Races: Major & Minor

[RainOfSteel]

I'm starting this thread to keep track of information about the races.

I read about the Prt' in an earlier post in the main thread, but what about:

From: The Alien List: Spica

Race: Hass'kor
Status: Extinct minor race
Home world: Prt'oaw / Spica (?)

Had "Solomani size and shape"; TL9 w/o jump drive but TL16 biochemical
technology. Uplifted the Prt' to sentience, then died in an
interplanetary war. See JTAS 26 Contact!

Race: Prt'
Status: Hiver client race
Home world: Prt'aow / Spica (Hiver space)

Geneered by Hass'kor into sentience from carnivore/pouncer stock.
Vaguely felinoid, 1 m tall 25-30 kg, mostly bipedal, furry quadrupeds.
Contacted by Hivers and civilized starting -2400ti. See JTAS 26
Contact!


I hadn't heard about the Hass'kor.

 

[Flynn]

The Hass'kor have been gone for some time, having died out after creating the Prt'. To my knowledge, the OTU doesn't have them as an available race for play.

-Flynn

 

[Malenfant]

It's still nice to know that they were around though - good for planting ruins and stuff

Though if they were so dandy with genetic engineering and uplift, how come they didn't uplift anyone else? And if their homeworld was the same as the Prt', how come they died and the Prt' didn't? Unless it was some genetically-tailored plague, but the mind boggles at how a race that advanced would do something that stupid...

 

[LcKedovan]

Originally posted by Malenfant:
but the mind boggles at how a race that advanced would do something that stupid...

May I introduce you to homo sapiens?

-W.

 

[Malenfant]

Originally posted by LcKedovan:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Malenfant:
but the mind boggles at how a race that advanced would do something that stupid...

May I introduce you to homo sapiens?

-W. </font>[/QUOTE]Point

. But still, we have nukes and we don't use them, and nobody is stupid enough to do so, despite what some people may think.

 

[Flynn]

So far, Malenfant, so far no one's used the nukes after the devastation that ended WWII, although testing occurred for numerous years thereafter in isolated areas without regard to environmental impact. Most people won't, but all it takes is one person with the power to use them and nothing to live for... fortunately, we haven't seen that yet.

As for the Hass'kor, bear in mind that they didn't conquer the whole Jump Drive aspect of technology, so ruins are likely to be limited to their own home system, and maybe a few isolated others due to some long-range STL transports. (The article in Challenge does not mention STL expansion, though, IIRC.)

-Flynn

 

[Flynn]

I do believe that it is said that the OTU statistical average is around one minor race per three subsectors for a sector of standard stellar density. That's about five for Spica.

Of these, the Prt' are the only canonical reference.

Any thoughts on what the other four or so Minor Races might be?

-Flynn

 

[Malenfant]

Well, there's two minor races in Spica - the Prt' and the Hass'kor. Actually, technically the Hass'kor are the minor race for that world, but we lost them and gained the Prt' in their place so that works out

.

I don't see the point in adding races for the sake of it though, just to conform to statistics

. But that said, if we have four then we can put two in the 'unoccupied territory' on the coreward side of the sector and maybe one each in Sollie and Hiver space?

Maybe those of us who have it should dig out our GURPS Uplift 2e books to make the aliens (we can uplift them manually to simulate natural evolution rather than use the uplift rules therein, though that would work for the Prt' of course

)

 

[The Hinterworlds Rambler]

There are several small governments right above Spica in the Hinterworlds that would most definitely have an influence on politics... The Gniivi have a sizeable government, (that goes into Leonidae) and so does the Council of Leh Perash, to name only a few...

The Human state "Ral Ranta" was supposed to have been quite extensive at its height...

This place should be crawling with all sorts...

 

[clementk]

Uplifted Red Pandas perhaps? If the Solomani can uplift Apes, Bears, Dolphins, and Orca Red Pandas are right up there being on the Endangered Species list and potentially useful. Smaller than the related Giant Pandas as well so they'd be more different than uplifted Giant Pandas would be from Ursa.

And a frontier region could be a good spot for say Ursa to hide or to test out a Dolphin unit.

Casey (goes to get THS books out after dinner)

 

[Malenfant]

This is going to end up turning into a furries game at this rate...

I'd rather have some alien races than more fuzzy uplifts, myself.

 

[The Hinterworlds Rambler]

The Hive Federation is built on the use of Client Races... uplifts would be around, but by no means predominant...

Wouldn't some form of lemur make a better candidate for uplifiting than an overgrown raccoon? Lemurs are at least Primates...

 

[Malenfant]

Originally posted by Baron Saarthuran von Gushiddan:
The Hive Federation is built on the use of Client Races... uplifts would be around, but by no means predominant...

Well, an alien uplift is still an alien race, at least. But did Hivers actually uplift any races to intelligence (like they do in the Uplift books), or just make more compliant via their "manipulation" like the Ithklur? I thought they did the latter, not the former.

 

[RainOfSteel]

Originally posted by Gruffty:
Is this where my sentient, star faring Guinea Pigs come in?


Didn't think so...........................

You may introduce as many sentient starfaring Guinea Pigs as you wish.

As long as my PC gets to have as many Major Unshakeably Loyal NPC Cabbit Allies as he wants.

 

[clementk]

<shrugs> I missed the use Gurps Uplift to simulate natural evolution line and took a look at the Gateway section on Uplifted Races. I had the impression that Solomani Uplifts weren't necessarily solely motivated by utilitarian reasons or ease of uplifting. At the least an element of “Let’s see if this can be done”.

FWIW from the T20 writeup it looks like the Prt' are like uplifted "overgrown treecats". So that's one fuzzy uplifted race in the area. The Solomani uplifted Apes so who knows maybe someone did try to uplift lemurs

<MST3K flashback of Larry the Lemur>.

Regardless it'd at least be IMO possible for some Dolphins to be in use by the Solomani somewhere here. No Luriani around to bother them for one thing and an encounter between an Uplifted Dolphin and a Hiver could be fun.

Another choice and IMO used about as much as uplifted animals in the OTU is the minor human. If there is one or more of these minor races in Spica either genetically modified or naturally adapted to an environment I’d suggest it be something different from what’s been already done for minor humans.

I’m running late for getting some food so about all I can think of at the moment for a truly alien race is something Lovecraftian. Insectoids, mobile living traffic cones, flying starfish (oh wait that’s been done pretty much already ^_^ )…

Casey (off to dinner and to check prices for Gurps Uplift)

 

[Tony Canopus]

Gimme some o them Uplifted Orcas as Warship Navigators any old time... that would be cool...

 

[Malenfant]

OK, the S'Raxians sound interesting

. (If it's metal deposits you want, it's probably Lanthanum. Or maybe these Zuchai things)

 

[clementk]

Lanthanum metal deposits. I've played an Assistant Engineer when the ship misjumped learning the hard way that those Zuchai things are crystals, and you do not want them to start breaking on you! IIRC they're fuzzy canon anyway being a DGP-only thing.

Casey

 

[Malenfant]

OK... so if it's used in jump grids, it's probably Lanthanum. Zuchai crystals are actually in the drive itself (a la dilithium crystals)

 

[Malenfant]

I'd guess a G or F (or possibly K) V star would be ideal... there's more room to have a world in the inner part of the habitable zone there, and it won't have to be tidelocked.