Betazoids

Species Name: Betazoid
Homeworld: Betazed (Beta Zeta System)
Physiology: Humanoids nearly identical to Humans aside from full-black irises. Internally, Betazoids exhibit enhanced neural complexity and a secondary cortical lobe dedicated to telepathic functions. They experience emotions more vividly than baseline Humans due to neural-empathic cross-resonance.

Cultural Overview:

• Openness and Truth: Betazoid society evolved with minimal deception. Thought-privacy is functionally impossible, so interpersonal relationships are built around candor, trust, and emotional vulnerability. This results in cultural friction with species who view concealment or misdirection as normal.
• Telepathic Etiquette: Though mentally transparent among themselves, Betazoids hold strict social codes against reading minds without consent. Violating these codes is taboo, especially during diplomatic or professional engagements.
• Emotional Literacy: Betazoids are emotionally articulate and psychologically fluent. Their literature, theatre, and legal systems emphasize internal motive over external form.
• Wildlife Sensitivity: Many Betazoids avoid animals due to the chaotic, instinctual nature of their minds. Prolonged exposure to non-sapient mental noise can destabilize or overwhelm Betazoid focus.

Starfleet Roles:

• Common in Counseling, Diplomacy, Command, and Science roles.
• Their ability to read intent and emotional subtext gives them an edge in negotiation, morale management, and identifying subterfuge.
• Some Betazoids struggle with Federation expectations of restraint and tactical obfuscation, particularly in intelligence or covert operations.

Species Mechanics (STA 2e RAW + Canon Expansion):

ATTRIBUTES: +1 Insight, +1 Presence, +1 Reason
TRAIT: Betazoid

• Naturally telepathic and empathic.
• Highly attuned to the minds of others — gain Advantage or reduce Difficulty on tasks involving interpersonal insight, emotional awareness, or lie detection.
• Sensitive to telepathic interference, wild animal minds, or complete mental silence (e.g., from synthetic life or certain species like Ferengi, Breen, Ullians). These may inflict Complications at GM discretion.
• Struggle with deception — lying or withholding critical emotional truths may cause internal stress, social penalties, or Determination costs.

SPECIES ABILITY — TELEPATHIC:
Each Betazoid selects either:

• Telepathy: Enables direct thought reading, mind-to-mind communication, and surface-level intent scanning. See Telepathy talent (p. 156).
• Empathy: Detects emotional states, stress levels, deception, or subconscious emotional tells. See Empathy talent (p. 155).
  Half-Betazoids generally manifest Empathy rather than full Telepathy, unless heavily trained or genetically predisposed.