Post by ritt on Jan 4, 2012 17:31:23 GMT -6
This is a short article I wrote in 2009 (originally written for Galactic Troubleshooters, but the magazine died before it saw print) presenting some of my house-rules for alien PCs and four Moldvay-style race-as-class alien classes. Hope this can be of use.
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LOVING THE ALIEN: Alien PCs in X-PLORERS
By Richard Rittenhouse
Takahashi crouched down behind a fallen tree at the forest’s edge and scanned the Ra Industries research facility with his omni-optic: Hypercrete walls two meters thick, electrified razorwire, video surveillance, a web of drone-lasers tighter than a shibari knot, ... it might have been pretty good security five years ago, but not today. The Mykatsu Food Systems Group wanted Ra’s new xeno-fructose for it’s diet sodas, so they made a bid. A very generous bid... and Ra said “No”. It was a serious loss of face for the home office on Osaka Prime, and at least two suicides resulted. But Old Man Mykatsu wasn’t going to take this insult lying down: He always got what he wanted. Always. He had learned a lot about how to get what he wanted in his one-hundred-and-forty-eight years of life, and when polite negotiations over saki in a orbital geisha house failed to get it, he had other means. He had men like Takahashi. The physical security would be child’s play... Takahashi’s skills and the half a million credits worth of jamming circuitry in his skintight jumpsuit would see to that. All he had to concern himself with were the guards, and he was confident that they would be no trouble, thanks to the gun on his hip. That gun was an experimental prototype WKZ-450 WAKIZASHI laser pistol: Silent, with an invisible, super-charged photon beam, it was a marvel of reverse-engineered Ancient Eldora technology that could out-blast neaanything Ra issued it’s yellow-jumpsuited rent-a-cops. Those poor gaijin wouldn’t have a chance.
He was halfway to the facility when a single guard leapt out in front of him like a jungle cat. Very impressive, this was no rent-a-cop, this was a professional, a soldier. And then the guard rose to his full seven feet of height, and for the first time in his adult life, Takahashi knew fear. The guard didn’t wear a yellow jumpsuit... in fact, he didn’t wear much of anything, and nothing above the waist. His face was lean and cruel, with an almost-neanderthal brow and a mane of thick, straight black hair. And on his belt he didn’t wear a laser pistol, but rather a double-headed ax of black steel, a weapon that belonged in the third century, not the twenty-third. Vrong. “Oh my God”, thought Takahashi, “That’s why they skimped on the security systems. Because they hired Vrong guards”.
Takahashi’s hand shot for his gun, but the Vrong’s ax was quicker.
You can’t have a Warlord of Mars without a savage alien tribesman to fight at his side. You can’t have a impulsive starship captain without the loyal alien who uses cold logic to pull his friend’s emotional bacon out of the fire. You can’t have a dashing smuggler without a gentle giant of a co-pilot to punch it to lightspeed when things get, um, hairy. And, of course, it’s not really a party until the green-skinned dancing girl shows up.
This article contains four new optional player-character alien classes for X-Plorers: The alien yet friendly Kafka, the ancient and decadent Eldora, the dreaded Vrong, human-yet-alien barbarian raiders of the galactic frontier, and the mysterious Asurrans. Hopefully, you’ll find these classes to have just enough detail to make them interesting, but not so much as to overwhelm players or make them difficult for a referee to insert into an existing X-Plorers campaign should he or she desire. After that, I’ll address some of the design decisions I made when I created these aliens, and try to provide some suggestions and guidelines for referees to use as a springboard when creating alien classes of their own.
The four optional new alien classes below all function the same as human characters classes. They all use the Character Advancement table from page 9 of the X-Plorers core rules, and, unless otherwise noted in the race description, use the same rules as human characters, unless common sense or the referee indicate otherwise. If you are a player, consult your referee before generating a character from one of these races, as these are strictly optional, non-core classes and they may not be suitable for your referee’s campaign.
The Ka’kratha (“Kafkas”)
To humans, Ka’kratha (or as they are far more commonly called, “Kafkas”) look like repulsive monsters out of an old Pre-Starflight horror film. To the Kafkas, humans look like bizarre, giant, shaven monkeys. However, while the two races are nothing alike physiologically and often find each other’s appearance disgusting, they are very similar psychologically and culturally, and the two species are generally friendly to each other and often co-operate on major projects involving exploration and defense. It is not unusual for a human ship to have a Kafka crewman or two, or vice-versa.
Physiology at a glance: Kafkas look like two-meter long, six-limbed, giant cockroaches. They usually stand up and walk around on their hind legs, but they can run on all six limbs if they’re really in a hurry (+ 2 to move, but nothing can be carried). They eat rotting meat, fungi, and putrid garbage. While they usually refrain from eating dead sentient beings out of politeness, cannibalism is not quite the taboo among Kafkas that it among humans. All player-character Kafkas are male: Female Kafka “Queens” never leave their home hiveworlds, and are never personally encountered by any humans except very high-level diplomats. Queens are huge (roughly the size of an Earth elephant), live for centuries, and possess unfathomable intelligence and, allegedly, awesome psionic powers.
Culture in a nutshell: Despite their insectile nature, hive society, and ancient culture, Kafkas are in many ways remarkably “Human”, and humans often get along with Kafkas better than they do with
many races that are far more similar to them physiologically. Kafkas speak human languages with a
cultured Eastern European accent, and tend to very reserved and polite. Humor is prized and smart
Kafkas often have a dry, sharp wit. Kafka hiveworlds have a very high standard of education and this, combined with the Kafka’s natural talent for technical things, makes them great engineers and scientists.
Humans can’t pronounce Kafka names, so Kafkas that live among humans often adopt a new,
traditionally human names (European names like Fritz, Basil, or Werner are popular, but some Kafkas name themselves after movie stars, historical figures, or even models of ground-car). Kafkas among
themselves typically go nude (except for direct aides to the queens, who sometimes paint or glue gems to their exoskeletons), but Kafkas among humans will sometimes wear a very limited amount of
clothing if it strikes their fancy, or to help humans tell different Kafkas apart. They tend to like bright
colors and garish patterns, and things like particularly loud Hawaiian shirts and jumbo neckties printed
with cartoon characters are popular favorites. While all the Kafkas among humanity are technically
male, it is not unknown for a Kafka to personally identify with female humans, taking a traditionally
female name and speaking human languages in a feminine pitch.
Prerequisites: To play a Kafka, a player must have rolled a Physique and Intelligence of at least 11
each. Kafka are hardy and educated.
Exoskeleton: +1 AC
Four arms: +4 to climbing, grappling, or any other rolls in which the referee judges that multiple
limbs would be advantageous.
Mandibles: Damage 1d6
Ancient Lore (Int): The Kafka are an ancient race, a remnant of a bygone age in which insect civilizations dominated the galaxy. Much has been forgotten -Kafka don’t even know where their original homeworld was- but Kafka still retain much knowledge of lost technologies and cultures that rose and fell when while humans were still in caves. Ancient Lore is an Intelligence-based skill that starts at 16+ and goes down one per level (i.e. 15+ at level 2, 14+ at level 3, etc.).
Educated: Kafka can pick three skills from the following list: Computer (Int), Science (Int), Pilot (Agi), Mechanics (Int), or Robotics (Int). These skills start at 17+ and go down one per level.
Eldora
Hundreds of thousands of years ago, the Eldora ruled the galaxy. Their vast empire built ringworlds, Dyson spheres, fifty-mile wide ziggurat-shaped “Fatherships”, and other godlike works of ultra-advanced engineering, and each and every Eldora lived like a king, served by uncountable billions of slaves. But that was then... the Eldora have been a dying race since before mankind existed, and now all that remains of their empire are a handful of squabbling little pocket kingdoms based around the few
fatherships that still function. Some of these petty kingdoms still regard the entire Milky Way as
Eldora territory, and some still regard enslaving “Lesser” races as their natural right.
Physiology at a glance: Eldora look like tall (190-215cm), very skinny humanoids with chalk-white or grey skin, frosted glass eyes, and long, translucent “Hair” that resembles jellyfish tentacles. The “Hair”
is normally clear or grey, but changes color as the Eldora becomes angry or aroused. Some scholars of
classic Earth art have noted that Eldora bear a strong resemblance to the subject of Pre-Starflight artist
H.R. Geiger’s 1974 painting Li.
Eldora move and speak with a strange and alien grace that one human former slave described as “A
speeded-up holo of a world-class ballerina doing kabuki underwater”. While their external appearance
is somewhat similar to a human’s, their internal anatomy is utterly alien: Eldora have neon-orange blood and their “Heart” is de-centralized into four small organs. Humans and Eldora can and do enjoy sexual relations, but it is not possible to naturally create a Eldora-human hybrid. The average Eldora lives about 500 years.
Culture in a nutshell: Every single Eldora is technically a noble of some sort, and they often demand to be treated as such, much to the annoyance of others. In peace, Eldora often wear black leather or ancient and rotting lace garments. In war, they wear absurdly ornate suits of gold and gem-covered combat armor, some thousands of years old. Eldora love the trappings of nobility: Long formal titles, crowns, scepters, capes, expensive jewelry, etc, and bear them when they can.
Some Eldora kingdoms have come to accept (gradually, over millennia) that their day is long over
and that they no longer control the galaxy. These Eldora remain insufferably arrogant, but are generally open to trade and diplomacy, and pragmatic on political and military matters. Other kingdoms, however, remain culturally trapped in the past, recklessly conducting slave raids against “Lesser” cultures, fighting bloody civil wars amongst themselves, and “Keeping the Orange pure” by practicing incest (a cultural disaster that has only compounded the Eldora’s long crisis of rock-bottom fertility and birth rates).
Prerequisites: To play an Eldora the player must have rolled a Presence and Intelligence of 11+. Eldora are cultured and possess a cold and strange alien beauty.
Duelist: Eldora constantly squabble among themselves, and use ritual duels with ancient weapons to solve disputes. An Eldora gets +1 to hit and damage with any kind of sword. This bonus rises to +2 at level 5.
Alien Beauty: Eldora get +2 to all Presence skill throws and saving throws.
Ancient Lore (INT): As the Kafka skill of the same name.
Decadent: Eldora get a +2 to all saving throws against drugs, alcohol, or poison.
Dilettante: An Eldora may pick any three skills from the main human character classes (except Martial Arts or Weapon Specialist). These skills begin play at 17+ and go down by one a level.
The Vrong (Homo Sapiens Canopus)
During the Neolithic Age, Eldora slavers abducted several thousand humans from what is today
Northern Europe. They subjected those primitive humans to genetic engineering to eliminate minor imperfections (the appendix, nearsightedness, genetic diseases) and make them better killers (slightly
more muscle mass, slightly more testosterone, and reptile genes to allow them to re-grow severed limbs). The Eldora used these human slaves, who they called “Vrong” (after a kind of monkey-like
creature that Eldora used for pit-fight gambling, much as Earthlings once used fighting cocks) as slave-warriors in their televised gladiatorial games and numerous civil wars. When the Eldora’s galactic
empire began to crumble, the Vrong turned on their masters like mad dogs and slaughtered then without
mercy, capturing several backwater worlds and even one Eldora fathership. Today, there is no one Vrong government, but rather several hundred tribes of varying size, some holding planets or huge
space stations, others in rag-tag fleets of captured ships, living as pirates and raiders.
Physiology at a glance: Vrong are humans, and can breed with their Earth cousins, accept blood transfusions from them, eat the same food as them, etc. However, Eldora genetic engineering and
millennia of selective breeding and isolation from the rest of humanity have given them a distinct appearance. Vrong are Caucasians and tend to have long, straight black hair, grey or blue eyes, and a slightly swarthy complexion. One Earth merchant with a passion for classic art once described them as
looking like “The Frazetta Conan”. Blondes are not unknown, and Vrong epics sing of redheads, but
they are apparently very rare. Vrong are extremely tall and muscular in comparison to Earth humans: Heights of up to 213cm are not uncommon, and Vrong naturally possess muscles that Earth humans typically only exhibit with a lifetime of weight training and/or bio-chemical abuse. Vrong have denser
bones than Earth humans, and fewer genetic diseases or birth defects.
Vrong can also regenerate severed limbs and regenerate damaged spinal tissue. The amount of time needed for this depends on the body part (for example, on average, an eye takes about four weeks, and
an arm takes a little more than a month. However, it may take years for the arm to completely recover
it’s old bone density and muscle mass). This regenerative ability also makes it impossible to implant a Vrong with cybernetic devices.
Culture in a nutshell: The Vrong are space barbarians. They have the same basic underlying
psychology as humans from Earth, but their culture is macho, warlike, and, to Earth humans, very alien. Many Vrong consider themselves to be the “Real” human race, and humans from Earth to be a soft and decadent degenerate offshoot. Some Vrong tribes operate at a fairly high level of complex social development and technology, while some smaller tribes are little more than illiterate savages and cannibals. The Vrong’s reputation for conquest has served them well: They can be found working as
mercenaries, cops, bodyguards, gladiators and cheap muscle wherever violence rears it’s ugly head.
Prerequisites: To play a Vrong a player must roll a Physique and Presence of 11+. Vrong are fit and intimidating.
Into Glory Ride! (Agi): This is the same as the Pilot skill, but can also be used for riding beasts like horses, Aracxian stormwasps, Xaraxorian horrordactyls, or Kuskian ash lizards. This skill starts out at
15 +, and goes down by one a level.
Born to Ruins and Dust (Int): Vrong often live on wasteland worlds that no one else wants, usually
arctic worlds. This is the same as the Survival skill, but the Vrong gets a +2 bonus on rolls involving one specific environment chosen at character creation (Pick one of the following: Arctic, desert, jungle,
vacuum, bombed-out ruins, water world, predator world (habitable but infested with very deadly alien animals), or radioactive waste). This skill starts at 15+ and goes down by one a level.
By This Ax I Rule!: Vrong get a +1 to attack and damage with melee attacks. This bonus rises to +2 at
level 5.
Hulking Brute: Vrong get a + 2 bonus to all Physique saves that involve brute strength (arm wrestling,
forcing open a door, lifting something heavy) and +2 to all Presence rolls involving bullying and physical intimidation.
Born With a Gun in My Hand: Vrong have a talent for war’s grim tools. They get a +2 bonus to any
Intelligence saving throws to figure out unfamiliar or even alien weapons or weapons systems. There are only so many ways to build a gun, and a Vrong raider has probably seen them all.
Songs of the Fathers (Pre / Int): Young Vrong are forced to memorize and sing epics about the martial glory of their mighty ancestors. Some of these epics are thousands of years old and detail battles
forgotten by conventional academic history texts. This skill has two uses: First, it can be used as a Presence skill to entertain or impress a crowd. The Vrong sings, recites a poem, or tells a story to a
crowd, then rolls to see if the audience was captivated by the performance. (“The Dust Squid of Klybos III/ Was a whole kilometer long / Yet Ulfgar with his ion lance did stand against it alone!”). It can also be used as an Intelligence skill to recall information about historical battles, monsters, or powerful foes (“Klybos III? I think I remember something in my family epics about an ancestor fighting some kind of giant creature on Klybos III.” ). This skill starts at 16+ and goes down by one a level.
Asurrans
Of all the non-hostile alien races encountered by Earth humans, none are more strange, unfathomable, and, well, alien than the mysterious Asurrans. The Asurrans are not naturally carbon-based animals like humans, Kafka, or Eldora. In fact, they are not even normally physical beings at all.
The Asurrans are immaterial, virtually immortal creatures of pure living energy who exist on a “Higher
frequency of reality” than our physical universe (And no, Earth scientists are still not really sure what that actually means). For 90% of their lives (which last possibly thousands of years) Asurrans are invisible and intangible, living and operating on a completely different level of existence where they are utterly undetectable by any known science. But for a “Brief” period of about six or seven hundred years in their life cycle, a period perhaps similar to human adolescence, the energy form of an Asurran
“coalesces” into a material, living being. It is in this material stage of their life cycle that they explore and interact with our universe. Any communication or interaction with “Adult” Asurrans on their higher frequency is apparently impossible, even for material Asurans.
Most material Asurrans live on the remote world of Asurra, which they have inhabited for hundreds of thousands of years. However, a significant minority live on Blackholds: Ancient, massive space stations that orbit black holes. These Asurran scientist-monks carefully observe and record every fluctuation of the black hole, every minor energy pulse, always on the lookout for... something. Something that they refuse to discuss with any outsiders.
Physiology at a glance: Asurrans look like tall, graceful humanoids with light blue skin and no nose or
hair. Their eyes are normally silver and reflective like a mirror, but when an Asurran uses it’s Higher
Dimensional Perception or Cosmic Awareness class abilities (see below), their eyes turn jet black, and
the strange stars and swirling nebula of unknown galaxies can be seen within them (Many humans find
looking into an Asurran’s eyes to be deeply disturbing, while others find it hypnotic). Asurran blood is
blue and bio-luminescent, giving off a glow (about as bright as a modern-day glow-stick) for up to half an hour after it has been spilled. When an Asurran dies, it’s body slowly dissolves into energy over about an hour, leaving no trace except empty clothing and minor irregularities in background radiation that persist for a few days.
Humans often describe Asurrans as “Hermaphrodites”, but this is not technically true:
While they only have one sex in their material forms, it has been hinted that they have at least three
genders once they mature back into energy beings. Reproduction is a total mystery: No evidence has ever been recorded of an Asurran giving birth in it’s physical form, and most scientists assume that new
Asurrans are somehow created back on their “Higher frequency of reality”. Asurrans have a sex organ
of some kind, which very few humans have seen, but it seems to exist only for social bonding through
mutual pleasure, and not reproduction. To human eyes some Asurrans seem vaguely “Male”, and others vaguely “Female”, but this is not because of any actual difference in sex, just differences in appearance, mannerisms and personality.
Culture in a nutshell: Asurrans are not empire builders or particularly zealous explorers. They are
mostly content to spend their time on this plane gathering knowledge, conducting experiments, and
monitoring black holes. However, when the Dean-Abbots of Asurra’s Scientist-Monks feel that the actions of another culture threaten the stability of the universe, they will use force if necessary to put a
stop to it. At some point in the distant past there was a cataclysmic war between the Asurrans and the
Eldora over an Eldora plan to somehow tap the gravity of black holes as a source of limitless energy, a war that the Eldora lost. Although this war ended six thousand years ago, bitterness still remains between both of these ancient cultures, with Asurran historians referring to the conflict as a “Humanitarian intervention to prevent mass suicide” and Eldora seeing it as an “Attempted genocide by invaders from another dimension”.
Prerequisites: To play an Asurran character a player must roll a 10+ in every ability score. Weak or defective Asurrans don’t survive the grueling transformation from energy to matter.
Alien Mind: An Asurran’s alien mind gives it a +2 to all saving throws vs. any psionic attempt to attack, read, or influence it’s mind. Failed attempts stun the attacker 1d6 rounds.
What is this thing the humans call “Love”?: Asurrans often have difficulty comprehending the trivial and irrational motivations of aliens. In social situations, the referee may require an Asurran to make a -
4 Intelligence saving throw to understand emotional, illogical, or very “Human” things (Sports team
fanaticism, the Three Stooges, line dancing, knock-knock jokes, etc.).
Higher-Dimensional Perceptions: Asurrans can see in the ultra-violet and infra-red spectrums, allowing them to see in the dark. With a successful Intelligence saving throw, an Asurran can detect energy field invisible to humans or hear radio waves (Roll once per day per frequency).
Cosmic Awareness: Asurrans move with the incredible grace that can only come from being one with the solar winds themselves. An Asurran not wearing heavy armor may add his Intelligence modifier to his armor class. An Asurran may use martial arts as if they were a soldier of one level lower (i.e. a 2nd
level Asurran uses Martial arts as a 1st level soldier). Asurran martial arts are graceful and non-lethal,
with many of their attacks appearing to the human eye to be little more than gentle pinches or pokes,
and when an Asurran reduces an NPC enemy to 0 HP with a martial arts attack they are unconscious rather than dead. An Asurran’s player is free to describe such successful Martial Arts attacks as “Neural Pinches”, “Bio-aura disruption strikes” or other colorful terms.
Scientist-Monk: An Asurran begins with three skills from the following list: Computers (Int), Medicine (Int), Science (Int), Sociology (Int) and Ancient Lore (as the Kafka skill). These skill start at 17 + and go down by one per level.
Transcendence: When an Asurran reaches 10th level, it completes it’s long journey into “Maturity” and transforms into pure energy, leaving this plane behind forever.
New Alien Equipment
Agonizer (Eldora): This advanced melee weapon, used by Eldora slavers, looks like a faintly glowing
and humming whip made of a flexible, metallic material. It does 1d3 damage and forces the target to
make a Physique save or be helpless with unbearable pain for 1d6 rounds. Creatures larger than human-sized get a +2 modifier to the save, and very large creatures (i.e. elephant-sized or larger) get a +4 modifier. An agonizer costs 250cr on the black market and is powered by an Eldora energy pod good for 20 attacks (30cr).
Razor Beam Weapons (Eldora): In ages past, the Eldora fielded armies of millions of warrior-slaves
armed with razor weapons, but today in their decadence they have begun to lose the technology and razors are becoming somewhat rare. Razors fire a sickly-green beam of some weird, unknown energy
that slashes and cuts through matter like a great blade, severing limbs and producing horrible woumds. They are not a form of laser, and the beam generates no heat. Razor weapons have long barrels, decorated wooden stocks, and a generally high level of craftsmanship (they are individually built by
slaves, not assembled in factories). Razors are powered by special Eldora energy pods, and their combat statistics are the same as human laser weapons.
Deathshards (Asurrans): An ancient weapon of Asurran Scientist-Monks, these are triangular,
crystalline throwing stars. Also popular with some human martial arts buffs, they do 1d2 damage and
will disarm a foe on an attack roll of a natural “20". They have a range of 5, and authentic Asurran
deathshards cost 250cr for a set of four.
Citizens of the Galaxy: Creating your own alien classes
Now that we have four alien classes as examples, let’s examine the process of creating your own.
BHB: You might have noticed that the three sample alien classes that I provided all use the standard non-soldier BHB, and that while some of them are handy with specific weapons, none of them can gain the full weapon specialist or martial arts abilities. This is deliberate. While some aliens can be great
fighters, and have skills that soldiers do not, or skills in an odd combination that a soldier cannot, none should actually be better fighters than a soldier. Likewise, some aliens may make great scientists, or have science skills in combinations that scientists can’t, but none should be a better at being a scientist than a scientist. A new character class can and should allow players to do cool new things that they
couldn’t do with the old character classes, but it should not make those old classes obsolete. Otherwise you are not adding to the game, just switching out one class for a new one.
Please note that this advice applies only to referees who are trying to keep the character classes in their
games relatively balanced. For some referees, however, this attention to game balance just simply might not be an issue. For example, in a one-shot game, or in a very brief campaign, an extra +2 here or an extra -2 there probably won’t make that big of a difference in the end. Another referee may have designed a campaign setting where it’s part of the background that the members of one race are simply “The greatest killers in the universe” (or scientists, or pilots, or whatever). And still other referees and
groups simply prefer a wilder, more random, and “Gonzo” style of role-playing campaign, where worries about balance and fairness take a distant fourth place behind fun, humor, and free-wheeling
energy. Referees should create alien classes for the game that they will have fun running, and the only “Wrong” way to play is the way that’s not fun.
Prerequisites: This rule for non-human PCs was inspired by Tom Moldvay’s classic 1981 Basic
edition of the original fantasy role-playing game (Perhaps the greatest introductory role-playing game ever designed, it’s a game I frequently go back to for inspiration in matters of simple, clean game
design). Why did I choose to adopt it? Two reasons: First, To keep the game centered on humans and to keep alien PCs slightly less common than human PCs. If your players are rolling straight 3d6 for
abilities, not everyone will qualify to play an alien, and they will have to fall back on good old Homo
Sapiens Terra.
The second reason for the prerequisites was to make sure that every Vrong PC would be strong, every Eldora PC imposing, and every Kafka PC smart without actually giving these races bonuses to their ability scores. With only four ability scores, even a simple +1 to anything is a big deal in X-Plorers, and
a +2 bonus to, for example, a Vrong’s Physique would make them such powerful fighters that they would outshine a human soldier in combat almost every time.
Now, some of my fellow referees may want campaigns that are not humanocentric... something more like Farscape than Star Trek. Fair enough. Others may be uncomfortable with the idea of players not having 100% control over what types of characters they get to play. In either case, just ignore the prerequisites. It’s a rule I adopted to help me get the kind of game that I want to run, and it shouldn’t
straightjacket your campaign if you don’t want it to.
Special abilities and skills: Now here is where things get tricky; you want your alien classes to be cool, competent, and to be able to do neat things that human PCs can’t do. But you don’t want them to
overshadow the human core classes. This involves a lot of delicate give and take. For example, an Eldora can take any three skills at first level, including many combinations that a beginning human character can’t without multi-classing. This reflects the fact that Eldora are long-lived, educated, and come from a society where they have the power and wealth to follow their personal obsessions and whims. The party needs a medic, a pilot, and a demolitions expert? Play an Eldora and be all three! But, with a skill rating of 17 + at first level (about 20% if the character has no ability modifiers, worse than any starting skill for any human class), he will never be as good a medic as a scientist, as good a pilot as a scout, or as good at demolitions as a soldier. But he’ll still be pretty handy to have around, especially in a small party.
One trap to avoid is over-specialization. Try to give your aliens a spread of varied abilities that they can use in many different situations. If an alien class is really awesome at one thing (fighting, science,
piloting, whatever) that’s great when the party is engaging in that particular activity, but it really boring when the party isn’t. Even warrior races do things other than kill people all day. Giving each class a
single culture or knowledge skill, like the Kafka’s Ancient Lore or the Vrong’s Songs of the Fathers, is one way to not only give them a little extra versatility, but also a subtle reminder that these races are complex, ancient cultures and not just a collection of skills and modifiers.
It’s a big universe out there, teeming with life, and part of the referee’s job is to detail and describe that life. Life in so many infinite forms: A race of refugees from a war-torn distant galaxy, defeated and
hungry but proud. Sensual and lethal cat-people. Human-Grey hybrids created by unseen beings for unknown purposes. Rat-like beings who have built a civilization between the cogs and gears within a planet-sized machine of unknowable age. Beings of living metal native to Hyperspace itself. Racist,
sentient plants who sneer with contempt at “Mere animals”. Genetically-engineered super-soldiers who have outlived their ancient creators, living among the shattered ruins of a war fought while men still
lived in caves... and more. Much, much more. Create your own alien classes and fill that universe, making it your own!
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LOVING THE ALIEN: Alien PCs in X-PLORERS
By Richard Rittenhouse
Takahashi crouched down behind a fallen tree at the forest’s edge and scanned the Ra Industries research facility with his omni-optic: Hypercrete walls two meters thick, electrified razorwire, video surveillance, a web of drone-lasers tighter than a shibari knot, ... it might have been pretty good security five years ago, but not today. The Mykatsu Food Systems Group wanted Ra’s new xeno-fructose for it’s diet sodas, so they made a bid. A very generous bid... and Ra said “No”. It was a serious loss of face for the home office on Osaka Prime, and at least two suicides resulted. But Old Man Mykatsu wasn’t going to take this insult lying down: He always got what he wanted. Always. He had learned a lot about how to get what he wanted in his one-hundred-and-forty-eight years of life, and when polite negotiations over saki in a orbital geisha house failed to get it, he had other means. He had men like Takahashi. The physical security would be child’s play... Takahashi’s skills and the half a million credits worth of jamming circuitry in his skintight jumpsuit would see to that. All he had to concern himself with were the guards, and he was confident that they would be no trouble, thanks to the gun on his hip. That gun was an experimental prototype WKZ-450 WAKIZASHI laser pistol: Silent, with an invisible, super-charged photon beam, it was a marvel of reverse-engineered Ancient Eldora technology that could out-blast neaanything Ra issued it’s yellow-jumpsuited rent-a-cops. Those poor gaijin wouldn’t have a chance.
He was halfway to the facility when a single guard leapt out in front of him like a jungle cat. Very impressive, this was no rent-a-cop, this was a professional, a soldier. And then the guard rose to his full seven feet of height, and for the first time in his adult life, Takahashi knew fear. The guard didn’t wear a yellow jumpsuit... in fact, he didn’t wear much of anything, and nothing above the waist. His face was lean and cruel, with an almost-neanderthal brow and a mane of thick, straight black hair. And on his belt he didn’t wear a laser pistol, but rather a double-headed ax of black steel, a weapon that belonged in the third century, not the twenty-third. Vrong. “Oh my God”, thought Takahashi, “That’s why they skimped on the security systems. Because they hired Vrong guards”.
Takahashi’s hand shot for his gun, but the Vrong’s ax was quicker.
You can’t have a Warlord of Mars without a savage alien tribesman to fight at his side. You can’t have a impulsive starship captain without the loyal alien who uses cold logic to pull his friend’s emotional bacon out of the fire. You can’t have a dashing smuggler without a gentle giant of a co-pilot to punch it to lightspeed when things get, um, hairy. And, of course, it’s not really a party until the green-skinned dancing girl shows up.
This article contains four new optional player-character alien classes for X-Plorers: The alien yet friendly Kafka, the ancient and decadent Eldora, the dreaded Vrong, human-yet-alien barbarian raiders of the galactic frontier, and the mysterious Asurrans. Hopefully, you’ll find these classes to have just enough detail to make them interesting, but not so much as to overwhelm players or make them difficult for a referee to insert into an existing X-Plorers campaign should he or she desire. After that, I’ll address some of the design decisions I made when I created these aliens, and try to provide some suggestions and guidelines for referees to use as a springboard when creating alien classes of their own.
The four optional new alien classes below all function the same as human characters classes. They all use the Character Advancement table from page 9 of the X-Plorers core rules, and, unless otherwise noted in the race description, use the same rules as human characters, unless common sense or the referee indicate otherwise. If you are a player, consult your referee before generating a character from one of these races, as these are strictly optional, non-core classes and they may not be suitable for your referee’s campaign.
The Ka’kratha (“Kafkas”)
To humans, Ka’kratha (or as they are far more commonly called, “Kafkas”) look like repulsive monsters out of an old Pre-Starflight horror film. To the Kafkas, humans look like bizarre, giant, shaven monkeys. However, while the two races are nothing alike physiologically and often find each other’s appearance disgusting, they are very similar psychologically and culturally, and the two species are generally friendly to each other and often co-operate on major projects involving exploration and defense. It is not unusual for a human ship to have a Kafka crewman or two, or vice-versa.
Physiology at a glance: Kafkas look like two-meter long, six-limbed, giant cockroaches. They usually stand up and walk around on their hind legs, but they can run on all six limbs if they’re really in a hurry (+ 2 to move, but nothing can be carried). They eat rotting meat, fungi, and putrid garbage. While they usually refrain from eating dead sentient beings out of politeness, cannibalism is not quite the taboo among Kafkas that it among humans. All player-character Kafkas are male: Female Kafka “Queens” never leave their home hiveworlds, and are never personally encountered by any humans except very high-level diplomats. Queens are huge (roughly the size of an Earth elephant), live for centuries, and possess unfathomable intelligence and, allegedly, awesome psionic powers.
Culture in a nutshell: Despite their insectile nature, hive society, and ancient culture, Kafkas are in many ways remarkably “Human”, and humans often get along with Kafkas better than they do with
many races that are far more similar to them physiologically. Kafkas speak human languages with a
cultured Eastern European accent, and tend to very reserved and polite. Humor is prized and smart
Kafkas often have a dry, sharp wit. Kafka hiveworlds have a very high standard of education and this, combined with the Kafka’s natural talent for technical things, makes them great engineers and scientists.
Humans can’t pronounce Kafka names, so Kafkas that live among humans often adopt a new,
traditionally human names (European names like Fritz, Basil, or Werner are popular, but some Kafkas name themselves after movie stars, historical figures, or even models of ground-car). Kafkas among
themselves typically go nude (except for direct aides to the queens, who sometimes paint or glue gems to their exoskeletons), but Kafkas among humans will sometimes wear a very limited amount of
clothing if it strikes their fancy, or to help humans tell different Kafkas apart. They tend to like bright
colors and garish patterns, and things like particularly loud Hawaiian shirts and jumbo neckties printed
with cartoon characters are popular favorites. While all the Kafkas among humanity are technically
male, it is not unknown for a Kafka to personally identify with female humans, taking a traditionally
female name and speaking human languages in a feminine pitch.
Prerequisites: To play a Kafka, a player must have rolled a Physique and Intelligence of at least 11
each. Kafka are hardy and educated.
Exoskeleton: +1 AC
Four arms: +4 to climbing, grappling, or any other rolls in which the referee judges that multiple
limbs would be advantageous.
Mandibles: Damage 1d6
Ancient Lore (Int): The Kafka are an ancient race, a remnant of a bygone age in which insect civilizations dominated the galaxy. Much has been forgotten -Kafka don’t even know where their original homeworld was- but Kafka still retain much knowledge of lost technologies and cultures that rose and fell when while humans were still in caves. Ancient Lore is an Intelligence-based skill that starts at 16+ and goes down one per level (i.e. 15+ at level 2, 14+ at level 3, etc.).
Educated: Kafka can pick three skills from the following list: Computer (Int), Science (Int), Pilot (Agi), Mechanics (Int), or Robotics (Int). These skills start at 17+ and go down one per level.
Eldora
Hundreds of thousands of years ago, the Eldora ruled the galaxy. Their vast empire built ringworlds, Dyson spheres, fifty-mile wide ziggurat-shaped “Fatherships”, and other godlike works of ultra-advanced engineering, and each and every Eldora lived like a king, served by uncountable billions of slaves. But that was then... the Eldora have been a dying race since before mankind existed, and now all that remains of their empire are a handful of squabbling little pocket kingdoms based around the few
fatherships that still function. Some of these petty kingdoms still regard the entire Milky Way as
Eldora territory, and some still regard enslaving “Lesser” races as their natural right.
Physiology at a glance: Eldora look like tall (190-215cm), very skinny humanoids with chalk-white or grey skin, frosted glass eyes, and long, translucent “Hair” that resembles jellyfish tentacles. The “Hair”
is normally clear or grey, but changes color as the Eldora becomes angry or aroused. Some scholars of
classic Earth art have noted that Eldora bear a strong resemblance to the subject of Pre-Starflight artist
H.R. Geiger’s 1974 painting Li.
Eldora move and speak with a strange and alien grace that one human former slave described as “A
speeded-up holo of a world-class ballerina doing kabuki underwater”. While their external appearance
is somewhat similar to a human’s, their internal anatomy is utterly alien: Eldora have neon-orange blood and their “Heart” is de-centralized into four small organs. Humans and Eldora can and do enjoy sexual relations, but it is not possible to naturally create a Eldora-human hybrid. The average Eldora lives about 500 years.
Culture in a nutshell: Every single Eldora is technically a noble of some sort, and they often demand to be treated as such, much to the annoyance of others. In peace, Eldora often wear black leather or ancient and rotting lace garments. In war, they wear absurdly ornate suits of gold and gem-covered combat armor, some thousands of years old. Eldora love the trappings of nobility: Long formal titles, crowns, scepters, capes, expensive jewelry, etc, and bear them when they can.
Some Eldora kingdoms have come to accept (gradually, over millennia) that their day is long over
and that they no longer control the galaxy. These Eldora remain insufferably arrogant, but are generally open to trade and diplomacy, and pragmatic on political and military matters. Other kingdoms, however, remain culturally trapped in the past, recklessly conducting slave raids against “Lesser” cultures, fighting bloody civil wars amongst themselves, and “Keeping the Orange pure” by practicing incest (a cultural disaster that has only compounded the Eldora’s long crisis of rock-bottom fertility and birth rates).
Prerequisites: To play an Eldora the player must have rolled a Presence and Intelligence of 11+. Eldora are cultured and possess a cold and strange alien beauty.
Duelist: Eldora constantly squabble among themselves, and use ritual duels with ancient weapons to solve disputes. An Eldora gets +1 to hit and damage with any kind of sword. This bonus rises to +2 at level 5.
Alien Beauty: Eldora get +2 to all Presence skill throws and saving throws.
Ancient Lore (INT): As the Kafka skill of the same name.
Decadent: Eldora get a +2 to all saving throws against drugs, alcohol, or poison.
Dilettante: An Eldora may pick any three skills from the main human character classes (except Martial Arts or Weapon Specialist). These skills begin play at 17+ and go down by one a level.
The Vrong (Homo Sapiens Canopus)
During the Neolithic Age, Eldora slavers abducted several thousand humans from what is today
Northern Europe. They subjected those primitive humans to genetic engineering to eliminate minor imperfections (the appendix, nearsightedness, genetic diseases) and make them better killers (slightly
more muscle mass, slightly more testosterone, and reptile genes to allow them to re-grow severed limbs). The Eldora used these human slaves, who they called “Vrong” (after a kind of monkey-like
creature that Eldora used for pit-fight gambling, much as Earthlings once used fighting cocks) as slave-warriors in their televised gladiatorial games and numerous civil wars. When the Eldora’s galactic
empire began to crumble, the Vrong turned on their masters like mad dogs and slaughtered then without
mercy, capturing several backwater worlds and even one Eldora fathership. Today, there is no one Vrong government, but rather several hundred tribes of varying size, some holding planets or huge
space stations, others in rag-tag fleets of captured ships, living as pirates and raiders.
Physiology at a glance: Vrong are humans, and can breed with their Earth cousins, accept blood transfusions from them, eat the same food as them, etc. However, Eldora genetic engineering and
millennia of selective breeding and isolation from the rest of humanity have given them a distinct appearance. Vrong are Caucasians and tend to have long, straight black hair, grey or blue eyes, and a slightly swarthy complexion. One Earth merchant with a passion for classic art once described them as
looking like “The Frazetta Conan”. Blondes are not unknown, and Vrong epics sing of redheads, but
they are apparently very rare. Vrong are extremely tall and muscular in comparison to Earth humans: Heights of up to 213cm are not uncommon, and Vrong naturally possess muscles that Earth humans typically only exhibit with a lifetime of weight training and/or bio-chemical abuse. Vrong have denser
bones than Earth humans, and fewer genetic diseases or birth defects.
Vrong can also regenerate severed limbs and regenerate damaged spinal tissue. The amount of time needed for this depends on the body part (for example, on average, an eye takes about four weeks, and
an arm takes a little more than a month. However, it may take years for the arm to completely recover
it’s old bone density and muscle mass). This regenerative ability also makes it impossible to implant a Vrong with cybernetic devices.
Culture in a nutshell: The Vrong are space barbarians. They have the same basic underlying
psychology as humans from Earth, but their culture is macho, warlike, and, to Earth humans, very alien. Many Vrong consider themselves to be the “Real” human race, and humans from Earth to be a soft and decadent degenerate offshoot. Some Vrong tribes operate at a fairly high level of complex social development and technology, while some smaller tribes are little more than illiterate savages and cannibals. The Vrong’s reputation for conquest has served them well: They can be found working as
mercenaries, cops, bodyguards, gladiators and cheap muscle wherever violence rears it’s ugly head.
Prerequisites: To play a Vrong a player must roll a Physique and Presence of 11+. Vrong are fit and intimidating.
Into Glory Ride! (Agi): This is the same as the Pilot skill, but can also be used for riding beasts like horses, Aracxian stormwasps, Xaraxorian horrordactyls, or Kuskian ash lizards. This skill starts out at
15 +, and goes down by one a level.
Born to Ruins and Dust (Int): Vrong often live on wasteland worlds that no one else wants, usually
arctic worlds. This is the same as the Survival skill, but the Vrong gets a +2 bonus on rolls involving one specific environment chosen at character creation (Pick one of the following: Arctic, desert, jungle,
vacuum, bombed-out ruins, water world, predator world (habitable but infested with very deadly alien animals), or radioactive waste). This skill starts at 15+ and goes down by one a level.
By This Ax I Rule!: Vrong get a +1 to attack and damage with melee attacks. This bonus rises to +2 at
level 5.
Hulking Brute: Vrong get a + 2 bonus to all Physique saves that involve brute strength (arm wrestling,
forcing open a door, lifting something heavy) and +2 to all Presence rolls involving bullying and physical intimidation.
Born With a Gun in My Hand: Vrong have a talent for war’s grim tools. They get a +2 bonus to any
Intelligence saving throws to figure out unfamiliar or even alien weapons or weapons systems. There are only so many ways to build a gun, and a Vrong raider has probably seen them all.
Songs of the Fathers (Pre / Int): Young Vrong are forced to memorize and sing epics about the martial glory of their mighty ancestors. Some of these epics are thousands of years old and detail battles
forgotten by conventional academic history texts. This skill has two uses: First, it can be used as a Presence skill to entertain or impress a crowd. The Vrong sings, recites a poem, or tells a story to a
crowd, then rolls to see if the audience was captivated by the performance. (“The Dust Squid of Klybos III/ Was a whole kilometer long / Yet Ulfgar with his ion lance did stand against it alone!”). It can also be used as an Intelligence skill to recall information about historical battles, monsters, or powerful foes (“Klybos III? I think I remember something in my family epics about an ancestor fighting some kind of giant creature on Klybos III.” ). This skill starts at 16+ and goes down by one a level.
Asurrans
Of all the non-hostile alien races encountered by Earth humans, none are more strange, unfathomable, and, well, alien than the mysterious Asurrans. The Asurrans are not naturally carbon-based animals like humans, Kafka, or Eldora. In fact, they are not even normally physical beings at all.
The Asurrans are immaterial, virtually immortal creatures of pure living energy who exist on a “Higher
frequency of reality” than our physical universe (And no, Earth scientists are still not really sure what that actually means). For 90% of their lives (which last possibly thousands of years) Asurrans are invisible and intangible, living and operating on a completely different level of existence where they are utterly undetectable by any known science. But for a “Brief” period of about six or seven hundred years in their life cycle, a period perhaps similar to human adolescence, the energy form of an Asurran
“coalesces” into a material, living being. It is in this material stage of their life cycle that they explore and interact with our universe. Any communication or interaction with “Adult” Asurrans on their higher frequency is apparently impossible, even for material Asurans.
Most material Asurrans live on the remote world of Asurra, which they have inhabited for hundreds of thousands of years. However, a significant minority live on Blackholds: Ancient, massive space stations that orbit black holes. These Asurran scientist-monks carefully observe and record every fluctuation of the black hole, every minor energy pulse, always on the lookout for... something. Something that they refuse to discuss with any outsiders.
Physiology at a glance: Asurrans look like tall, graceful humanoids with light blue skin and no nose or
hair. Their eyes are normally silver and reflective like a mirror, but when an Asurran uses it’s Higher
Dimensional Perception or Cosmic Awareness class abilities (see below), their eyes turn jet black, and
the strange stars and swirling nebula of unknown galaxies can be seen within them (Many humans find
looking into an Asurran’s eyes to be deeply disturbing, while others find it hypnotic). Asurran blood is
blue and bio-luminescent, giving off a glow (about as bright as a modern-day glow-stick) for up to half an hour after it has been spilled. When an Asurran dies, it’s body slowly dissolves into energy over about an hour, leaving no trace except empty clothing and minor irregularities in background radiation that persist for a few days.
Humans often describe Asurrans as “Hermaphrodites”, but this is not technically true:
While they only have one sex in their material forms, it has been hinted that they have at least three
genders once they mature back into energy beings. Reproduction is a total mystery: No evidence has ever been recorded of an Asurran giving birth in it’s physical form, and most scientists assume that new
Asurrans are somehow created back on their “Higher frequency of reality”. Asurrans have a sex organ
of some kind, which very few humans have seen, but it seems to exist only for social bonding through
mutual pleasure, and not reproduction. To human eyes some Asurrans seem vaguely “Male”, and others vaguely “Female”, but this is not because of any actual difference in sex, just differences in appearance, mannerisms and personality.
Culture in a nutshell: Asurrans are not empire builders or particularly zealous explorers. They are
mostly content to spend their time on this plane gathering knowledge, conducting experiments, and
monitoring black holes. However, when the Dean-Abbots of Asurra’s Scientist-Monks feel that the actions of another culture threaten the stability of the universe, they will use force if necessary to put a
stop to it. At some point in the distant past there was a cataclysmic war between the Asurrans and the
Eldora over an Eldora plan to somehow tap the gravity of black holes as a source of limitless energy, a war that the Eldora lost. Although this war ended six thousand years ago, bitterness still remains between both of these ancient cultures, with Asurran historians referring to the conflict as a “Humanitarian intervention to prevent mass suicide” and Eldora seeing it as an “Attempted genocide by invaders from another dimension”.
Prerequisites: To play an Asurran character a player must roll a 10+ in every ability score. Weak or defective Asurrans don’t survive the grueling transformation from energy to matter.
Alien Mind: An Asurran’s alien mind gives it a +2 to all saving throws vs. any psionic attempt to attack, read, or influence it’s mind. Failed attempts stun the attacker 1d6 rounds.
What is this thing the humans call “Love”?: Asurrans often have difficulty comprehending the trivial and irrational motivations of aliens. In social situations, the referee may require an Asurran to make a -
4 Intelligence saving throw to understand emotional, illogical, or very “Human” things (Sports team
fanaticism, the Three Stooges, line dancing, knock-knock jokes, etc.).
Higher-Dimensional Perceptions: Asurrans can see in the ultra-violet and infra-red spectrums, allowing them to see in the dark. With a successful Intelligence saving throw, an Asurran can detect energy field invisible to humans or hear radio waves (Roll once per day per frequency).
Cosmic Awareness: Asurrans move with the incredible grace that can only come from being one with the solar winds themselves. An Asurran not wearing heavy armor may add his Intelligence modifier to his armor class. An Asurran may use martial arts as if they were a soldier of one level lower (i.e. a 2nd
level Asurran uses Martial arts as a 1st level soldier). Asurran martial arts are graceful and non-lethal,
with many of their attacks appearing to the human eye to be little more than gentle pinches or pokes,
and when an Asurran reduces an NPC enemy to 0 HP with a martial arts attack they are unconscious rather than dead. An Asurran’s player is free to describe such successful Martial Arts attacks as “Neural Pinches”, “Bio-aura disruption strikes” or other colorful terms.
Scientist-Monk: An Asurran begins with three skills from the following list: Computers (Int), Medicine (Int), Science (Int), Sociology (Int) and Ancient Lore (as the Kafka skill). These skill start at 17 + and go down by one per level.
Transcendence: When an Asurran reaches 10th level, it completes it’s long journey into “Maturity” and transforms into pure energy, leaving this plane behind forever.
New Alien Equipment
Agonizer (Eldora): This advanced melee weapon, used by Eldora slavers, looks like a faintly glowing
and humming whip made of a flexible, metallic material. It does 1d3 damage and forces the target to
make a Physique save or be helpless with unbearable pain for 1d6 rounds. Creatures larger than human-sized get a +2 modifier to the save, and very large creatures (i.e. elephant-sized or larger) get a +4 modifier. An agonizer costs 250cr on the black market and is powered by an Eldora energy pod good for 20 attacks (30cr).
Razor Beam Weapons (Eldora): In ages past, the Eldora fielded armies of millions of warrior-slaves
armed with razor weapons, but today in their decadence they have begun to lose the technology and razors are becoming somewhat rare. Razors fire a sickly-green beam of some weird, unknown energy
that slashes and cuts through matter like a great blade, severing limbs and producing horrible woumds. They are not a form of laser, and the beam generates no heat. Razor weapons have long barrels, decorated wooden stocks, and a generally high level of craftsmanship (they are individually built by
slaves, not assembled in factories). Razors are powered by special Eldora energy pods, and their combat statistics are the same as human laser weapons.
Deathshards (Asurrans): An ancient weapon of Asurran Scientist-Monks, these are triangular,
crystalline throwing stars. Also popular with some human martial arts buffs, they do 1d2 damage and
will disarm a foe on an attack roll of a natural “20". They have a range of 5, and authentic Asurran
deathshards cost 250cr for a set of four.
Citizens of the Galaxy: Creating your own alien classes
Now that we have four alien classes as examples, let’s examine the process of creating your own.
BHB: You might have noticed that the three sample alien classes that I provided all use the standard non-soldier BHB, and that while some of them are handy with specific weapons, none of them can gain the full weapon specialist or martial arts abilities. This is deliberate. While some aliens can be great
fighters, and have skills that soldiers do not, or skills in an odd combination that a soldier cannot, none should actually be better fighters than a soldier. Likewise, some aliens may make great scientists, or have science skills in combinations that scientists can’t, but none should be a better at being a scientist than a scientist. A new character class can and should allow players to do cool new things that they
couldn’t do with the old character classes, but it should not make those old classes obsolete. Otherwise you are not adding to the game, just switching out one class for a new one.
Please note that this advice applies only to referees who are trying to keep the character classes in their
games relatively balanced. For some referees, however, this attention to game balance just simply might not be an issue. For example, in a one-shot game, or in a very brief campaign, an extra +2 here or an extra -2 there probably won’t make that big of a difference in the end. Another referee may have designed a campaign setting where it’s part of the background that the members of one race are simply “The greatest killers in the universe” (or scientists, or pilots, or whatever). And still other referees and
groups simply prefer a wilder, more random, and “Gonzo” style of role-playing campaign, where worries about balance and fairness take a distant fourth place behind fun, humor, and free-wheeling
energy. Referees should create alien classes for the game that they will have fun running, and the only “Wrong” way to play is the way that’s not fun.
Prerequisites: This rule for non-human PCs was inspired by Tom Moldvay’s classic 1981 Basic
edition of the original fantasy role-playing game (Perhaps the greatest introductory role-playing game ever designed, it’s a game I frequently go back to for inspiration in matters of simple, clean game
design). Why did I choose to adopt it? Two reasons: First, To keep the game centered on humans and to keep alien PCs slightly less common than human PCs. If your players are rolling straight 3d6 for
abilities, not everyone will qualify to play an alien, and they will have to fall back on good old Homo
Sapiens Terra.
The second reason for the prerequisites was to make sure that every Vrong PC would be strong, every Eldora PC imposing, and every Kafka PC smart without actually giving these races bonuses to their ability scores. With only four ability scores, even a simple +1 to anything is a big deal in X-Plorers, and
a +2 bonus to, for example, a Vrong’s Physique would make them such powerful fighters that they would outshine a human soldier in combat almost every time.
Now, some of my fellow referees may want campaigns that are not humanocentric... something more like Farscape than Star Trek. Fair enough. Others may be uncomfortable with the idea of players not having 100% control over what types of characters they get to play. In either case, just ignore the prerequisites. It’s a rule I adopted to help me get the kind of game that I want to run, and it shouldn’t
straightjacket your campaign if you don’t want it to.
Special abilities and skills: Now here is where things get tricky; you want your alien classes to be cool, competent, and to be able to do neat things that human PCs can’t do. But you don’t want them to
overshadow the human core classes. This involves a lot of delicate give and take. For example, an Eldora can take any three skills at first level, including many combinations that a beginning human character can’t without multi-classing. This reflects the fact that Eldora are long-lived, educated, and come from a society where they have the power and wealth to follow their personal obsessions and whims. The party needs a medic, a pilot, and a demolitions expert? Play an Eldora and be all three! But, with a skill rating of 17 + at first level (about 20% if the character has no ability modifiers, worse than any starting skill for any human class), he will never be as good a medic as a scientist, as good a pilot as a scout, or as good at demolitions as a soldier. But he’ll still be pretty handy to have around, especially in a small party.
One trap to avoid is over-specialization. Try to give your aliens a spread of varied abilities that they can use in many different situations. If an alien class is really awesome at one thing (fighting, science,
piloting, whatever) that’s great when the party is engaging in that particular activity, but it really boring when the party isn’t. Even warrior races do things other than kill people all day. Giving each class a
single culture or knowledge skill, like the Kafka’s Ancient Lore or the Vrong’s Songs of the Fathers, is one way to not only give them a little extra versatility, but also a subtle reminder that these races are complex, ancient cultures and not just a collection of skills and modifiers.
It’s a big universe out there, teeming with life, and part of the referee’s job is to detail and describe that life. Life in so many infinite forms: A race of refugees from a war-torn distant galaxy, defeated and
hungry but proud. Sensual and lethal cat-people. Human-Grey hybrids created by unseen beings for unknown purposes. Rat-like beings who have built a civilization between the cogs and gears within a planet-sized machine of unknowable age. Beings of living metal native to Hyperspace itself. Racist,
sentient plants who sneer with contempt at “Mere animals”. Genetically-engineered super-soldiers who have outlived their ancient creators, living among the shattered ruins of a war fought while men still
lived in caves... and more. Much, much more. Create your own alien classes and fill that universe, making it your own!