Racial Template: Children of Volung

So I am going to start listing all The Known World GURPS racial templates here on the blog for shits and giggles. These aren't going to be lengthy posts that take hours to write or read, so I'll just be posting them one a day till they're done. One thing I dislike about the way GURPS does racial templates is that they just write out the statistics with a brief paragraph long description of the race. So you have a suite of abilities that make the race, but no real description of what and how they do it. To be fair, most racial templates are dwarf, dragon, elf, etc and they are well known enough that we don't really have to think too hard about why the dwarf template has the detect advatange tied to gold and minerals. One thing I also do not care for in GURPS is that a lot of racial templates tend to have skills added into them as well. Pathfinder does the same thing, but I've never cared for it. Your race shouldn't really determine your skills or skill bonuses, that's really more of a background thing and should be up to the player. Yes, fine, most elves use bows and live in forests and should have some skill based experience with both, but that sort of thing shouldn't be mandatory. It should be optional dependent upon your background. For instance, all elves in Pathfinder have weapon familiarity with some bows and swords and any weapon with elven in the title. Ok, fine, that makes sense for elves raised with elves in elven kingdoms. What about the elf slave living in some distant country with no contact with other elves? How would they learn about elven weapons and gain familiarity with them? Hmm? Doesn't make sense. Ah well, just a bit of picking of nits I guess. Anyway, Children of Volung. 

Children of Volung Racial Template

44 points

Attribute Modifiers: ST+2 [18] (Large -10%), HT+2 [20]

Secondary Characteristics: SM +1

Advantages:

• Hardy Constitution 1 [3]: Children of Volung have a hardy constitution and are resistant to disease. They have Resistance: Disease (+3 x1/3).
• Hardy Constitution 2 [5]: Children of Volung have a hardy constitution and are resistant to poison. They have Resistance: Poison (+3 x1/3).
• Immortal [15]: The Children of Volung are immortal and do not die of old age or weakness. They have Unaging. 
• Northern Blood 1 [8]: Children of Volung hail from the far north where winds can freeze flesh with ease and are resistant to the effects of deadly cold. They have Damage Resistance 2 (Limited: Cold -20%).
• Northern Blood 2 [1]: Children of Volung are comfortable at much lower temperatures due to the icy conditions of their homeland. They have Temperature Tolerance 1 (Cold)
• Plated Skeleton [3]: Children of Volung have plates of bone like scale mail beneath the skin of their chest, making it more difficult to injure them. They have Damage Resistance 2 (Semi-Ablative -20%, Tough Skin -40%, Partial: Torso -10%).
• Sharp Teeth [1]: The mouths of the Children of Volung are filled with needle-like teeth. They have Teeth (Sharp Teeth).

Disadvantages:

• Berserk [-10]: The rage and ferocity of the Children of Volung are well known and they have a long history of extreme violence with little, if any provocation. They have Berserk (Self Control Roll: 12). 
• Bloodlust [-10]: The Children of Volung are a warrior race and have little sympathy for enemies, they see no purpose in leaving a foe alive to fight another day, and if they do, their berserk rage often weakens the logic. They have Bloodlust (Self Control Roll 12).
• Callous [-5]: The Children of Volung have little empathy for other races and little room in their hearts for softer emotions. They have Callous.
• Unusual Biochemistry [-5]: The Children of Volung are inhuman creatures and their physiology is very different from normal races like the Uncout and reacts differently to drugs and chemicals sometimes. They have Unusual Biochemistry. 

Suggestions

Advantages: Damage Resistance (increase the levels in either type), Fearlessness, Hard to Kill, Hard to Subdue, High Pain Threshold. 

Disadvantages: Berserk (increase or decrease the self control roll, or add the battle rage modifier), Bloodlust (increase or decrease the self control roll). 

Skills: Volungshemle society places a strong emphasis on martial traditions, so skills dealing with warfare and weaponry would be in keeping with the nation's traditions. 

So that is the Children of Volung. Normally GURPS racial templates don't have a suggestions area, but I felt that since I know the world and races better than my players, it might give them a better place to start when building characters. 

Comparing this version of the Children of Volung to that in the campaign book, we lose a few things. The first is that there is no Charisma or equivalent stat in GURPS, so we lose that penalty. We also lose Bloodthirsty Mien, which isn't too big of a deal, just buy the Intimidation skill. Cornered Fury doesn't have a real nice analog in GURPS that I've found, but the ability of the Berserk disadvantage to keep you fighting with relentless ferocity to -5xHP covers that ability. 

Like I said, this is just something I am doing for shits and giggles, not really intending to switch from Pathfinder to GURPS any time in the remotely near future, perhaps for the next campaign though.