Aliens of Charted Space (1 and 2) Errata

[Tupper]

I was really pleased to hear that Aliens of Charted Space might be getting a revamp. A few years back, I had a bash at noting the typos etc in the first two books. I pulled this together by comparing with the first edition volumes. I've augmented these fixes with a couple more:

1. The rule of thumb for most careers in the core rulebook is that survival target plus advancement target = 12. This means that most careers are a tradeoff between risk and reward. Careers with high survival targets have easier promotion and vice versa. I've tried to fix the alien numbers for this. Aslan (except the space career) and Droyne have particularly punitive numbers here.
2. None of the aliens describe what to do if an alien gets hurt and wants to get medical care. In the core book some employers will cover some of the medical costs. I've tried to map the alien careers into their equivalents from the core book so that the table on page 49 of the core book can be used for aliens.

I think one other area that could use attention is the starting territory numbers for Aslan. The rules as written tend to generate a lot of Aslan characters whose fathers have territory 0. My impression is that most male Aslan would stay with their parents (using their father's TER/SOC) until they can acquire territory of their own. Similarly, female Aslan would be unwilling to marry a male Aslan with no territory, since their SOC would drop to 0 then. It stands to reason that owning territory is pretty much a prerequisite for a male and a female Aslan to set up independently of their parents and raise a family.

As a further aside on Aslan, given the 3:1 gender ratio, male Aslan should be much more likely to be first sons than female Aslan would be to be eldest daughters (e.g. with 8 siblings, you might expect to see 2 male and 6 females; 50/50 chance of being the eldest son).

 

[Endie]

I was really pleased to hear that Aliens of Charted Space might be getting a revamp. A few years back, I had a bash at noting the typos etc in the first two books. I pulled this together by comparing with the first edition volumes. I've augmented these fixes with a couple more:

1. The rule of thumb for most careers in the core rulebook is that survival target plus advancement target = 12. This means that most careers are a tradeoff between risk and reward. Careers with high survival targets have easier promotion and vice versa. I've tried to fix the alien numbers for this. Aslan (except the space career) and Droyne have particularly punitive numbers here.
2. None of the aliens describe what to do if an alien gets hurt and wants to get medical care. In the core book some employers will cover some of the medical costs. I've tried to map the alien careers into their equivalents from the core book so that the table on page 49 of the core book can be used for aliens.

I think one other area that could use attention is the starting territory numbers for Aslan. The rules as written tend to generate a lot of Aslan characters whose fathers have territory 0. My impression is that most male Aslan would stay with their parents (using their father's TER/SOC) until they can acquire territory of their own. Similarly, female Aslan would be unwilling to marry a male Aslan with no territory, since their SOC would drop to 0 then. It stands to reason that owning territory is pretty much a prerequisite for a male and a female Aslan to set up independently of their parents and raise a family.

As a further aside on Aslan, given the 3:1 gender ratio, male Aslan should be much more likely to be first sons than female Aslan would be to be eldest daughters (e.g. with 8 siblings, you might expect to see 2 male and 6 females; 50/50 chance of being the eldest son).

It’s actually more complex than that on the eldest son thing. There’s been a lot of discussion on 5s, but given the low rate of male children, the odds are higher that you’re a first than a second or subsequent son. Even for humans, it’s not a simple fifty-fifty.

Essentially, if you are a son then you are a member of a family that has a son. Every family that has a son has a first son. Not every family (by a long way!) that has a son has a second son. So you’re already substantially more likely to be a first son that a subsequent one unless the number of sons, on average, at least exceeds two.

 

[CordwainerFish]

It's been said before, at least once by me, but as long as we're discussing Vol. 1: the art for Vargr weapons and Aslan vehicles has to go.

 

[Terry Mixon]

It's been said before, at least once by me, but as long as we're discussing Vol. 1: the art for Vargr weapons and Aslan vehicles has to go.

To make way for 20 foot tall Aslan?