Sperm whales & sonic attacks Copyright (c) 1993 by James H. Cloos Jr. Of all of the contemporary creatures on Earth, the Sperm whale has perhaps the most advanced ``sonar vision'', to use the racial advantage name from _Aliens_. In addition to using the HUGE echo chamber in its forehead for echo-location, the whale also emits an ear-shattering sonic attack to stun larger prey, such as giant squid. I don't seem to be able to find my copy of _Bestiary_, but I'm sure there was no mention of this attack form. Has anyone worked out GURPS game mechanics for it? I'd rather not reinvent wheels, whenever possible. As an aside, the following are the sizes of current sperm whale speces: (All Family Physeteridae) len (m)(M/F) mass(kg)(M/F) Physeter macrocephalus Sperm Whale 18.5/13 32000-45000/16000 Kogia breviceps Pygmy S.W. ~3.4 >400 Kogia simus Dwarf S.W. 2.1-2.7 135-275 (NB: Sperm whales grew even larger before peak whaling decades.) (Additions from my Fantasy setting) Huge S.W. 45/32 500e3-700e3/250e3 Giant S.W. 125/90 10e6-15e6/6e6 Also, figure a height & bredth of ~20% of length. (So, I guess a male P. macroephalus is up to ~80 to 82 hexes in size, each ~4 yards high, so say ~160 to 165 times the size of a person.) Imagine casting {\it Mammal Control} on THAT! (Say 800 to cast, 480 to maintain!) -JimC -- James H. Cloos, Jr. include Cloos@TC.Cornell.EDU include Cloos@Batcomputer.UUCP Snail: POBox 1111, Amherst, NY 14226-1111 Cloos@CrnlThry.BITNET Phone: +1 716 673-1250 (voice only, for now)