#startopia

So hey, who remembers StarTopia?

Dahanese Sirens and Grekka Targ

 This week, I’m doing something a little different, by putting my game design chops to work and challenging myself to convert content from other media into Pathfinder or Starfinder.

Right now I’ll just be doing conversions, but perhaps someday you might see entirely original content here on my blog!

This time, I’m going to delve into my childhood with a game called Startopia that came out in 2001. It was a space station management game, and had a lighthearted, somewhat humorous tone as you refurbished the station, built facilities, hired employees, try to keep everyone happy, and deal with various threats.

Throughout the week I’m going to be focusing on the various main starfaring races that populate the space stations, and converting them for use in starfinder. Note that due to the lighthearted nature of the source material, their converted forms may not match up exactly with the originals, particularly as I find ways to make each of these races unique. Having a race be a one-note race of space hippies is fine and dandy for a comedy, but for a game with a wider mix of tones, a more serious approach is necessary.

 In any case, let’s start with the Dahanese Sirens!

The Dahanese Sirens, or just Sirens or Dahan for short, are an elegant race of humanoids with sculpted figures that initially seem to resemble humans. However, their snow-white feathered wings and ethereal-sounding voices and language, give them away as something inhuman.

Why yes, the sirens are a parody of every “sexy space women with alien bits glued on”, how could you tell?

That being said, the dahanese sirens are actually the only species in the game with both male and female models, and in their specific jobs on the station, when pairing off with other sirens, they will do so regardless of the gender of each participant, which is significant because sirens work in the “love nest”, a building where aliens come to relieve their aching hearts by having the sirens beam pink telepathic “love” directly into their brains. So basically they fill your space NOT!brothel and provide PG-13 lovings to your residents and visitors. Kinda a mixed bag there, huh?

So with sirens being a mixture of progressive and problematic, how do we bring them forward into Starfinder and the modern-thinking tabletop gaming environment? Well, I’ll give it a go.

 Hailing from a humid, warm world with abundant resources and low gravity, the sirens rose to mastery of their world not only due to their ability to fly away from the mighty beasts that thrived on such a verdant world, but also due to their natural psychic power, able to transmit a rush of euphoria into the mind of other creatures, either in a slow trickle, or as a sudden, overwhelming rush that can stun would-be combatants. As such, sirens rarely see a need for physical violence, but against threats that are resistant or immune to diplomacy or their mental talents, they are fully capable of fighting back.

Siren society is matriarchal, and focused on the pursuit of new experiences. While this does indeed lend credence to the popular notion of siren sexuality and gender being very open, it also applies to science, art, and beyond. Traditions are adopted and abandoned as quickly as their practical applications and ability to hold a clan’s interest allow. However, nothing remains more central to siren society than the bonds they form with their family, be it a clan on their homeworld, a lover, or a ragtag bunch of space explorers.

Among other races from the startopia game, the siren’s desire for experiences often makes them strong friends of the kamarama, while they chafe in the company of the aggressive Kasvagorians and the stuffy zendem. As for Starfinder core races, they find vesk and kasatha to be entirely too focused on duty and honor for their liking, but enjoy the company of humans, ysoki, lashunta, and even the shirren. They also hold a soft spot for feyborn gnomes and halflings, the irrepressible curiosity of the former and the boldness of the latter making them fast friends.

 Ability Adjustments: +2 Dex, +2 Cha, -2 Con

Hit Points: 4

Racial Traits:

Size and Type: Dahanese Sirens are medium humanoids of the siren type

Low-Gravity Flight: The wings of a Dahanese Siren are powerful enough to carry them on their homeworld, and areas of similar gravitation at a speed of 50 ft with average maneuverability. On normal gravity worlds, they can only fly 20 ft with clumsy maneuverability, and cannot fly at all on high gravity worlds.

Telepathic Euphoria: A Dahanese Siren can telepathically stimulate the pleasure centers of a target’s brain. This can be done at will at safe levels casually, but can be used 3/day as the spell daze. At 5th level, this ability improves to function as daze monster, and the HD limit imposed by the spell goes up by 1 for every character level past 5th. The DC of this ability is Cha based.

  Secondly, we have the Grekka Targ, or the Targ for short.

The Targ are a race of stocky, short insectile beings with chitinous hidesn fluttering diaphanous wings, compound eyes, and small, multi-part mouths.

In Startopia, the targ are your primary communications officers, working the comsensor arrays to pick up on local and far-reaching communication details, their natural hive structure making them sensitive to and able to process a multitude of informational cues at once. Additionally, they are one of the four combat-equipped races in the game, and the second strongest, making it well worth your while to hire more than you need if playing on a station where combat is frequent.

They should be exceedingly simple to rework for Starfinder, so here goes nothing.

 Though initially assumed to be some offshoot of the swarm like the Shirren, the Thyorian Grekka Targ are actually a completely unrelated insectile race of bipeds originally from a cold, dry world. Ancient tales speak of their planet being a much warmer, vibrant place before a stellar impact forced the planet into a much wider orbit, with life retreating underground to the warmer subterranean environments.

Contrary to initial assumptions, the targ are not emotionless, but rather their complex communication via body language, subaural chittering, and pheromones, makes them impossible to read their emotional state accurately without the use of much more advanced translation technology than the average citizen normally buys. These methods of communication also explain the “hive mind” myth surrounding them, as they rapidly process the cues of every other targ in range. That constant flow of communication makes them hesitant to open up to other races, however, being reminded of the fierce predators of their homeworld by the relatively simple methods communication they use. As such, without even thinking about it, they often resort of observation behaviors when dealing with other races, eavesdropping on conversation, or in extreme cases, actively spying on others. This unfortunately gives them a reputation as snoops and gossips.

Targ society is largely decentralized, having no analogy with social insects neither socially nor even reproductively, and have little concept of gender. Theirs is a society of communal mutual survival, and when a task needs doing, the individuals with the correct skills are quickly contacted and the task gets done quickly and efficiently. Their delight in communication and understanding also gives them a fascination with technology, as each new device they acquire or develop has its own sort of language and means of communicating that most targ are more than happy to learn.

Targ get along decently with most other races, but many are unnerved by their seeming lack of emotion. They deeply respect dwarven work ethic and crafts.

 Ability Adjustments: +2 Con, +2 Int, -2 Cha

Hit Points: 4

Racial Traits:

Size and Type: Grekka Targ are small humanoids of the targ type

Chitin: Targ gain a +1 racial bonus to AC thanks to their tough shells.

Fluttering Haste: Their wings incapable of flight, the targ have mastered using them as part of a bounding gait when moving, increasing their base speed to 40, and giving them a +2 to Acrobatics.

Stimuli Sponge: With the amount of information that targ normally absorb, they halve the penalties on skill checks made in distracting environments, minimum 0