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honourablejester · 10 months

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Starfinder Themed Augmentations

I’ve been browsing the augmentation options in Starfinder. They’re kind of fascinating and occasionally horrifying, and it’s a fascinating subsystem to have available for a character, enabling them to in-universe customise their own bodies. If you have a paranoid asteroid miner from the Diaspora, they can give themselves pressurised lungs as an emergency backup in case of decompression. If you have an envoy with a spooky vibe, they could go for a vampire voice necrograft to get a threatening edge. Or if you have an expressionistic artist who’s fascinated by light, they could go for a bioluminescent skin and an angler’s light. And those are just some basic options. There’s room to go a LOT more extreme, if you’ve got credits and room in your body. Some are useful, some are less useful, but it fascinating that they’re an option.

So. Some ideas for themed sets of augmentations, if you character wants to pursue specific bodily ideals. For reasons, perhaps not all of them sane. Heh.

Tentacle Monster

Paranoid Spacer

Performance Artiste

BioTitan

Tentacle Monster

First and weirdest, but I love that this is honestly something you can pursue. If you want a character who gradually turns themselves into a tentacle creature, that is 100% doable. If you want to be a cultist from Aucturn who wants to modify themselves in honour of the outer gods (or a devotee of Oras with similar ideals), there are options. Particularly from the biotech augmentations tree, and one from the necrograft tree too. Unfortunately, a lot of them live in your spine, so you’ll have to pick and choose, but if you choose the biotechnician theme you can get an extra one at 12th level (or take the Augmented archetype to get it at Level 4).

So. Some tentacular options to pick up: Slimelashes (lvl 4, Hands), for little ‘protoplasmic tendrils’ that you can shoot out of your hands to snatch unattended objects, Mesoglea Tentacles (lvl 4, Spine), for a cloud of wavering jellyfish tendrils extending from your back that you can wrap in tight for 1 minute for a bit of slashing resistance and the ability to sting melee enemies, Healing Tendrils (lvl 3/7/9/13/16, Spine), for a translucent tendril you can send out to heal people and a few other things, Grasping Tentacle (lvl 6, Hand/Arm), where you turn one of your arms into a tentacle for some extra reach and a bonus to combat manoeuvres, Unity Tendril (lvl 6/10/14, Spine), for touch telepathy via spinal tentacle, Mobility Tentacles (lvl 8, Legs/Feet), where you replace your lower limbs with 4 tentacles to gain built in climb/swim speed, and, from the Necrograft tree, Squirming Entrails (lvl 1/6/12/18/20, Throat), where you line your throat with writhing entrails that bolster your digestion and can be extruded from your mouth to act as auxiliary limbs.

Personally, if you were going for the full visual tentacle experience, I’d go for Squirming Entrails, Slimelashes (grasping tentacle just makes it feel unbalanced, unless you were getting two, and I think I’d like to keep both opposable thumbs and the ability to shoot little tentacles from my hands), Mobility Tentacles, and your favourite of Healing Tendrils/Unity Tendrils/Mesoglea Tentacles. Mesoglea Tentacles gives much more visual impact, but less utility, but if we are going for the visual, this character wanted to be a tentacle monster, then I’d go for them first. If you have biotechnician or some other means of picking up multiple biotech augments in the same system, I’d pick Mesoglea and Healing Tendrils, myself.

So now by level 8, if you got them as soon as they became available, you have tentacles for legs, writhing jellyfish tendrils drifting out from your spine, little tentacles you can shoot from your hands, and horrifying tentacly entrails you can shoot from your mouth, plus maybe a healing or telepathy tentacle you can also extrude from your spine. Nyarlathotep and/or Oras are very pleased.

Paranoid Asteroid Miner/Colonist/Vaster/Spacer in General

Redundancy is the key to survival. This was the mantra beaten into your brain from day 1. Vacuum and other environmental dangers lurk only a thin skin of metal away at all times. Plan for system failures. If your bedroom is vented out into the vacuum in the morning, with you naked and asleep in it, try and see to it that you have means to survive.

This is that character who runs numbers on scenarios like ‘if the sleeping quarters on the station get hit and vented into space in the morning’ or ‘if I’m captured by enemies, stripped naked and thrown out an airlock or into a toxic wilderness’, how screwed am I? The sort of character who just wants all the survival augments, because you can’t always trust that you’ll be in armour or a spacesuit when the worst happens, or that your armour/space suit/ship/space station will remain intact.

So they look at options like Pressurised Lungs (lvl 1, Lungs), Cold Inured Graft (lvl 1, Skin), Withered Lungs (lvl 1/6/12/18/20, Lungs), Void Flyer Graft (lvl 4, Lungs & Spine), Regenerative Blood (lvl 5/8/12/15/19, Heart), Atmospheric Adaptation Graft (lvl 6, Lungs), Starhide (lvl 7, Skin), Personal Stasis Unit (lvl 9, Skin)/Stasis Gland (lvl 9, Spine), Stillheart (lvl 11, Heart), Superorgan (lvl 14/15/16/17/19, Brain Heart Lungs). Maybe even things like an Emotional Regulator (lvl 4, Brain), to control panic responses in a crisis.

Maybe they’ve seen habitat rings go down in station attacks, or they’ve lost buddies on space walks gone wrong, or they’ve heard horror stories of disabled starships and slow deaths, and they’re willing to spend credits on their paranoia to avoid it happening to them.

(Yes, sarcesians are one of my favourite species, and yes the Diaspora is one of my favourite settings, and yes, my paranoid little ysoki mechanic from the Farabarrium wants pressurised lungs and later void flyer just in case. Is her bedroom ever actually going to be vented into space, or a bunch of space pirates strip her naked and throw her out an airlock? Probably not, but you can bet she’s thought about it happening. Redundancy is the key to survival! Just because you’ve got environmental protections and armour doesn’t mean you shouldn’t plan for the worst anyway!)

Performance Artiste

For when you want body mods that are useful, yes, but also pretty, impressive, or themed around performance, captivation, allure. For the character who wants to be stunning, in more ways than one, and is willing to pay to achieve it. Also works were for certain types of spies/envoys. These are augmentations designed to make specific impressions on people, for good or ill.

(A lot of these live in your skin/throat/eyes, so pick and choose)

Bioluminescent Skin (lvl 1, Skin), Vocal Modulator (lvl 1, Throat), Vampire Voice (lvl 1/6/12/18,20, Throat), Angler’s Light (lvl 2, Spine), Skin Mimic Graft (lvl 2, Skin), Psychoactive Eyes (lvl 2/6, Eyes), Mighty Vocal Cords (lvl 3, Throat), Glass Skin (lvl 4, Skin), Resonant Larynx (lvl 6/11, Throat), Ultralight Wings (lvl 7/11/14, Arms), Enchanting Vocal Modulator (lvl 11/14/17, Throat)

(I love glass skin in particular, and that’s not because of invisibility, but because it comes from glass serpents, and it’s just a fantastic background worldbuilding detail)

BioTitan

Your body is a weapon. Your body is many weapons. You want to be the most lethal thing in the world to get close to. You absolutely cannot be disarmed, because you built your lethality into your bones. And skin. And throat. And a few other things. Nor have you neglected your defenses, either.

Options: Restraining Spinneret (lvl 1, Hand), Bone Blade (lvl 1/6/12/18/20, Arm), Enervating Hand (lvl 1/6/12/18/20, Hand), Stench Glands (lvl 1/6/12/18/20, Skin), Venom Spur (lvl 2, Hand), Sonic Vocaliser (lvl 2/7/11/16/20, Throat), Dragon Gland (lvl 2/10/26, Throat), Resistant Hide (lvl 2/4/7/10/13/17, Skin), Optical Laser (lvl 3/7/11/15/19, Eye), Rending Talons (lvl 4/8/12/16, Feet), Bone Spines (lvl 5/9/13/17, Spine), Acid Reservoir (lvl 5/12/19, arm or throat), Flametongue (lvl 5/9/13/18, Throat), Psychic Chatter (lvl 5/9/13/17, Brain), Dermal Plating (lvl 5/7/9/12/14/16/19, Skin), Adrenal Booster (lvl 8, Endocrine), Shock Fist (lvl 9/12/17/20, Hand), Superorgan (lvl 14/15/16/17/19, Brain Heart Lungs)

So if your character wants to pick up, say, a bone blade, a laser eye, acid breath and plated hide, as well as bolster their internal organs, and maybe pick up a cheap spider spinneret in their hand for when they need someone alive afterwards … Or a bone blade, bone spines and rending talons on their feet, for a general theme of spiky boi … sonic vocaliser and shock fist for a thunderous sort of experience …

Weaponising your body is absolutely an option in Starfinder.

Final Thoughts:

If you’re getting the impression that the biotech augments are my favourite types, you’re not wrong. I didn’t realise I preferred biopunk to cyberpunk, and possibly I don’t, as a genre, but I do like the idea of a character, in a galaxy full of aliens, being able to adapt their own form to merge elements of others. A bit of chameleon instinct, maybe, or possibly a chimera instinct. Heh. But I do enjoy the idea of ubiquitous augmentations regardless. I wouldn’t mind a little space engineer with slimelashes, an angler’s light, pressurised lungs, and starhide. A bounty hunter/assassin with glass skin and psychoactive eyes. A space femme fatale with psychoactive eyes, enchanting vocal modulator and a venom spur. Augmentations are a great characterisation option, because unlike external gear, these are things that the character is choosing to alter their body to accommodate. So what does that say about their personality? Are they just chill about body modification in general? Do they generally not like it but they have particular fears/needs that make them make exceptions? Is it just handy to always have something on (or in this case in you)? Or are they pursuing augmentation as an ideal, a continuous project, seeking the perfect form?

I enjoy that this is there as an option for any character to dabble in. There’s a nice range that lets you explore both practical and RP options (and practical options as RP options).

#starfinder #ttrpgs #science fiction #biopunk #cyberpunk #augmentations #body modification #character options #fascinating

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grimdarkandhandsome · 1 year

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40k Titan-class assets

Some canon, some fantastical

Adeptus Titanicus - Walking cathedrals, bristling with cannon. The mind of a Princeps holds the reins of a digital Leviathan. Ultimately, the Leviathan wins.

Ecclesiarchy - The Titans of the opulent Shrine Worlds are deployed without any pilot. The gilded skeletons of saints are bound by rope into the command-thrones of the cockpit. History records many cases wherein these Titans turned their arms upon the warriors & edifices of the Ecclesiarchy, eschewing the intended enemy. Such is the wisdom of the Emperor, who can see the most secret of traitors.

Eye of Terror - Those war-engines that stride the anarchic worlds of the Eye have long forsaken all fealty to pilot or commander. Chaos Titans lead their own warbands, raiding the weak for fuel & ammo.

Tyranids - The Biotitans of the intergalactic swarm are the mightiest children of the Materium. Standing upon advanced suspension-joints that interweave femur with exoskeleton, they transcend the mortal scale & challenge the reign of gods. As it has left no survivors, the oncoming Hive Fleet Atlas bears life-forms totally unknown to humankind. Its organisms, almost all Titan-class or larger, race across planets on centipedal legs, rushing over the land at aircraft speeds.

Orks - On the planet of Micromegas II, a Tyranid splinter fleet failed to subdue the local Ork league. The victorious greenskins surrounded the dwindling invader force & slaughtered all but one organism - a huge mutant Biotitan. The proteins of its flesh repaired all wounds instantly, & the Orks exhausted themselves in combat with the monster. Today, both parties continue to fight, but in a weary, ritualized manner. Both look forward to those happy days when the Orks have an external foe to prod 'Big Auntie' toward.

Craftworld Aeldari - The graceful Requiem Nymph titans leap into battle like sequoia-tall dancers. They remember both past & future. Each crash of blade through enemy armor is a practise-blow for all other battles, the dead mind learning from years before & ahead. And on the morning of its body's death, a Nymph recites a short poem to its Autarch - the one & only time it will speak.

Drukhari - The war-engines of the Cruel City do not walk but crawl. Uniquely, these skewer-limbed beings are piloted by their victims. Devoid of viewports or sensors, these spine-titans can only sense the minds of those who fear them most. Stumbling over the battlefield, they scramble to consume a being who feels greater dread, for only thus can the pilot escape the pain & horror of the cockpit.

Harlequins - Known only to a very, very few beings, the Harlequin troupes rehearse a forbidden music called the Song of Deep Regret. This song they will never perform until the final battle of the Aeldari, when Commorragh is rubble & only one Craftworld remains. It will call the Web Titans, the original builders of the Webway, from where they sleep far beyond the maps of even the Harlequins. Each of these Titans, to whom space is just a metaphor, will step into the heart of an enemy world: Tombs, Terra, the Garden of Nurgle. There they will pluck one captive or strike one sword-blow before instantly departing. Having revealed the secret of their existence, they will go, burrowing Webway paths into infinite depths, no longer under oath to the Aeldari.

Necrons - There is time enough for many dreams during the Long Sleep of the Necrontyr. it has been found that patient Crypteks, as they think their way down the list of all possible thoughts, will sometimes enter into a stable state of perfect contemplation. These minds cease to respond to stimuli & are replaced by the Tomb, but enter into a curious form of entanglement with the Materium. Deployed in hovering sarcophagi onto the most critical of battlefields, these Morpheocrypts are dreaming a dream that is more real than reality. The space around them is impenetrable to arms or to natural law, & transforms under their sleeping gaze, surrounding the sarcophagus in a sky-tall pillar of fire, or of salt, or of retribution.

#40k #warhammer 40k #fiction #fanfiction #titans

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djpain619 · 3 months

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WIP WEDNESDAY

619th Aquillacan Carabineers, First 2 Troops assembled

My procrastination on the Aleniheim Angel Shares continues as I have now finally kitbashed the Aquillacan Carabineers into existence.

The only parts missing are the Lasgun Carbines. Imma hafta order 20 on etsy sometime. Then i can just slap them on the Raptors. Once the Superglue dries they'll be ready for Priming.

So I modeled 2 of the riders to be combination Standard Bearers and Vox Casters. The one with the Pointy hat also pulls Triple Duty as the Company's Regimental Preacher

I put Macuahuitls on the Sargents and "Lance Corporals" to count as the Power Saber.

The Sargents are holding theirs, and the Lance Corporals have theirs hanging off their saddles.

The Sargents also have been modeled with Smaller Vox Casters, so they can always stay in contact with their Troop.

So the ones dressed as furries are Jagur and Coyóte Knights. The ones with the vests wearing Aztec Cotton armor. And there's 2 Chads going shirtless. I gave 4 of them Sombreros. Just because.

So lorewise, the furry Knights are "Skulltakers." In Aquillacan culture the Title of Skulltaker is given to Blooded Veteran Warriors. The furs they wear are made from the pelts of Deadly predators, native to the Aquillacan's homeworld of Ørnverden, that the Skulltakers have slain themselves. For the cotton vests, the lore is that they're made of "special silk" from Special Silkworms and the scales of massive reptiles, both native to Ørnverden. The Sombreros are just a popular fashion among the Kanaks of Ørnverden.

Unbeknownst to the Aquillacans, the Special Silk is actually Eldar Wraithbone. As an Exodite Maiden World before Leagues of Votann Conqured it during the Great Crusade, Ørnverden is home to many creatures originally bred by the Eldar as living tools and appliances for their convenience (Think Flintstones). One such creature is a Bonesinger Silkworm that spins threads of pure Wraithbone. This Silkworm was bred by the Exodites to make minor repairs on anything made of Wraithbone, tho most commonly it was used to patch armor. This was not a replacement for proper Eldar Bonesingers. Instead they were basically used for shitty patch jobs to keep stuff going or hold stuff together until it could be taken to a Bonesinger for proper repairs.

When Ethnic Kanak Colonists first pioneered the Jungles and Grasslands Ørnverden, they rediscovered this Bonesinger Silkworm and now use the Wraithbone Threads to weave lightweight Flackjackets that Rival Carapace Armor in protection. They also rediscovered the feral descendants of the Raptors the Exodites had originally domesticated and have tamed them, utilizing them as mounts. Kanak Teenagers steal the eggs from Feral Raptor packs as part of their coming of age ceremony. What they then do with the eggs varies from Tribe to Tribe. Some raise the Hatchling as a favored mount, some make a special omelet, Some feed it to their Grox and then BBQ the Grox, Some sacrifice the eggs at the feet of a statue of the God Emperor. Ect.

The Mountains, Jungles, and Grasslands of Ørnverden are home to many Megafauna. Some massive examples rival Baneblades and Imperial Knights in both size and power. Though exceedingly Rare and Elusive, there is even a few Species of BioTitan native to the planet. These creatures are semi regularly hunted by both the Rual Kanaks and the Savage Ork Tribes. (Mostly the Baneblade size ones, but its not unknown that Knight Level creatures have been felled through considerable efforts, some BioTitan hunts have also been documented, but these are exceedingly rare and infrequent)

#warhammer #warhammer 40k #40k #homebrew #astra militarum #wip wednesday #619th Aquillacan Carabineers #rough riders #imperial guard #grav-chute dropping raptor mounted cavalry #kitbashing

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