All Hail the Tentacle!
Let’s talk Starfinder. I’m the owner of Amora Game and our focus for this blog is working on a project for an upcoming Xeno Files issue. Until Alien Archives is released we are limited to a number of speculations about how to billed races, but more importantly, how to build a monster. Specifically…..Symbiotes. I’m not talking Venom from Spider-Man fame, I speak of little creatures you cram into your ear like the “babble fish” from Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Stick that guy in your ear and BAM!, you can understand all the languages while the goldfish sucks on your brain waves. So let’s make up some rules.
Symbiotes and You
The number of symbiotes that a character’s body can maintain at one time is related directly in portion to the starting racial hit points (HP) a race begins play with. For example, a Human begins play with 4 HP, allowing their body to only host 4 different types of symbiotes at once. An Abiarazi can support up to six different symbiotes, as their starting racial HP is 6. Umvee can host four symbiotes due to only have 4 HP, and so on and so forth.
Each symbiote comes with a benefit. This benefit also comes with a cost, a price to that will be paid for cohabitation of the same body. A character’s starting racial HP also acts as a number of maximum slots that can be filled to host a symbiote. Each symbiote has a minimum slot cost, as some take more space than others do, due to size or benefit.
A host cannot gain double the benefit from having more than one of the same type of symbiote at a given time. Example: a character with two Cearkif symbiotes, can only gain the benefit as though he had one Cearkif. This also applies to symbiotes that give a numerical bonus, such as a +2 bonus to Fortitude Saves, the character can only benefit from one of these bonuses from the same type of symbiote.
For symboites that give numerical bonuses to the same statistic, but are a different type of symbiote, these bonuses stack together.
Symbiote Description
Name Description Level: Price: Size: Bonding: Time it takes to form a relationship and gain the benefit Life Span: x; breed able; HP:
Name: The name will state the name of the creature
Underneath the name will describe the creature, the benefits, and where they can be applied.
Level: This level will list the availability of the symbiote
Price: This is the price of the little bugger
Size: F-Fine; D-Diminutive; T-Tiny; S-Small
Bonding: This section will explain the time it takes to form a perfect symbiosis with the creature and gain it’s benefits.
Life Span: Will list the duration a symbiote can live.
HP: In this section, it will explain the HP slot & “cost”; also how much HP the creature has.
Now that we have that taken care of as a general layout, let’s make a Cearkif.
Cearkif
The cearkif of Epsilon-7782 is bright silver colored minnow-like creature with the capacity to help it’s host understand languages of a xeno humaniod race. These little brain-wave sucking cearkif must be inserted into the body via a cavity that will allow it to work it’s way to the host’s brain. Such as up a nose or through an ear opening. Cearkif than makes it’s home living in the cerebral brain fluid of sentient beings. It is a common companion for ambassadors and those that possess telepathy. It gives the host the ability to speak, read, and understand all languages.
Level: 1; Price: 125; Size: F
Bonding: Cearkif bond with their host as soon as it is physically able to enter the host’s brain fluid.
Life Span: Once bonded, cearkif have an accelerated life span. So long as the host is in dialogue with an unknown language it naturally doesn’t speak, the cearkif can live indefinitely. After an hour of inconsistent chatter and inactive speech, it dies causing nausea and vomiting in the host until it is expelled (1d20 minutes).
HP: 1
So that’s some of the rules and preview of the Cearkif symbiote that is being developed for a future Xeno File issue. Something to ponder and enjoy.
Tentacle Out!
Tentacle Greg 