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Goblinoid Games wrote:Gorrans
Requirements: CON 12
Ability Adjustments: STR +1, CON +1, DEX -1, INT -1
Skill Adjustments: Combat +1, Military +1
Metabolism: Iron Based

OK, I'm a little confused. What does "Military +1" mean? (There's no Military skill in the current draft, just like DEX became AGL.) Also, they seem a little weak compared to the Rigel, who fill the same niche. Does the -1 armor make that much of a difference?

fmitchell wrote:What does "Military +1" mean? (There's no Military skill in the current draft, just like DEX became AGL.)

I thought it was that they get +1 to the Military Branch of skills. You are right about AGI...just stuck in DEX mode.

fmitchell wrote:Also, they seem a little weak compared to the Rigel, who fill the same niche. Does the -1 armor make that much of a difference?

Well, I was trying to represent that they are stronger and tougher...but also slower and dumber. As for the -1 armor...I remember being excited about finding plate mail +1. Is that sensation long gone? My goal with any game I make is that I personally like all races to be somewhat level to each other. Gorrans have some +'s, but they have -'s to level them out. I thought the -1 AC was just a perk to it all as there are races that actually have more than humans. You may be looking at this from a number crunching point of view, but I was just looking at it from a role-playing point of view. People play halflings just to play a small humanoid fighting big things...and care little about their level advancement.

fmitchell wrote:
OK, I'm a little confused. What does "Military +1" mean? (There's no Military skill in the current draft, just like DEX became AGL.)

Good catch, that becomes Combat Skill.

I made a couple of slight alterations to the bonuses and penalties. Mario, what do you think? The +1 to Military in this version of the rules is redundant with Combat Skill so I deleted that. This is something I should have caught earlier. I added a -1 to Contact because maybe they are not so good at initial diplomacy? I'm also wondering if it is fair to say they are less intelligent, rather than just physically slower? Although I can see the argument for this, maybe they are slow at thinking through something even if in the end they have intelligent conclusions?

IMHO I think having an armor adjustment is a good perk. I'm wondering if it might even be made a bonus of 2 instead of 1 (so -2 to hit for an opponent)? This might go a little further to "balancing" some of the penalties.

Goblinoid Games wrote:I'm also wondering if it is fair to say they are less intelligent, rather than just physically slower?

Well, to go along with what I am trying to emulate...they really are not less intelligent than humans. They are physically slower than humans though. We can stray from the inspiration though and twist it up.

Goblinoid Games wrote:IMHO I think having an armor adjustment is a good perk. I'm wondering if it might even be made a bonus of 2 instead of 1 (so -2 to hit for an opponent)? This might go a little further to "balancing" some of the penalties.

Sounds even better.

Wizardawn wrote:Well, to go along with what I am trying to emulate...they really are not less intelligent than humans. They are physically slower than humans though. We can stray from the inspiration though and twist it up.

Maybe they're not dumber per se, but perhaps they're more tradition-bound and rigid in their thinking. Thus -1 INT reflects their relative lack of creativity and flexibility. Perhaps they also get a +1 Technical to offset the INT penalty; they're as good or better than humans at tasks requiring rote memorization, checklists, and well-defined procedures. A Gorran Tech can take apart a landspeeder engine and put it back together while a human tech is trying to remember what goes where. If normal diagnostics and solutions don't work, though, they have trouble. Likewise, their progress in basic science (and Science Skill) is much slower than most other species.