however, appear that the presence of these genes in modern Humans is the result of mixing of earlier Orc and Human populations, and that they are not simply maintained from the time before Humans and Orcs split evolutionarily.

Orcs may have a higher sensitivity to mechanical pain.  Interestingly, this is the sort of pain that one could imagine would be most common in battle - the pain of being poked with things (vs. pain from heat or pressure).  Why this has occurred is yet to be determined, but the idea that Orcs may charge into battle ready to revel in...and perhaps even be motivated by...the pain that awaits them...well, this isn't too hard to believe, is it?