Helmsmen
Human analogs, they are gifted with twice the willpower regeneration of other races. This helps with all casting, but it also established them as the dominant Jammers of the previous era, since it allowed them to send their intersystem ships faster and further than any other race - their desirability as pilots earned them their name. While blink engines have reduced their advantage, they maintain a legacy in the form of numerous far flung settlements and a presence and prestige on many of the core worlds.
Summary: Helmsmen have a long term late game advantage in endurance thanks to their unique improved power regeneration. The Aether's best pilots and marathon athletes are almost exclusively Helmsmen.
Hruntera
This race of of buglike beings have thin exoskeletons, small vestigial wings, and have evolved the equivalent of natural power projection equipment. These horns serve as focal points for their magic, allowing it to act at a distance without the aid of additional equipment, and though expensive technology has allowed members of other races to duplicate the effect, it has shaped the entirety of Hruntera culture and development. The range at which all spells can be cast for this race is tripled or increased by three feet, whichever is greater. Hruntera have relatively poor graspers an Races d vocal controls, giving them a 50 percent effectiveness in tasks that require them and an inability to whisper effectively. However, they are naturally gifted psykers and jammers, and can multiclass into both for no additional cost - rather the opposite, as their first two skills in both classes can be purchased for half price. Their jamming tends to focus on telekinetic manipulation as opposed to the ship control of the humans. Their vestigal wings give them an additional 100 pounds of lift in heavy atmosphere, meaning that any relatively experienced jammers can either fly outright or at least fall with style, depending on the local gravity. When speaking with other nearby Hrunter, they almost exclusively prefer to use telepathy, and its expected most Hrunter will have learned to respond in kind. Finally, their Chitin gives them a layer of natural armor, reducing all incoming damage by 3 - while this doesn't hold up well compared to advanced armors, it is a constant, and free, benefit. Sociable, gregarious, and fond of loud, clashing colours for their attire.
Summary: A Hrunter can do more, sooner, than most other races, meaning that they tend to be better on average but seldom match the best of the best those races put forth. On a ships crew they most often serve on Signals, though they are well suited to being generalists.
Rakkitak (Rats)
A four-armed race of bipeds that are in many ways ratlike. They tend to be powerful warriors and aggressive spellcaasters with large families and a strong social hierarchy. They are the largest and most physically muscular of the races, and have keen minds capable of handling multiple tasks at the same time - they often effectively wield a weapon in each of their four hands, and Rakkitak spellcasters can sometimes be seen casting two different spells at the same time. They may take any one action that requires up to two of their hands as a passive action each turn. In addition, they may choose between either dealing two extra damage with melee weapons and gaining a +50 to strength checks, representing a large build, or gaining a +20 bonus to dodge and a +50 bonus to agility checks, representing a lithe build. They may also split the difference, dealing one more damage and gaining +10 dodge and +25 to both strength and agility. Their long tails give all Rakkitaks a +30 bonus to balance checks. Mechanically, they have quite a few benefits. Socially, however, they are often seen (perhaps not so wrongly) by the other races as prone to violent tempers, quick to take offense, arrogant and prone to treachery against "inferiors", and Rakkitak culture sees most other races as inferiors. Most Rakkitak also hold the Runic in a state of near-reverence, and acting against a Runic or the head of their family in anything except self-defense is a black mark that will cause other Rakkitak to treat them as the lowest of the low, race traitors that might well expect to be executed on sight. They tend to be strongly religious, and their society has strong if uncharitable expectations of honourable and properly pious behaviour. They are also incredibly tribal, with blood feuds being incredibly common and going back centuries, and are not above enslaving those on planets they conquer. Extremely fecund, female Rakkitak can give birth twice a year, with litter sizes of 3-9 children. 7 is considered a lucky number in rat society, and those born in litters of 7 destined for greatness. Rakkitaks, unlike other races, have seven limbs - two legs, four arms, and a head - which is an obvious sign of their own superiority over the lesser races.
Summary: While Rakkitaks are probably the most powerful of the races, they are widely mistrusted by the other races and actively hated by many other Rakkitak, although almost all tribes carry on good relation with the Runic, whom they revere as superior beings and whom the Runic mostly ignore in return. Most contact other races have with them casts them in the role of Pirates, Pillagers, or Slavers, and in most campaigns the Rats are more likely to serve as bad guys than as allies of the party, even for an entirely Rakkitak crew.
Runic
A race little understood by outsiders, they appear to be artificial beings and come in a wide variety of sizes and shapes. Most commonly, however, they stand a bit over 4 feet tall, with a flat faceplate serving as a means of communication, a pair gangly dull metallic arms, a narrow spine beneath an enclosed chest cavity and wide hips supporting a set of powerful looking legs. They are much heavier than they appear - an average Runic can weigh twice as much as a standard Helmsmen in identical gravity - and seem to interact with the various types of magic in a different way than the other races. Despite their appearance, they are not solid metal - their surface shell is strong but fairly thin, and covers quite a bit of sensitive equipment. They have 5 points of natural armor, but only 30 health. They are immune to the diseases that afflict other races, but seem to have several of their own. They also lack any sort of natural regeneration, the they can be "healed" by the shaping magic of another Runic. They can also tinker with their bodies, modifying them to gain a variety of bonuses, but the Conditioning Minor Skill Group is inaccessible to them. The Runic are "newcomers" in the minds of the other races, but there is also evidence to suggest they are the oldest of the lot and simply came from far, far away, fleeing some unknown disaster. They have a number of abilities that are only known to members of the Runic-exclusive Shaper's Guild, among these the ability not only to heal and modify fellow Runic, but also the secrets of the Blink engines that now power the galaxy - devices that only the Runic of the Shaper's Guild fully understand. The penalty for teaching this secret to an outsider is death, for both the teacher and his student and as many as are required to insure it become a secret once more. All members are expected to endure a full mind probe at regular intervals to insure that these secrets remain kept. Only one other race has ever been able to reverse engineer the Blink Engine and unlock its power - and it is believed that it was for this reason alone that the Runic finally joined in the war of Annihalation against the Grend. It is generally believed that the knowledge was lost to the Grend, though not before they built a massive fleet of Grend Engines... most of which are now out of service, since the majority of Runic refuse to repair them and the Grend no longer know how. Suffice to say, the Runic keep their secrets well, and enjoy a certain amount of fear and respect amongst the other races for their monopoly over Blink Engine technology. While repairing a Grend engine is not explicitly forbidden, it is seen as... distasteful. The Grend seem to have a monolithic government, and additional advanced technology they do not share with the other races, such as the shieldwalls that surround a seemingly random subset of Grend planets, and the unknown weapon they used to destroy several planets within Grend space. Even if, as is often speculated, it was simply a set of absolutely Void Bombs, the construction of bombs the size that would be needed to utterly destroy a large planet is beyond the ability of even the wealthiest of governments, and the Runic apparently deployed several.
A Runic player can choose from several sets of bonuses (or no additional set), and can hire another Runic Shaper to change the later.
Possible Bonuses:
Scout: -3 armor, -2 damage dealt, double landspeed, +100 to climb, swim, agility, balance, reduce weight by half.
Heavy: +2 armor, half landspeed, +20 health, double weight.
Bruiser: +3 damage dealt in melee, +100 to strength checks, +1 armor, half again as much weight.
Floater: -5 armor, -3 damage dealt, +100 to climb and agility checks, +150 to balance checks, reduce weight to a fourth. Comes with built-in fizzjet thrusters capable of carrying own weight, and the capacity for a minute's worth off fizz fuel with a hundred pounds worth of lift.
Tanktaur: +3 armor, +30 health, legs replaced with treads so cannot handle stairs or jump, triple weight, size doubled (not height or width but length from front to back). +150 to balance checks when on flat ground, +50 otherwise. Up to a hundred pounds of weight can be strapped to this units base without counting against carry capacity.
Grend
The Grend, visually, are a terrible and fearsome race to behold, and most other races consider them revolting. A hairless and amphibious race who prefer it damp, they have three large lidless eyes - the largest one facing forward, and two slightly smaller on the sides, each covered with a thick protective lens. Their smooth green skin glistens and runs with the sappy yellow oils that keep them moist, and their voices seem to alternate between whispering and wet slapping noises. They eat by spitting on their food, waiting for it to dissolve beneath the strong acid, and then protruding a long hollow tongue to slurp it up.
Behaviourally, they in turn find all of the other races disgusting to behold, and on the whole they are violently xenophobic. They are clever though, their tri-segmented brains holding sharp minds. For the longest time, they believed they were the only sapient - or at least space-faring - race in the galaxy, and their major religion and the government of their great empire were both founded on the premise that the Universe in all its glory was their birthright. Of course, their would be challenges to overcome - the various worlds were simply teeming with vile monsters that had to be cleared away before they were fit to inhabit - but they believed that eventually all would be theirs.
This belief took a beating after brutal war against an alliance of the other races left both their home planets destroyed, their goverment shattered, and their military and industrial capacity left in ruins. The introduction of the blink engine had extended the reach of the other races into Grend space and first contact was perhaps 15 years before the war, when the Grend seized a ship scouting out new territory. Over the next 15 years they were the ghosts of the frontier, until a massive army suddenly appeared on the doorstep of a helmsman kingdom and stripped the four inhabited planets in system almost completely of life before blinking away once more.
This first contact was a massive blow to the Grend's collective psyche, and they responded by reverse engineering the Blink Engine and then building a massive army, within the space of a little more than a decade. It was only the combined efforts of the great union that they were eventually repulsed.
While the majority of the Grend have secluded themselves, thinking of the other races only with bitterness and disgust, some have ventured forth into the galaxy at large, and a few of those have even done so for reasons other than taking up a life of piracy or seeking revenge.
Mechanically, the primary benefit of the Grend is that they are quick studies - primary skills cost them only 200 experience, and secondary skills only 25. They also have the ability to spit acid a short ways, damaging and blinding their enemies, up to six times per day - every use beyond the second, however, means a skipped meal unless they have access to delicious predigested Grend delicacies! They are hated by most, however, and they must constantly fight off a feeling of revulsion when working with the other races - they get a -10 to all checks while another races naked skin is in view (even just the face... well, especially the face) or while another race is speaking. They also have some unique abilities unavailable to the other races - one for each class and each minor skill tree. Helmsmen and Rats suffer a similar but lesser -5 revulsion penalty to all rolls while a Grend is in view.
Summary: The Grend reach their prime much more quickly than other races and then go a bit beyond. They also have a natural weapon. They for this advantage in terms of stigma and a frequent penalty to actions. They can be quite rewarding in the hands of a more skilled player, but a less skilled player have difficulty participating fully while playing as a character that will always be at least a bit of an "outsider".
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Topic: Pen&Paper Roleplaying: Swords and Sorcery in Space - AetherJam (Read 2361 times)