What should Giants really look like?

[lukelightning]

A long time ago, I had a short essay that used this idea to (kind of pseudo-scientifically) explain why halflings seem to eat so much.

The real reason halflings eat so much is that just being kleptomaniacal troublemakers was merely B-grade annoyingness. Halflings decided to take it to the next level and be superultramegannoying by forcing the party to stop and have meals all the time and eating all the rations in the first two days of adventuring.

 

[Delta]

As said above, support-strength increases as a square, mass/weight increases as a cube. Make height x2, strength goes x4 but weight goes x8. To compensate you've got to somehow double material strength at each step, or else thicken limbs by sqrt(2). (That is, height goes x2 but limb thickness goes about x2.8 and you'll be okay.)

But, an very old analysis is that giants must have some innate magical infusion to support them... which blossoms into the fully-formed levitate abilities of the cloud and storm giants.

 

[Oryan77]

Well I think there were Giants on earth. They didn't come from earth though. No, they came from a planet called Giantanus, which used to orbit between Uranus & Neptune until cosmic forces thrust it out of the solar system. The gravitational pull reacted to the planets shift which allowed for the skeleton to grow and support the larger framework.

People think that giants are dumb, but that's dumb. The bigger the body got, the larger the brain got. These were highly intelligent beings. Thousands of years later they developed spacecraft that allowed them to travel from galaxy to galaxy. One year, during spring break, some of the college student giants thought it would be cool to visit what we now call Cancun Mexico. They gathered up some of their pets and flew to earth for vacation. Unfortunately, they were not used to being so close to a sun, and they used SPF 5 Suntan Lotion rather than the SPF 30 they should have been using. They all died from horrible sunburns. There pets were left to roam the land...we call them dinosaurs.

So I just cleared up 2 mysteries in one.

 

[kenobi65]

they came from a planet called Giantanus

I've known a few people over the years whom I think came from there.

 

[RangerWickett]

I have GOT to know what leads to that kind of discussion. . . and what was for dinner?


I think the key to D&D giants is . . . it's magic.
And the key to real world giants is . . . when everyone else around you is 5'5", Yao Ming starts looking pretty darn gigantic.

Lithuanian food at a bellydancing performance. All the ladies present were talking about how much they liked The Prestige, and the discussion developed from a spoiler-ish aspect of the plot. We happened to have two physicists at the table who were amused by figuring out what science would actually be necessary to pull off the trick in the movie.

 

[hafrogman]

...a bellydancing performance...
...All the ladies...
...The Prestige...
...two physicists...
...science...

I've got to get better friends.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

I've got to get better friends.

I'm so jealous. Where does Ranger live?

 

[Rothe]

Here's an interesting site I came across last year. It talks about giants as described in the Bible and also giant skeletons found (documented or otherwise) throughout history:

http://www.stevequayle.com/Giants/index2.html

In all cases, the skeletons seem to be similar if not identical to regular ol' humans.

Wow! What a wacked out site. I think the last is easy to explain, copy, paste, stretch.

 

[Mann Gegen Mann]

I beleve giants should look as they are called, simply bigger people. no diffrent looking than on ordanary human.

 

[Tonguez]

I beleive giants should be wider than usually portrayed thus giving them the 'stocky look' their legs ought to be broad and stubby, spines relatively short and hips and shoulders wide. The arms are over long and can be used to give support when standing (think the ape-like stance of ogres)

Their metabolisms are slow and the wobble as they walk. They tire easily and spend at least 12 hours per day sleeping (and sometimes as much as 20hrs).