"Give them the choice between the racial bonus and their racial trait for both species.

They retain any lowered attributes but have to choose between racial traits and higher attributes"

I like this, but I would also add they take the starting WT, ST, and XP of the race with the lowest of the 2 of the pair. This would stop a Half Human/ Half Wookie from having 110 XP and a brawn of 4 to start with.

I don't know. It's not like there are only 10 species to pick from. I don't really see the need to be a half breed. I usually see this as way to try to min max from the old D20 systems, and like people want to play "gray" Jedi. So they can use the Dark Side, but not suffer the ill effects, because they are "Gray"!

If it is for a pure aesthetics purpose...whatever floats your boat. I want to be a human/Twi'lek so I have shorter head tails, and no one likes me... Um ok...so you are playing yourself, except you have head tails...sorry....just being mean now...

I don't know, I know it's a game, and it's about having fun, but there comes a point where you have to draw a line at the absurd. I mean on Earth we share DNA with everything on the planet, but that doesn't mean we can interbreed. Hell we have DNA that matches Chimps by 99% and we can't interbreed, how close are a Wookiee and Humans DNA? If the SW Galaxy is that old, and Hyperspace has been around for **** near ever, then surely most species would be intermixed by the time of the movies. I guess I'm lucky and I don't have players that want to be the ultra special snow flakes. And I guess I'm just mean...

I don't know, I know it's a game, and it's about having fun, but there comes a point where you have to draw a line at the absurd. I mean on Earth we share DNA with everything on the planet, but that doesn't mean we can interbreed. Hell we have DNA that matches Chimps by 99% and we can't interbreed, how close are a Wookiee and Humans DNA? If the SW Galaxy is that old, and Hyperspace has been around for **** near ever, then surely most species would be intermixed by the time of the movies. I guess I'm lucky and I don't have players that want to be the ultra special snow flakes. And I guess I'm just mean...

We don't question how so many species from so many different worlds find the same foodstuffs digestible or the same atmospheres breathable. In both cases even minute differences should be indigestible or toxic, but we let usually it go. Why not the same for hybrids?

Um, food really doesn't have anything to do with the combining of chromosomes and DNA. That is by far the worst argument I have ever heard for allowing half breeds Happy. I'm sorry, but that is just beyond silly. Why is that we can eat so many of the same foods as so many different animals and yet we can't intermix our DNA???

Again, whatever floats your boat for your games. I'm not saying how anyone should or should not run their games, but from a canon and FFG stand point, most half breeds should not be allowed. I know in the Clone Wars they showed some wierd little Twi'lek kids that looked kind of like half breeds, but it was never actually said if they were or not. They could have been birth defects, battle damage, or just a rare natural mutation, or even just how some of them look, and is completely natural. We don't know. The Clone could not have been the father though.

But to say that because two different species can eat the same food they should be able to have children is...um...out there with Ken Hamm.

I don't know. It's not like there are only 10 species to pick from. I don't really see the need to be a half breed. I usually see this as way to try to min max from the old D20 systems, and like people want to play "gray" Jedi. So they can use the Dark Side, but not suffer the ill effects, because they are "Gray"!

I think you've brought up a very valid point, in that more often than not, the folks that want to play half-breeds do it for the sake of "special snowflake syndrome," so that their character can be even more of a unique snowflake than the other PCs.

3rd edition D&D was rife with half-breeds due to the template system, and like you said was often done to create a character that had significant advantages over the rest of the party, as innate abilities and better ability score modifiers often trumped the loss of one or two class levels.

As for the variety of species available, while I agree there's a lot to choose from, there's also the matter that a number of them are kind of "oddballs" or to borrow a phrase from Maelora, are the "non-pretties; these are the species that you generally wouldn't see in the leading role of a Star Wars film, TV series, or most other media, but rather you'd see them more as supporting cast. It could also depend on what books are available to the group; if all they have are the EotE books, then that cuts into the number of available species quite a bit, especially for those players that prefer the more human-appearing species.

I don't know, I know it's a game, and it's about having fun, but there comes a point where you have to draw a line at the absurd. I mean on Earth we share DNA with everything on the planet, but that doesn't mean we can interbreed. Hell we have DNA that matches Chimps by 99% and we can't interbreed, how close are a Wookiee and Humans DNA? If the SW Galaxy is that old, and Hyperspace has been around for **** near ever, then surely most species would be intermixed by the time of the movies. I guess I'm lucky and I don't have players that want to be the ultra special snow flakes. And I guess I'm just mean...

We don't question how so many species from so many different worlds find the same foodstuffs digestible or the same atmospheres breathable. In both cases even minute differences should be indigestible or toxic, but we let usually it go. Why not the same for hybrids?

I'd say that's more a question of "the science that Star Wars skips" than any indication either way regarding cross-fertility.

Mass Effect touches on it with chirality and other chemical incompatibilities.

I have nothing against hybrids per se, except that it seems very much a Star Trek thing rather than a Star Wars thing. We don't really see a lot of mixed species in the movies; not too sure about the EU. We've vaguely discussed the possibility that the lekku/montral species like twi'leks, togrutans and nautolans probably had a common ancestor in ancient times.

I vaguely recall zabrak and humans were compatible from the Dathomir stories? Which is something that's come up in my game because we have a zabrak PC with a human partner who really wants kids.

(Both are 'pretty, leading-man' species so I might allow it )

I vaguely recall zabrak and humans were compatible from the Dathomir stories? Which is something that's come up in my game because we have a zabrak PC with a human partner who really wants kids.

(Both are 'pretty, leading-man' species so I might allow it )

Yeah, in TCW the Nightsisters (human) and Nightbrothers (Zabraks) routinely interbreed, with female offspring being human-looking (such as Asajj Ventress) while male offspring were Zabraks (Maul, Savage Oppress). So while the two intermixed, at least with them the species didn't display the traits commonly seen in half-breeds as they appear in other sci-fi settings.

I have nothing against hybrids per se, except that it seems very much a Star Trek thing rather than a Star Wars thing. We don't really see a lot of mixed species in the movies; not too sure about the EU. We've vaguely discussed the possibility that the lekku/montral species like twi'leks, togrutans and nautolans probably had a common ancestor in ancient times.

I vaguely recall zabrak and humans were compatible from the Dathomir stories? Which is something that's come up in my game because we have a zabrak PC with a human partner who really wants kids.

(Both are 'pretty, leading-man' species so I might allow it )

It seems to me that this is one of those where the ambiguous nature of technology in Star Wars is more the problem than anything else.

This also goes to TCW's Dathomiir with the males being Zabrak and the females Human. Seems to me that for a society that can breed millions of clone troopers that a little genetic engineering to make a viable half breed would be pretty simple. Maybe so simple it dosent get mentioned at all, any more than we would comment on electric lights or indoor plumbing.

Um, food really doesn't have anything to do with the combining of chromosomes and DNA. That is by far the worst argument I have ever heard for allowing half breeds Happy. I'm sorry, but that is just beyond silly. Why is that we can eat so many of the same foods as so many different animals and yet we can't intermix our DNA???

I think he was making the point that worrying about minutia like my plate of nachos not instantly killing a rodian in space opera is silly, that breeding falls into that category. We have Starfighters maneuvering like WWII planes, flying cities, and laser swords with beams of energy that stop at 3 feet out - so why is a wookiee getting it on with a hutt and having a kid that much more of a stretch.

Um, food really doesn't have anything to do with the combining of chromosomes and DNA. That is by far the worst argument I have ever heard for allowing half breeds Happy. I'm sorry, but that is just beyond silly. Why is that we can eat so many of the same foods as so many different animals and yet we can't intermix our DNA???

I think he was making the point that worrying about minutia like my plate of nachos not instantly killing a rodian in space opera is silly, that breeding falls into that category. We have Starfighters maneuvering like WWII planes, flying cities, and laser swords with beams of energy that stop at 3 feet out - so why is a wookiee getting it on with a hutt and having a kid that much more of a stretch.

You just had to make it weird, didn't you?

Um, food really doesn't have anything to do with the combining of chromosomes and DNA. That is by far the worst argument I have ever heard for allowing half breeds Happy. I'm sorry, but that is just beyond silly. Why is that we can eat so many of the same foods as so many different animals and yet we can't intermix our DNA???

Again, whatever floats your boat for your games. I'm not saying how anyone should or should not run their games, but from a canon and FFG stand point, most half breeds should not be allowed. I know in the Clone Wars they showed some wierd little Twi'lek kids that looked kind of like half breeds, but it was never actually said if they were or not. They could have been birth defects, battle damage, or just a rare natural mutation, or even just how some of them look, and is completely natural. We don't know. The Clone could not have been the father though.

But to say that because two different species can eat the same food they should be able to have children is...um...out there with Ken Hamm.

Digesting food has everything to do with compatible molecules, particularly when dealing with amino acids/proteins. If you can accept that a million worlds still produce the same set of amino acids to allow for universal consumption, then the scope of allowing for cross-fertilization isn't beyond reason.

Ok.

so why is a wookiee getting it on with a hutt and having a kid that much more of a stretch.

Because the other things aren't gross...!

And please don't give FFG ideas for a Huttookie species in the Bounty Hunter book!