S&V Xenos: Vespen – Dark Dwelling Survivors

Vespen are short humanoids with wide ears, narrow nostril slits, and a wide toothy mouth, their skin tone and hair range from white to dark brown.

The planet Vesper is shrouded in clouds and eternal dusk, thus did the Vespen develop with keen senses to compensate and an instinct for survival that is practically unrivaled. A Vespen’s ability to detect the slightest sound or movement borders on the supernatural. A Vespen is actually more comfortable in near darkness than in bright light and many will wear visors to adjust as needed. Their highly developed digestive system is resistant to microbes and toxins that would be fatal to many other species.

Despite a fragile appearance, Vespens have several redundant internal organs that have allowed them to continue functioning despite loss of limb or punctured vitals. Needless to say, their bedside manner and medical sciences are far different than might be encountered in most Hegemonic hospitals.

Socially, the Vespen tend to group with other Vespen and have close knit inter family units. Seldom is a lone Vespen encountered. Vespen science had barely pierced into space before encountering the Hegemony. First contact was a brutal experience for both sides. Since then, their expansion into the Hegemony has been slow, primarily as most Vespen consider the experience as a sensory nightmare. 

Common Vespen Names Abad, Arok, Bosk, Bozak, Etkhan, Gartak, Goronak, Isha, Jorek, Lahkel, Odar, Rahab, Taran, Valek, Xerkov

Vespen 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

An Acquired Taste: You can sustain yourself on materials not normally considered food and may roll +1D when resisting Harm from poisons and toxins. Meanwhile, you have little to no actual sense of taste and derive little pleasure from anything but the most instense flavours.

Keen Senses: Your vision and hearing are excellent for seeing in near darkness and picking up on very minor sounds. However, it comes as a cost in terms of you being very vulnerable to Sensory Overload.

Push for 1 Stress

Blind Sense: You may Push for 1 Stress to detect things in your surroundings that you normally could not detect, for example if in complete darkness or finding something invisible.

Push for 2 Stress

Redundant Organs: You may Push yourself for 2 Stress to reduce any physical Harm to a Level 1 Harm. You may not use this ability if you already have two Level 1 Harm.

Gain 1 Gambit When …

Sensory Overload: When encountering bright lights or loud sounds, your Crew may gain 1 Gambit when you take a Level 2 Harm: Sensory Overload. The Harm automatically is healed during Downtime.

Design notes

• Apparently for this campaign setting, I was apparently taking a lot of inspiration from the animal kingdom. Originally I was thinking about one of those nigh indestructable space species of fiction, like how Klingons and Krogans have redundant organs and Vorcha regenerate from injuries stronger than before. As I continued to brainstorm about the hellscape deathworld that would produce such a species, somehow they became bat people, or at least bat-like in appearance. Rather than taking a very obvious bat people species name like chiroptera, I went a little more obscure with vespin, derived from vespertilionidae – a family of micro bats, which in tern takes vespa from the Greek for evening.

• Culturally I took a bit more from the very social behavior of bats and as I searched for appropriate images, a ton of vampire references popped up, from Underworld to Manbat (a favorite of mine from DC’s Batman). They weren’t quite eldritch, but I wanted them to occupy a creepy place within the campaign.

• I looked to Russian names for inspiration rather than grabbing more names from individual batr species, once again tinkering slightly with spelling so that there would still be a consistent feel to the names but not a direct one to one correspondence. Early stages had me mashing up some Klingon names with Eastern European ala Dracula and it reminded me greatly of Russian. Sure enough, the first named Vespin NPC turned out to be a weapons dealer and I drew upon that classic Russian arms dealer trope.