MERS: Krogan, Quarian, and Batarians

Today we're going to look at playable alien options for Rogue Space in the Mass Effect universe. In addition to the above three alien races, the obvious fourth option is good ole human. Races in Mass Effect are broken down into two categories; those aligned with the Citadel Council, and those who are not (for a variety of reasons). Here's a great wiki link detailing them. If you're in with the council you're pretty much with the "in" crowd and enjoy the greatest freedoms and privileges across controlled space. If you're not a council race however you're going to find suspicion, profiling, and sometimes outright hostility levied your way.

For the type of campaign I am hoping to craft I opted to put the 'rogue' in Rogue Space. Much like the crew of the Serenity, I'm hoping my players will tend towards the fringe, making due with whatever odd jobs that come along regardless of what side legality those jobs fall on. Of course I couldn't help but stack the deck with Krogan (savages), Quarians (techno-thieves), and Batarians (terrorists). All unjust stereotypes, true, but perhaps there's a grain of truth to them? Alien races in Rogue Space just come with a few tweaks and starting perks, of course the big in-game difference is that you're playing an alien.

Krogan: Gain +2 HP and +1 Fight at character creation in addition to starting class attributes. Krogan have the Headbutt ability, allowing them to make one headbutt attack per encounter. A successful hit deals a massive 2d6 points of physical damage.










Quarian: Gain +1 Scientific at character creation in addition to starting class attributes. Quarians have the Bypass ability, giving them a +2 situational modifier when attempting to access, alter, or bypass electronic and computer devices. It should be noted that Quarians have to exist inside an environmental vacc-suit. To keep things simple in-game this will be a player constraint in terms of roleplaying instead of an actual (and potentially fatal) game mechanic.



Batarian: Gain +1 Acquiring at character creation in addition to starting class attributes. Batarians have the Far Shot ability, allowing them to gain +1 to hit when firing at Long range and +2 to hit at Far Range, offsetting ATK modifiers to a degree.

Given how many viable races are still out there, there's a lot more room to add these to the list. I personally would like to see Drell, Turian, and Volus thrown into the mix. Although they didn't make the cut as a starting PC race (all Council races were off-limits) there's no reason I won't be statting them up in the future. Next time around we're going to look at Rogue Space stats for Mass Effect weaponry. Until then, enjoy!