This is my first crack at the Sophont rules, and a conversion to boot. I tried to pull in as much canon info as I could find, but I had to fill in a lot of blanks, so if there is something canon that contradicts something here, please mention it. I also tried to fill in those blanks with straight rolls as often as possible, but some things had to be changed to make sense. Overall I'm happy with the result, let me know if you are. The main thing I'd like to change is Training as C5, I'd prefer Education myself. What do you think? I'd also prefer it if they had Perception or Awareness, but only because I like those senses, no real reason related to them of course. I also fudged a roll that made them deaf, because I thought that they were too much like Hivers already and I didn't want another radially-symmetrical tentacle race having to hand-gesture me. Unless they had an Awareness of Perception-based language, now there's a interesting possibility... (hard to role-play with other races though.)
I'll present the stats in the order I made them in the rules. I did skip the gender chart stuff, just lazy I guess. Plus I don't see that there's much point with only two genders. Anyway, I'll put a little analysis at the end as well. Ok here we go:
Llellewyloly
aka Dandelions, Dandies
Sophont Minor Race native to Junidy/Aramis (Spinward Marches 3202)
--04
Homeworld: (circa 1115) B434ABD-B (pop 14B?)
System Details
Primary F7 V M2 V
Gas Giants 0
Planetoid Belts 1
HZ=4
Climate: Temperate
Inhabitants: Natives
--05
Native Terrain: Mountains
Locomotion: Walker
Breathes: Air-3 (Very Thin)
Ecological Niche: Scavenger/Carrion-Eater
--06
Characteristics:
Str, Agi, Vig, Int, Tra, Soc
2D, 3D, 2D, 2D, 2D, 2D
Genetic Profile: SAVITS
--07
No Castes
--08
Genders: Dual
Assigned by Family
Shifts by Progression
--09
Life Stages (in terms): 0=1/2, 1=3, 2=1, 3=1, 4=3, 5=2, 6=1, 7=2, 8=1, 9=2
Chargen=18 years
Aging=34 years
Lifespan=66 years
--10
Vision=18-NAC
Hearing=12-5474
Smell=12-3
Touch=22-4
Aware=Unaware
Percep=Oblivious
Language medium=verbal
Racial Scent=LLE-4MU
--11
Symmetry=Radial
Body Structure=N-TB-LS-LS-LS-LS-LS-N ?
(5 legs with senses and manipulators)
Skeleton: Segmented shell
Fluids: Scum
Skin: Hairy Pelt
Weapon: None
Manipulators: Tentacles
--12
Racial Special Ability: none
Male Special Ability: Craftsman
Female Special Ability: Mem <Vision>
Voice=8-Gutteral-Firm
--13
Tentacles: Grip=+1, Preferred=0, Optimized=0, Alien=-1, Touch=0
--15
Size=(S2+A3/2+V2/2)=54
BFP=1.4 (Globular)
Length=47cm
ANALYSIS
--05 Environment
Very thin atmosphere? Criminy! They'd need pressure suits in order to be in any human environment.
--06 Characteristics
Ok, I also switched around what I rolled for Str and Agi, because just looking at them they look far more agile to me than strong, with those spindly chicken-legs. Plus there's five of them.
Vigor also works for me, given what is likely to be the low oxygen content of their home world.
--08 Gender
Some odd flux rolls gave us gender assigned by parents (how does that work anyway?) and progressive gender shifts through each life stage. Not much to say other than why not? It makes them seem a little more alien, and could contribute to what has been said about them and their complex and changing social structures.
--09 Life Stages
It was funny how those worked out, with such a long childhood and such, that adulthood starts at age 18 and ageing checks starting at 34 anyway. Maybe the long childhood has something to do with having Training as C5?
--10 Senses
Vision spectrum range of NAC comes from their star being K7, which is pretty close to red. This might cause some lighting issues dealing with humans. They could also see some high-energy heat sources cooler than humans could. The question is, is their own body heat enough to reach into this range?
Given that their senses are supposed to be in their limbs, I can see them having vision, hearing, and smell all inferior to humans, since the reason most animals have those senses so close to their brains is to reduce signal latency, so the extra length their sense information has to travel could result in weaker senses. This could also explain why they are scavengers rather than hunters.
Oops, just checked and their vision is actually better than humans (why did I think we had 24?). Ok, maybe that's because they have more eyes? Maybe a species rule could be devised that changed the sense roll depending on how many limbs one is contributing to the task, like a cat or dog perking up their ears.
But their touch is pretty good, which I can see for mountain dwellers, who would benefit from being able to tell rock stability for climbing and so forth, not to mention being better able to sense vibrations in the rock to detect other animals moving, to compensate for their weaker other senses.
This part worked out pretty well I think.
--11 Body
Ok, I had no idea how to write out the body structure of a radially symmetrical being, let alone one with an odd number of limbs. Also, there seemed to be no provision for denoting the senses being in the limbs (watch out Hivers!) So that's why I just put five instances of "LS" for leg-senses. I chose leg instead of arm because apparently legs can have manipulators, but arms cannot be walked on.
Segmented shell? Why not. We can't see what's under all that hair anyway. But other things would probably be just as good if there was a reason.
Scum? Again, why not. Aside from describing what comes out when you stab or shoot them, what does this mean anyway?
Hairy pelt, check. They are supposed to have long hair.
Tentacles? Tough choice there, had to make a bit of a judgement call based on the pictures I could find. But they seem to work well for a mountain climber. Plus the pic on p 557 looks a lot like their hands.
--12 Special Abilities
This produced no racial special ability, but it did for both genders, which surprised me. And I think they came out ok, no reason why not that I can think of.
As for the voice, now I know what they sound like so I can describe it to my players. I tired to do a Dandy in a game once, and it just seemed too weird having it sound like a normal human.
--15 Size
It didn't seem clear to me whether size included leg height or not, because for humans it does, but our legs also take up a good part of our volume. Dandy legs do not, so I'm picturing this 47 cm being their body diameter. That makes the math work out better to come up with 54 L.
So how was that? Be gentle.
I'll present the stats in the order I made them in the rules. I did skip the gender chart stuff, just lazy I guess. Plus I don't see that there's much point with only two genders. Anyway, I'll put a little analysis at the end as well. Ok here we go:
Llellewyloly
aka Dandelions, Dandies
Sophont Minor Race native to Junidy/Aramis (Spinward Marches 3202)
--04
Homeworld: (circa 1115) B434ABD-B (pop 14B?)
System Details
Primary F7 V M2 V
Gas Giants 0
Planetoid Belts 1
HZ=4
Climate: Temperate
Inhabitants: Natives
--05
Native Terrain: Mountains
Locomotion: Walker
Breathes: Air-3 (Very Thin)
Ecological Niche: Scavenger/Carrion-Eater
--06
Characteristics:
Str, Agi, Vig, Int, Tra, Soc
2D, 3D, 2D, 2D, 2D, 2D
Genetic Profile: SAVITS
--07
No Castes
--08
Genders: Dual
Assigned by Family
Shifts by Progression
--09
Life Stages (in terms): 0=1/2, 1=3, 2=1, 3=1, 4=3, 5=2, 6=1, 7=2, 8=1, 9=2
Chargen=18 years
Aging=34 years
Lifespan=66 years
--10
Vision=18-NAC
Hearing=12-5474
Smell=12-3
Touch=22-4
Aware=Unaware
Percep=Oblivious
Language medium=verbal
Racial Scent=LLE-4MU
--11
Symmetry=Radial
Body Structure=N-TB-LS-LS-LS-LS-LS-N ?
(5 legs with senses and manipulators)
Skeleton: Segmented shell
Fluids: Scum
Skin: Hairy Pelt
Weapon: None
Manipulators: Tentacles
--12
Racial Special Ability: none
Male Special Ability: Craftsman
Female Special Ability: Mem <Vision>
Voice=8-Gutteral-Firm
--13
Tentacles: Grip=+1, Preferred=0, Optimized=0, Alien=-1, Touch=0
--15
Size=(S2+A3/2+V2/2)=54
BFP=1.4 (Globular)
Length=47cm
ANALYSIS
--05 Environment
Very thin atmosphere? Criminy! They'd need pressure suits in order to be in any human environment.
--06 Characteristics
Ok, I also switched around what I rolled for Str and Agi, because just looking at them they look far more agile to me than strong, with those spindly chicken-legs. Plus there's five of them.
Vigor also works for me, given what is likely to be the low oxygen content of their home world.
--08 Gender
Some odd flux rolls gave us gender assigned by parents (how does that work anyway?) and progressive gender shifts through each life stage. Not much to say other than why not? It makes them seem a little more alien, and could contribute to what has been said about them and their complex and changing social structures.
--09 Life Stages
It was funny how those worked out, with such a long childhood and such, that adulthood starts at age 18 and ageing checks starting at 34 anyway. Maybe the long childhood has something to do with having Training as C5?
--10 Senses
Vision spectrum range of NAC comes from their star being K7, which is pretty close to red. This might cause some lighting issues dealing with humans. They could also see some high-energy heat sources cooler than humans could. The question is, is their own body heat enough to reach into this range?
Given that their senses are supposed to be in their limbs, I can see them having vision, hearing, and smell all inferior to humans, since the reason most animals have those senses so close to their brains is to reduce signal latency, so the extra length their sense information has to travel could result in weaker senses. This could also explain why they are scavengers rather than hunters.
Oops, just checked and their vision is actually better than humans (why did I think we had 24?). Ok, maybe that's because they have more eyes? Maybe a species rule could be devised that changed the sense roll depending on how many limbs one is contributing to the task, like a cat or dog perking up their ears.
But their touch is pretty good, which I can see for mountain dwellers, who would benefit from being able to tell rock stability for climbing and so forth, not to mention being better able to sense vibrations in the rock to detect other animals moving, to compensate for their weaker other senses.
This part worked out pretty well I think.
--11 Body
Ok, I had no idea how to write out the body structure of a radially symmetrical being, let alone one with an odd number of limbs. Also, there seemed to be no provision for denoting the senses being in the limbs (watch out Hivers!) So that's why I just put five instances of "LS" for leg-senses. I chose leg instead of arm because apparently legs can have manipulators, but arms cannot be walked on.
Segmented shell? Why not. We can't see what's under all that hair anyway. But other things would probably be just as good if there was a reason.
Scum? Again, why not. Aside from describing what comes out when you stab or shoot them, what does this mean anyway?
Hairy pelt, check. They are supposed to have long hair.
Tentacles? Tough choice there, had to make a bit of a judgement call based on the pictures I could find. But they seem to work well for a mountain climber. Plus the pic on p 557 looks a lot like their hands.
--12 Special Abilities
This produced no racial special ability, but it did for both genders, which surprised me. And I think they came out ok, no reason why not that I can think of.
As for the voice, now I know what they sound like so I can describe it to my players. I tired to do a Dandy in a game once, and it just seemed too weird having it sound like a normal human.
--15 Size
It didn't seem clear to me whether size included leg height or not, because for humans it does, but our legs also take up a good part of our volume. Dandy legs do not, so I'm picturing this 47 cm being their body diameter. That makes the math work out better to come up with 54 L.
So how was that? Be gentle.
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