Question regarding races...

[LoAmi 0]

What? Then how the heck did we land up with that part kitty thing Daena??

 

J/K

I know that you're kidding, but I want to point out that Daena's bio is a good example of how I like to see new race bios. It describes personal information, the race in quite a bit of detail, and justifies her place as a Starfleet officer by stating that the planet joined the Federation.

[Greg Nirvana 0]

Probably not.

 

Now that i think about it, they most likely are. But the problem is they're just germs in your blood stream, so you wouldn't be able to venture far with that.

[Dumbass 0]

And let's not forget Mr. Hard, the Horta. Sure, it was an established race (ref: TOS "Devil in the Dark"), however nothing was fleshed out about the Horta in the episode. Other than they eat rock, are silicon-based, are fearful of strangers/protective of their eggs, and all die off, except one female to protect the Vault of Tomorrow.

 

That and they look like burnt lasagna.

[Grom 0]

Then there are boring people like me who still get a thrill out of playing a human. :P

[Kansas_Jones 0]

And then there is always the "I don't have much information, let me wing it" angle with regard to a character; again, we need to be careful not to do anything really out there.

 

The information for Caitians is pretty general - they come from a tropical/flat plains planet and are large cats. There are only three "official" publications - one put out by FASA (1970's, revised 1980's), and Worlds of the Federation (1989) - that have Cait info regarding the planet location, a little culture, etc. Decipher put out a more recent role play publication (early 2000s), but the Caitians are now Regulans it would seem, and there are minor changes to what FASA and Worlds did.

 

I consider myself lucky regarding the amount of official (no matter how sparse) information that is out there for the Caits, but I still "wing it" with regard to RPing as the JoNs Kitties.

 

One cool thing is while they have absolutely no exposure film (one quick appearance in Trek 4: the Voyage Home) wise, the Caitians do show up in the fiction novels - most recently in the "Titan" novels (Lt. Riarr) and the Harbinger novel "Reap the Whirlwind" (Lt. Niwara). Rock on authors.

[Aidan Driscol 0]

And then there is always the "I don't have much information, let me wing it" angle with regard to a character; again, we need to be careful not to do anything really out there.

 

It works for you because we know the Caitans are part of the Federation, but a completely unknown race would be a tad different. Having said that, I would also like to add that you do a great job at "being different". You always make clear how JoNs is different by making ears and tail part of the character and when JoNs is in a bad mood she goes around stalking on all fours.

 

But with regards to culture and such just winging it would be difficult for a race that's newly invented. You will just end up saying one thing one week and contracdicting yourself the next. It would help the player as well as everybody who interacts with them to have something to stick to in regards to history and culture. Even if, at first, it's just a brief outline.

[Dox Maturin 0]

I thought I'd add a comment to this. The first thing I would do is check with your CO. Some sims allow noncanon races, others require only canon races. This is usually done to prevent a weird dinosaur/Pokemon/invisible-vine race or something completely ridiculous. Thus, expect to get your race approved beforehand.

 

When creating your race, you are going to want to add a lot of detail. This can be done over time, but remember that you are not just creating a character but an entire species. That is quite an undertaking. You not only have to focus on your individual character development, personality, history, family, but also the physiology, history, politics, etc of an entire race of people on a planet or planets. How has the race interacted with other warp capable races over the thousands of year history? How have they evolved, how do they cohabitate with other species on their planet? What language do they use? What is their popular religion?

 

Of course, this is unlikely to happen overnight and you should feel free to slowly add more depth as you play your character. This means you'll be developing both a single character and an entire race as you sim. That can be quite a lot of fun! However with the depth involved, do not expect to have a fully fleshed out race for several years, since you'll be spending most of your time digging into the plot of the sim rather than hashing out your character and his species background. When developing your character, don't forget that it is the sim and the storyline that all the players are involved in that is the priority. Keep this in mind when creating your race, as the most important part is that it allows you to sim.

 

One thing to consider when creating a new race though is how to make it simple and straightforward to get across the major attributes of your character. For example, if you have a species with an unusual physiology, start thinking of familiar animals/plants/things that people can relate to in order to get a general idea of what your character looks like. Most players aren't going to read a 15-20 page biography, so they need to get all the information necessary to successfully interact with your character in a quick paragraph. Ideally, you should come up with a great one-liner (a short sentence) that successfully describes the essential look of your race. Simply, folks are going to forget fine details, and new crewmembers will have trouble relating. So having a quick phrase to help them recognize what your character is will be a huge help. This is where an easily recognized thing that can be associated with your race comes in handy. If your character floats around instead of walking and has two heads that alternate speaking for a single brain, these are essential elements that needs to be incorporated into your phrase.

 

Keep in mind also that you need to incorporate physiology into your race that allows it to, somehow, interact with the stations on a ship and perform duties. It can be done so in a unique way, but remember to work within the limitations you give yourself.

 

My key tips: Simplicity, consistency, depth. Pictures help, too.

 

Good luck!

[will_marx 0]

One cool thing is while they have absolutely no exposure film (one quick appearance in Trek 4: the Voyage Home) wise, the Caitians do show up in the fiction novels - most recently in the "Titan" novels (Lt. Riarr) and the Harbinger novel "Reap the Whirlwind" (Lt. Niwara). Rock on authors.

 

Oh dear, Kansas. You forgot M'Ress in TAS for screen time. Granted, there was no background information whatsoever. She also reappeared in the DC comics. And, at one point, had severe crush on Sulu; to the point where in one of the graphic novels (which I don't have anymore), while the ship was turned into Dante's trip into Hades, she was almost consigned to the Lustful by Minos.

 

But, yeah, what Dox said as well.

[Greg Nirvana 0]

I consider myself lucky regarding the amount of official (no matter how sparse) information that is out there for the Caits, but I still "wing it" with regard to RPing as the JoNs Kitties.

 

I think you're forgetting M'Ress, that cat lady in TAS. I was bored on Memory Alpha and i saw that.

 

EDIT: Lawl, didn't see will's post.

Edited July 31, 2007 by Greg Nirvana

[Kansas_Jones 0]

Oh dear, Kansas. You forgot M'Ress in TAS for screen time. Granted, there was no background information whatsoever. She also reappeared in the DC comics. And, at one point, had severe crush on Sulu; to the point where in one of the graphic novels (which I don't have anymore), while the ship was turned into Dante's trip into Hades, she was almost consigned to the Lustful by Minos.

 

But, yeah, what Dox said as well.

 

 

I think you're forgetting M'Ress, that cat lady in TAS. I was bored on Memory Alpha and i saw that.

 

Yikes! No mention of MRess was totally unintentional. She's the Grand Pooh Bah of Caitians!

[will_marx 0]

Yikes! No mention of MRess was totally unintentional. She's the Grand Pooh Bah of Caitians!

 

Be that as it may...Bad Kitty! No more catnip for you for awhile, :)

[Kansas_Jones 0]

Be that as it may...Bad Kitty! No more catnip for you for awhile, :)

 

Pffhhhttt! ;-)

 

This is a little off topic, but within the same area: the series "Firefly" never employed any races, it focused totally on humans, period. I had read somewhere that Joss Whedon (creator) didn't want to go the "Trek" and "Wars" route (my interpretation of what he said) with aliens and such.

 

When you think about it though - has there been a sci fi show in recent memory that didn't have some kind of aliens with orange skin or ripples on their forehead?

[Greg Nirvana 0]

Pffhhhttt! ;-)

 

This is a little off topic, but within the same area: the series "Firefly" never employed any races, it focused totally on humans, period. I had read somewhere that Joss Whedon (creator) didn't want to go the "Trek" and "Wars" route (my interpretation of what he said) with aliens and such.

 

When you think about it though - has there been a sci fi show in recent memory that didn't have some kind of aliens with orange skin or ripples on their forehead?

The Matrix?

 

Those aren't aliens, just robots.

 

Timecop?

[STSF_BluRox 0]

Be that as it may...Bad Kitty! No more catnip for you for awhile, :)

 

How very un-Federation of you, you'd have thought you people were past these types of derogatory sterotypes. Please do not refer to us as cats, pets or my little kitty. And we will not refer to you all as chimp, monkey or baboon.

 

Blu

[Dox Maturin 0]

How very un-Federation of you, you'd have thought you people were past these types of derogatory sterotypes. Please do not refer to us as cats, pets or my little kitty. And we will not refer to you all as chimp, monkey or baboon.

 

Blu

 

Cat fight!

[Cptn Corizon 0]

::Snickers at the Cats, and wiggling his ears::

 

 

Anyway, as a note on unconventional but canon species. I played for a number of games on Arcadia as an Elasian (from Elaan of Troyius) and found it to be rather rewarding as I had pretty much free reign (thank you Moose et al) to develop both the character and species.

 

Also, on Republic I played an Arzaban, which only got mention once on an obscure DS9 episode, and then as well I had the opportunity to develop a race and a character all at once.

 

Someone brought up the Dameon earlier, and I suppose as their creator I should chime in. They were first dreamed up a while back when I was creating a character for Reaent back a few years ago, and began playing as Sheng-ji Marish. When I was developing a character for Excalibur I decided to make that character a Dameon as well because I had enjoyed playing the species.

 

As for the Al-Ucard, another of my creations, Victria originally featured as a Guest Character in a Excalibur plot and eventually became a full crew member, and the species owes a lot to her player.

 

I suppose my general thought it that its fun to play new species or species we don't know a lot about because it gives you a lot of freedom, but having done it several times myself, I would suggest novice players focus more on getting the mechanics of character development down before taking on an entire species.