Sarander

Saranders are massive creatures that look much like salamanders the size of an alligator, with smooth sandpaper skin, massive jaws, and a powerful tail. They have four short limbs, with the front limbs being precise and delicate manipulators. Its strange to realize such a fearsome predator is a very rational and frequently bookish being. Saranders are best at home in the water -- They can only use two hands at the same time while floating. They have gills, but can survive on land for long periods of time


Saranders achieved sentience a long time ago on a mostly ocean home world dotted with tens of thousands of volcanic islands. The civilizations they build routinely ended in overfishing and starvation, leaving ruins for the next population. Their most successful cultures thus are those best at learning the secrets of the past.

Saranders are poor sentients. Their 21 foot bodies weigh 1 ton, and require large amounts of meat to survive. They can only use their hands when floating in shallow water. In addition, their history has left them looking to sources other than themselves for knowledge, and they are better at reverse engineering than engineering. On their home planet, this serves them well, but if there is nothing left to engineer, they often struggle.

Saranders make excellent record keepers. They follow whatever is currently going on, and record it as it happens. They live a very long time, and have a keen sense of history -- their own history is hundreds of thousands of years old.

They are flighty and self centered, but are quite perceptive about others. They mate for life and live alone with their mate, often in rural settings. They are mostly useful in water, so those who must work do so in underwater industries.

Salamanders have poor eyesight, but excellent hearing, and benefit from vibration sense. They communicate vocally, though their range is at the high extreme of human hearing, and they read using touch.

Template [20]:

Lifting ST 10 (-1 SM 10%) [27], +10 HP (-1 SM 10%) [18] Amphibious [10], Doesn't Breath (Gills -50%) [10], Horizontal [-10], Bad Sight (cannot be corrected by glasses) [-25], Acute Touch 2 [4], acute hearing 3 [6]

Saranders in the campaign

Saranders were designed as a 'impotent founder race'. Wealthy, well distributed, but essentially unimportant. They find other races and get them to invent technology because they themselves are terrible at coming up with new ideas.

saranders as primitives or latecomers to civilization make for a sad story, due to difficulties in bringing them into the galactic community. Unless uplift and thus dealing with beings not shaped for tool use are common, they will continue to live in a struggling state.

Saranders are not designed for use as PCs, but are a classic NPC race. GM's who wish to encourage players to play the race are invited to let players be the race for [0] points.