I've been wanting to use the Fragged Empire setting for Starfinder. For those not in the know, it's basically a setting where you play as artificially created races in the aftermath of a massive, genocidal war that happened 100 years ago. It's a post-post apocalyptic setting, set in the age where people have stopped just trying to survive in the aftermath of the Great War and are trying to rebuild civilization in the ruins of their creators.
One of the key things to know is that there are no humans in the setting; they all went extinct thousands of years ago. All of the playable races are the creation of the species that humanity created to inherit their empire before they died off, the "Archons". That means that most of the playable races aren't too alien and use human mannerisms, and most are humanoid. "Most" being the key word.
There are eight playable races, the first four being here, from left to right. For now I'm just looking for advice to stat out the first four "main" races here:
The Corporation: These guys are the most "human" looking, both appearance wise and culturally speaking. They have yellow patterned skin on parts of their body They are the archetypical "merchant" race, and their society operates as a vast megacorporation, hence their name. They possess no unique genetic gifts, which is why their Archon creators found them lacking and thus deemed them inferior, something the Corporates have not forgotten.
Stat wise, I was thinking a +2 to Intelligence and Charisma, but a -2 to Con: Corporates are savvy, but tend to have a low constitution of body. Other abilities, I'm not sure of yet.
The Legion: Appearance wise, these guys can best be described as "reptilian-looking apes". These guys were created by the Archons to fight, and only to fight, hence them being the "warrior race" archetype. With the twist that they its in their genes to operate under military hierarchy, and are struggling to build a society that doesn't need war to function. Because they were created so fast, they have a major flaw: unless they have environmental suits on, they become extremely uncomfortable outside of cold environments.
Stat wise, they're essentially dwarves: a +2 to Wisdom and Constitution, but a -2 to Charisma. They have immunity to negative effects in cold environments.
Kaltoran: Kaltorans have four pointy ears, and all have "genetic" dreadlocks, although Kaltorans can certainly style their hair however they want. The favored race of the Archons, Kaltorans have the genetic ability to recall memories of their ancestors, which is both a boon and a great curse, in the aftermath of the Great War, where they had to rely on extreme measures to survive. They're supposed to be the "space rogues" of the setting.
Stat wise, I was strongly considering giving the Kaltorans the human's floating +2 to any ability score and an extra skill point every level, but I'm not sure I want to also give them a bonus feat too. I was considering giving that to the Nephilim (see below). They're also supposed to have darkvision.
Nephilim: These were the "bad guys" of the setting, created by the renegade X'ion, itself a creation of the Archons, to wipe them out along with the Archons' creations, sparking off an apocalyptic war that didn't stop until every last Archon was dead. X'ion abandoned its Nephilim army after this, reducing most of them to a feral state of mind. However, one brood has united under a strong leader, the "Dev-Lich", who wishes to cooperate with the other surviving races to rebuild civilization.
Stat wise, Nephilim are a little tricky. You can see in the image that there's three types of Nephilim:
-Purebloods are perfect speciments of their original, X'ion-designed form. Most are large-powerful, monstrous-looking creatures with admirable physical and mental ability.
-Hybrids are from a mixed Pureblood or Hybdird pairing. They're adaptive, cunning and flexible creatures, and are extremely varied in appearance; many have mammal and/or insect features. There are more Hybrids than Purebloods these days, and the former can be as every bit as tough and cunning as the latter.
-Emissaries were created only a few years ago in the setting. They were created specifically to interact with the other races and thus are more humanoid in appearance. Most appear female, although male Emissaries exist as well.
So I'm not really sure how to stat out or give abilities to the Nephilim. I know that Purebloods and Hybrids are going to take Charisma penalties, but Emissaries shouldn't, since they were created specifically with empathy in mind. How do I deal with three broad "sub species" within a single one?
Any advice/feedback to give? I can also give more information on any of the races if needed. None of this is final or finished; I want to try adding more stuff to the four races but I'm not sure what.
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For the Corporation, those look fine.
For the Legion, if going with -Cha on the Nephilim maybe skip it on these. -2 Int instead, maybe?
For the Kaltoran, if they have Darkvision you should definitely skip the bonus Feat and probably give them some ability actually involving the racial memory thing.
If going with three Nephilim sub-races, from description alone, I'd give modifiers something like this:
Pureblood: +2 Str, +2 Int, -2 Cha
Hybrid: +2 Dex, +2 Int, -2 Cha
Emissary: +2 Dex, +2 Int, -2 Str
Or something like that. You could give Emissaries a Cha bonus, but then they look too similar to the Corporate.
For the Corporation, those look fine.
For the Legion, if going with -Cha on the Nephilim maybe skip it on these. -2 Int instead, maybe?
Maybe. The thing with the Legion is that they're not supposed to be inherently less intelligent. I wanted to have a "bruiser" race that doesn't fall down the conventional "strong but dumb" archetype. I know the Nephilim Purebloods already fall down that path, but the Legion were created specifically to at least be as smart as them.
For the Kaltoran, if they have Darkvision you should definitely skip the bonus Feat and probably give them some ability actually involving the racial memory thing.
I was actually thinking of statting Kaltorans as very similar to Half-Elves: +2 floating to any attribute, Skill Focus as a bonus feat, +2 to Perception checks and low light vision. Not sure about what to do with a Half-Elf's "Elven Immunities" deal, maybe that can be where the ancestral memory thing can come in?
Pureblood: +2 Str, +2 Int, -2 Cha
Hybrid: +2 Dex, +2 Int, -2 Cha
Emissary: +2 Dex, +2 Int, -2 StrOr something like that. You could give Emissaries a Cha bonus, but then they look too similar to the Corporate.
Hmm...this might be a good start. Maybe give Emissaries am inherent +2 bonus specifically to Diplomacy checks?
I think a problem I'm gonna run into is that, when I introduce the other four races, it's probably just going to be inevitable that two races are gonna have similar bonuses in the same attributes, if not the same bonuses. I guess that comes with the territory of only having a certain amount of attributes.
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I honestly envision the Vex when I think about the legion. Bred for war.
Have you actually played Fragged? We gave it a go but found a few issues with rules as written. I loved the concept but I think he could really use a greater development budget to employ a team to help out.
Still, it's a pretty good game for one guy to have written and get published.
Sadly, I suspect Starfinder may destroy his market.
I honestly envision the Vex when I think about the legion. Bred for war.
They're definitely similar. The difference being that the Legion does not actively seek military conquest, and are struggling to form a civilian society in a post-war world.
Have you actually played Fragged? We gave it a go but found a few issues with rules as written. I loved the concept but I think he could really use a greater development budget to employ a team to help out.
Yeah, I've played it a few times. There were parts of the system that I liked, but the setting held far more appeal to me.
Sadly, I suspect Starfinder may destroy his market.
I'm not so sure. SF is specifically marketed as "Pathfinder in space", which not everyone is a fan of. I'm barely holding onto Starfinder myself because I did not like Pathfinder's clunkiness and pedantic rulesets at all, and I think SF fixed quite a bit of the issues I had with the former. I'm gonna play a few sessions with the races/setting as written, see how things work out. So this FE conversion is built upon a "what if I like Starfinder" scenario.
Unfortunately most other systems that are currently available doesn't seem to be able to support FE very well, because they all assume human-centric universes, whereas in Fragged, humans are extinct.
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I hope so, for his sake really. It was a gutsy move that deserves to pay off. His setting is great.
Another great background setting is the one from Infinity, the table top game. If you haven't done so, try to get a hold of the fluff behind that one. A great read.
As for your races, why don't you just rename the ones in Starfinder and use those stat adjustments. Should be pretty close for most of them. Just reskin what already exists.
I hope so, for his sake really. It was a gutsy move that deserves to pay off. His setting is great.
Another great background setting is the one from Infinity, the table top game. If you haven't done so, try to get a hold of the fluff behind that one. A great read.
As for your races, why don't you just rename the ones in Starfinder and use those stat adjustments. Should be pretty close for most of them. Just reskin what already exists.
I'm always open to just reflavoring things, I'm just not sure what to reflavor. The Vesk and Legion and similar, but the latter requires environmental suits outside of arctic environments to survive, and are thus immune to cold effects caused by the enviornment.
I'd need to figure out what races to give humanity's bonus feats/bonus skill point per level abilities, since the elimination of humans as a playable race has mechanical as well as setting consequences.