I'm planning on doing a sci-fi setting where humans have settled the stars after evacuating our solar system. The players have the option of buying one "bonus feat" during character creation to reflect a planetary lineage. Many of these are adapted or loosely inspired by Star Wars species traits. They are meant to be a little punchy, although I feel like some may be clearly more desirable than the others, which I'm trying to avoid. Let me know.

Hereditary background options, up to one may be chosen

Void Lineage (5XP)

• Deep Space Adaptation: Advanced development of the brain’s spatial awareness centers and heightened efficiency of dissolved oxygen within the blood. Zero gravity conditions are not counted as difficult terrain and suffocation incurs 2 points of damage or strain per turn instead of 3.

• Physical Features: The character’s blood has a darker almost black coloration which causes pronounced visible veins.

Mercury (5XP)

• Cellular Regeneration: Rapid healing at the cellular and genetic level allows increased resistance to radiation and accelerated tissue regeneration. Recover 1 additional would from natural rest, long term medical care, and Medicine checks.

• Physical Features: The character’s iris color is a shiny metallic color (gold, silver, bronze, nickel, ect).

Venus (5XP)

• Tapetum lucidum: A reflective layer upon the retina in the back of the eye which allows enhanced vision in low light conditions. This enables characters to remove up to 2 [Setback dice] added to checks by lighting conditions.

• Physical Features: The character’s pupils to ‘glow’ a particular color when light is shined at their eyes.

Earth (5XP)

• Heart and Soul: Adaptation and self mastery has guided humanity from the first flames to the stars in the heavens. After selecting a Career, train one rank in five of the eight career skills (instead of the usual four), one of these skills may be trained up to rank 3 during character creation (all other skills cannot be raised above rank 2 during character creation).

• Physical Feature: Baseline appearance.

Mars (5XP)

• Survival of the Fittest: A heightened endocrine system and improved blood clotting factor allows the body to endure through injuries. As an incidental once per turn, suffer Strain equal to twice the Severity rating of any one Critical Injury to ignore its effects.

• Physical Features: Slightly pointed ears and pronounced canine teeth.

Jovian (5XP)

• Shibboleth: Through the use of a closely guarded Jovian language and cultural in-references, Jovians may communicate with each other in a way that hides the true meaning or intent of their conversation from outsiders.

• Physical Features: Violet eyes and slightly gaunt, sallow features.

36 minutes ago, dresdinseven said:

Earth (20XP)

• Heart and Soul: Adaptation and self mastery has guided humanity from the first flames to the stars in the heavens. Gain two ranks in a single Career Skill during character generation, this single skill may go up to three ranks instead of two.

• Physical Feature: Baseline appearance.

This one stuck out to me a little bit, mostly because of the vastly increased cost. I'd be a little concerned about the "bonus feat" idea with this one being costed so much higher XP-wise, but I've never been overly enthused with the extreme skill specialization during creation as it always seemed to me to be less beneficial as play progressed while everyone else still got their special bonuses.

That aside, I can see how that's more of a personal thing of mine and I've seen plenty of reaction on the forums that there are people interested in a bonus like that. My thought on a little twist for this one is give you the choice of bolstering a Career Skill by 2 OR choose 2 skills to become Career Skills. I've always thought that since there is the Tier 2 talent Basic Military Training that grants you a bundle of three specific skills, having a Tier 3 talent that grants you two skills of your choice seemed fair enough.

Which also brings me to my last point, I think I'd be more comfortable with this if the cost was dropped to 15 XP. If you aren't using it to bolster a Career Skill to 3, you are actually spending an extra 5 xp to get the first two ranks in something. That still means that it works out to an zero-sum at 15 XP if you pick a skill you have no ranks in, which brings me to my last point.

Rather than calling it a 'bonus feat' give them 'background xp' which is just an excuse to give them 5 extra xp during character creation. That way any non-Earth choice, in effect, is a bonus, and it offsets the skill cost just enough for Earthers to still end up with a net 5 xp bonus (at the 15 xp).

52 minutes ago, dresdinseven said:

Jovian (5XP)

• Shibboleth: Through the use of a closely guarded Jovian language and cultural in-references, Jovians may communicate with each other in a way that hides the true meaning or intent of their conversation from outsiders.

• Physical Features: Violet eyes and slightly gaunt, sallow features.

This one's tricky to comment on because with a dutiful player, enough Jovians in the campaign to make it relevant, and a supportive GM, this ability could be fantastic, but it only offers a narrative option with no clear-cut mechanical benefit. That's not necessarily a criticism, it just might not seem as exciting to some players and I can think of at least one player in my group who would poo-poo on it.

I was also going to comment on dropping the low-light to 1 [SETBACK], but the 2 looks like it's actually pretty standard and I'm just super stingy with my bonuses...

@Foghorn Thank you for the feedback! A comment about the Earth bonus, it is meant to bolster a Skill to rank 3 and not be used for the first two ranks, and give a 5XP discount overall (which then could be spent however you want). I'm also concerned that this bonus will essentially be a washout as the player progresses. Plus, as you mentioned, it's a big chunk of XP to put forward (even if it's a net gain overall), which means that it's a choice of spending 20XP on Characteristics or on Skills since both options are only available during CharGen. I do like the idea of putting the OR clause about 2 bonus career skills, I would keep it at 20XP but give one a starting rank, which in terms of XP brings it to your suggestion). That way you have the choice of being a specialist (3 Ranks and perhaps a related Tier 1 Talent of your choosing) or a generalist (ten career skills, with five starting at Rank 1).

Also, Shibboleth is the one I'm most on the fence about, exactly for the reasons you commented on. It's the most thematic of them all and really fits for the lore I have for the Jovians, but it does suffer from being a very RP dependent bonus (essentially like Thieve's Cant from DnD5e). On the other hand, it may 'soft' guide players/GMs who don't feel like incorporating such RP elements away from arbitrarily choosing Jovian.

I'm on the fence about "background XP" since I don't want to demand players choose a distinct lineage (someone could be a descendant of a few people groups), or if they just want to put that XP towards whatever else. Any thoughts or opinions on the other packages? Again, thanks for the feedback!

Quote

Earth (20XP)

• Heart and Soul: Adaptation and self mastery has guided humanity from the first flames to the stars in the heavens. Choose one Career Skill which received a bonus rank and raise it to Rank 3 instead of 1 (it cannot be raised any more during character creation and all other skills can still only be raised to rank 2) OR choose two additional Career Skills and gain a skill rank in one of them

• Physical Feature: Baseline appearance.

Here is my suggested edit, which makes it a pretty flexible package.

Quote

Earth (5XP)

• Heart and Soul: Adaptation and self mastery has guided humanity from the first flames to the stars in the heavens. After selecting a Career, your character may train one rank in five of the eight career skills (instead of the usual four), one of these skills may be trained up to rank 3 during character creation (all other skills cannot be raised above rank 2 during character creation).

• Physical Feature: Baseline appearance.

Okay I realized that the original Earthling talent was strictly better than the other options, or even taking no option at all since the math worked out to +5 starting XP overall. This new option also takes it back to "Pay 5, get a thing" with this option being by far the most boring of all the options. It really isn't any different than paying the normal 5XP to simply gain a rank, but ties a thematic cost to pushing a single skill to rank 3 right out of the gates.

Furthermore, this puts everything at roughly the same cost and utility.

This has still been rattling around in my brain and I'm gonna throw one more idea out here for you.

Heart and Soul (10 xp): Choose 2 career skills. Once per session, after you have made a check with a chosen skill but before the GM describes the outcome, you may reroll a number of dice in the pool equal to your linked attribute for the skill. You may not reroll dice with a Despair result.

The Natural talent at T3 is what allows for a full reroll once per session, so this is effectively a modified version of that for cheaper. If you like it, there should probably also be a "dice can only be rerolled once" caveat added somewhere so you can't chain this ability with Natural or any other reroll mechanics that might come down the pipeline.

I played a reroll heavy squad of X-Wing over the weekend, so I have rerolls on the mind and I know that's not really a Genesys mechanic that we see outside of Natural, but I think it could tie nicely with what you were looking for with Earthers being more adept at others at a skill while not being "the most boring" option.

Thanks for the suggestion @Foghorn ! This is the latest revision, incorporated your suggestion and some others (mostly clarity suggestions). Instead of giving a cost, I'm putting a starting XP adjustment. This nests it within Archetypes and also makes the bookwork a little bit easier. I'm not concerned if my players get 5 more XP in chargen than vanilla rules. The current task is editing a few of the longer ones to more concise language.

Void Lineage (0XP)

• Deep Space Adaptation: Advanced development of the brain’s spatial awareness centers and heightened efficiency of dissolved oxygen within the blood. Zero gravity conditions are not counted as difficult terrain and suffocation incurs 2 points of damage or strain per turn instead of 3.
• Physical Features: The character’s blood has a darker almost black coloration which causes pronounced visible veins.

Mercury (0XP)

• Cellular Regeneration: Rapid healing at the cellular and genetic level results increased resistance to radiation and accelerated tissue regeneration. Recover 1 additional would from natural rest, add 1 automatic [[Success]] to Medicine checks to cure wounds or critical injuries and to Resilience checks to naturally heal from critical injuries.
• Physical Features: The character’s iris color is a shiny metallic color (gold, silver, bronze, nickel, ect).

Venus (0XP)

• Tapetum lucidum: A reflective layer upon the retina in the back of the eye which allows enhanced vision in low light conditions. This enables characters to remove up to 2 [Setback dice] added to checks by lighting conditions.
• Physical Features: The character’s pupils to ‘glow’ a particular color when light is shined at their eyes.

Earth (-5XP)

• Heart and Soul: Adaptation and self mastery has guided humanity from the first flames to the stars in the heavens. Choose 2 career skills, once per session after you have made a check with a chosen skill but before the GM describes the outcome you may reroll a number of dice in the pool equal to the Attribute linked to the skill. An individual die may only be rerolled once and any with a Despair result cannot be rerolled.
• Physical Feature: Baseline appearance and air of importance.

Mars (0XP)

• Survival of the Fittest: A heightened endocrine system and improved blood clotting factor allows the body to endure through injuries. As an incidental once per turn, suffer Strain equal to twice the Severity rating of any one Critical Injury to ignore its effects for the remainder of the turn. This does not remove the Critical Injury or the associated +10 to Critical Injury rolls and ongoing effects are delayed until next turn.
• Physical Features: Slightly pointed ears and pronounced canine teeth.

Jovian (0XP)

• Shibboleth: Through the use of a closely guarded Jovian language and cultural in-references, Jovians may communicate with each other in a way that hides the true meaning or intent of their conversation from outsiders. Jovians can hide simple hidden messages into seemingly commonplace conversations and add 2 [Setback dice] to the Vigilance check of a non-Jovian to notice and understand the hidden message, which is checked against a combined Deception of the Jovians. Only Jovians have access to the Jovlech folk language (for starting languages and the Polyglot talent), and all translation software or equipment adds 2 [Setback dice] when trying to decipher it.
• Physical Features: Violet or lilac eyes and slightly gaunt, sallow features.

Rich Lineage (+5XP)

• Heterosis: With the Great Migration a mixing and remixing of people groups has resulted in hybrid vigor and new emergent cultures. During character creation up to one Skill may be trained up to rank 3 during character creation (all other skills cannot be raised above rank 2 during character creation).
• Physical Feature: Earth baseline or slight variance (such as a unique eye or hair color, distinguishing physical characteristic, or blood characteristic)