I don't know that SF is the game for that, first off.
Also, there's a homebrew forum just a bit lower.
Still : elfs, drows, halflings, orcs (from PF) and goblins take care of eldars, dark eldars, ratlings, (basic) orks and gretchins well enough, so there's that.
Taus aren't that weird, just have a subrace for each of the 4 castes, with a relevant stat boost and some other ribbon (ethereal probably too strong).
Shobhads aren't too bad an inspiration for ogryns, though there's a bit of modding to do. Stats are okay (still way too much intelligence but that's part of the problem with converting), large size, some added toughness would be nice, that kind of stuff. 0f course, less arms, no darkvision, built-in claustrophobia, etc.
Necrons are tougher. But we have a couple tech races and some half undead, so building techno-undeads should be doable.
For the more exotic races ... I'd need to remind myself of the stryxis's stats, rak'gol should not be playable, marines would be hard to balance outside of an all marine game ... kroots aren't that hard to convert : keen senses, good physical stats, subraces for whatever your shapers made your kindred eat, that kind of stuff.
And so on.
Making new races seems easier than in PF, as they have less of a dramatic impact on balance. As long as you don't get too crazy.
Those are gonna be some tiny ships for a 40k game, though. No 5km long cruiser with a 100k strong crew for you.
Way too much magic, too. Pyres are waiting.
The Fangblade is pretty clearly a chainsword.
Mechanics and Technomancers (with some adjustments) would be good Tech-Priests. Mystics and Solarians are clearly psykers.
Are you just adding the races stat wise, or are you going for playing them in character? If you want to play them in character you are going to run into a lot of problems in the SF setting since the vast majority of 40k races/factions are massively xenophobic and likely will have hostilities if not declare outright war with the other factions.
Not to mention you'd need a pretty good explanation for why the pact words A) Hasn't been wiped out and B) why the pact worlds would put up with shall we say the space marines for example given that their outlook on life would be harsh by Azlanti standards.
At its inception, the Imperium of Man made one of its core objectives the extermination of all alien life forms that posed any threat to humanity. Thus many species suffered extinction at the hands of the newborn Imperium which perpetrated one act of genocide after another. This would also apply to the majority of human civilisations encountered during the course of the Great Crusade like the Interex and Diasporex civilisations, which had founded cultures where alien and human populations had successfully integrated into a single whole. Diplomacy was rarely tried, and was more often offered only to other human civilisations encountered in the course of the Great Crusade. Certain aliens, such as the Eldar, who were more technologically advanced than the Imperium were often simply left alone so long as they did not threaten human interests.
The Imperium of Man's extreme xenophobia and outright call for genocide against all other intelligent species in the galaxy is in some ways justified by the sheer hopeless belligerence of most xenos races encountered since the Great Crusade. Almost all alien races encountered by Mankind since the Emperor first began to push his forces out amongst the stars have been so malevolent or aggressive toward humanity that any form of negotiation or parley often proved impossible. Other instances, such as during the Imperium's first encounter with the human-alien alliance known as the Diasporex, would end in violence because of the inherent distrust the Imperium had for all alien civilisations even if there was common ground that could be found.
This policy of unconditional hatred persists into the modern Imperium more than 10,000 standard years after the Great Crusade ended in the blood and fire of the Horus Heresy. In that time, many more alien civilisations have been discovered and destroyed regardless of threat level, culture, disposition, or technology. These sentiments of xenophobia have been reinforced by the Imperial Creed, which preaches that Mankind has a divinely-inspired manifest destiny to be the sole ruler and inhabitant of the galaxy. Humanity alone, the Imperial Creed teaches, is the sacred form of intelligent life chosen by the God-Emperor to spread out amongst the stars. All other intelligent life is to be reviled as an abomination and an affront to the God-Emperor's plan for Mankind.
Much of the Imperium, led by the religious fervour of the Adeptus Ministorum, believe in the extermination of all aliens, even those that are entirely peaceful species. When the masses are stirred to such fear and fanaticism, they demand destruction over any kind of cooperation or coexistence. This might seem like a harsh measure, but it is an age where ignorance is a virtue and brute force is used to solve a multitude of problems; the dangers of failing to act are too unthinkable to elicit any other response. It has not become this way without reason; most aliens encountered by Mankind are hostile and devious, and some have proven as ruthless and ambitious as humanity itself. To them, there is no room in the galaxy for the Imperium.
Almost all of the elements are there in the system, just keep in mind that things like eldar and space marines should be high level to represent their table top counter parts. Your biggest challenge will be bringing in the perils of the warp for magic or ftl travel. Would be fun to see though.
High level space marines? Don't these guys get swatted like flys by the dozen when something big like an ultralisk or whatever comes around?
Eh, are we talking a generic marine in play or a marine as depicted in books or other media? Compared to a normal human or guardsman they are only a point or two ahead in their capabilities. By fluff they are a few feet taller, with several extra organs and can shrug off weapon fire that would obliterate a regular person.Almost all of the elements are there in the system, just keep in mind that things like eldar and space marines should be high level to represent their table top counter parts. Your biggest challenge will be bringing in the perils of the warp for magic or ftl travel. Would be fun to see though.High level space marines? Don't these guys get swatted like flys by the dozen when something big like an ultralisk or whatever comes around?
I was going mostly by gameplay. I know fluff wise they are supposed to be pretty strong.
I feel like the CR3 Aeon Guard fits that purview, since they have good armor, access to powerful weapons, and has almost twice the hit points of an average car.
I compared the Aeon Guard with a space marine because of the somewhat similar role and description (Elite Marines with Cybernetic and Biotechnological augmentations), and the level of power their statblocks have in contrast to what a "normal" person may have (a naked Aeon Guard can soak up several turns of sustained automatic fire and survive, for example). Maybe I would increase the CR for more "special" ones.
This is just a personal choice for me, though. If their gameplay mechainics represent them as fodder units, then they have no business being high level, imo, especially when higher CR enemies in Starfinder can be planetary threats to spacefaring civilizations.
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To me the question isn't what level/cr a space marine would be - they'd be a lvl 5 star knight because the battle harness power armor is level 5 and space marines wear power armor. Soldiers for regular marines, mechanics for tech marines, and mystics & solarians for psykers.
To me the question is whether they'd be represented as humans with augmentations or whether they'd be a technically separate race(given that the 'augmentation' process for space marines starts when they're children) and is arguably more extensive and a lot less optional than Starfinder augmentations are.
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You're not wrong, but the Fantasy Flight RPG series- Dark Heresy/Rogue Trader/Deathwatch/Black Crusade/Only War - is probably a better starting point for translation than base game.
At least the Fantasy Flight Series is geared towards the same thing; small party of "adventurers" tackling the galaxy, where as the wargame is about truly massive battles where any given mini represents ten to a hundred individual combatants. Sure the universe in many ways operates on an entirely different scale and would need to be toned down, but still.
There's probably a middle ground to be reached between the two extremes that embraces the spirit of the literature without indulging in the excesses of it to completely break the Starfinder setting.
Like maybe we establish that as extreme as guardsmen are as compared to real world militaries, they're still on par with lvl 2-4 starfinder soldiers. And maybe you make a +4/+2/-2/-2 or a +4/-2 race to represent space marines and they're a little OP but you don't make that option available for your players & they're just a challenging enemy to fight or you give them some other drawback.
But you have to have something to account for marines being more than just humans in power armor because that's what the Sisters of Battle are.
While doing this is certainly possible, I've got to say from past experience that it's a labor of love that could be thankless.
Consider that the Wrath and Glory 40K RPG comes out in August...
Dark Heresy could definitely be done. I'm less sure that Rogue Trader or anything involving Marines (on either side) is feasible. Even Rogue Traders at starting levels in FFG's material are so far outside the normal remit of "small band of adventurers."
Admittedly, seeing Jaqueiro digi-weaponry would be awesome. :D
I mean looking at it for inspiration rather than as a direct adaptation.
For example, opening up Into the Storm & the Tau Character Guide & skimming a bit, I'd stat up tau, or at least fire caste tau, as having +2dex +2int -2str, and I'd stat up kroot to be dimorphic with +2dex, -2int, and another +2 depending on their kindred.
Opening up the Only War core book & taking a look at ogryn modifiers, I'd give them +4str +2con -2int -2dex. Maybe flip str & con, doesn't matter. This is a bit less accurate; a truer translation would be +2 str +2con -3int -2dex but that isn't an array that's been used in Starfinder, where the philosophy seems to be every race's ability modifiers ending up as a +2 with whatever means to get there.
That's the kinda thing I'm talking about, really. Just looking at their characteristic modifiers & using that as a baseline of inspiration on how to stat them up in Starfinder terms. May not always be one to one and it certainly won't always be equivalent, but it's a place to start.
Then again it might be wise to follow Schoon's advice & wait for Wrath and Glory to come out & see what that does.