The Sama

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  • December 14, 2013 at 10:20 pm #150407
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    Gentlemen,

    Matt mentioned that he was starting to work on Racial Talents and such for the Sama, so here’s the write up below. And yes the young (i.e. pre-adult) Sama will be a playable race.

    New Races

    Sama
    Description: This small, asexual insectoid race averages between 2 ½ to 3 feet in height and travels on four legs, with two other appendages used as arms. The Sama’s thin chitin shell ranges in colors from a dark greens to black in adults and lighter reddish colors in adolescents. Samas have elaborate fluted head crests made of a thin membrane.

    Some speculate that the Sama are an insectoid race, related to the Isorri, that escaped extinction at the hands of the Ssethics during their genocidal campaign to take the Mound. Others believe that the Sama are the result of Ssethric biomancy experimentation. For their part the Sama feel that speculation without some basis of fact is not productive and a waste of mental energy.

    Sama are used by the different Merchant Cabals and other business enterprises to keep track of their business records and accounts as the small insectoid race has the unique ability to maintain and recall thousands of pages of numbers and information completely by memory. This talent makes the Sama invaluable to all manner of enterprises, besides mercantile ones, that require information to be kept secure without the need to put the data on paper where it may be copied or stolen; thus one will find the Sama in the employ of such organizations as the Emerald Society, the Jial of the Phoenix, and even by the members of the various religious sects.

    A curious idiosyncrasy that all adult Sama display is the suppression of all emotions,; purporting to act on data and pure logic alone. This affectation stems from their adolescent years, which lasts from ten to twelve years, when they undergo a period where they wish to indulge in every raw emotion and experience. While most other races call this the Sama’s “adventuring years”, the stoic insectoid race considers it a time of rash decisions and impulsive behavior that they must all endure and hope to survive.

    Explorers of the ruins of the First City as well as the endless catacombs beneath appreciate these “adolescent” Sama as their small size and uncanny ability to fold their bodies into the smallest of spaces allow them to navigate tight crevices, pipes and other egresses too small for any of the other races.

    A Sama’s chitin is too thin to offer it any more protection than human skin does, so many wear specially fitted armor during their adventuring years, though they tend to shy away from heavy armor, such as plate, etc. Most are comfortable with chain mail as they can drape it over their four legs without causing any discomfort or loss of maneuverability.

    As a race, the Sama favor the use of ranged weapons, such as darts, slings and especially the blow gun. Due to their keen sense of mathematics, they are able to calculate trajectory instinctively, making them quite deadly with any ranged weapon. The bow and crossbow are too large or cumbersome for the Sama.

    As mentioned above, Sama’s are asexual, meaning they do not have separate genders. An adult Sama will reproduce once or twice in its lifetime; traveling to the edges of the Vastwoods to lay their eggs. The Sama will then construct an elaborate nest out of webbing similar to those spun by spiders, something they can only do when they are about to reproduce, and lay up to a dozen eggs within a tightly wrapped cocoon. These are hung from branches high up in the trees so that their spawn have plenty of food to eat as the small insectoids are herbivores and enjoy feasting on green leaves.

    While the Sama have no religion of their own, and tend to be confused by many of the other sentient beings need to supplicate and worship other powerful entities. As one, they believe that if the Sama ever had a deity it died or left long ago or obviously doesn’t need anything from them as no Sama has ever been “contacted” by one. This mindset may be a reflection of their upbringing, as a Sama believes that their only duty to their offspring is providing a nest near a food source and laying eggs. Once that is done, the small insectoids do not have any further connection, emotional or otherwise, with their brood.

    Due to the extraordinarily ordered mind of the Sama, they are able to learn and practice Elder sorcery, though very few do so. When asked, most will say that it is a skill useless to them as adults and that it is the rare adolescent that can control their emotions long enough to study the laborious technique. At that age, most who indulge themselves want to feel the hot blood of their foes spurt across their face or be close enough to see the light of life dim in their eyes.

    To date, none of ever witnessed a Sama manifest psionic abilities, though some speculate that they may be capable of such a feat but do not do so for the same reason the vast majority do not practice Elder sorcery. Should the Sama indeed be capable of the powers of the mind, this may be a plausible explanation, for wielding psionics requires even more discipline and rigorous training than learning Elder magic does.

    December 15, 2013 at 6:27 am #253414
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    I’ll post some possible racial talents in the morning, but I do have a couple points about the fluff: 1) most insects in real life do not have lungs, but “breath” through holes in their carapace. This would make blowguns difficult in that arrangement, though I’m sure a plausible mechanism can be willed into existence (have an air bladder, more complex life form, therefore more advance respiratory system, etc). 2) the first sentence of the religion paragraph is incomplete. The “while the” should be omitted.

    Edit: a quick refresher in insect physiology reminded me that some insects have sacs in their body to store air (and moisture) similar to us holding our breath. Alas, spiracles (the holes on the side of an insect through which they breathe) are in no way connected to their mouths so they would “shoot” a blowgun from a 90 degree angle if we go with “real” insect structures.

    Possible talents:

    Double Jointed [Racial, Skill]
    You are able to arrange your limbs in a way that you can fit into extremely tight spaces.
    Requirement: Sama; OR Acrobatics and 3 Ranks in Athletics
    Benefit: When in a space smaller than is typically necessary of a creature of your size type, you may treat your size to be one size catgory smaller. For example, you will no longer grant Tactical Edge, and you can now enter areas two size categories smaller than yourself.

    Photographic Memory [Racial, Skill]
    You have the ability to memorize exact details of things that you have seen, and can recall that knowledge with little effort.
    Requirement: Sama OR Logic 7
    Benefit: You gain a bonus equal to your Hero Tier to all Knowledge: Recall Facts Action Skill Rolls made to remember things that you have seen or read. For example, you can use this ability to recall information from a scene or from a book, but not what was spoken to you.

    Alien Mind [Racial]
    Your outlook on life and motivations simply cannot be understood by those not of your race.
    Requirement: Sama
    Benefit: You gain a +2 to your Discipline Defence against all spells from the Control Tradition, as well as against any Empathy or Persuasion Action Skill Rolls meant to read your emotions or persuade you to do something you do not wish to do.

    December 17, 2013 at 8:12 pm #253598
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    A quick note on the Sama write-up. The Sama are asexual and can reproduce without a mate. On earth, animals that can do this generally only do this when no mate can be found. (This promotes the mixing-up of the gene pool and prevents “cloning” of the parent, generation after generation.) If it’s not too late, I’d suggest modifying the paragraph about their reproduction to make mention of a mate to fertilize the eggs, if one is available. And that if not, the eggs will mature without any genetic material from a second parent.

    Next: For Double Jointed, the “or” part of the requirement should be made unambiguous. i.e. Is it: A & (B | C) or is it (A | B) & C ?

    Other questions before I try to come up with some crunch…

    From what I can tell, the Sama (unlike the Hunai) should be allowed to take many of the existing backgrounds. Is that accurate?

    We know from the write-up that the sama spend 10-12 years in adolescence. How long until they reach adolescence? (This would be important for the minimum age requirement in any new backgrounds.)

    If the parent lays the egg and leaves, How do the Sama learn basic skills as a child? (I’m willing to just gloss that over if I’m getting too far into detail. But I was thinking about languages. And I was picturing pre-adolescent Sama walking into the first city and learning how to speak by picking up bits and pieces from whatever language they happened to hear at the time. That would lead to a mish-mash language mixing all sorts of grammatical rules until they realized that elements A, B & C belong to Low Coryani and D, E & F belong to Low Khitani, etc.)

    Do the Sama have any presence outside of the First City? (I wonder if any of them should have Khitani backgrounds, or even backgrounds reminiscent of Dwarven or Elorii societies?)

    That’s probably enough for the questions for now.

    Thanks,
    Scott

    December 17, 2013 at 9:47 pm #253611
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    I have a Sama write-up that I hope to post tonight. PC Sama are adolescents, which is reached in a few months after hatching. The adults are just boring and settled down and dont adventure.

    I had a “squeezing” Talent, but like Cody’s better. I will post as soon as I get off work.

    December 19, 2013 at 4:59 pm #253789
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    Need to wake brain up, so. . .

    The Sama

    Attributes: Logic, Quickness
    Skills: Any Knowledge specialization and Ranged (Thrown)
    – Sama are considered Small creatures, thereby gaining a +1 to Avoidance, a -1 to Fortitude, -5 Stamina, and the Small Flaw.
    – Other races find Insectoid creatures frustratingly difficult to read, thus Sama gaina +2 to their Discipline Defence against Empathy: Read Someone and Empathy: Discern Intentions Action Skill Rolls.
    – Sama gain an additional +1 to the Discipline Defence.
    – Sama are able to learn Thaumaturgy, but are incapable of learning (at this time) Eldritch, Primal, Psionic, and Theurgy.
    Talents: Any one Racial or Skill Talent, one other bonus talent (selected when Talents are chosen)
    Automatic Language: Sama, Native nation.

    December 19, 2013 at 5:31 pm #253791
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    I like it. However I have one suggestion. I don’t see how the extra bonus to Avoidance is justified, given the write-up. However, it does say that they make excellent use of ranged weapons. I’d like to suggest granting a +1 to attack rolls with ranged weapons instead of the +1 to avoidance. (I think we should exclude ranged spells for balance reasons, but I’d like to open this up for debate.)

    thoughts?

    Scott

    December 19, 2013 at 7:00 pm #253792
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    As the fluff implies that they have a very thin carapace, I figured they’d have negligible Natural AR, so that typically means they get a boost to one of the defences. I thought that Avoidance would be appropriate due to their small size, but I’m perfectly willing to have the +1 to a Defence being to Discipline instead (owing to their wonderful minds and such).

    As to the +1 to Ranged attack rolls, I think we should give them choice of skills instead, saying (for example):

    Skills: Ranged (Thrown) and any Knowledge Skill.

    This is more consistent with the usual format.

    December 19, 2013 at 9:19 pm #253821
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    I will be posting my take momentarily. I like the bonus to being “Read” due to being a insectoid race and added that. However, you get into problems changing sizes from Medium (namely, using weapon sizes, etc). “Small creatures” are like small house dogs, cats, etc. The Sama are smaller, but not that small.

    December 19, 2013 at 9:25 pm #253824
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    Additionally, I would not go with the Disciline bump. I am debating between Avoidance (due to smaller size) and Fortitude. These are adolescent Sama, not the adults that have learned self control.

    December 19, 2013 at 9:48 pm #253828
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    [Shrug] I made them Small due to the fact they were described as 2.5 to 3′ tall, which would put them (in my eyes) about the size of a decent sized dog. I still think the Small Flaw may have to be mandatory for them, however.

    For defence, I’d go with Avoidance. Fortitude just doesn’t ‘fit’ with me for some reason.

    December 19, 2013 at 9:55 pm #253830
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    Here is my view: (I know we were going with 1 set of rules that got updated, but Cody ansd I were going 2 different ways with these guys.

    Sama Racial Traits
    Attributes: Logic/Vigor
    Skills: Perception and either one Lore skill or Ranged (Thrown)
    Talents: Any 1 Racial Talent and any 1 Skill Talent
    All Sama gain a bonus equal to their passive Vigor to resist being Shoved or Knocked Prone.
    Sama receive +1 to their Avoidance Defense.
    Other races find Insectoid creatures difficult to read, thus Sama gain a +2 to their Discipline Defence against Empathy:Read Someone and Empathy Discern Intentions Action Skill Rolls
    All Sama gain the Alien Mind Quality
    Sama may not be Divine Casters or posses Devout Talents
    Automatic Languages: Sama(?) and either Low Coryani or Low Khitani
    Special: All Sama must choose one of the following Flaws: Weak Willed, Bloodthirsty, Addicted, Impatient or Contrarian. They do not receive a bonus Talent for this Flaw.

    Sama Racial Talents

    Double Jointed [Racial, Skill]
    You are able to arrange your limbs in a way that you can fit into extremely tight spaces.
    Requirement: Sama; OR Acrobatics and 3 Ranks in Athletics
    Benefit: When in a space smaller than is typically necessary of a creature of your size type, you may treat your size to be one size catgory smaller. For example, you will no longer grant Tactical Edge, and you can now enter areas two size categories smaller than yourself.

    Serrated Mandibles [Racial]
    You have developed powerful mandibles, giving you an effective bite attack.
    Requirements:Sama or other insectoid Race
    Benefit: You gain an unarmed bite attack (Speed 3, d4 (Mi), which may be used in a grapple. Your bite can produce either piercing or slashing damage. If used to slash, your mandibles possess the Serrated quality. (A serrated weapon grants the wielder a +1 bonus to Intimidate Action Skill Rolls if the weapon is openly displayed. A serrated weapon inflicts more damage that a normal weapon of the same type, but has a tendency to snag on bone and armor. As a consequence, all serrated weapons inflict +1 damage with a successful attack, but suffer an additional +1 Recovery to all melee Martial Techniques used with that weapon.)

    Faceted Eyes [Racial]
    You have a highly evolved set of multi-faceted eyes that let you perceive things in ways that are impossible to other Races
    Requirements: Sama or other insectoid races
    Benefit: By Tier:
    Tier 1: You may see perfectly in non-magical darkness out to a range of 30′. You also see double normal distances under a night sky.
    Tier 2: You have become adept at perceiving and reacting to movement. As long as you are not Blinded or in magical Darkness, others do not gain Tactical Edge for flanking you.
    Tier 3: You may now see the heat patterns of other living things. As such, you may see heat patterns through both magical and non-magical darkness and other vision impairing effects (such as a heavy fog). You may now use the Tier 2 level of this Talent in magical Darkness.

    December 19, 2013 at 9:59 pm #253831
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    I think the Small Flaw could certainly be appropriate. If we go with mine, I think it could be added in, but they should get some compensatory Talent/Ability. The Flaws I put in were to reflect their “wild” nature, while offsetting the Alien Mind and other qualities.

    December 20, 2013 at 12:37 am #253846
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    Hey, you have WAY more seniority than I in this little group, Mr. Matt. I am perfectly fine with deferring to your post \";)\"

    Sama Racial Traits
    Attributes: Logic/Vigor
    Skills: Perception and either one Lore skill or Ranged (Thrown)
    Talents: Any 1 Racial Talent and any 1 Skill Talent
    All Sama gain a bonus equal to their passive Vigor to resist being Shoved or Knocked Prone.
    Sama receive +1 to their Avoidance Defense.
    Other races find Insectoid creatures difficult to read, thus Sama gain a +2 to their Discipline Defence against Empathy:Read Someone and Empathy Discern Intentions Action Skill Rolls
    All Sama gain the Alien Mind Quality
    Sama may not be Divine Casters or posses Devout Talents
    Automatic Languages: Sama(?) and either Low Coryani or Low Khitani
    Special: All Sama must choose one of the following Flaws: Weak Willed, Bloodthirsty, Addicted, Impatient or Contrarian. They do not receive a bonus Talent for this Flaw.

    I do not understand the “Addicted” flaw as one of these choices as to me it doesn’t fit the characters. I would personally replace it with the Small flaw. The other ones I’m down with.

    If they may cast Thaumaturgy, you should also specify they cannot cast Eldritch as the two require completely different mental psychologies. As such, they are limited to Primal and Thaumaturgy.

    Sama Racial Talents

    Double Jointed [Racial, Skill]
    You are able to arrange your limbs in a way that you can fit into extremely tight spaces.
    Requirement: Sama; OR Acrobatics and 3 Ranks in Athletics
    Benefit: When in a space smaller than is typically necessary of a creature of your size type, you may treat your size to be one size catgory smaller. For example, you will no longer grant Tactical Edge, and you can now enter areas two size categories smaller than yourself.

    Serrated Mandibles [Racial]
    You have developed powerful mandibles, giving you an effective bite attack.
    Requirements:Sama or other insectoid Race
    Benefit: You gain an unarmed bite attack (Speed 3, d4 (Mi), which may be used in a grapple. Your bite can produce either piercing or slashing damage. If used to slash, your mandibles possess the Serrated quality. (A serrated weapon grants the wielder a +1 bonus to Intimidate Action Skill Rolls if the weapon is openly displayed. A serrated weapon inflicts more damage that a normal weapon of the same type, but has a tendency to snag on bone and armor. As a consequence, all serrated weapons inflict +1 damage with a successful attack, but suffer an additional +1 Recovery to all melee Martial Techniques used with that weapon.)

    Faceted Eyes [Racial]
    You have a highly evolved set of multi-faceted eyes that let you perceive things in ways that are impossible to other Races
    Requirements: Sama or other insectoid races
    Benefit: By Tier:
    Tier 1: You may see perfectly in non-magical darkness out to a range of 30′. You also see double normal distances under a night sky.
    Tier 2: You have become adept at perceiving and reacting to movement. As long as you are not Blinded or in magical Darkness, others do not gain Tactical Edge for flanking you.
    Tier 3: You may now see the heat patterns of other living things. As such, you may see heat patterns through both magical and non-magical darkness and other vision impairing effects (such as a heavy fog). You may now use the Tier 2 level of this Talent in magical Darkness.

    I’m not sure if perfectly fits what multifaceted eyes do in nature, but for simplicity of rules I’m down Doesn’t feel ENTIRELY a good fit, and I’d prefer more akin to Owl Eyed, but I digress. Tier II is sweet and makes sense from a biology perspective. Tier III is also good, and has biological precedents as many insects can see either side of the visual spectrum (ie: bees can see UV light).

    December 20, 2013 at 1:29 am #253847
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    Hey, you have WAY more seniority than I in this little group, Mr. Matt. I am perfectly fine with deferring to your post \";)\"

    Sama Racial Traits
    Attributes: Logic/Vigor
    Skills: Perception and either one Lore skill or Ranged (Thrown)
    Talents: Any 1 Racial Talent and any 1 Skill Talent
    All Sama gain a bonus equal to their passive Vigor to resist being Shoved or Knocked Prone.
    Sama receive +1 to their Avoidance Defense.
    Other races find Insectoid creatures difficult to read, thus Sama gain a +2 to their Discipline Defence against Empathy:Read Someone and Empathy Discern Intentions Action Skill Rolls
    All Sama gain the Alien Mind Quality
    Sama may not be Divine Casters or posses Devout Talents
    Automatic Languages: Sama(?) and either Low Coryani or Low Khitani
    Special: All Sama must choose one of the following Flaws: Weak Willed, Bloodthirsty, Addicted, Impatient or Contrarian. They do not receive a bonus Talent for this Flaw.

    I do not understand the “Addicted” flaw as one of these choices as to me it doesn’t fit the characters. I would personally replace it with the Small flaw. The other ones I’m down with.

    No such thing as seniority, Cody. I just saw your vision of the race lending to a lot of stealthy, high-avoidance ninja types (whether intended or not) and this was my take on it. (I did blatantly steal your resistance to Empathy and Double-Joinnted Talent because, frankly, they were better than what I had.)

    As to the Addicted Flaw, my impression is that young Sama are like Amish kids on their rumshpringa. Living in Amish country, I have seen Amish kids getting tanked and feeling each other up in bars. (Kinda weird, given they generally were still wearing their usual garb). As such, I saw the Sama being pretty out of control in several possible ways. One of which could be using drugs to the point of Addiction. Small would be something we need to consider due to basic physical make-up. All the ones I listed (didn’t want to pigeon-hole, so listed a bunch of appropriate ones) are due to their volatile, adolescent nature.

    December 20, 2013 at 1:36 am #253848
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    Im fine with the Addicted flaw being included in the list. Its one possible facet of their wild nature that can take place during the Sama’s youth.

    Otherwise, I noticed that Eidetic/Photographic Memory is not included in this latest writeup. Are we dropping that from the Sama entirely? Perhaps if we are going to make Small a flaw that must be taken, we can include this ability back in as somewhat of a counterbalance.

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