I think the author used "massive" simply to say that they have, well, more mass. Which is normal if they are taller.

GT: Humaniti p. 130: "[Syleans] tend to be slightly taller ***and more massive*** than the average Solomani, well within the typical range for Humans who have adapted to moderate-gravity worlds." Then there is the reference to facial body hair and moustaches, and "The body is usually slender and wiry, with little excess body fat."

In the rules part (p.134): "Pure-blooded Syleans are somewhat taller and more massive than the Human norm. For a male Sylean who grew up in Capital's 0.69 G environment, add 14 inches to the normal height and 50 pounds to the normal weight for his ST." Mods are +10 inches, +35 pounds for females (whatever those funny, non-metric units might be).

There is a picture on p.133 which looks like a perfectly average human to me, except for a moustache. Looks like a sterotypical drill sergeant from a U.S. movie.

I always pictured them as slender but muscular. So yeah, moustached semi-elves.

Looking at GT:H I realized that they SJG never wrote down who wrote what, the list of contributors (with a typo on my name which angers me every time I look at the book) does not include a mapping to the articles. But it seems most of the contributors are or have been in the TML.

--
Carlos Alós-Ferrer
Chair of Microeconomics, University of Cologne
http://www.decisions.uni-koeln.de

On Sat, May 21, 2016 at 7:04 PM, carlos.web <xxxxxx@mail.de> wrote:

Gurps Traveller: Humaniti had a full article on the Syleans as a minor race. They were described as tall and massive, typically left-handed, quite pale, and favouring facial hair.

Eh? I remember tall and pale. But IIRC they were supposed to tend toward slimness. I don't recall anything about facial hair.

To be honest, I thought of Sylean's as someone's half-hearted attempt at an "elven" race for Traveller.

Richard Aiken

"Never insult anyone by accident." Robert A. Heinlein

"I studied the Koran a great deal. I came away from that study with the conviction there have been few religions in the world as deadly to men as Muhammed." Alexis de Tocqueville (1843)

"We know a little about a lot of things; just enough to make us dangerous." Dean Winchester

"It has been my experience that a gun doesn't care who pulls its trigger." Newton Knight (as portrayed by Matthew McConaughey), to a scoffing Confederate tax collector facing the weapons held by Knight's young children and wife.