Converting animals from GURPS Third Edition to GURPS Fourth Edition

Weight and Size (SM)

The conversion of any animal begins with its weight. Most third-edition animals have their weight listed, usually as a range. For the fourth-edition animal, copy that weight or, if it’s a range, choose a nice, round average number.

Third-edition animals don’t have a Size Modifier; instead, they have a Size in hexes, sometimes a range. But the animal’s description will often include a specific size in feet, or even inches if the animal is very small. Figure out how large the animal really is from these sources, then use the Size Modifier Table on p. 19 of the fourth-edition Basic Set to work out the animal’s Size Modifier.

If an animal takes up more than one hex, make a note of it after SM by copying the third-edition Size or taking its average.

Strength (ST) and Hit Points (HP)

Strength has been rescaled in the fourth edition of GURPS, so most animal Strength scores need to be changed. This is the one area where GURPS Update can help us.

If an animal’s fourth-edition weight is significantly more massive than a human, calculate its Strength by using the formula given in GURPS Update:

ST = 2 × (cube root of weight in pounds)

If an animal has less mass than that, then you must decide which is the more important aspect of the animal to preserve: its lifting capacity or its basic damage. If you want the animal to be able to lift, haul, or push the same amount as its third-edition counterpart, convert Strength using the Quadratic Strength Conversion Table in GURPS Update. If you want the animal to keep the same basic damage as its third-edition version, keep its Strength the same.

In some cases, an animal might be able to lift or cause damage more than its Strength alone would suggest. If you have an animal like that, consider giving the animal a trait like Lifting ST, Arm ST, or Striking ST to raise its effective ST for those activities. For example, the chimpanzee of the Basic Set has only ST 11, but with its Arm ST 3 is has an effective ST 14 for lifting, throwing, and attacking with the arms.

Once you have worked out an animal’s Strength, its Hit Points are equal to its Strength. Ignore the “Hits” score that accompanies HT in a third-edition animal.

Example: A third-edition alligator is significantly more massive than a human. Given its average weight of 1,100 lbs., using the cube-root formula above gives us a Strength of 21. It therefore also has 21 Hit Points.

Intelligence (IQ)

An animal’s Intelligence score might change slightly between editions, as fourth-edition IQ is a little more carefully defined for animals. See the Animal Training table on p. 458 of the fourth-edition Basic Set. Compare your animal to this table to see if you can decide on an IQ from the descriptions. The table is meant for evaluating animals that can be trained, but it can also serve as a general scale of animal Intelligence. If your animal is so unusual it can’t be compared to any of the animals on the table, just use the IQ given in the third-edition stats.

If your animal is sapient, use the How to Select Basic Attributes text box on p. 14 of the fourth-edition Basic Set to set an IQ. Remember that this table compares attributes against human norms.

Example: An alligator counts as an “average reptile,” and so is IQ 2 according to the Animal Training table. Notice that this is a change from the IQ 3 of the third edition.

Health (HT)

An animal’s Health score will probably change a lot in the conversion. As Kromm has said, many animal scores were set assuming they needed to be cinematically inflated to deal with cinematic heroes, and in the fourth edition they set out to correct this. In the case of Health, cinematically high scores lead to animals that have to be hacked down to -5×HP to be killed, even though realistically animals without medical plans are often a lot frailer than humans.

To convert Health, take the lower of third-edition HT or 12. If third-edition HT is given a range, use the lowest value in that range in the comparison. If you think an animal should be unusually tough, give its HT a +1.

Example: The third-edition alligator’s HT is 12, which means we can keep it at 12.

Speed and Dexterity (DX)

A fourth-edition animal’s Speed is always calculated by the formula (DX+HT)/4. If the third-edition animal’s stats included a Speed score, do not copy it as the fourth-edition animal’s Speed score. Third-edition Speed scores for animals often mixed together the concepts of Speed and Move.

Working out Dexterity is subjective. Third-edition DX scores were often cinematically inflated in the same way as HT scores, but not to the same degree (see Kromm’s forum post).

A third-edition animal’s attack skill is usually its Dexterity. In the fourth edition, it’s also Dexterity, unless the animal is known as an aggressive predator or otherwise for its fighting ability, in which case it’s probably Brawling. Make a brief judgment as to whether the third-edition animal’s Dexterity is overinflated, and if you have no obvious objection to it, set the fourth-edition animal’s fighting skill equal to the third-edition DX. If the animal is a predator, you’ve just set Brawling equal to the third-edition DX, so set the fourth-edition DX two points lower than that.

For instance, if a third-edition predator has DX 14, give the fourth-edition version Brawling-14 and DX 12. If a third-edition herbivore has DX 12, give the fourth-edition herbivore DX 12. If a third-edition herbivore has DX 16, stop and ask yourself whether that’s not over the top.

Once you have the animal’s fourth-edition DX, you can work out its fourth-edition Speed by the usual formula.

Example: The third-edition alligator has DX 12, and it is known as a fearsome fighter. 12 is a good attack skill level, and an alligator relies more on Wrestling than Brawling, so it'll have DX 12. It therefore has Speed 6.

Move and Dodge

A fourth-edition animal’s Move is the same as its third-edition Move. If the third-edition animal has a Speed score instead of a Move score, use that, but beware: sometimes the third edition mixes the concepts of reaction speed and movement speed into an animal’s Speed score. The fourth-edition Move score should reflect nothing except how fast the animal actually moves. If the animal moves in an environment other than Ground, be sure to note each relevant Move score.

Remember that an animal's Move score is its actual movement rate, not its Basic Move score.

A fourth-edition animal’s Dodge score is equal to its Speed + 3. If the animal is known as a predator or otherwise for its fighting, give it Combat Reflexes and increase the Dodge score by 1. Ignore the third-edition Dodge score completely.

Damage Resistance (and Passive Defense)

Make the fourth-edition Damage Resistance (DR) equal to the third-edition DR. If the animal’s description mentions multiple DR values, take a Partial limitation on the DR.

Ignore the third-edition Passive Defense (PD) score — third-edition PD turned into the +3 you get to calculate your fourth-edition active defenses, so it’s already built into the animal as a freebie.

Traits

You’ll need to scan through the various advantages, disadvantages, and meta-traits in the game to decide which ones the animal needs. You can usually just look through the animals in chapter 16 of the fourth-edition Basic Set to see what you need. Pick all the traits that are relevant to the animal interacting with humans (or other player-characters of the game world). Ignore traits that might be true but aren’t going to be important in using the animal in a game.

Most animals will have one of Domestic Animal or Wild Animal. Those that bite probably have Sharp Teeth, Sharp Beak, or Fangs; those that claw or kick probably have Blunt Claws, Hooves, Sharp Claws, Talons, or Long Talons; and those with horns or spikes or strong tails will have some kind of Striker. Land animals that go on all fours will have Quadruped, and a few will have Semi-Upright. Fliers will have Flight and probably Enhanced Move (Air). Swimmers will have Aquatic or Semi-Aquatic and possibly Enhanced Move (Water); fish will have Doesn’t Breathe (Gills); amphibians and reptiles might have Amphibious.

Animals that are described in the text of their third-edition writeups as active mostly at night get Night Vision 5. Those described as mostly active at dawn or dusk, or at other times as well as night, get Night Vision 2.

If an animal is described in the third-edition text as having some kind of special attack like poison or smell or squeezing, give the animal an Innate Attack or Affliction or Constriction Attack as appropriate.

More traits are possible; the above are just a starting point.

Example: After looking through the traits, we come up with the following list for the alligator: Amphibious; Cold-Blooded (50°); DR 4 (Vitals DR 2); Quadruped; Sharp Teeth; Striker (Crushing; Clumsy; Behind); Wild Animal.

Perception (Per) and Will

By default, an animal’s Perception is 10. If the animal is a Wild Animal and its description says it has good survival skills, raise its Perception to whatever you think its Survival skill should be for its native environment.

By default, an animal’s Will is 10. If the animal is a Domestic Animal that could be ridden but its description says it does not make a good mount, or if the animal is just described as being especially stubborn, raise its Will to however high you think its stubbornness should be.

Example: The alligator is not said to have particularly good survival skills, so it has Per 10. Alligators are commonly thought of as tenacious and stubborn, so we’ll raise its Will to 12.

Skills

By now, we’ve already worked out whether an animal has Brawling, and all Wild Animals are assumed to have Survival equal to their Perceptions in their native habitats even if the skill isn’t written down. Look through the animal’s description and see if you can see any evidence of other skills it would logically have. As with traits, these should only be chosen if they’re relevant when the animal interacts with player characters.

Common examples include: Climbing; Jumping; Running; Stealth; Survival (higher than default); Swimming; Tracking; and Wrestling. Ridable animals might also have Mount. You have to judge the skill levels for yourself.

Example: The alligator has only one skill, something it’s well known for: Wrestling-12.

Damage (Dmg)

Once you’ve done all this conversion, you’ll want to check to see whether the animal will perform, especially in combat, as expected. The most important thing to do here is to compare how much and what type of damage the animal causes compared to the old version.

Short-form fourth-edition animal writeups don’t calculate damage for you. You need to derive the animal’s Damage scores from Strength, then apply any wounding or other modifiers based on the animal’s traits or skills. Whereas third-edition authors might give animals arbitrary damage numbers, fourth-edition authors rely on the game master deriving damage by the rules, so once the animal is converted, derive the damage the animal can do from its attacks and compare them with the third-edition animal to make sure you’re in the same ballpark. The values don’t have to be exactly equal.

If the values do not match up, and if you think they should, look for ways to adjust the animal’s Damage to bring the numbers more in line with what you’re looking for. If you need to add more dice of damage, consider Arm ST or Striking ST. If you need more “adds,” consider adding Brawling at DX+2 to the animal if you haven’t already to get +1 per die of damage.

It might not be necessary to make the damage match well. Some animals aren’t strongly about their combat capabilities, so making damage match isn’t particularly important. The game master must exercise judgment here.

Conclusion

Follow these guidelines to accurately convert third-edition GURPS animals into fourth-edition GURPS. But never let them override your judgment: if something here goes against common sense, let common sense prevail.