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View Full Version : Races/Species in Super-Tech Scifi.



Mr. Mask
2014-11-10, 10:00 AM
Wookies and Vulcans and Asari. Oh dear.

Throw in some cyborgs, robots and mutants, and different species/races seem pretty popular in scifi, games or otherwise. In games, you very often see a difference in stats to reflect the nature of these different races. About that..

In a futuristic, super-tech setting, why is your biological makeup so significant a factor? With super technology, you have the options of cybernetics, exoskeletons (that could get pretty inconspicuous and powerful in a super-tech setting) and external CPUs, or retro-viruses/genetic manipulation to turn yourself into a wookie. If it really is the year 40,000 (or what have you), you could go out on a limb with other alternatives; energy manipulation, or psychic-enhanced strength/intelligence, or whichever scifi you prefer.

What are your thoughts on why race matters in these super-tech settings, as opposed to your genetic/cyber/exoskeleton build? Are they purely thematic reasoning? Can you think of justifications for why race/species would still matter?

Eldan
2014-11-10, 10:13 AM
Well, if we went truly transhuman supertech, then I'd expect that there would still be different mental makeup between different races. Different evolutionary history, even if the bodies are interchangeable. If we go far enough that that can be edited too, then no, species no longer make sense.

Grim Portent
2014-11-10, 10:16 AM
It varies from setting to setting, but the main one is that there's usually a limit to augmentation or a stigma against it.

In 40k most humans can't afford even minor augmentation, and to make a human roughly equivalent to an eldar in speed, an ork in toughness, a tyranid in lethality and so on costs so much that you're better off just throwing some mid-grade armour and weapons on a few baseline humans and using them most of the time. The other races all tend to use tech that plays to their strengths and either don't consider the applications of modification (orks) or actively dislike tech based mods (eldar) or just don't need them (tyranids).

In Mass Effect I think the reason race matters is because they've more or less hit the limits of what they can do to improve a baseline human with their current tech level. Cyborgs don't seem to be a thing to any real degree.

Star Wars I understand has an active stigma against cyborgs leading to the suppression of the necessary tech and the ability for races to distinguish themselves.

Really when you get down to it though it's because a lot of popular sci-fi settings are broadly just porting fantasy ideas into space.

Red Fel
2014-11-10, 10:29 AM
What are your thoughts on why race matters in these super-tech settings, as opposed to your genetic/cyber/exoskeleton build? Are they purely thematic reasoning? Can you think of justifications for why race/species would still matter?

I seem to recall that there's actually an RPG setting in which this is explicitly so - it's basically understood that your consciousness can be placed more or less in the body of your choosing, as you like. But the name eludes me.

As to why race/species would matter, several reasons: Not all sci-fi settings have the cybernetics or genetic re-engineering capacities needed to drastically alter what you are. Slight changes, such as enhanced eyes or some prosthesis, may be possible. But in a setting where this is unusual, such changes may be expensive, or dangerous, or stigmatized. Not all cultures may be receptive. Sure, Romulans may be okay replacing their hands with laser-glaive-fists, and Humans are up for the new surgery that gives you fish gills and a cat tail, but perhaps Klingons see changing the mighty Klingon form as a sign of weakness. Alternatively, it may carry a stigma or traces of heresy. There may be downsides to alteration. Perhaps those who alter themselves become part of something else, either an altered culture or their adopted culture (so a Human who becomes a Wookiee joins the Wookiees and ceases to be accepted as a Human). Perhaps it leads to insanity, as your psychological identity conflicts with your biological form. Or perhaps it causes physical deterioration. Separate races and cultures are convenient. They allow characters to wear name tags. Before we even know about Chewbacca's upbringing or family life, we learn things about Wookiees generally - like the fact that you should let them win. They are strong and aggressive, and have ill tempers. Hutts are massive and indolent, and powerful criminals. Klingons are mighty and angry, with curious cultural emphasis on honor. Ferengi are greedy and conniving, but ultimately tend towards cowardice. Having individual races and cultures allows us to have a convenient baseline expectation for how a character acts; this allows us to enjoy gratification if he acts in accordance therewith, and surprise and intrigue if he doesn't.

Yora
2014-11-10, 10:49 AM
Unless the game system already covers the alien species of the settings, I personally wouldn't bother with assigning small modifiers to abilities to each one. The impact on the character skills is usually minimal and it's easier to just give a character of a species that is good at something a few more points in appropriate abilities, or something like that.

BWR
2014-11-10, 11:11 AM
If all you're doing is forehead of the week, race doesn't matter. It might still be appropriate for some games (ST and classic space opera games, for instance) but there is rarely need to add much by the way of mechanical modifiers. The insistence of e.g. the various d20 based SW games on giving every near-human species special ability score modifiers and other attributes puzzled me no end. Twi'leks don't need any different mechanics than normal humans - their headtails and skin color are just for show.
Truly alien races are far more interesting - very odd bodies, physiologies, shapes, perceptions, etc. Special mechanical considerations are justified in this case. Giant methan- breathing shapeshifting vacuum-resistent space octopus-jellies probably won't be modeled well with human mechanics.
Strange but not necessarily 'alien' cultures - can be forehead-of-the-week alien, can be human. Doesn't really matter. Mechanics are rarely needed. Perhaps justified in some circumstances "super social creatures, suffer penalties to [whatever] rolls when not with X number of [group]," but that can easily be role-played.

TheCountAlucard
2014-11-12, 05:58 AM
I seem to recall that there's actually an RPG setting in which this is explicitly so - it's basically understood that your consciousness can be placed more or less in the body of your choosing, as you like. But the name eludes me.Eclipse Phase.

Also, in WH40K, every faction has a full-on xenophobic hate of the others, so a human getting green pigmentation and tusk implants to look "more Orky" will probably be summarily executed for heresy (and his remains disposed of via flamethrower, "just in case"). Additionally, at least for the humans, the tech level is actually degrading, because fewer and fewer people exist who can even maintain the wonders they have, and most of them do it out of this backward, psuedo-animistic reverence of machine-spirits.

For Star Wars, as we said, cyborg prejudice. Also there's the fact that cybernetics make you less able to wield the Force effectively, and like nine out of ten PCs are Jedi or at least Force-sensitive.

Shadowrun actually does have elf posers and ork posers and such, but "the real thing" tends to view it as offensive; additionally, while modification becomes more and more common, it still has its limitations.