Star Trek Tellarite Template

[Captain Joy]

Submitted for the forums approval. There isn't much canon on Tellarites, but if I've overlooked something obvious or got something clearly wrong, please let me know. My non-canon sources come from all over the place: Memory Beta, Star Trek Online, GURPS Prime Directive, Decipher's Star Trek line, etc. Bellow is basically how I intend to present it to my players.

TELLARITES [-3 pts]

Tellarites possess a stubborn pride and arguing is practically a sport on their homeworld.... Among their strengths is a talent for engineering. -- Tellarite - Star Trek Online Wiki

Tellarites are short, stout, fur covered humanoids with a pig-like snout. There is no female lens for Tellarite females. Tellarite females are a bit less hairy and have pointed, wide extended ears, but there is no game effect or point cost.

SOCIAL BACKGROUND
0 Cultural Familiarity (Tellarite)
1 Cultural Familiarity (Federation)
0 Language (Tellarite--native)
4 Language (English--accented)
5 TOTAL
The above assumes you are a productive member of Federation society.

ATTRIBUTE MODIFIERS
0 TOTAL

SECONDARY CHARACTERISTIC MODIFIERS
0 TOTAL

ADVANTAGES
5 Damage Resistance 1 (Tellarite fur and general sturdiness)
3 Hooves (feet only)
9 Talent 1 (Artificer: Armoury, Carpentry, Electrician, Electronics Repair, Engineer, Machinist, Masonry, Mechanic, and Smith)
1 Fur
Choose 5 points from among:
2 Acute Hearing 1
2 Acute Taste and Smell 1
1 Sure Footed (Slippery)
1 Sure Footed (Water)
1 Sure Footed (Uneven)
5 Telescopic Vision 1
23 TOTAL

DISADVANTAGES
-5 Ham Fisted (Hoof-like hands)
-15 Restricted Vision (No Peripheral Vision) (Deep-set eye sockets)
EDIT -1 Taboo Trait: All Tellarite Swimming rolls are at -1. (They’re about 50% more dense than humans.) removed
0 Taboo Trait: All Tellarite Swimming rolls are at -3. (Due to higher body density and hooves.)
added
Choose -10 points from among:
-10† Bully -- †: Bully (12) -10 points, Bully (15) -5 points
-5 Stubbornness
-5 Odious Personal Habit (Argumentative)
-31 TOTAL
As this is a racial template, these disadvantages do not count against your -25 disadvantage point total. [B11]

SKILLS
0 TOTAL

FEATURES
45° - 100°F comfort zone (10° higher than humans, preferred temperature: 82°F, Tellar average: 73°F).
Zorski Interspecies Group III (dissimilar biochemistry and/or have internal organ differences).
Edit: When figuring Height use the row 3 ST levels lower on the build table [B18]. removed
When figuring Height use the row 1 ST level lower on the build table [B18]. added
When figuring Weight use the row 2 ST levels higher on the build table [B18]. added

POINT SUMMARY
5 Social Background
0 Attributes/Secondary Characteristics
23 Ads/Perks
-31 Disads/Quirks
0 Skills/Techniques
-3 TOTAL

Removing an advantage does count against your disadvantage limit. E.g. Removing Damage Resistance would count as -5 points towards your disadvantage limit.

Tellarites are known for their engineering aptitude. Players are encouraged to develop their Tellarite PC’s as engineers, but doing so is not required.

[Lancewholelot]

I like it, but I'd be more conservative. I suspect stubborn bully will cover the behavior. Layered on disadvantages are easy to justify with alien races, but it is still double dipping. Remember that it's the human players (GM included) that will play them and thus pay the character point cost.

[Apache]

Tellarites aren't necessarily short, either.

That one TOS episode with the insane asylum where the inmates took over had a pretty big Tellarite in it....

[adm]

Overall it looks workable, but I have to agree that stacking Stubborn and Bully may make for unplayable characters, in a quasi military setting.

[LemmingLord]

The star trek and star wars wikis and encyclopedias make broad generalizations based on the one or two members of a species that have appeared on their respective shows...

The only time we get to see tellarites socially interacting was on the episode where the tellarites were political figures arguing about mining/building rights... so, what does the wiki say? All tellarites are argumenative and good at building things.

Honestly, especially for the star trek 'same as human but with makeup' universe, I'd go with a template that makes them exactly like humans except for:

Distinctive Feature (Stocky, Pig Like Snout)
Reputation -1 (Racial Stereotype - Stubborn and Argumenative)
Tellarite Background Perk (A perk allowing them to take certain advantages, disadvantages and skills with a "pig like" theme)

[Gold & Appel Inc]

Originally Posted by Captain Joy

-5 Ham Fisted (Hoof-like hands)

If you want to encourage players to make them engineers, you might want to back off on an effective average DX 7 to do fiddly wiring and stuff.

Originally Posted by Captain Joy

-1 Taboo Trait: All Tellarite Swimming rolls are at -1. (They’re about 50% more dense than humans.)

Not being able to swim at all is worth [-1] in the RAW (Cannot Float).

[Captain Joy]

Originally Posted by Lancewholelot

...I'd be more conservative. I suspect stubborn bully will cover the behavior. Layered on disadvantages are easy to justify with alien races, but it is still double dipping....

They don't take all those behavioral disadvantage, just 10 points worth. E.g. they could take Stubborn and Bully (15) just as you suggested.

Originally Posted by adm

I have to agree that stacking Stubborn and Bully may make for unplayable characters, in a quasi military setting.

Stubborn is only a -5 point disadvantage that allows your friends to "Fast-Talk" (and IMHO other influence rolls) to get you to go along with the team. To me, this is not unplayable, but fodder for roleplaying. Bully allows the PC to choose the form of his/her bullying; it can be completely verbal--totally nonphysical. Again, could make for good role playing.

I also have no problem with PCs buying off these racial behavioral disadvantages. If these disadvantages make the game less enjoyable, then I'll retroactively insist that PCs not take the offending disadvantages. Maybe I'll even admit my error on this thread. :)

Originally Posted by Apache

Tellarites aren't necessarily short, either....

But they are, on average, shorter. But you've convinced me I over did it. I think I'm going to have them use the height 1 ST level lower and weight 2 ST levels higher.

Originally Posted by LemmingLord

The only time we get to see tellarites socially interacting was on the episode where the tellarites were political figures arguing about mining/building rights... so, what does the wiki say? All tellarites are argumenative and good at building things.

Honestly, especially for the star trek 'same as human but with makeup' universe, I'd go with a template that makes them exactly like humans except for:

Distinctive Feature (Stocky, Pig Like Snout)
Reputation -1 (Racial Stereotype - Stubborn and Argumenative)
Tellarite Background Perk (A perk allowing them to take certain advantages, disadvantages and skills with a "pig like" theme)

ENTERPRISE definitely reinforced their argumentative nature as trait common to the species. And Star Trek Online, which is semi-canon, does as well. Also, my hope is that my players will find the unique features of the different races more fun than your bare-bones 'human with makeup' version (not that you don't make a good point that it's as valid a template as far as canon is concerned).

Originally Posted by Gold & Appel Inc

If you want to encourage players to make them engineers, you might want to back off on an effective average DX 7 to do fiddly wiring and stuff.

Not being able to swim at all is worth [-1] in the RAW (Cannot Float).

Being Ham-Fisted does not effect IQ-based tasks, which are the lion's share of tasks an engineer will be performing in my campaign. (In fact, I can't recall ever asking for a DX based Mechanic roll; although as soon as I have a Tellarite PC, you can bet some will come up.) It doesn't even penalize weapon use, except for Fast Draw. I find the disadvantage more interesting than crippling.

Since Cannot Float cost -1, it makes sense that penalizing Swimming rolls by -1 should not be as costly. But, I can only go up to 0 points from -1 points. I feel like I can't penalize their Swimming ability and not give them something for it. -1 is the bare minimal I can give.

[LemmingLord]

Originally Posted by Captain Joy

Stubborn is only a -5 point disadvantage that allows your friends to "Fast-Talk" (and IMHO other influence rolls) to get you to go along with the team. To me, this is not unplayable, but fodder for roleplaying. Bully allows the PC to choose the form of his/her bullying; it can be completely verbal--totally nonphysical. Again, could make for good role playing.

If the campaign takes place on a federation or other military ship where command structure is important I can see stubbornness being not so crippling. The captain justn has to make a leadership roll every time he gives a tellarite an order to determine how much arguing has to take place before the tellarite will follow the order..

A tellarite would make for a terrible helmsman.

"Mr. Suluv, come to course 82.32.0."

"Hmf."

"Mr. Suluv... Would you PLEASE turn our ship to that heading so we don't enter the romulan mine field???"

"hmm.. Ok."

Originally Posted by Captain Joy

I also have no problem with PCs buying off these racial behavioral disadvantages. If these disadvantages make the game less enjoyable, then I'll retroactively insist that PCs not take the offending disadvantages. Maybe I'll even admit my error on this thread. :)

It would be most entertaining to see "how a tellarite ship would have handled it" for the original star trek episodes...

Captain Kirv, "Mr. Uhurav, transmit using code 2..."

"But sir, code 2 has broken by the romulans..." says Lt. Uhurav.

"You heard the order, Lieutenant, code TWO," repeats Captain Kirv.

Lieutenant Uhurav stands up, "Well I know I heard the order, that's why I am shocked that you suggested it... maybe you are still suffering the effects of that rapid aging in your mind..."

"Damnit Uhurav... I am about to lie about our capabilities in a message addressed to starfleet but meant to be overheard by the romulan vessels who have surrounded us... Code two is important to make the gambit credible. The lie will only give us a few seconds of escape time and if you continue arguing about it we will all be dead... "

"Fine... code two.. why didn't you just what you were doing in the first place..."

"Cause I'm captain that's why... jerk.." says Captain Kirv.

*mumbled* "captain's mother was a jerk..." says Lieutenant Uhurav.

"What was that?" asks the captain.

"Message coding ready...code two captain.."

"Thank you...Now.. Message. From USS Stout to Starfleet Command this sector. Have inadvertently encroached upon Romulan Neutral Zone. Surrounded and under heavy Romulan attack. Escape impossible, shields failing. Will implement destruct order using corbomite device recently installed. Since this will result in the destruction of the Stout and all matter in a two hundred thousand kilometre diameter and establish a corresponding dead zone, all Federation ships will avoid this area for the next four tellar years. Explosion will take place in one minute. Kirv, commanding Stout, out. Mister Suluv, course one eight eight degrees, mark fourteen. Speed, warp factor eight. Stand by."

"Hmmf.." says Suluv.

"*sigh*" says the captain.

Originally Posted by Captain Joy

(not that you don't make a good point that it's as valid a template as far as canon is concerned).

Thanks!

Originally Posted by Captain Joy

Since Cannot Float cost -1, it makes sense that penalizing Swimming rolls by -1 should not be as costly. But, I can only go up to 0 points from -1 points. I feel like I can't penalize their Swimming ability and not give them something for it. -1 is the bare minimal I can give.

I'm not sure I've ever seen anyone swim on star trek... so it sounds like it is worth 0 points as a feature people can talk about. :)

Maybe note it as a 0 pt feature and if the player ever finds it disadvantageous, you can give her an extra point at the end of the adventure. :)

[Gold & Appel Inc]

Originally Posted by Captain Joy

Being Ham-Fisted does not effect IQ-based tasks, which are the lions share of tasks an engineer will be performing in my campaign. (In fact, I can't recall ever asking for a DX based Mechanic roll; although as soon as I have a Tellarite PC, you can bet some will come up.) It doesn't even penalize weapon use, except for Fast Draw. I find the disadvantage more interesting than crippling.

"Oh crap, I critfailed Fast-Draw (Tricorder)!" ;]

Originally Posted by Captain Joy

Since Cannot Float cost -1, it makes sense that penalizing Swimming rolls by -1 should not be as costly. But, I can only go up to 0 points from -1 points. I feel like I can't penalize their Swimming ability and not give them something for it. -1 is the bare minimal I can give.

Most taboo traits are, in fact, worth [0] points by RAW. Cannot Float is a rare exception. How about a Quirk along the lines of Dislikes Swimming [-1], making them likely to operate at default?

[Captain Joy]

Originally Posted by LemmingLord

I'm not sure I've ever seen anyone swim on star trek... so it sounds like it is worth 0 points as a feature people can talk about.

They swim in The Animate Series. It's also an option in the Everyman Lens. (I require an Everyman Lens in every campaign I run.) Officers that choose not to learn to swim will regret that decision at some point in their careers. :)

Originally Posted by Gold & Appel Inc

Most taboo traits are, in fact, worth [0] points by RAW. Cannot Float is a rare exception.

I stand corrected. I've decided to go with this now:

0 Taboo Trait: All Tellarite Swimming rolls are at -3. (Due to higher body density and hooves.)