Creature Design Philosophy
Creature Design Philosophy posted in Gamma World forum comment posted by derek_holland In the real world some animals' sex is determined by temperature, best known in reptiles. If the temp is above X degrees, then most of the embryos develop into male or female (it varies).
Now expand that to more than temperature and apply it to species with extreme sexual dimorphism to get territories that are populated by one or the other. If they are wildly separated, then migration through undesirable habitats will be required for procreation and the populations will be relatively low. If they are adjoining then the populations of both will be higher.
For example there is a rodent where the females are hulking, man-eating monsters with translucent wings that can be used to weaponize light. The males are cute, dog-like critters that kids want so bad and are about 10 kilos in size. Radiation below R3 results in males. So parents with nerves of steel capture females and mate them with their kids' pets and then keep them in low radiation areas so that the litters will be all males.
Love for one's offspring leads to all kinds of hijinks in the wastes.
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Another species of rodent has a critical colonial mass. Each is radioactive, so the larger the population the higher the R rating is in their territory. If it reaches R5, they explode as a small nuke. This happens most often when the mesopredators in urban ruins are wiped out or driven off by apex predators. The second most common is when Radioactivists discover the rodents but don't understand the danger.
They have lost several communities this way. Blown to bits by their god.
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