Core Races

[cgutzmer]

Help me come up with names - those of you that are writing backstories can come up with names for races, characters etc! if you can think of ways to improve these please let me know. feel free to add more. I want 4-6 races for the introduction of the game - more can be added later as add ons

race 1 - medium sized home world, looking to expand their civilization, average space faring race with no advantages or disadvantages

race 2 - small home world, technically advanced but resource starved (reason for seeing out new worlds. units have better stats but have fewer units overall due to resource restrictions

race 3 - large home world, somewhat behind in technology, heavy into merchants. More ships with lower stats. start with more credits

race 4 medium home world. technically below average but has high resource availability. fewer ships with standard builds but starts with more resources and more credits

race 5 - nomads, homeworld destroyed long ago. large number of ships of standard builds but low credits and low resources to start

thoughts?
I figure each race can have a completely independent background but we need to come up with an original overall story as well...

[Blackronin]

Xenophobic old race that can't stand new lesser races?
Zealots that have found the true creator and must make others accept it by any means?
Devourers of resources, high tech corporate imporium?

[DagobahDave]

What do you have in mind, as far as the origin of the races?

Are they all humans, or variations of humans? If the game's set very far in the future, then humans could have left Earth long ago and split up into lots of new species, depending on their new habitats. (The board game Ad Astra runs with this sort of idea.)

There's the Star Wars or Star Trek option, where there are lots of humanoid species scattered throughout the Galaxy, and they're all at roughly the same tech level but very different outlook. You could have warrior cultures such as the Klingons, peacekeeping cultures such as the Jedi or the Federation, tech-is-everything cultures such as the Borg, or gangsters like the Hutts.

There's the Starcraft or Warhammer 40K option, where you have really alien aliens such as the Zerg, Tyranids and Tau.

Those aren't the only possibilities, but I think each of them sets a different tone and determines a lot about what the settings are about. In a human-based setting, there might be less emphasis on killing one another, and more emphasis on trying to get ahead of the competition. Your objective might be to monopolize the available resources, and then if you're successful building your corporate empire, the factions that didn't do so well will become your customers (or maybe your work force).

In a Star Wars or Star Trek kind of setting, where everybody is basically a human (or a human in a rubber mask), most races should be able to steal and then use the equipment of another race, since they're all about the same size and capability. This could include brutal competition in which it's a good idea to wipe out your enemy completely, but you could also go with the corporate empire idea and succeed without killing off everything in your path.

In a Starcraft or 40K kind of setting, the races could be so different from one another that there's no point in trying to get along or establish dominance. Killing off the enemy is the only goal, and technologies aren't really compatible. A ship designed for a Tyranid crew probably wouldn't be of much use for a human faction, but the humans might be interested in salvaging Tyranid propulsion systems or something like that. But the idea would be to eliminate your enemy and then loot the remainder.

Anyway, those are some of the ideas I've been throwing around.

[cgutzmer]

Thanks - I like to hear these kinds of ideas I am leaning towards 2 human races and 3 alien races right now. I dont have specifics figured out of course. I am kinda hoping my creative writers will help flesh that out then I will build stats and whatnot around those.

[Blackronin]

And is it the future of humankind or is it "many time ago in a far far away galaxy"?

[cgutzmer]

future I would say.