Hi,
I'm working on a Starfleet Academy campaign, trying to come up with a new and different 'alien' race. I've worked out the story background and such, but I'm not too sure what to do about the 'crunchy bits' (Species Adjustments and Abilities). Here's the basics, in Player's Guide format; does anyone have suggestions?
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ARCADIANS
PERSONALITY: Arcadians of the 24th century are as culturally different from those of the 23rd as they were physically from their own ancestors. Formerly a people of overweening pride and arrogance, they are now on the average warm and sympathetic, with a distinctly self-deprecating sense of humor. As they are fond of saying, they have grown some, as a people.
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: Arcadians are descended from Human colonists who, attempting to genetically engineer their own descendants into superhuman beings, accidentally altered the wrong gene, causing a mutated form of dwarfism to become inextricably bound into their genetic heritage. In effect, Arcadians have become a species distinct from humanity, where everyone is born a dwarf.
HOMEWORLD: Arcadia is the third and largest moon of the gas giant Tau Ceti Ten. It is a spectacular world of rugged wilderness and grand vistas.
CULTURE: The very first Arcadians were in fact human colonists, who left Earth shortly before the Third World War. Fearing that the coming conflict would completely destroy civilization, a group of human scientists gathered all they could of Earth’s cultural and scientific data along with like-minded representatives of as wide a spectrum as possible of human genetic diversity, and set forth to found a new world.
Even before they set foot on their new home, the minority who had made the voyage as a generation crew (instead of in stasis) had begun to tinker with their own genetic baggage. Upon being awakened by the superhumanly bright and talented great-grandchildren of their original crew-mates, the rest of the colonists were more than eager to ignore the lessons of the Eugenics wars.
Disaster struck when, a single generation later, all new babies were born with a new and ineradicable form of dwarfism. Unable, and then unwilling, to find the mistake in their own genetic tampering, they placed the blame instead on a peculiar kind of local background radiation. Their run-down transports by then converted into ground-based facilities, they found themselves stranded on a world they blamed for their infirmities.
Later still, when contact was re-established by Federation ships, the Arcadians were stunned by how advanced the world they left behind had become. Too proud to accept outside help, but desperate to escape, a group of Arcadians almost managed to take over a starship before the situation resolved itself peaceably, as the real cause of their affliction was revealed.
Humbled by the truth, the Arcadians finally had to accept their condition. They managed to find a kind of humor in their situation, and determined to make the best of it. Free at last to create the ideal society their progenitors had hoped for, if not quite the one they had envisioned, the Arcadian people have undergone a major cultural renaissance. Arcadia has recently joined the Federation.
LANGUAGES: Federation Standard, with a slight accent
COMMON NAMES: Arcadians place the given name first, the family name second.
FAMILY NAMES: Mersan, Dorsay, Hansi, ?
MALE NAMES: Silas, Cyrano, August, Lucius, Alderic, Isambard
FEMALE NAMES: Arden, Josabeth, Iris, Epiphany, Eloise, Aster
FAVORED PROFESSION: ?
SPECIES ADJUSTMENTS: ?
SPECIES ABILITIES: ?
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First Contact is intended to take place in a TOS setting, probably as a flashback or time-travel episode.
I think I'd like most Species Abilities to remain close to Human ones, maybe trading in Adaptable for Eidetic Memory to simulate some genetic enhancements.
For the Species Adjustments, I wonder if a -2 Strength and -1 Agility, balanced by a +2 Vitality and +1 Intellect, would be too restrictive...
Any comments would be greatly appreciated.
Dan.T
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then use yours, I was giving you another bit of information that I thought you might want to add or help with your information.
