Good Afternoon:
Because the concept of Stellar Quest continues to haunt me, I've decided to look into the concept of developing this pseudo-Trek game a little further. Following Inferno's recommendation to check out Old School Star Trek Role-Playing, I found a nice thread discussing common races in a Trek campaign. The basic list for primary character races includes: Humans, Vulcans, Andorians and Tellarites. While there's also a list of hostile races, including Gorn, Klingons, Kzinti, Orions, Romulans and Tholians, these probably should not be included as basic player races in a game based on interstellar exploration aboard a Federation starship.
Andorian
These blue-skinned, white-haired humanoids are known as much for their focus on honorable combat as for their two blue antennae. In a Stellar Quest clone, I'd likely do something akin to the following: +1 Dexterity, -1 Constitution, +4 on perception-based Wisdom checks, +2 on saving throws vs cold and cold-based effects.
Human
Being the standard race for any roleplaying game, Humans represent the baseline character abilities from which the other races are derived.
Tellarite
These short, stocky humanoids are covered with hair and have faces reminiscent of a pig's. Somewhat resembling a cross between an orc and a dwarf in some regards, filled with stubborn pride and a love for arguing, the Tellarites would probably have the following racial abilities: -1 Dexterity, +1 Constitution, +2 to AC against creatures larger than man-size due to their stature, +2 on saving throws vs fear.
Vulcan
A humanoid species known widely for their stoic nature and logical minds, the Vulcans are probably the most recognizable of the primary Trek races. Given their basic nature, and trying to keep it simple for gaming purposes, I'd probably give Vulcans the following racial abilities: +1 Strength, -1 Dexterity, +1 Intelligence, -1 Charisma, +4 on knowledge-based Intelligence checks, +2 on saving throws vs heat and heat-based effects.
These are just simple racial write-ups, which do not include all of a species's traditional abilities (such as a Vulcan's mind meld or nerve pinch, for example.) I'm still up in the air on what would need to be covered, as I'm not a fan of just front-loading a ton of abilities on one race but not on others, but at least the above gives you some ideas of what I would do with racial traits.
What do you think?
With Regards,
Flynn
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12 hours ago
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5 comments:
I'm definately following your posts about this.
For some reason at a young age I decided Andorians were just the bomb! : )
I am curious why you gave them a -1 to Con? I always thought of them as a hardy race, maybe a -1 to Cha to reflect their attitudes and upbringing? Not a criticism just a question. Thanks. : )
I went with the -1 Constitution for Andorians because they tend to be more susceptible to phaser hits. Rather than create a specialized weakness, I just went with a more general penalty to Con. I try to avoid using -1 Charisma as a balancer, because most people tend to use Charisma as a dump stat.
Hope That Helps,
Flynn
A very good start. I suppose class-wise you could go with gold shirts, blue shirts and red shirts (though finding people to willingly play red shirts could be tricky).
I already have a concept for six classes: Security, Flight, Recon, Science, Operations and Command, one for each ability score, so to speak. I'll build on them in the next few Stellar Quest posts.
I figure red shirts are the same as Normal Men in S&W.
Hope This Helps,
Flynn
Thanks Flynn,
Your right about many folks using Cha as a dump stat, especially in older games.
Thanks,
B.
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