Ideas for alien races

Morrus · Jun 12, 2017

monsmord said:
How would such an alien character interact with the game world?

That, there, is the problem. The primary function of a science-fiction species in a book for film may be to be alien and unknowable; but the primary function of an RPG game's races, though, is to be playable.

Eltab · Jun 12, 2017

monsmord said:
Some of the great sci-fi authors exploited this: the Kzinti by Larry Niven

Larry's XYZer of Worlds 5-ology works with the Puppetteers to make them more than a cardboard-cut-out "manipulative coward".

We can play with that a bit for current purposes:
Grazer
This intelligent race of herbivores feels most happy and secure when in a group of their own kind. Grazers have a hard time with the concept of 'deadly combat', but understand 'internal rivalry' just fine. (Their mating rituals involve setting dominance hierarchies.) Individuals who are running solo will tend to adopt a close network of friends as their new 'herd.' Grazers in large herds can be subjected to groupthink but individuals are perfectly capable of skepticism and critical analysis. Grazers want to understand the universe so they can locate potential threats, and decide what must be done about each: fight, flee, negotiate, ignore. They also want to locate places of safety (or abundance) so a herd can move in and occupy it. Philosophical / religious Grazers speak of the balance between Individual and the Herd, and the mutual obligations among all Individuals. Their known religion is reminiscent of the Greek gods: a clan of beings who personify natural forces and personal drives. There may be a 'secret religion' (or just very personal intimate thoughts) as well.

Lylandra · Jun 12, 2017

monsmord said:
Without getting into graphic posts or polarizing debate on Terran reproductive/gender values, how might you design an alien PC race with a different reproductive model from humans, and how would that shape their society, culture, outlook, and motivations? How would such an alien character interact with the game world?

This is not too hard to come up with, even if we *only* use reproductive models we find on earth and don't go crazy alien.

- Plant-like hermaphroditic people who develop a great amount of seeds. They use "kindergardens" - large fields which are tended by gardeners. These people don't really form bonds with their "biological" children and one a small fraction of the seeds really grow into something that may live

- A bee-like people who has three genders: queens, drones and workers. They form "states" and tend to lead peaceful lives inside their "state family" as all workers and younger drones are basically siblings who descend from the same mother. The queens have one (long or short) fertile phase in their lives during which they mate with drones and lay a huge amount of eggs. Queens are fierely protected before and during their fertile phase, but even after that "elder queens" are respected counselors to their people.

- a fish-like undersea people where male and female of the species do not only mate for life, they basically become one mind, flesh, body etc. at the act of mating. Only in this state they are able to produce offspring. Of course, finding the right partner would be a central part in each one's life.

monsmord · Jun 12, 2017

Morrus said:
That, there, is the problem. The primary function of a science-fiction species in a book for film may be to be alien and unknowable; but the primary function of an RPG game's races, though, is to be playable.

Absolutely, and that is a sticky wicket. That other forum is about writing, where the limits are imagination, so I found the experience immensely frustrating. And it's all fun and games writing about intelligent dust clouds an AU across that reproduce only when dispersed by a star going nova, but playing one...

Fortunately, even anthropomorphized (or "uplifted") species can vary enough in their biologies that unusual reproductive traits, habits, or needs can offer a nice choice in role-playing opps and race design. Say, a species that evolved from egg-layers where they never directly mated. Or something like salmon or cod where their "lusts" are impersonal and manifest as a desire to return to their birthplace to spawn (an intense locophilia). Or like cuckoos where they reproduce but leave other species to rear their young. Or a race that reproduces asexually through spores that incubate in other hosts (they'd better not sneeze next to my PC!), etc. The way these beings perceive family, interpersonal relations, community, even government and religion would be a lot of fun to explore.

I admit a bias toward the "sci" in my sci-fi, so I look for game options to create aliens that, even if they must be human-ish enough to play and relate, still have odd psychologies and different motivations from us. I tend away from options that are essentially humans defined by an exaggerated trait or attitude, such as Klingons and Vulcans, or biologic structures best described as human-but-better-at-something (taller, 2 heads, 4 arms, etc.). They can be awesome for role-playing and are excellent sources for philosophizing about what it means to be human. But, I don't know, I guess I just like really weird stuff.

Morrus, in your initial suggestion of a piscine race, what occurred to me almost immediately was that reproduction may be more fishy (less family-oriented? Do the parents even meet? Are the young kept in a parent's mouth for a while?), their expectation of motion is much more 3D than ours (they normally expect danger from any direction, they feel frustrated by land-based movement, etc.), and their senses will be different (smell may be more acute, hearing biased toward lower wavelengths, they may have an EM sense, they'd need filters and special lenses to see outside their liquid, etc.) And what might these differences do to their society, culture, art, philosophy, etc.? I'd be keen on a sourcebook that made them a complex, robust PC option. Power to the sea-monkeys!

monsmord · Jun 12, 2017

Lylandra said:
Plant-like hermaphroditic people who develop a great amount of seeds. They use "kindergardens" - large fields which are tended by gardeners.

OMG! Simultaneously hilarious and logical! Brilliant!

Lylandra said:
a fish-like undersea people where male and female of the species do not only mate for life, they basically become one mind, flesh, body etc. at the act of mating. Only in this state they are able to produce offspring. Of course, finding the right partner would be a central part in each one's life.

Niiiiiiice. One wonders if mating is the final act of their lives, if the new gestalt eventually becomes gendered and mates again, or if the gestalts settle into 3rd/4th genders that mate to produce a different type of generation (to your point about the bee-folk, perhaps the newly-formed gestalts represent a "higher life form" and when they mate they produce offspring with different attributes than before, whether smarter, larger, more specialized in design, etc.)

Dannyalcatraz · Jun 12, 2017

Without getting into graphic posts or polarizing debate on Terran reproductive/gender values, how might you design an alien PC race with a different reproductive model from humans, and how would that shape their society, culture, outlook, and motivations? How would such an alien character interact with the game world?

I was thinking of a biotechnical race, engineered to explore the universe because their creators could not easily escape their home world's gravity well. These pods fired off in all directions would- upon landing- assume a form similar to the local life forms, record experiences, and send that accumulated data back to their homeworld. They could self repair, but generally would not reproduce.

But if a pod lost contact with the homeworld for an extended period of time, it would mutate. Instead of continuing to futilely transmit, it would instead start to try to become a "Repeater". Which is to say that it would use whatever materials on hand to build a transmitter powerful enough to reach homeworld (or another Repeater) and then send out a whole new set of exploratory pods.

Though they came in peace and could be quite charming, that charm was merely there to be relatable and make other intelligent species communicate with them. The primary mission was exploratory, so they had no empathy. There are planets where once a thriving ecosystem harbored a great civilization but is now completely converted into a massive Repeater.

monsmord · Jun 12, 2017

Dannyalcatraz said:
Though they came in peace and could be quite charming, that charm was merely there to be relatable and make other intelligent species communicate with them. The primary mission was exploratory, so they had no empathy. There are planets where once a thriving ecosystem harbored a great civilization but is now completely converted into a massive Repeater.

Love it. Making this a viable PC race may require some tinkering or setting assurances, but as written this would make a fantastic sci-fi story element, perhaps as protagonist or antagonist.

Dannyalcatraz · Jun 12, 2017

monsmord said:
Love it. Making this a viable PC race may require some tinkering or setting assurances, but as written this would make a fantastic sci-fi story element, perhaps as protagonist or antagonist.

In a sense, they're perfectly playable, very stable, sentient...planet-busting bombs.

"Nobody puts Baby in a Farraday cage..."

Dannyalcatraz · Jun 20, 2017

The mysterious Ching are highly improbable: a highly-intelligent, graphene-based colonial species that strongly resembles a crystalline jellyfish/arthropod hybrid. They get most of their "nutrition" by absorbing solar radiation, supplemented by ingestion of raw materials of any and all kinds- "poisoning" is incomprehensible to them. They have been found on many planets despite possessing no known star-faring technology.

These facts in aggregate have led many researchers to believe they are a created, not evolved, species, possibly designed by an as-yet unknown race as part of their waste disposal & repair technologies.

The Ching themselves have no stories or theories of their own to contribute to discussions of their origins.

LordEntrails · Jun 20, 2017

Dannyalcatraz said:
The mysterious Ching are...
The Ching themselves have no stories or theories of their own to contribute to discussions of their origins.

Nice, except I think you are missing an incredible opportunity by them not having a creation myth. I don't know what that myth should be (maybe their should be dozens of them?) but it seems like a very interesting opportunity.