I'm making a TiTS Campaign Guide for Starfinder

[MeepTheChangeling]

You've read the title, I'm not sure if this already exists or if it's been ported to other TTRPG rulesets... but I like Starfinder and I like TiTS, and after explaining to my gaming group what the setting is like they wanted to run a game in the world. Since I would have to come up with all this stuff anyways for playing with them I figured I could put in a little extra work and make a publicly available campaign guide (which will never be sold or hidden behind a paywall like patrion or anything. Also if any of the official TiTS artwork is requested to be removed form this, I will remove it.).

It's presently WIP, but many of the major races are done, armor is done, and lots of other bits and bobs are all ready to go. I would appreciate feedback. Even if you don't play Starfinder, you could tell me if I made any lore mistakes or if a species is just not reflected correctly in the abilities I gave them.

Have a look if you'd like.

 

[TheShepard256]

Feedback/corrections, mostly on lore-related stuff:

Base document:

• The dzaan belong not in First Contact Species, but in UGC Species, as they were already an established UGC species prior to the 14th Planet Rush; Luca and her siblings are from Mars, while Ardia's sire owns and operates a resort world.
  
• UGC Species should include leithans, thraggen, anatae and toves. There are plenty of other species that could also be listed, but those four are prominent enough (especially when compared to fanfir) that I think they should definitely be included. Other species not as prominent but I think may be prominent enough to be considered for inclusion are ovir, saurmorians, slyverens and rodenians.
• First Contact Species should include naleen and vanae (Mhen'ga), gabilani, raskvel and sydians (Tarkus), nyrea and bothrioc (Myrellion), and zaika (Dhaal). Also, it's spelled 'zil', not 'zill'.

UGC History:

• The leithan homeworld is known as Leitha, and it's the second planet in the Alpha Centauri system.
• The 14th Planet Rush should include Dhaal under First Contacts.

Factions:

• Humphard Inc. was removed from the game recently, with its former products being distributed between TamaniCorp and JoyCo as appropriate. I remember someone on the forums musing that it'd be cool if that's what happened in-universe as well.

The various Species docs:

• Humans: there's no evidence to suggest that humans are more receptive to mods than other, similar species (except the simii, who were genetically engineered to resist gene mods), making the Modification Friendly trait inaccurate. I also think the trait itself is OP, especially the 'months to weeks' step; I'm not familiar with the Starfinder system, so I don't know if that's the only way it can be done, but I'd think that if possible, a flat percentage decrease in time (say, 20%?) would be more appropriate.
• Humans+: the current image is of Samurenth Tyraso, who's actually an ausar. The actual in-universe (species)+ designation is used for individuals of that species who have modded themselves in some way; under this, and given how you've described them, a more appropriate image would be of Doctor Lessau, a human who's modified himself to have a chimaera-like appearance.
• Humans+: given how you've described them in the doc itself, I'd assume the same bonuses/penalties would apply to a member of any humanoid species, not just humans, who've modded themselves that heavily. If so, that should be explicitly stated.
• Laquines: given that they're around the same size as humans, I don't think they could reasonably be considered 'small'.
• Ausar: "Decidedly younger than their interplanetary peers, they’ve lagged considerably in advancing any kind of species-wide intellectual pursuits." This is directly contradicted by them being the first and only species to invent proper interstellar travel; the only thing 'young' about them is that they mature faster than most other species (they're adults at age 15), and the company that invented the Warp Gates (Akkadi R&D) is still functioning millennia afterwards. I've no problem with the associated -2 Wis, though; it would be appropriate for a species more libidinous than humans, and Syri (an ausar) is kind of impulsive.
• Galotians: the page image is of Zo'dee, a rahn. Celise or Roz would be more appropriate.
• Galotians: they don't naturally have cores, so the relevant part of 'I fits I sits' is inaccurate. They can use specially-designed picardine cores to increase their intelligence and willpower (and it's lightly implied that the effects of multiple cores stack), but removing such a core has no detriments other than the loss of those stats.
• Gryvain: given their technological prowess and reputation as a peaceful species, I'd say +2 Int and choice of +2 between Wis and Cha would be more appropriate than +4 Dex.
• Dzaan: it's only their cum that's addictive, and that addictiveness affects other humanoid species in the same manner as it does dzaan.
• Hybrids: taking only half of their parent's stat bonuses but all of their stat penalties seems a bit unfair to me; I'd think taking half of each would be much more balanced as it would always maintain the net +2 of the '+4/-2' standard.

For the corrections, I understand that some of the changes may have been made for balancing purposes, but I've no way of telling which ones those are and which are genuine errors.

Also, ausar, gryvain and laquines naturally have heat cycles, and I think it would be neat to add those in as optional rules if the specific RP allows sexual stuff. I even have some ideas on how it could work:

Spoiler: Heat Cycle perk

Base: females and hermaphrodites of this species go into heat for a period of four weeks at the same time each year. During these four weeks, her breeding urges drive her to excel in social situations in the hopes of attracting a mate, which combined with her pheromones gives [+5 or +10 to most social checks or +x Cha]; however, the prominence of such urges in her mind also gives her a -x Wis penalty. Additionally, she is unable to naturally fall pregnant while not in heat, but while she is in heat she gains [a significant bonus to whatever checks are made to get pregnant]. All of these effects end once the four weeks are up.
She cannot go into heat if she has no non-pregnant wombs, is not an adult, has gone through menopause, is otherwise naturally unimpregnable or is under the effect of hormonal, chemical or gene-mod contraceptives such as Sterilex. If she cannot go into heat while already in heat (usually as a result of being impregnated), she goes out of heat as if the cycle ended by time-out.

Ausar-specific: she can be impregnated while not in heat, using the normal rules for getting pregnant.
Laquine-specific: instead of going into heat for four weeks once every year, she instead goes into heat for two weeks once every half-year.
Gryvain: heat is not ended upon being impregnated and lasts for the full four weeks, and she can go into heat even if she's already pregnant.

There's also a Rush planet that's planned but not implemented: Xamdam (aka Phaedra II), with two native species, divrani and hyraxxi. The only in-universe information I've found on them come from their Codex entries, which aren't accessible in-game but are still present here in the public source code (currently lines 3115 through 3203).

 

[MeepTheChangeling]

EDIT: Sorry I don't know how to fix this formatting ><

Yay! Actual help. Thanks! I wasn't expecting anything like this in truth.

Feedback/corrections, mostly on lore-related stuff:

> The dzaan belong not in First Contact Species, but in UGC Species, as they were already an established UGC species prior to the 14th Planet Rush

Thank you. I seem to have confuzed the words dzaan and dhall XD I am making the correction now.

> UGC Species should include leithans, thraggen, anatae and toves.

I hadn't gotten to them yet. I got tired of starting races and testing their balance and all that math so I moved to items. But I'll add them to the document so I dont' forget.

That said... I though the thraggen were the space orks and expressly NOT UGC citizens because, you know, they have their own empire that's supposed to be blockaded off? There was no indication that ever ended, and in fact the wiki/codex entries state the blockade is ongoing. The wiki states "To this day, the surviving thraggen worlds exist in perpetual blockade, closely watched by an army of spy satellites for any signs of hostility." Are they really UGC? Where's the lore that syas the situation changed? If it has changed, one of us should update that page. That said for game purposes it's clear that Thraggen do have access to UGC planets, and work with pirate factions within the frontier. I could put them in Rusher species. Which I should rename to something else...

> Also, it's spelled 'zil', not 'zill'

I spelled it with one L... did you mean to say it's spelled with two?

> The leithan homeworld is known as Leitha, and it's the second planet in the Alpha Centauri system.

I hadn't checked their page yet. Interesting. I didn't know they were uplifted. Must have happened after the Asur first contact.

> The leithan homeworld is known as Leitha, and it's the second planet in the Alpha Centauri system.

Thank you, it had no wikipage.

> Humphard Inc. was removed from the game recently

Oh so the wiki IS out of date then? Joy >< I've updated it to be disolved, but with lots of its branding and stuff everywhere on existing products. Did you know that TamaniCorp is not on the wiki? Or at least, wasn't like 3 days ago. I've added TamaniCorp.

> a more appropriate image would be of Doctor Lessau

Thank you! I didn't even know I made that mistake ><

> I'd assume the same bonuses/penalties would apply to a member of any humanoid species

I realized just after making that race that it should be made into a template applicable to... anyone. Otherwise I'd have to have a different + version of EVERY species and while it's likely that would be more realistic... Yeah, this is time for a game assisting abstraction. Just consider the Humans+ race to be a template in need of some rewording on lore. Again, I stopped working on races to work on other things.

> Laquines: given that they're around the same size as humans, I don't think they could reasonably be considered 'small'

... Thank you for catching that brainfart. Boy that one is embarising.

> This is directly contradicted by them being the first and only species to invent proper interstellar travel

That's also raw text copypastated from the wiki. I am starting to think that thing is just a huge mess.

> they don't naturally have cores

Huh... Well. I'll just fix that then. It will unbalance them a bit, but I think I can fix that by giving the ability a massive speed penalty (so it is not viable in combat).

> it's only their cum that's addictive, and that addictiveness affects other humanoid species in the same manner as it does dzaan.

Can I get a source on this one? I thought their milk was addictive as well and that they took alien lovers expressly to avoid that. Is this another wiki is wrong thing?

> I think it would be neat to add those in as optional rules if the specific RP allows sexual stuff.

It totally does! I'm going to make a "Adult Content" section with all of the stuff like that in it as optional rules. That way people can talk their not-perv friends into playing in the setting XD

> There's also a Rush planet that's planned but not implemented

I'm aware of this, but I do not want to add anything that dosn't exist in TiTS that isn't my own creation. That way it wont be wrong once someone finishes their project. I'm also keeping my own additions to a minimum. So, probably just AynaCo (because there isn't to my knowledge, a company in game like it yet and... Well... It's hilarious and I like to reuse it when I can.), maybe one planet made as an example of how to use the random-planet-generator system I came up with years back, and the bits of armor and stuff I need to add to pad out lists. (Unless of course people want me to make up more stuff and that wouldn't piss people off. I love this hard-ish scifi setting so much. it's my kind of worldbuilding and since my fans have trapped me writing postapock for a year I REALLY want to do some scifi).

 

[TheShepard256]

The wiki isn't always reliable, especially since it often relies on the public source code which hasn't been updated for over half a year now. And there was that one time where someone added info that was either head-canon or blatantly contradicts established TiTS lore. Whenever possible, it's best to double-check anything said on the wiki with actual in-game evidence; the in-game Codex entries are particularly reliable, except for the parts about ausar having vertically-slit pupils (they're actually rounded like human's), the essyra being called enessa (their original name) in several places and frostwyrms presumably having males, females and no society/culture (they're actually all herms, don't leave home until both their parents have died and are typically solitary until they choose a mate; the presumptions are because few outsiders have actually interacted with them at all).

I hadn't gotten to them yet. I got tired of starting races and testing their balance and all that math so I moved to items. But I'll add them to the document so I dont' forget.

Fair enough, though if I were doing something like this I'd put their names in right at the start even if I had nothing for them at that point.

That said... I though the thraggen were the space orks and expressly NOT UGC citizens because, you know, they have their own empire that's supposed to be blockaded off? There was no indication that ever ended, and in fact the wiki/codex entries state the blockade is ongoing. The wiki states "To this day, the surviving thraggen worlds exist in perpetual blockade, closely watched by an army of spy satellites for any signs of hostility." Are they really UGC? Where's the lore that syas the situation changed? If it has changed, one of us should update that page. That said for game purposes it's clear that Thraggen do have access to UGC planets, and work with pirate factions within the frontier. I could put them in Rusher species. Which I should rename to something else...

Good point. I'd suggest renaming 'First Contact Species' to 'Rush Species' and renaming the current 'Rush Species' to 'Other Species'. I'd also include anatae and fanfir there since the Anatae Empire is part of the UGC in name only and they're effectively a separate interstellar government.

Another thing to note is that just because someone's species isn't part of the UGC doesn't mean that individual can't hold UGC citizenship; one of the in-game events has a thraggen Peacekeeper, and I doubt you can have Peacekeepers that aren't UGC citizens.

I spelled it with one L... did you mean to say it's spelled with two?

No, it's correctly spelled with one, it's just that when I first looked you spelled it with two. It's spelled correctly now.

Can I get a source on this one? I thought their milk was addictive as well and that they took alien lovers expressly to avoid that. Is this another wiki is wrong thing?

Yep. No-where is it mentioned that any dzaan fluids other than cum are addictive, and several dzaan NPCs and their Codex entry explicitly state that most dzaan herms take suppressants so they don't get their alien lovers addicted to them. In fact, the fact that it's just their cum that's addictive is why herms are referred to as 'alphas' and females as 'betas', since one herm will usually have a harem of females addicted to her. As for working on aliens as well as dzaan, that can be proven by what Steele (a non-dzaan) can experience with Ardia and Luca (both dzaan herms) in-game. The part about each dzaan's fluids being unique is still right, though; Steele can actually get a treatment that renders them immune to Ardia's cum, but it's explicitly stated that it only works for Ardia's cum and no-one else's.

I'm aware of this, but I do not want to add anything that dosn't exist in TiTS that isn't my own creation. That way it wont be wrong once someone finishes their project.

Again, fair enough.

 

[MeepTheChangeling]

The wiki isn't always reliable

Good to know. I'll keep checking my WIP versions with other fans then.

if I were doing something like this I'd put their names in right at the start even if I had nothing for them at that point.

Haha, everyone hates the way I make things... especially programs/code. Sorry. Mid-functioning ASD is a real beast to slay and the workarounds I use to be as normal as I can be often look weird to others.

Another thing to note is that just because someone's species isn't part of the UGC doesn't mean that individual can't hold UGC citizenship

Good point! Changes made to reflect this.

No-where is it mentioned that any dzaan fluids other than cum are addictive

So it isn't. I dont know where I found that... Maybe I misinterpreted their codex entry? I'll fix it.