Alien races: The Bizzarre form VS the vaguely humanoid form

[frankthedm]

I'm wondering, as far as believable/playable alien races go in a sci-fi / space opera game is concerned, what is more attractive to you, a race that is nothing like a human in form and function (no human features whatsoever), or a race that has some humanoid elements ( legs, a discernible head/mouth/eyes, arms, etc)?

The thing is as the human form is left behind so should human thought processes. Not only will the race look different, it will think differently making it difficult to properly portray though roleplay.

I'm of the opinion, that if you make a PC race_too_bizarre, your much more likely to have that race rejected by players.

Too bizarre and I'd question how the other characters empathize with such a horror or even tolerate it's presence.

On the other hand, if you make the race_too_human in concept, people don't believe it's an alien race.

For space opera, i can tolerate closely human appearing races if the similarity IS due to a galaxy spanning progenitor race. I like aliens to truly be Alien, but a truly alien entity does not make for good player character.

 

[Mallus]

The thing is as the human form is left behind so should human thought processes.

Why? Trying to leave "human thought processes" behind is the same as "leaving playability behind". It's bad advice.

Not only will the race look different, it will think differently making it difficult to properly portray though roleplay.

On the contrary, it throws the idea of "accuracy of portrayal" straight out the window. How could anyone prove, or even argue, you're playing an alien wrong?

Play an alien as a person (hint: it's your only option). To unwisely channel Sting and TOS simultaneously, "even Horta love their children, too".

 

[TwinBahamut]

I really question the plausibility of anything being too alien. Animal life on Earth developed the way it did for specific reasons, and these reasons don't change just because evolution takes place on a different world. Dolphins and whales look almost exactly like fish and sharks because that form is very well adapted to that kind of environment. Insects and Vertebrates are incredibly different in many ways, but both independently evolved heads, legs, wings, etc. This is the basic concept of Convergent Evolution, and it is easy to imagine that anything that evolves in space will, to some extent or another, have elements familiar to life on earth. If nothing else, alien life will almost certainly be carbon based, built from amino acid proteins, breathe oxygen, etc.

As a whole, I prefer aliens to exist somewhere in the realm of "it could have evolved on Earth, but it doesn't look like anything on Earth". I don't like Star Trek/Star Wars/Babylon 5 (League of Non-Aligned Worlds aliens, not Vorlon/Shadows) style aliens, simply because they are essentially human cultures, and any alien elements are obscured by that. At the same time, while I like the occasional "truly alien and incomprehensible" life form, I don't think they should be common or the norm.

I really like the idea of aliens that think a lot like humans, but have distinct quirks and different physiology. For example, an alien race that is a predatory species that has a body designed for stalking prey in tall grass, but is just as intelligent as a human. A pure predator/carnivore creature would probably have a different view of the world than an omnivore like humans, and matching it up with a non-humanoid form emphasizes that fact. A species of insect-like beings that live in a hive society, but have human-level intelligence, is also interesting.

Oddly enough, while I don't like Star Trek style humanoids, I love the idea of there being other actual humans out there, Stargate SG-1 style. As long as they have a common origin on a single planet and a good justification for being found out there, I really like seeing them, especially when you do things like create a group of them that have a symbiotic relationship with one of those truly bizarre aliens, creating something that is understandable but still alien...

 

[WhatGravitas]

If nothing else, alien life will almost certainly be carbon based, built from amino acid proteins, breathe oxygen, etc.

I generally agree with that, though I think carbon-based and breathing oxygen is taking it a bit too far, could be silicon-based. And not even all organisms on Earth need oxygen.

But the basic things hold, because of the shared physics - information exchange will be needed and there are only so many ways to do that.

Mortality is probably given, considering that more complex life cannot come into existence ex nihilo, hence some sort of development and evolution must be there, which probably means that something has changed and died to make place for the new beings (though their mortality is not given, considering what technology can do - but they have that concept), which gives us a common psychogical element. Possibly even resource conflicts (fighting over food), hence the concept of conflict and war.

Movement: You can move through gas, liquids, and solids - flying, swimming, burrowing and move on transitions - that's some form of wheel, rolling, crawling or leg, we haven't found much else that works.

Decay: Everything decays, which ties in into mortality, but also into a concept of time and perhaps some idea of causality and time-based thinking.

Fingers: If they want to build and manipulate stuff, they need some sorf of instrument, it's just like that. Could be pincers, suckers, whatever, but it must have relatively fine control.

Cheers, LT.

 

[RangerWickett]

My understanding of biochemistry is that, at least in environments where humans could survive without requiring advanced technology, carbon-based life is the most efficient form. Breathing CO2 or O2 are both valid metabolic pathways, but I think I recall O2 is just better for mobile creatures.

Now, in extreme environments, such, other stuff would survive and thrive, but any "Class M" planets (to use Trek parlance) would have relatively normal looking creatures.

I think my favorite alien species are the puppeteers from Niven's Ringworld series. Pierson's Puppeteers - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

What's the most unusual looking terrestrial creature on Earth of sufficient size to be a dominant life form? Elephants?

 

[El Mahdi]

. . .THAT SAID, don't be telling me we can cross breed with these creatures or they would really look desirable to us... unless your game is really meant as implausible space opera or you have a reasonable explanation (far future genetic variants, progenitor experiements, etc.)

Yeah, that's how Star Trek dealt with it in The Next Generation episode The Chase. The basic idea being that in the Star Trek universe, a presursor race of humanoids seaded their DNA throughout the Galaxy billions of years in the past. This common DNA to all of the "humanoid" sentients explains the fact that they all look relatively the same, and can even interbreed (although in real life probably not possible even with this comonality, but it workded for making an internal mythos explanation for a production limitation).

Personally, my favorite Sci-Fi campaign for alien races is the Alternity and D20 Future campaign setting Star*Drive. It has some relatively human like races (the "gray" like Fraal, the bio-electrical hybrid Mechalus, and the sasquatch like Weren) and some relatively more alien (reptile like T'sa, and winged, multi-eyed Seshayen), for use as character races, and numerous NPC races (such as the insectoid Klicks, and a necrotic bio-engineered race that I can't remember the name of - don't have my books with me). They all have really good culture fluff so they can be played very differently from humans. The original Alternity campaign setting book is the best for this fluff, as opposed to the D20 Future book.

 

[Angellis_ater]

Extremely interesting thread! For me personally, it is important that the aliens feel plausible in some way. The level of "bizarre-ness" is not as important as that there needs to be a reason that they communicate in the same way, or how they communicate with say humans to start with.

 

[demiurge1138]

What's the most unusual looking terrestrial creature on Earth of sufficient size to be a dominant life form? Elephants?

Giant octopus. Or ground hornbills.

 

[WhatGravitas]

What's the most unusual looking terrestrial creature on Earth of sufficient size to be a dominant life form? Elephants?

Actually, we humans are pretty weird. No fur, strange bipedalism, constructing things, neglected reflexes and instincts. But by sheer weirdness to us, I recommend looking at insects and insect states. They're pretty weird - despite sharing stuff like life-death cycle, legs, communication, and breathing oxygen.

Cheers, LT.

 

[El Mahdi]

What's the most unusual looking terrestrial creature on Earth of sufficient size to be a dominant life form? Elephants?

Also, what about predatory squid?

And also, although not as unusual looking, what about higher sentient marine mammals such as dolphins and whale?. Imagine if we needed to make whale proof ships to protect them from intelligent blue whales using pack tactics to sink shipping traffic.

Back to the thread subject, what about terrestrial aliens like in The Abyss?