“I guess to someone it must have seemed a good idea! Create a parahuman with faster maturation and reproductive cycle. Put a small population on a planet and watch it quickly grow into a sizeable workforce that could exploit the resources. Add some administrators and a security force and reap in the profits!
“Wasn’t long before the bunnies realized how much the company was screwing them. Some exec decided to get heavy-handed, and things turned nasty, fast.
“...Most obvious thing is the fur. Many are greys and browns like wild rabbits. Many others have patterns or solid colours like domesticated rabbits. Blacks, whites, browns.
“The most rabbity feature is the ears. They don’t stick out the top the head: that is just in cartoons and propaganda. They are on the side of the head like a baseline human. The cranium is normal size, so it is rare for the ears to grow past the top of the skull. They actually look more like furry goblins than rabbits, I always thought.
“The ears move a lot and you can tell what a lepus is thinking or about to do if you know what to watch for. Useful when playing poker. It has also saved my life a few times.
“Rest of the features? The eyes are a little wider apart than a baseline. Noses are human, but do tend to be flat and buttony. Many of them do seem to have larger middle incisors, but that may be just an impression.
“Males tend to be on the short side. More than one-seventy is unusual. Secondary sexual features are human-normal. Fur grows thicker and longer around the mouth and cheeks of bucks. Does seem to have bigger, liquid eyes. Females tend to be dumpy. Wide hips, pear-shaped. Rubenesque, I suppose you might call it. Not to my taste, even if I liked females.
“All of them seem to wear wellington boots and dungarees. You know, the things with the bibs? These are often customized with tool holders and pockets. Dungarees are universal and unisex. Usually they do not wear much else, an advantage of having fur. Sack coats are common. Shirts tend to be reserved for when it is cold or attending church.
“Bunnies are all colour-blind, so the colour combinations can sometimes be memorable! This can be a hindrance when they are trying to camouflage something. On the other hand it often helps them spot camouflage attempts. Something to do with cut vegetation looking different to live.
“...Political situation is, shall we say, fluid? Not only do the rabbitoids fight the company, but also each other. The rapid growth of communities has caused disputes for resources. Lepus are more human than rabbit, so territorial disputes are more bloody than anything in “Watership Down”. There are lots of alliances between different factions or with the company, but most of them are temporary.
“...The lepus have got hold of “guerilla goats”. Make the milk into cheese and you have plastic explosive. There is also an explosive that looks like flour. You can even bake it into cakes and bread. Many groups have acquired some fairly sophisticated air-defence and jamming equipment, and that has neutralized some of the advantages the security forces had relied on.
“...I can only offer my own opinion, and that is that “Peter Bluecoat” is a myth. I don’t know what happened to McGregor.”
The Lepus/ Rabbitoid Parahuman is detailed on p.74 of GURPS Bio-Tech 4e, with background on p.37. Advantages such as Easy Childbirth [0 pt], Sexual Orientation (Heterosexual) [0 pt] and Shorter Gestation [1 pt] p.58-9 should be considered.
