Lets create together a couple of cool alien races

[Turanil]

- excerpted from the Alien Races? thread - Perhaps we could use this thread to toss out some ideas on new races?

It's exactly what I was thinking. I am myself disatisfied with most of the sci-fi alien races proposed by most d20 products (including d20 Future). I propose this thread to create a few alien races that make sense both from a (pseudo) scientifical point of view, and from a gaming perspective.

I know this thread could go into the Houserules forum, but this thread should be first to discuss what makes an alien race interesting and original, and to know what all of you would like to get as kind of races. Then, we can discuss their planet of origin, biology, and then culture. Only when this important background will have been agreed upon, can we propose racial traits. However, I think that coming with stuff like racial traits must come last.

I will begin tell my idea on the subject next post.

 

[Turanil]

To begin with, I recently bought (and read) a book on creating Aliens and Alien Societies. I think it would be interesting to create a few races now.

My own thinking about alien races.

1) I want something original, yet playable. I want something also credible from a scientifical point of view, yet it just needs to be superficially credible. So, the planetary conditions of the race will also have to be detailed.

2) There are many different things I could like to see. Among them:

• Human variants: I am not against the types of alien races depicted in Star trek (humans with but a funny nose or pointed ears), but they need a logical explanation to exist on different planets of different stellar system, yet have the same kind of DNA, same form / weight / etc., similar type of culture, etc., etc. If a proto human race seeded humanoids on different planets they terraformed if need be, then discreetly monitored these races so they eventually look similar, okay. Otherwise, other humans on other planets like earth is simply lack of imagination and ignorance of the simplest of logic. At least where hard sci-fi is involved (but we don't speak about the future fantasy genre here).
  
• Klingons like humans: I would like to have something clearly klingonesque, but abiding with what said above. For me, Klingons are but far descended from the same kind of DNA as humans.
  
• Vulcans like humans: Same remark as for Klingons being variant humans.
  
• Dwarves like humanoids: Same remark as for Klingons being variant humans. Here I see this: they were evolved on a planet with higher gravity, which explains their stockier and shorter build. (According to the book I did read, heavier gravity would induce for various reasons creatures more stocky and closer to the floor so as to be less likely to fall, which proves more lethal.) I see them with almost the same strength as humans because they are smaller in size, but being denser are stronger for their size, thus as with typical humans.
  
• Grey Alien: I would like to redo this race with a biology and culture more thought out.
  
• Mi-Go like creatures: I am fascinated by this alien race by Lovecraft. IMO Lovecraft is one of the author who have the most conveyed original and compelling alien races, and I would like to have a couple created.

 

[malladin]

Hey, here's a product I was working on until recently. It's not complete and only partially edited, but I'm unlikely to get back to it inthe next 3-4 years the way things are going at the moment (and that's no exageration!). So what the hell, it was only ever going to be a $2 PDF anyway, so I'll just stick what I've got here and see what people think.


The 'race' is actualy three diffferent playable castes of the same sopecies with very different biology. File attached is a zip of an RTF. I've removed art to both make it smaller and to avoid any copyright issues. Comments very much appreciated...

Ben, Malladin's Gate
www.malladinsgate.com

 

[Turanil]

This is interesting, thanks. I will give it a closer look, but at first sight this insect-like race fits well in a sci-fi setting. I like the idea that they live in a colony ship...

 

[malladin]

Aha! You'll see a surprise when you read in more detail... They're not Insectoid at all. Whilst their culture seems insectoid, and their breeding patterns are very similar to those of ants and bees, they are actualy humanoid creatures (possibly bred by the ancient civilisation whose ship they now inhabit from captured early earth humans)

cheerio,

Ben

 

[Lord Morte]

Thoughts of Alien Life

The thing I like to remember when creating alien races is that Earth biology is a product of the way in which chemistry and physics work. In short, there are good reasons for us being carbon-based oxygen-breathers. Carbon is relatively common and can form a remarkable number of complex structures due to its atomic structure, making it an ideal building block for life. Oxygen is also common and along with carbon, produces an effective way of storing and releasing chemical energy, i.e. of getting energy out of food. The energy released when oxygen is used to break down sugars (read: carbon-based packets of chemical energy) is greater than any similiar biochemical reaction. So life on Earth developed breathing oxygen because it was the most efficient means of getting energy, and while non-oxygen 'breathing' life is possible (we've got a few bacterial examples here on Earth) is is less likely to develop into the kind of creatures that people will want to play.

• Human variants: I am not against the types of alien races depicted in Star trek (humans with but a funny nose or pointed ears), but they need a logical explanation to exist on different planets of different stellar system, yet have the same kind of DNA, same form / weight / etc., similar type of culture, etc., etc. If a proto human race seeded humanoids on different planets they terraformed if need be, then discreetly monitored these races so they eventually look similar, okay. Otherwise, other humans on other planets like earth is simply lack of imagination and ignorance of the simplest of logic. At least where hard sci-fi is involved (but we don't speak about the future fantasy genre here).

For my campaign, I wanted to avoid the whole "humans but with bumps on their forehead" approach to aliens but also wanted a large number of player races that didn't require too much thought to RP. So I'm developing a number of human variants, with each variant representing a group of humans who have adapted to an other-worldly environment after humanity expanded out into space and settled other worlds. The adaptions are supposed to be the result of natural selection accelerated by gene therapy. So you have races, still basically human on a biological level, but alien in that a large part of their nature is radically different; actual humans but with bumps on their forehead.

 

[Turanil]

What kind of variant human races did you design that way?

One that I thought about are sort of dwarves:

- Their planet is farther from the star than Earth from the Sun in such a way that it gets less heat and light than Earth. Then, the planet is larger and has heavier gravity, retaining a denser atmosphere. This atmosphere produces a green house effects so the planet is not freezing but of temperate climate. At the same time it is gloomy.

- In my opinion, D&D dwarves should be physically weaker than humans due to smaller size, at least getting a -2 adjustment (I even don't speak about gnomes...). However, since my dwarf sci-fi race evolved on a world with a higher gravity (I guess something like 1.5 G), they are as strong as humans. Then, still because of gravity they are shorter (and less prone to fall, which is worse than on a 1 G planet), and sturdier (thus +2 Con and Endurance feat for free). They gain low-light vision for living in a gloomy world (but also a penalty if trying to see in bright light without appropriate equipment). Then, they are tougher getting a +2 natural AC bonus (or maybe a 2/- DR). I don't know for other racial traits.

- I don't have very much ideas about their culture yet, but I have been thinking about this: Their planet being bigger and heavier is less cooled, so has a more active geology. As such, earthquakes and (huge) volcanoes eruptions are more frequent and destructive. So to survive this race has developped a nomade way of life in which they can change of place quickly if need be, and their homes are either caravans or boats so can be moved and will resist better to destruction. Likewise they have learned to develop an industry based on many small production units that can be linked together, but that can be moved quickly if need be. They have learned to harness the volcanic and telluric energies, and are also expert in chemicals.

Any other idea about this race?

 

[Wycen]

Besides variant humanoid species, are there other types of aliens you find interesting? What about intelligent slugs or jelly fish? Some question of biology and playability need to be addressed before or duing species creation. If they don't have a skeletal system or only breathe a particular atmosphere, underwater, etc. how are you going to integrate them into a group of players who can walk under their own power or don't need a rebreather device wherever they go?

It may indeed be more likely that carbon based life forms would predominate, but this doesn't take into account environment. Not all planets with viable ecosystems will have oceans, mountains and prairies. Scientifically you have to consider the ZOL, zone of life which is the range from a sun that allows water in liquid and vapor form to exist, (more detailed info here: http://www.ess.sunysb.edu/fwalter/AST101/habzone.html )

Humanoid aliens could be hunchback, have webbed hands with only 3 fingers, more than 2 eyes, or even more "radical" evolutionary developments, such as multiple arms or gills, etc.

Freaky aliens like Zhaan the blue woman on Farscape who is a plant or rock people have different needs of course.

So trying to figure out the kind of alien life you want is an important consideration. It is something we are trying to do with Dawning Star.

 

[Morgenstern]

As I mentioned in the root thread, you might want to take a look at galactic races. A lot are humanoids or looking at treatments of existing D&D races in a sci fi setting, but the Quasta and Ulb are totally non-humanoid.

The first steep of developing alien races is understanding your own anthrocentric preconceptions. Someone mentioned they might have more eyes - it's a pretty blithe assumption that they'll have eyes at all. Or bilateral symetry. Or the ability to do math. If you really want to strech yourself, you need to think about possibly chucking a lot of these things. And consider which can change while still being playable.

I had a neat race in a sci-fi game I was toying with that the looked like a big ivy leaf. They had an armored central cavity shaped sort of like a carrot in shape, and finger-like appendages all the way around the edge of the leaf. They couldn't see in the human sense, but had good 3D electromagnetic sense out to about 35 feet. They can "read" human-stlye tv screens by following the scan lines, and have a lively sense of humor. Tool users, starflight-capable culture. They communicate amongst themselves by radio waves and wear a portable speaker when amongst humans, allowing them to speak. Biologically they're wildly different than humans, but they can get along with them and appreciate a good game of chess. The net result was playable, had some advantages and disadvantages, and didn't suffer the same 'special effects budget' limits that make shows like Star Trek so distressingly repetitive in their aliens .

 

[Turanil]

To begin with, I recently bought (and read) a book on creating Aliens and Alien Societies.

I did read this book, and it gives some useful info (although it is nonetheless light on it) about how creating alien races. Among other things:

1) Hands or similar appendages are necessary to develop a technology. Dolphins may be very intelligent, they don't have a technology and are unusable as an alien race in a sci-fi setting (and Moreau dolphins do not bring much to the game).

2) There are problems related to size, thus intelligent species are unlikely to be smaller than gnomes and larger than ogres. Giants are nearly impossible on an Earth like planet, dinosaurs couldn't exist right now (Jurassic Park is impossible) because the atmosphere is much less dense and has a lesser proportion of oxygen that it had in jurrasic times; a dense and oxygen rich atmosphere was needed to allow 30 tons creatures and flying pterodactyls.

3) Oxygen is probably one of the best chemicals for life; it didn't exist in Earth's atmosphere originally, and was created by the first life forms (bacteria, plants, etc.). A solvent is also a prime necessity, be it water or some other like liquid methane. Carbon allows many possibilities, and Silicium-based life would have a harder time developping intelligent species.

Human variants: I am not against the types of alien races depicted in Star trek (humans with but a funny nose or pointed ears), but they need a logical explanation to exist on different planets of different stellar system, yet have the same kind of DNA, same form / weight / etc., similar type of culture, etc., etc. If a proto human race seeded humanoids on different planets they terraformed if need be, then discreetly monitored these races so they eventually look similar, okay. Otherwise, other humans on other planets like earth is simply lack of imagination and ignorance of the simplest of logic. At least where hard sci-fi is involved (but we don't speak about the future fantasy genre here).

Using human variants is the best to play a coherent PC. Playing a mi-go will near always result in playing a "human in funny latex suit" that playing something truly alien. IMO truly weird races should remain NPCs, otherwise you end up with Star-Wars "humans in funny latex suits". Don't get me wrong: I love Star Wars (especially the first trilogy - episodes 4 to 6 -, that I got two days ago), but Star Wars is not science fiction, it's Future Fantasy.

Grey Alien: I would like to redo this race with a biology and culture more thought out.

Mi-Go like creatures: I am fascinated by this alien race by Lovecraft. IMO Lovecraft is one of the author who have the most conveyed original and compelling alien races, and I would like to have a couple created.

I am disappointed by the treatment the Fraal receive in d20 Future. They are poorly done. Fortunately, while Fraal is PI, Grey is not and almost everybody knows what it means. I have ideas for creating a different type of Greys, that IMO will be more different, detailed, and thought out (and no need for +4 ability score adjustments and telepathic powers). It will be for me the most alien PC race, that is most alien when it comes to playing one. Then, I love Mi-Go like characters, but I hardly see them played (or being played as "humans in funny latex suits").