After sending Trey my seeds yesterday I emailed Fenway5 my material for Rogue Transmissions #2, a fuller version of the lost and found item list.
Now that's done, I'll be finishing up and posting rules for a few general factions. They're also aimed at Rogue Space, but should be easy enough to convert to other systems and settings. First up are the transhuman Trippies.
Now that's done, I'll be finishing up and posting rules for a few general factions. They're also aimed at Rogue Space, but should be easy enough to convert to other systems and settings. First up are the transhuman Trippies.
So who are these Trippies then?
Humans of the clade known as the Trippies are squat, strong and bioengineered with a prehensile third leg grown from the lower back, an adaptation to dynamic atmospheres.
And what's that got to do with us?
At the GM's discretion, Trippies may be taken as starting characters and/or be NPCs.
Starting characters: Origin, nature and lifestyle mean around 50% of Trippies have the Technician Archetype, and all have a further +1 Hit Point. The many challenges and the clade rejection mean initial Empathy is -1D3. The GM may allow a finboard or skytrike.
NPC groups: A group may include 1D6 Trippies of up to 1D2 generations; all but 1D3-1 will have a finboard and there will be skytrikes with seating or anchors for all but 1D2-1.
The third leg: A third leg may be used to a) hold or manipulate as if a hand or b) move 50% faster than an average bipedal human. It may be used simultaneously to reroll one die per attack in melee against humanoids, to represent surprise kicks, trips, switches and bracing. If a third leg is badly injured, initial instability modifies all Attributes by -1.
Technologies: Trippies make extensive use of various advanced human technologies, notably anti-gravitics. In many colonies, Trippies are adept riders of tripedal finboards, these often towed by skytrikes; the largest skytrikes mate with interstellar driveframes.
Finboard, powered* C - H - A - S - E 100% [2] skims: 25' powered or 2 x rider move
Skytrike, suborbital, random pattern*
C 16.6% [1] Canopod (seating for 1D3 Trippies: 1 rider + 0-2 passengers)
H 16.6% [1] up to 3 Rating points of payload, 1D3+3 finboard line anchor points
A 16.6% [1] C: 1 H: 1 S: 1
S 50% [3] 125'
E 100% 6
* Uses the vehicle construction rules in Rogue Transmissions #1.
But what are they doing here..?
The GM may want to roll below for each starting character or NPC group, who is/are:
The GM may want to roll below for each starting character or NPC group, who is/are:
- ... trading, or otherwise seeking or offering skills, services or technology.
- ... fleeing a threat, prejudice, a discrimination of some form, or far worse.
- ... asserting a claim, attempting to right a wrong or continuing a vendetta.
- ... seeking a suitably hazardous landscape to explore, exploit or colonise.
- ... experimenting, releasing untapped potential or raising consciousness.
- ... studying, self-engineering or otherwise adapting to this particular site.
As ever, feedback is welcome, but better yet tweak what's here or run with it. If you don't know Rogue Space, my original review is here and the links below lead to more material.
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4 comments:
I like the name Trippies. That's cute. I see it as a nickname that stuck with them, their original name being lost or complicated. With them being squat bioengineered humans, the 3rd leg would be an adaptation mutation for high gravity worlds. Like a metal rich mining colony. It would provide extra stability and explain their short stature.
In Star*Drive i would use them just for that, especially the Thuldan Empire, who is all about bioengineering mutants and messing with genes.
Definitely use them if you want to.
The name is quite cute, and hopefully pulpy too, and of course potentially offensive in-world, if not beyond it. It places a question mark over just who the author, reader and characters might be in relation. The name as it is could reference them being tripedal, or the experience people might have of spending time around them, or seeing them in combat - of someone being tripped - or even suggest a sense of surreality in those not familiar with their appearance. I was thinking of giving them a Latin species name as well, but decided that might feel like a limit on their use in other realities than our own, and I want to keep this series fairly open.
The idea behind the leg itself and their being shorter is that they've adapted - or been adapted - to more energetic or turbulent atmospheres, where the extra stability would presumably help keep them upright, but that does makes sense with higher gravities too of course. There's that entry in the table of them looking for new landscapes and these could easily include high-gravity regions or worlds, without any need for the extra self-engineering.
These folks could find themselves right at home in Lithus Sector...
I'm pretty sure they've crossed over.
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