Changin Vargr and Aslan for other alien races...

[Farlander]

Greetings!

Im new in Traveller RPG. I own both MGT2 and T5. Im finishing reading the Traveller Adventure from Mongoose and I fount it to be a compelling campaign.
However, what I dont like from the Third Imperium official setting are the furry races: Aslan and Vargr. They are a little cartoonish for my tastes, like the wookies in Star Wars, whom I don`t like either.

I wonder if anyone around here can suggest some alien races from other settings to use and change them in place of the aforementioned. Any sourcebook you can think of is welcome.

That`s all for the moment. Thanks for reading me and please forgive the grammar mistakes because Im not an English native speaker.

 

[Diveguy]

Traveller 2300 had a selection of alien races specifically designed NOT to be "furry" like, or just humans in rubber suits - you might find those easy to work with.

 

[Timerover51]

Greetings!

Im new in Traveller RPG. I own both MGT2 and T5. Im finishing reading the Traveller Adventure from Mongoose and I fount it to be a compelling campaign.
However, what I dont like from the Third Imperium official setting are the furry races: Aslan and Vargr. They are a little cartoonish for my tastes, like the wookies in Star Wars, whom I don`t like either.

I wonder if anyone around here can suggest some alien races from other settings to use and change them in place of the aforementioned. Any sourcebook you can think of is welcome.

That`s all for the moment. Thanks for reading me and please forgive the grammar mistakes because Im not an English native speaker.

I am more of a Classic-era science fiction person, like the 1950s and 1960s, so my comments are derived from there.

You have the Bald Space Rovers of Andre Norton's Time Trader series, with the primary appearance being in the book The Time Traders. They tend to shoot first, not bother with questions, assume that they are the highest life form, and anything lower exists only to serve them.

Then you have the Ullerites of H. Beam Piper's Uller Uprising, who tend to resemble the Vargr, but are silicon-based rather then carbon-based. Those are at a lower Tech Level, but would make terrific mercenaries, and learn very quickly.

You can find both of the books on Project Gutenberg for reading if you wish.

 

[bjjones37]

The majat of "Serpent's Reach"(CJ Cherryh) would be a great nonhuman choice. If you want something more humaniform, the choya of "Radius of Doubt" (Charles Ingrid) have some very interesting abilities.

 

[mike wightman]

First off neither the Aslan or the Vargr are furry suit aliens if you read the original CT Alien Module source material rather than fanon/latest interpretations.

Vargr were uplifted from dire wolves 300,000 years ago and have been evolving ever since. They are not dogmen or mandogs.

Aslan only have a vague appearance of lion like features, most illustrations, especially the MgT illustrations are just wrong. Nor are they samurai pizza cats - despite the JTAS Contact article suggesting using the Samurai as a model to describe their culture. The CT Alien Module uses the words Japan and Samurai just once in the whole book to describe the Aslan assassins guild as ninja-like. Here is the quote:

Such units might be comparable to the ninja of Japan, but without the stigma attached to ninja by contemporaneous samurai society.

If you want to replace them there are couple I would look to; the Kafer from 2300 for a nice Aslan replacement while I would also consider the Ithklur for this niche.

I'd be tempted to bring in an insectoid race too - the Thri-Kreen from D&D have made it into MTU many times.

 

[Quint]

Somebody here on the boards talked about replacing the "Aslan as cat-people" with "Aslan as Predators" that I always thought was pretty cool idea.

D.

 

[aramis]

First off neither the Aslan or the Vargr are furry suit aliens if you read the original source material rather than fanon/latest interpretations.

Vargr were uplifted from dire wolves 300,000 years ago and have been evolving ever since. They are not dogmen or mandogs.

Aslan only have a vague appearance of lion like features, most illustrations, especially the MgT illustrations are just wrong. Nor are they samurai pizza cats.

If you want to replace them there are couple I would look to; the Kafer from 2300 for a nice Aslan replacement while I would also consider the Ithklur for this niche.

I'd be tempted to bring in an insectoid race too - the Thri-Kreen from D&D have made it into MTU many times.

The Aslan's initial presentation (In JTAS), says, "The Aslan are a warrior race, proud and noble, devoted to those in authority above them."
While it doesn't say "Samurai," at least not up front, it's a perfect fit for the ideals of the pre-shogunate samurai. Likewise, the male/female roles is very similar to the pre-shogunate samurai, only more extreme.

So, while not "Samurai Cats", they're samurai cats, except for the hands and titles.

And then, (page 27 of issue 7, near the end of the article), it makes the "Samurai Cats" quite explicit:
"Read as much as possible on Japanese samurai. The underlying characteristics of Aslan society, pride and loyalty, make them behave much like samurai of the 'Age of War'."

 

[mike wightman]

"Read as much as possible on Japanese samurai. The underlying characteristics of Aslan society, pride and loyalty, make them behave much like samurai of the 'Age of War'."

That was an approximation to help visualise Aslan culture in our terms, when people take such analogies too seriously you end up with rubber suit aliens.

'Behave like' gives a player a point of reference

'Is exactly like' is not what is written but leads to the samurai pizza cat interpretation.

Alien modules trump JTAS summaries IMHO.

 

[aramis]

That was an approximation to help visualise Aslan culture in our terms, when people take such analogies too seriously you end up with rubber suit aliens.

Alien modules trump JTAS summaries IMHO.

It is the original; your claim that the original isn't man-in-suit is based upon later materials, not the original, JTAS, version. The original is pretty much man-in-suit. Including just a few modifiers to the standard Char gen.

 

[mike wightman]

So you are now claiming JTAS alien races snippets trump the entire Alien Module series?

Ah, wait a second - I posted the word original and you thought I meant JTAS article? When referencing such stuff I always assume the CT Alien Race modules as original comprehensive source material rather than JTAS Contact articles - the contact articles are often useful for the initial impression you give to players - but the Alien Modules is where the real meat is; who would ever have thought the Aslan were not a major race from the JTAS article for example

I will edit for clarity.

 

[Condottiere]

I played mine like Hobbes, which was both funny yet eventually boring.

The Aslan aren't Kilrathi, who happen to be more organized, but Sengoku Jidai Japan for the more advanced clans seems a pretty good trope, and American Indian for the less advanced ones.

 

[JimMarn]

Samurai Pizza Cats is a cartoon show from years ago. I haven't heard that since well last century.

Anyway; I have Aurora, The Alago ( winged humans), Memer and Seret, Humans in an area called Tek who are heavily cyberized, An Phar, and two I hope to eventually add Os-Chon ( insectoids), and some Octopoids. Most Empires, and other areas, are Humans.

But no Aslan nor Vargr in my ATU.

 

[whulorigan]

If you want to replace [the Aslan] there are couple I would look to; the Kafer from 2300 for a nice Aslan replacement while I would also consider the Ithklur for this niche.

I'd be tempted to bring in an insectoid race too - the Thri-Kreen from D&D have made it into MTU many times.

The Dirdir from Jack Vance's Planet of Adventure series (Tschai Novels) might work nicely in place of the Aslan.

 

[aramis]

So you are now claiming JTAS alien races snippets trump the entire Alien Module series?

Ah, wait a second - I posted the word original and you thought I meant JTAS article? When referencing such stuff I always assume the CT Alien Race modules as original comprehensive source material rather than JTAS Contact articles - the contact articles are often useful for the initial impression you give to players - but the Alien Modules is where the real meat is; who would ever have thought the Aslan were not a major race from the JTAS article for example

I will edit for clarity.

The JTAS Articles are the original sources for the Aslan and Vargr.
The alien modules post-date them by years.

 

[Farlander]

Oh guys, thanks a lot for your replies. I have plenty of good suggestions to start researching. Im more interested in humanoid aliens. I didn´t realize that 2300 has alien races, in fact I`ve always thought of it as a very hard science fiction setting without any kind of alien races... maybe is time to read a little more about this setting.

 

[mike wightman]

Actually they are not the original, both the Aslan and the Vargr get mentions in adventures before their contact articles.

 

[Timerover51]

Greetings!

Im new in Traveller RPG. I own both MGT2 and T5. Im finishing reading the Traveller Adventure from Mongoose and I fount it to be a compelling campaign.
However, what I dont like from the Third Imperium official setting are the furry races: Aslan and Vargr. They are a little cartoonish for my tastes, like the wookies in Star Wars, whom I don`t like either.

I wonder if anyone around here can suggest some alien races from other settings to use and change them in place of the aforementioned. Any sourcebook you can think of is welcome.

That`s all for the moment. Thanks for reading me and please forgive the grammar mistakes because Im not an English native speaker.

Have you looked at any of the other alien races that have been covered in either an Alien Module or one of the contact articles in the Journal of the Travellers Aid Society, also known as JTAS?

 

[Farlander]

Have you looked at any of the other alien races that have been covered in either an Alien Module or one of the contact articles in the Journal of the Travellers Aid Society, also known as JTAS?

I only took a little peek into Alien Module (some cool stuff there) but I havent seen any JTAS articles. I`ll keep that in mind. Thanks!

 

[BwapTED]

I reskinned Vargr as mutant child soldiers in one thread. In another, as anarchist dentist space pirate humans with monkey toes.

 

[nobby-w]

Actually they are not the original, both the Aslan and the Vargr get mentions in adventures before their contact articles.

Didn't they make their first apperance in Imperium, along with proto-hivers - making them pre-date Traveller itself?