Manual:Game Mechanics/Races

Writers create their own unique race at the start of the game from 1 of 3 Racial Types and 4 of 32 Racial Traits.

Racial Type
The racial type represent how the race interacts with technology (or whatever equivalent the race uses).

Natural
The standard organic race that constructs buildings and fleets of inorganic materials. There are no modifiers for this type.

Biological
This race focuses on living structures and ships. This results in slightly more fragile craft, but allows them to regenerate damage in transit. Biological structures and ships require more gas, but less ore.

Biological ships and structures with mixed resource costs have -1 ore costs and +1 gas costs. Biological ships have -1 to their total hull points, but regenerate while damaged. If a biological ship is at half or less maximum hull points, it regenerates 1 hull point/0.1 turn. If the ship is size 5 or larger it regenerates an additional hull point/0.1 turn. In combat it shall only regenerate once per 4 waves as normal. If a biological ship has any system reduced to 0 ranks through damage, it may forgo regenerating a hull point to restore the system to 1 rank, but it must not regenerate past this point; systems repaired in this way receive no benefit from associated traits until fully repaired.

Mechanical
This race is mechanical, this can mean they are machines or constructs of a more mystical origin. Their ships are much more durable due to their advanced production techniques, however, their infrastructure is much more complex than most and requires more intricate planning.

Mechanical ships have +1 total hull points bonus. Mechanical infrastructure caps for all worlds and stations have a -1 penalty. Mechanical ships and structures with mixed resource costs have -1 gas costs and +1 ore costs.

Racial Traits
Racial traits reflect evolutions and advancements in physiology, mentality or even innate talent.

Advanced Business
Your race knows how to make a profit, though your race has exploited their homeworld to get their riches.

Effect: Races with the advanced business trait begin play with a bonus of 3 ranks in Economics. However, the home world shall have a -1 penalty to its fertility, gas, and ore.

Advanced Production
Your people hate to discard old technology, choosing to instead constantly improve upon existing technology.

Effect: Races with the advanced production trait may have their ship sizes increased any number of times, but the shipyard upgrading them must be able to create ships of the desired size. Each size upgrade after the first costs one extra ore or gas (you choose) from the world that it is being upgraded on. Structures and ships only return ¼ of the resources when sold.

Alternate Communications
Your people use a form of communication such as telepathy, or simply sharing all thoughts as a species in the form of a collective mind.

Effect: Races with the alternate communications trait shall have an increased range for all communications from ships and worlds by up to 2 hexes. If a ship or world has lost communications, they may still contact others within the same hex.

Aquatic
Your people are aquatic dwellers, living in water or similar substances. You are well adapted to watery worlds, but don't fare so well outside them.

Effect: The aquatic races shall have +2 Fertility, +1 Ore, and +1 Gas on oceanic worlds. Aquatic races also receive +1 planetary attack and defense strength on oceanic worlds. In addition, when exploring oceanic worlds, aquatic races receives a +2 bonus to sensor value to find anything of interest there. Arid, magma, and worlds with the fiery qualities require you to build special habitats upon them that cost 3 ore and 3 gas, and have a -1 penalty to fertility.

Artificers
Your race discovered ancient ruins or a crashed ship or intercepted ancient data from a more advanced species long extinct. It has boosted your race's tech in that field of research, but has also strongly influenced your race's scientific development, limiting new projects and new fields of study.

Effect: Races with the artificer trait choose two of the following fields; Ship Tech, Planetary Tech, or Combat Tech. The races with the artificer trait begin play with a bonus of 4 Tech Points (TP) in the first field chosen. These TP are spent first, and do not count against the level limit. However, you cannot start the game with more than 2 TP in the second field chosen, including bonuses from other racial traits.

Environmental Adaptation
By technology or evolution, your race has adapted to survive in what would otherwise be hazardous environments. However, this has also caused you to rely less on your environment, preventing you from benefiting from naturally high fertility.

Effect: Races with the environmental adaptation trait have a home world with a -1 base fertility penalty; and all other worlds have a base fertility of 4. In exchange, a race with this trait may ignore the effects of Stormy, Extreme Temperatures, and Toxic on any world they control; they also lose any benefits these traits may afford you via technology or other racial traits.

Environmentalists
Your race has a special bond with natural environments, and is particularly perceptive of the effects of development in them.

Effect: Races with the environmentalist trait shall have +2 base fertility bonus on every colonized world, so long as the planet had at least 2 starting fertility. However, environmentalists cannot begin play with more than 2 ranks invested in Industry.

Experienced Leaders
Your race has a long history of influencing generals and presidents, and their followers are quick to follow orders.

Effect: Races with experienced leaders have ships and defenses with a +1 damage bonus against targets that other allies are attacking during the first wave of a battle. In addition, their ships reduce incoming damage by 1 during a surprise pass while on the defensive. Their ships have +1 boarding strength bonus to repel boarders.

Expert Navigators
Your race excels at navigating the stars. Perhaps throughout their history they were master sailors, or astronomers, whatever the reason, your people know the best way to get there.

Effect: Races with expert navigators may add a +1 bonus to ships' engine, warp, and sensor values during non-combat travel.

Extra Sensory Perception
Your race possesses a sense unique to your species. Whether it is a sixth-sense or the ability to detect various types of energy, this sense gives your people a unique perspective on things.

Effect: Races with extra sensory perception shall have a +2 sensor bonus for each hex their sensor range would normally reach. Their race also can use this to great benefit in combat, granting them a +1 bonus to boarding strength on all ships and stations.

Fire-born
Your race is most at home in hot, fiery environments, and able to generate heat or fire in self defense or aggression. However, in especially wet or cold environments, your people require special equipment and structures to survive.

Effect: Fire-born races have a +1 bonus for boarding strength, and planetary attack/defense strength. These races treat all fiery worlds as though they were +2 base fertility and ignores the fiery hazard. However, these races must build special habitats upon oceanic and ice worlds that cost 3 ore and 3 gas; these must be constructed before any new structures can be built there. Their planetary attack/defense bonus does not apply on oceanic or ice worlds.

Forced Workers
Whether through slavery, mindless robots, or some other method, your race has a large number of workers who require very little upkeep or salary. You're able to build infrastructure faster than most, however in an invasion, these workers can be turned against you.

Effect: When races with forced workers gain infrastructure on a world at the beginning of the turn, they gain a +1 bonus to the infrastructures. However, they only receive +2 to their planetary defense strength for every 10 infrastructure rather than every 5.

Hive-mind
Your race functions through a hive-mind (though this could also represent something such as a mechanical race's link to a master computer for example), acting as one entity. While this greatly improves a race's efficiency, it also may leave the race vulnerable should such hive-minds be located and targeted by enemies.

Effect: Races with the hive-mind trait begin with a hive-mind on their home world. They must place hive-minds on new worlds not within 5 hexes of another hive-mind of their own. If such a world is occupied or conquered by an enemy, the hive-mind there is killed if the attacker so chooses. If a hive-mind is killed, they must wait until after the end of the following turn to replace it. While a hive-mind is active, it may freely redistribute your infrastructure between any of your worlds or stations within the hive-mind's 'control zone' (the 5 hex radius around its world) at the start of the turn before any new infrastructure is gained. However, none of the stations or worlds produce infrastructure unless they are within one of these 'control zones'.

Placing a hive-mind costs no resources, but reduces the infrastructure on the world by 1. If a world has no available infrastructure to draw from, the hive-mind will cost 3 ore and 3 gas and must be 'built' as though it were a structure there. They shall only place 1 hive-mind each turn, and shall not place one within the control zone of another one of their hive-minds.

Illicit Bartering
Your race makes dirty deals and illegal trades almost as though they were second nature. However, the illegal activities your people pursue often cause unrest on your worlds.

Effect: Races with the illicit bartering trait begin play with 2 ranks in Black Market. In addition, their worlds have their resource storage capacities increased by 4. However, other races have a +1 subterfuge rank bonus against them.

Industrious
Your race knows how to build things very efficiently. They require less building materials to get the job done.

Effect: Races with the industrious trait reduce Ore or Gas cost for structures by one (you choose which is reduced each time you construct a new structure), to a minimum of 1, when their infrastructure on a world is at least 6.

Integrated Systems
Large machines and/or creatures are an integral part of your people's daily life, whether it is mundane activities or battle. As such, your race has developed specialized gear for such creatures and/or creations.

Effect: Races with integrated systems may assign modules to monstrous/unmanned craft they build as though they did not have that trait, though they cannot equip them with science modules, as those require above average sentience and/or a crew to work them. Such creatures are considered one size smaller than they actually are in terms of how much space they have for modules they may carry. (So a size 4 unmanned craft counts as a size 3 craft when it comes time to decide what it may carry).

Irradiated
Whether it was a natural planetary/cosmic occurrence, or the by-product of a disaster or war, your world and people are now irradiated but have evolved either a high tolerance or immunity to radiation in its many forms.

Effect: Races with an irradiated home world gain the 'Irradiated' quality and loses 1 base fertility, but their race is immune to the irradiated hazard's effect, Increase boarding strength and planetary attack/defense strength by 1. In addition, the race doesn't suffer from the additional effects of the Irradiated weapon trait when used against them (though other traits and the damage still do as normal).

Martial Law
Your race relies on the military for law enforcement. This causes improved security, but makes people unlikely to interact with your people in "under-the-table" deals.

Effect: Races that enact martial law begin with 4 tech points in security, but they cannot engage in the Black Market.

Mystics
Your race has a long history of ancient magics, psychic powers or similar phenomena. Such power has provided you with many benefits.

Effect: Foes of mystic races have -2 planetary attack strength when attacking those worlds, and have their bombardment strength reduced by 2 against those worlds and stations. A race with this trait may spend 1 infrastructure at a world or space station constructing a ship (or another station) to grant that ship (or station) a permanent +1 bonus to boarding strength, this bonus counts as a base increase and not simply a modifier (you can only do this once per ship/station).

Multi-Species
Your race is comprised of two or more different species working together. Perhaps they were born on the same world and united under a single cause, or perhaps they were conquered. The mixture of races has lead to some interesting developments as far as civilizations go, but unrest on your worlds and stations is disastrous.

Effect: Races composed of multi-species begin with 1 rank in Planet Tech, receive a +1 bonus to infrastructure cap on all worlds and stations and only require 1/2 the normal time to translate alien languages. However, their races' resistances to unrest are reduced by 20%, and whenever such effects cause bombardment (such as riots), the strength is increased by 50%.

Natural-Born Pilots
Your race, through training or simply mindset, is gifted at flight. They are able to add a touch of grace to even bulky cargo craft, which can be quite an asset in combat.

Effect: Enemies attacking ships of races with natural-born pilots have -2 to their weapon damage during the first wave of each battle in which they would inflict damage upon your craft.

Rapid Production
Your race wastes no time bickering over contracts or union labor. They prefer to just get the job done as fast as possible. Accidents just remove clumsy workers from the labor pool and are not to be regretted.

Effect: For every 5 Infrastructure on a world or station, that world or station has a +1 bonus to its Construction value.

Resource Tapping
Your race is adept at getting the most they can out of a planet's resources, however this can have major impacts on the environment.

Effect: When a race with the resource tapping trait colonizes a world, they may reduce the world's fertility by 1 and increase the higher of it's base gas or ore by 2. These effects are permanent. This cannot be used on worlds with less then 2 fertility.

Scientific
Your race is a particularly curious one, always studying and researching new findings. Your people are adept at reverse-engineering alien technology.

Effect: Races with the scientific trait choose one of the following: Ship Tech, Planetary Tech, or Defensive Tech. They begin play with 1 rank in that tech field. When receiving that class of tech from another species, they may reduce the number of turns required by 1 to a minimum of 1.

Shadow Affinity
Your race prefers to work in the background. They have tailored both their tech and daily lives around remaining secretive. However your race's natural distrust often gets in the way of development.

Effect: Races with the shadow affinity trait have ships with +1 stealth value if they have at least 1 rank of stealth systems assigned to them, and their race has +1 Subterfuge value for Gather Information (NOTE: These can cause the skills/tech to be pushed over normal level maximums). However, the race skips the infrastructure normally generated on a new world or station's first turn (NOTE: This does not apply to the first turn of your home world).

Strategists
Your race is well-versed in the art of war and their grasp of military strategy is unmatched.

Effect: When a race with the strategist trait is on the offense during a ship battle, their foes cannot act during the first 2 passes of the first wave during battle. When on the offense during an invasion or during a planetary encounter, their forces there receive a +1 bonus to their boarding/planetary attack strength for the first turn of engagement.

Strong Defenders
Your race knows how to entrench themselves to defend their worlds, and how to create impenetrable fortifications. However, to maintain such a strong defense, your race keeps things tight. This restricts supply traffic amongst your worlds.

Effect: Races with strong defenders have planetary defense strength increased by 3, and the boarding strength of their stations is increased by 2. In addition, their defenses each have +1 hull value. However, the number of resources they can transfer between their worlds with logistics each turn is reduced by 2.

Telekinetic Powers
Your race can project force with either thought or integrated devices. They have incorporated this ability into much of their technology, which improves the shielding of their space craft and defenses.

Effect: Races with telekinetic powers have ships and defenses with a +1 bonus to their shield value.

True Faith
When enemies attempt to capture your ships and conquer your holy worlds, your people fight them fearlessly.

Effect: Races with true faith may spend an additional 1 Ore and 1 Gas on a ship to sanctify it (this cannot be applied to stations). Sanctified ships have +1 to boarding strength and have a 50% chance of resisting demoralization effects. They may also spend 3 ore, 3 gas and 1 energy on a temple structure for your worlds and stations. Their planetary defense/boarding strength increases by 1/level and their infrastructure cap increases by 1/level of these structures on that world or station. In addition, the world or station has its resistance to unrest increased by 10%/level of temple there. They may upgrade these up to rank 5, but they may only have a single rank 5 temple at any given time.

If one of their worlds or stations with a temple is captured, all of their worlds and stations skip their next turns' infrastructure gain. In addition, if the temple structure was their highest rank temple (or tied for highest), all their ship crews become demoralized, suffering a -1 penalty to all non hull systems and a -2 penalty to boarding strength. Ships outside of communications range with their worlds and stations are not affected by this until they do come into communications range. These effects last until the temple is retaken or destroyed, but do not apply to craft actively attempting to liberate the temple.

Tyrants
Your people are demanding, and seek to rule over others. With a history of ruthless kings or power-hungry chieftains, your race has learned how to best conquer others and suppress rebellions.

Effect: Tyrant races increase their planetary attack strength by up to 4, not to exceed the base total planetary attack strength they have. (Example; a fleet with only 3 attack strength cannot receive more than +3 from this trait). In addition, they may control 2 additional worlds, so long as they are conquered or occupied worlds.

Undying
Your people are bound to this existence eternally either by magic, memory storage or possibly just by physiology. Whatever the reason, your people can replace lost crew and captains by investing the time and resources to do so.

Effect: When an undying captain, crew, or hero is killed, the race may spend resources to revive/recover them on one of their worlds or stations. This causes the revived crew/captain to retain their RP and GM granted traits. Reviving a crew costs 2 infrastructure, reviving a captain or hero requires 1. Costs must come from the place they want to revive them on. If the captain/crew they want to revive has unique traits, they shall pay 1 Ore and 1 Gas in addition to the infrastructure to revive them. Revival is declared at the start of a turn, and is instantaneous unless they have a trait, at which point it requires 1 full turn, heroes always take 1 full turn. This ability may be used to recover traits of craft with the monstrous trait, but they must also rebuild the craft exactly as it was before reassigning the traits it had.

Warlike
Your people have shed a lot of blood throughout their history. Your race's weapon technologies are advanced, but at the cost of other technology.

Effect: Warlike races begins with 2 tech points in either explosive, energy or solid weapons. However, they cannot begin with more than 2 ranks in Economics or Planet Tech (this includes any bonuses granted by other racial traits).