Hello all! I am working on converting FFGs Star Wars RPG into a Mass Effect RPG. Please let me know what you think of the races I just finished! Note: Races are more based off of written descriptions from the novels, comics, in game codex, and wikipedia instead of how they behaved in game. A

Starting XP Math: Base is 110

attribute down 1 is +10

attribute up 1 is -10

Attribute up 2 is -50

Add up Starting Talents, Skills, and Abilities and then minus setback. +10xp for every point below 2, -10xp for every point above 2

Wounds+Strain = 20

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Asari

Brawn: 2

Agility: 3

Intellect: 2

Cunning: 2

Willpower: 2

Presence: 2

Wound Threshold: 9 + Brawn

Strain Threshold: 11 + Willpower

Starting Experience: 80.

Starting Talents:

Start the game with the Natural Charmer talent.

Special Abilities:

Natural Biotic: Asari start the game with a Biotic Rating of 1 and may purchase Biotic Powers.

Embrace Eternity: When you mind meld with any species, you and your target each gain a temporary +1 boost die to all skill checks for 24 hours. You and your target may not gain this benefit more than once per day, though you may meld with multiple targets to grant them the benefit. A mind meld takes roughly 10 minutes to complete and gives both you and your target access to each other’s memories, emotions, and feelings.

Optional:

Variant: Ardat-Yakshi – If you mind meld with any species, they must make a Daunting Resilience (Willpower) check. Upon failure, the target die. On a success, they suffer strain equal to their Strain Threshold. This strain damage cannot be negated. You gain a permanent +1 rank to a skill that your target had. Ardat-Yakshi are permanently sterile and cannot have children. Finally, Ardat-Yakshi characters are outcasts from Asari society and are actively hunted down by Justicars and either given the chance to retire to a monastery or are executed. Reduce starting Experience by 10.

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Batarian

Brawn: 2

Agility: 2

Intellect: 2

Cunning: 2

Willpower: 2

Presence: 2

Wound Threshold: 10 + Brawn

Strain Threshold: 10 + Willpower

Starting Experience: 90

Starting Talents:

Start the game with one rank in the Intimidating and Natural Rogue talents.

Starting Skills:

Batarians count Perception as a Career Skill and start with and gain 1 rank in it. Additionally, they gain one rank in Coercion. They still may not train these skills above rank 2 at character creation.

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Drell

Brawn: 3

Agility: 2

Intellect: 2

Cunning: 2

Willpower: 2

Presence: 2

Wound Threshold: 10 + Brawn

Strain Threshold: 10 + Willpower

Starting Experience: 80.

Special Ability

Starting Talents:

Start the game with the Natural Hunter talent.

Starting Skills:

Start the game with one rank in the Stealth skill. They still may not train this skill above rank 2 at character creation.

Special Abilities:

Eidetic Memory (also counts as a Setback): Drell can recall memories in perfect detail in response to certain external stimulus. When a Drell uses this ability, they cannot interact with the world around them and are instead locked inside their own head, even their senses are overwhelmed by the vision. This effect lasts 10 minutes, and when completed, automatically allows the Drell to remember everything that happened in the memory down to the smallest detail. The GM may also trigger Eidetic Memory sequences when touching certain objects.

Venomous Skin: Drell skin excretes a venom that may be used to poison targets. When a target ingests the venom, they must make a Hard Resilience (Brawn) check. If they fail, they begin to hallucinate for an hour.

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Elcor

Brawn: 4

Agility: 1

Intellect: 2

Cunning: 1

Willpower: 2

Presence: 1

Wound Threshold: 12 + Brawn

Strain Threshold: 8 + Willpower

Starting Experience: 90.

Starting Talents:

Start the game with one rank of the Durable talent and the Heightened Awareness talent.

Starting Skills:

Start the game with one rank in the Resilience skill. They still may not train this skill above rank 2 at character creation.

Special Abilities:

Beast of Burden: Elcor ignore all penalties from high gravity environments as well as all Cumbersome penalties.

Setbacks:

Monotone Speech: Elcor cannot put any emotion into vocals and therefore suffer a setback die on all Charm and Deception checks. However, this penalty is negated when dealing with other Elcor.

Extra Large: All equipment must be specially constructed for Elcor. Increase the price of armor by half of its listed cost. (Example armor costing 300 would cost 450)

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Hanar

Brawn: 1

Agility: 2

Intellect: 2

Cunning: 1

Willpower: 4

Presence: 1

Wound Threshold: 8 + Brawn

Strain Threshold: 12 + Willpower

Starting Experience: 90.

Special Abilities:

Floating: Hanar begin the game with a contra-gravitic levitation pack. They ignore all difficult terrain penalties while they have this pack, or are in water.

Jellyfish: They may breathe normally in water. Hanar are also immune to knockdown, and any character that has any exposed skin that attempts to grapple a Hanar suffers 4 strain per round from the natural toxins on Hanar.

Setback

Unique Physiology: All equipment must be specially constructed for Hanar. Increase the price of any equipment, weapons, or armor by half of its listed cost. (Example armor costing 300 would cost 450)

Invertebrate: When not in water, Hanar must have a contra-gravitic levitation pack to move. If the device is disabled, Hanar may not perform any actions and fall prone.

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Human

Brawn: 2

Agility: 2

Intellect: 2

Cunning: 2

Willpower: 2

Presence: 2

Wound Threshold: 10 + Brawn

Strain Threshold: 10 + Willpower

Starting Experience: 110.

Starting Skills:

Start the game with one rank in two different non-career skills of their choice. They still may not train these skills above rank 2 at character creation.

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Krogan

Brawn: 3

Agility: 2

Intellect: 1

Cunning: 2

Willpower: 2

Presence: 2

Wound Threshold: 12 + Brawn

Strain Threshold: 8 + Willpower

Starting Experience: 80.

Starting Talents:

Start the game with the Durable, Natural Brawler and Natural Outdoorsman talents.

Special Abilities:

Blood Rage: When a Krogan has suffered any wounds, they deal +1 damage with melee and brawl attacks. When a critical injury is suffered, the amount is increased to +2

Optional:

Variant: Battle Master - Start the game with a Biotic Rating of 1 and may purchase Biotic Powers. Reduce Starting Experience by 10.

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Quarian

Brawn: 2

Agility: 2

Intellect: 3

Cunning: 2

Willpower: 2

Presence: 1

Wound Threshold: 8 + Brawn

Strain Threshold: 10 + Willpower

Starting Experience: 100.

Starting Talents:

Start the game with the Natural Pilot talent. Additionally, start the game with either the Natural Programmer or Natural Tinkerer talent.

Starting Skills:

Quarians may pick one skill to be counted as a Career skill and gain 1 rank in it. They still may not train this skill above rank 2 at character creation.

Special Abilities:

Enviromental Suits: Quarians begin the game with a sealed skin tight environmental suit with helmets. They protect against the Compromised Immune System rule below. The suits have 4 hardpoints, a defense of 0 and a Soak of 1 that stacks with other sources. They do not have Kinetic Barriers. Armor and clothing may be worn on top of the suits without interference.

Setbacks:

Dextro Based Lifeform: Quarians can only digest dextro-amino acid (Instead of the otherwise universally used levo-amino acid) based foods. Any other food makes the character test a Daunting Resilience (Brawn) skill check. On a failure, they suffer 2 setback dice on all checks until 24 hours have past.

Compromised Immune System: Quarians have no immune system and thus must live inside a sealed environmental suit. Any time outside of the suit, or if the suit is breached, treat the environment as a Dangerous environment with a rating of 2. This may be negated for a short period of time (between 10 minutes to an hour) with GM permission by taking a special regiment of antibiotics and immune system boosters for one week.

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Salarian

Brawn: 1

Agility: 3

Intellect: 2

Cunning: 2

Willpower: 2

Presence: 2

Wound Threshold: 8 + Brawn

Strain Threshold: 12 + Willpower

Starting Experience: 100.

Starting Talents:

Start the game with either the Natural Scholar or Natural Rogue talents.

Special Ability:

Fast Metabolism: Salarians only need to sleep 1 hour a day instead of the 8 required by other races.

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Turian

Brawn: 2

Agility: 2

Intellect: 2

Cunning: 2

Willpower: 2

Presence: 2

Wound Threshold: 10 + Brawn

Strain Threshold: 12 + Willpower

Starting Experience: 110

Starting Talents:

Start the game with either the Natural Leader or Natural Marksman talent. Additionally, they start the game with the Basic Combat Training talent.

Special Abilities:

Metallic Carapace: Turians reduce the difficulty of any Resilience check against Radiation by 1 and take half the damage from irradiated environments.

Setbacks:

Dextro Based Lifeform: Turians can only digest dextro-amino acid (Instead of the otherwise universally used levo-amino acid) based foods. Any other food makes the character test a Daunting Resilience (Brawn) skill check. On a failure, they suffer 2 setback dice on all checks until 24 hours have past.

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Volus

Brawn: 1

Agility: 1

Intellect: 3

Cunning: 3

Willpower: 2

Presence: 2

Wound Threshold: 10 + Brawn

Strain Threshold: 10 + Willpower

Starting Experience: 110

Starting Talents:

Start the game with the Natural Negotiator, Sound Investments, Know Somebody, and Black Market Contacts talents.

Setbacks:

Ammonia Breathers: Volus start the game with an ammonia respirator, and treat oxygen as a dangerous atmosphere with Rating 8.

Small: All equipment must be specially constructed for Volus. Increase the price of armor by half of its listed cost. (Example armor costing 300 would cost 450)

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Vorcha

Brawn: 3

Agility: 3

Intellect: 2

Cunning: 1

Willpower: 2

Presence: 1

Wound Threshold: 11 + Brawn

Strain Threshold: 9 + Willpower

Starting Experience: 110

Starting Talents:

Start the game with the Natural Brawler and Natural Outdoorsman talents.

Special Abilities:

Regeneration: Vorcha possess a unique cell structure that adapts to all environments and wounds. After being in an environment for a week, they no longer suffer any setback die for penalties from the environment. Lost limbs will regrow after a month. Additionally, they regain 1 Wound and 1 Strain per round of combat, up to their maximum value.

Setbacks:

Poor Reputation: Vorcha are looked down on by most members of the galaxy. They suffer a setback dice on any Charm, Deception, Leadership, or Negotiation skill checks.

Easy to Anger: Vorcha typically communicate via violence. When the target of a Coercion roll, Vorcha must pass a Hard Discipline check or immediately attack the source of the Coercion.

And in case anyone is curious, this is how I plan on handling Biotic Powers (Though I need to write them still)

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Biotic Rating

Unless otherwise granted by a racial ability, all characters start with a Biotic Rating of 0. The first Biotic Specialization a character takes grants +1 Biotic Rating. Subsequent Specializations do not grant this bonus. Biotic Amps grant a character who already has a Biotic Rating an additional Biotic Rating based on the Biotic Amp’s profile.

Utilizing Biotics

When a character wishes to utilize a Biotic Power, they must first take a full Action to do so. Characters will then generate a dice pool using FFG’s SWRPG Force Dice equal to their Biotic Rating. For example, if a character had a Biotic Rating of 3, they would roll 3 Force Dice. Some effects will hamper a character's ability to channel Biotics and reduce their total Biotic Rating as well.

For every white dot on the rolled Force Dice, characters generate 1 Bio Point. For every black dot on the rolled Force Dice, characters generate 1 Bio Point and suffer 1 strain as they push their bodies beyond their limits.

Characters then reference the Biotic Power and perform the actions it states based on how many Bio Points they have.

Bio Points not used for a Biotic Power are lost once the Power has been performed. They do not carry over from turn to turn. Points may be spent on multiple powers in one turn if the character has an ability to perform multiple Biotic Powers in one turn.

If a Biotic Power has the ongoing effect, characters can commit a Force Dice from their rolled pool and have the listed effect continue until they uncommit a the dice. Note, if a Force Dice with a black dot is committed, players suffer 1 strain every turn until the dice is uncommitted.

A committed Force Die reduces a player's Biotic Rating by 1. This may bring them to 0.

Cool ideas with the flavor on the white and black pips on the Force dice for biotic powers. Doesn't need to be tied to morality, but instead can be tied to the taxing effects of biotic usage.

I'd have to look at the species closer to weigh in on them

Krogan with only a brawn of 3? Drell with a brawn of 3? Vorcha with a brawn of 3??? Salarians with an int of 2???? Get out.

All of them have talents or special abilities.

I was going off of written material for a lot of it.

Salarians are noted as being faster than humans, hence the agility. Talents to represent either intelligence or spy operations.

Drell are noted to have muscle tissue is slightly denser, giving them a wiry strength, hence the upgrade to brawn.

Krogan don't need brawn 4, and their abilities and talents show off their race well...

Vorcha are both stronger and faster than humans...