New alien species- cool idea!

[erhershman]

Have edited attributes/edges a bit.

CHANGES I MADE:

Mostly to fit the species background.

First and most obvious: I completely eliminated the Psionic ability to communicate telepathically, because I reasoned that if the Tavarians communicate telepathically, why wouldn't they do that instead of having a sign language

Added Organ Redundancy to fit the description of their anatomy.

[Michael Barratt]

Originally posted by erhershman
SPECIAL OR UNIQUE ABILITIES: Tavarians have psionic powers. They can communicate "vocally" through telepathy with psi-capable characters.

I like that you've given them psionic abilities - it makes for more easily role-played adventures with the race - if even one PC is psionic, things will go much better.

I'm lucky in that I know sign, so at the very least if I can't get my players to read what I'm signing, I'll be consistant and they might fumble their way through it.

Sidenote: Any thoughts on whether there would be a "visual" universal translator? Something set up to translate visual imput from sign-language, or other species that might communicate with visual means (colour changes on skin tone, that sort of thing)?

The Tavarians are an extrordinarly peaceful people- they ousted their occupiers from their world only out of absolute necessity. An example of just how peace-loving they are can be found in their language- there is no word* in Tavarian for "hate."
First contact was made by the Federation, their first interstellar contact beyond their invaders, was made in 2376, by the Soverign-class U.S.S. Atreides. The Federation has agreed to peaceful relations with the Tavarians, though the Tavarians have denied to join the Federation at this time- they are still suspicioius of offworlders due to their long occupation.

*-Although the Tavarians do not "speak" per say, individual signs in the Tavarian language are properly referred to as "words."

I like... especially their hesitation to get along with any outsiders. It leaves them vulnerable to manipulation from hidden parties within...

The Doc

[Michael Barratt]

Originally posted by erhershman
Have edited attributes/edges a bit.

CHANGES I MADE:

First and most obvious: I completely eliminated the Psionic ability to communicate telepathically, because I reasoned that if the Tavarians communicate telepathically, why wouldn't they do that instead of having a sign language

If, like Betazoids, they don't develop telepathic abilities until they're older - especially if the race has Projective Telepathic abilities, not receptive ones - they'd still need a form of communication... Sign Language is still apt for a species with no vocal capabilities.

The Doc.

[erhershman]

Adventure seed:

The PCs are assigned to ferry a diplomat to Tavaria to try and reconsider their decision to join the Federation. (The Federation wants them to join so badly because Tavaria is unbelievably rich in dilithium.) The PCs discover a Breen plot to invade the planet through internal corruption and rebellion.

[Captain Zymmer]

Originally posted by Publius
I have to say that I like them as they are, they do not need to be prosthetic forehead aliens to be aliens. How many times have alien species looked exactly human?

Agreed, but just like everyone once upon a time poo-pooed my liking of Hodgkin's Law, I must pointout that we as narrators are not limited by the effects budget or talent of our poeple

Stikll the rest of your post was well thought out and impressive.

I simply didn't repost it for space soley.

[Captain Zymmer]

Originally posted by Captain Zymmer
I like them, but why have them be "exactly" like humans "but"...why not make them genuiniely alien?

By the way, note I did not say add rubber to their heads

[Publius]

Originally posted by Captain Zymmer

By the way, note I did not say add rubber to their heads

Very true, the conversation sort of started drifting in that direction (earless, etc.) which is what led to my comment. Trust me, no slam to anyone, all of these suggestions are very good (I liked the earless one and I am completely guilty of the Plastic Forehead syndrome myself). Nevertheless, your intent as refined above does raise an excellent point: that differences from "human-norm" do not have to be "apparent" under most circumstances to be present and have some game effect.

Perhaps what should be spelled out is that they have the appearance of humans/Eminarians/Ekosians/blah-blah etc. for all intents when clothed or on casual examination (which I like even better). After all, Zaldeans - a race which I happen to like because of the name of their culture hero and vast personal charm - are indistinguishable externally from humans with the exception of the webbing on their hands (and feet? I dunno, my books are buried away somewhere at the moment).

Therefore, we could always make the argument that the forehead, ear or temple is not the only place for bumps, spots, ridges or other cosmetic variations. Perhaps the race has spots on their lower calves or has a vestigial flap under their armpits that is not apparent (but causes them to wear clothing which accomodates their physiology and thus makes some minor alteration of the 'norm' more roted in the backstory of the adventure/chronical/whatever).

This is for our purposes as Narrators to describe these races as "human looking" or "Visually having a standard human appearance", but their is some variation and heck, you never know if it might come in handy (as it was to Wesley Crusher during his first attempt at gaining entrance to the Academy on noticing the Zaldean and providing an appropriate response to that unscheduled test).

Make it fun, come up with a chart or something for random encounters. Example: Narrator describes the party that the players meet on the Starbase 666 from Ulookgud II Me: (rolls dice and consults chart) White die 1, they have "an unusually thin" ... Black die 4 "epidermis", thus the guards are heavily padded and the clothing tends to be thicker than normal for the rest of the party as well. Most of these people look windburnt or have bruises on their arms extending just under their clothing and are a florid purple because of some chemical factor in their blood which is very different from humans. To cover this on their faces they make a habit of using cosmetics which give them a kabuki-like appearance. Just make sure that the stuff on your tables are not readily apparent to avoid the Plastic Forehead Syndrome and matches the maturity level of the people in your game (Player: "Their what are twice as large as the human norm!" at which the group dissolves in laughter)

[Perrryyy]

Originally posted by Michael Barratt


T'tihk are deaf-mutes, but have exceptional senses of smell, sight, and touch - they have a visual acuity that allows them to notice even slight variations in positioning and movement, and a keen spatial sense in this regard: they are experts at body language, once they've studied a species for a while. Indeed, even the name for their species is a Federation approximation of the sound created by the species snapping their fingers twice with one hand - the sign for their racial name.

T'tihk sense of smell is heightened, as is their sense of touch - all their fingers (indeed, most of their skin surface) is capable of nearly ten times the amount of sensitivity of a typical humanoid - they can sense imperfections in the surfaces of items, and have a distinct ability to judge objects by touch once they've practiced. They tend to make excellent sculptors because of this, and are known for their "story-statues," which are statuettes of mythical creatures or heroes from legend, upon which is written, in a form of braille most humanoids can't detect, the story of said hero or creature. (Sculpture is suggested for the artistic expression trait below, but any tactile-based art would be good, too).


[/B]

I like, but I have a few questions:

1. WHY are they deaf mutes? Is it genetic like the ruling family on Ramatis 3? Is it something in the athmospher or hydrosphere? Is it evolution?


Other than that I don't see any real problems.

[Michael Barratt]

Originally posted by Perrryyy


I like, but I have a few questions:

1. WHY are they deaf mutes? Is it genetic like the ruling family on Ramatis 3? Is it something in the athmospher or hydrosphere? Is it evolution?


Other than that I don't see any real problems.

Oops, I thought I mentioned it somewhere along this thread... Low atmospheric density (ie: thin air), coupled with high winds and storm fronts made their planet a place where sounds just didn't carry, and those that did were drowned out a lot. It was selected out in their evolution as unneccesary.

That was one idea. I didn't play with it too much... Other ideas that were tossed around were that they race was enslaved and had said genetic traits removed to make them more acquiescent..?

I also imagined they had a multi-star system, so that it was almost always at least "dusk" brightness - all the better to see you sign by, my dear.

The Doc

[Perrryyy]

Originally posted by Michael Barratt


Oops, I thought I mentioned it somewhere along this thread... Low atmospheric density (ie: thin air), coupled with high winds and storm fronts made their planet a place where sounds just didn't carry, and those that did were drowned out a lot. It was selected out in their evolution as unneccesary.

That was one idea. I didn't play with it too much... Other ideas that were tossed around were that they race was enslaved and had said genetic traits removed to make them more acquiescent..?

I also imagined they had a multi-star system, so that it was almost always at least "dusk" brightness - all the better to see you sign by, my dear.

The Doc

Either idea could work, but I like the "biobabble" (first idea) better. That opens up a whole new bag of questions:

Who decided to leave those traits out of their evolution (enter the Q, Prophets or other "mystery God race")

Same with the slave idea. Play on how the abilities came to be removed by the slavers. Lotsa mystery potnential there too.

[Michael Barratt]

Originally posted by Perrryyy


Either idea could work, but I like the "biobabble" (first idea) better. That opens up a whole new bag of questions:

Who decided to leave those traits out of their evolution (enter the Q, Prophets or other "mystery God race")

Same with the slave idea. Play on how the abilities came to be removed by the slavers. Lotsa mystery potnential there too.

Actually I meant more of a "As they evolved naturally, hearing was selectively weeded out as a useless sense." Not that someone had come in and played with their DNA.

Buuuuut, both ways work. It might also be interesting to leave vestigial organs and brain matter that would have historically processed sound, and created noises. Maybe given the right scenerios, they could re-evolve back from the "feeling vibrations" to "sensing sound" again.

I wanted it to be natural, though - so I'm gonna go the evolution route. Maybe there was giant climactic change, and that led to the "loud" of the planet - howling winds. They already didn't have much left of hearing sense due to the uselessness of it in comparison to their other senses in this thin-air environment... the bad winds was the last nail in the genetic coffin...

The Doc