Stars Without Number: Deonists

Deonists  a.k.a. Soul-Survivors
Lenses: Despair, Faith
Government: Theocratic
Technology Level: 5 (in decline)
Motivation: Declining (simply trying to hold off the inevitable)
     Deonists are a humanoid alien race, of pale white skin, dark reddish hair, yellow eyes and of a spindly and gaunt form. In ages past the Deonists' homeworld; Deo was known as "Templeworld" and was the religious center of a confederation of planets. "Templeworld" was not only the center of the confederation but it was the location of their greatest treasures. According to Deonists Doctrine their greatest treasure was "The One Above All" an extremely powerful being of vast psychic power. They apparently worshipped him as their god and in exchange he supplied them with the psychic energy needed to maintain their planets delicate biosphere and their powerplants. The Scream changed all of that, The Deonists' relied heavily on Psi-Tech to not only maintain their planet's biosphere and technology but to travel to the stars. The confederation collapsed, most Deonists went mad, or were killed in the Scream's aftermath, a few managed to survive on their homeworld, using their powerful technology to hold back the darkness. It is at some point during this time that "The One Above All" sacrificed itself to shield the remaining Deonists from the chaos engulfing the galaxy. The Deonists survived off of this beings energy for quite some time, but eventually the entity's energies were depleted. They now seek to find powerful psychics to fuel their dying (75% of the planet is desert wasteland) planet's energy. No psychic found today has come even remotely close to matching "The Once Above All's" power, so they require a steady stream of victims, just to survive. It is for this reason that the world of Deo is now known as "The Doomsday Star". Deonists use their remaining hi-tech to recruit raiders and others to kidnap and bring to their world powerful psychics, dubbed "gods" by the Deonists, that are then used (against their will) as fuel for their dying society. In the centuries since The Scream, the Deonists could have worked to change their technology to run on different energies, but that would be contrary to their beliefs and society. While still advanced by other races standards, the Deonists have made no new technological strides since ages before The Scream. It is believed that there are now only 200 or so Deonists left on their homeworld, they have dubbed themselves the Soul-Survivors, with a select few scouring the stars for new "gods" to feed their essence to maintain their world's dwindling energies.

Deonists roll 2d6+3 for Strength and Constitution, 2d6+6 for Intelligence and Wisdom, Charisma and Dexterity are rolled normally.
Detached: Deonists XP requirements to increase in level are 10% greater than normal.
At GM discretion may start with some TL: 5 weapons and gear.

Adapted from Marvel Comics, no copyright infringement is intended. First Appearance: Thor #261.

Stars Without Number: Aakon

     I know some folks don't care for their space aliens to be basically just humans with weird skin colors, or humans in rubber suits.  I guess I'm different in that I'm cool with that.  I'm sure growing up on Star Trek TOS had something to do with that and for me the Star Wars Cantina scene was enough to give me a Nerdgasm!  Anyways, many of you know that I'm a big fan of the Stars Without Number RPG, one thing I'd like to see done for the setting/rules is more aliens.  As time permits I'll try to post some on my blog for your amusement and use. I've done a couple already the Centaurians and the Woogatu. If you use any of these please let me know, would love to hear how they do in play. 

Aakon

Lenses: Domination, Pride
Government: Oligarchic: Ruled by a council of elders made up of retired generals.
Technology Level: 4
Motivation: Militaristic

     The Aakon are a humanoid alien race. They are large (average 6') heavily muscled and stout (coming from a world with higher gravity than Earth). They have lemon yellow skin, dark hair (varies from dark blue, black and a few with a dark green tint), slits for a nose, and white pupil-less eyes. In most other respects they are quite similar to humans, although the two species are not able to interbreed with one another. Also of note is the low birth rate amongst the Aakon species, this and their militaristic tendencies have kept their population relatively low especially when compared to other similarly technologically advanced species.        
     Originally hailing from the planet Oorga, the Aakon arrogantly considered themselves to be the dominant life form in the galaxy. They carved out a "Dominion" in the systems surrounding their homeworld. Then they encountered the Terrans. The human's mastery of psychic abilities and Psitech was completely beyond the capabilities of the Aakon who possessed no psychic talent, and were thus no match for the humans. While the Aakon's considered themselves to be "at War" with the Terran Mandate, in truth they were nothing more than a nuisance to this much larger more advanced civilization. The Terran Mandate casually swatted the Aakon aside like an annoying gnat. The Aakon's war with the humans served only to reduce their own population's numbers. Human colonists spread across the Aakon Dominion, and the Aakon were driven back to their home system, that the Terrans either didn't want or couldn't be bothered with. Then came The Scream, the Terran Mandate was brought to its knees. The Aakon however, were not so heavily impacted by this event, having no psychics amongst their species, and relying on their up and coming Spike Drive technology (much of it stolen and reverse engineered from captured human colony ships). They were left mostly unscathed by this otherwise disastrous event. The Aakon slowly began to make their move to dominate the Galaxy! Battling other aliens, the frontier world humans, pirates, as well as, each other, the Aakon have used the time since The Scream to advance their technology, increase their drastically diminished numbers and slowly spread their area of influence, it took them some time to realize the Scream had even occurred, at least on the massive scale that it had. Many of their scientists and leaders still don't accept the fact that it affected the entire Terran Mandate, but they are now on the move, They have slowly retaken many of their worlds previously lost to the humans (retaken meaning  in most cases having only a small fortified outpost on said planet) and being a prideful race are still resentful of the way the Terran Mandate "humiliated" them in the distant past, they see all humans today as the same and their pride demands these humans make amends for the past. Aakon scouts scour worlds and systems looking for lost tech that they hope to reverse engineer, signs of the Terran Mandate, and suitable worlds to dominate, they have learned caution and stealth have their place in warfare, and are even believed to have ties with the Shadow Consortium.
Aakon PC's
Aakon must have a score of 14 in either their strength or constitution attrubute.
Aakon have no known Psychic ability, PC Aakon cannot choose the Psychic class.

Adapted from Marvel Comics, I tweaked them slightly to fit in with the Stars Without Number Campaign Setting.  The Aakon first appeared in Captain Marvel Vol. 1 #8.  No copyright infringement is intended.

Stars Without Number: New Edition Coming in September!

Here is the new cover of the new edition of Stars Without Number RPG that will be released by Mongoose Publishing this September. According to the author this version will have 40 pages of new content, rules for Robot PC's will be in this edition!  The lack of robots was one element that I felt was missing from the current edition of the rules, so their inclusion is a welcome addition to an already great game!  The current version is still FREE in pdf!  And apparently will remain free after this new version is published.  If your into Sci Fi, and a fan of the Basic D&D mechanic with a healthy dose of Traveller thrown in, I highly recommend you check it out!
Good Gaming - B.

Happy 4th of July! ; Simian Saturday Style!

Hope everyone has a Great 4th of July weekend!