Friday, April 10, 2015

GURPS Savage Space: Revisiting the Kokatik

As I continue my renewed obsession with GURPS, time to revisit the Kokatik from last year, this time statted out for GURPS Space. The kokatik are an aquatic species that is a significant rival of the Commonwealth of worlds, and its anthropomorphed cephalopod citizens are very suspicious of land-dwelling aliens.

Kokatik exploring Gamma Polaris
The Kokatik

Located rimward, toward the edge of known space and out toward the edge of the Milky Way, the kokatik have been exploring space and slowly colonizing worlds for nearly two thousand years. They are a species of amphibious beings, coming from their gaseous waterworld once in the Kunares star system that was once designated KOI-314c by humans. The kokatik are a hearty species that has adapted very well to both temperature and pressure extremes due to their warm gassy homeworld. Because of this adaptability they are able to colonize a wider range of worlds than humans can, and often find warm gaseous worlds within 1-3 Gees to be comfortable. Despite having the appearance of some sort of batrachian, the kokatik are a distinctly unique vertebrate species of something more closely resembling a cephalopod. The hardened shells of their ancestors turned into a sort of exoskeleton, which provides a web of internal support structure for high gravity and high pressure environments.

Kokatik are a slow, methodical species. They are not aggressive though they will employ deadly force if needed to resolve an issue, and they are more than capable of it, having developed some very sophisticated weaponry and maintaining an impressive stellar navy. Early contact with the kokatik, which actually took place with some anticipation due to the discovery of abandoned research stations on Gamma Polaris, revealed that the kokatik are suspicious and concerned about other species, and slow to earn trust. After contact was formally initiated and they were invited into the Federated Commonwealth more history came out and it was revealed that the kokatik had fought an extensive interstellar war early on in their spacefaring days, against an aggressor race called that fashan, a war which they won, bombing the fashan back to the stone age and quarantining their homeworld. Needless to say, the Federation Navy took note of this capability for such total salting-the-earth destruction against a declared foe.

Kokatik come off to humans as inscrutable and mistrusting, regarding other species with a persistent sense of caution.

Kokatik Alien Profile:

Kokatik are hydrocarbon-based lifeforms, so indigenous to worlds that Terrans will also find somewhat comfortable. The kokatik are perfectly at home in underwater environments. They can breathe in water environments and have a filtration system in their gill-like lungs which can filter necessary oxygen and other gasses even from more exotic liquids, but they have a secondary set of lungs that process air when out of water as well. Kokatik are still amphibious, and must remain immersed in water or other liquid with a fair amount of oxygenation for at least 1 hour per Terran standard cycle (day). Kokatik usually wear pressure suits with filtered water systems when moving about in human territory. Kokatik are also very hearty in high pressure atmospheres and very cold environments due to the deep sea environment of their home world. This adaptive advantage has given them a unique edge, including improved survival in both the bottom of the ocean and the depths of space. Finally, kokatik come off as cold, aloof and mistrusting of others, making their interaction with humans a difficult experience.

You can make a Kokatik character with the following template:

Kokatik Racial Package (57 points)
Attribute Modifiers: IQ+1 [10]

Secondary Characteristic Modifiers: Move-2 [-10]

Advantages: Amphibious [10], Doesn’t Breathe (trigger: water, common, -20%)[16], Nictitating Membrane 2 [2], Pressure Support 3 [15],  Dark Vision (can see colors) [30], Temperature Tolerance 6 (cold from -25 to 90 degrees for HT 10)[6]

Disadvantages: Dependency (water immersion, very common; daily)[-15], Intolerance -3 (all aliens)[-10], Callous [-5]

Skills: Swimming HT+3 [8]

Kokatik Explorer (sample NPC, 207 points):

Ras M’Lond, Senior Scout
Ras M’lond is a Kokatik scout who works for the Kunares Exploratory Survey Fleet, which is slowly mapping out the galaxy and paying close attention to the actions of the Commonwealth. He is at once repulsed by alien races not of the Kokatik biotype and also singularly obsessed with them, albeit in a creepy stalker-with-cameras kind of way, so he made a perfect candidate for the Exploratory Survey Fleet’s astrographic mapping initiative. His stats are based on the kokatik racial package above plus the GURPS Space Explorer template.

ST 12, DX 12, IQ 13, HT 12
HP 15, Will 12, Per 13, FP 15, Basic Speed 6, Basic Move 4
Advantages: amphibious, doesn’t breath (trigger: water, common), nictitating membrane 2, pressure support 3, dark vision (can see colors), temperature tolerance 6 (cold), danger sense, G-Experience 5
Disadvantages: dependency (water immersion, daily), intolerance -3 (all aliens), callous, loner 12-, workaholic, xenohilia 6- (loves aliens even if he doesn’t trust them)
Racial Skill: Swimming 15
Primary Skills: Cartography 13, Geography (terran worlds) 13, Navigation (sea) 15, Piloting (transitional space drive) 12, Vacc Suit 12
Secondary Skills: Biology (terran worlds) 11, Survival (desert) 13, Electronics Operation (sensor) 13
Background Skills: Computer Operation 13, First Aid 13, Swimming 12, Writing 12, Beam Weapon (rifle) 12

Protection: Kokatik Expedition Suit (works as the suit in Ultratech pg. 178, but provides a water moisturization to skin when worn; a human in this suit could drown if the settings aren’t corrected); DR 5, flexible

Armament: Blaster (Electron) Rifle (Damage 6D(5) burn, sur; ACC 10+2, ROF 3, Shots 10(3), Bulk -4, Recoil 1, Range 700/2100)

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