Custom Species for My Personal Setting; Review and Assistance, Please!

Genesys Foundry & Homebrews
#1

Hi all! I’m designing an urban fantasy setting, and I’m making a bunch of species for people to play as. Because the various species are all at different power levels, I’ve also created a Tier system (although a different name suggestion is welcome :slight_smile: !) to help balance species with different levels of base strengths.

I could use some help ensuring that the species are relatively balanced. These aren’t the species that will end up in the setting, but they’re the initial wave. Here’s the tier system as it exists now:

Species Tier
The species that inhabit Aryyna are incredibly varied, and many are noticeably more powerful than humans. While on the global scale, this disparity is made up for by humanity’s vast numbers, in a personal encounter, a human requires a significant amount of training and expertise to compete with an eladrin in any meaningful way.

To reflect this, each species is given a tier, representing the overall strength of their innate abilities. When beginning a game, the Game Master should inform the players what tier will be used for the game. Only species of the indicated tier or lower are available. If a character’s species is a lower tier than that of the game, they gain 50 experience points after character creation for each step down the ladder they are. Additionally, if a character’s species is two or more tiers below the game’s rating, they may train their starting skills one rank higher than normal.

For example, a human is part of the Standard tier, so in a Heroic-level game, they would gain an additional 150 experience points to spend after their starting experience. An eladrin character in the same campaign would only gain 50 additional experience points, as eladrin are in the Paragon tier, only one step down from Heroic.

The tiers are as follows:

  • 1: Standard
  • 2: Expert
  • 3: Paragon
  • 4: Heroic

As a side note, an assumption I made is that extra XP from being a lower tier than another PC is worth slightly more than a species’ extra starting XP. The reasoning is that, with, say, 100 extra XP, that’s not just extra skill ranks and talents that you get, but it’s also a foundation for higher-level talents sooner after character creation. +100 xp, for instance, can get you all the way up to your first Tier 4 talent, meaning you’re only 75 xp away from a Dedication. A species that starts in the Paragon tier might start with an extra point in a charactertistic, but they’ll be 175 xp away from that first Dedication, or nearly double.

This is mostly to say that the total abilities of a species above Standard tier may not add to exactly +50 or +100 over, but I gave a little bit more wiggle room because of the head start on climbing the various ladders that lower-tier species get. That assumption may be wrong and if so please let me know! But that’s why there may be a slight inconsistency there.

Without further ado, the first several species!

DEMI-LADRI (Expert)
Brawn (2) Agility (3) Intellect (2) Cunning (2) Willpower (2) Presence (2)

  • Starting Wound Threshold: 10 + Brawn
  • Starting Strain Threshold: 11 + Willpower
  • Starting Experience: 100
  • Starting Skills: A demi-ladri starts with one rank in either Negotiation or Deception. The character may not increase Negotiation or Deception higher than rank 2 during character creation.
  • Elven Reflexes: After making an Agility-based check, a demi-ladri may suffer any number of strain to remove an equal number of [T] from the results, or may suffer 3 strain to remove a [D] from the results.
  • Heightened Senses: A demi-ladri removes 2 Setback dice from all Perception and Vigilance checks.
  • Glamour: As a maneuver, a demi-ladri may create an illusion to alter her appearance. This effect can make the demi-ladri appear however she wishes, including masking gear she is carrying up to her Encumbrance, as long as she does not change Silhouette. A character that believes that the demi-ladri may not be what she appears to be may attempt a Perception or Vigilance vs. Deception check to see through the glamour.

ELADRIN (Paragon)
Brawn (2) Agility (3) Intellect (2) Cunning (3) Willpower (2) Presence (3)

  • Starting Wound Threshold: 10 + Brawn
  • Starting Strain Threshold: 12 + Willpower
  • Starting Experience: 100
  • Starting Skills: An eladrin starts with one rank in Negotiation and one rank in a Willcrafting skill of your choice. They may make checks using that Willcrafting skill without possessing the Willcrafting talent. The character may not increase these skills higher than rank 3 during character creation.
  • Elven Grace: After making an Agility-based check, an eladrin may suffer any number of strain to remove an equal number of [T] from the results, or may suffer 3 strain to remove a [D] from the results. They only suffer 1 strain when taking an additional maneuver during their turn.
  • Heightened Senses: An eladrin removes 2 Setback dice from and adds a Boost die to all Perception and Vigilance checks.
  • Faetouched: An eladrin adds a Boost die to all checks made regarding fae, the fae world, and fae laws. However, an eladrin adds [FF] to all checks regarding spirits and the spirit world.
  • Glamour: As a maneuver, an eladrin may create an illusion to alter her appearance. This effect can make the eladrin appear however she wishes, including masking gear she is carrying up to her Encumbrance threshold, as long as she does not change Silhouette. A character that believes that the eladrin may not be what she appears to be may attempt a Perception or Vigilance vs. Deception check to see through the glamour.

HUMAN (Standard)
Brawn (2) Agility (2) Intellect (2) Cunning (2) Willpower (2) Presence (2)

  • Starting Wound Threshold: 10 + Brawn
  • Starting Strain Threshold: 10 + Willpower
  • Starting Experience: 110
  • Starting Skills: A human starts with one rank in each of two different non-career skills. These skills may not be increased higher than rank 2 during character creation.
  • Ready for Anything: Once per session as an out-of-turn incidental, you my move one Fate Point from the Game Master’s pool to the player’s pool.

MAUNA-BLOODED (Expert)
Brawn (2) Agility (2) Intellect (2) Cunning (2) Willpower (2) Presence (3)

  • Starting Wound Threshold: 11 + Brawn
  • Starting Strain Threshold: 11 + Willpower
  • Starting Experience: 110
  • Starting Skills: A Mauna-blooded starts with one rank in each of two different skills. These skills may not be increased higher than rank 2 during character creation.
  • Spark of Greatness: The character selects one characteristic to be a radiant characteristic. Whenever the character spends a Fate Point to augment a check using the chosen characteristic, every [R] generated by the roll adds 1 additional Ability die to the pool. The character may choose to spend a Fate Point after making a roll to add this effect, if desired.
  • Touch of the Divine: Select 1 Spark ability available to Mauna characters. The character gains that Spark ability and 1 Facet of their choice that they can use as if their rank in the associated Spark skill was 1.

A couple notes: I can probably find another minor species ability to add to humans if needed, to increase the basic power level a bit. Also, I’m debating moving the Glamour ability to a talent for the demi-ladri. As they’re half-elves, they can use that ability, but it would make sense if they need to spend more effort to learn it.

Likewise, there are going to be several species-specific talents for each species, although I haven’t made them yet.

Also, I have background writeups to go with each of these statblocks if anyone would like them, but my guess is most won’t care :stuck_out_tongue: .

Thanks for any help!

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#2

I don’t play Genesys, so I may be off track with some of this. These suggestions come from logical extrapolation and from my experiences in the SWRPG.

Ready for Anything: I don’t really think this makes sense, as all the human players can just flip one of the GM’s Fate Points immediately upon the game start. There’s literally no reason to wait, unless the GM doesn’t have any to flip (in which case you flip it back immediately following someone using it).

A paragon with +3 Characteristic points seems excessive to me. With 100 starting XP, that can easily net them a build of 443322, assuming they can take a +10 bonus like you can in the SWRPG.
For contrast, a Human with a starting build of 333322 would need 2 Dedication to get to the same powerlevel, which would take 350 XP dedicated entirely to talents (if I understand Genesys correctly). They only get a bonus of 100.
So they’re 250XP away from parity as far as Characteristics go. While yes, they do get some talents for it, their usual rolls will be significantly less likely to succeed, and they’ll be far less generally skilled.

I don’t know if this is something you’re making up, or if this is precedented in the RAW, but the power level seems incredibly skewed, and the start is weird. Either you’re a very powerful, but unexperienced character, or a not-very-powerful but experienced character, who still isn’t as good as the powerful unexperienced character.

Elven Reflexes: I’m guessing you intentionally had one be S or A and the other be S and A, but I think this ability is a bit too powerful. The first is as good as (maybe slightly better than) adding a Boost to all Agility checks. The second is better than adding an Ability die (except 3/8 of the time, when it’s the same or the same number of symbols arrayed differently).
I’d suggest restricting it to a single particular skill at most, or giving them a similarly flavored, but different, ability entirely.

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#3

Thanks, P-47! I appreciate you taking the time to respond.

I do understand the concern of power/vs. experience, but that’s sort-of the point. Although the intention is that the experience makes up for the lack of innate power, too, so if it’s not doing that yet, then I need to do some tweaking.

A couple starting points:
–The Ready for Anything ability is the standard ability for Humans in Genesys, so that’s not something I made up. Sure, the Human character could just pop it right at the start, I guess.
–There is no “+10 xp” option, so that’s not something to consider during builds.
–The Tier system is something I came up with myself, because of the vast difference in innate abilities of the species in the setting. The sole Heroic-tier species is dragons, who are the basically the entire point of playing in this setting, but making it “literally just dragons” is boring, and I didn’t want to cut out all the other interesting species options. It just needs tweaking.

So! Some adjustments based on your suggestions.
–If I were to give Humans another ability, one they could use by spending a Fate Point, would that help? I’m also thinking of giving them the Adaptable talent from the Padawan specialization as a human-only talent, at a reduced tier. Would that help?
–For the Elven Reflexes and Elven Grace abilities, if I replaced the extra symbols with something like Adaptable, i.e. “Spend a Fate Point to remove [D] or [T] equal to your Coordination ranks from an Agility-based check,” would that be better? It’s still being amazing at Agility-based stuff, but it’s not adding symbols? I’d need to run that by my eladrin-expert for this setting, but it’s an option that’s not adding symbols and has a cost.
–If I remove the bonus to Presence from the Eladrin and just have them be good at Agility and Cunning, would that be better? But that’s ~20-30 xp that needs to be added into their kit (unless you think their kit is already better than the +100 post-creation xp already allowed).
–A final thought: in the Terrinoth setting for Genesys, they introduced Heroic Abilities, basically Signature Abilities you design yourself, and you get points to upgrade your Heroic Ability for every 50 XP you gained after character creation. As this is a setting with magic and cool Extra stuff, I’d been toying with adding Heroic Abilities in. Would doing that help? That way, not only do Humans get +100 xp, they also innately get +2 free points towards their Heroic Ability over an Eladrin?

EDIT: Adding Heroic Abilities might also let me fix the lackluster aspect of Ready for Anything. I could change it to:

Hidden Potential: It costs one fewer Fate Point to activate your Heroic Ability.

So it normally costs 1, and with the right upgrade, it costs 0. That’s the same benefit (+1 Fate Point) normally, just in a specific circumstance. But if they buy the option to use their HA twice in a session, then it’s suddenly +2 free Fate Points per session.

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#4

Yes. I think Adaptable is a good choice as a species ability or species-only talent, however it works in Genesys. Another option would be to say that once per session, a Human can spend 2 Fate Points on a single check, assuming that Genesys has the same restriction as the SWRPG.
I am generally skeptical of Fate/Destiny pool manipulating talents, I think it’s typically rather violative of the principle behind a Fate/Destiny pool.

Yes, that also sounds good. Another option would be perhaps to allow the character to suffer Strain equal to Threat/3 Strain for a Despair or something like that to remove the results.

I think dropping it so they only get +2 Characteristic points is a definite improvement. Part of the issue is that bonus XP is linear, but bonus Characteristic points are not. So you go +0, +1, +3, while only going +0, +50, +100.

Looking more at Elven Grace, only suffering one strain for a second maneuver is a really strong power, especially when they start with a higher ST already. Generally, when you see a species that gets a discount on extra maneuvers, they have a significantly lower ST. Besalisks, for example, have a starting ST of 7+Will (they get a second free maneuver).
I’d suggest dropping this ability, or, if not, lowering their Strain Threshold to 9.
Faetouched: Adds what to all checks? You’re missing something. Is FF Failure? Adding 2 Failure seems extreme, but maybe there’s a really good lore reason? I’d err on the side of Setback/Boost.

Yes, I think it might, though I think reducing Presence back to 2 does a better job of closing the gap.

Hmm, I’m not so sure. Sigs are pretty powerful, and being able to trigger it for no cost is a bit much I think. Partly because it means the players no longer have to be especially economical about their pool, and are going to be more willing to run it out rather than budgeting to make sure they have an ace in the hole. I think better not to reduce it, unless you just give them the normal upgrade for free or something (and that seems odd).

Mauna-Blooded:
Spark of Greatness: I don’t know what R is, but guessing it’s like Triumph. Adding an additional Ability die after rolling seems odd, but I can see where you’re going with this. I’d suggest specifying that it’s a once per roll thing, you can’t add multiple dice with multiple Triumph. I definitely don’t think you should be able to flip a Destiny Point to add an Ability die after the fact.
One potential way to rewrite this ability would be to say that when flipping a Destiny Point, the player can elect to add an Ability die instead of upgrading. I like this since it adds a slight twist and gives the player more situational odds-twisting ability, and in some circumstances where the player would pass up an upgrade, the Ability die would be worth it.
Touch of the Divine: I know nothing about any of these mechanics and so cannot comment other than to say I cannot comment.

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#5

Thanks again for helping out :slight_smile: .

On your idea of spending 2 Fate Points, I considered it, but I don’t really want to do that. Fate Points have a different thematic vibe in this setting, and being able to spend 2 on one check would kinda break that. I can absolutely add Adaptable as a Species-only talent. I’m thinking Tier 2 (so 10 xp cost).

I also like the change for Elven Grace, too, and my elf-expert agrees, so that change goes in, too! This also helps with your concerns about the reduce maneuver cost. That’s in there because the eladrin are very fast, and representing speed is very hard in Genesys. But making the other aspect of that ability also cost strain compensates. At least a little?

Did Feytouched not show up right? Darn it, the formatting here gets weird with the way I format symbols. It adds a Boost to fae stuff, and 2 Failures to spirit stuff. There is a very intrinsic lore reason for that: fae and spirit are opposites, so because eladrin are strongly aligned with the fae, they are very bad at understanding and dealing with spirits. The purpose of this ability is both to touch on that aspect, but also have an ability that nets “negative” cost - the penalty is worse than the benefit, and the two situations are equally as frequent.

I can see the issue with being able to trigger a Heroic without a cost. Heroics in Genesys aren’t nearly as powerful as they are in Star Wars, but they are pretty potent. I do like the idea that humans, despite being the “weakest” species, can, with training, pull out options that other species could never expect, even when all the odds are against them, but I can agree that does kind of break the spirit of the system a bit. Hmm…

And yes, R is Triumph. This ability is based on the “super-heroes” ability in the Genesys core book. If you gove your campaign the Supers theme, then each player gets two characteristics that, for each Triumph rolled on checks with that characteristic, you roll another Proficiency die in the pool. This one is limited in two ways: it costs a Fate Point, and it’s only adding an Ability die. The full dragons get the ability to add extra Proficiency dice, but it still costs a Fate Point.

The Spark abilities, espeically when limited to 1 rank in the associated skill, are equivalent to Tier 1 or Tier 2 talents (5 or 10 xp).

EDIT: My elfspert had the idea of making the eladrin “pick 2” of the three boosted characteristics. Would that work? It’s a bit more expensive than just “have these two,” because you can min-max with it a bit, but it’s certainly not as powerful as having all three.

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#6

So the character can suffer Strain to remove Threat/Despair? Is there a limit on frequency?
I still think that the ST should be lowered a little bit though.

Okay, fair enough.

Okay, fair enough. I was unaware that that ability was precedented.

As far as I’m aware, that is unprecedented. Sub-species, each with a slightly different build, is precedented.
I think better to leave it at Agility and Cunning, and then the player can upgrade it. The only build option it prevents is Presence 5, but the player can still comfortably reach Presence 4 and still upgrade another characteristic.

#7

Hey all! I’m back again with another new species, the vampire. This one is really tricky, and I may have made it too complicated. Hopefully you can see what I’m going for. Right now, the ask is to check to make sure it’s not overwhelming; “balanced” may not really be an applicable term. It’s a species that is intended to be cool, but really is mostly a vehicle for some interesting character moments, as they are often “doomed” characters.

It does still use the species tier system I explained above. Obviously, the Vampiric Degeneration talents provide some extremely potent positives for their cost, but that’s because they also impose some severe negatives. Hopefully it evens out, but I’ll let you all tell me if you think I got it right.

VAMPIRE (Expert)

Beginning with Ann Rice’s Interview with a Vampire, a veil of intrigue and glamour has descended on the idea of vampires. What used to be thought of as a terrifying monster has become more and more alluring, sensualized, and excused, their monstrous nature softened and their power idealized. This has continued to such an extent that, in tween novels like Twilight, vampires have become so sanitized that they are heartthrobs that young people lust after and want to be.

But there is a reason they started as monsters.

Vampires are not technically a separate species. Vampirism itself is a metaphysical disease. It infects human hosts, spreading through their bite. For those initially infected, though, there seems to be little downside; the new vampire has the exciting powers of modern interpretations, at little cost. While they feel a pull to do so, they don’t even truly need to drink blood.

But that doesn’t last long. Vampirism is a degenerative condition, slowly wasting the victim into a warped, animated corpse as the disease converts their body into a form more suitable to the virus. Using the powers granted by the condition accelerates this degeneration.

Ultimately, the vampire will die, as the disease’s lust for blood surpasses the poor victim’s ability to consume it. While vampires are technically immortal, unable to die of age, almost all will die of starvation within a few decades, at best (and most much sooner than that).

The vampire character option presented here represents a newly infected vampire, one who’s appearance hasn’t started to decay. The Vampiric Degeneration talent, along with its Improved and Supreme versions, represent the progression of the disease. As it progresses, a vampire’s skin becomes paler and their features sharper and more emaciated. Their fingers stretch into claws and their teeth (all of them) sharpen into needle-like fangs.

Because vampirism infects humans and near humans (including some species of therian), their ability to use willcraft is the same as that of their initial species. While vampirism does grant some innate metaphysical abilities which can often help a vampire realize their unrecognized crafting potential, but it does not, in and of itself, grant any crafting ability.

Species Abilities

  • Brawn 3; Agility 2; Intellect 2; Cunning 2; Willpower 2; Presence 2
  • Starting Wound Threshold: 12 + Brawn
  • Starting Strain Threshold: 10 + Willpower
  • Starting Experience: 95 XP
  • Starting Skills: A vampire starts with one rank in Stealth and one rank in Athletics. They obtain these ranks before spending experience points, and may not train Stealth or Athletics above rank 2 during character creation.
  • Blood Drain: A vampire may drain blood from restrained or willing victims as a maneuver, or on an unwilling target when inflicting a Critical Injury with an unarmed attack. When doing so, they inflict 2 wounds on the target (ignoring soak), and the target’s strain threshold is reduced by 1. This reduced strain threshold recovers at a rate of 1 per day unless otherwise treated. The vampire may heal 1 wound for every 2 wounds inflicted using this ability. When using this ability on an NPC, you may spend 1 Fate Point to force the target to make a Resilience check with a difficulty equal to the number of wounds inflicted or be infected with vampirism, if they are susceptible to it.
  • Blood Drinker: A vampire may consume fresh blood instead of normal food, as long as that blood is not consumed for another purpose, such as healing wounds. 5 wounds worth of drained blood is equivalent to a days’ sustenance. Frozen or otherwise preserved blood may only provide half as much sustenance as fresh blood. A vampire may also eat regular food to satisfy an amount of required blood consumption, but doing so causes the character to be Disoriented for the remainder of the day.
  • Nightsight: A vampire removes all Setback dice imposed due to darkness from their checks.
  • Vampiric Might: Before making a Brawn- or Agility-based skill check, or a social check, a vampire may suffer any number of wounds to add an equal number of [S] to the results. When using this ability, the number of [T] needed to inflict the Vampiric Wasting Critical Injury on the character is reduced by the same amount.
  • The Wasting: [TTTTTT] or [D] may be spent from any check a vampire makes to inflict the Vampiric Wasting Critical Injury on them.

Vampiric Wasting (Easy (D))

The character decreases their wound and strain thresholds by 1, and must consume 1 wound worth of blood each day until this Critical Injury is healed. These effects are cumulative if a character is suffering from multiple instances of this Critical Injury.

A character may only attempt to heal this critical injury if they consume 4 wounds worth of blood, plus 1 wound for each Vampiric Wasting Critical Injury they are currently suffering from, in one encounter. The difficulty of the Resilience check to heal this Critical Injury is upgraded once for each Vampiric Wasting Critical Injury the character is currently suffering from.

Species-Specific Talents
Bloodsucker
Tier: 1
Activation: Active (Incidental)
Ranked: Yes
Species: Vampire
Your character may increase the number of wounds inflicted when using their Blood Drain ability by one per rank in Bloodsucker. The target’s strain threshold decreases by 1 for every 2 wounds inflicted, rounded up.

Vampiric Degeneration
Tier: 3
Activation: Passive
Ranked: No
Species: Vampire
When they purchase this talent, your character removes all Vampiric Wasting Critical Injuries they are currently suffering from. Your character increases their Cunning by 1 (to a maximum of 5), their soak by 1, and their wound threshold by 2. Your character gains a Fangs attack with the following weapon profile (Brawl; range – Engaged; Damage +1, Critical 3; Vicious 1). The Blood Drain ability may be used with the Fangs attack.

Your character must now consume 2 wounds worth of blood each day. Additionally, when consuming ordinary food instead of blood, they upgrade the difficulty of all skill checks made for the remainder of the day, in addition to becoming disoriented. Weapons made primarily of silver or aergent decrease their critical rating by 1 when used against the character, and the character upgrades the difficulty of all skill checks once in rounds where the character was exposed to direct sunlight (or an equivalent amount of UV radiation). The difficulty of the Vampiric Wasting Critical Injury increases to Average (DD).

Vampiric Degeneration (Improved)
Tier: 4
Activation: Passive
Ranked: No
Species: Vampire
When they purchase this talent, your character removes all Vampiric Wasting Critical Injuries they are currently suffering from. Your character increases their Agility by 1 (to a maximum of 5), and decreases their Presence by 1 (to a minimum of 1). Your character’s Fangs attack increases its damage and Vicious rating by 1, and your character gains a Claws attack with the following weapon profile (Brawl; range – Engaged; Damage +1, Critical 3; Linked 1, Pierce 2). Each Critical Injury your character suffers from only increases additional Critical Injury rolls by 5, instead of 10, and your character may still take either an action or a maneuver on their turn if suffering wounds above their wound threshold.

Your character no longer needs to eat normal food, but must now consume 7 wounds worth of blood each day, and may no longer consume normal food instead of blood. Weapons made primarily of silver or aergent deal +2 damage for each uncanceled [S]. Your character treats direct sunlight (or the equivalent amount of UV radiation) as a corrosive atmosphere with a rating of 2. Indirect or partially obscured sunlight may have a lesser rating, at the GM’s discretion. Increase the effecting rating of any fire your character is exposed to by 2. The difficulty of the Vampiric Wasting Critical Injury increases to Hard (DDD).

Vampiric Degeneration (Supreme)
Tier: 5
Activation: Passive
Ranked: No
Species: Vampire
When they purchase this talent, your character removes all Vampiric Wasting Critical Injuries they are currently suffering from. Your character increases their Brawn and Agility by 1 (to a maximum of 5) and decreases their Presence by 1 (to a minimum of 1). Your character’s Fangs and Claws attacks increase their damage and Vicious or Pierce rating by 1, and decrease their critical rating by 1. Your character halves all damage they suffer (before applying soak) and the result of any Critical Injury inflicted on them, unless the damage is dealt by fire or silver/aergent. They no longer need to breathe.

The character must consume 10 wounds worth of blood each day. Damage inflicted on the character by silver/aergent or fire ignore any soak not granted from armor or willcraft. They treat direct sunlight as a corrosive atmosphere with a rating of 5, and any fire has its effective rating increased by 4 (total). The difficulty of the Vampiric Wasting Critical Injury increases to Daunting (DDDD).

#8

I wouldn’t restrict it to vampires only, but GMs should exercise discretion in using the ability against players. Basically, the game should either be “anything goes” or the player should consent to becoming an immortal bloodthirsty monster.

Abilities:
I think you have too many abilities and other bonuses. I’d suggest dropping the rank in Athletics.
Vampiric Might, I think, is a bit too powerful. I’d suggest restricting it to, perhaps, a maximum of the character’s characteristic for the given skill. Or else put a hard cap like 3 or 4. As is, it is extremely flexible and very powerful, without a significant enough trade off, in my estimation. The Wound cost is good, but not enough by itself. I strongly suggest a cap.

The Wasting: 6 Threat is so much that it’s practically never going to come into play; you’re far more likely to get a Despair. Yes, you decrease the cost via Vampiric Might, but barring Despair you’re probably never going to trigger it just because of the series of things that would have to line up to get the requisite amount of Threat. I think the most net Threat I’ve ever seen is 5, and only once, and only when the all of the positive dice skewed to Success and all of the negative dice skewed to Threat. To even be eligible for 6 Threat, it has to be a Hard check at a minimum, and then it has to roll that 0.2% chance of max Threat without generating any Advantage.

So… I’d suggest changing it to 4 (or 3?) Threat or a Despair on Brawn or Agility checks, or on any checks made using Vampiric Might. Perhaps, rather than reducing the Threat cost on Vampiric Might, you upgrade the difficulty of the check once. There are thematic reasons for that (especially on the Social side of things), but it also influences the mechanical side of triggering Wasting without adding in additional variables.
The limitation on checks also means that they can’t be penalized for thinking too hard (Knowledge) or the like. They’ll only be affected when they’re using their vampire “powers” and they won’t be disincentivized from using skills outside their usual slate.

Perhaps silver/argent weapons bypass the Critical Injury reduction of the Vampiric Degeneration (Improved) talent. I know they already do bypass the later one for Supreme, but saying “previous injuries only add 5, except…” also means that the silver weapons are more potent the more “vampirey” the given character is via Wasting talents.

Finally, it’s worth noting that needing to consume 10 Wounds of blood each day can become extremely taxing on a party, and become a major drain on sessions unless they have some trick to get around it. For a single-player or two-player game (plus the GM. Kinda like having a magazine plus one in the chamber) where the story is focused on the vampire (and all involved understand that going into it), I think this would be fantastic.

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#9

Thanks for the review!

Starting with your last note, yeah, the intention is that a vampire with all their powers is a double-edged sword for a party - very strong, but they have to basically be killing a person every day to stay alive. Vampire characters are meant to tell those kinds of stories, and I feel like skipping over the detrimental effects doesn’t do them justice (but also yes, solo games would be great!)

  • As for your other points: yeah, I can remove Athletics. I’ll do that!
  • Wasting is supposed to always be a threat, no matter what you’re doing, but I can see the point about it being a bit excessive to apply to any check. I like your idea of limiting it to only Brawn, Agility, or checks where Vampiric Might is used. Maybe reduce the Threat cost to 5 makes sense, too…
  • Yeah, looking at it, unlimited Might is a bit much. Limiting it to their characteristic rating makes sense. That’s a minimum of 3 for Brawn, so it’s good enough, and means for someone with 5 Brawn, it can still be an automatic Wasting.
  • Having silver weapons bypass the crit stacking reduction makes sense! I’ll do that. I also need to go through and make sure that fire/sunlight always deals full damage…

Thanks again! I’ll make those changes; any other thoughts I should look at?

EDIT: Oh, I should clarify that not consuming enough blood on a day inflicts another Wasting crit, shouldn’t I?

#10

Other than that I’d still suggest making the Threat cost flat (at something below 5) and upgrading checks made with Vampiric Might once, no, I think that’s it.

If you intend to keep the Threat cost variable, you should clarify that if Vampiric Might reduces it to 0 it triggers automatically. Some may interpret it to require net 0 Advantage, and argue that if there are any net Advantage on the check (since Threat and Advantage cannot coexist outside certain talents) the Threat-activated effect cannot trigger.

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#11

Okay, good point.

Thanks again for your help!

If anyone else has any thoughts or suggestions, I welcome those, as well!

#12

It’s time for another new species! This one is even more complicated than the vampire, but hopefully it’s not too much? It’s a lot of up-front work, but after that I think it’ll be pretty good. I still need to add a couple more features (like additional/alternate starting skills, and some other natural attacks), and some species-specific talents, but… otherwise I think it’s good? Let me know your thoughts!

THERIAN (Varies)

There are nearly a hundred species of natural shapeshifters, most commonly known as therians, across the world. Therian species can emerge in a multitude of different ways; some come from humans whose lineage was altered by need or design, while others evolved the other direction, from animal species with innate metaphysical abilities that adapted themselves to shapeshift into human form due to environmental pressures.

Unlike popular depictions in media, therians are much more varied and broad than just monster-movie werewolves (although there are multiple species of werewolves). While many therian species are of larger or predatory animals, there are also therians with smaller forms, such as rabbits or crows. Some species exhibit other metaphysical abilities beyond simple shapeshifting, sometimes very powerful abilities, while others are no more than people with two shapes. Almost all therians possess a primal air, that sends shivers up the spines of prey species nearby, although like any attribute this is hardly universal across all species.

As with anything else, a therian’s ability to use willcraft is incredibly variable. Some species have virtually no willcrafters, relying entirely on their innate metaphysical talents, while others have near universal crafting ability. On average, however, most species of therian have slightly more willcrafters than human populations do.

There are two main types of therians presented here: large therians represent those whose animal form is medium-sized, or even a little larger than a human. These are often predators, but not always. The other is small therians, those with forms that are significantly smaller than a human. Often clever and furtive, these therians rely more on their wits than their might.

In addition to the basic abilities, each therian gains a number of Feature points to add additional features representative of their individual species. The three major categories of therian are minor, moderate, and major. Minor therians are Standard tier, moderate therians are Expert tier, and major therians are Paragon tier.

Not every type of therian can be built at every tier, and this is intentional. An elephant-shifter, for instance, likely has at least the Massive feature, which requires more Feature Points than a minor therian receives. This is fine, as being able to change into an elephant requires more metaphysical power than a minor therian would normally possess. If the exact features you believe your character’s species would have are not in the list, you can work with your GM to create a new feature, if necessary.

Therian, Large

Species Abilities

  • Brawn (2) Agility (2) Intellect (2) Cunning (3) Willpower (2) Presence (1)
  • Starting Wound Threshold: 12 + Brawn
  • Starting Strain Threshold: 8 + Willpower
  • Starting Experience: 80 XP
  • Starting Skills: A therian starts with one rank in Perception and one rank in Survival. They obtain these ranks before spending experience points, and Perception and Survival may not be increased above rank 2 during character creation.
  • Animal Instincts: A therian gains one of the following abilities: Ambush – When attacking a target that has not yet acted in the encounter, the therian adds 2 Boost dice to the check; Pack Instincts – when using the assist maneuver, the therian adds 2 Boost dice instead of 1; Persistence – when making a check to recover strain, a therian can spend [AA] to heal 3 additional strain.
  • Feral Mien: A therian adds [S] to all Coercion and Deception checks they make, but adds [T] to all Charm and Negotiation checks they make.
  • Heightened Senses: A therian removes a Setback die from Perception and Vigilance checks they make.
  • Beast Form: As an action, a therian may shift between their beast form and their human form. While in beast form they lose the ability to speak and manipulate objects with their hands, but increase their Brawn and Agility by 1 to a maximum of 5, and gain one weapon profile from the Natural Weapons feature of your choice.
  • Abundant Variations: A therian gains additional features from the Therian Features by spending Feature Points. A minor therian gains 1 Feature Point, a moderate therian gains 5 Feature Points, and a major therian gains 10 Feature Points.

Therian, Small

Species Abilities

Brawn (1) Agility (2) Intellect (2) Cunning (3) Willpower (2) Presence (2)

  • Starting Wound Threshold: 9 + Brawn
  • Starting Strain Threshold: 11 + Willpower
  • Starting Experience: 80 XP
  • Starting Skills: A therian starts with one rank in Perception and one rank in Survival. They obtain these ranks before spending experience points, and Perception and Survival may not be increased above rank 2 during character creation.
  • Feral Mien: A therian adds [S] to all Coercion and Deception checks they make, but adds [T] to all Charm and Negotiation checks they make.
  • Heightened Senses: A therian removes a Setback die from Perception and Vigilance checks they make.
  • Beast Form: As an action, a therian may shift between their beast form and their human form. While in beast form they lose the ability to speak and manipulate objects with their hands and reduce their Silhouette to 0, their wound threshold by 4, and their Brawn by 1 to a minimum of 1. They also increase their Agility by 1 to a maximum of 5 and add [FF] to checks made to recognize them or notice they are anything other than a normal animal.
  • Paw and Wing: While in beast form, the therian gains one of the following abilities: Fleet – the therian ignores the effects of difficult terrain; Flight – the therian can fly, using the rules for flight; Furtive – the therian adds 2 Boost dice to any Stealth checks they make.
  • Abundant Variations: A therian gains additional features from the Therian Features by spending Feature Points. A minor therian gains 2 Feature Point, a moderate therian gains 6 Feature Points, and a major therian gains 10 Feature Points.

Therian Features

The following are the various features that therian characters can obtain using their Feature Points (FP). The FP cost of each feature is noted along with the name. Some features are only available to small therians, while others are only available to large therians, or else a feature has a difference cost for small or large therians. A feature may only be purchased once, unless otherwise stated.

Aquatic (0-1 FP)

While in beast form, the therian can breathe underwater and treats water as normal terrain, but cannot breathe air and cannot move out of water. For 1 FP, the therian is instead amphibious, and gains the ability to breathe water and treat water as normal terrain with no disadvantages.

Environmental Adaptation (0 FP)

Choose an extreme environment, such as desert or tundra. While in beast form, the therian reduces the difficulty of any Resilience checks made to survive in those environmental conditions by two, to a minimum of Simple (–), but upgrade the difficulty of such checks made for opposing environments twice. They also ignore the effects of difficult terrain due to common conditions in that environment. In human form, the difficulty of such checks are decreased or upgraded once, instead of twice.

Evolutionary Advantage (3-4 FP)

Choose one characteristic. The therian’s base characteristic (before starting XP is spent) is increased by 1. Choosing Cunning requires 4 FP. This feature may be selected up to twice, selecting different characters each time.

Feral Tactics (1 FP)

While in beast form, the therian gains one of the following abilities:

  • Bullrush (large only): When the therian makes a Brawl combat check after using a maneuver to engage a target, they may spend [AAA] or [R] to knock the target prone and move them up to one range band away from the therian in a direction of their chosing.
  • Divebomb: If the therian drops from above a target from at least medium range to engaged, any melee combat check they make against that target during that turn adds +2 damage per uncanceled [S], instead of +1 damage.
  • Pack Fighter: If the therian makes a successful melee combat check, the next ally making a combat check against the same target during the same round adds [AA] to the results. The therian may spend [AA] or [R] from melee combat checks to prevent the target from disengaging until the end of their next turn.
  • Pounce: Once per turn, while at short range the therian may perform a move maneuver to engage a target as an incidental.

Innate Craft (1 FP)

Select one willcrafting action. The therian may use that action using one specific non-willcrafting skill, even if they cannot otherwise making willcrafting checks. If the willcrafting action the therian is given limited use (such as an Attack action that can only utilize one or two attack types, or a Barrier action that can only be effective against spirits), then you may choose a second limited willcrafting action that the therian can use, as well. This feature may be selected up to twice.

Massive (Large only; 3-5 FP)

The therian’s beast form is Silhouette 2. When they assume beast form, their Brawn increases by 2 to a maximum of 5, and their Agility does not increase. In beast form they also increase their wound threshold and Encumbrance by 4 (in addition to the increase from additional Brawn), and increase their Soak by 1.

For 5 FP, the therian’s beast form is Silhouette 3, increases Brawn to 5, Agility decreases by 1 (to a minimum of 1), their Encumbrance and wound threshold increases by 10, and their soak increases by 2.

Natural Weapons (1 FP)

The therian possesses sharp claws, huge fangs, deadly horns, or other natural implements that make them deadly in combat.

Each natural weapon is its own feature. Some have multiple options for qualities, some of which may be limited to certain silhouettes for the therian’s beast form. Unless otherwise noted, all natural weapons use the Brawl skill, and have Engaged range. Common creatures that use that profile are noted.

  • Bite Attacks
  • (Silhouette 1+; bears, other large predators) – Damage +2; Critical 2; Ensnare 1, Pierce 3
  • (Dogs, wolves) – Damage +2; Critical 3; Knockdown
  • Claw Attacks
  • (Silhouette 1+; bears, other large predators) – Damage +3; Critical 4; Concussive 1, Knowdown
  • Claws and Beak
  • (Various Birds) – Damage +2; Critical 3; Vicious 1
  • Claws and Fangs
  • (Silhouette 1+; big cats) – Damage +3; Critical 2; Vicious 3
  • Horns
  • (Silhouette 1+; deer, bulls, rhinoceri) – Damage +1; Critical 3; Pierce 2, Vicious 4

Potent Ability (1-2 FP)

Select one characteristic that is increased when the therian is in beast form, or one special ability the therian possesses. When making a check that uses that characteristic in beast form, or when using that ability, the therian may spend [R] to trigger up to three different qualities or effects instead of one. These qualities or working effects must be ones that can be triggered by spending [A] or [R]. For 2 FP, this can be activated when in human form. This ability can be selected multiple times.

Powerful Form (2 FP)

Choose one characteristic. That characteristic is increased by 1 (or by an additional +1) when the therian assumes beast form (to a maximum of 5). This feature may be selected up to twice, selecting different characteristics each time.

Regal Bearing (Large only; 0 FP)

The therian loses the Feral Mien ability. When in beast form, the therian increases their Presence and Agility, instead of their Brawn and Agility. The therian also gains the following ability. Regal Bearing: The therian adds [S] to Leadership and Negotiation checks they make, and adds [T] to Charm and Deception checks.

Traversal (1 FP)

While in beast form, the therian gains one of the following additional movement capabilities.

  • Climber: The therian can climb on any surface that can support their weight. At the GM’s discretion, some surfaces may be too slick to be climbed.
  • Flier: The therian can fly, using the rules for flight.
  • Swimmer: The therian treats water as normal terrain.

Trickster (Small only; 0 FP)

The therian loses the Feral Mien ability, and gains the following ability. Trickster: The therian adds [S] to Charm and Deception checks they make, and adds [T] to Coercion and Leadership checks.

Unique Feature (1 FP)

This feature covers unique special abilities that may not be otherwise covered by existing features, such as a porcupine-shifter’s quills that can damage melee attackers, or a cheetah-shifter’s extreme bursts of speed.If no other feature adequately covers an ability that the therian would logically possess, work with the GM to develop an ability that fits.

#13

Oh goodness. O_O

This’ll take a while to read over, but I’ll get back to you when I’ve had a chance to digest it.
The first thing that sticks out to me: I really think it needs trimming down. That seems excessive for a species.

#14

I know it’s a lot, but the goal is to allow players to be any type of shapeshifter they want, which requires a lot of modularity. The intention is that all the hard work is up front (choosing features, etc.), and once the character is built there’s not much extra baggage.

Thanks for your continued help!

#15

Alright, first the basic species stuff:

Cut XP to 70. Since they can boost Agility and Brawn by 1 at will (albeit with drawbacks), you need to hamper them a little bit more on the front end. With 80, they can get to 333222, whereas with 70 they can get to a maximum of 333221 or 332222, with 10 or 20 XP left over (respectively). The concern with 333222 is that it’s generally the base for starting characters with no bonus XP, example humans (110). Nerfing it to 333221 or 332222 is an improvement, in my opinion.

There’s quite a bit of thematic redundancy here, and that’s a lot of abilities considering how much XP they still get, and we haven’t even touched on the actual shape-shifting yet. An important thing to keep in mind is that flexibility (choosing which bonuses you prefer) is itself a bonus. It allows the player to exercise more control over how their character starts, and that tends to incentivize min-maxing.

My suggestions:
Cut “Animal Instincts” entirely.
Change “Perception and Survival” to “Perception or Survival.”

Okay, that’s decent, but I’d reduce Intellect by 1 (to a minimum of 1). Let’s look at the attacks:

The damage should scale to a certain extent with silhouette. I would suggest that each point of silhouette past 1 increases damage (and damage from qualities like Blast) by 1. Yes, I know Brawn already does that, but I think it should scale more dramatically than that. That in mind, here’s how I’d change the attacks:

  • (Bears, dogs, wolves) Bite attacks: Dam +1; Crit 2; Ensnare 1, Knockdown, Pierce 2. (crush/puncture)
  • (Bears, large simians) Claw/Paw attacks: Dam +0; Crit 3; Concussive 1, Knockdown, Stun 2. (bludgeoning/minor lacerations)
  • (Simians) Paw(/Tail) attacks: Dam +0; Crit 4; Disorient 3, Ensnare 1, Knockdown. (Additionally, simians may use their paws to manipulate simple items, at GM discretion)
  • (Big cats/sil 2 wolves or dogs) Fangs and Claws: Dam +2; Crit 2; Vicious 2. (laceration/puncture)
  • (Birds of prey) Talons and Beak: Dam +1; Crit 3; Disorient 2, Knockdown, Vicious 1 (Additionally, birds of prey may carry items in their talons, at GM discretion). (laceration/puncture)
  • (Bulls, rhinoceros, elephant) Horn(s): Dam +2; Crit 2; Inaccurate 3, Knockdown, Pierce 2, Vicious 4. (impale)
  • (Deer, elk, moose) Horns: Dam +1; Crit 4; Blast 2, Inaccurate 2, Knockdown, Stun 2. (bludgeon)
  • (Bull, horse, rhinoceros, deer, etc.) Trample: Dam +2; Crit 4; Blast 4, Concussive 1, Disorient 3, Knockdown.
  • (Elephant, octopus, simians) Prehensile tail/trunk/tentacles: Dam +0; Crit 4; Ensnare 3, Knockdown (Additionally, the character may carry items with this feature, at GM discretion).
  • (Snake, scorpion, spider) Venomous Fangs/Barb/Tail: Dam +0; Crit 5; Disorient 4, Pierce 2 (If the attack deals wounds past Soak, the target is forced to make a Hard Resilience check to resist the effects of the poison. If it fails, it suffers one of the four effects outlined below [choose one when this attack is first selected]:
    Paralyzing Venom: The target is Immobilized for 3 rounds, plus one for each net Failure on the check. 3 Threat or a Despair may be spent to Stagger the target as well.
    Deadly Poison: The target suffers 5 Wounds, +1 for each net Failure. Threat may be spent to cause the target to suffer 1 Strain and 3 Threat or a Despair may be spent to inflict a Critical Injury on the target.
    Sedative Toxin: The target suffers 5 Strain, +1 for each net Failure. Three Threat or a Despair may be spent to Stagger the target until the end of its next turn).
    Terrifying Hallucinogen: Instead of a Resilience check, the target is forced to make a Daunting Fear check. If it fails, if suffers all the usual effects of Fear. Additionally, the character may spend 3 Threat or a Despair to cause the target to see something that isn’t there, with GM approval.

Alright, let’s take a look, but I think you may have given too many options:

Yeah, that sounds okay. However, due to the later discussion of Traversal, I would suggest making it so that the aquatic creature moves along the bottom of the body of water at a base. Then they make their first choice, and now they can swim.

I’d make this cost 1. Reason being, if they know they’re usually going to be in a given environment, it’s a free bonus with practically no trade-off. In something like Star Wars where you’re jet setting around to various diverse locations, it makes much more sense for it not to cost anything.

“Choose one characteristic. The therian’s base characteristic (before starting XP is spent) is increased by 1. This costs a number of FP equal to the number the characteristic will be once you have raised it. This feature may be selected up to twice, choosing a different Characteristic each time.”
That makes it a bit “cleaner” if you will, like a spreadsheet formula that refers to a cell rather than including a static number. On option would be to limit it to only certain Characteristics, like Intellect, Cunning, Willpower, and Presence (to avoid stacking Br/Ag), or Brawn, Agility, Cunning, and Willpower (to keep it to Characteristics commonly used by animals).

  • Bullrush: Sounds good. Basically an upgraded Knockdown, which only costs 2 Advantage against sil 1 targets.
  • Divebomb: May as well just add “(flyers only)” because while no one else could really use it, it seems odd to leave that qualifier out. I think it’s too much. It gives a significant damage boost, while its contemporaries provide utility instead. I’d suggest instead that “Divebomb” allows them to move from Medium to Engaged as a single Maneuver (assuming it uses standard movement) or something like reducing the target’s Melee Defense.
    Another option is to say that it allows them to immediately disengage as an incidental (dive, attack, swoop away using speed). “Boom and zoom,” basically.
    Not sure on this one.
  • Pack Fighter (pack or herd animals only): This is too good. In many cases, that would basically be a free crit. The second ability is quite good, however, and I think it should carry this ability rather than the other effect. If it needs a secondary effect, I’d say “If the therian makes a successful melee combat check, all other therians with Pack Fighter add a Boost to combat checks against the same target until the start of the acting character’s next turn.”
  • Pounce (Agility 3+ only): I’d change it to “The character may suffer two Strain and perform the Pounce maneuver. He immediately moves to a point anywhere within Short range. If he uses Pounce to engage a target, he adds the Knockdown quality to a subsequent Brawl attack.”
    This basically boils down to “Suffer two Strain to add the Knockdown quality,” but can also allow the character to move to a place that would be otherwise out of reach, like the Freerunning talent or a Force leap that hasn’t been upgraded to Medium yet.

No idea what this is.

Change to two.
Imposing (3 FP): The character’s beast form is Silhouette 2. When he assumes beast form, his Brawn increases by 2 to a maximum of 5, and his Agility does not increase. In beast form he also increases his Wound Threshold and Encumbrance Threshold(?) by 4 (in addition to the increase from additional Brawn), he increases their Soak by 1, and he increases the base damage and the Blast rating (if he has one) of his Brawl attacks by 1 (in addition to the increase from additional Brawn).
I assume you meant threshold, not just encumbrance, which is how much they “weigh.”
(Note: if you take my suggestion, Intellect reduction would remain 1)

Massive (6 FP): The character’s beast form is Silhouette 3. When he assumes beast form, his Brawn increases to 5 and his Agility decreases by 1. In beast form, he also increases his Wound Threshold and Encumbrance Threshold by 12, his Soak by 3, and he increases the base damage and the Blast rating (if he has one) of his Brawl attacks by 3 (in addition to the increase from additional Brawn).
(Note: if you take my suggestion, Intellect reduction would remain 1)

Aside from my suggested changes and additions (I’m really pleased with the venoms), that looks good.

I don’t really know what this means, but I’d be inclined to scrap it. It sounds like a Triumph could be used to trigger three weapon qualities (for example)? What about multi-triggering? I don’t like this, and I’m definitely skeptical of the Characteristic raising. Considering the lengthy list of options, I think this would be a good one to cut.

That’s okay, but I’d limit it to certain Characteristics (Brawn, Agility, Cunning, Willpower).

I’d put the cost at 1.
Change the ability to “The character loses the Feral Mien ability. When in beast form, the character increases his Presence and Agility, instead of his Brawn and Agility. The character adds a Boost to Leadership, Negotiation, and Charm checks.”
The only “negative” social skill that would be negatively affected by a regal bearing is Coercion. Deception, if anything, would be aided.

This is a problem in that it penalizes certain creature by basically requiring them to spend a point here (like a bird, whereas a wolf wouldn’t have to spend for any of these. Unless, of course, the player wants to be an ostrich) because certain types of movement are endemic (flight for a bird, for example).

My solution would be that the first costs 0, but that any subsequent choice costs 2 FP.
So a flying fish would be 0 FP (aquatic), 0 FP (swimming), and 2 FP (flying). If it also has legs, that’d be 1 more FP (amphibious).
Another solution is to say that you get the natural movement that comes with your creature type, but that you have to spend FP to get an additional type of movement. However, that comes along with the question of something like a winged fish or some fantasy creature that has multiple sorts of movement available to it.

I think this makes sense for a variety of animals. Cats climb, Penguins don’t fly but swim, etc.

Another option is to add Glider in there instead of flier, and make flight like Aquatic (so you have to take a certain thing to get birds and a certain thing to get fish).

Perhaps even make Flier and Aquatic part of an “option” ability like these movement ones (first one’s free, second one costs 2).

I see where you’d be wanting to keep a chain going with Regal Bearing, but that one really didn’t work all that well as-written. This one also, I think, could use some adjustment:
Again, I’d put the cost at 1.
“The character loses the Feral Mien ability. When in beast form, the character increases his Cunning and Agility, instead of his Brawn and Agility. The character adds a Boost to Charm, Deception, and Skulduggery checks.”
I get penalizing Leadership and Coercion, but with the changes I suggested to Regal Bearing I think this is better.

Yeah, that’s a good way of covering it.

#16

I’ll address this one separately:

Again, Perception OR Survival. I’d still make XP 70.

Just like you reduce Brawn here, I’m in favor of reducing Intellect for the large version, especially since the other gets +2 Characteristics, while this gets net 0.

Like “Animal Instincts,” I’d suggest cutting “Paw and Wing” entirely, even though I do kinda like those abilities. Flight is redundant with some of the Therian Features (as discussed in my previous post).

I think that the small variant should increase its Cunning by 1 when making the switch. Additionally, I think that Trickster shouldn’t be restricted to the small variant. I think it could be interesting to have a tricksy larger animal, and wouldn’t be narratively dubious.

In fact, looking at the smaller one, I’m thinking that it should have a little bit more character. Drop the bonus to avoiding recognition as a shape shifter, and add a Small Variant Only ability that allows it to speak. Picture a jiminy cricket or a Mushu, or even a parrot. It should probably cost 2 FP.