Aliens or not

[Chaldfont]

How about aliens like the ones in this book: Expedition by Wayne Douglas Barlowe (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...f=sr_1_5/102-7413553-7417725?v=glance&s=books).

Man, I love this guy's imagination. He's got an amoeba sea, "liquivores" which feed much like mosquitos, and all his aliens are blind and only sense their environment with sonar and electromagnetic fields.

 

[C. Baize]

For me, it depends on the origin of the aliens...

Did some ancient intelligent race seed the galaxy?
Did life evolve completely independently, everywhere?
Is the hominid form the most efficient for tool use (and therefor crafting and computer use)?
How widespread is intelligence? Sentience? Sapience?
How far can a hivemind extend from its source?

Personally... I rather like the concept of an ancient species seeding the galaxy with their own hominid (but highly adaptable) raw genetic material on worlds that are about to produce life on their own, as some sort of experiment.
That brings to mind other questions...
What are the ancient species?
Are they still around?
Do they care about their "offspring" as anything more than a scientific curiosity?

With this kind of setting, it's plausible to have numerous hominid alien species... even Urban Arcana races as aliens... And also plausible to have completely alien intelligences, either where this ancient race didn't seed their raw genetics, or where they did, and another species snuffed them out, or simply surpassed them as the dominant intelligent species on the planet.

 

[Bagpuss]

2300AD had some of the best aliens IMHO of any Hard-Sci Fi setting, the Kafer, may have had the usual 2 legs, 2 arms but their psycology was what made them truely alien, certainly the Kafer sourcebook is worth getting (almost worth putting up with DRM to get it from DTRPG).

The Hiver were equally wierd, with "octopus meets starfish" like limbs.

 

[Brian-MGT]

For me, I've never been a fan of multiple aliens like that of Star Trek, but then again I am a fan of Star Wars so not sure how that figures. One of my favorite approaches towards aliens is in the Alastair Reynolds' books with very ancient aliens that existed long ago.

But it does seem funny that in most sci-fi it is always the humans that are trying to "catch-up" with alien X. Don't hear much about humans being the ones that seeded the universe in some form. And now I am rambling...

 

[Omega Lord]

I agree with C. Baize on his take on aliens. I like the idea of a human-esq proginator race who seeded just about every habitable planet with thier own highyl adaptive dna as a sort of experiment. I also like the idea that they left scatterd caches of nigh-incomprehensibly advanced tech (like stargate: atlantis). Course then if these proginators are absent what happened to them? a dark ages collapse of empire? a plauge? did they just die out? or did an older more terrifying power destroy them?

Another fun aspect to look into is "aliens" being long lost/genetically alterd/divergent evolution humans. Like moreous founding thier own colony that is then forgotten for centuries and left to flourish on thier own.

man I need to give form to this setting that is floating around in my head .

Addendum: as far as the horde of hostile alien bugs being cliched I am pretty sure that sort of idea was around before Aliens (I think starship troopers book was published before, but I am not quite sure). Also I see it as a logical progression when one looks at hive insects like bees or ants, but thats me.

 

[Calico_Jack73]

Addendum: as far as the horde of hostile alien bugs being cliched I am pretty sure that sort of idea was around before Aliens (I think starship troopers book was published before, but I am not quite sure). Also I see it as a logical progression when one looks at hive insects like bees or ants, but thats me.

Yes, Starship Troopers was around before Aliens and I agree with the logical progression theory. However, it is cliche' because it has been overdone and no matter what creepy crawly alien you throw at a group they are going to say "Oh, that is just like in Alien/Aliens!".
The premise of Starship Troopers was quite a bit different too (I'm talking the book, not the movie). In the book the MI would be wearing powered armor that would allow them to destroy hordes of bugs before the MI trooper were taken down by sheer numbers. The point was that no matter how many bugs were killed the humans were going to lose the war. It took 18 years for a human to "grow up" and another year or so of training before he/she would be ready for combat. A bug only took a few days before it "hatched" and was fully ready to go into combat. Starship Troopers was all about what it meant to be a soldier, it most definitely was NOT a space horror novel. That is why it was on the Marine Corps Commandant's reccomended reading list for several years.

 

[Peterson]

I’m on the fence on this one.

While I am a diehard fan of Star Wars, I can see the logical thought that says “Aliens are not 90% humanoids”. However, I would say, that for pure playability, that 90% of aliens have to be humanoids – it not only makes things easier on both the player and the gamemaster, but also just fits into most systems' standing rules better. In the years (and by years, I mean more than a decade) of playing in my own homebrew sci fi campaign, not one of the twenty-odd gamers chose the (immensely-powerful) non-humanoid alien race. While I’m not saying that this was a case study, it did indicate to me what the majority of the players wanted to see and use.

That’s why my game has (mostly) humanoid aliens.

Good topic though - and some good thoughts on the matter.

Peterson

 

[The Shaman]

...no matter what creepy crawly alien you throw at a group they are going to say "Oh, that is just like in Alien/Aliens!".

Unless you use the star doppleganger from the Menace Manual, in which case they'll say, "Oh, that is just like in John Carpenter's The Thing!"

Of course, the words will quickly turn into screams that die in their throats, but can that ever really be a bad thing? I mean, really - can it?



I've followed the same line of reasoning as Peterson for many years on this one - if I was writing a hard sci-fi novel, then I would devote an extreme effort to make my aliens truly otherworldly, but in designing a campaign setting for a space adventure roleplaying game, playability has to come first, and in a future with humans, humanoid aliens are the most playable. (I'm sure there are a dozen exceptions that experienced gamers can cite, but I would say that they simply prove the rule.)

 

[Calico_Jack73]

Unless you use the star doppleganger from the Menace Manual, in which case they'll say, "Oh, that is just like in John Carpenter's The Thing!"

Either way I'd try to avoid the players saying anything that begins with "Oh, that is just like in _______________ <-Insert Movie Title"

 

[The Shaman]

Either way I'd try to avoid the players saying anything that begins with "Oh, that is just like in _______________ <-Insert Movie Title"

I think the occasional homage appearance by a familiar monster can be a lot of fun for players and GM, provided you give it a little twist so that it doesn't become just roleplaying scenes from the movie.

What I don't care for is entire campaigns made up of this bad guy from Halo 2 and these mooks from Chronicles of Riddick and this sword from Kill Bill vols. 1&2 and these monsters from whatever-movie-or-video-game-the-GM-played-yesterday. Some folks enjoy that style of play - and more power to them, 'cause there's certainly nothing wrong with that - but that gets tiresome very quickly for me.