Shardikoa

The Shardikoa appear as a race of tailless Humanoid sharks. Bulky in size and brutish in temperament Shardikoa are known by civilizations that have encountered them as having a strong predatory drive and insatiable curiosity. These beings make extensive use of human technology particularly STC Fragments in fact there have been cases of tech-priest be given Shardik machinery immediately mistaking it as the product of human hands.

The Blooded

Shardik culture revolves around the hunt. when a young Shardikoa or pup is about to reach maturity they are sent on their first hunt or "Blooding", armed with only claws, teeth, and adrenal glands the must kill and eat the greatest horrors the galaxy has to offer. Once the hunt is complete the pup must return with the half consumed remains to their tribe-ship. there the pup mark their face with the vital humors of their kill and turn its skin to leather clothing. the Shardikoa have been known hunt and eat sentient races Orks and Kroot in particular.

I plan on having my players go up against these new xenos.

Please comment and I will be adding on over time

WS :65 BS :45 S :65 T :53 A :45 INT :45 PER :45 WP :40 FEL : 35

MOVE : 4/8/12/24

WOUNDS : 45

SKILLS : Acrobatics (Ag) +10, Awareness (Per) +10, Climb (S), Common Lore: Koronous Expanse (Int), Concealment (Ag), Dodge (Ag), Forbidden Lore: Xenos (Int), Intimidate (S), Navigation: Surface, Stellar (Int), Pilot (Spacecraft) (Ag) +10, Scholastic Lore: Astromancy, Beast (Int), Scrutiny (Per), Search (Per) +10, Speak Language: Shardik, Low Gothic (Int), Shadowing (Agility) +10, Silent Move (Ag) +10, Survival (Int) +20, Swim (S) +20, Tech-Use (Int), Tracking (Int) +10, Trade: Explorator, Voidfarer (Int).

Talents : Ambidextrous, Armour of Contempt, Autosanguine, Basic Weapon Training (Universal), Battle Rage, Blind fighting, Combat Master, Crushing blow, Decadence, Hard Target, Heightened Senses (Smell, Hearing), Hip Shooting, Iron Jaw, Light Sleeper, Marksman, Melee Weapon Training (Universal), Nerves of Steel, Orthopraxy, Pistol Weapon Training (Universal), Rapid Reaction, Resistance (Heat, Cold, and Fear), Swift Attack, True Grit .

TRAITS: Adrenal Overload*, Apex, Amphibious, Dark-Sight, Immune (to Blood Loss, poisons, Most Toxic Weapons/Attacks), Improved Natural Weapons (Teeth and Claws), Natural Armour (4) Unnatural Senses (60m Range).

ARMOUR : Flak-Boosted Leather Armour ( AP:4 Head, Rest AP:5).

WEAPONS : Claws/Bite (1d10+6 R, Pen:4 Tearing, Razor Sharp).

Hunting Bolter (90m; S/3/-; 1d10+8 X ; Pen:5; Clip:12 ; Rld: Full; Tearing, Accurate, Reliable).

Laspistol (30m; S/-/-; 1d10+2 E; pen 0; Clip 30; Reliable; Reload full

GEAR : 3 reloads for Hunting Bolter, Butchering Kit, Survival Suit, hand Vox, Medical-Survival Kit, Clip Harness, Void-Suit, Bolter Maintenance Kit.

*when a Shardikoa injures, kills, or is injured by a creature of any kind it gains the following talent and trait: Frenzy; From Beyond; Unnatural Strength(x2).

Commonly encountered in hunting packs of 2-5.

Is this an Average Shardikoa or "Boss" one? I do like your concept though, just not sure how tough your PC's are. If your PC's have trouble fighting Rak'Gol's, then they might have some difficulty fighting these guys, who appear better equipped and allot more skilled. Nothing wrong with that if you only meet them in groups of 2-5, and not a whole ship full of them like the Rak'Gol come in.

Let's summarize - their natural weapons can shear through power armour, they wear leather armour that's better than carapace, they have massively improved bolters, unexplained immunities, automatically penetrate stealth, and are much smarter, stronger, faster, tougher and more personable than humans.

I surmise that you're having problems challenging your players. Now, I'm more than willing to let you do whatever you want, but unless you want criticism for making your own race the mary sues of the univserse, I'd consider reserving this statline for elite hunter types, rather than ordinary, run of the mill street sharks. It's a little weak for a true boss, unless your players are still low ranked, but it should make for a healthy (but not too difficult) challenge from Rank 3 and onwards, especially with a bit of support.

What I'm curious about is the fluff for these guys. How do they travel the galaxy in groups of 2-5, in the first place? Why do they have Autosanguine instead of just Hardy? Orthoproxy? Do they make heavy use of implants? A little more background info would be nice.

Let's summarize - their natural weapons can shear through power armour, they wear leather armour that's better than carapace, they have massively improved bolters, unexplained immunities, automatically penetrate stealth, and are much smarter, stronger, faster, tougher and more personable than humans.

They can also take a max damage (though non-Righteous) Maximal Plasma Cannon to the face and survive.

Is this an Average Shardikoa or "Boss" one? I do like your concept though, just not sure how tough your PC's are. If your PC's have trouble fighting Rak'Gol's, then they might have some difficulty fighting these guys, who appear better equipped and allot more skilled. Nothing wrong with that if you only meet them in groups of 2-5, and not a whole ship full of them like the Rak'Gol come in.

Vor :These are adult Shardikoa in their prime and besides it's no fun when the Tribe-ship comes spoils the hunt.

So the reason they don't rule the galaxy is because they don't feel like it?

^{I will be conducting an interview the Shardikoa named Vor shortly.}

So the reason they don't rule the galaxy is because they don't feel like it?

There are only 10,000 total Entire Galaxy.

Any problem that can be solved with sex is the opposite of a problem.

Any problem that can be solved with sex is the opposite of a problem.

it takes 40 years for a Shardikoa pup to reach adulthood

And that's still faster than the time it takes for people on the internet to identify a joke!

Seriously, though, you're obviously not interested in critique, or explaining yourself properly. It's your game, so you are allowed to do whatever you want, but I'm pretty sure by now I've spoken my piece.

And that's still faster than the time it takes for people on the internet to identify a joke!

Seriously, though, you're obviously not interested in critique, or explaining yourself properly. It's your game, so you are allowed to do whatever you want, but I'm pretty sure by now I've spoken my piece.

Look I have a mental illness and busy schedule making it hard for me to think, type, and write so I am actually interested in critique I am just having trouble right now and will explain myself properly but it will take me so Please be Patient.

here is some more info

The Blooded

Shardik culture revolves around the hunt. when a young Shardikoa or pup is about to reach maturity they are sent on their first hunt or "Blooding", armed with only claws, teeth, and adrenal glands the must kill and eat the greatest horrors the galaxy has to offer. Once the hunt is complete the pup must return with the half consumed remains to their tribe-ship. there the pup mark their face with the vital humors of their kill and turn its skin to leather clothing. the Shardikoa have been known hunt and eat sentient races Orks and Kroot in particular. These creatures society is organized in tribes with each living in its own starship.

Shardik Anatomy

Shardikoa anatomy contains a secondary nervous system that acts like a natural Orthoproxy and processes information from the lateral line. there lymphatic system produces what Shardikoa call "Mu'Kon" or monocyte attached stem cells that are bolstered with nanotech while the chest cavity contains backups of vital organs such as the heart, lungs, spleen, and liver. The Shardikoa homeworld contains high concentrations of various poisons requiring all life on the planet to have a strong toxin neutralization system with the earlier mentioned nanomachinery taking that a step further.

Ehhhhhhh.

How'd they make the jump from tribal predators to star-faring race? Yautja were uplifted, Kroot bootstrapped themselves with Ork tech, Rak'Gol apparently managed to get into the stars with sheer power of hatred, but with such a low population, the Shardikoan technical base doesn't make sense. How do the street sharks get around? Presumably there's, what? Less than a couple hundred ship-tribes kicking around at most? Are they FTL-capable, or are they a localised threat?

Slow breeding (presumably), slow maturation, superior biology (apex predator) and a hell hole for a planet.

These to me seem like a ingredients for a race that wouldn’t have much in the way of technology. They just don’t seem to have any of the drivers for technological development.

Sure it is possible but something about them just seems off to me.

What if they either used to be a bigger, more technologically advanced power (like humanity or the Eldar) but now they’re in decline and while they managed to alter their biology to survive the hell hole their planet has become they’re no longer able to do things like that?

Or they could be similar to the Orks and be the warrior race for a more advanced but potentially less physically able species. That would explain the small packs, the overlords don’t really want them gathering in large numbers to overthrow them.

Aliens in 40K (and most other pop culture sources) are defined by specific strengths and weaknesses. Eldar are incredibly graceful, but not very hardy, for example, while Orks are the opposite. 'Shark-Ogres' should lend themselves to translation into 40K adversaries, but your stats/skills/etc in the first post don't really depict any consistent theme- they are just all strengths, no weaknesses. The shark theme quickly gets lost in the way you layer advantage on top of advantage (Acrobatics? Hip Shooting? Resistance: Heat?) with no apparent rhyme or reason.

I don't mean to sound too harsh- I've been really surprised by how few WH40KRP GMs make up new aliens (if these Forums are an accurate reflection), and I don't want to discourage anyone from trying it. My advice is to take a step back, and think about what specific attributes most accurately reflect humanoid sharks, rather than just what ones are the toughest and coolest. A slow movement rate on land would be appropriate, for instance- possibly offset by a special ability to leap considerable distances. Stuff like that, which make it clear that your players are facing shark-men, rather than just mega-powered aliens who happen to resemble sharks.

here is a snippet backstory

History

From "Tome of The Blooded Predator" as read by Chieftain Kolech: In the ages old there was only the Shardikova that roamed the great swamps, the sky bound marshes, and seven waterless seas. The Shardikova were apex hunters without a mind, pure in form but without so much as a soul let alone a brain to contain one, then the Sky-Clad came. The Sky-Clad held within each of them the mind of the greatest hunter but it was imprisoned in a body rife with fragility and soft flesh that sprouted tendrils on their heads called "hair", blood so thin that the merest cut was fatal, and body so sensitive that one drop of liquid from the waterless seas was enough to slay hundreds of them. on the rising of the second moon they came the Sky-Clads mighty voidship fell from the sky like a reaper diving to seize its prey. When the Sky-Clad first laid eyes on the Shardik they saw the truth and so began The Great Meiosis, the Blending of Shardikova and Sky-Clad blood. the glorious merging of two divine predators into one… The Shardikoa …us…

Here is another

Shardikoa type more commonly encountered

Shardikoa Tracker

WS :45 BS :25 S :55 T :43 A :35 INT :35 PER :35 WP :40 FEL : 25

MOVE : 3/6/9/12

WOUNDS : 25

SKILLS : Awareness (Per) +10, Climb (S), Common Lore: Koronous Expanse (Int), Concealment (Ag), Navigation: Surface, Stellar (Int), Pilot (Spacecraft) (Ag) +10, Scholastic Lore: Astromancy, Beast (Int), Scrutiny (Per), Search (Per) +10, Speak Language: Shardik, Low Gothic (Int), Shadowing (Agility), Silent Move (Ag), Survival (Int) +20, Swim (S) +20, Tech-Use (Int), Tracking (Int) +10, Trade: Explorator, Voidfarer (Int).

Talents : Ambidextrous, Armour of Contempt, Autosanguine, Basic Weapon Training (Universal), Battle Rage, Combat Master, Crushing blow, Decadence, Die Hard, Hard Target, Heightened Senses (Smell, Hearing), Iron Jaw, Light Sleeper, Melee Weapon Training (Universal), Nerves of Steel, Orthoproxy, Pistol Weapon Training (Universal), Rapid Reaction, Resistance (Heat, Cold, Poison, and Fear), Swift Attack, True Grit .

TRAITS: Adrenal Overload*, Apex, Amphibious, Dark-Sight, Improved Natural Weapons (Teeth and Claws), Natural Armour (4) Unnatural Senses (60m Range).

ARMOUR : Flak-Boosted Leather Armour ( AP:4 Head, Rest AP:6).

WEAPONS : Claws/Bite (1d10+5 R, Pen:4 Tearing, Razor Sharp).

Hunting Bolter (90m; S/3/-; 1d10+8 X ; Pen:5; Clip:12 ; Rld: Full; Tearing, Accurate,).

GEAR : Butchering Kit, 3 reloads for Hunting Bolter, Survival Suit, hand Vox, Medical-Survival Kit, Clip Harness, Void-Suit, Bolter Maintenance Kit.

I like the new one. It's more believable. Though that is an excessive amount of Skills and Talents for a "Tracker." Taking off the Nav: Stellar, Pilot (Space), and Trade skills would make it seems less.... jack of all trades. And Talents, yea, maybe like 4-5 less. For example, why does he have Light Sleeper? I mean, you can still could make more Shardikoa's who are the Void Pilots, and give them different stats and skills.

Anyhoot, if you have them ubered up with technologically advanced nanobytes, then I guess you could hand-wave a bunch of that stuff. Best of luck to you and your players.

any comments on the backstory?

At least they don't have dodge...

In general they are hugely overpowered and several traits simply do not fit the shark theme.
- Drop Unnatural Senses (Hearing) smell is obvious though
- For the tracker, drop most tech skills (Pilot Space Craft, Tech Use, Nav Stellar), Pilot Flyer would come to mind if you want te mirror Predator
- Drop Resistance (Heat)
- Add Frenzy, drop Battle Rage for the lesser specimens
- Drop the heavy armour, instead give them 2 AP tribal leathers
- Specify Unnatrual Senses to Smell only, or scent related
- Drop Razor Sharp from the Bite, Tearing however is very fitting
- Drop Trade Explorator

These changes would make them more balanced and less over the top.
For flavour you might want to give them a slight Samoan, Fiji, Maori style including the tattoos and culture.

S.

So are the Shardikoa more like mercenaries? Kinda like the Slythe and Kroot? Are they searching for something, like the Rak'Gol? Are they trying to survive, like the Eldar? Or are they just colonizing and expanding, like the IoM?

I noticed you mentioned a "tribe ship," but are they allied with anyone else since there are only 10,000? Like maybe a lesser/weaker Xeno? Maybe a submissive one. Or maybe it's the race that controls them from the shadows, and uses them as Commandoes/Foot soldiers. Is their relationship mutually beneficial, or exclusively one sided? Maybe there is resentment hidden.

Yea, I know, a lot of questions, but it adds more depth to your race. Other than that, I like your History.

Though I would recommended you include some of the above advice given by various posters. Adeptus-B put it in words what Magellan and us were saying. They shouldn't be all around bad a******, and should have some flaws. Maybe the nanobytes cause them to have less offspring, less emotions, insanity after awhile, get tired faster, have to eat allot, are more susceptible to coercion, etc etc. Maybe the first Shardikoa you put above is the Lieutenant / Nob in their society?

You're on the right track though. This is making me want to post the few Xeno races I've created. I think most of them are in my link below, now that I think about it..... Nope. Huh odd.... I wonder where they wondered off to.

They do in fact have two weaknesses

1. they need to eat large quantities meat or starve to death.

2. they are extremely slow breeders.

Oh and please post your home-brew xenos here

Those are narrative weaknesses, not mechanical ones. If you included something like "An adult Shardikoa must consume at least 20 kilograms of fresh meat every 12 hours to maintain their overcharged metabolic system. Failure to do so causes them to gain x amounts of Fatigue and/or lose x, y and z traits." then you'd have an actual weakness.

Having a look at sharks in general perhaps it is possible to come up with a few mechanical weeknesses to balance the race a little.

So if unnatural senses is the extension of a shark's electrical field sensitivity perhaps the shadikoa can gain a vulnerability to electricity. - Any attack with the shocking quality ignores their natural armour.

Adrenal overload seems like it is based on a shark's feeding frenzy so perhaps if a shadikoa takes or inflicts damage it then has to make a challenging willpower roll. If it succeeds then it acts normally if it fails then it gets all the benefits of adrenal overload but it cannot make attacks with anything other than it's bite (potentially challenging in ranged situations)

Errant's suggestion about making rules around the consumption of meat seems like it makes sense and fits.

As for the slow breeding if you're looking to convert that into a mechanical weakness rather than a narrative weakness perhaps give the shardikoa a breeding pouch where unhatched eggs are stored. Given how long it takes the shardikoa to breed it would mean that recovering their dead would be of vital importance. Perhaps transferring eggs from one pouch to another could be a routine medicae test. Not difficult but if it must be performed within a few moments of a shardikoa being killed it gives a reason for them to travel in packs and it means that taking one out of the fight puts another one out of the fight for the time it takes to transfer the eggs.