S&V Xenos: Norsicans – Zen Lizard Mutants

Norsicans are one of the few xenos to encounter the Hegemonic Alliance as a fellow space faring species. It is believed that they originated in the Altair system, but by the time they encountered the Hegemony, they had already spread across several systems by way of the Jump Gates. Though of comparable levels of scientific achievement in many fields to the Hegemony, the Norsicans possessed many advances in biological engineering siezed upon by the Makers Guild.

Norsicans can stand up to an impressive 3 meters in height, with long reaching arms, retractable claws, and a lengthy non-prehensile tail. Their scales range from deep greens to light greens to shades of yellow on their abdomens. Mutations are rare but include blue scales, additional eyes, and additional fingers.

Despite a fearsome appearance and primarily carnivorous diet, Norsicans have enjoyed many centuries of a peaceful society. Their history books tell of an Era of Destruction that was followed by an Era of Solitude before their current Era of Intellect, an enlightened age of discovery and exploration that continues to this day. The mutations are seen as a touch of the Ancient Gods that mark an individual for greatness. The Norsicans view their religion and science as two sides of the same pursuit of understanding the unfolding of the universe. 

• Norsicans are generally solitary, even amongst their close family ties.
• The langauge of the Norsicans is almost entirely lacking in labial sounds, focusing more on aspirant and frictive elements.

Common Norsican Names Al’tan, Haa’san, Ha’tu, Cha’ghati, Chi’neg, Kho’no, Del’gher, Ghan’hat, Jar’ghal, Khal’nun, Nonkh, Non’khat, Or’ghana, Sel’enge, Tug’slar, Shan’shin, Yeke

Norscian Special Abilities

Note – These are intended to be used as something in addition to Playbook abilities, enhancing a character like a Background, adding an extra die for Actions where appropriate or Pushing for special outcomes or increasing the effect.

0 Stress

Acute Vision: You have excellent vision and can see further than the average human and are gifted at noticing small features.

Push for 1 Stress

Retractable Claws: Your claws can be used as Fine Weapons or as a simple Tool for obstacles like climbing, intimidation, lock picking, etc. Using them as such does not count as part of your Loadout.

Push for 2 Stress

Mutation: You are gifted with a mutation that can be used to allows you to perform extraordinary feats like an enhanced perception outside the normal senses, resistant or immune to some specific form of harm, minor channelling of energy, and so on. If you wish to have more than one mutation, each additional one will cost an extra Stress to use. You may choose your mutation after character creation.

Gain 1 Gambit When …

Alien Build: Gain 1 Gambit for your Crew when you need to use equipment designed for a regular humanoid but due to your tail and size, you are unable to use it or can only use it at penalty.

Thin Boned: When your Norscian takes a Level 1 or Level 2 Harm, you may opt to increase the Level of Harm by 1 and gain 1 or 2 Gambits respectively. Normally, weaknesses would be only worth a single Gambit, but increasing Harm is a consequence that will normally take more than one downtime to overcome.

Design notes

That’s not to say you won’t find 10-foot-tall, reptile-scaled Norsicans
at the docks moving crates with their prodigious strength, or the
occasional three-foot, furry Wrinlian engineer using their six limbs
to perform delicate adjustments inside the wiring of a Guild starbase.
– Scum & Villainy pg. 295

• Normally lizard folk are set up as primitive savages and extremely carnivorous, often portrayed as eaters of other humanoids. I wanted to go the other route and eventually took inspiration from iguanas. I kept the height but down played the strength, working towards exotic and mystic as key words.

• I briefly looked at the classic sleestaks from Land of the Lost and thought it would be cool to work in some crystals as their tech (also see Dr. Dinosaur in Atomic Robo) but I wound up closer to the Yilane of Harry Harrison’s West of Eden.

• The mutation is a wild card, inspired by trying to randomly generate tech bearing space lizards and there were little details like extra nostrils or extra eyes (woo hoo! pineal glands evolved into third eyes!).

• I’m going to lean hard into the Alien Build as a default for most of the xenos. It’s simple and as with all of these, optional.

• For common names, I went throgh a bunch of regular English names but tried to say them without closing my lips. Hissing names are also a really common trope so I went into more ‘T’ and ‘K’ sounds that also allowed them to bare their sharp teeth and unnerve other xenos.