TEXT: 1
  Spacemaster: Datanet
  Issue #3
  SPACEMASTER:
  Issue #3
  Table of Contents
  Introduction
  Credits
  Author: Rob Defendi
  Editing:  Tim Dugger, Heike Kubasch;
  Pagemaking, & Layout: Sherry Robinson;
  Proofreading:  Tim Dugger, Heike Kubasch & Monica Wilson;
  Art: Steven Farris., Peter Bergting, Jon M. Holsten, Jeff Laubenstein,
  Jeremy Mohler, Tyler Walpole, Kevin Wasden;
  ICE Staff
  CEO: Bruce Neidlinger;
  President: Heike Kubasch;
  Editor/Jack-of-All-Trades: Tim Dugger;
  Pagemaking: Sherry Robinson;
  Web Mistress: Monica L. Wilson;
  Office Cats: Rajah, Pheobe, & Matsi;
  Corporate Mascot: Gandalf
  August 2006
  WARNING! All Items in this PDF should be
  considered optional and completely unofficial.
  1.0 Races and Cultures ................................................ 2
  1.1 Aliens .............................................................. 2
       1.1.1 The Nature ofAliens............................... 2
       1.1.2 General Biology...................................... 3
       1.1.3 Psychological Considerations ............... 6
       1.1.4 Perception Considerations .................... 6
       1.1.5 Cultural Considerations ........................ 7
       1.1.6 Religious Considerations ...................... 7
       1.1.7 Mating Considerations .......................... 8
       1.1.8 Lifespan Considerations ........................ 8
       1.1.9 Cultures .................................................. 9
  2.0 Race Generation .................................................. 12
  2.1 Statistical Modifiers...................................... 12
  Spacemaster: Datanet Copyright © 2006 by Aurigas Aldbaron LLC. All rights reserved. No reproductions without permission. Produced and
  distributed by Mjolnir LLC, dba Iron Crown Enterprises 112 Goodman Street, Charlottesville, Virginia 22902.
  Web: www.harphq.com and www.ironcrown.com.
  Welcome to the third issue of Spacemaster Datanet.
  The purpose here is to expand and enhance your
  Spacemaster game, both by broadening the rules and by
  deepening the setting details, giving you a richer and
  more fulfilling game and game environment.
  This time it’s all about creating alien races. It’s a big
  subject and one that can take a whole lot of consider-
  ation. From initial conception, from a storytelling point
  of view, we’ll discuss all the biological and cultural
  considerations that are likely to affect your aliens. Finally,
  from a game stand point, we’ll show you how to turn all
  that theory into hard point values.
  Enjoy.
   DATANET
  ™
  
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  1.0 RACES AND
  CULTURES
  Aliens are by far one of the most difficult but
  rewarding subjects in a science fiction game. Aliens can
  be anything from humans who live on different Colony
  worlds to strange and magnificent species unlike
  anything found on Earth. This section will attempt to
  tackle the subject of designing these different species
  and cultures.
  1.1 ALIENS
  Although in the broad sense aliens refer to any-
  thing foreign, for the purposes of this article aliens are
  anything not of the same species as humans and not
  from Earth. Aliens come in many shapes and sizes,
  from the bumpy foreheaded aliens of space opera, to
  truly unfathomable aliens in some forms of hard
  science fiction.
  1.1.1 THE NATURE OF ALIENS
  What are aliens like?
  There are two main schools of thought on alien
  races. The first is that the humanoid form and earth-like
  biology are optimal, and that any evolutionary path is
  going to follow a similar trend. Food will be compatible,
  psychologies similar (or at least recognizable), and forms
  familiar. For convenience, most science fiction falls into
  this category.
  The second school of thought is that our form, our
  thoughts and our biology are one of a myriad of
  possibilities. If two alien races met, they’d have no
  common frame of reference. They’d have no idea where
  to look at the other creature, as neither would have any
  recognizable face. They’d have no way of communicating
  with each other as they’d have no recognizable language
  (they might not even have the same concept of language).
  They’d not be able to eat each other’s food, because
  they’d not have similar biologies (if they even had
  biologies, as we know them). They’d probably require a
  lot of examination to even determine that the thing in
  front of them were intelligent, assuming that they could
  determine that the thing in front of them was even alive.
  The Privateers universe was designed with this
  second camp firmly in mind. This is why all the Player
  Character (PC) races are artificial.
  In all fairness, this is more of a spectrum of thought,
  with each camp on either end of two far extremes. Mean-
  while, the majority of people fall somewhere in between.
  Everyone would like to think that their view of the
  universe is the way it really is, but this is not the forum
  for that debate. The problem is that if the second camp
  has the hard science approach, then how do you ap-
  proach writing a science fiction universe when you want
  to be scientifically accurate?
  It’s all fine and dandy to think you’re on the
  scientific high ground and produce truly alien races, but
  the more alien a race is, the more unplayable they are. It’s
  
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  not acceptable to put a race in the game, and then give
  them a psychology that requires a lunatic or a cutting
  edge psychological theorist to play.
  This leaves us with four possibilities:
  •
  No aliens at all. Humanity is alone in
  the universe, or has yet to discover any
  other beings.
  •
  Enemy aliens. Place one race of aliens in
  the games, and then pit them against
  humanity. Allow only the GM to run them.
  This does require the GM take the burden
  of getting inside their alien thoughts.
  •
  Create an artifice. If playable aliens are
  contrived, create a contrivance. Create
  some artificial mechanism which forced all
  the races to be similar enough to play.
  •
  Use a more relaxed model, where aliens just
  have to look strange, but can still think
  enough like humans to be fun to play.
  Players seem to gravitate to play other races. This is
  not a solid rule, as some games have proven, but give
  players various races and they’ll stretch themselves into
  the role.
  Thus, in the Privateers universe, the Architects
  were born.
  If you’ve invented a contrivance to make all races
  human-like, you can either make humans the cause of it
  all (via genetic engineering) or you can make humans
  themselves a blatantly artificial race.
  With the final possibility, however, things are little
  easier. Human-like aliens can be fun to play and will
  often pass the muster of 90 percent of the people out
  there. The main task is to know your audience and to
  tailor your aliens for their tastes.
  This section will tackle the creation of aliens, or
  rather the concepts behind the aliens, from a general
  approach. This section can be used as a checklist of sorts, a
  series of things to consider when developing an alien race.
  The Hook
  The first thing to consider when creating anything is the
  hook. For something to be interesting, it needs to be
  different. This is all the more true when it comes to
  aliens. A good way to start creating an alien is to chal-
  lenge some preconception of life or humanity. Some of
  the more common approaches are:
  •
  What if the aliens have radically different
  biology than humans?
  •
  What if the aliens have radically different
  emotions than humans?
  •
  What if the aliens have a radically different
  culture than humans?
  •
  What if the aliens perceive things radically
  different than humans?
  Once you decide on a hook, start brainstorming on
  its different implications. If the aliens reproduce asexu-
  ally, how does this affect their culture, their economy, the
  way they interact with one another or even their philoso-
  phies on lifeand-death? You should always keep the hook
  in the forefront of your mind. You should examine each
  and every new detail of their race against this hook, to
  make certain that the alien is richly textured and deep.
  Example: Bill is looking to create a new alien race
  to serve as a foil for his story. He’s not certain yet
  whether this race will be an enemy to humanity
  or an ally. He’s decided to start by challenging one
  of the basic preconceptions of human life:  eating.
  He’s decided that these aliens do not need to
  consume food. They can exist completely on air,
  water, and light. Anxious to see how this affects
  their development, Bill moves on to the first steps.
  1.1.2 GENERAL BIOLOGY
  The first thing to consider is the aliens’ biology.
  Many behavioral and cultural elements emerge from
  biological imperatives. Think about humans for a
  moment—if we didn’t need food and water, the entire
  agrarian economy would never have formed. Other
  biological imperatives, like reproduction, would prob-
  ably have forced humans to gather together, but they
  would have gathered in completely different types of
  places where protection from predators was better than
  in the fertile crescents of the world.
  Of course, this assumes the predators existed. If
  humans didn’t need food and water, would animals?
  Probably not, since we emerged from the same biology.
  That means the very structure of how different human
  beings interacted with themselves with their environ-
  ment would be completely different. Would there even
  have been the external forces necessary to make intelli-
  gence a survival trait?
  So it’s important to start by thinking about what this
  alien needs to exist, what biological drives it needs to
  satisfy, and how its general shape causes it to interact
  with the world around it.
  Example: Since Bill has decided that the aliens
  need no food, he starts by imagining what this
  would do to their general biology. If they survive
  off of water, air, and sunlight, then they’re going
  to be radically different than human beings. Even
  trees require nutrients. The aliens’ atmosphere
  and water supplies would have to be rich in the
  kind of base minerals and organic material the
  aliens need to survive. Because of the square cube
  law, the mass of a creature increases far greater
  than their surface area, when growing in size.
  This means that a human-sized alien would
  require far more efficiency in their ability to
  process air and sunlight that a smaller alien. Bill
  decides that these aliens are little more than a foot
  and half long. They have a broad, thick top, so as
  to present as much surface area to the sun as
  
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  possible. He pictures them as sort of turtle-like,
  but instead of a head, they have a protrusion of
  sense organs sticking from one side. They’re small
  enough that the brain needs to be kept in a
  central body if it is to have enough volume to
  carry intelligence. Since there are probably no
  predators on the world, he doesn’t picture them as
  fast or strong. They can think quickly, but they
  don’t need to move quickly. He decides their arms
  are thin, more tentacle-like, with splayed ends
  that act as opposable digits. He decides that ten
  little short legs would be more efficient than two
  large ones. Since they must have to take in a great
  deal of air, he decides that they speak verbally,
  and have large piercing voices to carry for great
  distances. As for external forces causing them to
  need intelligence to survive, he’ll get to that in the
  next section.
  1.1.2.1 FOOD AND COMPETITION
  Aliens need competition to evolve. Without compe-
  tition, there’s no imperative to develop intellect as a
  survival tool. Most aliens will probably gain this compe-
  tition from food gathering. They need food to survive, as
  does everything else in the food chain. Being intelligent
  creatures, they probably develop their intelligence as a
  way to fool predators and gather food.
  What the aliens eat is therefore quite important.
  Are they herbivores? Are they carnivores? Can they
  choose like human beings? It is thought that humans
  were helped in their evolution by their leap to eating
  meat. If the aliens never made this leap, then what’s
  different about their home and their ecology that
  allows them to support such complicated bodies and
  cultures off of plants?
  What are the predators like on their planet? Do they
  fight for access to the plants, or do they eat herbivores
  like on Earth? On a world where the other races devel-
  oped eating vegetables alone, perhaps the predators don’t
  actually eat herbivores. Maybe the predators are herbi-
  vores just like the alien’s, but they kill to protect their
  food supplies.
  Maybe nothing like Earth plants exist on their
  world. Perhaps they have a food chain like Earth’s, but
  the lowest members, instead of eating plants as we think
  of them, eat some sort of fungal or algae sludge. These
  aliens would find grasslands and trees most disconcert-
  ing. If all of their plant life is close to the ground, they
  might be extremely claustrophobic when they can’t see
  the sky. These are just some of the things to consider
  when it comes to food.
  Example: Food can’t be a matter of competition
  for Bill’s aliens. He decides, instead, the species
  on this alien planet compete for sunlight and
  water resources. He decides that because of this,
  the dead tend to fall into the water, giving up
  their bodily nutrients to those who drink in the
  future. He decides that the world has less water
  than Earth, but that most of the life and the
  civilization is clustered along the shores and that
  the coastlines are much more broken up than
  Earth’s, giving a larger area upon which to live.
  He decides that plants tend to grow very, very
  high, and often block out the sun. Whereas
  human technology started with fire, these aliens’
  technology is based around gathering light.
  Their earliest tools were used for climbing. He
  changes his mind about their form, eliminating
  the legs altogether and giving them a series of
  multi-use tentacles. Since these aliens’ ancestors
  were obviously arboreal, he gives them vicious
  claws. Although they still don’t need to be that
  strong, they need to be strong enough to hoist
  themselves along the tops of trees. Falling is an
  issue. Suddenly, Bill has a threat for the aliens to
  evolve around. He’d been wondering how he was
  going to keep their physical stats from being
  unplayable, but now he knows. Predators aren’t
  the enemy of this race. Gravity is. Not only will
  their arms have to be strong enough to carry
  them up a tree, but their structures will have to
  be strong enough to handle falls from large
  heights. This gives them a higher strength and
  constitution than Bill initially pictured.
  1.1.2.2 CURSORIAL HUNTERS
  Something humans take for granted is human
  endurance. We tend to think of animals as having greater
  endurance than us, but that’s not exactly the case.
  Humans are cursorial hunters. Very few other animals
  are (wolves are one example of a cursorial hunter). A
  cursorial hunter can chase its prey all day long if has to
  (and it’s properly conditioned). Humans have gotten so
  lazy over the years that most don’t even realize that this is
  possible, but in ancient times a fit hunter could literally
  chase a deer to death.
  So a natural question is: are your aliens cursorial?
  If they are, they’ll have skills much like humans, where
  endurance is concerned. If they aren’t, then skills such
  as distance running will be restricted to them. If they
  aren’t hunters at all, it’s still possible for them to be
  cursorial—the GM will just have to think of a good
  excuse as to why.
  Example: Bill’s aliens don’t hunt. He has no
  reason why they should be cursorial aside from
  that, so they aren’t. He marks down the distance
  running skill as restricted to them. He doesn’t
  alter their exhaustion points or constitution,
  because these two stats have more to do with
  short-term endurance than long.
  
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  1.1.2.3 THE HUMAN-BASED
  SKILL SYSTEM
  The skill system in Spacemaster is based around
  human beings. It evolved from the Rolemaster skill
  system, and in Rolemaster even nonhuman races are so
  like humans so as to make little difference. With aliens,
  however, skill differences aren’t solely based on culture.
  There are biological considerations as well. Being a
  cursorial hunter, as mentioned above, is just one of the
  considerations. If an alien’s body isn’t designed well for
  running, then the sprinting skill should be restricted for
  them. If their senses are poor, then various alertness
  skills are going to be restricted for them. If they aren’t
  arboreal like humans, the skills like climbing and
  acrobatics may very well be restricted for them. Once a
  good image of the alien’s overall body has been devised,
  then the GM should go through this skill list, looking for
  every skill the game and deciding whether not the aliens
  are well-suited to its use. If they aren’t, that should be
  marked as restricted. If they are, then it should stay the
  same. If they are very well suited, then they should be
  given the everyman trait in that skill.
  Example: Bill’s aliens are weak and they don’t eat.
  They have much less energy than a human being.
  Bill decides to put the restricted trait immediately
  on speed-based skills, such as sprinting. He also
  makes them restricted when it comes to strength-
  based skills such as power lifting. He knows that
  they’ll be good acrobatics, especially climbing. He
  makes them everyman at climbing. His initial
  ideas down, Bill goes through the skills one by one,
  comparing them to his vision of these aliens.
  1.1.2.4 OTHER CONSIDERATIONS
  Finally, look for other things to consider about the
  alien’s biology. Are the aliens strong? Are they fast? Do
  they have special needs? It’s time to start thinking about
  these things, even if it’s not time to write down stats yet.
  At this stage, look for the aspects of their biology which
  make them unique. How does their hook affect how they
  live? How has this affected their evolution?
  Example: The first thing Bill thinks about when he
  thinks of these aliens is how much they depend upon
  the sun, air, and water. He decides they suffocate
  very, very quickly. Because of this he decides that
  they can float easily as a survival trait for when they
  fall into water. He determines that this will make
  swimming an everyman skill for them. He missed
  that in the last step, and decides to the make new
  rules as to how quickly they would drown if held
  
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  under the water. He also decides the sun is so
  important to their biologies that they don’t just sleep
  at night, they hibernate. Also, because they receive
  the most sunlight at noon, their intelligence goes
  through an arc throughout the day. When they come
  out of hibernation at dawn, they’re only about a
  quarter as smart as they are noon. They slowly build
  to their peak intelligence, then their intelligence
  wanes until they hit about a quarter of their full
  intellect at sunset. The same is true for dim environ-
  ments (most indoor lighting qualifies as it’s far
  dimmer than the sun). In the early parts of the
  evolution, they would nest in the high trees for
  protection, but would often climb down the trees to
  the water’s edge for drinks. If they fell down into the
  trees, into the dark shade, they would quickly lose
  the ability to reason their way out of the situation. If
  they fell too deep into the darkness, their bodies
  would shut down, and they would slowly starve to
  death. Bill decides that this gives them another trait,
  one which will be beneficial. He decides that because
  their body has this shut down mechanism, they can
  use it voluntarily. Not only can they “play dead,”
  allowing them to fool cursory medical examinations,
  but their bodies will also trigger this mechanism
  under extreme damage or dehydration. Whenever
  one of these aliens drops to negative hits or receives a
  death in X rounds critical, their body automatically
  goes into stasis. Rounds until death are multiplied by
  a factor of sixty. Bleeding slows by the same rate.
  Therefore, if one of these aliens is bleeding a hit a
  round, when they reach negative hits, they begin
  bleeding one every ten minutes. Bill’s happy with
  this little trick of their biology, but decides to keep
  thinking about it in the back of his head, in case
  other ideas arise. Bill has one final thought. They
  don’t just need any water, they need water rich in
  nutrients. Drinking distilled water does them about
  as much good as eating plain white rice does for a
  human, only their biology carries them down the
  road to malnutrition much faster.
  1.1.3 PSYCHOLOGICAL
  CONSIDERATIONS
  Once the aliens’ general biology is established, one
  can start to look at their psychology. There are many
  things that might affect their psychology, but as a starting
  place, try to look at the environment in which they live. If
  an alien lives in the deep forest, they might be agorapho-
  bic. If they’ve never seen anything like a forest, that might
  be claustrophobic. If there certain types of predators on
  the planet, they might have fears and psychological
  problems attuned to certain traits of those predators.
  But psychology doesn’t have to be bad. A planet with
  a low instance of predation might not have evolved an
  aggressive sapient race. This type of world might create a
  very peaceful race, that doesn’t understand the concept
  of war. Maybe they do understand the concept of war,
  but they’ve developed such good diplomatic skills for
  working out their own problems that they produce
  master diplomats and arbitrators.
  Some of the psychological traits might be pure artifice.
  Maybe the goal of the race is to have a group that is either
  extremely warlike or extremely peaceful. In that case, the
  GM might start with an end goal and then try to work back
  from there, filling in the details and background which
  makes that trait seem reasonable. Not everything has to
  evolve from the starting hook. It’s more than okay to start
  with an end goal in mind and work backward from there.
  Example: Bill has some ideas of what his alien
  race is like already. He knows that they aren’t
  afraid of the night, because that’s just when they
  hibernate and they are really aware of it, but a
  deep dark place, especially one that you can fall
  into, is pretty terrifying to them.
  They’re almost certainly not afraid of water either, but
  the desert would be something else. Bill decides that
  because of their never-ending battle for resources,
  they’re not unfamiliar with the concept of war. They
  do not, however, have any fear of predators. Horror
  films mean very little to them, because the idea of
  being hunted just seems kind of silly.
  Bill’s happy with his starting place. Like all things to
  do with this alien race, he decides to leave the rest of
  the back of his mind for his subconscious to deal
  with. He is sure he’ll have several more ideas and
  thoughts on the implications in the days to come.
  1.1.4 PERCEPTION
  CONSIDERATIONS
  Another important thing to consider is how the aliens
  perceive the world around them. Do they see in the visual
  spectrum? Do they see in a different spectrum entirely?
  Do they even see? How about hearing? Touch? Taste?
  Smell? Maybe they have a sense that we don’t even know
  about. These are important considerations, because much
  of psychology is centered around perception.
  For the most part, it’s probably best to leave percep-
  tion alone. It’s a tough subject to tackle, since it’s so
  ingrained in human psychology. If a GM feels up to the
  task, they can play around with the perception of their
  aliens. If the game’s more on the fantastic side, then they
  can give the aliens more fantastic perceptions, such as x-
  ray vision. Otherwise, it’s probably best to just leave it be.
  Example: Bill decides that his aliens see things
  much the same way as humans. They have the
  five basic senses, but they have no night vision to
  speak of. Their eyes are not used to ever operating
  in the dark, so if they come up with some way,
  through technology, of staying awake at night,
  there won’t be able to see anything all.
  
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  1.1.5 CULTURAL CONSIDERATIONS
  By this time, the aliens should be shaping up nicely.
  It’s now time to think about their culture. We know how
  they evolved. We have a general idea of their biological
  needs. Now it’s time to start thinking about their society.
  How do their needs develop into their cultural makeup?
  For instance, if they’re asexual, they won’t have many of
  the cultural stigmas that humans do, since marriage and
  reproduction are such a driving force in human civiliza-
  tion. At this point, it’s time to start getting creative. It’s a
  long road from the aliens’ bodies to their society.
  If nothing immediately comes to mind, start with
  human culture. Think about the different societies of earth,
  how they interacted with one another and their neighbors.
  Then look at the hook. How does the hook change society?
  Does it make certain aspects of the culture more prominent?
  Does it push some to the background? A decent culture is
  one that changes certain aspects of human society to make
  something new and original. An outstanding culture
  challenges the basic preconceptions of what a society is.
  Culture is, perhaps, the single most important thing
  about an alien race. The physical abilities of an alien are by
  far less important to how that alien interacts with the
  races in the universe around it. Do they seek constant war?
  Are they seclusionist? Do they not see any barriers in
  society at all, simply merging with whoever they come
  into contact with? Can they perceive other societies, or do
  they think that humans are just highly intelligent animals?
  These will form a large number of adventure hooks in a
  game, and so it needs to be well detailed and thought out.
  Example: Bill thinks long and hard on the subject of
  his aliens’ culture. He knows that he’s going to delve
  into their culture in-depth later on, but he wants to
  start with a firm foundation. First he thinks about
  the biology of his creatures. They suffer no predation,
  so they don’t need to gather together for protection.
  They do, however, reproduce sexually, so at some
  point they have to get together to find mates. There’s
  a high level of competition for the resources of their
  world, and so groups might fend better than
  individuals. They obviously do everything during
  the daytime, and probably only the plant life thrives
  at night on their world.
  Bill decides that their culture is based more on the
  family group that of the clan or tribe. They build
  diffuse cultural structures much like rural human-
  ity. Each family stakes out their own territory, with
  a central gathering place somewhere in the middle.
  They return to the gathering place frequently, to
  find mates and to work out the issues of the society
  as a whole. They don’t have the strong alpha-led
  pack concept that humans do. The group is only
  around because it serves the resource needs of the
  individual. While different groups of these aliens
  will attack other groups, this only happens during a
  resource crisis. Crowds frighten these creatures.
  They don’t like to be confined in a room with a lot
  of other sapient beings.
  Bill’s happy with where he is with the aliens’ culture.
  He knows he’ll get to it in more depth in later steps.
  1.1.6 RELIGIOUS CONSIDERATIONS
  Now that the rough culture has been outlined, it’s
  time to start thinking about religion. As with most of
  these cultural steps, religion will be dealt with more
  specifically later, but at this point try to get a general idea
  of what religion is like. Do these aliens believe in a higher
  power? Do they personify the higher power into a form
  like themselves? Do they believe they were created by the
  higher power? Do they believe in a code of conduct?
  How does their biology change their concepts of their
  creator? These are some of the questions to begin asking.
  There’s a lot of room to be creative in this subject.
  The most basic premises, whether or not there is a
  creator and if so what is his/her form is might have
  very little to do with their biological construction.
  This is the time to lay down the foundations for
  religion. For instance, when creating a human culture,
  there are some preconceptions. Most human religions
  revolve around a single god or pantheon of gods.
  
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  Almost all of them involve creation myth. Often,
  human religion revolves around the alpha-led pack
  mentality, with a single charismatic leader and a flock
  of followers. From there, when creating an alien
  culture, start by defining the details.
  With aliens, we’re starting from scratch. If their
  society doesn’t have the concept of a single charismatic
  leader, then their religions won’t either. If they don’t
  cluster in groups, they might not even have a true
  pantheon of gods, but more a group of local gods. If they
  have a much different form of reproduction, their
  concepts on creation and how that relates to the higher
  power may be radically different.
  So this point, the goal is not to create a specific
  religion, but to outline the assumptions upon which all
  religions of this alien race evolve.
  Example: Bill sits down to think about the
  religion of his aliens. He doesn’t want to just say
  they have no religion, he feels that would be a cop
  out. At this point, he’s trying to outline the
  common trends in his aliens’ belief systems. He
  starts with what he knows about their culture.
  They have no concept of a single charismatic
  leader. He decides that this means that they will
  not have a single creator god in their religions.
  They have no centralized authority, or least not
  much of one, so decides against a strong central
  pantheon as well. They do reproduce sexually, so
  concept of a creative force is not completely out of
  the question.
  Bill decides that the predominant theme in their
  religion consists of thousands of local spirit gods.
  The god of certain waters, the god of a certain
  tree, the god of a pond is a general structure their
  religions tend to take. He decides that because it’s
  not in their psychology to follow a central
  charismatic force, they don’t perceive these gods as
  intelligent. From their point of view, the indi-
  vidual is the most intelligent creature the
  universe. Higher forces are merely that, forces.
  They don’t think or reason, they’re more like
  animals, serving the individual, than directors
  from on high.
  He decides that he will weave a creation mythol-
  ogy into this. He decides that a common theme,
  maybe even the common theme of the religion is
  that these forces are creative elements, they just
  aren’t aware of the fact. Whenever these spirit
  gods clash with each other for territory, they
  produce, as a byproduct, something living on the
  world. He decides to help tie this into their culture
  later, maybe even their sexuality. He likes where
  it’s going. Two forces clashed, creating a lower life
  form. This, in turn needs a spirit god to serve it.
  This clashes with something else, creating a
  higher life form. This requires a higher spirit god
  to serve it. Eventually, this rises to the creation of
  the aliens, and their own personal gods. He
  decides that the idea of personal gods almost takes
  the place of souls within their culture, but he
  intends to think about that more before he settles
  on the details. All in all, he has a good start, and
  is ready to move on to the next step.
  1.1.7 MATING CONSIDERATIONS
  At some point, the aliens’ mating rituals need to be
  well defined. Do they mate? How do they reproduce?
  Does how they reproduce affect how they mate? At this
  point, the answers to these questions should be fairly
  self-evident. Think about what you know, think about
  what you don’t know and fill in all the remaining details.
  Example: Bill knows that his aliens reproduce
  more or less like humans. He’s also decides that
  sex and combat are not too terribly different for
  them. Both are the encounters of two individuals
  whose concepts of cooperation and not as highly
  evolved as humans. He decides that while violent,
  true reproduction between members of this species
  appears almost like an act of aggression to
  outsiders. However, he decides that since most sex
  crimes have more to do with power than with
  sexuality, this race has no such concept. The
  individual is the individual. Since they don’t
  allow themselves to be led, they don’t really think
  about exerting their power on others, either.
  While this is a rather mature subject, Bill decides
  to put it on his back burners and see if his gaming
  group looks like they could deal with it.
  1.1.8 LIFESPAN CONSIDERATIONS
  The final subject is how long an alien lives. This will
  have a great deal of effect on how they view culture,
  religion, and science. Most of all, it determines how they
  relate to other races. If an alien lives much, much longer
  than the species with which it interacts, then they will
  view the shorter lived race much differently than if the
  shorter lived race lived longer than them. Aliens prob-
  ably perceive time in relation to their own life span. If
  they can watch another race go through six of seven
  generations in the time it takes them to reach maturity,
  they aren’t going to build deep emotional attachments to
  members of that race. Meanwhile, members of that race
  might form incredibly intense attachments to them. All
  this will affect how they interact with one another.
  Example: for game play considerations, Bill
  wants his aliens to live about the same amount of
  time as a human. Since nothing so far has
  indicated that shouldn’t be the case, he decides to
  make it so and move on.
  
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  Issue #3
  1.1.9 CULTURES
  Now that you have the general concept of the race,
  it’s time to talk about individual cultures of a race. One
  of the biggest fallacies perpetuated in science fiction is
  the concept of single-world cultures (and often single-
  world weather and climate). In this fallacy, a single world
  has only one culture when the realities of evolution only
  allow that for extremely old civilizations. Communica-
  tion is required to begin to smooth over cultural
  differences that inevitably arise from the early separa-
  tions caused by the migrations of a race. Quick and
  affordable travel and many generations are required to
  finish this process.
  In the early steps, you defined the general trends of
  the aliens’ culture. Now it’s times to attack the intricacies
  of individual cultures. A society with a single, pervading
  culture isn’t particularly interesting.
  There are, of course, exceptions. A multi-racial
  culture might only need a single predominant culture
  per race, to make things interesting. A race with a hive-
  mind might not have multiple cultures, due to the nature
  of their existence.
  1.1.9.1 BUILDING CULTURES
  The important question is how many cultures are
  necessary. The answer depends on the nature of the
  setting. If as a general rule, every major power should
  have at least two separate cultures. Three to five are
  probably better. More than that might be too much, at
  least for practical handling. There could be hundreds of
  cultures that don’t come into the game.
  What constitutes a major society depends on the
  scope of the setting. If the setting involves only a few
  warring worlds, then each world will probably be a
  major power. If the setting is one world, then each
  country or land mass will probably be its own power. If
  the setting is a large, interstellar space with multiple
  nations, then each of these nations would be a major
  power.
  So once you’ve come to an idea of how many
  cultures the setting needs for the proper amount of
  internal strife, then all the steps, below for each of the
  cultures.
  Example: Bill decides that in his setting the aliens
  will only exist on one world. He therefore decides
  that there will be five major cultures on this
  planet with different views on how they relate to
  humanity. This will cause plenty of strife and
  internal conflict during the game, leading to a
  great many plot hooks.
  1.1.9.1.1 PHYSICAL RESOURCES
  What are the required resources of the aliens?
  How do they use land?  What do they need to
  survive?  Are their any special resources needed for
  their biology?  What does their technology require
  (more on technology later)?
  Example: Bill’s aliens have two major needs: their
  special water supply and sunlight. This means
  that their most valuable resources are water and
  high ground near water. Because of the heavy
  plant growth on their planet, this means trees
  near standing water. They can’t collect water from
  rainfall because they need it to be rich in the
  nutrients they need for survival. This forces the
  heaviest population to these narrow bands of
  coast and isolated pools on their world. As
  technology increases, they can spread out farther
  and farther inland, but these are the resources
  that are most important for their survival.
  The first culture Bill designs is located on the
  largest continent on the planet. They are rich
  when it comes to water and sunlight, and even
  the basic building blocks of technology like fossils
  fuels and common minerals. They are poorest in
  the more exotic minerals necessary to sustain
  advanced technology, most notably uranium.
  This has caused tensions with the nearby
  culture, as they used to allow independent
  interests to mine for these resources. Lately
  they’ve closed their borders.
  1.1.9.1.2 SUBSISTENCE PATTERNS
  For most races, at least most that would make it into
  a roleplaying game, subsistence patterns will look much
  like those of humans. Only for the more alien of the
  alien races will there be a radical departure from the
  norms of subsistence.
  What do the aliens eat?  How does what they eat
  affect their subsistence patterns?  Does this lead to
  unusual means of gathering food?  If so, do they use
  these means?  How do they affect the culture?
  Example: Bill’s aliens have a slightly different
  means of nourishing themselves than most races.
  They need air, which is readily available, light,
  which is readily available as well, and water from
  stagnant pools. The amount of life that a single
  body of water can support is determined by how
  much a single alien drinks in a day and the
  amount of rainfall that falls onto the watershed of
  that body of water in an average day.
  Since their consumption involves simple drinking,
  then their subsistence pattern is a “mixed
  economy” where they gather water from natural
  sources and also export it to drier regions. They
  also have several “artificial” water sources,
  reservoirs they’ve built and then piled dead things
  inside (a habit that will probably thoroughly
  disgust humans) to enrich with vital nutrients.
  
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  1.1.9.1.3 VALUES AND KINSHIP
  It’s important to know what unique values the
  culture has. Many of the values will be similar in
  subject (though they might be completely opposed) to
  human values. Things like lines of succession and the
  rule of law will probably be important to many races.
  The GM should try to flesh out the aliens’ value system
  as fully as possible.
  What are their philosophies on war? What do they
  think about slavery and discrimination?  What are their
  thoughts on property?  Lineage? Murder? What consti-
  tutes personal rights?  Lying?  Sexual acts?  These topics
  should be explored as thoroughly as possible.
  Example: Bill is ready to think about the
  culture’s values now.  He already knows they
  value the individual above everything else, so
  most of their laws protect the individual,
  although very few are actually needed (since
  they only gather in family units, which self-
  regulate). They tend to commit atrocities on a
  much larger scale than simple theft or murder.
  They are too self-centered, as a race, to be
  discriminatory: each individual places himself
  above all others, and they don’t care if someone
  who isn’t them has different generic traits as
  well. They steal, but other people don’t typically
  matter enough to kill. If they did, however, it
  would be wrong. They write wills, but they only
  slightly value their descendants more than
  others, so they inheritance could go to anyone,
  but a mate has a slight advantage in this area.
  They value the rights of the individual above
  everything else, and since their culture is fairly
  diffuse, they rarely have to write laws about
  violating the rights of others. They don’t
  particularly care about lying or deceiving, unless
  property theft is involved. Sex is a selfish matter,
  but it never gets out of hand. All in all, they have
  as little to do with others as possible, and they
  won’t understand the tribal philosophies of
  humans when they meet them.
  1.1.9.1.4 LANGUAGE
  The first thing to do is determine how the aliens
  communicate. Is it verbal or though other, more
  exotic means like visual, somatic or chemical
  cues?  Maybe they even use telepathy. Once
  that’s determined, then explore the implica-
  tions of storing information in this medium.
  Example: Bill’s aliens speak like humans,
  though their languages are radically different.
  He decides that they have a high rate of
  literacy. He takes some time and maps out the
  language tree for their race.
  1.1.9.1.5 RELIGION, MYTHS
  AND HISTORY
  You’ve already defined their basic philoso-
  phies on religion. On subsequent passes for
  other cultures pay attentions to how the
  different religions would interact, and how their
  beliefs might cause conflict.
  Example: Bill’s first culture follows a fairly
  straightforward interpretation of their base
  beliefs. Each family has their own shrines to
  their own local spirit gods, and appeases
  them daily. They bury their dead in water,
  to nourish the future generations. Families
  that have their own private water source
  usually dispose of their dead there, so that
  their flesh will nourish the family. The
  practices of this religion are fairly straight-
  forward, based on personal spiritualism.
  Their only elaborate ceremony is for the
  dead, because they find the loss of an
  individual the greatest tragedy.
  
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  1.1.9.1.6 TECHNOLOGY
  Determine the technology levels of the culture. Use
  Tech Law for a breakdown by tech level and category.
  Rate the culture on each category.
  Example: Bill decides on tech level 17 for a
  baseline on his culture. He rates them slightly
  high (18) on communication and slightly lower
  (16) on engineering and arms and armor.
  1.1.9.1.7 CLASS SPECIALIZATION
  Determine how this culture handles classes. Do they
  have any classes at all?  If they do, is class based on birth?
  Merit? Money? Age? Some combination thereof?
  Example: Bill decides that the aliens are a
  purely capitalistic society. All class is based on
  personal wealth, not that there is much thought
  of class. Corporations exist, but telecommuting is
  popular, so as to not have to spend a lot of time
  in crowded buildings. Businesses where
  telecommuting isn’t possible, such as in manu-
  facturing, tend to take up a lot more space than
  a human business, to give the workers room to
  be more or less in peace. The structure is much
  like the Great Step Forward the Chinese
  attempted; only this one works.
  1.1.9.1.8 ART,
  ARCHITECTURE AND
  SYMBOLISM
  This section takes some thought. You know
  quite a bit about the culture, now it’s time to
  decide how they build and express themselves.
  Example: Bill decides that his culture
  builds in the tops of trees, and their
  architecture still reflects this. They build
  high even when starting on the ground,
  and often build on stilts or piers because
  they prefer single-story structures.
  Lighting is vitally important, of course,
  and skylights are popular even in an age of
  full-spectrum artificial lighting. They
  build with wood (or rather, their planet’s
  equivalent), when possible. The nature of
  these building materials makes them very
  aromatic, which the aliens find pleasant
  but humans find nauseating.
  He then sets about sketching out some
  basic architectural designs and, being an art
  major, some art styles as well. Finally he
  sketches out some of the animals on the
  world, assigning them symbolic cultural
  meanings (like weasels, foxes and serpents
  on Earth).
  1.1.9.1.9 POLITICS AND WELFARE
  Next decide on the politics of the aliens. This can be
  a big subject. Feel free to think outside the box. If your
  aliens diverge radically from the norm politically, this
  will only make them more interesting.
  Example: Bill’s aliens believe in small government.
  Their government could best be described as a
  meritocracy, where the most talented statesmen are
  elected by their peers. Since these aliens have no
  desire to rule one another, egos rarely get involved.
  Often, members try to talk down their abilities so
  that they don’t have to do the job.
  Otherwise, their culture is purely capitalistic. They
  care little for the poor, but create a bare minimum
  of laws to make certain that everyone who needs
  medical care can’t be turned down, even if this
  means going into debt for the rest of their lives.
  They care little about homelessness (they aren’t
  that put out by being homeless) and anyone that
  can get to a faucet needs no more food than that, so
  the concept of welfare is foreign to them.
  1.1.10 GENERATING THE RACE
  Next, generate the actual race. See below.
  
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  Issue #3
  2.0 RACE GENERATION
  A science fiction universe can be populated by an
  infinite variety of races. It would be impossible for
  anyone to catalog every conceivable race that a player
  might wish to choose for his character. Rather than limit
  the available choices in Spacemaster, this section along
  with the material in Future Law allows a Gamemaster to
  design any race of which he can conceive. A GM may
  spend points on the racial categories and purchase
  unique features for the race.
  The most important part of creating a new race is to
  have a firm idea of what the race is like before you start
  purchasing characteristics. If you can see how members
  the race interact with each other, with other races, even
  to nature, then you will have a firmer grasp on what
  talents and flaws to purchase.
  Once the race is created, you should compare it to
  the other races in your world. Make certain that the
  new race balances well with the other races. Finally,
  write as detailed a description about your new race as
  you can. This will help to clarify the race in the minds
  of your players.
  Example: Bill decides that it’s time to create the
  aliens he designed in section 1.0. He decides to
  call them the Par.
  RACE GENERATION PROCEDURE
  The following are the steps necessary to create your
  own race.
  1) Choose the skill progression for the race’s Body
  Development skill.
  2) Choose the skill progression for the race’s
  Mind Points.
  3) Select a lifespan for the race.
  4) Apply modifiers to the race’s Resistance Rolls that
  you feel are appropriate.
  5) Determine the period of time that must pass
  before the soul departs the body.
  6) Choose the number of languages members of the
  race knows. Choose starting languages and the
  written and spoken ranks.
  7) Determine the stat bonuses, if any, the race possesses.
  8) Decide on the number of hours the race needs to
  sleep to become refreshed.
  9) Decide if the race has any endurance bonuses and
  if so, what kind (bonus exhaustion points, multiple
  days without sleep, or both).
  10) Decide if the race will be unusually large or small.
  11) Select the recovery multiplier for the race.
  12) Choose the race type for the race. The race type
  determines how fast the race’s mental stats deterio-
  rate after death.
  13) Decide on the total number of skill ranks the
  race receives during its adolescent development.
  This includes hobby ranks. Distribute the skill ranks
  across their appropriate skills and skill categories.
  14) Decide if the race has any Everyman skills and
  what they are.
  15) Decide if the race has any Restricted skills and
  what they are.
  16) Select the available hobby skills for the race
  17) Decide if the race has any natural talents or
  flaws and purchase them.
  18) Total up the point cost and determine the races
  available talent points.
  2.1 STATISTICAL MODIFIERS
  The following statistical modifiers apply all of the
  game mechanics to your developed race. Most of the
  modifiers have a median value that costs zero points. If
  you want your race to be stronger than the norm in a
  category, it will cost you points. If you want your race to
  be weaker than the norm, this will give you points.
  
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  Issue #3
  BODY DEVELOPMENT
  Some races are hardier than others. This is reflected
  by the number of hits each rank of Body Development
  gives you. You may choose the skill progression level for
  your particular race.
  Skill Progression
  Point Cost
  0 • 6 • 2 • 2 • 1 ..................................... -17
  0 • 6 • 3 • 1 • 1 ..................................... -15
  0 • 6 • 3 • 2 • 1 ..................................... -10
  0 • 6 • 4 • 2 • 1 ......................................... 0
  0 • 7 • 3 • 2 • 1 ......................................... 5
  0 • 6 • 5 • 2 • 1 ....................................... 10
  0 • 7 • 4 • 2 • 1 ....................................... 13
  0 • 7 • 5 • 3 • 1......................... 15
  Example: Because the Par are slightly weaker
  than the average race, Bill decides to purchase a
  Body Development skill progression at 0 • 6 • 2 • 2
  • 1 for a cost of -17 points.
  MIND POINTS
  Some races are naturally more psychically inclined
  than others. You may choose what your Mind Point
  progression is.
  Skill Progression
  Point Cost
  0 • 2 • 1 • 1 • 1 ......................................-25
  0 • 3 • 2 • 1 • 1 ......................................-20
  0 • 4 • 3 • 2 • 1 ......................................-10
  0 • 5 • 3 • 2 • 2 ......................................... 0
  0 • 6 • 4 • 3 • 2 ......................................... 5
  0 • 6 • 5 • 4 • 3 ....................................... 10
  0 • 6 • 6 • 4 • 3 ....................................... 13
  0 • 7 • 6 • 5 • 4 ....................................... 15
  Example: The Par are more psychically inclined
  than some of the other races. Bill chooses the 0 • 7 • 6
  • 5 • 4 Mind Point progression for a cost of 15 points.
  LIFESPAN
  Some races are known for their longevity, others are
  known for their brevity of life. You may choose how long
  your natural lifespan is.
  Approximate Lifespan (in Years)
  Point Cost
  40-80 ............................................................ -5
  81-100 ............................................................ 0
  101-300 .......................................................... 3
  301-500 .......................................................... 5
  501-800 .......................................................... 7
  801-1200 ........................................................ 9
  1201-1700 .................................................... 11
  1701-2300 .................................................... 13
  Immortal ..................................................... 15
  Example: The Par live a typical lifetime, between
  95 and 100 years on average. This costs no points.
  RESISTANCE ROLLS
  Certain races are more resistant or susceptible to the
  various hazards they encounter. You may choose a bonus
  or penalty to apply to your Resistance Rolls. You may
  choose one per RR category. Available categories are
  Psychic Power, Disease, Poison, and Fear.
  RR Bonus
  Point Cost
  -5 extra .................................... -10 (each)
  -10 .......................................................-10
  -5 ...........................................................-5
  +0 ........................................................... 0
  +5 ........................................................... 3
  +10 ......................................................... 5
  +15 ......................................................... 7
  +20 ....................................................... 10
  +30 ....................................................... 13
  +40 ....................................................... 16
  +50 ....................................................... 20
  +60 ....................................................... 25
  +70 ....................................................... 35
  +80 ....................................................... 50
  +90 ....................................................... 70
  +100 ..................................................... 95
  Example: The Par are slightly less susceptible to
  psionics than normal. They receive a +10 modifier to
  their Resistance Rolls. This costs Bill a total of 5 points.
  
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  Issue #3
  SOUL DEPARTURE
  When a person receives enough damage to kill them,
  their soul does not depart their body for a certain
  amount of time. Different races’ souls leave the body at
  different times. You may choose the amount of time the
  soul remains in the body after receiving a mortal blow.
  Rounds Until Soul Departure
  Point Cost
  1.................................................................. -25
  2.................................................................. -20
  3.................................................................. -15
  4.................................................................. -11
  5.................................................................... -9
  6.................................................................... -7
  7.................................................................... -5
  8.................................................................... -4
  9.................................................................... -3
  10.................................................................. -2
  11.................................................................. -1
  12....................................................................0
  13....................................................................2
  14....................................................................4
  15....................................................................6
  17....................................................................8
  18..................................................................10
  19..................................................................15
  +1 round......................................... +5 (each)
  Example: It takes around 2 minutes for the soul of
  a Par to leave its body. You have chosen 12 rounds
  for the soul to depart. There is no cost for this.
  STARTING LANGUAGES
  Contact with other races and cultures often results
  in exposure to languages other than your native one.
  Some races interact with many different races and
  cultures and consequently they speak many languages.
  You may choose how many initial languages you speak.
  Number of Languages
  Point Cost
  1.................................................................... -5
  2......................................................................0
  3......................................................................5
  4......................................................................7
  5....................................................................10
  +1 extra language ................ 5 (each)
  You start with 8 spoken ranks and 4 written ranks in
  your native language. Any additional languages you
  speak will begin at five spoken and zero written. You may
  increase your spoken or written ranks by paying 1 point
  for each additional rank. You may receive 1 point for
  each rank you reduce spoken or written.
  Example: The Par must speak many languages to
  interact with their disparate society. They start
  with 4 languages. This costs 7 points. Bill must
  also choose which languages the Par speak and at
  what level. He decides that they speak their native
  language at a rank of S8/W7, which costs 3
  points. They also speak another language from
  their world at S8/W5, which costs 8 points (for
  the 3 spoken ranks over 5 and the five written
  ranks), another at S5/W5, which costs 5 points,
  and the fourth at S5/W5, again for 5points. The
  total cost for Bill’s starting languages is 28 points.
  STAT BONUSES
  A bonus may be applied to any of your stats. These
  bonuses represent a race’s advantages or disadvantages
  compared to other races. You may also select a stat bonus
  to represent an individual who is stronger, smarter, or
  more agile for his race. A character can have no more
  than two stat bonuses applied to a single stat (one for the
  race and one for the character).
  Bonus
  Point Cost
  -10 .....................................................  -45
  -9 .......................................................  -35
  -8 ........................................................ -30
  -7 .......................................................  -25
  -6 .......................................................  -20
  -5 .......................................................  -13
  -4 .......................................................  -10
  -3 .......................................................... -7
  -2 .......................................................... -5
  -1 .......................................................... -3
  0.............................................................. 0
  +1 ........................................................... 3
  +2 ........................................................... 5
  +3 ........................................................... 7
  +4 ......................................................... 10
  +5 ......................................................... 25
  +6 ......................................................... 45
  +7 ......................................................... 55
  +8 ......................................................... 65
  +9 ......................................................... 73
  +10 ....................................................... 80
  Every point bonus above ten costs an additional ten
  points. Every negative point penalty below negative ten
  grants an additional ten points.
  Example: The Par are quick and agile, stemming
  from their arboreal ancestry. They are good
  thinkers and can figure out problems quite
  quickly. They are not very imposing creatures but
  are fairly undisciplined. Bill decides their stat
  bonuses will look like this:
  Ag ..................... +4 ................  10 points
  Con ...................-2 ................... -5 points
  Re ..................... +2 ..................  5 points
  SD..................... +2 ................... 5 points
  In ...................... +2 ................... 5 points
  Pr .......................-2 ..................  -5 points
  Qu .................... +2 ................... 5 points
  St .......................-8 ................. -30 points
  The total cost for the stat bonuses is -10 points.
  
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  Issue #3
  REQUIRED SLEEP
  This determines the number of hours you must
  sleep to be fully rested. This also determines the amount
  of time it takes to recover any spent Mind Points. You
  may choose to either sleep or go into a deep meditation
  for the specified number of hours to become refreshed.
  Hours Required
  Point Cost
  12................................................................ -15
  10................................................................ -10
  8.................................................................... -5
  6.....................................................................  0
  4.....................................................................  5
  2.................................................................... 10
  1...................................................................  20
  Example: The Par require an average of 12 hours
  sleep each night to be fully rested in the morning
  (and their dead unconscious at the time), which
  costs -15 points.
  ENDURANCE
  There are races that can drive themselves on longer
  than others. They may have more Exhaustion Points, or
  they may not need to sleep quite as often. You may
  choose if your race receives additional Exhaustion Points
  or if they may go more than one day without sleeping.
  Additional Exhaustion Point
  Point Cost
  +0 Exhaustion Points ........................................... 0
  +10 Exhaustion Points ......................................... 3
  +20 Exhaustion Points ......................................... 7
  +30 Exhaustion Points ....................................... 12
  Additional +10 Exhaustion Points. +10 (each)
  Number of Days Without Sleep
  Point Cost
  May go 1 day without sleep ................................ 0
  May go 2 days without sleep ............................... 5
  May go 3 days without sleep ............................. 10
  Example: Climbing is difficult work. It can really
  tire you out, since that would be the Par’s primary
  mode of transportation, they need some extra
  Exhaustion Points. Bill feels that 20 extra Exhaus-
  tion Points is the right amount. This costs 7 points.
  Bill knows they need to sleep every night, though.
  SIZE
  The various races of the world come in many
  different sizes. When creating a race, it is assumed that
  the average male of the race will fall between 3'6" and
  7'6". If you wish your race to either be larger or smaller
  than this, you must purchase either Giantism (see Future
  Law) or Dwarfism (see Future Law).
  Height
  Point Cost
  Smaller than 3'6" .............................. 5, 10, or 15
  3'6"- 7'6" ........................................................... 0
  Taller than 7'6" ............................... 10, 15, or 25
  Example: The Par are small. The average male of
  the race is a foot and a half tall He gives then
  Dwarfism (Minor), effecting their stats even
  more. This costs 10.
  RECOVERY MULTIPLIER
  Different races heal at different rates. Hardier races will
  recover from a wound faster than a weaker race. The recovery
  multiplier is a measure of how much faster or slower wounds
  take to heal (i.e., a multiplier on Recovery Times).
  Multiplier
  Point Cost
  3 times normal .................................. -45
  2 times normal ...................................-25
  1.5 times normal ............................... -10
  Normal recovery...................................  0
  .9 times normal ..................................... 3
  .75 times normal ..................................  5
  .5 times normal ................................... 10
  Example: The Par are a tad fragile compared to
  humans. Consequently, it takes them longer to
  heal from their wounds due to the lack of as many
  recuperative systems as other races have. It takes
  1.5 times longer for a Par to heal a wound than it
  would for someone of a race with a normal
  wound recovery rate. This stat multiplier has a
  cost of -10 points.
  
  16
  Spacemaster: Datanet
  Issue #3
  RACE TYPE
  Your race type determines how quickly your mental
  stats deteriorate after death. A race with a lower race type
  will typically retain more of its mental faculties if that
  member is some how revived
  Race Type
  Point Cost
  1............................................................ 10
  2.............................................................  5
  3.............................................................  0
  4............................................................ -5
  5.......................................................... -10
  Example: There is nothing atypical about the Par
  after death so Bill chooses a race type of 3, which
  costs no points.
  ADOLESCENT SKILL RANKS
  What is work to one race may be a hobby to
  another. There may be skills everyone from one race
  learns as they grow up, but another race would find the
  same skills totally useless. Racially common skills are
  represented by adolescent skill ranks. You may choose
  how many total skill ranks your race receives during the
  adolescence part of character creation. You must then
  break down the total number of skill ranks into the
  applicable skill categories, depending on what your race
  values the most. You will also wish to reserve some ranks
  to be used as hobbies. The Gamemaster may change
  your distribution of adolescence ranks if he feels they do
  not reflect the desires and needs of your race. The point
  cost is based on the number of ranks you need.
  Number of Ranks
  Point Cost
  Up to 55 .....................................................5 (total)
  56-65 .........................  1 point per additional rank
  66-80 ........................ 2 points per additional rank
  81-100 .......................3 points per additional rank
  +1 rank .................... 5 points per additional rank
  Example: Bill feels that the Par have developed a
  widely diverse culture, one that embraces many
  skills. Having grown up in this culture, a Par
  would have developed many different skills. Bill
  feels that a total of 80 ranks is necessary for a
  Par’s adolescence. The total cost for those 80 ranks
  would be 45 points. This is broken down like this;
  the first 55 ranks cost 5 points total. Ranks 56-65
  cost 1 point each for a total of 10 points. Ranks
  66-80 cost 2 points each for a total of 30 points,
  resulting in a grand total of 5+10+30=45 points.
  Bill then looks through the various skills and skill
  categories in the Adolescence Rank Table and
  spreads the 80 skill ranks among the different
  skills and skill categories. He decides to leave 15 of
  the 80 ranks as Hobby ranks to reflect a par’s
  diverse hobbies.
  EVERYMAN SKILLS
  These are skills that are common to your race or
  culture, but might be uncommon to other races and
  cultures. Virtually every member of your society would
  be skilled in these areas. You start off with no Everyman
  skills, but you may purchase up to thirty skills that count
  as Everyman skills for your race. You may choose no
  more than one OB skill as Everyman and you may
  choose no more than one DB skill as Everyman.
  Number of Everyman Skills
  Point Cost
  1-10 skills ...................................... 1 point per skill
  11-20 skills .................................. 2 points per skill
  21-30 skills .................................. 3 points per skill
  Example: Virtually every Par knows climbing.
  This Everyman skill costs one point.
  RESTRICTED SKILLS
  There are some skills that a particular race or
  culture would not need and therefore not normally
  develop. These skills are considered Restricted skills. Very
  few of your race or culture would know how to perform
  this skill. You start out with no Restricted skills.
  Number of Restricted Skills
  Point Cost
  1-5 skills ..................................... -2 points per skill
  6-10 skills ...................................  -1 point per skill
  11+ skills ..................................... 0 points per skill
  
  17
  Spacemaster: Datanet
  Issue #3
  Example: The Par are poor distance runners.
  Distance running is a Restricted skill for a cost of
  -2 points.
  HOBBIES
  Your race or culture would view many different
  skills as hobbies. These are skills that are not necessary to
  the survival of your society, but make life more enjoyable
  and dynamic. You can choose what your race considers
  to be a hobby. There is a suggested range of between 25
  and 40 hobby skills. It is strongly recommended that a
  race has no more than one OB skill, one DB skill, or one
  Spell list as a hobby. The GM may add or remove some
  of your skill choices as he sees fit. There is no cost for
  selecting skills as hobby skills.
  Example: Bill looks through the various skill lists
  and selects 30 different skills that the Par can
  choose as their hobby skills, of course, at no cost.
  TALENTS AND FLAWS
  The last step is to determine any racial talents or
  flaws that are common to all members of the race. See
  Future Law for a complete listing of talents and flaws and
  their associated point costs. These may be physical
  talents, such as Natural Weapon, or mental ones such as
  Delusion. Remember this is a talent or flaw that the
  entire race possesses.
  Example: Next, Bill looks over all of the talents
  and flaws to pick out any of them that fit
  particularly well with his conception of the Par.
  Natural Weapon (claws) (15 points) and the
  hibernation ability (where it comes to damage)
  are most appropriate. The later is one he made up
  himself and he gives it a cost of 10.
  TOTALING THE POINTS
  The final step in creating a race is totaling all of the
  points that have been spent. This total will determine
  how many talent points a par character has to spend on
  various talents and flaws.
  Total Points
  Available Talent Points
  Below -76 ........................................................... 65
  -75-25................................................................. 60
  26-75 .................................................................. 55
  76- 100 ............................................................... 50
  101- 125 ............................................................. 45
  126-150 .............................................................. 40
  151- 175 ............................................................. 35
  176-200 .............................................................. 30
  201 -225 ............................................................. 25
  226-250 .............................................................. 20
  251 -275 ............................................................. 15
  276-300 .............................................................. 10
  301 -325 ............................................................... 5
  26 or more ........................................................... 0
  Example: Finally, Bill totals up all of the point
  costs—some categories in which 0 points are
  allocated are not listed. This determines how
  many talent points Bill has to purchase stat
  modifiers, talents, flaws, status, items, and wealth
  for Par characters.
  Body Development ... .0 • 6 • 2 • 2 • 1 ....... -17 points
  Mind Points ............... 0 • 7 • 6 • 5 • 4 .......... 15 points
  Resistance Rolls:
   Psychic Powers .................. +10 .................... 5 points
  Languages .................................................... 28 Points
  Ag ....................................... +4 ..................  10 points
  Con ..................................... -2 ................... -5 points
  Re........................................ +2 ....................  5 points
  SD....................................... +2 ..................... 5 points
  In ........................................ +2 ..................... 5 points
  Pr ........................................ .-2 ................... -5 points
  Qu ...................................... +2 ..................... 5 points
  St ........................................ -8 ................. -30 points
  Required Sleep ............... 12 hours ............ -15 points
  Endurance ............... +20 Exhaustion .......... 7 points
  Dwarfism (Minor) ...................................... 10 points
  Recovery multiplier ....... 1.5 times ............ -10 points
  Adolescence Skills .......... 80 ranks .............. 45 points
  Everyman skills ............. climbing ................. 1 point
  Restricted skills ........distance running........ -2 points
  Natural Weapon .......................................... 15 points
  Hibernation when damaged ....................... 10 points
  Total Cost for the Par: ............................. 82 points
  This would mean that each Par character would have
  50 points to spend on talents.
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Datanet/Spacemaster - Iron Crown Enterprises - Magazine - Datanet 03.pdf