House Aramin

House Overview

A small, young house which just broke off of House Sulei less than a century ago. Despite -- or perhaps because of -- their small size, they've shown remarkable rate of technological development in that short time, and thus proved to be a very important player in the alliance against House Gwyne.

Players

• vimes
• Jota
• Lucian

House Skills

• Trade: Average
• Industry: Good
• Research: Good
• Exploration: Average
• Diplomacy: Bad
• Military: Average

House Aspects

(Two things of note about the House that can be used to benefit/penalize character actions wrt that house -- this could be unusual talents possessed by the members, a particular House ethos, some standard-issue piece of equipment, etc)

Jarou Allies - The Jarou are an race of alien shapeshifters with no homeworld. They have joined with House Aramin in the hope of being able to found a home colony on the far side of the wormhole.

Experimental High-Tech Gadgetry - Aramin's research laboratories are constantly churning out clever improvements on existing devices. Characters associated with House Aramin are usually equipped with gadgets which are not quite standard issue and which usually have special features or enhanced functionality that more mundane tools lack.

House Background

(More about the House, history, governance, name of home planet or planets, any special assets, etc)

Characters of Interest

(list characters in the house, players or non-players. players should have a more complete skillset listed, but you don't have to decide now who is who. it would be useful to know the names of important/significant people in the house even if they aren't present on the colony -- eg, the head of the house)

Rick Starfarer

(PC, Jota)

An explorer with a laser machete and spacepilot goggles. He was born to fly through wormholes and visit strange new alien planets.

Great: Survival, Investigation
Good: Vehicles, Weapons (Exotic), Athletics
Average: Weapons (Other), Engineering, Socializing (Aliens), Academics
Bad: Socializing (Other), Criminal, Stealth

Reig

(PC, Lucian)

Like all his kind, Reig has no home planet-the hostile and ever-changing planet on which his species evolved has long since torn itself to pieces. But it bequeathed his kind with incredible adaptability: Jarou all have flexible musculature, yards of loose skin that can be tucked away or stretched out, a rearrangable skeletal system, and retractable translucent fur whose color reflects the adjustable pigmentation of the skin underneath.

Reig's great Athletics is explained by his being an alien evolved on a very tough planet; his great Socializing is explained by a mild latent psychic ability to induce calm in others, plus his extensive training as an ambassador. His good Stealth is explained by his ability to camouflage himself and morph into something appropriate for the terrain. His good Primitive Weapons are his natural weapons, notably his razor-sharp claws (normally retracted, but able to be unsheathed instantly from the majority of his forms). His Good Academics are because he has studied extensively to obtain his current post as ambassador.

Great:
Athletics (Physical); Socializing [Politicians] (Social)

Good:
Primitive Weapons [claws] (Combat); Academics (Knowledge); Stealth (Subterfuge); Socializing [other] (Social)

Average:
Weapons [other] (Combat); Investigation (Perception); Survival (Mundane); Criminal (Subterfuge)

Bad:
Engineering (Craft); Vehicles (Drive)

Jude Farlight

(PC, vimes)

Jude is a whiz-bang engineer who isn't also a complete social outcast. Sure, he's more comfortable talking with droids than with people, but there's something about his easy-going demeanor that takes off the edge with other people. He was awarded an honorary degree for his work with the unusual dual-mode crystal seeds (particularly, developing a technique to more quickly identify and discard the self-opposed crystals). Later, he turned down the House post of Chief Engineer ("too many people, not enough grease"), accepting instead an R&D position with essentially zero oversight (and not much budget, though his R&D group does enjoy somewhat preferential treatment from the family in return for getting all the inconvenient problems).

Great: Engineering, Vehicles
Good: Academics, Socializing (Technicians and Engineers), Socializing (Droids)
Average: Survival, Stealth, Investigation, Athletics, Socializing (Other)
Bad: Criminal, Weapons (Exotic)
No, REALLY bad: Weapons (Other)

Aspects:

• Intuitive Engineer - Jude sees good engineering solutions quickly and easily, almost without thought. It takes him some time to work out why they're good and correct sometimes, especially when they're harder problems. He is also likely to see the engineering solution before other solutions. "Hey, this gas pump is broken." "Ok, I'll go rig up a gravity siphon and pop open the storage tank." "Or...you could just use the other gas pump." "Oh hey, that didn't even occur to me!"

• Hyperfocus - Jude easily enters into a "fugue" state, where he can ignore all distractions to concentrate on solving a particularly tricky problem. On the negative side, Jude easily enters into a "fugue" state, where he does ignore all distractions to concentrate on solving a particularly tricky problem.
• Least Threatening - Jude has a friendly, easy-going attitude. Nobody feels intimidated by him; nobody thinks he's scary; he tends to be looked over as a threat or target of first priority. He doesn't seem like a pushover or a wimp, per se - although a mugger might see him as a preferable target to a combat veteran, he wouldn't be seen as an "easy mark". On the other hand, he'll never manage to intimidate anything out of anyone.
• Aramin's Favorite Engineers - See character brief.

The Colony

• What sort of planet is the colony on and what is its name, what's the terrain like, what resources are found on the planet
• What does the colony do (ie, why is there a colony here?) Was it for resource-gathering (farming, mining, etc), industry, military training, or what? ('Research' and 'tourism' are probably stylistically bad choices, so I wouldn't pick those as the primary thing)
• What nearby planets might be of interest?