Re: (TFT) Skills and the poor Neanderthals

["John Paul Bakshoian" <shadowhex@hotmail.com>]

My own drivel on the Neanderthal cycle....

> Charles A. Gadda:
>   The reason I said what I said is that both verbal and written
  communication involve a considerable amount of abstract
  and symbolic thinking.

> Okay, I can see some validity to this - at least the symbolic, if not the 
> abstract, part.

>   For example: I type here the word "mountain" - what do you
  think of? Do you see the aforeprinted squiggles only? Or
  does the image of an acutal mountain pop in your mind?

> I think of the sounds of the word.  An image springs to mind only if I 
> think about it for a moment.>
> Warren

Reverse the concept:  A stenotypist hears her boss rattle off a report.  She 
types it at sixty words per minute.  She process the data so quickly that 
the word is typed perfectly on the line without her having to think about it 
at all.

It is said that man only uses about 20% of his brains capacity.  If 
Neanderthal had a bigger brain, maybe he only used 15%.

One also can communicate without understanding the symbols.  The human that 
falls in love with the elf and goes frollicking in the woods are 
communicating with each other even if she and he can't speak the same 
language.

And to the Neanderthal who lives near the Appalachians, the concept of 
"mountain" is there even if the symbol of mountain isn't.  True, if there 
isn't a word for something, that concept tends to be ignored by most 
everyone; or mused on but not quite grasped.  Maybe the shaman should eat 
more 'shrooms...

By the way, I missed this:  How do we know that Neanderthal didn't throw his 
spear?

I enjoyed this discussion.  Charles, you could leave the Neanderthal at a 
"max" of 10IQ and anything above that MAX costs double for each level above 
or something like that.  Better yet, as a GM you could just broaden the 
racial abilities for the Neanderthal.


... and now an editorial:


Dear Fellow Scholars

You have all floundered in the quagmire of the tarpits.

The reason that Neanderthal did not survive as an ascending race was that he 
kept failing his IQ rolls (regardless of the modifiers.)  Or that the gods 
did not want him to be played with.

Low, the Forebearers that you should be worried about is the fecund 
Orcanthropus, cousin to Homo Sapiens.

	"Orcs are closely related to men; their prehistoric ancestor, Orcanthropus, 
dominated many alternate worlds during Neanderthal days.  (Here on Earth, 
only their fossilized remains, known as Piltdown Man, survive.)"		- from the 
holy book of "In the Labyrinth"


Giovani Paolo
Master Librarian
Mnoren Librarium

"Cidri is filled with many wondrous and terrifying things.  May we not 
experience them all in one night." - Said by Lars of Jonril on the night his 
twins were born




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