Ubese in Any of the Books?

By Farseerixirvost, in Star Wars: Edge of the Empire RPG

Sometimes I wish there was One Single Star Wars RPG Forum "to rule them all" as this is non-specific sub-system product related.

Has the Ubese species been featured (as a playable PC species) in any of the expansion books? I have all 3 core books, just not many of the others (and none for AoR and FandD).

Thanks in advance.

Nope. Some home brewed examples, but nothing official yet.

Aren't they just human?

Ubese is a near human species as I remember it ... but then there were two different kinds, so I may be confused.

I wouldn't be surprised if they appear in the Bounty Hunter career book, but I'm not counting on it.

The Ubese might be considered "near human", but if they're literally a human offshoot, it goes WAY, WAY back.

There's conflicting artwork, one showing an Ubese individual out of armor with an appearance that looks entirely human, with dark skin, another showing them as chalky-skinned with not-quite human facial features.

My preference has always been the less-human-looking artwork, which also matches the physical description.

Edited by MaxKilljoy

They'll most definitely gonna crop up in the Bounty Hunter's source book. Leia's Ubese disguise as Boushh is just too iconic too pass over.

well there kind of canon* so we will more then likely see them at some point.

*theirs not much canon info on them besides Leia pretending to be Boushh

Thanks for the confirmation. Yes, I had found their homebrew stats in the species menagerie. But wanted to see if there was anything official before using it. So I guess I'll use that for now.

wookiepedia has some decent background info on them too, particularly in regards to physical differences with humans.

Are there really enough differences between humans and Ubese to really *need* a full write-up? With the Human's 110 xp and bonus cross-class skills, you can pretty well mimic almost anything a near-human 'should' be to within a very reasonable margin.

Would you consider the differences purely narrative / RP material?

Would you consider the differences purely narrative / RP material?

If this is directed at me, then yes, based on what I understand about the species/strain/race, I would just treat the differences as narrative fluff and writing "near-human (Ubese)" in the Species field of the character sheet.

I was earnest, though, in my question above: Are there sufficient differences that exist between Humans and the near-Human Ubese that would mechanically *require* alterations to be made?

I may not be familiar enough to judge one way or the other. IMO there's too much emphasis placed on changing stats when in reality players will (in my experience) almost always buy up that low stat to a 2, and near humans really just should be like humans with 2s across the board, and the mechanical differences start to disappear rapidly. But I also feel that if you're dipping into Legends stuff, or anything based on Legends stuff, you're basically in the realm of houserules anyway, so just go for it.

They have trouble speaking above a rasping low voice and require their mask to be heard in many situations; many require their mask to breathe in normal atmospheres (likely do to hyperoxia); and they can't pass for human in any way beyond cursory due to their chalky skin and distinct facial structure.

To be clear, this post is not in anyway a disagreement, only counter-points to explain my opinion on the matter.

They have trouble speaking above a rasping low voice and require their mask to be heard in many situations; many require their mask to breathe in normal atmospheres (likely do to hyperoxia); and they can't pass for human in any way beyond cursory due to their chalky skin and distinct facial structure.

In my games, the situations where they would be without their masks would be so uncommon as to not require XP adjustments at character creation (If you look at the stat block for Kel Dor in F&D, I think you'll find the 'correction' for their atmospheric requirement is basically a wash, 0 XP). I'd assign a few Setback dice as appropriate in the rare cases where they found themselves without their mask, for RP/fluff reasons.
As for them 'obviously not being human', I don't see how that matters. I don't think any non-human races get an XP penalty or bonus for being obviously not human, so there's no need to apply that to this species.
Obviously, YMMV, that's just my point of view on the matter, expressed to answer the question directly posed above.
Additionally, the whole 'relative hyperoxic environment' stuff is from Legends, the EU that's been torn down and scorched. If you want to use that information, cool, do whatever you want, but IMO that stuff is already out of canon, so you make up whatever rules you want for it. At that point, it just doesn't matter to me, because it not canon. Again, this is just my view, I have no problem with everyone else doing whatever they want at their tables, just don't tell me what I have to do at mine.
Edited by LethalDose

I guess I'd say that if you don't use the Legends info on the Ubese, you really don't have much to go on other than "this one Ubese bounty hunter had their ID stolen by a princess".

I guess I'd say that if you don't use the Legends info on the Ubese, you really don't have much to go on other than "this one Ubese bounty hunter had their ID stolen by a princess".

And if you *do* use the Legends info, you're outside of canon where there can be all kinds of contradictions, and the Ubese are a good example, with the "true" Ubese and "false" Ubese being from different used-to-be-canonical sources. When you're out of canon, you're solidly in house-rule territory, so do whatever you want.

I just gave one example of how I'd handle it based on what I understand about the species. Since there's practically no canonical information about them as you pointed out, I see very little reason to bend over backwards, or do ANYTHING complex to stat them out. Just make them humans with some fluff about the mask.

I guess I'd say that if you don't use the Legends info on the Ubese, you really don't have much to go on other than "this one Ubese bounty hunter had their ID stolen by a princess".

And if you *do* use the Legends info, you're outside of canon where there can be all kinds of contradictions, and the Ubese are a good example, with the "true" Ubese and "false" Ubese being from different used-to-be-canonical sources. When you're out of canon, you're solidly in house-rule territory, so do whatever you want.

I just gave one example of how I'd handle it based on what I understand about the species. Since there's practically no canonical information about them as you pointed out, I see very little reason to bend over backwards, or do ANYTHING complex to stat them out. Just make them humans with some fluff about the mask.

I tend to take this attitude towards Legends -- if I decide that something is worth including, then I'm going to be reasonably true to the existing material... unless I see a reason to change something, For exampled, if a player wanted to play a Legends-based species, then what motivated them to play it is likely what they saw in Legends material. They're not looking to play Killjoy's very different take on that species.

Consider it "innocent until proven guilty of needing rework". ;)

On the flip side, I never feel 100% bound by Canon, either. (Han shot first.)

Edited by MaxKilljoy
On 1/25/2016 at 3:06 PM, Farseerixirvost said:

wookiepedia

*Wookieepedia

And if you're here, 2P51, feel free to do that necromancy gif.