USH'S STAR WARS GAME- Draft Alien Powers

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Ushgarak
Meant to have this up earlier- sorry! Ben busy.

Here is the draft of the new alien powers (they will be drafts until they get final approval, which may take a long time). For now I will allow them in the game, but note that access to them is extremely limited.

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Exotic Aliens and Alien Powers

Most templates in the game are based around the idea of being human or human-like enough to make no real difference to gameplay. Star Wars is a game set in a galaxy of all kinds of aliens, but most protagonists are standard human/near-human types. Of course, then we have Chewbacca...

An exotic alien is a character who is alien enough for there to be particular advantages caused by their unusual physiology. These are represented by a special sort of schtick called 'Alien Powers'. The benefits from Alien Powers are always functional; they do not need to be loaded or the like.

However, even exotic aliens are not THAT exotic. Chewbacca still has two arms and two legs; this is not meant to be Jabba the Hutt weird, or playing superintelligent shades of the colour blue. Aside from whatever bonuses your alien powers give you, all characters most follow the normal rules for the game, particular in areas like movement. You cannot fly, turn into mist, kill people by looking at them or shapeshift.


The Weird and the Wonderful

Alien powers are often pretty handy, but there is a price. If you have an Alien Power, you look unusual enough to cause comment in many areas of the galaxy- less a problem in Hutt Space, more a problem on the very human-centric noble worlds.

Chewbacca is a good example- despite his heart of gold, he naturally frightened those who saw him, not helped by Han talking about him pulling arms off of people.

The GM will decide what effect this has on social gameplay. Generally, if you have a lot of physical alien powers, you will likely scare people unintentionally. If you have lots of mental ones, you look strange and unsettling.


Gaining Alien Powers

For both thematic and balance reasons, Alien Powers are restricted to certain templates

Note- this powers work with the new draft templates, not the older ones that you may have found linked form the main rules

Some templates come with Alien Powers by default, whilst some can choose to have them in lieu of other abilities.

Generally speaking, it is best to only take Alien Powers at creation. However, the GM may approve the 'evolutionary development' of further powers of he feels it is reasonable and appropriate. This option can only be taken by those who already have Alien Powers. They cost the same as Blade Schticks (12 xp).

If your template can have Alien Powers but you did not take any, you can, if you wish, state at character creation that you want to evolve some later. However, if you do this, you suffer from the exotic social penalty described above, even without any active powers. so you had better be sure!


Categories

Alien Powers come in three categories- Physical, Common and Mental. These have no associated rules by default, but your template will direct you to what powers you can and cannot take, with the emphasis being on no aliens having both physical and mental powers.

Ushgarak

Ushgarak
Note 'Celerity' is the global term I'll be applying to any effect that lets you act before everyone else in a round, like e a Charge tap.

HereticalDruid
There they are. Should I go ahead and pick out the ones that Azarl the Giant Bug will be using?

Ushgarak
Sure!

HereticalDruid
Okay. I want Azarl to be as disgustingly cockroach-like as possible.

He is going to have Evolved Armor, Superior Constitution, and Natural Weaponry.

Does being disgustingly scarily alien give Intimidation bonuses?

Ushgarak
Sadly no; probably compensated by your awkward use of the language.

Jazzman_78
Cool concepts there. I like the mental powers. Not something I would have thought of. I think alien, I think Chewie and Eerin Chim. Big scary terrors, never considered creepy brainiacs. Makes me wanna re-rolll a character.

HereticalDruid
Would it be okay if I switched Natural Weaponry for Alien Metabolism and make Azarl immune to poisons? I wanted to do that originally but didn't want to feel like the current situation influenced me.

Ushgarak
Err, that does look a bit dodgy now from my point of view.

HereticalDruid
That's okay then. Natural Weaponry is awesome too.

REXXXX
You could be immune to radiation, like actual cockroaches.

Ushgarak
Well if you take hostile environments, you are immune to all but one type.

Though I maybe should say 'highly resistant' rather than immune. There has to be a limit.

Bespin Bart
This does make Superior Physiology look a little different from how it is set up for Xeth, unless I'm reading it wrong.

Ushgarak
Yes it is.

Bespin Bart
So it's not just a +1 bonus, it's an actual point to the stat?

Ushgarak
Yes but that messes up the balance of lightsabre-wilding templates so it was different for you.

REXXXX
Let it stay that way! I don't like competition.

Bespin Bart
Fair enough, it's still awesome. I probably won't go any further with Alien Powers, I don't want Xeth to become unnerving.

REXXXX
What did Chion have? Superior Physiology and Constitution are pretty obvious... and Alien Metabolism?

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