Making Starfinder's Races Your Own

[Opsylum]

So, needless to say, I'm super excited about all of Starfinder's races that have been introduced so far. Being introduced to a sci-fi re-imagining of the D20 fantasy genre has proven to be every bit as exhilarating as I'd hoped. That said, if the Shirren racial spread in the Core Rulebook is any indication, we're still going to have a lot of space to interpret these various species and their cultures and make them our own. How do you plan to play out Humans, Androids, Lashuntas, Ysoki, Kasathas, Vesk and Shirrens? I'll give this a go.

HUMAN

Given that humans come from a variety of places in Starfinder's cosmos, apart from Golarion (Akiton, Azlanti Star Empire, and Androffa, to name a few), humans can't really be depicted as the last gasp of a wounded race struggling to survive, Titan A.E. style. Instead, I view the non-Akitonian humans of the Pact World system to be the remnants of Golarion's lost culture. People of various ethnic descents who may have been former rivals before the Gap (such as an Andoran and a Chellaxian), are now brothers and sisters in a shared, personal journey either to restore their lost culture, or create a new identity. I tend to view this as a central divide between humans, a conservative faction that wants things to go back to the way they were, and a more liberal faction that wants to spread throughout the stars and create a new civilition, respecting their Golarion roots as inspiration for a new human empire, rather than being defined by it. Both conservative and liberal factions tend to see Iomedae as representing their own highest ideals, the former faction often emphasizing her role as a protector, while the latter worship her qualities of ambition, sacrifice, and glory.

ANDROID

The Androids of the Pact Worlds come from a heritage of slavery, and as such tend to be cautious of others' motivations (especially humans), and are attentively self-sufficient. This is often excacurbated by being the only commonly occuring synthetic life form in the Pact Worlds system, and having to deal with many harmful stereotypes, such as "not having any emotions," "not having a soul," and even contradicting prejudices about them having a "primitive, artificial mind" while also being "cold and calculating" and "too smart for their own good." In truth, while synthetic life is functionally different from organic life, it is no less complex, capable, and spiritual. Despite having an inherent suspicion of organics, Androids also possess an innate curiosity and craving for knowledge, and are a deeply sensitive and impressionable race. Having a greater connection to technology than other races, many Androids sate their curiosity by learning about the world abstractly through infospheres and literature, never leaving Android-dominated communities for long; yet others are filled with dreams of discovery and assimilation, desiring to integrate with the greater galactic community, whether by blending in with other species, or by elevating their kin through peaceful social movements, or through forceful protests, such as those performed by the Android Abolition Front. Most Androids see Triune as their patron god, and many idealists view their gift of Drift technology to the mortal world as a sign that they are intended to travel and connect with the world at large themselves, earning others' respect through their contributions and ingenuity.

LASHUNTA

One of the most respected and prodigious races within the Pact World system, the Lashuntas are often viewed as detached and luminary beyond ability to approach - and yet there are nearly unanimously respected. Indeed, their culture is ancient, and the aptitude of the common Pact World citizen tends to pale next to the average Lashunta, thanks to a sophisticated social system that is simultaneously decentralized, yet harmonic, and endlessly beaurocratic, yet strangely efficient. Lashunta society is often viewed as idyllic by outsiders, despite sharing its own problems, such as a lingering, internal social inequality between sexes and castes. Although despite a certain reliance on tradition, Lashunta society is also quick to evolve, placing great emphasis on self-sufficiency, and valuing perfection of mind, body, and spirit over all else. Because of this, Lashuntas have become the one of the most scientifically advanced and magically fluent races across the Pact Worlds, and their natural talents for diplomacy and characteristic wanderlust make them natural politicians and diplomats. Perhaps more than is healthy, many Lashuntas perceive the wealth and respect reserved for their people as a mandate that they guide the Pact World's spiritual path into the future. Because of this, Lashuntas gravitate toward pursuits of power - not necessarily because they are powerhungry (as others suspect) - but to fulfill what is, in their minds, their grave responsibility to the world: to bring order and perfection. Viewing Yaraesa as the manifestation and proof of the perfection they venerate, this goddess is revered in Lashunta culture above all others.

I'll write the rest out later. I'm very curious to learn about everyone else's impressions and personal visions for Starfinder's races, and how you intend to interpret them in your own campaign settings - please share!

[Remy P Gilbeau]

Personally, I'm most excited about the Vesk. Raised from birth to revere conflict. Who, or what you're fighting for are trivial details, as is who you're fighting. All that matters is that you fight well, and your opponent was a challenge.

They are a race that needs honor like most races need water. But their honor is the honor of the battlefield; the honor of the victor. Using sneaky or underhanded tactics is perfectly honorable if you and those in your charge come out on top. A race that is keenly aware that their path could be cut short, they live their lives openly.

They see no point to veiling their emotions, good or bad. In either hate or love, a Vesk runs hot and fierce. They make sure their trusted comrades know they are cherished. Because they are raised to be keenly aware of the nature of battle they rarely let things remain unsaid even if this makes other races see them as blunt, or crude. You always know where you stand with a Vesk.

[SonOfCthulhu]

Too bad this thread didn't take off. I will throw in a few of my own GM'ing ideas on playing the various races to see of I can revive this topic. I think it's a good one.

Androids going with what is in the books, I've decided that every android the party meets will talk with a flat affect and will ALWAYS put the emphasis on the wrong syllable for the subtext being used. I imagine that Androids hear an intonation of a word a certain way and that is what gets put in their internal record of that word. They will then use it with the same "suprasegmentals" each time(you'll probably need to look that up. I had to, anyway). A bright cheery HELLO followed by a downbeat sentence of "i am glad to meet" and then a dramatic "YOU". In my mind I see their speech patterns like a kidnappers note. Every word is cut from a different magazine page with different fonts and type sizes, etc. And they don't notice it because all of this is humanoid nuance.

Shirren our creepy crawlers are all about choice, right? Well everything they do will emphasize that. The Starfinder the party would meet in the first part of Dead Suns? His office will have a Keurig like drink dispenser and he will have one of every pod imaginable. He'll spend ten minutes analyzing each one while he talks with the party, trying to select the best one. Also I'm including mouth-clicks for their names. At least the Shirren names, anyway. Chiskisk is going to come out "Chis-cheek click" in his native tongue.

A few "like" races that you can in a pinch use as a template to draw an inspiration from:

Vesk look to either ST - Klingons or Niven's Kniz with maybe a dash of ST-Gorn
Osharu try a snail version of Niven's Puppeteer race
Gosclaw take a look at M'Ress from ST:TAS, a proud member of the Caitian race
Aslanti never would I try to rewrite the great Star Empire troopers, but if I wanted to channel military badazzes I'd probably think ST:DS9's Breen or Dune's Sardaukar
Corpse Fleet Riddick's Necromongers naturally spring to mind and why wouldn't they?

I'll try to think of some more and add some additional thoughts here later. Would LOVE to hear how other DMs are making Aliens feel really ALIEN

That's all I have at the moment. Hopefully

[Metaphysician]

For the Lashunta, I generally go for a "classical Greek" styling, loosely. They acknowledge and take pride in a common culture, but the typical Lashunta identifies at least as strongly with their family, their various organizational affiliations, and *especially* their city-state moreso than a single common government or society. Other species might treat the Lashunta as having a single "government", but the Lashunta view themselves as having a federation of separate governments unified by cultural similarities and common outside threats. Except for those Lashunta who don't, because you can find a Lashunta who will disagree with every possible position, including this one. *ahem* This may sound like culture rather than species, and to an extent it is, but it ultimately arises from that, biologically, the Lashunta are a species of prodigies- the distribution of talent amongst Lashunta does not follow a normal bell curve like for most species. Much of Lashunta culture and society is essentially an adaptation against this, including "How to be good at being good"- being talented isn't the same thing as being productive, and getting people to cooperate when everyone wants to be the best is hard.

The Vercesians, beyond their obvious Indian-inspired caste structures, are a sort of. . . benign post-cyberpunk society. As a whole their society is very, very ordered, with a lot of governmental and corporate structures that are kind of omnipresent and extremely powerful. Its the kind of thing where, for humans, everything would almost certainly have fallen into all kinds of dire corruption and dystopia. The Vercesians are not humans, however, and essentially have a variety of subtly more "pro-social" behaviors ( think: higher average empathy, lower average incidence of sociopathy ) that, combined with cultural background, allow them to make it work. Corruption, greed, short-sightedness, and other anti-social behaviors definitely exist, but they are more restrained. The result is a highly structured society that most other species will find either utopian, or subtly intolerable. Of course, Vercesian society is old enough and cosmopolitan enough that they have a long established tradition of foreign enclaves to help minimize culture shock.