Alternate Species for Star Trek Adventures: Caitian
And STA 2 take on our favorite cat people.
A couple of the NPCs in our Star Trek Adventures campaign are Caitian — the Chief Engineer and one of the lead security officers. Whilst using BC Holmes’s excellent website to build characters, I noted that the Species Talent options were “prehensile tail” and “disarming nature” — both from STA 1.0 and they would have been just fine. However, I seem to remember Caitians as possessing fangs and claws, something that was confirmed in the prison break episode of Star Trek: Prodigy when the cute Caitian kid below rips up the baddie pretty spectacularly.
The nice thing about Talents is they don’t pull from the other talents you get to choose. So I dropped one in of my own: Tooth & Claw as a species talent, seen below.
Species Profile: Caitian
Eras: Originial Series, Next Gen era, Picard era, 32nd Century (?)
The Caitian are a bipedal felinoid species with a strong history of service within Starfleet. Their homeworld of Cait is a pleasant Class-M planet with extensive grasslands that support sprawling city complexes that integrate seamlessly into the environment, for which the Caitians have great respect. While known to be extremely effective and proud warriors, the Caitian culture holds artistic and philosophical endeavors in extremely high regard. Following their acceptance into the Federation in the late 22nd Century, Caitians have come to serve at all levels of Starfleet – to include high-ranking flag officers as well as often being elected to serve on the Federation Council. On average, Caitians tend to be slightly smaller than most other humanoid species. While this often results in Caitians being somewhat weaker than Humans, they more than make up for this in their balance, agility, and dexterity. Caitians are one of the few species actively serving within Starfleet that possess a tail – which requires alterations to standard Starfleet uniforms.
Example Values: War is Instinct, Conflict is an Art
ATTRIBUTES: +1 Daring, +1 Fitness, +1 Insight
TRAIT: Caitian. Caitians are all slightly smaller in both height and weight than average humanoids – with most reaching between 1.5-1.7 meters. They have retained the retractable claws of their evolutionary ancestors along with a flexible tail. Caitians are carnivorous and prefer uncooked meat. While they evolved from predatory felines, the Caitians are regarded as some of the greatest poets and philosophers within the Federation.
TALENTS: The character receives access to the following Talents:
DISARMING NATURE
REQUIREMENT: Caitian, or Gamemaster’s permission.
Despite their reputation for being fierce warriors, Caitians are extremely sociable and adept at putting others at ease. Whenever you are engaged in a Social Conflict, you reduce the Difficulty of any Test to make your target relax or to trust you by 1.
PREHENSILE TAIL
REQUIREMENT: Caitian, or Gamemaster’s permission.
While most Caitians have some functional control over their tail, characters with this Talent have worked to increase their control over the appendage to the point of it becoming fully functional. This provides the character with the ability to hold and operate an additional piece of equipment, like an additional hand. In addition, the character gains a bonus d20 to any Fitness Test to maintain balance or to climb.
TOOTH & CLAW
REQUIREMENT: Caitian, or Gamemaster’s permission.
While all Caitians have claws like a Terran cat and sharp fangs, characters with this Talent have learned to use these to great effect in combat. This provides the character with the ability to turn an Unarmed Combat melee attack into injury type deadly, not just stun. The character may choose either type of injury, although moving to deadly is an Escalation 1.
NAMES: Caitians derive their names from their familial units, to which they have strong connections. Their names often have a near-musical quality, though most humanoid species have difficulty pronouncing them correctly – as the species generates extremely low frequency vibrations that are at the far range of Human hearing.
SAMPLE NAMES:
Female names: J’Aana, M’ress, S’isha, K’irst, N’Simi, H’Lata, A’Ahia, P’Erone, C’Nola, L’Eni
Male names: R’Than, C’horn, Ur’Barr, L’Enton, H’Sook, K’Raka, A’Outte, V’Wilk, A’Mathi, Z’Thors
Most of this verbiage comes from the Star Trek Adventures, Alpha Quadrant sourcebook, copyright for 2d20 system in Modiphius, 2019. STAR TREK and related marks and logos are trademarks of CBS Studios inc. All Rights Reserved and no infringement is intended.