The Humans call them Space Rats. The Rodi don't mind. They've been called worse by better, and they ate those guys too.
Small, furry, and fast enough to make a Kanarie check its mirrors, the Rodi are a rodent-derived bipedal species that breed quickly, die young, and treat both facts as competitive advantages. A single mating pair can produce a litter of eight in under a standard month, which means any station, colony, or ship that tolerates one Rodi family will, within a year, find itself host to a fully functioning Rodi neighbourhood complete with its own economy, dialect, and opinions about the ventilation system. Pest control stopped being a viable strategy three centuries ago. The Unicore reclassified them as citizens instead. It was cheaper.
Individual Rodi are sharp, adaptable, and pathologically resourceful. They can fit through gaps that would stop a maintenance drone, smell a live power coupling through two bulkheads, and strip a malfunctioning terminal for parts before the warranty light stops blinking. They're also loud, territorial, and breed grudges almost as fast as they breed offspring. A Rodi will share its last ration bar with a stranger, then bite that same stranger's finger off over a disputed parking space. Loyalty and violence exist on the same spectrum for them. It's a short spectrum.
"Never corner a Rodi. Not because it's dangerous -- because there are already six more behind you." -- CORSEC field advisory, Vermin Protocol (rescinded).
Skivven -- a low-gravity moon orbiting a gas giant in the Ketter Expanse, tidal-locked and bathed on one hemisphere by the gas giant's reflected light. The surface is dust and impact craters. Nobody lives up there. Below ground is where everything happens.
Skivven's crust is riddled with natural tunnel networks -- billions of years of geological fracturing, lava tubes, and subsurface aquifers carved a three-dimensional labyrinth that extends hundreds of kilometres in every direction. The aquifers are the key. Geothermal venting drives a subterranean ecosystem fed by chemosynthetic fungal mats that carpet every wet surface -- vast sheets of bioluminescent growth that convert mineral-rich water and volcanic gases into biomass. These fungal networks are Skivven's foundation: they feed the insects, the insects feed the larger fauna, and the larger fauna fed the Rodi before the Rodi figured out how to farm the fungus directly. Modern Rodi warrens are built around managed fungal gardens, with tunnel humidity and temperature carefully controlled to maximise yields. A well-maintained warren can feed ten thousand Rodi from a fungal farm the size of a cargo bay.
The Rodi didn't build cities so much as they infested the geology. Warrens are carved into existing tunnel junctions, expanded with claw and tooth over generations, connected by passages narrow enough to discourage anything large enough to eat them. Population density is staggering -- a single warren can house ten thousand Rodi in a volume a Human architect would allocate to a parking structure.
Resources beyond food are scarce and fiercely contested. Metals, water rights, prime fungal caverns -- every tunnel intersection is a trade route, a chokepoint, and a potential ambush site. Rodi territorial disputes don't involve lawyers. They involve teeth, speed, and whoever brought more cousins. The low gravity means Rodi move fast underground -- bounding off walls, ceiling-running through junctions, taking shortcuts through crevices that would wedge anything bigger than a house cat. Outsiders who visit Skivven's warrens describe the experience as "being inside a wall cavity full of armed squirrels who know where you sleep."
Chit -- a rapid-fire, high-pitched language built around clicks, chirps, and tonal squeaks delivered at a speed that makes most Babelators buffer. A fluent Chit conversation between two Rodi sounds, to Human ears, like a broken smoke alarm arguing with a bag of gravel. The language packs an enormous amount of information into very short bursts -- a single three-second exchange can convey a trade offer, an insult, a threat, and a counteroffer. Context is carried entirely by pitch and speed. The same word said slowly means "friend." Said quickly, it means "food." The Rodi find the distinction obvious.
Standard Babelators handle Chit adequately but introduce a half-second translation delay that drives Rodi insane. Most Rodi who work with other species learn to speak slowly and loudly, which they consider a form of suffering roughly equivalent to being asked to walk instead of run.
Rodi names are short, sharp, and built to be shrieked across a crowded warren at speed: Skrix, Nib, Tchek, Fenn, Rikkis, Piv, Snix, Jikka, Vreet, Drit
| Name | Rodi |
|---|---|
| Sight | Excellent |
| Hearing | Excellent |
| Touch | Average |
| Smell | Average |
| Taste | Average |
| Special | No |
Mindshard Compatible. Organic brain with fast synaptic patterns. Captures well. See Mindshard for details.
As a Rodi, you can select from these extra Racial Feats when choosing from the Racial Feats List.
Requires: Any Rodi.
Effect: When holding nothing in your hands you can drop to all fours and scurry. This grants you an Extra Action which you can only use to Move.
Requires: Any Rodi.
Effect: When you use the Espionage - Stealth Skill, you gain a Boon(1) to your Stealth roll.
Requires: Any Rodi.
Effect: You shed fur when stressed. A lot of fur -- so much that once per Mission Tier you grant Disadvantage on all attacks targeting you for 1 round. Shedding your fur costs 1 Action.
Requires: Any Rodi.
Effect: Uses Weapons Melee Unarmed skill. You gain two claw attacks which deal 1 Hit (Slash) each. Each claw attack requires 1 Action and that hand must be empty.
When you are outnumbered or fighting alone, you gain two Extra Actions which can only be used for these claw attacks -- one per empty hand. To be considered outnumbered, you must be targeted by two or more opponents focusing their attacks on you. To be considered alone, your companions must not be in the current combat or must be unable to reach you.
Requires: Any Rodi.
Effect: Your Speed is not reduced when Squeezing.
Requires: Any Rodi.
Effect: Like your ancient rodent ancestors, you can tell when the metaphorical ship is sinking. Once per mission you may ask the GM the likely outcome of a course of action, provided that action is risky or you are under duress such as combat or a skill challenge.
Requires: Any Rodi.
Effect: Your skeletal structure is mostly cartilage. You can Squeeze through any opening 5x5cm or larger.
Requires: Any Rodi with Fanged.
Effect: When you hit a creature with your bite attack, your jaw locks on. You automatically inflict 1 Hit (Pierce) of bite damage every round until you are removed. The target is Susceptible to your bite damage if you are forcefully removed -- this damage is automatically delivered as part of the removal process.
While locked on, all your other attacks are made at Disadvantage and you grant Advantage Melee and Disadvantage Ranged to your attackers.
Requires: Any Rodi.
Effect: You have impressive incisors. Uses Weapons Melee Unarmed skill. You gain a bite attack that deals 2 Hits (Pierce). The bite requires 1 Action and your mouth must not be otherwise occupied.
Requires: Any Rodi.
Effect: You can communicate with rodents and other small furry creatures. This is not a language -- it's instinct, body language, and a shared understanding of what "danger" smells like. The creatures aren't your friends. They're just willing to negotiate.