Races – Starjammer SRD (2024)

This game is about more than just meeting aliens—it’s also about playing alien characters. The word “race” usually refers to an intelligent, self-aware species whose members can be considered characters rather than simple monsters. While not all races are appropriate for player characters, many of them are; any creature with a racial traits entry is a member of a potentially playable race, provided that your GM approves it.

The following section introduces the core races—seven species so common as to be ubiquitous (or at least recognized) throughout the solar system. Remember that these are only the races most common—the system also contains many civilized but less prominent races.

Picking your race is one of the biggest choices in character creation, as once it’s made, it can’t be changed. In addition to its cultural flavor, each race comes with a set number of Hit Points that you get at 1st level, plus several other racial traits that modify your statistics or grant you additional abilities. The ability score modifiers are the most significant of these. These bonuses and penalties apply during the generation of your ability scores, and reflect your race’s natural aptitudes and disadvantages, such as vesk being stronger on average than the other races and ysoki being weaker. If you already know what class you want to play, it’s often a good idea to compare its key ability score to the ability score modifiers granted by the respective races when selecting your race, so you don’t accidentally end up with your racial adjustments to your ability scores making it difficult to play the type of character you want. Some races’ ability bonuses make them a perfect fit for certain classes, such as the vesk’sbonuses to Strength and Constitution, which make them natural soldiers. However, don’t be afraid to play against type if the idea excites you—every race presented here has members of every class within its society.

Languages

The myriad peoples of the universe speak a wide variety of languages, from the system-wide trade tongue called Common to obscure alien dialects and ancient languages from other planes of reality. Many worlds have a shared planetary language, most races speak a racial tongue, and all of the prevalent languages have both signed versions and written versions (including both visual and tactile writing).

A character begins play speaking and reading Common, her racial tongue (if any), and the language of her home planet (if any). She can also choose a number of bonus languages equal to her Intelligence bonus from the lists below. A character can learn the signed or tactile version of a language she knows, either as a bonus language or by putting a rank in the Culture skill. A character who begins play blind automatically knows the tactile versions of any languages she knows; a character who begins play deaf automatically knows the signed versions. An astonishing number of languages are spoken and not all are understandable or reproducible by other races without complex technology; some of the most commonly spoken tongues are presented below.

Prevalent Languages

• Common, the most prevalent trade tongue, is believed to be based on one or more of the old human languages. The other most widespread languages (and their typical speakers) include the following.
• Aklo
• Lashunta (lashuntas)
• Eoxian
• Kasatha (kasathas)
• Shirren (shirrens)
• Triaxian
• Vercite
• Vesk (vesk)
• Ysoki (ysoki)

Other Languages

The following languages are somewhat less common, but they are often encountered by scholars, spellcasters, and those doing business on their speakers’ respective home worlds.

• Abyssal (demons, chaotic evil outsiders, inhabitants of the Abyss)
• Aquan (inhabitants of the Plane of Water)
• Arkanen
• Auran (inhabitants of the Plane of Air)
• Celestial (angels, good outsiders, inhabitants of the good-aligned planes)
• Draconic (dragons, reptilian humanoids, Triaxian dragonkin)
• Drow (drow)
• Dwarven (dwarves)
• Elven (drow, elves, half-elves)
• Gnome (gnomes)
• Goblin (bugbears, goblins, hobgoblins)
• Halfling (halflings)
• Ignan (inhabitants of the Plane of Fire)
• Infernal (devils, lawful evil outsiders, inhabitants of Hell)
• Kalo (kalo)
• Nchaki
• Orc (orcs, half-orcs)
• Sarcesian (sarcesians)
• Shobhad (shobhads)
• Terran (inhabitants of the Plane of Earth)

Vital Statistics

Table 3–1 suggests some basic ranges to help you determine your character’s height, weight, and age. While most characters fall somewhere in the middle of the range for their race, some exceptional individuals may be larger or smaller. Gender plays a significant role in the size and shape of some races, yet even for those races, you should feel free to build the character that feels right to you. Environmental factors can also play a role in determining your character’s size and shape—a character from a low-gravity environment is likely taller and thinner than average, while one raised on a high-gravity world might be shorter and more muscular due to the stresses placed on his body.

The age of maturity listed on the chart represents the age at which a member of a race is likely to be considered an adult. It is a generalization based on physical and cultural factors—individual cultures may vary. The maximum age listed includes an element of randomness to reflect the capriciousness of death, and it is the assumption for the race’s longevity without magical or technological intervention—with the right life-extension technology, individuals of all races can become nearly immortal.

In addition, most of the races presented here are Medium; they have a space and reach of 5 feet and a land speed of 30 feet per round. While the ysoki are Small, their space, reach, and land speed are those of Medium creatures.

Reading the Race Entries

Each race entry contains the following information sections.

Ability Adjustments: These are race-based adjustments to ability scores implemented during character creation. For instance, the ability adjustment for androids is +2 to Dexterity and Intelligence respectively, but –2 to Charisma.

Alternate Ability Score Adjustments No race is monolithic in its tendencies, and this is just as true for ability scores as for any other element that is subject to influence from culture, environment, training, or even intentional alterations, whether magical or technological. The majority of members of a race are likely to have the standard ability score adjustments (which are listed again in each corresponding section for ease of reference), but there are generally at least a few subpopulations of each race that have different adjustments, which are briefly described and defined. A character need not come from one of these subpopulations to have these ability adjustments; they are simply examples of groups within that race that commonly have those variant ability scores. You decide what ability score adjustments to use when you make a character; once chosen, they can’t be changed without significant magic (and GM approval), though characters can make significant modifications using the ability score increases gained every 5 character levels and through personal upgrades.

Hit Points: These are the additional Hit Points you get from your race at 1st level.

Racial Traits: Each race lists the special abilities you get when playing a character of this race. You automatically get all of these—you don’t have to pick and choose.

Alternate Racial Traits Specific individuals sometimes have alternate racial traits. While each entry presents various examples of why a character might have different traits, these are only suggestions. If your character concept calls for your ghoran operative to have magical talent rather than past-life knowledge as a result of a sliver of a spell gem getting embedded in the seed they sprouted from, great! You decide at 1st level whether your character gains any alternate racial traits, and once you make this choice, you cannot change it. You can select as many alternate racial traits as you want, but you cannot take two alternate racial traits that replace the same standard racial trait. Taking alternate racial traits doesn’t change anything else about your character—a skittermander with the curious alternate racial trait is still a skittermander for all purposes and prerequisites. However, that character no longer has the hyper trait and thus does not qualify for any ability that requires it (such as the Hyper Speed feat).

Racial Class Features and Feats

Feats and class features generally represent specific talents or knacks that can be trained or learned. It naturally follows that in some societies, different knacks or talents are more commonly taught and considered important. Each race entry presents a number of such choices that are more common within the population of that race than they are elsewhere. These feats and class features are not exclusive to the races they are listed with—there’s nothing preventing someone from a star system on the other side of the galaxy from hearing about and learning such abilities. However, many of these do have prerequisites that tie into one or more racial traits, and a character must meet an option’s prerequisites to take that option.

Playing the Race: These notes offer a starting place for how you, as a character of this race, might interact with the world. Note that, as with other cultural details presented in the race entry, these are just suggestions based on a typical member of your race. Personalities vary, and your character might diverge wildly from the suggestions, especially if she was raised in a different culture or under unusual circ*mstances.