Vulcan Racial Template

[AirborneRob]

Only been on the boards for a week or so, not sure if anyone has already done something like this with Star Trek. As a pet project i wanted to start a ST conversion over into HERO. Let me know if this is a close approximation for a Vulcan Template. Lol, this is a run of the mill, just starting his adventuring life Vulcan, not Spock

 

Cost: Abilities:

 

3 Vulcan Hardiness: +3 Con

3 Vulcan Hardiness: +3 Body

4 Vulcan Strength: +4 Str

5 Vulcan Recall: Eidetic Memory

3 Vulcan Savant: Lightning Calculator

1 Vulcan Longevity: Life Support ( Longevity x2 Lifespan )

5 Vulcan Eyes: 5 pts Flash Defense ( Second Eyelid )

5 Vulcan Mind Meld: Telepathy 3d6, No Range -1/2, Requires a Mind

Meld Roll 11- -1/2, Concentration 0 DCV -1/2, Restrainable -1/2

5 Vulcan Discipline: Mental Defense 5 pts

 

Complications:

 

5 Distinctive Features: Vulcan Ears ( Easily Concealed )

25 Psychological Complication: Cannot Lie ( Very common, Total )

15 Psychological Complication: Pon Farr ( Uncommon, Total )

[JmOz]

Re: Vulcan Racial Template

 

I beleive the lifespan would be x4 (I am not 100% on this but if you are using Spock as the protovulcan then remember his mom is human)

 

Ponn Far is physical

Vulcans can and DO lie, they have good PR on the issue however (Tuvok for instance lied his head off when he was undercover in the Marquee), I would PROBABLY reduce the telepathy to 2 dice but add some cumulitive, restrainable and no range seems a bit much, but legal (I would just go with the no range). Furthermore some Vulcans have exhibited a mental sense beyond the Mind Meld, would probably add Mental detection as well

[clsage]

Re: Vulcan Racial Template

 

Only been on the boards for a week or so' date=' not sure if anyone has already done something like this with Star Trek. As a pet project i wanted to start a ST conversion over into HERO. Let me know if this is a close approximation for a Vulcan Template. Lol, this is a run of the mill, just starting his adventuring life Vulcan, not Spock [/quote']

 

You might want to take a look at this thread:

 

http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php/74416-Star-Trek-HERO?highlight=starherofandom

 

And, BTW, welcome to the boards !

 

-Carl-

[AirborneRob]

Re: Vulcan Racial Template

 

This is really going to based off of ToS with Kirk and the NCC-1701 timeframe. I know the variations of ToS ( Next Gen, DS-9, And Voyager ) have had adjustments made to how Vulcans handle the concept of lying. Your correct regarding Tuvok, lol, poor Chakote never saw it coming Much of the Vulcan approach to lying is that they simply are incapable of it. Remember though, this is a basic run of the mill, never had significant interaction with the rest of the galaxy yet Vulcans. The majority of their upbringing in Vulcan society is schooling and philosophy with the last vestiges of emotion being purged. Their ability to " stretch the truth " like Spock and/or blatantly lie like Tuvok ( albeit while not violating his own convictions/personal code) has not really had an opportunity to really take shape yet. Lol, thats just my personal take on the various episodes ive seen. Longevity x2 lifespan allows for about 200 years. At x4 its around 400 so i figured x2 should be close enough for age purposes. Pon Farr is a chemical imbalance if i remember correctly from Amok Time. It turned into a massive willpower battle for Spock to keep himself collected. I believe McCoy said that the chemical imbalance could kill him if he was not able to take care of business. Lol, i will apologize if i am mistaken but i believe that is correct from that episode. I like the cumulative aspect for Mind Meld and that makes alot of sense since these are the young pups of Vulcan at this point. No range can seem a bit much but most Mind Melds are done by physical contact. You are correct about the variations of mental abilities that Vulcans can have but looks more like the exception rather than the rule. I wouldn't be opposed to someone asking for a variation of mental abilities If i can get through all the necessary conversions i really want this timeframe around 2266 or so.

[AirborneRob]

Re: Vulcan Racial Template

 

I do want to thank you folks for your replies thus far and thank you for the link you put up. Gives me a good opportunity to compare what i have and fix what might need fixing. Lol, i am a ways off from doing the Career Templates at this point. I want to at least have the Andorian, Tellarite, and maybe Centaurans and a couple others fleshed out. The Constitution Class Starship will be a challenge initially to get right. Lol, just for the record, i do not consider Enterprise with Scott Bakula for go to canon. Somethings were interesting.......somethings.

[AirborneRob]

Re: Vulcan Racial Template

 

Hey JmOz, i wanted to check on the physical complication description and it looks like they are talking more hands, arms, feet, blindness and deafness etc. By definition should it really be physical for Pon Farr or psycological? The way it affects a Vulcan seems more of a mental issue. Lol, now im not sure.

[dmjalund]

Re: Vulcan Racial Template

 

Maybe there is a limitation that vulcans need to buy a 'Deception' skill to be able to lie

[Ian Mackinder]

Re: Vulcan Racial Template

 

For myself, I think it is more of a Reputation thing. Vulcans seem to place a strong emphasis on honesty and personal integrity - though individual definitions of both vary, natch. But "logically" there will be times when any Vulcan may choose to not tell the entire truth, or to present data in a manner that will either cause or avoid a specific response.

 

The Vulcan healing trance is something else to factor in for the overall package deal. When seriously injured or ill, a Vulcan can go into a deep meditative state in order to help them recover faster. The big drawback is that they customarily need outside help to exit this state - such as having the attending physician slap the patient a few times.

 

Seems to me also that the physiological aspects should be addressed - maybe some sort of penalty to Medical rolls where that person does NOT have any familiarity with Vulcan anatomy. After all, they have copper-based blood, their internal organs are arranged differently, and readings like temperatuire, pulse rate, BP and so forth are very different. Using Human medicines / procedures / remedies on a Vulcan could lead to ..... problems, at least.

[The Weapon]

Re: Vulcan Racial Template

 

Using Human medicines / procedures / remedies on a Vulcan could lead to ..... problems' date=' at least.[/quote']

 

I hope that bit wasn't important...

[AirborneRob]

Re: Vulcan Racial Template

 

I forgot about that fact Ian, ty. I also forgot that they can also put themselves into a coma like state like Spock did to try and get the Kelvans to let them back aboard the Enterprise. As far as a package goes, would that healing ability and trance to slow life functions down be a part of the initial Racial Template or learned as part of an advanced Vulcan Meditative Techniques package? I think i am actually going to drop the complication off the template concerning lying. I forgot that it is supposed to represent what all Vulcans have at birth and at birth they are emotional beings capable of everything emotions bring to the table. The general rule that Vulcans dont lie is something that developes over time as does their ability to improvise what constitutes the " truth" from time to time.

[Lucius]

Re: Vulcan Racial Template

 

Fascinating.

 

 

As it happens, I've done an alien species with a healing trance. I used Requires a Skill Roll with Simulate Death as the requisite skill. That already incorporates the risk of an "unregulated trance."

 

I think Vulcans should have +1 Hearing (their atmosphere is thinner than Earth's - os so some of the sources say.)

 

I'm not sure a 3d6 Telepathy roll does it for the Vulan Mind Meld. Once the bond is formed, it seems profound, to the point where the identies of those in the meld can become temporarily lost in each other. Also, there is a very grave risk involved if the meld is attempted on something of mere animal intelligence.

 

The mind meld seems to require contact, but on one occasion Spock was aware of the sudden destruction of a starship full of Vulcans that took place some light years away if I recall correctly. I'm not sure how much the original series got into it, but it stand to reason different Vulcans will differ in their capabilities.

 

For Vulcan females, Pon Farr is probably only a Social Limitation; for that matter, I'm not sure that for males it should be worth points. Once in seven years means it will only happen once during a Five Year Mission, and perhaps not at all.

 

EVERY species will have a unique physiology - even Humans. Unless Humans get a Complication for the fact Vulcan medicine may not work on them, why should Vulcans get a Complication for baffling uninstructed Human physicians? Just impose penalties to Paramedic and other medical rolls when dealing outside your own species, unless you have special training. Possibly say that using your Skills on a given species requires a 1 pt Familiarity, like using your Combat Pilot with different spacecraft requires the Transport Familiarity.

 

Someone like McCoy, accustomed to many different species, might have "+3 to Medical Skill rolls, only to counter alien penalties."

 

I suggest Vulcans should have Scholar and Scientist. Anything they study, they will know well.

 

And for the "cultural" package - as opposed to what they're born with - I would say definitely include Deduction. It's only logical.

 

Lucius Alexander

 

The palindromedary notes I had more to say than we thought....

[AirborneRob]

Re: Vulcan Racial Template

 

Yea, as per previous recommendations (to include yours) i am going to write up some options for their mental abilities to reflect Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations

[Lucius]

Re: Vulcan Racial Template

 

Actually, let me modify this point.

 

EVERY species will have a unique physiology - even Humans. Unless Humans get a Complication for the fact Vulcan medicine may not work on them, why should Vulcans get a Complication for baffling uninstructed Human physicians? Just impose penalties to Paramedic and other medical rolls when dealing outside your own species, unless you have special training. Possibly say that using your Skills on a given species requires a 1 pt Familiarity, like using your Combat Pilot with different spacecraft requires the Transport Familiarity.

 

If the campaign is going to be Human-centric and most of the time it will be Humans applying Paramedics rolls or programming the sick bay machines, then maybe non-Humans should get a Physical Limitation.

 

Things like Pon Farr could be considered as "rolled in" with such a Complication.

 

Also, whether you represent it with points or not, I think it may be a good idea to let the different capabilities of different species make a difference..

 

"This planet is hot and dry. Everyone on the away team loses 1 extra END if exerting themselves, and 1 Long Term END each half hour if you stay that long - except the Vulcans."

 

Lucius Alexander

 

Physical Complication: Palindromedary

[dmjalund]

Re: Vulcan Racial Template

 

For the Mind Meld, how about a Side Effect of the possibility of 'Personality Loss'

[AirborneRob]

Re: Vulcan Racial Template

 

Personality Loss was never really a problem from the shows. Vulcans take great care to ensure that things dont go south.

[dmjalund]

Re: Vulcan Racial Template

 

Personality Loss was never really a problem from the shows. Vulcans take great care to ensure that things dont go south.

but it does require great care

[AirborneRob]

Re: Vulcan Racial Template

 

Tuvok's meld with the Betazoid Maquis did have some personality scrambling. I guess one approach could be an Ego roll with a -1 for every 10 pts in Psychological Complications or even every 20 pts depending on how likely you want problems to come up. Lol, would make life interesting for Vulcans You would want to make it a temporary condition so a Vulcan could make a daily Ego roll with the same modifiers based off the target's Psych. Complications to breakout of whatever problem you give the Vulcan. I would also say that based on the template so far that his 5 pts of MD would help mitigate any temporary problems.

[AirborneRob]

Re: Vulcan Racial Template

 

Hey Lucius, let me make sure i understand. In your example of the hot and dry planet, you're recommending 1 additional END loss on top of whatever END they are using at that moment and 1 END loss per half hour regardless right? That is actually a very realistic situation and i do agree that Vulcans would be exempt because of their own homeworld fitting that catagory of world. Outstanding

[Ian Mackinder]

Re: Vulcan Racial Template

 

Tuvok's meld with the Betazoid Maquis did have some personality scrambling. I guess one approach could be an Ego roll with a -1 for every 10 pts in Psychological Complications or even every 20 pts depending on how likely you want problems to come up. Lol' date=' would make life interesting for Vulcans You would want to make it a temporary condition so a Vulcan could make a daily Ego roll with the same modifiers based off the target's Psych. Complications to breakout of whatever problem you give the Vulcan. I would also say that based on the template so far that his 5 pts of MD would help mitigate any temporary problems.[/quote']

 

Noting also that particular occurrance was a very unusual case.

[Lucius]

Re: Vulcan Racial Template

 

Hey Lucius' date=' let me make sure i understand. In your example of the hot and dry planet, you're recommending 1 additional END loss on top of whatever END they are using at that moment and 1 END loss per half hour regardless right? That is actually a very realistic situation and i do agree that Vulcans would be exempt because of their own homeworld fitting that catagory of world. Outstanding [/quote']

 

Actually, if you look in the Combat and Adventuring Book I think, there are official rules for such things...that was an off-the-cuff suggestion.

 

Just make sure if you do things like that, you don't give any one group too much advantage. Maybe another time introduce an annoying but hard to treat disease that only effects people with copper based blood, or something.

 

Lucius Alexander

 

Inevitable palindromedary tagline

[Ian Mackinder]

Re: Vulcan Racial Template

 

Just make sure if you do things like that' date=' you don't give any one group too much advantage. Maybe another time introduce an annoying but hard to treat disease that only effects people with copper based blood, or something.[/quote']

 

... Such as Choriocytosis ( http://memory-alpha.org/wiki/Choriocytosis )

[AirborneRob]

Re: Vulcan Racial Template

 

I definately agree Ian, it was a very unusual case. And it is something that in game context, i would put as an exception to the general rule of Mind Melds being a relatively safe procedure. Ty for the link on Choriocytosis

[AirborneRob]

Re: Vulcan Racial Template

 

I would tailor adventures that would challenge the players not only physically but mentally as well.Lol, i would make sure that i wasn't turning it into a " pick on the Vulcans" campaign. With so many climate variations out there on worlds, nearly anything is possible. Hey Lucius, in the hot and dry scenario, would it be safe to say that Vulcans lose END, just over a longer period of time than humans? Maybe 1 END every 2-4 hours.

[Lucius]

Re: Vulcan Racial Template

 

I would tailor adventures that would challenge the players not only physically but mentally as well.Lol' date=' i would make sure that i wasn't turning it into a " pick on the Vulcans" campaign. With so many climate variations out there on worlds, nearly anything is possible. Hey Lucius, in the hot and dry scenario, would it be safe to say that Vulcans lose END, just over a longer period of time than humans? Maybe 1 END every 2-4 hours.[/quote']

 

Maybe so. Also keep in mind that most planets are going to have a range of climates. The same world could have ice caps at the poles - where the Vulcan might be at even more of a disadvantage than the Humans.

 

Lucius Alexander

 

Comparing a palindromedary to a backandforthtrian

[AirborneRob]

Re: Vulcan Racial Template

 

oh yea, a one climate world would not be creative use of time.