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Old 07-28-2020, 01:02 AM   #1
AlexanderHowl
 
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Default Elf Kittens

I find that Elf Kittens are among the more tragic races in the Transhuman Space setting. They are sapient bioroids who were designed as 'bedwarmers' and have been deprived of the ability to speak, presumably so that their masters would not have to hear them begging for mercy. While they can presumably learn to sign and to read and write, I doubt that many of their masters bother to teach them to do either.

In my games, I have created the Elf Kitten Liberation League (EKLL), an organization that specialized in locating and freeing enslaved Elf Kittens. After they were linerated, Elf Kittens were taught signing and literacy, so they could give voice to their emotions and trauma, which the EKLL used to gain more funding and support for their activities on Earth. Often demonized by inhabitants of the Outer Sol System, the EKLL were banned from Ceres in 2095 after liberating 100 Elf Kittens from their Duncanite masters and escaping with them before security forces could recapture their missing property.

Since then, the EKLL and Duncanites have been in an escalating war, with each side attacking the spaceships and stations of the other side. While the Duncanites outnumber the EKLL in the Outer Sol System, they are more disorganized and are much poorer, as the EKLL possesses a trillionaire as their primary patron (Ms. Stephenie Sun). With Duncanites believe that Ms. Sun is using the EKLL as a Trojan horse to build up support for a future conquest of the Main Belt. They are correct, Ms. Sun plans on turning the Main Belt into an independent nation with her as empress, but she does believe in liberating the Elf Kittens.

So, how do you deal with Elf Kittens in your games? Are they merely be dwarves or are they deeper characters? If the latter, how do you portray their enslavement and oppression?

Last edited by AlexanderHowl; 07-28-2020 at 01:37 AM.
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Old 07-28-2020, 08:36 PM   #2
Prince Charon
 
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Default Re: Elf Kittens

OK, I'm a bit horrified, but sadly not surprised. Which book or books are Elf Kittens in, though?
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Old 07-29-2020, 12:37 AM   #3
AlexanderHowl
 
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Default Re: Elf Kittens

Deep Beyond, p. 112. There are more than a few depraved templates in that book (Sentient Snacks come to mind).
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Old 07-29-2020, 01:19 AM   #4
AlexanderHowl
 
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Default Re: Elf Kittens

A 4e version of the Elf Kitten template might be the following:

Elf Kitten [-5]

Attribute Modifiers: ST-2 [-20]; DX+1 [20]; IQ-1 [20]; HT+2 [20]

Advantages: Appearance (Very Beautiful/Very Handsome; Off-the-Shelf Looks, -50%] [8]; Classic Feature (Catgirl) [1]*; Longevity [2]; Radiation Tolerance /5 [10]; No Degeneration in Zero-G [1]*; Sanitized Metabolism [1]; Versitile [5]

Disadvantages: Bioroid (Early Maturation 5) [-5]; Cannot Speak [-15]; Lecherousness (12-) [-15]

Racial Skills: Freefall (A) DX [2]

Features: Catlike Features [0]; Purr [0]

*Thematic traits that I added to equal point costs between 3e and 4e (and to keep theme).

Notes: Since they are bioroids, Elf Kittens can be ordered with additional skills, up to 108 CP from Deep Learning, though most owners are unwilling to pay for anything more the Erotic Art at DX+2 and Housekeeping at IQ+2 (an additional +$24,000 to the base cost of $50,000). Elf kittens became commercially available in 2091, basically physiological adults with basic life skills from deep learning, and the oldest members of the race are only nine years old.

Last edited by AlexanderHowl; 07-29-2020 at 01:31 AM.
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Old 07-29-2020, 03:29 AM   #5
RogerBW
 
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Default Re: Elf Kittens

Quote:
Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl View Post
A 4e version of the Elf Kitten template might be the following:
See also Bioroid Bazaar, p. 24.
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Old 07-29-2020, 11:36 AM   #6
Flyndaran
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Default Re: Elf Kittens

Quote:
Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl View Post
Deep Beyond, p. 112. There are more than a few depraved templates in that book (Sentient Snacks come to mind).
I read sentient snacks to be just simple programs designed to mimic distress. But that makes them horrifying for the fact that people wanting that exist, and that a society promotes and sells to such sadistic murderous urges.

Then again, the real world is full of those kinds of people and unofficial markets just not as high tech. :(
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Old 07-29-2020, 06:18 PM   #7
Prince Charon
 
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Default Re: Elf Kittens

Quote:
Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl View Post
Deep Beyond, p. 112. There are more than a few depraved templates in that book (Sentient Snacks come to mind).
Ah. I regret asking, since you've reminded me that Sentient Snacks exist in that book. The sad (disturbing) thing is that I can easily believe that there would be a market for them in the future, if someone makes them in Real Life.
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Old 07-30-2020, 04:38 AM   #8
Phil Masters
 
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Default Re: Elf Kittens

Yes, Deep Beyond throws up quite a few appalling bioroid designs, clearly intentionally; Omokage and the Martian Triads are set up as fairly clear and horrible villains by most people's standards. I didn't have the impression that the Elf Kittens were meant to be especially common (and they aren't really the worst, ref. Algonauts), so I wouldn't expect them to be singled out as the subject of liberation movements -- but they could certainly be used as the symbol of such a group. When your opponents actually go round abusing cute catgirls, exploiting the fact is basic memetics.
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Old 07-30-2020, 10:10 AM   #9
AlexanderHowl
 
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Default Re: Elf Kittens

Agreed. One issue would be that they could be a popular export item to Earth and Mars. Cute lecherous cat girls that could not protest the conditions of their enslavement would seem primed for exploitation by organized crime (and legally in nations where bioroids are seen as living machines rather than living entities)
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