Official version in the Shackleton Expanse Campaign Guide.
Welcome to Ten Forward Fridays, where a new playable species is presented for the Star Trek Adventures roleplaying game, filling in some gaps until official material can be released.
For December I’m going back to the ’60s (the 2260s) and detailing some species that appeared in the background of Star Trek: The Original Series, who could appear in a game set in either the TOS era or Star Trek: Discovery. Kicking things off are the Orions.
Orions were one of the first alien races presented for Star Trek, with an Orion slave dance appearing in the original pilot, The Cage. Another appeared in the episode 3×16 Whom Gods Destroy, as an inmate of the prison. A disguised Orion and the species’ neutrality as was mentioned in the episode 2×15 Journey to Babel. A more blue version of the race appeared in the Animated Series 2×01 Pirates of Orion. Like many other TOS background races, Orions were then promptly forgotten, only being mentioned in terms of the criminal “Orion Syndicate”. It was not until the prequel series, Star Trek: Enterprise, where Orions returned, appearing in three episodes included one that presented a surprising flip to their culture: Orion females were actually the dominant sex due owing to their pheromones.
Orions are officially neutral in terms of galactic politics, allying with no major power or empire, and instead running their criminal organization and occasional slave rings (presumably along with myriad other less illicit business ventures that sustain their economy). While unallied, individual Orions can theoretically join Starfleet, as was shown by the Kelvin Timeline character Gaila in the film Star Trek. Such individuals could be met with some suspicion from people who have had negative experiences with the Syndicate, but as the majority of Orions are not affiliated this prejudice should be rare.
Click on image for PDF
Click HERE for Black Background PDF
Change “Orions society is matriarchal, with the women controlling the male via pheromones.”
to
“Orion society is matriarchal, with the women controlling the men via pheromones.”
Change “Orions have a pronounced sexual dimorphism, with males being significantly larger and well muscled.”
to
“Orions have a pronounced sexual dimorphism, with males being significantly larger and more muscular than females.”
Change “Orions are often considered highly physically desirably, owing to the species limited retention of body fat; female Orions are especially alluring due to their pheromones, which make them highly desirable to males of many species while also stimulating the subject’s adrenal gland.”
to
“Orions are often considered highly physically desirable, owing to the species’ limited retention of body fat. Female Orions are especially alluring due to their pheromones, which make them highly desirable to males of many species while also stimulating the subject’s adrenal gland.”
Change “Conversely, females of other species typically experience headaches”
to
“Conversely, human females typically experience headaches in the presence of these pheromones, while Denobulan males would have their sleep cycles interrupted by them. Vulcans of both genders are immune to these pheromones; this immunity could be shared by those who experienced a telepathic mating bond with a Vulcan.”
ASSESS ODDS Talent:
1) Delete the comma after “maximum payoff”.
2) Change “Pick either Insight or Presence; when you attempt at a Task using that Attribute, if you don’t have an applicable Focus, each die that rolls a “2” scores two successes.”
to
“Pick either Insight or Presence; when you attempt a Task using that Attribute that doesn’t have an applicable Focus, each die that rolls a “2” scores two successes.”
POTENT PHEROMONES Talent:
Change “you add a bonus d20 to 0the roll.”
to
“you add a bonus d20 to the roll.”
SUBSERVIENT Talent: Put a comma between “against a directive” and “you reduce”.
Edited
First correction on “male” vs “men” still needs to be implemented. At the risk of sounding like a pretentious nag, I’m tempted to say: “Eh, close enough.”
As for the rest, nice work using your own words to say the same things I did. 🙂
Since it’s been <24 hours, that's a pretty simple fix. I can just delete the old media and re-upload and the old links should still work.
Yup, the latest change (“males” to “men”) is in there. Thank you, Jester!
Looking at the latest PDF again, I just realized that several changes still weren’t implemented. I’m repeating the ones that are still extant in my docfile (the one editing the More Races PDF) that I’m going to send to you, Jester. Sorry about the delay but I was helping a friend with editing a Star Wars D6 fanbook on the Rogue One movie over the last month.
Shoot me an email at: cfduque@verizon.com so I can send you the docfile.
Thhank you for this
At the top of the article it says there is an official version in The Shackleton Expanse book. Is this true? Thanks!
Yes, the Shackleton Campaign Guide has an official version of Orions.