John Compton Organized Play Lead Developer |
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My wrikreechees! In the wild!
When we were planning out Alien Archive, one of the brainstorming exercises involved naming weird alien physiology. Terms like "mouth tubules" and "external stomaches" flew about the room, but apparently my suggestion of "arm baleen" was what caught James Sutter by surprise. Creating a creature with arm baleen sorta became a dare during that meeting, and as we closed up the session, I accepted the challenge and began devising a world in which they might arise.
I find the final result quite charming. We need more classy invertebrate filter feeder PC races.
Dominar Rygel XVI |
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Ooo, neat. Although my brain keeps trying to twist wrikreechees into weekiwatchee (wrikeewatchee?).
Waiting until the PDF releases on the 18th is getting harder.
Owen K. C. Stephens Starfinder Design Lead |
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The Wrikreechee has a symbol that looks very similar to the Starfinder Society's emblem. Confirmed Wrikreechees are SFS legal or do they just like compasses too?
Since the Starfinder Society is an in-world organization it's only appropriate that we use their ideology to illustrate some of the RPG material.
That should never been seen as a hint that it's Org Play legal.Only declarations to that effect from members of the Starfinder Org Play team should ever be seen as tea leaves of being SFS legal. :)
John Compton Organized Play Lead Developer |
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The Wrikreechee has a symbol that looks very similar to the Starfinder Society's emblem. Confirmed Wrikreechees are SFS legal or do they just like compasses too?
As for whether—and as it applies, how—the wrikreechees feature in Starfinder Society Roleplaying Guild is news that's coming soon, so keep an eye out for upcoming blogs.
Big Lemon |
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It's possible I just missed the explaination for this somewhere, but why is it that some, if not most, of the PC aliens have abilities in their stat blocks that the PC versions don't get? For example, the dragonkin has a bite attack in its statblock, but the racial traits don't appear to give it one.
Owen K. C. Stephens Starfinder Design Lead |
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I only have one question. How the heck do they wield tools or even guns when their hands end in what appear to be prickly blades?
Regardless of the art, they have some method of grasping, ranging from featherlike filaments on their forearms to articulated claws that can be folded into multiple shapes.
Sebastian Hirsch |
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It's possible I just missed the explaination for this somewhere, but why is it that some, if not most, of the PC aliens have abilities in their stat blocks that the PC versions don't get? For example, the dragonkin has a bite attack in its statblock, but the racial traits don't appear to give it one.
I guess balancing reasons might be a good explanation. That said natural attacks not supported by racial features like the Vesk's natural weapons ability do have a really weird scaling in this system.
Also quoting from the book:
Part of the fun of any science fantasy game is playing bizarre
alien races, and in Starfinder, we want groups to have as many
playable creature options as possible. As a result, many of the
creature entries in this book include racial traits—rules that
players can use to build characters of these races. In many
cases, these racial abilities are scaled-back versions of the full
monster abilities; this is because opponents run by the GM
(both monsters and nonplayer characters) are created using a
different rules system than player characters, but also because
it allows us to present a wide array of potential playable races
that might otherwise be too powerful.
Freedom Snake |
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Wrikreechee also have a powerful sonic weapon that you might have overlooked! Cursed wriks!
JiCi |
"dragonkin (Large dragon)"
This is something that kinda.. bugs me little, mostly due to this passage:
Many starfaring dragonkin families have resorted to genetic engineering to reduce their size to better fit in the narrow corridors of space stations and starships, and thanks to their near-telepathic bond with their partners, no humanoid of the legion would dream of flying a starfighter without her dragonkin copilot.
I get that going from 15-20 feet tall/long to 10 feet is a size reduction, but... the wording for this made it sounds like dragonkins would have become Medium.
I also kept hearing/reading that Large PC races were scarce due to being a little... impractical.
Dale McCoy Jr Jon Brazer Enterprises |
Berselius |
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"dragonkin (Large dragon)"
This is something that kinda.. bugs me little, mostly due to this passage:
Starfinder Core Rulebook, p. 453 wrote:Many starfaring dragonkin families have resorted to genetic engineering to reduce their size to better fit in the narrow corridors of space stations and starships, and thanks to their near-telepathic bond with their partners, no humanoid of the legion would dream of flying a starfighter without her dragonkin copilot.I get that going from 15-20 feet tall/long to 10 feet is a size reduction, but... the wording for this made it sounds like dragonkins would have become Medium.
I also kept hearing/reading that Large PC races were scarce due to being a little... impractical.
Wow, medium dragonkin that can be starfighter copilots who have telepathic links with their pilots. That's so awesome! :D
Berselius |
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{smiles} What do wrikreechees want?
Wrikreechee: I would like to live just long enough so I can be there when they cut off your head and stick it on a pike...as a warning to the next ten generations that some favors come with too high a price. I would look up at your lifeless eyes and wave like this...(twiddles fingers).
;) ;) :D
JiCi |
JiCi wrote:Wow, medium dragonkin that can be starfighter copilots who have telepathic links with their pilots. That's so awesome! :D"dragonkin (Large dragon)"
This is something that kinda.. bugs me little, mostly due to this passage:
Starfinder Core Rulebook, p. 453 wrote:Many starfaring dragonkin families have resorted to genetic engineering to reduce their size to better fit in the narrow corridors of space stations and starships, and thanks to their near-telepathic bond with their partners, no humanoid of the legion would dream of flying a starfighter without her dragonkin copilot.I get that going from 15-20 feet tall/long to 10 feet is a size reduction, but... the wording for this made it sounds like dragonkins would have become Medium.
I also kept hearing/reading that Large PC races were scarce due to being a little... impractical.
Huh, I think you misread: the dragonkin isn't a Medium creature...
Owen KC Stephens |
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AetherealFlux wrote:So, now I am imagining running an Starfinder Society game and I’ll have 6 Drow at the table named Dr$$it or something like that. <GM cringe>I'll have you know that my character's name is Space Drizz't, good sir, of Space House Space Do'Urden.
He likes Moon Pie and Mars Bars..
Luna Protege |
2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Berselius wrote:I only have one question. How the heck do they wield tools or even guns when their hands end in what appear to be prickly blades?Regardless of the art, they have some method of grasping, ranging from featherlike filaments on their forearms to articulated claws that can be folded into multiple shapes.
I wonder if this applies to all PC races; Urog (Large Magical Beast) seems an obvious example of the weird fact they can somehow manipulate items with little issue. Got to wonder how that works out.
Given that the door is now open to other Magical Beast creatures being PC races, my main question becomes how this is going to work out when eventually we wind up with Magical Beast Alien PC races that amount to large intelligent cats, wolves, and horses/unicorn/Pegasus (or rather, alien creatures that look like them) and we have to ask ourselves how they're holding the weapons and items.
Granted, I suppose something similar to the Contemplative's drawback on weapon handedness is probably a likely case for creatures with genuinely only maybe a tail and a mouth to use their items with.
This is all stuff I say knowing full well I would play as essentially a blink dog in space, of basically any class. Because that would be fun.
Spacecaptain Pillbug Lebowski |
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Jokey the Unfunny Comedian wrote:He likes Moon Pie and Mars Bars..AetherealFlux wrote:So, now I am imagining running an Starfinder Society game and I’ll have 6 Drow at the table named Dr$$it or something like that. <GM cringe>I'll have you know that my character's name is Space Drizz't, good sir, of Space House Space Do'Urden.
And like Moon Bars and Mars Bars, Space Drizz'ts are very tasty when deep fried. Even tastier when you're at least a bit inebriated.
UnArcaneElection |
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Jokey the Unfunny Comedian wrote:I'll have you know that my character's name is Space Drizz't, good sir, of Space House Space Do'Urden.WE GET IT! HE'S FROM SPACE!
No, actually, he's from Iowa -- he only works in outer space.
Steven "Troll" O'Neal |
jimthegray wrote:THe Eoxians will be playable but they won't be released til the book in March unfortunately.its a great book love the races, though i had though that eox was going to get some kind of playable race :(
other then that i love the playable races
Additionally, I heard that living eoxians will be profiled in the next chapter of the AP in December.
Berselius |
Berselius wrote:Jokey the Unfunny Comedian wrote:I'll have you know that my character's name is Space Drizz't, good sir, of Space House Space Do'Urden.WE GET IT! HE'S FROM SPACE!No, actually, he's from Iowa -- he only works in outer space.
Space Iowa? ;) :D
Gryffe |
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Given that the door is now open to other Magical Beast creatures being PC races, my main question becomes how this is going to work out when eventually we wind up with Magical Beast Alien PC races that amount to large intelligent cats, wolves, and horses/unicorn/Pegasus (or rather, alien creatures that look like them) and we have to ask ourselves how they're holding the weapons and items.
Handwave it away. It worked for My Little Pony, no reason it won't in Starfinder either !
FirstChAoS |
So, now I am imagining running an Starfinder Society game and I’ll have 6 Drow at the table named Dr$$it or something like that. <GM cringe>
Don't remind me of the 90's D&D drow trend *shudder*.
So many players digging out the most unbalanced rules variants to play Drizzt clones. It is part of the reason why I dislike Drow. (the other is judging an elf as evil by skin color).
Unnecessary Drow in a RPG always feel to me like a random Wolverine appearance in a Marvel comic. A quick cash grab that trades quality for popularity.
Torbyne |
Contemplatives don't have telepathy either. How odd.
Surely this is a mistake? Some of these race entries even state that they communicate almost exclusively through that ability.
Their telepathy isnt racial, its social; all members of the species are given nano injections at birth that function as a built in comms device. Its just not included in the write up as cyberware isnt lootable. :P
Owen K. C. Stephens Starfinder Design Lead |
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Owen K. C. Stephens wrote:I wonder if this applies to all PC races; Urog (Large Magical Beast) seems an obvious example of the weird fact they can somehow manipulate items with little issue. Got to wonder how that works out.
Regardless of the art, they have some method of grasping, ranging from featherlike filaments on their forearms to articulated claws that can be folded into multiple shapes.
Paragraph two, sentence one.
"Urog anatomy can be deceptive."kaid |
Contemplatives don't have telepathy either. How odd.
Surely this is a mistake? Some of these race entries even state that they communicate almost exclusively through that ability.
I found that a bit odd too but it is easy enough to add to them via feats or class or archetype. They did say specifically the player options give up some stuff so they can be balanced as playable so it is a reasonable trade off and easy enough to pick back up if a player really wants it.
One of the bigger changes for contemplatives though is their flight. They go from perfect flight as NPC to average as a PC which as mechanics with hover drones can attest can be a bit problematic given the current flying/hovering rules. Its not to big of a deal for a caster contemplative but it would be hard for them to do full attacks unless they land and move at the speed of slow.
Luna Protege |
Luna Protege wrote:Owen K. C. Stephens wrote:Regardless of the art, they have some method of grasping, ranging from featherlike filaments on their forearms to articulated claws that can be folded into multiple shapes.I wonder if this applies to all PC races; Urog (Large Magical Beast) seems an obvious example of the weird fact they can somehow manipulate items with little issue. Got to wonder how that works out.Paragraph two, sentence one.
"Urog anatomy can be deceptive."
Considering the way I phrased that train of thought, I shouldn't be surprised that your answer amounts to "basically yes".
Of course, the answer you give also seems to suggest (by way of the answer being from the Alien Archive itself) that not even people watching an Urog in-universe can figure out how they hold objects.
... I'm not sure if the logical extension of that would be once the Urog actually picks up an item, but the two possibilities that come to mind are these:
1) An Urog picks up a gun, and the observer says "oh, so that's how you hold those!"
2) An Urog picks up a gun, and the observer says "Wait... How are you holding that?"
Meanwhile, I should note that when I first saw the Urog's image, I thought their electro-bubble was supposed to be something resembling an insect's crystalline wings folded in such a way to create a shield... Actually they still might be. So yeah, I can get the weird biology thing.
Jhaeman |
I just love the irony that Pathfinder (Society) has a really long and detailed list of the different item slots that each type of animal companion/familiar/mount can use depending on their anatomy, while Starfinder is more like "no limbs, no problem!" I don't know if it's good or bad, but it's definitely different.