Hi,
I’m about to start a TNG era campaign and one of my players has expressed an interest in playing a Zaldan. Any thoughts on species traits and ability modifiers? Thanks.
Huh. That’s a tough one. I’d say raise Control, Daring and Presence by one, each. Since they’ve got webbed hands, it is likely that they have a connection to water. So, I’d allow access to the Submariner talent (originally a Monean species talent, cf. p. 68 of the Delta Quadrant supplement) as a species talent.
The other species talent should obviously be tied to the Zaldan habit of regarding courtesy as offensive. It could be tied to social conflict and allow e.g. a re-roll or an advantage or something like that when attempting to uncover hidden motives. A fitting name could be e.g. “Look Through Fancy Words”.
Thanks. I was thinking Fitness rather than Daring as they are an amphibious race so would be physically fit swimming in oceans. I’ll certainly use the submariner talent.
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I’d considered Daring because they would likely run into trouble, often, with their attitude. But actually, Fitness is better, because within their own culture their own culture would not actually lead to much conflict, I suppose. 
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Fitness could also work if you think the one Zaldan we ever saw on screen was typical for the species (he was a pretty beefy guy). But Daring might go along with the very direct, blunt, and confrontational interaction we saw in that scene, too.
Interesting point perhaps: +1 Fitness, Daring and Insight? Also re-roll 1d20 when detecting lies?
I actually thought about Insight, yet finally took Presence because the remarkable trait of Zaldans is their style of communication. This leans more to Presence than to Insight, as it is more active, I think.
@BobtheSkull perfectly nailed why I thought of Daring. Welcome, by the way! 
@wasmeister Re-rolling 1d20 when detecting lies would be fine, but I think it’s a bit weak, compare with other talents. I specifically now look at Suspicious by Nature (Cardassian species talent, Alpha Quadrant p. 76) which points in a roughly similar direction but is more powerful. You could think of automatically giving Zaldans an advantage in social conflict (I read of this in one of the species talents but forgot which one it was…).
Or you could think of the following as a species talent:
Not Impressed by Diplomacy
Requirements: Zaldan, or GM’s permission.
Whenever you are engaged in a Social Conflict, the Difficulty of any task to calm down or relax you or to make you trust someone, is raised by 1. In addition, you may re-roll a die to look through any deception attempt that relies on friendly and/or diplomatic talk.
You could omit the “look through lies” thing, but I think it’s just a fine addition and not too much an advantage.
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I think both Dosi talents “Glorious Notoriety” and “Strength and Cunning” fit well, as well as possibly the “Submariner” talent from the Moneans.
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This might be of use:
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Thanks for everyone’s feedback.