Ooze Reproduction

[Wippit Guud]

Brought up in the Science thread was the quick off-topic that a half-dragon ooze is 'munchkin' and cannot exist (contrary to the half-dragon black pudding I like to use in some games). Among other things, it was said that oozes only reproduce by splitting in half. Well, I don't think that works out either... and hey, I'm bored at work right now, so lets dive in (pun intended) and come to terms with this.

Reproduction via enforced splitting:

This would be the 'hit a black pudding, and you have 2 puddings' form of reproduction. Which seems all fine and dandy, as there are animals that can become 2 animals when cut in half - worms and starfish come to mind. As a practical method of reproduction, though, I'd have to say it's not very good. For the most part, anything hitting an ooze is going to keep hitting it until he can't split anymore, and then it dies. And this does not cover how a gelatinous cube reproduces, as it doesn't split.

Reproduction via Mitosis

This would be the amoeba analogy. Ooze gets big enough, it splits in half, you have 2 oozes. This also works for the vast majority of oozes, except there are no small oozes out there, and I can't see a gelatinous cube splitting in half. The reason I don't accept this is the mustard jelly: it's intelligent. Get one that has a bit of evil intent, and it will split over and over and over and repopulate the planet with ooze. Also: since not all mustard jellies are the same personality, there must be some intermingling of genetic material in there somewhere - otherwise, they'd all be clones.

Reproduction vis spores

Lets draw a real-world analogy between oozes and slime molds, which have most of the same characteristics. Slime molds have 2 stages. The first stage is a plasmodium, which is like a giant amoeba with hundred of nuclei. It moves around and eats stuff. Sounds like an ooze, just on a smaller scale. So far, so good.

Once the slime mold becomes of sufficient size, it finds a suitable spot and stops. Then it becomes more plant-like, growing a fruit-like body which will eventually erupt into spores which are dispursed like any other spore. Over time, spores begin to combine with other spores, growing larger until it becomes a plasmodium. Which then starts eating, and the cycle continues.


So, the way I see it, oozes are just part of the life cycle of a more complex oragnism. They're the plasmodium phase of a Myxomycete, just on a larger scale. Heck, who's to say an ochre jelly doesn't turn into a violet fungus...

[Wippit Guud]

So, part B: Can a dragon mates with a slime?

Based on that theory above this post... i can't see a way... even polymorph wouldn't help.

[oriong]

Reproduction via Mitosis

This would be the amoeba analogy. Ooze gets big enough, it splits in half, you have 2 oozes. This also works for the vast majority of oozes, except there are no small oozes out there, and I can't see a gelatinous cube splitting in half.

Well, by this logic nothing reproduces because there are no 'small ogres' or 'small giants'. In fact the only creature that reproduces would be dragons.

The reason I don't accept this is the mustard jelly: it's intelligent. Get one that has a bit of evil intent, and it will split over and over and over and repopulate the planet with ooze. Also: since not all mustard jellies are the same personality, there must be some intermingling of genetic material in there somewhere - otherwise, they'd all be clones.

This seems to assume that mustard jellies have the ability to produce themselves infinitely. they're going to need mass to fuel this splitting or else you're just going to get tinier and tinier oozes with never any more mass than the orginal.

Since, logically, they have to feed to reproduce then mustard jellies are no more likely to 'cover the world' than a particularly sexually minded pair of orcs. A mustard jelly will either run out of food and starve to death once they've filled their original habitat, or they'll be forced to expand, in which case they'll likely be killed off since they'll actually be more vulnerable (if their goal is continual reproduction then they will be smaller and weaker than normal since they're splitting ASAP).

[Dairun Cates]

God. I can't help feeling responsible for this.

As for reproduction, I COULD see a system where an ooze could evolve by devouring a victim and picking up some of its genetic material and integrating it into its system. Does it have any scientific basis? No, but it sounds plausible, and the catgirls are safe. After evolving, I would still imagine a system of splitting once the ooze has grown too large to feed it's nuclei (cells can't reach nutrients to the whole cell after a certain size. Same with the blob). Once split. It splits two nuclei and becomes a new entity. So... Yeah. I suppose if you let be too long, you could have an overrun.

[Jack Mann]

Creatures mutate, including amoebas. Depending on the effectiveness of their DNA reproduction during mitosis, they may mutate a great deal. You don't need sexual reproduction for adaptation, it just helps.

[daggaz]

I could see a gelatinous cube dividing in half. And they are of varying sizes... as are oozes.

[Dairun Cates]

Creatures mutate, including amoebas. Depending on the effectiveness of their DNA reproduction during mitosis, they may mutate a great deal. You don't need sexual reproduction for adaptation, it just helps.

I suppose the question is whether it could plausibly mutate to have dragon abilities considering the complexity.

[oriong]

I think the half-dragon issue is pretty secondary to the original post. It's something technically possible by RAW, and with magical intervention anything is possible in game (if you can have an Owl-bear then why no half-dragon oozes?).

If an ooze is Asexual obviously you won't be 'mating' a dragon with it directly if for no other reason than the equipment isn't even remotely there.

[Jack Mann]

I was addressing the problem of individuality among mustard oozes, not the half-dragon question.