@ rattraveler you have a good point, yes wild rats in the RW can be disease vectors (which is why wild ones often only live 1 year) also in the RW humans can be the disease vectors for domestic rats (we give captive rats diseases they do not normally die from in the wild) but because care is often better Rats can live up to 3 years in captivity. Also some strains of domestic are genetically weaker or more likely to get x or y medical issue/disease. Vimh might face very unfair belief that they spread diseases more so than the other races when it is really not so. Fleas the real spreader of the old black plague would be something they would not want anymore than a Yazirian or Humans want (yes humans can spread fleas, and various other parasites). But Core 4 bigotry might actually create situations where they do not receive medical care that would have prevented out breaks.

I forgot to consider Vimh that might be transparent (a creepy thought) so the scientists could observe something or other clearly. 

Project X movie used chimps as the lab critters but the idea in that movie that scientists would train an animal to fly a simulation plane and then irradiate the test subject with a lethal dose to see how long the chimp would keep flying to try and determine how long a real pilot would keep going could be the sort of experiments the UPF military was interested in for fighter pilots. In the RW UCDavis (in the nuclear free zone city of Davis) was doing experiments with radiation exposure (irony) on beagles, so they put the poor doomed puppies in a regular old metal shed and shot a radiation beam at the puppies in the shed... then puppies would get radiation sickness so a bunch of college students could study them dying, some sick grant. Really nasty experiment that, what made the experiment really bad was past the regular old metal shed was a farm the University did not own & in direct line of fire was a mobile-home where the farmer lived... they irradiated their farmer neighbor's house and him, he died horribly of radiation sickness. Why in the hell they did not put lead on one side I don't know, people playing around with radioactive materials with degrees and working on degrees should know it keeps going, even I know that and I don't have a degree in nuclear science! Stupidity that murders and contaminates everything in one direction aside there is bound to be this sort of thing being tested as well. Effects of weapons, exposer tests meant to study the damage and will power of the doomed, maybe for trying new medical technics or medicines out on the subjects... for trauma tests, they have to traumatize your body parts and then try and fix you with new surgery gizmos or stop bleeding with new med being tested and so on. Maybe they want to kill a subject to bring them back to life even (poisons & antidotes for instance, new restoration of brainwave techniques, maybe they have a new life support machine they are testing, etc.) The Lab has such nasty potential, could be a bit of a good old fashion crawl too if the facility has underground areas.

One point besides the Vimh there where probably other test animals. These could be normal little critters, non GMOed animals large & small or maybe life forms that might not be as intelligent as the Vimh but GMOed too for the purpose of getting data for Vrusk and Dralasites without using actually Dralasites or Vrusk in the testing. There are a couple old D&D critters that might work for test creatures or GMO attempts they could be housed in other areas deeper down, some might be semi-intelligent others just "monsters" no one wants to meet in the dark abandoned areas of the lab. Just a thought on what could be in a large facility gone amok.

As to society and potential of the Vimh, I think they defiantly have great potential as NPCs & PCs past scavengers & outcasts. I keep thinking master tinkerers, if someone can jerry rig something to work I bet they can, junk yard owners who can make anything work, masters at getting into and out of impossible places, spaces and circumventing security (this could actually make them criminals or valued acquirers of things for a party or really good at security as they have a knack for finding the holes in security "takes a rat to know or catch a rat" they might make surprisingly good law officers or detective types too), and the boxing thing means they might actually do well in sports such as boxing & martial arts and have some level of acceptance & fans in those sport professions. The abilities of Rats are impressive. Vimh defiantly enter into being a race in the UPF with the disadvantage of having to learn from the sidelines but they are capable of organizing, working together, have unique abilities, and are intelligent beings that can pretty much over come. They are problem solvers by nature. All this means is the other races are not seeing the whole Vimh, just what they want to see (scavengers) and the Vimh let them see just that. So if push came to shove the Vimh probably could surprise the heck out of Sathar or the Core 4. 

I think the social structure you outlined sums them up in how they are dealing with the other races: all three personality types also equal tactics being employed. Alpha strength/aggression = expansion into the Frontier & Sathar space, Beta Peace Keeper = avoiding war as means to an end, and finally Gamma slinker in the shadows = what exactly they are doing, staying mostly hidden, on the edges of society or only in specific areas of society, but what they are doing that neither Sathar or UPF know is their own secret business. I would argue the various Packs of Vimh are studying, and learning from as many races as they can, they have their survival to worry about, as intelligent beings no doubt want a better life for themselves and their people, they are probably more organized than the UPF understands or the Sathar. They would definitely make good smugglers and organized crime NPCs. I sort of see them as a neutral but chaotic factor, they are not good or bad per say but defiantly have their own agendas as groups and individuals. I would apply the idea of them viewing other races as a source of "renewable resources" aka what ever they want,  and they really enjoy punking, polling the wool over the other races eyes, fun scoundrels. Vimh values? They have them, they just might be one set for Vimh and one set for outsiders. However once the Vimh declare a person part of their Pack that would change dynamics. Vimh like trying to pull a fast one, the con job, circumvent the law (they enjoy the challenge), but they have values or ethical lines they will not cross... what those are might be individual or cultural ideals. Example Vimh might be naturally good family people. Vimh might keep really clean homes, something the other races would never suspect. Vimh might steal but are not known for being cold blooded killers. Vimh might smuggle anything/anyone for a price but are not known for slavery or taking hostages as a way of making credits.

Observing several Vimh families debark a shuttle.

"It is a Mischief of Vimhs." said the Vrusk security officer to himself. 

One Vimh male paused made eye contact with the Vrusk and said to himself in Vimh "Let the games begin."

 

TERA Lab LLC: Terran Exobiological Research & Application 

If PCs dig they may just discover clues leading to a mega corp or an individual with mega corp ties

Vimh combat idea: in kick boxing there is that wrap your hands in glass shards thing, maybe in extreme caged Vimh boxing they do the same but also wrap their tail. The tail would be pretty powerful if used as an extra way to strike out (spin & sweep with it for example). They might have special armor/weapons they wear on the tail. 

I think SF races should have 3 abilities. One the can use all the time or any time they choose like yazirian gliging, vrusk ambidexterity, or dralasite extra limbs. One that has a low percentage chance of success but can be improved with EXP like battle rage, lie detection and comprehension. And one other that may or may not come into play vrusk limb regeneration, yazirian life enemy, etc.

So building off the tail attack: in place of a melee or hand to hand attack a vimh can make a tail sweep attack to knock an opponent prone (note prone opponents are easier to hit) opponent gets a RS check tovsave against being knocked prone. Vimh can even be "fighting on the defensive for the +20 and still employ this attack the switch immediately to offensive in next round if they've knocked the opponent prone. Classic 3 vimh tactics is to surround an opponent bracketing him for a melee bonus employ tail sweeps and pile on pummelling him into submission or to death as situation warrents. 

The humma have a thicker more muscular tsil that is semi prehensile and can strike like a rifle butt IIRC. I wouldn't want to duplicate this in the vimh. But giving them a whip like tail that they've perfected into a combat asset I think works if they don't have martial arts skill they make the attack as if they are a 0 level martial artist (no -20 for unskilled use of a skill)

Off hand I can't remember what the original article gave them for racial abilities. 

I'd rather see iron Constitution be a +20 bonus to resist infections and etc. 

Superior olfactory sense is listed as a racial ability but not given a tangible way to impact the game. I would make this superior olfactory ability gives the vimh a 5% scent tracking skill that with training and experience can be improved . I believe environmental skill (AD skills) and appropriate skill choices in fan skill systems allow for tracking the scent ability should be a bonus to this and while the normal tracking skill would not work on the deck plating of a space station the scent tracking ability would. 

Toss is the tail slash suggested above and I can see the vimh be coming desirable character species selection even an archetype suggests itself to me: vimh bounty hunter; his racial abilities are well suited to tracking down and capturing a target. And the bounty hunter as scum image Dove tails with their overall image as well

These guys I think with the suggested updating could easily run the gambit from junk dealers/salvage specialists, spies, bounty hunters and more. Scandals & roughs. Serious & humorous. 

I love the throwing star idea. 

Hairless & Transparent Vimh: These creepy guys need a job in Vimh society, they would wear the most clothing. Probably every inch of them is covered.

Speach is Pan Gal but pitched high and squeeky. However, if vimh are talking amongst themselves and fast (ie trying to exclude other listeners) then its difficult to understand them by any but a linguist. Non linguists must make a LOG check to follow what's being said. Given enough time the (a couple of centuries) the vimh are likely to evolve their own dialect of Pan Gal. 

The swimming rules are 1hr of swimming then loss of 5STA/30 minutes of swimming after that. All characters swim at 10m/turn or 1km/hour. Edit Kevin addressed long endurance in his original article: 4 hours till taking damage plus some changes in speed.

Leaping is 2m horizontally w/o a running start and 15m with run start of 15m . I would propose a flat +1 meter to all jumping or vaulting.

By way of balance possibly they lose 1 point from punch score due to poor hand structure - they just were n't designed for punching. Minimum punch score is 1. Tail may be used to bash (punch score) or for the previously suggested special attack of knocking an opponent prone.

Society & Customs as well as attitudes were well described in tchcklinxa's post. 

The tribe probably does not consider them out casts but the ones that must be sacrificed, the ones expected to stand and stay behind so the main pack can escape. They are no doubt taught extra survival skills and techniques meant to help throw the computer off the trail of the pack and have to past tests of courage. If they also escape excellent but their job would be distract, mislead, slow down, hinder and damage the computer (it's robot minions, surveillance & security systems) so the Pack can evade & escape.  In a tribal type culture they probably have their own religious/cultural society that is within all the tribal groups... a special type of last stand group. Being the most desirable hunted type of Vimh by the computer they have become hunters themselves... the hunter is the hunted & the hunted the hunter. In UPF society these are the guys that probably became bounty hunters first (because they probably would be most skilled) maybe setting a standard of people seeing Vimh Bounty Hunters dressed from head to toe and in goggles... people might not even know what Vimh look like under all the rags and stuff at first. 

If computers & robots have been chasing Vimh around the Vimh might not like Mechons believing AI that is sentient is dangerous and should be eradicated based on their racial history of dealing with a mad computer. They are puzzle solvers and tinkers by nature so I do not suggest making them anti-technology per say just convinced that sentient machines especially computers is wrong, dumb and no such machines should be trusted or allowed to exist too long. Vimh would be big believers in back up ways of shutting down computers just in case. A Vimh designed computer system would have lots of safe guards from preventing it becoming a danger to it's owner. Other races might find Vimh computer systems poorly integrated, requiring more work by the operator, limited to certain tasks and so on as a result non Vimh might think the Vimh do not understand computers & robots well, when in fact they do, they just have some trust issues.

Having transparent skin, while a liability for environmental protection would have the benefit of aiding medical diagnosis and surgery +20.

Dark Cloaks, Hooded Ones, the Claoked are all good terms for them. 

Edit: an NPC seeing a transparent skinned vimh in the right or wrong light would describe what he saw as a ghoul. I can ghouls becoming a slang term.

Note: started a doc here: 

http://www.starfrontiers.us/node/8926

As a place to assemble and edit a document. Need to break down tchcklinxa's post on society, customs and attitudes