Orions

Orions carefully maintain an air of neutrality, especially while operating in and around Federation space. This, however, is more of a guise than a reality, and is often used to cover their usually shady operations. Nevertheless, Orion's official position of neutrality comes before ship and crew, as all unsuccessful Orion missions end in suicide. (TOS: "Journey to Babel"; TAS: "The Pirates of Orion")--Orion - Memory Alpha

Orions are recognized by their distinctive green (occasionally with yellowish or bluish undertones) skin. Compared to Humans, Orion males are typically larger, and usually bald; females poses extreme carnal appetites.

A Resistant (Disease +3) advantage is part of the Starfleet Academy Template. Since the Orion Template already has Resistant (Disease +8), an Orion Starfleet officer does not need the lesser versions in the Starfleet Academy template, which means the Starfleet Academy Template is 3 points cheaper for them.

As Orions are not members of the Federation, they are understandably rare in Starfleet--requiring sponsorship to even apply. Players are encouraged to develop Orion male PCs in Security, female PCs as Operators, but doing so is not required. A 10 point Unusual Background is required to play an Orion as a PC.

Remember, lowering an attribute or removing an advantage or skill from a species template does count against your disadvantage limit. [B262] E.g. Lowering your Resistant (Disease) from the Orion racial norm of +8 down to +3 would count as -2 character points towards your disadvantage limit–the difference between Resistant (Disease +8) for 5 points and Resistant (Disease +3) for 3 points. Reducing Orion Disadvantages down to the quirk level might be a good idea for Orion Starfleet officers.

Common Traits

While not part of the Orion Template, there are traits that are associated with Orions, more so than other species. An exception is Cultural Familiarity (Human) and Language (English—accented), which are common to most spacefaring non-Human Federation species. Those in green are exclusive to Orions.

* This disadvantage's cost depends on its self-control number.

Features

Orion Pirates

Most of the Orions you encounter will be pirates. Not all pirates are Orions. This lens a appropriate for any species that joins the Orion Syndicate.

While not on this lens, Cultural Background(s) and Language(s) appropriate to the region the pirate operates in are assumed. It's possible for an Orion Pirate to avoid acquiring Social Stigma (Criminal Record), but most have it.

Orion Slave Girls

"They're like animals: vicious, seductive. They say no Human male can resist them." - Commodore Mendez.

This lens is only available to female Orions.

Notes

Orion Female Pheromones

Orion Females emit potent pheromones that enhance their sexual attractiveness, even across species. Susceptible individuals close enough to inhale these pheromones (2 yards) must make a HT roll, subject to the bonuses and penalties listed below. On a success, they are immune to the effects for as many minutes as their margin of success. On a failure, they are compelled to make a pass. Once separated from the Orion, the effects wear off after as many minutes as the margin of failure. (Note: the effects of an Orion Slave Girl's Enthrallment Skill can last far longer.)

GURPS stats for Orion female pheromones are inspired by the Sex Pheromones from GURPS Bio-Tech, p. 48.

Species Specialties and Skill Penalties

Because of the common genetic ancestry of most of the races of the Milky Way Galaxy...--Hybrid - Memory Alpha

Many behavior/cultural and medical/physiological skills and techniques require you to specialize by species. There is a penalty when using these skills with culture [B23] or physiology [B181] you aren't specialized in. It is assumed you will specialize in your own species, but you don't have to. (Being specialized in other species but not your own requires a plausible background story—a 1 character point Unusual Background Perk).

Behavioral/Cultural Off-Culture Penalties

The penalties for using the behavioral/cultural-type skills – Anthropology, Body Language, Carousing, Connoisseur, Criminology, Dancing, Detect Lies, Diplomacy, Fast-Talk, Games, Gesture, Heraldry, Hypnotism, Interrogation, Intimidation, Leadership, Merchant, Poetry, Politics, Propaganda/TL, Psychology, Public Speaking, Savoir-Faire, Sex Appeal, Sociology, Streetwise, and Teaching [B23] – on a species outside your specialty are given in the table below. The Expert Skill (Xenology) skill suffers from the same penalties when used to identify or answer general questions about a species' culture.

* Cultural Familiarity for unknown species costs 1 character point, plus a 1 character point Unusual Background.
† Cultural Familiarity for enigmatic species costs 2 character points.

Counseling officers have access to Cultural Adaptability (10 pt) (or Xeno-Adaptability (20 pt)) which allow them to ignore these cultural unfamiliarity penalties for Common and Uncommon species (or all species). The Counseling! wildcard relative skill level bonus reduces these penalties for those skills above that aren't covered by Counseling! E.g. If you had Counseling! at Attribute+1 (36 pt), you would have only a -1 penalty when Carousing with an Alpha Centauran and no penalty when Interrogating one.

Medical/Physiological Off-Species Penalties

The off-species penalties for medical/physiological-type skills are based on the Zorsky Interspecies Compatibility Table [from GURPS: MODULE PRIME ALPHA, pp. 28-29] given below. These penalties can be waived if you can make a Physiology (species) roll for that species first. You may roll against Physiology (species) at defaut; such a roll suffers from the same penalties given below.

Physiology (species)/TL

IQ/Hard

IQ-6, Diagnosis-5, Physician-5, Physiology-off species penalty, or Surgery-5

This skill is covered on p. B213. A successful roll against your species specialty of Physiology temporarily removes the off-species penalty for physiology-esque skills [B181]: Diagnosis, First Aid, Physician, Pressure Points, Pressure Secrets, or Surgery. If you fail this Physiology roll, you feel the full effects of any off-species penalty. While a high Physiology skill with several species specializations can be an efficient way to go for high-IQ individuals and/or those with a wide range of medical/physiological skills, purchasing additional species specialties for particular skills removes their off-species penalty permanently.

These penalties can be waived if you can make a Physiology Skill roll for that species first, which will of course suffer from the same penalty. If you don't have the Physiology Skill for that species, you can roll against a default: IQ-6, Diagnosis-5, Physician-5, or Surgery-5.