Custom Species Creation

There are a vast number of intelligent species in space, many individuals of which have joined the TSN for mutual defense and exploration, and many more who are simply spacefarers. As a player in Sagas of the Open Cosmos, you can create an original intelligent species for your character using the following rules:

1. **Description of Species/Homeworld**: The most important part of species creation is coming up with an interesting concept. What kind of being do you envision? What does their body look like? What arrangement of limbs do they have? What natural forces on their homeworld shaped their evolution into what they are now? What is their reproductive cycle like? What is their culture like? What technologies do they find familiar or strange? How do they fit into the galaxy as a whole? How did they come into contact with the factions, and what is their attitude towards them? There are a wealth of questions to ask and answer about your species. Don’t hesitate to bounce ideas off a friend or collaborate with other players in species creation. It’s a big universe, so be as creative as you like. You can borrow elements from existing sci-fi universes if you wish, but do your best to disguise them with your own flavor and ideas.
2. **Powers/Weaknesses:** Non-human species may be customized with a mix of special powers and weaknesses, selected as you choose from the Powers and Weaknesses lists. Powers allow players to interact with the game in a superhuman manner under some circumstances. Weaknesses are detrimental attributes that a player will have to cope with or work around. You may burden your species with as many weaknesses as you like, but you can only grant them **up to** an equivalent value of powers. These attributes are further divided into Major and Minor categories, with a major attribute being the equal of two minor attributes. For instance, your species may have one major weakness and two minor powers, or they may have one major power and two minor weaknesses, or one major and one minor power, and three minor weaknesses, etc. Most of the powers are general and unflavored, allowing you the creativity to decide whether your species’s Projectile Attack is a “spray of acid” or a “blast of fire” even though both are identical as far as the rules are concerned.
	1. **Cyborgs/Biohacking:** Any individual from any species, unless otherwise stated, may be modified with a variety of technologies. If you create a character like this, then in addition to their normal species powers/weaknesses, they can add more provided they add at least as many weaknesses as they do strengths, as above outlined. If the nature of the enhancements is robotic, “EMP Sensitivity” must be one of the chosen weaknesses.
3. **Costume/Roleplaying**: Lastly, decide how to portray a member of your species. Portray them as closely and creatively as you possibly can! Some concepts may not seem possible to do at first (a giant jellyfish, a gaseous being, a one-inch tall being or a 12-foot-tall being) but with some clever costuming, dedicated roleplaying, and creative reflavoring of powers/weaknesses, you’ll be surprised at the conceptual freedom you can explore as a species-smith for SotOC.