So, in Machinations there won’t be any racial classes, rather you’ll be assumed to be humanoid by default and will then pick a two templates from which you’ll get to choose bonuses/racial abilities for your character.
The universe teems with different life forms though humans are all over the place and humanoids are the most prevalent. Choosing not to be humanoid will give you access to more racial template abilities but also knock your Charisma on its arse.
For example a Reptilian template might offer you:
- Infravision
- Teeth & Claws
- Skin Armour
- Heat resistance
While the Humanoid template might offer you:
- +1 skill point
A ‘pure’ human would have +2 skill points.
A human-like reptilian might have +1 skill point and infravision.
A reptile like humanoid might have teeth & claws and skin armour.
A completely reptilian character might have infravision, teeth & claws and skin armour, but would also suffer a penalty to their charisma, as well as having to pay through the nose for custom gear to fit their peculiar bodies.
The other thing about these templates is that you could slap them on to basic and generic monster/animal templates to customise them.
A simple ‘rat’ becoming a Centauran Lizard-Rat, for example.
Characters are going to start out more competent and capable than standard LotFP characters but that suits the genre a little better.
Of course, in a realistic SF setting you likely wouldn’t get a bunch of humanoids but in-genre you tend to find most people are humanoid, even if they look a little odd.
Templates could also be used to represent psychological or other racial types, elemental, energy forms, silicon life, all sorts.
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