I'm looking at opening a few species up for PC use. Most species abilities are pretty minor, especially the newer species (like Duros and Chiss), but even the Twi'lek is an example of not going too far with the power level of these abilities. Of course, some would say that some species abilities are too weak (like the Mon Calamari in the AoR Beta). So what I'm looking at is finding a good middle ground.

I've seen several times that a first row ranked Talent is appropriate for a species ability. Things like Convincing Demeanor (Bothan), Expert Tracker (Rodian) and Skilled Jockey (Sullustan) don't seem too bad. These are Talents that remove Setback dice and are often not considered terribly powerful. I've also seen suggestions of other first row ranked Talents like Durable, Feral Strength, Lethal Blows, Resolve, and Stalker.

So, first issue: How do you feel about ranked first row Talents other than Setback die removers being given as a species ability?

If the canon is there for the species I see no reason not to add any first row talent. Honestly, when compared to what humans get for xp and their 2 free skills would anything be out of line for the alien races? I don't think so myself.

I've found that I can make most races up simply by using the same formula over and over:

One characteristic at 3, one characteristic at 1, and the rest at 2.

Wound Threshold of 14/12/10/8 + Brawn, and Strain Threshold of 8/9/10/11 + Willpower (use same selection - 1st/2nd/3rd/4th - for both Thresholds).

Starting Experience of 100 XP.

Special Abilities: Members of this species begin the game with one rank in (X). they still may not train (X) above rank 2 during character creation. They also start with one rank in the (Y) talent.

Note that Grit and Toughened are not usually listed as (Y) and instead the appropriate Threshold is simply increased.

I think giving Talents that give a Boost die might be pushing it without reducing starting XP a bit. Giving dice to me is more powerful than taking away bad dice, simply for the ability to generate more Success/Advantage.

I think giving Talents that give a Boost die might be pushing it without reducing starting XP a bit. Giving dice to me is more powerful than taking away bad dice, simply for the ability to generate more Success/Advantage.

I would agree anything like that should knock the xp down, but otherwise game on in my mind.

The genre obviously has species to spare but if someone found a nice piece of artwork online and didn't just want to swap it for an existing species I would welcome the effort they put into making the race. Increases their ownership of the character in my mind. If they presented reasonable stats and abilities with a good background all the better l think. Increases the whole feel of how huge the galaxy is.

I'm cool with a species getting a bonus talent that does something other than just remove a setback die under certain conditions, so long as it fits with the species' lore that's been established.

For the USM species I worked on, where talents were concerned I pretty much had two criteria:

#1 - Was the talent listed on the first row of more than one specialization?

#2 - Was the talent ranked?

If the answers to both of these was "Yes," then I'd consider it viable to be used for a species bonus. Non-ranked talents I felt were problematic as it gave the species an extra advantage by enabling it to "skip ahead" in certain specializations, making said talent a lot more valuable than it might first appear.

Though in a few cases we effectively worked in the Toughened talent by increasing the Wound Threshold without including a matching reduction in Strain Threshold. I think the Nikto and Weequay are two such examples of where we did this, with their species abilities only including a bonus skill rank.

One race that I'm still toying with is the Houk. I'm considering the following:

Houk

Brawn 3, Agility 2, Intellect 2, Cunning 2, Willpower 2, Presence 1

Wound Threshold: 14 + Brawn

Strain Threshold: 8 + Brawn

Starting XP: 100

Special Abilities: Houk begin the game with one rank in Coercion or Deception. They still may not train Coercion or Deception above rank 2 during character creation.

I like the skill option supporting either threats or subterfuge. Note that there is no talent provided. I considered adding one, but I'm not sure if one is particularly necessary. I don't want to make the Houk too attractive, and having 100 XP is already nice compared to Trandoshans and Wookiees.

14+ Brawn sounds quite excessive. especially for 100 starting XP.

For new species stats I stick with the bottom row of talents for inspiration, with the caveat that I try not to use stuff like Stalker or any other talent that grants Boost dice across-the-board to a specific skill. This can be appropriate for species that have "powerful" abilities, but try to avoid it because Boost dice are pointedly better than Setback dice. (I had to make an exception for Zeltrons -- an extremely difficult species to stat out given that they have both empathy and pheromones -- but this was offset by a number of disadvantages.)

One race that I'm still toying with is the Houk. I'm considering the following:

Houk

Brawn 3, Agility 2, Intellect 2, Cunning 2, Willpower 2, Presence 1

Wound Threshold: 14 + Brawn

Strain Threshold: 8 + Brawn

Starting XP: 100

Special Abilities: Houk begin the game with one rank in Coercion or Deception. They still may not train Coercion or Deception above rank 2 during character creation.

I like the skill option supporting either threats or subterfuge. Note that there is no talent provided. I considered adding one, but I'm not sure if one is particularly necessary. I don't want to make the Houk too attractive, and having 100 XP is already nice compared to Trandoshans and Wookiees.

This looks fine to me. The 14 + Brawn wound threshold is balanced out by the 8 + Willpower Strain (1 strain = 2 wounds), and the lack of a talent is kind of balanced out by the fact that high Brawn characters often ignore Presence anyway, not to mention the lower strain being somewhat canceled out by the average Willpower (in comparison to Wookiees, anyway).

If you want to give them a talent -- which makes total sense -- I'd give them Durable or the ability to ignore one Setback die on Resilience checks. Neither one would shake things up too bad.

More fitting for a Houk, however, would be Intimidating. It's definitely a bit more "powerful" than Durable or ignoring a Setback die on Resilience checks, but if you cut the wound threshold down to 12 + Brawn or perhaps switched the low stat to Willpower (the key stat for Coercion as well as strain, which is needed for Intimidating) that might balance things out nicely.

You could also consider simply adding Intimidating with no changes to the above stats. It's still only a 5 point ability, and this species doesn't look like it'd be incredibly unbalanced with an added 5 pointer.

For new species stats I stick with the bottom row of talents for inspiration, with the caveat that I try not to use stuff like Stalker or any other talent that grants Boost dice across-the-board to a specific skill. This can be appropriate for species that have "powerful" abilities, but try to avoid it because Boost dice are pointedly better than Setback dice. (I had to make an exception for Zeltrons -- an extremely difficult species to stat out given that they have both empathy and pheromones -- but this was offset by a number of disadvantages.)

One race that I'm still toying with is the Houk. I'm considering the following:

Houk

Brawn 3, Agility 2, Intellect 2, Cunning 2, Willpower 2, Presence 1

Wound Threshold: 14 + Brawn

Strain Threshold: 8 + Brawn

Starting XP: 100

Special Abilities: Houk begin the game with one rank in Coercion or Deception. They still may not train Coercion or Deception above rank 2 during character creation.

I like the skill option supporting either threats or subterfuge. Note that there is no talent provided. I considered adding one, but I'm not sure if one is particularly necessary. I don't want to make the Houk too attractive, and having 100 XP is already nice compared to Trandoshans and Wookiees.

This looks fine to me. The 14 + Brawn wound threshold is balanced out by the 8 + Willpower Strain (1 strain = 2 wounds), and the lack of a talent is kind of balanced out by the fact that high Brawn characters often ignore Presence anyway, not to mention the lower strain being somewhat canceled out by the average Willpower (in comparison to Wookiees, anyway).

If you want to give them a talent -- which makes total sense -- I'd give them Durable or the ability to ignore one Setback die on Resilience checks. Neither one would shake things up too bad.

More fitting for a Houk, however, would be Intimidating. It's definitely a bit more "powerful" than Durable or ignoring a Setback die on Resilience checks, but if you cut the wound threshold down to 12 + Brawn or perhaps switched the low stat to Willpower (the key stat for Coercion as well as strain, which is needed for Intimidating) that might balance things out nicely.

You could also consider simply adding Intimidating with no changes to the above stats. It's still only a 5 point ability, and this species doesn't look like it'd be incredibly unbalanced with an added 5 pointer.

Instead of a Talent of any kind, I opted for 100 XP to keep them more flexible than Trandoshans or Wookiees at the cost of a unique species ability.

14+ Brawn sounds quite excessive. especially for 100 starting XP.

Would you feel better with a WT of 12+ Brawn and a ST of 9 + Willpower instead? I've been weighing that option and while the above post went for the heavier shift on the Thresholds, I'm not at all opposed to going with this version.

Makes sense. Like I said I think it looks fine the way it is, I was just giving suggestions in case you felt it was lagging behind at all.

14+ Brawn sounds quite excessive. especially for 100 starting XP.

Would you feel better with a WT of 12+ Brawn and a ST of 9 + Willpower instead? I've been weighing that option and while the above post went for the heavier shift on the Thresholds, I'm not at all opposed to going with this version.

I think you should keep it as-is. I don't see any reason why Houks would have a lower wound threshold than Wookiees.

Makes sense. Like I said I think it looks fine the way it is, I was just giving suggestions in case you felt it was lagging behind at all.

I considered giving the Houk one rank of Plausible Deniability (removes setback dice from Coercion and Deception). I hate the name, but the effect feels good with their skills. That was on the WT/ST 12/9 version, but I could put it on the version I posted here. IMO, it's a fairly minor addition.

Makes sense. Like I said I think it looks fine the way it is, I was just giving suggestions in case you felt it was lagging behind at all.

I considered giving the Houk one rank of Plausible Deniability (removes setback dice from Coercion and Deception). I hate the name, but the effect feels good with their skills. That was on the WT/ST 12/9 version.

I'd keep the strain threshold at 8 if I did that, but that pretty much works. I'm not fond of the name in most instances myself, but given their penchant for using slaves and their deceptive natures in general, it would be pretty hard to pin something on a Houk, hence their "plausible deniability". Plus, I'm sure Houk organizations take efforts to keep the blame from their activities from falling on their shoulders.

(Due to a type-o on the Scoundrel tree I thought Plausible Deniablity was used for Deception and Skulduggery myself, which makes WAY more sense given the name of the talent, and isn't out-of-place for Houks at all.)

If you go with WT 12 and ST 8, I'd definitely consider Intimidating. It's the ultimate "bully" talent, which is precisely what Houk are.

The talent that works with Deception and Skulduggery is Convincing Demeanor. That talent could work too.

I think I'm just going to go back to basics. Using the Bothan as a base, I can reshuffle the characteristics (same totals, just different highs and lows) and shift the WT/ST by +4/-2 (considered the typical exchange considering Toughened/Grit). Change the bonus skill from Streetwise to Coercion and leave the rank of Convincing Demeanor from the Bothans untouched. That gives us this:

Houk

Brawn 3, Agility 2, Intellect 2, Cunning 2, Willpower 2, Presence 1

Wound Threshold: 14 + Brawn

Strain Threshold: 9 + Brawn

Starting XP: 100

Special Abilities: Houk begin the game with one rank in Coercion. They still may not train Coercion above rank 2 during character creation. They also start with one rank in the Convincing Demeanor talent.

Using the system I put in Post #3, I decided to rebuilt the Wookiees according to how I see them. Others may disagree, but I always see Wookiees as having more Willpower than Presence based upon the skills linked to each characteristic. IOW, I see Wookiees as having better aptitude for Coercion, Discipline, and Vigilance than for Charm, Cool, Leadership, and Negotiation. I also don't particularly care for Wookiee Rage as written as it's way too gamey feeling ("Hey, can I give myself a minor cut so I can lay down more beat down?"). A minor critical that isn't healed up and the Wookiee is enraged at maximum effect for a week or more? Not in my game.

Wookiees

Brawn 3, Agility 2, Intellect 2, Cunning 2, Willpower 2, Presence 1

Wound Threshold: 14 + Brawn

Strain Threshold: 8 + Willpower

Starting XP: 100

Special Abilities: Wookiees begin the game with one rank in Brawl. They still may not train Brawl above rank 2 during character creation. They also start with one rank in the Feral Strength talent.

I got the impression from the movies etc. that the races were on an equal footing and variation within a race meant more than race itself. Obviously there were some exceptions such as Hutts. But the best bounty hunter in the galaxy could just as easily be a human as a rodarian. I think the book plays like this as well as the starting XP for a character can wipe out any sort of advantage a race gives one character but not another. So overall I wouldn't worry too much about race differences anyway.

The only thing that bothers me is that somehow Kowakian monkey-lizards and jawas can be as strong as Chewbacca, and that is weird.

I got the impression from the movies etc. that the races were on an equal footing and variation within a race meant more than race itself. Obviously there were some exceptions such as Hutts. But the best bounty hunter in the galaxy could just as easily be a human as a rodarian. I think the book plays like this as well as the starting XP for a character can wipe out any sort of advantage a race gives one character but not another. So overall I wouldn't worry too much about race differences anyway.

The only thing that bothers me is that somehow Kowakian monkey-lizards and jawas can be as strong as Chewbacca, and that is weird.

The various species are supposed to be pretty close it overall capability, and I think they are. However, that doesn't mean that I agree with the official write-ups on some of them, nor do I expect that everyone will agree with my write-ups of various species since they're built to my tastes and not theirs. What I'm looking to create are fairly balanced alternatives from a relatively objective comparison to what we've been given.

And yes, everyone having the same species maximums (and largely minimums) does strike me as odd too, but in this game it's largely because of how abstract they've gone with everything. Even if the game allowed for a species ability that raised the maximum of a characteristic (perhaps something like allowing Wookiees to go as high as Brawn 7), it's unlikely to be used in the vast majority of games.

Using the system I put in Post #3, I decided to rebuilt the Wookiees according to how I see them. Others may disagree, but I always see Wookiees as having more Willpower than Presence based upon the skills linked to each characteristic. IOW, I see Wookiees as having better aptitude for Coercion, Discipline, and Vigilance than for Charm, Cool, Leadership, and Negotiation. I also don't particularly care for Wookiee Rage as written as it's way too gamey feeling ("Hey, can I give myself a minor cut so I can lay down more beat down?"). A minor critical that isn't healed up and the Wookiee is enraged at maximum effect for a week or more? Not in my game.

Wookiees

Brawn 3, Agility 2, Intellect 2, Cunning 2, Willpower 2, Presence 1

Wound Threshold: 14 + Brawn

Strain Threshold: 8 + Willpower

Starting XP: 100

Special Abilities: Wookiees begin the game with one rank in Brawl. They still may not train Brawl above rank 2 during character creation. They also start with one rank in the Feral Strength talent.

This came up in my game in the first or second session. I nipped it right in the butt by saying that Wookiee Rage wears off after you take a rest and use Cool or Discipline to recover strain. As for self-injury, I have no problem with that activating Wookiee Rage (although it would definitely mean the individual was somewhat insane). I'd only allow it, however, with a Hard Resilience check or a Daunting Discipline check, making it hardly worth the effort (unless the player was also looking for a Boost die on a Coercion check or something).

I got the impression from the movies etc. that the races were on an equal footing and variation within a race meant more than race itself. Obviously there were some exceptions such as Hutts. But the best bounty hunter in the galaxy could just as easily be a human as a rodarian. I think the book plays like this as well as the starting XP for a character can wipe out any sort of advantage a race gives one character but not another. So overall I wouldn't worry too much about race differences anyway.

The only thing that bothers me is that somehow Kowakian monkey-lizards and jawas can be as strong as Chewbacca, and that is weird.

Kowakian monkey-lizards are animals, not player races so don't worry about them.

As for Jawas... well, yeah you're right about that one for sure, but there are still a few things to keep in mind. Most obviously, the rules are an abstract for reality, and thus your Brawn rating can represent the way you use what strength and endurance you have available rather than how huge your muscles actually are.

Secondly, a species with a 1 in a given characteristic would need to spend 90 XP at character creation to get said characteristic up to 4, and then obtain Dedication from two different specializations to get this characteristic up to 6. This leaves plenty of room to come up with a reason as to why the Jawa's Brawn is so high; perhaps he's some sort of super-soldier? A cyborg? Something else...?

If it seems really unusual, come with with an explantion for why a given characteristic got so high.

I've reviewed the Wookiee I built using post #3, and I'm going to drop Starting XP to 90 since all of its options line up really well with one another (synergize nicely). Even so, I like it far more than the RAW Wookiee since it addresses both issues I have with the way FFG wrote them up (bad mechanics for Wookiee Rage and Willpower < Presence).

I try not to penalize species for having abilities that line up too well because that doesn't necessarily mean they're unbalanced, but in this case you're definitely right. In fact that rank in Feral Strength is better than the RAW Wookiee Rage in some ways in that it keeps the Brawl/Melee damage cap that Wookiees currently own the same without it being circumstantial. 90 XP is the way to go.

I kind of feel the same way about Chiss. Their low stat being Presence and their free skill rank being Cool makes them somewhat weak. I was thinking of changing them to the following;

Chiss

Brawn 2, Agility 2, Intellect 3, Cunning 2, Willpower 2, Presence 2

Wound Threshold: 10 + Brawn

Strain Threshold: 10 + Willpower

Starting XP: 85

Special Abilities: Infravision. Chiss ignore one Setback die on skill checks due to darkness or poor lighting conditions.

In my ongoing game (now just shy of 300 earned XP), I opted to change out Wookiee Rage for one rank in the Feral Strength talent as previously described. It prevented the rules weirdness I mentioned and has been a good, clean change. Since the game was already underway, I did not make any other changes (like switching starting Willpower and Presence).