Metahuman height and weight ranges?, How tall is the tallest dwarf? Options

[HardSix]

Does anyone know of any published instances of height (and weight) limits for metahumans, more specifically dwarves and trolls? Anyone have any houserules for this?

Is a 4'11" standard/non-metavarient dwarf possible? How about max and min heights for standard/non-metavarient trolls?

(Asking for role-playing reasons... how an extra-tall dwarf's or extra-short troll's attitude/outlook/personality are influenced.)

[Patrick Goodman]

Not that I'm aware of, but that might be an interesting research project....

[HentaiZonga]

Well, assuming they range from normal in roughly the same way that humans do, it'll all be a bell curve. Which means the tallest Troll is going to be pushing 11 feet, and the shortest will be just over 6. Likewise, the tallest dwarf will be *almost* 5 feet, and the shortest will be around 2 feet. However, these are going to be EXTREMELY rare; the tallest "typical" troll will be around 10', and the tallest "typical" dwarf around 4'6".

[HardSix]

Thanks for your input. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/rotate.gif) I'm playing around creating a couple NPCs... I got a line in my head about the PCs encountering the "biggest dwarf they'd ever seen" and then wondering just how tall he'd/she'd be. How as a very tall dwarf, he'd probably face closer scrutiny as a 'Runner (Corp Sec admin: "Hey, run the video back on camera 3. There! Calculate his height... good, should be easy to pick out a 5' dwarf from the others in Seattle.") Other dwarves might accuse him of 'heightening' (ala Seinfeld) or seeking medical treatment to become taller instead of "being proud to be a Dwarf." How dwarf-sized accomodations/gear may be just a little too small, but human-sized stuff is still too big.

On the flipside, how would a 5'9"ish male troll be treated by other trolls, orcs, and even humans or elves who are taller/brawnier? How much more over the top or psycho would he have to act to be just as intimidating as a full-sized orc or troll? Wouldn't Humanis/A2K/drek-cetra members jump at the chance to target him for violence? And could he pass sufficently as a human to throw-off anyone looking to identify him from a Shadowrun?

[Aaron]

Well, I'm a real-life dwarf and I'm 5'6".

[krakjen]

Well, I'm a real-life dwarf and I'm 5'6".

Beside the same nomenclature, a SR dwarf is not the same thing as someone having dwarfism.

Does anyone know of any published instances of height (and weight) limits for metahumans, more specifically dwarves and trolls? Anyone have any houserules for this?

For the minimal/maximum range, I think that could be extrapolated from human statistics as a percentage.
And you could apply this percentage to the metahumans...

More info on human height
From what it says, 20% variation is considered abnormal, so you could use something like 15%.
I'll let you do the numbers as I can't stand the damn illogical inch/feet/other_random_body_part sizing...

Edit: I'll do it in meters (min/average/max), with SR4 average and 15% variation.
Dwarf: 1.02/1.2/1.32
Elf: 1.62/1.9/2.19
Human: 1.49/1.75/2.01
Ork: 1.62/1.9/2.19
Troll: 2.13/2.5/2.88

Well, that seems reasonable.
Remember, Like HentaiZonga said, it's a bell curve.
So the more extreme numbers will be very rare...

[ElFenrir]

Heights and weights have always been tricky-really, if someone wanted to, they could play a character of about any height they wanted-almost. I mean, a 6 foot tall dwarf i might just say ''play a shorter than average ork or taller than average human'', but a 5' dwarf? He'd be rare, but I could see it happening once in a great while. I have a human character that stands 6'10''(over 2 meters) tall; he towers over his friends. Guys like him aren't common; but I have known several people who were actually around this height, and have several friends and aquaintances that are over six and a half feet tall.) 2.19 meters is pretty tall...really tall, actually...2 meters is roughly 6 foot, 8 inches if i remember my calculations right(a meters being about...3 foot 4 inches?).

A dwarf around 1.3m is pretty tall for his race, indeed. But yeah, I think heights and weights should be something kept fairly open. Especially in 2070, where they might have some sort of gene treatments to help out with the ''bad stuff'' that can come with people with abnormal heights(the really abnormal heights-humans close to 8 feet, and the like).

I can even see some small gangs forming (a gang for the shorties, for tall ones, etc...if they find people of the right heights. You know, people that are under X height for their race in a gang...a bunch of under 1 meter dwarves, under 2 meter trolls, a gang with elves and orks over 2.1 meters tall...(IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) )

[Rasumichin]

Keep in mind that there's dwarfs who can easily pass as human.
I don't think the human appearance quality enables a dwarf to pass as "vertically challenged", but as a human who is rather short, but still within a clinically normal spectrum.

[Wesley Street]

I had a player who played a dwarf with the human-looking positive quality. I assumed the character was closer to human height (but not quite), his ears weren't super-pointy, and his beard was limited to scruff. In simple game mechanics terms you couldn't have a human-height dwarf else they would be able to move 10 meters per combat round.

[Cantankerous]

Actual variation, human beings as the standard, is allot closer to 25% than to 15%. My own cousin is 7'4" That's about 223cm if I'm doing the conversion right in my head.

With a standard variation of 25% (albeit...bell curve...Glenn is the tallest person I've ever met by a good 6 inches and I am widely traveled) we have dwarves at about 1.6 meters or about 5'3". If our dwarf is as lean (for his race) as Glenn was when he was younger he'll look relatively "human normal", if on the definite short side.


Isshia