So I recently recruited for an Imperial game inspired by the old Tie Fighter series, where duty will be tracked individually to see when each player is allowed to fly better craft. My recruitment thread said "human unless you can come up with a good reason." (It's an imperial game, duh)

One of my players contacted me, saying he wanted to be the downtrodden minority- An alien (Trandoshan or Shistivastan) who has to deal with humanocentric xenophobia.

While I'm fine with the concept, I've go a speific mechanical reresentation of how much your superiors are willing to promote you. (Duty/Contribution rank)

What would be a good way to represent the ongoing xenophobia on an alien's Duty score?

Double, due to high mistrust.

If you have Edge of the Empire, I'd be inclined to make being alien a special Obligation of maybe 5 points (10 if you want it to be a bigger deal) and subtract the Obligation value from effective Duty. It's a little more complex but allows "alienness" a chance to have a more direct impact on the gameplay - if the Obligation triggers it could make an enemy of an officer NPC or something.

Double, due to high mistrust.

That, or he gets only half of the Duty reward that his comrades do. Maybe even gets penalties to what he can get with an increase in Contribution.

I'm actually leaning more toward a nonsensial Duty trigger, than an overt penalty. As a starfighter game, most of my crew are Space Superiority duty, getting them 5 duty per, say, a kill. Those who dont have Space superiority would only get 3 duty from that same kill.

Don't punish a character mechanically for a roleplay choice. Just have the world react to him as they should, but keep his Duty in-line with the others. The player knows that his character is going to be treated as second class, but he/she will still be a contributing player to the team, no need to have him and the team suffer like that.

Don't punish a character mechanically for a roleplay choice. Just have the world react to him as they should, but keep his Duty in-line with the others. The player knows that his character is going to be treated as second class, but he/she will still be a contributing player to the team, no need to have him and the team suffer like that.

Woud a secnd class citizen be allowed to fly an Intercepter (or a Defender) as early as a good upstanding human without a **** good reason? Becaause I would consider that part of "the world reactiong to him as it should."

If they're open to suggestions about which specific alien to play, maybe suggest one of the more humanoid, like Chiss, Falleen, or even Duros or Twi'lek? Then it would be close enough to human where the system would grudgingly let them fly but alien enough for lots of "the blue-skin freak" types of comments? That might allow for an unaltered Duty mechanic while still letting them experience Imperial xenophobia

The fluff for the Chiss entry even says they're a good choice to players looking for an alien that's close enough to human to get by, or act as a face for all-alien parties.

Don't punish a character mechanically for a roleplay choice. Just have the world react to him as they should, but keep his Duty in-line with the others. The player knows that his character is going to be treated as second class, but he/she will still be a contributing player to the team, no need to have him and the team suffer like that.

Woud a secnd class citizen be allowed to fly an Intercepter (or a Defender) as early as a good upstanding human without a **** good reason? Becaause I would consider that part of "the world reactiong to him as it should."

Role play and don't mechanically penalize him is what was meant there. I can see both of you POV on this, but having been in the military, i have seen foreigners have to work their butts off due to language barriers and a little mistrust due to them not being citizens on what hey were allowed to do. One person was a Supply Troop and he didn't have as high a security clearance as all the other Supply Troops so could not order or control any nonstandard parts, this kinda hurt him on his performance reports which in turn slowed him down on promotions, but it caused him to study for his promotion tests harder, it was game on and he excelled and promoted at almost the same rate as his peers.

If you look at the scenario I just gave, the guy was hindered at doing his job mechanically and it hurt his performance reports (duty), but his experiences made him that much better at his job (XP). So with that being said, Give him a little less with a Duty reward, but for good RP a little more XP, and there you go, a balanced alternative.

The Transdosan should get 23% less experience that their fellows.

The Transdosan should get 23% less experience that their fellows.

HUH? Explain please instead of just throwing that out there.

You could always give him an obligation that would trigger once in a while, resulting in a strain penalty for him and the humans who are willingly associating with him. That way he's not slowed down in duty, but it is still thematically present. Something like Notoriety or Bad Reputation might cover an alien in service to the Empire.

I think it might seem colder from an RP stand point where as his Duty increases as normal, he's awarded better ships, but no accolades or promotions. "Here, use this. You are a tool for the Empire, nothing more. We are gracious enough to allow you to fight and die among your genetic betters -- is that not enough?"

Yeah, cold shoulder from NPCs, picking some kind of Obligation based around it, should get the point across without punishing the player/group mechanically.

Having a lone exception (he's like their pet Trandoshan) is fine, or if the whole group wanted to play aliens, they could be like Suicide Squad. Trusted with better gear and missions, but not respected.

You could always give him an obligation that would trigger once in a while, resulting in a strain penalty for him and the humans who are willingly associating with him. That way he's not slowed down in duty, but it is still thematically present. Something like Notoriety or Bad Reputation might cover an alien in service to the Empire.

I really like the idea of Bad Rep Obligation. It seems to fit great! Take the crap missions to reduce the Obligation, and out-shining the humans increases it.

Keen idea, JRRP!

-EF

JRRP and Juriel's suggestion are great. That seems fair and addresses the unique position the alien would be in without screwing the player over for making an interesting character to RP.

Don't punish a character mechanically for a roleplay choice. Just have the world react to him as they should, but keep his Duty in-line with the others. The player knows that his character is going to be treated as second class, but he/she will still be a contributing player to the team, no need to have him and the team suffer like that.

Woud a secnd class citizen be allowed to fly an Intercepter (or a Defender) as early as a good upstanding human without a **** good reason? Becaause I would consider that part of "the world reactiong to him as it should."

Being a second class Citizen doesn't mean you have no skill that the empire cannot use. Thrawn was a second class Citizen but was probably the most powerfull person after Vader and maybe Tarkin in the imperial navy.

Also, in the roman empire, a lot of teachers were slave scholars. Sure, they didnt have any rights but that haven't stop rich citizens to entrust them the education of their children.

The Transdosan should get 23% less experience that their fellows.

HUH? Explain please instead of just throwing that out there.

Ugh, no more late night posting. It was supposed to be25% Duty since while the Empire might have aliens in the ranks, they are not as well thought of.

Also the autocorrect on this phone was programmed by skynet.