Planet Mercenary

Planet Mercenary is a sci-fi RPG about space mercenaries based on the excellent Schlock Mercenary webcomic. It is supposed to be fun, fast and funny. I have the PDF, the hardcopy edition ships in July. So, technically, the game isn't out yet and I already have house rules…

In many ways, it is a minimalist RPG; your only stat is Health, which is basically your hitpoints, there are no assets or complications other than skill modifiers. I think if I was going to play it for a long term campaign, I would either need to add a few stats or adapt it to Cortex/Serenity.

Player Races
Humans- Us.
"Purps"- Genetically engineered humans, superior athletics and endurance
Rillas- Uplifted gorillas
Ursumari- Uplifted polar bears
Neophants- Uplifted elephants with gripping hands
Fobott'r- Four armed bipeds
Frellenti- wingless avians with prehensile tongues
Kreelies- six limbed insectoids
Polyflorian- sluglike techies
Queltro- four limbed tertrahedral aliens
Kss'thrata- Velociraptor-like reptilians
Ob'enn- militaristic koala bear-like humanoids
Unioc- alien cyclops
AI/Robot/Droid- A machine intelligence, think Star Wars droids. Battle, engineering, medical, protocol, etc.
Essperin- cyborg insectoids

There are thousands upon thousands of alien races in the "Schlockiverse". We have also seen uplifted chimpanzees, octopi and dolphins were mentioned. Some from the webcomic are not in game, and are mentioned on the comic's wiki. If you have an idea for an alien to adapt, its a possibility. But they should be oxygen breathers and comfortable in Earth standard gravity by preference. If you want a list of unusual aliens, the Sector General series by James White has many alien species, but some are not suitable.

New Command Packages
Senior NCO- Whether they call you Sergeant Major, Gunnery Sergeant, Senior Master Chief or "Bosun", or even just plain "Sarge"; you are the glue that holds a unit together. You work with the officers but are not one of them, lead the troops and care for them, but never baby them. When the going gets tough, everyone, even the officers, knows they can rely on you for advice based on your years of experience at the sharp end. You are the keeper of tradition for your unit; turning civilian brats into soldiers and even officers. Bonus Skill Ranks- +2 Inspire or Intimidate, +2 History (Military), +2 to any two combat skills.

New Background Packages
College Student- Maybe you graduated, maybe you didn't. Somehow you ended up here, travelling the galaxy, fighting for pay. Beats flipping cricket patties.
Bonus Skill Ranks- +2 Research, +4 to one Mental or +2 each to two Mental skills.

Criminal- Life got a little hot for you, so you decided to explore a new career off world, far from certain questions. Taking orders is a pain, but it's surprising how many of your skills are still useful. +2 Larceny, +2 Melee, +2 Intimidate or Negotiate.

Police Officer- After a few complaints about "excessive force", you got a new career. Sure, the bad guys have bigger guns now, but so do you. And Maxim 37 means there's no excessive force on this job. +2 Pistol or Melee, +2 Perception, +2 Insight or Intimidate

Ranged Combat
There are no rules for range penalties! I will probably use the Advantage/Disadvantage bonus/penalty charts and may have to make up some charts. I don't want to make a chart with a range for each weapon, but I feel I may have to.