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[Ozarck]

This is a reboot of my first rtd, Roll to Alien.

You are an Alien. of course, from your perspective, the other races are the aliens.
Why are you here, on this space station so far from your homeworld?
Why have you come to dwell among the many strange species of beings found here?
What did they put in that drink, anyway?

Spoiler: Character generation rules (click to show/hide)

I reserve the right to amend these rules, especially by adding to them, should I feel the need. I'll try to keep it fun though

1) No humans.
2) no "humans, except ..." That is, no slightly modified humans, like "oh they have pointy ears"
3) no magic. No telepathy, no teleportation, no time travel. Any special skills must be scientifically explainable. The science behind it doesn't necessarily have to work, but it should be plausable.

I prefer it if the alien race is newly created, but sufficiently interesting aliens already invented are acceptable.
I would like you to be rather specific in the creation of your alien race.
you will play a single character within your alien race, so be specific about your character as well - what role within the species they have (shild, worker, drone, noble, male, female, smegma etc.)

below you will find the character sheet. this is a minimum template. feel free to include additional fields. I might not think of all the possible stats.

You don't have to have a complete sheet to join. We can work out some info as we go. But a lot of what's in here will make a difference to gameplay, so do try to flesh out the race as you go.

Spoiler: character race sheet(Work in Progress) (click to show/hide)

Name of race:
planetery origin: (what kind of celestial body does the being come from? empty space? asteroid? acid world like Venus? Earthlike? gas giant? Stellar disk?)
Gravity range. 1.0 is galactic average. generally, you should have around a .2g range (0.5g - 0.7, or 1.2g - 1.4g, or 2.9g - 3.1g) if your range is wider, I'd like an explanation as to why they are capable of such variety)
Breathe: (what type of atmosphere do they live in? do they breathe at all? are they water dwellers?)
consume: what nourishment do they need? meat? veggies? sunlight?
temperature range: (how hot or cold do they need their environment. Please specify in farenheit (in parenthesis if you prefer to use celsius as your standard)
sensory abilities: sight hearing, etc
limbs: how many, where are they located, what do the limbs do?
communication: how do they interact with other sapient beings?

optional:
genders: how many, what role in reproduction / survival of the species do each play?
history: how as this race fared in the galactic environment?
technological level: primitive, industrial, information age, space age, interstellar, etc.

Spoiler: character sheet (also a Work in Progress.) (click to show/hide)

Name:
Race:
status within the race:
occupation:
skills:

clarifications of terms. please ask to have any terms included that you find useful

Spoiler: definitions (click to show/hide)

sentient: able to feel pain and emotions (fear, anger, calm, excitement)
Sapient: able to think and process logical information. The basic "intelligence" stat.
an animal might be sentient but not spaient. An artificial intelligence might be sapient but not sentient.

[SaberToothTiger]

Spoiler: The Robotic race of Zemljanie (click to show/hide)

Name of race: Zemljanin. Plural Zemljanie. Adjective Zemljan.
planetery origin: Ringworld Delta-Warren-Alpha-Rico-Foxtrot (Ringworld DWARF)
Gravity range: 1.2 - 1.4
Breathe: No need, however a nitrogen based atmosphere devoid of oxygen is preferable to avoid corrosion.
Consume: Ethanol to fuel the burner inside.
Temperature range:  (-55 ° to 125 °C)
Sensory abilities: Sight, hearing, pressure, touch, warmth, infra-red and ultraviolet waves.
Limbs: Standard is two legs and two arms, but the shell can be customised to house more limbs or replace the legs with tracks, etc.
Communication: Voice generator, wave emitter (infra-red/ultra-violet).
Genders: The Zemljanie have transcended petty divisions like gender, however traditional Zemljane mostly live in pairs and consider themselves parents of their children (even though new Zemljanie are assembled, not born).
History: Though much of the cultural database of Zemljanie was lost, the race begun as an organic one. They inhabited Zemlja, but due to an unspecified disaster the race was wiped out, sans for one seedship, launched several years prior. After a long travel it managed to find a planet with similar characteristics to Zemlja. After millenias of recovery the race had managed to achieve planetary unity and the Tsar alongside with his advisors has decided to house himself and his servants in a shell more fitting than the organic body they possesed. The operation was a success and soon it was performed on all Zemljans. After abandoning the flesh the Tzarate was able to establish several colonies outside of their new homeworld. The race has accomplished several great projects of infrastructure, like building Dyson Spheres, Habitats in the void, Ring-Worlds and science stations housing milions of people. The Tzar, to maintain eternal loyalty of his subjects has decided to include a loyalty circuit in the hardware of every Zemljanin.

Name: Taras Soroka.
Race: Zemljanin.
Status within the race: Propaganda officer.
Occupation: Loan Shark.
Skills: Intimidation, Bargaining, Melee and Ranged Combat, Persuasion, Public Speaking, Street Wisdom.

[randomgenericusername]

I have an idea for a species but I don't know how to fill it up on the sheet.

Spoiler: Ooze (click to show/hide)

They are a multicellular organism like slime mold that can survive as individual cells and reproduce by mitosis. They are like a slime that feeds on organic matter and can develop a symbiotic-parasitic relationship with corpses. The slime can take control over corpses and reanimate them, using the slime to fix any missing parts on the body and reinforcing the rest. They are like sentient zombies that are under control of their planet Jichodgh, a massive organic entity made of slime and various types of organic matter. They are not agressive and only infect corpses, and these zombies keep their personality but lose most of their memories upor revivification. Their planet is like Jupiter but made of body horror and slime, which also has a mental connection to every slime zombie and encourages them to infect more corpses. The slme itself does not need to breathe and can survive in space for extremely long periods of time. The sentient planet-slime launches asteroids of meat infected with the slime to various planets to have them spread into the universe. The bigger the concentration of slime cells, the more complicated functions they can perform and structures they can construct.
Basically, slimey zombies.

[Ozarck]

Spoiler: The Robotic race of Zemljanie (click to show/hide)

Name of race: Zemljanin. Plural Zemljanie. Adjective Zemljan.
planetery origin: Ringworld Delta-Warren-Alpha-Rico-Foxtrot (Ringworld DWARF)
Gravity range: 1.2 - 1.4
Breathe: No need, however a nitrogen based atmosphere devoid of oxygen is preferable to avoid corrosion.
Consume: Ethanol to fuel the burner inside.
Temperature range:  (-55 ° to 125 °C)
Sensory abilities: Sight, hearing, pressure, touch, warmth, infra-red and ultraviolet waves.
Limbs: Standard is two legs and two arms, but the shell can be customised to house more limbs or replace the legs with tracks, etc.
Communication: Voice generator, wave emitter (infra-red/ultra-violet).
Genders: The Zemljanie have transcended petty divisions like gender, however traditional Zemljane mostly live in pairs and consider themselves parents of their children (even though new Zemljanie are assembled, not born).
History: Though much of the cultural database of Zemljanie was lost, the race begun as an organic one. They inhabited Zemlja, but due to an unspecified disaster the race was wiped out, sans for one seedship, launched several years prior. After a long travel it managed to find a planet with similar characteristics to Zemlja. After millenias of recovery the race had managed to achieve planetary unity and the Tsar alongside with his advisors has decided to house himself and his servants in a shell more fitting than the organic body they possesed. The operation was a success and soon it was performed on all Zemljans. After abandoning the flesh the Tzarate was able to establish several colonies outside of their new homeworld. The race has accomplished several great projects of infrastructure, like building Dyson Spheres, Habitats in the void, Ring-Worlds and science stations housing milions of people. The Tzar, to maintain eternal loyalty of his subjects has decided to include a loyalty circuit in the hardware of every Zemljanin.

Name: Taras Soroka.
Race: Zemljanin.
Status within the race: Propaganda officer.
Occupation: Loan Shark.
Skills: Intimidation, Bargaining, Melee and Ranged Combat, Persuasion, Public Speaking, Street Wisdom.

I don't see any issues here. looks good

I have an idea for a species but I don't know how to fill it up on the sheet.

Spoiler: Ooze (click to show/hide)

They are a multicellular organism like slime mold that can survive as individual cells and reproduce by mitosis. They are like a slime that feeds on organic matter and can develop a symbiotic-parasitic relationship with corpses. The slime can take control over corpses and reanimate them, using the slime to fix any missing parts on the body and reinforcing the rest. They are like sentient zombies that are under control of their planet Jichodgh, a massive organic entity made of slime and various types of organic matter. They are not agressive and only infect corpses, and these zombies keep their personality but lose most of their memories upor revivification. Their planet is like Jupiter but made of body horror and slime, which also has a mental connection to every slime zombie and encourages them to infect more corpses. The slme itself does not need to breathe and can survive in space for extremely long periods of time. The sentient planet-slime launches asteroids of meat infected with the slime to various planets to have them spread into the universe. The bigger the concentration of slime cells, the more complicated functions they can perform and structures they can construct.
Basically, slimey zombies.

that's a pretty fascinating race, and would probably work in a setting like Omega Legion. However, I see four main issues for this setting:

1) sapience (intelligence) requires a pretty complex network and wouldn't survive in single celled organisms.
2) a mental link with all scattered cells everywhere counts as racial telepathy.
3) I can't fathom anything the size (and therefore at least the weight) of Jupiter as surviving under it's own mass. I mean, I can fathm something like tht, but it would require a loooooot of explanation as to how the structure counteracted the many forces pushing it toward collapse
4) reanimating corpses requires a very intimate knowledge of said corpses. I could see two species on a single planet working together in such a way - but outside one's own evolutionary environment this action would be a far more challenging task.

I do like the idea of the race, but I think for this setting it wouldn't work very well.

If you like, we could pm about possible changes that would fit it in. I think we could keep some core ideas.

[randomgenericusername]

What do you think about these changes and explanations?

1. The point is that they aren't sentient unless they either 1) Grow big enough to be able to form basic organs and a body made entirely of slime (like planet slime) or 2) Fusing with a corpse and repairing the brain, filling the missing parts with slime (reanimated slime corpse). Most "pure" slimes are primitive beings that only know that they should stick to corpses because of a primal insticts that says that corpses are similar to their natural enviroment.
2. Only the planet is telepathic because of years of evolution and adaptation. It's one sided and can only reach the brains of the reanimated slime creatures. The cells have basic "communication" between them like our cells "communicate" between them. It's in their alien DNA, just like our human DNA has knowledge about how organs are shaped like and their functions. The slime just assimilates this DNA knowledge and mimics it, which grants it the ability to copy the functions of the missing cells. If a slime cell gets into a dead stomach, it combines with the dead cells and now it knows the function of a stomach and because the slime is alive, it can now regenerate the missing parts just like our skin regenerates from wounds.
3. The planet itself is "dead" but still full of edible organic matter. The planet is infested, but not made entirely of slime. There are cave systems filled with of slime that act as nerves or veins while in other underground are huge concentrations of slime that have formed enormous brains. All of these brains are connecte beteween them by the slime conduits to trade information between them. It's a brain, but the brain itself is a meaty planet and the neurons are smaller brains made of slime.
4. If getting slime inside of every cavity and then assimilating the whole body is not intimate enough then I don't know what do you want. The transformation is slow and always starts at the brain, using the innate knowledge inside the brain, the slime fixes everything else.

The thing about the ooze is that because it's so simple, it's easier for it to adapt to enviroments, especially inside bodies because their planet is a giant dead body.

[Dark One]

I hope I haven't gone too crazy with that.

Spoiler: Iron Devourer Race (click to show/hide)

Name of race: Iron Devourer
Planetery origin: RX-A162, a desert moon of a gas giant that is relatively close to it's sun
Gravity range: 1.2g - 1.4g
Breathe: O₂, it's respiratory system reminds the one of lungfish, meaning that it can breathe both on land and underwater.
Consume: Chemoautotrophs, they live in symbiosis with neutrophilic iron-oxidizing bacteria.
Temperature range: -32°C - 62° C (-25.6°F to 143.6°F), poikilothermic organisms living in warm caverns
Sensory abilities: They use echolocation as they are adapted to life in iron rich caverns, but can also see in infrared range, possess a good smell sense but no taste, they can sense magnetic field which aids them in searching for iron ore and can sense touch and pressure.
Limbs: It's humanoidal body is covered with moderately thick, dark scales. Two legs and two pairs of arms (one pair suited for movement and the other for complex object manipulation), a tail improving balance and working as a climbing hook (it ends with a sharp hook), a moderately sized head. The head has an expandable snout composed of two narrow tunes and one wide tube - narrow ones are used to extract a liquid with bacteria and wider one to devour.
Communication: They are able to communicate between themselves by emitting raspy, metallic noises, and they are capable of mimicking a narrow variety of noises when communicating with other species.

Genders: Male and female. Males fulfill roles of miners, iron gatherers, soldiers and nest builders while females are giving birth and raising children. Their society is dominated by females.
History: Discovered by more technologically advanced species through mistake landing on their moon. Soon after they were treated like ideal means of removing iron-based scrap that wasn't deemed suitable for recycling. Learning very fast, iron devourers quickly caught up with other sapient races.
Technological level: Space Age

Spoiler: Smurshjah (click to show/hide)

Name: Smurshjah
Race: Iron Devourer
Status within the race: Soldier
Occupation: Military Engineer
Skills: Geology, Metallurgy, Engineering, Melee combat.

[Ozarck]

updated the OP to include technological level as part of the stat sheet, and to include a couple definitions
for this game, sentience (ability to feel emotions and pain) and sapience (intelligence and self awareness, in effect) are not interchangeable.

What do you think about these changes and explanations?

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

1. The point is that they aren't sentient unless they either 1) Grow big enough to be able to form basic organs and a body made entirely of slime (like planet slime) or 2) Fusing with a corpse and repairing the brain, filling the missing parts with slime (reanimated slime corpse). Most "pure" slimes are primitive beings that only know that they should stick to corpses because of a primal insticts that says that corpses are similar to their natural enviroment.
2. Only the planet is telepathic because of years of evolution and adaptation. It's one sided and can only reach the brains of the reanimated slime creatures. The cells have basic "communication" between them like our cells "communicate" between them. It's in their alien DNA, just like our human DNA has knowledge about how organs are shaped like and their functions. The slime just assimilates this DNA knowledge and mimics it, which grants it the ability to copy the functions of the missing cells. If a slime cell gets into a dead stomach, it combines with the dead cells and now it knows the function of a stomach and because the slime is alive, it can now regenerate the missing parts just like our skin regenerates from wounds.
3. The planet itself is "dead" but still full of edible organic matter. The planet is infested, but not made entirely of slime. There are cave systems filled with of slime that act as nerves or veins while in other underground are huge concentrations of slime that have formed enormous brains. All of these brains are connecte beteween them by the slime conduits to trade information between them. It's a brain, but the brain itself is a meaty planet and the neurons are smaller brains made of slime.
4. If getting slime inside of every cavity and then assimilating the whole body is not intimate enough then I don't know what do you want. The transformation is slow and always starts at the brain, using the innate knowledge inside the brain, the slime fixes everything else.

The thing about the ooze is that because it's so simple, it's easier for it to adapt to enviroments, especially inside bodies because their planet is a giant dead body.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

1) this is okay
2) communications among cells in contact is fine. But how would the planet brain communicate with cells that are off-world? Unexplained "telepathy" falls right under rule three, as stated in the OP.
3) this is fine, but the planet would not be a gas giant in this case.
4) I could allow something like this, wiht some heavy restrictions, such as:
a) creatures from the homeworld would be infectable witut additional requirements except that the body be fresh
b) creatures of a similar biological make-up would require repeated attempts and a slime being of a certain level of complexity before initial success. once success is had, that species could be infected with reduced effort, but still more effort than homeworld creatures
c) species that are potentially compatible but are not from a similar world wold require intelligent intervention fro ma highly complex collective of slime in order to be assimilated
d) some species would simply be unavailable for this purpose. divergent evolution means that creatures can't just automatically interact with each other at a genetic level. information could be coded in quite a wide variety of forms. Just think of the various languages on earth. basically you are asking for a single celled organism to have a linguistic ability to instantly know how to communicate with some other species at a genetic level just by being in contact with their corpse.

[randomgenericusername]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

2. More than telepathy, I was thinking of something like a mild hive mind. I assumed that since planet slime is a big brain made of brains of evolving slime, then it could have evolved enough to have the ability to contact other slime minds. But I'm fine with no telepathy or hive mind.
3. Of course.
4. What about this: Since the slime grows with organic matter that it consumes and it becomes more complex the more slime there is in a concentrated place, it can infest a corpse but instead of reanimating it, it just absorbs and eats it to grow in size, complexity and DNA knowledge.
Example: Rat sized slime eats dog corpse, now it's both dog sized and now has a better understanding of dog DNA. It might take more than one corpse to fully adapt to a species and it could take years, but it can eventually succed. Considering that the slime could have been researched to be used as a revival reagent, I'll asume the slime zombies are pretty common in various scientific planets that allow experimentation on bodies. Despite being zombies, they are pacific, only infect bodies and sapient sized infested are considered sentient because their complexity is high enough to form thought. "Pure" slimes need to be bigger than a gorilla to reach enough complexity to become sentient.
I could say that planet slime used to have fauna and vegetation similar to earth but it's mostly slime zombies now. They have mutated and deformed too much to be recognizable.

What do you think of this?

[Dark One]

I made a few edits to my race and character sheets, included technological advancement.

[Ozarck]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

2. More than telepathy, I was thinking of something like a mild hive mind. I assumed that since planet slime is a big brain made of brains of evolving slime, then it could have evolved enough to have the ability to contact other slime minds. But I'm fine with no telepathy or hive mind.
3. Of course.
4. What about this: Since the slime grows with organic matter that it consumes and it becomes more complex the more slime there is in a concentrated place, it can infest a corpse but instead of reanimating it, it just absorbs and eats it to grow in size, complexity and DNA knowledge.
Example: Rat sized slime eats dog corpse, now it's both dog sized and now has a better understanding of dog DNA. It might take more than one corpse to fully adapt to a species and it could take years, but it can eventually succed. Considering that the slime could have been researched to be used as a revival reagent, I'll asume the slime zombies are pretty common in various scientific planets that allow experimentation on bodies. Despite being zombies, they are pacific, only infect bodies and sapient sized infested are considered sentient because their complexity is high enough to form thought. "Pure" slimes need to be bigger than a gorilla to reach enough complexity to become sentient.
I could say that planet slime used to have fauna and vegetation similar to earth but it's mostly slime zombies now. They have mutated and deformed too much to be recognizable.

What do you think of this?

Something like that could probably work. I'll need to think a little about the sizes necessary for sentience and sapience, but overall, without the telepathy and with reanimation being a long term issue, rather than something automatic, that's okay.

I made a few edits to my race and character sheets, included technological advancement.

Looks good. i gave it a cursory look though, so there might be a bug or two I overlooked

Hopefully this game generates a little more interest though. maybe three or four more players to start.

[randomgenericusername]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

For "pure" slime to develop sentience is hard because the slime is a very simple organism, but because of their ability to adapt and evolve, they can "learn" and mutate. If there is more slime, the colony becomes more complex and develops the ability to build structures and organs. So the more slime there is, the smarter it becomes and the more complex it becomes because it can form more specialized organs and systems.
On the other hand, slime zombies do not need to grow so big because all the stuff they need is already on the corpse. They just "fix" the "holes" and become one with it. But because the brain is damaged on death, this results in amnesia from the corpse and complete loss of memories from their past life.

So "pure" slime creatures are bigger but dumber than the infested slime zombies. If the "pure" slime creatures become too big, they lose their ability to move so they can't become too large. If this happens, they wil commonly divide in smaller versions of themselves and search for bodies to infest. "Pure" slimes are just a last ressort that happens if there are no nearby bodies avaible for reanimation bit there is a lot of extra organic matter arround. Their life cycle is like this:

Jichodgh (planet slime) decides to launch slime into space. -> Meaty asteroids infested with slime land into a planet. -> Slime eats asteroid and has now grown in size, enough to be able to infest a body. -> Searches for a corpse.

Now, they can either find a corpse and become a zombie or fail to find one and grow enough to become a slime creature.

-> Slime colony finds a corpse, prepares to infest. -> Now infested corpse lives a normal life. ->  Consumes organic mater to regenerate itself if it's wounded or hungry and any excess slime leaves the body to search for a new corpse. The cycle repeats.

I should note that infested bodies do not truly heal. Instead, wounds and holes are filled with slime. A corpse that is too damaged or mangled will be unable to resurrect and the slime will instead consume it and return to their primal state. "True death" for slime is almost impossible because of their incredible ability to survive and cooperate, but destroying their infested body is considered enough as the slime loses the ability to think or remember when the corpse is too damaged. A new corpse infested by the same slime is considered a different person and will not be able to remember anything.

Now I just have to pit all of this on a sheet... The problem is that everything depends of what creature the slime decides to infest, except that all slime zombies can survive in space and do not need to breathe, their planet has 2 times the gravity on earth and that they always eat organic matter. The slime itself can sense warmth and touch, can only communicate with other slime by trading genetic information and the planet they live in has a temperature range of (35.3–37.7 °C). Everything else varies with the species the slime infests.

[Harry Baldman]

Spoiler: The Mitlacks (click to show/hide)

Name of Race: Mitlacks

Planetary Origin: the lush garden world of Avlack in the far reaches of space, renowned for its dense cloud cover, inclement weather, geological turmoil and generally constant state of disturbance that has given rise to spectacular biodiversity.

Gravity Range: Mitlacks travel exclusively in their spaceships and thus are capable of withstanding a fairly broad range of conditions from without - within their ships' artificial gravity field, however, they're most comfortable around 1.2-1.4 g.

Breathe: about 27% oxygen is what a Mitlack prefers in their ship's internal atmosphere. They are a race with very strict policies about fire safety.

Consume: food replication is a well-developed technology for the Mitlacks so they really only need to dock their ships at a port that dispenses an adequate amount of organic precursors (sugars, purines and such) and their onboard systems can take care of the rest. Light is also helpful for most ships since it permits them to recharge their power banks.

Temperature Range: a Mitlack ship's hull can withstand temperatures up to about 3000 K (4940 F) for the most part on account of nanotechnological advances, but a Mitlack is most comfortable within 120-156 F.

Sensory Abilities: a Mitlack vessel can be expected to have a sensor array easily on par with that available to a military ship, and vessels of higher importance (diplomatic, military, particularly intelligence operations) can possess highly sophisticated sensory and communication tech. An individual Mitlack, however, navigates primarily by scent and possesses reasonably keen vision as well.

Limbs: 20 pairs of legs on a segmented body, the frontal 4 of which have fine grasping and manipulating functionality.

Communication: since they have trouble making enough sound or alternative communicative impulse to be noticed by most other creatures individually, Mitlacks conduct most of their communication either by beaming information from their comms or, depending on the medium they operate in, a loudspeaker or similar contrivance that tends to be custom-built for the situation in question.

Genders: the Mitlacks can reproduce sexually but find it inconvenient for the most part, instead favoring parthenogenesis for quick and reliable replenishment of their ranks on long voyages (which almost all of their voyages invariably are). Thus they are entirely female on virtually any vessel seen in modern space with the exception of a few "breedships" scattered throughout space for preservation purposes.

History: the Mitlacks had a rocky start on the interstellar stage, having made progress on many extremely promising technologies such as antigravity, faster-than-light travel and similar innovations, only to disappointingly discover that their application only worked on very small scales that they could not possibly exploit to any real benefit. Being a can-do sort of species, the Mitlacks decided on the next best thing - miniaturizing themselves! The Mitlack went from being roughly three feet tall to microscopic in the process of several centuries in a period their historians affectionately call The Race to the Bottom, and at this point have successfully reached the closest approximation to what they deem the Minimal Being. This has A) somewhat negatively impacted their overall credibility in diplomatic talks and B) led to a golden age through the seemingly endless feedback loop of scientific advances and space exploration feeding one another. It's a little difficult when your average battleship is about 3 feet long and a corvette can be as small as a couple of inches, but the Mitlacks have nevertheless made bold progress in traversing the stars, their ships floating through the intergalactic void and the haze of a crowded space canteen with equal ease. Some have hoped to exploit the Mitlacks' spectacular advances for their own benefit, but sadly it appears that a vast majority of it does appear to depend on very small scale applications - if it helps, however, any Mitlack could tell you that they're always accepting willing test subjects for minimization studies back on Avlack.

Technological Level: easily interstellar, approaching intergalactic

Spoiler: Captain Zolla (click to show/hide)

Name: Captain Nivirah Zolla

Race: Mitlack

Status within the Race: low-tier merchant captain

Occupation: captain of the Red Rider (freighter, 8 inches long, bulky, modular, armed with a single fairly painful UV laser and a tractor beam, 30 crew including herself), which in turn operates on a security detail assigned to onboard patrol. To avoid unnecessary paperwork every Mitlack vessel is registered as a single "person" despite the Mitlacks having no real tendency toward hive minds, although they do have a certain flair for collectivism regardless.

Skills: fast talk, clever maneuvers and asskicking

[Ozarck]

Spoiler: The Mitlacks (click to show/hide)

Name of Race: Mitlacks

Planetary Origin: the lush garden world of Avlack in the far reaches of space, renowned for its dense cloud cover, inclement weather, geological turmoil and generally constant state of disturbance that has given rise to spectacular biodiversity.

Gravity Range: Mitlacks travel exclusively in their spaceships and thus are capable of withstanding a fairly broad range of conditions from without - within their ships' artificial gravity field, however, they're most comfortable around 1.2-1.4 g.

Breathe: about 27% oxygen is what a Mitlack prefers in their ship's internal atmosphere. They are a race with very strict policies about fire safety.

Consume: food replication is a well-developed technology for the Mitlacks so they really only need to dock their ships at a port that dispenses an adequate amount of organic precursors (sugars, purines and such) and their onboard systems can take care of the rest. Light is also helpful for most ships since it permits them to recharge their power banks.

Temperature Range: a Mitlack ship's hull can withstand temperatures up to about 3000 K (4940 F) for the most part on account of nanotechnological advances, but a Mitlack is most comfortable within 120-156 F.

Sensory Abilities: a Mitlack vessel can be expected to have a sensor array easily on par with that available to a military ship, and vessels of higher importance (diplomatic, military, particularly intelligence operations) can possess highly sophisticated sensory and communication tech. An individual Mitlack, however, navigates primarily by scent and possesses reasonably keen vision as well.

Limbs: 20 pairs of legs on a segmented body, the frontal 4 of which have fine grasping and manipulating functionality.

Communication: since they have trouble making enough sound or alternative communicative impulse to be noticed by most other creatures individually, Mitlacks conduct most of their communication either by beaming information from their comms or, depending on the medium they operate in, a loudspeaker or similar contrivance that tends to be custom-built for the situation in question.

Genders: the Mitlacks can reproduce sexually but find it inconvenient for the most part, instead favoring parthenogenesis for quick and reliable replenishment of their ranks on long voyages (which almost all of their voyages invariably are). Thus they are entirely female on virtually any vessel seen in modern space with the exception of a few "breedships" scattered throughout space for preservation purposes.

History: the Mitlacks had a rocky start on the interstellar stage, having made progress on many extremely promising technologies such as antigravity, faster-than-light travel and similar innovations, only to disappointingly discover that their application only worked on very small scales that they could not possibly exploit to any real benefit. Being a can-do sort of species, the Mitlacks decided on the next best thing - miniaturizing themselves! The Mitlack went from being roughly three feet tall to microscopic in the process of several centuries in a period their historians affectionately call The Race to the Bottom, and at this point have successfully reached the closest approximation to what they deem the Minimal Being. This has A) somewhat negatively impacted their overall credibility in diplomatic talks and B) led to a golden age through the seemingly endless feedback loop of scientific advances and space exploration feeding one another. It's a little difficult when your average battleship is about 3 feet long and a corvette can be as small as a couple of inches, but the Mitlacks have nevertheless made bold progress in traversing the stars, their ships floating through the intergalactic void and the haze of a crowded space canteen with equal ease. Some have hoped to exploit the Mitlacks' spectacular advances for their own benefit, but sadly it appears that a vast majority of it does appear to depend on very small scale applications - if it helps, however, any Mitlack could tell you that they're always accepting willing test subjects for minimization studies back on Avlack.

Technological Level: easily interstellar, approaching intergalactic

Spoiler: Captain Zolla (click to show/hide)

Name: Captain Nivirah Zolla

Race: Mitlack

Status within the Race: low-tier merchant captain

Occupation: captain of the Red Rider (freighter, 8 inches long, bulky, modular, armed with a single fairly painful UV laser and a tractor beam, 30 crew including herself), which in turn operates on a security detail assigned to onboard patrol. To avoid unnecessary paperwork every Mitlack vessel is registered as a single "person" despite the Mitlacks having no real tendency toward hive minds, although they do have a certain flair for collectivism regardless.

Skills: fast talk, clever maneuvers and asskicking

So, you are playing the captain of an eight inch long space ship, that lives on a much more expansive space station among alien entities of all sorts? ... I could make an entire game with that premise. I have concerns over the likelihood of such small beings achieving sapience though. thoughts?

[Harry Baldman]

So, you are playing the captain of an eight inch long space ship, that lives on a much more expansive space station among alien entities of all sorts? ... I could make an entire game with that premise. I have concerns over the likelihood of such small beings achieving sapience though. thoughts?

Ah, but the Mitlacks used to about 3 feet tall in their natural habitat on Avlack before a transmitlack initiative undertaken to harness their more promising technologies pushed them to miniaturize themselves by clever technological chicanery over timeframes comparable to several Earth centuries.

There's likely still ur-Mitlacks back on Avlack too, now that I think about it, it's just that it's kind of like the divide in Asimov's Caves of Steel between Earthmen and Spacers - the neo-Mitlacks (which are currently the most successful branch expansion-wise) have managed to spread far beyond their homeworld because most of advanced Mitlack technology simply does not work for their considerably enlarged cousins back on Avlack, so they live reasonably comfortably, but in a state of far lesser power and privilege in comparison.

Should also be noted that Captain Zolla's ship is on the small end of vessels - Mitlack fighters are about the size of a louse, and the largest Mitlack capital ships are about man-sized while packing about a tank's worth of firepower or more.

[Ozarck]

This made me laugh. It's hard to argue with that kind of thing.

Let's give this until Friday or so to see if it gets any more takers, then see what you guys want to do.