Allowed Species for TOS Campaign?

[Stan]

I'm gearing up for a campaign set in The Original Series era, and I'll be using a custom ruleset based on Where No Man Has Gone Before 2.0. One of my players likes to play unusual races. So I'm trying to figure out (1) what species are common on Federation ships, and (2) what species might be allowed (due to unusual circumstances) to be a part of Federation crew (think T'Pol in Enterprise or Saru in Discovery).

Right now I'd expect to have my TOS Federation species to include Human, Vulcan, and Tellarite. I can't recall if Andorians are part of the Federation in this era. Below is a list species from Star Trek Adventures I'm mulling over. Thoughts on species I should allow as part of the crew of a TOS Federation ship?

Andorian
Ardanan
Bajoran
Benzite
Betazoid
Betazoid, Deltan
Bolian
Changeling
Deltan
Denobulan
Efrosian
Ferengi
Human
Klingon
Rigellian Chelon
Rigellian Jelna
Risian
Soong-Type Android
Tellarite
Trill
Vulcan
Xind-Insectoid
Xindi-Arboreal
Xindi-Primate
Xindi-Reptilian
Zakdorn

[Falconer]

Hey, Stan! Well, after a lot of thought, I came up with this short list:

Human
Alpha Centauran
Andorian
Tellarite
Vulcan
Argelian
Capellan

The first five are the traditional “Founders of the Federation” list.

Argelians fill that “empathic woman” role that Ilia and Troi later fill in the franchise, but using Argelians gives it a uniquely TOS feel.

Capellans could fill the sort of Worf role; they’re big and honorbound and stuff. This was a bit of a leap, but in my campaign I established them as being more advanced than we saw in the episode. You could as easily have them aboard Klingon vessels as Federation ones.

I allow Klingons and Orions for side-campaigns.

The main Starfleet crew I try to keep mostly earth human, and to emphasize different earth nationalities. I think that’s an important ingredient of TOS. So right now we have one Vulcan and one Argelian, but the rest are from earth. Oh, most of the players also have red shirt “backup” characters, and we recently established one of them to be a Skorr. That was great fun!

We have a Klingon side-campaign with all Klingons plus one Green Orion. And we have a merchant crew with two humans, an Alpha Centauran, an Andorian, a Ruddy Orion, a Green Orion, a Capellan, and an Android (I really let them go bonkers).

Check out my full house rules documents if you are interested, specifically the Character Creation file.

[Stan]

Thanks for the great feedback! Agreed on the 'mostly human' trope. I will also check out your house rules -- looks pretty cool.

After I made my post, I was listening to 'Agents of Influence' on Audible (newly released) which is in the TOS era, and they have an Arcturian as a Federation crew member:
memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Arcturian

There is also a Rigellian Chelon who is an ambassador about the Vanguard starbase in the TOS era Vanguard series; I can't recall if he's part of Starfleet though.

[Falconer]

Hey, sure, I mean, are you looking for an exhaustive list of aliens (from any source: TAS, TMP, TNG, ENT, etc.) that would have canonically been around and serving in Starfleet during the TOS time period? Then you could include Caitians and Edoans and Skorr from TAS, and Denobulans from ENT, and Deltans and Zaranites and Saurians and the two you mentioned from TMP, and Efrosians from TVH, and probably a lot more I’m forgetting.

I’m not super influenced by those sources, and prefer to hew to the look-and-feel of TOS as much as possible, so I tend to avoid those references. We did throw in a Skorr in a recent adventure, as I mentioned, but the great thing about that is that Skorr are super high-concept. It’s a big bird man! You don’t have to have seen any particular episode to know how to play it.

There are a bunch of different canonical Rigelians or Rigellians. To me when I say Rigelian, I tend to think of the “Vulcanoid Rigelians” (these or maybe these), as introduced or implied by “Journey to Babel.” There are also the “Furred Rigellians” which I am familiar with from The Final Reflection but don’t have much of an opinion about those, let alone the “Turtle Rigellians” from TMP or the “Face Tattoo Rigelians” from ENT.

[c57d]

For a late period TOS/TMP campaign I would also suggest the Medusans from "Is there in Truth no Beauty"?
Given their Navigation skills, maybe living in an isolated quarters linked to the Nav controls. And with an android body which the Medusan could "possess" for landing party duties??
Slightly off topic, I have previously run a Klingon centered game featuring the non "humans with bumpy heads" aliens mentioned in "The Final Reflection". So the "drooping, unbaked clay" Willall, the winged humanoid Withiki and "small, black haired, spindaly legged" (no species name given) one.
And a few other exotic ones that I houseruled.

[captainpike]

All good suggestions. The Last Unicorn TOS RPG also had Tiburonians as a PC species. That's the bat eared humanoids that Dr. Severin from Way to Eden represents and maybe the shady guy Dr. McCoy meets in the Bar in Search for Spock. memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Tiburonian

[Stan]

Fantastic feedback folks! I will compile the master list (with links to species descriptions on memory-alpha.fandom.com/ and/or memory-beta.fandom.com/) in the near future and share out to the group :-)

[Falconer]

Star Trek Maps (1980) has a cool list of Federation members:



I believe it is all strictly from TOS/TAS, plus Deltan (from TMP).

[TardisCaptain]

There are also the Ithenites memory-beta.fandom.com/wiki/Ithenite

[c57d]

Sept 25, 2020 17:20:38 GMT -5 TardisCaptain said:

There are also the Ithenites memory-beta.fandom.com/wiki/Ithenite

Not being an ENT fan it is so good to see that the copper skinned "vertically challenged" race are finally named.

On a more helpful note (?) FASA presents the Axanarians as genetically very similar to Klingons. And since (also according to FASA) first contact with Axanar was over 100 years before TOS, maybe some Axanarians could have got as far as Starfleet?
Could be a way to have a Worf-alike long before TNG?

[captainpike]

I remember the LUG "dusty" Axanarri.

Apparently, the canonical Axanarri appeared in Enterprise.

memory-beta.fandom.com/wiki/Axanarri

[Stan]

Thanks for everyone’s great feedback! I’ve done some additional research and I’ve compiled a list of species which I’ll potentially allow in my upcoming campaign. My revised selection criteria is this:

1. Must be a “canonical” species with an article on memory-alpha.fandom.com/.
2. The Memory Alpha entry must include a photo of the species.
3. Species could potentially be part of a Federation starship crew during 2264-2270 (the timeframe of Kirk’s 5 year mission).

In my campaign, to emulate the tropes of Star Trek television series, half or more of the player characters in a Starfleet crew should be humans from earth, ideally of different earth nationalities. Most characters on a Federation ship will be one of the four founding species, but other species are also available as Federation characters.

For completeness, I’ve included Caitians, Edosians, Skorr, Medusans, Zaranites, and Deltans, but I will likely exclude them from my personal campaign due to issues I’ve mentioned in the footnotes below.

In addition to the below list of Federation species I will also allow unique and unusual species such as Airiam (memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Airiam) the cyborg (memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Cybernetic_organism) or Saru (memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Saru) the Kelpian (memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Kelpien), both from from Star Trek: Discovery.

Founding Species of the Federation (member species as of 2161):

[/b] memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Human
Andorian memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Andorian
Tellarite memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Tellarite
Vulcan memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Vulcan[/ul]
Other Federation Species (member species as of 2264-2270):

[/b] memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Arcturian
Ardanan memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Ardanan
Argelian memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Argelian
Axanar memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Axanar
*Caitian memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Caitian
Capellan memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Capellan
Catullan memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Catullan
Chelon, Rigellian memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Rigellian
Coridan memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Coridanite
***Deltan memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Deltan
Denobulan memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Denobulan
*Edosian memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Edosian
Efrosian memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Efrosian
Ithenite memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Ithenite
Jelna, Rigelian memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Rigelian
**Medusan memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Medusan
Saurians memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Saurian_(species)
*Skorr memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Skorr
Tiburonian memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Tiburonian
**Zaranite memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Zaranite [/ul]
* The Caitians, Edosians, and Skorr are from The Animated Series. There is a photo of a Caitian from one of the Star Trek movies, but no photo exists of an Edosian or a Skorr, only animated pictures. Having both an Edosian and an Efrosian species might get a bit confusing. Note that the Skorr have the same visage as the Aurelians due to reused animation.

** The Medusans are non-corporeal and the Zaranites are unable to breathe oxygen, so both may pose challenges if used as player characters.

*** Deltans are from Star Trek: The Motion Picture, so might not be available in campaigns that take place prior to TMP.