Jegergryte said:

Already got Noghri covered as per the list I posted earlier. I tried to keep things simple, addressing not only their hand-to-hand training but inherent stealthiness as well.

I have a player who'd love to play a Sakiyan . It seems to me like they'd be appropriate for the time (they appear in the original trilogy and are connected to the Hutts and organized crime). Anyone have any ideas for creating them as a race? I was thinking increased Agility, decreased Presence and maybe an inherent rank in Perception?

Do we have an ETA for when this PDF of species will be available?

Profgoldfinch said:

We're just finishing up the last of the species now. After that, it's a question of any refinement and the putting it together. I can't speak to a timeframe on that front as I'm not the one doing it, but I'll answer with the ubiquitous non-answer of "soon."

Huzzah for ubiquitous answers!

Will the races that we see in this document follow the original style of race generation? Or are we going to see certain races getting free ranks in talents to match the changes made in Update 1?

Also… community, this was the hot thread for the first couple of weeks. Get back in the game. I want ALL TEH SPECIES!

Profgoldfinch said:

There's a mix of both in there. Some species got free talent ranks, but only for species where it made sense for them to get free talent ranks. Some got a choice of where they wanted to put their free skill rank. Some got other unique special abilities.

I'm still working on some other ones that fall outside of the Rebellion Era and will continue to be posting them here.

Guys, I just thought of another very obvious one we've missed, and is a staple of the OT.

Gotal

Gotals, who hail from the moon Antar 4, are hairy bipeds who have two distinguished cone-shaped horns on the top of their heads. Their fur ranges from white, brown and gray. Their distinctive horns are filled with nerve endings and receptors which allow the Gotal to read magnetic fields and other types of energy. These horns allow Gotals to read the mood of others they are in contact with, however due to the nature of this ability droids are a mystery to the Gotal and they are very suspicious of them.

Gotals are calm and restrained and use their mood reading abilities to great effect. They can often find employment in diplomatic fields or as advisers. However, their tracking abilities are excellent and many Gotal can be found throughout the galaxy working as bounty hunters or mercenaries.

Wound Threshold : 10 + Brawn

Strain Threshold : 10 + Willpower

Starting Experience : 80 XP

Special Abilities :

Energy Sensitivity: The two cone-shaped horns are filled with nerve endings and receptors which allow the Gotal to filter out magnetic fields, infrared emissions and other types over energy in the area. As a result, Gotals receive a +1 Boost to Survival rolls when used to track targets in open terrain. Gotals lose this bonus when in crowded areas, and even receive a +1 Setback in areas with intense radiation.

Sense Mood: Gotals are highly tuned to the electromagnetic fields and they have the ability to read the electromagnetic auras and mood of those around them. Gotals receive a +1 Boost when making Presence and Cool checks to resist Social Interaction Skills. Because of their adverse reaction to droids, Gotals receive a +1 Setback when dealing when interacting with droids.

These bonuses also apply when rolling for Initiative. Against non-Gotals, Gotals receive a +1 Boost, and a +1 Setback against droids.

Brawn: 2 Cunning: 3

Presence: 1 Agility: 2

Intellect: 2 Willpower: 2

Profgoldfinch,
Being the guy that's compiling the document, I'm pretty confident that it'll be done and released by the end of next week. I just want to give Cyril a chance to look over the gathered material for any oddities before I let my beta-reader have her crack at the document (hopefully she'll have her copy of the book by then). However, I don't have any professional publishing tools, so appearance-wise this is going to be pretty bare-bones.

Gallandro,
Oddly enough, Cyril and I agreed to have Gotal added as the 32 species, with Defel and Weequay being the other two remaining. I'll take a look at the version he sent me last night and compare it to yours. I may well end up using a blend of the two write-ups and give credit to both of you for the write-up.

Gallandro said:

Too messy, and doesn't accurately reflect what the Sensory Cones do to me. What I did was give them no setback dice for poor visibility conditions or darkness. I also gave them the ability to use the basic Sense power by making a Hard Surveillance check as an action as if they had a Force Rating of one. And if they become Force Sensitive - they get to use it as written without the Surveillance check.

I took the same approach to this design as I do with Saga Edition - if there's something in the rules that accurately does what you're looking to do - use it instead of writing something new. The way you've got it written is just a little bit too cumbersome and a LOT to keep track for both the player and the GM at the table.

Sense Mood and Energy Sensitivity are taken practically straight from WEG giving a bonus to sensing motives, hence the Cool and Perception bonuses against Social Interactions, and that accounts for the Initiative bonus. Additionally their cones allow them to track in open terrain and give them a bonus there. They simply get a negative die for interacting with droids.

It's really not that much bookeeping. +1 Boost on Presence and Cool social interaction rolls plus the bonus for Initiative.. +1 Setback against droids. I suppose you could drop the tracking bonus and just give them a +1 Survival skill, but that wouldn't account for the energy tracking nature of their "horns."

Yancy

Cyril said:

+1 for Wisdom.

When creating a house-rule of anykind, never make something new if something existing will do the job. Just re-label it and call it done. Existing rules have been (ostensibly) playtested and balanced against the overall system by a team of dedicated people. USE that.

And if you can accomplish the "general goal" with one simple rule (instead of 3), do that. House rules also get dangerous/broken the more complex they get - even if it doesn't "seem" that complex.

Sorry Gallandro, but after reading them more thoroughly, I'm strongly inclined to agree with Cyril about your take on the Gotal's head cone effects being too messy and not going with the K.I.S.S. principle that both Saga Edition and EotE are aiming for with their species' write-ups.

Though the Sense Mood thing you did does have some merit. It just needs to be tightened up a bit: perhaps it just gives a free boost die to resist Social Interaction checks? I kind of like that better than just giving them access to the basic Sense power.

As for the tracking thing, I'm not convinced that's so much an inherent species trait as opposed to Gotal hunters using their cones to become really good at tracking; a fluff-based explanation for the character having picked up the Expert Tracker talent?

Gallandro said:

But the thing is - in WEG it wasn't that much bookkeeping, you could simply factor in the bonuses and penalties to the Die Codes and leave it at that. 5D when dealing with sentients, 3D when dealing with droids. In EotE you're dealing with multiple dice rolls on different levels of play. Is this Presence check a social interaction skill? Does this particular Cool check count? Am I dealing with any droids? And with the wide variety of results that can come from a boost or setback die, not to mention the myriad of ways that you can already get/give boost/setback dice already… I really think you're going to be getting more than you bargain for with this.

Donovan Morningfire said:

From Wookieepedia:

Gotals possessed cranial horns as receptors to sense electromagnetism and other energy emissions. These nerve-ending filled cones could sense the natural electromagnetic fields produced by Antar, Prindaar, and Antar 4's magnetite-rich crust,[1] allowing the species to operate even in total darkness.[18] Their senses also picked up the electromagnetic auras from other life forms. Gotal hunters could sense their quarry from up to ten kilometers away, and could track herds of quivry for weeks.[1] While hunting, a Gotal could determine the amount, species type, and level of sickness of animals by relying on their cones alone. When close to their target, they could ascertain information on its mood, awareness, and state of mind. As such, Gotals numbered among the most sought-after hunters in the galaxy.[19]

Gotal cones could detect another being's emotional state and intentions.[18] Gotal horns were even sensitive enough to pick up such indistinct signals as neutrino emissions.[1] Electronic devices could also be sensed by Gotals: in fact, most droids gave off enough electromagnetic emissions to at least annoy a Gotal,[18] and at worst to seriously disorient the horned beings.[1] Consequently, the species was notoriously distrustful of droids.[19][20] Gotals relied heavily on their cones, with their eyesight and hearing being quite weak, and their sense of smell almost completely absent.[1]

Yancy

Gallandro said:

Perhaps, but I'm extremely hesitant about giving Gotals too many advantages, and Rodians already have the "naturally gifted hunter/trackers" thing covered. If you really want to include that as a species trait, simply give them Expert Hunter and call it day. Personally, I still think this is a case of particular Gotals having honed their innate sensory abilities to an extreme degree.

Sorry to be late to the party, this looks like it could become one of my favorite threads of all time as I love playing off the wall species.

Just wanted to throw some thoughts in on the Chiss, my brother wanted to play one so i put one together for him that was a little bit different than the one you guys have come up with.

Wound Threshold: 11 + Brawn

Strain Threshold: 10 + Willpower

Starting Experience: 100 XP

Special Abilities: Chiss begin the game with one rank in either Vigilance or Discipline. They still may not train Vigilance or Discipline above rank 2 during character creation.

Brawn: 2 Cunning: 2

Presence: 1 Agility: 2

Intellect: 3 Willpower: 2

My reasoning was, as you guys have mentioned Chiss are more powerfully built than Humans, hence the 11 in Brawn rather than Willpower. I think the 3 in Intellect shows their devotion to practice and meticulous study and I feel that a 1 in Presence is fitting because to be honest the Chiss really stick to themselves and do their own thing. Although Thrawn was someone with plenty of Presence he was sort of an anomaly for the race as a whole.

I think if you want to give a nod to Thrawn you could include Leadership as one of the skills to begin the game with a rank in, either replacing Discipline or even in addition to it. Compared to many of the races people have come up with as Chiss as it stands are below average so being able to choose from 3 skills at character creation could be a nice option for them.

Anyhow just my two credits, now I am off to scour the galaxy for more races to add.

skinnyghost said:

Happy to help, Djas Phur was a favorite of mine back in the days of the old Decipher card game.

The Sakiyan race hails from the planet Saki within the confines of Hutt space. Although the Sakiyan's are considered by some to be a near human species, their enlarged cranial cavity evolved to contain a brain with a plethora of enhanced senses. Sakiyan's boast extremely sensitive smell and hearing as well as vision that can detect the slightest of motions and see into the infra-red spectrum.

Although their society is economically dependent upon the Hutts, the Sakiyan people have developed a distinctive inward focused culture that centers around honor; both personal and that of the clan. Sakian society takes any matters of honor very seriously and breaches can result in families being branded with dishonorable status for generations until the stain is cleansed by amazing feats carried out by family members. Sakiyan's are very reserved when dealing with other races and tend to keep to themselves and focus on the needs of their own species.

Wound Threshold: 10 + Brawn

Strain Threshold: 10 + Willpower

Starting Experience: 90 XP

Special Abilities: Sakiyan begin the game with 1 rank in Survival or Discipline. They still may not train Survival or Discipline above rank 2 during character creation.

Special Abilities: Natural Hunter: The keen senses of the Sakiyan grant 1 boost die on all Perception checks.

Brawn: 2 Cunning: 2

Presence: 1 Agility: 3

Intellect: 2 Willpower: 2

Just come commentary on why certain choices were made, The rank in survival should be a fairly obvious one in regard to life on their homeworld and how they exist, I also included Discipline to demonstrate the place that Honor holds in their society. The off the charts sight, smell and hearing gave rise to the boost die for perception checks.

The characteristics were the hardest part, I think that the 1 in Presence was fairly straightforward, for a species that is reserved and semi-secluded. The 3 however could go in any number of categories, Brawn or Agility to show their unique muscle development and advantages over the human body. It could go in Cunning to demonstrate their style of hunting, or it could even go in Willpower to get back to the emphasis on honour. In the end I chose Agility because it represents the physical aspect of their species and because the Hunting and Honor had already been emphasized in the Special Abilities.

Comments or suggestions? Is 10xp right for the boost die on Perception? too strong or not strong enough?

You can find a version of the Chiss earlier in this thread. Worth checking out.

As for the balancing of your Sakiyan, I have yet to get into such specifics, my book has been lonely this week, but I'm leaning towards perhaps giving them 100xp instead of 90. Although I'm not sure about specifics in the talents given in the beta updates to some of the species'. So a comparison here at work is impossible.

Wow, I'm surprised I'm the first to be posting these guys, but here we go:

Kel Dor

Kel Dor are a sentient species native to the planet Dorin, a dark and dusty terrestrial world situated between two black holes. Dorin's atmosphere consists primarily of helium and a gas unique to the planet, but very little oxygen. Having evolved under these conditions, the nitrogen/oxygen atmospheres most species find habitable are quite toxic to Kel Dor. To protect themselves while in nitrox atmospheres, Kel Dor must wear antiox mask and protective goggles. Their unique physiology and breathing apparatus allows Kel Dor to survive for brief periods of time in hard vacuum. The Kel Dor have quick reflexes, attributed to the extrasensory organ lobes on the sides of their crania. It is believed that these organs also allowed a form of telepathy between Kel Dor. Their stamina, however, is poor compared to other species in the galaxy at large.

More information on the Kel Dor is available here .

Wound Threshold : 10 + Brawn

Strain Threshold : 10 + Willpower

Staring Experience : 100 XP

Special Ability : Kel Dor begin the game with one rank in Vigilance . They still may not train Vigilance above rank 2 during character creation.

Special Ability : Unique Physiology . While in typical nitrox atmospheres, Kel Dor require protective respiratory and occular gear. A Kel Dor without this gear treats nitrox environments as rating 8 hazardous atmospheres. All Kel Dor characters start the game with a antiox respirator, goggles, and a year's worth of the filters. Additional respirator masks cost 2,000 credits, and filters cost 200 credits for a year's supply (50 credits on Dorin).

Special Ability : Vacuum Resistant. A Kel Dor's unique physiology and breathing apparatus allow him to withstand the vacuum of space for short periods of time and resist suffocation. A Kel Dor with functional respiratory equipment does not take damage as described for vacuum exposure. Instead, they must make an Average (PP) Resistance check as an incidental at the end of the first round that they were exposed to vacuum for any amount of time. The player may spend any earned successes, advantages and triumphs per the resilience rules (successes may be spent to extend the time between checks by one round each). Failure on the check will cause the Kel Dor to take strain damage (1 strain/net failure, minimum one strain). If a character suffers strain in excess of his strain threshold in this way, he becomes incapacitated and suffers a critical injury. The character then suffers an additional critical injury every round until he is removed from hard vacuum or dies from his injuries. Threat and despair may be spent as per the resilience rules. An additional resilience check must be made at the end of each additional round during which the character is exposed to vacuum, however the check difficulty is upgraded once on each subsequent turn until the end of the encounter.
A Kel Dor’s resistance to suffocation depends on the cause of the suffocation (as described in the suffocation section), and adjudication of the effect should be left to the GM, e.g. being underwater could cause no suffocation (so long as their apparatus is charged, duration is left unlisted), while a toxic or caustic gas could be just as deadly to a Kel Dor as to a human.

Brawn 1

Agility 2

Intellect 2

Cunning 2

Willpower 3

Presence 2

Notes : In general, I've tried to balance this character in a way similar to a lungless Gand, as published in the latest beta patch notes, an attrib +/-, a skill rank, 100 xp, unaltered strain thresholds, and an environmental resistance ability. The resistance ability may not be as powerful as the toxic atmosphere immunity, but I feel better represents the species' ability, and lets EotE's skill system flex some muscles. Costs of the equipment are taken from WotC's Saga Edition Core Rulebook (Perkins, et al, 2007, p28) The willpower and vigilance boosts reflect the extrasensory organs and force sense reroll ability described in the cited reference. Due to the representation of the force in this game, it felt more appropriate to leave force powers out of this description.

Let me know what you think. Thanks!

-WJL

LethalDose said:

This should read "Resilience check".

-WJL

*cough* These guys were totes in the OT!

No human knows whence came the aliens called Yautja by some, "Predators" by others. They have hunted throughout the galaxy for many centuries at least, having encountered humanity in the 16th century, and possibly much earlier. Their own civilization is likely thousands of years older than humanity's, as their technology is significantly more developed, allowing space travel, and they have been shown to have trophies from ancient Earth creatures as well as those of alien beasts.

Young Predators out to prove their worth in savage combat are highly aggressive and proud. They seek the most glorious trophies and the greatest challenges. Many possess a sadistic streak, desiring their prey to suffer intense fear as the Predator closes for the kill. Yautja are big and strong, highly athletic, capable of overpowering humans physically. Their thick hides afford them some protection and they are naturally very hardy.

On their hunts the Predators wield a variety of advanced weapons, including shoulder-mounted plasma cannons, net launchers, razor-sharp throwing discs and spears. Many prefer to close to melee for the kill, using their claws and great strength. Yautja also wear high-tech camouflage suits that bend light around them, allowing them near-invisibility when they need to be stealthy.

Species Abilities

• Wound Threshold: 13 + Brawn

• Strain Threshold: 10 + Willpower

• Starting Experience: 90 XP

• Special Abilities: Yautja begin the game with one rank in Brawl. They still may not train Brawl above rank 2 during character creation.

• Leaping: The Yautja may engage or disengage from a character at close range without using a maneuver. Alternately, a Yautja character can move from close to medium range without using a maneuver, and medium to long range with only one maneuver.

• Reptilian Hide: Yautja have a naturally thick hide that provides a soak rating of 1, and also allows them to ignore one Setback die related to hot temperature conditions.

Characteristic Rating

Brawn 3

Presence 1

Intellect 2

Cunning 3

Agility 1

Willpower 2

Hunting Gear

Much of this gear is of high Rarity and listed without price. That's because the Yautja do not sell or trade their gear with other races. They pretty much just hunt the other races. Any Predator gear found is either stolen or scavenged and thus difficult to come by in most places.

Wristblades (Skill: Brawl; Dam: +3; Crit: 3; Range: Engaged; Enc: 2; HP: 0; Price: -; Rarity: 8; Special: Pierce 2)

Combistick (Skill: Melee; Dam: +4; Crit: 3; Range: Engaged; Enc: 3; HP: 0; Price: -; Rarity: 6; Special: Defensive 1, Pierce 2)

Razor Disc, Thrown (Skill: Ranged [Light]; Dam: +3; Crit: 2; Range: Close; Enc: 1; HP: 0; Price: -; Rarity: 7; Special: Pierce 2, Vicious 2)

Net Launcher: As Bola/Net, pp.110-111, except that the Yautja can spend one Advantage to make the target also suffer 3 damage per round. Price: -; Rarity: 7

Shoulder Cannon (Skill: Ranged [Heavy]; Dam: 12; Crit: 3; Range: Medium; Enc: 3; HP: 2; Price: -; Rarity: 9; Special: Blast, Guided, Knockdown)

Hunter's Mask: This mask is a combination of breath mask and scanner goggles, and each one is personalized in appearance.

Shift Suit (Cost: -; Enc: 2; Rarity: 10)

These suits generate a field of refracted light over the body of the wearer, rendering him nearly invisible. This is not true invisibility, but it allows the Yautja wearing it to sneak upon its prey much more easily, especially when it approaches from unusual routes, such as treetops. When active, any checks to locate the character by sight (including infrared) are made at Daunting difficulty. Skill checks using other senses are unaffected. The blending effect also can grant the hunting Yautja Boost dice to Stealth checks or other appropriate skill checks, as determined by the GM.

Shift suits fail when the user is submerged in water and require several minutes or an appropriate skill check to be repaired.

While not a particular fan of including those in the Star Wars universe, I would lower their starting xp to 80 considering their high starting characteristics and their abilities and increased wound threshold.

About the Net launcher, for how many rounds do the damage go on for?

Jegergryte said:

Their Cunning could probably be lowered to 2, I think. Other than that, they seem right around Wookiee/Trandoshan level, unless you consider the Leaping or thick hide to be exceptionally powerful (compared to, say, Regeneration and Claws).

Good call on the nets, I totally overlooked that. I'd say no more than five turns, but probably three or four. It only tightens around prey so much.

As for using them in Star Wars? Just consider them bounty hunters no one had to pay! ^_~

Its mainly the leaping ability I react to. I find it very powerful to make such movement (and disengage) into incidentals (ie no manoeuvre). Although I might be over reacting.

Also I would suggest setback dice for the shift suit instead of upping the difficulty to daunting, perhaps 2 setback dice. Keep the potential boost die/dice, for stealth.

I'd drop the Cunning to 2 and raise their Agility up to 2 as well. Nothing I saw in the movies suggested they were slow or clumsy to justify a 1 in Agility.

Their tough hide provides quite a few advantages, so I'd call that justification for dropping their starting XP to 80. If compared to Wookiees, Yautja get a +3 to their starting Wound Threshold with no penalty to their Strain Threshold, where Wooks get +4 WT but -2 ST with Willpower being their low stat.

The Leaping thing is kinda clunky, so rather than that, I'd suggest changing it so that the Yautja can spend 2 Advantage to gain one additional maneuver's worth of movement if you want to reflect quickly moving around. I figure for the scenes that we see them doing that in the movies, they've made an Athletics check to leap from one spot to the other, thus generating the extra Advantage for the additional movement.

I'd swap the rarity on the wrist-blades and combi-stick, as the former seems to be standard issue.

Razor Disc I'd set the Crit Rating at 3, as the Pierce and Vicious qualities already reflect how easily it can slice through stuff. Maybe bump those qualities up to 3 if you really want this thing to be deadly?

Shoulder cannon, hunter's mask, and shift suit look good. Though seeing as how the cannon's targeting seems to be linked to the mask, perhaps add a caveat that the cannon's Guided quality can only be used when wearing a hunter's mask?