Showing posts with label Skills. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Skills. Show all posts

Sunday, November 29, 2020

A Simple d6 System for Stat or Skill Checks

By Stephen Fabian

Jorune: Evolutions uses a stat and skill check system that is different than the mechanics used in combat. Since Jorune: Evolutions is OD&D inspired, the unified mechanic employs the 1dd6 that OD&D uses for most things.  Why did I come up with a new system that unifies skills and stat checks? 

  1. Skills just "feel right" with a science fiction roleplaying game. So I need skill checks.
  2. I thought a unified mechanic would be a good fit for a rules-lite game. Simple where possible is better here.
  3. I don't like very well the Hill Cantons stat checks that I'd been using in my games heretofore for math reasons I'll explain.
  4. The 1d6 system is a good fit mathematically with the constrained stat bonuses of OD&D prior to the unconscionably profligate stat bonuses of the Supplement I (Greyhawk). 
  5. 1d6 gets used for a lot of things in OD&D like hit dice and weapon damage, but also skill and stat check adjacent activities, such as accidentally triggering traps, searching for secret doors, opening stuck dungeon doors, and so on.  

General Philosophy of Stat and Skill Checks


In Jorune: Evolutions, stat and skill checks are informed gambles that players can take in high-stakes situations. 

  • They are only made where the result is in question, and where success or failure matters.
  • They are never made for trivial things, or where success (or failure) is a foregone conclusion, or is uninteresting. 
  • As an informed gamble, the player is always informed, in advance of the decision to roll, of the difficulty of the roll. 
  • As an informed gambel, the player is informed to the extent possible, of the results of a success and failure. Sometimes a failed check just means that one way forward is closed. But sometimes a failed check brings with it further danger or a worsening of the situation. 
  • Sometimes the Sholari (DM) will simply say, "Your character can't do this. It's not possible."
  • Stat and skill checks are not the motor of the game. You can easily go a session without a single stat or skill check.
  • It is often smarter to avoid a stat or skill check through roleplaying ("fictional positioning"). If you can get something free, there is no need to gamble for it.
  • There is no separate perception stat, because stat rolls are not the normal way that information becomes available to players. Players normally learn about the environment through the Sholari's descriptions and by asking the Sholari questions.   

There are two kinds of stat and skill checks in Jorune Evolutions. A roll can be opposed or unopposed. The Sholari will tell you which of these types the roll is, and what modifiers will apply, before you decide to roll the dice. 

  • Unopposed checks are tests against your PC’s skills or stats where what sets the level of difficulty are the circumstances of action, inanimate objects, or natural forces.
  • Opposed checks are tests against your PC's skills or stats where what sets the level of difficulty is the skill or stat of the sentient being you oppose.


Stat and Skill Modifiers


Stat and skill modifiers represent how good you are at the relevant task. For more on this check out my rules for character generation here and my skill rules here. For a reminder, stat modifiers work like this:

-1 Subpar
+0 Average
+1 Excellent
+2 Supreme (You can only reach these heights through big ticket sandbox advancement)

Skill modifiers work like this:

-1 Untrained
+0 Trained
+1 Skilled
+2 Master (You can only reach this extreme level of skill by training with a master in downtime)

Difficulty 


Generally speaking, the difficulty of the check tells you the number you must roll to succeed using 1d6 + your stat or skill modifier. 










      Unopposed Checks




To set the difficulty level for an opposed check, the Sholari looks at the circumstances of action and what is being attempted by the player, and assigns a difficulty level to it. The player then rolls 1d6 + skill or stat modifier, and must roll equal to or over the number set by that level of difficulty. 

Here is some guidance for the Sholari in assigning difficulty levels, which is more an art than a science. 

Easy: An average person can do something easy reliably. Even someone untrained or subpar can do easy things more often than not. 

Normal: An average person can do something of normal difficulty more often than not. For someone untrained or subpar, a task of normal difficulty is a toss-up. 

Challenging: For an average person, something is challenging is a toss-up. Someone untrained or subpar will fail at a task that is challenging more often than not.

Hard: An average person will tend to fail at a hard task more often than not. For someone skilled or excellent, a hard task is a toss-up.

Severe: Someone skilled or excellent will fail at a severely difficult task more than they will succeed. For a master or supremely talented person a severely difficult task is a toss-up. 

HeroicSomething is heroic if the average person can't do it at all. You have to be skilled or excellent even to have a prayer. Even masters or supremely talented people fail more often than not at heroic tasks. 
 
Epic: Something is epic if even a skilled or talented person can't do it at all. Only a master or legendarily talented person even has a prayer. This is the most difficult check possible.

If it helps to visualize it, here are the probabilities for someone with each stat or skill modifier to succeed at each category of difficulty:












Opposed Checks



When you are doing an opposed check, only the player character rolls. Jorune: Evolutions is a cooperative game so players do not normally oppose one another. However, in the rare event that two player characters are involved in an opposed check, the underdog makes the roll. 

The difficulty of the check is set by the stat or skill of the opponent. Consult this table to set the level of difficulty for the roll. Note that the numbers go above +2 because there are certain kinds of checks where modifiers from different stats or skills are added. The higher ranks can also represent super human levels of skill or power associated with alien beings or mechanical monstrosities. 













Optional Mixed Results Protocol


Except for the reaction roll, OD&D does not produce tension and drama through "mixed results" or "partial successes". Mostly this works fine, but there is something lost by being forced into a binary. 

Without modifying this system at all, the Sholari can sometimes build in "mixed results", by substituting a mixed result for a failure. For example, the Sholari might inform the player that a failed roll will involve success at the task but with a complication, e.g., "On a failure, you'll get the door off the hinges, but you won't do it quickly enough to avoid your pursuers." 

But here's a way to tweak the system to include fully mixed results mechanically in the system. 

Mixed Result Protocol: When you just hit the target number you need, the result is mixed or partial success. For example, if you are making a roll of challenging difficulty, you will get a partial success if your roll, after applying modifiers, is exactly 4. A 5+ counts as a full success. 

Remember, if you are employing mixed results, the Sholari should tell the player what effect a failure, success, and mixed result will produce before the decision to roll is made. 

________________________________________________

In the remainder of this post, I want to compare this method of stat and skill checks to some other popular methods you might be familiar with. Because this comparison is just math, it's going to be very dry. If that sounds terrible to you, stop reading now. 


Mathematical Comparison with the Hill Cantons Method


Hey, wait a minute, Jorune has these guys too

I have been using the Hill Cantons method of rolling stat checks for years. This involves rolling equal to or under your stat with a different number of d6 dice depending on difficulty. Normally the range is from 3d6 to 6d6. But to capture the same number of categories, you could theoretically extended it down to 2d6 and up to 8d6. The comparison of difficulty levels with Jorune: Evolutions would then look like this:
















I want to compare do a selective comparison with Jorune: Evolutions. In these comparisons, the stat listed is first the Hill Cantons numerical value and then the corresponding Jorune: Evolutions modifier. I've included a stat of 20 to capture the possibility of getting a +2 modifier in Jorune: Evolutions through big ticket advancement or downtime actions. I'll just compare the probability of making unopposed checks of normal to hard difficulty levels. 

Normal Difficulty (HC 3d6 vs. J:E 3+)

Challenging Difficulty (HC 4d6 vs. J:E 4+)


Hard (HC 5d6 vs. J:E 5+)



Severe (HC 6d6 vs. J:E 6+)
         



What this comparison show is that your ability score is incredibly important on the Hill Cantons ways of doing it. Someone with a stat of 3 will make the a normal level of check less than 1% of the time (!), whereas someone with a 18 will make it 100% of the time. That's basically a full 100% spread. Again for a challenging roll (4d6) the bottom is 0% and the top is 97%. This is a steep curve where your initial stat rolls are overwhelmingly important. (It flattens a bit when you get up to a severe challenge (6d6), where the spread drops to 45%.) 

The spread for Jorune: Evolutions is half that for the normal-hard range of difficulty, staying at a steady 50%. (If you drop the +2, the starting spread is only 33%.) Someone who rolls a 3 on their starting stat still has a 33% of doing something challenging and a 17% chance of doing something hard in Jorune: Evolutions. In keeping with OD&D de-emphasizing of the significance of starting stats, the Jorune: Evolutions way of doing is a much flatter curve, with a smaller spread between the top and the bottom

In an OD&D inspired game where I don't really want your stats to define you so strongly, I find this a better approach to stat and skill checks. The Hill Cantons method also disincentivizes savvy players with low stats from ever trying anything that uses that stat. This seems counter to the spirit of retro-game play. 

Mathematical Comparison with 5E




5E is harder to compare, because, like Mothership, it stacks skill and attribute modifiers, furthermore it does so in a way that's sensitive to level. It also tracks not only difficulty but situational advantage or disadvantage. But I'm going to try to compare anyway: keep in mind that the comparison has limited utility given how different the underlying systems are. 

I'll ignore advantage and disadvantage and put in parentheses the higher value for skill modifiers for characters 1-4. In 5E people's stats climb higher, and the greater difficulty levels are pegged to checks for dragons and demigods. So I'm going to handle this by equating the 5E difficulty categories in this way 5E "easy"= J:E "normal". Here as in the comparison with Hill Cantons, I'll just focus on the four difficulty categories of Normal, Challenging, Hard, and Severe.

Normal (5E DC 5 vs. J:E 3+)


Challenging (5E DC 10 vs. J:E 4+)














Hard (5E DC 15 vs. J:E 5+)


Severe (5E DC20 vs. J:E 6+)




The 5E checks are linear, but Jorune: Evolutions are chunkier. But there's almost the same spread between top and bottom in the lower difficulty levels, with 40% in 5E, and 50% for J:E. If you eliminate the big bump for +2 in J:E the two are almost the same. My hunch is that on balance 5E is probably not that different from Jorune:Evolutions, except there's a LOT more to track. Probably the biggest difference in play, besides the fiddly 5E book-keeping, is that in Jorune: Evolutions the Sholari will need to fold situational advantage into the initial difficulty modifier, whereas 5E has a separate mechanic for advantage and disadvantage. 

Another thing to note is that when we get into higher difficulty levels than I compared, 5E starts to get weird in the beginning stat range. That's because 5E has to make room for high-level characters with high proficiency bonuses and jacked out stats, and even worse, strength checks by ancient red dragons and intelligence checks by archdevils. So the upper levels of difficulty are out of reach for starting players. In Jorune: Evolutions, things are built on a more human scale.

Some Take Aways

One take away from these comparisons is that Jorune: Evolutions de-emphasizes the importance of starting stats. I like this because it fits the OD&D vibe, and also because it encourages all players to take chances, i.e. not to think, "My guy can't do that." Another take away is that looking at the comparison with 5E where I included a +2 modifier, we can see how powerful a +2 for a stat or skill will be in Jorune: Evolutions. At the hardest level of difficulty (Epic), someone who has mastered a skill or who has a superior stat will have a whopping 17% chance of success. This just shows that those should be very hard modifiers to attain in the game. Design your sandboxes and downtime rules accordingly! And as a DM be very careful about ever allowing modifiers to stack past +2: this can easily break the game. 







Sunday, August 9, 2020

Skills for Classless D&D (Jorune: Evolutions)



I've been working on a classless OD&D inspired sci-fi game system I call Jorune: Evolutions. In my mind, sci-fi games cry out for a skill system, and Jorune's original ruleset had one. But given the rules-light chassis I'm working with, I thought the system had better be a simple system. Also, given how culturally specific and social the setting is, it felt right to me to include the idea of "contacts" as part of character generation, another design element from more modern or futuristic ttrpgs. It helps here that I already model contacts in fantasy games with my downtime activity of cultivating a relationship.

I tried to kill two birds with one stone here. The way I've chosen to model classless OD&D is to give the player 5 all-purpose points to spend during character creations to buy contacts, skills, and dyshas (spells) or anti-dyshas (if they're boccord). What would otherwise be class powers are simply folded into the system of skills so that you can pick and choose. 

Keep in mind that skills and contacts can be acquired through downtime activity and so, once again, nothing is set in stone here. The idea is to give players simple choices that will let them mix and match, and give them flavor. In this post, I present the packages, contacts, and skills. In the next post I'll talk about how the system handles weapon proficiencies and so combat. In later post, I'll talk about dyshas, which are their own can of worms.

Since not everyone is into “building” a character, I have provided seven pre-fab packages that can get you rolling right away. In some ways they mimic classes, and so are also intended to show you how to build a D&D style class in this system. If you want to tinker around the edges, you can take one of these packages as a base and switch out a skill for another skill or contact.

Remember, you can always ditch the packages and just spend your 5 points yourself, which, although a limited budget, is a lot of fun if you’re into that kind of thing. If you want to play a sword and planet Gray Mauser type, play a human, choose stealth, proficiency in sharp weapons, and one dysha, and you are ready to go.


Skill Levels


In a later post I'll explain how skill and stat checks work in detail. But the basic idea is: roll 2d6 with a difficulty modifier and a skill or stat modifier, and on a 7+ you succeed. Skills come in 4 levels:

Untrained
-1
Trained
+0
Skilled
+1
Master
+2

Note that some skills cannot be used at the untrained level (e.g. languages, or iscin skills). For those skills that can be used untrained, those at the trained level can use the skills to do things that someone untrained cannot do. For example, anyone can climb, but only someone trained or higher can climb a sheer rock wall with barely visible handholds. Anyone can use stealth to sneak up on someone, but only someone at the trained level or higher can try to sneak right under someone's nose.  

Purchased player skills begin at the level trained, except for starting languages, which are explained below.

The Packages


Translator
Given your facility with language, you opted to receive intensive training as a translator. Note that being proficient in a language comes knowledge of the species and cultures that speak it. You are as much a cultural go-between as a communicator.

  • Choose 2 human languages (Porontho, Kiswahi, Indivee, or Frentran)
  • Choose 2 iscin or post-human creole (Boru, Thowtis, Abahth, Chaunt-Se, Sakoq)
  • Choose 1 alien languages (Triddith, Rorch-Ko, Cleash, or Thuvill)

Military
During your tauther training, you opted into the military track to receive more advanced training in the arts of war.

  • Military Contact
  • Melee Weapon Proficiency
  • Missile Weapon Proficiency
  • Armor Proficiency
  • Choose Stealth or Survival (jungle or desert)

Githerin
You hit the streets of the capital at night to hook up with some old acquaintances who escaped village life to make easy money in the capital.

  • Underworld Contact
  • Stealth
  • Climbing
  • Sleight of Hand
  • Weapon Proficiency: Close Weapons

Iscin
Your natural curiosity won you rare admission to the university for a quick course of study. Luckily, you took to it and made real progress.

  • Porontho
  • Identify Device
  • Tinker
  • Choose Natural Philosophy or Biology
  • Choose History or Limilates

Scout
You received training as an advance scout, were taught how to ride a thombo, track an enemy, and survive in rough terrain.


  • Riding (Land)
  • Tracking
  • Stealth
  • Missile Weapon Proficiency
  • Survival (Choose Jungle or Desert)

Connector
People interest you, and you interest them. You are at the hub of many scenes.

  • Choose Storytelling or Culture
  • Choose 4 Contacts

Seeker
You came to Ardoth with a spiritual hunger, looking for an awakening.

  • Dysha (these cost 3 points each)
  • Choose Spiritual Contact or Isho Contact
  • Choose Crystals or Limilates or Religion


Contacts


You may use your points to purchase a contact at the cost of one contact per point. Aided by the lists below, you must decide what kind of contact it is. To name someone as a contact is to bring them into the game as a resource and active part of your character’s backstory. Contacts come in four levels (as outlined here): acquaintance, associates, friends, and intimates.


  • If the contact you choose is someone without real power or social standing, the relationship tracker begins at the rank of friend
  • If the contact is someone who wields some power, the relationship tracker begins at the rank of associate 
  • If the contact is a significant persona, who wields real power, the tracker begins at the rank of acquaintance.

When choosing the contact, give the person a name and identity, and think of how you know them and what your bond is. Are they from your village? In your circle of friends? A distant relative? Your teacher? Did you do business with them? Are they your co-religionists?

Here are some ideas for types of contacts. I have selected them because each category is connected to elements of the setting that are likely to see play; they are all useful and fun contacts. But players are free to invent their own! 

Underworld
Smuggler, Limilate (drug) Dealer, Fence, Assassin, Gang Member, Rebel

Military
Captain, Lieutenant, Private, Scout, Veteran

Spiritual (More on these religions soon!)
Kerrel, Etton, Sanster, Iscin Preacher, Isho Faith Healer, Isho Cultist, Egg Cultist 

Isho
Copra (muadra master), Hishtin (boccord master), Caji (isho student)

Political
Scribe, Ambassador, Aide to a Member of the Burdoth Council, Dissident

Business
Banker, Merchant, Dealer or Collector in Devices or Ancient Artifacts, Klade Member

Iscin
Inventor, Biologist, Natural Philosopher, Historian

High Society
Kesht, Courtesan, Luxury Good Merchant

Skills


I have selected only those skills that will be useful in play and meaningful to the setting. You can assume you character knows how to do anything else that would make sense given their background and experience. These purchased skills begin at the level of trained.

Storytelling
The ability to spin a good yarn, to humor, captivate, and amaze. Those who possess this skill also carry, and know, a fragment of (extended) humanity’s memory in oral form. Since written history began in earnest only five centuries ago, the conflicting tales are the closest thing to ancient history that humanity has. This skill can be drawn on for (conlicting and ambiguous) information about the travelers and humanity’s early days on Jorune.  

Culture
Knowledge of the latest trends and fads in recreation and fashion among the kesht (aristocrats) and wealthy drenn, the modes of speech, the artforms currently in vogue, the etiquette necessary in order to avoid faux-pas in high society, the vacation spots, and so on. This knowledge is situational, but someone with this skill can easily pick up and adapt to local nuances.   

Religion
The knowledge of religious customs and practices. Those who possess this skill know something about the different belief systems, theologies, church hierarchies, and spiritual practices of diverse groups across Jorune. Since this game is set during the time of the Dream of the Egg, spiritual pursuits flourish.

Stealth
The ability to conceal oneself, move quietly, and just generally sneak around. Those who possess this skill add it to their stealth checks, and may make stealth checks in situations where an ordinary person would not be able to. Someone who attacks after successful stealth check surprises their foe granting extra segments of action and other benefits.



Climbing
The ability to climb sheer surfaces. Those who possess this skill add it to their climb checks, and may make checks in situations where an ordinary person would not have a prayer in climbing (i.e. a sheer wall).

Sleight of Hand
The ability to palm items, pick-pockets, surreptitiously poison a drink, perform magic tricks, and the like.

Disguise
The ability to fashion workable disguises. You may add this roll to attempts to fool people through disguises, and may also attempt disguises using makeup and the like that others would not be able to.

Identify Device
The ability to identify and generally figure out devices of the ancients. Think of this as a fallible “identify” spell for technological items. Note that not all devices of the ancient are proper Earth-Tec, usable only by humans. Thus, other races can learn this skill with benefit, although they will never have the thrill of firing an energy weapon or walking on the strange paths taken by the Circuit Men of Ardoth.

Tinker
This is the ability to repair and build contraptions and devices. It gives a bonus to attempts to jury rig a device (e.g. a catapult) in a tight spot, and also allows one to borrow parts from devices to create something new. It is used in the downtime action Invent.

Natural Philosophy (Mathematics, Physics, Astronomy)
Humanity’s knowledge of mathematics is quite advanced (roughly late 19th century level), whereas physics is in a primitive state. Astronomy is a central iscin study, owing to the complexity of the system of seven moons, and the dramatic effects of lunar conjunctions. Such astronomy often bleeds into astrological speculation as well.

History (History + Archaeology)
This skill gives one knowledge of written history, as well as what has come to light through the limited study of ruins and ancient artifacts. Allows one to roughly identify, and perhaps glean some information about, a set of ruins or an antique cultural artifact.   

Biology (Botany + Zoology + Geology)
This skill gives one knowledge of the lifeforms and rock formations of Jorune. It can be drawn on to identify, speculate about, and derive information about the lifecycles and natural defenses of plants and animals, or the causes and features of geological formations. (It is no substitute for detailed knowledge of the effects of limilates or the powers of crystals, or for survival skills involved in finding a good campsite, but it can definitely come in handy.)

Healing
This is a primitive medical skill. It involves the knowledge of how to bandage and set bones, the use of some herbal remedies (within limits, it is no substitute for a real knowledge of limilates), identification and treatment of well-known diseases (to the extent there is one). Someone who makes a successful medicine check on a wounded comrade will double the rate of their natural healing after each night of rest. A successful check will also identify a disease and mitigate its effect (if a remedy is available). 

Limilates
Jorune is a wonderland of naturally occurring drugs, from poisons, to opiates and stimulants, isho affecting drugs, and a truly staggering array of psychedelic drugs. The use of limilates is a big part of everyday life, lucrative trade, and smuggling. This skill gives one the ability to identify and use limilates both in the wild and in prepared forms.

Crystals
Metal is rare on Jorune, but crystal is plentiful, both as deposits to be mined from caves deep beneath the earth, and in some places, as rock formations that emerge from the ground. Many crystals have special uses and remarkable powers, some connected to isho. Like limilates, crystals are a lucrative trade. This skill allows one to identify, collect, prepare, and use crystals.

Animal Training
This skill allows one to befriend and train beasts. It may allow the acquisition of animal or beast companions.

Riding (Land)
This skill allows one to ride the loping thombo (like an eyeless tonton), the lumbering bochugon (a huge lizard-like mount), or the quaint and incredibly valuable horse. It is added to skill tests to coax your mount into combat, or to outrace an enemy, or leap over an obstacle

Riding (Air)
This skill allows one to ride talmarons (eyeless giant batlike beasts) through the air. It is added to skill tests to plummet and dive, corskscrew, and to coax your mount to attack.



Sailing (Water)
Nautical technology by sailing vessel is well-developed in Jorune, and sea travel and trade is a crucial part of life. This skill allows one to operate a sailing vessel, or whatever size, on the open waters.

Sailing (Sky)
Knowledge of this art is extremely rare in Jorune, but the tiny kingdom of Jasp produces rare airships, sailing vessels that are able to fly through the use of crystals and isho. Burdoth possesses a few of these vessels. 

Swimming
Everyone can swim, but this skill allows one to do things normal people can't, and is added to tests to swim long distances, escape a whirpool, dive for a pearl, and the like.

Caving
The ability to map, navigate, and travel in cave systems. One with this skill will be alert to underground dangers, will glean useful information from the environment, stay oriented, and not suffer from panic or claustrophobia. Given the pursuit of crystals and the existence of underground ruins, caving is a developed skill in Jorune.

Survival (Desert, Forest, Mountain, Marsh, or Jungle)
The member of your group with the highest modifier for the relevant survival skill rolls to make a secure camp and comfortable camp, to hunt or forage, and also to deal with environmental hazards. If there are ties, then the roll switches off between players.

Languages


Languages are skills too, and valuable ones at that. For, knowing a language comes along with a corresponding level of basic cultural knowledge of the community that speaks the language. 

All players start speaking Entren at the master level. Bronth and woffen characters also know their iscin creoles, boru and thowtis respectively. They can choose at what level they know the language based on their background. (Was it a first or second language? Did they know many others of their kind?)

Characters who spend a point to learn a human or iscin or post-human creole know the language at the master level. Characters who spend a point to learn an alien language know it at the trained level. Alien languages are hard!

Human Languages


Entren
The common tongue amongst humans. There are many dialects of this, but if you speak one you can get by in the others.

Kiswahi
The language of the small independent kingdom of Jasp, builders of Jaspian skyships. Spoken by some elite Burdothians as an aristocratic tongue.  

Frantren
Languages spoken by some villager communities in Burdoth. Also the main language of the small neighboring kingdom of Ros Crendor.

Indivee
Languages spoken by some village communities in Burdoth. Along with Entren, one of the main language of the recently subjugated kingdom of Heridoth.

Porantho
The secret language spoken by iscins. Like a technical thieves’ cant for those “scientifically” trained. 

Iscin Race and Post-human Creoles


Boru
A bronth creole dialect, a fusion of bear sounds and Entren. The main language of the bronth realm of Dobre.

Thowtis
A woffen creole dialect, a fusion of wolf sounds and Entren. The main language of the woffen realm of Anasan.

Abahth
A blount creole dialect, a fusion of gurgling sounds and Entren.

Chaunt-Tse
A cruagar creole dialect, a fusion of cat sounds and Entren. The main language of the cruagar realms in the Doben-Al.

Sakoq & Tikoq
Creoles of Entren that are designed to be spoken underwater by the post-human salu and acubon respectively. Learning one allows you to get by in the other.

Sapient Alien Languages


Triddis
The immensely complicated language of the thriddle, a sapient species of encyclopediasts. If you thought German had long sentences, buckle your seat belt.

Rorch-ko
The language of the ramians, quiet seafaring enemies of humanity. It is spoken in low even tones that rub human vocal cords raw.

Thuvill
The language of the thiven, a sapient species of peaceful colony-minded traders. It is a trilling musical language that humans can mimic in passable if discordant and flat tones.

Cleash
The clicking and hissing language of the Cleash, the sapient bug-like aliens. Also allows one to speak the dialect Gleebo, which is spoken by the Scarmis, mantis-like Cleash servitors.