D&D Monsters as T20 Aliens
- Thread starter Falkayn
- Start date
Mind Flayers have a rather specialized diet don't you think. Exactly what sort of minds do they flay anyway? And what homeworld do they come from? Does their homeworld have a ready source of minds to flay? If not then how could they possibly evolve? And if so why would they turn to an alien source of minds to flay? Mind flayers are obviously intelligent, unlike a dumb beast, they would know better than to consume something that would be biologically incompatible with them. One cheap sci fi trick is to have intelligent aliens land on Earth and begin consuming humans. Imagine turning the situation around so that the Humans are in the space ship looking for intelligent edible alien yummies to add to their diet, does this sound very plausible?
One of the best Traveller adventures published in the original run of JTAS was "Chill", by John M. Ford in issue 15. It uses "vampires" in a perfectly scientific yet surprising way. Track it down if you can.
Now that I check, I see it was also reprinted in the online JTAS, December 19th 2000 issue
ninthcouncil
SOC-11
I've just picked up Lord Erbian's Stellar Bestiary for the Fading Suns system, which is dual-statted for their house system and d20. I haven't had a detailed look at it yet, but I'm hoping for a few SF-orientated nasties that can be popped right into T20. I'll let you know how it pans out.
themartian67
SOC-3
Several older books out that have good to great ideas such as GURPS Space Bestiary, GURPS Lensman,
GURPS War Against the Chtorr, GURPS Uplift, Gamma World, Spelljammer, Amazing Engine:Bughunters not to mention T4:Aliens Archive.
If you can get you hands and eyes on any of these indulge your mind. Borrow them if you must!
Anyone with a Dragon Archive can find "The Ecology of the Mind Flayer" which detailed their homeworld and various animal life forms.
I have even found some Dark Conspiracy books with some very interesting critters.
On 'vamps' Star Trek:Voyager had a very horrid race that sold organic material from other races to save their disease-ridden species. Another note comes from 2300AD that used cybernetic "zombies" of sorts.
Fading Suns D20 is out there and Babylon 5 D20 is coming. Several other publishers are joining the SFRPG D20 bandwagon.
OH! I forgot Buck Rogers and Star Frontiers. Both had some good critters, thou ecology took a back seat to fantasy. This can be easily fixed with you own imagination.
I am sure others can fill the gaps in my knowledge!
GURPS War Against the Chtorr, GURPS Uplift, Gamma World, Spelljammer, Amazing Engine:Bughunters not to mention T4:Aliens Archive.
If you can get you hands and eyes on any of these indulge your mind. Borrow them if you must!
Anyone with a Dragon Archive can find "The Ecology of the Mind Flayer" which detailed their homeworld and various animal life forms.
I have even found some Dark Conspiracy books with some very interesting critters.
On 'vamps' Star Trek:Voyager had a very horrid race that sold organic material from other races to save their disease-ridden species. Another note comes from 2300AD that used cybernetic "zombies" of sorts.
Fading Suns D20 is out there and Babylon 5 D20 is coming. Several other publishers are joining the SFRPG D20 bandwagon.
OH! I forgot Buck Rogers and Star Frontiers. Both had some good critters, thou ecology took a back seat to fantasy. This can be easily fixed with you own imagination.
I am sure others can fill the gaps in my knowledge!
Nah, too obviously human -- unless they're a minor Human race.Originally posted by Jame:
What about the Drow? Make them more spiderlike, though still bipedal, and just as evil...
Driders, on the other hand, would make pretty good Traveller aliens. You'd need to de-humanize their top half a bit, and beef up their spider legs to avoid the square-cube law, but they'd be aliens like aliens should be.
Cheers,
Paul Drye
Liam Devlin
SOC-14 5K
Actually in TC #8, the Vlazhdumecta minor race comes close to being Drowish(ic) (article by David thornell, Grant Sinclair)pp 25-27.
They have a 2 subsector state in Yklierdanzh Sector, and many have been integrated into the Spinward State of the Zhodani Consulate by intermarraige.
Descriptively, they are 1.9M tall
golden bronze to coal black in skin, angular headed (diamond shaped/ point at the chin), coarse white hair.
life span for a pure blooded member is 130 T years, remaining unchanged from 30-40 years onwards. But death comes swiftly, "known as the burning time". Most set their affairs in order, and take their own life. They (those of pure blood)are unable due to DNA of taking anagathics.
Other than pure bloods, the rest may take anagathics normally.
"for game mechanics:
7/8 blooded or better, add +4 to aging roll losses
6/8ths- +3; 5/8ths, +2; 1/8th +1; Those with less live normal human life spans.(p27)."
slainte!
Considered a Minor Human race.
They have a 2 subsector state in Yklierdanzh Sector, and many have been integrated into the Spinward State of the Zhodani Consulate by intermarraige.
Descriptively, they are 1.9M tall
golden bronze to coal black in skin, angular headed (diamond shaped/ point at the chin), coarse white hair.
life span for a pure blooded member is 130 T years, remaining unchanged from 30-40 years onwards. But death comes swiftly, "known as the burning time". Most set their affairs in order, and take their own life. They (those of pure blood)are unable due to DNA of taking anagathics.
Other than pure bloods, the rest may take anagathics normally.
"for game mechanics:
7/8 blooded or better, add +4 to aging roll losses
6/8ths- +3; 5/8ths, +2; 1/8th +1; Those with less live normal human life spans.(p27)."
slainte!
Considered a Minor Human race.
One could create an entire D&D World with all the magic removed. One can go through the monster manual and remove all the magical creatures from consideration and those that are left can go to create the encounter tables for that world. You can also Travellerize the D&D classes by changing their hit points to stamina and giving them life blood scores. These D&D classes can be substituted for the Traveller Barbarian class. There is the D&D Barbarian, The D&D Fighter, and the D&D Rogue which can be used with only this basic modification.
The Bard Class would have no spells, some of his other abilities border on magic so its an open question whether to eliminate them.
The Cleric class could exist, but you'd have to eliminate his ability to use spells. I'd leave his ability to turn undead and create holy water though, because in any campaign where undead actually appear there is equal justification for the Cleric to have these abilities.
Druids also have their spell use and magic abilities removed, though they can still exist.
The Traveller game has no Monk class though there is no reason why one couldn't exist. Much of the Monk's abilities come from inside himself, since this is similar in many ways to Psionics and Traveller has Psionics, then the Monk class can be left mostly unaltered. The main exception would be the Perfect self which he achieves at 20th level where he becomes an extraplanar being.
A Paladin is a great thing to have in a Traveller campaign. Spell use is out of course, but his defensive abilities could be left in. Divine health can be explained away as a robust immune system. A Paladin can detect evil, know one knows how, perhaps it is instinct or an innate sixth sense, or perhaps its relating to some Psionic ability that he was born with. Divine grace allows the paladin to apply his charisma bonus to saving throws, magic use can't be proven of course, to other characters he just appears lucky. Lay on Hands might just double or triple a character's natural healing rate over the next several days rather than heal someone immediately, it could be chalked up to chance. An Aura of Courage can be considered a charisma effect. Remove Disease simply aids the recipient in recovering from a disease over the next several days. Smite evil works fine against characters who are obviously evil, no connection to the divine can be proved, and the shots just seem to be particularly well placed. If for any reason Undead show up then the Paladin can turn them as both phenominon balance out. Turn undead doesn't manifest if there are no undead around. Extra turning likewise, No Spells though. The paladin keeps his ability to summon a special mount, whatever good that does in a high tech campaign, and of course a Paladin has his code of conduct that he must uphold. The Traveller Universe is not an ethically black and white Universe, it has alot of shades of grey, but the Paladin sees things in black and white as a constant struggle of good versus evil. Paladins don't have to come from TL 1 societies either.
The Ranger gets a similar treatment to which I gave the Paladin.
A Sorcerer and a wizard is a Charlatin or a stage performer. These two classes are very skilled at using high technology and fooling primitives that they actually have magic powers or spells. They can construct laser pistols that look like magic wands for instance, they have crystal balls that are actually electronic holographic displays. A magic carpet and a flying broomstick are actually cleverly disgused grav vehicles.
The Bard Class would have no spells, some of his other abilities border on magic so its an open question whether to eliminate them.
The Cleric class could exist, but you'd have to eliminate his ability to use spells. I'd leave his ability to turn undead and create holy water though, because in any campaign where undead actually appear there is equal justification for the Cleric to have these abilities.
Druids also have their spell use and magic abilities removed, though they can still exist.
The Traveller game has no Monk class though there is no reason why one couldn't exist. Much of the Monk's abilities come from inside himself, since this is similar in many ways to Psionics and Traveller has Psionics, then the Monk class can be left mostly unaltered. The main exception would be the Perfect self which he achieves at 20th level where he becomes an extraplanar being.
A Paladin is a great thing to have in a Traveller campaign. Spell use is out of course, but his defensive abilities could be left in. Divine health can be explained away as a robust immune system. A Paladin can detect evil, know one knows how, perhaps it is instinct or an innate sixth sense, or perhaps its relating to some Psionic ability that he was born with. Divine grace allows the paladin to apply his charisma bonus to saving throws, magic use can't be proven of course, to other characters he just appears lucky. Lay on Hands might just double or triple a character's natural healing rate over the next several days rather than heal someone immediately, it could be chalked up to chance. An Aura of Courage can be considered a charisma effect. Remove Disease simply aids the recipient in recovering from a disease over the next several days. Smite evil works fine against characters who are obviously evil, no connection to the divine can be proved, and the shots just seem to be particularly well placed. If for any reason Undead show up then the Paladin can turn them as both phenominon balance out. Turn undead doesn't manifest if there are no undead around. Extra turning likewise, No Spells though. The paladin keeps his ability to summon a special mount, whatever good that does in a high tech campaign, and of course a Paladin has his code of conduct that he must uphold. The Traveller Universe is not an ethically black and white Universe, it has alot of shades of grey, but the Paladin sees things in black and white as a constant struggle of good versus evil. Paladins don't have to come from TL 1 societies either.
The Ranger gets a similar treatment to which I gave the Paladin.
A Sorcerer and a wizard is a Charlatin or a stage performer. These two classes are very skilled at using high technology and fooling primitives that they actually have magic powers or spells. They can construct laser pistols that look like magic wands for instance, they have crystal balls that are actually electronic holographic displays. A magic carpet and a flying broomstick are actually cleverly disgused grav vehicles.
justacaveman
SOC-12
I have several planets IMTU that have dinosaurs on them.
There's a great amount of speculation as to how the dinosaurs got to these planets, but no definitive answers.
Some say the Ancients did it, but the achaeological evidence shows no sign of the Ancients that far back.
Time Travel?
A race even older than the Ancients? Where are the artifacts and ruins?
No one knows.
There's a great amount of speculation as to how the dinosaurs got to these planets, but no definitive answers.
Some say the Ancients did it, but the achaeological evidence shows no sign of the Ancients that far back.
Time Travel?
A race even older than the Ancients? Where are the artifacts and ruins?
No one knows.
Maybe the velociraptors just had better naval architects than they generally get credit for.Originally posted by LordRhys:
I have several planets IMTU that have dinosaurs on them.
There's a great amount of speculation as to how the dinosaurs got to these planets, but no definitive answers.
Some say the Ancients did it, but the achaeological evidence shows no sign of the Ancients that far back.
Time Travel?
A race even older than the Ancients? Where are the artifacts and ruins?
No one knows.
justacaveman
SOC-12
Ancient dinosaur Empire that existed even before Grandfather.
Lack of remains/artifacts is due to heavy use of biotech, and scavenging by Grandfather and his progeny.
Planets with dinosaurs have artifacts still, but explorers get eaten.
Can use Intelligent saurian types from D20 books for ancient dinosaur race. Or you use velociraptors as degenerate ancient dinosaurs. Maybe even beef up velociraptor IQ (scary thought), give them weapons, and put them in stasis pods (Plasma Rifles)(Evil GM).
Lack of remains/artifacts is due to heavy use of biotech, and scavenging by Grandfather and his progeny.
Planets with dinosaurs have artifacts still, but explorers get eaten.
Can use Intelligent saurian types from D20 books for ancient dinosaur race. Or you use velociraptors as degenerate ancient dinosaurs. Maybe even beef up velociraptor IQ (scary thought), give them weapons, and put them in stasis pods (Plasma Rifles)(Evil GM).
lightsenshi
SOC-12
I'm looking forward to getting to use my Xerg conversions eventually.
justacaveman
SOC-12
Never played Dinotopia. Not sure what it's like. I'm just imagining a few survivors from an ancient empire being found in some sort of stasis pods.
I envision them being heavier into bioscience than the Imperium. Say TL17-18 in bioscience, and TL12-13 otherwise.
I also think that the Thri-kreen from MM II would be a good alien race. They could be left low tech, or increased to near Imperium levels etc..
I envision them being heavier into bioscience than the Imperium. Say TL17-18 in bioscience, and TL12-13 otherwise.
I also think that the Thri-kreen from MM II would be a good alien race. They could be left low tech, or increased to near Imperium levels etc..
Used Land of the Lost as the location once. I treated it as sort of a repository for species the Ancients planned to use later. The Ancients had designed the pylons to regulate the environment. The Sleestak were genetically engineered workers, who naturally defend the preserve from intruders.
It was great until one of the players suddenly realized it was the Land of the Lost and became belligerent!
It was great until one of the players suddenly realized it was the Land of the Lost and became belligerent!
justacaveman
SOC-12
Land of the Lost is a great idea.
The TV series was rather cheesy, but the basic idea is good for several adventures.
The TV series was rather cheesy, but the basic idea is good for several adventures.
