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My Jovian Chronicles Campaign welcomes a new player tomorrow. We met Kevin at a one shot demonstration of 4th Edition ran by our local D&D Meet Up group - “D&D Meet Up: because role-playing by yourself is the saddest shit in existence”. (Not official motto) Nice guy, but in true player fashion he’s already fucking shit up for me, the GM.

“Play whatever you want,” I offer being the creatively egalitarian yet masterful setting crafter I am. He considers for a moment, “How about an alien doctor?”

JESUS BULGING-BALLS CHRIST!, blasts through my head but trickles out as a polite, “Mmm … OK.” 

I would’ve suggested one of the alien races I have planned already, but when you’re doing an ever-expanding sandbox style setting “planned” means only existing as a concept - i.e. too lazy to have an actual write up with game stats until the story comes to them. So, I’d just end up creating another race that would reveal some of the setting’s mystery and a cunning player could just keep saying pass to learn a lot about the big players. The species I’m making is therefore of this world but far from home, helping him to fit in the exploration theme of the story.

The species has no name yet, so we’ll call them Kevinians. If he thinks up this name this lame, he’s out of the group. Despite the exotic name, they’re generally your short ever-familiar - especially if you’re a probee- grays. Big eyes, no mouth or nose, super smart/perceptive, built-out-of-Kleenex fragile witha matching complexion. Medium sized humanoids with Intelligence +4, Wisdom +2, but Strength -2 and Constitution -2.

 Another hallmark is that they can communicate telepathically, IMing your thoughts. Further, Kevinians have a keen sense of sentients around them, even primitive forms, granting the Notice skill +2 to detecting living things.

A unique touch is a photosynthesizing metabolism like a plant - I suppose instead of eating they rub mud on themselves until the nutrients soak in like they do in Haiti. As a balancing effect of this advantage, on overcast days or when removed from Corusea light for a scene they become Fatigued - even better would be if the mechanic worked like thirst or going hungry, a DC 10 + 1 per hour Fort save after a day without sun, inflicting damamge. Asexuality won’t likely come up, but creates an interesting potential as staying in a fertile soiled, humid and bright environment for several days will begin to give him pregnancy like symptoms of … uh, The Budding (ominous DUN DUN DUUUH!).   

Of course they must have KEWL SYAWNIC POWERZ. This gets interesting cause I’m sick of the Vancian magic system with powers per day of those you know, and 4th Ed. gives us a juicy MMO-like alternative. He’s - it’s - a telepath, so we’ll base this off the powers of that class in the Agents PSI chapter of D20 Modern. Power points can and will be replaced by the nifty new At Will, Encounter, and Daily power usage mechanic. Your lowest level powers are At Will, the highest level powers are Daily and all in the middle are once per Encounter accessible. 

Power selection is a bit more complex. Starting with three zero level and one first level power, you get a new power every level and the highest power level you get is half your character level rounded down - when you get a new level of power you get that extra one in addition. That’s simple enough. This is for the Telepath advanced class however, but the class has no real talents or feats like the base ability classes (Strong, Fast, etc). The Kevinian player character is going to be a Smart class of level 2, not up to the advanced Telepath standards - class warfare is ugly. 

I’m gonna take away that free power when you get a new psionic power level, but you can choose a new power from that highest tier when your class levels. Also, no Telepath class features at all, but there’s still an imbalance having psionic availability. Power success/failure use a rolling mechanic: instead of the automatic 10 + Intelligence modifier + power level for the DC, we swap the base 10 for a d20 roll. Chaos can be a motherfucker. Further, using a Daily power causes mental Fatigue (Intelligence and Charisma -2) until they have a short rest. Mental Exhaustion is also possible.  

We’ll see how the Kevinian does tomorrow. The players will have to break out of captivity with the aid of a new alien ally, unless they kill him first. As GM, I’m willing to risk it.  

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