Playable Species
Humans
What can we say, Humanity has taken over a tiny portion of the galaxy and we plan to keep expanding. Not even the Horrors will stop our growth. Supremely adaptable, technologically adept, prone to violence, and always looking for the next new thing we are a decentralized mass of swarms always on the move.
Humans are a varied and prolific species. They range from four to seven feet in height with most people averaging five to six feet, weigh from ninety to two hundred fifty pounds as adults, and can have almost any skin, hair, and eye color possible.
When creating a Human character, you start with 10 skill points to distribute as you like with no more than 2 skill ranks in one skill to start. In addition, humans start out with 1 skill rank in Feats of Agility and 1 skill rank in Persuasion.
Artificial Intelligence
The technological marvel of humanity is without a doubt the Artificial Intelligence. Creating sentient beings turned Humans into gods able to create a new form of life. Most learning programs people think of as AI's are just advanced machine learning algorithms with specified functionality and the ability to get better at that function on its own. A true AI has no limitations in the tasks it can perform or what it can learn. AI's also have a consciousness and awareness of themselves and the world around them beyond mere sensor input.
AI's take on many complex tasks that would require large teams of humans or would be beyond a humans abilities like running Longsalto drive jump calculations, managing city wide utilities, or designing new drugs in record time. They reside in advanced, quantum computing systems either tied to a device, vehicle, or robot body, or in some cases roaming freely around networks.
When creating an AI character, you start with 10 skill points to distribute as you like with no more than 2 skill ranks in one skill to start. In addition, AI characters start out with 1 skill rank in Technology and 1 skill rank in Investigation.
Spacers
As we said, humans are very adaptable. For a long time now, a portion of humanity has lived in off-world environments. Asteroid belts, small moons, and under resourced space stations that don't have the same gravity and environments as a proper planet. Over the generations, these people have physically evolved down a slightly different path. Known collectively as Spacers they are slowly but surely evolving into an off-shoot of humanity. By the way, they call us planet siders, Rockheads.
Spacers range from four to eight feet in height with most people averaging from six to seven feet, weigh from seventy to a hundred and fifty pounds as adults, and can have almost any skin, hair, and eye color possible. Spacers tend toward shorter torsos and longer limbs than Rockheads, but just enough to be noticeable rather than distinctly non-human. Some Spacers have sensitivity to really bright light and can't travel outside on a sunny planet side day without eye protection.
When creating a Spacer character, you start with 10 skill points to distribute as you like with no more than 2 skill ranks in one skill to start. In addition, Spacer characters start out with 1 skill rank in Feats of Agility and 1 skill rank in Technology.
Trans Humans
Humanity hasn't interacted with the Horrors for very long, but they are already making a profound impact on our species. Humans that have been touched by the creatures mental projections in one way or another either go mad or begin to exhibit differences from the rest of humanity. Some of those that chose to worship the Horrors have regretted their decision and escaped back to humanity, but not without profound scars from their servitude. Whether touched willingly or not, all of these Trans Humans are viewed with immense suspicion by the rest of humanity, never knowing if they are truly with us or infiltrators. If Trans Humans weren't able to help humanity better understand the Horrors or provide valuable new skills in the fight they likely would be killed on sight.
Trans Humans generally look like the rest of humanity as most exhibit mental changes rather than physical. That being said, some trans humans have had new limbs grafted or grown onto their bodies like an arm on the chest, a tentacle in the back, leathery wings, or other oddities.
When creating a Trans Human character you start with 10 skill points to distribute as you like with no more than 2 skill ranks in one skill to start. In addition, Trans Human characters start out with 1 skill rank in Feats of Agility and either 1 skill rank in Feats of Strength or 1 skill rank in Project depending on whether they were physically or mentally altered.
Enhanced Animals
Robots and AI were created to handle many of the dangerous or menial tasks for humans, but eventually began to live as distinct species of sentient life. Biological technology advances have been no less spectacular, and Enhanced Animals are the greatest expression of the control over life man now practiced.
Starting out as experiments in enhancing communication and rapport with pets and moving on to creating better laborers, scientists were able to greatly increase the intelligence and communication abilities of multiple species. As with the other human constructs, these enhanced animals grew more and more sophisticated and eventually the most advanced examples crossed the line into independent species, recognized with full rights under the law.
Emancipated Enhanced Animals are still rare, and are still not able to reproduce themselves naturally or through engineering, but they and their supporters are slowly working to create the means of full autonomy for all the variants. To this day, we have seen talking dogs and cats, almost human great apes, and in one strange case a merged enhanced octopus and AI that has used its unique way of thinking and working to move into a high level engineering position in a trans world corporation.
Enhanced animals vary greatly in size and shape and are generally not physically different from their non-enhanced brethren unless they also have cyber implants. Dogs, Cats, and any of the Great Apes are available to become Enhanced Animal characters.
When creating an Enhanced Animal character, you start out with 10 skill points to distribute as you like with no more than 2 skill ranks in one skill to start. In addition, Enhanced Animal characters start out with 1 skill rank in Feats of Agility and either 1 skill rank in Feats of Strength or 1 skill rank in Perception depending on the species and/or the manner of their enhancement.
