Men & Magic & Castes

Happy Friday boon companions, here is another sneak peak at STARCRAWL for your consideration:

MEN & MAGIC & CASTES In this STARCRAWL BASIC System, there are three groupings of classes or CASTES; human caste, humanoid caste, inhuman caste.

Humans are the most widespread of all known races. Their mercurial adaptability, rough and ready toughness, sharp and biting cunning, and fanatical courage have led them to settle most of known space, therefore most characters in a given campaign will belong to one of the human classes.  The core human classes described in these rules are the Fighter, Mage, Cleric, Rogue, Cyborg, Psyker, Machinist, and Freelancer.  Human caste characters gain two bonus proficiencies.

Human Fighter, Psyker, Thief, and Cleric

Compared to humans, humanoids, also known as demi-humans, are rare and generally more specialized than the Sons of Adam and Daughters of Eve.  Demi-human classes are defined more by their race than their training.  The basic humanoid classes described in these rules are the Khazadil Vault-Guardian, Aeldari Spellsword, Hobbesling Sneak-Scout, Mandroid Exoframe, Abhuman Mutoid, Entwifin Amazon, Beorling Panzerborn, and Sylvanir Ranger.  Humanoid caste characters gain one bonus proficiencies.

Sylvanir Ranger

Beorling Panzerborn

Finally, inhumans or xenoi are the true alien outsiders, belonging neither to the teeming masses of the human sphere, nor the ancient and cryptic alliances of the demi-humans of Valinor Space.  As scions of previous aeonic cycles of creation and destruction, outside of the known causal chain and composed of mysterious variant pseudomatter and protoenergy, such inhuman xenoi are most strange and highly divergent in mind, body, and spirit from human norms, having little in common with the Children of Adam.  The basic inhuman classes described in these rules are; the Kthanid Mastermind, Draugyr Flayer, Urukim Freebooter, Dvergar Grey-Face, Mantid Kreenoid, Khai Hunter, Yuggothim Scientist, and Gnophkhim Centacorn.  Inhuman characters start with the default number of proficiencies.

Urukim Freebooter

Yuggothim Scientist

Star Crawl Basic

Still working on things, as time and employment and life permits.  As I get words on page, a voice starts to emerge, just to give a sample:

CREATING A CHARACTER Listen up you primitive screw-heads!  My designation is Drill-Kommisar Zim, but as far you xombies are concerned, my first name is 'Drill' and my last name 'Kommisar'.  You’ve taken the first step on the big-damn adventure your lying recruiters sold you, void-dogs, but you are all still 0th level humanoids to me! Don’t despair maggots, because you WILL graduate to 1st level when you decant your first character from the spawning tank and progress, or you WILL die messily trying! To create a character, follow the twelve step program below, that is, if you degenerate space-monkeys can count that high:

I'm considering splitting the project into a rules-set, 'Star Crawl Basic' and a setting gazetteer, 'Star Crusades Chronicle'.  Obviously, if I don't go mad before then, at some point this would be followed up with 'Star Crawl Expanded' or something like that.

Anyway how about some pics.  Humanoids, also known as 'demi-humans' are the human-related peoples hailing from Valinor Space.  Just how and why the Humanoids and Humans are so closely related so as to be able to breed amongst themselves remains a mystery, some radical scholars suggest that this relation points to common origins lost to the mists of time.

A Khazadi Vault Guardian and his retainers.  Khazadi are vanishingly rare outside of their high gravity fortress vaults, buried under mountains, but occasionally, a young Vault Guardian may be seen progressing on his coming of age journey, unable to return home and take up his birthright without a 'fortune' recovered from the wilds. 

Hobbesling Footpads are prized by human-sphere mercenary groups as scouts, infiltrators, snipers, and expert light infantry.

Mandroid Exoframes are often confused for Human Cyborgs, which in general is good for most Mandroids, because if the common people understood Mandroids to be Noospheric Uploads of Human Minds living as Machine Spiritis in prosthetic bodies, angry mobs would ensue.

Aeldari Spellswords often serve as functional ambassadors for their kind in the human sphere as these outcasts often end up working as mercenaries and pirates.  No one said good ambassadors.