GURPS - Compendium 1..

The Rule of 12
If evolution or the creator provides a
certain advantage, then that advantage generally
works. Consequently, racial advantages
that require an attribute roll will
often work more efficiently than the
attribute suggests, as follows:
For advantages that require an attribute
roll, members of a race with an average of
less than 12 in that attribute will roll at 12
or the individual's actual attribute,
whichever is higher. For races with an
average attribute of 12 or more, always use
the individual's actual attribute, even if
that is less than 12!
NPC Races vs. PC Races
A player character race is one that the
PCs are permitted to be members of at the
time of character creation. A non-player
character race is one that the GM has
reserved for personal use. These terms are
intended to remind the GM that not every
race that can be designed using the racial
generation rules will necessarily be appropriate
for players to use as characters.
There is no "official" distinction between a
NPC race and a PC race, though. As
always, that's a decision the GM should
make. Try not to be too restrictive, however -
races that are traditionally considered
NPCs in other games can often prove to be
wonderful roleplaying challenges as PCs in
GURPS!
First, a word of caution. It will soon become apparent to gamers who are
already familiar with the character generation rules that these racial generation
rules have fewer arbitrary limitations and balancing factors than do the rules for
creating individual characters. These balancing factors were incorporated into
the character generation rules to make it harder for players to unbalance the
GM's campaign. Fewer safeguards have been introduced for racial creation,
because this is intended to be a GM's system, and the GM is free to decide what is
or is not balanced in his campaign.
This lack of balancing factors means that it is possible to abuse these racial
generation rules to create a race that will have a significant advantage in points or
effectiveness over normal human characters. It is simply assumed that the GM
will not wish to allow such races - at least, not as PCs. To this end, while
unbalanced racial creation is quite possible using the following rules, we have
attempted to provide enough guidelines herein to keep less-experienced GM's
from accidentally creating an unbalanced race.
THE GENERATION
PROCESS
The meat and bones of creating nonhumans lies in creating a racial template -
an assortment of attribute modifiers (see below), advantages, disadvantages.
quirks and skills that will, under normal circumstances, apply to every member of
the race. Just as in character creation, each of these elements has a positive or
negative point value. These values are totalled to find the final point value of the
racial template.
All of the elements of a racial template must normally be purchased together by
all members of the race, and so the template has a single, overall point cost know
as the racial cost. All racial templates assume a human norm; therefore, humans
cost 0 points and require no racial template of their own.
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